Characters / One Piece: Monkey D. Luffy

aka: One Piece Straw Hat Monkey D Luffy

All spoilers regarding the Super Rookies era are unmarked. New World spoilers are unmarked in character descriptions, and examples relating to the New World era can be spoiler-tagged if deemed necessary.

---

Main Character Index > Straw Hat Pirates > Monkey D. Luffy | Roronoa Zoro | Nami | Usopp | Sanji | Tony Tony Chopper | Nico Robin | Straw Hat Grand Fleet

---

"Straw Hat" Monkey D. Luffy

Voiced by: Urara Takano [Defeat Him! The Pirate Ganzack], Mayumi Tanaka [TV series onwards] (Japanese); Chuck Powers [Odex dub], Erica Schroeder^note  (credited as Bella Hudson) [4Kids dub], Colleen Clinkenbeard [Funimation dub] (English) ^{Foreign voice actors}Diana Pérez [4Kids dub, first voice], Karina Altamirano [4Kids dub, second voice], Ayari Rivera [One Piece Film: Gold], Mireya Mendoza [Netflix dub], Desireé González [Netflix dub, fifth season onwards] (Latin American Spanish); Jaime Roca (European Spanish); Vincent Barazzoni [first dub], Stéphane Excoffier [second dub onwards] (European French); Daniel Schlauch (German); Vagner Fagundes [first dub], Carol Valença [second dub onwards] (Brazilian Portuguese); Luigi Rosa [all appearances until 2008], Renato Novara [all appearances since 2008] (Italian)

Age: 17 (Pre-Time Skip), 19 (Post-Time Skip)

Debut: Chapter 1 (Manga), Episode 1 (Anime)

Devil Fruit: Gum-Gum Fruit

^{Click here to see his Pre-Time Skip appearance}

"I'm gonna be King of the Pirates!"

Monkey D. Luffy is The Captain of the Straw Hat Pirates; your average seventeen/nineteen-year-old Shōnen Idiot Hero whose actions form the basis of One Piece as a whole. He's the son of Monkey D. Dragon, a revolutionary considered "The Worst Criminal In the World"; and the grandson of Monkey D. Garp, a humongously powerful Marine Vice Admiral who had cornered the late Pirate King himself on several occasions. He seeks to find the fabled treasure One Piece and become the new Pirate King. To accomplish this, he founds the Straw Hat Pirates and sets out on the high seas at age 17 in search of the elusive treasure, beginning a series of increasingly odd and dangerous adventures.

Physically speaking, Luffy is exceptionally strong, fast and tough, and fights barehanded in Good Old Fisticuffs. He has eaten the Gum-Gum Fruit (Gomu Gomu no Mi, lit. "Rubber Rubber Fruit") at the age of seven, giving him stretching powers that he's become quite creative with. Aside from simple stretchy punches, his mastery and creative use of his rubber body results in three unique power ups that complement his hand-to-hand combat style: Gear Two, which makes him much faster by increasing his blood pressure; Gear Three, where he inflates his steel-strong bones for a stronger attack; and Gear Four, which he develops during the Time Skip, which combines his mastery of Haki (literally "Ambition") with his inflated rubbery muscles Time Skip to gain an explosive boost to strength and speed. He's also proficient in all three types of Haki and trains under Rayleigh during the Time Skip to properly use it.

His dream of becoming the Pirate King comes from an incident in his youth involving mountain bandits and a sea serpent that resulted in his idol Shanks losing his left arm. Before leaving Luffy's village the very next day, Shanks gave him his straw hat, telling him to give it back when he's become a great pirate.

Luffy is quite notorious for battling powerful individuals and organizations wherever he goes, and he regularly poses a threat to the balance of the world by challenging the Seven Warlords of the Sea, the World Government, and the Four Emperors. For each encounter, he manages to either win completely or escapes by a hair's breadth. Through word of his various exploits and victories spreading around, he becomes a member of "The Worst Generation", a group of 10 other rookie pirates plus Blackbeard who are all considered to be major figures in shaping the New Age of Piracy following the Paramount War.

On the other side, Luffy is so amicable and charismatic that he has loyal allies throughout the world, including several countries like Alabasta, Drum Island, Fish-Man Island, and Dressrosa or miscellaneous organizations like the Galley-la Company and other similarly benevolent pirates like the Red Hair Pirates.

Following the events of the Whole Cake Island Arc, Luffy's successful "raid" against the Emperor Big Mom^note The whole incident is actually a case of Achievements in Ignorance and Badass on Paper., the complete destruction of her castle, and his defeat of her two top Generals is made public knowledge by the journalist "Big News" Morgans. Furthermore, the formation of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet and the addition of a former Warlord to his main crew (Jimbei) also becomes public information to the masses. For this, certain circles now unofficially consider Luffy the Fifth Emperor of the Sea.

Following the events of the Wano arc, after Luffy and the Ninja-Pirate-Mink-Samurai alliance successfully raid Onigashima to liberate the land of Wano from the clutches of Emperor Kaido, Luffy's notoriety grows even further, leading the World Government to officially label him one of the Four Emperors. With his new enormous bounty afterwards, the world unambiguously recognizes him as one of the most powerful individuals in the world.

His bounty is 3,000,000,000 Berries.^note It starts at 30,000,000 after he destroys Arlong Park and inadvertently foils a local Marine Captain's graft; his bounty raises to 100,000,000 after defeating Crocodile in Alabasta; it triples to 300,000,000 after the incident at Enies Lobby and it raises to 400,000,000 after the Paramount War for his break-in to Impel Down, his actions during the war, and his relation to Ace and Dragon. It raises to 500,000,000 shortly after defeating Doflamingo in Dressrosa; triples to 1,500,000,000 following his successful raid against the Emperor Big Mom on Whole Cake Island. It increases once again to 3,000,000,000 after he helps defeat Kaido and Big Mom at Wano and he subsequently becomes one of the Four Emperors. He holds several records for his bounties.^note Highest East Blue bounty at 30,000,000 Berries, highest new bounty for an East Blue pirate, tied with Robin for having the most bounty image changes (changes twice), and the most times getting a new bounty, as he has seven different bounties during the series.

For his appearance in the live-action series, go here.

---

# — B

• #1 Dime: His trademark straw hat is a gift from his idol Shanks, and he treasures it to the point where if he gives it to someone else, it's really saying something, and so far he has only given it to Nami and Usopp. Likewise, if someone ever dares damage it, ass will be kicked in great quantities. When he gets struck hard with Heroic BSoD during Marineford arc, he gets so distraught that he doesn't even realize that his hat fell down; Shanks finds it and then tells Buggy to give it back to Luffy. Its importance was elevated when a flashback revealed that the hat may have belonged to Gold Roger himself.
• Ability Mixing: Luffy's Gear Four is a masterwork combination of his Devil Fruit powers, specifically both his gears, and Haki. Aside of being a visual send-off to Nightmare Luffy, it combines both Gear Two's speed with Gear Three's raw power. The variations are even either tougher (like Tank-Man, which makes him nigh immovable but super durable and capable of hitting back with immense power) or faster (like Snake-Man, which trades some defense for a vast increase in speed).
• Accidental Misnaming: He's prone to getting some people's names wrong when he first meets them. For instance, Hancock becomes "Hammock", Cavendish become "Cabbage" and Bonney becomes "Boggy".
• The Ace:
  • Throughout his journey to become the Pirate King, Luffy achieves incredible feats, solidifying his status as a powerful pirate in just over two years. He inspires others to pursue their dreams with determination and passion.
  • He establishes his strength and skill by defeating notorious enemies like the Arlong Pirates and multiple Warlords. He proves himself to be a force to be reckoned with in the One Piece world. Furthermore, he showcases his remarkable resilience and determination by surviving and influencing the intense Marineford conflict, emerging from it more infamous than ever.
  • In his pursuit of greater power, Luffy trains under the legendary Silvers Rayleigh to hone his skills and reach his full potential in under two years. This training proves invaluable as Luffy faces formidable opponents in the New World, like Doflamingo, Cracker, and Katakuri, with unwavering courage.
  • After awakening his Devil Fruit, Luffy solidifies his place among the Four Emperors and cements his status as a true legend in the world of One Piece by defeating Kaido.
• Achey Scars: Shortly before the Time Skip, Luffy gets a scar on his chest from Admiral Akainu. The first time Akainu is mentioned after the timeskip, Luffy takes a hand to his scar and squints one of his eyes as if in pain, implying that this trope also has affected him and he still remembers Akainu. It doesn't help that he's also the one who killed Ace, his brother.
• Achievements in Ignorance: Luffy is renowned for easily taking on seemingly impossible tasks. His secret lies in his lack of comprehension of the sheer enormity of his challenges. By being oblivious to the magnitude of the obstacles, he approaches them with a carefree attitude, ultimately leading to his victory.
  • Luffy destroys Enel's Raigo before it destroys Skypiea by wildly swinging around the large gold ball Enel welded onto his arm. The lightning is conducted by the gold, then neutralized by Luffy's rubber body, destablizing the attack... but Word of God says that Luffy didn't have a clue what he was doing.
  • Luffy uses Conqueror's Haki several times between Sabaody and the Time Skip without even knowing what Haki is.
  • After the Totto Land Arc, Luffy becomes the "Fifth Emperor" and receives a ridiculously high bounty. The Straw Hats only enter Big Mom's territory to get Sanji back, and only involve themselves in Bege's assassination plot to save Sanji's family. The subsequent "raid" on Totto Land is really just collateral damage from having the Big Mom Pirates chase after them all over the archipelago, and Luffy's fights (and victories) against Cracker and Katakuri are to get to Sanji and protect the crew, respectively. They are so focused on rescuing Sanji and escaping Totto Land, that none of them (except possibly Jimbei) realizes the sheer magnitude of their actions and what the consequences would be]].
  • Luffy unknowingly comes across a surprising revelation about his Devil Fruit, the Human-Human Fruit Model: Nika. The World Government has covertly altered its name and classification to the Gum-Gum Fruit, downplaying its importance to the public. However, after unintentionally ingesting it, Luffy cleverly exploits its abilities and learns that the key to unleashing its full potential lies in imagination.
• Acquired Poison Immunity: Because of his fight with Magellan and subsequent healing by Ivankov in Impel Down, his body is highly resistant against poison. However, he's not completely immune — a strong enough poison (as in one that would cause instant death in a normal person), or excessive amounts (like enough to kill a giant) is still capable of making him extremely ill.
• Adaptive Ability:
  • Luffy is an immensely skilled fighter who has the ability to improve his techniques during battles, making him unpredictable and enabling him to develop his own unique style. Despite lacking experience compared to some of his opponents, his determination and instincts allow him to overcome even the most skilled fighters, including those who belong to the Emperors of the Sea.
  • After watching the CP9 members execute the Shave, he quickly learns and improves the technique, using a faster and more effective variation in Gear Two.
  • Doflamingo's reluctance to confront Luffy stems from carefully studying the latter's exploits. He seems to recognize how Luffy's adaptable combat style makes it increasingly difficult for opponents to defeat him as the battle wears on. In short, facing Luffy in combat becomes a surefire mistake for those who engage him for too long.
  • As Luffy confronts Katakuri and Kaido in fierce combat, he gradually understands the extraordinary Haki skills that set these powerful foes apart. By adopting their techniques and approaches, he manages to close the gap between them and level the playing field in his favor.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Vivi teaches Luffy that violence isn’t always the right answer during Drum Island arc. He shows he has learned his lesson when he begs help for Sanji in Fish-Man Island. Pose of Supplication is also seen in Impel Down, where Luffy shows his gratitude to an unconscious Bon Clay.
• The Alleged Boss:
  • Luffy's the captain of the Straw Hats but usually doesn't act like it. His crew speak informally to him and address him by his name rather than "Captain". Particularly towards the beginning of the series, he often follows orders more than give them, prompting several characters to point out that Nami acts more like the captain than the actual captain.
  • Generally, Luffy has a very laissez-faire approach to captaining. Everybody on the crew does whatever they want most of the time, and later follow him when he takes action, due to him having earned their admiration and loyalty. Small requests of his can sometimes be ignored, and members of the crew (particularly the aforementioned Nami) even physically abuse him sometimes. However, when it comes to the big decisions, he has the final word.
  • Since the timeskip, Luffy has been more proactive in giving orders and deciding the crew's next actions. This due in no small part because now he can choose where to go now that Nami's Log Pose points to three islands instead of the next one, and moreso because his goal after entering the New World is to defeat all of the Emperors, while in "Paradise" it was to cross it. Thus, his interactions involve alliance proposals or enemy faction encounter instead of the usual making-friend ones.
• All for Nothing: Impel Down and Marineford make up an entire All For Nothing arc. Luffy breaks into Impel Down to rescue his brother Ace upon learning he had been captured and sentenced to death. He fights his way down to the bottom level, surviving only due to luck and Heroic Willpower, only to find that Ace has already been removed for execution. Luffy then starts a Prison Riot to escape, letting hundreds of the world's worst convicts out in the process, and travels to the giant Pirates vs. Marines battle taking forth. Fighting past thousands of soldiers, including the Marines' top fighters, the Admirals, Luffy manages to free Ace from his Power Limiter handcuffs, and they begin to leave. Until Ace turns around in response to one of the Admiral's taunts, gets into a fight, loses, and dies to protect Luffy. If Luffy's reaction of going into a Heroic BSoD isn't sad enough, the realization that the past 51 chapters have been all for naught makes it so much worse.
• All-Loving Hero: Downplayed. Luffy will only go to the ends of the earth to help the people he "likes"; or, in other words, people who catch his attention for some reason or another (usually just being nice to him, especially by giving him food). Being The Hero, it just so happens that he "likes" most of the people he encounters (generally, anybody that's not trying to kill him and quite a few that have). But if you're someone he doesn't like, then your best bet is to run in the other direction as fast as possible. Specifically, Luffy only seems interested in helping those who are willing to help themselves. People who sit on the sidelines and hope for things to get better don't interest him, but those who will put themselves in danger to fight for their beliefs earn his respect. He even patently refuses to help Momonosuke save the Land of Wano until Momo shows a will to fight, caring more about the willingness to act than being begged for help. Still, he does not like people who hurt his friends, and given he often makes friends quickly, there's a good chance that any bad guy Luffy crosses paths with is about to get his ass whooped.
• Almighty Janitor:
  • Before the Enies Lobby arc, he defeats people who should ostensibly be way stronger than him on paper — yet he would never publicly get credit for it, partially because the World Government has hidden some of his achievements and given to someone else, like Crocodile's defeat. By the midpoint of the series however, this begin to be generally Subverted as he come to be famed across the world for his heritage and exploits as a pirate captain. Still played somewhat straight as he advances in his captaining career though; in particular, although Supernovas are still thought to be far too inexperienced to challenge an Emperor's crew and have any hope of success, Luffy has proven himself powerful enough to defeat an Emperor's top fighter (albeit it with considerable effort).
  • This is fully subverted after the Whole Cake Island arc. Luffy is now considered the "fifth" Emperor for "defeating" Big Mom, recruiting the Germa 66, Capone, and the Sun Pirates to his crew, and orchestrating a failed assassination attempt on Big Mom's life. All of which is technically true.
  • After liberating the Land of Wano, Luffy is officially labeled as one of the Four Emperors.
• Always Save the Girl:
  • He puts his friends before everything else. Indeed, prior to the Time Skip, Luffy's bounty often rises whenever there is a crisis involving the crew's women. He gains his initial bounty when he beats Arlong and liberates Nami from his control, it rises when he defeats Crocodile and helps save Vivi's country, and has another rise after his rescue of Robin at Enies Lobby. Downplayed in his third rise — the crew's encounter with Camie the mermaid is, indirectly, what causes the Straw Hats to scatter around the world and for Luffy to get the news about Ace's execution, but Luffy's motivation after that isn't for Camie. Instead, his actions over the course of that one week are to save Ace, and while the rescue isn't successful, Luffy ends up with another bounty increase – something remarkable, as three hundred million is largely considered the cap for a rookie pirate like Luffy. Played with in his fourth rise, a result of beating Doflamingo, with his primary motivation is to avenge his friends (namely Rebecca) who had suffered because of the Warlord, although the original plan was just to destroy the SMILE factory and let Kaido's rage do the rest.
  • It's also how he become the "Fifth Emperor" — Luffy and co. entered Big Mom's territory to get Sanji back. However, the mission was supposed to be undercover and undetected but they end up getting caught, and a series of incidents and other circumstances (like Sanji's wedding being a sham to assassinate him and his biological family) caused it to escalate to an assassination attempt on Big Mom and then a full-scale conflict that engulfs the entire archipelago. The crew was so focused on getting Sanji and escaping Totto Land alive that none of them realized the actual magnitude of their actions and what it would mean to the rest of the world.
• Always Someone Better: The Eleven Supernovas of the Worst Generation are a group of infamous pirates who are considered to be the biggest heavy-hitters of the future generation. However, despite being the last member of the group to enter the New World, within a few months, Luffy manages to outdo several of the already-impressive feats they accomplished over the two years he was training. While many are initially impressed, Kid and Law start showing a slight amount of resentment after Jimbei, a former Warlord, joins Luffy's crew as his helmsman.
  • Eustass Kid expresses frustration over how Luffy takes a giant step ahead of all the other Supernovas by being the only one brave enough to enter the Paramount War, which raises his reputation across the entire world.
  • Trafalgar Law becomes a Warlord of the Sea and manages to give Donquixote Doflamingo a decent fight, even liquefying Doflamingo's organs at one point; Luffy activates Gear Four and completely dominates his fight with Doflamingo, and the latter only manages to last longer than a few minutes because Luffy briefly runs out of energy due to overextending his Haki.
  • Urouge defeated Snack, the weakest of Big Mom's Sweet Generals before being driven out of Totto Land by his older brother Cracker, another commander. Luffy not only beats Cracker (albeit with Nami's help), he beats Katakuri, her single strongest subordinate, on his own and manages to win his respect. And both of these happen within a couple of days of each other to boot.
  • Capone Bege bends the knee to Big Mom with the intention of eventually assassinating her, and nearly succeeds with Luffy's help. Luffy and his crew lead a crazed, hunger-driven Big Mom all across Totto Land, causing her to destroy a significant portion of her kingdom and allowing their allies to defeat thousands of her subordinates, indelibly weakening her position while boosting their own to the point that their crew is now considered on the same level as hers. Their actions outshine Bege's so much that Morgans attributes his assassination plot to Luffy in order to sensationalize the incident further, much to Bege's anger.
  • 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, 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, like Roger) fight each other, that truly confirms Luffy is on their level. This is later zig-zagged after Law and Kid defeat Big Mom, becoming the first members of their generation to defeat an Emperor (albeit, in a two-on-one fight, opposed to Luffy's one-on-one fight with Kaido, and moreover winning by knocking her off the Floating Continent they're fighting on, rather than beating her unconscious like Luffy's attempting with Kaido).
  • This is played straight once again after his victory over Kaido in one-on-one combat. Despite sharing a substantial 3,000,000,000 Berri bounty with Kid and Law for their role in leading the successful raid on Onigashima, Luffy is the only one the World Government officially labels as one of the Four Emperors as a result of the immense level of danger he personally poses to them compared to Kid and Law, particularly as the second coming of Joyboy.
• Angst Coma: There's a large physical component of exhaustion to it too, but Ace's death sends him into white-eye gape-mouth land. It's actually so bad that Luffy doesn't even notice he's lost his prized straw hat, after it falls off him while Jimbei is rushing him to safety. This actually lasts two whole weeks for him, and when he wakes up, he flips out.
• Angrish: After losing Ace and waking up from his Angst Coma, Luffy screams in agony and rage over what has happened to his brother.
• Animal Motifs:
  • Luffy's main motif is the Monkey, as his name says, especially in his energy and mannerisms.
  • As the name says, Gear Four: Snake-Man is built entirely around the striking speed and mobility of a snake.
• Animal Theme Naming: Many of Luffy's attacks developed during or after the time-skip have an animal name paired with the weapons, inspired by the beasts he trained against on Ruskaina.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: During childhood Luffy would always follow Ace and Sabo around everywhere they went and wanted to be just like them since he was the youngest and weakest of them.
• Anti-Hero: 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 things that would bother him, like sharing meat. He immediately agrees to be one after 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 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 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 on good terms with him). He occasionally veers more into The Hero status, like in Wano where he secures a ship full of food just for the starving citizens, but this is mainly because he empathizes with them 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.
• The Apprentice: In an effort to enhance his proficiency in the art of Haki, he willingly engages in rigorous training sessions with a select few Haki masters, who possess a wealth of knowledge and experience in this discipline.
  • Part of his role in the Time Skip is being a student of Silvers Rayleigh. The results of training with Gol D. Roger's number two are quite evident.
  • He also becomes an apprentice under Hyougoro "of the Flower Capital" to learn Ryuo during the Wano Arc.
• Arch-Enemy: During his adventures, Monkey D. Luffy encounters several individuals whobecome his personal enemies, including those among the upper echelons of the world's most powerful forces: The Three Great Powers.
  • Marshall D. Teach, a.k.a. Blackbeard, hands Luffy's brother Ace over to the Marines, leading to his death. Shortly before Ace's death, Luffy learns that Blackbeard, who he knows is responsible for Ace's capture, is the seemingly friendly man in Jaya, encouraging Luffy to pursue his dreams. Blackbeard rubs salt into the wound by saying that if Ace hadn't fought him, Blackbeard would have gone after Luffy instead, provoking Luffy into attacking him until Jimbei reminds him that rescuing Ace is more important. After the Time Skip, Blackbeard further increases Luffy's animosity by making a failed attempt to take Ace's Devil Fruit, and later, by attacking the Revolutionary Army, which is run by Luffy's father, Dragon, and has Luffy's other brother, Sabo, as a member. This is reinforced by the fact that Blackbeard is Luffy's Evil Counterpart and Shadow Archetype, as both of them place a high value on dreams, despite having vastly different morals, and both of them are competing to become King of the Pirates.
