Monkey D. Luffy/Personality

Personality
Luffy's two most important traits are his apparent lack of intelligence and his utter fearlessness. The two are probably related as his failure to understand the danger of certain situations probably contributes to his complete lack of fear. Luffy can easily be amazed by the simplest things, such as hermit crabs, and can be confused by concepts such as that by digging a hole right next to another he may be unintentionally filling the other hole. He likes monsters and will ask weird creatures to join his crew (as seen in the Thriller Bark arc, asking a talking tree to join his crew). He also has no knowledge of medicine, when Nami had a high fever he told her to eat cold food and later tried to make Zoro better (after battling Kuma) by pouring sake onto him because Zoro likes sake. When attempting to think up a plan to get off of Amazon Lily, while he managed to make some logical sense of where to look, he is seen to strain himself and notes that he is going to feel sick from too much thinking. His simple mind actually saved him against Hancock's powers because he mistook it for a noro noro beam, used by Foxy, which brought out a fear of being slowed down. Though, later it is shown he is simply immune to her powers, because of his pure heart. If Luffy finds something he doesn't understand, even if someone explained in detail, he calls it a "mystery thing"; like calling dance powder a "mystery powder". One of Luffy's running gags is asking "non-humans" such as Keimi and Brook if they can poop, in which case the answer is usually a yes. Another running gag is Luffy's slow reaction time, especially to snow and freezing temperatures. The same can't be said when he's on the field of battle, though, and has been known to dodge bullets with ease.

It has been stated more than once that Luffy's instinct and behaviour is similar to that of a wild animals, like when he knows who he has to fight before he even gets to the battle. Even how he fights shows this, when he relies on his instincts and countering attacks. This compliments the way he views the world.

Luffy seems to be content and acceptant of life. He is most often seen smiling, except for in a fight. Luffy also seems to rarely change personality wise. This is stated by Robin in the Memory loss ark, after Sanji comments that Luffy hasn't changed even after getting his memory back.

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, yet at other times he can fall into the simplest of traps. He is, however, a genius when it comes to fighting, such as when he figured out how to defeat Crocodile's Devil Fruit power on the verge of death, how to use Soru from sight, developed a number of effective counters to Enel's "Mantra" ability and most recently, learning everything Rayleigh had to teach him about Haki in a year and a half (even though Rayleigh mentioned that two years were too short a time to learn about Haki). He does have a habit of holding a grudge even in dire situations (such as calling Franky a "bastard" in the middle of his fight with Rob Lucci causing Franky to retort "Now's not the time to be mad at me" and refusing to let Crocodile help him escape Impel Down even when there was no alternative). However he tries not to hurt civilians and people he likes, even if they intend to do harm to him, prefering to run from them then fight. When drawing him, Oda has said he tries to make Luffy very straightforward about what he wants to be and how he feels,which is why out of all the main characters, he has the least number of thought bubbles, since he acts and says what he wants to do rather then think it. To compliment Luffy's naivety and straightforward attitude, there is a running gag through the series where Luffy can identify similarities on things that have little resemblance (like being able to see the resemblance between Sanji and his Wanted Poster, or being able to see Spoil as an old man with major wounds rather than a zombie), but is unable to see similarities with things with obvious connections (like being unable to tell that Sogeking is Usopp or not seeing through Foxy 's pathetic disguises).

Luffy's simple attitude and naive comments during fights are often mistaken by his opponents as poking fun at them. Due to this fact many of his opponents lose their cool and charge at him in anger. In many cases the opponents fail to understand whether Luffy is serious or just playing during fights due to his bizarre actions like drinking too much water in his fight with Crocodile or punching out Arlong's teeth and using it as a weapon to bite him. Luffy, however, has maintained that he is always serious during fights. In most cases once he starts to fight he maintains a serious attitude and is only seen laughing once he defeats the enemy or is certain the enemy will be defeated like in Buggy's case when he laughed before sending Buggy flying in the air. Every time Luffy defeats an anatgonist or an enemy, within one or two chapters, Luffy smiles. Whether it is because he something entertaining or comical happened, Luffy always smiles. After his fight with Usopp in Water 7, Luffy did not smile for the longest time in the entire series while non-combative. In the storyline, he did not smile for a whole day, but in terms of chapters, he did not smile for fifteen chapters.

