History Characters / OnePieceStrawHatMonkeyDLuffy

* DangerousForbiddenTechnique: All his [[SuperMode Gears]] carry significant drawbacks; Gear Second is CastFromHitPoints and Gear Third had the side effect of making him shrink and lose speed and mobility. After two years of training, he's overcome those weaknesses. [[spoiler:His new Gear, Gear Fourth, has the biggest drawbacks yet, it's basically a DeathOrGloryAttack. It only lasts so long, and when it's up, he's drained of his Haki and exhausted to the point that he can't even move for ten minutes. Meaning, he must finish the fight while it lasts, or his enemy will make short work of him after. This is even more evident when you realize that none of his enemies have such downtime when using ''their'' SuperMode[=/=]LimitBreak.]]

* DangerousForbiddenTechnique: All his [[SuperMode Gears]] carry significant drawbacks; Gear Second is CastFromHitPoints and Gear Third had the side effect of making him shrink and lose speed and mobility. After two years of training, he's overcome those weaknesses. [[spoiler:His new Gear, Gear Fourth, has the biggest drawbacks yet, it has a TimeLimit and when it's up, he's drained of his Haki and exhausted to the point that he can't even move for ten minutes. Meaning, he must finish the fight while it lasts, or his enemy will make short work of him during his downtime. This is even more evident when you realize that none of his enemies have such downtime when using ''their'' SuperMode[=/=]LimitBreak.]]

* {{Asexuality}}: He's one of the closest examples for the trope that Shonen manga is probably ever going to get. WordOfGod mentions that Luffy is more interested in adventure than women, and that there will be no real romance in ''One Piece''. See ChasteHero below.

* BornLucky: This is justified by having the "Will of D", which means he's destined to change the world, and he has been described as having the Devil's Luck. While the lightning bolt that saves him on the execution platform may have been Dragon's doing, he's survived a number of encounters due only to extreme good fortune. At one point, Basil Hawkins actually gauges Luffy's luck with his tarot cards. He attempts to create deadly scenarios that Luffy couldn't possibly survive, but no matter what he tries, Luffy's chance of survival ''never'' drops to 0%. Combine this with Luffy's determinator mentality and brilliant luck. This doesn't just apply to surviving certain death either. Even taking into account his MagneticHero qualities Luffy has made some ''very'' helpful allies ranging from former members of the incredibly powerful Shichibukai to current members of the Revolutionary Army and fellow Supernovas are on friendly terms with him. He even has someone that is all but said to be the canonical WorldsMostBeautifulWoman in love with him (though, funnily enough, his {{Asexuality}} means that this goes completely wasted on him).

* CuddleBug: Luffy shows how much he loves his friends by hugging them, ''regardless of gender or race.'' This can get problematic when the girl in question is actually romantically interested in him; doubly so because he [[{{Asexuality}} won't]] return romantic love.

* ManChild: Downplayed. Luffy is not a grown up adult, but his enthusiastic and curious personality is more fitting to a prepubescent child than a boy in his late teens. His particular brand of {{Asexuality}} also serves to hammer this home; he's arguably even ''less'' interested in sex and gender roles then you'd expect even a typical nine-year-old to be.

** This becomes a plot point when he ends up on the [[LadyLand island of the Kuja]]. Snake Empress Boa Hancock is the WorldsMostBeautifulWoman, able to turn people to stone with her Love-Love Beams if they find her attractive. And Luffy doesn't. When Hancock tries her Love-Love BDam on him, [[NoSell it does absolutely nothing]].

* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Thanks to the TrainingFromHell his grandpa put him through, he's strong enough to destroy steel with his bare hands, knock out large sea monsters, and ''push apart two buildings he was stuck between''. And that's not even using his Devil Fruit ability.

** This becomes a plot point when he ends up on the [[LadyLand island of the Kuja]]. Snake Empress Boa Hancock is the WorldsMostBeautifulWoman, able to turn people to stone with her Love-Love Beams if they find her attractive. And Luffy doesn't. When Hancock tries her Love-Love Beam on him, [[NoSell it does absolutely nothing]].