  • Crocodile, one of the Seven Warlords, inflicted great suffering upon the homeland of Vivi, Luffy's Honorary True Companion. He also nearly kills Luffy multiple times. Despite being forgiving and even aiding some of his enemies, such as Buggy and Mr. 3, Luffy refuses to forgive Crocodile and wants to keep him locked in Impel Down, only being persuaded to let him out by Ivankov.
  • Rob Lucci, a Cipher Pol agent who frames the Straw Hat Pirates for the attempted murder of Iceburg, takes Nico Robin to Enies Lobby, leading to the incident where Luffy declares war on the World Government. Luffy and Lucci fight each other during the Enies Lobby incident, with Luffy barely emerging victorious. When Luffy and Lucci meet again on Egghead, Lucci fights Luffy, who is now one of the Four Emperors, in defiance of the World Government's orders.
  • Fleet Admiral Sakazuki, previously known as Admiral Akainu, dealt a fatal blow to Ace, leaving Luffy with a permanent X-shaped scar on his torso and crushing his spirit. This is a feat previously only accomplished by Bartholomew Kuma.
  • Donquixote Doflamingo is one of the Seven Warlords. Luffy indirectly conflicts with him multiple times. Luffy defeats Doflamingo's subordinate, Bellamy, and punches a Celestial Dragon, causing Doflamingo to abandon his slave-trading business and leading to the Straw Hats Pirates' disbandment for two years. After the Time Skip, Luffy allies with Doflamingo's vengeful ex-subordinate Law and they capture Caesar Clown, jeopardizing Doflamingo's SMILE production and his alliance with Kaido. During the Dressrosa arc, Doflamingo manipulates Luffy by using the Devil Fruit of Luffy's late brother Ace. By the end of the Dressrosa arc, Luffy despises Doflamingo for the suffering he caused the people of Dressrosa in general and Rebecca, who he befriended, in particular.
  • Charlotte Linlin, a.k.a. Big Mom, comes into conflict with Luffy after he ate candy meant for her. Big Mom later attempts to force Luffy's friend Sanji to marry her daughter with the intention of killing him at the wedding. Luffy travels to Big Mom's territory, Totto Land, where he defeats her Co-Dragons Cracker and Katakuri, helps foil her plan to kill Sanji and his family, and escapes her territory with a copy of her Poneglpyh, humiliating her greatly. A vengeful Big Mom pursues Luffy to Wano with the intention of killing him.
  • Kaido, a notorious pirate emperor whom Luffy is preparing to defeat ever since he allies himself with Law at Punk Hazard. Kaido hates Luffy for destroying his SMILE business, to the point where he refuses to let Big Mom kill Luffy. Luffy, in turn, hates Kaido for the suffering he caused to the Mink Tribe and the people of Wano. During their first physical confrontation, Kaido defeats Luffy and sends him to a Hellhole Prison, hoping to break his spirit and turn him into a minion. Their feud culminates with the Raid on Onigushima, which results in Luffy Awakening his Devil Fruit, defeating Kaido, and taking his place as one of the Four Emperors.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: After mastering Ryuo, Luffy can make his attacks bypass his opponents' defenses to damage them from the inside out. He manages to injure Kaido like this.
• Armor-Piercing Response: Despite being an Idiot Hero, he sometimes gets flashes of lucidity where his straightforward answers just leave the enemy flabbergasted. A good example is this gem against Moria:
  Luffy: No one can crush me...
  Moria: The simple fact that you make such a baseless statement shows how inexperienced you a—
  Luffy: ...because I'm made of rubber.
• Arms and Armor Theme Naming: He names most of his attacks after firearms and other weapons: Axe, Sickle, Scythe, Pistol, Bazooka, Cannon, Rifle, Gatling... all with the prefix "Gum-Gum" — or "Gomu Gomu No" in the original Japanese. Mixes with Animal Theme Naming for Gear Four attacks.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: During his Badass Boast to Arlong, he says he needs his True Companions because they can do things he can't, like using swords, navigating, cooking... and lying.
• Artifact Alias: Rebecca and most of the populace in Dressrosa refer to him as "Lucy" long after they learn his real identity, out of sheer habit. This also conveniently allows Dressrosa to build a statue of him without getting into trouble for befriending a pirate.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Luffy tends to get easily distracted by anything more interesting than whatever subject happens to be discussed at a given time, especially if there is food involved. Even when he initiates the conversation, he will stop caring if the response isn't as interesting as he thought it would be.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Thanks to his Adaptive Ability, Luffy possesses an incredible ability to quickly deduce ways to evade, deflect, or even retaliate against attacks after just one or a few exposures. This talent is demonstrated when he observes the CP9's use of the Shave technique and then develops a faster, more powerful version of the move while in Gear Two. In his fierce battles against formidable foes like Katakuri and Kaido, he gradually gains insight into their exceptional Haki skills. By adopting their techniques and strategies, he manages to narrow the gap between them and level the playing field in his favor
• Awesomeness Is a Force: 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 Rayleigh, Luffy has learned to use it intentionally and, during the war at Onigashima, he figures out how to imbue his body with Conqueror's Haki like Kaido so that he can fight Kaido on even keel.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: For all his fear of him, when it comes down to it, Luffy, to an extent, truly does love his grandfather. When Garp stands in his path to Ace during the Paramount War, Luffy shows extreme reluctance at attacking him, all but begging him to get out of the way since despite technically being enemies and Garp putting Luffy through a horrendous yet Hilariously Abusive Childhood, he doesn't have it in him to wish ill-will toward his own grandpa. It's only when Garp tells him that he has no other choice that Luffy goes through with it.
• Baby Of The Bunch:
  • In his younger days, Luffy earned the affection of Ace and Sabo despite their initial reluctance to befriend him. Ace, in particular, exhibits a protective instinct towards Luffy. Luffy once again takes on the role of the youngest member of the Mugiwara family in the supplemental material "Family Time."
  • At just 19 years old, Luffy holds the title of youngest captain and member of the Four Pirate Emperors of the Sea and the 2nd youngest of the "Eleven Supernovas of the Worst Generation". Although many of the seasoned pirates in the former group initially view him as an inexperienced newcomer, they quickly recognize his potential as a skilled adversary once they witness his abilities. In contrast, most of the latter group, particularly the top two members, consider him a worthy opponent from the moment he stands up against a Celestial Dragon.
• Badass Adorable: In just a few short years he's gone from an unknown with barely a rowboat to his name to one of the most infamous pirates in the world, with one of the highest active bounties. He is also a cute and handsome young man. He gets really adorable in his chibi-form after using Gear Three.
• Badass Boast:
  • Luffy's catchphrase is "I'M GONNA BE KING OF THE PIRATES!!!" This statement is considered utterly shocking by One Piece people, as many mere mortals are scared to challenge the world like this. Furthermore, Luffy makes this boast to anyone, no matter who they might be or how strong they are, including Whitebeard.
  • A double subversion occurs in the Arlong arc. Luffy lists everything he can't do — using swords, navigating, cooking and lying — and says that he relies on his crew to do those tasks. Arlong says that Luffy is pathetic and asks what Luffy can do, at which point Luffy says, "I can beat you."
  • In the Alabasta arc, Luffy says "I am the man who will surpass you [Crocodile]!" to one of The Seven Warlords of the Sea, right after he rebuffs the above statement.
  • In the Thriller Bark arc, he says: "Tell that idiot Moria, that if he lays a hand on my crew, I'll blast this island till there's nothing left!" Important to note that at that point Moria was also a Warlord and had a higher bounty than him.
  • In the Wano arc, upon seeing the ill-equipped 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."
  • Later, in the same arc, Big Mom, who already has a severe grudge against him at this point, taunts him, asking if he's here to beat Kaido. Luffy's answer is that Kaido's not his only target; he's here to beat everyone and declares an all-out war against both Emperors.
  • When facing both Big Mom and Kaido alongside his fellow supernovas, Kid remarks how facing them both at the same time feels like being in hell, to which Luffy has this to say:
    Luffy: That suits me just fine. I've been to hell and back a few times already, that's home territory!
• Badass Family: When your grandfather is "the hero" of the Marines and one of the strongest Marines while your father is the leader of the revolutionaries and the world's most wanted men, you cannot be less than one of the most famous pirates. This extends to his foster brothers too: Ace used to be a division commander in the world's strongest crew and the son of Gold Roger while Sabo is the right hand man of the revolutionaries.
• Badass Longcoat: He wears one in One Piece Film: Strong World to give him the appearance of a true badass pirate captain.
• Badass on Paper:
  • Luffy gains an infamous reputation over the Time-Skip, where people hear various rumors about him (including that he's an eight-meter tall giant) while he's much more cheerful and dumb than the rumors make him appear to be.
  • Another variation happens courtesy of the journalist "Big News" Morgans and his newspaper company. Reading Morgans' news report on Luffy's conflict with Big Mom, you'd think that Luffy is a Chessmaster and Person of Mass Destruction who has orchestrated a full-scale invasion and assassination attempt on Big Mom's territory, beat up her generals, destroyed her country, and left alive. While all of that is technically true, the reality of the situation is that Luffy tried to sneak in and leave undetected, got caught, suffered through some grueling battles, nearly died several times, and just barely escaped from Big Mom in the end. He also has nothing to do with planning the assassination; that was all Bege's idea. Though Luffy and his crew are the only reasons it got as far as it did.
  • Starts leaving the “on paper” part behind during the Wano arc. Thanks to his training with advanced forms of Observation and Armament Haki, and figuring out how to channel Conqueror's Haki like Armament Haki, Luffy is now in the same power bracket as the Emperors, capable of fighting Kaido on even footing.
• Bad Liar: The only way his lies could be more blatant would be if a neon sign appeared on top of his head and flashed "I AM LYING" every time he lied. However, he can act well if he's really serious about it, as demonstrated by his and Law's coordinated sneak attacks on Doflamingo and Trebol in Dressrosa.
• Balloon Belly: It comes with being a Big Eater, as his body becomes round whenever he eats too much, which is justified by his elastic body, although he often digests the food pretty quickly. He can also inflate his belly with air to become a living airbag and deflect attacks. Uses it to even better effect with his Gear Four forms, where his permanent and seemingly comical balloon belly is actually a very important part of the transformations; even the mightiest blows simply bounce off him harmlessly if somebody tries attacking his body, and he can use it to launch his enemies with incredible force.
• Balls of Steel: Rubber, actually. In episode 183 of the anime, there's a brief frame of Luffy receiving a Groin Attack from Enel with his staff, but since Luffy's body is made of rubber, he barely feels any pain. The manga panel is rather ambiguous about whether Luffy actually gets hit in the balls or not.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Luffy is a barehanded brawler and attacks mainly with punches, but because he's a Rubber Man, he has a very long range and can make a great variety of attacks.
• Bearer of Bad News: In the Land of Wano arc, Luffy befriends Tama and discovers that she met Ace four years earlier. Though Tama is still waiting for Ace's return, Luffy point-blank tells her that Ace died in the Paramount War. Predictably, Tama does not take it well at all.
• Benevolent Boss: Luffy is a kind and loving captain to his crew, and doesn't control through fear, but genuinely loves them all. The Straw Hat Grand Fleet is a slightly different story; while he doesn't really seem to mind what the Grand Fleet does, Luffy at least comes around to the idea. This become a Deconstructed in the Post-Enies Lobby arc. When Sanji informs the others that Usopp plans to return to the Straw Hat crew, Luffy, Nami, and Chopper are ecstatic and plan to go get Usopp and have him rejoin, but Zoro stops them. Zoro gruffly points out that it doesn't matter who was right or wrong during Luffy and Usopp's argument; they've both fought for their own belief of what was right, Usopp lost, and then willingly left the crew. Usopp showed disrespect to Luffy for arguing against his ruling on what to do with the Going Merry. And it doesn't matter how much of an Idiot Hero Luffy is; he's still the captain, and what he says goes. If Luffy just welcomes Usopp back without getting so much as an apology, it would be a captain letting a crew member walk over him. Luffy begrudgingly concedes Zoro's point, only allowing Usopp to rejoin the Straw Hats when Usopp admits that he was wrong to disrespect Luffy as his captain.
• The Berserker: Zig-Zagged. Rather than planning for the attack, Luffy tends to rush in full force. Especially when he's angry, Luffy demolishes opponents and becomes very ferocious and brutal. However, the longer he fights them, the craftier he gets and uses any means to exploit their weaknesses.
• Beware the Nice Ones: It's worth noting that while he may come across as a nice and kind-hearted individual, it's best to avoid making him angry. Seriously. If you happen to push any of his berserk buttons, he won't hesitate to declare war on you.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Luffy is immature, dumb and his Devil Fruit power is one of the least threatening on paper, but that doesn't stop him from gradually becoming stronger and defeating pirates who are feared across the world. Oda says that such an ability was chosen to keep some levity even in the most intense fights. With Gear Four Tank-Man, Luffy becomes a living balloon, due to having eaten a lot of biscuits soldiers, and can barely move. Cracker calls this form ridiculous until it deflects his attack and sends him flying to the other end of the island.
• Big Brother Instinct:
  • Inverted. Luffy's the younger brother, but throughout the Marineford arc, he does everything he can to rescue older brother, Ace. This includes breaking in/out of Impel Down, trading years on his lifespan, teaming up with Crocodile, a former enemy, and punching his grandfather.
  • Played straight with Tama. After learning about her life circumstances and connection with Ace, Luffy quickly becomes very protective of her and displays an extremely attitude when she gets hurt.
• Big Brother Worship: Downplayed. While Luffy clearly idolizes his older adopted brother Ace when they are kids, they do also have a bit of a sibling rivalry and Luffy is not blind to Ace's faults. Nonetheless, it can be argued that Ace is the most important person in Luffy's life, protecting him and practically raising him to be the happy and carefree person he is today. Which is why Luffy is absolutely devastated when Ace dies to protect him. One of the only reasons why Luffy never crosses the Despair Event Horizon after Ace's death is the realization that Ace has died so he could live and would've wanted him to move on with his life. Naturally, Luffy has a similar relationship his other brother Sabo who has since been shown alive despite having been shot down by a Celestial Dragon in his youth.
• Big Damn Heroes: He pulls this trope off several times:
  • During the Marineford arc, he manages to pull this trope off as he and the rest of the Impel Down escapees crash down from the sky, ship and all!
  • During the Fish-Man Island arc, just as Hody is about to take King Neptune's head, Shirahoshi screams for Luffy to help her father. Out comes Luffy at lightning-fast speed, who kicks Hody away to everyone present's shock.
  • During the Dressrosa arc, Luffy is still recovering from using Gear Four as Doflamingo comes dangerously close to making Rebecca cut her aunt down. He recovers and manages to 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 chant his name and count the seconds to his recovery.
• Big Eater: The elastic stomach probably helps. At multiple points, he eats until his entire body is horribly distended. He can then digest it in about five seconds. Notably this is a major advantage when it comes to fighting the Big Mom Pirates as many of their Devil Fruits revolve around food themed abilities. Not only does this let him eat some of their moves, it lets him eat quickly enough to counter Gear Four's time limit weakness and keep fighting in that state far longer than he otherwise could. Despite usually eating mountains of food, he reaches his limit for the first time when fighting Cracker, who has a seemingly unlimited supply of biscuit soldiers. In that fight, Luffy's Balloon Belly is at its largest, he has enough of eating biscuit soldiers and even he is worried that Nami pressures him that he can eat even more.
• Big Good: Monkey D. Luffy's character arc as a dynamic, larger-than-life yet benevolent pirate captain is crucial to his story and place in the One Piece world.
  • He embarks on a dangerous adventure through treacherous waters, particularly the Grand Line, encountering various dark obstacles and organizations like the Marines, the Seven Warlords, and the Four Emperors. Despite facing significant challenges, Luffy's journey is a learning experience, helping him develop his combat and leadership abilities, which only grow stronger as he advances in his quest to become the Pirate King and achieve his unknown dream.
  • One of Luffy's most notable achievements is the unintentional creation of The Straw Hat Grand Fleet. He accomplishes this by uniting pirates to defeat Doflamingo and free Dressrosa from his tyranny. Additionally, Luffy leads significant operations such as the attack on Enies Lobby, where he rescues his crewmate Nico Robin and unknowingly prevents the government from obtaining the ancient weapon Pluton. Luffy's bravery extends to overthrowing Doflamingo, a powerful underworld broker, and leading the Raid on Onigashima, the island stronghold of the Emperor Kaido, to end his and Orochi's tyranny in Wano. These accomplishments solidify Luffy's position as a force to be reckoned with in the pirate community, earning him the respect and admiration of his peers and enemies alike.
  • Luffy's remarkable journey culminates in his ascension to the title of Emperor of the Sea, a recognition given to pirates who not only achieve massive power and influence in the pirate world, but are also deemed the most prominent forerunners towards the position of Pirate King. This achievement makes him a significant figure in the pirate world and elevates him to prominence in the larger political landscape of the One Piece world.
• Blatant Lies: When Franky asks if Luffy's okay with leaving Usopp behind, Luffy nonchalantly says he's fine with it, and he'll probably see Usopp again someday. The fact that he's sweating bullets shows that he's not fine with never seeing Usopp again, even if he knows Zoro's right and Usopp needs to apologize for his insubordination.
• Blood Knight: Though not to the extent of Zoro (who can border on Nominal Hero at times), Luffy loves a good fight – and it doesn't help that it's one of the few things in this world he's good at, to the point of being considered a genius. Though he doesn't like pointless fights with weaklings, as shown with Bellamy.
• Book Dumb: He's not smart when it comes to science and medicine — he once tries to heal a wounded Zoro by pouring booze on his face because "Zoro likes sake, so it'll make him better". However, he's a genius in combat, social skills, and politics, beating "wittier" enemies like Eneru.
• Boring, but Practical: Luffy mainly fights using punches, the most basic kind of fighting style. However, thanks to his strength and his creative use of the Gum-Gum Fruit, Luffy is a very strong fighter, being able to turn a simple punch or kick into a long-ranged attack just by stretching a limb. It's also the strategy he uses to counter Cracker's Devil Fruit Power: since Cracker's "Biscuits Soldiers" are literally made of biscuits, all Luffy needs to do is eat them. It pays off when Cracker, tired of having all his biscuit soldiers eaten, decides to attack, which allows Luffy to counter him.
• Born Lucky: This is justified by having the "Will of D", which means he's destined to change the world. Luffy is also described as having the Devil's Luck, and it's for good reason; 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%. This doesn't just apply to surviving certain death either. Even taking into account his Magnetic Hero qualities Luffy makes some very helpful allies ranging from former members of the incredibly powerful Seven Warlords 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 World's Most Beautiful Woman in love with him (though, funnily enough, his Asexuality means that this goes completely wasted on him).
  Luffy: As long as I'm alive I have infinite chances!!
• Born Winner: Much like his adopted brother, Luffy's heritage means he has a lot of potential. One of One Piece's core themes is how a person's willpower ultimately determines their position in life, even more so than devil fruits or bloodlines. Similar to how Koby is able to improve tremendously after being taken under Garp's wing, Luffy truly starts to become exceptional after Rayleigh's tutelage and guidance.
• Bratty Half-Pint: At the beginning, Luffy is an annoying seven-year-old kid who keeps asking Shanks if he can join his crew and become a pirate. After being kidnapped by Higuma and Shanks sacrificing his arm to save his life, Luffy stops being annoying, although he remains very childish even after he grows up.
• Break the Cutie: Unlike all his crewmembers, who have a traumatic past that defines their personality, Luffy’s breaking moment happened in the present storyline, with Ace's death. Thanks to Jimbei, he manages to recover remembering he still has his friends. Afterwards, he Took a Level in Badass and become even more determined to protect his loved ones.
• Bring It: With the dub version, this is what goes down after the flag is burnt:
  Spandam: YOU'RE ALL GOING TO DIE! YOU MORONS CAN'T CHALLENGE THE ENTIRE WORLD AND EXPECT TO WIN!
  Luffy: OH, YEAH?!? BRING IT OOOOOOOOOON!!!
• Brought Down to Badass: After he is imprisoned Luffy is placed in sea prism chains, which nullifies his Devil Fruit Powers and weakens him. However, he's still shown to retain his great strength, speed, and durability enough to easily overpower an high-ranking warden.
• Brutal Honesty: Luffy is not one to mince words and sometimes can be unintentionally rude:
  • During an argument with Vivi in the Alabasta arc over what course to take next, he harshly but correctly reminds her that people die, and hoping everyone involved in a civil war will survive is naïve.
  • There are definitely more tactful ways to inform Tama that Ace is dead rather than bluntly telling her that. Tengu and Tama herself call him out for this.
• Building Swing: He can uses his rubber arms to swing from structures and climb buildings whenever he needs to. Unlike Robin though, who can also do this, Luffy often swings around recklessly and at high speeds.
• Bullying a Dragon: Comes hand-in-hand with his Leeroy Jenkins trait, he has a habit of picking fights with opponents way above his level. While many of these actually end with him winning, a few go badly for him, like picking a fight with Magellan and Big Mom and her family.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Luffy is an absolute idiot, having No Sense of Direction, constantly eating so much and then falling asleep right afterward, and goes right for danger for no other reason than "FUN FUN FUN!", to the point that those unaware of his fame would never think he's the captain of one of the world's most infamous crews. None of his crew mates deny that he's an idiot and, at the same time, none of his crew mates also deny that he deserves to be their captain, both as a fighter and as a leader.
• Burn Scars, Burning Powers: Luffy gets an X-shaped burn scar on his chest after being hit by Admiral Akainu's magma punch. After the Time Skip, Luffy is able to generate fire when using his Gum-Gum Red Hawk attack.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: A rare heroic example. He repeatedly annoys people (including recurring villains) by forgetting their names, signature moves or even that he's met them at all.
• Butt-Monkey: Luffy is constantly a victim of comical abuse from his crew mates and some close allies due to his stupidity, and he frequently ends up in strange situations that keep him from fighting. Since he's made of rubber, Luffy can endure a lot of hits without being too much hurt.

