Monkey D. Luffy

Monkey D. Luffy is the main protagonist of One Piece and captain of the Straw Hat Pirates, which are sometimes referred to as the "Luffy Pirates".

Appearance
Luffy is renowned for wearing his trademark Straw Hat (from which he gets his nickname 'Straw Hat Luffy') which was given to him when he was young by the legendary pirate captain Red-Haired Shanks. His outfit somewhat mimics Shanks' own outfit in that he wears short trousers (although his are much shorter then Shanks') and sandals. Luffy also wears a red vest and has a scar underneath his left eye and short black hair.

Luffy, for some reason, has the same outfit over most of the series, as opposed to the rest of the crew. Luffy may wear a different outfit to suit the climate of an island (like Drum Island or Arabasta), but will switch back to his trademark vest and shorts after the adventures on that island are over.

Eiichiro Oda has mentioned that Luffy mostly resembles a monkey (he sometimes even makes a monkey face).

Personality
At first glance, Luffy does not appear to be very intelligent. However, because he views the world in a straightforward and simple manner, he occasionally is the only person who can see past events that have taken place and realize the true goal.

Although Luffy is fairly lightheaded and a funny character, he has a strong sense of determination and commitment and will do anything to stand up for his friends and comrades. Luffy is simple-minded and can easily be amazed by the simplest things, and can be confused by things such as the concept that by digging a hole right next to another he may be unintentionally filling the other hole. He likes to make fun of other's imperfections and character traits, such as Zoro's bad sense of direction (though he is rarely better). Luffy seems to have an unstoppable appetite (this characteristic is common to the Japanese archetype of the, at times simple-minded, young male hero/adventurer with a heart of gold, as in the case of Son Goku of Dragon Ball fame for example, which is Eiichiro Oda's favorite manga.)

He also appears to have very little fear, as when Spandam asked if he really thought he had a chance against the whole world when Sogeking burned down the World Government's flag, he yelled "YEAH!!" at the top of his voice. Luffy has no fear of death, stating that if he reaches his goal, that's fine, but if he dies on the way, that's fine too. He even smiled when he was nearly executed by Buggy the Clown in Loguetown.

Because he is the captain and recruited all the crewmates, Luffy is on good terms with everyone on the ship. Luffy also has the rare ability to cheer up just about anyone with his idiotic antics, even pulling a smile every now and then from the serious Zoro and Robin. Usopp and Chopper, as the youngest of the crew, often join him in singing and fooling around. Nami often scolds Luffy's airheaded-ness, but he never gets angry at her, even when she manipulates him. He adores Sanji's cooking, especially meat, and drops anything he's doing for a meal. He usually gets into fights with the male members of the crew when he attempts to steal their food. Luffy also likes to comically imitate his crew members, and sometimes even himself. He is willing to do anything and everything for his friends, even the ones not in his crew. Even after someone has done something bad to him and his friends, he tends to quickly forgive them, as seen in the cases of Robin and Franky.

In confrontation of groups of enemies, Luffy will normally fight the strongest fighter (who usually is the leader) and won't give up until he defeats him, even if it takes him several tries. Sometimes he even shows direct admiration towards the abilities of an enemy: that is of course until he finds a way to outweigh his opponents strength. To the same degree, he will be angered if he witnesses indifference of a captain for the fate of his crew.

Luffy never kills any of the villains (no matter how cold-hearted they are); instead, he frequently sends the villain flying, knocking them out or until the point that they are almost near death, which results in some of the villains searching for revenge, such as Buggy the Clown. Oda explains that it's not a question of morality so much as a matter of punishing the villains for their crimes - he feels that killing the villains lets them off too lightly, whereas he considers letting them live to see their dreams be ruined a far more fitting punishment.

In Japanese fan polls, Luffy always is the most popular character and is often considered one of the more likable shonen lead characters.

Abilities and Powers
Luffy has gained extraordinary stretching powers from eating the Gomu Gomu no Mi, which is one of the rare and legendary Devil Fruits. After consuming the Gomu Gomu no Mi, Luffy's body becomes like rubber, giving him the ability to stretch long distances. Having trained hard for ten years, Luffy is able to supplement his stretching powers with immense strength, agility, and creativity in combat. His strength is probably not an effect of the Gomu Gomu no Mi, as he does not display unusual strength in his battle with Higuma the Bear.

Luffy uses his stretching power in ingenious ways. He is able to use the malleable stretchiness of his limbs to gain tremendous velocity and hit enemies with devastating impact. His rubber body is also virtually immune to blunt objects such as bullets (in One Piece, bullets are still round pellets), punches and electricity, either reflecting off his body harmlessly or being absorbed into him. It's even become a running gag that people find out the hard way Luffy is made of rubber when they shoot at him, only to have the bullets bounce right back. However, he is still very susceptible to sharp objects such as swords and knives. He can not only use his ability to increase the range and strength of his attacks, but he can also use it to restrain and even control foes like puppets.