* AmbiguousDisorder: He can easily be read as autistic, displaying symptoms such as not really getting emotions, taking things too literally and being too honest, having intense attachments to things he's interested in, et cetera. A lot of his behaviour (such as the hyperactivity and face-blindness) can also be interpreted as being caused by ADHD.

* SuperStrength: From childhood, Luffy was trained by Vice-Admiral Garp the Fist, his grandfather and the Marine rival of the WorldsStrongestMan Gol D. Roger. As a result, by the time the series begins, Luffy is already massively overcompensated in strength beyond nearly any major foe he faces during the first half of the series. Even when facing foes who put him to the ropes or prove formidable up to Sabaody, only a number that could be counted on one hand can actually withstand more than several blows from Luffy's monstrous strength, usually spending most of the battle with some sort of buffer or protection that Luffy needs to find a way around to land the small number of hits he needs to win all the while his SuperToughness lets him soak damage like nothing. Unfortunately for Luffy, he banks heavily on this and his CombatPragmatism to the point where he barely seeks to develop himself, picking up Gear Second and Third and getting complacent thereafter, resulting in a case of UnskilledButStrong that puts him through an absolutely traumatizing HumiliationConga by the time he reaches the end of Paradise. It's only then that he decides to get serious about developing his skills to compliment the strength he has in order to contend with what lies ahead.

* MyGreatestFailure: He fails to save his brother Ace from the Marines during the Paramount War. It sends Luffy into a long HeroicBSOD, until he snaps out of it and uses it to motivate him into becoming stronger for the next two years.

* ImprobableAge: While this applies to most of the crew, Luffy is special because he quickly becomes a legendary pirate, his bounty quickly increases until, by the events of Marineford, he earns a bounty of 400,000,000 berry. After the TimeSkip, he's considered by the general public one of the frontrunners for becoming Pirate King and captain of one of the strongest crews on the Grand Line. All at the age of 19, while only being a pirate for at most three years, two of which were spent training alone. This trait is even more impressive when compared to his brother Ace who, before his death during the Paramount War, had a bounty of 550,000,000 berry and was considered one of the strongest members of an Emperor's crew at only 20 years old. [[spoiler:Luffy's feat increases even further after escaping from an Emperor's territory, earning a ''1,500,000,000 berry bounty'' and being considered on the same level as an Emperor by the general public (despite the other Emperors disagreeing with his status)]].

* MyGreatestFailure: Luffy fails to save his brother Ace from the Marines during the Paramount War. It brings into a long HeroicBSOD, until he snaps out of it and motivates him into becoming stronger for the next two years.

* MusclesAreMeaningless: Luffy has a lean and defined physique, but when it comes to the actual gains for someone so infamous for his raw power, he's built like a twig. There ''is'' a precedent for this: Luffy became a rubber man as a young child, before Garp began training him. Muscle mass is developed due to tears in the muscle fibers that occur when exercising. [[FridgeBrilliance Luffy's muscle fibers]] ''[[FridgeBrilliance can't]]'' [[FridgeBrilliance tear.]] This ends up finally averted as of the Wano Arc, wherein during his time imprisoned in Udon, Luffy realized he could make greater strides in getting stronger by training under the constraints of seastone, which rendered him an non-rubberized with them on, thus allowing his body to develop in training as normal. By the end, his upper body has broadened, with his chest, trapezius and arms all gaining considerable bulk compared to before.

* MyGreatestFailure: He fails to save his brother Ace from the Marines during the Paramount War. It brings into a long HeroicBSOD, until he snaps out of it and motivates him into becoming stronger for the next two years.

* MyFavoriteShirt: His NiceHat serves as a NumberOneDime for him, and is also his BerserkButton when targeted, since it's a gift from Shanks.

!!!'''Portrayed by:''' Iñaki Godoy (live-action)

* NormalFishInATinyPond: {{Inverted|Trope}}; like Zoro and Sanji, he's a Big Fish in a Tiny Pond in the East Blue. This is no more true in Paradise, the first half of the Grand Line, where he faces enemies able to push him to his limits. Come the Marineford Saga though, Luffy gets a taste of New World-level threats and it becomes clear that he's nowhere near as strong as he thinks he is. Cue a mental breakdown, recovery, and two years of training in an effort to catch up to the ''real'' big fishes.