C — E

• Cannot Keep a Secret: Most notably during the Impel Down arc. He casually tells Ivankov and everybody standing around in earshot that his father is Dragon the Revolutionary. After escaping, he does it again by telling everybody that Ace is Gold Roger's son. Both times he remembers that he wasn't supposed to tell that to anybody else. It's implied that he gets this trait from his grandfather Garp who does the exact same thing after telling the Straw Hats (and Marines) that Luffy's father is Dragon the most wanted man in the world.
• Cast from Calories:
  • Luffy's Gear Two speeds up his metabolism to a ridiculous degree, granting him Super-Speed. As a result, it burns calories very quickly and switches over to Cast from Lifespan if he doesn't have the necessary energy.
  • Luffy's Gear Four form, Tank-Man, works in the same way, only even more powerful and more voracious in its energy consumption. He's only able to safely use it when up against an enemy whose power is creating unlimited amounts of food, with Luffy running around eating that food for 18 hours straight. When he does use it though, he utterly curb-stomps Cracker with a single attack.
• Can Not Tell A Lie: He's an outrageously Bad Liar, to the point that almost everyone sees through his attempts at lying right away (The only one who does fall for most of them is Chopper).
• Challenge Seeker: Luffy is a pirate who loves adventures, so any location that sounds fun, exciting and dangerous will attract his attention more compared to less challenging places. Similarly, pirate crews he's about to fight that sound strong and dangerous are going to peak his interest, such as when Law mentions that Kaidou's crew has over 500 Devil Fruit user, which causes Luffy to go from bored and barely awake to genuinely interested. In the New World, when Luffy encounters powerful enemies that are too much even for him, he still goes to fight them, since he needs to become stronger anyway, causing him to learn during those fights.
• Character Catchphrase:
  • Especially at the beginning of the series, he would often boast: "I'm gonna be King of the Pirates!"
  • He also has the habit of referring to whatever odd or strange aspect of the world that's explained to him as "a mystery X," the explainer will generally let that one slide because well, it's Luffy.
• Character Development:
  • As a child in Chapter 1, Luffy gets mad at Shanks and calls him and his crew cowards and weaklings for not fighting back against Higuma after the mountain bandit disrespected them. He even gets himself into trouble when he attacks Higuma for insulting Shanks. Luffy learns after seeing the Red-Haired Pirates' true strength that it doesn't make Shanks weak or cowardly for not wanting to pick needless fights over mere insults. Years later, Luffy acts as Shanks did by not fighting back against Bellamy in Mock Town.
  • Prior to the timeskip, he's a typical Shonen Hero. Kind as a saint, strong as an ox, dumb as a rock. After the timeskip, however, he is notably leaps and bounds more composed than at the beginning of the story, now preferring to state what he'll be doing and go through with it rather than scream and shout (except when he's really riled up) and, more importantly, he is actually a respectable and capable leader, listening to his crewmates but never letting himself be questioned (save for in comedic moments) as Captain. All in all, he's gone from Shonen Hero, to Shonen... well, pirate captain. And, while he's still definitely Luffy as before, Marineford and Rayleigh have beaten some serious growth into him. As if to enforce this, when Big Mom's ship arrives to capture Caesar, Luffy immediately inquires whether or not Big Mom is on the ship in order to make his next decision of whether or not allowing the Straw Hats at sea to fight.
• Character Tics:
  • Luffy has a tendency to suck his lips in and turn his head to the side when an attack or technique fails to affect him, like Eneru's various electrical attacks or Boa Hancock's Love-Love Fruit.
  • After defeating an enemy, Luffy will smile about his victory.
  • When extremely happy about something, Luffy will hold both his hands up, both in a fist, and smile.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: From childhood, Luffy was trained by his grandfather, the Marine rival of Gol D. Roger. By the time he starts his journey, Luffy is strong enough to destroy steel with his bare hands, knock out large sea monsters, and push apart two buildings he was stuck between. By Luffy's own admission, his strength is purely the result of training and not the effect of his devil fruit.
• Chaste Hero: Though he knows what a romantic relationship is, he just isn't interested (or, at the very least, it's extremely low on his priority list). In SBS 88, Oda said that Luffy can tell whether or not a female face is pretty, but it's just a classification for him.
  • This becomes a plot point when he ends up on the island of the Kuja. Snake Empress Boa Hancock is the World's Most Beautiful Woman, 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, it does absolutely nothing.
  • During Whole Cake Island, despite not being interested in a relationship himself, Luffy shows a surprisingly firm view on why people should get married, and is very against people getting married for any other reason than truly loving each other. He thus voices his complete disgust of Big Mom's modus operandi of forcing marriages on others for her own personal gain.
• Chick Magnet: He's one of the only characters in the series to actively have women falling for him. His reactions range from being suitably creeped-out, complete obliviousness, or platonically appreciative. Alvida (post-Gonk phase) only has eyes for him and almost the entirety of Amazon Lily are head over heels for him, especially Boa Hancock who acts like a lovestruck, teenage girl when around him. Now, he's got the Minkwoman Wanda repeatedly licking his face while commenting that "hairless bodies are quite beautiful". He's not amused.
• Child-Like Voice: Luffy is in his late teens, but it isn't easy to tell just listening to him speak. Most language dubs, including Japanese and all of the handful of the English ones, make him sound like an energetic kid.
• The Chosen One: As a bearer of the Will of D., Luffy is destined to shape the world by the force of his will. However, there are many hints and comments, especially in the latter part of the story, that imply he's meant to play an even more important role in the world than what was originally alluded to, and that said role has been foretold for a very long time. Oden's last words say that he's meant be the person Roger was waiting for, Bartholomew Kuma is convinced he's destined to be a hero that is going to save and change the world after witnessing his willingness to publicly defy the Celestial Dragons, and his Devil Fruit turns out to be that of the Sun God Nika, which chose Luffy to be its user. In doing so Luffy has become a new incarnation of Joy Boy, a mythical figure who is strongly implied to still have work to do in the world.
  Kuma: Something in his actions shakes the very core of my being. Nika is only a legend. But I instilled into Bonney the stories of a warrior who rides the rhythm of liberation and brings smiles to all!! If there is a hero will bring a great transformation to this sea...I think it must be him.
• Clark Kent Outfit: Before the Timeskip, the seemingly scrawny Luffy typically wears a closed vest that hides his surprisingly well built physique. Furthermore, like Zoro, his arm muscles are shown to grow much larger than you'd think when he flexes. After the timeskip, his vest is open, but he still appears scrawny. Post timeskip, this is somewhat downplayed, because he's now downright buff, having gained a notable physique through his training with Rayleigh. He's also become adorned with a massive red "X" scar across his chest from Akainu's lava punch just barely grazing his skin.
• Clothing Reflects Personality: Luffy's outfit consists of very simple clothes that leave most of his limbs free: his iconic straw hat, a sleeveless vest (later traded for a loose shirt), a pair of shorts and sandals. This is in part out of practicality, to let him stretch without problems, and in part to hint at his simple personality and his desire to be free.
• Cloudcuckoolander: When he tries to be at his sharpest outside of battle, he acts like a quirky airhead. He's also interested in weird individuals like Brook, a living skeleton, and gets easily impressed by the silliest things.
• Combat Clairvoyance: After the timeskip, Luffy has mastered Observation Haki, a power that allows one to anticipate an opponent's next move. He has learned it to such an extent that he can sense where his enemies are. During his fight with Katakuri, he masters it to the extent he can foresees some minor events. During the Wano Arc which he can even help others dodge incoming attacks verbally.
• Combat Pragmatist: Luffy is not averse to hitting below the belt or taking Human Shields when necessary... or if it's amusing. A notable subversion is his fight with Admiral Fujitora. Luffy absolutely refuses to take advantage of the man's blindness. He doesn't pull his punches, but he does shout out his attacks and where he's aiming to give Fujitora a chance to react. The Admiral is not amused to learn of this and is deeply offended.
• Combination Attack: During the events of Little Garden and Impel Down, he utilizes Galdino's wax power to strengthen his attacks and protect himself from Magellan's poison in their second fight.
• Coming of Age Story: Luffy's journey is to become the King of the Pirates and leaving his adoptive family behind and during the journey he learns how to become a proper pirate captain.
• Compelling Voice: This trope is a manifestation of his awesomeness. It used to be involuntary and limited to really desperate shouting. He doesn't need to actually speak to use it anymore.
• Confusion Fu:
  • Against Eneru, who can read minds, Luffy ricochets his moves off a wall through a situational technique he calls "Gum Gum: Octopus Fireworks", making it impossible for anyone, including himself, to predict their path.
  • Against Katakuri, whose Observation Haki is advanced enough to see slightly into the future, Luffy uses Gear 4th's Snakeman. Calling it "Gum Gum: Black Mamba", Luffy attacks Katakuri from all sides with blindingly fast punches that ricochet off the air itself, making those attacks impossible to predict and difficult for even Katakuri to dodge.
• Contagious Heroism: Luffy is hardly a hero (and doesn't want to be one), but he has a massive problem with powerful people abusing their power and often demonstrates it with his fists. Thanks to his charismatic and caring nature, this attitude quickly takes hold on most of his crew mates, even on the stoic and previously uncaring swordsman Zoro and the emotionally reserved Robin, who betrayed every other organization she was a part of before she met Luffy.
• Crippling Overspecialisation: He's very useless at anything but having fun, eating, sleeping, being happy and amiable, and beating people up. He gathers his crew around him over the course of his adventure because he knows he can't go on without their help. He even acknowledges this during the Arlong arc when Arlong sneers down at him for keeping friends. He retaliates by picking up a pair of swords and waving them wildly in Arlong's face, to no avail. Arlong sneers at him some more, for now trying something he knew he couldn't pull off, and Luffy comes out with this Tearjerker of a line, while the camera pans over each crew member that fulfills each job:
  I know! Of course I can't use swords, you idiot! I can't navigate! I can't cook! I can't even tell lies! This is why I need my friends if I want to survive!
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He's often both a badass and a moron at the same time. He actually tries to weaponize his idiot nature in the Eneru fight, in order to defeat his mind-reading. It works, but he also becomes too stupid to remember to attack.
• Cruel Mercy: According to Oda, the reason Luffy doesn't kill his enemies (with the exception of the non-canon Big Bad from the sixth movie) is because Luffy feels that letting them live with their dreams destroyed is a worse punishment than killing them.
• Cuddle Bug: 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 won't return romantic love.
• Cursed with Awesome: Like all Devil Fruit users, he's gained incredible powers at the simple cost of never being able to swim and being branded a freak forever. Since he could hardly swim in the first place and thinks Freaky Is Cool, neither of these really bother him. And unlike other Devil Fruit users, this does not scare him away from water sports. Considering how powerful he has become thanks to the Gum-Gum Fruit, eating it was definitely worth the price.
• Curtains Match the Windows: Luffy has black hair and black eyes.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: All his Gears carry significant drawbacks; Gear Two is Cast from Hit Points and Gear Three had the side effect of making him shrink and lose speed and mobility. After two years of training, he's overcome those weaknesses. Gear Four has the biggest drawbacks yet, it's a Death or Glory Attack. 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 Super Mode/Limit Break.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Luffy was abandoned by his parents and abused by his grandfather from his life-endangering navy Training from Hell (though the latter was Played for Laughs) but was given a somewhat relatively stable upbringing with the mountain bandits of Goa and his adoptive brother, Ace. Still, he suffered a traumatic experience after eating his Devil Fruit where his idol, Shanks, lost an arm saving him from a Sea King. He and Ace then suffered an arguably even more traumatic experience during the fire that burned Grey Terminal, which eventually ended with the death of their other best friend and sworn brother, Sabo. Sabo turns out to have survived, but that's a moot point considering he doesn't find out until years later, long after the traumatic experience of losing Ace.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Following the timeskip onward, black becomes a color heavily-involved in Luffy's designed as red is, not only employed in his regularly-utilized Armament Haki, but also in the form of the jet-black shockwaves that ensue whenever his Conquerer's Haki clashes with another, and while not another instance of black being used, Luffy's eyes turn red whenever employing Observation Haki, contributing to the menacing imagery. Despite this, Luffy is still a very straightforward, optimistic and downright friendly pirate.
• David vs. Goliath: Luffy has the body of an average teen, and the majority of the main fights of the series have him fighting an enemy visibly larger and more imposing to visually show them as more powerful, both literally and metaphorically. In most of the cases, Luffy has to face them multiple times before he wins:
  • Crocodile is a full meter taller than Luffy and with his Coat Cape he appears much larger too. Notably, Crocodile is the first Warlord Luffy faces, and his defeat at Luffy's hands brings about a small yet impactful change in the status quo and a new bounty for Straw Hat, since he's gathered more attention from the World Government.
  • Zigzagged with Lucci. Normally, he's just a head taller than Luffy, but in his half-leopard form he towers over him and is much more muscular. Lucci also gives Luffy a very tough fight that forces him to give everything he has to win.
  • At nearly seven meters tall, Moria is one of the tallest humans in the series, and this gets turned up a notch after he absorbs all of the shadows of Thriller Bark and grows gigantic. However, his fight is notably less tough than most examples, and in his Shadow Asgard form he actually becomes easier to defeat by having him expel all of the shadows.
  • Magellan is a huge demonic-looking warden who possesses the tremendously powerful Doku-Doku Fruit^note Venom-Venom Fruit, for those not fluent in Japanese, giving him the power to generate poison. He's notable for being one of the very few antagonists to not be defeated by Luffy. The first time Magellan easily beats him, while the second time Luffy is forced to retreat and escape.
  • Deconstructed with Hody Jones. He becomes bigger and much more menace-looking by eating energy steroids (literally cheating). However, despite his efforts, Hody remains much weaker than Luffy, who beats him with little difficulty. Shortly after, as a side effect of taking too many energy steroids, Hody becomes a weak old man.
  • Don Chinjao is a tall, imposing old man and a former legend of the New World. He also represents Luffy's first true challenge from the New World, as he himself notes, saying Luffy will have to fight much stronger enemies from now on.
  • Donquixote Doflamingo is nearly twice as tall as Luffy and, thanks to his knowledge and connections, he holds more power than nearly anyone. His fight with Luffy is long and forces him to use Gear Four for the first time. In that form, however, Luffy's size is roughly equal to Doflamingo's.
  • Katakuri is five meters tall and is the closest to an Emperor-level combatant Luffy faces at that point. Even in his Gear Four, Luffy is still smaller than him and his fight against Katakuri lasts multiple hours, with Katakuri dominating the majority of it until Luffy makes the fight more balanced with his new Gear Four form: Snake-Man.
  • The battle with Kaido is the first time Luffy faces an Emperor and he is multiple times taller and wider than him, especially in his dragon form. After Luffy lands multiple hits on Kaido (since the latter is drunk), Kaido one shots Luffy with a single blow. In their second confrontation, despite Kaido using his even larger hybrid form, Luffy manages to hurt the Emperor.
• Death Glare: Luffy is usually friendly but, when someone pisses him off, usually by hurting his friends, Luffy stares down at him with an angered glare, often follows a beat up. A particular example is right before he defeats Lucci with his Jet Gatling. Notably, he does one to Jimbei while he's having a freakout at Amazon Lily after realizing his brother Ace was killed and he's too weak for the New World. After the Time-Skip, Luffy learns to use Conqueror's Haki and whenever he uses it, it's often accompanied by a deadly glare.
• Death or Glory Attack: While Luffy will take a safe win where he can get it, he's often forced to leave himself open during direct clashes against particularly powerful opponents to wind up his own devastating finishing moves, such as how preparing his Gum Gum Axe to demolish Arlong's HQ and defeat him allows the Fishman to land a monstrous bite on his torso.
• Declaration of Protection: At the end of the Fish-Man Island arc, he declares the titular island under his protection to protect them from the wrath of Big Mom. Big Mom had taken up protecting the island after Whitebeard's death in return for a monthly tribute of candy; Hody and the New Fish-Man Pirates, however, destroyed the candy factories during their attempted coup, leaving Fish-Man Island unable to fulfill their quota that month (in part due to serving some of what candy they had already made to the Straw Hats during the victory banquet). Upon learning from Big Mom's emissaries that she wouldn't care about the circumstances and would raze the country in return, Luffy claims that it was him that ate all the candy so she would focus her wrath on him instead.
• Deconstructive Parody: The gag comic "Mugiwara Theatre: Red-Hair of Class 3 - Sea Time" shows what his Hot-Blooded nature and desire to be the Pirate King would look like in a mundane setting — he becomes a student who is so deadset on getting into a good college that he obsesses over his academic studies. If anyone interferes with his studying, he would get extremely violent, putting him on par with the other Straw Hat delinquents. He does reform thanks to Red-Hair Sensei... by learning from him how to be a splendid scurvy pirate.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: Some of his opponents are enemies considered out of his league or that have proven to be almost invincible, but he still manages to win against them. However, it should be noted that he never defeats them on his first try.
  • The first example is Crocodile, one of the seven Warlords of the sea with a long experience as a pirate, and whose defeat at the hands of a rookie is considered impossible. Yet Luffy manages to beat him, but only after losing to him twice.
  • Eneru is probably the best example, as he spend most of the Skypiea arc proving how invincible he is by stomping every fighter he faces and surviving any attack (most of the time thanks to his Devil Fruit's intangibility). The only reason Luffy defeats him is because he's the only one able to hit him and is completely immune to his electric attacks. Even then, Eneru manages to have the upper hand most of the time.
  • Averted with Magellan. He defeats Luffy the first time they fight. During their second round, all Luffy can do is buy time to escape, and never defeats him. Not much later, during the Paramount War, Luffy finds himself unable to defeat any of the strongest fighters; this becomes a plot point: A big part of the character development of Luffy comes from the realization that it's impossible for him to beat the most powerful Marines and pirates of the New World. Cue 2 years training with the Pirate King's first mate. Following that, Luffy resumes the trend, starting with bringing down Donquixote Doflamingo, a pirate who's been controlling the underworld.
  • Charlotte Katakuri in particular is a notable case, as he's straight-up confirmed to be undefeated until Luffy beat him. Katakuri is considered so strong that his family refuses to even consider the remotest possibility that he lost, and when learning the truth after Luffy escapes the Mirror World, they either outright deny it or accuse Luffy of having used a dirty trick to win.
  • Luffy tops all of his previous feats by defeating Kaido of the Beasts, who's not only one of the Four Emperors, but is said to be the strongest creature in the world.
• Delayed Reaction: He's not the brightest bulb, so sometimes he's slow to react. It's used a lot of times for comedic effect.
• Despair Event Horizon: Ace's death drives him to despair, to the point of being the only time, after a career of being a Determinator, where he's about to give up. Fortunately, Jimbei helps him snap out of it reminding Luffy he still has his friends.
• Determinator: Although he is the main character and expected to win, Luffy faces many challenges and has to rely on his resilience to keep going. Luffy powers through injuries that should have killed him several times over, often without outside assistance. In no particular order, he gets dehydrated to a desiccated husk, skewered, cut, drowned, blown up, bitten (a super strong shark bite, beaten to a bloody pulp, stabbed, crushed, covered in arrows (in one of the movies), frozen, burnt, shot by lasers, and poisoned to the point of melting, yet endures through all of it.
  Zeff: "I've seen one or two like him before. Stubborn brats who'd rather die then turn their back on a fight once it starts...I'm glad he's on OUR side because people like that are hell to fight."
• Deus Exit Machina: He's the strongest of the crew along with Zoro and Sanji, and the most likely to get lost, trapped or otherwise unable to initially participate in battle until the most powerful enemy remains.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Yes. Luffy is prone to this, as he's not afraid to attack any kind of authority.
  • At Enies Lobby, when Spandam is gloating about how the World Government is unstoppable, he orders Sniper King (Usopp, but he doesn't realize it) to burn their flag, effectively declaring war on the WG and all 170+ of its member nations.
  • After learning that Big Mom of the Four Emperors is going to destroy Fish-Man Island because they are unable to give her her monthly 10-ton delivery of candy (due to Hody destroying the candy factory and the Straw Hats eating the rest), Luffy does what no other pirate would dare do –- he takes the Transponder Snail (i.e. a phone in the One Piece world) from Big Mom's subordinate and tells her he himself ate all 10 tons of her candy and that it's too dangerous to leave her in charge of the island, so when he gets to the New World he's going to kick her ass and claim Fish-Man Island as his OWN territory; Big Mom declares war on the Straw Hat Pirates.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: In his second bout with Kaido, Luffy hits him with a Gear Three punch that, thanks to his newfound mastery of Ryuo, not only knocks him down but causes him to bleed. Kaido and Big Mom are dumbfounded that he could actually manage to injure one of them.
• The Ditz: As if all the moments of stupidity in the story aren't enough proof of it, in one of the data books, his intelligence score is a whopping 1/5.
• Dodge the Bullet: Despite being Immune to Bullets, he has extremely sharp reflexes and can also dodge bullets with ease, even light beams.
• Dope Slap: He is the victim of this a lot due to his stupidity, especially from Nami.
• Dragon Rider: He rides Momonosuke, now a fully grown dragon, in order to catch up with a floating Onigashima, and battle against Kaido.
• The Dreaded: Due to his actions during the Paramount War, along with his actions while with his crew (like Enies Lobby and Sabaody), Luffy's become so infamous that anyone who isn't as strong as one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea instantly fears him. For instance, at Corrida Colosseum, while incognito, he accidentally gives his real name and everyone immediately freaks out. They only stop once they see the sign on his back that says "Lucy", and start remembering rumors about him being an eight-meter tall giant. As of the Reverie arc, he is one of the most feared pirates in the world, now considered on par with the Four Emperors and has the one of the highest bounties of the world. Eventually, the Five Elders put a hit on Luffy during his battle with Kaido, because they would rather go to war with Kaido then deal with the possibility of Luffy Awakening his devil fruit. Once he becomes an Emperor proper, he is so feared that the World Government decides to stop messing with him without extreme preparations beforehand, to the point that Sakazuki goes to great pains to avoid provoking him, openly dissuading a bloodthirsty Lucci from trying to fight Luffy. Even the likes of Dracule Mihawk shows reluctance of engaging Luffy, especially when it involves mixing it up with Shanks and Blackbeard as well, which is why Mihawk originally intended to go with Crocodile's plan of creating a new nation instead of going after the One Piece. Notably, of everyone on Egghead, Luffy (or rather, Nika) is the only person that Saint Saturn actually views as a threat, to the point of instantly trying to kill him the moment he arrives and doing all he can to ensure Luffy doesn't regain his strength.
• Dumbass Has a Point: While Luffy is normally the epitome of the Idiot Hero, he does make valid points throughout the series, usually when there are some conflicts.
  • In the Captain Kuro arc, Kuro states he quit being a pirate because he found it a painful annoyance that being a successful pirate means the Marines will always come after him. Luffy points out that Kuro should've taken that fact into consideration before he chose to become a pirate in the first place.
  • In the Baratie arc, when Don Krieg boasts that his crew is the strongest in the East Blue, Luffy points out that they're only considered the strongest because they have the most members which means that they are not truly strong at all, a point that was already proven by Dracule Mihawk who had already sunk 49 out of their 50 ships on his own.
  • Luffy's refusal to follow Vivi to Koza's main base in the Alabasta arc is valid somewhat as he points out that Koza and his fellow rebels would never believe her since this is coming from Luffy and his crew who are pirates and they should pursue Crocodile at Rainbase. He also mentions people will die regardless of Vivi's intentions, a surprisingly realistic observation for him that the other crew members agree with.
  • After dropping down from Skypiea, Luffy suggests the crew get a shipwright to fix the Going Merry (despite him suggesting a musician after the crew is surprised by his words).
  • In Water 7, upon learning the Going Merry is on her last legs, Luffy make the tough call to seek out a new ship. And during his argument with Usopp, Luffy make three valid points. First, Luffy points out that Usopp isn't a shipwright and doesn't really know the Going Merry's condition, unlike a trained shipwright. Secondly, Luffy mentions that he is the captain and his orders are to be followed. Thirdly, when Usopp challenges Luffy to a one-on-one fight for ownership of the Merry, Luffy choses to go through with it; when Nami asks why he isn't trying to stop it, Luffy knows Usopp is dead serious, and wouldn't be convinced any other way, and that if talking would actually make the situation better, it wouldn't have gotten to this point anyway. Despite her misgivings, she doesn't argue with him anymore.
  • At Zou, when asked by Kin'emon to lend the samurai the strength of his crew in order to defeat Kaido, Luffy refuses. His comrades (mainly Usopp) are pissed at his reaction but he turns to Momonosuke, pointing out the fact that he is supposed to be the leader of the samurais, and if anyone should be asking for an alliance with the Straw Hats, it should be him, accusing the young boy of being weak for just standing there and crying. While Nami berates Luffy for being this tough toward a eight-year-old boy, Momonosuke does admit that Luffy's right, and claims his will to see Kaido eat the dust, which prompts Luffy to smile and accept the alliance proposal. Kin'emon then admits that, while his way of putting it is tactless, Luffy was actually the only one to consider Momonosuke's position and to treat him as an adult.
  • While infiltrating Big Mom's home island, Nami freaks out when a giant crocodile in human clothes speaks to them and walks away. Luffy points out they have seen weird things like that before, pointing to their present company Chopper, a human-reindeer and Carrot, a literal bunny-girl. Chopper is a reindeer who ate the Human Human Fruit while Carrot is a Mink, but he's right that talking animals aren't all that strange.
  • Luffy is chastised for callously telling Tama about Ace's death, but he does make a good point in why he did — Tama has been waiting for Ace in an unhealthy environment when he's obviously not coming back, so informing her about Ace is not nice but necessary.
• Dumb Is Good: Luffy is simple-minded, impulsive, and overall not smart but, while he doesn't want to be a hero, he is a very good and mostly pure man. He will go out of his way to help people if they've been kind to him, and recognizes when he is in a situation he needs help in.
• Dumb Muscle: There is a reason that his head has a bounty of 1.5 billion beri; he's so powerful that almost everyone fears him, even experienced pirates who are grown men. Despite this, he's dumb as rocks, and incredibly naïve.
• Dynamic Entry:
  • How does he get to Marineford? Well, it overlaps with Big Damn Heroes, 'cause he drops a ship out of the sky! (It isn't intentional, but that doesn't make it any less awesome)
  • Done again in the Fish-Man Island arc when he leaps out of a shark's mouth and kicks Hody Jones just as he's about to assassinate the king.
• Easily Impressed: Despite living in a world where eating fruit can give magic powers and sea monsters bigger than the Titanic are aplenty, Luffy often gets wowed by the silliest things. Like Franky's goofy gadgets.
• Elemental Punch: Luffy is able to combine his punches with fire and lightning. For the first, he combines the heat from Gear Two with Haki on his arms, and the second is when he electrocutes them in the same way.
• Emancipated Child: Downplayed and Implied: More like an emancipated grandchild anyway, thanks to his grandfather subjecting him to a Hilariously Abusive Childhood from his unorthodox parenting style and near-death marine training, Luffy was all too happy to become a pirate to obtain freedom and get away from him to live his own life how he chooses. That said, he loves his grandpa and still considers him as such, but years of Garp endangering Luffy's life to become a marine have made him more afraid of Garp than anything, and according to Luffy's crew, he has never talked about his family before the two meet again in water seven. Granted, part of it was because he knew nothing about his dad prior, but it still stands regarding his relationship with Garp and Luffy's refusal to discuss him.
• Enemy Mine: 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 three end up quarrelling while fighting the Emperors.
• Enhanced Punch: Luffy's main attacks are punches, which are given additional range and force by his Rubber Man powers and, using Gear Three, he can blow his limbs up to gigantic size for even more force. After the time-skip, he can imbue them with Armament Haki, making them even stronger and able to hit Logias. This is taken to a whole other level with Gear Four.
• Establishing Character Moment: In his introduction, Luffy stabs his own face at just seven-years-old in order to prove his manliness, showing off his determination to become a pirate (plus his fearlessness and stupidity), and the end of the first chapter shows a grown up Luffy who starts his adventure by punching out a giant monster, yelling out his ambition in triumph, and then laughing it off when he gets sucked into a whirlpool a few minutes later. It shows that he's become less bratty but remained joyful and full of adventure spirit.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones:
  • Luffy is generally friendly to most people (unless they piss him off). The Celestial Dragons, however, are so vicious that they're the only group he states to unequivocally hate with a passion.
  • The first time Luffy meets Blackbeard, he develops an immediate dislike toward him, despite the fact that Blackbeard hadn't actually done anything to him yet beyond arguing over food and drink. It is implied that Luffy instinctually knew what kind of person Blackbeard really was the moment they met and was reacting to that accordingly.
  • He despises Crocodile for terrorizing Alabasta and making Vivi cry and only allies with him in the Impel Down arc because he needed Crocodile's powers to escape.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Luffy gets called "Straw Hat" by everyone not close to him, with rare exceptions.
• Everyone Has Standards: Usually encouraging or at least respectful of the dreams of others, he draws the line when those same ambitions consistently cause innocent people to suffer.
  "Don't talk to me about your dreams! Your dreams made the people of this country starve!!"
• Excellent Judge of Character: Luffy displays an appropriate distrust for Blackbeard when he first meets him. Despite their meeting ending with Blackbeard praising Luffy's actions and declaring that pirates' dreams never end (essentially exposing the entire series' main theme), Luffy glares at him coldly throughout and does not return that friendliness. Conversely, despite Law being more standoffish and pragmatic about their teamup, to the point that when Robin warns him about pirate alliances ending badly, Luffy is confident Law is a good guy, and is proven right. Generally, Luffy instantly dislikes total bastards even they hide it well. Only one character succeeds in fooling Luffy: Kurozumi Kanjuro, who only achieves this feat because of his unusual mindset, lack of familiarity with Luffy, and the fact that the Scabbards unintentionally support him in his deception.
• Experienced Protagonist: Downplayed, but even before his intense two-year training, Luffy was already a skilled fighter from the start of the series — having trained for 10 years in anticipation of becoming a pirate.
• Explosive Punch: Luffy's Gomu Gomu no Red Hawk is a technique where he uses Armament Haki as a method of igniting his fist, causing a violent explosion on impact with his target.
• Expy: Luffy is inspired by Son Goku from Dragon Ball. Oda said he designed Luffy based on what 'manliness' meant to him as a child and he shares many of Goku's characteristics; like being a Big Eater, Book Dumb, naive about the world, simple-minded, and a Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass when it comes to fighting. Incidentally, Luffy meets Goku in the Dragon Ball x One Piece — Cross Epoch crossover and he even gets to ride on the Flying Nimbus.

