Nami analysis: Luffy will definitely become the Pirate King

Original post: December, 2020

This was originally meant to be a collection of a few Nami character moments to defend her from the trend of hate against her. But, a friend of mine got me to make an actual analysis about her given the recent manga developments. It’s mostly about some aspects of Nami’s growth throughout the series.

Let’s start with one memorable scene from Skypiea…

…when Nami kept panicking, Luffy told her she shouldn’t stop acting so pathetic for she’s a companion of the future Pirate King.

Here, Luffy makes a connection between their success and the certainty of his dream. As in Nami shouldn’t fear because Luffy being the future Pirate King means they’ll always succeed at the end.

After Luffy gets BFR’d, Nami makes this her earnest belief. Instead of submitting to Enel in fear, or playing along with his plan to ensure her survival, she draws enough courage to take a firm stand…

…and face Enel on her own.

There’s even a subtle symbolism in both scene. When Luffy is giving Nami the reason why she shouldn’t panic, he gave Nami his treasured hat. And when Nami is about to finally challenge Enel, she grips Luffy’s hat. (Oda is an amazing writer!!!)

It’s subtle, but you can see Nami drawing courage from Luffy, his values, and his dream, to challenge a monster she had no way of beating

Oda decided to continue Nami’s character growth in the movie he wrote, Strong World.

After realizing Shiki (and his army of mutated animals) headed towards East Blue, which included the hometown where her sister and other loved ones lived in, her first response was looking for Luffy…

…instead of panicking like she did in Skypiea, she sought the person that could reassure her everything would be all right. We went from symbolism to something a little bit more straightforward.

Even when Shiki defeated the East Blue team, Nami managed to keep her cool, so she could mess the plans of a legendary pirate who could easily crush her. Even when was caught and left to die, she didn’t give up and proved she was willing to die to protect her hometown.

Huge displays of selflessness and actual courage. However, it’s interesting to see that, as character moments, they were built upon her growth in Skypiea and Arlong Park. Why can we say that?

In Arlong Park she realized there are burdens, and even emotional luggage, she couldn’t carry on her own so she had to rely on others to keep going. In Skypiea, she drew the strength needed to face overwhelming odds from Luffy.

Now, Luffy described Nami as their vanguard against Shiki, which indicates he knew that Nami was trying to fight Shiki’s army from the inside. But, she never planned to carry this burden on her own. Luffy instilled in her the belief that being the companion of the future Pirate King means they’ll suceed regardless of the setbacks they may suffer. At the end of the movie, we get the twist that Nami not only believes in Luffy…

…she gets embarrassed about the recorded proof of her faith in her captain when she realized Luffy didn’t hear it. Arlong Park and Skypiea laid the groundwork for her belief, while Strong World solidified it.

Also, it’s worth noting her stand against Shiki is reminiscent of the brave attitude displayed by Silk (Nami’s earliest prototype) from One Piece’s first pilot: Romance Dawn V.1

A girl who was more than willing to fight in order to protect her hometown and her loved ones regardless of the foe. Was that intentional on Oda’s part? Who knows…

Now, how did Nami character change post-timeskip?

If we stick to the manga, everything they’ve been through so far had strengthened her faith and trust in Luffy and his dream. We can see it in the Wholecake arc…

… when facing Cracker, Nami declares with absolute confidence that the fact Luffy is the future Pirate King is pretty much the guarantee of their victory. Not everyone invokes a NLF when talking about Luffy.

So, when Sanji goes as far as brutalizing Luffy, and trash-talking his dream, Nami’s response was… 

…which makes a lot of sense given how her confidence on the future, and part of her growth as a person, are tied to Luffy’s dream.

The disrespect Sanji was forced to show now can be used as a contrast given recent developments; when Nami was in a life-or-death situation, scared and helpless before an enemy she couldn’t beat on her own, she was offered a way out: disavow Luffy’s dream of becoming the Pirate King…

… However, even when facing certain death, having no other way to defend herself or run away, Nami couldn’t lie about Luffy becoming the Pirate King, not even to say her life. In the japanese version she answers: “Luffy will become the Pirate King… definitely”

We’ve seen Nami lying to weasel her way out of danger, but this time, she’s literally incapable of lying about the fact Luffy will reach his goal. From her perspective that’s a truth you simply cannot deny or reject under any circumstances.

That’s an outstanding display of loyalty, but the overall theme connecting this moment to previous showings is “faith.”

From Skypiea, she was told being a companion of the Pirate King ensured success, in Strong World, she was embarrassed to admit how strong was her faith and trust in Luffy. Post-timeskip, we now see her shouting it confidently to the enermy, and now she believes in Luffy so much, that not even facing death can make her say otherwise. That’s how you develop a character!

I know I left out the Drum arc, Water 7, Shabaody, Fishman Island, Punk Hazard (Bellemere would be proud), Dressrosa, and Zou… but, it would take months and a kilometric post to cover hundreds of chapters worth of development. I only covered the essentials.

If you want more, check out the author’s works; the manga and the Film series (SW, Z, and GOLD).

Point is, Nami is a great character who truly deserves to be described as “queenly,” not only because Oda said so, but also for her progression during this long-running story