Post #3791636

2026-07-13 19:17 UTC

After the big flashback to his childhood over the last 20 chapters or so, I think I can safely say that Luffy is one of my all-time favorite characters in any story His mixture of boundless optimism, naivety, stubbornness, goofiness, and unwavering loyalty to his friends and any downtrodden people makes him so incredibly endearing and entertaining And then Oda keeps pushing him to his limits emotionally and physically to bend or break those qualities and it either ends with Luffy doing the sweetest, bravest thing possible (often without even knowing why besides "this person needs help") or he ends up beaten to hell and losing someone or something close to him I just love him so much

Replies (1)

@johanna@lgbtqia.space 2026-07-13 19:26

The way Oda writes the flashbacks and then ties them in with the present storyline in succinct powerful moments is insane and he's done it multiple times Like with Nami's tragic backstory and Luffy giving her his hat, not because he knows anything about what happened to her but because he knows she's been hurt and he knows she needs help and so he gives her the most precious object in the world to him to say "you're on my crew" and then he goes to beat the shit out of the shark man that hurt her Or with Chopper's backstory coming in between Luffy winding up a punch and the punch landing. He's already started his swing before he or we have learned anything about Chopper, and by the time that punch lands, we as the audience know what Chopper has been through but Luffy still doesn't and it doesn't matter. He saw a small creature that needed help and he acted without thinking twice about it And now with the flashback to his childhood, we finally see how him and Ace met, and we learn about Sabo and why being a pirate and being strong meant so much to all of them, only to cut back to the present where Ace has just been killed despite everything that Luffy tried to save him, from breaking into a prison to assaulting Marine headquarters itself and we see a wounded, grieving, sobbing Luffy scream that he isn't strong enough It's masterful longform storytelling

Open ##3791871