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Luffy asks about Loki during the feast afterwards. This is notable bc he's not the type to do that, unless someone really catches his attention.

It's so out of character that it's what immediately clocks Zoro onto Luffy's behavior, and how he finds out about the deal he made with Loki.

Luffy doesn't care about other people's opinions as a general rule, and will come to conclusions at his own pace. So the fact that he's curious enough to ask is pretty telling.

Especially since he's gotten nothing but negative responses in return.

And again, part of it is definitely tied to Loki knowing where Shanks is, but Luffy wouldn't act like this if he thought there was genuine danger involved. He and Usopp have been excited to visit Elbaph for years now - and it's also his friend's country. He wouldn't endanger it on a selfish whim like that.

But Luffy is an incredible judge of character, and he senses something in Loki that no one else does. So he decides to follow his gut.

(and even if Loki is dangerous, Luffy is confident that he can take responsibility. He's an Emperor now, and he has enough experience to know what battles he can handle.)

This decision leads to a rare, genuine disagreement between him and Zoro.

They're usually on the same page about most things, and Zoro has a lot of faith in Luffy - enough to place Luffy's dream above his own. He'll follow Luffy into hell if asked, and outsiders are often confused about why someone as strong willed as Zoro would willingly follow someone else's command.

But at this point, all Zoro's heard about Loki are his terrible deeds and reputation.

Zoro is concerned that freeing Loki could actually endanger Elbaph, and pushes back on Luffy's decision every moment he can, even as they're looking for the keys to Loki's cuffs. To him, Luffy is blindly trusting a known scumbag because he's too obsessed with Shanks to notice that he's being manipulated.

But Luffy refuses to back down on the issue, even with Zoro - one of the crewmates he trusts the most to keep him in line as a captain - telling him that he shouldn't.

Because Luffy wouldn't push back this hard if it was something as simple as that.

In addition to all this, something interesting to note is that Luffy calls Loki by name.

In fact, every time Luffy refers to Loki, in any context, during the entire arc, it's always by name - never a silly nickname or whatever else.

Generally, the only people Luffy cares to remember the names of are his crewmates, with a few exceptions here and there.

Considering that he just met Loki, has zero prior history with him, and one of their first interactions was negative at best with Loki insulting Shanks - it's curious that Luffy took the time to commit his name to memory so quickly.

Later on, when they find Loki unconscious and mortally wounded, Luffy is deeply concerned.

He has to literally beg the others to treat him, and he's the only one actually worried about Loki himself, and not just the implications of what Loki being injured means for Elbaph's safety.

It's to the point that he tries to nurse the man back to health himself, with mixed results. (The intent is certainly there, but his bedside manner is... Lacking)

He's even trying to feed Loki meat!

It's a little reminiscent of when Luffy was worried about Nami back in early Drum, or when he tried to "treat" an unconscious Zoro, by giving him alcohol, after their encounter with Kuma on Thriller Bark.

It shows the audience how much Luffy cares.

Luffy is now invested. Loki has become important to him.

In fact, the only person bringing up the deal anymore is Zoro, who's still convinced this is all a lie. Luffy has all but dropped the matter because Loki's health came first.

At this point, it's clear that this has nothing to do with their deal. Luffy's just trying to help an injured man that he's seemingly, and very inexplicably, suddenly grown fond of.

Something to note is that Loki is the first person on Elbaph that Luffy really meets.

He's only interacted with the man for 8 chapters. And only a few of those were directly between Loki and Luffy himself.

But he spends the entire arc up until this point looking for a way to free Loki, and witnesses, first hand, how all of Elbaph hates him. Time and again, people reiterate over and over how Loki is a terrible person, how he cursed the land with his very existence, how he killed his own father for selfish reasons, how he's a scumbag and awful etc, etc, all these things. It's endless.

Even his own crewmate believes that Luffy is making a huge mistake for trusting the man - and not just a small one, but one that could legitimately endanger the island.

But from Luffy's perspective, Loki has done nothing to earn his distrust.

He's an interesting guy who also happens to know Shanks, and who was mortally wounded right after they talked. He tried to bluff his way to freedom so he could lick his wounds in private. And no one rushed to his aid when he needed immediate medical attention - for wounds that, they later learn, he gained bc he refused an offer to join the Celestial Dragon's ranks, even after watching his animal companions die and getting tortured himself.

It's plain as day, Loki isn't wanted in Elbaph.

He's alone.

(Let's put a pin in that.)

But Luffy likes him. He can tell there's more to Loki than meets the eye.

And so, after barely knowing the man for maybe less than an hour, and with no hesitation, he decides to ask Loki to join his crew.

Sanji and Zoro even share a rare moment of complete agreement with each other regarding this decision - their movements perfectly in sync - both trying to convince Luffy to reconsider the offer.

It's reminiscent of when Luffy asked Brook to join, and the rest of the crew protested.

It's easy to forget, but no one wanted Brook on the crew until they learned more about him and his connection to Laboon.

No one but Luffy.

Now, to quickly flip perspective here.

