Monkey D. Luffy

Monkey D. Luffy, also known as "Straw Hat Luffy" and commonly as "Straw Hat", is a pirate and the main protagonist of the anime and manga, One Piece. He is the son of the Revolutionary Army's commander, Monkey D. Dragon, the grandson of the famed Marine, Monkey D. Garp, the foster son of a mountain bandit, Curly Dadan, and the adopted brother of the late "Fire Fist" Portgas D. Ace and the revolutionary Sabo. His lifelong dream is to become the Pirate King by finding the legendary treasure left behind by the previous Pirate King, Gol D. Roger. He believes that being Pirate King means having the most freedom in the world. He has eaten the Gomu Gomu no Mi, which gives the consumer's body the properties of rubber. As the founder and captain of the Straw Hat Pirates, he is the first member of the crew, as well as one of its top three fighters.


Luffy has a worldwide reputation for causing trouble, challenging the Shichibukai, the Marines, and even a Yonko, as well as committing felonies and actions which were deemed threatening by the World Government. Additionally, in the majority of these confrontations, he emerges as the victor. He has gained a reputation for being "reckless" and, in some cases, "insane", after causing an incident in Enies Lobby, assaulting a World Noble at Sabaody Archipelago, entering and escaping from Impel Down, and joining the Battle of Marineford. He is, therefore, infamous for being the only known pirate to not only deliberately attack the three most important government facilities, but also escape from all of them alive. The additional fact that he punched a Tenryubito with full knowledge of the consequences, as well as his heritage, has caused Luffy to be labeled as a "Dangerous Future Element", earning the wrath of Fleet Admiral Sakazuki and making the Marines among his greatest enemies. These acts, among other things, have given him his current bounty of Beli400,000,000, one of the highest past or present bounties in the series. Having had a bounty of Beli300,000,000 prior to his arrival at the Sabaody Archipelago, Luffy is one of eleven rookie pirates who has been referred to as the "Eleven Supernovas", pirates with bounties over Beli100,000,000 who have reached the Red Line. He is also one of the pirates widely regarded as The Worst Generation. Luffy is renowned for his trademark straw hat (from which he gets his nickname "Straw Hat Luffy"), which was lent to him when he was young by the legendary pirate captain, "Red-Haired" Shanks, who in turn received it from Gol D. Roger. He wears short, blue trousers with cuffs, sandals, and a sleeveless red vest. Luffy also has a scar with two stitches underneath his left eye (which he earned by stabbing a knife under his eye to show Shanks that he was tough) and short, messy black hair. He was severely wounded by Akainu in the Battle of Marineford, leaving a large X-shaped scar on his chest. Appearing to be scrawny underneath his shirt, he has a surprisingly well-built physique. He is quite short since he appears dwarfed by most individuals in the series. Similar to most of his male crewmates, Luffy has the same outfit throughout most of the series, as opposed to the rest of the crew (especially Nami and Nico Robin), who change frequently. Luffy may wear a different outfit to suit the climate of an island (like a hooded parka on Drum Island or desert robes in Alabasta), but will switch back to his trademark red vest and blue shorts after the adventures on that island are over. Despite this, he will wear his usual outfit in different colors and has been known to sport other miscellaneous items on his person from time to time.


