I repeatedly here people say that Luffy is a generic boring shonen protagonist im going to explain why luffy is a great protagonist.

DISCLAIMER: my grammar is absolutely ass so please try and bear with my 5th grade level grammar also watch out for spoilers dummy

Luffy is originally introduced as a happy go lucky fun loving and generally amiable protagonist with an insanely indomitable will, his friendly disposition being inspired off of Son Goku’s demeanor.

So already we are given a protagonist that is reminiscent of the shonen caricature of a protagonist, but I would argue this is one of luffy’s greatest strengths.

Let’s explore; one of the most captivating characteristics of Luffy is his presence that is built in one piece, from being an insignificant pirate to being one of the most prominent figures in the one piece world.

A quality I can appreciate in a character especially a protagonist is how the story moves along with them, whether the protagonist is proactive or reactive. In traditional story telling the antagonists are usually the ones who cause change within a story

preempting the protagonist to take action in times of conflict. However, in one piece very often the opposite is true, the antagonists find themselves taking action due to Luffy’s erotic and evocative decisions

Even in cases in which he is being reactive he turns that into a proactive, sparking an entirely new conflict as a result of his reaction (i.e instigating the insurrection of enies lobby as a result of robin being kidnapped).

Another one of luffy’s alluring attributes is just his established dream, when we’re first introduced to luffy (in the manga) we’re immediately given his backstory and a goal he strives to achieve, that goal being to be the king of the pirates

, but what is the King of the pirates exactly? As luffy defines it is to be “the freest man in the world”, and when further elaborated upon Luffy states that he does not “want to conquer anything”

Normally the stereotype commonly associated with being a pirate is being enamored by riches fame and conquering/taking the freedom from whoever the fuck you want. However, as evident by luffy’s character that is not what he desires

we can see Luffy’s unconventional beliefs by him completely unwilling to sacrifice his friends if that meant he could achieve his dream, any cold hearted pirate would be more than willing to sacrifice his crew if it meant achieving pirate superstardom

this makes Luffy’s determination and motivated both clear cut and enigmatic simultaneously. Luffy in many ways mirrors some anarchistic ideas, some from his beliefs and some inadvertently

this includes opposition to unjustified hierarchy, toppling over totalitarian institutions, and his hyper focus on freedom. However, despite all of these glowingly positive traits from Luffy, he is not without his flaws.

Luffy is a man of great selflessness and great selfishness and questionable moral compass. One piece is a world that is dominated by a diverse set of morals, in Luffy’s case, although he is unwilling to sacrifice his friends to reach his dream

he is VERY willing to openly communicate, befriend and in some cases asking to recruit with what we would consider morally reprehensible people

(the worst example of this would be him releasing the world’s most dangerous criminals from impel down which would endanger the lives of countless innocent people all for the sake of saving his brother….yea that’s….pretty fucked)

which corresponds to his belief in absolute freedom. Luffy (for the most part) does whatever he wants, whenever he wants, much to the chagrin of his crewmates, and does not ascribe to the belief of taking the moral high ground over an enemy.

. Frequently, luffy will do good things as a result of his actions, NOT because he feels what he’s doing is right thing to do. To summarize, Luffy is a generally kind hearted person with a lack of a definitive moral compass.