- [Liam] Hello and welcome
to "The Grand Line Review,"
your source for everything "One Piece,"
and more specifically, welcome to "One Piece" 101,
the series that breaks down everyone
and everything in the "Once Piece" world,
and today, we are going to begin
a long-awaited update series
as we dive into the captain himself, Monkey D. Luffy.
Monkey D. Luffy is an optimistic, questionably intelligent,
and all around supremely charismatic existence
who is charged with helming the beast that is "One Piece,"
and as part of doing so,
he is the captain of the iconic
and ever infamous Straw Hat Pirates,
and Luffy himself harbors the dream
of eventually becoming the pirate king,
a nigh on insurmountable task
to achieve in this world,
and a desire that consistently throws Luffy
into conflict with other pirates holding the same ambition,
although one advantage Luffy has
in this regard is that he is subscribed
to "The Grand Line Review,"
which allows him to receive regular "One Piece" content
uploaded straight into his YouTube feed,
so make sure you press that stunning button right now
to elevate yourself from the status
of generic pirate to main character.
However, Luffy also very much stands apart from most
if not all pirates in almost every way imaginable.
First up, he possesses a rather whimsical childlike nature,
and is not well known for planning
or even really thinking about his various courses of action,
which makes Luffy extraordinarily unpredictable,
and a very difficult force to stand up against
when the element of chaos he is able to cause
reaches a critical mass.
Furthermore, unlike most pirates, following that same path,
Luffy has very different ideas
regarding why he wants to become the pirate king,
and he appears to value the journey
and adventure of getting there
far more than the desired outcome
of wealth, fame, and power,
which are the traditionally sought after elements
of becoming the pirate king.
However, Luffy's personal philosophy is
that the pirate king is simply the individual
with the most freedom in this world,
a belief which stokes his desire for exploration,
wanting to see and experience
as much of this planet as humanly possible.
And Luffy was inspired to go down this path as a child
by his role model redhead Shanks,
a man who remains a prolific pirate to this day.
But these two would encounter each other
in the Goa Kingdom in East Blue,
with a young Luffy being immediately smitten
by the entire concept of freedom
and adventure as a pirate,
and he even begged Shanks repeatedly
to allow him to join his crew,
and while Shanks would repeatedly deny this request,
the captain would well and truly recognize Luffy's spirit,
and in a tragic but essential moment,
he would even end up sacrificing one
of his own arms to save Luffy
from being eaten by the Lord of the Coast,
as well as entrusting Luffy with his straw hat,
and telling the boy to return it to him
once he had become a great pirate.
And from here, Luffy resolved not only to do that,
but to become an even greater pirate than Shanks himself,
and thus Luffy's dream to become the pirate king was born,
although in retrospect there was a strong air
of fate around this collection of events,
as well as events going forward involving Luffy.
Very importantly, you may have noticed
that his name is Monkey D. Luffy,
and that D initial is not just arbitrary,
because, in this world, every now and then,
we encounter characters with this mysterious middle initial,
all of whom are heavily subject to fate,
one of which would be the former pirate king himself,
Gol D. Roger, who, unbeknownst to Luffy,
was also once the owner
of the straw hat that he now proudly wears,
and it has been heavily, heavily hinted
that Luffy is the individual
who currently carries the inherited will of Roger,
as well as that of a much deeper
and more complex history of the world,
none of which really matters to Luffy, though,
because he's just focused on his own adventure.
It does matter to the world at large though,
with many of Roger's former companions
recognizing a certain quality in Luffy
akin to that of their once great captain.
But even without these connections to Roger,
Luffy has a fairly impressive pedigree,
as he is the biological son of Monkey D. Dragon,
the leader of the Revolutionary Army
and the most wanted man in the world,
although Luffy has no memory of his father,
and he himself has a hard time believing
that this is indeed the case.
Meanwhile, Luffy's grandfather is Monkey D. Garp,
one of the most powerful and revered Marines
to have ever existed,
having been hailed as a literal hero of the world.
And Luffy has a, well,
he has a much more complex relationship
with his grandfather, both fearing
and loving him in equal measure,
although one being a pirate
and one being a Marine places them
in very opposite ends of this world,
which has forced them into serious conflict on one occasion.