In battle, Luffy has shown signs of intelligence, high tactical and innovative skills. He can easily adapt to hindering situations such as Mr. 3's Candle Lock or Enel's Gloam Paddling into an attack. He also used a mirror to reflect Foxy's Noro Noro Beam attack. Recently in the Marineford arc, Mihawk mentions that Luffy seems unusually clear-headed by avoiding Mihawk's attacks. Additionally, during his battle against Mihawk, he uses Buggy as a scapegoat shield to help protect him and move forward towards Ace.

A bit of a running gag is that during battles, Luffy is almost always thrown into situations, by accident or on purpose, where he cannot fight. When he is in a situation like this, his crew members usually fight the other, weaker people associated with the main antagonist, and defeating them, so that there is no one to interrupt in Luffy's fight. Then, when all the other enemies are defeated, Luffy fights the strongest, i.e. the one that only Luffy can defeat. This happens in many arcs, such as him being stuck in a cage, getting stuck in a rock and being thrown underwater, getting lost, getting seriously injured and resting, or getting stuck in a snake's stomach.

As a person with the middle initial D., Luffy shares the common trait of not fearing death. He will often state 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, although he did have a look of shock and surprise in his eyes before this happened when Sanji and Zoro tried to rescue him. Luffy also has a habit of saying things with a lot more weight and (occasionally) wisdom than he realizes without even thinking or meaning to.

Luffy also has an extreme thirst for adventure, which he has stated is the main reason he wants to become the Pirate King, having the belief that the Pirate King would be the one on the entire ocean with the most freedom for adventuring. This adventurous nature also makes him tend to avoid taking 'the easy way out' at times, such as when he destroyed the Eternal Pose to Arabasta given to him by Robin (Miss All-Sunday at the time), stating that he did not want an enemy to decide his destination. He also has no intention of trying to learn what or where One Piece actually is until he finds it himself, and once stated he would quit being a pirate if his crew tried to find out, not wanting to 'go on a boring adventure'.

Luffy never says goodbye to those he considers friends, in hopes of seeing them again.

We are NOT asking him where the treasure is hidden!!! We're not even asking him whether there IS any treasure or not!! I'm not sure, but... ...everybody set out to sea, risking their lives to search for it!!! If you ask this old man anything about it here and now... Then I'll quit being a pirate! I don't want to go on a boring adventure like that!

Luffy seems to have an unstoppable appetite which is another common "D" trait, as well as a strong belief in dreams. Like other D's so far, he also is a glutton, despite his skinny appearance: he especially loves meat and can eat a fish whole - bones included and because of this, a running gag is Luffy constantly stealing other peoples' food with his rubber powers, causing them to yell at him and sometimes hit him. It should also be noted that he becomes more gluttonous over the series as there are moments he becomes morbidly obese, though he loses the weight in some way, usually exercise. Also, after the events of Enies Lobby, Luffy seems to have developed narcolepsy, much like his "brother" Ace, though for only a short time.

Another running gag is his habit of being amazed of various abilities of villains often yelling out "AMAZING" with stars in his eyes and around his head. Luffy believes that he is at his "coolest" when he is wearing armor. He also constantly insults his opponents by giving them degrading nicknames (such as calling Gecko Moria a "leek" or Enel "earlobes"). Luffy apparently has no skill with insulting people, usually taking either a physical aspect or unique ability and trying to make it degrading (like calling Zoro four-swords when everyone was lamenting Vivi's absence). Luffy also seems to have a slight obsession when it comes to outfitting himself with full-body armors, and has a knack of wearing himself one whenever he gets the chance, but every armor that he manages to find and outfit himself with usually ends up destroyed either in a battle or by some other comedic scenario. Luffy also has absolutely no talent for lying whatsoever. In fact, more often than not, Luffy would blurt out, without thinking, what he knows regarding a certain event whenever people asks concerning the events that transpired. In contrast, Luffy has a tendency to suck his lips in and turn his head to the side when an attack or technique fails to affect him, such as Enel's various electrical attacks or Boa Hancock's Mero Mero Merrow.

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. 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. Ironically though, some of the people he has defeated have become good after their defeat, most noticeably Wapol going to become a rich CEO of a toy factory.

