Highlights
- Luffy is the protagonist of One Piece and embodies important ideals such as freedom, which has shaped him into the character he is today.
- Luffy’s traumatic childhood led him to value freedom above all else, motivating him to become stronger and protect his loved ones.
- Oda’s inspiration for Luffy’s character includes his nature to share food with others, influenced by the manga character Anpanman, and Luffy’s true dream is yet to be revealed but fans eagerly await its revelation.
Luffy is the protagonist of One Piece and certainly one of the greatest characters that Oda has ever created. Luffy, understandably, is at the core of One Piece and represents some of the most important ideals in the story, such as freedom itself. His character has shaped millions of lives all over the world and continues to inspire people even today.
Now, One Piece is in its Final Saga, and from here onwards, Luffy will be more important than ever before and will capture hearts like he has never done before. At the same time, with the series coming closer and closer to its end, Oda has also received multiple chances to speak about Luffy as a character and all that he has accomplished with him over the years, such as defining his dreams and his ideals as a pirate itself.
How Oda Shaped Luffy Over The Years
Oda has always described Luffy to be the ideal child. From the very beginning of the story, it was quite clear for the fans to see that Luffy was his very favorite. Oda always designed Luffy with a child-like mentality. Now, this didn’t necessarily mean that Luffy was a child. It simply meant that his ideals were pure and innocent, like that of a child. Luffy has been developed by Oda over the years with these ideals at the core of his character. Of course, Luffy has matured into a brilliant pirate captain, and now, he has even ascended to the throne of Yonko. Luffy has gone from an amateur and an inexperienced pirate to someone who realized the ferocity of the seas and rose to the challenge, strengthening himself through not just battles but also grief.
All of these things have shaped Luffy into becoming the character that he is today and, right now, he is quite easily the best version of himself. According to Oda, no matter how strong Luffy gets and how many powerful enemies he defeats, he will never waver and will always have a child-like personality, which just goes to show the true essence of this particular individual.
Luffy’s Personality
When it comes to Luffy’s very own personality, fans know that he values freedom over everything else. The reason why Luffy values freedom as much as he does has to do with his traumatic childhood. Luffy grew up with his two brothers, Sabo and Ace and they were all that he had while growing up as a child. When Sabo was taken away from Luffy, he realized that he was far too weak and that to protect those close to him, he had to become stronger. Essentially, Luffy never craved strength because he wanted to conquer anything. The only reason why he wanted strength was for Luffy to become the freest person on the ocean.
If Luffy was strong, then nobody would be able to take his freedom away from him, or harm the people around him. Essentially, that has always been at Luffy’s core and this personality of his shines in the latter half of One Piece as well. Once Ace ended up dying, once again, Luffy was reminded of the fact that he was too weak to protect his and his friends’ freedom and that is precisely why he spent two years training and pushing his abilities to their very limits. Luffy has now become an Emperor of the Sea, and as a result, very few people can dare to challenge him in battle and take away his freedom or try to harm his friends. The idea of freedom has always been at the center of this particular character and it has also manifested itself through power-ups such as Gear 5, which fans are very well familiar with by this point in the story.
Oda’s Inspiration For Luffy
When it comes to Oda’s inspiration for Luffy, there are many things that he has taken into consideration, and, recently, Oda commented on one particular facet of Luffy and that is his nature to share food with everyone. In Wano, Luffy decided to fight for the samurai and all those who were in misery, suffering under Kaido’s tyranny for 20 years. Despite being an outsider, Luffy decided to take up their fight and secure food and water for everyone around him. This was all done by Luffy simply because Tama fed him when he was hungry.
When Luffy defeated Kaido, he made it quite clear to him that he wants to build a world where his friends can eat as much as they want.
This also ties to Oda’s very own sense of justice, which, according to him, is based on Anpanman. For those who are not familiar with Anpanma, this is a character based on the manga of the same name whose head is made of a bun filled with sweet anko. He shares food with people and saves them in their times of need. According to the mangaka of Anpanman, a true hero is someone who helps starving children by sharing bread with them before he enters a fight. This appears to have largely influenced Oda and his way of thinking and it is entirely possible that Luffy’s very own justice is based on Anpanman as well. Across the many arcs of One Piece, Luffy has always fought for people he befriends, and more often than not, these are people who, at some point, fed him. Luffy repays them by liberating them and making sure that they always get to eat their fill.
Luffy’s True Dream
While building a world where his friends can eat as much as they want is one of the many things that Luffy wants to accomplish in his life, it is not his final dream. Luffy’s dream has been teased several times in the story and it is the same dream that Roger held as well. It is also something that defines his entire character and culminates it perfectly. Unfortunately, fans do not know what his dream is at the moment. Other than the Straw Hat Pirates, Shanks, Yamato, and Sabo, nobody in the series knows what Luffy’s dream is. Fans are itching to know what Luffy plans at the end of his journey, and hopefully, they will find out soon enough.
One Piece is already in the final saga and the character that is Luffy is still managing to get better than ever before. As Oda reveals his true dream to the fans, one can expect this character to peak and become the best version of itself, blowing away fans all over the world. It is only a matter of time before Luffy finds the One Piece and then reveals his true dream to the fans, and regardless of what it is, fans can rest assured that it will only add to Luffy’s incredible character and shape it to be even better than they know him to be.
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. Since One Piece is going to be on break, the release date for the next chapter of One Piece, One Piece 1104, is set to be January 21, 2024.
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