STRAW HAT CREW
Straw Hat Pirates
The Straw Hat Pirates, also known as the Mugiwara Pirates, Straw Hat Crew or simply the Straw Hats, are an infamous and incredibly powerful rising pirate crew that originated from the East Blue, but have various members from different areas. They are the main focus and protagonists of the manga and anime One Piece, and are led by the main protagonist, Monkey D. Luffy.
The "Straw Hats" are named after Luffy's signature hat that was given to him by Red-Haired Shanks, and are first referred to as the Straw Hat Pirates by Smoker in Arabasta.[19] The crew sailed on the Going Merry, their first official Straw Hat ship, up until the Water 7 Arc. During the Post-Enies Lobby Arc, Franky and Iceburg built them a new ship which was named the Thousand Sunny by Iceburg even though the members fought over different names. The Straw Hats currently consist of ten members whose combined bounties equal 
3,161,000,100.[8][5]
Following the events on the Sabaody Archipelago, all nine members were separated from one another by Bartholomew Kuma a then Warlord of the Sea and undercover agent of the Revolutionary Army. For two years, they trained in relatively isolated locations, becoming stronger for the sake of helping each other.[20] They then reunited and have since been quickly growing into an active and massive force in the New World, defeating the most crucial man in the Underworld and removing him from power,[21][22] having an enormous and mighty pirate fleet form to serve under them[23] and adding former Warlord of the Sea Jinbe to their crew.[5] They have even managed to take one of the Emperor Big Mom's living weapons, Zeus, into their crew, as Nami's partner.[24][25] Two of their best fighters have also gained more power; Zoro gained a legendary sword that can increases the power of his Haki[26] and Sanji has become a genetically augmented super soldier.
Jolly Roger
The Jolly Roger emblem is a cartoon-like depiction of a traditional skull and crossbones with the skull wearing Luffy's trademark straw hat. Due to Luffy's morbid drawing skills, Usopp was the one who drew the flag. In addition to being on their flag, the jolly roger has also been shown on the sails of the Going Merry and the Thousand Sunny.
Crew Members
Main CrewAs a result of Luffy's choice in who joins the crew, the Straw Hats are notable for being one of the most varied, if not bizarre, pirate crews in the world.
Their ranks have members vastly different from one another. These include Tony Tony Chopper, a shape-shifting reindeer that can be mistaken for something else depending on his form, such as a gorilla when full human or a tanuki when in his usual mid-form; Franky, a cyborg who has a very eccentric behavior and wears almost nothing except shirts and swim briefs; and Brook, a lively undead, perverted skeletal musician.
If their former lives and activities are considered, it only adds to the crew's collective strangeness: the captain who has a family consisting of infamous and dangerous people; their combatant, Roronoa Zoro was a former pirate hunter; their cook, Sanji is a fugitive prince from a family of underworld army for hire; their sniper, Usopp, is a compulsive liar whose father, Yasopp, is an infamous member of an Emperor of the Sea's crew; and their navigator, Nami is a burglar who specialized in stealing from pirates. Their archaeologist, Nico Robin, formerly worked for a criminal organization run by Crocodile, then one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, is a skilled assassin and the sole survivor of Ohara. The helmsman, Jinbe, is a Fish-Man who was not only a former Warlord of the Sea himself, and captain of the Sun Pirates, but also a former prisoner of the Great Prison Impel Down, which is where he met Luffy.
Nefertari Vivi is the crown princess of Arabasta, who along with her pet duck Karoo ended up traveling with the Straw Hat Pirates for most of the Arabasta Saga. She was asked to continue sailing with the crew after the war in Arabasta, but ultimately, she decided to remain in Arabasta in order to fulfill her royal duties.
The Straw Hats have four Devil Fruit users: Luffy, Chopper, Robin, and Brook. The majority of them are also fairly young, with three members in their twenties, three still being teenagers, and four members being thirty or older, although two of the four oldest members are just as childish as the others. Unlike most crews, they consider their ships to be crew members.