Another dominant trait of Luffy is his humble nature: he doesn't brag about the powerful foes he's defeated in the past, though he's not above about claiming that no one has ever beaten him in the past, which is not true, having been defeated many times by Ace and Sabo as a child, twice by Smoker (though non-fatal), twice by Crocodile, though he did beat him eventually, once by Aokiji, once by Rob Lucci, once by Kuma, and once by Magellan, in the past. He remains humble despite having done outrageous acts like defeating Shichibukai-level pirates and issuing the order to burn down the World Government Flag back at Enies Lobby. When Franky pointed out the latter, Luffy only replied that it was nothing to get worked up over, for he and his crew were only there to take back a crew member who was taken from them. When Sengoku tries to cover up Gecko Moria's defeat by ordering Bartholomew Kuma to kill the Strawhat Crew, Vice-Admiral Garp tells him, "Ah, don't worry yourself Sengoku! Luffy isn't the sort of guy who'd go around boasting about taking out Moria anyway!!" Despite his passion for fighting, Luffy also generally refuses to fight someone that he does not personally consider an enemy, preferring to either talk it over or run away from the confrontation. Over the series Luffy has become more mature and levelheaded, though he only shows this part of his personality when he and his friends are in dire situations or someone insults him, calling people like him and their beliefs foolish; other than that he still acts the same as he was at the start of the series.

Luffy calls every mixed-appearance creature he finds by whichever creature is its secondary (non-dominant) part. On Gaimon's island, the dog/chicken was referred to as a chicken when it was mostly a dog, the snake/rabbit a rabbit even though it was mostly snake and the pig/lion a lion even though it was mostly pig. This becomes a running gag: later when he meets Bananawani, he calls them bananas with crocodiles attached to them. Also, after seeing Pierre transform, he continued to refer to him as a "horse" instead of a bird. And related to this running gag, when on Long Ring Long Land island, he called every animal by what he thought they resembled rather than the actual species they were.

Luffy's interest in women is a complex matter: in an SBS, Oda stated that the reason Luffy acted in an aroused manner when Nami stripped, yet remained neutral when Hancock did so, was that he was with Usopp at the time Nami did so, as Usopp is his age and a bad influence on his behavior. He also appears to have little or no romantic interests, having non-chalantly refused the proposals made to him by Lola and Hancock without a second thought.

Luffy is very loyal to his crewmates and other friends, and can lose his temper quickly if they are harmed in anyway (a trait that he apparently shares with the late Pirate King according to Garp). Luffy is willing to do drastic things to avenge and defend those dear to him, even if it means breaking a promise to his friends (such as striking Bellamy down for attacking Montblanc Cricket's crew and even though promising Nami he would not pick a fight, and punching Tenryuubito Saint Charloss in the face for shooting Hatchan, despite promising not to defy the World Nobles). Additionally, Luffy believes that all people should be loyal to their friends, and if Luffy sees anyone betraying their own comrades, he would stand up for the victims (even if they are enemies). Notable examples of this are Captain Kuro killing his own crew, Don Krieg attacking Gin, and Boa Hancock petrifying her fellow Kuja tribe members. Luffy's apparent selflessness often inspires others to side with him as a result, notable among these people are Boa Hancock and Emporio Ivankov, who would not have helped him out otherwise, given their individual beliefs. He also shows respect for things that a person is willing to die for, be it a treasure or a secret, to the point of even fighting to protect that which the person would throw their lives away over. The most noticeable action to this would be when he protected the Gorgon Sisters secret by using his own body to cover the mark on Boa Sandersonia's back, even though they were trying to kill him. However, despite all his peculiar traits and habits (with his trademark dimwitted behavior) Luffy's most defining part of his personality is the ability to make allies out of absolutely anyone (including former enemies, villains and even Whitebeard himself), which is said by Mihawk to be the most dangerous ability in the world.

Also, as a bit of a running gag, Luffy, when talking about money, tells his crewmates to budget their money, only for them to react in return that it all goes towards feeding him. Another running gag involves Luffy is randomly telling someone a secret, such as the identity of his and Ace's fathers, only to casually ask to keep it as a secret afterwards. He shares this with his grandpa.

When his adoptive brother, Ace, was killed at Marineford, the mental strain of watching Ace die in his arms caused him to fall into a catatonic state. After waking from this state, Luffy flew into a rage and went on a destructive rampage to vent his anger. Afterwards, Luffy re-evaluated himself and came to the conclusion that he had been too naive, and was weak and unworthy of becoming Pirate King, falling into a state of depression and self-pity. Some encouragement from Jinbe and Rayleigh gave Luffy some renewed courage to continue pursuing his dream. After the time-skip, he tells Rayleigh that he will be Pirate King, having regained his confidence to fight for his dream.

