So after the first(?) chapter of Luffy and Loki vs Imu, I feel pretty comfortable saying that Loki genuinely did perform better. Pretty simply, unlike Luffy, Loki was actually able to achieve something substantial against Imu, by freezing him.
Notably, Loki gets the last hit in, right before Imu decides to take this shit seriously, and appear in Elbaf for real.
This sort of lines up with what Loki fans have been predicting since the end of the flashback, that Loki is basically the version of Harald that Rocks believed would be needed to take on the government. Not only does Loki have monsterous Haki like Harald, but he also has one of the 2 major devil fruits that Rocks was looking for, and has Ragnir has a side power.
What is also notable is that Imu seems to also agree with this view, since we see at the end of the flashback, that Imu was genuinely shook and amazed that someone was able to kill Harald.
An important theme in this flashback, is how indifferent to it all Imu is. He was completely above it all through the entire flashback. While the Gorosei are shown worrying about every little thing, he looked Rocks straight in the eye, and showed zero interest. He went to GV, and saw Roger, Garp,Big Mom,Kaido and WB and showed zero interest, meanwhile Loki got a genuine reaction from him. Now, Loki is living up to this promise, since he´s playing a major role in getting Imu to be serious, and actually leave Mariejois, with it being unknown when he last did this.(To be clear, there is obviously other factors involved here, Mariejois is on fire, Imu is preparing for a war, and wants to enslave the Giants, but it is ultimately Loki, who is preventing him from accomplishing this)
Some people are interpreting this as a general New Generation>Old Generation thing, which might have some merit, but I also think Imu´s indifference applies to Luffy as well. At no point in the story, has Imu been shocked or blown away by what Luffy has achieved. Oda could have written a situation in Egghead where Luffy beat and killed a Gorosei, and shocked Imu like Loki has, but Oda never wrote that. Egghead ended with Imu being shocked at the OG Joyboy sealing his haki in Emmeth, which scared Imu, but not anything Luffy did. Similarily, Imu does seem to follow the news to some extent(this chapter he talks about rumors about a giant targeting WG ships) and Oda could have had Imu in shock and fear, at Nika being revived and ¨killing¨ Kaido, but we only get the reaction from the Gorosei. Imu isn´t shown reacting, which is a choice on Oda´s part. He gave the honors of being the first to have Imu shook in centuries to Loki, not Luffy(this isn´t to say that Imu won´t be amazed at Luffy and his powers at some point, he obviously will, I´m not delusional).
The main arguments for Luffy seem to all have issues, they include the following:
1. ¨Loki has a lower bounty¨: This one has pretty much been explained. Imu and the Gods Knights do not seem to have put 2 and 2 together, that Loki killed Harald, or that Loki was targetting ships for the WG, nor do they seem to know that he has the nidhogg fruit. Since they get their info from the marines, it seems the marines do not have the full story on Loki either, heavily implying with full info on Loki, his bounty would be higher.
2. ¨Loki is an ally, which means he´ll end up outshined by Luffy eventually¨: While generally true, this doesn´t really apply to every single ally Luffy has had through the story. Ace and Sabo stick it out, and you also have the MF war saga, where Luffy was pretty much weaker than all of his allies except Buggy. While Luffy is a much higher standing in verse right now, there´s no reason to think there´s some rule that an ally always has to be weaker than Luffy. People get caught up on comparing Loki to Yamato or Kidd, but I ultimately think this is a bit of a waste of time. Yamato or Kidd were also not doing what Gaban himself thought was unthinkable, nor did they have a god fruit, nor did they preform better than Luffy against an arc villain.
3:¨Loki lost to Shanks, who is a Yonko, so he would lose to another Yonko in Luffy¨: I think this one is probably the strongest argument, but I don´t think it really holds up either. Just because one Yonko can do something, it doesn´t mean the others can as well. Kaido jumping from a sky island and only having a headache isn´t something that Blackbeard could do, nor can Shanks eat 2 devil fruits like Blackbeard. And even power between the Yonko can theoretically vary. Shanks is currently a bit of an unknown variable, so him beating Loki isn´t something that every Yonko could do, it could just be hype for Shanks and his PL.
4:¨Luffy said he could beat up Loki and offered him a spot in his crew¨: Well yeah, but the important thing is that Loki told Luffy to not mess with him, and that Loki declined the offer to join his crew. At these higher levels, it´s pretty rare for characters to straight up admit their inferiority, pretty much everyone is cocky, and Oda has had Luffy say he´s stronger than characters who he would stand no chance against before. For example, Pre TS Luffy said he would beat Ace.
5.¨Loki looks up to Nika, so he´s ultimately going to glaze Luffy for being NIka¨: This one is kind of valid, but we should keep 2 things in mind. First, the Giants have different views of the sun god. Loki is someone who believes Nika should/will destroy the world, and Loki wants to start ragnarok. The version of Nika that Loki looks up to is not Luffy. Second, Luffy has also clearly been amazed with Loki´s power and glazing him since the arc started. Not only did the arc start with Luffy sensing Loki´s haki from across the island, even to the current chapter, you have Luffy amazed with Loki´s powers and telling his crew to stay away to protect themselves. Based on my memory, Loki hasn´t really been that amazed with anything Luffy has done so far, obviously that can change, but I´m only talking about the PL´s they currently have.
