Monkey D. Luffy is officially a Yonkou.
Gear 5 has turned him into one of the strongest characters in the series - but his crew has
become powerful right along side him.
It begs the question: could any of the Straw Hats actually beat their captain in a fight?
And if they couldn’t take down Luffy individually, could they manage it if they all teamed up?
The first crew member we have for Luffy to fight is Jinbe.
As we know from Madame Sharley’s fortune telling predictions, Luffy is destined to
destroy Fishman Island one day.
While that probably means the Fishmen will be returning to the surface, let’s say that,
for the sake argument, Jinbe isn’t going to like Luffy demolishing his home town.
For this reason, Jinbe will fight Luffy.
Jinbe, I think, has the best chance of defeating Luffy of anybody in the Straw Hat crew.
His specialty is fighting underwater.
Luffy cannot move underwater.
If Jinbe can use his Fishman Karate to get Luffy off the ship and into the ocean, he
wins.
The last time Luffy was submerged, he used the Voice of all Things to call for help from
Law’s crew and their submarine, but we’re going to assume there are no submarines running
interference in this fight.
If the fight is happening on land, Jinbe loses for certain.
Even though he’s a former Shichibukai, he just doesn’t have the same immense strength
that his yonkou captain has.
As a disciplined fighter, he’d give Luffy an excellent fight, but he just wouldn’t
be able to take it all the way.
Brook has an excellent reason to want to face off against Luffy.
Two, in fact.
Firstly, Luffy punched his best friend Laboon right in the face.
If he ever found out, he’d be in the right to give Luffy a taste of his own medicine.
Secondly, Luffy’s just an awful singer (Sorry to everyone who loves the captain’s musical
stylings).
Brook’s strength among the crew is definitely underrated.
He was the first crew member to wound a yonkou…or at least her homie.
It’s easy to forget he’s strong on account that he’s never really had a featured fight
in the series (we’re not going to count his opponent on Fishman Island, whom he defeated
with ease).
He’d fare especially well against Luffy considering that he’s a sword wielder and
cutting attacks are Luffy’s weakness.
He can also run on top of the water, while Luffy can’t swim, so a battle taking place
on the ocean might be to Brook’s benefit.
In addition, he could distract Luffy with certified bangers if he brings his guitar
to the fight.
However, this is Luffy we’re talking about.
He’s unbelievably strong and would probably break all of Brook’s bones…which is all
of him.
Yohohoho.
It’s only a matter of time until one day Luffy hogs all of the cola on the ship and
drinks it without asking.
After that Franky is going to be real mad and will take his revenge on the sugary soda
thief.
Cyborg Franky has one of the best chances out of the crew to be able to take out Luffy.
It’s not because he’s as strong as some other crewmates.
More so it’s just because he has the shiniest objects to distract Luffy with.
Franky has a giant mech suit, the Franky Shogun.
And every single time Franky pilots this mech, Luffy loses his mind with absolute wonder
and amazement.
Even Franky’s nipple lights turn make Luffy’s eyes turn to stars as he hoots and hollers
at the mechanical marvels.
Can Luffy bring himself to destroy something that he finds so beautiful?
Well, yes, probably - because Luffy is a destructive, chaotic force of nature that will break everything
in his path.
Good thing Franky is just as good at fixing stuff as he is at building stuff.
Up next is Nico Robin.
We’ll say that someday once Luffy finally takes his war to the World Government, he’ll
want to smash up Mariejois and the Red Line.
However, Nico Robin would reallllly like him to preserve a lot of the historical structures
there, so she has to punish him for crimes against archaeology.
On the surface, Robin has a better shot than most straw hats just because she’s one of
the smartest members of the crew.
The problem is that she just doesn’t have enough raw strength to deal with Luffy.
Her fruit is geared toward more strategic fighting, which is great to go up against
the not-so-bright Luffy.
However, her most dependable technique is going to be useless.
Sure, she could sprout arms on him to put him in a hold, but she’s not going to be
able to use “clutch” to break his neck because his neck is made of rubber - it’ll
bend with no problem at all.
It’s hard to imagine the sweet and kind mascot of the crew, Chopper, ever turning
against his own.
So, in his scenario, it’s not going to be about him attacking Luffy.
Chopper would only fight Luffy in self-defense.
The Thousand Sunny has been adrift for days.
The log pose is lost.
Even Nami can’t figure out how to navigate the ship to safety.
Their food is completely depleted.
Well, almost all their food: all that remains is the Straw Hats’ emergency food supply.
Otherwise known as Tony-Tony Chopper.
With Chopper’s ultimate form, Monster point, only being enough to hold off Queen until
Sanji arrived on the scene, he’s not going to have nowhere near enough raw power to compete
with Luffy.
However, there’s one technique that we haven’t seen in a long time that might be able to
help Chopper somewhat: Brain Point.
Using his brain point transformation, Chopper can identify the weaknesses of his opponents
and then hopefully take advantage of them.
However, with Luffy being as strong as he is, it’s unclear what exactly his weakness
would be that Chopper could exploit.
One final way that Chopper might be able to win is by utilizing his rumble balls - not
by Chopper eating them himself, though.