F — H

• Failure Hero: He gets hit with this status in the Sabaody, Impel Down, and Marineford story arcs. He is separated from his crew by Bartholomew Kuma, discovers that Ace is to be sentenced to death, is poisoned by Magellan during his rescue attempt on Ace in Impel Down, is forced to leave Bon Clay behind after escaping the prison, gets overpowered by the Marines, witnesses Ace's death at the hands of Akainu, and Jimbei and Law end up rescuing him.
• Family of Choice:
  • Luffy, Ace, and Sabo are not related by blood. They became brothers after sharing cups of sake together as kids, which is all they needed.
  • Its safe to say that he also considers his crew this as well.
• Fatal Flaw: His two main ones are his impulsiveness and fearlessness. As both have led him to take reckless and stupid decisions or attempt to do things out of his reach, and while sometimes these flaws are played for comedy, they can have some grave results. The worst result is when he punches the celestial dragon, which ends up with Kuma scattering his crew across the world in such a way that it looks like they've been outright atomized to him (Kuma was actually helping Luffy and his crew).
• Fearful Symmetry:
  • Oars is a demonic giant that was infused with Luffy's shadow by Gecko Moria's powers. Thus, possessing Luffy's personality and a few vague memories, is given the ability to stretch by Moria and uses some of Luffy's techniques against him. At the time though, Luffy becomes "Nightmare Luffy" and completely overwhelms Oars, until the shadows comes out, then Luffy has to cooperate with all his crew to beat him.
  • Charlotte Katakuri intentionally mimics Luffy's battle style to demonstrate his superiority. As the user of the Mochi-Mochi Fruit, he can stretch and contort his body just like Luffy, but is superior in many ways; Luffy's body only takes on the properties of rubber while Katakuri can actually transform into mochi; Luffy's Gatling only creates the illusion of growing more arms, while Katakuri can actually grow more arms; Luffy's Elephant Gun is limited by how much air he can blow into his hand while Katakuri's Elephant Gun can be any size he wants. As such, Luffy has a hard time against him and wins by developing and becoming stronger during the fight.
• Fearless Fool: More often than not, he never realizes how strong his opponent/problem in front of him would be, and he'd just punch it until it goes down. It works well for him most of the time because of his Determinator traits and having a very good luck. Oda even said so himself:
  Fan: Why is Luffy always so calm?
  Oda: Probably because he's so stupid. Ha!
• Fighting the Lancer:
  • Played for Laughs in his fight with Zoro during the Alabasta Saga. After being treated to drugged food by a bunch of bounty hunters, Zoro the lancer beats the ever-loving crap out of them. Luffy wakes up, and thinks that Zoro just attacked the people who were nice to him and gave him food; a battle ensues.
  • Played for Drama in the Water Seven Arc in his fight with Usopp. With a growing conflict between the two, due to emotional problems Usopp starts developing during the arc, and Luffy's decision regarding their ship (which Usopp is very fond of); the conflict grows into fight between them.
  • Played for Drama, again, in the Totto Land arc. During the mission to retrieve Sanji, when Luffy finds his cook, Sanji pretends that their time together meant nothing to him and starts fighting Luffy in order to get him to leave. Unlike the previous two instances Luffy doesn't fight back against Sanji and lets him wail on him.
• Fight Off the Kryptonite: Two notable occasions: In Alabasta, in Crocodile's Elaborate Underground Base which is flooded, he fights off Bananagators with Zoro and Sanji, as half his body is already underwater. Then in Fish-Man Island, most of his fight with Hody Jones has him at major disadvantage as he does it underwater. It was still ridiculously one-sided even before the fight is taken to a bubble-coated giant ship where he can fight with some air.
• Fire-Forged Friends: He often has this relationship with many of the people he encounters, whether it be with his crew members or one-arc allies. When he meets them, they're often extremely exasperated with his stupidity. By the end of the arc, they are able to see Luffy's more notable qualities.
• Flash Step: When using Gear Two, he becomes even faster than Shave, although he's slow to Kizaru. He has become even faster after the timeskip.
• Foe-Tossing Charge: He often does this whenever enemy forces make the mistake of sending lowly mooks at him when he needs to get somewhere, usually sending hundreds or even thousands of them flying at a time. Notable cases include Enies Lobby, Marineford, and Totto Land, where he's dashing to save his crewmate or his brother.
• Foil: Luffy is a contrast to "Blackbeard" Marshall D. Teach. Both are powerful pirates who aim for same goal but they are the polar opposite to each other in different ways:
  • Luffy is a short and leanly muscular Keet. Teach is a really big, overweight Gonk.
  • His friends are most important to Luffy and he isn't afraid of death. Teach cares only about himself (and maybe his original crew) and is a Dirty Coward when push comes to shove.
  • Their Devil Fruit powers also notably contrast each other. Teach's Dark Dark Fruit is a Logia without the Nigh-Invulnerability that normally comes with this type of DF and its abilities possibly make Teach even more vulnerable to physical damage. Luffy's Rubber Rubber Fruit however gives him resistance to physical (specifically blunt) damage, something rather rare for a Paramecia type. Teach's powers also work mostly by attraction and by manipulating his surroundings or his opponents' bodies, while Luffy's powers work by expansion and by changing his own body.
  • Luffy is a genuinely Nice Guy, a Bad Liar and prefers a Leeroy Jenkins approach (even if someone told him a plan beforehand). Teach is a Jerkass Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, a Manipulative Bastard and mostly plays Xanatos Speed Chess.
  • Luffy detests cherry pies (or at least the cherry pies produced by a certain restaurant on Jaya), Teach loves the same.
  • As Luffy's notoriety grows, his reputation is closely monitored. He swiftly rises in the ranks, causing increasingly significant incidents and earns the title of Emperor by defeating Kaido in a one-on-one fight. In contrast, Teach's ascent to power is more subtle. He kept a low profile for years, avoiding bounties, before finally revealing himself to the world by employing pirate pragmatism to defeat Whitebeard and become an Emperor.
  • Both Luffy and Teach want to become King of the Pirates for the sake of ultimate freedom. But Luffy shows what a "nice" guy with this dream would be like, whereas Teach showcases the darker interpretation of this character type.
• The Fool: He's got a dream that he works towards, but he has no head for the myriad of politics and criminal conspiracies that infest his world, causing him to blunder into and overcome schemes in his earnest and largely innocent quest for adventure.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Definitely the former when compared to Ace as Luffy is the more reckless of the two. The same can be said with Sabo.
• Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: He's usually a nice guy who can befriend and forgive nearly anyone, up to and including former antagonists regardless of morality. However, he draws the line upon seeing Crocodile in Impel Down. He ends up releasing him, at his ally Ivankov's suggestion, but unlike all the other former enemies he meets in the arc, Luffy does not befriend or forgive him for what he's done in Alabasta, despite Crocodile saying that he doesn't care about his old goals anymore.
• Forgot I Couldn't Swim: This happens to a lot of DF users, but it's kind of a Running Gag with Luffy. Probably the most hilarious incident is when Chopper and Brook valiantly leap into the sea to rescue him, completely forgetting that their Devil Fruits make them unable to swim, too.
• Freak Out: He completely freaks out when Kuma scatters his crew, and when Ace is killed. The latter is so bad, that sends him into an Heroic BSoD for a few days and, after recovering, he still freaks out and destroys everything until Jimbei snaps him out of it.
• Friends Are Chosen, Family Aren't: It's a running gag that Luffy hardly even knows about his family, let alone their infamous reputations, while he shows the utmost care for his friends.
• Friend to All Living Things: He's generally nice to every weird creatures that catches his attention, at one point, he's able to befriend a Kraken.
• From Zero to Hero: He once was a loud, ambitious kid from a small village in the East Blue ocean, which is commonly regarded as "unremarkable" compared to the other big seas in the world. He then forms the Straw Hat Pirates with only a small crew (all of whom have their own humble beginnings) that proceeds to make a name for themselves as they venture between islands in search for the titular One Piece. Post Time Skip, the crew is considered one of the most infamous, especially as they have tangled with at least 2 major governmental facilities, and Luffy has a very high bounty.
• Fun Personified: Luffy is perpetually cheerful and happy, sometimes he doesn't even take seriously grave problems or important fights (much to the annoyance of his opponents) and his Gum-Gum powers complete his personality by letting him stretch like a cartoon character. It's revealed that the true nature of his fruit is to bring joy to everyone. The user becomes the living vessel of merriment, joyousness and freedom. Taken even further mechanically, as official design documents state that Luffy becomes stronger in his awakened form the more he's laughing and having a good time.
• Funny Afro: For the final match of the Davy Back Fight against Foxy, Usopp prepares Luffy like a boxing coach, and gives Luffy an afro saying it would help him win. It does.
• Fun Size: The after effect of his Gear Three technique causes him to shrink into a chibi version of himself for the same amount time he inflated his body. He overcomes this weakness after the timeskip and can now use Gear Three without any drawback.
• Gender-Blender Name: Not Luffy, but his disguise when entering the Corrida Colosseum in Dressrosa is an old man named Lucy.
• Generation Xerox:
  • He has been compared to Gold Roger by multiple people who've encountered him.
  • Given his simple outlook on life and violence towards anyone who hurts his friends, he can also be seen as a xerox of Shanks.
  • According to Ivankov, Luffy is very similar to his father, Dragon.
  • Ironically, the person Luffy resembles most is his grandfather Garp, as commented by Aokiji. They share similar looks (with an older Luffy being a dead ringer for Garp), personalities, quirks, fighting styles, and morality, as Garp hates the World Nobles almost as much as Luffy does.
• Genius Ditz: Luffy is childish and naive, but his brilliance is found in fighting, first and foremost. He takes one of more lackluster Devil Fruits, one which his more talented brother told him would amount to nothing in combat, and turns it into one of the most dangerous abilities in the series. Luffy constantly figures out new applications of his Rubber Man powers in ingenious ways, showing he is able able to grasp the properties of rubber to the extent that he can learn how to set his arm on fire and create the Gears. He is also very perceptive and adaptive to his environment, being able to figure out Crocodile's weakness of the verge of death and creating a number of counterattacks to Eneru's Mantra on the spot. Mihawk even comments that he's "unusually clear headed" during the Paramount War, implying he's not as much of an airhead as he seems. He has also learned all Rayleigh had to teach him about Haki in just one and a half years, excels at understanding people's emotions and motivations, and possesses a form of wisdom that allows him to see the simplest solution needed (like knowing that interfering with the Alabasta army won't guarantee anything and what's needed to be done is defeating Crocodile.)
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: He punches Sanji in the face after he repeatedly tries to get him to leave Totto Land by lying about his desire to go back to the crew. Naturally, this finally gets to him to admit that he wants to come back to the crew.
• Giant Hands of Doom: Whenever Luffy uses Gear Three, his Giant Pistol attack involves blowing up his fist to a gigantic size for even more force and damage. During Time Skip, he learns how to infuse Armament Haki into his techniques, allowing for even more damage.
• The Gift: Luffy's incredible combat skills are often praised, and his ability to improve as a fighter at an astonishing pace is truly remarkable. Despite facing opponents with decades of experience, his determination and instincts have enabled him to emerge victorious on multiple occasions. What's more, he has the unique ability to develop new techniques and abilities in the midst of battle. For example, during his second encounter with Kaido, he was able to quickly replicate the Advanced Conqueror's Haki technique once he realized what it was, allowing him to match Kaido in mere minutes. Such natural talent is a rare occurrence, perhaps only seen once in a generation.
• The Glomp: Luffy is very affectionate and, with his stretchy arms, he can tackle and squeeze his object of affection. During Marineford, Luffy hugs Boa Hancock as a thanks for having given him the keys to Ace's handcuffs and, in Wano, he jumps and hugs Zoro and later Jimbei for seeing them after a long time apart. In Dressrosa, Luffy jumps out of joy and hugs his foster brother, Sabo, whom he previously believed to be dead.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: When Judge lists out every last reason he finds Sanji unworthy, including his lack of royal pride, the sway his emotions have, his foolish need to help others, his love of cooking like he was some lowly commoner and generally having compassion making him unfit as the Super-Soldier he was intended to be, Luffy just doesn't understand why anyone would see all that as bad, wondering why he listed all of Sanji's good qualities all of a sudden. He simply can't get into the mindset of a man like Judge, prideful, royal and hateful of any sort of compassion.
• Good Counterpart: Blackbeard and Luffy share a similar level of ambition and big dreams, according to Blackbeard. Luffy agrees, but is troubled by Blackbeard's Black-and-Gray Morality and the implications of aligning with someone who operates with such a moral code.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: To go with his simple personality and self-admitted inability at anything except fighting, Luffy can't use any weapon nor doesn't practice any martial arts but resorts to simple punches and kicks, the most basic fighting style. Still, he's such a creative and gifted fighter that he can take on martial artists and win with just his own free-form style.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Luffy has a small scar under his left eye, which he self-inflicted when he was a kid to prove Shanks that he can be manly. After the timeskip, Luffy gets a new X burn scar on his chest from Akainu's attack.
• Go Out with a Smile: Just like anybody else with D. as their middle initial, he's prone to this trope. Notably, although he's saved just in time, he smiles as Buggy is about to cut his head off at Logue Town.
• Gratuitous English: Most of his attacks have English names, particularly his Gear-related ones.
• Greater Need Than Mine: It does not matter that he is badly hurt and freezing to death, or poisoned to the point of melting, his friends come first. He never even asks for himself to be helped, merely begs for whoever is there to aid his companions..
• Hat Damage: Though he takes good care of his signature straw hat, this can still happen. Woe be to the person that does it, though.
• He Knows Too Much: Boa Hancock makes him fight her sisters in an attempts to execute him after he sees the Slave Brand on her back. It doesn't work, but he understands that he must not reveal it to anyone.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: The Gum-Gum Fruit's power seems pretty unimpressive 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.
• Hero Looking for Group: Luffy wants to become the king of pirates, so he travels the East Blue and the Grand Line to assemble a ten-member crew, the Straw Hat Pirates, with which to find the mythic One Piece. During the Dressrosa arc, Luffy manages to get 7 pirate captains to pledge loyalty to him (resulting in the Straw Hat Grand Fleet) to undertake the perilous Operation SOP.
• Hero Protagonist: He is the main protagonist, after all. In terms of how much of a Hero he actually is, it's complicated, especially because he doesn't want to be one, but generally speaking he finds himself doing what others would call "the right thing" anyway simply because of how he is.
• Heroes Fight Barehanded: He's the main protagonist, and is incapable of fighting with the use of weapons, but his barehanded fighting prowess is so much so that he has been labelled a fighting genius. This is Played for Laughs when, at the beginning of the Wano Arc, he starts to fight with a katana because "Samurais are cool" but ends up just punching people while holding the sword.
• Heroic BSoD: He gets hit with this hard when Ace gets killed. After Ace's death, there is a look of despair on Luffy's face that has never been seen before and is so traumatized to need to be taken by Jimbei and Law or he would've died. It takes a few days to recover.
• Heroic Resolve: Has it in spades. No matter how bad of a beating he gets, he just keeps getting back up, frustrating the opponents he faces on his journey.
  • Crocodile beats him down no less than two times. He gets back up, albeit with help the first time and an incredible amount of luck the second time, but during their third and final fight, he absolutely refuses to yield against Crocodile, powerful Warlord or not.
  • Rob Lucci gives him an incredible beating comparable to what Crocodile does, but Luffy takes it all, refusing to fall until Lucci does.
  • Charlotte Katakuri gave him a beating that tops everything he ever suffered beforehand, but he gets back up again and again. While this resolve initially frustrates Katakuri, he eventually respects Luffy's resolve.
• Heroic RRoD:
  • His Gear Two pre-Time Skip shortens his lifespan with each use, and will eventually wear him out if overused. Gear Three also might count, although it only shrinks Luffy temporarily after each use, with no mentioned long-term effect. He overcomes these weaknesses after the Time Skip.
  • When Ivankov gave Luffy his "miracle treatment" to heal Luffy of Magellan's poison, it took an additional ten years off Luffy's lifespan. Add this to Gear Two, and the regular damage Luffy takes, and Oda seems to be strongly implying that Luffy will die young.
  • Even his Gear Four has a major drawback: it has a time limit, and when it runs out, Luffy's Haki is unusable for 10 minutes. It gets worse of he overtaxes the time limit, exhausting his body, his Devil Fruit power and his Haki for 10 minutes. If his opponent is still going, he's left extremely vulnerable until he recovers. This can be countered by eating sufficient amounts of food to regain his strength, however.
• Heroic Second Wind: Rob Lucci gives Luffy such an harsh beatdown to bring him on the verge of collapsing, but Usopp spurs him to get up, giving him enough strength to continue and defeat Rob Lucci.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Being a benevolent, yet notorious pirate striving for the coveted "One Piece" and the title of "King of the Pirates" is par for the course, so he gains an infamous reputation across the world despite being an heroic figure.
  • Luffy is not a traditional hero (and doesn't want to be), but nonetheless he's a morally upright man who wouldn't harm civilians or even cause trouble for no reason and saves the situation in every island he visits. However, his general reputation to civilians worldwide is that of the criminal, as they're under the impression he's a ruthless and wild pirate who terrorizes people for the fun of it. Luffy's entire conflict with the law, going back to the East Blue days, starts simply because he calls himself a pirate and opposes the World Government.
  • He quickly goes from being the hero of Dressrosa to being public enemy number one after they mistakenly think he's kidnapped princess Rebecca (he's actually taking her to see her father). Though it turns out to be a subversion, as the citizens of Dressrosa actually know full well where Luffy is taking Rebecca, and chase after him so that Fujitora wouldn't be able to destroy the ships the Straw Hats are using to escape, for fear of catching the civilians in the crossfire.
• Hero-Worshipper: Luffy idolizes Shanks, who inspired him to become a pirate and gave Luffy his trademark straw hat.
• Hidden Agenda Hero: Luffy usually wears his heart openly on his sleeve, but a particular aspiration he shared with his brothers as a youth has rather conspicuously been withheld from the audience. This is especially notable come Chapter 1000, when Yamato realizes that it is the same dream Gol D. Roger once shared with Whitebeard and Oden. Apparently, it’s rather childish.
• Hidden Depths: Luffy is dumb, yes, but he is far from ignorant or unobservant. There are numerous times throughout the series where Luffy makes some pretty astute observations about the situation at hand, or otherwise reveals there's more to him than the Idiot Hero he seems to be. One of the most important elements to this is that the narration very rarely shows us Luffy's thoughts, leaving it up to speculation how stupid he actually is.
  • He makes a pretty strong counterargument to Vivi in the Alabasta Arc that war needs to be taken seriously. People will die, and spending time trying to save every life she can will only result in more deaths.
  • When Spandam declares the authority of the World Government via its flag during the assault on Enies Lobby, he calmly orders Sniper King to shoot said flag down, noting how he very much does understand the authority the World Government holds — he just doesn't care about it. The same thing happens later when he defies Big Mom's authority over Fish-Man Island and declares war on her, too.
  • Luffy is far from the forgiving All-Loving Hero that some think him to be. He spends most of Impel Down with Crocodile as an ally and hates it, telling Crocodile that he'll never forgive the monstrous crimes he committed during his time leading Baroque Works.
  • 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 it's his and the crew's fault that Merry became irreversibly broken and that she shouldn't be apologizing for their failures. Later on during Dressrosa, 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.
  • He's surprisingly good at using other people's Sore Loser tendencies against them. In Wano, he manages to provoke both Kid and Law into accepting a bet by basically telling them "If you refuse to play with me, you're admitting that you're a loser". In Egghead, when Lucci asks Luffy to remove his Seastone cuffs so that he can help him fight the Seraphims, Luffy asks him a question: if he realizes that he can't beat Luffy, will he be a sore loser and go after the other Straw Hats and the Vegapunks? Lucci instantly takes the bait, promising that he won't go "out of order" - first the Seraphims, then Luffy, then the others.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: He puts on a facade sometimes to help his friends, like when he says he's not Coby's friend and forces the latter to hit him. Allowing Coby to join the Marines.
• Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Child abuse isn't funny... except when it involves his naval obsessed grandfather throwing the child down a ravine, leaving him in the in the wilderness, and attaching enough helium balloons to him to make him float into the sky, all for the purposes of increasing his survival skills. Further adding to the hilarity is the fact that in the anime each of these scenarios has Luffy animated in the exact same pose with the exact same scream, with different backgrounds for each. After hearing about it, his crew immediately realizes just where Luffy got his strong will to live from. Though this has led him to fear Garp regardless of how hilarious it was.
• Hollywood Healing: His battles almost never leave story relevant scars, like his trademark one under his eye he gives himself in Chapter 1, his X shaped scar he gets from Akainu. For instance, he loses a tooth after taking a direct kick to the face from Sanji but, several chapters later when he drinks some milk and his tooth grows back on the spot and one of Capone Bege's mook comments that his body is weird.
• Honor Before Reason: During the Davy Back Fight, the Straw Hats lose the first round, forcing a member of their crew to join the Foxy Pirates. The Straw Hats win the second round and get to pick a Foxy Pirate to join them. Nami suggests picking Foxy himself, as he would be unable to participate in the third round duel and they would win by default, getting Chopper back without fighting. However, Luffy vetoes the plan, due to disliking Foxy too much to want him on the crew.
• Hope Bringer: The series's infamous flashbacks make it clear that just about every person he meets and every place he visits was steeped in hideous tragedy until he showed up. One Piece's signature cheery, cartoony, light-hearted tone is almost entirely down to him and the people he influences.
• Hot-Blooded: In fine Shonen fashion. This is usually depicted as his main personality but whenever he gets into a battle or eats a hefty meal he takes this up to eleven.
• How Do I Shot Web?: As a child who had recently eaten the Gum-Gum Fruit, Luffy was rather unskilled with his stretching powers — especially when compared to his mastery at the start of his journey, years later. His signature Gum-Gum Pistol? His first attempt bounced off the ground and back into his own face.
• Hulking Out: His Gear Four consists in him pumping air in his muscles, making them grow. In the Bounce-Man version, he turns into a Top-Heavy Guy.
• Humble Hero: One of Luffy's dominant traits is his humble nature: he does not brag about the powerful foes he's defeated in the past, though he's not above about claiming that no one has ever beaten him in the past (which is not true, having been defeated many times by Ace and Sabo as a child and against most arc villains' in their first encounters). And as always, he loudly proclaims that he's going to become King of the Pirates, though that is something he will do rather than something he has done. He remains humble despite having done outrageous acts like defeating Warlord-level pirates and issuing the order to burn down the World Government Flag back at Enies Lobby (the latter of which Luffy considers nothing to get worked up over, as he and his crew were there only to get back a crew member that has been taken from them). It's also why Sentomaru recognizes the fake Luffy, Demalo Black, as an imposter, since the latter brags about his fame to everyone. When Sengoku tries to cover up Gecko Moria's defeat by ordering Bartholomew Kuma to kill the Straw Hat Crew, Vice Admiral Garp tell him this, practically lampshading the trope:
  "Ah, do not worry yourself, Sengoku! Luffy is not the sort of guy who'd go around boasting about taking out Moria anyway!".
• Hunk: Gear Four — Snake Man turns him into a taller and much more muscular version of his normal self.