From Loki's point of view, this weird little human showed up out of nowhere, befriended his animal friends, attacked him, made a deal with him, and spent maybe 20 minutes tops talking with him before fucking off to wherever.

Loki is then approached by Gunko and Shamrock, and left hanging on by a thread after he refuses their offer to join the Holy Knights.

The next time Loki sees him, Luffy's freaking out about his injuries, begging the others to release him, and trying to (badly) care for him. Then when things can't get any worse, this weird little human suddenly asks Loki to join his crew.

Loki has no goddamn idea how much effort Luffy went through to try and get his cuffs off. He doesn't know that Luffy actively worked against his friend's better judgement just so he could set Loki free, based solely on his gut feelings on the guy rather than listening to public opinion and rumors.

He doesn't actually understand that Luffy, this weird little human that he spent maybe only a handful of minutes talking with earlier (most of which consisted of Loki trying to intimidate and threaten him), genuinely likes him, enough to offer him a place on his crew.

Because as far as Loki's concerned, apart from Shaggy (who he's never actually met face to face), the last people who cared about him died 14 and 15 years ago, with Harald and Ida respectively.

(Not to mention, Straw Hat Luffy didn't start pirating until a couple years ago. Loki has been chained there for 6. Loki doesn't know how big of a deal Luffy is, tho it's unlikely he'd care either way.)

It's absolutely no surprise that Loki immediately refuses - he hasn't actually gotten to know Luffy yet.

I think it's important to note that, when the time comes, Luffy actually listens to Loki's backstory.

Most of the time, when someone tries to explain their history or backstories, Luffy doesn't care. He will straight up just walk away, ignore them, or fall asleep - even when he's trying to pay attention. He just can't bring himself to care most of the time.

He shows none of that struggle with Loki here.

Luffy is 100% locked in to what Loki is saying. He wants to know what happened. He's actively invested enough to pay attention and focus with no issues.

(Part of me wonders if it's because Loki is known for killing his own father.

Ace died in Luffy's arms - maybe he sensed a similar pain in Loki. He doesn't look at all surprised to learn that Loki did it at Harald's request, and that Loki hated every moment of it.)

Loki's story is told, he's declared innocent, and Hajruden finally removes his cuffs.

After Loki is freed, Luffy is ecstatic.

He sticks to Loki like glue, cheers him on, and together they save the parents and children from falling to their deaths.

It doesn't matter that Loki warns everyone that he's a destroyer, Luffy is enjoying every moment with the guy. He's bragging about how big Loki is to his crew, laughing together with him and Ragnir, and they even got scolded together by Nami.

This is the first time Loki has gotten to really spend time with Luffy. And it's probably the most fun he's had with another person in his entire life.

Luffy is likely the only other person besides his parents and Shaggy to actually want Loki around. Luffy treats him like a person, instead of a problem or a curse, or something to hate and avoid.

Luffy is probably a well needed shock to his system.

And I wonder if Luffy, on some level, realized this too.

Luffy views loneliness as more painful than anything else in the world.

And I think it's interesting that, of the characters invited to the crew, the ones Luffy asks within moments of meeting them are the two who spent years feeling nothing but deep, agonizing loneliness.

Enough to want to kill themselves. Enough to even try.

Maybe Luffy instinctively recognized that aching pain in Loki, and that's why he insists on being in his corner when no one else will. It might not even be a conscious decision on Luffy's end - at least, not initially.

But the more he learns about Loki and how all of Elbaph hates him, the more apparent it becomes just how alone Loki is.

And that's just something that Luffy can't bring himself to ignore.

Being alone is worse than being hurt, after all.

Flipping back to Loki's perspective -

When Luffy withers up and asks for food, Loki tells him to go to the school bc he doesn't have any, implying that this isn't his problem.

But Loki takes him to the school anyway, and gets him a meal. And when it's too frozen to eat properly, he burns it up with his lighting to make it easier.

And when Luffy talks about getting food to his crewmates, Loki scolds him about taking care of himself first. For someone like Loki who's spent so much time alone, it's a line that almost feels overly familiar.

Loki even leaves to fight Imu, giving Luffy more time to eat and get his energy back.

It's clear that Loki likes Luffy now. He's going out of his way to take care of Luffy and help him out. And he even seems worried about him now.

Besides Shaggy, Luffy might be the first real friend (that isn't some kind of creature or animal) that he's ever had.

As of chapter 1182, that's where their relationship is currently at.

I'm really curious to see where it's going to go from here on out, because it developed so quickly over such a short amount of time. Luffy liked Loki pretty much from the get go, even when he had very little reason to - between Loki threatening him, insulting Shanks, and the hatred he gets from all of Elbaph.

I don't know if Loki is actually going to join the crew, but Luffy liked him enough to ask when they barely had more than a conversation together. So whether or not he does, I feel like Loki is going to stay relevant for a long while after Elbaph - between his extended backstory, his connections to other characters, and the importance of his fruit being on par with Luffy's, and Imu's fixation on him now - they've built him up too much not to.