Monkey D. Luffy

Monkey D. Luffy (モンキー・D・ルフィ, Monkī D. Rufi), nicknamed Straw Hat Luffy (麦わらのルフィ, Mugiwara no Rufi) is a pirate and the main protagonist of the anime and manga series, One Piece. He is the son of the Revolutionary Army's commander, Monkey D. Dragon; the grandson of the famed Vice Admiral officer, Monkey D. Garp; and the adopted brother of the late "Fire Fist" Portgas D. Ace and Sabo.

His life long goal is to become the King of the Pirates by finding the legendary treasure left behind by the captain of the Roger Pirates, Gol D. Roger. He believes that being King of the Pirates means one has the most freedom in the world. He has eaten the Gum-Gum Fruit. As the founder and captain of the Straw Hat Pirates, he is the first member that makes up the crew, as well as one of its top three fighters.

Luffy has a worldwide reputation for causing trouble, even among the Seven Warlords of the Sea, the Marines, and even challenging a World Emperor, committing crimes against, as well as actions that were deemed threatening by, the World Government. He has gained a reputation for being "reckless" and, in some cases, "insane", after causing an incident in Enies Lobby, entering and escaping from Impel Down, and joining the Battle of Marineford. He is, therefore, famous for being the only pirate to not only break into the three most important government facilities, but also escape from all of them alive. Including the fact that he punched a Celestial Dragon with full knowledge of the consequences, as well as his heritage, has caused Luffy to be labeled as a "Dangerous Future Element", earning the wrath of Fleet Admiral Sengoku and Sakazuki, making the Marines among his greatest enemies.

These acts, amongst other things, have given him his current bounty of 400,000,000 berries, one of the highest past or present bounties in the series. Having had a bounty of 300,000,000 berries prior to his arrival at the Sabaody Archipelago, Luffy was one of rookie pirates who had been referred to as "The Supernovas", pirates with bounties over 100,000,000 berries to have reached the Red Line.

Appearance
Luffy 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. He wears short trousers along with sandals and a sleeveless red vest. Luffy also has a scar with two stitches underneath his left eye and short black hair and black eyes. Luffy is somewhat short since he appeared quite dwarfed by most characters in the series, but he has a surprisingly well-built physique. His height is 172 cm. (5'7½"), he's 17 years old, and his birthday is May 5th (Children's day).

Similar to most of his male crewmates, Luffy has the same outfit throughout most of the series, as opposed to the rest of the crew (especially Nami and Nico Robin), who change frequently. Luffy may wear a different outfit to suit the climate of an island (like a hooded parka on Drum Island or desert robes in Alabasta), but will switch back to his trademark vest and shorts after the adventures on that island are over.

No matter where he is, Luffy wears his Straw Hat through absolutely everything, though at the start, the hat was prone to getting knocked off his head easily, however, Luffy has gotten a string strap for it, allowing the hat to hang from his neck during fights.

During his return to Marineford to give a silent prayer, Luffy was briefly shown with four characters written on his right arm spelling 3D 2Y, with the 3D crossed out to symbolize that the Straw Hat Pirates should meet up in 2 years (2Y) rather than the 3 days (3D) as planned after fleeing from Bartholomew Kuma.

Post-Timeskip
After those two years, a few things have changed. Luffy wears an open, long-sleeved red cardigan with four buttons (which shows the X-shaped scar covering most of his chest he received by Admiral Akainu), with a yellow sash tied around his waist, somewhat reminiscent of Gol D. Roger's outfit. He has grown slightly bit taller, and is shown to be somewhat a bit more muscular due to his training. This can be seen in instances where having more more pronounced deltoids, and his chest also having more definition. His height is 174 cm (5'8½"), and his timeskip age is 19 years old.

Personality
Luffy's two dominant traits are his apparent lack of intelligence and his utter fearlessness. Luffy can easily be amazed by the simplest things, such as hermit crabs, and can be confused by concepts such as that by digging a hole right next to another he may be unintentionally filling the other hole. He likes monsters and will ask weird creatures to join his crew (as seen in the Thriller Bark arc, asking a talking tree to join his crew). He also has no knowledge of medicine, when Nami had a high fever he told her to eat food. When attempting to think up a plan to get off of Amazon Lily, while he managed to make some logical sense of where to look, he is seen to strain himself and notes that he is going to feel sick from too much thinking.

His simple mind actually saved him against Hancock's powers because he mistook it for a "Slow-Slow Beam", used by Foxy, which brought out a fear of being slowed down (though it is shown later he is simply immune to her powers, because he completely pure heart). If Luffy finds something he doesn't understand, even if someone explained in detail, he calls it a "mystery thing"; like calling boogie powder a "mystery powder". One of Luffy's running gags is asking "non-humans" such as Camie and Brook if they use a bathroom, in which case the answer is usually a yes. Another running gag is Luffy's slow reaction time, especially to freezing temperatures.

The same cannot be said when he is on the field of battle, though; he has been known to dodge bullets with ease. It has been stated more than once that Luffy's instinct and behavior is similar to that of a wild animal's, like when he knows who he has to fight before he even gets to the battle. Even how he fights shows this, when he relies on his instincts and countering attacks. This compliments the way he views the world. He is most often seen smiling, except in a fight where he is forced to use all his power (and sometimes even then). Luffy also seems to rarely change personality wise. Because he views the world in a straightforward and simple manner, he occasionally is the only person who can see past events that have taken place and realize the true goal, yet at other times he can fall into the simplest of traps.

