#they're pirates and it's a comedy show too so them hitting each other doesn't mean anything BUT they do put emphasis on how garp treated hi

[beanghostprincess]

A part of Luffy's character I think is kinda overlooked or at least not taken too seriously is his views on violence. I often see people joke on how he was kind to Otama but pretty harsh on Momonosuke, but I think that not many people realise how he is really just doing the same thing that Garp used to do on him.

Its very clear that Luffy uses two types of violences. There is the "friendly" "affectionate" violence, and there is the serious, actually dangerous one. In the first instance is what we often see between him and his crewmates, they exchange beatings and other stuff (mostly from Nami lmao) and while it can be attributed to the slapstick like nature of One Piece's humor, it goes much deeper than that. Garp used his "fist of love" on Luffy all of the time, Luffy was used to this kind of stuff from an early age, and it was normalised to him.

An example of this is that scene in Dressrosa when after that long headed grandpa (forgot his name) explained why he hated Garp and Luffy told him that his reasoning was ridiculus because Luffy was hit way more times but never held a grudge. (Its also true that Luffy does reconise Garp's parenting as being too extreme tho, since in Amazon Lily he espressed not wanting to recall the nights he spent alone in the jungle. But at least when it came to acts of violence directelly from him he was fine with it.)

HOWEVER Luffy also knew actually bad violence from an early age, the one that was meant to kill him. He obviously freaked out when Ace and Sabo wanted to kill him, and of course he was genuenly scared when the Bluejam pirates kidnapped him and Ace. Luffy clearly has a neat distinction in mind when it comes to this type of stuff. And what we see with Momonosuke was an example of the remnants of Garp's tough love and Luffy's genuine and benevolent desire for Momo to be a great man.

I wanted to add some stuff, but I think you explained it pretty well. Honestly, I obviously don't agree with those methods of raising somebody, but due to it being a world of pirates in which they actually have to act with a bit of tough love and violence, I think it's not that bad. I think what makes Garp's "training" and "tough love" bad is the fact that he did it for the wrong reasons. He wanted Luffy to be a marine and tbh most of the times we've seen Garp acting like that around Luffy weren't even necessary for training. I can get behind tough love in a show about pirates, obviously, but not when there are more reasons behind that than just "you need to protect yourself / train" like Garp forcing Luffy to be what he wanted to be, and not letting him follow his dream. Which, you know, I get it because being a marine would be safer, but it was obvious that it was hurting Luffy. And Garp didn't even have the decency to at least take care of the kid himself, he just left him all alone and then had the audacity to keep treating him like that as if he had the right to use tough love on him. Like-- Zeff and Sanji also use tough love but Zeff doesn't leave Sanji alone nor tortures him and stops when it's too much. I think Garp doesn't. Maybe that's just how I perceive it.

But yeah- Luffy's views on violence are really influenced by Garp's way of raising him. Honestly, I think it's pretty normal (once again saying, especially around pirates because they do not have usual relationships and dynamics) in the crew to use violence like that between them. Nami hitting Luffy or, y'know, in general the crew is like that and they use tough love a lot. But it isn't serious?? Like. They're pirates. They fight. They're violent. We need to keep that in mind first. But also, it's not only tough love that they use and that's only occasional and not a thing that happens all the time. But Luffy recognizes that as tough love and that's why he acts like that with Momo. But tbh? Luffy does it, like, insanely better with Momo. Better than Garp for sure. He treats him that way because he recognizes that, even thought Momo is still a kid, he has a responsibility and he will hate himself even more if he doesn't grow up quickly to face it, Luffy helps Momo realize some crucial stuff about him using tough love but also never leaves him on his own and he's always by his side being a brother when he needs it. He's empathetic and a sweetheart to him too, he's just harsh when Momo needs to be stronger and that's the only way Luffy has of telling him. He doesn't treat Otama like that because she doesn't need it. She's just a kid. The only times in which he's harsh around her is when it comes to Ace's death, and he's just being realistic about it because dancing around it will only make it hurt more and he thinks that ripping off the band-aid is better than being careful with it. Because that's how his brain works. Dead people don't come back, and he has been aware of that ever since he was Tama's age, so...

Anyway, the thing with Luffy and violence is that he turns the way Garp raised him and how his crew acts around each other into a way of putting some sense of responsibility/reality into the kids he meets because if they have to grow up fast, better be ready for that with somebody that knows how it feels like.

#luffy my beloved i am not judging how he acted around momo he's a good older brother #they're pirates and it's a comedy show too so them hitting each other doesn't mean anything BUT they do put emphasis on how garp treated hi #because the way garp raised him did affect his way of seeing things and acting #one of those days in which i hate garp i guess #one piece #monkey d. luffy