"In a moment of pure, dying desperation, Luffy awakens her Devil Fruit in Marineford. This has several long-term consequences, but the most baffling of which to her is Big Mom suddenly offering her one of her sons in marriage alongside Sanji wedding Pudding! Luffy doesn't intend to be anyone's subordinate; she'll catch up with Sanji and figure out how to get them out of this. Now if only she could figure out why so many of her nakama are so mad at the idea of her marrying...?"
The Many (Attempted) Marriages of the Sun Goddess
is a One Piece Fan Fic by ReynaAtTheEnd.
An Alternate Universe fic in which a female Luffy awakens her Devil Fruit at Marineford and subsequently manages to save Ace, while also outing herself as the most recent incarnation of the Sun Goddess Nika. This kicks up a dedicated hunt for her head... as well as her hand in marriage.
The fic is collected in the series The Adventures of the Sun Goddess and her Loves, along with its two side-stories, The Tales of Two Kings, showing "scenes and events previous to the plot of The (Many) Attempted Marriages of the Sun Goddess", and Evenings with the Sun Goddess, a NSFW supplement.
Beware of unmarked spoilers.
This story contains the following tropes:
- Abhorrent Admirer: It's revealed that Shiki was this to Roger before the story started; he pursued her ever since their first meeting and his obsession with her outlasted her death.
- In the present, Flampe is this mixed with Incest-ant Admirer to Katakuri, though the latter is unaware of the romantic nature of her obsession with him. Yonji is also strongly attracted to Luffy, who's thoroughly put off by his lack of empathy and poor treatment of Sanji.
- Abusive Parents: Big Mom, big time. She is authoritarian, impulsive and mercurial, treating her children largely as tools. Even her favorites fear her.
- Additionally, Kaidou. He beat, starved and put explosive shackles on Yamato in order to mould them into the heir that he desires the most. It's telling that even the usually loyal King has tried to convince him that the explosives were a step too far.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: In canon King is less prone to dog kicking than his fellow Lead Preformer but is still quite ruthless, including attempting to kill Momo. Here, seeing the reappearance of Nika in Luffy's Gear 5 form rattles him so much that his conscience is steadily pushing him toward a Heel–Face Turn, prompting him to frequently Pet the Dog and express disgust of Orochi's mistreatment of the Ebisu townsfolk even before meeting Luffy.
- Affectionate Nickname: Sanji calls Luffy Sunshine, Ace and Sabo call her Lu.
- Alternate Universe: The major divergence being Luffy's premature Awakening at Marineford.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Cornered by Luffy during a wedding rehearsal about his feelings for her, Ace delivers as emotional confession while bracing himself for rejection on the grounds of her seeing him as a brother. Previously, Zoro gave her one as well upon hearing that she intended to go through with her marriage to Katakuri, not knowing that Luffy intended to be polyamorous.
- Arranged Marriage: The main plot of the story is kicked off by Big Mom offering Luffy her son Katakuri's hand in marriage.
- Battle Couple: Basically all of them, really.
- Beast and Beauty: Luffy and Katakuri; scars aside, she's a cute, slender and short (compared to him) girl while Katakuri is a massive, hulking pirate with sharp teeth and a frightening mouth.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Ace and Law. Ace enjoys winding Law up by teasing him and Law will often grouse about how aggravating Ace's carefree recklessness is right before acknowledging his feelings for him.
- Berserk Button: Orochi infecting the people of Ebisu town with the failed SMILE fruit already enraged King; he unwisely followed this up by insulting Nika. King burns his throat and had to be talked down by Kaido from straight up immolating him.
- Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: Well, grandpa. Garp doesn't believe that anyone deserves to marry his precious granddaughter, thank you very much, and he'll do anything to keep her single - from not explaining romantic kisses to a young Luffy or bursting into the middle of the wedding ceremony at Totland to voice his objections.
- Dragon, Luffy's actual dad, is ironically more chill about his daughter potentially marrying a Yonko's son; or at least, he is willing to respect her choices on the matter.