As captain of the Straw Hat Pirates, Monkey D. Luffy has immense physical strength, and is capable of lifting up large boulders, breaking stone, shattering steel with his bare hands, pushing apart large buildings and shoulder flipping a huge man; his strength was further proven when he effortlessly stopped a stomp from Donquixote Doflamingo, a notably strong man who is twice Luffy's size, with only one foot from an angle with no leverage. Additionally, Luffy has always fought the strongest villain of the story arc (except in the Romance Dawn Arc). Luffy's sheer physical strength and dexterity is a result of his grandfather's unorthodox training methods (such as being thrown into a bottomless ravine, tied to a balloon, thrown into a forest at night, etc.) and he claimed he had a punch as powerful as a pistol even at seven years of age. His endurance and durability is incredible; taking continuous, deadly assaults from powerful opponents that would have killed a normal person easily in most of his fights, yet still being able to stand up and continue fighting effectively. Luffy also possesses tremendous speed, agility, and reflexes to match his strength and endurance. In fact, on more than one occasion, Luffy was able to anticipate moves and counter attacks that would normally be beyond his field of vision due to his sharp reflexes. He is also shown to increase in strength quite dramatically in a short period of time, most noticeably being the fight against Minotaurus, where the first time it took the combined efforts of Mr. 2, Mr. 3, and Buggy just to beat him, but the next time, Luffy defeated him with a single "Gomu Gomu no Jet Pistol". His vast strength is only exceeded by his enormous willpower, as demonstrated on several occasions throughout the series, most noted of all in the Thriller Bark Arc when he manages to take in 100 shadows without passing out, compared to normal humans, who can only take in 2 or 3. This willpower even lets him survive far beyond what normal people are capable of, as demonstrated when he was poisoned very far beyond what a human is capable of surviving, only living on despite his critical condition through sheer willpower. This is also shown when he survives through Emporio Ivankov's "Healing Hormones" ability, which even with a slim chance of surviving had not only survived the endeavor, but made a recovery in twenty hours when the normal time for the healing procedure is two days. This was later shown with Basil Hawkins' "fortune telling" ability, as despite doing it multiple times, he could never get Luffy's chances of survival to reach 0. He also possesses extraordinary jaw strength, as seen in the Orange Town Arc in the manga, where he had almost chewed through the metal bars of the cage Buggy put him in. In the following arc, he shattered Jango's steel chakram with his teeth alone (anime). He also ate the cage that Gekko Moriah put him in, and managed to give Rob Lucci a small bite wound, as well as break the steel chain used to bind Nami (in Franky's body) after the timeskip. His greatest feat in this area, however, was that he managed to make Jinbe, who is known to have an extremely high tolerance towards pain, yell out in pain when he bit the fishman's arm. Luffy is also shown to be very agile. Early on in the series, Luffy is seen being able to react to foes faster than him, like Kuro, Arlong, Bellamy, and Enel. After learning the CP9's Soru technique to enhance both speed and strength, he became even more so. After the timeskip he has become even faster, being able to dodge attacks even while in Gear Third, and even creating enough friction while running at full speed to set the ground on fire. Luffy's fighting style consists of adept hand-to-hand combat, supplemented with his physical prowess and the abilities of the Gomu Gomu no Mi. Such skill allows him to hold his own against combat specialists like Rob Lucci. Unlike Zoro or Sanji, Luffy's fighting style is completely improvised; it follows no particular code of honor, and so if necessary, he will attack women or animals, hit below the belt, attack his enemies even if they have their backs turned or are otherwise unprepared or unsuspecting, use enemies as human shields and even bite his opponents. While fighting, Luffy has been shown to be highly adept at improvising, and regularly comes up with creative counterattacks and unusual techniques to use against his enemies. This however leads both enemies and allies alike to wonder if Luffy is taking the fight seriously, especially when he comes up with ridiculous and over the top moves (like Crocodile when Luffy became Mizu Luffy), which prompts Luffy to respond that he's always serious. When Luffy fights, he relies heavily on his instincts, which, interestingly enough, are mostly correct. Even as early as the Arlong Park Arc, after getting bitten he managed to escape with his arm still in one piece by slamming Arlong's head to loosen his jaw to get it out instead of simply pulling it. He picked out the real Mr. 3 from a bunch of wax look-a-likes on a hunch. He also destroyed Enel's "Raigo" using the gold ball as a conductor, but according to Oda he had no real idea what he was doing and was acting out of instinct. Before even learning Kenbunshoku Haki, Luffy could easily dodge any attack by relying on his instinct as shown in his battle against Enel and Rob Lucci.

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