Straw Hat Pirates

The Straw Hat Pirates (Mugiwara Kaizoku-dan) are the main focus and heroes of the anime and manga One Piece. They are called the "Straw Hats" after Luffy's signature straw hat that was given to him by Shanks, and are sometimes called the "Luffy Pirates" on merchandise. Up until the Water 7 arc, they originally sailed on the Going Merry. After the Enies Lobby arc, they gained a new ship to sail on called the Thousand Sunny. They are currently made up of 9 members whose total combined bounty equals to 700,000,050.

Crewmembers
As a result of Luffy's choice in who joins, the Straw Hats are notable for being one of the most varied, if not bizarre, pirating crews in the One Piece world. Their ranks have members so vastly different from one another that it almost seems random in retrospect. These include a shape shifting reindeer that can be mistaken for something else depending on his form, a cyborg who wears almost nothing except for shirts and speedoes, and a lively undead perverted skeletal musician. Amongst them they have four Devil Fruit users which includes Luffy himself. The majority of them are also fairly young, with only three members being adults past their early twenties, although the two oldest members are just as childish as the others.

In addition, the Going Merry was a crewmember before it's death.

Crew Strength
Despite only having a small number of members, the Straw Hats are a very powerful crew. In fact, after the incident that occurred at Enies Lobby, the World Government has labeled them as one of the most powerful and dangerous pirate crews in the One Piece Universe. All of them have at least one talent in which they are virtually perfect. Each crew member is more or less a formidable fighter in their own right, and amongst them, three of them, the captain, the first crew member, and the chef, have such astonishingly inhuman strength that the rest of the crew have labeled them as the "Monster Trio". Each crew member in the beginning has some fairly high fighting abilities but as they progressed on each crew member had to become stronger due to each opponent they have encountered being significantly stronger than the last.

On our journey across the islands, all of us became stronger without even noticing. -Part of Zoro's speech to Nami and Chopper.

While each crew member can hold their own by themselves, what makes the Straw Hats truly strong is their teamwork. When one of them is incapable of doing, another can help out in their place instead. This helps the crew very much in facing odds that maybe too much for them if they work separately. An odd note to each individuals abilities is that their fighting abilities are somewhat inconsistent through the series (Luffy is unable to land a single blow on Blueno during their first battle and yet he is able to break through Blueno's Tekkai, catch up to his Soru, and redirect his Rankyaku during their second battle).

Relationships amongst the Crew
Each member of the crew values their friendships above all else. Despite their comic annoyance with each other from time to time, they also often enjoy their time together and love being a member of the crew. One of the major themes of the series is how committed they are to each other, to the point where they are willing to give up what is important and personal to them, such as their dreams and even their lives, for the well-being of any one of them who has lost their way. If one single member is hurt by an outside force (physically or emotionally), the other members will become enraged and take drastic action to avenge their brethren, as well as those they befriend on their journey.

Recruitment
In the beginning of the manga, Luffy claimed that he wanted at least 10 people to join his crew before entering the Grand Line. This was changed after Usopp told Luffy that after "the chef" joined them, they would rescue Nami and go to the Grand Line. Although this is long past the expiring date, it can still serve as evidence that there will be 10 or more Straw Hats at one point of the manga. Luffy also claimed in the beginning of the manga, that he would gather a crew strong enough to surpass his childhood hero Red-Haired Shanks.

Invitation
Usually when he asks someone to join, Luffy is turned down completely, the way of which he's turned down varies. Luffy has enough morals not to force the person to join against their will, however if the person really interests Luffy, he would usually try to get them to join anyway regardless of their initial decision. While most people truly turn down Luffy's offer no matter how he tries, only those convinced enough will join anyways for reasons of their own.

The major exceptions to this rule are Usopp, who was thrilled to be asked to join and accepted immediately, and Nico Robin, who invited herself into the crew and had to convince the crew to let her stay. Also notable is the Gentleman Skeleton Brook, who actually accepted Luffy's initial invitation to join the crew but later claimed that he couldn't honor it due to his lack of a shadow, which would result in his death should he step into sunlight, as well as unfinished business with the zombies of Thriller Bark. However after the Straw Hats and Brook finally defeat these zombies, Brook soon asks if they would honor his initial acceptance, which Luffy did.

Luffy doesn't seem to mind if someone he wants to recruit has a profession or not. He allows Usopp to join, and later on names him the team's sniper, and considered Vivi a member even though she has no profession. He also offered Gaimon the chance to join his crew, when Gaimon had no apparent usefulness to the crew aside from experience.

