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During Water 7 and Enies Lobby, Galley-La worker Paulie could be seen performing a huge variety of roping attacks and abilities - including the save of almost the entirety of Franky Brothers team when they were attacked at the entrance of the island and saving Luffy, Nami, Zoro and Chopper from the flood, when Aqua Laguna striked on W7.

Needless to say, a lot of these actions need excessive amount of ropes, that a human (even a very, but not supernatually strong one) could barely keep at himself. This led me to the assumption that Paulie had something "extra" - not necessarily Demon Fruit power (since it's extremely unlikely), but something else that may or may not have been explained.

Is there any source regarding this matter?

Z..
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2 Answers2

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As mentioned on the Wikia article on Paulie:

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The amount of rope he carries is absurd, (which led some to speculate it was the power of a Devil Fruit) measuring hundreds, if not thousands of meters, as he was actually able to make a huge, complex rope-work in a split-second to keep not only himself, but also the entire Franky Family, their Kingbulls, Oimo, and Kashi from falling into the huge pit in Enies Lobby (as seen above). The amount of rope that he uses as a weapon and brings with himself all the time never seems to run out, since he has been known to pull out yards upon yards from time to time.

He seems to pull the ropes out of Hammerspace:

The term hammerspace describes the seemingly invisible place from which fictional characters, such as cartoon characters, pull out very large objects, such as mallets.

As for an in-universe reason/logic behind him being able to pull out so many ropes, there is none. Oda was asked this question in SBS 39:

D: Oda-sensei, hello!! Umm, where does Paulie's rope come from? And where did he come up with the names for moves like Rope Action "Half Knot"? They're not just random, are they? Tell us!

O: Paulie's ropes come shooting out of the bottom of his sleeves. Apparently, there's a whole bunch of rope hidden in the lining of his coat! [...]

Therefore, it's not that he has a Devil Fruit, but that the matter wasn't really paid attention to. It works because Oda wants it to work. There is always a possibility that he may have gotten a Devil Fruit power after the timeskip (although it's unlikely), but even if that were the case, it definitely wouldn't explain the infinite length of rope he had on him before the timeskip. So no, he doesn't have any devil fruit power and/or additional abilities which allow him to store such a length of rope on him, except for possibly wearing a coat whose lining allows him to pull out such ropes.

Community
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Ashishgup
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  • " the matter wasn't really paid attention to" Hm, yes, it wouldn't be the first time. Then I think, we have to accept the "Hammerspace solution". – Z.. Feb 15 '16 at 13:24
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There has been some speculations that Paulie had a DF power. I do not have a source for this, as I have only seen this in One Piece related forums back around the Enier Lobby arc (10 years ago?). Wikia's page actually talks about this as well:

The amount of rope he carries is absurd, (which led some to speculate it was the power of a Devil Fruit) measuring hundreds, if not thousands of meters, as he was actually able to make a huge, complex rope-work in a split-second to keep not only himself, but also the entire Franky Family, their Kingbulls, Oimo, and Kashi from falling into the huge pit in Enies Lobby.[10] The amount of rope that he uses as a weapon and brings with himself all the time never seems to run out, since he has been known to pull out yards upon yards from time to time.

From the OP:

Needless to say, a lot of these actions need excessive amount of ropes, that a human (even a very, but not supernatually strong one) could barely keep at himself.

Some came to speculate Paulie had a DF power not because of his superhuman strength, but rather because there is no way he could physically store all of his ropes on himself. Paulie is one of Galley-La Company's main shipwright, which were all revealed to posses superhuman strength (even before Kaku and Lucci revealed they were part of CP9).

Many characters in OP have superhuman strength without the use of a DF power. The most obvious example that comes to mind is Zorro.

solalito
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  • Zoro's power might be partially justified by the extreme training he's doing since childhood. Paulie is not that kind of person, though, if you ask me. – Z.. Feb 14 '16 at 11:16
  • Well as a shipwright, he has been doing his share of daily physical labor for years now. One early example of his superhuman strength is when he steals the Franky family's boat when they're trying to escape with the Straw Hat's money (chapter 326). He ties up with his ropes 6 men wearing body armor and throws them off to the river rather easily. – solalito Feb 14 '16 at 11:21
  • Oh..makes sense then. But yes, storing is still an issue, so, likely, DF power is actually in the story. – Z.. Feb 14 '16 at 11:24