Straw Hat Pirates

The **Straw Hat Pirates** are a pirate crew that originated from the East Blue, but have various members from different areas. They are the main focus and protagonists of the *One Piece* series, and are led by the main protagonist, Monkey D. Luffy. The "Straw Hats" are named after Luffy's signature hat that was given to him by Red-Haired Shanks, and are first referred to as the Straw Hat Pirates by Smoker in Alabasta. The crew sailed on the Going Merry, their first official Straw Hat ship, up until the Water 7 Arc. After the Enies Lobby Arc, they obtain a new ship called the Thousand Sunny. The Straw Hats currently consist of twelve members whose combined bounties equal 1,970,000,100 Berries.

Following the events on the Sabaody Archipelago, all ten members were separated from one another. For two years, they trained in relatively isolated locations, becoming stronger for the sake of helping each other. They then reunited and, along with the addition of two new members they recruited after Punk Hazard, have since become an active and massive force in the New World alongside Fairy Tail.

## Jolly Roger

The crew's Jolly Roger is a cartoonlike depiction of a traditional skull and cross-bone with the skull wearing Luffy's trademark straw hat. In addition to being on their flag, the jolly roger has also been shown on the sails of the Going Merry and the Thousand Sunny.

## Crew Members

As a result of Luffy's choice in who joins the crew, the Straw Hats are notable for being one of the most varied, if not bizarre, pirate crews in the *One Piece* world.

Monkey D. LuffyRoronoa ZoroNamiUsoppSanjiTony Tony ChopperNico RobinFrankyBlizzardBrookMonkey D. AikaKumi
## Crew Strength

Despite having a small number of members, the Straw Hats are a very powerful crew. Their captain has continuously defeated people who are renowned for their incredible strength such as Crocodile, Gecko Moria and Donquixote Doflamingo of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, the highly feared tyrant Eneru from Skypiea, and the infamous Rob Lucci of the CP9. The crew itself has done things which most would think impossible and completely insane like defeating an entire organization (such as Baroque Works, CP9 and the Donquixote Pirates), punching a World Noble and breaking in and out of the judicial island, Enies Lobby. In fact, after the incident that occurred at Enies Lobby, the World Government has labeled them as a very dangerous crew since their actions endangered the balance of the Three Great Powers.

All of them have at least one talent at which they are virtually perfect at and each member is, more or less, a formidable if not downright fearsome fighter in their own right. While all of them have amazing strength in one way or another, four of them, the captain, the swordsman, the chef and the guard dog, have such astonishingly inhuman strength that the rest of the crew have dubbed them the "Monster Quartet".

So far, seven of the twelve current members are shown to have awakened their Haki. Luffy and Blizzard are shown to use all three types; Zoro, Sanji and Aika have wielded two types; whilst Nami learned Armaments Haki during the timeskip and Usopp had recently manifested Observation Haki in Dressrosa when he sniped Sugar.

Each member in the beginning has some fairly high fighting abilities, but as they progress, each member has had to become stronger due to each opponent they encounter either being significantly stronger than the last or having required them to develop new skills or techniques to combat new opponents.

Two of the Straw Hats greatest attributes are their charisma and unpredictability. With their extremely friendly personalities, they manage to make all the right friends in all the right places, which eventually accomplishes their goals (though it was never their original intention). These friends and allies have proven to be useful depending on the location or objective, and thus the Straw Hats seem to have no regrets fighting for their sakes given the circumstances, and vice versa. Due to this, and the Straw Hats reputation and impressive bounties, there are many laymen who believe the crew is made up of hundreds, if not thousands of members. They also tend to act upon their emotions, throwing normal logic out of order. By using the freedom granted by their status as pirates, they tend to act erratically, either helping people, or picking a fight, simply because it is something they wish to do. Both these attributes have been shown to destroy the carefully laid plans of criminal masterminds with large influential organizations, which took them years to cultivate, like those of the three former Warlords (Crocodile, Gekko Moriah and Donquixote Doflamingo), as well as the former 'God' of Skypiea, Eneru.

Overall, their most unique strength is the fact that the Straw Hat crew, on many occasions, are extremely lucky, being able to achieve many things that would be considered impossible feats. This includes various wild escapes from Marine captures and ambushes; confronting, defeating and escaping Shichibukai and World Government led organizations with no casualties; managing to reach Skypiea via the Knock-Up Stream without losing anybody while simultaneously escaping the Blackbeard Pirates, and escaping the flagship of one of the Four Emperors while badly damaging it in the process. In fact, some of these lucky accomplishments are considered miraculous in hindsight.

While each member can hold their own by themselves, what makes the Straw Hats truly strong is their teamwork, which has become more important as the series has progressed. When one of them is incapable of doing a task, another can help out in their place instead. This helps the crew very much in facing odds that may be too much for them if they work separately.

## Bounties

Though they are pirates in name, the Straw Hat Pirates do not engage in the stereotypical activities of pirates. They are all kindhearted for the most part, and only fight in self-defense, or in vengeance for their friends. In fact, before the Enies Lobby arc, when CP9 initiated the conflict by blackmailing Nico Robin and detaining her, the Straw Hats mostly fought only other pirates (with the exception of Luffy and Zoro, who took down the dreaded Axe Hand Morgan and several of his unwilling subordinates, and Sanji, who beat up Fullbody and possibly some other unfortunate Marines prior to becoming an official Straw Hat) - it seems they were considered dangerous to the World Government and given bounties simply because they called themselves pirates.

They are considered villains by the World Government and the general public who aren't familiar with them. While this is a hassle for them, like most other pirates, the majority of the Straw Hats see their bounties as a form of achievement, a sign of how much fame and recognition their actions have produced. Nami notes that, as pirates, they are used to taking blame and being portrayed as the villains. Their current bounties total up to 1,970,000,100 Berries.

## Relationships Amongst the Crew

Each member of the crew values their friendships very highly. Despite their usual comic annoyance with each other from time to time, they very much love being together as well as being a member of the crew. So much so, that they tend to forget their worries and burdens, as shown with Nami, Robin, Franky, Blizzard, Brook, Aika and Kumi.

One of the major themes of the series is how committed they are to each other, to the point where they are willing to give up what is important to them, such as their lives, and even their dreams, for one of their crew members. If one single member is hurt by an outside force (physically or emotionally), the other members will become enraged and take drastic action to avenge their friends. Previously, they have gone as far as to take on an entire organization, make enemies with the World Government, and even attack the World Nobles.

## Dreams

Each member of the Straw Hats has a dream they want to achieve. These dreams are their reasons for joining Luffy's crew, and essentially the driving force behind their lives. Each crew member's dream was inspired by tragedies (often deaths) in their childhoods that involved at least one person they idolized and cared for deeply.

Some, like Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Chopper, Franky, Blizzard, Aika and Kumi are fulfilling their dreams by accumulating knowledge and/or achieving a certain task while sailing the Grand Line. Others, like Luffy, Sanji, Robin and Brook are searching for a person, place or thing that can only be found on the Grand Line.

Whatever the reason, each of the Straw Hat's dreams involve traveling the Grand Line, and each Straw Hat member refuses to die before achieving their dreams. However, their determination does not extend to sacrificing or abandoning their comrades for the fulfillment of their dreams.