It's Nami's birthday today! To celebrate, I thought I would do a thread on what she means to me and (I think) the rest of the One Piece saga.

Nami!!!!

That's it that's the thread.

...I kid I kid. But truthfully, Nami is a pop culture icon. She is instantly recognizable and one of the most well-known pop culture icons around the world. With good reason too! A queen deserves such recognition and royal treatment.

I think what is most important to me is the role she plays as part of the Straw Hats on an emotional level. Nami will always and forever be a pivotal part of Luffy's crew, forming the bedrock of the next age of legends.

Nami was the second person to join Luffy's crew, the first being Zoro. While Zoro does have the distinction of being the first member and providing additional muscle to the cause, it is when Nami joins that I think the true scope and breadth of the series begins to take shape.

Zoro will always be Luffy's right hand. He's the warrior who will make sure Luffy wins.

But Nami is the one who will make Luffy king.

She is, in and of herself, a dynamic and interesting character - stylish rogue, cunning charlatan, keen-eyed and ever-alert navigator. She tames the storm and cuts a path through any dangerous heading. Nami could have her own spinoff manga (Oda when???).

One of One Piece's largest and most omnipresent threats is the ocean itself, churning seas and tumultuous tempests beset by monsters, mysterious islands, and uncharted courses. Nami nullifies that threat. She makes the (literal and figurative) journey possible.

Even more important is her role as the spirit of the Straw Hats, the emotional center of what being a pirate in Luffy's crew is like compared to any other pirate crew/organization. Nami's break from Aarlong is the start of the pattern that will define her future and the world's.

Nami was a thief and an outlaw before Luffy arrived - she robbed him before she joined him after all. And she was good at it! She was surviving in a ruthless world run by ruthless people.

But survival and living aren't always the same thing.

It's funny, when you ask folks when One Piece clicked for them, there are different answers of course. I tend to be a "it's great from Chapter 1" kind of guy myself.

But one of the most common answers you'll hear is: When Luffy put his Straw Hat on Nami.

That's the moment.

That's when we really see what this crew, this story, this silly Monkey pirate is really about. Luffy is not content with the way the world is. He is not content with piracy as a means to take advantage of people, or rule with a different sort of tyranny than the World Government

Nami owes Aarlong a "debt." When Luffy finds out the nature of that debt, he does not just repay it, he does not ignore it, he fundamentally rejects the nature of the indebtedness. This is an imbalance of power, rooted in cycles of exploitation.

Luffy shatters the bond.

I have spoken before on how one of the most common activities the Straw Hats get up to is the freeing of slaves. They break shackles. They end the ownership of others. Whenever someone toils beneath another flag against their will, they will not stand for it.

The entire scene at Aarlong Park is the beginning of this. Luffy puts his hat on Nami - the hat, THE titular hat, the emblem of the promise made to him by Shanks, the promise he made to Shanks - and in doing so entrusts her with everything that makes him who he is.

In that moment we see what Luffy's leadership is like, what i means to fly beneath that silly doodle of a jolly roger. This is protection without repayment, loyalty without coercion, trust without doubt.

Nami holds the promise that the world can be different.

It's no coincidence that Nami's tangerine tree is planted firmly on the deck of the Merry and later Thousand Sunny. Here grows the hope of a different world, in the middle of an ocean where in theory nothing should grow. A world where Bell-mere never would have died.

On this ship full of goofballs, where family has been lost, family has also been found. Trees have burned, but trees also have grown. There's a new hope here - not for a slightly altered form of control, but for a world that bears an altogether different kind of fruit.

Luffy will be king of the pirates. Yet, he would never be able to do so if it weren't for Nami the navigator. He made a promise to her and she to him. Their bond is more powerful than any cool attack move that the monster trio might use, or any battleship that can be built.

Nami is more than loyalist or confidant - she is his friend. Their is a deep and abiding trust here, and formed long before many others have joined the crew. Luffy couldn't be Luffy if Nami wasn't Nami.

Every time we see Luffy - the future king of the pirates - sitting with a serene child-like glee on the prow of the ship, we know he is only able to do so because he is confident that Nami is at his back, making sure that prow is always safely facing the the right direction.

Happy birthday Nami! You are the reason the journey is possible, and you are the reason for the journey.