Luffy was inspired by Shanks to become a great
pirate, but what if that wasn’t the only thing he learned from Shanks? Because as we all know, Shanks is a LEGENDARY
swordsman. Or even better, what if Luffy had a completely
different mentor than Shanks to begin with, which leaves us with one of the most fascinating
questions in all of One Piece: what would have happened, if instead of eating a devil
fruit, Luffy was trained to become a swordsman instead. And let’s kick this off where any good pirate
story begins, back in the bar. And it is here that hungry child Luffy is
about to eat this devil fruit [ch 1, show luffy about to eat the fruit]. But to really set up our what if scenario,
THIS TIME Shanks snatches the devil fruit away. Luffy is of course furious and demands to
have the fruit back, but Shanks and Lucky Roux here [ch 1, show Lucky Roux holding up
the picture of a devil fruit] finally explain what a devil fruit is and why Luffy can’t
eat it. However, this isn’t enough for Luffy though
because, come on, what kid wouldn’t want to eat a strange purple fruit, so he tries
to steal the devil fruit back multiple times. So to finally stop Luffy, Shanks makes a deal. If Luffy doesn’t try to eat the fruit, Shanks
will teach him how to use a sword. Oh boy, here we go. This is about to get insane! So of course, Luffy immediately agrees and
they get right into training. And wow, Luffy is going to need it because
at this point he is probably more likely to cut off his own foot than he is to hit an
opponent. But of course Shanks wouldn’t give him an
actual sword yet, so he’ll have a wooden practice sword for now and maybe a small dagger
or something. That means for the next few years, Luffy will
be training with a sword, AND each time Shanks comes back to the island Luffy is going to
be super excited to show off his new moves. Now, to make things clear, Luffy still wants
to become pirate king. That part hasn’t changed, and Shanks still
gave him the straw hat, but since he is now training to be a swordsman he will also want
to someday surpass Shanks. Of course, Shanks would think this is hilarious
and will probably tell Luffy that he would have to become the strongest swordsman in
the world, or something like that. Which means that in addition to Luffy’s
secret dream and his desire to be Pirate King [Make a list on screen], we have to add the
World’s Strongest Swordsman to his list of dreams to pursue. However, sword training on his own can’t
last forever and eventually Luffy will probably beg Shanks to take him along. Of course, Shanks still won’t think he’s
ready, but he would probably agree that Luffy needs someone to practice with. So in our next MASSIVE CHANGE to Luffy’s
story, the Red Hair Pirates take Luffy to find a master. And you might be thinking Luffy is about to
go on some grand adventure, but he’s not quite ready for that yet. Instead, Shanks drops Luffy off at this nearby
dojo [show Koushiro’s dojo ch 440, ch 194]. And is this about to get super interesting
because this is the Isshin dojo, where Zoro trained during his childhood. So, that’s right, Luffy and Zoro will meet
WAY EARLIER in the story. And I can just imagine young Luffy and Zoro
instantly becoming fierce rivals, and if we’re being honest probably good friends as well,
since both of them will be getting beat up by the daughter of the dojo master, Kuina
[ch 5]. However, each of their desires to become the
world’s strongest swordsman or woman is going to lead to a ton of intense training
and fierce duels. Now, there’s no telling really how long
this period in Luffy’s life would last, but let’s just say after a year or so something
happens that is going to completely change Luffy’s life. Because as we know, when Shanks returned to
the Grand Line, he told people about this kid in the East Blue who reminds him of the
former pirate king. Even more so now because Luffy is also using
a sword, just like Roger. And this bit of news has now caught the interest
of one man in particular. So one day at the dojo during another round
of Luffy and Zoro beating up on each other, a small ship sails up to the Village [ch 49
shows Mihawk’s ship]. And out of this ship walks a man with a large
black blade on his back, who is of course none other than the current Strongest Swordsman
in the World, Dracule Mihawk. Get ready for this! So of course the boys will want to immediately