Sub-Groups
During their adventures, the crew members have often split into smaller groups to achieve multiple targets or tasks. Mostly, the group are divided by the common tasks of island exploring (often led by Luffy), ship guarding (often led by Zoro who wishes to nap or by Usopp who is afraid to disembark), and supply gathering (led by Sanji or Nami for food and finance). When encountering enemies, the crew would often fight individually against their rivals, but they sometimes fight in small groups like Usopp and Chopper in Arabasta or during the Davy Back fight.
Sub-Groups
During their adventures, the crew members have often split into smaller groups to achieve multiple targets or tasks. Mostly, the group are divided by the common tasks of island exploring (often led by Luffy), ship guarding (often led by Zoro who wishes to nap or by Usopp who is afraid to disembark), and supply gathering (led by Sanji or Nami for food and finance). When encountering enemies, the crew would often fight individually against their rivals, but they sometimes fight in small groups like Usopp and Chopper in Arabasta or during the Davy Back fight.They first started splitting into teams during the Skypiea Arc. After realizing that the lost city of Gold was on Upper Yard, they split the crew into the Escape Team (脱出組 Dasshutsu Gumi?) consisting of Sanji, Nami and Usopp, as well as their patient Gan Fall, and the Search Team (探索組 Tansaku Chīmu?, Funimation: Exploration Team) which was made up of Luffy, Zoro, Chopper and Robin.[39] The Exploration Team was assigned to find the city and steal the treasure before making it back to the ship, however they ended up getting split up after running into the giant python Nola. The Escape Team were meant to sail the ship to their rendezvous point at the coast, though Sanji and Usopp ended up getting ambushed by Enel, who stopped by to talk to Gan Fall. The ship eventually made it to the coast thanks to Conis and Pagaya, but Nami (along with Aisa who was picked up by the two) was chased away from the ship by Nola.
The following events are Non-Canon and therefore not considered part of the Canon story.
In the filler G-8 Arc, after the Straw Hats realized that their gold was taken after accidentally landing in Navarone Island, the crew split up into teams. Nami, who had used the waver to escape the ship earlier, was sent with Sanji to get it back as part of the Waver Retrieval Team (ウエイバー回収班 Ueibā Kaishū Han?). The rest of the crew (except for Chopper who was assigned to watch the ship) was sent to find the gold, as the Gold Retrieval Team (黄金奪還班 Ōgon Dakkan Han?) though this ended in failure, as it wasn't located where they thought it would be.[40]
Concludes non-canon section.
During the Dressrosa Arc, the crew temporarily split in half, with one group staying to finish business on Dressrosa and the other heading on to Zou in order to protect Caesar Clown and Kozuki Momonosuke.[41] The group heading to Zou (Sanji, Nami, Chopper, and Brook) was referred to as the Curly Hat Crew (ぐるわらの一味 Guruwara no Ichimi?, Funimation: Twirly Hat Pirates), named after Sanji, the de facto leader of the group.[42] This same group forms the core of the Sanji Retrieval Team (サンジ奪還チーム Sanji Dakkan Chīmu?) during the Whole Cake Island Arc, but with some personnel changes: Luffy has resumed leadership, Sanji was at Whole Cake Island, and the minks Pedro and Carrot accompanied them in their quest to "retrieve Sanji".[43] During their mission, they were joined by Jinbe who would later officially join the Straw Hats.[44]
Grand Fleet
- Further information: Straw Hat Grand Fleet
At the end of the Dressrosa Arc, the crew becomes the leader of an alliance called the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, which involves seven groups who sided with Luffy in the conflict between himself and Doflamingo, becoming subordinate to the Straw Hats, while maintaining their status as individual crews with their own free will.
