One Piece: 10 Saddest Things About Monkey D. Luffy

One Piece is one of the highest-selling manga and anime ever created. A high-adventure shonen title, it is filled with heart, strong plotlines, and developed characters. Lead by the happy-go-lucky Monkey D. Luffy, the character doesn’t hesitate to go from adventure to adventure with a smile on his face. However, all of this hides some elements about the character that is depressing. As he has gone through hurdles in his pursuit for the One Piece treasure. Which all culminates to where he is currently.

These are some of the saddest things about the character that newcomers might not know about. Heavy spoilers ahead.

10 Makes As Many Enemies As Friends

Luffy over the course of the series has created many friends. On each island he and the straw hats visited, they have met amazing people with stories that are memorable. However, just as often as they meet great people with kind hearts, Luffy encounters plenty of toxic individuals such as Blackbeard.

In every arc, Luffy has fought a vast amount of evil pirates. Each of whom has their own bounty in their own right. Some enemies are too evil to make allies with, showing that despite Luffy’s personality he can’t completely convert everyone.

9 Can No Longer Swim

At the beginning of the story,  a young Luffy ate the Gomu Gomu No Mi fruit. A devil fruit that grants the user incredible powers at the cost of being unable to swim. Prior to this, Luffy was noted for being a decent swimmer. Since then he has learned how to deal with it thanks to making use of his rubbery capabilities, however not being able to swim in the One Piece world is detrimental, to say the least.

8 Doesn’t Know His Parents

Similar to other Shonen protagonists, Luffy doesn’t have a direct connection to his parents. Although he knows who his parents are, he only has a passing knowledge of his father and none for his mother. As a result, the majority of his development came from his grandfather and his “brothers” Ace and Sabo. As such, it is one of the more depressing aspects of the character, although it isn’t anything that he personally cares about anyways.

7 Tough Love From Garp

Although he was raised by Garp, it wasn’t proper parenting as Garp’s form of love was often tough and boarding on abuse. This includes dropping his grandson down a deep ravine and leaving him alone in the wild all in order to develop Luffy into a strong marine. While it did work in certain respects such as developing his endurance, it only pushed him further away from the marine role and towards his eventual dream of being the pirate king.

6 Lack Of A Proper Childhood

On top of everything that Garp has inflicted on him, Luffy was also raised by a group of bandits. While they were more loving compared to Garp’s tough love, it still doesn’t change the fact that the character was raised by bandits. Not only that, but Garp periodically visited in order to train Luffy and Ace making Luffy’s childhood a harsh one. Still, he came out of it with a happy-go-lucky smile nonetheless.

5 The Gears

The gears were designed as a way for Luffy to expand his skillset. With each opponent that Luffy faces, he defeats them through his own willpower and adaptation. The gear system is one of those forms of adaptation that grants him great power. However, it comes at a cost of potentially lowering his life span. Not only that, but possible potential side effects to his body could come into play in the future. Gear 2 is the most notable example of how dangerous a gear could be.

4 Lowered Lifespan

On top of what the gear system does to his body, Luffy also had his lifespan lowered thanks to his time in Impel Down. After being poisoned, he recovered thanks to Ivankov’s abilities. As a result, Luffy innately has a strong resistance against most poisons. However, this came at a cost of his lifespan getting lowered. He later gets his lifespan lowered again following his attempt at rescuing Ace from his execution.

3 The Supposed Death Of Sabo

During his childhood, a traumatic event occurred where it appeared that one of Luffy’s “brother” Sabo ended up dying. Hearing about it offhand by one of the bandits, this is one of the earliest shake-ups to his entire life. It pushed him forward and was one of the various reasons for making him stronger. This combined with the actual death of Ace steeled his resolve.

2 The Burning Of Merry

One of the most heartfelt moments in Luffy’s life is also something shared between his crew. The Going Merry is the first main ship that the Straw Hats ever had. So to see it heavily damaged and dying as a result was a major blow for everyone.

To Luffy, it was like losing an essential part of the crew. A friend that has gone through as many lengths as everyone else. That’s why it was one of the most devastating moments that has ever happened to him.

1 The Death Of Ace

Out of all of his experiences, the death of Ace is the most traumatic event that happened to him. Without this moment, Luffy experienced one of the many failures he had in the series. Ace’s death causes the character to train and become stronger for the new world. Reaching a new apex of power that allows him to stand up against the emperors of the sea.

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