seawasp | The Straw Hats are not "conservatives".

Cut for length...

As many people know, the flag of the Straw Hat Pirates from One Piece is being used by a lot of the populist movements around the world.

There are unfortunately a lot of One Piece fans who argue that Luffy and his friends wouldn't be in favor of those movements, even saying he'd be more on the conservative side.

A lot of this comes from what appears to be literalism: Luffy has helped a number of people in his world who are kings out of tight spots, and the World Government in One Piece is, on the surface, not run by monarchs (it turns out that in fact it IS -- there is a single ruler, Imu, controlling everything through their Five Elders who control the Navy and other government operations).

But that's purely surface; the One Piece world doesn't seem to have many democratic states. Rulership by a single ruler is more the rule than the exception, unlike here, where the major countries have generally moved away from single rulers except as figureheads with minimal power.

In such a setting, the literal "no kings" wouldn't make sense, because there are good kings (Nefeltari of Alabasta, for instance) and terrible kings (Doflamingo, who usurped the throne of Dressrosa), and if you're fighting for whatever you perceive as good, or freedom, you'll end up saving some kings and beating others. Luffy himself wants to be the Pirate King -- but the Pirate King isn't actually a ruler but a title, no more like the despotic kings that the USA renounced than "Olympic Champion" is. The Pirate King is the person who finds the One Piece and is acknowledged the greatest Pirate of his era.

It's also notable that while MANY One Piece pirates are, in fact, pirates by our normal standards (take other boats, loot towns on shore, basically seagoing predators) with varying levels of moral codes and nobility, the Straw Hats are not "pirates" in that sense. They're a group of adventurers who are looking to achieve particular things, and the Great Pirate Era has created a possibility for all of them to do so.

Still, that by itself doesn't forbid them from being, either individually or as a group, "conservatives" by modern usage. They could easily have those characteristics and be effectively Libertarians.

But in actuality?

You want me to look at Straw Hat Luffy -- a man who decided to take down an entire corrupt regime, including one of the most powerful beings on the face of the planet, in order to make sure that a poor, orphaned little girl would never ever go hungry again -- and think he would in any way support the modern group who thinks it's fine to not give poor families help in getting food?

Luffy and his friends CONSTANTLY take the part of the poor, the oppressed, the dispossessed against those who oppress them and exploit them. Hody Jones wants to take the (entirely justifiable) resentment of the Fishmen and distill it into a retributive conquest, even if he has to kill off the entire current regime that would prefer to make slow but noticeable progress (having just managed to get a seat in the World Government council) and slaughter half the surface world's citizens to make himself ruler; in that case, Luffy and his friends end up on the side of the existing King, mainly because they see the price that the regular people are paying.

Luffy is the *epitome* of the warrior peacemaker. Can he fight, and will he? Damn right. And he'll even enjoy it when it's a contest between two equals trying to prove each other. But what he WANTS are friends, food, and fun, and he will battle with every ounce of his will against those who will deprive ANYONE of that.

Supporting other people, especially those who can't help themselves, comes naturally to him. He doesn't understand when people are greedy enough to keep other people suffering. It's not that he doesn't understand wanting stuff -- try taking food away from him -- but that he doesn't understand why, when you have more than enough, you would just stand there and ignore someone who's hurting.

And this is true of the rest of his crew. Zoro's goal is to be THE great swordsman -- because he made a promise to a childhood friend who died, not by the blade, but by a stupid accident. Otherwise there is very little that will piss him off more than seeing people mistreated. Sanji wants to be the greatest chef, and specifically to reach the legendary All Blue sea where every possible ingredient of the oceans can be found; other than that, the idea that hungry people will not be fed is one of his two utter berserk buttons; the other is mistreating women around him. (alas for his inconsistent depictions that sometimes make him the problem; I wish Japan didn't find being a peeping tom funny). Nami's apparent obsession with money becomes understandable when you find out she's literally trying to ransom her ENTIRE VILLAGE from Arlong. Her true passion is navigation and maps, and she's with Luffy to map the world. Given her past as a poor girl and later a literal slave to a conqueror, she has nothing but contempt for enslavers or cold-hearted wealthy people.

Brook was a musician on another group of pirates-who-don't-pirate. He remains a musician, and has the same "everyone supports everyone" ethic he had before he became a walking skeleton. Jimbei has been a part of the actual pirate history up through being one of the Warlords, and finds Luffy to be the symbol of what he wants to see in the world. Franky lost his father figure to the World Government and for a long time had his own family of brigands -- who were still at heart decent people, and in joining Luffy he found the purpose for the shipwright skills he had been taught. He, too, defends helpless people fiercely. Chopper, of course, wants nothing BUT to help people. He can fight, but all he wants to do is defeat diseases and infirmities and bring that to the whole world.

Nico Robin, of course, is a girl raised by gentle scholars who saw her entire village wiped out by the World Government, and then was chased from place to place with a death sentence on her head -- until this group of "pirates" first defeated the guy she had been working for (and was going to dispose of her), and then adopted her as one of their own, up to and including being willing to take on the Government itself to get her back.

You want me to believe THIS group of people would support a guy who acts like he can do anything he wants because he's rich? That anything he does is okay because he's "The President"?

That Chopper wouldn't be punching Republicans in the face for playing games with people's access to decent healthcare?

That Nami or Luffy wouldn't be bringing the pain to people who think it's fine to deny food to poor people?

That Zoro would respect a guy who talks a warrior's game but can't walk a warrior's walk? That he'd be cool with a military blowing up boats of other countries without even bothering to actually check who was on them?

Sanji? Tell him there's literally billions of dollars in a fund that could be feeding millions of people, but that you've "decided" you can't use it, even though that money was explicitly THERE for such purposes? You'll be lucky to ONLY be kicked through three or four buildings.

The Straw Hats are pro-people. They're pro-freedom not in the "I am an independent person and responsible to no one" sense, but in the "The more we work together, the more all of us accomplish" way. One of the few real berserk buttons for Luffy is *betrayal of responsibility* -- most often seen when another pirate mistreats those who are in their own crew, but also by a ruler failing to care for their people. That's the kind of thing that wipes his smile away and replaces it with grim anger. (as they say, there's two times you REALLY need to be afraid: one is when Zoro starts smiling. The other is when Luffy STOPS)

If you're in a place of power, Luffy and his friends will support you if you're using your power responsibly -- taking care of the people that you are responsible for. If you're a ruler of a country -- be that a King or an Emperor or a President -- that means using your power to support EVERYONE, perhaps MOST especially the people who are least able to do so themselves.

If you use your power selfishly or cruelly, the Straw Hat Pirates will END you.

So yeah, Luffy -- once he understood the reason we SAY "No Kings" -- would absolutely walk in front of that march, just adding, "Except the King of the Pirates!".

And I'd be cool with that.