I’ve just been assuming that Luffy’s mother is dead, but then it occurred to me that the fatality of mothers in flashbacks has been a bit… high?
Sanji’s mother is dead, Robin’s mother is dead, Brook’s mother must look like Brook by now, Nami’s mother probably a casualty of war, Chopper’s mother is a deer, and Zoro strode out of the ocean as a fully formed prepubescent for all we know. Franky may have living mother out there, pirating her little heart out, but she may as well be dead, because she’s not going to be relevant to the story. Same with Jinbe’s mother. So going by the thought that someone must break the mold, Luffy already sticks out by having a living, plot-relevant father, so why not?
If we entertain the idea that Luffy’s mother is still alive, then the question arises why she didn’t raise Luffy. Well, if she’s stuck in a gilded cage, she would have an even better excuse than Dragon.
Speaking of Dragon, how did he become a rebel leader in the first place? His dad was a Marine, who takes every opportunity to encourage the young generation to follow in his footsteps, so it stands to reason that Dragon was a marine, and probably a very highranking one. Probably highranking enough to go to Mariejois and act as bodyguard to world nobles.
So, let’s imagine Luffy’s mother. If we assume that Luffy got his better qualities from her, she’s a troublemaking free spirited princess with more smile than sense, and she fell in love with Dragon. Dragon clearly didn’t mind, well, selfishness is a Monkey Family’s trait.
Since there’s no way they’d be allowed to marry or sensuously hold hands (pretty sure that’s how baby-making works in One Piece), really, they’d have no choice but to elope. Headlines read WORLD NOBLE KIDNAPPED BY BETRAYER and Dragon gets an outrageous bounty.
Then Luffy happens, and Dragon and princess realize, hey maybe we should have thought this one through, second before the World Government arrive at their doorstep. Princess goes to stall them, and Dragon flees with their illicit son.
Garp catches up with Dragon, but once he hears the explanation, he’s all like, I can’t stay mad at you son, is that my grandson, he would make a great marine.
I mean, Garp doesn’t seem all that mad at Dragon for being a rebel, they’re still on speaking terms! Well, how can you stay mad at someone who just fell in love with the wrong girl.
So, Dragon gives his son to Garp for safekeeping, and then he goes on a quest to topple the World Government for his own selfish reasons. He gathers a group of strong people who all hate world nobles, and who’re all like, what happened to that world noble you kidnapped, I hope you tortured her before you killed her, and Dragon thinks, maybe I shouldn’t tell them I’m doing this for her sake. So, he becomes the mysterious leader who works in mysterious ways with mysterious motives.
We’ve seen a couple of world nobles, and they didn’t seem all that special. Well, Donquixote was a demon in human skin, but aside from that. But there has to be some reason they won that war all those years ago. I’m thinking Luffy’s ability to hear the thoughts of overgrown elephants could be from his mother’s side of the family.
*Theory by Birdy
