Questions & Mysteries Who is Luffy's greatest rival?

Monkey D Theories

Monkey D Theories

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#1
#1
A lot of people say it would be Blackbeard, but I'm not entirely convinced.

One thing that I feel Oda has made very important is the importance of conqueror's haki. This has been portrayed as the world's greatest power and it is specifically Luffy's greatest power. Luffy's greatest rival should be a CoC master and be able to split the sky with him; as WB did with Roger.

The issue here is that Teach doesn't have CoC. Some people might theorize he has it because he is a yonko, because he wants OP, ect. But the fact remains:
  • Teach has never shown CoC, not even in marineford when he should have used it if he had it
  • if Teach had ACoC and could split the sky, he could have become yonko with his own strength and would have never needed 2 DFs
  • Teach isn't confirmed to be a conqueror, while Oda is willing to easily confirm others(ect. Kid, Sengoku, Hancock) without them even using it in the manga
So can Teach really be Luffy's greatest rival if he doesn't have CoC? I feel like the answer is no, CoC is the greatest power and Teach just doesn't have it. And even if he does have it, he definitely isn't a master of it.

So if not Teach, then who? I guess Kid might come to the mind of some people, since he does have CoC. But I think he is disqualified for obvious reasons. While Kid does have CoC, Oda seems unwilling to develop this aspect of his character in any regard. Kid didn't use CoC once, despite fighting kaido and big mom. He doesn't have ryuo and hasn't even been seen using hardening on panel. I would love for him to return in the final war with ACoC, but Oda is awful about haki and makes it exclusive only to certain characters; the mid trio surpassed the tobi roppo without haki, so I feel like Oda will do the same for Kid/Law and the top tiers. Oda will probably make Kid a top tier by turning him into magneto or something.

While Teach and Kid are the rivals of Luffy which fans give the most attention to, neither are masters of the strongest power in one piece; CoC. Therefore none can truly be Luffy's greatest rival.

imo, Luffy's greatest rival is going to be one amongst 2 characters:
  • Shanks
  • Imu
Both of which have the portrayal to be the greatest conquerors. For Shanks, I think it's really straight forward. He started the series by inspiring Luffy to be PK; with Luffy specifically wanting to surpass shanks. Shanks has the best CoC feats in one piece; he also has only 1 arm, no DF, and is relatively young. All of which lead shanks to having tons of potential going forward. If shanks is as strong as he is now, imagine what would happen if somehow he had his arm healed and gained an overpowered DF? Shanks did say that he wants One Piece and despite Luffy beating kaido, shanks still isn't willing to meet him. Why? What is shanks waiting for? Could he be waiting for Luffy to beat Teach and have all road poneglyphs in order to steal it from him?

Then there is Imu. Imu is the king of the world, he is above even the admirals and the fleet admiral. If you consider the world government to be his crew, he has the strongest crew in one piece. With this much power, he could truly be the strongest CoC user in OP history. However, my reservation with him is that he is more or less a faceless villain. As a result, I think it wouldn't be satisfying for him to be the conclusion of a 1000+ chapter manga that took over 20 years to serialize. Rather, imo it would make more sense if he was defeated by side characters like Sabo, Dragon, Kid, and Law, probably a combination of all 4 of them.

Overall, I'd say shanks is the best contender for Luffy's greatest rival, followed by Imu, and then Teach.
 
CaptainJackSparrow

CaptainJackSparrow

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#7
#7
It’s definitely BB. BB is to Luffy what Rocks was to Roger. Luffy’s version of WB is most likely going to be KID or Law because both share rivalries but are somewhat friendly. Luffy vs BB is straight hate, when they next see each other you know it’s gonna be on site. Shanks is a member of the prior generation so I think he’s going to be defeated by someone from the worstgen (most likely BB).
 
Garp the Fist

Garp the Fist

Bwahahahaha
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#10
#10
1. Nobody except Luffy used CoC in Marineford so it seemed rarer. WB, Ace, Sengoku, Doffy, Hancock, Shanks, none of them used it
2. Eh, what? Blackbeard has two DFs to make him special compared to every other character, that’s no reason for him not to have CoC as well.
3. Cause they are irrelevant as fuck and Oda doesn’t care if anyone knows if the have CoC or not because it will never be a big deal. Roger wasn’t confirmed as a CoC user until Oden’s flashback 950 odd chapters in. Blackbeard is being saved for when he’s actually doing things
 
Mugiwara56

Mugiwara56

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#12
#12
Monkey D Luffy's main rival is Marshall D Teach aka Teach "Blackbeard" They are both the same and different, the scene in Jaya's bar proves it. They are both carriers of the letter D, one of the most important things for the history of One Piece.

In their crews there are several members who are exactly the same except that in one, it is the light and the 2nd, the darkness.

Regarding the Haki of Kings that Marshall D Teach has not shown yet, it is possible that Oda will only show it in the arc that will concern Teach as he did for Charlotte Linlin and Kaido of the Hundred Beasts.

Monkey D Luffy and Marshall D Teach the real rivals of One Piece.
 
Kiri D Bachi

Kiri D Bachi

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#13
#13
Kid and Law.

BB is not a rival, he is a villain (most likely the final villain), there is a big difference between the two.

Rivals are usuallly close to one another in age, have similar backgrounds and starting points, interact with one another and compete with one another, they are not enemies, they are more like frenemies. (Kid and Law)

Examples:

Playing a game, competing with one another


Fighting the marines together, showing off in front of each other (competitive spirit again)


Trafalgar giving Kidd a poneglyph copy. Self explanatory


Self explanatory again. Also Luffy and Kid competing at various stuff while being prisoners (don't have time to find the panel, but you know what I'm talking about).


Kid being Happy about Luffy returning to the scene.

There are numerous other examples, these are just from the top of my head.

On the other hand, villains are usually significantly older, are obviously evil, have no competitive spirit and will use evil means and trickery to achieve their goals. (Blackbeard)

Examples: every blackbeard panel ever, no point in posting them.

Powerscaling is irelevant here. Oda can easily give some random broken powerup for Kid and Law to be on Luffy's level at the end.
 
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