Prior to the time-skip, Luffy has displayed a side to himself where he occasionally gets into fights with others over needless issues (i.e. he nearly got into one with Blackbeard in Mock Town over a matter of quality of the pies that the tavern served over to their patrons). This tendency seemed to have diminished after the 2 year-long training, and prefers to end conflicts with the least amount of effort as possible, as seen when he knocked out the Fake Luffy's crew using Haki to prevent further casualties. However, all of this might simply to prevent any interference with his crew setting sail, by keeping a low profile. He didn't seem to have changed very much in this manner, seeing how he he said "what did you say" in an agressive-defensive manner after Hammond approached him and mocked him right before his escape.

Crew
To find such loyal companions... your son is indeed amazing... Dragon.

Because he is the captain and recruited all the crew mates personally, Luffy cares tremendously for his crew. As far as captaincy to Luffy is concerned, he sees his other crewmates as equals in contrast to other pirate captains, who mostly sees theirs as subordinate underlings (his crew mostly calls him by name, rather than with an honorific or "Captain"). In fact, it could be argued that he is the only one that is generally beaten up and ordered around on the ship as several members of the crew have shown, especially Nami who never hesitates to give Luffy a beating for his idiocy (albeit, in comedic fashion). Much like his idol, Shanks, Luffy is the kind of benevolent pirate captain who doesn't seek to actively harm others unless they give him and his crew (or anyone he cares about) a very good reason to. However, during the Jaya arc he was willing to start a fight with Blackbeard over a difference in opinion on pie. 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.

As the first crewmate to join the Straw Hat Pirates, Zoro and Luffy have a very close bond which is underlined by their tremendous amount of trust and respect for one another, to the point where Zoro is willing to die for Luffy's dream to become Pirate King and sacrifice his own dream of becoming the world's greatest swordsman. Though she respects him as a captain, Nami often scolds Luffy's airheaded-ness, but he never gets angry at her, even when she manipulates him. Luffy's relationship with Usopp is perhaps the closest example on the ship of a sibling relationship because of their similar pasts and fun loving mindsets; though a coward by nature, Usopp at times finds the strength within himself by following the example set by Luffy. When Usopp left the crew, Luffy and Chopper were the most depressed about the event. He adores Sanji's cooking, especially meat, dropping anything he's doing for a meal despite Sanji's claim that he puts considerably less effort into Luffy's food than the meals he prepares for the women. Chopper, as the youngest of the crew, often joins him and Usopp in singing and fooling around, he credits Luffy for helping him find the courage to go on adventures. Robin is especially grateful to him for taking her in despite the risks it involved as well as for pursuing her all the way to Enies Lobby. He will always ask Robin to explain something to him about a new person they meet. She at first joined the crew because Luffy had saved her life when she wished to die, and had nowhere else to go, but eventually all of the crew memebers became important to her personally. He always is amazed for Franky's building talent and creating awesome machines. As the musician of the crew Brook is often requested by Luffy to perform a song and will often join Luffy, Usopp and Chopper in immature antics. Luffy had always stated that he wanted a musicain in the crew, so brookes job is very important to him.

He likes to make fun of others imperfections and character traits, such as Zoro's bad sense of direction (though he is barely better). Luffy also likes to comically imitate his crew members, and sometimes even himself; despite nearly dying from being frozen by Aokiji, he covered himself in flour and hopped while frozen in a pose to imitate the experience.

However despite his cheerful personality and great love for everyone he can actually become rather serious and bossy for some moments, such as when the crew meet again after 2 years and they needed to scape from the marines Luffy put order with a rather mature speech and asked Nami in a very strict and serious yet not angry way if they were ready to set sail, to which she answered with "Captain" instead of Luffy showing the respect he can emanate at moments. However moments like this are rather rare and extremely short as seconds later he happily screamed to set sail on to the New World with everyone else celebrating.