Anyway, that´s just my personal opinion, I´m curious what others thought.
Notably, Loki gets the last hit in, right before Imu decides to take this shit seriously, and appear in Elbaf for real.
This sort of lines up with what Loki fans have been predicting since the end of the flashback, that Loki is basically the version of Harald that Rocks believed would be needed to take on the government. Not only does Loki have monsterous Haki like Harald, but he also has one of the 2 major devil fruits that Rocks was looking for, and has Ragnir has a side power.
What is also notable is that Imu seems to also agree with this view, since we see at the end of the flashback, that Imu was genuinely shook and amazed that someone was able to kill Harald.
An important theme in this flashback, is how indifferent to it all Imu is. He was completely above it all through the entire flashback. While the Gorosei are shown worrying about every little thing, he looked Rocks straight in the eye, and showed zero interest. He went to GV, and saw Roger, Garp,Big Mom,Kaido and WB and showed zero interest, meanwhile Loki got a genuine reaction from him. Now, Loki is living up to this promise, since he´s playing a major role in getting Imu to be serious, and actually leave Mariejois, with it being unknown when he last did this.(To be clear, there is obviously other factors involved here, Mariejois is on fire, Imu is preparing for a war, and wants to enslave the Giants, but it is ultimately Loki, who is preventing him from accomplishing this)
Some people are interpreting this as a general New Generation>Old Generation thing, which might have some merit, but I also think Imu´s indifference applies to Luffy as well. At no point in the story, has Imu been shocked or blown away by what Luffy has achieved. Oda could have written a situation in Egghead where Luffy beat and killed a Gorosei, and shocked Imu like Loki has, but Oda never wrote that. Egghead ended with Imu being shocked at the OG Joyboy sealing his haki in Emmeth, which scared Imu, but not anything Luffy did. Similarily, Imu does seem to follow the news to some extent(this chapter he talks about rumors about a giant targeting WG ships) and Oda could have had Imu in shock and fear, at Nika being revived and ¨killing¨ Kaido, but we only get the reaction from the Gorosei. Imu isn´t shown reacting, which is a choice on Oda´s part. He gave the honors of being the first to have Imu shook in centuries to Loki, not Luffy(this isn´t to say that Imu won´t be amazed at Luffy and his powers at some point, he obviously will, I´m not delusional).
The main arguments for Luffy seem to all have issues, they include the following:
1. ¨Loki has a lower bounty¨: This one has pretty much been explained. Imu and the Gods Knights do not seem to have put 2 and 2 together, that Loki killed Harald, or that Loki was targetting ships for the WG, nor do they seem to know that he has the nidhogg fruit. Since they get their info from the marines, it seems the marines do not have the full story on Loki either, heavily implying with full info on Loki, his bounty would be higher.
2. ¨Loki is an ally, which means he´ll end up outshined by Luffy eventually¨: While generally true, this doesn´t really apply to every single ally Luffy has had through the story. Ace and Sabo stick it out, and you also have the MF war saga, where Luffy was pretty much weaker than all of his allies except Buggy. While Luffy is a much higher standing in verse right now, there´s no reason to think there´s some rule that an ally always has to be weaker than Luffy. People get caught up on comparing Loki to Yamato or Kidd, but I ultimately think this is a bit of a waste of time. Yamato or Kidd were also not doing what Gaban himself thought was unthinkable, nor did they have a god fruit, nor did they preform better than Luffy against an arc villain.
3:¨Loki lost to Shanks, who is a Yonko, so he would lose to another Yonko in Luffy¨: I think this one is probably the strongest argument, but I don´t think it really holds up either. Just because one Yonko can do something, it doesn´t mean the others can as well. Kaido jumping from a sky island and only having a headache isn´t something that Blackbeard could do, nor can Shanks eat 2 devil fruits like Blackbeard. And even power between the Yonko can theoretically vary. Shanks is currently a bit of an unknown variable, so him beating Loki isn´t something that every Yonko could do, it could just be hype for Shanks and his PL.
4:¨Luffy said he could beat up Loki and offered him a spot in his crew¨: Well yeah, but the important thing is that Loki told Luffy to not mess with him, and that Loki declined the offer to join his crew. At these higher levels, it´s pretty rare for characters to straight up admit their inferiority, pretty much everyone is cocky, and Oda has had Luffy say he´s stronger than characters who he would stand no chance against before. For example, Pre TS Luffy said he would beat Ace.
5.¨Loki looks up to Nika, so he´s ultimately going to glaze Luffy for being NIka¨: This one is kind of valid, but we should keep 2 things in mind. First, the Giants have different views of the sun god. Loki is someone who believes Nika should/will destroy the world, and Loki wants to start ragnarok. The version of Nika that Loki looks up to is not Luffy. Second, Luffy has also clearly been amazed with Loki´s power and glazing him since the arc started. Not only did the arc start with Luffy sensing Loki´s haki from across the island, even to the current chapter, you have Luffy amazed with Loki´s powers and telling his crew to stay away to protect themselves. Based on my memory, Loki hasn´t really been that amazed with anything Luffy has done so far, obviously that can change, but I´m only talking about the PL´s they currently have.
Anyway, that´s just my personal opinion, I´m curious what others thought.