Recruiting Process
Though most adventures in One Piece are random, there seems to be a 'process' for recruitment. First, a situation arises where someone new is needed. The crew comes across someone who fulfills the criteria (i.e. Chopper the doctor, Nami the navigator). Luffy offers the person a position, and is usually turned down initially. Meanwhile, a situation arise where, some way or another, Luffy ends up battling a 'boss' character, and the would-be crew mate battles an underling (i.e. Luffy vs Don Krieg after Sanji battles Gin and Pearl). The would-be crewmate typically defeats one of the villain's henchmen, or otherwise plays a crucial role in the Straw Hats' victory (for example, Brook defeats Talleran and reveals the zombies' weakness, despite losing to Ryuuma). During the arc in which the new crewmate is introduced their backstory and dreams are revealed, thus convincing them to join the Straw Hat Crew. Meanwhile, Luffy's current crew would assist him in battling various enemies generally in rank of abilities and overall strength which is matched by whoever they are battling (i.e. Zoro vs Kaku, Sanji vs Jyabura, Chopper vs Kumadori, Nami vs Kalifa), the enemies fought also have similar fighting styles (Zoro vs Hachi who are both swordsman, Sanji vs Kuroobi who are both melee fighting experts, and Usopp vs Chuu who are both ranged weaponry experts), this is more consistent to Sanji and Zoro. This process also led many fans to think Vivi would become a permanent crew member.

The only crew members not following this process were Nami and Robin, both of whose history was fully revealed later on, despite initially being hinted at. Nami's official recruitment was when Luffy, Zoro, Usopp and Sanji defeated Arlong and his pirates. Robin was the first to initially willingly join, and officially after Luffy's crew came to her rescue from CP9.

As a side note to this process, Luffy has several times stated the need for a musician, because "pirates love music", and thinks of this more important than other positions. As a result, whenever the need for a new crew member arises, Luffy would usually bring up the musician position despite it being completely unrelated to the problem at hand. While Franky, in addition of being a shipwright, plays a guitar, this plea however was finally fulfilled when Brook joined the crew.

Returning to the Crew
If a Straw Hat crew member leaves the crew without Luffy's permission, Luffy usually does his best to recruit them back. So far Nami, Robin and Usopp have all left the crew, Nami and Robin however rejoined it later. Nami rejoined after Arlong, who was blackmailing her, was defeated while Robin rejoined the crew after they convince her that they would stand by her even if it meant declaring war on the entire world, and save her from Enies Lobby.

While Robin and Nami were never on bad terms with the crew when they left, despite some suspicion that they had betrayed the Straw Hats that was soon proven false, Usopp was however a different case. Usopp had officially left the Straw Hat crew, over a dispute concerning the Going Merry yet returned to the crew in his alias "Sogeking" to help rescue Nico Robin and his own insecurities about his strength. Afterward, Usopp originally planned to make the crew beg for him to return, but Zoro had given the crew a stern speech about him rejoining them on their terms, not his, and would accept him only if Usopp begged them after a thorough apology. After being ignored while they were fighting off Garp, Usopp finally capitulated, and Luffy happily and tearfully accepted him back.

Dreams
Each member of the Straw Hats has a dream they want to achieve. These dreams are their reasons for joining Luffy's crew, and essentially the driving force behind their lives. Each Straw Hat's dream was inspired by tragedies (often deaths) in their childhoods that involved at least one person they idolized and cared for deeply. Some, like Chopper, Nami, Franky, and Usopp are fulfilling their dreams by accumulating knowledge and/or achieving a certain task while sailing the Grand Line. Others, like Robin, Zoro, Luffy, Brook, and Sanji are searching for a person, place or thing that can only be found on the Grand Line. Whatever the reason, each of the Straw Hat's dreams involve traveling the Grand Line, and each Straw Hat member refuses to die before achieving their dreams. However, their determination doesn't extend to sacrificing their comrades for the fulfillment of their dreams. Zoro and Sanji - almost gave up their dreams while they try to persuade Kuma into letting Luffy live.

So far, Luffy's dream is the hardest to achieve. Not only would his goal require him to make it all the way to the end of the world, but he must also defeat foes whom the world considers invincible (ex. Shichibukai and Yonkou). Even some of those he knows personally are after One Piece, making them his rivals. These include his elder brother, Portgas D. Ace and his childhood hero, Red-Haired Shanks. Most of the other crew members' dreams are similarly considered nearly impossible for various reasons.

Members' Dreams

 * Luffy's dream is to become the Pirate King and raise a 'super' crew to back him up. To become the Pirate King, he must find Gold Roger's famed treasure, One Piece, which is implied to be in Raftel. As for a crew, he has brought together so far nine people who have caught his attention. Luffy also is looking for Shanks to meet up with him again and return his straw hat to him.