challenge Mihawk, but Kuina would wisely hold them down while the Warlord talks to the dojo
master, Koushiro. Still though, you simply can’t hold Luffy
back, so let’s say he escapes and charges Mihawk with a katana from the dojo. Now this could very well be the end of Swordsman
Luffy, but let’s imagine that Mihawk whips out his tiny neck dagger and allows Luffy
to test himself. But come on, there is just no way Luffy is
doing anything against this man, and eventually Mihawk sends him flying across the village. However, this is Luffy we’re talking about
so of course he would get up and come charging right back. And while Mihawk praises his determination,
he smacks Luffy again, knocking him out, and then decides he’s seen enough. Before he heads back to his ship though, I
could imagine him sharing drinks with Koushiro, who has always seemed like a respectable swordsman. And while the kids are obviously excluded,
that doesn’t stop them from sneaking a peek at Mihawk’s legendary sword. Eventually though, time is up and Mihawk decides
to leave. Zoro is still itching to challenge Mihawk
himself, but Kuina keeps a firm hold on him to keep him from making the same mistake as
Luffy. Whew, that could’ve been really bad, but
the kids immediately jump back into training after being energized by the surprise visit. There’s only one problem though. Luffy is nowhere to be seen. So where is he? Did he get knocked into the forest and get
lost? Is he crying at his failure to beat Mihawk? No, come on. This is Luffy we’re talking about. Turns out that after Mihawk has sailed quite
far from the island, he turns and finds Luffy being dragged along by a rope that he tied
to Mihawk’s ship, kinda similar to this guy right here [show Oden dragging behind
Whitebeard’s ship ch 964]. Now when Luffy climbs up onto the ship, he
expects Mihawk to be annoyed, but of course with Mihawk’s observation haki he knew Luffy
was there all along. And when Mihawk asks what Luffy wants, the
young swordsman demands that Mihawk train him so that he can one day surpass him. And honestly, at this point, Mihawk would
probably throw Luffy off the ship. But let's imagine that with Luffy’s determination
plus what Mihawk already knows about him, he tells Luffy that if he can hang onto the
outside of the ship all the way through Reverse Mountain then he will train the boy. Now, Luffy will obviously be super excited,
but this is a harder challenge than it seems. Remember Luffy and the crew were nearly thrown
off their ship when they went through reverse mountain, so how will he do hanging off the
side? Of course he doesn’t have his devil fruit,
so he doesn’t have to worry about losing his strength in the water. But in the end after fighting off some hungry
fish, Luffy overcomes the challenge and together the World’s Strongest Swordsman and child
Luffy head off to Mihawk’s dark, spooky Castle [ch 592]. Now, of course Luffy is super excited. I mean what up and coming swordsman WOULDN’T
WANT to be trained by the legendary Mihawk. However, there’s some serious danger here
that we simply cannot overlook. Because remember that when Zoro landed on
Mihawk’s island, the World’s Strongest Swordsman made him fight these savage sword-wielding
mandrills as the first part of his training [ch 592]. And wow, if Zoro had trouble with these apes
then child Luffy is surely going to be in serious trouble though. So let’s imagine that Mihawk gives Luffy
some sort of training first before making him fight the island’s beasts. On top of that though, Luffy is also going
to have to learn how to take care of himself because Mihawk won’t always be at the castle. So he’d need to learn how to cook and take
care of himself. So he’s leveling up in all sorts of ways. Now, let’s say that after a few years, Luffy
has improved his swordsmanship to an ABSURD degree and has even started to learn the basics
of Armament and Observation haki. Which is a stupidly massive advantage that
we’ll talk about in just a moment. First though, Mihawk finally decides to take
him out to fight actual pirates, but something is going to happen next that is going to absolutely
ruin Luffy’s training. Because let’s say they run into a random
group of pirates. And as Mihawk takes down the captain he tells
Luffy to wipe out the rest of the crew. And he does, quite easily after all of his
