Luffy’s Memory Issues Are One Of My Favourite Parts To His Character. Apologies For The Personal Anecdote,

luffy’s memory issues are one of my favourite parts to his character. apologies for the personal anecdote, i promise it’s relevant to the analysis, but i have memory issues too. and while i’ll never truly be able to articulate the experience, it’s a scary thing to not remember. people know who i was in the past better than i do, and i live each moment understanding that the present is all i have in guarantee.

i’ll never know the exact reason behind this, but i know at least some stems from what i have unconsciously done to soothe myself from past pains and loneliness. some part of me thinks that luffy has done that too.

luffy’s childhood was horrific. while not morbid and unimaginable like law or robin’s for example. and it wasn’t framed by specific moments of catastrophic tragedy like franky or chopper’s either. instead, it was continuously difficult in an everyday way.

from as young as we have seen luffy, garp has either been absent or cruel; his one family member. he lived in a jungle at age ten, thrown into the fire all but literally by his grandfather. it is inhumane and unjustifiable from garp. he was raised by mountain bandits, and yes, mountain bandits who did their best and were better, constant figures in luffy’s life, more than anyone who had inherent responsibility towards him; mountain bandits nonetheless.

dadan & co never asked to be guardians, and never quite learned to orientate their behaviours to be so. luffy was in less than ideal conditions, treated in less than ideal ways at times, and was never truly, gently cared for other than brief, fleeting moments with makino and shanks.

his brothers, while they grew to lean on and love each other, were initially so against even the idea of him. sometimes isolation is bearable until it is obvious. and luffy, who must’ve been so alone, was now also being pushed away. his one haven, ace, someone near his age in the exact same situation as himself, wanted nothing to do with him. and that jungle must’ve felt a lot bigger despite his situation not having changed.

luffy’s life has been a battle of constant, small problems. he has larger traumas like shanks losing his arm and losing sabo, and that all adds. if luffy sat and dwelled in his past memories, what would he find? not countless searing horrors but a day to day existence that was synonymous with tinging unhappiness.

it’s not far fetched to theorise that luffy’s unending clamber to simply live resulted in a memory filled with gaps, and a memory that will never adhere to names that well, or remember what happened that week. losing ace no doubt didn’t help, in fact it may have resigned luffy’s memory to its fate. a life of loneliness and constant struggle, united with an incomprehensible trauma.

it means a lot to me, and i see a lot of myself in him, as he forgets things which are important to him; as sombre as that is. like marco’s name, who he only remembered to thank and couldn’t remember anything more. it aches to not know, the fear of not remembering loved ones, losing what little i have. i wonder if luffy fears losing his memories of ace? i wonder if he curses never being able to forget the sound ace made as he fell to the ground, but not being able to remember how his smile reached his eyes.