Monkey D. Luffy/Relationships

Family

Monkey D. Dragon

The main members of Luffy's family on a newspaper.

Luffy had discovered that Dragon the Revolutionary, the most wanted man in the world, is his father.^[16] The two have yet to talk to each other. In fact, their only meeting was when Dragon rescued Luffy from being captured by Smoker in Loguetown, and the only thing Luffy said to him was "who's there?" while being pinned headfirst to the ground by Smoker. It is highly probable that Dragon cares for his son's life because he saved him in Loguetown^[17] and he always looked towards East Blue where his family lived. Dragon seems to expect great things from Luffy, much like his grandfather. However, unlike Garp, Dragon seems to be in favor of Luffy's decision to lead his own crew as a pirate, although he believes they will meet someday. Luffy was unaware of who Dragon was before he was told by Garp and did not understand what the revolutionaries are capable of doing to the world when told about it by Ivankov. So far Luffy has not mentioned anything about how he feels toward Dragon and his ideals, but he is fine with people knowing that he is Dragon's son.

At the end of the Zou Arc, Luffy reads a newspaper where he is able to see his father's face clearly for the first time in his life. He is comically surprised to see the latter but casually remarks that Dragon doesn't look like him before admitting to being more worried about Sabo than his father when hearing that the Blackbeard Pirates attacked the Revolutionary Army.

ortgas D. Ace

Ace speaking his last words in Luffy's arms.

"Fire-Fist" Ace and Luffy were immensely close to each other. They grew up together and fought every day, with Ace always winning even though Luffy had eaten a Devil Fruit. Luffy displayed no grudge against Ace for always winning, but instead boasted that he could win now (though he appears to still acknowledge that Ace is still the stronger of the two, he proclaimed during the war in Marineford that he will eventually surpass Ace one day). Despite the battles they fought, Ace was protective of Luffy from Garp's abusive nature even going as so far to insult him to stop abusing Luffy. As for Luffy, this protective streak is reciprocated, leading to him embarking on a one-man rescue mission to extract Ace from captivity in the one place regarded as the most secure prison of the world, Impel Down, after hearing of Ace's capture and subsequent imprisonment there. However, while they are extremely loving brothers to each other, Luffy always made Ace angry and worried by doing reckless things. As such, Ace readily believed Boa Hancockwhen she told him that Luffy had broken into the prison. Even near his death, Ace grew angry with Luffy's reckless infiltration of Impel Down], while the endangered Luffy was worried about Ace's safety so much he had even snuck in the world's greatest prison, lost 10 years of his life, and even risked his arms to attack Magellan.

Luffy's devotion and love for his brother were shown to extremes when he not only took on every Marine stationed at Marineford, but the three Admirals themselves, showing that nothing would stand between him and saving his brother, not even three of the most powerful Marines around, and even shouting out loud he would save Ace even if it killed him. While Ace regarded Luffy as his brother and even acted like it, it was revealed moments before his execution that Ace was a child of Gol D. Roger, and that he chose his mother, Portgas D. Rouge's surname, which makes them brothers through adoption. A flashback shows Luffy and Ace first meeting as young children, which means that Luffy was aware of this fact. When this happened, Luffy already had his signature straw hat and the scar under his left eye, which means it was after Shanks gave his straw hat to Luffy and left the Foosha Village. He had also gained his Devil Fruit powers by then, which happened when he was 7 years old. It is revealed in a flashback that Luffy was sent to live with Ace and his guardian Dadan after Shanks left, since Garp thought that living in Foosha Village had somehow made Luffy "too soft". Ace was quite hostile to Luffy at first, even spitting at him before they were introduced to each other. Luffy, however, constantly tried to make Ace his friend, following him everywhere and trying to make up.

Eventually, thanks to the "Sabo Incident" Ace mentioned before he died, Ace grew fond of Luffy and they officially became brothers. Sometime after meeting Ace he managed to find out that Ace was the son of Gol D. Roger. Though many were heartbroken when Ace died, none took it harder than Luffy; Luffy was so devastated that he suffered a mental collapse and became unresponsive to his surroundings, and would have been killed by Akainu if others had not defended him. Jinbe speculated that this comatose phase was a way for Luffy to defend his mind from the impact of the loss, and worried about how Luffy would act when he woke up. Indeed, when Luffy did wake up, all he could do was scream in agony and cry and wish it was all a nightmare, and that he would wake up soon. The loss of his brother also had a crucial impact on Luffy, leading him to think that he was not worthy of becoming the Pirate King for the first time in his life. He only came out of his depression after Jinbe made him realize that Ace had entrusted Luffy's safety to his crew. After the two year timeskip, Luffy has fully gotten over his grief as he was able to talk about Ace's death freely, although his hatred for the man who killed his brother apparently still remains. Nonetheless, Luffy accepts Ace's fate, but also finds comfort in the fact that Ace truly believed he could become the Pirate King. ^[19] Donquixote Doflamingo would later take possession of Ace's Mera Mera no Mi, an item which the Shichibukai was certain would draw Luffy to him, adding that Luffy would never allow anyone to gain the powers that once belonged to his beloved brother. Indeed, Luffy showed surprise when he heard of the fruit being handed out as a prize in a tournament and, not wanting it to go to just anyone, entered the tournament to win it. He was, however, fine if one of his crew members ate it, as he offered Franky the fruit. He has shown that he doesn't like it when Ace's death is made fun of as when Don Chinjao said that it was a wise move of the Marines to 'cleanse that demonic bloodline two years ago'. This angered Luffy to the point that he struck Chinjao with a Gomu Gomu no Thor Elephant Gun.

