Keeping promises is generally very important for the main characters of Shonen, but Luffy from A piece actually broke the most important promise he ever made. This is surprising since Luffy is one of the most iconic Shonen protagonists in the manga, leading one of the Big Three Shonen Jump series. However, despite this huge difference, Luffy is still an archetypal protagonist of Shonen in many ways.
Luffy is extremely loyal to his friends, ready to take down any group that threatens them at any cost. He also stands up for the great ideals that many other protagonists fight for, like freedom and justice. He also refuses to kill his enemies, though Luffy’s reasons for doing so are actually quite dark. So while Luffy may be a criminal in the One Piece world, his actions are that of a hero, and wherever he goes, he frees the masses from oppressive rulers. their paintings. However, even he is not perfect, and his biggest failure is deeply related to his broken promises.
Luffy didn’t fulfill Ace’s wish in One Piece
When Luffy discovered that his brother Ace had been captured by the World Government and marked for execution, he rushed to rescue him. He failed in the end, which was a massive mental blow to him and easily One Piece’s biggest death, but he could hear Ace’s last words as he die. Ace asks him to tell the Whitebeard Pirates that he is grateful that they loved him despite all his flaws. Unfortunately, in SBS for chapter 672, Oda revealed that Luffy never relayed Ace’s dying message to his former teammates, thus breaking his promise. This might seem like a bad promise to break, but Oda confirms that it’s really okay if he doesn’t.
In the same SBS, Oda confirmed that the Whitebeard Pirates didn’t need to hear the messages because they fell in love with Ace and knew that he felt the same way about them. Also, Ace’s unspoken wish for Luffy and the other Whitebeard pirates was fulfilled, which is the most important part of that promise. It is all reasonable to assume that Luffy was so grief-stricken at the time that he was barely processing the world around him, and by the time he recovered, the Whitebeard pirates had dispersed to other places. elsewhere in the world. So there’s no good time for him to fulfill that promise.
Of course, while it’s sad that Luffy can’t keep Ace’s pre-death promise, it’s also somewhat refreshing when viewed on a narrative level. Many of Shonen’s other protagonists are always able to keep their most important promises no matter what the odds are against them. Unfortunately, this greatly reduces the tension of the story. Luffy Ace’s failure to fulfill his pre-death wish suggests he could be wrong, which ultimately makes up the overall story and the stakes of Ace. A piece much better.