- Shanks, Luffy's adoptive dad (at least, they both consider him that) is more concerned about Luffy getting entangled with Big Mom than about her love life.
- Calling the Old Woman Out: Katakuri finally stands his ground against Big Mom during the climax of the Whole Cake Island arc, criticizing her abusive parenting and refusing to oppose Luffy on her orders.
- Chick Magnet: While it is mostly the men, Luffy has plenty of female admirers as well.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Ace, Sabo and Uta all had some feelings for Luffy when they were young that intensified when they got older and reunited with her. When she gets a grasp of what romantic love is, Luffy realizes that she returns those sentiments.
- Despair Event Horizon: King/Alber rocketed past this upon becoming the Sole Survivor of the Lunarian race; his loyalty to Kaidou is rooted in the other man's saving him from the darkest pit a person could find themselves in and treating him well. That despair lingered until Marineford, when Luffy's Gear 5 form shook him from it for the first time.
- Dude Magnet: Kinda the premise. Aside from her canonical love interests in Zoro, Sanji, Ace, Law, Sabo, Yamato, Katakuri, Uta, Reiju and King, she's also attracted the attention of opposing pirates like Bellamy and Foxy, Yonji is attracted to her at first sight, Momo has a crush on her, and it's implied that Charloss desired her enough to want her as a slave (albeit probably before Luffy punched him unconscious).
- Dysfunction Junction: The Big Mom Pirates and Beast Pirates are both nightmarish environments in their own ways.
- In Totland, Big Mom's children are her crew, but this in no way protects them from her attacking and even killing them; she praises them when they're useful while belittling their physical 'deformities' in the same breath, refuses to step in when her children act on violent grudges towards each other and even subtly encourages it. As a result her family is very fractional and often abuse each other, with Pudding and Chiffon being just the more prominent victims.
- The Beast Pirates, meanwhile, are a cesspit of infighting and violence that's loosely held together by Kaidou's iron will. Because you can climb the ranks by defeating your superior in a fight, the lower ranks are always trying to kill their superiors or hide from them in terror. The Flying Six all despise each other and Queen looks down on all of them; this environment battered Page One into a borderline nervous wreck who spills all of his woes to the first person to show him the slightest bit of kindness. He also reveals that Black Maria assaulted him on his eighteenth birthday and he was mocked for not enjoying it afterwards, averting Double Standard Rape: Female on Male hard. He apologizes for Ulti's tendency to beat him up by saying that she has to be as aggressive and dangerous as possible or else they'd never escape people trying to take their place.
- Everyone Is Bi: Very few characters seem to be concerned with gender in their romantic pursuits.
- Exact Words: Reiju has become an expert at this due to having to work around Judge's control over her.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Luffy's love interests squabble quite a bit before she makes it clear that she's interested in all of them; Sanji picks fights with Law over him sharing a couch with Luffy overnight and Nami references his rivalry with Zoro including sabatoging each other's attempts to woo their Captain.
- On a less funny note, Flampe despises Luffy for steadily winning Katakuri's affection and attempts to murder her in order to have him all to herself.
- Harem Genre: Luffy builds up a substantial stable of suitors of both genders over her adventures.
- Battle Harem: Most of Luffy's suitors are at the very least capable fighters, if not powerhouses in their own rights.
- Identical Stranger: Unbeknownst to her, Uta is a dead ringer to her ancestor Empress Lucia - the woman who imprisoned Tot Musica in the Sing Sing Fruit with the help of her lover, Nika. When Uta and Luffy reunite in the present, Nika is so shocked that she calls Uta by Lucia's name.
- Insecure Love Interest: When he starts to fall for Luffy, Katakuri believes wholeheartedly that someone like her could never love him due to the shape of his mouth and hesitates several times before showing it to her.
- Morality Chain: It's strongly implied that Luffy was this for Zephyr, also known as Z. Having her as a surrogate granddaughter made him unwilling to go through with his Grand Reboot plan, since destroying all pirates would mean having to kill her as well.