I — M

• Iconic Outfit:
  • The straw hat, in universe, as seen in the "From the decks of the world" cover story and at the end of the Fish-Man Island arc. The new shipment to the island will include straw hats. Why? Because the kids want to play heroes!
  • His first outfit, the red sleeveless vest/blue shorts with sandals combo and his first Time skip outfit, which replaced the red vest with an open long sleeved one.
• Identical Grandson: Garp looked identical to Luffy when he was a kid. He even had his scar at a young age. Even now you can see the resemblance, as Garp looks like a much older and brawnier Luffy and an SBS in Volume 89 presented a few glimpses at what Luffy could look like at age 40 and 60 and he himself ends up the spitting image of his grandfather "in a future where things go well."
• Idiot Hero: Luffy is actually quite smart for a Shonen Hero, and not just in combat; he has shown an understanding of basic physics, social skills, survival skills, and politics. For the most part, however, he's childish, naive, and does things that no-one with common sense would do, more often than not causing big troubles.
• I Gave My Word: His word is the greatest thing he can give. He takes it seriously. How serious? He promises Robin he'd be her friend forever, so when she's taken from him, he goes on a rampage resulting in the complete annihilation of a World Government island, thousands of unconscious mooks, and a staggering threefold (that would be two hundred MILLION) increase in his bounty. Do note that it's when he has given his word willingly that he will uphold it to the best of his power; when he's forced by circumstances to do it (like when Hachi and his crew tell him not to hurt any World Noble or when Law tells him to just capture Caesar), he can break his word if he gets too pissed off.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: His reason for trying to hang out with Ace when they were kids, saying it's painful being alone.
• I Just Want to Be Free: Luffy's reason for wanting to become the Pirate King is because he views the Pirate King as 'the one with the most freedom'. This also, apparently, a trait that comes with the Will of D.
• I Let Gwen Stacy Die: Ace's death is this for Luffy, as he fails save him after all the troubles he's gone through and the sacrifices he has made, and Akainu's magma punch is meant for him and the reason why he's gotten handed over to the Marines is because Blackbeard was coming for Luffy, but Ace got to him first.
• Immune to Bullets: They simply bounce off, though in the beginning of the series he claims to still not like getting shot. Ostensibly he gets used to it pretty quickly, considering the sheer number of times (often on purpose and/or easily avoidable) that he gets shot throughout the series.
• I'm Not a Hero, I'm...: He invokes this trope with Jimbei. He says he likes heroes, but his idea of a hero is a completely selfless person (in his own words "A hero shares the meat, and I want all the meat"), and prefers being a pirate so he can have more freedom.
• Imposed Handicap Training: To learn how to use the Color of Observation under Rayleigh's wing, Luffy avoids attacks while being blindfolded. Later, in Wano while imprisoned in Udon, he is forced to wear sea prism cuffs supposed to weaken him just enough so that he can still work but not fight. Luffy being Luffy, this doesn't stop him from crushing the prison guards, and he states that by fighting with the cuffs on, he'll be even stronger once they're off, therefore it's a perfect chance to train.
• Improbable Age: As the captain of a strong pirate crew, Luffy is widely recognized as a unique and legendary pirate despite being remarkably young. His bounty increases rapidly, reaching 400,000,000 berri after the Paramount War. Following the Time Skip, he is considered one of the top contenders for the Pirate King title and is highly feared and respected by the public. He manages to escape from Big Mom's territory and earns a 1,500,000,000 berri bounty, placing him at the same level as an Emperor despite the disagreement of other Emperors. Luffy doubles his bounty and officially becomes an Emperor of the Sea after defeating Kaido during the Raid of Onigashima, all at only 19 years old. His remarkable achievements at such a young age are even more impressive when compared to his older brother Ace, who was considered one of the strongest members of an Emperor's crew before his untimely death at the age of 20 during the Paramount War. Luffy's post-Time Skip accomplishments are significant and set a new standard for young pirates.
• Improv Fu: Luffy lacks a clear main fighting style and uses anything available to him so he can win. This causes his opponents to underestimate him because, more often than not, it looks like he's fooling around rather than fighting seriously.
• Inconsistent Spelling: He's known as Ruffy in some foreign editions, most notably the German translation.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: No matter what happens, he will be always carefree and smiling non-stop. He never actually intends anything bad either because of his moral values or his naïveté. Even Hancock's beauty has no effect on him.
• Indy Ploy: He uses these quite a few times: notably during his fight with Eneru , during the assault on Enies Lobby , and later against Doflamingo .
• Innocently Insensitive: Due to his naivete, he has said something offensive or uncomfortable towards everyone he has met at some point, but the standout example would have to be the Mermaid Princess, Shirahoshi.
• Instant Armor: One of the many people who can do this using Armament Haki, which turns any affected area of the body black and makes it much, much harder. It can also be used offensively (as the harder body makes for a harder hit) and Luffy is particularly skilled at this type of Haki, able to easily break through most of his opponents' defenses with it. With Gear Four, he can use Armament Haki on his body without losing flexibility.
• In the Dreaming Stage of Grief: After a rampage trying to shake off flashbacks of Ace's death, Luffy finally comes to accept the fact, saying if it were a dream, he would've already woken up.
• Ironic Hell: Inverted: Luffy ends up going to Amazon Lily, whose leader is the World's Most Beautiful Woman Boa Hancock. The natives end up worshipping him as much as they do their leader, and said leader Luffy ends up seeing her naked. Twice. To top it all off, thanks to his kind nature, Hancock ends up falling in love with him. If it had been anyone else in this situation, they'd be praising the gods and living it up. However, not only is Luffy an Idiot Hero, he's also a Chaste Hero, making all of this an ironic heaven.
• 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.
• It Runs on Nonsensoleum: And also, Rule of Funny and Artistic Licence – Biology; he completely regrows his missing tooth in Chapter 858 after drinking some milk because... calcium! It's good for the bones! And teeth! However, this may in fact be an unknowing application of his fruit's true potential, making it justified in a roundabout way.
• Jumped at the Call: Subverted. Luffy wants to be a pirate to go on an awesome adventure, but nobody is actually asking or forcing him to be a pirate. This is reinforced when the Red Hair Pirates arrive at Foosha and reject all his requests to let him join them on their adventures. Ultimately, Luffy departs on his adventure ten years later on his own, under his own volition.
• Just Friends: Luffy, in his own pure-hearted way, does love Hancock back; the same way he would love and lay down his life for any of his precious friends. Hancock, although aware of this, personally wishes it's something more (and still interprets his acts of kindness as reciprocating her feelings).
• Karmic Jackpot: In general, Luffy's willingness to help those around him works out spectacularly and earns him allies wherever he goes.
  • His saving Koby and helping the young man get into the Marines allows Koby to grow stronger, fall under Garp's tutalage, and puts Koby in the right place and the right time to save Luffy in the Paramount War. Koby's delaying action when he screams and pleads for the senseless fighting to stop delays the pursuit of a broken Luffy, and when Shanks arrives moments later, the war's end stops the pursuit entirely, allowing Law and Luffy to escape to safer waters.
  • He rescues Robin from Alabasta's Royal Tomb against her protests and secures her loyalty by declaring war on the World Government, earning him the devotion of a powerful, intelligent crewmate. Unbeknownst to everyone at the time, her Poneglyph-reading ability is essential to helping the Straw Hats claim the One Piece.
  • Luffy's decision to attack Charloss and publicly defy the World Nobles for the sake of Hachi, a fishman, gives his crew the opportunity they need to survive the New World. This act inspires Bartholomew Kuma to rescue the Straw Hats from Kizaru and send them off to their training locations for the next two years. Luffy's bold and heroic actions remind Kuma of the legends of Nika he heard as a child, and touches him so much that he decides to put his faith for a better world in Luffy and his crew. To that end, he does everything he can to enable their growth and prepare them for the trials to come.
• Keet: He has a friendly, loud and energetic personality, dresses in bright colors and is easily impressed by the world around him. This is the reason why many characters find him annoying or can't take him serious originally.
• Kiai: At the end of his fight with Rob Lucci, he hits him with a powerful Jet Gatling, screaming at every punch.
• Ki Manipulation: After the two year time-skip, he has completely mastered Haki and can use it to power up his already strong attacks and predict enemy attacks, just like Eneru and his priests. During his fight with Katakuri, Luffy learns how to foresee some bits of the immediate future. When he uses Armament Haki, his body turns dark and shiny◊, as if his rubber body has gone through a form of vulcanization. During the Wano arc, he figures out how to imbue his attacks with Conqueror's Haki, which is thus far the most advanced Haki technique seen in the series, and allows him to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Kaido.
• Kindhearted Simpleton: Luffy is very cheerful and kind to his friends and anyone nice to him, but not book smart. He's often spacey and fueled by his emotions. But when it comes to fighting, he is very good at understanding what is needed to win.
• Klingon Promotion: Luffy rises to become one of the Four Emperors of the Sea, a highly respected rank in the world of One Piece pirates and a leading contender for the title of Pirate King, by defeating and replacing Kaido of the Beasts. Kaido is not only one of the Four Emperors, but also widely regarded as the most powerful creature in the world.
• Know When to Fold 'Em:
  • During the Straw Hats' fight with Sentomaru, Admiral Kizaru, and Kuma, Luffy makes the uncharacteristic call for them to make a tactical retreat. Completely and utterly Averted before that incident and afterwards though, despite facing enemy presumed to be undefeatable for him; indeed, since the Timeskip, he refuses to run away from even the most powerful of foes after realizing that he has to be stronger than them anyway to be the Pirate King.
  • He does this while escaping from Impel Down, as he realizes he cannot defeat Magellan. However, this is also because he has not time to lose and has to go and rescue Ace as soon as possible.
  • Does again versus Katakuri. When you exhaust literally every option at your disposal and only manage to gain a temporary advantage that you've lost the moment that he regained his bearings, were otherwise getting wrecked, and temporarily lost your Haki as a result of your final attempt to put the hurt on him, running really is your only shot at staying alive.
  • After several attempts to defeat the Five Elders, Gear 5 Luffy, Dorry, and Broggy realize that their attacks are not causing any significant damage. Even when hit by their own strikes, the Elders kept rejuvenating quickly. Frustrated, Luffy calls for a retreat.
• Knuckle Cracking: He tends to do this frequently, especially before the beginning of a fight.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Whenever he's not trapped somewhere and can't fight, Luffy tends to jump into action without thinking twice.
  • At the beginning of the assault on Enies Lobby, where he actually take off full speed into the heart of Enies Lobby during the middle of planning, causing his allies to nearly be wiped out.
  • In the first act of the Wano Arc, when Kaido shows up in his dragon form and destroys Oden Castle, Luffy rushes away from the rest of the group. Law catches up with him and tells Luffy he needs to calm down and not ruin their plan, and thinks he's gotten through. Then he realizes that Luffy has disappeared again and is now punching Kaido in the face. Also Deconstructed as Luffy is way outclassed by Kaido, who takes him down in one blow.
• Leitmotif: Luffy Eyecatcher.
• Lethal Chef: Don't ever let him near a kitchen. His attempt at cooking in Chapter 824 results in the stove exploding since he forgets to turn it off. What he cooks is a complete mess of a "curry" made from jam, uncooked rice, fishbones, and God knows what else that brought tears to everyone and that not even he can stomach. And he messes up so often while making it that he blows the entire group's week's worth of food in one go. This incident has the purpose to show how important Sanji is to the crew.
• Lightning Bruiser: Possibly the fastest and most agile member of his crew, he also has incredible durability and strength. Oda states that only Zoro matches his physical power. With Gear Two, he becomes even faster and with Gear Four, his speed, durability and strength increase, but only for ten minutes.
• Like Father, Like Son:
  • While not spending any of his childhood with his father, he has nonetheless taken after him with his will and dangerous unpredictability, and both are stakes in the World Government's side. Ivankov, a close ally of Dragon, comments that Luffy strongly resembles his father. They both also encourage people to fight for themselves, rather than being passive and fighting for them. Hence why he doesn't care about your backstory despite how bad it is or was unless you're willing to fight for it. The same way the Revolutionary Army tells people they should stop being passive and fight for themselves.
  • Luffy also takes a few cues from his grandfather, Garp, primarily their narcolepsy and their tendency to say secrets without knowing the consequences of saying them until after it's done. Indeed, as the series goes on and the readers learn more about Garp, it becomes clear that he is the person that Luffy resembles the most — reinforced by the fact that an older Luffy is a dead ringer for Garp.
• Living Emotional Crutch:
  • Luffy says that he probably wouldn't want to live if it isn't for his brothers, Ace and Sabo. When the former dies, Luffy is devastated and nearly gives up piracy. In Dressrosa, when Luffy meets Sabo after believing he was dead for over a decade, is overwhelmed with happiness. Sabo also admits to be glad that Luffy is alive, otherwise he would've been left alone (like how Luffy thought he was when Ace died).
  • Over the many sagas the series goes, there are several key points in which Nami's devotion to Luffy is put on focus in times where it seems all hope is lost; the whole Straw Hat crew is shown to have Luffy as the anchor for their dreams, with varying levels of openly expressing it, but Nami is the one who completely breaks down if she starts thinking, for a moment, not even Luffy is able to get them out of the given tough spot. Examples being the last advance against Eneru in Skypiea, the apparent total defeat against Kuma in Sabaody, and Luffy's presumed "death" against Kaido in Onigashima, all of those events show Nami breaking down in utter despair at the prospect of Luffy not being able to guide the Straw Hats forward anymore.
• The Load: During combat and amidst crises, he's a stellar asset and an indispensable companion. During the actual traveling parts of the journey, he's terribly unhelpful to the basic upkeep of the voyage and has nearly starved the crew to death by gorging himself on their ship's food supplies. This also happens during the end of the most intense arc, where he exhausts all of his energies in the fight and needs his crewmates to save him.
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • Luffy is generally ignorant of global affairs, but most of the Straw Hats are young and mostly unfamiliar with the places they visit, which often gets them into trouble. However, this is especially true of Luffy, who's known to jump in headfirst without knowing or caring about the situation. During the Time Skip, Luffy's training has made him completely unaware of the major events taking place, some of which even involves his allies and his greatest enemies. These include: the massive bounty increases of his Supernova rivals; his own bounty increase; the vacated Warlord positions being filled, notably by Buggy and Law; his grandfather leaving active duty in the Marines; the duel between Aokiji and Akainu for the Fleet Admiral of the Marines position; the war between the Blackbeard Pirates and the remainder of the Whitebeard Pirates, which leads to Marco's disappearance and Blackbeard's ascension to Emperor status. One wonders if Rayleigh has intentionally prevented such news from reaching him (especially the truth about Kuma and his agenda). Even Jimbei remarks on how harsh it was for Rayleigh to not tell Luffy about these things.
  • Luffy is unaware of the true nature of the Gum-Gum Fruit and its—therefore his—connection to the Sun God Nika and Joyboy, as evidenced by how he names his awakening "Gear Five" and calls his attacks with "Gum-Gum". Justified because it's a secret that only a handful of people in the world know.
• Magical Floating Shawl: All of Luffy's Gear Fourth forms have shawls made of smoke hanging around him.
• Magic Pants: By the time Luffy starts developing abilities that greatly alter the shape of his body mass, it is shown that whatever Luffy is wearing at the time will adjust itself to his new forms despite his Devil Fruit not applying to his clothes too. The first notorious case is when Luffy uses his Gear Three, with its drawback forcing Luffy down to a recovery mode after continuous use, transforming him into a tiny version of himself. In that little body Luffy's clothes also magically shrink to his new size and goes right back to normal size when Luffy recovers. In Gear Four, Luffy's whole body increases exponentially, here his clothes seem to be put under heavy pressure, but it never rips, expanding well beyond their ripping point.
• Magnetic Hero: In every arc, due to his nice nature and personality, he manages to make many allies and friends. Deconstructed in the Dressrosa Arc. Luffy tries his Magnetic Hero 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. However, this 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:
  Mihawk: It's not some kind of special power, but he has the ability to make allies of everyone he meets. And that is the most fearsome power on these high seas!
• 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.
• Man of Kryptonite: Eneru, the main antagonist of the Skypiea Arc, is a Logia user with electricity powers who claims to be an actual god. His Devil Fruit is so powerful that anyone considers him invincible, but Luffy's rubber-like body is capable of negating Eneru's Rumble-Rumble Fruit powers completely, resulting in Eneru being shocked beyond belief. Nami comments that Luffy is the only one with a chance to defeat Eneru.
• Marry for Love: Discussed. Luffy doesn't show interest in marriage, but believes that, if people are to marry, it is out of mutual love, not forced. He's enraged that Big Mom tries to force Sanji to marry Pudding against his wishes all for the sake of power and not of love, even admitting he doesn't care if Sanji gets married but only if he truly loves Pudding.
• Meaningful Name: With a name like "Luffy", he's certainly a born ruffian. And his simplistic, hyperactive, and fun-loving nature brings to mind certain species of Monkey.
• Mighty Glacier: His second Gear Four form the "Tank-Man" is this, as it sacrifices the Bounce-Man form's mobility for even more power and defense. He first gorges himself with food and then inflates his belly (and muscles) to massive proportions and is able to use its elasticity to harmlessly absorb Charlotte Cracker's sword along with his whole body and shoot him out at high speeds.
• Missing Mom: His mother is completely unaccounted for. Famously, the subject came up in an SBS, where Oda teased that we've seen her, but he won't say who it is.
• Morality Pet: Until he meets her, Hancock's surrogate mother Nyon is worried that she has become as cold as she appears, but fortunately, Luffy's interactions with her proves that this isn't the case, and brings up Hancock's better qualities.
• Moving Beyond Bereavement: The "climax" of the Post War Arc is Luffy going through a terrible Heroic B So D, nearly giving up his dream for the first time, and dealing with Ace's death. Jimbei helps him by pointing out he still has his crew, and that Ace would want Luffy to fulfill his goal of being King of the Pirates for his sake.
• Mr. Fanservice: As of the Wano arc he spends a lot of time shirtless. A lot of close ups emphasise how ripped he really is.
• Multiform Balance: Throughout the early parts of the story, he uses his stretchable limbs and Balloon Belly as weapons in his regular form as a Rubber Man. However, he comes to the realization that he needs to become stronger and thus, creates the "Gears" which are several SuperModes that take advantage of his unique rubber-like body properties.:
  • Normal Luffy is a Jack of All Stats (still a Lightning Bruiser compared to most people, as he is quite fast, strong and has high endurance).
  • Gear Two turns him more into a Fragile Speedster. He's faster and hits harder, but his endurance stays the same.
  • Gear Three makes him a Mighty Glacier. The offensive and defensive power of the inflated body parts goes through the roof, but Luffy's speed takes a sharp drop. Though after refining the technique during time skip, the speed decrease has been reduced to the point that it's only a Mighty Glacier by comparison.
  • Gear Four — Bounce Man combines the strengths of Gear Two and Gear Three which turns him into a Lightning Bruiser of the highest degree. He can use this form only for a short time though, and it takes a massive toll on his body in the process.
  • Gear Four — Tank-Man transforms Luffy into an even bigger Mighty Glacier. It allows him to No-Sell attacks that could hurt Bounce Man and he can counter with enough force to send the attacker flying to the other side of an island. But he seems practically immobile in this form. The version we see is the "Stuffed Version" after eating countless cracker soldiers, so the normal version may be different.
  • Gear Four — Snake-Man makes him a Fragile Speedster whose lightning-fast, ricocheting fists get even faster and practically home in on his target. While very hard to predict and counter, even for someone with incredible Observation Haki, the form leaves Luffy wide open for direct attacks, and he lacks the defense of his other Gear Four forms. However, it should be noted unlike Tank-Man, this is only in comparison to the other two Gear Four forms, he's still a Lightning Bruiser compared to his normal form.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Luffy has a lean and defined physique but also built like a twig, yet he easily overpowers with raw strength opponents much larger and more muscular than him. This is justified because muscle mass is developed due to tears in the muscle fibers that occur when exercising and Luffy’s muscles can’t tear, therefore, since Luffy became a rubber man before Garp began training him, he developed a huge strength without any evident muscle. However, in Wano’s second act, during his time imprisoned in Udon, Luffy realizes he can make greater strides in getting stronger by training under the constraints of seastone, which renders him a non-rubberized with them on, thus allowing his body to develop in training as normal. By the end, his upper body is broadened, with his chest, trapezius and arms all gaining considerable bulk compared to before.
• My Favorite Shirt: His hat serves as a #1 Dime for him, and gets easily angered when someone breaks it, since it's a gift from Shanks.
• My Greatest Failure: Luffy's failure to rescue his brother Ace from the Marines during the Paramount War motivates him to become stronger for the next two years.
• Mysterious Middle Initial: The D in his name, shared with his father and grandfather, is part of the Will of D, a mysterious legacy that somehow connects them all to the World Government and the Celestial Dragons.
• My Suit Is Also Super: Very early in the series Luffy's prized straw hat gets pierced by Buggy mid-battle, the scene serves as a mean to show how furious Luffy can be when someone he doesn't like touches, and in this case damages, his beloved hat; after the battle is done Nami fixes Luffy's hat and that's that. However, as the series goes in, many battles with Luffy going through severe beatdowns while being thrown around all over the battlefield, many times falling on his back, with the straw hat resting on it to boot, yet the hat no longer has gotten a single scratch on it. All of this happens while Luffy’s clothes do receive some minor damage from time to time, yet the straw hat stays strong.

N — R

• Never Found the Body: Discussed by Kaido during the Onigashima War. After handily defeating Luffy again despite his new power-up and throwing him off of Onigashima, Kaido immediately regrets not decapitating him and announcing his victory, because he knows that if the Straw Hats and their allies aren't absolutely sure that Luffy's dead, they'll never stop believing that he can win.
• Never Gets Fat: Luffy eats comical quantities of food, especially when a feast is involved, but remains always slim. Whenever he gets fat, he always gets back to skinny in no time, like after the fight against Cracker, during which he has eaten enough food to become a gigantic, obese boy, Nami sees Luffy quickly going back to his normal build. Partially justified since he's a Rubber Man.
• Next Tier Power-Up: Luffy's fighting skills continue to evolve as the series progresses and he learns new creative ways to use the Gum-Gum Fruit:
  • In the Enies Lobby arc, he reveals two new fighting techniques called Gears, with Gear Two making him a Fragile Speedster by pumping his blood at a much faster rate and Gear Three which consists of him pumping air in his bones, inflating any body part for a stronger, but slower, attack.
  • During the Time Skip, he learns to utilize the three forms of Haki, especially Conqueror's Haki.
  • While fighting Donquixote Doflamingo, he unveils Gear Four which makes him a Lightning Bruiser. As the other two forms of Gear Four are revealed, it's revealed they're essentially upgraded versions of his Gear Two and Gear Three combined.
  • In preparation for for his rematch with Kaido, Luffy learns advanced Armament Haki from Old Master Hyogoro which allows him to emit Haki to strike at a distance and penetrate Kaido's thick skin.
  • During the match with Kaido, Luffy learns to imbue his strikes with Supreme King Haki which put Luffy in the same league as Kaido, Whitebeard, Shanks, and Roger.
• Nice Guy: He's usually friendly, cheerful, and amiable and will do anything for his friends, and it's for this reason that, despite his impressive strength, he doesn't have the higher bounty among the Supernovas at Sabaody. Just don't touch any of his friends, his meat, or his straw hat. He's so nice that when getting betrayed by former enemies he formed a temporary alliance with he was happy that they were safe.
• The Nicknamer: Luffy has a habit of giving child-like nicknames to those he meets on his journey, and he often calls them this way even when they say they don't like it.
• Nigh-Invulnerable: One of his Super Modes, Gear Four, jacks up his Lightning Bruiser to the extreme, but most notably his durability.
• No Badass to His Valet: The world sees Luffy as a dangerous pirate with a massive amount of potential and as one of the frontrunners to become Pirate King. His crew also sees him as that, but they also see him as their idiot captain who wouldn't last five minutes in the Grand Line, let alone the New World, without them, not just because he lacks any ability besides fighting, but due to his recklessness and outright stupidity. Rarely does Luffy ever act like he's the captain of the crew with all the abuse he suffers at their hands — unless when the situation is really dire. However, when he makes a decision, as stupid and dangerous it can be, his crewmates follow it.
• No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: Luffy would rather give up being a pirate than have the identity or location of the One Piece handed to him because there is no adventure in that. This is why he prevents Silvers Rayleigh from telling them where the One Piece is and scolds Usopp for having asked about the treasure. In the non-canon movie Stampede, the treasure in the end is an Eternal Pose that can lead the crew straight to Laugh Tale and the One Piece. Still embracing this trope, Luffy destroys the Pose, similar to how Gol. D Roger threw it into the sea in the past when he learned it was created against his wishes.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: He begins his then "pirate" career by beating up four officially wanted pirates, (Alvida, Buggy the Clown, Don Krieg, and Arlong) dangerous by the standards of East Blue, and rather than giving him thanks (and the posted reward) for doing so, the Marines go and slap a 30 million berry bounty on him, and continue to antagonize him at every opportunity, raising his bounty if he so much as complains, let alone defends himself, up to and including threatening members of his crew, and framing him for attempted murder. He completely loses all patience on the last two. Ironically, the World Government and Marines think he is unforgivable despite owing him several favours.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
  • He's usually subjected to intense beating during the first match against the Arc Villain, but after he learns his enemies' strengths and weaknesses, he manages to win in subsequent rounds.
  • With the reveal of [Gear Four, he proceeds to beat up Doflamingo, who can barely defend himself.
• No-Sell: Being made of rubber, blunt force attacks generally bounce off of him harmlessly and either have to be imbued with Armament Haki (which bypasses Devil Fruit powers) or just ridiculously powerful to hurt him (as demonstrated by Rob Lucci). He is also completely immune to electric attacks, no matter how many millions of volts it is or even if it's infused by Haki. And due to his Chaste Hero status, he is immune to Boa Hancock's Love-Love Fruit. After his fight with Magellan, he's also become immune to some, but not all, poisons. Gear Four — Bounce-Man allows him to No-Sell Haki-imbued blunt attacks because he combines his normal body's elasticity and the Armament Haki, and Gear Four — Tank-Man allows him to No-Sell attacks that could overpower even Bounce-Man's defense.
• No Sense of Direction: Not as terrible as Zoro's, but it's still really bad and he gets lost more often than not. For example, his idea of going south is to go in the direction that's warmest.
• No Sense of Personal Space: Due to his naive and cheerful personality, Luffy's is fond of hugging and being close to anyone he considers "friend", without worrying about the latter's reaction. Like when he gives a genuine and loving hug of friendship and gratitude to Hancock, too bad he does not realize that it means a lot more to the poor woman.
• No Shirt, Long Jacket: In his post-Time Skip appearance, Luffy replaces his vest with an open-button jacket which leaves the X-shaped scar on his chest visible.
• No True Scotsman: Luffy has a brief argument with Nami when discussing Kuro, whom he considers unworthy to be a pirate.
• Nonchalant Dodge:
  • Right after coming back from two years of training, just to show how fast he has become, he dodges a lightspeed beam by simply twisting his head.
  • During a sumo match with Urashima, the latter tries to hit Luffy with multiple sumo techniques, but Luffy dodges every single one of them without putting forth any effort.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: In the East Blue, which is considered the weakest among the four seas, Luffy finds little troubles fighting the enemies and gets the highest bounty of East Blue in short time. Once he enters Paradise, the first half of the Grand Line, Luffy 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.
• Normally, I Would Be Dead Now: Though to a lesser extent than Zoro, Luffy often suffers what should be fatal injuries and yet lives through them with sheer determination. The most infamous and impressive example would probably be when he's impaled clear through his torso by Crocodile's giant hook hand; a bit of time to rest later and he's ready to fight him again.
• Not Afraid to Die: Luffy has no fear of death at all. This is a trait shared by every D. carrier shown thus far (save for Marshall D. Teach aka Blackbeard). Smoker, who witnessed Gol D. Roger's execution, after seeing how close Luffy is to meeting his own end on the same scaffold before his miraculous survival, make his utmost priority to capture Luffy.
• Not the Fall That Kills You…: Luffy cannot die from a fall, no matter how high he drops from. Justified since he's made of rubber, and no blunt-attack, unless it's really strong, can hurt him.
• Oblivious to Love: He has no idea how Hancock feels about him. Subverted after the time-skip, during he learns how she feels and assumes that when Hancock says she has a request, that it's a proposal and he preemptively declines it. To him she is a precious friend he would gladly die for, but Just Friends all the same.
• Older Than He Looks: He's 17/19, but because of how adorably goofy and youthful he looks and acts most of the time, you'd be forgiven for believing he's younger than that. He looks even younger as the series goes on thanks to Art Evolution.
• One-Man Army: When Robin is being held in a government facility he charged head on into it, well ahead of his crew. The enemies numbered in the thousands. Luffy cuts through them in mere minutes. After becoming even stronger during the timeskip, he knocks out fifty-thousand Fishmen with his Conqueror's Haki alone!
• Only Known by Their Nickname: The number of people who call him Luffy is comparatively low to the number of people who call him "Straw Hat", those who knows him only by fame or are his opponents, will likely refer to him with the latter.
• Only I Can Kill Him: Not so much kill, but it's pretty obvious there are opponents that only Luffy has the power to defeat. Eneru is a notable example. His crew members even point out that Luffy seems to have a knack for singling out the single most dangerous opponent in a group that the rest would have no chance against.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Luffy is loud and proud and gives nary a damn if you tell him to clam up. For this exact reason, if he is ever deathly quiet for any reason, it's a sign that a fine line has been crossed and you want to be anywhere other than there.
  • As mentioned under Character Tics, Luffy usually smiles after defeating an opponent. But, after winning against his battle with Usopp, Luffy just has a look of sadness on his face...right before crying.
  • When the crew is confronted by Garp after the events of Water 7, Luffy showed fear and warned the crew to NOT underestimate him, which they immediately took seriously.
  • When his entire crew is fighting against Kizaru, he orders to retreat. For an Idiot Hero who has always fought against the enemy, no matter how bad the odds were, this is pretty significant.
  • Two of Luffy's main characteristics are his confidence and love of his trademark hat. So, in the aftermath of Ace's death, the former takes a huge plummet and the he doesn't even take notice that the latter is missing.
  • In Chapter 844, after Luffy's fight with Sanji, Luffy tells his cook that he won't eat a single piece of food that isn't made by Sanji. That's right. Luffy is going on a hunger strike.
• Outside-Context Problem:
  • 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 has the extra benefit of being a Devil Fruit user himself.
  • Before Eneru meets Luffy, he believes himself to be completely unbeatable and most of his fights end in a curb stomp in his favour. That is because Eneru has the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, which 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.
• Papa Wolf: He loves his crew so much he views them as family. Try to hurt a member of his crew — or for that matter, one of your own subordinates — and you are in for a complete beatdown.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: As "Lucy", which is really just him with an old-man beard and shades. Later, he takes off the shades for a gladiator helmet. However, this works in his favor as it's more than enough to fool Doflamingo and Diamante when he switches out for Sabo to take his place.
• Parental Abandonment: While not an integral part of his character, his father willingly left him to go help the rest of the world, his mother hasn't even been mentioned, and his Grandpa made no attempt to at least have him raised near him. Luckily, though, his foster mother and brothers made up for this void, and the only time he ever showed sadness over being lonely was in childhood before meeting Ace.
• Personality Powers: In an interview with SBS (a question and answer column written by One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda), he reveals that the inspiration behind the protagonist's (Luffy) unique ability to stretch his body like rubber was to reflect his eccentric, fun-loving, and carefree personality. Furthermore, Oda explains that the choice of such a power is also intended to contrast with the more "serious" shonen heroes. However, there is more to Luffy's power than just a reflection of his personality. Oda also hinted that Luffy's ability to stretch his limbs embodies the essence of freedom, symbolizing the human spirit's boundless and limitless potential.
• Person of Mass Destruction: 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 Three, 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 Three Elephant Gatling, the only reasons he doesn't completely destroy it is because the Sea Kings stop Noah from colliding with Fish-Man Island before he could finish the job. And finally we have his new form, Gear Four, 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.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: While he's not overly short by Real Life standards, he's often rather puny compared to most of his opponents. He's 5'8", while his opponents range from above 6' to being freaking giants of 15' and more! Regardless, the large size disparity seems to make no difference for him; he's able to smack around a Pacifista (Cyborgs who are all about 22'6" feet tall) just as easily as he can smack around somebody like, say, Captain Kuro (an average sized human being). During the tournament at Dressrosa, he completely knocks an actual giant (which is about 70 feet tall) unconscious with a single punch.
• Pipe Pain: When he was a child, he would use a metal pipe to fight since he wasn't very skilled with his powers at the time.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Luffy's not interested in the typical "pillaging and plundering" pirate activities, but rather became a pirate for the sake of adventure. He fights with other pirates and the Marines freely but leaves civilians alone. Also, though he doesn't have any explicitly stated moral codes, he does lean towards only recruiting crew members who share his ideals on what it means to be a pirate. Though he does cause lots of property damage, doesn't care about the laws and he's not opposed to stealing available loot if an opportunity arises. Then there is that prison break...
• Plot Armor: Many times, he manages to survive and achieve things when the odds are completely against him. Lampshaded by Basil Hawkins when tries several times to calculate a scenario which Luffy can't possibly survive, but Luffy always has at least a slim chance. This is justified by having the Will of D., which means he's destined to change the world.
• Pocket Protector: In the Adventure of Nebulandia, Foxy gives him a pin shaped like his (Foxy's) own head, and Luffy puts it on his hat; so naturally, it ends up catching a bullet for him later. The bullet in question appears to be a more modern, cone shaped round that may have been capable of penetrating him; so, as the Big Bad of the special Lampshaded, Luffy really does have the Devil's luck.
• Power Incontinence: In the first part of the story, Luffy has no control over his Supreme King's Haki. It would just flare up at random moments whenever he loses his temper, knocking out friend and foe alike. Then, during the Paramount War, he accidentally uses it to save Ace, knocking out the guards along with hundreds of pirates and marines on the battlefield. This backfires on him, as while the sheer strength of the blast convinces Whitebeard to back Luffy's charge, it also makes Luffy a priority target to the Marines, equal to if not above Ace. Naturally, part of his training during the Time Skip is learning to control it and use it intentionally.
• Power Makes Your Hair Grow: Snake Man, the third Gear Four form Luffy introduces, visibly make his hair longer than usual, making him look wilder and more aggressive.
• The Power of Friendship: At least half of everything Luffy has ever done in the series is driven out of the intense love he has for his crew and/or his friends. While undoubtedly selfish, there isn't anything in the world Luffy wouldn't do for their sake. He always believes in his crew, even when they appear to betray or murder one of their own, and when his friends are in danger, nothing will stop him. This is more evident during his confrontation with Lucci: after a long and exhausting fight, what gives Luffy the necessary strength to stand and defeat Lucci, is Usopp telling him not to give up.
• The Power of Trust: 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 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 and upcoming war with juggernauts like Big Mom and Kaido.
• Power Perversion Potential: Yes, every part of his body can stretch, including his penis, as the inhabitants of Amazon Lily have discovered. Being Luffy (and this series a Shonen), he never makes any use of this.
• Primary-Color Champion: He's the hero of the setting and this is his main color scheme.
  • Prior to the Time Skip, his standard outfit is a red waist coat with blue trousers and a yellowish hat.
  • After the Time Skip, he keeps the same hat and trousers, but wears an open, long-sleeved red cardigan with four yellow buttons and a yellow sash tied around his waist.
  • During the Wano arc, he wears a red kimono with blue patterns and a yellow sash.
  • However, in nearly every arc, he changes his vest with another one of different color.
• Prefers Going Barefoot: He seems inclined to keep his feet as lightly clad as possible. It is very, very rare for him to don anything beyond straw sandals no matter what outfit he wears.
• Pretty Boy: Played for Laughs. While not usually drawn as a Bishōnen, in the anime, Boa Hancock's romantic fantasies have him as a tan young boy with a full Bishie Sparkle and brown glinting eyes, as well as speaking with a more mature voice than he actually speaks with.
• The Promise:
  • At the beginning of the series, he makes one with Shanks, that he'd return his Straw Hat to him one day after he has become a great pirate, and is what motivates him to start his journey. It is for this promise Shanks refuses to see the injured Luffy at Marineford, as Luffy hadn't reached that level yet.
  • He made another one with Ace and Sabo when they were children to go out to sea and live their lives free of regrets. After Sabo's supposed death, Ace promised him that he would never die and leave Luffy alone. He's only able to keep the former, and he admits there's one regret that he did have: he wouldn't able to see Luffy accomplish his dream. However, unbeknown to both of them at the time, Ace hasn't left Luffy alone in this world — Sabo still lives, and has made a promise to himself to inherit Ace's will and protect Luffy at any cost.
• Prone to Tears: As a young kid, he'd burst into tears at any sign of distress, much to Ace's annoyance. It's Played for Drama in the aftermath of his beating by Porchemy, as well as the apparent death of Sabo.
• The Protagonist: He's the central or focal character in One Piece.
• Punched Across the Room: Given the strengths of his attacks, this happen quite often to his enemies, especially when he uses the Gum-Gum Bazooka and its variations.
  • Buggy and Wapol got punched across different timelines.
  • A notable example is Caesar Clown who, after getting hit by the Grizzly Magnum, he's sent flying through different rooms reaching the end of his vast laboratory.
  • And a particularly effective one against Doflamingo, where he sends the Warlord to the other side of Dressrosa after showing off his Gear Four for the first time.
    • Almost every attack with Gear Four has this effect if Luffy manages to hit his target. Even Charlotte Katakuri is not safe. Only Big Mom and Kaido laugh it off.
• Raised by Grandparents: He was looked after by his grandfather during his youth, although, since Garp is often busy with his job as a Marine, he spent more time with his foster mother Dadan.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: His Gum-Gum Gatling technique and its variations consist in a series of punches to his enemies. They're often used to finish his main opponent once and for all or to get rid of hordes of weak enemies.
• Real Men Eat Meat: Meat is his favourite food, to the point he's often seen eating a large chunk of meat, and he's a strong and tough pirate.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Inverted. During the Enies Lobby Arc, when he and the other Straw Hats go to rescue Robin, Luffy changes his outfit — he stills keeps his red vest but switches to black shorts. He's still the same lovable, Idiot Hero.
• Red Baron: He's known as "Straw Hat" (or "Mugiwara") from his Iconic Item. After the events of Whole Cake Island, he's also known as "The Fifth Emperor". Luffy's new title of the "Fifth Emperor" would be "Gokō" or "Gokou" if written in the same manner as "Yonkō"(四皇), remarkably similar to the Shonen Jump protagonist of Dragonball that served as the inspiration for Monkey D. Luffy, Goku. (the actual Japanese phrasing is "Gobanme no Kōtei", which implies that Luffy is a "fifth emperor" alongside the other four, but not counted among their number).
• Red Is Heroic: Luffy's main color scheme is red and he's, for the most part, an heroic person willing to do anything for his friend. His straw hat also has a red band on it.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Since he's a hyperactive keet always ready to have an adventure, he's generally the Red Oni to any other, like his crewmates or his allies (like Law), who are more often than not calm and clever compared to him.
• Required Secondary Powers: Luffy's inhuman strength compliments his Devil Fruit powers. The interesting thing though is Luffy gained this independently of the Gum-Gum Fruit, which simply turned his body into rubber. This element is Discussed during his fight with Rob Lucci, who notes that Gear Two is a technique made by and only for a Rubber Man like him, as normal human body couldn't withstand the increased metabolism, blood flow and strain.
• Right Makes Might: If one has a strong ambition, one will always prevail in the end.
• Rousing Speech: Gives one to the prisoners of Udon Prison, telling them he intends to defeat Kaido and make sure Wano will never go hungry again. This, followed by him defeating the warden, convinces the prisoners to rebel and conquer Udon.
• Rubber-Hose Limbs: Since he ate the Gum-Gum Fruit, his limbs were transformed into rubber, so they can stretch and inflate any way he likes.
• Rubber Man: Thanks to consuming the Gum-Gum Fruit, and he refers to himself as this in exact words. He's more literally rubber than most examples, too. He can't stretch himself without momentum, and when he does, he snaps back into place like real rubber. His powers come with certain bonuses; his clothes automatically stretch with him, it takes incredible force to hurt him with blunt attacks without Haki, bullets and cannon balls bounce off of him, he's immune to electricity (even if its infused with Haki), his rubber bones can't be broken or cracked, and he rarely gets winded because his rubber heart and lungs pump more efficiently. Other characters comment that his power is "weird" even by Devil Fruit standards.
• Rule of Symbolism: Curiously, Gear Four: Bounce-Man. In that form, Luffy just happens to resemble a rubber version of a Kongorikishi, a wrathful, protector guardian deity in Japanese Buddhism. Oda states that the form actually is inspired by that deity.