** During the Dressrosa arc, Luffy is still recovering from [[spoiler:using Gear Fourth]] as Doflamingo comes dangerously close to [[spoiler:making Rebecca cut her aunt down]]. He recovers and manages to [[spoiler:stop Rebecca's blade with his Haki-imbued head]] ''just'' before the impact, partially thanks to Law's help. For extra badass points, the citizens chants his name and counts the seconds to his recovery.

* EnemyMine: Played with. Luffy is very friendly and is rarely against the idea of allying with his former enemies or rivals. Notable examples are when he infiltrates in Impel Down and allies himself with Buggy, Galdino and Crocodile (although he's initially against teaming up with Crocodile and makes it clear he hasn't forgiven him for what he did to Vivi), who help him even during the Paramount War. Luffy allies himself with Capone Bege in the Big Mom assassination plan, despite making clear, in the latter example, that he'll never forgive him for shooting Pekoms, and still helps Bege when the latter is protecting his crew and the Straw Hats from Big Mom's attacks. Notably, Luffy allies with Law and Kid, his two biggest rivals in the race for the One Piece, to defeat Big Mom and Kaido, and the two ends up quarrelling while fighting the Emperors.

* IndyPloy: He uses these quite a few times: notably during his fight with Eneru [[hottip: *:make himself not think and fighting purely on instinct, then using his rubber powers to ricochet his attacks off a wall to beat him up to counter his Color of Observation]], during the assault on Enies Lobby [[hottip: *:charge at the island as his abilities allow him to get there first, and beat up as many of the soldiers and agents there as you can until he gets the attention of one of the [=CP9=]. This actually made the plan the others came up with that much smoother, in the long run]], and later against [[spoiler:Doflamingo [[hottip: *:challenge him with Law, and when he doesn't directly fight him, and uses his puppetry powers instead, pretends to lose his cool and go after Law, prompting him to switch places with Doflamingo, giving Luffy a chance to attack Doflamingo head-on]]]]

* {{Irony}}: After all the times when he refuses to give in until a person he's trying to recruit joins his crew, he finds himself, after refusing multiple times, 5640 followers who become part of his grand fleet without his approval.

* MagneticHero: In every arc, due to his nice nature and personality, he manages to make many allies and friends. [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] in the Dressrosa Arc. Luffy tries his MagneticHero tendencies on the apparently reformed Bellamy, but for the first time... he fails. Bellamy refuses to turn on Doflamingo at this point since he's got nothing else to believe in, and not only does Luffy take some hard hits for his troubles, but wasting his time fighting Bellamy allows Doflamingo to gravely injure Law, but is reconstructed at the end of the arc, where many of Corrida Coliseum warriors and their crews, ask to sail under Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirate flag, and becomes his Grand Fleet. Even the aforementioned Bellamy, who still refuses to be Luffy's subordinate, parts on good terms with him and requests a piece of Luffy's Vivre Card just in case. This trait is lampshaded by Mihawk after noticing all the allies that helps him during the Paramount War:

* NormalFishInATinyPond: {{Inverted|Trope}}; like Zoro and Sanji, he's a Big Fish in a Tiny Pond in the East Blue. This is no more true in Paradise, the first half of the grand line, where he faces enemies able to push him to his limits. Come the Marineford Saga though, Luffy gets a taste of New World-level threats and it becomes clear that he's nowhere near as strong as he thinks he is. Cue a mental breakdown, recovery, and two years of training in an effort to catch up to the ''real'' big fishes.

** At the beginning of his pirate career in East Blue, he's an out-context foe for both pirates and the Marines. Devil Fruits in the Blues are so rare that they are often believed to be mere myth and those who do have powers are seen as demons and monsters. So when Luffy, a rubber man, come along able to deflect bullets and absorb blunt blows without taking any damage, most of his early enemies don't know what to do except for Buggy and Arlong, both who have sailed the Grand Line where Devil Fruit users are more common. Buggy also have the extra benefice of being a Devil Fruit users himself.
** Luffy does it again during his battle against Eneru. Before Eneru meets Luffy, he believes to be completely unbeatable and most of his fights ends in a curb stomp in his favour. That is because Eneru has the Rumble Rumble Fruit that turns him into living lightning. The fruit is so powerful that it is classified as unbeatable. However, since Luffy is a rubber man, he is completely immune to lightning. Even better, rubber doesn't even exist on Skypiea, so Luffy is also an out-of-context material too. Eneru literally has no clue that a foe like Luffy could exist and the face he makes when he realizes that Luffy isn't affected by his powers is priceless.