training, BUT there’s one major problem. When Mihawk comes back he finds that Luffy
has taken out all the underlings, BUT he has refused to cut even a single one of them. It seems Swordsman Luffy just can’t bring
himself to actually kill someone, so he basically beat them down with the dull side of the sword. Which of course would be deeply problematic
for Mihawk, who has no trouble cutting down opponents. So he demands that Luffy finish the job. But… Luffy just can’t, so Mihawk finishes the
job and they return to the castle at a major crossroads. Mihawk gives Luffy a choice. Decide to use his sword to its fullest and
continue his training OR leave the island for good. And this is honestly kinda heartbreaking,
since Mihawk has trained Luffy more than anyone ever did. But Luffy just can’t bring himself to do
it for now, so he makes the sad choice to leave. Props to him for sticking to his gut though Now, there are a few options that would make
sense for what happens next. I don’t think Mihawk would just completely
abandon Luffy, so maybe he’d give him to someone he knows has a good reputation. For example, someone like Whitebeard who is
well known for taking orphans into his crew. He could also try to take him back to Shanks,
but honestly I think the most reasonable option would be for Luffy to return to his hometown. So back to Goa Kingdom it is. And this is actually the perfect time for
Luffy to come back. Because while he doesn’t exactly have a
home here, at this point Luffy should be perfectly capable of taking care of himself in the forest
and even befriending these two ruffians [Show young Sabo and Ace in the tree house ch 583]. And while this is a bit later in the timeline
for the boys to meet, I’m sure they would get along just like normal and quickly become
great friends. In fact, the only reason Ace and Sabo were
hesitant to take in originally was Luffy because he was young and weak, but this time there
is no doubt that Luffy is even stronger than the older boys. So yeah, remember that scoreboard where Luffy
had zero wins [ch 585 has the scoreboard near the start]? I’m sure that’s going to be way different
this time around. Now let’s skip forward a bit. Sabo still decides to leave and gets blown
up [ch 588], which just leaves Ace and Luffy. And here is where we get our next major change
to the story. Because when Ace leaves, there is no way Swordsman
Luffy is staying behind even though he’s only 14 years old. Because even though he still wants to become
Pirate King, he is also determined to become the World’s Strongest Swordsman, and he
certainly can’t do that sitting on the island. So since he is already so powerful, Swordsman
Luffy is coming along for the ride. And if you’ve read the Ace novels, you’ll
know what happens next. The short of it is they get shipwrecked, Ace
eats his devil fruit, then they journey through Sabaody, Fishman Island, and then eventually
reach Wano. Then after leaving the Wano, Ace travels around
looking to take down some Yonko, but let’s back up. Because while we are in the Land of the Samurai,
Swordsman Luffy is going to hop off the train. At this point Luffy is about fifteen years
old and he is just absolutely in love with the idea of training with some actual samurai,
so even though it is hard for him to leave his friend, Swordsman Luffy cannot resist
the chance to improve his skills. The only problem is that Wano is currently
ruled by Kaido and most of the real samurai have been killed or locked up. But let’s say Luffy travels around for a
bit. Maybe he even picks up a ranked sword since
this is Wano and I’m sure they have a few of those lying around. I can even see him making some friends in
the lawless lands and the Leftovers town [ch 929 shows Ebisu town] outside the capitol. But this is where things are going to get
really bad. Because I for one just cannot imagine Luffy
sitting back and letting his friends in the Leftovers town starve to death. So maybe he does something rash like attack
a food shipment [ch 917 has some panels of a food shipment] or something and he steals
food for the town. Well, this is of course going to get him in
major trouble. Because we all know what happened when Luffy
did this originally [ch 921, Kaido comes down to village]. Yeah, that’s not going to end well. Because as strong as Luffy is with his sword
skills, his haki - which should be pretty good after a year of traveling with Ace - he