S — T

• Sacred Hospitality: Anyone who feeds Luffy is a friend of his, and heaven help the idiot who hurts his friend in front of him. While Luffy already had planned to take down Kaido as part of his journey to become Pirate King, his beef with the Emperor becomes personal once he sees how Tama is suffering from starvation thanks to the Animal Kingdom Pirates' cruelty yet gave what little food she had to him out of kindness. Likewise, he protects Atlas from Lucci because she fed him even though he has no idea why Lucci is on Egghead or why he attacked her.
• Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Luffy is a very strong fighter, but he has absolutely none of the most basic pirating skills or even any day to day skills really. Lampshaded as part of a Badass Boast when he fights Arlong, saying that he can't use swords, navigate, cook or lie. It's not all his fault as Garp only taught him to fight and Dadan was very hands off in raising him, so there was no one to teach him these things.
• Secret Legacy: The mysterious "Will of D." that several characters have mentioned. Goes a bit further when he's revealed to have Roger's hat and can hear the voices of Sea Kings like the man himself could.
• Secret-Keeper: He accidentally discovers Boa Hancock's "Hoof of the Rising Dragon" brand on her back and later learns of the Gorgon Sisters' secret past as slaves, but doesn't reveal it to anyone and prevents the Kuja from seeing it in one occasion.
• Self-Harm: In his debut appearance, Luffy, still a child, stabs himself under his left eye to show off to the Red Hair Pirates that he's tough, obtaining his characteristic scar under his eye.
• Series Mascot: Luffy along with Goku from Dragon Ball are the mascots for Shonen Jump, both being the protagonists of the most sold and arguably the most popular manga series.
• Shared Family Quirks: Even before Garp is revealed as Luffy's grandfather, they both show a Bunny-Ears Lawyer mentality, being more concerned with eating most of the time, often being absent-minded, and having a tendency to randomly fall asleep.
• Shared Signature Move: Despite not sharing the same Devil Fruit as Ace, Luffy manages to create his own version of Ace's "Fire Fist" in the form of "Gum-Gum Red Hawk" (with even the similar Kanji). This move has become one of his most defining post-timeskip moves.
• Shooting Superman:
  • Marines seem to love firing their guns and cannons at him despite the fact that they bounce right off and back at them every time. Especially jarring since you'd think that by now it'd be common knowledge that Luffy — a world famous pirate and most definitely one of the government's number one targets — is immune to normal firearms.
  • However, before he learns Haki, Luffy himself is guilty of this a few times. He has the tendency to charge headfirst into fights with Logia users even after it's clear he cannot touch them. His very first fight against Crocodile comes to mind, where he spends five minutes punching him to no avail only to get impaled on a hook for his troubles.
• Showy Invincible Hero:
  • Luffy earns the record-breaking bounty of 30 million berries for a rookie in East Blue where he win all his fights. Smoker being an exception to the rule. And the East Blue Saga covers a hundred manga chapters! Even in the early parts of his adventure in the Grand Line, Luffy’s win record continues and it seems like nothing can stop him until he reaches his goal. But then, from the Sabaody arc to the Paramount War, it's subverted. Repeatedly. And hard.
  • Every fight Luffy has for the first three arcs after the timeskip are complete curb-stomp battles with him on the giving end, and he literally does not have a serious fight until the Dressrosa arc, and it's against an old, legendary pirate who used to fight with Garp back in the day, quickly followed by Donquixote Doflamingo, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. It's downplayed because despite this, both the audience and Luffy himself are well aware that he's still got a long way to go before he reaches his dream, and that it only gets harder from here on out. It's worth noting that said pirate, while incredibly strong, is long past his prime as he later admits, and that Luffy takes on Doflamingo with the help of Trafalgar Law, and it's still his toughest fight to the moment until he engages Gear Four. After that he has to start taking on Emperor subordinates to risk having his ass kicked again. Then he barely survives a confrontation with Big Mom and is later pulverized by Kaido, demonstrating that, for all of his gains, he still has an extremely long way to go.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: He tends to shut up the Big Bads of the current arc in their speech. Prominent examples include against Arlong, Crocodile, Bellamy, Spandam, Caesar Clown, and Doflamingo.
• Signature Headgear: Luffy's main feature is his straw hat with a red band. It's even on his Jolly Roger! It Was a Gift from Shanks who used to have the hat. One flashback shows that it's the same hat Gold Roger himself wore when he started his journey.
• Signature Laugh: "Shishishi!"
• Signature Move: The Gum-Gum Pistol, Bazooka, Gatling, and Balloon are his four most iconic moves, although he typically uses their different Gears versions now since he's facing stronger enemies.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Luffy's first and greatest crime was being born into the world, for his father is the world-renowned criminal "The Revolutionary" Monkey D. Dragon; a predicament similar to that of his adopted brother Ace, their existences alone being sins in the eyes of the world. Unlike Ace, however, his parentage doesn't really bother him all that much — partially because stuff like that never mattered to Luffy, and partially because Luffy doesn't know he even has a father until Garp, his grandfather, tells him at the age of seventeen. He also suffers this under the fact that his grandfather is Garp, and at least one pirate, Don Chinjao, has a vendetta against the old guy and considers having it at Luffy is enough for revenge.
• Sleep-Mode Size: After using Gear Three, Luffy reverts to a form where he is incapable of using his Devil Fruit ability for an amount of time roughly equal to Gear Three time. This form is about two feet tall, and somehow, his clothes and hat shrink with him. This drawback disappears after the timeskip and he no longer shrinks after using Gear Three.
• Sliding Scale of Leadership Responsibility: Depending on the situation, Luffy will go up and down the scale as needed. Most of the time he's the Hammond, simply because due to his Crippling Overspecialization, he knows that it's just better to let Nami or Robin take the reins, (though he will insist on making the final decision himself on where to go, he leaves it to Nami on how to get there). But when the fighting starts he's standing right in the middle of the Theoden and the Superman, joining his crew in the fighting but also going after the biggest threats.
• Smart Ball: While some of the times he's right are the result of his bizarre or poorly thought out guesses being correct, there are times when he's more reasonable than usual, like when he tells Vivi that people will die no matter what she does, and defeating Crocodile, rather than intercepting the rebels, is the surest way to stop the rebellion.
• Spanner in the Works: Whenever Luffy visits a new island, he always happens to stumble across the current Arc Villain'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 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: 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 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.
• Spider-Sense: He's one of the many people with Observation Haki, an innate power that allows him to sense imminent danger, see people's "auras" (outline) through walls, and hear the voices of any living creatures around him for at least several miles. After his fight with Katakuri, he masters it to the point of foreseeing small glimpses of the future.
• Stock Shōnen Hero: He is the Trope Codifier of the "new generation" of Shonen heroes of this type alongside Naruto. Luffy is the Idiot Hero and a Leeroy Jenkins of a caliber so major that the rest of the cast tolerate him only because he is very good at fighting and The Heart of the crew. Still, the only time so far that his incredible drive to keep on fighting and his on-the-spot inventiveness fails him is during the Marineford arc, which is a massive Wham Episode.
• Straight for the Commander: While the other Straw Hats fight the subordinates, Luffy usually takes on the Big Bad (or strongest opponent) of each arc. The other Straw Hats usually let him do this because they know he's, more often than not, the only one who has a chance against said opponent.
• Straight Man and Wise Guy: He's the wise guy for everyone else's straight man, due to his impulsive and naive personality. More commonly, he's the wise guy for the entire crew's straight man (especially Nami or Usopp). In his recent alliance with the Heart Pirates, he's the Wise Guy to Law's Straight Man: They go on a great tear in 748, with Cavendish and Zoro in the middle of it all.
• Strange Minds Think Alike:
  • He and Zoro, despite having very different personalities, are both really quirky and share similar thoughts. For example:
    • An anime-only example: Luffy and Zoro both meet Gaimon, a small man whose body is stuck in a box. The first question both of them have upon learning this is "Are you a boxed son?". This is a pun on the Japanese concept of "boxed daughters", referring to the practice of girls with a sheltered upbringing, but since it certainly doesn't refer to a literal box, it's a pretty dumb pun. Luffy and Zoro were both being serious and not trying to make a joke with it.
    • In Skypeia, Zoro, while currently in a group with Nami and Robin, gives a Tarzan yell while swinging on a vine, stating that that's just "the right way to swing on a vine". Not long after this, Luffy, who is currently with Usopp and Sanji, also swings on a vine and gives a Tarzan yell.
    • After Luffy's explanation on the difference between pirates and heroes — heroes share meat with others, pirates keep it all for themselves (which Zoro is not present for and doesn't hear) — Zoro later gives an incredibly similar analogy, except he substitutes booze for meat.
    • When Luffy and Nami are captured, imprisoned, and restrained by Big Mom's crew; Luffy intends to get out by tearing off his arms, which is very similar to something Zoro once did in Little Garden, where he intended to cut off his legs to escape Mr. 3's Giant Candle Service Set.
  • Roger and Luffy seek to become the Pirate King simply to prove their freedom, and Shanks entrusted Roger's straw hat to Luffy once he saw how alike they are. For both of them, being Pirate King is also a means to achieve a certain dream, which is said to be a childish and absurd wish.
    Shanks: Mr. Rayleigh, I was so surprised! In the East Blue... there's a kid saying the exact same thing as captain Roger! The very same words the captain said!
• Strong and Skilled: Since the beginning of his journey, Luffy is an very skilled hand-to-hand fighter and has trained extensively to master a seemingly weak Devil Fruit power, but throughout the Four Emperors Saga, Luffy takes strides to master Haki completely, in order to reach his full potential and overcome the otherwise-unstoppable opposition of the Four Emperors. By the time Luffy defeats Kaido and the series' final act begins, he has under his belt: Advanced Armament Haki, Advanced Observation Haki, and Advanced Conqueror's Haki, making him one of the most skilled Haki users in the series' history^note Aside from Luffy, only Rayleigh and Roger are known to have mastered all three forms of Haki to their highest level — and all wrapped up with an Awakened Devil Fruit power, giving implicit mastery in that regard, as well.
• Super-Breath: Luffy's rubber body enables him to inhale and exhale as much air as he wants. His Gum-Gum Storm attack involves inflating himself with a lot of air like Gum-Gum Balloon, twisting his body to increase pressure, and exhaling with a force so strong that it launches him into the air almost like flight.
• Super Drowning Skills: Luffy is the most common victim of the Devil Fruit's weakness in his crew for reasons you can easily guess. He can't swim even before getting his Devil Fruit powers, hence why Shanks's crew nicknames him "Anchor".
• Super Gullible: Luffy is the only one besides Chopper who is gullible enough to fall for Usopp's Sniper King disguise. In the Whole Cake Island arc, he falls for Caesar's disguise despite having recognized him a few moments before. The only aversion is Pekoms's far too obvious disguise.
• Super Mode: He has a few techniques, which he dubs "Gears", that makes him much stronger.
  • Gear Two is achieved by him pumping his blood with his leg (pre-timeskip) or just by yanking up his limb hard enough (post-timeskip) to highly increase blood flow and metabolism, giving him a glowing pinkish appearance and hot steam coming out of his body; this increases his strength and speed to dramatic levels, at the cost of his lifespan (because his organs work multiple times harder than normal), although this drawback is minimized post-timeskip.
  • Gear Three is achieved by him blowing air into his bone hole (after biting his finger first). This gives him hardened bone structure (to the point that bullets ricochet off him as opposed to bounce away) and enlarged limbs, but this makes him move slower, and he becomes Super-Deformed and weak for a minute after the mode stops. Post timeskip the drawbacks have been minimized; now he can keep the air insides his bones in only the places where he needs it, making him more flexible.
  • Gears Second and Third can be combined to become much stronger, but doing so leaves him exhausted after a short use.
  • "Gear Four: Bounce-Man" is activated by blowing air into his muscles, combined with Armament Haki. It turns him into a rubber version of a fighting deity. He uses the full potential of his body's elasticity here, and combines it with his Armament Haki, retracting his limbs to launch them with absolute force, fly, remotely guide his punches, and increasing his durability to new levels. He has developed this state in order to continuously fight the powerful beasts in Ruskaina, the island he trained during the 2-year Time Skip. However, it has a strict time limit and if Luffy goes over it, he'll be unable to use Haki for a good 10 minutes and be barely able to move during that time, leaving him extremely vulnerable. However, eating a lot of food can easily counter this weakness if the opportunity presents itself.
  • "Gear Four: Snake-Man", is a variation of Bounce-Man that is less durable but much faster. It specializes in very fast punches that can change direction, so they can hit the target even after the latter has dodged them. It's fast enough to hit Katakuri, who has Combat Clairvoyance.
• Super-Reflexes: Like many characters, he has them and developed them through sheer training, especially thanks to Observation Haki. The latter becomes advanced enough to become Combat Clairvoyance.
• Super-Toughness:
  • His rubber body nullifies all but the most powerful blunt blows (though Haki-imbued attacks strike him as if he were normal). However, though his toughness is certainly partially from his Devil Fruit, knowing Luffy it's highly likely he'd be Made of Iron even without it.
  • One of the best examples is what he endures facing Crocodile. Three. Times. He's stabbed with a giant hook, drained of all the fluid in his body, poisoned, cut by Crocodile's extremely sharp sand, and physically beaten all over the course of 24 hours; yet he survives with just some bruises and cuts (although, without some external help, he would've died after the first match).
  • It has to be noted that he's reached completely insane, almost Whitebeard-esque levels of endurance by the time of the Whole Cake Island Arc. First, he takes a beating and fights for 11 hours straight against the 860,000,000 bounty Sweet 3 General Charlotte Cracker, which includes nearly getting his arm cut clean off. Then, he takes an extremely severe, Diable Jambe enhanced beating from Sanji, knocking out his tooth and rendering him briefly unconscious (which almost never happens to Luffy). Then, he almost immediately gets beaten to a pulp again by random Charlotte Family members with Haki-enhanced punches. Then, he draws blood from nearly tearing his own arms off in an attempt to escape Big Mom's prison. Then, he gets set on fire in the process of being freed from prison by Jimbei. Then, he takes more injuries fighting off guys on the way to meet Sanji. Then, after a few hours of recovery, he starts taking his worst beating yet to that point while fighting the implacable, billion bounty man that is Charlotte Katakuri for another 9+ hours — including surviving an attack that blows◊ a considerable chunk of flesh◊ right off his torso. He's taken all of this damage in one arc... and got back up each and every time.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Subverted with Nightmare Luffy. He's a scary, giant, evil-looking Hulk-like figure, and Nami and Usopp are initially afraid of him, but he's actually still Luffy on the inside. Just REALLY serious. However, that could be something to do with shadows inside him, since Usopp and Nami notice he behaves differently.
• Sworn Brothers: He's sworn brothers with Ace and Sabo. None of them are related, but they are very close and have made a ceremony of drinking sake and become brothers. Luffy is heartbroken by both their deaths, so no words can express the joy on his face when he learns that he still has one brother left in the world.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Towards Katakuri. While Luffy usually sends enemies flying or needs to immediately take off after beating them, once Katakuri finally falls for good he takes a rare pause to cover up the man's face. This is important because Katakuri's rep is based on him hiding his face and never being seen lying on his back, so while Katakuri is on his back now anyway, Luffy at least affords him the respect of keeping his face hidden after seeing how his allies turn on him when they discover what it looks like.
• Tagalong Kid: 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.
• Taking the Heat: By telling Big Mom he is the one who ruined her candy factory and ate all her candy, he earns her rage, which would have otherwise gone to destroying Fish-Man Island. It's a lie and Big Mom suspects as much but she doesn't try to disprove him and instead accepts his challenge.
• Talented, but Trained: In the story, Luffy exhibits a natural talent and exceptional potential as a warrior, which is a rare occurrence. However, he achieves success through his determination, hard work, and the unwavering support of his crewmates and other people he meets. In addition to his childhood training under his grandfather Garp and his adoptive brothers Ace and Sabo, Luffy also undergoes apprenticeships under exceptional Haki masters such as Silvers Rayleigh and Hyougoro "of the Flower Capital" to improve his skills, particularly in Haki mastery. As a result, his efforts bear magnificent fruit.
• Tastes Like Friendship: Although his friendship with them grows for different reasons over time, it only takes Nami and Rebecca some food for him to instantly start to like them, pretty reasonable for a simple-minded Big Eater. The latter case is lampshaded when Law expresses annoyance that Luffy's fighting for Rebecca's sake just because she gave him food. It happens again in the Wano Arc when Tama offers him food, especially because she offers him her own lunch.
• Taught by Experience: As the young captain of the Straw Hat Pirates and their expanding network of allies, Luffy embodies one of the primary reasons behind their impressive accomplishments- his willingness to learn from his experiences and adapt to different circumstances. This is especially true after completing Rayleigh's two-year training. He embarks on a perilous journey through treacherous waters, including the Grand Line, where he faces numerous obstacles and adversaries, such as the Marines, Seven Warlords, and Four Emperors. Despite the challenges he faces, Luffy's journey enables him to enhance his combat and leadership skills, which continue to improve as he strives towards his ultimate goal of becoming the Pirate King and fulfilling his unknown dream.
• Tears of Joy: He can only burst into tears when, in Chapter 731, Sabo reveals he is alive. He's really that happy and surprised to learn he still has one brother.
• Teeth Flying: Luffy loses a tooth after getting kicked in the face by Sanji — and unusually for One Piece, it stays like that for several chapters/episodes. Fortunately though, he eventually drinks some milk and it just grows back. Luffy himself also often does this to his opponents, usually after hitting them with the finisher.
• Terrible Artist: In a nutshell, Luffy is a terrible painter: His attempt to paint his Jolly Roger on the Going Merry isn't very successful and the rest of the crew hates it so much they have Usopp paint over it, even his logo painted on Laboon looks just as bad. After Foxy loses his Jolly Roger, Luffy is nice enough to paint him a new one, and Foxy is moved by his offer, until he sees that the result is terrible and embarrassing to travel with. Luffy's drawing of what the crew's shipwright should look like is so bad it freaks out both Usopp and Sanji.
• Thanks for the Mammary:
  • Luffy accidentally gropes Boa Hancock when he's hiding under her dress since how he's latched onto her keeps her from walking straight. The act certainly affects Hancock, but she's forced to hold up her facade in front of the Marines.
  • 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.
• Thinking Tic: When in thought, Luffy will hold his hand up to his chin.
• Third Time's The Charm: Luffy fights Crocodile three times, in the first two he loses and almost dies, getting saved by Robin in the first time and by some last drop of water the second time, while in their third and last attempt, Luffy finally beats the Warlord. It also takes him four separate rounds with Doflamingo before he finally beats him, though in these cases it's not Doflamingo that defeats him but simply finds a way to keep Luffy busy.
• This Is Unforgivable!: While not a traditional hero, he has a strong, innate sense of justice that causes him to go on furious crusades when he sees someone, he's fond of or respects unfairly trampled on.
• Time to Unlock More True Potential: By the end of the first half of the series, approx. time around the Sabaody Arc, his skills and power are simply no longer enough to beat anybody or anything stronger than a single Pacifista (with the support of his entire team at that...). Thankfully, he gets better and after two years of training, he can now also defeat a Pacifista in a single hit (along with a giant Kraken, for that matter...).
• Tired of Running:
  • Before leaving Dressrosa he takes on Admiral Fujitora instead of escaping as he's tired of having run for two years. As he correctly pieces together, he really has no choice but to face the Admirals and Emperors if he wants to become the Pirate King, after all. Still, he ultimately leaves before the fight could end with a winner..
  • When Nami begs him to run from Charlotte Cracker, an Emperor's right-hand man with an 860,000,000 beri bounty, luffy refuses and, sure enough, he's able to beat him with her help.
• To Be a Master: His dream is to become King of the Pirates, which means he has to become the strongest pirate. However, being Pirate King is actually a means to a mysterious end — Luffy's actual true dream he only ever told Ace, Sabo and Shanks about and that he unknowingly shares with Gol D. Roger.
• Token Good Teammate: While not necessarily a team, the Eleven Supernovas are all notorious pirates who are all morally ambiguous at best and downright cruel at worst. Even Zoro is such a big Blood Knight that at times it's hard to remember that he's one of the good guys. Luffy by comparison is a Nice Guy who would never hurt an innocent and mainly got his high bounty out of self-defense of himself and his friends.
• Too Dumb to Live: Indeed. He would have been killed many times if not for incredible strokes of luck and allies who are willing to save his ass; it's worth noting that he began his voyage with fighting ability, modest cunning, boundless enthusiasm, and no other skills that could facilitate his dream (navigation, carpentry, cooking, basic medicine, etc.). In some less dangerous situations he knows what he does, but his problem is that he has no fears and fails to recognize true danger, sometimes, his choices put even his companions in danger.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Invoked. After the death of his brother, Luffy realizes he's too weak for the New World and decides to spend two years of training under Rayleigh's wing, during which he improves his skills and learns about Haki. He comes back to Sabaody as a much more powerful fighter, but claims to still have a lot to learn. It's mostly shown during the fight with Katakuri, where Luffy masters Observation Haki so he can go toe-to-toe with his opponent.
  • In Wano, after training in the Prison Mines under Hyogoro's wing, Luffy goes from being downed in one hit, in Gear Four form, by a drunk Kaido to being able to land a hit on the same Emperor with a single Gear Three punch, showing off a new technique. In the middle of his rematch with Kaido, he also figures out that he can coat his body with his Conqueror's Haki in the same vein as Armament, which gives Luffy the power to knock down Kaido without even touching him or using any Gears.
• Top-Heavy Guy: When Luffy activates his Gear Four Bounce-Man, his upper body gest much larger, while the lower half remains small. He also appears like this when using Gum-Gum Balloon.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Meat. Any kind of meat (Although he's not as fond of seafood, as revealed by the Fish-Man Island arc). Eating it even makes him stronger, and if he's not fighting or playing, he's always seen eating meat. He's been once put in a sleep that should have lasted for three days but he's woken up when Usopp yells there is meat. He loves it to the point that, in a crossover with Toriko, when he orders a 3 course meal, ALL of them consists of meat. Even the drinks.
• Training from Hell:
  • He went through this in childhood. It involved being thrown into jungles at night and tied to balloons, apparently, and were done by his grandparent, with the genuine intentions to help.
  • To get as much strong as possible in the span of two years, he's trained by Silvers Rayleigh on an island inhabited by giant and dangerous animals.
• Tranquil Fury: If you piss him off enough to make him enter this mode, you're screwed. Luffy usually starts his fights in Unstoppable Rage mode, and finishes them in Tranquil Fury mode, when his enemy has really pissed him off.
• Transformation Sequence: In the anime adaptation, Luffy activating Gear Four: Snake-Man shows a sequence of the steam coming off his body becoming writhing snakes. The snakes coil around parts of his body then fade away to show his new appearance.
• Trauma Conga Line: The Paramount War is one huge Break the Cutie moment for our hero, starts during the Sabaody arc, where all his True Companions are scattered, then gets many times worse in Impel Down and Marineford: he finally rescues his brother only for that brother to lose his life protecting him, he is very lucky that he is able to return to being himself.
• Through His Stomach: A surefire and easy way to get Luffy to be your best friend. Just ask Rebecca or Tama.
• Trouser Space: He keeps the "octopus" in his pants.
• Tyke Bomb: A technically non-villainous example (well, depending on how you view the Marines); Garp put him through some brutal training as a child so he could be prepared to be a Marine as soon as he was old enough to join. As a result, he was already strong enough to beat up grown men and wild animals at age 7 and could casually shatter stone with a punch by the time he was 14. He decides to become a pirate instead of a Marine.