He is, however, a genius when it comes to fighting, such as when he figured out how to defeat Crocodile's Devil Fruit power on the verge of death, how to use Soru from sight, developed a number of effective counters to Eneru's "Mantra" ability and, most recently, learning everything Silvers Rayleigh had to teach him about Haki in a year and a half (even though Rayleigh mentioned that two years were too short a time to learn about Haki). He does have a habit of holding a grudge even in dire situations (such as refusing to let Crocodile help him escape Impel Down even when there was no alternative). However he tries not to hurt civilians and people he likes, even if they intend to do harm to him, preferring to run from them than fight.

Gum-Gum Fruit
Luffy has gained extraordinary stretching powers from eating the Gum-Gum Fruit, which is one of the legendary Devil Fruits. After consuming the Gum-Gum Fruit, Luffy's body became like rubber, giving him the ability to stretch long distances. Having trained hard for ten years, Luffy is able to supplement his stretching powers with immense strength, agility, and creativity in combat. His fighting style is largely improvised, and heavily reliant on his Cursed Fruit. It should be noted, Luffy can't automatically stretch his limbs (like superheroes with stretching powers, i.e: Mr. Fantastic or Plastic Man) since his body acts more like a rubber band, thus has to throw some force into it in order for his limbs to stretch out, though it seems that he has managed to be able to do it automatically after the time-skip. However, he can hold his limbs outstretched for a long time, as seen when he reaches his arm out about half a mile to retrieve Usopp from falling through the Sea Clouds.

Luffy uses his stretching power in ingenious ways. He is able to use the malleable stretchiness of his limbs to gain tremendous velocity and hit enemies with devastating impact. His rubber body is also extremely durable and virtually immune to blunt objects such as bullets (in One Piece, bullets are still round pellets, except for Don Krieg's), punches and electricity, bouncing off his body harmlessly or canceling out attacks. It's even become a running gag that people find out the hard way Luffy is made of rubber when they shoot at him, only to have the bullets bounce right back. Another running joke is that whenever Luffy's body is in peril that would kill a normal human, he says that he's made of rubber, so it's okay, or acts like something was a small problem despite the person trying to kill him, such as being shot in the heart. However, he is still normally susceptible to sharp objects such as swords and knives as well as nonphysical attacks like heat, poison, cold, and dehydration. Not only can he use his ability to increase the range and strength of his attacks, but he can also use it to restrain and even control foes like puppets.

Gear Second
Gear Second (ギア･セカンド, Gia Sekando) is where Luffy uses his legs to pump blood throughout his body at a much faster rate. Activating Gear Second also uses a lot of stored energy from his body. Leaving his body exhausted, his heart rate also increases to levels that are normally impossible. His veins are able to withstand this, thanks to the Gum-Gum Fruit. In this form, Luffy gains a considerable boost in speed and strength.

During the Enies Lobby Arc, Rob Lucci mentions that this is just like steroids because his muscles are receiving enough blood to do things otherwise impossible. Rob Lucci also noted that Gear Second does damage to Luffy's own body and in turn drastically reduces his stamina and his lifespan begins to diminish.

Luffy first discovers this Gear unofficially where he has a large mechanical arm falling on him, he catches it, and the impact exerts extreme force on Luffy's legs, causing him to unintentionally pump blood at an accelerated rate to perform Gear Second and use the Gum-Gum Jet Bazooka (though he simply refers to is as a normal Gum-Gum Bazooka) to defeat a giant Mecha.

After the timeskip, it appears that Luffy has gained enough control over his Gear Second form, that he is able to use it in a single part of his body rather than the whole thing. This in conjunction with his Busoshoku Haki was able to take out a Pacifista with a single punch, something that took the entire Straw Hat crew to do before the timeskip. It seems that Luffy has become more adept with this gear as he has been using Gear Second attacks more frequently than before the timeskip.

Gear Third
Gear Third (ギア･サード, Gia Sādo) is where Luffy pumps air through his bones to make them literally gigantic. Obviously, only Luffy can do such a thing by using the Gum-Gum Fruit. Used with his already-strong physiology, this apparently gives his arm more mass and a larger area to attack with far greater force, but he sacrifices mobility for this strength, as his limbs are now so large that Luffy has extreme trouble moving unless he is in his Balloon form. Another after effect of this is that Luffy is reduced to child-sized proportions, the duration of which is equal to the time he spent in Gear Third. Also, he is able to use both gears at the same time which he uses to defeat Gecko Moria. This technique is first hinted at during Luffy's fight with Blueno, and first used, but not shown when Luffy is chasing Rob Lucci and Spandam, but is not seen until a later battle with Rob Lucci.

After the timeskip, Luffy's Gear Third is vastly improved upon. Previously, Gear Third would increase the size of the majority of Luffy's arm, thus reducing the speed of the attack in exchange for a powerful impact. However post-timeskip Luffy can seemingly control where the air is allowed to "sit" within his limbs, where his fist becomes large but allows a large mass to form behind the fist as the equivalent of the mass he would have achieved having his arm fully inflated. This allows a majority of Luffy's arm to remain as it is, allowing him to stretch it, thus allowing him to attack much faster than before the two-year absence.

Luffy is also shown using Gear Third at the same time as Armament Haki causing his arm to turn black and harden (possibly undergoing vulcanization), with his arm in the ocean (which would normally drain a Cursed Fruit user of their power). While he is affected by the ocean, he still lands a punch which knocks the Kraken out. Luffy is confirmed to have overcome his weakness of shrinking when deactivating this Gear, after inflating both his arms and using Gum-Gum Elephant Fire on Noah for a prolonged period of time and not turning into his chibi form