is still only fifteen and way weaker than an Emperor of the Sea. Which means he is probably getting slapped
by Kaido [end of ch 923]. However, I believe this brief fight would
probably be the perfect time for Luffy to awaken his conqueror’s haki. And even though it wouldn’t do anything
against Kaido, it might impress the king of the beasts enough to throw Luffy in prison
instead of straight up killing him. But you won’t believe what is going to happen
next, because who else do we know in this same prison Luffy? Well, there is of course this old man, known
as Grandpa Hyo [ch 934]. And who is this man? Well, just the most famous yakuza boss in
Wano Country who also happens to know the secrets of advanced armament haki [ch 939,
Hyogoro explains basics of Ryou]. So after befriending the old man and learning
his secrets, Luffy goes through his own little training arc. Now, you might think it is a bit early for
Luffy to learn advanced haki. And you might be right, but remember he has
trained with basic haki for at least five years at this point AND traveled the seas
for a year with Ace, so I’d say he has more than enough experience to learn advanced haki
at this point. So with his new skills, Luffy frees himself,
beats up the warden [Babanuki ch 934], and leads a prison break. This makes Luffy a hero for the escaped prisoners
and they gladly offer to teach Luffy their legendary swordsmanship in the outskirts of
Wano. Which is exactly what he wanted! However, Luffy’s journey in Wano is going
to end with a massive tragedy. Because Kaido won’t just let a prison break
go unpunished, so I could see him sending someone like the All-Star Jack to recapture
the prisoners. And while Luffy puts up a good fight, Jack’s
thick Mammoth skin isn’t damaged at all by Luffy’s dull blade attacks [ch 809],
remember he still doesn’t want to cut anyone at this point. This means that no one can defeat Jack, and
in the end, Grandpa Hyo and the other prisoners sacrifice themselves to allow Luffy to escape. Which absolutely breaks Luffy’s heart. Seriously, this would be the first major setback
in his life. But now Luffy finally understands what Mihawk
was trying to teach him as a kid. Being a swordsman is about knowing when to
cut and when to not cut. And Luffy will never truly be a master if
he never chooses to cut anything. So Luffy decides that he will continue his
journey and allow himself to cut down anyone who tries to hurt his friends. Sadly it is a painful lesson, but one that
was important for Luffy to learn. So now what? Luffy is already at the end of the Grand Line,
but he isn’t anywhere close to reaching the top level of fighters in the world. So honestly, I think he chooses to finally
start his own pirate journey and conquer the Grand Line like he was always meant to do. So let’s say he steals a ship and he travels
all the way back to Reverse Mountain. This of course would take a long time, especially
on his own, so now he's seventeen years old and basically starting his journey at roughly
the same time. Now at this point, there is one major question
we simply must address. Because you might be wondering. What about the other Straw Hats? If he is skipping the East Blue then will
he ever have Zoro, Nami, Usopp, and Sanji join the crew? Well, the easy answer with Zoro is no. I don’t think Zoro would ever join Luffy’s
crew if he sees him as a rival for the Swords Strongest Swordsman title, but don't worry,
we’ll see more of Zoro in just a moment. The others though, well it might surprise
you that he is actually going to run into Nami very soon. Because remember her goal early on was to
steal a map of the Grand Line, so let’s assume that she also made her way to the start
of the Grand Line to steal some treasure. And let’s conveniently assume that she runs
into Luffy, and after seeing how Luffy is strong, she agrees to tag along with him. BUT there is one condition. Luffy must go back to the East Blue and defeat
Arlong to free her village. Which at this point would be no problem at
all for Swordsman Luffy. Sure he doesn’t have his devil fruit, but
he already knows advanced armament and basic observation haki, so without a doubt, Luffy
could wipe out Arlong’s whole crew with ease. Which means Nami is 100% ready to follow Luffy
anywhere. Now the real question is, what about the rest
of the crew? And here I’m going to make a lot of you
