For more than twenty years now, Eiichiro Oda’s magnum opus, One Piece, has captured the hearts of millions with its fantastic plot, captivating characters, and a world like no other ever conceived. As the Straw Hat crew sails towards everything that the world has to offer, One Piece fans have always been curious about various aspects of the story and ask : Has Luffy killed anyone?
In this blog post, we will embark on a journey to explore the actions of Monkey D Luffy, the spirited and fearless captain of the Straw Hat Pirates. With more than two decades of storytelling, arcs, conflicts, great battles between Luffy and other characters, and his personality and beliefs, we’ll delve into the hints and possibilities scattered throughout the manga that may suggest if Luffy has killed anyone.
Luffy’s personality and thoughts on killing
Throughout the series, fans have never seen Luffy ever go out of his way to be more violent than he needed to be. He is an emotional individual, yet he has never tried to actively harm anyone more than needed.
Luffy himself is a fun-loving and happy-go-lucky character, and even when he is extremely angry or blood lust, he only thinks of defeating or taking down his enemies and not of killing them.
He has never expressed his belief in killing someone, and since his moral compass is incredibly complex, we may never be able to understand it. However, Oda has himself explained that Luffy Beloved killing someone is not the way to beat them.
Oda’s statement
The writer of the series, Eichiro Oda, has stated that Luffy believes killing someone is not the best way to defeat them.
Luffy believes in a clash of ideologies and of dreams, which is why whenever he is fighting someone, his only goal is to break their will and not kill them. Luffy wants to prove he is right in every confrontation, and he cannot do that if his opponent is dead.
This suggests that what Luffy does is far more horrific on a psychological level. He seeks to completely break the will of his opponents, and he does so by actively beating them. From this statement, we can assume that Oda never meant for Luffy to kill anyone, at least not anyone that matters.
What needs to be understood is that just because Luffy does not want or does not try to actively kill someone, it does not mean that he has not killed anyone.
Collateral damage
Though it is stated canonically that Luffy has never killed anyone, evidence suggests otherwise. Luffy has been involved in a number of high-level conflicts with the world government, the Marines, and other pirate crews.
On more than one occasion, we have seen him sink entire battleships; this means that it is only logical to assume that there has been at least some collateral damage.
Even if Luffy did not want to kill them, it would be foolish to assume that he has never been responsible for the deaths of at least some fodder Marines.
Has Luffy killed anyone At Impel down and Marineford ?
At Impel, down while trying to escape, we saw Luffy actively pushing guards into boiling water, and he was being more erratic than usual.
It is perfectly logical that in his desperation to save Ace, Luffy may have been responsible for the deaths of some guards at Impel Down who were just doing their kids.
The same goes for Marineford. The paramount war was insane, and the death, too, was logically through the roof. And Luffy was involved in this war. Whether he liked it or not, Luffy may have, in fact, killed at least a few officers on his way to ace.
Has Luffy killed anyone At Enies Lobby ?
At Enies Lobby, Luffy, along with the whole crew, was blood lusted, and they had to get through an army of marines, which they did. This may very well mean that he had to kill a few cannon folder marines to get to Robin.
Has Luffy killed anyone Whole Cake Island and Wano ?
Luffy had to fight through wave after wave of enemies at Whole cake island. He single-handedly beat an army of thousands of soldiers. It is just too right or even smart to assume that all those soldiers managed to make it out of that alive.
He fought through an army of beast pirates on Onigashima, and it’s almost certain at least someone died.
Final Verdict: Has Luffy killed anyone?
As far as the canon is concerned, Luffy has not, in fact, killed anyone ever. But it just doesn’t add up that an emperor with a three billion bounty got there without catching a few bodies.
So, we have reached the conclusion that, though Luffy has never willingly killed anyone, or even by extension killed anyone of note, he has been responsible for the deaths of unnamed fodder marines and pirates.