 * Zoro's dream, shared with Kuina, is to become the world's greatest swordsman. To fulfill this dream, he must surpass every swordsman in the world, including the world's current greatest swordsman Mihawk. Very recently, Zoro nearly gave up his dream in an attempt to convince the Shichibukai from killing Luffy, proving his loyalty towards his captain as well as the rest of the crew, as he believes that he cannot be the world's strongest swordsman if he cannot protect his captain's dream (Luffy, likewise, believes that the Pirate King should have the best swordsman on his side).


 * Nami's dream is to draw a map of the entire world. She has already mapped all the areas that she has traveled, and it can be assumed that she will create a world map once the story is over. Also at the beginning of the story she was also trying to get 100,000,000 beli in order to buy and save her hometown, Cocoyashi Village, from the clutches of the fishman pirate Arlong; while her savings were confiscated after stealing 93 million beli, in the process of stealing from pirates, she met Luffy, who defeated Arlong and freed the village.


 * Usopp's dream is to become a brave warrior of the sea like his father, Yasopp. After the Little Garden arc, he also developed a secondary dream to visit Elbaf and see the warrior giants he idolizes.


 * Sanji's dream, shared with Zeff, is to find the All Blue, a legendary ocean. It is assumed to be in the Grand Line somewhere, and waters from all over the four seas gather there, bringing fish from all over the globe. He also wished to consume the Suke Suke no Mi but unfortunately Absalom has already eaten it, destroying his dream, as no two Devil Fruits of the same type exist.


 * Chopper's dream is to travel across the world, exploring with his friends and expanding his horizons. He also has an ambition to learn the cures to all diseases and become a great doctor.


 * Robin's dream is to find the Rio Poneglyph which tells the True History, continuing the research of her mother, Nico Olvia, and her old teacher and mentor, Professor Clover.


 * The Going Merry's dream as the crews ship was to sail with the Straw Hats forever which it revealed to the crew upon its demise. In the end it was a dream it could not achieve, it was last seen as it was sent to the bottom of the ocean while its crew tearfully watched on. However, Merry's spirit supposedly inhabits the Straw Hats' new ship, the Thousand Sunny, and therefore it's dream may live on.


 * Franky's dream is to create and travel with a dream ship which would experience countless battles, can overcome extreme hardships, and can reach the end of the Grand Line. He has created the ship which the Straw Hats are riding and it's his task to keep it in good condition.


 * Brook's dream is to return to his crewmate, Laboon, whom his former crew, the Rumbar Pirates, had left behind at Reverse Mountain for his safety with the promise to return after crossing the Grand Line. He wishes to fulfill that promise as well as that of his former crewmates who died at sea to deliver a Tone Dial of their final performance before their death.

Individuals
Through the series there have been people who have either traveled with the Straw Hat Pirates for a short period of time or aided them in one way or another. Many of these individuals would be considered temporary pirates in a way. The most notable of these people is Vivi, as she traveled with them for almost the entire Baroque Works Saga, and even considered permanently joining them but due to her promise it seems that she is always welcome back.

Groups
Along with the following individuals mentioned forehand, there have been also been various organizations who assisted the Straw Hats in their adventures. These organizations have helped the Straw Hats either to reach a certain goal or to defeat a common enemy. One of the most notable of these is the Franky Family who, along with several other characters, formed an army of sorts in order to fight against a common foe.

Anime Only
In the anime adaptation, the Straw Hats have also had their share of allies and traveling companions. These individuals too have either traveled with them or aided them in some sort of way.

Locations Visited
So far, the Straw Hat pirates had visited over 21 locations during the series from Fuusha Village in the East Blue to Saboady Archipelago in the Grand Line in a timespan of 508 chapters.

As of chapter 491, they have arrived at the other side of the red line, and are trying to overcome the predicament of how to get down to Fishman Island so for now are anchored at  Saboady Archipelago.

East Blue

 * 1) Fuushia Village
 * 2) Alvida's Island
 * 3) Shelltown
 * 4) Organ Island
 * 5) Island of Rare Animals
 * 6) Gecko Island
 * 7) Baratie
 * 8) Commi Island
 * 9) Louge Town

Grand Line

 * 1) Reverse Mountain (Red Line)
 * 2) Cactus Island
 * 3) Little Garden
 * 4) Drum Island
 * 5) Arabasta
 * 6) Jaya
 * 7) Skypiea (White-White Sea)
 * 8) Longring Longland Island
 * 9) Water 7
 * 10) Enies Lobby
 * 11) Thriller Bark (Florian Triangle)
 * 12) Sabaody Archipelago

New World
None yet, though the group is attempting to go to Fishman Island.