One Piece: 10 Lessons Luffy Learned From Defeat
One Piece’s Monkey D Luffy shows audiences that some lessons are best learned by losing.
As the protagonist of an anime with over 1000 episodes, Luffy has had countless fights over the years. He’s fought basically everyone and everything, from literal clowns to full-blown Emperors.
He’s racked up a pretty impressive track record, winning battles virtually everywhere he goes. However, even a pirate as powerful as Luffy is bound to lose a few times when they fight so often.
The Straw Hat captain might not lose often, but when he does, it tends to be pretty brutal. It can be difficult to find solace in such devastating losses, but if there is a silver lining, it’s that Luffy is generally able to actually learn something from these defeats.
10Sometimes, Running Away Is The Best Option
Luffy tends not to back down from a fight. He has a pretty one-track mind, so when an opponent angers him or gives him trouble, he generally devotes all of his energy to finding a way to punch them in the face. Sadly Smoker’s a powerful Logia user, making it physically impossible to punch him, at least when the two first meet.
As a result, the Straw Hats only real option is a retreat, making Smoker the first powerful opponent that Luffy really backs down from fighting. Courageously standing one’s ground is a valuable trait, but so is knowing when to retreat.
9Don’t Look A Gift Horse In The Mouth
The only reason Luffy is able to get away from Smoker in the first place is thanks to the timely and mysterious intervention of his father Dragon. Luffy, who didn’t even know who his savior was, didn’t waste any time trying to figure out what was going on and took the deus ex machina without asking any questions.
It wouldn’t be the last time Luffy would be saved from certain doom by an outside force. Luffy would keep the mentality of just carrying on with his task or goal without looking back. When his life is in danger, he knows that sticking around to figure out what’s going on can be a waste of valuable time.
8You Need To Get Creative
Like Smoker, Crocodile is a Logia type devil fruit user, meaning that Luffy’s normal method of punching until his opponent falls down, is doomed to failure. Crocodile take him down with ease, nearly killing Luffy in the process. Unable to land a single hit the entire fight, Luffy has to get creative in order to take down the Warlord.
Since he doesn’t become a powerful Haki master for several hundred more episodes, Luffy covers himself in water in order to fight Crocodile in his subsequent rematches. Going forward Luffy is a little more inventive with his strategies, especially when going up against a powerful opponent.
7Enemies Can Become Friends
Luffy’s second fight against Crocodile doesn’t go much better than his first, leaving him trapped in quicksand, ready to die. He’s saved by Crocodile’s top henchwoman, Nico Robin, paving the way for what would become one of his most loyal friends.
Friends can really come from unexpected places, and Luffy’s relationship with Robin would help him learn to seek allies even among his foes. It might take him a minute to get over a grudge, but once he does, even his biggest rivals can become steadfast friends in his eyes.
6Admirals Are At A Different Level
By the time Luffy runs into Admiral Aokiji, he’s already taken down a Warlord and a self-proclaimed God. While these enemies were strong, they came nowhere close to the true level of the most powerful warriors in the world. With Aokiji, Luffy came across one of the franchise’s true heavyweights.
It’s a pretty rough defeat for Luffy, but more importantly, it introduces a level of power he didn’t even know existed. He would push himself further in the next few years, to overcome the painful truth he learned: in the grand scheme of things, he’s weak.
5You’re Not Ready For The New World — Yet
Luffy’s lost his fair share of fights by the time the Straw Hats reach the Sabody Archipelago, an island chain representing the border with the far more dangerous New World. It’s clear that they’re not quite ready to brave the New World, as Bartholmew Kuma hands them a total defeat, literally scattering the crew to the winds.
It would be two years before Luffy and his crew returned to Sabaody, as the whole experience convinced them all that they needed time to get stronger. It was a humbling experience, but a vital step towards becoming one of the New World’s most powerful pirates.
4Some Enemies You Can’t Beat By Yourself
Logia types are pretty much impossible to defeat without Haki. Since Magellan is basically made of poison, even punching him at all nearly kills Luffy. He’s pretty used to taking on the big bad of every arc by himself, but he can’t beat Magellan or escape Impel Down without the help of the prisoners.
Thanks to Mr. 3’s wax abilities, Luffy’s able to get some armor that actually allows him to hit Magellan without getting poisoned in the process. This was an opponent he could only hope to take on with aid from someone else.
3Life Is Not A Game
The Battle of Marineford is easily Luffy’s greatest failure, as his brother Ace is killed before his eyes. While Luffy never loses his sense of adventure, he takes a bit more of a serious approach going forward in this arc.
Luffy’s still the same kid who gets easily distracted or comes up with some ridiculous scheme to throw the enemy off guard. However, the whole war gives him a real understanding of the structures of the world and the real dangers he’s likely to face going forward.
2It’s Your Job To Change The World
Between all the events of the Summit War Saga, Luffy saw and experienced some of the worst things his world has to offer, all culminating in the Battle of Marineford. These experiences showed him that becoming King of the Pirates means more than just being free or finding treasure; it means changing the world.
By ringing the Ox Bell in the aftermath of the Battle, Luffy signifies not only the start of a new age but his own role in it. Between the Emperors, Admirals, and Celestial Dragons, Luffy now knows who his enemies are and that he has to beat them all if he wants to make the world a better place.
1There’s Another Level To Haki
While Luffy eventually defeats Katakurki in one of the longest fights in anime history, the first time the two go head-to-head, Luffy is outclassed by the Sweet General’s unparalleled mastery of Haki, showing Luffy that there are ways to use the power that he didn’t even imagine.
When the second round of the fight starts, Luffy does everything he can to improve his Haki, to match Katakuri. Sometimes the best way to learn a new ability is to have it physically beaten in by a leather-clad mochi man.
