Fake Straw Hat Crew

The Impostor Straw Hat Pirates are a group of pirates that are impersonating the original Straw Hat Pirates in order to benefit from their reputation. They first appear after the two-year timeskip.

Crew
The Impostor Straw Hats dress in the style of the original Straw Hats, but barely even look like them, let alone act the part right. As most people are under the common belief that the true Straw Hat Pirates died off two years ago, these frauds, believing so themselves, took advantage of the (false) fact and pretended to be them to benefit from their reputation.


 * Fake Luffy: A tall, fat, middle-aged man who shoots anyone who even remotely displeases him. He also flaunts his fake reputation and supposed heritage to justify his acts of cruelty.
 * Fake Nami: An older woman, slightly shorter than Nami, with an unusually large, oval shaped head.
 * Fake Robin: An older, short, ugly woman. Possibly a man.
 * Fake Sogeking: A big man wearing a bogus Sogeking mask with a beard.
 * Fake Sanji: A thin man with an unruly hair.
 * Fake Zoro: A man with a beer gut and swords resembling those used by low-ranking Marines.
 * Fake Franky: A thin person with an unusually long neck, and tiny arms.
 * Fake Chopper: A fox wearing a hat and a painted mustache (a pet, as opposed to a doctor).

Brook does not appear to have a doppelganger in the Impostor Straw Hats, no doubt due to his relatively recent addition to the crew. Having not been part of their more famous escapades, only those personally familiar with the Straw Hats would be likely to know him as part of the crew, if at all.

Recruits
Fake Luffy is using his namesake's reputation to gather a strong crew in order to take on the New World, and will only accept pirates with a bounty of at least 70,000,000. He is said to have recruited about one hundred people, ten of which have high bounties. Among them are:


 * "Wet-Hair" Caribou: a former pirate captain and brother of Coribou. Famous for killing marines.
 * "Blood-Spatterer" Coribou: a former pirate captain and brother of Caribou. Famous for killing marines.

History
The impostors seem to have begun their charade relatively recently on Sabaody Archipelago, around the time when the real Straw Hat crew had decided to finally rendezvous, as word of their activities has only just reached the Marines. Their captain has been using Luffy's reputation to recruit pirates with bounties over 70,000,000 into their crew. Due to the long absence of the original Straw Hats, most people believe the frauds despite them looking almost nothing like the originals, save for clothing. A number of people seem to be fairly surprised at the Straw Hats' supposed return, though some of them seem to be contemplating whether they should also join in their recruiting of new members. So far, at least three pirate groups have merged with this crew, including ten men with high bounties. The two most infamous pirates to join are the brothers "Wet Hair" Caribou and "Blood-Splatterer" Coribou, rookies who have bounties of 210,000,000 and 190,000,000 respectively.

They were first seen on Sabaody Archipelago in the bar where Nami was drinking, trying to recruit people into their pirate crew. Their captain, the man impersonating Luffy, sees Nami and attempts to invite her over for a drink. Of course, he did this without knowing who she really is. Nami's dismissal angers him, so the fake Nami holds her at gunpoint, only to receive an unfazed reaction from her genuine counterpart. At that point, the real Usopp uses his new Pop Greens weapon to disable the fakes, and he and Nami leave the bar. Nami leaves behind a batch of thunder clouds which create a thunderstorm to shock them. Ignorant of their identities, the fake Luffy orders them killed.

Elsewhere, as fake Zoro, Sanji, Robin, and Chopper were walking along the streets, they came across the real Chopper, recognizing him as the Straw Hats' pet from his bounty poster. They decide to take him on in order to make their ruse more convincing, but an unknown group of people pursuing the real Robin suddenly kidnap the fake Robin, scooping her up into a large bag, under the impression that they have caught the correct person.

In his search for Usopp and Nami, the fake Luffy shoots two people who look vaguely similar to them. The real Luffy accidentally bumps into him and apologizes, but the fake Luffy calls out to him, unaware of the person's true identity.

Overall Strength
Typical for a band of frauds and impostors, the Straw Hat Crew's fake counterparts seem to be a relatively weak group probably around the same level as the Bellamy Pirates in terms of fighting skill. In fact, their recruiting of other powerful Pirates and dismissing those they deem weak (in short, any pirate captain who has a bounty of lower than 70,000,000) by relying on the infamy of the actual Straw Hat Crew, mirrors what Bellamy and his crew had done in Mock Town during the Jaya Arc. Still, the fact that they were able to make it to Shabondy Archipelago suggests some degree of competence, provided of course that they aren't from the Archipelago or somewhere close by to begin with.

The eight impostors' real fighting ability has yet to be fully demonstrated, but seem to be lacking in comparison to the genuine ones. Some of them, including Fake Luffy and Fake Sogeking, have been shown using flintlock pistols. They haven't shown much proficiency with them, instead preferring to shoot indiscriminately. The Fake Zoro is shown carrying 3 swords like his real counterpart, but has not been shown using them. They were blindsided by Usopp's pop green seeds, which grew into a massive, flesh-eating plant to ensnare them, and were completely taken by surprise by one of Nami's weather attacks. Fake Luffy and Fake Sogeking at least were able to stand after enduring these attacks, although they took significant damage.

Furthermore, they did not make much of an impression when they faced both Nami and Usopp themselves in a "confrontation". All of the fakes at the bar failed to recognize the real Nami by her tattoo, suggesting a lack of common sense and did not even register to the two (formerly weakest) real Straw Hats as a legitimate threat, and did little to gain their attention when they attempted to outright threaten the duo.

Trivia

 * Due to their naive personalities, both Usopp and Chopper believed them to be the real Straw Hats. Usopp in particular was shocked by the presence of Sogeking, despite (and due to) the fact that Sogeking is his own alter-ego.
 * The recruitment fliers have Luffy's family name misspelled as "Monky".

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