Luffy has selfish reasons behind every battle he's fought, whether it's loyalty or meat, and so fighting Imu wouldn't make sense in the Final Saga of One Piece.
Written by: Bidisha
Reviewed by: Sayantan
One Piece is a unique type of Shonen that doesn’t particularly care about power-scaling as much as other manga in the genre. The series focuses more on the character arcs and emotional aspects. Eiichiro Oda knows how to deliver those notes precisely.
Luffy’s consistently selfish personality is also a vital part of One Piece. While the word “selfish” is diminishing how nuanced he is, fans need to stop pretending he doesn’t love a good reward at the end of every major arc. A feast of meat is enough to sway Luffy in their favor.
More often than not, Luffy’s intentions aren’t initially to liberate a country. He either does it for his own goals or for the promise of some meat. At the same time, the young pirate is incredibly selfless. At the end of it, he just does what he wants in One Piece, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Luffy is a pirate and that comes with selfishness, despite the result being good
One Piece is a very nuanced and political series. It deals with heavy themes of oppression, slavery, racism and genocide. It isn’t a story of heroes and villains, it all depends on perspective. Luffy might be the hero in our eyes, but to the World Government and others, he is very much a terrorist.
On the flip side, the World Government might be Luffy’s enemy but to the civilians, they are their saviors. Pirates don’t have a great reputation in their world and One Piece makes sure to add a few unsavory crews to drive this point. Luffy, too, has made decisions are incredibly dangerous for the world.
During the Impel Down Arc, he wanted to break Ace out but in the process of doing so, broke the entire prison. This included the most dangerous criminals in the world who were locked up in Level 6 for a reason, such as Shiryu and Crocodile.
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This act itself, though for justifiable reasons, has put civilians in immense danger. He didn’t care about the consequences, as long as he could save his brother. Similarly, he’s made a deal with Loki, despite countless warnings against how dangerous he is. He could endanger Elbaph if things go south.
The only other reason Luffy agrees to liberate a country, other than the promise of a reward, is because he does have a sense of right or wrong. One Redditor phrases it brilliantly.
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byu/Some_Ship3578 from discussion
inPiratefolk
At the end of it, Eiichiro Oda has written a pirate story and Luffy is the embodiment of it. He does things simply because he wants to. Despite how much Nami warns him against something, he does it anyway. Does this mean he’s entirely selfish though?
Luffy’s personality has a lot of nuance
While the young pirate is incredibly selfish, his actions do have some nobility to them. Luffy is loyal to a fault, doesn’t take any act of kindness for granted, and is somehow willing to sacrifice his own happiness for friends he just made.
In the Amazon Lily Arc, Luffy chooses to revive his saviors rather than stay on the island with plenty of riches and food. He would never forget an act of kindness, which is why he often chooses to liberate some countries.
Despite his kind personality, he doesn’t view himself a hero. Fighting Imu isn’t his goal, it’s finding the One Piece. Defying the World Government is the Revolutionary Army’s part to play, not his or the Straw Hat Pirates. If anything, he might join if Sabo called.
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Overall, you can’t categorize Luffy into one personality trait. He’s stupid, selfish, kind, impulsive, and many more things. They all go hand in hand and harmonize together to make the protagonist we know today.
One Piece is available on Crunchyroll.