Meanwhile, Luffy also grew up
with two future important figures
which he considers brothers,
one of which is Portgas D. Ace,
who would go on to become a division commander
of the Whitebeard Pirates,
and the other would be Sabo,
who became the chief of staff of the Revolutionary Army,
both of whom are highly infamous
in their own right.
With that said, Luffy was and arguably still remains
more or less ignorant of his family's impact on this planet,
and instead, he is focused entirely on his own journey,
which is just so very Luffy-like.
This journey would begin in earnest
at the age of 17, when Luffy left the Goa Kingdom,
determined to sail into the Grand Line
and become the pirate king.
Very bold of him, to say the least.
However, this wasn't just some foolish boy in a boat,
because, by this stage, Luffy had a fair bit
of raw power to back him up,
having trained as a child in the Goa Kingdom,
as well as coming equipped
with a devil fruit ability being the Gomu Gomu no Mi,
an existence which had permanently altered Luffy's body,
turning him into a rubber man,
and he attained this power
after accidentally eating the devil fruit as a child.
But this would come to be Luffy's most fearsome weapon
alongside his adventure,
and he demonstrated his capabilities immediately
by one-shotting the Lord of the Coast.
But the greatest advantages
of the Gomu Gomu no Mi are twofold,
because it gives Luffy access to heavily increased power
via the forced elasticity,
but it also grants him incredible endurance
because it becomes much harder
to damage his rubber body,
at least by normal means anyway.
And with this, Luffy quite comfortably made his way
through the relatively peaceful sea of East Blue,
dispatching fairly feared pirates
such as Captain Kuro, Don Krieg,
and even a powerful fish man by the name of Arlong.
But throughout all this,
as well as going forward,
Luffy's sights were set on acquiring a powerful crew
to assist in his journey,
and in the early days, Luffy was, how shall we say,
less than picky about who he would invite
to become a member of the Straw Hat Pirates,
although the hand of fate would guide him
to a very specific selection of individuals,
and in the early days of East Blue,
he was able to acquire a swordsman, a navigator,
a sniper, and a chef, each of whom
holding their own seemingly impossible dreams to achieve,
and even as we went forward, this would continue,
with Luffy eventually gathering a doctor,
an archeologist, a shipwright,
a musician, and a helmsman to complete his fearsome forces.
When it comes to his crew, though,
Luffy treasures these bonds more than anything else,
and in fact, he has been shown
on multiple occasions to be very willing
to risk his own wellbeing,
and more importantly, his ultimate dream
simply for their benefit,
although, at the same time,
he is very much willing to do the same
for just about anybody he takes a liking towards,
and it's important to note
that Luffy is a traditional pirate in many ways,
but he does have his own innate sense of justice,
and will usually act for the greater good
should he see it necessary,
a great example of which would be
when the crew encountered Princess Vivi in the Grand Line,
resulting in Luffy taking it upon himself
to directly challenge Sir Crocodile,
a warlord of the sea,
in order to save Vivi's kingdom of Alabasta.
And it doesn't really matter what Luffy is up against.
For the right reasons,
he will embark into conflict without a second thought,
another great example of which would be the Skypiea arc,
where Luffy decided to fight against someone
who was literally referred to as a god,
or on the island of Enies Lobby
where he very casually declared war
against the entirety of the world government
simply for the sake of rescuing a single member of his crew,
and in fact, Luffy even took it upon himself
to participate in the Paramount War
with the goal of saving his brother Ace
by facing off against a whole host
of people who completely outclassed him
in terms of strength, speed, intelligence.
Look, whatever they had, Luffy didn't.
But he didn't care though.
Luffy was determined to do it anyway,
which is one of the most admirable qualities about this man.
And this attitude of willingly leaping
into combat has also led
to his rapid development as a fighter,
with Luffy needing to consistently innovate
in order to overcome stronger
and stronger opponents,
and one such Luffy innovation
would be the discovery of gears,
which can basically be described
as a method of bodily augmentation available only to him
through the wonder of rubber
that allows Luffy to surpass his natural limits,
and so gear second, for example,
sees Luffy increasing the size of his blood vessels,
allowing for more oxygen
and general nutrients to be pumped throughout his body,
which has the effect of increasing both his speed
and power by an order of magnitude.
Meanwhile, gear third is a much more simplistic idea
whereby Luffy inflates the bones
of particular parts of his body,
resulting in him temporarily being able
to use giant size limbs
with truly, truly devastating power.