Like all Devil Fruit users, Luffy cannot swim (although he could not swim even before he ate the Devil Fruit). Even though blunt objects do no damage to him, sharp blades or points can harm him, as well as nonphysical attacks like flames, explosions, and freezing.

Some of his more common attacks are the Gomu Gomu no Pistol/Gum Gum Blast (a stretching punch) and Gomu Gomu no Bazooka/Gum Gum Double Barrel (Luffy sends his arms back a long distance and snaps them back for a powerful hit). The majority of his attacks revolve around having stretched limbs snap back quickly for added force or using his rubber qualities to flail his limbs rapidly for several quick attacks. Luffy follows no set fighting style, but even so he appears to be quite skilled at hand-to-hand fighting even without his Devil Fruit.

Go here for information on individual attacks. Go here for information on Luffy's forms

Past Story
When Luffy was young he met a band of pirates led by a kindly pirate named Red-Haired Shanks. Luffy befriended that band of pirates and from that moment on wanted to become a pirate as well. Luffy cut himself under his eye to show that he was tough enough to join Shanks's crew, a scene that was never reproduced in the anime. During his time spent with Shanks, Luffy ate a Devil Fruit (Cursèd Fruit in the English dub) known as the Gomu Gomu no Mi (ゴムゴムの実, Gum Gum Fruit, Rubber Rubber Fruit), and unwittingly turned himself into a rubber man.

After Luffy stood up to Higuma the Bear, a local mountain bandit that insulted Shanks and his crew, Luffy got caught up in a hostage situation and his captives were defeated by the Red-Haired Pirates, but the bandit leader Higuma had fled out to sea with Luffy, only for the two to be attacked by a Sea King. Higuma was eaten, but Shanks managed to save Luffy. However the incident cost Shanks his left arm. Shortly after, Shanks set sail along with his crew, but before leaving, he and Luffy promised each other that one day Luffy would surpass Shanks and become the Pirate King and then Shanks left Luffy his straw hat as a parting gift, telling him to return it once he surpassed him.

Present Story
Luffy has since worked diligently on keeping that promise and is known famously as "Monkey D Luffy", or simply "Straw Hat Luffy". Most people don't take his goal seriously, until they see his absurd strength; although we never surely know how he got to be so strong or how he trained in the ten years of his training.

Even the Marines started to take him more seriously after he defeated the villainous Marine Captain "Axe-Hand" Morgan and several known pirates such as Captain Buggy the Clown, "Pirate Admiral" Don Krieg, and Arlong The Fish-man (Captain Kuro is left out from this because their confrontation was never publicized, and the marines believed Kuro to have been killed by Morgan 3 years ago). A 30 million beli reward was placed on his head after he had beaten Arlong. This reward eventually becomes 100 million beli after he defeated Sir Crocodile when the World Government deemed him a serious threat for beating one of their Seven Warlords of the Sea. After the invasion of Enies Lobby, the government raised the bounties of the entire crew; Luffy's was raised to 300 million beli.

During his voyage, Luffy has had a few meetings with the Marines, from the not-too serious looking return of Ironfist Fullbody (whom Luffy met first by the Baratie) and Captain Smoker (Captain Chaser in the English anime) of Loguetown (Roguetown in the English version), to Admiral Aokiji.

Luffy has passed several islands on his way to and along The Grand Line, including Drum Island, Little Garden, Alabasta, and Skypiea. He has met many new allies, as well as making several enemies, such as Wapol, Sir Crocodile, and Eneru.

Current Events (Spoilers)
Chapter 430: With the Going Merry, everyone has managed to escape Enies Lobby safely. However, after escaping, Iceburg arrives in a Galley-La just in time to pick up the Strawhat Pirates as the Merry suddenly breaks apart. Luffy then gives the Going Merry a viking funeral by burning it as the crew tearfully says goodbye.

Chapter 431: As everyone relaxes at Water 7, Franky decides to build a ship for the crew out of the special wood called Adam. However, at that point, Marines led by Garp break into Iceburg's mansion, where everyone is staying, and punches the still-asleep Luffy to wake him up. At this point, Luffy reveals that Garp is his grandfather.