Portgas D. Ace
Fire Fist Ace and Luffy were very close to each other. They grew up together back in their hometown and from time to time fought, with Ace always winning even though Luffy had eaten a devil fruit. Luffy displayed no grudge against Ace for always winning, but instead boasted that he could win now (though he appears to still acknowledge that Ace is still the stronger of the two, he proclaimed during the war in Marineford that he'll eventually surpass Ace one day). Despite the battles they fought, Ace was protective of Luffy from Garp's abusive nature even going as so far to insult him to stop abusing Luffy. As for Luffy, this protective streak is reciprocated, leading to him embarking on a one-man rescue mission to extract Ace from captivity in the one place regarded as the most secured prison of the world, Impel Down, after hearing of Ace' capture and subsequent imprisonment there. However, while they are loving brothers to each other, Luffy always makes Ace angry and worried by doing something reckless. As such, Ace readily believed Boa Hancock when she told him that Luffy broke in to the prison. Even near his death, Ace grew angry with Luffy's reckless infiltration into Impel Down, while the endangered Luffy was worried about Ace's safety so much he has even snuck in the world's greatest prison, lost 10 years of his life, and even risked his arms to attack Magellan. Luffy's devotion and love for his brother were shown to extremes when he not only takes on every Marine stationed at the Marineford, but the three Admirals themselves, showing that nothing would stand between him and saving his brother, not even the three most powerful Marines around and even shouting out loud he will save Ace even if it kills him.

While Ace regarded Luffy as his brother and even acted like him, it is revealed, moments before his execution that Ace was a child of Gol D. Roger, and that he chose his mother, Portgas D. Rouge's surname, which makes them brothers through adoption. A flashback shows Luffy and Ace first meeting as young children, which means that Luffy is aware of this fact. When this happened, Luffy already had his signature straw hat and his scar under his left eye, which means this was after Shanks left the Fuusha Village and gave his straw hat to Luffy and he has gained his devil fruit powers, who for that time was 7 years old. It's revealed in a flashback that Luffy was sent to live with Ace and his guardian Dadan after Shanks left, since Garp thought that living in Fuusha Village had somehow made Luffy "too soft." Ace was quite hostile to Luffy at first, even spitting on him before they were introduced. Luffy, however, constantly tried to make Ace his friend, following him everywhere and trying to make up. Eventually, thanks to the "Sabo Incident" Ace mentioned before he died, Ace grew fond of Luffy and they officially became brothers. Sometime after meeting Ace he managed to find out that he was the son of Gol D. Roger.

Luffy was anguished after Ace's death; so devastated, in fact, that Luffy suffered a mental collapse, and became unresponsive to his surroundings, that he nearly got killed by Akainu, were it not for others to defend him. Jinbe speculated that this comatose phase was a way for Luffy to defend himself from the impact of the loss, and worries about how Luffy would act when he wakes up. Indeed, when Luffy did wake up, all he could do is scream in agony and cry and wish it was all a nightmare, and that he would wake up soon. The loss of his final brother also has a crucial impact on Luffy, leading him to concede into thinking that he is not worthy enough to become Pirate King for the first time in his life. He only came out of his depression after Jinbe made him realize that Ace has trusted Luffy's safety in the hands of his crew.

After the two year has apparently fully gotten over his grief as he was able to talk about Ace's death freely.

Sabo
Sabo was never an actual member of Luffy's family, but he, Luffy and Ace shared a drink making them official brothers. They seem to be reasonably close though not as deep as Ace and Luffy, this is most likely because they didn't spend as much time together as he was taken away and they never saw each other again. He still had a tendency to defend or save him when they were children hunting together. Even though when he first met him he wanted to kill him for discovering their plans. After Sabo and Ace fought together against Porchemy to save Luffy's life they became friends. At this point they were seen after different events of stealing and hunting. Sabo was seen being taken back by his father, who recently revealed that he was the son of a Goa Kingdom Noble. They show a relationship of trust and love since he gave up and returned with his father so that Luffy and Ace would be safe from the hired pirate Bluejam. When Sabo's death was reported by Dogura, Luffy cried all night until he fell asleep. Luffy only snapped out of this sorrowful moment when Ace told him to live proudly, as Sabo would have wanted.

