Monkey D. Luffy

Affiliation

Straw Hat Pirates; Straw Hat Grand Fleet; Four Emperors; Dadan Family (former); Baratie (temporary, former); Impel Down (former); Ninja-Pirate-Mink-Samurai Alliance (disbanded)

Appearance

Luffy is a young man of average height with shaggy black hair, round black eyes, and a slim muscular build. He 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. Before the timeskip, his main outfit consisted of a red vest, light blue denim shorts cuffed just above his knees, and tan sandals. Luffy also has a scar with two stitches underneath his left eye, which he earned as a child by stabbing his face to show Shanks that he was tough enough to be a pirate. He was severely wounded by Akainu in the Summit War of Marineford, leaving a large X-shaped scar on his chest.

Personality

Luffy's most dominant traits are his apparent lack of common sense, his utter fearlessness and unwavering belief in himself. He generally marches at the beat of his own drum, unwilling to approach anything in a delicate or nuanced matter. That said, Luffy has a penchant of being able to see through the heart of the matter, often able to accurately call out someone's personal flaws such as Koby's cowardly nature or Kuro's weakness as a pirate. He is profoundly ambitious, frequently declaring he will become the Pirate King and devoting his entire being into being one. Luffy's personality can be described as childlike, in the sense that he tends to go to the extremes. He can either be extremely greedy, especially in cases of food, who his crew is, and adventure; or extraordinarily selfless, going so far as to virtually sacrifice himself to avenge or protect his friends, crew, and family. This childish mentality does not prevent him from often getting to the root of the problem and allowing him to figure out the simplest way of solving it. Shanks has had a profound effect on Luffy's personality, as prior to meeting him, Luffy was arrogant, impatient and extremely prideful. The thought of Shanks being humiliated by Higuma infuriated the young boy, and he recklessly tried to get his revenge. After meeting Shanks and being inspired to become the Pirate King, Luffy eventually grows up to become more like him - opting to become calmer, patient, and avoid letting things get to him. Early on, he would occasionally repeat some of Shanks' lines to other people, like during his first meeting with Usopp. With that said, Luffy is very much his own person and fairly different from Shanks overall. On occasion, he will still lose his cool and get angry, though this aspect of him has lessened considerably since the timeskip.

Devil Fruit

The Gomu Gomu no Mi is a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit that grants the user's body the properties of rubber, effectively making them a Rubber Human (ゴム人間, Gomu Ningen?). Originally, the fruit was called Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Nika and classified as a Mythical Zoan-type fruit that allows one to transform into the legendary "Sun God" Nika (and gain his rubbery attributes), before being renamed and reclassified by the World Government to hide the truth. In the present, only Imu and the Five Elders are known to know of the fruit's true nature, and its existence was never known to be recorded anywhere. Around 13 years ago, the World Government had managed to capture and secure the fruit after chasing it for over 800 years. However, during transport, it was stolen by Shanks and his crew. Shortly after, it was accidentally eaten by the series' protagonist, Monkey D. Luffy.

Gear 2 ("Gear Second")

This technique involves Luffy speeding up the blood flow in all or selected body parts, in order to provide them with more oxygen and nutrients. This makes him much faster and more powerful. The technique uses even more oxygen and energy, using up more food and causing Luffy to pant heavily. The increase in his metabolism causes him to be hungrier than usual or even have a paralysis type effect after prolonged use of it, like in the second fight with Rob Lucci, where Luffy was only able to lie on the floor. Lucci, one of the first of Luffy's opponents to witness it, compares the process to doping. Doping is adding more red blood cells to the body part(s), which in turn allows for greater delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the body part(s). In Luffy's case, his organs and blood vessels are made of rubber allowing them to expand and contract at greater rates without tearing. Essentially, Luffy increases the blood flow by forcing more blood through his blood vessels thus increase his fighting ability. This mode's enhancements to Luffy's physiology giving him the ability to use a new, stronger set of techniques which are generally the same as his old ones but are so fast that even a skilled assassin would have a hard time actually seeing them. He developed this ability after encountering Aokiji, using it after he met CP9 and witnessing Soru.

