Monkey D. Luffy: the King of the Pirates and the Christ
Happy One Piece Day! 27 Years of Saving Lives and Setting People Free.
Today is the 27th anniversary of One Piece, the manga’s release. It’s also the first day of Leo season! As the sun ingresses into his domicile, and as a Leo stellium which includes my sun sign, it’s only right to make some connections between two of my favorite kings: the King of the Pirates, Monkey D. Luffy, and the King of Kings, Jesus Christ today of all days!
Born to be King
Have you ever noticed how determined Luffy is to achieve his dream of being king of the pirates? If you’re a One Piece fan, of course you have. Since he was a little jit fighting and playing pirates with his two older brothers, Luffy has known and focused on his dream. Funny enough, everything about him, how his journey progresses, the help he receives from the most unexpected destiny helpers, and the Venusian light he shines feels like he was born for it. So when his crew mate, Brook, pondered during the Sanji rescue arc if things always worked out for Luffy because he was born under a lucky star, I have to say yes.
But I think so because Luffy’s brain is hardwired to save people without a second thought. He’s always willing, eager even, to sacrifice his life if it means saving from death or defending someone from humiliation by an enemy force. It’s a marvel how quickly he recognizes each person's heart and affirms a stranger’s worthiness to be protected. I always think about how Luffy never hesitates to act on someone’s behalf—to right grave wrongs done against others regardless of the fact he’s rarely ever personally affected. He still fights for others with all his power and might. He gets attached to people in their humanity, kindness, and suffering, and cannot stand to see bad things happening to good, innocent people— the afflictions of the righteous.
That sounds a lot like Jesus’s earthly ministry.
I wonder, how much strength does it take one person to be so selfless as to risk death to win the fight for another’s life? What kind of confidence brings out the martyr willing to sacrifice without recompense? How much conviction must one muster to save the world, one person at a time?
Luffy is strong in mind, body, and spirit, but two of Luffy’s greatest strengths are his emotional appeal and a strong sense of justice; these ADHD and autistic spiritual sensibilities are why he inspired my concept of the Neurodivergent Proletariat. Give him meat and he’ll set your country free. He turns skeptics into believers and gets strangers and adversaries to rally around him for his dreams while realizing their own in the process. That is what a true leader does: turn the tide through hope and loyalty. And if there is one thing Monkey D. Luffy is gifted at, it’s changing people’s hearts. When he deems you and your cause worth it (and it only takes the purity of heart and the corruption of powers for him to do such), he will fight on your behalf like it’s his. And when Luffy fights for you, you know he’s fighting for you.
And as the son of a world-famous revolutionary, I’m not surprised; I’m impressed.
One of my favorite Luffy moments that shows exactly this is in the Dressrosa arc. He and his crew come to cause mayhem and destroy a drug factory on a diverse and picturesque island kingdom called Dressrosa, but they’re just passing through. Their business is not with the people. However, it doesn’t take them long to realize things are not as playfully carefree as they seem. Even though he’d only been in the occupied kingdom for a day, he immediately recognized and acknowledged the corruption of the evil warlord, Doflamingo. Luffy and the Straw Hats begin their separate and collective fights to save the kingdom from tyranny.
But it’s Luffy fighting Doflamingo, the arc’s main villain, and for the people he’s come to know, that makes me love this arc so much. He fights for Rebecca, and she knows it. He’s fighting the Don Quixote family for the citizens of Dressrosa’s freedom, and they know it. The more gears he switches into to defeat evil, the more his loyalty and defense of the entrapped island’s people becomes glaringly evident. Even though they see all pirates as bad, they know this one is good. He wants to be free, so he wants everyone else to be free too. And as Jesus says in John 8: 36, “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”
The Christ Archetype Shared between Jesus and Luffy
But it is what Luffy says to Doflamingo while in Fourth Gear during their final battle that moved me to Christ.
“Mingo! Every time, you just grab whatever you want and strangle it! You can’t have everything! You can’t control everyone, either! Seeing you makes it hard to even breathe! I’m gonna kiss your ass. And everyone here will be free! They’ll be able to breathe again!” -e733, Attack on a Celestial! Luffy’s King Kong Gun of Anger
When I first watched that scene, my imagination took me to the pits of Hell after Jesus died. Scripture says that he spent three days in Sheol. The hymns says He conquered death and the grave. So, my creative mind likes to think whatever battle took place in those three days was one of such great proportions that required a similar speech to the Devil because Luffy also won his fight. (Maybe Oda is far more tapped into the Spirit of the Unconscious than I’m already led to believe.)
But where Luffy yells to get his point across; Jesus speaks calmly.
The savior, as an archetype, is anointed to liberate others from the hypocrisy of evil people in power and the bondage of their captivity. One of my favorite stories about Jesus speaks deeply to His character as Savior. A woman has been caught in the very act of adultery, and instead of dragging out the man committing adultery with her, the religious leaders, acting like a venomous pit of hypocritical snakes, bring her before Jesus to test the integrity of His teachings. But Jesus doesn’t take the bait. Instead, He chooses to protect her by inquiring her accusers of their sins.
“When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.” -John 8:7-8.
When the guilty consciences of all her hypocritical accusers forced them to go away, and it was only the nameless woman and Jesus left, this was the only conversation Jesus had with the woman:
Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
The charge is to start anew, free from the corruption of evil. That was Jesus’s gift to the woman and Luffy’s gift to the kingdom of Dressrosa. The King of the Pirates. The King of the Universe. The crown is heavy but they both wear the burdens of humanity like it’s light.