Monkey D. Garp
Though the two of them get along fine, Luffy is utterly terrified of his grandfather Garp. This is due to the extreme training he was put through in his younger years in his bid to make Luffy a Marine, as well as Garp's tendency to punch Luffy to discipline him. Garp has high expectations for Luffy, but to Garp's dismay, Luffy does not share his grandfather's ideas on his future. However, Garp respects Luffy as a great person, even if he is a pirate. He often brags about Luffy to his superior Sengoku, laughing whenever Luffy does something audacious and is prone to saying "That's my grandson after all." much to Sengoku's exasperation. When Sengoku is talking with Garp and Kuma, Garp says that Luffy isn't the type of person that brags about defeating someone of Moria's caliber, arguing that Bartholomew Kuma did not need to kill Luffy to keep Moria's defeat a secret. When Luffy entered the battle of Marineford, Garp recognized him and looked shocked and horrified at the sight of his grandson entering the fearsome battle. Later, as the battle rages on, Garp merely looks resigned as his grandson furiously makes his way to the execution platform. When Luffy came close to the platform, Garp stands in his way in the name of his Marine duties. However, in the end, Garp chose family over his duties as he allowed Luffy to knock him out and reach the execution platform to save Ace.

Monkey D. Dragon
Luffy has discovered that Dragon the Revolutionary, the most wanted man in the world, is his father.The two have yet to talk to each other. In fact, their only meeting was when Dragon rescued Luffy from being captured by Smoker, and the only thing Luffy said to him was "who's there?" while being pinned headfirst to the ground by Smoker. It is highly probable that Dragon cares for his son's life because he saved him in Loguetown and he always looked towards East Blue where his family lived. Dragon seems to expect great things from Luffy, much like his grandfather. However, unlike Garp, Dragon seems content with letting him find his own place in the world, although he believes they will meet someday. Luffy was unaware of who Dragon was when he first told by Garp and didn't understand what the revolutionaries are capable of doing to the world when told about it by Ivankov. So far Luffy hasn't mentioned anything about how he feels toward Dragon and his ideals, but he is fine with people knowing that he is Dragon's son.

Curly Dadan
The mountain bandit, Curly Dadan, is Luffy and Ace's foster mother. She has been blackmailed by Garp into taking care of the two, and didn't seem pleased with having Luffy as her surrogate son, due to being already occupied with the troublesome Ace. Luffy, in turn, didn't seem to like the Dadan family any more than they liked him, due to his run-in with a previous bandit Higuma. However, as time passed, they came to care for each other, with Dadan coming in to save Luffy from Bluejam, and Luffy worrying for Dadan's safety.

Friends
It's not some sort of special power, but he has the ability to make allies of everyone he meets. And that is the most fearsome ability on the high seas...

It's notable that Luffy has connections to the some of the most powerful organizations or people, mostly through his extensive and famous family. His known family alone has him connected to powerful members in the Revolutionary Army, Marines, and Whitebeard. Besides his family, he has Shanks, Rayleigh, Boa Hancock, Jinbe, Coby, and Helmeppo, who connect him to another Yonkou, the Shichibukai, and again the Marines. As the Kingdom of Arabasta is an affiliate nation of the World Government, through Vivi (and by extension, Cobra), he may also possess some influence there. Therefore, of the reigning World Powers, the Gorousei is the only organization to which he is not somehow amicably connected.

Shanks
Luffy shares a strong relationship with Shanks, the pirate who saved his life twelve years ago in his hometown, and looks up to him as his role model of an ideal pirate. Shanks and his crew are the ones Luffy proclaimed he would beat as they were leaving Luffy's hometown. Luffy will often defend his friend when others insult him and was relieved to hear from his grandfather that Shanks and his crew were okay. Part of Luffy's dream is to return the hat Shanks gave him when he becomes a great pirate.

Luffy has since worked diligently on keeping that promise and is infamously known as "Straw Hat Luffy."

Coby
While Coby, the first person Luffy met on his journey, acknowledges that as he is a Marine, they will inevitably have to fight, they consider each other friends, as Luffy helped Coby master the courage necessary to become a Marine.

Mr. 2 Bon Kurei
Luffy became good friends with Mr. 2 Bon Kurei after he apologized for causing them trouble in Arabasta, and distracted the Marines so the Straw Hats could escape. Bon Kurei went as far as to give his life away to save Luffy and other prisoners by posing as Magellan and ordering the opening of the Gates of Justice during the Impel Down Arc.