angry because I think at this point Luffy is much less interested in traveling around
the East Blue. He is desperate to head back to the Grand
Line and find some strong opponents to fight, which means he’s going to miss out on Usopp
and Sanji as well. I do think it would be fitting for him to
run into Zoro though. At this point, Zoro has become a famous bounty
hunter, but he is simply no match for Luffy AT ALL. Which just means that Zoro will swear to train
harder and fight Luffy again in the future. So we’re all packed up and ready to go. Luffy and Nami head off to the Grand Line,
where their first goal is to find some strong opponents to fight. And the closest big bad around is the Warlord
Crocodile who is in the process of conquering Alabasta. Now, Luffy may not have the same connection
to the Alabasta Princess, Vivi, but I’m sure he would want to fight Crocodile nonetheless. And this time around, Luffy wouldn’t even
need to figure out that sand is weak to water since Luffy already knows high levels of haki. So this fight quickly ends with Luffy slashing
the Warlord to sandy bits. Which brings us to our next MAJOR development
for Swordsman Luffy. Because with Crocodile defeated we now must
ask the question, what happens to Nico Robin? Clearly, SHE would want to tag along since
Luffy has shown himself to be quite powerful, but would Luffy let her join? Honestly, I think yes. Even though at this point Luffy doesn’t
know Robin’s importance of finding the One Piece, he would still probably trust her gut
and let her join the crew. So yeah, it’s just Luffy and two women sailing
around the seas. Which, hey, Swordsman Luffy is a different
kinda guy. And now that we have two crewmates, it’s
time for a proper ship. Since Luffy has already traveled through the
Grand Line with Ace, he would probably already know about the Shipbuilding island, Water
7. So the crew heads there to buy a proper ship. One thing to keep in mind though is that on
this island there are government secret agents who are going to kidnap Robin. And we can imagine this would still occur,
but this time around things are going to turn out WAY DIFFERENTLY. Because originally when Luffy fought these
guys [show CP9 ch 347 or 349] he got absolutely crushed, but now things are a bit different. However, before anyone can swing a sword,
I believe the CP9 agents would have an invitation for Luffy. You see, since Luffy defeated Crocodile there
is an opening in the Warlords and the world government would probably see Luffy as an
ideal replacement. He just has to give up Robin and then he can
join. Which, honestly, Swordsman Luffy might consider
the offer. Just think about it. He could reunite with Mihawk, who is also
a Warlord, and fight tons of pirates without having to worry about the government. But in the end he still would reject the offer
and instead wipes out the government agents all by himself. Yes, yes, I am saying that Luffy solos all
of CP9. If you’re upset about that, get over it,
because Swordsman Luffy is on a whole different level. And so with their new ship ready to go, you
could say that Luffy also picks up a shipwright here, but honestly I kinda like the idea of
Luffy, Nami, and Robin going about it alone. I mean, Mihawk certainly sailed alone, so
Luffy might be inspired by his former mentor. So let’s skip ahead now to Sabaody, where
Swordsman Luffy would meet the Right Hand of the former Pirate King, Silvers Rayleigh. And of course Rayleigh has heard about Luffy
from Shanks, so while I don’t think we’d have the same auction house incident, eventually
Rayleigh would bust himself out and run into Luffy. Which would lead to their usual chat [ch 506-507]
where Rayleigh agrees to coat Luffy’s ship so he can go into the New World. So while we avoid the whole admiral and separation
incident this time around, there is one major obstacle before Luffy can head to the Grand
Line. That is of course the news about Ace’s execution,
which Luffy would absolutely want to stop. And I don’t think Luffy would be able to
sneak into the underwater prison, which means they are headed off to Marineford. And oh boy, is this going to be a major showcase
for Swordsman Luffy’s powers. Because remember this will be his first time
seeing his old mentor in many years [ch 560-561, Mihawk meets Luffy]. On top of that he hasn’t seen Ace since