Gear 3 ("Gear Third")

Luffy corks his mouth with his thumb, bites into his thumb joint (making a small opening) and blows hard into his bones, which inflates his arm. He is then able to transfer the air through his entire body, requiring the torso to act as an interface for his various limbs. Luffy blows so much air into his body that when they are all focused on a single limb, they become the size equivalent to (or greater than) that of a giant's, if anything resembling Oars' size. Used with his already-strong physiology, this apparently gives his arm more mass and a larger area to attack with far greater strength, but he sacrifices mobility for this strength, as his limbs are now so large that Luffy has trouble moving.

Gear 4 ("Gear Fourth")

Luffy coats his arm in Busoshoku Haki before biting into his forearm. Similar to how he activates Gear 3, he blows an incredible amount of air into his body, but this time he inflates his muscular structure before distributing the air throughout his body, with emphasis on his upper half. If Luffy is stopped mid-blowing, the arm will slowly deflate. When utilizing Gear 4, Luffy makes extensive usage of his Busoshoku Haki by coating his arms, legs and much of his torso in it to the point that they turn black from hardening. The Haki coating across his body resembles the wispy ends made from flames, giving it the appearance of tattoos, and he gains shading around the inner and outer edges of his eyes. He also physically grows taller, standing around 4 meters tall. Similar to when using Gear 2, Luffy is continuously emitting steam in this form. Combined with Luffy's rubbery composition and his compressed muscle structure, Gear 4 both adds explosive power to Luffy's attacks and grants him enhanced defensive capabilities far beyond what he can demonstrate with or without Gear 2 or Gear 3. Depending on the situation, Luffy can adapt Gear 4 into different forms.

Gear 5 ("Gear Fifth")

The awakening of the Gomu Gomu no Mi, formerly known as the Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Nika, grants the user's rubber body increased god-like strength and freedom, allowing them to fight in any way they please. It is for this reason that the user is said to become the "Warrior of Liberation" (解放の戦士, Kaihō no Senshi?), bringing joy and freedom to those around them, and this fruit's power being described as "the most ridiculous power in the world" (世界で最もふざけた能力, sekai de mottomo fuzaketa nōryoku?). In this state, Luffy's heartbeat takes on a musical rhythm which has been described by Zunesha as the "Drums of Liberation" (解放のドラム, Kaihō no Doramu?). His hair and clothes (with the exception of his signature straw hat, belt, and sandals) turn white, his eyes glow with red ring-like pupils, and white clouds float around his neck, similar to the clouds of steam that accompany him in Gear 4. His eyebrows also become swirled and billowing. It seems Gear 5 also transforms Luffy's outfit to his pants and sandals that he usually wears as opposed to whatever else he is wearing, which will return upon deactivating Gear 5.

Gear 5 ("Gear Fifth")

As an awakened Mythical Zoan based on a God, Luffy is afforded far immense god-like strength, speed, and durability than even those with awakened Zoan powers. Most notably, he could fight and defeat Kaidou, an infamous Emperor feared for his nigh-unmatchable might who is further enhanced by a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit of the Azure Dragon himself, on nearly equal footing. His strength and speed is such that he can match and soon completely overpower Rob Lucci's own awakened Zoan form with immense ease. In terms of durability, he could as well take a direct hit from Kaidou's Bolo Breath attack, only to come out of it barely hurt (despite his body appearing cartoonishly charred) and return to the fight immediately after. This also includes a faster recovery rate, which functions involuntarily, even when he is unconscious. In fact, the physical feats Luffy can pull off in Gear 5 border on nearly the absurd; he can spin his legs fast enough to run through midair while generating enough friction to ignite fire in his wake, and spin like a top with such force that he turns into a burrowing drill. Aligning with the Mythical Zoan nature of this form, Luffy's already rubbery body gains freedom and flexibility that surpasses what he would receive from his previous forms, to the point that it is now even cartoonishly malleable, with Kaidou likening it to "something out of a picture book". Examples of this are when he took a hit to the head from Kaidou's Hassaikai, only for his head to warp and wrap around the weapon and its spikes, and when Kaidou tried to smash him into the ground, his body was simply squished instead and later returned to its original shape. Luffy also seems to be impervious to his opponents Haki in this state, and he still stretches like he would when struck by a non-Haki attack.

Crush

Even though he'd barely know what a girlfriend or that type of love is, he's always had an unknowing crush on Nico Robin of the Straw Hat Crew.