#FEATURE: Can You Answer Luffy's Call to Adventure?
“#FEATURE: Can You Answer Luffy's Call to Adventure?”
Can you fight for your chosen destiny even as the world rallies against you? Can you break the chains of convention and obligation and refuse to let your path be guided by others? Can you embrace the slings and arrows of seeking your desire and dream larger than the very horizons of the known world? Can you speak that conviction, rise up on your own legs, and shout out with your own voice letting the world know that you are one of those selfish, irrepressible dreamers who will never be mollified, mediated, or mitigated? Do you hear the voice inside? Listen to it. Let it speak and lend your full voice to its chorus.
What do you really want?
If you boil it down to its barest, barest bones, One Piece has two fundamental themes. First, it is a show that revels in the greatest ideals of freedom. The very fact One Piece’s world is brimming with pirates is a testament to its belief in freedom — rather than playing the common role of society’s peacekeepers, One Piece’s heroes are the breakers of the peace, rampaging over the landscape and claiming what they will. One Piece adores the freedom of the high seas — its greatest heroes are those who dared to challenge fate itself in order to make their own destinies. Lawmen, cruel authoritarians, and oppressive relatives are all anathema to One Piece’s values; freedom is a cherished ideal, your laws and social conventions be damned.
Alongside that, there is the power of family. Family does not necessarily mean your blood relatives — as Ace famously declared, you only need to share a cup of sake to be genuine brothers. Instead, family are the people who will support you no matter what, regardless of where your passions may lead because they truly want to see you succeed. Those who chain you to inheritance and obligation are not your family, whatever heritage you share. True families want to see you flourish in your own way and are bound not by genetic obligation but authentic love. Their support is not demanded or obligatory but freely given, an expression of the strength of their kinship. In a world where freedom supersedes all allegiance to god or country, family must stand by us; they are our rock in the storm, those we can turn to at our most vulnerable.
At times, one or the other of these themes takes greater prominence in One Piece’s narrative. But they are forever tethered, and best embodied, through those crucial, anthemic moments where Luffy asks the critical question. Standing before a teammate in crisis, someone bound by the fears and obligations of their old selves, he asks them to stand proudly and declare their validity as a person. He knows it is a frightening demand and that the weight of our past can be a heavy burden to bear. But all the same, you must say it with yourself and declare your intent to seize your own life, whether or not you’ve the strength to follow through.
Can you rise above the obligations of your given life? Will you break the shackles of mundane existence? Do you possess the humility to accept that you are not alone? Luffy despises authoritarianism and injustice, but those closest to him are those willing to fight for themselves, or at least shout out in a full voice for what they truly want. If you are in trouble, he will save you — but if you wish to join him, you must be a person he can trust to save himself, in turn.
Responding is not a question of physical strength — in fact, it frequently means the opposite. Vulnerability takes its own kind of strength, and admitting you need someone’s help is frequently the hardest thing to do. The world has a way of making us take responsibility for our own suffering; our desire for freedom and personal autonomy can become corrupted by the obligations of our lives, making us feel that only our own hardships can pay for our sins. “This is my debt, so I must pay it” — such thinking conditions us to accept suffering as a kind of dignity, and servitude as a kind of honor.
The world around us conspires to beat us down and tell us we are foolish for seeking either freedom or family. That we are born into suffering and obligation, and that we owe life some debt we will likely never repay. That our familial bloodlines are frequently a cursed destiny and that our dreams are idle fairy tales. An unconditionally loving family? Boundless adventure? These are the musings of children who don’t understand how the world works — perhaps the privilege of a few lucky, foolish souls, but certainly not for you, with all your debts to pay.
None of that matters to Luffy. None of those creeping, condescending arguments mean a single, solitary thing. Do you want to sail to the ends of the earth? Do you want to capture the sun and moon in your palm? Do you want friends at your back? Friends who will lift you when you’re weak and cheer you when you’re strong? Companions bound not by debt or obligation but by the simple fact that if you want something, they want it for you too?
You might feel like you’re challenging the entire world by saying such things. Like you’re letting the people who depend on you down, or straying outside the boundaries you know are meant for you. You might feel like these dreams are impossible fantasies. After all, if you simply deny your own desires, you’ll make things easier for the world at large, right? And you know what? You might be right. Maybe you are being selfish, or crazy, or ludicrously over-optimistic. That’s fine. None of that matters. Luffy doesn’t care. He’ll challenge the sky itself if he has to — if it impedes his dreams, or darkens the spirits of his dearest friends.
But you have to say it. Say it in your own words. Lift your head to the sky and say without equivocation or compromise the words you’ve been too afraid to speak. Be bold, be selfish, be brave and difficult and unusual and authentic — because ultimately, that is who your family wants you to be. Say it without fear, say it with pride, say it to the people who love you best.
What do you really want?
Nick Creamer has been writing about cartoons for too many years now and is always ready to cry about Madoka. You can find more of his work at his blog Wrong Every Time, or follow him on Twitter.
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