Everyone is talking about how the World Government didn’t target Luffy for his devil fruit and just capture Luffy.
In my opinion people actually miss some important points here and there:
- One Piece is over 2 decades long but in real time it’s about 2 and half years long and approximately 80% of that time (2 years) is spent during the time skip and the World Government had no idea where Luffy was or even if he was dead or alive and most of the 6 months (approx) were spent in the ocean, not in some specific islands, and without a vivre card it’s impossible to catch someone while traveling through the ocean.
- Gorosei probably didn’t even take notice of Luffy until Alabasta and right after Alabasta it was Skypiea and Gorosei won’t idea of where Luffy would be at that point.
- Right after that the Water 7 Saga happens and the target was not Luffy, it was Robin. The World Government didn’t send Aokiji he just wandered off, and CP 9 ‘s job was to solely capture Robin and get the blue prints of Pluton.
- Right after Enies Lobby, the World Government was in a far bigger mess as Blackbeard captured Ace, so at that point it was a far bigger issue than Luffy anyway and this carries on to the entire pre time skip, and the arc takes place within a day or 2 or even less than that.
- In my opinion this is the most important thing – I don’t think the World Government even knew that Luffy had the Gomu Gomu no Mi till Marineford happened. Just think about it for once – the World Government tried to hide the existence of this particular devil fruit and on surface the Gomu Gomu no Mi is a very average or even below average devil fruit, there isn’t really a specific reason to mention it to Gorosei and I don’t think the Marines who have seen Luffy would even take notice of it as they also don’t know its importance. Smoker was straight up mad at the World Government and the CP-9 left the World Government temporarily, and when Gorosei was trying to hide a devil fruit why would they publish its importance to others by ordering them to go after such an average devil fruit.
- Post timeskip: the first arc takes place in Fishman Island which is 10k metres below sea level, the next arc happens in like couple of hours and Dressrosa happens in one day and Fujitora straight up helped Luffy to escape and I don’t think to explain why it’s impossible to chase Luffy to Zou, Whole Cake Island and Wano.
- For 800 years no one has been able to awaken the Gomu Gomu no Mi, I just think that the Gorosei underestimated Luffy and when something doesn’t happen for such a long long time, people start treating like its a myth or a legend.
Also I have seen a lot of people criticising (which is a very good thing and I’m all in support of criticism) Luffy for having a special devil fruit and I do agree that it does take away quite a lot from Luffy but not as much as some people are making it sound like.
This power-up is not an ass pull, and Luffy is not getting something brand new power like SO6P mode, Awakening is just the natural progression of the devil fruit and Luffy is still a freakin rubber man. Yes the fruit is not what Luffy and we as readers thought it was but it’s still the same thing.
About the point of Luffy being overpowered and having god like powers, uh no, the Gorosei calls it the most ridiculous power only limited by the users creativity, and that has been the case since the very beginning, all of Luffy’s power-ups are very creative and with a devil fruit which seemed very average Luffy was pulling off forms like Gear 4 and taking on characters like Kaido. It is Luffy who is making his devil fruit seemed overpowered, the devil fruit is not making Luffy overpowered.
*by Modit_Pran