Instead, Chopper might be able to convince Luffy to try them out by convincing him that
they’re candy.
Now that we know that Luffy is technically a mythical zoan, by feeding him several rumble
balls, Chopper might be able to force some unconventional transformations.
If he can get Luffy to turn monster point, the other crew members might have to stop
him from rampaging and destroying the ship, which could in turn give Chopper enough time
to escape and avoid becoming dinner.
Up next to face Luffy is none other than Nami the Cat Burglar.
In this fictional scenario, she’ll be unable to resist the huge amount of berries on Luffy’s
head.
Sadly for the greediest of the Straw Hats, though, there’s another thing she’ll be
unable to do, and that’s harm Luffy in any way.
There are, of course, plenty of gags where Oda has Nami let loose an effective punch
on her stronger counterparts, but that’s all it is - a gag.
If it comes down to a serious fight, Nami’s best weapon is always to use her Clima-Tact
and Zeus to bring lightning down on an opponent.
And as we learned from Luffy’s fight with Enel…that’s not gonna work.
In fact, now that he has the ludicrous powers of Gear 5, he’ll just be able to grab the
lightning and throw it right back.
Sorry Nami, you’re not expanding your bank account with this one.
Usopp is a Straw Hat that we’ve actually already seen fight Luffy.
In one of the greatest fights in the entire series, they went head to head in Water 7
over the ownership of the Going Merry.
After all of that, it would be very unlikely for Usopp to ever want to face his captain
again.
For the sake of argument, though, let’s say that while they’re approaching Laugh
Tale, Usopp contracts a terrible case of “can’t go to that island” disease that he caught
from Buggy.
In fact, he doesn’t want to go to Laugh Tale so badly that he’s going to fight his
captain to prevent this from happening.
Sadly, though, this is probably going to play out just like it did on Water 7.
In fact, things will be even worse for Usopp because no matter how many Pop Greens he has
now, they’re not going to compete with any of Luffy’s Gears or any of the three types
of haki.
To give Usopp any kind of a chance, he’s going to have to need a whole lot of prep
time.
Since he has tapped into observation haki, he’s going to have to use that paired with
his incredible sniper skills if he wants a hope in hell.
So we’re going to say that he’s found a nice bunch of seastone bullets to put in
his slingshot and in addition, he’s going to want to fight Luffy from another island
a few kilometers away.
If he can get lucky, he might just be able to shoot Luffy into the ocean with a well-placed
shot, but…I’m still going to give Luffy the advantage even with those handicaps in
place.
Sanji is yet another Straw Hat who has already had a matchup against Luffy.
And he actually won!
The catch is…Luffy refused to fight back whatsoever.
Something tells me this isn’t going to go as well this time.
Now that Big Mom isn’t threatening the crew, though - and moreover, Luffy’s an emperor
himself, what would make Sanji want to fight Luffy in the first place?
Eh, let’s just say Luffy hit a girl.
Or, in a very uncharacteristic move, he didn’t finish his plate.
No matter how you slice it…er, kick it…this is gonna be a tough one for Sanji.
Even with his Germa power-ups, Luffy is far stronger.
Sanji is potentially faster than Luffy, since he can move too fast to even be perceived
by opponents.
However, that speed won’t help much when going up against both Luffy’s durability
and future sight.
There’s only one thing Sanji’s going to be able to do to even the playing field.
He’s going to have to feed Luffy and distract him with delicious meat.
I’d say Sanji could poison Luffy this way, but as we saw in Whole Cake Island, using
poisons would go against everything Sanji stands for.
And even if he did, Luffy has incredible poison tolerance.
Nope - the only thing Sanji can do is to cook a meal so satisfying that it renders Luffy
unconscious.
Wait a second…does this mean that Sanji actually has the best chance against Luffy
so far?
I guess the only question is, can Sanji cook a meal large enough to satisfy Luffy’s immense
hunger?
We have only one Straw Hat left for Luffy to face down against.
Imagine it: the crew is hanging out on Laugh Tale, having finally made it to the end of
the Grand Line…when suddenly, Luffy hears it:
“Santoryu” - It’s Pirate Hunter Zoro, finished with the biggest long con in manga
history, and he’s ready to claim the Luffy’s massive bounty.
Now, obviously, this wouldn’t *actually* happen - Zoro is the most loyal guy in fiction,
but we’re going to have fun today seeing exactly what it would take to bring all of
the Straw Hats into conflict with Luffy and look at how each of those fights would play
out.
Zoro and Luffy actually fought once before, all the way back at Whiskey Peak.
Oda-Sensei’s editors urged that he bring the two in conflict to bring more excitement
into the story and what resulted was a wildly out of character moment for Luffy that a lot
of fans hate to this day.
However, these two have grown a whole lot since the beginning of the Grand Line, so
how would it play out at the end of the series?
Zoro probably has the best chance out of any of the other Straw Hats for two reasons.
First, because he’s a straight up beast - just like Luffy he has access to all three
types of haki.
But secondly, it’s because his specialty is Luffy’s biggest weakness: blades.