* PersonOfMassDestruction: Even before he discovers Haki or his Gear abilities, Luffy deals some pretty amazing feats of damage. And it goes on from there as he gets stronger and stronger. With two uses of Gear Third, he destroys the ''top half of the Tower of Justice'' (the first has made the Tower shake a little... and that is just by knocking a massive steel door down). After two years of training, he becomes strong enough to destroy the massive ship Noah by using a Haki-strengthened Gear Third gatling, the only reasons he doesn't completely destroy it is because the Sea Kings stops Noah from colliding with Fish-Man Island before he could finish the job. And finally we have [[spoiler:his new form, Gear Fourth, which can split an '''entire city''' into two slabs and forced them upwards into the air with a single strong attack. It'd be damn hard to argue it now]].

* SharedFamilyQuirks: Even before Garp is revealed as Luffy's grandfather, they both show a BunnyEarsLawyer mentality, being more concerned with eating most of the time, often being absent-minded and a tendency to randomly fall asleep.

* TagalongKid: Defied. When he's still seven years old, Luffy asks Shanks if he can join his crew, composed of grown up men, multiple times, but Shanks always declines, explaining it would be too dangerous for him.

** This trope is taken UpToEleven when Luffy is catapulted into the room (and chest) of Princess Shirahoshi... who is one of One Piece's giant characters. Before he realizes it, Luffy thinks that he's standing on a giant pudding and ''bounces on it''.

* HeartIsAnAwesomePower: The Gum-Gum Fruit's power seems pretty uninpressive compared to other devil fruits, like the ability to create earthquakes, becoming a dinosaur or manipulating natural elements. However, Luffy's creativity shows it can have a lot of versatility: the ability to stretch can be used for convenience, mobility, or enhancing the range and physical power of attacks; a heart made of rubber can pump blood faster and Luffy can even pump air into his bones or his muscles. Being made of rubber gives Luffy incredible resistance to physical blows, provides insulation from electricity, and appears to be one of the only Fruits that can allow its users to survive underwater (Luffy's head can be stretched above water so that he can continue to breathe, although he will still be powerless if fully submerged). It's implied that a side effect of the Fruit is that Luffy is always in top physical condition, never needing to stretch or loosen up. It's no surprise that Burgess attempts to kill him so he can get the Gum-Gum Fruit.

* HeartIsAnAwesomePower: Sure, there are a lot of characters whose power is having the body made of rubber, but, [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower his own strength notwithstanding]], he can make such a creative use of his rubber body that he turns what seems a lame Devil Fruit into one of the strongest abilities, especially with his Gears. It's no surprise that Burgess attempts to kill him so he can get the Gum-Gum Fruit.

* SuperpowerLottery: While the Gum-Gum Fruit's power seems pretty standard, Luffy's creativity shows it can have a lot of versatility: the ability to stretch can be used for convenience, mobility, or enhancing the range and physical power of attacks; a heart made of rubber can pump blood faster and Luffy can even pump air into his bones or [[spoiler: his muscles]]. The Fruit provides insulation from electricity, and appears to be one of the only Fruits that can allow its users to survive underwater (Luffy's head can be stretched above water so that he can continue to breathe, although he will still be powerless if fully submerged). It's implied that a side effect of the Fruit is that Luffy is always in top physical condition, never needing to stretch or loosen up. Perhaps most important, being made of rubber gives Luffy incredible resistance to physical blows and even shockwaves created by other Devil Fruits. [[spoiler: Tying into this is the later reveal by Who's-who that the Gum-Gum fruit was once important enough to be guarded by the World Government and overseen mid-transport by a Cipher Pol agent like himself, to the extent that it ''needed'' a crew on the level of an Emperor's to steal the fruit from them in the first place, rather than it being a treasure held by a rival, but minor, crew like Shanks made out in the first chapter]].