U — Y

• Übermensch: Luffy refuses to follow the typical code of pirates, a code that revolves around pirating for treasure rather than your dreams, and does not harm civilians and steal. On one occasion, this even gets him ridiculed and beaten, but he still stands strong by his beliefs.
• Undying Loyalty: Luffy not only earns this from his friends he freely gives it too. Nothing will stop him from helping his friends achieve their dreams. He will protect them with his last breath or even declare war to the entire World Government if needed.
• The Unfettered: The reason he's gotten as far as he has — his inability to hold back or restrain himself, is one of his most defining traits. His only fetter is his loved ones, especially his crew and the closest family to him.
• The Un-Reveal: In his flashback, Luffy reveals to Ace and Sabo his own personal goal, but the reader isn't shown what he said and only Ace and Sabo's shocked reaction are seen. Oden's flashback heavily implies that is the same as Roger's. At the beginning of the Egghead Arc, well over 1000 chapters in the story, Luffy reveals it to his crewmates as well, and they are just as surprised as Ace and Sabo were, but what this dream is isn't revealed as well.
• Unskilled, but Strong: In the first half of the story, Luffy lacks any knowledge of Haki; he starts out only being able to make people submit to his power, and only during the Time Skip does he learn how to properly use its forms. This is also what many tell him In-Universe during the Paramount War with regards to his abilities in general. His physical power and natural talent for combat is quite impressive, but... a combination of not having any sort of Armament or Observation Haki at all, no knowledge of when they are being used against him, fighting against people even stronger and faster than he is, and most importantly, fighting against people who can actually negate his strongest attacks (like Magellan) for the first time lead to a long line of defeats. Thankfully, he's gotten better and is now Strong and Skilled.
• Unstoppable Rage: When someone truly pisses him off, usually by hurting one of his friends, Luffy becomes a terrifying force that never stops. During Enies Lobby, the soldiers are literally being sent flying by the hundreds from the moment Luffy gets there, and it isn't over until 3000 have been defeated and he has made his point — shit is getting serious.
• Variant Power Copying: Because Devil Fruit powers are unique, Luffy can't quite exactly duplicate moves, but he learns to emulate Shave with Gear Two, Fire Fist with his Red Hawk.
• Victory by Endurance:
  • Rob Lucci is the strongest opponent Luffy fights up until that point, and he's a pure physical fighter just like Luffy, who pushes himself to his absolute limit to knock Lucci out with one final attack when they're both already exhausted.
  • He defeats Z this way in One Piece: Film Z, as their fight eventually devolves from using their powers/weapons to just flat out hitting each other until one of them fell.
  • His duel with Katakuri. While Katakuri is faster, stronger, more skilled, and overall the better combatant, if there is one thing Luffy is better than him at, it's taking hits. Luffy takes advantage of that, dodging and tanking Katakuri's hits until his Observation Haki advances far enough for him to start countering and attacking back. Finally, after over ten hours of fighting, the battle ends on a Double Knockout — but when they both get up, Katakuri falls down again while Luffy remains standing, giving him the win.
• Villain Respect: During the initial phase of his voyage, Luffy earns the admiration and reverence of multiple notable villains. Moreover, even after the Time Skip, he consistently demonstrates his exceptional abilities and continues to gain the respect and recognition of numerous high-ranking pirates in the treacherous waters of the New World.
  • The first is Dracule Mihawk, who as a member of the Seven Warlords of the Sea is technically an enemy of all pirates but who proves himself to be somewhat of a Friendly Enemy to the Straw Hat crew and to Luffy and Zoro in particular (Luffy due to Mihawk's past association with the former's idol Shanks, Zoro due to Mihawk being impressed with his tenacity as a swordsman).
    Mihawk: Youngster, what is your goal?
    Luffy: Pirate King!
    Mihawk: [smirks] That is a path of incomparable danger. Even more difficult than to surpass me.
    Luffy: I don't care. I will become one anyway!
  • Later on, during the Marineford Arc, Mihawk is again impressed by Luffy's determination and decides to test him on the battlefield. Despite how Luffy is no match for him, his charisma causes Whitebeard to order his commanders to keep him safe. Mihawk comments that this ability to turn everyone around him into his ally is 'The most dangerous ability on the seas'.
  • During the Skypiea arc, Luffy faces off against the villainous God Eneru. In the midst of their battle, Luffy boldly declares his intention to become the Pirate King, making this a possible example of a Combat Compliment.
    Eneru: Pirate King? What country does he rule?
    Luffy: He is the king of the sea!
    Eneru: That doesn't sound half bad... Let's finish this in the sky.
  • During the Enies Lobby arc, Rob Lucci commends Luffy on his leadership skills and acknowledges him as a better leader than Spandam, Lucci's Pointy-Haired Boss.
  • One of the characters that encourages and supports Luffy to follow his dreams, regardless of what others say, is Blackbeard. This is noteworthy because it happens on two occasions - before and after Luffy discovers the true identity of Blackbeard. The second instance may be perceived as being more like flattery from a negative influence.
  • Post-Time Skip, Charlotte Katakuri. Out of all of Big Mom's subordinates, he is the strongest. Despite this, he has come to respect Luffy the most. During their fight, Luffy's determination and refusal to condemn Katakuri for his flaws inspires him to undergo Character Development. He stops fighting for the sake of his family's expectations and instead fights for himself. By the end of the battle, Luffy has become a Worthy Opponent to him. When Luffy claims that he will defeat Big Mom and become the Pirate King, Katakuri genuinely believes him.
  Katakuri: (exhausted) Someday... will you... come back here... to defeat Big Mom?
  Luffy: (similarly exhausted) Of course! I am the man... who will be the Pirate King!
  Katakuri: (smirks) You're looking... pretty far into the future...!! (collapses)
  • The sixth person is Kaido, who only held genuine admiration for one other person before Luffy, Kozuki Oden. At first, he saw Luffy as just another "insolent kid" among many others. When Luffy attacks him in a village, Kaido barely felt his blows and took him down with a single hit. During the raid on Onigashima, Luffy confronts Kaido again and lands a punch that actually hurts him. Kaido responds with a smile and begins to fight. Despite being knocked out twice, Luffy keeps coming back. The fight seems to be over, but like last time, Kaido's opponent is distracted (this time a government agent), and Kaido manages to smash Luffy's head. An angry Kaido kills the Cipher Pol agent in retaliation. However, Luffy survives and awakens the true power of his Devil Fruit. Upon seeing Luffy return, Kaido is grateful and even apologizes for the distraction.
• Waistcoat of Style: Luffy always wears a waistcoat; he initially only wears red ones, but starting with the Thriller Bark arc, he wears a different color every arc. His waistcoats don't look as stylish as they normally would since he never wears anything underneath them. After the time skip, Luffy replaces his waistcoat with an unbuttoned jacket.
• Weak-Willed: While known for having a lot of Heroic Willpower, when it comes to hypnosis Luffy tends to be incredibly suggestible early on in the series, even when he's not the intended target.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: A younger Luffy wanted to be friends with Ace, the older kid living with him, and Ace's friend Sabo, who found him to be a weak, annoying crybaby, and lead him into tons of deadly situations to escape him, but he kept coming back. Eventually, Luffy shows how tough he really is, and they become brothers.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: As he self-admits, he can only give punches, and most of the situations he's gotten into have been solved through liberal use of punching the right guy in the face. Prior to Marineford, it's typically his only strategy, many times literally just asking whose ass he has to kick. It's fitting, as one of his stronger techniques is also called Gum-Gum Mallet and Gum-Gum Giant Mallet, which both mean hammer.
• Wild Card: As the Captain of the Straw Hats, an entire crew of Wild Cards themselves due to the mangling of the power balance they've done over the past two years, he is one himself. Hell, considering his reputation for being a Spanner in the Works and his general unpredictability, he counts greatly. Sometimes he's unpredictable even to his own crew.
• With My Hands Tied: He one-shots Vander Decken with his arms chained.
• The Wonka: He's the captain of the main crew, which has become among the world's most infamous pirate crews, and has accomplished several feats using a lateral or outright insane branch of logic.
• The Worf Barrage: A side effect of Luffy picking increasingly difficult fights in the New World is that his previous ultimate attacks are often ineffective against the new threat, necessitating a Next Tier Power-Up to even scratch them. Luffy's Kong Organ, Gear Four equivalent of his Gatling Gun, is notable in being used to demonstrate his opponents' strength on every occasion despite being one of his strongest attacks, be it Katakuri's Observation Haki or Kaido and Cracker's resilience.
• The Worf Effect:
  • Generally speaking, every time Luffy grows stronger or gains a new ability, his next opponent will counter or match his new power to show how much more dangerous they are than the last foe.
  • The Whitebeard War Saga (from the Sabaody Archipelago arc up until the Timeskip) inflicts one continuous Worf Effect on Luffy; from Boa Hancock smashing Pacifistas effortlessly (while Luffy needs his whole crew to barely beat one) to Smoker no selling the Jet Gatling Gun (which is his strongest Gear Two move at the time), the entirety of the saga mocks the notion that Luffy is any kind of threat to the top tier powers in the New World. Cue two years of training to catch up, and he effortlessly dodge a lightspeed beam and defeat a Pacifista with. A. Single. Punch.
  • Of particular note is Big Mom, one of the four Emperors and most powerful people in the world. At the time of their first confrontation, Luffy has just recently defeated Donquixote Doflamingo and Charlotte Cracker with Gear Four, easily overwhelming them with the raw strength of his Next Tier Power-Up although they are perhaps his two toughest opponents yet at that point. Doflamingo, in particular, is sent flying the length of a city despite attempting to block Luffy's punch with his Haki on and both arms up. Now, in comparison, Big Mom blocks the exact same punch with one Haki-covered elbow and isn't pushed back an inch from where she stands. She then laughs at the notion of Luffy being able to defeat her or Kaido, showing how powerful the Emperors really are.
  • Emperor Kaido shows why he is called "The Strongest Creature" by tanking several of Luffy's most powerful Gear Three and Gear Four Haki-empowered attacks without lasting damage before beating Luffy unconscious in a single strike by infusing his attacks with Conqueror’s Haki.
• Working Off the Debt: During the Baratie Arc, Luffy is forced to work at the titular restaurant after accidentally launching a cannonball into the eatery. Unfortunately, he quickly prove to be terrible at all the most basic chores and cannot control his hunger enough to not eat all the food. When Kreig attacks the restaurant, Zeff agrees to consider defeating him paying back the debt, since Luffy would probably put him out of business with his incompetence.
• World's Strongest Man: Luffy aspires to find the One Piece and become the Pirate King, which implies becoming the strongest man in the world. He attains the status of being one of the Four Emperors of the Seas, the most infamous and dreaded pirate commanders in the One Piece world, by defeating Kaido, the "Strongest Creature" of the Emperors.
• Worth Living For: After Ace's death, the only reason Luffy finds the resolve to keep on living is because of his crew and the fact that Ace would've wanted him to live and move on. Otherwise, Luffy would've probably turned into a Death Seeker, a clear indication of just how bad his Heroic BSoD was.
• Worthy Opponent: Throughout his voyage to become the Pirate King, Luffy earns the respect of many of the foes he faces with his growing combat skills, personality, fighting spirit, and drive.
  • He's one to Smoker. This has become especially apparent when Smoker is willing to transfer into the worst Marine base on the Grand Line, just so he could wait for Luffy in the New World. He waited two years for someone that the world thought dead, because he knew that Luffy would return to the sea sooner or later. Luffy sees him this way too, as when Smoker is stuck in Tashigi's body Luffy refuses to fight him until he's at full strength.
  • Charlotte Katakuri. Unlike a lot of Luffy's foes, Luffy make no move to insult him and instead purely bases his judgement on Katakuri's abilities as an opponent. This is even after Katakuri's physical and personality flaws are revealed to him. Eventually, this respect is returned, and after their fight concludes, Katakuri acknowledges that Luffy might very well defeat Big Mom and become the Pirate King. As a final gesture of respect, Luffy takes off the mafia hat he's wearing over his regular one to cover up Katakuri's disfigured and fanged mouth, a feature the man himself is deeply ashamed of, to hide it from the remaining members of his family.
• Wrestler of Beasts: Luffy's training during the Time Skip involves him fighting a variety of gigantic beasts like gorillas, elephants, and lions. He uses these animals as inspiration for the names he'd give his techniques in his new Gear Four forms.
• "X" Marks the Hero: He has an X-shaped scar across his chest as a gift from Akainu's attack at Marineford.
• You Are Not Ready: This is the reason Kuma scatters the crew to different islands, so that they can train and become strong enough to face the New World, but it's not clear originally. Marineford is where it's driven home that no matter how lucky or determined Luffy is, there ARE people out there who are still in a whole other league above him, and trying to tackle them head-on is a really bad idea. He and his crew then spend the next two years GETTING ready.
  Admiral Akainu: If nothing else, I praise your tenacity.
  Admiral Aokiji: But you're not ready for this stage yet.
  Admiral Kizaru: There's no way you can beat us, you know?
• You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: If Luffy stops calling a character by the nickname he's arbitrarily given them, you know he's serious.
• You Can Barely Stand: At the end of his fight with Lucci at Enies lobby, despite being on the verge of exhaustion, thanks to Usopp's cheers, Luffy still gets up and delivers Lucci a final Gum-Gum Jet Gatling. His foe can't do anything but stare in disbelief before being knocked out by dozens of punches per second.
• You Never Asked: The main reason why nobody knows that Luffy and Ace are not blood related? Nobody bothered to ask. Whitebeard might have asked Ace, but given Whitebeard's own stance on Family of Choice, he considered it just as valid.
• You Remind Me of X: Luffy frequently reminds others of Gol D. Roger, including Rayleigh, Roger's number two. The clearest example is when he almost gets executed by Buggy in Loguetown and smiles even when he thinks all hope is lost, just like Roger had in his execution. This latter similarity is noted by Smoker, and induces him to follow and capture Straw Hat.
• Young and in Charge: Despite being one of the youngest crew members, Luffy is a remarkable leader and a fierce warrior. He commands his team confidently and leads from the front, often displaying his exceptional combat skills to overcome the most challenging opponents.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: In the Syrup Village arc, some of Kuro's men cheer him on in the hopes that he'll stop their Bad Boss from killing them all. He yells that they're not on his side before he delivers the finishing blow to Kuro.
• Your Size May Vary: Luffy is generally human-sized, and is consistently drawn as a normal person. However, in his Gear Four he becomes much bigger, but how much his size changes varies between panels.

Gear Five

Human-Human Fruit, Model: Nika

Debut: Chapter 1043 (Manga), Episode 1070 (Anime)

Aliases: Joy Boy, Gear Five, The Warrior of Liberation

Zoan fruits contain a will of their own. And this particular fruit has the name of a god... the other name of the Gum-Gum fruit is... the Zoan-type Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Type, Model: Nika. Possessing a body with the properties of rubber and fighting in whatever way he fancies, bringing smiles to the faces of the people. The Warrior of Liberation, also known as... Nika, the Sun God. Awakening brings his rubbery body greater physical strength and freedom. It is said that in all the world... there is no power more ridiculous!!

—The Five Elders - Chapter 1044

Near Death Experiences often change people. For Luffy, being seemingly defeated in his duel with the Emperor Kaido causes him to undergo a strange transformation that leaves him with flaming white hair. A side conversation between the Five Elders reveals what happened — the Paramecia-type Gum-Gum Fruit never actually existed, and was only an alias they came up with to hide the fruit's true nature: the Human-Human Fruit, Model: Nika, a Mythical Zoan-type. Nika is known as the Sun God worshipped by slaves since ancient times, in hopes that he would one day come to free them from their bonds and bring smiles to their faces. Joy Boy appears to be related to Model: Nika somehow: when Luffy Awakens, Zunesha says that he hears the Drums of Liberation for the first time in 800 years, followed by saying that Joy Boy has returned.

Upon fully awakening, the fruit is said to grant "true freedom". Luffy's elastic body becomes far more mutable, allowing him to exert much finer control over his rubbery body. His elasticity also becomes more malleable, increasing his durability and resistance to a variety of attacks. Due to the enhanced flexibility, Luffy is able to wield his various Gear techniques at the same time with far less limitations. On top of that, his awakening also allows him to affect the environment around him, granting him the ability to bestow elastic properties on anything he touches, both organic and inorganic. Thanks to the diversity granted by his new powers and the creativity with which he wields them, Luffy and his surroundings appear to be operating on cartoon logic.

