HIGHLIGHTS

Luffy’s consistent victories in battles raise eyebrows among some One Piece fans, questioning plot armor.
Instances like Luffy’s survival against Crocodile and victory over Katakuri highlight potential plot armor.
While plot armor is common, it’s crucial to critique inconsistencies in storytelling despite loving the series.

Since the beginning of One Piece, Luffy has made quite a name for himself as one of the most formidable and legendary pirates to sail the Grand Line since Gol D. Roger himself. Every single battle he has ever gone through since the start of his journey has gone on to make him one of the strongest characters in the history of the franchise, defeating almost every single big-bad he has come across.

However, therein lies the problem for some One Piece fans. An issue that they have with Luffy’s journey is the fact that he somehow always manages to defeat the enemy, which is true for 90% of the battles he has had. While this itself may not be something to complain about, judging by how almost every other piece of fiction does this, the method of winning sometimes feels rushed and out of pocket.

Does Luffy Actually Have Plot Armor?

Those who tend to think that he does usually refer to some of the earlier arcs in the series when the power system and Luffy’s abilities weren’t as fleshed out as they are now. For example, the earliest instance of Luffy having some sort of plot armor can be seen in his fight against Sir Crocodile in the closing moments of the Alabasta arc.

The reasoning here is that the fights against Crocodile showed Luffy only really surviving due to pure luck, which shouldn’t have been the case since it cheapens the story. However, the characters fought 3 times and Crocodile won twice, leaving Luffy for dead. Firstly, it doesn’t make much sense for someone as intelligent and ruthless as Crocodile to resign Luffy to his fate, especially when seeing how meticulous he is about his other plans.

Secondly, the first time Luffy survived was by pure chance as well, since he was stabbed and swallowed by the desert with a huge hole in his chest and, in the second fight, he was saved from death by dehydration because of a little water that he happened to shoot up into the sky earlier. In the masterful and expertly crafted story of One Piece, instances such as this stick out due to how they feel rushed compared to the rest of the story.

The same thing happened at Enies Lobby, where Luffy was left incredibly weakened after his battles but somehow still managed to get up and defeat the villain. After using Gear 2 and Gear 3 multiple times in his fight against Rob Lucci, Luffy was completely spent and was at the mercy of his enemy, which led to Lucci using extremely powerful attacks that straight-up defeated Luffy. However, only because the plot demanded it, Luffy got up and defeated his enemy.

You came without fear. Don’t have regrets, no matter what happens.

Moreover, Luffy’s time at Marineford saw a fair bit of blatant plot armor throughout, especially for him. At the execution platform, he came face-to-face with Fleet Admiral Sengoku, who is one of the most powerful characters in all of One Piece. Although this was reflected in how badly Sengoku beat Luffy, the plot armor was seen to have kicked in when Luffy got up from all that damage, or even when he survived Akainu.

Luffy’s fight against Charlotte Katakurri is yet another massive example of this, where fans saw an extremely one-sided beatdown. For hours, Katakurri destroyed Luffy and there was no reason why he shouldn’t have won. However, Luffy managed to level up in the fight and managed to beat his foe in a way that many thought to be nonsensical.

Why This Doesn’t Take Away From The Story

The term plot armor has come to entail some negative connotations. The fact of the matter remains that almost every single main character in any franchise has some degree of plot armor since they are the central aspect that the plot is based around, so they’re needed to drive it forward. The true issue arises when plot armor is not utilized well enough.

Seeing the scope and size of One Piece, the instances of the usage of plot armor are relatively low. Since the nature of the series is such that a lot of details are revealed later on, the argument about plot armor becomes less valid, especially with regard to Luffy. This is because of his nature as the holder of the Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Nika as well as one of the few users of Conquerer’s Haki on the Grand Line. When looking at things while remembering this, a lot of the ‘luck’ he has had can be attributed to these powers.

I don’t want to conquer anything. I just think the guy with the most freedom in the entire ocean is the Pirate King.

Verdict:

However, this doesn’t excuse the times when his plot armor didn’t make sense, such as some of his previously stated fights. When writing is bad or nonsensical, it should be called out, and as loved as One Piece and Luffy are, Eiichiro Oda is not infallible and can make some decisions that do not pan out right. This doesn’t at all take away from the unparalleled storytelling and world-building that Oda does so well, but it also should tell die-hard fans that as great as this series is, it still isn’t perfect and that a few small blemishes don’t tarnish the rest of it.

One Piece can be streamed on Crunchyroll.