Boa Hancock
Luffy managed to befriend the Gorgon Sisters, despite their previous attempts to kill him for seeing the mark on Shichibukai Boa Hancock's back, which the other two sisters also have. The mark was of the Tenryuubito, proof that they were once a slave to them, and they would have rather die than show the mark to anyone. During a fight with Hancock's sisters, when Boa Sandersonia's mark was about to be revealed, Luffy served in preventing everyone present from viewing it as a form of respect to his opponents, claiming that their secrets have nothing to do with their fight. This sparked up past memories in Hancock, and revoking her decision to eliminate him. Upon further testing his selflessness, she reveals their past to him, and Luffy forgives them, showing that he only hates the Tenryuubito who did all of them wrong, earning their friendship and (without his knowledge) Hancock's love. He has come to greatly appreciate Hancock in return, as she helped him in the two major instances of helping him break into Impel Down and giving him the key to Ace's seastone handcuffs, in gratitude hugged her and making her collapse in pleasure. Although he doesn't know Hancock loves him, he genuinely cares for her as promising not to tell Magellan how he got into Impel Down even if it meant his life. After the two-year timeskip, Hancock mentioned that she's a thoughtful woman who's suitable to be a great wife for loading the ship with Luffy's favorite foods. Luffy replied that he's grateful to her for bringing food for him but he's not gonna marry her. This implies that Luffy is either aware of Hancock's love for him, (though there are doubts as Hancock and the others were forbidden to step foot on the island during the whole of Luffy's training by Rayleigh) or thinks she just wants to marry him for the sake of marrying him like Captain Lola and remains oblivious of her feelings for him. Regardless, Luffy replied that he wishes to see her again sometime in the future. However, Hancock mistook this as a marriage proposal.

Silvers Rayleigh
Ever since Rayleigh had heard about Luffy from Shanks he had wanted to meet him face to face. When Luffy found him on the Sabaody Archipelago, he was excited about hearing stories about Gol D. Roger. The more they talked, the more amused Rayleigh felt as he compared Luffy's demeanor to his old captain. He like Shakky, had great expectations for him. After the war had ended he swam across the Calm Belt to reach Amazon Lily where Luffy had been recuperating from his injuries and from the loss of Ace. From there he helped Luffy break into Marine HQ with Jinbe in order for him to send the secret message to his crew. Rayleigh also mentored Luffy on how to master all three different haki forms that he possessed. After the 2 year time skip it's apparent that both of them became close from their training together, before heading to his ship Luffy with a big smile yelled towards Rayleigh "I gonna do it, I'M GOING TO BE PIRATE KING!", afterwards Rayleigh is seen donning a smile and tears in his eyes. Rayleigh himself later proudly proclaimed Luffy as his pupil to the Marines.

Other Pirates
In Impel Down he also befriended Emporio Ivankov and Inazuma. Ivankov helps Luffy due to the fact that he is one of Dragon's closest friends and feels that it is his duty to support him. Before directly encountering him, however, Ivankov and all of his Okama followers were already aware of Luffy's status as not only a pirate but Impel Down's first-ever intruder through the Den Den Mushi surveillance systems within the Great Gaol, and he unintentionally achieved a celebrity status within New Kama Land as a result.

He gained the assistance and admiration of all of the Whitebeard Pirates and allies, namely Whitebeard himself, in his quest to save Ace. After seeing the lengths to which Luffy would go to save Ace, Whitebeard even remarked that he wouldn't forgive Marco if he let Luffy die. Soon after, he assigned his crew and allies to back up Luffy after witnessing him unleash his Haki. After the death of Ace, the whole Whitebeard Pirates crew protected Luffy, as if he were Ace, claiming that he is all that is left of Ace's spirit.

While initially assisting Luffy only to protect Ace, the Shichibukai Jinbe eventually grew so fond of Luffy that he proclaimed at Marineford that he would gladly lay down his life to protect the boy. After living through the ordeal, he stayed at Amazon Lily with Luffy as he recovered.

Luffy also seems to have developed a positive relationship with Trafalgar Law and his crew, as they brave the Whitebeard war and the attacks of the Marine Admirals just to save him. Although seeing that they are both Supernovas, and therefore rivals, there may be some ulterior motive behind Law's decision to save Luffy. While on the other hand, Law has been shown to respect Luffy, and could quite simply have come to save him because of that respect.

Civilians
Luffy befriends most of the civilians he meets on his journey, who normally fear him for being a pirate but hold him in admiration by the time he moves on to the next adventure. He can be naive at times and is quick to befriend people, often calling people whom he has known less then a day his friends and being willing to go as far as necessary for them.