- Motor Mouth: Mera, the spirit of the Flame Flame Fruit, talks a mile a minute and is generally excitable.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Attempted by Flampe more than once; first she attempted to snipe Luffy during a sparring match between herself and Katakuri. When that failed, she ultimately drugs Luffy with a faulty love potion and dumps her in the Seducing Woods in an attempt to be rid of her.
- Oblivious to Love: I mean. We are still talking about Luffy here.
- Somewhat justified as Garp has been doing his level best to keep Luffy as ignorant of All Things Romantic or Sexual - to the point that Ace and Law both kiss her on the lips in emotionally charged moments and she completely fails to realize what they are getting at. Reiju is the one to finally clue Luffy in.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Law is stoic to a fault (unless Luffy is giving him a headache) and generally doesn't swear. So when he unleashes a storm of obscenities after Scanning Reiju and seeing the 'modifications' Judge made to make her obedient, it emphasizes how much the doctor in him is enraged by it.
- Parental Marriage Veto: Garp does his best, bless him. It does not work.
- Religious Bruiser: King worships Nika as many of the Lunarian people did, and his status as Kaido's feared second in command is well earned.
- Rule 63: Luffy as well as Gol D. Roger are female in this universe.
- Conversely, to preserve Ace's parentage, Portgas D. Rouge is male.
- Shoulder Devil: A dramatic example is Tot Musica's efforts to influence Uta into releasing him via a mixture of cajoling, crass verbal abuse and saying that she can't win without him.
- "Shut Up" Kiss: Luffy exasperatedly plants one on Ace when he's babbling nervously after confessing to her, cutting off her verbal attempts to tell him she feels the same.
- Skewed Priorities: Upon receiving an offer of marriage to one of Big Mom's sons and all the implications there of, Luffy is more hung up on the fact that Katakuri didn't write the proposal himself and questioning whether he wants to marry her. Her crew is... not very amused.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Several examples:
- Ace survived Marineford thanks to Luffy's premature Awakening.
- Z also lives to the present day due to his parental feelings for Luffy preventing him from committing to the plan from his movie.
- Due to the fight taking place at the wedding proper and Shanks, Dragon, Zephyr and Garp adding their muscle to the fight, meaning the Straw Hats don't need to retreat, Pedro also survives beyond the Whole Cake Island arc.
- Spirit Advisor: Devil Fruit users who are fully in sync with the spirit of said fruit are able to hear their voice. Nika gives Luffy advice and assists her when she's drugged with the failed love potion and stumbling around the Seducing Woods, while Katakuri becomes able to hear Mochi after fully accepting himself and his love for Luffy.
- Stepford Smiler: Reiju is a Type A. She pretends to be content and loyal to her father when in reality, she's in despair over being forced to be a tool of conquest and is subtly suicidal until she starts bonding with Luffy.
- Uta, meanwhile, is Type A with dangerous shades of Type C. She presents the image of a benevolent and compassionate idol singer who reaches out to people who have gotten swept up in the grim side of the Great Pirate Era. While these characteristics are honest, having become aware of Shanks's ruse to protect her from the consequences of Tot Musica destroying Elegia, Uta is a storm of suicidal guilt, abandonment issues, and murderous rage toward morganeers - a side of herself that the Demon King actively encourages to push her to release him.
- Trapped in Villainy: Reiju desperately wishes to escape Judge's control and not have to commit vile acts on his orders, but the brain modifications he made to her made any attempt to flee impossible.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: Luffy nearly destroyed herself via a premature Awakening to Gear 5 out of sheer determination to save Ace from his execution at Marineford, and this is after she broke into and out of Impel Down for his sake. She attacks Big Mom with renewed vigor when she throws a powerful attack at Katakuri and flies into a rage when Uta is captured by the Beast Pirates.
- Yandere: Tot Musica is in love with Nika and has been for untold ages. Unfortunately for everyone involved, his idea of a courting gift is imprisoning all sentient peoples in the dream world and destroying the world he sees as unworthy of Nika's care and attention. The last time he tried to 'remake' the world, he created the Red Line and the world's modern geography.