* SuperpowerLottery: While the Gum-Gum Fruit's power seems pretty standard, Luffy's creativity shows it can have a lot of versatility: the ability to stretch can be used for convenience, mobility, or enhancing the range and physical power of attacks; a heart made of rubber can pump blood faster and Luffy can even pump air into his bones or [[spoiler: his muscles]]. The Fruit provides insulation from electricity, and appears to be one of the only Fruits that can allow its users to survive underwater (Luffy's head can be stretched above water so that he can continue to breathe, although he will still be powerless if fully submerged). It's implied that a side effect of the Fruit is that Luffy is always in top physical condition, never needing to stretch or loosen up. Perhaps most important, being made of rubber gives Luffy incredible resistance to physical blows and even shockwaves created by other Devil Fruits.

* AntiHero: Luffy is a very benevolent person, and would never hurt anyone without a good reason, but by his own admission, he ''doesn't want'' to be a hero. This refusal stems from his expectations that he, as a hero, would have to do that would bother him, like sharing meat. He immediately agrees to be one after [[spoiler:Jimbei promises he would get his meat rather than having to divide among the people.]] He helps people, would rather die than leave a comrade behind, and [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything doesn't do typical pirate things like rape and pillage]], but he also doesn't care what people think of him. In a fight, if the situation calls for it, he occasionally [[CombatPragmatist fights dirty]], uses his enemies as human shields or even human weapons once, and destroys public property in his many battles. However, he does admire heroes enormously. His reasons for not wanting to be one is among the lines of him viewing heroes as ''completely'' selfless. When he helps people, is because they're his friends, and nothing more (however, it's very easy to get in good terms with him). He occasionally veers more into TheHero status such as in Wano where he secures a ship of food just for the starving citizens, but is mainly because he empathizes with the being hungry. His goal to become King of the Pirates is ultimately rooted in selfish desires; Luffy wants to be the Pirate King so he can be "the freest man in the world". In other words; so he can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, and nobody can stop him. This is why he and Blackbeard are such good foils; they have the same ultimate goal, but Luffy showcases what a relatively benevolent individual with that dream would be like, whereas Blackbeard is very much the opposite.

* AwesomenessIsAForce: Luffy possesses Conqueror's Haki, an extremely rare type of Haki said to only be found in those with the qualities of a king. With Conqueror's Haki, Luffy can knock out anyone who has a weak will. He first unconsciously uses it to scare off Motobaro, Duval's buffalo, and then at Marineford, where he knocks out the two guards who are about to execute Ace (along with hundreds of pirates and marines on the battlefield, much to the horror of the latter). In the latter case, it's officially recognized by the others to be Conqueror's Haki. After training with Raylegh, Luffy has learned to use it intentionally and, during the war at Onigashima, [[spoiler:he figures out how to imbue his body with Conqueror's Haki like Kaido so that he can fight Kaido on even keel]].

** In the Wano arc, upon seeing the ill-equiped Akazaya Nine tormented at sea by Kaido's men, Luffy shows up accompanied by both Kid and Law's crew and declare that "When you're at sea, you fight against pirates."

* EnemyMine: Played with. Luffy is very friendly and is rarely against the idea of allying with his former enemies or rivals. Notable examples are when he infiltrates in Impel Down and allies himself with Buggy, Galdino and Crocodile (although he's initially against teaming up with Crocodile and makes it clear he hasn't forgiven him for what he did to Vivi), who help him even during the Paramount War. Luffy allies himself with Capone Bege in the Big Mom assassination plan, despite making clear, in the latter example, that he'll never forgive him for shooting Pekoms, and still helps Bege when the latter is protecting his crew and the Straw Hats from Big Mom's attacks. Notably, Luffy allies with Law and Kid, his two biggest rivals in the race for the One Piece, to defeat Big Mom and Kaido, and the two ends up quarrelling while fighting the emperors.

