My little word

Hi, thank you for this question! Their interactions are what got me aboard the Luffy x Nami ship. 

To elaborate, the ship is multi-dimensional; it’s funny and comedic, but it also has a lot of depth and therefore, potential. To me, it’s a ship that fits like a puzzle piece. There are no shortages of moments between the two — when Luffy was adamant about running after Nami and refused to leave Cocoyashi despite her forceful attempts to expel them / when Luffy placed his Straw Hat, which he proclaimed his absolute treasure, on a tearful Nami and promised to free her / when Luffy promised Genzo to protect Nami’s happiness / in Drum Island, when he carried her up the mountain, bloodied and injured as he was, to save her / in Skypiea, when they fought Enel and rung the Golden bell together / when she cried for him in Weatheria and went as far as kidnapping a Weatherian in an attempt to get back to Luffy. I could go on.

The point is — their interactions are entertaining, emotional and memorable without being repetitive. They also basically bicker like a married couple.

A navigator is arguably the most critical role on a ship behind the captain. Nami navigated the crew through the treacherous waters of the Grand Line, all the way up to the sky, and down to the seabed. And if Luffy wants to become the Pirate King, he is going to need his reliable navigator by his side right until the end. Luffy himself knows this; when he’s separated from the crew and comes across an obstacle, he understands that without Nami is options are limited (such as when he landed at Amazon Lily and when he was aboard Bartolomeo’s ship).

Besides that, one of the main reasons I adore Luffy and Nami together is because of how intense and wonderful their relationship is… I believe they bring a lot of character development to one another. 

To elaborate, Luffy is Nami’s emotional anchor. The fact that he’s given her his hat to wear and hold during her weakest moments is proof of that. Luffy might be childish, but he is emotionally perceptive. The whole “he gives her his hat on several occasions” is repeated by Lunami shippers a lot, but that’s because it’s symbolic as hell. Everything Luffy has sought after, everything he’s endured, has been for the sake of that hat. Why does he give her the hat? 

to protect it in battle (obviously), but 

to reassure her

Therefore, Nami also has a special connection to the hat. Like, Shanks first gave the hat to Luffy by placing it on an emotional Luffy as a gesture of comfort and reassurance, emphasizing that it was very important to him. Similarly, when he first met, Nami he told her that it was his treasure. To give his ‘treasure’ to her repeatedly is an expression of absolute trust. But not only is it a silent vow of trust, it’s also a form of affection.

Luffy has met many people along the way, who’ve broken down in front of him and requested help like Nami has, but it’s only Nami that’s been given his hat not only to hold but to wear (which was also worn by Shanks, Gol d. Roger and maybe Rouge). So it’s a special hat worn by special people. 

What makes it all more special is the fact that Luffy slept through Nami’s backstory. He doesn’t know just how deep her trauma runs. Despite that, it was him who freed her from that life of slavery. It’s also why she ran and chose to embrace him, in tears, when they reunited in Zou — because he’s her source of comfort. 

On the other end, Nami is so familiar with Luffy’s weaknesses and knows how to address them for his sake. She knows Luffy is reckless and impulsive. She knows he’s easily excitable. She knows he’s absentminded. And she does what she can; she tells him to quit dawdling, she drags him to where they need to go, she reminds him of the situation at hand, of what they need to do. Nami also arguably has the “fist of love” ability that Garp has, which is why her punches hurt him despite him being made out of rubber. Oda sorta confirmed it in SBS 43 when he said her punches hurt his “spirit”. 

Zoro is a character recognized and respected for putting Luffy in his place during critical moments, but Nami does this as well (however she doesn’t get the credit she deserves). For example, when he was stuck in between two buildings at Water 7, it was Nami who ran onto the oncoming Agua Laguna and screamed at Luffy to stop fooling around so they can go and save Robin. It was her that was adamant about going after Sanji, etc. Nami is also usually the one who holds the Vivre Cards and she always repairs Luffy’s hat when it’s damaged. Therefore, Nami is important in Luffy’s life not just as the navigator of the Strawhats; her role in his life goes beyond that.

Another point: Oda is a fan of parallels. He obviously parallels ‘similar’ characters (Rayleigh/Zoro, Gol D. Roger/Luffy)… I think Sabo and Koala are nice parallels for the type of relationship that Luffy and Nami have going on. Koala, like Nami, gets on Sabo’s case whenever he is too reckless. What makes it interesting is that Sabo is Luffy’s brother and Koala and Nami have a lot of parallels in their own right:  

they were both part of fishman island pirate crews

both had the crew’s mark (Nami had the Arlong Pirates’ crest and Koala had the Sun Pirates’ crest)

when Koala joined the Sun Pirates, she was finally allowed to cry, whereas Nami vowed never to cry when she joined the Arlong Pirates

Lastly, the fact that Oda said Nami had a “Queenly nature” to her and confirmed that she is the heroine of the series is a a +1 for Luffy x Nami. 