Cavendish, Bartolomeo, Sai, Ideo, Leo, Hajrudin, and Orlumbus asked to become Luffy's subordinates by offering him a cup of sake. Luffy refused but said they would still be bonded by their fight against Doflamingo and they would help each other out at any time. However, the captains decided to drink the sake anyway, pledging to come to Luffy's aid whenever he needed them, while Luffy was not obligated to do the same. The Straw Hat Grand Fleet, consisting of 5640 people, was then formed, and a party ensued as their fleet departed from Dressrosa.
The following events are Non-Canon and therefore not considered part of the Canon story.
Non-Canon Members
In the anime adaptation of the Long Ring Long Land Arc, the Straw Hats acquired all but three members of the Foxy Pirates, a total of 497 men. In the process, they confiscated the Sexy Foxy. However, they were all immediately dismissed and left to pursue their old captain.[45]
In the game, Legend of the Rainbow Island, Dias, a young boy, and Atoli, the Princess of Silver Arrow Island, join the crew. However, they leave the crew at the end of the game.
Concludes non-canon section.
Territories
While the Straw Hat Pirates have not shown any interests in taking control of territories like the other big name crews, they have managed to become friends and allies with the leaders of several island nations.
- Fish-Man Island's ruling royal family has shown interest in wanting to declare their island a territory of the Straw Hat Pirates and after news of their fight against Big Mom was made public, they decided to declare that their island was under the protection of the Straw Hat Pirates.[46]
Crew Strength
| — Trafalgar Law remarking on the crew's aptitude to overcome any challenge.[47] |
Despite having a small number of members, the Straw Hats are an extremely powerful crew with amazing potential, as stated by Kuzan when he first met them, eventually growing to the point of being capable of challenging Warlord of the Sea and Emperor-class crews like Baroque Works, the Thriller Bark Pirates, and the Donquixote Pirates, along with the Beasts Pirates and Big Mom Pirates.
Their captain has continuously defeated people who are renowned for their incredible strength such as Crocodile,[48] Gecko Moria[49] and Donquixote Doflamingo of the Seven Warlords of the Sea,[50] the highly feared tyrant Enel from Skypiea,[51] the infamous Rob Lucci of the CP9,[52] and two of the Big Mom Pirates' mighty Sweet Commanders Charlotte Cracker[53] and Charlotte Katakuri.[54] The crew itself has done things which most would think impossible and completely insane like defeating an entire organization (such as Baroque Works,[19] CP9,[55] and the Donquixote Pirates[56]) punching a World Noble, breaking into and out of the judicial island, Enies Lobby, and crashing the tea party of an Emperor as well as escaping her territory. In fact, after the incident that occurred at Enies Lobby, the World Government has labeled them as a very dangerous crew since their actions endangered the balance of the Three Great Powers to the point that the Seven Warlords of the Sea were disbanded.
Fighting Abilities
All of them have at least one talent at which they are virtually perfect at and each member is, more or less, a formidable if not downright fearsome fighter in their own right. While all of them have amazing strength in one way or another, four of them have astonishingly inhuman strength: Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji—who have been collectively referred to as the "Monster Trio"[29][30]—and Jinbe, a Fish-Man and former Warlord of the Sea.[57][5]
Zoro and Brook are highly skilled swordsmen, with the former being able to wield three swords at once and has been trained by the legendary Dracule Mihawk,[58] while the latter has extraordinary speed[59][60] and is astonishingly difficult to harm due to his undead state.[61][62]
Sanji and Jinbe are proficient martial artists, Nami is an accomplished and agile polearm user and Usopp has exceptional marksmanship and is capable of turning a slingshot into a formidable and terrifying weapon.
Nico Robin specializes in submission maneuvers and thanks to her friends in the Revolutionary Army she has learned some palm fighting techniques.
Franky is an expert boxer, has an impressive & multi-faceted collection of weaponry with enough skill and precision to use each and everyone of them.
Devil Fruits
Four of all ten crew members have Devil Fruit abilities, each being very effective in battle, and are very creative on how to use them, making them both versatile and formidable.