** While his fun-loving nature and shirking of things like duty may make him seem childish, Luffy actually takes a lot of personal responsibility for his failures. When the Merry is burning on its funeral pyre, Luffy screams that its his and the crews fault that Merry became irreversibly broken and that she shouldn't be apologizing for their failures. Later on during Dressrosa, [[spoiler: Luffy runs into Sabo and has a heartfelt reunion with him, and notably opens the conversation stating that he "let Ace die" through a waterfall of tears. When Sabo simply states that he almost lost both of his brothers that day and that he's happy that Luffy even survived, Luffy collapses and begins sobbing in relief.]]

* IndyPloy: He uses these quite a few times: notably during his fight with Eneru [[hottip: *:make himself not think and fighting purely on instinct, then using his rubber powers to ricochet his attacks off a wall to beat him up to counter his Color of Observation]], during the assault on Enies Lobby [[hottip: *:charge at the island as his abilities allow him to get there first, and beat up as many of the soldiers and agents there as you can until he gets the attention of one of the CP9. This actually made the plan the others came up with that much smoother, in the long run]], and later against [[spoiler:Doflamingo [[hottip: *:challenge him with Law, and when he doesn't directly fight him, and uses his puppetry powers instead, pretends to lose his cool and go after Law, prompting him to switch places with Doflamingo, giving Luffy a chance to attack Doflamingo]]]]

* PowerOfTrust: While Luffy isn't an ''excellent'' judge of character, his blind trust to nearly everyone he meets helps him most of the time, as his charisma and personality [[MagneticHero allows him to make himself many allies, even with former enemies]], either as permanent crewmates (like Nico Robin and Franky) or as temporary allies (like Buggy and Mr 3). This is put to the ultimate test with his alliance with rival Supernova captain-turned-Warlord Trafalgar Law, which proves to be vital in the defeat of Doflamingo.
* PowerPerversionPotential: Yes, every part of his body can stretch, including his penis, as the inhabitants of [[LadyLand Amazon Lily]] have discovered. Of course, being [[ChasteHero Luffy]] (and this series a Shonen), he never make any use of this.

* ShutUpHannibal: He has done this numerous times against the [[BigBad Big Bads of the current arc]]. Prominent examples include against Arlong, Crocodile, Bellamy, Spandam, Caesar Clown and [[spoiler:Doflamingo]].

* SpannerInTheWorks: Whenever Luffy visit a new island, he always happen to stumble across the current ArcVillain's plan, usually just in time to ruin it before it's completed. It should be noted that, more often than not, he never even goes in intending to stop the villain or knowing the villain even has an evil plan. He is literally just an unexpected variable that happened to mess up the scheme because the villain does just ONE thing wrong. That thing is usually trying to preemptively eliminate him. Doflamingo attempts to take advantage of these tendencies in order to screw up Law's plan: he correctly deduces that [[spoiler:Luffy would immediately be sidetracked by a tournament to win the Flame-Flame Fruit, most likely to ensure that his brother's power does not end up in the wrong hands]]. It would've worked, but it backfires magnificently when it creates another Spanner to screw up his plans: [[spoiler:Sabo, who takes Luffy's place in the colosseum in order to the win the Flame-Flame Fruit, being perhaps the ''only'' person outside of his own crew that Luffy would allow to take its power]]. This can be largely blamed on Doflamingo, as the tournament is most likely the main reason [[spoiler:Sabo is in Dressrosa in the first place]]. It's at this point you can honestly say that anything even ''remotely'' related to Luffy has the potential to be this for ''any'' villain.

** Gear Second and Third can be combined to become much stronger, but doing so leaves him exhausted after a short use.

* SuperpowerLottery: While the Gum Gum Fruit's power seems pretty standard, Luffy's creativity shows it can have a lot of versatility: the ability to stretch can be used for convenience, mobility, or enhancing the range and physical power of attacks; a heart made of rubber can pump blood faster and Luffy can even pump air into his bones or [[spoiler: his muscles]]. The Fruit provides insulation from electricity, and appears to be one of the only Fruits that can allow its users to survive underwater (Luffy's head can be stretched above water so that he can continue to breathe, although he will still be powerless if fully submerged). It's implied that a side effect of the Fruit is that Luffy is always in top physical condition, never needing to stretch or loosen up. Perhaps most important, being made of rubber gives Luffy incredible resistance to physical blows and even shockwaves created by other Devil Fruits.