---

• 11th-Hour Superpower: Luffy taking Kaido's full-strength blow straight-on when he is on his last legs apparently straight-up kills him, with the SFX around his body indicating absolute silence as his heart has stopped. Luffy notes that, even if he is alive, he has no strength left to continue the fight. The narration even officially counts Kaido as the victor in their rooftop brawl. However, his Awakening revives him with an energetic grin on his face, ready to continue the fight with renewed vigour. Not only that, it further empowers his strength and abilities to new heights, allows Luffy to easily grow his hands to Gear Three's size without needing to blow air into his bones, and also rubberize the environment around him, allowing him to turn a section of floor into a shield that reflects Kaido's Blast Breath right back at him.
• Ability Mixing: As the apex of what Luffy's powers are capable of, Gear Five contains traits and abilities from all of his Gears. Luffy gains the smoky shroud over his shoulders and similar wavy Flaming Hair from his Gear Four Snake-Man form, is uncontrollably bouncing up and down all the time thanks to rubberising the immediate environment around him like a trampoline like 'Bounce-Man', has greater control over and free usage of his Sizeshifter powers from Gear Three, and activates this new Gear Five through Gear two's blood-pump mechanics, speeding up his heartbeat until it reaches the appropriate tempo.
• All There in the Manual: Contained in Road To Laugh Tale, Vol.4, it properly explains Luffy’s bouts of uncontrollable laughter and joyous disposition upon Awakening; it is not a particular effect of the Nika fruit, it is a side-effect of all Awakened Zoans, the creature they take their namesake from is now much more influential on the user’s personality, the Jailers in Impel Down were used as an example of their animals turning them into vicious brutes, as such in Luffy’s case the legend of Joy Boy / Nika directly affects his personality too.
• Amusing Injuries:
  • Attacks inflicted upon Luffy in Gear Five, including haki-infused attacks which would usually bypass his rubber body's defenses, are treated like inside a Golden Age cartoon, making them less damaging. When Luffy takes a point-blank Blast Breath from Kaido, he gets Ash Face but otherwise shrugs it off. When Kaido smacks him in the back of the head, Luffy's cranium deforms to match the shape of his mace, giving him a pointy nose and tongue momentarily. It should be noted that he still feels pain from getting struck.
  • As an awakened Paramecia Devil Fruit affects the surroundings too, same effect applies to Luffy's opponents as well, subjecting them to the same cartoony effects that dictate the damage he takes when he should land a blow, like when he drives his fist through Kaido's head and stretching out the back before snapping his arm back results in Kaido's face popping back to normal, but the pain inflicted is still on the level of getting one's skull literally caved in.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: According to Vegapunk's theory, the power of Nika is the embodiment of the world's wishes for freedom and liberation personified. As such, using its full power basically makes Luffy the avatar of it.
• As Long as There Is One Man: According to Vegapunk, so long as people wish for freedom and liberation, Nika will never vanish and always return.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: One of Luffy's new moves in this form is 'Gum-Gum Giant', which uses his expansion properties related to Gear Three to turn his entire body to the size of an actual giant, large enough to manhandle Kaido's dragon form like a large snake, with his clothes and sandals also growing to match.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Awakening Fruits maximizes the Fruit's powers but in Zoan types it also threatens to overwhelm the user's mind with its natural instincts. In Luffy's case, he becomes overly relaxed and fun-loving which means he tends to take things less seriously than he should. In Egghead, Luffy decides to pause fighting Lucci and go chat with Sentomaru instead. Lucci immediately seizes the opportunity to knock out Sentomaru and take control of the Seraphim.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Luffy is at his most-fun loving in this state and is constantly laughing his head off, not to mention looking distinctly odd with exaggerated facial expressions and Eye Pop effects In-Universe, but it also comes with a massive boost to his strength, and the effects his powers can pull off on the environment and his opponents. Luffy's first act upon awakening the form is to bodily drag Kaido in full dragon form back up to the roof and subject him to Metronomic Man Mashing with ease, inflicting Circling Birdies on the Emperor from his attacks, showing how strong he's become that he can easily manhandle Kaido in his previously nigh-unstoppable dragon form.
• Big Good: In the dangerous and unpredictable world of One Piece, Luffy quickly emerges as a prominent pirate figure, well on his way to claiming the coveted title of King of the Pirates. However, he unknowingly takes on a much greater role as well by becoming the worthy inheritor of the legacies of Nika and Joy Boy. Indeed, Luffy's discovery of his Devil fruit's true nature and power, an event that has not taken place in over 800 years, further cements his place in the lore of One Piece. As the new bearer of the title of legendary liberator of slaves, Luffy embodies the ideals of freedom and stands in direct opposition to the tyrannical World Government. In a world where power is everything, Luffy's strength and determination make him a living symbol of hope and a beacon of resistance against oppression.
• Bishōnen Line: Compared to the bulky Bound-Man and intimidating Snake-Man off Gear 4 that have almost demonic-looking appearances, Gear 5 changes Luffy's attire to white, his hair gaining a flaming look, and his eyes gaining ripple irises, but outside of his application of Toon Physics but otherwise looks not so different from his average form.
• Body Horror: Whilst Played for Laughs, Luffy's stretching ability in his awakened state extends to his enemies' bodies if he so desires it, allowing him to warp and deform them in ways that would be distinctly gory or fatal if they still ascribed to normal physical laws. Examples include stretching his hands out from within Kaido through his eyes and punching Kaido in the face hard enough to have his hand go straight through his head. Notably, whilst this doesn't kill them, it's still presented as being an incredibly painful situation for the target to experience, especially since they lack Luffy's innate control over their stretchiness.
• Breaking Old Trends: The Human-Human Fruit, Model: Nika is the first Mythical Zoan to be based off of a legend that originates from In-Universe.
• The Chooser of the One: The Five Elders state that the fruit itself seems to have a degree of sentience to it, and has been actively avoiding their attempts to capture it for 800 years. This trait implies that the fruit itself enabled Luffy to eat it, despite the effort the Red Hair Pirates went through to acquire it should have made them cautious about leaving it in an unlocked box. Additionally, Blackbeard states during his fight against Ace that the Dark Dark fruit chose him as the user, implying that Devil Fruits in general may have some agency over who eats them.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: In all likelihood, the Sun God Nika never really existed. However, because people longed for him and desired freedom, the Human Human Fruit, Model: Nika was created.
• Combo Platter Powers: Mythical Zoan users usually have several abilities associated to the mythical being they claim their origin from, but Luffy upon Awakening goes a step further. He's believed to be a Paramecia type, while in truth it was just so the World Government could bury its true Mythical Zoan nature. However, Luffy seems to be employing both benefits of an Awakened Paramecia and Awakened Zoan at the same time: his stamina is immediately recovered after being put to near-death (Zoan type) and his rubber properties affect the environment (Paramecia type). He even displays some downplayed elemental manipulation through his fruit, akin to a Logia^note although some Mythical Zoans already come with elemental abilities approaching on Logia territory, so this isn’t exclusive to Luffy, generating flames when he moves incredibly fast and using the nearby lighting as a weapon or environmental support against Kaido.
• Confusion Fu: In Gear Five, Luffy's combat style get's even more confusing than usual, as he can freely manipulate the environment and his own or his opponents body to an unprecedented degree. He uses this to become a giant rivaling even Oars, to gain extra muscle mass or to attack or defend with the ground, even transforming the background lightning in his duel with Kaito into stretchy poles for him to swing from in mid-air.
• Continuity Drift: Luffy's tremendous endurance got a new layer of justification beyond his guts and being made of rubber once Gear Five came with the revelation he is actually a Mythical Zoan devil fruit user, not a Paramecia. Zoans are stated to be super humans who boast superior natural physical attributes often beyond Paramecia and Logia types, with Awakened Zoans specifically stacking their physical attributes further beyond, to near complete regeneration levels as onlookers observed with the Jailer Beasts in Impel Down, and as seen with Luffy actually coming back from near death once he awakened.
• Crystal Dragon Jesus: The Sun God Nika is worshiped as a savior of slaves and folk hero, especially by the Buccaneer people, and it's revealed the religion Kuma followed was Nika. Joy boy is revealed to be Nika's previous incarnation, and is treated as an almost messianic figure, complete with a prophecy of his return. As such, by Awakening his Devil Fruit, Luffy has inherited both's legacies. Vegapunk even says that Nika's return has been eagerly awaited by people all over the world for hundreds of years, and people will begin looking for him now that Luffy's become the new incarnation.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Like all of Luffy's Gears, this one comes with a cost to its immense power boost. It seems to share Gear Four's Hour of Power limitation, only with a shorter time limit to use its powers and even more intense drain on stamina. In contrast to Luffy becoming unable to use Haki for 10 minutes after using Gear Four, coming out of Gear Five makes him look like he's aged 50 years and had the vitality sucked out of him at the same time. Momonosuke says that Luffy's voice is getting weaker too after he briefly falls out of Gear Five, and Kaido outright says that he'll kill himself if he pushes this new form too far in their final bout— not that Luffy cares. It's greatly implied the form is cutting into Luffy's lifespan as a cost for its immense new abilities, helped by the fact he needs to use a more extreme version of Gear Two's blood-flow mechanic—previously the example of how his Gear techniques would have negative long-term consequences for Luffy— to get his heart beating fast enough to activate the Heartbeat Soundtrack that invokes his transformation.
• Double Meaning: Nika is another name for Nike, the Greek Goddess of Victory, which reflects the fruit's incredible power and indomitable drive to spread freedom. However, the word "nika" is also a Romanized Japanese word that roughly translates to "toothy grin," which references the fruit's carefree and mischievous nature.
• Dramatic Irony: Since Nika's entire existence is obscured at all costs by the higher-up in the World Government, Luffy has no idea his fruit isn't the Gum-Gum fruit even after he awakens these powers that are decidedly different from merely turning into rubber. Therefore, he keeps terming his attacks as "Gomu Gomu No..." even when the fruit he's naming them after is just a fabricated smokescreen. Stella Vegapunk informs some of the Straw Hats as to the discrepancy on Egghead Island, but Luffy is absent for that conversation.
  Vegapunk: Even in the oldest books of Devil Fruits, there is no such thing as a Gum-Gum Fruit!!
  Ussop: What's that supposed to mean? He's always going "Gum-Gum" this and "Gum-Gum" that.
• Elemental Powers: Luffy showcases at least two varieties of elemental powers.
  • Luffy's Gum-Gum Red Hawk move, previously thought to be an effect somehow achieved through the interaction of his Haki with his highly-pressurised Gear Second moves, is retroactively revealed to be this, akin to how a cartoon character can light themselves on fire through excessive friction. When Luffy runs through the air to reach Kaido, he leaves a blazing trail of flames in his wake.
  • As his fight with Kaido continues, Luffy grabs a bolt of lightning and fashions it into a spear. In the anime, he even uses multiple lightning bolts like they were stretchy poles from the sky to the ground, bouncing between them in mid-air to batter Kaido from multiple angles.
• Eye Color Change: While his hair and clothing turn white, Luffy’s eyes turn a pinkish shade of red while in Gear Five, which add to the divine look of the transformation.
• Fighting Clown: While his powers are always inherently silly at their core, in Gear 5, he becomes absolutely ridiculous. The Awakening of his Devil Fruit turns Luffy into a constantly smiling, giggling Reality Warper who's prone to slapstick violence more akin to Looney Tunes or Animaniacs, and who gleefully does things like causing everyone (friends and enemies alike, including himself) to Eye Pop in shock, charging up a run so hard it causes the ground under him to bunch up like a rug (complete with a Wheel o' Feet), and having his face Squashed Flat by blunt hits. All of this absurdity doesn't diminish the fact that he's one of the strongest characters in the series and someone who's got the corrupt hegemony of the government panicking.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: When the third act of Wano gets underway, there's an increasing mention of Joy Boy happening from multiple characters, with Oden's flashback revealing that he left the treasure behind on Laugh Tale that Roger would later claim as his own, King recalling a conversation he had with Kaido over whether the latter would 'become' him, and Momonosuke revealing that Zunesha was an old compatriot of his from 800 years ago. Luffy's Gum-Gum fruit is shown to be much more important than it actually seemed, with Who's-Who revealing that he was tasked with keeping it secured on a transport ship for the World Government when he was part of CP9, and was immediately made persona non grata to them over losing it to Shanks. The Five Elders mention that there was a particular Devil Fruit they tried to erase the true name of from history a few chapters before it's confirmed that the Gum-Gum is that self-same fruit. Zunesha gifts Luffy the title of 'Joy Boy' as a result.
• Flaming Hair: Downplayed. The Awakening of the fruit turns Luffy's normally short-cut black hair longer and changes its colour to white, with a shape resembling a blazing fire, like the Flame-Flame Fruit's appearance, to give it a divine appearance akin to "the Sun God" the fruit was named after.
• Foreshadowing: During the Skypiea Arc, in chapter 253, when the Straw Hats are dancing around their campfire, Luffy's silhouette is almost exactly the same as that of Nika's depiction shown when Who's-Who discusses him with Jinbei, minus the weapons he's holding in his hands, visually hinting at a connection between them.
• Genre Refugee: Luffy's powers in Gear Five are straight out of a cartoon show, something that doesn't exist in One Piece. Comic books and official broadcasts for public announcements are in the medium, but there's no indication of cartoons — the closest comparison Kaido can use to describe it is like "something from a comic strip". Nobody has any context for the kind of abilities Luffy now has access to, and since said abilities are stated to be directly tied to the user's imagination and application of their flexible body, only Luffy knows what crazy stunts he's capable of pulling off now. Luffy can run in mid-air and warp both the landscape and his opponent's bodies like his own rubber form, displaying multiple abilities that perplex Kaido over how he's preforming such stunts. The anime even adds in old school cartoon sound effects and changes the animation style to resemble the form's inspiration.
• God of Light: Nika is known as "the Sun God" and is heavily associated with the dawn, along with the cheerful disposition to go with it. As such, any who awaken this fruit are symbolically tied to those concepts and themes.
• Heartbeat Soundtrack: Given a bit of a twist. Luffy's heartbeat in this form is apparently widely audible, but sounds like rhythmically beating drums, adding to his ridiculous power set in this state. Indeed, invoking this is literally how Luffy accesses the form, as he needs to use Gear Two's blood-flow mechanic to force his heart to beat faster until it reaches the appropriate tempo, upon which his clothes and hair regain their all-white appearance. It's noted this specific rhythm is so heavily associated with Nika that Bonney hearing it is what finally makes it click that Luffy is Nika reborn.
• Heroic Second Wind: Luffy is already reaching his limits before Guernica leaves him wide open for a devastating blow from Kaido, leaving him defeated and supposedly dead. But once his Devil Fruit Awakens, he gets back up, ready to fight just a little longer, and finally overwhelms the World's Strongest Creature with his enhanced powers.
• Homage: On the special interview between Oda and Aoyama (of Case Closed fame) contained in the July, 25th, 2022 issue of Weekly Shounen Jump, Oda tells Aoyama the cartoon motif seen in Gear Five was heavily inspired by many antics Oda watched in classic Tom and Jerry features, confirming several of the fan comparisons made between Gear Five bodily morphs and Tom/Jerry's formations.
• Hope Bringer: Since ancient times, slaves have worshipped Nika as their saviour who would free them from their oppressors and put smiles on their faces. Fittingly, Luffy, who is one himself, is the one who ate the fruit named after him. It's implied that Luffy's potential to "bring the world to a new dawn" is one of the reasons why the fruit chose him as its next user in the first place.
  Vegapunk: So you didn't realize it, Bonney. I couldn't be sure until I saw it for myself. The very same Straw Hat Luffy that Kuma had his eye on... was Nika, the Sun God! Kuma was right! This Buster Call is futile! For centuries, people all over the world... have been waiting for him!
• Hope Springs Eternal: The Human Human Fruit, Model: Nika was not only created due to the worship of the Sun God, but also due to people's desire for freedom and adventure.
• The Hyena: While in Gear 5, Luffy is in a near perpetual state of euphoria, almost constantly laughing his head off as befitting someone called "Joy Boy".
• Irony: Luffy's "I'm not a Zoan-type" comment to Momonosuke becomes ironic in hindsight when it turns out that, yes, he is a Zoan-type.
• King in the Mountain: The legendary Joy Boy was predicted to return 800 years after the Void Century. Luffy Awakening his Devil Fruit and becoming the new Joy Boy effectively fufills that prophecy.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Since its reveal towards the end of the Wano arc, Gear 5 has been shown pretty much everywhere in merchandising, promotional material, and fanart. Given how much of a Walking Spoiler it is, it’s very hard for those not caught up to the manga to not get spoiled on it.
• Light/Darkness Juxtaposition: The Reveal about the true nature of Luffy's Devil Fruit heightens his dichotomy with Blackbeard. Luffy's fruit turns him into an incarnation of a God of Light, whereas Blackbeard's fruit turns him into a man made of darkness.
• Light Is Good: Going Gear Five turns Luffy's hair white, along with his trademark red shirt and blue pants, making him visually resemble a god of light, who is associated with the liberation of slaves. It also makes him more of a contrast to Blackbeard, whose Dark-Dark fruit makes him a being of darkness.
• Logical Weakness: It's less rubber than rubberhose in this form but, as Kaido figures out, the primary weakness of Luffy's stretchy body still applies: if his Haki doesn't repel them, slashing attacks will still deal lasting damage to the cartoon man. Amusing Injuries doesn't downplay this either, as there's nothing funny about getting hit by something with the sole purpose of making you bleed.
• Magic Pants: Unlike the other Gears, Gear Five makes it so even Luffy's clothes stretch with him. His jacket even turns white in this form. Justified, since his awakening allows him to give the environment around him the properties of rubber.
• Magikarp Power: The Gum-Gum Fruit is considered among the lowest tiers of Devil Fruits, at best a Heart Is an Awesome Power brought forth by its user's boundless hard work, creativity, and imagination. It's not until its Awakening — an extremely rare event in itself — that it's revealed to hold such tremendous power that its previous user was worshipped as if a god, one that the rulers of the world feared enough to strike it off from all records of history and try all means of securing the fruit to no avail.
• The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Gear Five exaggerates Luffy's more cartoony personality traits, like his cheerfulness and sillyness, to match his toon powers. Despite the drastic power boost and benefits of turning the environment into rubber, Luffy instead chooses to do more silly things like turn Kaido into a jump rope, all while laughing and smiling. He also takes attacks and injuries less seriously. After he loses momentum and turns back to normal, the exhaustion hits him like a truck but he forces himself back into the form by finding the "funny heartbeat", to which he is instantly rejuvenated.
• Mood Whiplash: In-Universe, Luffy awakening the fruit apparently puts him in a perpetually cheery mood, causing him to laugh his head off despite his near-death experience and loss against Kaido for a third time, and resume the fight without delay, shrugging off the dire circumstances and generally having a blast, even when he's about to get hit by Kaido's dangerous attacks. Similarly, Luffy awakening the fruit also proves a turnaround from the Darkest Hour for the alliance and also severely deflates the seriousness of Kaido's rampage against them, with his bizarre powers and effect on his opponent making Kaido's fight against him come off as silly despite his best efforts.
• Mystical White Hair: Luffy's hair and clothes turn white in this form, and his hair even starts billowing like clouds. Fittingly so, since his Devil Fruit is tied to a warrior revered as the "Sun God".
• Next Tier Power-Up: The culmination of Luffy's abilities upon Awakening traces back to Oda once explaining in a SBS why he gave the series's protagonist rubber powers, it was his intent that Luffy's varied rubbery morphs and maneuvers always left room for the audience to laugh at Luffy's goofy abilities no matter how dire a situation could get. Gear Five is the end result of that original intent. Luffy's naturally happy disposition is matched to the Mythical Zoan's default will: freedom-seeking, continuous joy, and laughter to the user and those around them, with its powers being described as ridiculous in the way the user's body works and how it can affect its surroundings, a roundabout way of saying Luffy has turned into a classical cartoon character, with more comedic toning than ever before this evolution, possessing the power to warp and stretch his surroundings as though they were made of rubber.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Whilst in this form, most attacks on Luffy seem to become comically downplayed. Kaido's flame attacks on Luffy seem to give him mild burns at best, and while physical hits cause him pain, his body either deforms around the weapon or the area around him gets rubberized to lessen the impact and snaps back to normal not long after. Instead, the greatest threat to Luffy whilst Gear Five is active seems to come from the massive toll it's taking from him to stay in that form, and he's otherwise able to downplay almost all forms of damage against him. He even survives passing through Egghead's supposedly-impenetrable forcefield twice after Kizaru kicked him through it. However, slashing attacks still can bypass his improved toughness, as Kaido demonstrates with the help of his Razor Wind.
• Not Quite Flight: When Kaido knocks Luffy off Onigashima with a Blast Breath, Luffy returns to fight him by running cartoonishly in mid-air, creating a blazing trail of flames in his wake as he rushes back to continue their clash.
• Oblivious to His Own Description: When Bonney calls Luffy, in his Gear Five form, "Nika" to his face, he asks her "what" that is.
• Perpetual Smiler: While Luffy is always a cheerful person, going Gear Five makes him perpetually happy similar to a cartoon. These newfound energy and abilities leave him with almost no real fear of Kaido anymore, laughing his head off as he casually manhandles the Emperor and brushing off the fact that he'd just died.
• Power Dyes Your Hair: Beyond body modification from Luffy's previous Gear forms, Gear Five brings color changes Luffy's hair and shirt color to all-white. The process can be seen in real time when Luffy goes in and out of Gear Five, and the white-out change is notable enough in that Kaido and Yamato make a general comment about Luffy going all-white while in Gear Five.
• Power Misidentification: For most of the story, everyone thinks that Luffy's Devil Fruit is the relatively unimpressive Gum Gum Fruit that lets him stretch like rubber. In truth, "Gum Gum" is just a name the World Government made up to hide the real identify of the fruit: the Mythical Human Human Fruit, Model: Nika. The stretching powers it gives when unawakened are just a small fraction of its real power: when Awakened, the user of the Nika Fruit can freely manipulate their body and everything around them as though it was made of rubber.
• Punny Name: In Gear 5th, his attacks' names are a twofold pun in the original Japanese: Dawn, or rather, "don". "Don" is a Japanese onomatopoeia meant to indicate something big and booming, which is naturally the simple-thinking Luffy's idea of what his moves are. The English alternative of that annunciation is what his power actually is unbeknownst to Luffy, as the manifestation of the Sun God's true abilities.
• Purple Is Powerful: The yellow sash that Luffy wears around his waist is also affected by Gear 5's colour change on transformation, but unlike the rest of his clothes, it turns purple which, with the white color scheme, poses as an indicator Luffy's mythical power under his awakening.
• Reality Warper: Gear 5 transforms surroundings to rubber and is said to grant "ultimate freedom", possibly even from the laws of the world. Luffy's exaggerated movements are accompanied by classical cartoon noises, and just being nearby him causes one to likewise exhibit cartoonish effects, such as Kaido demonstrating Circling Birdies after getting pounded or several characters witnessing Luffy's gigantified head getting smacked through the roof sporting an even more cartoonishly exaggerated Eye Pop than has been shown before. It's Downplayed in that Luffy's actions clearly follow a specific logic as he needs to have the heartbeat of Nika's drums and doing so clearly clouds his judgment, not to mention that he is still somewhat vulnerable to cuts. Even so, what he can do in this form seems to be based on Rule of Funny and the whims of his altered mind.
• Red Baron: According to certain accounts, it is believed that individuals who are able to awaken Luffy's fruit are bestowed with several epithets that reflect their immense power and skill. These epithets include Joy Boy, which highlights the individual's ability to bring joy and happiness to others; the Warrior of Liberation, which underscores their role in liberating people from oppression and tyranny; and Nika, the Sun God, which symbolizes their strength, invincibility, and radiant aura. These titles are not only a testament to the individual's power, but also serve as a source of inspiration and hope to those who believe in their cause.
• Removed Achilles' Heel: The first clear power Luffy demonstrates during Gear Five and his newfound Awakening as a Mythical Zoan user is that his previous need for pumping air into himself to achieve his body expansions has been eliminated. In Gear Five, Luffy can freely expand and warp his body in ways he couldn't do before without the aforementioned air pump aid, as he himself notes. One of his new moves with this ability is 'Gum-Gum Giant' wherein Luffy applies the expansion properties of his 'Giant' series to his entire body at once, becoming an actual giant large enough to use Kaido's massive dragon form as a jump rope.
• Rule of Funny: Luffy's transformation works on this once he's awakened it. In addition to him now being able to weaponize cartoon effects against Kaido or the environment, him realizing Kaido is about to hit him with a Breath Weapon attack makes him do a Wild Take complete with Eye Pop In-Universe, showing that he's now acting in whatever manner will allow a gag to land, almost uncontrollably so. Kaido smacking him in the back of his head briefly gives him a pointy nose and tongue from the spikes sticking out of the weapon for no other reason than it looks funny, and when running fast in this form Luffy's feet do the classic cartoon spinning wheel look. He's even able to transform his cloudy hair into a pair of goggles purely for a visual gag when slingshotting himself in a rocket attack on Lucci, akin to the Hammerspace ability toons possess. When the Five Elders call this power "ridiculous", they don't just mean in the sense of it being extremely overpowered, but also because it mostly operates on this.
• Second Coming: According to Vegapunk, people have been heralding the return of the Sun God Nika for centuries. Luffy awakening his devil fruit and becoming the next incarnation of Nika is regarded as the long-awaited fulfillment of this prophecy, and it isn't very long before those same people begin seeking him out.
• Shoo Out the Clowns:
  • Inverted. Luffy awakens his devil fruit when the Wano Arc's climax reaches its peak but, because Nika is the embodiment of freedom, hope, and laughter, and his moves and personality are based off golden age cartoons, the fight with Kaido suddenly shifts into a very goofy tone.
  • Played straight during the Egghead arc, as Gear Five Luffy faints just when Jay Garcia Saturn appears and Kuma's depressing flashback starts.
• Signature Laugh: A near-constant baseline "Aha ha ha ha ha ha" — in a story as filled with weird laughter as One Piece, this is virtually unheard of.
• Sizeshifter: While in Gear Five, Luffy can freely change his size without the need to blow air into his limbs/muscles. When he uses Gum-Gum Giant, he becomes as large as Kaido's dragon form. Near the end of their fight Luffy grows one of his fists to be larger than Onigashima.
• Slasher Smile: In the heat of battle, Luffy's eternal smile and laughter occasionally take an ominous and deathly tint, especially in the anime, where it's typically accompanied with Glowing Eyes of Doom. Rob Lucci's own smile dies the microsecond he's at the receiving end of it.
• Slave Liberation: Along with being known as the Sun God, Nika is also known for being the "Warrior of Liberation". In the distant past, slaves would pray to him in hopes that he would one day come to free them and bring smiles to their faces. It's for that reason that Nika is also heavily associated with the concept of "freedom" — which is, incidentally, what Luffy values and desires more than anything else in the world. Fittingly, Luffy is shown to have a strong hatred of slavery in all its forms, and many arcs see him liberating people from whatever person or people is enslaving them. It also might explain why the people of Fish-Man Island held Joy Boy, an implied previous user of the Human-Human Fruit, Model: Nika, in such high regard and sought to keep the promise they made with him at all costs, as no one has suffered the ills of slavery more than the Fish Men.
• Slippery MacGuffin: The Five Elders outright state that the World Government has been trying to find and capture Luffy's fruit for over eight hundred years, only for it to constantly slip from their grasp. As Zoan fruits have wills of their own, they speculate that the fruit was deliberately avoiding them (which makes sense, since a fruit that embodies freedom would never allow itself to be held by those who impose a rigid order at all cost). Twelve years ago, near the beginning of series, is implied to be the first time they've managed to find it and keep it in a long time (if ever), so when Shanks stole it, they reacted badly and punished everyone they deemed responsible for losing it, like Who's-Who. This trait also helps explain how the box that held such a valuable and priceless fruit was left unlocked and easily-accessible to a child-like Luffy, despite the effort the Red Hair Pirates went through to acquire it.
• Stealth Pun: Luffy isn't a Rubber Man, he's a Rubberhose Man.
• Superpower Lottery: The power of the Human-Human Fruit, Model: Nika enables Luffy to force the world to operate on Toon Physics. To that end, the World Government renamed the fruit and spread faulty information about it so its users would think they lost the lottery instead of winning it.
• Super-Speed: His running style is similar to the Road Runner, seen as his legs act like wheels, even in mid-air, and extended in the anime as he was so fast that he look like a blur.
• Super-Strength: In addition to enhancing his rubbery body and giving him power over Toon Physics, the fruit also enhances Luffy's physical strength, as with all Zoan awakenings. With his already pre-existing Charles Atlas Superpower, this allows Luffy to do things like manhandling Kaido in his dragon form, via subjecting him to Metronomic Man Mashing on Onigashima's rooftop — an obscene feat of strength by any measure.
• Swirling Dust: In the anime, Luffy's use of Haki causes a rapidly expanding wind or pressure wave that makes loose items such as paper, dust, leaves, or hair blow away as if caught in a sudden gust.
• Toon Physics: The ultimate evolution of his rubber powers, Gear Five, turns Luffy into a living cartoon, able to squash and stretch how he pleases and adds a distinctive old-timey cartoon aesthetic, complete with Eye Pop and Circling Birdies that affects the environment and the people he's fighting. Even the drumming of his heartbeat, if spoken out loud, has a rhythm similar to the background music you'd hear in an old Fleischer cartoon and the anime adds old school cartoon sound effects to Luffy's actions in this form. His personality becomes more cartoon-like and he goofs off a lot more in combat despite the serious stakes and the pressing need for his victory over Kaido, preferring instead to do gag moves like using Kaido as a Jump Rope in 'Giant' form rather than punching him with his greater strength.
• Unique Protagonist Asset: While Luffy has a Devil Fruit and Conqueror's Haki, users of both are increasingly common the further one goes into the Grand Line. His primary stand-out attribute is having similar ideals and mannerisms to Roger. That is until the Wano Country arc and battle with Kaido when it's revealed what truly sets Luffy apart is the nature of his Devil Fruit. Where throughout the series it was believed he was a Paramythia-type, the Wano arc reveals that Luffy's fruit was a Mythical Zoan type all along, and that his power was not being a Rubber Man but being able to transform into a literal god, or something very close to it.
• Unperson:
  • The World Government willingly goes to the extent of pretending Luffy's Devil Fruit is just the Paramecia-class Gum-Gum Fruit in their efforts to suppress the truth of its abilities and hide the Human-Human Fruit, Model: Nika's existence. The only mention of Joy Boy's name comes from an indestructible Poneglyph and the heresy passed around slaves of the Sun God Nika — other than that, there are no indications that Luffy's fruit is something special. When it awakens, nobody has any context for how Luffy's suddenly pulling off all these fantastical abilities (besides the Five Elders, and Zunesha, who was a companion to the previous Joy Boy), but Luffy's more focused on putting them to use against Kaido.
  • This is later revealed to be an intentional tactic by the World Government in an effort to erase the recurring power of the Devil Fruit. Vegapunk explains his theory that Devil Fruits are born from concepts and desires that people deeply wished for, and that Nika's existence came about because people wanted the idea of a Hope Bringer that badly. In turn, the World Goverment's top brass has made it top priority to cover up any mention of Nika's existence as a whole, and go out of their way to target any of those who believe in him and spread his legend, but so long as people wish for liberation and freedom, Nika's existence can never be completely wiped out.
• Walking Spoiler: The reveal of Luffy's Devil Fruit actually being that of a Sun God holds the distinct honor of making one of the most famous Stock Shonen Heroes in all anime hard to talk about without also talking about that shocking reveal.
• Wrong Context Magic: Downplayed. The Gear Five power comes from a Devil Fruit and is therefore not a stranger to the work's power system. However, the Human-Human Fruit, Model: Nika doesn't follow the traditional Devil Fruit's rules and Luffy's rubber powers are more due to the Fruit affecting his human form than him needing to go into a full or Hybrid form to use its power as other Zoans do. As Kaido notes in their fight, while his physical change and high stamina is associated with an awakened Zoan fruit, his rubber properties affect the environment and people around him like an awakened Paramecia.

---