Luffy has made a friendly rival in the whale Laboon. And, after painting the Straw Hat's jolly roger on Laboon's forehead, promised the two will finish their fight with each other the next time they meet.

Luffy is good friends with Vivi, who was with them all throughout the Arabasta arc, and he even considers her an honorary Straw Hat crew member.

He also has a very friendly relationship with the entire population of Amazon Lily, as it seems every single Kuja practically worships him, as they have never seen a man before, and for the fact that he is a friend of the empress. They even went as far as selling "touches and pokes" of Luffy for 20 gold pieces each. Most of them affectionately refer to him as "Luffy-sama".

Marines
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 Buggy the Clown, "Pirate Admiral" Don Krieg, and Arlong the fishman. A 30,000,000 bounty was placed on his head after he had beaten Arlong and the Marines were cautious about Arlong's defeat because it had brought to question the worth of their units. This reward eventually becomes 100,000,000 after he defeated Crocodile, when the World Government deemed him a serious threat for beating one of their Shichibukai. After the invasion of Enies Lobby, where they declare war on the world government itself, the government raised the bounties of the entire crew; Luffy's was raised to 300,000,000.

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 Commodore Smoker of Loguetown, to Admiral Aokiji. While some are easy to defeat, Luffy has been unable to defeat Smoker or Aokiji due to their powerful Logia abilities, and has resorted to running away from Smoker when he encounters him.

During the Whitebeard War, Luffy made his biggest enemies out of the three Marine admirals. Kizaru was a major hindrance to Luffy's attempts to rescue Ace. He kept Luffy from his goal multiple times and even destroyed the original key to Ace's handcuffs. Kizaru also mocked Luffy for lacking in power to save Ace. Aokiji, who stated that Luffy chose the path of death himself, would have killed Luffy if it wasn't for Marco's interference. However, Admiral Akainu caused the most damage to Luffy, sending him into a mental breakdown by successfully killing his brother, Ace, and also swears to end Luffy's life and will do anything to achieve this goal. Even though he failed to take Luffy's life during the war, he did manage to break Luffy's spirit.

Rival Pirates
His personality has left an imprint on a few of his rivals, with both Trafalgar Law and Eustass Kid being left with respect for him after he boasted he will be the one to find One Piece. They departed on good terms and all three agreed to meet up again in the New World. Other rivals among the Eleven Supernovas are not so happy with Luffy, with Bonney claiming that she will finish them off herself if she ever meets them in the New World, upset with Luffy causing trouble for her and the others by forcing Kizaru to arrive.

Luffy has passed several islands on his way to and along The Grand Line, including Drum Island, Little Garden, Arabasta, and Skypiea. He has met many new allies, as well a couple of enemies, for example Wapol or Blackbeard. When they first met in the Wild Cherry, they were rivals over some petty things over favorite foods. Blackbeard then gave Luffy a friendly speech over not to forfeit on dreams, despite Blackbeard's later attempt to capture Luffy for his high bounty. However, during the mass breakout attempt in Impel Down, when Luffy learned that the man is Blackbeard, the one responsible for Ace's capture and impending execution, Luffy flew into a rage and attacked. Though this led to them becoming enemies, Blackbeard continued to encourage Luffy to follow dreams, and he tried to hold off Magellan (if only for his own reasons).

World Government
Luffy has also made enemies of the World Nobles after punching Saint Charloss for shooting his friend Hatchan. So much so that two of them made severe oaths and threats for what they will do to him, for what he has done to them. During the Whitebeard War, Kizaru stated that the nobles have been clamouring for his arrest.

Luffy also made a dangerous enemy out of Magellan during his break-in at Impel Down. The fact that Luffy was the first to break into Impel Down was enough to infuriate Magellan. The chief warden severly poisoned Luffy during their first battle causing Luffy to lose ten years of his life span in a painful healing process. After realizing that Luffy survived his poison and free more prisoners, Magellan did everything in his power to ensure that Luffy does not leave Impel Down alive.

Other
Neither his mother nor his grandmother have been shown, in the Grand Line Times a "?" was left in the place of both Dragon and Garp's wives. Though Oda may not decide to ever state who the women in Luffy's family are this leaves the spot open to suggest they may be mentioned later. It is unknown how they may be related, but anyone carrying the Will of the D. may also be related to Luffy, such as Jaguar D. Saul, Marshall D. Teach and Gol D. Roger.

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