And through this combination of personality and strength,
Luffy would be issued a series
of bounties by the World Government,
his initial one being 30 million berries,
but that would end up being 300 million berries
after the Enies Lobby incident.
Shortly after this, though, it would become apparent
that Luffy did not posses the power necessary
to continue his journey to become the pirate king,
which was made blatantly clear
by the defeat of the Straw Hats on Sabaody Archipelago,
as well as Luffy's failure to save the life
of his brother Ace during the Paramount War,
and as such, it was suggested by Silvers Reyleigh,
the former first mate of the pirate king,
that the Straw Hats undergo a two-year hiatus,
during which time he would mentor Luffy
in a hidden art form known as Haki,
an offer which Luffy would come to accept,
and thus place his dream on hold for two whole years
as he learned and mastered the basic applications
of Observation, Armament, and even Conqueror's Haki,
the latter of which is a very rare ability
that can only be accessed via the genetic lottery,
but Luffy took to these three practices quite comfortably,
mastering the basics within six months,
and by the time he reunited with his crew two years later,
he was now well and truly a force to be reckoned with,
as were all the Straw Hats, actually,
and this group now proceeded into the new world,
crushing anything and everything in their path,
which would also culminate in the defeat
of yet another warlord of the sea, Donquixote Donflamingo,
on the island of Dressrosa,
during which time Luffy displayed a new gear to us,
being gear fourth.
This form is very much a mixture of gears and Haki,
with Luffy this time inflating his muscle structure
rather than the bone of gear third,
as well as coating himself
in a degree of Armament Haki,
which once again results in an incredible boost
of strength and speed, both of which are adjustable,
because gear fourth comes with multiple forms,
depending on which element Luffy wishes to maximize.
So Boundman, as an example, strives for a balance
between both speed and power,
while Snakeman is intended to allow Luffy more versatility
and agility at the cost of weakened strength and defense.
And then there's also situational stuff like Tankman,
which currently serves
as the ultimate defensive application of gear fourth.
And in addition to this,
Luffy has continued to develop the basic forms of Haki,
and is now able to access advanced applications
of both Observation and Armament.
And, with all of the above,
Luffy has caused considerable chaos in the new world,
having declared war against two of the four emperors,
and after a mildly successful skirmish,
depending on how you view it,
with Charlotte Linlin on Whole Cake Island,
Luffy was awarded with a 1.5 billion berry bounty,
as well as hailed as the fifth emperor of the sea,
and of course, there's a lot more to it than that,
including the fact that, by this point,
Luffy had a fleet of over 5,000 individuals
who had sworn their loyalty to him,
known as the Straw Hat Grand Fleet,
but Luffy, at this late stage of One Piece,
has now developed a critical mass of influence,
which is currently playing out
in his struggle against two of the emperors on Wano,
the results of which
will no doubt radically change the structure
of this planet as we know it.
Some more fun facts about Luffy.
When drawing Luffy,
"One Piece" author Eiichiro Oda always keeps the idea
of overwhelming simplicity in mind.
As he wished to keep Luffy a very straightforward existence,
this character's emotions
at any given time are always on full visual display,
and in addition to that, Oda generally prefers
not to give Luffy any thought bubbles either.
This is because they're fairly redundant,
given that Luffy is the type of character
who will say or do rather than think.
And fun fact about Luffy's morality now.
While "One Piece" is very notable
in that Luffy does not kill his enemies,
this is not out of a sene of not wanting to commit the act,
but rather scarily,
it is because Luffy legitimately believes
that death would be letting his opponents off the hook
the easy way.
Instead, Luffy prefers to crush their dreams
and live with that idea as punishment
for their various dick moves,
which very much opens up a whole new world
of a very vengeful Luffy going to great, great lengths
to exact his own form of justice.
Luffy has a trademark number within "One Piece,"
as, if a number is relevant,
you will almost always see him
with the number 56 on his clothing,
and this is because five and six can be pronounced
as go-mu in Japanese,
which is a reference to the name of Luffy's devil fruit.
And finally, a truly useless fact,
when asked why he decided to give Luffy the Gomu Gomu no Mi,
Oda simply replied because it was ridiculous,
and it would allow him to goof around with the character.
But that pretty much does it for Monkey D. Luffy.
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