Greetings, one piece fans.
As we all know, Luffy has now become one of the most powerful characters in the One Piece world. With a power like Gear 5, his growth potential is limitless, and his abilities are on another level. The revelations of Luffy’s new powers reignited some old discourses within the One Piece fandom.
Fans are asking old questions in a new light, questions about how gear 5 affects Luffy in battle. How does it change the way we should expect him to fight? One similar question that has been asked many times before is, can Luffy be hurt using nothing but blunt force? Keeping Gear 5 in view, the answer is obvious but keep reading to find out the interesting facts.
The question we ask today is whether or not Luffy can be damaged without using Haki or any other ability based Simply on strength. I, as someone who has been dealing with OP powers scaling for years, will be your guide.
Luffy’s abilities
Ever since Luffy first appeared in the Manga, he has called himself a “Rubber-human” and has, on several occasions, stated that purely physical attacks do not harm him.
Early examples of this have been bullets bouncing off his body and even cannonballs causing him no harm. Looking at it from a purely theoretical perspective, any amount of brute strength should not harm Luffy, as if his body is truly made of Rubber, the effect will just bounce off.
But this theoretical answer has been tested many times, as we have clearly seen physical attacks harm him. Obviously, attacks from the likes of Garp, who could use Haki, even if it was not shown, do not count as simple physical force. So let us go over some of these attacks to see what the problem is.
Nami hurting Luffy
Obviously, this is the most common example of Luffy being hurt by brute strength, and Oda himself has addressed it.
Nami can harm Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji and it is simply for the sake of comic relief, so it can be disregarded.
Impact Dials and Rokyushiki
We saw that Ussop was able to harm Luffy using Impact dials at Water Seven. This would seem to argue that Blunt force can hurt Luffy, but as we know, Impact dials only store and reliance energy.
It was Luffy’s own strength that was stored and then released. It did not come in the form of strength but a shockwave that was able to hurt Luffy. Thus we can put Impact Dials to a side.
The CP9 members were also able to harm Luffy significantly simply by the use of a special martial arts form called Rokushiki. Using this technique, Rob Lucci and Blueno were able to damage Luffy.
But even this cannot be classified as brute strength. This is a martial art form based on the negation of durability. It deals with shockwaves and technique. We can’t possibly call these simply pure strength.
Other enemies
We can classify most of the damage Luffy has sustained post-time skip to Haki and even pre-time skip to the fact that Haki was not shown at the time. His enemies have harmed him using blade attacks, techniques, and in cases like Hordy and Arlong, simply their teeth.
But still, there are out layers, like Franky hurting Luffy with punches that cannot be explained.
This can be attributed to the story itself. There are bound to be minor inconsistencies in such a massive and detailed story. But these outlying factors can also be explained if we simply consider this as proof that there is a certain level of force that can harm Luffy. Obviously, this would be concerning a pre-gear 5 Luffy.
Our answer
Looking at all of the information we have, and by looking at the attacks Luffy has taken head-on, pre-time skip, we get a clear picture of how his abilities work.
Even his enemies, like Blueno of the CP9, have said that straight attacks have no effect on him, but we have to consider at least that he was not immune. He was at least highly resistant to brute-force attacks.
But with Gear 5, that has changed. In essence, gear 5 changes not only Luffy but his surroundings into rubber as well. This would make any amount of Brute strength and the purely physical nature practically useless against him.
So No, gear 5 Luffy can no longer be harmed or hurt by any form of brute force.
To read more about the subject, check our article « Can Luffy be damaged by Haki? »