Luffy’s rubber body can endure all sorts of blunt objects, brute force, even bullets
and cannonballs - but he’s susceptible to being cut.
There’s no telling whose armament haki would win out - would Luffy be able to block a sword
as powerful as Enma with his haki-coated fist?
One advantage that Luffy does have, though, is his future sight observation haki.
He’s actually theorized to have tapped into this power all the way back during Marineford
when he dodged one of Mihawk’s slashes and saved his arms from being cut clean off.
If Luffy was able to dodge a slice from Zoro’s mentor all the way back before he properly
trained his haki abilities, he should be able to avoid most of Zoro’s attacks now, too.
And even a transformation like Asura can’t save Zoro from the chaotic power that is Gear
5.
Roronoa Zoro is a pretty serious, no-nonsense guy.
One Luffy tapped into the Toon Force, I don’t think Zoro would be able to handle the absolute
goofiest form of Luffy.
If anything he’d get so frustrated by Luffy not taking the fight seriously that he’d
lose his cool and allow Luffy to catch him off his guard.
It would be super hard for any of the Straw Hats to beat Luffy individually - after all,
he’s the captain for a reason.
But what if it came down to everyone working together to take him down?
One of the best team ups in One Piece came when the whole crew banded together to fight
Oars, who ironically had Luffy’s shadow, but what if they didn’t fight his shadow?
What if the crew worked together to fight the real thing?
To start the battle, we have Nami, Usopp, and Chopper…running away.
For Usopp, this is tactical - his sniping skills are at their strongest when he can
create distance between him and his opponent…Ah, who am I kidding?
They’re all super scared to fight Luffy, so they go to hide behind a big boulder while
the rest of the crew starts out the fight.
Doing the opposite and launching into action are Sanji and Zoro.
However, before they arrive at Luffy, they crash into each other.
Refusing to let the other be the first one to land a hit on their captain, they break
off into a battle of their own, while hurling insults at one another.
Therefore, that leaves the more reasonable and mature members of the crew to start off
the fight: And in a complete act of maturity, Brook starts jamming out on guitar while Franky
lets his nipple lights shine.
Gear 5 Luffy already can’t stop laughing, so his crewmates’ entertaining antics make
him go nuts.
Nico Robin uses this opportunity to use Mil Fleurs to grab onto Luffy’s limbs and tie
him down to the ground, immobilizing him.
This barely registers for Luffy, who’s still laughing uncontrollably at Franky and Brook.
Jinbei takes this opening to use a Fishman Karate technique, striking Luffy with a huge
surge of water.
The now wet Luffy, though, is ready to take things seriously…at least as seriously as
Gear 5 Luffy can get.
Using his Toon Force, he spins around like the Tasmanian Devil, twisting up Robin’s
arms and freeing himself in the process.
Robin’s strength just isn’t enough to hold him down.
He spins himself dry and in the process runs right over the Fishman.
Franky tries a radical beam, but he swallows it right up just like he does with Kizaru’s
on Egghead Island and he just gets a bad case of heartburn.
Brook tries to take him out with a sword technique, but before he can, the ground becomes a whole
lot bouncier than before, and Brook is sent flying…right into the boulder that the Weakling
Trio is hiding behind.
After plenty of screaming, it’s their chance to try.
Chopper transforms into Monster Point and attempts to hold Luffy down, giving the others
a chance to escape.
Meanwhile, Usopp readies his shot: a crazy spicy tobasco star right into Luffy’s mouth.
Unfortunately, Gear 5 Luffy can already swallow lasers, so a little hot sauce is nothing.
However, the fire that shoots out of Luffy’s mouth does singe Chopper’s beautiful coat
of fur and takes out the reindeer.
In a last ditch effort, Nami unleashes her most powerful attack, courtesy of Zeus…Of
course, fear has overridden her logical thinking, and the lightning strike does nothing to Luffy’s
rubber body.
She tries to ride Zeus away to safety while Luffy punches Usopp into the stratosphere…unfortunately
knocking right into Nami, making them blast off again Team Rocket Style.
Luffy laughs at their misfortune, when suddenly a flaming leg strikes him on top of the head,
pounding him like a nail into the ground.
Sanji was the faster of the two pirate king’s wings, after all.
Zoro runs in after, ready to slice Luffy.
Unfortunately, before he can, the ground breaks apart, and both Zoro and Sanji fall into the
chasm where they find a Giant Gear 5 Luffy.
Zoro slashes at the giant’s legs, but thanks to Luffy’s armament haki, they’re just
minor cuts.
Meanwhile Sanji uses his Sky Walk to try and kick at Luffy’s head, but both the swordsman
and the cook are quickly scooped up into Luffy’s clutches.
Holding them there, Luffy laughs proclaiming his victory against his crew and wishing them
better luck in their next training exercise.
It’s no surprise that Luffy would take the W against his crew mates.
After all, Zoro could only scratch Kaidou while Gear 5 Luffy finally took down the Yonkou.
However, as the crew gets stronger and stronger, it makes you wonder whether Zoro will be strong
enough to take down someone like Kaidou on his own.
Luckily, we answered that very question in this video: “What if Zoro fought all of
Luffy’s Opponents”?