Monkey D. Garp

A typical moment of Garp punching Luffy.

Though the two of them get along fine, Luffy is utterly terrified of his grandfather Garp.^[20]This is due to the extreme training he was put through in his younger years in his bid to make Luffy a marine, as well as Garp's tendency to punch Luffy to discipline him. Garp had high expectations for Luffy, but to Garp's dismay, Luffy did not share his grandfather's plans for his future.^[21] However, Garp respects Luffy as a great person, even if he is a pirate. He often brags about Luffy to his superior Sengoku, laughing whenever Luffy does something audacious and is prone to saying "That's my grandson" much to Sengoku's exasperation. When Sengoku was talking with Garp and Kuma, Garp said that Luffy is not the type of person to brag about defeating someone, arguing that Kuma did not need to kill Luffy to keep Moria's defeat a secret.^[22] When Luffy entered the Battle of Marineford, Garp recognized him and looked shocked and horrified at the sight of his grandson entering the fearsome battle.^[23] Later, as the battle rages on, Garp merely looks resigned as his grandson furiously makes his way to the execution platform. When Luffy came close to the platform, Garp stands in his way in the name of his Marine duties. However, in the end, Garp chose family over his duties as he allowed Luffy to hit him and reach the execution platform to save Ace. He also tried to attack Admiral Akainu when Ace was killed by the admiral and Luffy was on the verge of being killed as well, but was stopped by Sengoku. As Garp has resigned from the Marines, he and Luffy are no longer enemies by law.

The mountain bandit, Curly Dadan, is Luffy and Ace's foster mother. She had been blackmailed by Garp into taking care of them, and did not seem pleased with having Luffy as her surrogate son, due to being already occupied with the troublesome Ace. Luffy, in turn, did not seem to like the Dadan Family anymore than they liked him, due to his run-in with the bandit Higuma. However, as time passed, they came to care for each other, with Dadan coming in to save Luffy from Bluejam, and Luffy worrying for Dadan's safety. Luffy states that he hates bandits but he likes her.

Sabo

Sabo was never an actual member of Luffy's family, but he, Luffy, and Ace shared a drink making them official brothers and establishing the deep bond between the three. They seem to be reasonably close, though not as deep as Ace and Luffy. This is however most likely because they did not spend as much time together with Sabo being taken away and they never saw each other again for 12 whole years. He still had a tendency to defend or save him when they were children hunting together. Even though when Sabo first met him he wanted to kill him for discovering their plans. According to Luffy, when they were young, Sabo was a nicer brother to him than Ace. After Sabo and Ace fought together against Porchemy to save Luffy's life they became friends. At this point they were seen after different events of stealing and hunting. Sabo was seen being taken back by his father, who recently revealed that he was the son of a Goa Kingdom Noble. They show a relationship of trust and love since he gave up and returned with his father so that Luffy and Ace would be safe from the hired pirate Bluejam. When Sabo's apparent death was reported by Dogra, Luffy cried all night until he fell asleep, showing the genuine love he had for his elder brother. Luffy only snapped out of this sorrowful moment when Ace told him to live proudly, as Sabo wanted. In a way, Sabo is one of the earliest contributors to the molding of Luffy's personality as a free spirit. Sabo's supposed death was also one of the main motivations for Luffy to become stronger.

When Sabo and Luffy were reunited after twelve whole years, Luffy did not recognize him at first and even challenged him after hearing he won't let him have Ace's Devil Fruit power. However, upon hearing the story of the day they became brothers, he reacted in shock as he realized the latter's identity. Luffy quickly embraced Sabo and began joyfully crying for a great deal of time after finding out his remaining brother was alive and well. Sabo thanked Luffy for surviving the Battle of Marineford and asked for permission to eat the Mera Mera no Mi which Luffy unhesitatingly allowed. When Jesus Burgess attempted to kill Luffy, Sabo quickly intercepted him and Luffy was happy to see his brother and even more so after seeing that Sabo inherited Ace's power. When Sabo was preparing to leave Dressrosa, he left Luffy a Vivre Card and entrusted Luffy's safety to the Straw Hats similar to what Ace once did in the past.^[24]

During the Zou Arc, Luffy expressed worry for Sabo's safety after learning the Revolutionary Army fought against the Blackbeard Pirates only calming down when Pedro mention the possibility of Sabo being okay due to there being no mention of him being killed or captured.^[25]

Mother and Grandmother

Neither Luffy's mother nor grandmother was named, but the supplement issue Grand Line Times left a "?" in place of the wives of Dragon and Garp.