 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything One Piece and today I have what I think is a fun topic which consists of why Luffy will never, I repeat, never be the strongest character in One Piece. Which I know is probably quite a blasphemous thing to say regarding a Shonen series but One Piece has always been just a little bit different to its contemporaries, putting a unique spin on the Shonen genre which has led it to becoming the highest selling comic book of all time by a single author, not exactly the easiest of things to do. Very much like pressing the subscribe button for the Grand Line Review, you know it seems achievable however almost 60% of viewers just don't quite get there. That's okay though because I believe in you, you dear viewer are talented, moderately good looking and highly capable of pressing that alluring red button which will provide regular One Piece content uploaded straight into your YouTube feed. Alright but back to inflammatory statements, Luffy will never be the strongest character in One Piece nor does he need to be and that's certainly not a bad thing. In fact the more I experience the post timeskip events of the series and the more obvious this becomes, it adds a lot of charm to both Luffy and the series as a whole for me anyway. But to really get into this we should probably start with the counter argument, the standard thoughts as to why Luffy would need to become the strongest, one of which is obviously in order to become the pirate king and it makes a great degree of surface level sense because in theory to do so he would need to defeat all of his rivals along that path which currently just so happened to include the two most powerful living individuals left in this world and not just his rivals of course but also outright enemies like the marines which are packing some pretty fearsome individuals such as the admirals and of course Sakazuki. But furthermore you can also argue that Luffy does need to become the strongest because from all we know that is effectively what Roger was. The first pirate king in the series arrived at that destination partially by at the very least standing atop in the physical realm. I mean there's nothing but speculation to say that Roger was more powerful than figures like Whitebeard, Garps and Goku etc but he was at the very least on equal footing with them. So if Luffy was to parallel Roger's journey then naturally he would need to find himself on a similar level seems legit and there's also some minor reasonings as well such as the thought that Luffy will need to become the strongest in order to protect his crew and his various friend things. Very standard shown in stuff and a philosophy that Luffy has actively been shown considering on several occasions. The most frequently cited would be the whole Alkeju situation but also the entire impetus for the time skip was Luffy recognizing that he needed to gain power in order to progress in the world. And while these things are all well and good when diving a bit deeper the reasoning here doesn't quite hold up at least not in regards to the conclusion of needing to become the ultimate punch doer to achieve any of it. So let's start with the initial point of Luffy needing to become the strongest to become the pirate king. A title so very vague that I have a whole video diving into how one theoretically achieves this as well as what the pirate king even is because it's really not as simple as the wealth fame power angle that we've been fed but it is important to note that Luffy's personal goal has nothing to do with becoming the strongest. In fact in his own words regarding the subject of what the pirate king is he said the following. I'm not going to conquer anything. The one who is the most free is the pirate king. Which is one of my favorite Luffy quotes actually because it really does clarify his drive to me. He isn't striving to be the most powerful or to rule over anything. He just wants the freedom to do whatever he wants or go wherever he so wishes and a certain degree of strength will be necessary to make that happen because this is a very dangerous world. But it would be a false equivalency to declare that the pirate king must also be the strongest combatant in the series because it is possible for there to be all sorts of people out there who are far more powerful than Luffy but so long as he is the most free it doesn't really matter. And it's actually something I'd argue that he is currently when you consider the major powers of the world. Take the Yonko for example. At least two of them are considered to be the most powerful individuals that we currently know of and they are very much the opposite of free. Instead they're all locked inside the territories maintaining a perpetual balance while some brat like Luffy can walk in and out of anywhere as he so wishes. No strength has ever been able to stop Luffy from going exactly where it is he wants to go or leaving that location. Be it the stronghold of an emperor of the sea or the world's most secure prison. He wasn't anywhere near the strongest in either of those situations and he won't need to be to continue doing just that, thus becoming the most free, thus becoming the pirate king regardless of those out there capable of toppling him in one-on-one combat. And as for the idea of Luffy needing to follow Roger's path that's also not necessarily the case. Although I do get the thought process because for most of the series, we have equated Luffy as a modern day Roger through inherited will, which has been hinted at through almost every former member of the Roger Pirates that we have met. But this late into the series, I think it's becoming much more apparent that Luffy is not following the path of Roger but rather that of Joy Boy. Which isn't to say that it can't be both, but enforcing a strict criteria of strength on Luffy based on Roger's experiences is probably not the best way we should be going about things. Especially when you consider that Luffy's entire existence is an aberration. Nothing Luffy does or achieves conforms to any standards that this world has. Case in point, being considered an emperor of the sea or at the very least a contemporary to them. And he does this despite not holding any formal territory, formal command of wider forces or even the broad individual power that the others do. Does any of that matter though? Not really because well, he's there anyway. Having fulfilled none of the stringent criteria that many other YouTubers will claim is a necessity. Luffy just does things his own way. And I really do think it's a fool's errand to try and box Luffy in by already existing standards when the entire point of a character like him is to shatter