Monkey D. Luffy/Personality

Personality
At first, Luffy does not appear to be very intelligent; his apparent lack of intelligence is the source of his brave attitude towards life. 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 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 himself against Hancock's powers because he mistook it for another beam, 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". Another running gag is Luffy's slow reaction time, especially to Snow and freezing temperatures. One running gag of Luffy's is asking "non-humans" such as Keimi and Brook if they can poop. In which case the answer is usually a yes.

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, and developed a number of effective counters to Enel's "Mantra" ability. 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). When drawing him, Oda has said he tries to make Luffy very straightforward about what he wants to be and how he feels. To compliment Luffys naivety and straightforward attitude, there is a running gag through the series where Luffy is capable of similarities 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 oppenent 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.

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 "Ace Execution" 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.

As a person with the middle initial D, Luffy shares the common trait of not fearing of 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'.

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. 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 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 at least once by Ace, twice by Crocodile, once by Aokiji, once by Rob Lucci, once by Kuma, and once by Magellan in the past. Despite this, 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 figure out a way to cover up Gecko Moria's defeat (Ordering Bartholomew Kuma to kill the Strawhat Crew), Luffy's grandfather, 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 Longring Longland island, he called every animal by what he thought they resembled rather than the actual species they were.

Luffy is very loyal to his crewmates and other friends, and can lose his temper quickly if they are harmed in anyway. 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). Aside from his own loyalty, Luffy also believes that all people should be loyal to their nakama, 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 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 his sheer 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 to feeding him. Recently, though, another running gag involves Luffy 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.

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"). 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. Though during the Jaya arc he was willing to start a fight with Blackbeard over a difference in taste. 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. Brook, the newest member, also joins in with the three because of his fun-loving personality. 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. 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. 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 adores Sanji's cooking, especially meat, dropping anything he's doing for a meal and liking it despite Sanji's claim that he puts considerably less effort into his food than for the women's meals.

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.

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...

Luffy shares a strong relationship with Shanks, the pirate who saved his life ten 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 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. Mihawk, Blackbeard, and Kidd are the only ones who truly acknowledged his dream right at the start.

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 is especially 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.

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 muster the courage necessary to become a Marine.

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 nakama and Straw Hat crew member.

Luffy is also good friends with Bon Kurei (even to the extent of him asking if in the future he could join the Straw Hats) after Bon Kurei 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.

As of recently, Luffy has also 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 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.

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".

In Impel Down he also befriended Ivankov and Inazuma the former of whom is currently helping Luffy to save Ace due to the fact that he is one of Dragon's closest nakama and feels that it is his duty to help Luffy. 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.

It's notable as well 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, Jinbei, 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 in the reigning World Powers, he only doesn't have connections in the Gourousei.

He has 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 is trying to protect Luffy, as if he is Ace, claiming that he is all that is left of Ace's spirit. The former Shichibukai, Jinbei, also devotes himself to Luffy's well-being as he states that he will defend Luffy with his life.

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.

Enemies
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 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.

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.

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.

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).

Luffy's worst enemies during the Whitebeard War are the three Admirals. Kizaru has been a major hindrance to Luffy's attempts to rescue Ace. He repelled Luffy several times and destroyed the key to Ace's handcuffs. Aokiji would have killed Luffy if it wasn't for Marco. Admiral Akainu psychologically tormented Luffy by killing his brother, Ace, and also swears to destroy Luffy and will stop at nothing to achieve this goal.

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.

Monkey D. Dragon
Luffy has only just recently discovered that Dragon the Revolutionary is his father,who is the most wanted man in the seas, so the two have yet to talk to each other. In fact, their only meeting is where Dragon rescues Luffy from being captured by Smoker, and the only thing Luffy says to him is when he asks "who's there?" While being pinned headfirst into the ground by Smoker. It is highly probable that Dragon cares for his son's life because he saves him in Loguetown and he always looked towards the East Blue where his family lived. Dragon seems to expect great things from him, 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.

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 after Luffy acquired his powers. 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 had already have his signature straw hat and his scar under his left eye, which means this was after Shanks left the Fuschia Village and gave his straw hat to Luffy and he has gained his devil fruit powers, who for that time was 7 years old. 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. Jinbei 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.

Other
Though 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 D may also be related to Luffy, such as Jaguar D. Saul, Marshall D. Teach and Gol D. Roger. Luffy's foster mother is Curly Dadan.

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