Luffy has changed and grown throughout his adventure in Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece, he’s no longer the same pirate he was at the start of his journey.

For 27 years and counting, author Eiichiro Oda has entertained shonen fans with his manga One Piece, and the series has come along way since its debut decades ago. The worldbuilding is vast, the themes are deeper, and most of all, protagonist Monkey D. Luffy has undergone some incredible changes since Episode/Chapter 1 of One Piece. He’s still a rubbery, freedom-loving rogue, but otherwise, Luffy is hardly the same young man whom fans met in the 1990s.

On the inside and outside alike, Luffy has undergone some remarkable changes, all of them for the better. When fans met him at the launch of One Piece, they saw a rubbery, hat-wearing himbo who was almost like Goku on the high seas, and over the years, Luffy greatly expanded on that idea. He’s not just a stretchy goofball with a mean punch — Luffy is now a shonen icon with incredible powers and strong symbolism, as the Final Saga shows.

Since his start, Luffy has made a name for himself and become one of the strongest pirates in the New World, but this doesn’t make him invincible.

10.Luffy Has a Found Family Crew of His Own

Many Powerful People Joined the Straw Hats

For a long time now, the One Piece series had a strong found family theme, a popular theme in anime series in recent years. At first, Luffy didn’t have many friends, but when he set sail at age 17, he started to build up a crew of his own. At first, the crew bickered and annoyed each other, but over time, they built strong ties as a real found family.

One by one, Luffy recruited powerful and trustworthy people to his Straw Hat crew, from Zoro and Nami to Franky and Brook and even Jimbei, a former Warlord. As of the Final Saga, Luffy’s crew is bigger and closer than ever as a true found family, and there’s hope that even more One Piece heroes will join too, such as Yamato, Carrot, and Princess Nefeltari Vivi.

9.Luffy Has a Wonderful Ship, the Thousand Sunny

The Thousand Sunny Has Always Been Luffy’s

Before Luffy takes his final stand, he must outdo One Piece powerhouses like Shanks and the villainous Blackbeard.

To become a true pirate like his personal idol Shanks, Luffy needed a ship of his own, and he started off modestly in that department. At first, Luffy barely survived the mean seas with a rowboat, and even with just Koby on board, the ship didn’t have much room to spare. All that changed in the Syrup Village arc, when Luffy obtained the Going Merry, and later, he replaced it with the Thousand Sunny.

By the Final Saga, the mighty Thousand Sunny is still Luffy’s ship, and he will probably keep it until the story’s end. Romance Dawn-era Luffy would be astonished to see his future self sailing aboard the high-tech, ultra-tough Thousand Sunny, a floating home that has plenty of space for all Straw Hats and their various guests. It’s a ship worthy not just of the Grand Line, but also the New World.

8.Luffy Can Now Use Haki

Luffy Also Has Access to Two Combat Systems

At first, One Piece focused mainly on the Devil Fruit combat system to add some supernatural flair, with fruits like the Sand-Sand Fruit and Magma-Magma Fruit ranking among the strongest before the anime’s time skip. Then, during his two years alone, Luffy learned from Silvers Rayleigh how to use Haki, a secondary combat system.

Since then, Haki has become a prominent part of One Piece‘s battles, an equalizer that allows non-Devil Fruit users to stand up to fruits of any kind, even the feared Logia-types. Luffy learned Haki well, and continued to develop it until he mastered all three types. Now, as of the Final Saga, Luffy is on par with any Haki expert, and he needs that power to take on the Warlords and Emperors.

7.Luffy Has an Enormous Bounty

Luffy is Now in The Same League as Shanks

When One Piece began, Luffy had no bounty, because he was beneath the notice of the World Government at the time. Later in the East Blue Saga, though, Luffy learned about his bounty, and he felt proud to be worth a multi-million berry bounty. Nami was worried, but Luffy saw it as an accomplishment.

Over time, Luffy’s bounty continued to climb thanks to his daring exploits, from defeating some Warlords of the Sea to declaring war at Enies Lobby and much more. Now that Luffy is one of the Four Emperors, his bounty has soared into the billions, putting him in the same league as legends like Shanks and Gol D. Roger.

6.Luffy Invented and Started Using Combat Gears

Luffy’s Gears Push Him to Higher Levels

Luffy is known as the upbeat hero of One Piece’s shonen adventure, but there have been plenty of moments where he gets in touch with a darker side.

For a time, Luffy relied on rubber-based martial arts to fight his enemies, using moves like Gum-Gum Pistol and Battle-Axe to clobber the likes of Don Krieg, Arlong, and even Sir Crocodile. By the Water 7 saga, though, simple punches and kicks weren’t enough, so Luffy got to work developing his own combat system, which he named Gears.