- The crew's captain and founder, Monkey D. Luffy ate the Gomu Gomu no Mi, which granted his body the properties of rubber. This allows him to stretch his body to long proportions as well as make him immune to blunt strikes and eletricity. Through intense training, he has built a fighting style that fully utilizes his rubbery body, and later on demonstrated techniques that further increased his power, such as speeding up his own bloodflow to increase his speed,[63] or enlarging his bones and muscles for more powerful strikes.[64] After the timeskip, he learned how to combine his Haki with his rubber abilities, making his attacks inconceivably fast and an astonishingly destructive force to be reckon with.[65]
- The crew's doctor, Tony Tony Chopper, is a reindeer that ate the Hito Hito no Mi, which granted him the strength and intelligence of a human being. He can switch between his full-reindeer form to his full-human form to his hybrid form, which has become his default appearance. With his doctoring skills that he learned from Kureha, Chopper developed the Rumble Ball a drug that granted him several more forms to use for three minutes, making him even more effective in battle.[66] But if he ate more than one should within an hour, Chopper will lose control of his transformation powers, making him shift into forms he did not want, and should he eat a third in that time, he will become a powerful monster with little to no intellect, making him a danger to both friend and foe alike.[67] After the timeskip, he was capable of shifting into any form he needed without the use for a Rumble Ball, and should he need it, he can eat the drug to assume his monster form, which he has gotten control of, but at the cost of not being able to move later on.
- The crew's acheologist, Nico Robin, ate the Hana Hana no Mi, allowing her to sprout limbs wherever she desired. In combat, she has utilized this power in various suplex moves by sprouting her arms on an enemy and then contorting them into submission.[68] She could also create eyes and ears in order to spy on other people. After the timeskip, she has increased her control over her powers to being able to create full clones of herself, complete with clothes.[69] During her time with the Revolutionary Army Sabo and Koala taught her new fighting techniques she now uses in conjunction with her powers.[70]
- The crew's musician, Brook, ate the Yomi Yomi no Mi, which allowed him to revive himself after dying the first time. This allowed him to survive even though all of his meat and tissue rotted away, making him a near immortal skeleton, though this did not keep him from doing things that organic people could do, such as eating, crying and increasing his strength. After the timeskip, Brook demostrated the ability to leave his body through his soul form,[71] can reattach his body parts,[62] and summon the "chills of the Underworld",[72] making him more effective in a fight.
Scientific Capabilities
Some members of the Straw Hat crew also use science as an asset.
- Nami wields a staff that can control the weather[73][74][75][76] which through certain circumstances became a sentient weapon with some shapeshifting properties. [77]
- Usopp is a very skilled engineer, able to combine many types of technologies into a single weapon for himself and his crew members.[78][79]
- Sanji briefly wore a raid suit created by the technologically advanced Germa 66 that gave him the power of invisibility [80][81] until it was destroyed,[82] but before it's destruction it caused the genetic modifications that have laid dormant within Sanji since birth to finally awaken; granting him an enhanced body that is nearly invulnerable and has an exhilarated healing rate[83]. After mastering his new gifts to some level, he became so fast that it’s as if he can become invisible without the suit and his physical strength has increased significantly, allowing him to unleash even more devastating attacks one after the other. By combining all these augmentations to his body and his Busoshoku Haki have enabled Sanji to evolve his kicking techniques and develop a more powerful kicking style that would have been impossible before, Ifrit Jambe.[84]
- Chopper has extensive medical knowledge thanks to his apprenticeship in Drum Island and his studies in Torino Kingdom, he researched for 5 years to produce a drug that enhances his Devil Fruit power,[85] and he is capable of creating new cures for diseases.[86][87]
- Franky was not only taught by the master shipwright Tom, but is also a brilliant inventor with a cybernetic body[88][89] that has a vast array of weapons and incredible might that allow him to fight opponents with inhuman physical prowess on equal ground.[90][91][92] Sometimes Franky pilots an enormous Mech-Suit made of a super alloy.[93]
