The One Piece manga entered its Final Saga in 2022 and is still nowhere near its finale. The story is famously long, which is one of its best qualities. It allows Luffy and the others to travel the world, fight more powerful opponents, and help new allies they meet along the way. Additionally, it’s also because the story is so lengthy that it’s able to explore deep and complex themes at a much grander scale. One of the most famous themes of the story that everyone talks about is freedom, which the main character embodies perfectly. Even before his Devil Fruit awakening and becoming a Warrior of Liberation, Luffy had always yearned for freedom.
The sole reason he began his journey is so he can be the freest man in the world, and he knows he can’t achieve that without becoming the Pirate King. However, there’s also one crucial theme One Piece has been exploring since the beginning of the story that isn’t much talked about despite its relevance. Not only that, but it’s also one of the themes that the protagonist embodies, which became much more obvious after his Devil Fruit awakening.
Turning Imagination into Reality Is A Core Theme in One Piece
Image Courtesy of Toei Animation
In Chapter 218, after leaving Alabasta, the Straw Hat Pirates witness a giant ship falling from the sky. Along the sky falling down, the panel reads a quote from physicist, Willy Karen. The quote reads, “Anything man can imagine is a possibility in reality.” The story has yet to reveal more about the fictional physicist, but his words hold true to this day. The concept of making something a reality just by wanting it to happen isn’t new to the story. Pappagu is a starfish who believed he could talk, so he did.
There’s no other explanation as to why a starfish is able to communicate and live as a human other than the fact that it was all his imagination manifesting into reality. Even so, no other character embodies this theme better than Luffy, especially after his Gear 5 awakening. Shepherd Ju Peter, one of the Five Elders, said Nika is someone who fights exactly as he imagines. The story has featured time and again how eccentric Luffy’s most powerful form is. It’s whimsical and comedic rather than edgy, which suits the protagonist better than anything.
His powers allow him to turn his body and his surroundings into rubber. Yet, time and again, Luffy keeps doing things that defy logic. He can make glasses out of his hair, create paint out of thin air, and literally do anything he wants, even if it’s beyond the realm of possibility. This doesn’t have anything to do with his powers; instead, it’s because he has never felt freer in his Gear 5 form. He can only do these things in that form because that freedom allows him to be unstoppable, which is exactly how One Piece ties two of its core themes through the protagonist.
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