To conclude, my favourite pairings are ones that develop each of the characters, and Lunami is an example of that, specifically, Luffy and Nami’s distinct personalities yet complete faith in one another. Luffy does what she cannot do, and she does what he cannot do. They coincide: a pirate captain and his navigator; he protects, she leads the way. They have a very interesting relationship, one full of trust and respect; she always calls for luffy first before the rest of the crew, he gives her his hat whenever she’s stressed or sick as a form of reassurance and trust. 

(19/365) The East Blue Trio

Finally I draw one piece fanart again! Hahaha Kinda liking this kind of style for now.. XD

Btw I am opening 3 slots commission with this style for 20 USD/character! So if you are interested please contact me via direct message! Thank you!!

Can we agree that Bellemere’s death is easily the most disturbing character death? Like, I watched this for the first time when I was 14, and it still is incredibly difficult to watch. 

While other peoples deaths were pretty bad and very emotional none of them had the same horrific and heart-wrenching scenes as we watch Belemere refuse to lie and accept death. She’s shot on screen, beat bloody and she never once doubts dying for her children. 

She could have easily pretended they “didn’t exist” but this women had so much honour that she would rather die a painful death than admit that her precious children weren’t hers.

Sure, other people in One Piece died protecting loved one, some of them painful. Ace, Fisher Tiger, Corazon, Queen Otohime. and even more. But none of them had quite the emotional and physical detail, the expressions the situation. Most of them were either life or death. Bellemere could have saved herself.

Ace? Either he died or Luffy did.

Fisher Tiger? Blood loss, and his own choice due to regret.

Corazon? Either him AND Law,or just him.

Otohime? She didn’t see it coming. There was nothing to be done.

I’m not saying these character deaths weren’t totally devastating I still cry about Ace sometimes, but Bellemere makes an unneeded sacrifice to keep her children safe. And it gets her immense amounts of pain, but she has no regret. And she wouldn’t change it if she had the choice.

Headcanon on what happens when the trio get together for a movie date

This little analysis and its NaLu version were supposed to be one single post. But, I decided to divde them for there’s a lot to cover, and doing things this way makes it easier to shorten the content

With that out of the way, let us begin!

As explained in the other analysis, when a story develops a bond organically, “saving the girl” doesn’t mean she owes her savior a relationship. True chemistry doesn’t occur because of favors done. That’s like a basic unspoken rule

Going from “saving the girl” to “impregnating the girl” without proper development, or meaningful and engaging moments, is a proof of lazy writing…

But, rescuing a love interest is an legitimate story-telling tool. So when does “saving the girl” matters for the growth of a potent relationship?

First, we have to address why the shipping mindset doesn’t work here. To keep things brief, what some readers could find compelling, characters in the story may not find truly moving. Some fans enjoy cool, stylish, and tough characters so much that they end up overhyping every action they take or every interaction the have with others. Even when the story doesn’t hype anything at all.

Example, women who would like to have a good-looking man complimenting them 24/7 may find similar actions incredibly thoughtful and meaningful, even if the story doesn’t take such behaviors seriously (to the point of using them as jokes/gags) or characters don’t see those showings as something significant enough to warrant a serious response.

Readers with this kind of casual mentality are prone to overhyping any and all rescue scene that features their favorite characters despite such instances lacking actual weight or true relevance to any sort of real development

So, some conditions for a moment to be relevant are the characters and the story considering those interactions as impactful, and having those moments pay off. Only the author’s works are allowed, as most if not all that comes from directors or writers of the anime adaptation bears no real weight on the source material

Now, such moments have to offer a substantial contribution to the relationship between the characters and leave an impact powerful enough to compel characters in more ways than one

The moment I would like to break down is not one single scene, but rather the context behind the series of events leading us from this…

…to this:

So, Luffy confronts Nami right after she hits her lowest point. At this moment, he stops her from stabbing herself while cursing Arlong, and then Nami does something she hasn’t done in years: she decides to open herself to Luffy and rely on him for help.

To understand the true weight of the moments that followed, we have to put everything into context.

After Arlong murdered her adoptive mother and took over her village, Nami made it her mission to save her home…

…she on her own choose to isolate herself while closing her heart, supressing the feelings and emotions that may get in the way of her goal back then: saving her village from a terrible tyrant

As we analyzed in other posts, becoming fond of Luffy and his crew wasn’t enough for her to break out of that self-imposed isolation.

However, the challange Luffy undertook by himself, and part of the emotional narrative driving this arc, was reaching out to Nami. He knew he won’t leave without her, and he knew she was his companion and navigator no matter what she said.

It was when her oppressor Arlong robbed her of all hope for salvation, when she was finally broken by her own powerlessness and despair.