expectations and those existing standards. And as such, that also goes to the greater question of whether or not he will become the strongest character by the end of One Piece. Very conventional shown in logic would state that, yes, yes, he does need to do that because that's just how things are. For the most part in Battle Marker anyway, which just as a side note, there's a great argument to be made that One Piece is not a Battle Marker and is instead a pure adventure series. It gets lumped in with the Battle Marker category because it does do fairly frequent fights, but combat has never been the key focus of One Piece. It has always been primarily about adventure and discovery with incidental fights along the way, as well as of course great comedy and great drama, all of which is distributed in equal measure. And I do think that bothers a fair few people who read or watch One Piece with the expectation of it being a battle-centric series because it really isn't and that's why there's even less onus on Luffy to become the strongest because his goals don't necessarily coincide with the standard Battle Marker, considering One Piece is not one. And a lot of this makes sense with most of what we've seen of modern One Piece. Thinking back on the new old era, I really struggled to find situations where Luffy has achieved victory through strength alone. For example, Andres Rosa, Luffy was clearly presented as inferior to Dolphemingo. Yes, Gear 4 gave him some supreme strength and speed for a brief period, but Dolphemingo's durability defeated that and were it not for the cacophony of luck and fate present on Dressrosa, Luffy would have been undoubtedly defeated. If not for events like winning over the Colosseum fighters, having Sabo stall Fujitora and Burgess, having lower deal key damage to Dolphemingo and all of the citizens buying time for Luffy to regain his Haki, Dressrosa would have seen the complete and utter slaughter of our future pirate king. And it's a bizarre truth, but no, Luffy would not have defeated Dolphemingo solely through the power that he had access to at the time. It doesn't get any better as we go forward. On Holcake Island, Luffy barely overcame Charlotte Cracker, mostly thanks to how Nami's abilities interacted with delicious biscuits. And if it was Luffy versus Cracker one-on-one, then Luffy would have lost. And moving on to Karakuri, Luffy should have lost this fight as well, on paper anyway. Karakuri was objectively more powerful in every respect to Luffy, but he won anyway by destroying Karakuri mentally and eventually winning the respect of the sweet commander. This is quite probably my favorite fight in one piece and power has next to nothing to do with the outcome. And now we find ourselves on Wano, where Luffy was quite famously one-shot by Kaido whilst engaged in Gear 4th. And there is no greater statement of the incredible gap in strength between these two, as well as no amount of training or Haki development dealt through to Awakening or whatever, none of that is going to bridge that gap. With that said, Kaido will still be defeated and Luffy will more than likely deliver that final blow, but it will not be because of his individual strength. It'll be because of some sort of impossible situation developing, featuring an outrageously massive cast of characters that provide Luffy with a very brief window to achieve victory, just as his entire new world career has been. And it has been instances like that that prove to me that Luffy will not need to be the strongest in the world to become the Pirate King and participate in whatever Climax 1 piece is leading to. He has something far more powerful on his side being Fate and Supreme Charisma. Luffy doesn't need power himself because he naturally attracts power to him. He gains allies to the point where they become a critical mass and all of them are able to collectively bring down someone who Luffy would be incapable of dealing with under normal circumstances. That's what makes Luffy so terrifying. And I know that this is a very frequently referenced event, but Mihawk lays this out so clearly during the Marineford Arc where he simply states, it's not his powers or techniques. He possesses some quality that makes people want to help him. And in these waters, that is the most formidable power of all. And to me, that statement has always made this an open and shut case even before the new world clarified it. This is Oda telling us that the rules as we know them do not apply to Luffy. He has a very special quality about him that allows Luffy to punch above his weight, far above his weight. And really to change that by having Luffy eventually become the strongest in the series is very counter to the core idea that his character embodies. And it's going to be significantly more satisfying to see Luffy become the Pirate King via his own path rather than doing the stock standard thing of becoming the strongest. It would take a lot away from the value of being victorious against all odds because if you're the strongest then generally the odds aren't all that stacked against you. Meanwhile, Luffy will be an eternal underdog even going into the final arc of the series where he will once again against all odds come out on top versus seemingly insurmountable power. And individual strength will be important in that. I'm not trying to downplay the fact that Luffy does need to continue to grow and develop especially in regards to Haki and potentially even awakening his devil fruit. But he does not have to reach the pinnacle of you know, white beard style strength to achieve anything that he wants to in life. So not only do I think that Luffy will not be the strongest by the end of one piece I don't even think he'll be in the top five. Maybe not even the top 10. There's just no way he's ever going to be able to equal figures like Kaido, Big Mom or the legacy fighters like Roger and Garp. And I think it's even arguable as to whether or not he'll be able to overcome figures like the admirals in a straight up fight. But here's the thing, none of that matters at all. Luffy is here to do the impossible. And if you can't see a future where Luffy becomes the pirate king without becoming the strongest character, well that happens to be a very good example of exactly the kind of impossible that I'm talking about. But what do you guys think? Please do leave your thoughts in the comments below or even join my Discord server. And if you'd like to see more videos like this then please do go and check out some of my other content or even subscribe to the channel for more glorious one piece business uploaded straight into your YouTube feeds. But for now, this has been the Grand Line Review and I'll see you next time.