* ClassicalAntiHero: Luffy is a very benevolent person, and would never hurt anyone without a good reason, but by his own admission, he ''doesn't want'' to be a hero. This refusal stems from his expectations that he, as a hero, would have to do that would bother him, like sharing meat. He immediately agrees to be one after [[spoiler:Jimbei promises he would get his meat rather than having to divide among the people.]] He helps people, would rather die than leave a comrade behind, and [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything doesn't do typical pirate things like rape and pillage]], but he also doesn't care what people think of him. In a fight, if the situation calls for it, he occasionally [[CombatPragmatist fights dirty]], uses his enemies as human shields or even human weapons once, and destroys public property in his many battles. However, he does admire heroes enormously. His reasons for not wanting to be one is among the lines of him viewing heroes as ''completely'' selfless. When he helps people, is because they're his friends, and nothing more (however, it's very easy to get in good terms with him). He occasionally veers more into TheHero status such as in Wano where he secures a ship of food just for the starving citizens, but is mainly because he empathizes with the being hungry. His goal to become King of the Pirates is ultimately rooted in selfish desires; Luffy wants to be the Pirate King so he can be "the freest man in the world". In other words; so he can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, and nobody can stop him. This is why he and Blackbeard are such good foils; they have the same ultimate goal, but Luffy showcases what a relatively benevolent individual with that dream would be like, whereas Blackbeard is very much the opposite.

* AntiHero: [[DownplayedTrope Luffy is a very benevolent person, and would never hurt anyone without a good reason]] but, by his own admission, he ''doesn't want'' to be a hero. This refusal stems from his expectations that he, as a hero, would have to do that would bother him, like sharing meat. He immediately agrees to be one after [[spoiler:Jimbei promises he would get his meat rather than having to divide among the people.]] He helps people, would rather die than leave a comrade behind, and [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything doesn't do typical pirate things like rape and pillage]], but he also doesn't care what people think of him. In a fight, if the situation calls for it, he occasionally [[CombatPragmatist fights dirty]], uses his enemies as human shields or even human weapons once, and destroys public property in his many battles. However, he does admire heroes enormously. His reasons for not wanting to be one is among the lines of him viewing heroes as ''completely'' selfless. When he helps people, is because they're his friends, and nothing more (however, it's very easy to get in good terms with him). He occasionally veers more into TheHero status such as in Wano where he secures a ship of food just for the starving citizens, but is mainly because he empathizes with the being hungry. His goal to become King of the Pirates is ultimately rooted in selfish desires; Luffy wants to be the Pirate King so he can be "the freest man in the world". In other words; so he can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, and nobody can stop him. This is why he and Blackbeard are such good foils; they have the same ultimate goal, but Luffy showcases what a relatively benevolent individual with that dream would be like, whereas Blackbeard is very much the opposite.

** During Luffy's two-year long training, none of the Supernovas make a real dent into the status quo or any real blows against the Emperors, achieving minor victories at best. Some have bent the knee to them to avoid total annihilation. As for Luffy himself, [[spoiler:he becomes their ''equal'' after defeating Doflamingo and successfully infiltrating and escaping Linlin's territory, in the process causing so much damage that it will take the Big Mom Pirates ''years'' to fully recover from the humiliation. Once he figures out how to imbue himself with the Color of the Supreme King Haki, he's capable of going toe-to-toe with Kaido, who is considered the most dangerous of all the living Emperors, and a clash between them ''splits the sky''. As that only happens when Emperors (and Emperor-class characters, such as Roger) fight each other, that truly confirms that Luffy is on their level]].

** During Luffy's two-year long training, none of the Supernovas make a real dent into the status quo or any real blows against the Emperors, achieving minor victories at best. Some have bent the knee to them to avoid total annihilation. As for Luffy himself, [[spoiler:he becomes their ''equal'' after defeating Doflamingo and successfully infiltrating and escaping Linlin's territory, in the process causing so much damage that it will take the Big Mom Pirates ''years'' to fully recover from the humiliation. Once he figures out how to imbue himself with the Color of the Supreme King Haki, he's capable of going toe-to-toe with Kaido, who is considered the most dangerous of all the living Emperors]].