Highlights
- The two phases of One Piece show Luffy’s growth from an immature Captain to a strong leader.
- Without the timeskip, Luffy would have faced more losses and struggles in his journey.
- Luffy’s path to find One Piece would have been much more difficult and prolonged without the timeskip.
One Piece is an incredibly lost story that has already spanned over 1100 chapters, and fans still don’t know whether the end is in sight or not. Granted that the series is in the Final Saga, there is no telling how long the Final Saga is going to be, especially given that Oda has been most excited to draw this segment of the story right from when he started penning it in the first place. The entirety of One Piece can be divided into two parts. The first part of the story is when Luffy was younger and more immature in terms of being a Captain. Luffy made great strides during this time period of his life. However, he was far from perfect. This is what Oda describes as 17-year-old Luffy’s young adventure. However, after the death of Ace, Luffy was forced to mature and grow stronger.
Of course, Luffy is still the goofball that he was before the timeskip, but in terms of strength, and as a Captain, he grew tremendously during this timeskip. The second phase of One Piece is what fans know as the post-timeskip of One Piece. These two periods are separated by a 2-year training, where all the Strawhats enhanced their skills, and returned stronger than ever before. The timeskip of One Piece was absolutely sensational, and it certainly elevated the story in many ways. However, if there was no timeskip, One Piece would have been very different right now.
Luffy And The Straw Hats Reunite On Sabaody
Luffy and The Crew Would’ve Met Sooner
For One Piece to make sense if there was no timeskip, fans need to keep in mind that the story would still have been Luffy’s. As such, the fact that the Straw Hat Pirates would get destroyed if there was no timeskip cannot be presumed to be the main outcome. This would still be Luffy’s journey and Oda would still have to find ways to incorporate Luffy into bigger plotlines, and have him beat stronger enemies. The real problem would be how he would go about doing this.
I want to see my friends! – Luffy to Jinbe
That having been established, fans need to keep in mind that Luffy is a person who is driven by wants and needs. After Ace died, Luffy was utterly heartbroken and his confidence had been shattered. However, it was Jinbe who spoke some sense into him and allowed him to see what he really wanted at the moment. Luffy only cared for his friends. As such, the story would most likely continue in that direction. It must be remembered that when Rayleigh came to Amazon Lily, he was the one who proposed Luffy to train for 2 years. With this assumption, it is highly likely that Rayleigh would not give this proposal to Luffy. Instead, he would give Luffy a plan using which he could successfully meet with his friends. Rayleigh would not suggest a 2-year training, but he would still ask Luffy to give his friends a message and allow him to meet with them somehow in safety. Of course, the crew would still have to meet on Sabaody Archipelago, but Rayleigh would have to get the ship ready and coat it before they could reunite.
He might also have to defend the crew from the Navy, but, given that the vast majority of the forces were busy rebuilding the Navy HQ and maintaining peace throughout the world following the Paramount War, this would have been easy for the Straw Hat Pirates. As such, the next stop for Luffy and the Straw Hats would then have to be Fishman Island.
Luffy And The Crew Learn Haki The Hard Way
Luffy Would Have To Learn Haki In The New World
The journey to Fishman Island would have been somewhat easy for Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates. There was absolutely no enemy along the way that Luffy faced that he would not have been able to defeat. In fact, going to Fishman Island 2 years prior to the current events would have ensured that the threat of Hody Jones was under wraps as well. Hody would have been a threat building in this time, but not an active one to Luffy or Fishman Island in general. As such, this journey would have been way easier to deal with. However, Luffy would still have to play the hero.
This is because Fishman Island was Whitebeard’s turf, and his death meant that the pirates intensified their raids in the territory. Luffy and the pirates would have to defend the island, and it is likely that he would have to declare it as his territory. He would still have made friends, just as he did in the actual story. It is the journey that would have seen the Straw Hat Pirates struggle.
I will protect everything! That’s what the two years were for! – Luffy
When Luffy and the crew stepped foot in the New World, they would clearly not have been ready. The threat in the New World is on an entirely different level, which means that Luffy and his crewmates would have to deal with all the threats unequipped with the tools needed. For instance, Punk Hazard would have been very difficult for the crew, especially with Caesar, a Logia type around. However, given that Caesar is neither overpowered nor too weak, this would have made him the perfect enemy for Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates to learn Haki against. Luffy and the crew would have to learn Haki the hard way.
This isn’t a stretch for the fans to imagine. It is a fact that many individuals have learned Haki in the spur of the moment. For instance, Ace learned Haki during his battle against Vice Admiral Draw on Sabaody archipelago. Kid and Law both learned Haki after stepping into the New World immediately. As such, there is absolutely no reason why Luffy should not have been able to do it. Of course, Luffy’s fight against Caesar would have been much more difficult and he would have struggled in his fight much more than he did.
Luffy’s Path To The One Piece Is More Difficult
Luffy Would Have Lost Many More Battles
All in all, if there was no timeskip, the path to the One Piece would have been way more difficult. Luffy would have an unhealed trauma of Ace’s passing, and he would have needed a reality check later down the line that would have forced him to get stronger. Luffy was trained by Rayleigh with the idea that he would never have to lose anyone again. In this scenario, Luffy would most likely lose more people. This doesn’t necessarily mean that his crewmates would die, but this would have to be a possibility.
At the same time, Luffy would most likely have lost many friends that he saved. For instance, Luffy was able to save quite a lot of people on every island. Going into a head-first battle with Doflamingo without Haki, or weak Haki, would have ensured that Luffy lost the battle against him. Luffy would have needed saving in Dressrosa, or, fans would have to see Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji team up against Doflamingo. Luffy would have stood absolutely no chance against Kaido in Wano, and he would have lost many battles along the way. The same applies to the rest of the Straw Hat Pirates as well. Without their 2-year timeskip training, they would have been much weaker and likely faced many more defeats.
Survival would have been very difficult for the Strawhat Pirates, and it is highly likely that Luffy would not have been a Yonko right now. As things stand, Kaido would still have been an Emperor, because Luffy would not have been at a level where he could have taken him down. He would still have been just a veteran pirate. One Piece would certainly have prolonged way too much, as Luffy’s rise to Yonko would only have made sense after he learned and mastered Haki in significant ways, which would have taken much more time this way. Of course, it would have delivered much more intense fights, given that fans love the underdog trope, however, it would also have prolonged One Piece even further.
Either this would have happened, or, if fans get a bit more realistic, Luffy would most likely have died and One Piece would have ended with the death of the protagonist and his entire crew being destroyed.
One Piece is available to read via Viz Media. The series can be read by the fans officially and for free on the Shonen Jump and the Manga Plus app. The release date for the next chapter of One Piece, One Piece 1122, is set to be August 4, 2024.
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