before the fiery pirate joined the Whitebeard pirates. Just sooo much has happened over the last
few years for Luffy. And of course I think we can say that Luffy
will impress Whitebeard once again. He may even clash with Mihawk, and while he
certainly isn’t on his mentor’s level yet, Luffy is going to put up quite a fight
with his advanced haki, conqueror’s haki, and extreme sword skills. In the end though, there is one fatal flaw
to Swordsman Luffy. That’s because Luffy is now more of an individual,
and while he has Nami and Robin on his crew, he is missing all of the escaped prisoners
from Impel Down who originally helped in this fight. And without them to take on some of the marines,
I just don’t think Luffy is strong enough on his own to fight through all the admirals
and reach his brother. So sorry, Ace fans, he is once again going
to perish here. That’s not the end of Swordsman’s Luffy’s
story though. Because even though he is devastated by his
longtime friend’s death, I can imagine Robin helping Luffy escape and together they get
away just in time. Which is going to send Luffy into a destructive
rage, but this time Nami and Robin are there for him. Of course, Luffy will come out of this knowing
he needs to get stronger, so it still makes a lot of sense to have a two year time skip
spent training with Rayleigh. Maybe Luffy even upgrades his weapon [show
a new sword, maybe a Guts-like sword]. And since Luffy is further along with his
haki skills, they can spend their time perfecting his advanced haki and improving his sword
techniques. After the timeskip though, watch out because
this Luffy is going to be on a mission. There is ABSOLUTELY NO ONE who is going to
stop him in the early post-timeskip arcs. He’s going to sweep through this evil fishman
[Hoady], this corrupt scientist [Caesar], and even the stringy Warlord [Doflamingo]. Although I do think he would be challenged
by his longtime rival Zoro along the way, who surprisingly has made up his own crew
including Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, and Franky. However, after learning about the Road Poneglyphs
on Zoa, Luffy can focus solely on collecting the Road Poneglyphs and finding the One Piece
because he doesn’t need to rescue Sanji from Big Mom. Which is going to take him straight to Wano
to confront one of the only people to ever defeat him, the Emperor Kaido. And I’m sure Luffy would want to go straight
up and challenge the king of the beasts. And honestly, that might not be the worst
idea. Because remember Luffy is now a truly OP swordsman
and we know Kaido has some PTSD about legendary swordsmen, so there is a very good chance
he could take down Kaido. On the other hand though, Luffy’s overconfidence
could see him get smacked down by the strongest creature in the world because remember that
Luffy could only truly damage Kaido once he unlocked his next major powerup. So let's say that Luffy gets himself in a
desperate situation. He is doing damage to Kaido, but he can’t
finish him off. But then Kaido takes it to the next level
and is about to crush Luffy with his massive club [end of ch 1042, luffy gets crushed]. And with no strong crewmates to save him,
Luffy is in real trouble… until a certain green-haired swordsman swoops in and blocks
Kaido’s attack. You see, Zoro can’t stand seeing his rival
taken down by someone else, so he battles Kaido, which gives Luffy some time to recover. And during this time he also figures out the
secrets of advanced conqueror’s haki [ch 1010]. Then together, Luffy and Zoro fulfill Wano’s
dream of finally freeing the country from the legendary dragon. Which means Luffy has earned his second Road
Poneglyph and is truly on the path to becoming pirate king AND the World’s Strongest Swordsman. However, there are still many challenges ahead,
including confronting his two old mentors, Mihawk and Shanks. And you can bet that those two have some of
the strongest haki in the entire series, so Luffy is going to need a major powerup in
that department before he can even dream of taking them down. In fact, we’ve seen how strong Luffy has
become with Swords and Haki, but I’ve always wondered how strong Luffy would be if he ONLY
USED HAKI. No devil fruit. No swords. So if you want to see if Haki-Only Luffy is
truly the strongest, you can watch that video right here [Show Luffy Haki only]. Shanks for watching and I’ll see you in
the next one.
