Monkey D. Luffy as a Captain!

At first sight, many can think that Luffy is just another plain simple dumb and funny main character in a shonen. But that couldn’t be more wrong.

Leading Style

This is undoubtedly my favorite part about Luffy’s character. Most of the time, he acts in the opposite way we would expect from a leader. But when the crucial times come, no one is better than him. Right from one of the first arcs, Arlong Park, we can see that.

The rest of the crew is doubtful about Nami after she robbed them and ran away, and when Nojiko starts to tell the story that would explain the reason behind those actions, Luffy gets out of the house. When asked about it, he explains his decision in a way that still gives me goosebumps.

He doesn’t care to know why Nami did those things, if she wants to tell him herself, she can decide that later, right now he just wants to help her no matter what, after all she is her friend.

Jumping ahead to Jaya. when Bellamy makes fun of him and mocks the dream of his life, he doesn’t care a bit, even after Bellamy and his crew started beating him over that, he tells Zoro to drop his sword, since they weren’t even worthy of a fight.

But when Bellamy hurted Cricket, Masira and Shoujou, that was over the line. Zoro asks if he wants help, and he just denies it. It was his decision not to fight back, therefore it’s his obligation to deal with it now, and no one’s else.

In Enies Lobby we have one of the most soulful scenes in the show, on the famous “I wanna live” scene. But what caught my attention here, is how Luffy deals with her decision of “not wanting to be saved”. Just like in Alabasta, when he did the same for her.

Back then, she insisted on being left in the collapsing cave, but he saved her anyway. Whether or not she would persist in that decision after being saved there, that wasn’t none of his business, but at the moment he wouldn’t leave her behind, no matter what she was telling him.

And at Enies Lobby, even after Robin denied their help over and over, they still went there to give her a chance to change her decision until the last second. But just like Luffy tells her, they went until there, and even challenged the whole World Government for her.

But now, it was her call. If she declined help once again, they would get out of there, since they wouldn’t be willing to die for someone who didn’t recongnize that wanted to be saved, but should she ask for help, all of them would be ready to die at any second just to save her.

And that’s just how Luffy’s mind works…

Written by Rafael “R2H” Hubner

Thank you so much for reading it! And have a great day/week/year!