At this moment Luffy arrives with no knowledge of her current situation nor her backstory with her personal oppresor nor what did Arlong did to leave her in that state… even he admits he doesn’t know what’s going on. But, after Luffy actively sought to break through Nami’s defenses, and Nami herself seeing she had no way out, she took a huge gamble

She finally opened her heart to Luffy, and did what she haven’t done in years: she choose to rely on someone else, to put her faith on Luffy. His response is something we analyzed over and over in this blog:

Answering with a pretty iconic gesture meant to provide the relief and hope she needed, and reaffirming he would help her, Luffy confronted Nami’s oppresor as retaliation for making her suffer, and ended up destroying all the traces of the past that was holding her back both physically and emotionally (after getting a small glimpse of what she went through).

Why is Luffy rescuing Nami relevant to their position as potent relationship?

As noted by some readers, the moment she asked Luffy to save her was the first time she opened her heart to someone else. When she decided to emotionally rely on Luffy…

…she found the courage to stand up to the person who treated her as a slave for many years and threatend her home and family. At the end her faith got rewarded

This experience left an impact on Nami with a power that readers can perceive from time to time if they look closely in the author’s works in other arcs.

Even when giving into fear and despair during Luffy’s first battle against Enel, Nami found the courage to face the big bad after another “pass of the hat.”

A gesture which was reminiscent of the first time Luffy provided her with the emotional comfort that allowed her to confront Arlong, and served a similar purpose here. Luffy reassured Nami that she, as a companion of the future PK, had no reason to be so scared. And that was enough for her to stand up to Enel even during Luffy’s absence.

We know that Nami took this to heart, for she would later declare with confidence, to a high-ranking member of one of the most dangerous pirate crews of the world. how Luffy being the future PK guaranteed their victory

During Water 7, she showed some serious drive and determination to save Robin. But, as soon as she got to Luffy, she poured her heart to Luffy, and freely expressed how she truly felt.

Their experience in Arlong Park, which includes the first time she opened to him, made Luffy her emotional anchor.

Something that we also see in the manga version of the Zou arc. As soon as she hears the rest of the crew arrived, she displays great joy…

…but as soon as she has the chance, she seeks comfort and relief in her captain; she once again openly expresses her anguish to him.

Everything comes back to those moments at Arlong Park. The time when she opened her heart to Luffy. The emotional chemistry that became the foundation of their bond.

So, in the framework of this series, when does “saving the girl” truly matters to any potent relationship? First of all, It has nothing to do with overhyped jokes and gags nor about explicit “romance” nor lovey-dovey stuff based on filler.

It matters when it leaves an impact powerful enough to make a emotional connection grow steadily, and when it spawns dozens of meaningful moments contributing to a consistent bonding. A piece of poetry that writes itself

This post is a bit of a “remake” and a bit of an “update” of my first actual analysis on LuNa.

Thanks to several interviews and official sources, we know Oda played a significant role in the development of the One Piece Film series. In fact, it all started with a movie written by Oda himself: Strong World.

He put a lot of effort into this movie, and many fans both inside and outside Japan admit this movie had its fair share of LuNa moments. But, I’d like to focus on this matter from the perspective of the manga.

Let’s go back to the Arlong Park arc. Luffy always trusted Nami and put his faith in her even people around him were giving him seemingly good reasons not to do so. One remarkable example of this is in chapter 75 when Luffy is informed by Johnny (someone trustworthy) what Nami apparently did to Usopp, and Luffy not only kept holding onto his faith in Nami, he also threatened Johnny for saying such things about her:

Why is this so relevant? Because during the Whiskey Peak Arc he came to doubt Zoro because of the words of a random wounded man…

…and even doubted Robin during Water 7 before Nami told the crew the truth behind Robin’s desertion.

But not even once he doubted Nami After listening to most of Nami’s recorded message, Luffy gets enraged! Why? Luffy never doubted Nami, he always relied on her blindly putting his faith in his navigator, to an extent greater than his trust in Zoro or Robin. So after thinking his navigator doubts him and his capabilities he got really angry…

…notice that he never got angry at Robin and Sanji for doubting his strength or power. As another clever reader put it, he gets angry at Robin “for not worrying about her own safety, not because Robin doesn’t believe” in his strength…

And he got mad at Sanji for not being honest to himself when he tried to justify the choice of abandoning the crew and his dream.

But, from Luffy’s point of view, the one who’s not allowed to doubt his capabilities is Nami. There’s the probability he was expecting all his trust and faith in Nami to get reciprocated.

Turns out Nami does return that feeling. Why can we say that? Remember the movie’s ending: Nami finds out everyone in the crew got her hidden “save me” at the end of her message… everyone but Luffy. Then when Luffy is about to play the recorded proof of Nami’s unwavering faith in him, what does she do? She tries to get rid of the “edvidence” out of embarrassment  So the crew listening to the recording? Not a big deal for Nami. Luffy listening to the recording? She feels the need to destroy the edvidence.

We know these moments were completely intentional because Oda stated he wrote Strong World as “hero saves the heroine” story. Since Luffy is the hero (One Piece is pretty much about his journey), it makes sense the author would want to focus on how the hero’s relationship with the heroine (Nami) has a remarkable effect on him, and vice versa.

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