Monkey D. Luffy, better known as “Straw Hat Luffy” to the world at large is a carefree yet extra-ordinarily ambition driven young man who happens to be the captain of a group of pirates creatively named as the Straw Hats. Luffy formed the Straw Hat Pirates crew on his grand adventure to find the One Piece.

His lifelong dream is to become the Pirate King and find the legendary treasure One Piece. Luffy is also the song of the revolutionary Monkey D. Dragon and the grandson of the marine hero Monkey D. Garp. According to the World Government and Marines, he has a reputation for causing trouble, challenging the Shichinukai, the Marines and the Yonko and committing to many felonies along the way. In the current standings, Luffy has a bounty warrant of 1,500,000,000 for anyone to can kill him.

Luffy’s Personality

As a leader, Luffy is unorthodox; he displays minimal forethought and plunges both himself and his crewmates into certain danger, simply for the sake of adventure. Luffy is an extra-ordinarily caring and loyal character who has complete faith in his crew to overcome any form of obstacle. Luffy has quite a straightforward view of the world as he believes that he can punch his way out of any problem to embark, and his profound success of this philosophy is all part of the ol’ Luffy charm that wins over most character he encounters. While Luffy may be charismatic, but its quite certain that he is not intelligent. His simple-mindedness boils most situations down to the most basic possible form. For example, Luffy’s tendency to disregard people’s actual names and giving them simplistic nicknames based on their appearance. Although he is generally a goofball, sometimes even during combat, but when push comes to shove, he is capable of an unwavering level of seriousness, which generally occurs when someone threatens his friends. Due to this very reason, throughout East Blue, Luffy continued to defeat stronger opponents and consequently got noticed by the marines which resulted in a bounty of 30 million berries/belly placed on his head. 

Luffy’s Strength

Luffy is a determined character that possesses raw strength. His exceptionally creative use of his devil fruit allows him to stretch his body to increase the velocity and the force of his attacks. However, it should be noted that Luffy was only able to unlock this strength due to rigorous training throughout his childhood. When he first ate the fruit, his powers were essentially useless, but over time he built up the strength and made his abilities a force to be reckoned with. 

After encountering Marine Admiral Aokiji on Long Ring Long Land, Luffy realized the need to evolve his abilities and created gears. Luffy later took up a training offer from Silvers Rayleigh and learned how to master all three types of Haki. 

Backstory

Meeting Red-Haired Shanks

Luffy developed this dream when he was just seven years old, after encountering the pirate “Red-haired” Shanks in Foosha Village. Initially, Luffy wanted to join Shanks crew and even went as far as to stab himself under the eye to prove that he was tough enough to become a pirate. Despite this action, Shanks stated that Luffy was too young to join his crew. During this time, Luffy accidentally ate a devil fruit in possession of the Red Hair Pirates. Luffy was unaware that the fruit he was consuming was Gomu Gomu No Mi, a paramecia-type devil fruit that gives rubber-like properties to the consumer. As a result of consuming the fruit, Luffy lost his ability to swim, which was unfortunate for him as he got kidnapped by Higuma “The Bear.” Shanks arrived just in time and saved Luffy from the clutches of Higuma, which cost him his left arm. This moment played a crucial part in increasing Luffy’s drive to become a pirate. Upon the departure of the red-haired pirates, Luffy exclaimed that he would one day surpass Shanks and become The Pirate King. Shanks acknowledged Luffy’s determination and left him with his straw hat and told Luffy to return it when he surpassed him.

Leaving Foosha Village

From that day onwards, Luffy became focused on training hard for the day when he would set out to sea and began his journey. Luffy’s grandfather Monkey D. Garp was opposed to his grandson becoming a pirate and took Luffy out of the Foosha Village to be raised by Curly Dadan, a mountain bandit boss of Mt. Colubo and a friend of Monkey D. Garp.

Forming “The Brothers Trio”

Luffy met Sabo and Ace, and after a rocky start, they formed a trio and became brothers through the ritual of drinking Sake. The trio shared the same dream of becoming a pirate and briefly considered starting their own crew but the idea was shelved because all three wanted to be the captain. Later, Sabo was attacked and presumably killed by a celestial dragon while setting out on his adventure. This incident reinforced Luffy’s desire to become stronger. Meanwhile, after reaching the age of 17, Ace departed and started his journey of becoming a pirate. Three years later, Luffy left the Goa Kingdom to begin his journey of becoming the Pirate King. 

Beginning the Adventure

After beginning his journey, Luffy defeated The Lord of the Coast with a single punch. He then adventured around the East Blue Sea and managed to recruit Zoro – a swordsman, Nami – a navigator, Usopp a long-nose (who later become the sniper), and Sanji – a chef. Luffy then requested the crew to sail into the Grand Line; initially, several members of the crew denied the request as they considered it to be insane but due to Luffy’s charisma the crew accepted his request. 

Entering the Grand Line

After entering the Grand Line, Luffy visited several islands and recruited four more crew members. He also defeated two warlords of the sea and declared war on the world government. Eventually, Luffy earned the bounty of 300 million berries. 

Defeat and the Reunion of the Straw Hats

After reaching Sabaody Archipelago, the Straw Hats were defeated entirely by Bartholomew Kuma and were sent flying all around the world by him. Luffy ends up on the island of Amazon Lily in the Calm Belt. His initial plan was to return to the Archipelago, which later changed when he learned about Ace getting captured by the marines. Luffy then decided to break into the underworld prison of impel down where his brother was kept. Upon breaking in and reaching level 6 of the institution, he found out that his brother was being transferred to Marineford. After that, with the help of his charisma, Luffy formed a band of prisoners, many of whom were his enemies and included hidden revolutionaries and former warlord of the sea.

Along with his band of prisoners, Luffy led the only prison break in the history of Impel Down. Sadly, his efforts ended up being for naught as, during a battle, Ace was killed by then marine admiral Akainu. The death of Ace sent him to one of the darkest emotional places he has ever been through, which he later recovered. He then trains with Silvers Rayleigh for two years and reunites with his crew at the Sabaody Archipelago. Within a few days after their reunion, they picked a fight with two of the four emperors of the new world and defeated a third Warlord of the Sea which increased Luffy’s bounty to 500 million berries. The story then continues further as Luffy continues on his journey to become Pirate King and later develops incredible powers especially after the time skip as he grows up.