Most recently, with the help of the rest of Franky's Family, he is holding Franky's pants hostage as a bargaining chip to get him to join his crew. Franky simply poses naked and he says "I'm still a man naked". Meanwhile, Sanji comes running with Zoro tell that Vice-Admiral Garp, has sailed on the opposite shore in attack position. Luffy then throws Franky's speedo back and tells him to sail with them. Franky then says he does want to see his dream ship. Franky then agrees to join.

As of chapter 438, Luffy is trying to battle his grandfather with his new ship. At this moment Usopp tries to rejoin the crew, however Zoro had already advised Luffy not to do so until Usopp apologized. Zoro proclaims he must join under their terms not his own since there is now bad terms between him and the crew for him to rejoin. During the struggle between Garp and the Straw Hats, Usopp finally admits he wants to rejoin and that he will never question orders again, with that note, Luffy tearfully accepts him back into the crew.

Major Battles

 * Luffy vs. Buggy the Clown
 * Luffy vs. Captain Kuro
 * Luffy vs. Don Krieg
 * Luffy vs. Arlong
 * Luffy vs. Laboon
 * Luffy vs. Zoro
 * Luffy, Usopp, Karoo, Vivi, Nami, and Zoro vs. Mr. 3, Miss Goldenweek, Mr. 5, and Miss Valentine
 * Luffy vs. Wapol
 * Luffy vs. Sir Crocodile(1)
 * Luffy vs. Sir Crocodile(2)
 * Luffy vs. Sir Crocodile(3)
 * Luffy vs. Bellamy the Hyena
 * Luffy, Usopp and Sanji vs. Satori
 * Luffy vs. Eneru
 * Luffy vs. Foxy the Silver Fox (Davy Back Fight Round 3)
 * Luffy vs. Admiral Aokiji
 * Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and Chopper vs. Franky Family
 * Luffy vs. Franky vs. Galley-La formen
 * Luffy vs. Usopp
 * Luffy vs. Rob Lucci (Iceburg's home)
 * Luffy vs. Blueno
 * Luffy vs. Rob Lucci (Enies Lobby)

Filler Battles

 * Luffy vs. Erik the Whirlwind
 * Luffy vs. El Drago
 * Luffy vs. Bear King
 * Luffy vs. Colonel Butler
 * Luffy vs. Gasparde
 * Luffy and Zoro vs. Saga
 * Luffy vs. Baron Omatsuri
 * Luffy vs. Ratchet
 * Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, and Robin vs. Bayan
 * Luffy vs. Governor
 * Luffy vs. Hatchan and Gedatsu

Trivia

 * Monkey D. Luffy is the second character that carries the inital D., however he is the first D. to be named in the story.
 * In Chapter 431, Luffy gained the ability to eat and sleep...at the same time!
 * When lost Luffy will often say things like 'South is colder' or 'North is warmer'. This seems to be a slight reference on the argument between Shanks and Buggy over which pole was colder North of South (which Shanks correctly stated was the South Pole due to it being a mass of ice overtop ground as opposed to just a mass of ice).
 * Except for the Gears, Luffy's Forms (up to now) have all been him messing around hoping sometihng will work, and just doing goofy stuff, but they have saved him each time.
 * Oda has stated that Luffy remains the same age (17) every year.

Early One Piece
Luffy was first featured in the first pilot of One Piece Romance Dawn V.1 in the Shonen Jump specials showcasting upcoming artists, about a year and a half before One Piece began. He would remain in the second release of Romance Dawn, Romance Dawn V.2 (featured in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine itself) and the final version Romance Dawn V.3.

Luffy's character changed throughout all three versions of Romance Dawn. Starting from Romance Dawn version 1, Luffy was much smarter then his final incarnation and while he had the power of the Devil Fruit he did not seem to have any named attacks. He claimed to be a canidate for pirate and and a Peace Maine type of pirate. His background story was near enough identical to the final story released with Romance Dawn version 3, with a number of note worthy differences. The major difference being that Higuma the Bear was absent from the story in this version. Another minor difference was that Shanks' arm was bitten off by a shark instead of a Sea King. In Romance Dawn V.1 there was also a panel that featured a Luffy as captain of his own crew. This is the only time a older version of Luffy has been drawn by Oda in regards to One Piece storyline.

Version 2 of Romance Dawn feature a Luffy closer to the final version then Romance Dawn version 1. He now had a named attack (though it featured a different naming scheme to the final version) and lacked the intelligence he displayed in Romance Dawn version 1, however, it is arguable that he was less intelligent then his final design overall. His story, though still featured him eating the Devil Fruit, did not feature Shanks and instead Luffy got both his hat and the Devil fruit he ate from his grandfather. Luffy remained a Peace Maine type of pirate in this version and was still promoting himself as a canidate for a pirate while seeking to join up with a crew.

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 * Will of D.