Luffy’s various Gears push his body to the next level, granting him a boost in strength and speed at the cost of exhausting and straining his body. He used Gears 2 and 3 at Enies Lobby to fight CP9’s strongest members, then unveiled the incredible Gear 4 at Dressrosa and kept expanding upon it at Whole Cake Island, giving him a chance against Charlotte Cracker and Charlotte Katakuri.

5.Luffy is a Prominent Enemy of the World Government

Luffy Declared War on the World Government

Luffy’s increasing hostility to the powerful World Government coincided with his ever-higher bounty. At first, Luffy had no bounty because the World Govenment and Navy simply didn’t know who he was, aside from Luffy’s grandfather, Monkey D. Garp. Luffy needed that anonymity when he launched his adventure in the Romance Dawn era, but all that changed by the Water 7 saga.

Already, Luffy had earned the ire of the World Government and Navy, but Luffy pushed it even further when he openly declared war on the World Government while rescuing Nico Robin at Enies Lobby. The World Government won’t forget or forgive Luffy for symbolically attacking their flag, so as of the Final Saga, the Navy is still 100% hostile to Luffy.

4.Luffy Has Learned Some Humility

Growth is Part of Luffy’s Journey

Luffy has an ESTP personality, making him a hands-on, energetic, and whimsical person who doesn’t do a lot of introspection. In fact, he doesn’t even have any internal dialogue. That limited Luffy’s self-awareness as a pirate warrior, and that meant he got too caught up in his daring adventures to notice his arrogance. Luffy may have been an idealistic hero with a dream, but he never stopped to think that there are some things even he can’t do.

Luffy felt like he could do anything when One Piece started, and acted accordingly as an ESTP himbo on the high seas. Then, Luffy failed to save his foster brother Ace at the Marineford battle, and he struggled with his grief and failure until Jimbei talked him out of it. Since then, Luffy has been a little humber about himself, without losing any of his courage and confidence.

3.Luffy Has Become a Symbol of Hope as Joy Boy

Luffy Cares About The Freedom and Well-Being of Others

One Piece’s Monkey D. Luffy may be a trouble-making loudmouth most of the time, but not every misfortune he comes across is his own doing.

Compared to shonen heroes like Izuku Midoriya and Tanjiro Kamado, Luffy can be surprisingly self-centered about his goals and motives, since savoring his own freedom is his top priority. Still, Luffy isn’t a totally selfish antihero — he cares about the well-being and freedom of others. Most of all, he can’t stand seeing tyrants like Enel, Doflamingo, Orochi, and Kaido oppressing the innocent masses.

Luffy has saved many islands from destruction or tyranny, and in the process, he has become a symbol of hope and freedom, similar to Deku being the symbol of peace in My Hero Academia. More recently, Luffy made it official when he became the embodiment of Joy Boy, the legendary liberator who will free all people from their oppression.

2.Luffy Has Awakened Gear 5

Luffy is Now Over-powered With a Mythical Zoan Power

Luffy worked hard to invent and perfect Gears 2, 3, and 4, but the next Gear was different. In the Wano saga, Luffy faced off against the Emperor Kaido, and not even Gear 4 was enough to defeat that mighty pirate captain. All seemed lost until Luffy underwent shonen’s greatest transformation: Gear 5.

Gear 5 was a game-changer in more than one way. It didn’t just help Luffy defeat Kaido and become Joy Boy — it also changed the apparent nature of Luffy’s Devil Fruit. At first, everyone saw it as the Gum-Gum Fruit, a Paramecia type, but it’s actually the Human-Human Fruit, Nika model, a mythical Zoan type. Luffy embodied the rubbery, stretchy savior Nika when he ate that fruit, meaning his rubbery body was just part of the complete picture.

1.Luffy Has an Entire Pirate Armada Backing Him

The Straw Hat Grand Fleet Will Lead The Charge

Most pirate crews operate on their own, but there have been alliances among pirate crews before, such as Kaido and Big Mom joining forces in Wano, and the Straw Hats fighting alongside the Fire Tank Pirate at Whole Cake Island. At Dressrosa, meanwhile, Luffy gained not just a handful of allies, but an entire pirate armada to sail in his name.

When One Piece started, the tiny Straw Hat Pirates crew sailed independently, but as of the Final Saga, Luffy is the symbolic leader of a united pirate armada, something Romance Dawn-era Luffy never would have imagined. There’s little doubt that Straw Hat Grand Fleet will play a role in the final war as the Final Saga continues.