Monkey D. Garp

Vice-Admiral Monkey D. Garp is the commanding officer of the 153rd Branch of the Marines, and the man in charge of both Coby and Helmeppo.

Personality
Garp displays an intelligence level that is on the same level as Luffy, however he seems somewhat more absent minded then Luffy. Due to his hot temper he is unable to accept excuses (and is really poor at creating his own) and at times likes to enforce his point of view on things with his fist. He also is somewhat an eccentric person with a rather strange approach to things - he'd rather burst through a wall than enter a door on the grounds that its cooler to do so even when he has to fix the hole. He, like his grandsons, has an extreme fondness for food, in his case, especially donuts.

Crew
His crew and others around him often react with shock or uncertainty when hearing his reactions to things. At times he will say things that are random or seems to be unaware of the true extent of what is going on around him. At the Marine HQ, many of the other Marines are afraid of him for his reputation and habit of controlling things through his fists.

He is also the mentor of Coby and Helmeppo, he keeps them out of trouble and ensures they are not slacking off. If they do get out of hand, he knocks them around to ensure they keep in place. They both come to admire him, even though he maintains a highly brutal clutch on them because they wouldn't be where they are without him.

Monkey D. Dragon
Dragon is Garp's son. No direct interactions have been shown, however, he seems casual about the idea of his own son being a revolutionary and wanted by the World Government.

Monkey D. Luffy
He seems to hold high standards for his grandson Luffy and gets mad at the slightest mistake he does even when his own are sometimes no better (i.e. telling off Luffy for falling asleep yet falling asleep himself). Even when Luffy was too casual in saying goodbye to Garp at Water 7, Garp was disappointed by a lack of emotion after the two were separated for a long time. This often leads Luffy to be at the other end of Garp's punches and due to this experience he has become afraid of him. Garp also claims Luffy was poisoned by Shanks and his influence, as Garp wanted Luffy to be a great Marine like him. However Luffy claims he told Garp even as a child he wanted to be a pirate.

As Nami stated at the time of Garp's departure, there seems to be an amazing ego that runs in Garp's family.

Other
No wife has been named for Garp, however the supplement Grand Line Times left a "?" in place of one. Also as a person carrying the Will of D, he may be related somehow to others also carrying it.

Abilities and Powers
Although lacking his youthful days, Garp is an incredibly physically strong person even in his old age. He is able to throw iron cannon balls as if they are baseballs (including a gigantic ball and chain the size of a battle ship) and yet still exhibit a cannon-like effect at the point of impact,break through brick walls and cannon stands with his fists. His first serious attack shown is known as the Iron Fist Meteor Shower where he uses his strength to launch 1000 iron cannon balls at enemy ships. He shares similar endurance, as he was slashed by Captain Morgan's axe hand and able to recover seconds later with little to no pain, however this could be attributed to the fact that he was sleeping when he was struck. He has also shown a near inhuman speed as he managed to bypass most of the Strawhats and Franky (who still wasn't a Straw Hat at that time) so he could get to a sleeping Luffy.

Weapons
So far he's been seen throwing cannonballs (including a giant one, mounted on a chain) with his bare hands.

Past Story
Monkey D. Garp is a Marine hero, who was famous for cornering the late Pirate King, Gold Roger numerous times in his career. . Garp is considered by Whitebeard as one of the few people that know the seas from the time of Gold Roger.

Early on in Luffy's life, he was trained by Garp to become a strong Marine. Luffy was thrown into valleys, left alone in dangerous forests, and tied to balloons over high altitudes, all for the sake of making him stronger. After this he left Luffy and Ace in the care of an unnamed friend.

Present Story
Garp is first introduced in Koby's mini-series as the Marine Officer in charge of escorting Captain Morgan. However after falling asleep, Morgan makes his escape by striking Garp and taking Helmeppo as a hostage, fleeing on a small dingy. Garp then wakes up unharmed, apparently breaking a cannon in the process of waking up.

When Koby begs to chase after the two, Garp allows Koby to persue them. Upon the boys return they offer themselves to be punished. Garp instead proposes a different course of action. He states that the pair of them are nothing but trouble and the only way to ensure they stay in line is that he takes charge of the pair. He takes them back to Marine HQ where he begins to train them to become great Marine Officers.

Current Events (Spoilers)
The startling revelation was made that Garp is the grandfather of Monkey D. Luffy. He also punched a sleeping Luffy and actually hurt him severely, to which Sanji comments it shouldn't as Luffy is made of rubber(which should reduce the force of the blow) - at which point Garp comments that "there's no way to dodge a fist of love". It is also revealed Dragon, an infamous revolutionary and the man branded as "the worst criminal in the world", is his son (and Luffy's father).

He left Water 7, stating he wouldn't arrest Luffy and would tell Marine HQ this was because of him being his grandson (which one of his crew replied that it would be better to just say he got away). He then left Water 7, leaving the Strawhats to go through the rest of their stay in peace.

However, on their last day on Water 7, Garp returned under orders of Sengoku to finish off Luffy. Apparently Garp let slip Luffy was his grandson on a Den Den Mushi to Sengoku. While there, he picks up Aokiji who was in Water 7 at the time who claims he is making sure Garp obeys his orders. Luffy and his pirates find themselves under attack from Garp who claims Luffy will just have to die at Water 7. He throws cannonballs with his fists and finally a giant ball on a chain. The Straw Hats, using their new ship the Thousand Sunny managed to escape from Garp. Garp and Aokiji both seemed happy this had happened.

Most recently he was seen at Mariejoa,with Kuma and Sengoku -where he proceeded to get on the Fleet Admiral's nerves quite well.

Major Battles

 * Vs. Gold Roger (none seen)
 * Vs. Koby and Helmeppo
 * Vs. Luffy

Early One Piece
While unnamed Garp was introduced in Romance Dawn V.2 (featured in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine itself) as Luffy's Grandfather. For a long time, it was first thought that Luffy's unnamed Grandfather was a sole addition to Romance Dawn V.2.

Some aspects of his character remain from Romance Dawn version 2. He is as hot tempered as ever and intolerable to Luffy's antics. Like the final version, he was determined to make Luffy follow in his footsteps, however here he is a pirate captain, a complete opposite of his current occupation. Both stories have in return Luffy completely rejecting the idea of following in his grandfather's footsteps. Garp now adorns a dog hat and compared to his Romance Dawn V.2 version his upper body is much more muscular compared to his chubby V.2 self. One feature carried over from Luffy's grandfather from V.2 to the final version of Garp was the scar on his right eye.

Also, Luffy got both his hat and the Devil fruit he ate from his grandfather in V.2, not Shanks. According to Oda the reason for not featuring Shanks was that he wanted Shanks to be kept a secret until One Piece was serialized so he would have a greater impact.

Trivia

 * Garp said his record for doughnut eating without sleeping or stopping was 842.