Monkey D. Luffy is the protagonist of the long-running One Piece manga and his journey sees him set out to sea in search of the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger's treasure, the One Piece. Luffy is often considered to be dull-witted, which while true in some cases, doesn't always apply to his character. Since the beginning of the story, Luffy is shown to have a keen understanding of people.
Furthermore, his journey as a pirate sees him face off against some of the strongest characters in the story, and to overcome some of them, Luffy has had to tap into his fighting genius to prove that he's smarter than people think.
10 When He Figured Out Captain Kuro's Fighting Style Within A Matter Of Minutes
Luffy has always been quite intelligent when it comes to combat, and his fight against Kuro was the very first hint at that ability of his. With Kuro being a user of the Nuki Ashi, it was nearly impossible for a regular human to avoid getting hit. However, after observing him a few times, Luffy picked up his attack pattern.
Consequently, he managed to counter Kuro's ability quite easily and defeated him without much trouble.
9 When He Allowed Zoro To Fight His Own Fight Against Dracule Mihawk
Although Luffy doesn't let it on often, he's always been emotionally mature and has a great understanding of the situation around him. This was displayed at Baratie, where despite Zoro getting beaten by Mihawk, Luffy didn't allow anyone to intervene in his fight.
Although Johnny and Yosaku tried to interfere, Luffy successfully stopped them because he realized it was Zoro's fight to fight. Impressed with Luffy, Mihawk gained respect for him and praised this act.
8 When He Met Bellamy In Mock Town & Chose Not To Fight Him
Luffy and his crew sailed to Jaya's Mock Town in an attempt to find out information about the way to Skypiea. Surprisingly, the existence of the island was laughed off there and Luffy was attacked by Bellamy who didn't believe in pirate dreams and the adventure that they bring about.
Realizing that Bellamy wasn't worth fighting because of his way of thinking, Luffy chose to hold back and, in doing so, mirrored what Shanks did with Higuma in Romance Dawn.
7 When He Figured Out The Shichibukai Crocodile's Weakness In One Minute
Luffy and the Shichibukai, Sir Crocodile fought each other during the Alabasta arc of One Piece and their first clash came outside Rainbase in the middle of the desert. With Crocodile not taking Luffy seriously, he set a timer of one minute and decided to finish him off in that time.
Although he lost, Luffy ended up figuring out his weakness in that one minute, once again showing how smart he is when it comes to combat.
6 When He Observed The CP-9 & Learned Soru Within One Day In Enies Lobby
Luffy clashed against the CP-9 agents during the Water 7 arc of One Piece and while both he and Zoro got defeated in the fight quite easily, Luffy managed to pick up their Soru technique after seeing it just once.
In his fight against Blueno, Luffy mentioned how he noticed that they move their feet much faster than normal people, and thanks to his Devil Fruit's clever usage, he created Gear Second.
5 When He Created Gear Third To Deal Heavy Damage To His Enemies
Some of the biggest assets of Luffy in his fights are his Gears. Invented by him during the Enies Lobby arc, Luffy debuted Gear Second to showcase his excessive speed against Blueno, and later, he came up with Gear Third to blow away his enemies with his excessive strength.
Gear Third sees Luffy make clever usage of his Devil Fruit and come up with fighting techniques capable of blowing away the strongest of enemies.
4 When He Covered Boa Sandersonia's Back To Hide The Slave Tattoo
Boa Sandersonia and Boa Marigold fought against Luffy during the Amazon Lily arc of One Piece and being Haki users, they were able to overpower him in his base form. As soon as Luffy utilized Gear Second, however, they could no longer keep track of him and ended up losing.
In an accident, Boa Sandersonia's slave tattoo was made visible and Luffy used his body to prevent the people of the country from seeing it, once again displaying a great level of maturity outside combat.
3 When He Developed The Various Forms Of Gear Fourth In Ruskaina During The Time-Skip
Luffy trained under Rayleigh for a year and a half at Ruskaina and developed another Gear to help him overpower the tough enemies of the New World. Gear Fourth: Bounceman debuted against Doflamingo and managed to completely overwhelm him in combat.
Tankman was used to defeat Cracker, while Snakeman was used to overcome Charlotte Katakuri, the strongest of the Three Sweet Commanders of Big Mom.
2 When He Fought Katakuri & Figured Out Future Sight In Less Than A Day
Luffy and Katakuri clashed against each other in the Mirror World and engaged in an incredible battle that lasted for over twelve hours. Thanks to Katakuri's Observation Haki, he was able to see the future and thus evade everything that Luffy threw his way.
Luffy managed to learn how to see the future within those twelve hours and by the end of the arc, he defeated Katakuri, yet again showing how much of a genius he is in battle.
1 When He Mastered Advanced Ryou In Less Than 2 Weeks During The Wano Country Arc
The concept of Ryou was introduced during the Wano Country arc of One Piece. Essentially, Ryou is what Haki is to the rest of the One Piece world. The main difference between the two is the ability to flow and attack from a distance with minimal waste of energy output.
Luffy learned this power in Udon but surprisingly, he even manages to advance this power further and learn internal destruction Haki, which allows him to hurt even Kaido.
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