Haki
So far, five of the ten current members are shown to have awakened their Haki. Luffy and Zoro were shown to use all three types; Sanji and Jinbe can wield Busoshoku Haki and Kenbunshoku Haki;[94][95][96][97] whilst Usopp has manifested Kenbunshoku Haki.[98]
In addition, while traveling the New World, Luffy learned the advanced application of each type: He learned to see slightly into the future while fighting Charlotte Katakuri,[99] to hurt his target from within after training with Hyogoro,[100] and coat his attacks to strike without making contact during his fight with Kaidou.[101]
In Wano Country, Zoro traded Shusui for Enma, a Meito that draws more Busoshoku Haki from the user, allowing him to use more Haki than before, to the point he is risking his life using it,[102] however, he learned to control it within days.[103]
Adaptability
| — Part of Zoro's speech to Nami and Chopper about Usopp[citation needed] |
Each member, in the beginning, has some reasonably high fighting abilities. Still, as they progress, each member has had to become stronger due to each opponent they encounter either being significantly stronger than the last or having required them to develop new skills or techniques to combat new opponents.
Two of the Straw Hats' greatest attributes are their charisma and unpredictability. With their amiable personalities, they manage to make all the right friends in all the right places, which eventually accomplish their goals (though it was never their original intention). These friends and allies have proven to be useful depending on the location or objective, and thus the Straw Hats seem to have no regrets fighting for their sakes given the circumstances, and vice versa. Due to these factors, along with the Straw Hats' reputation and impressive bounties, many a layperson believes that the crew's ranks of being made up of hundreds, if not thousands of members. They also tend to act upon their emotions, throwing standard logic out of order. By using the freedom granted by their status as pirates, they tend to act erratically, either helping people or picking a fight, simply because it is something they wish to do. These attributes have destroyed the carefully laid plans of criminal masterminds with large, influential organizations, which took them years to cultivate. The most notable are those of the three former Warlords of the Sea (Crocodile, Gecko Moria, and Donquixote Doflamingo), the former 'God' of Skypiea, Enel, as well as two of the Four Emperors (Big Mom and Kaidou).
Good Fortune
Overall, their most unique strength is the fact that the Straw Hat crew, on many occasions, are fortunate, being able to achieve many things that would be considered impossible feats. The examples include various wild escapes from Marine captures and ambushes, confronting, defeating, and escaping Seven Warlords of the Sea and World Government led organizations with no casualties. They also manage to reach Skypiea via the Knock Up Stream without losing anybody (which earned them Gan Fall's respect and eventually, his aid) while simultaneously escaping the Blackbeard Pirates. Lastly, escaping Big Mom's Tea Party due to a bomb going off (which was unknowingly given by the Straw Hat captain on Fishmen Island), and even successfully escaping her territory despite the efforts of her fleet. Some of these lucky accomplishments are even considered miraculous in hindsight.
Teamwork
| — Part of Sanji's speech to Usopp[104] |
While each member can hold their own by themselves, what makes the Straw Hats truly strong is their teamwork, which has become more important as the series has progressed. When one of them is incapable of doing a task, another can help out in their place instead. The adaptable trait helps the crew very much in facing odds that may be too much for them if they work separately.
When at sea, the Straw Hats tend to be relaxed, playing with each other, training, reading, or whatever else they may do to occupy themselves. They can maintain this attitude even in the unstable waters of Paradise, New World, or even in their descent down to (and ascent from) Fish-Man Island. However, whenever a crisis pops up, like storms, tidal waves, large sea life or falling ships, the crew instantly snaps out of their relaxed state and swing into action. They all seem to know their place and will do what they should in the circumstances. Most of the time, though, they tend to sail at a casual pace without rushing
Comments
Post a Comment