One Piece season 2 will introduce Netflix’s audience to a world of frustration that fans of the anime and manga have been enduring for over 25 years. With One Piece season 1 ending on Luffy’s victory over Arlong, Loguetown is certain to be among season 2’s first stops. Not only is this where the Straw Hat Pirates prepare to set sail on the Grand Line, Loguetown also marks the official debut of Captain Smoker, the enigmatic character teased by One Piece season 1’s post-credits scene.
Naturally, Smoker and Luffy will find themselves on opposite sides of the pirate/marine divide in One Piece season 2. Unlike Vice Admiral Garp, however, Smoker will not hold back, posing the very real risk that Luffy’s quest to become Pirate King will grind to a premature halt in Loguetown. With over 1000 chapters still to adapt, Luffy will obviously escape Smoker’s cloudy clutches, but the manner in which he does so sets up a long period of annoyance that fans of Eiichiro Oda’s manga will be all too familiar with.
Monkey D. Dragon Will Save Luffy From Smoker In One Piece Season 2
Dragon’s First Scene Is One Of The Most Memorable Debuts In One Piece
The presence of Garp, Luffy’s grandfather, in One Piece season 1 raised questions over the whereabouts and status of Luffy’s actual parents. While his mother is still a total mystery, even at the current point in Oda’s manga, Luffy’s father is revealed as Monkey D. Dragon, who makes his debut in Loguetown. As such a pivotal character in One Piece‘s world, Netflix’s live-action adaptation cannot possibly avoid Dragon’s cameo, meaning viewers should expect to meet Luffy’s stay-away father sometime near the start of season 2.
Dragon saving his son from certain death twice in One Piece season 2 will set the precedent that Luffy has a guardian angel.
Like Luffy, Dragon refused to follow Garp by joining the marines. Unlike Luffy, Dragon became a revolutionary, directly rebelling against the World Government instead of sailing the seas as a pirate. When grave trouble finds Luffy in Loguetown, it is Dragon who comes to his son’s aid, forcing Smoker to release the captured Luffy through sheer intimidation. While still not confirmed, it is also very likely that Dragon uses his Devil Fruit powers to save Luffy on another occasion in Loguetown, striking down the execution platform that Buggy’s gang plans on using to kill the Straw Hat captain.
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Dragon saving his son from certain death twice in One Piece season 2 will set the precedent that Luffy has a guardian angel of sorts. It puts forth the notion that, whenever Luffy finds himself in a near-death situation, he will be able to rely on his mysterious father playing protector from the shadows. That could not be further from the truth.
Dragon Never Helps Luffy Again In One Piece
Don’t Expect Dragon & Luffy To Reunite Any Time Soon
As One Piece continues, Luffy finds himself neck-deep in all manner of life-threatening situations, many of which make Loguetown look like a minor scuffle in comparison. And yet Loguetown represents the first, last, and only time Monkey D. Dragon makes any sort of effort to stop his son being killed. On one hand, Dragon’s absence from Luffy’s adventures makes sense. The Revolutionary Army leader wants to let his son carve an individual path through life without the constant oversight of Daddy Dragon providing a safety net.
Despite throwing his weight around in Loguetown, seemingly nothing can prompt Dragon to action in One Piece.
Luffy certainly wouldn’t want his father’s assistance at every turn, and Dragon likely realizes this, explaining why he refuses to help Luffy when he gets impaled by One Piece season 2 villain Crocodile, or wages war against Big Mom, or almost dies fighting Kaido. It could also be argued that Dragon has little interest in pirates squabbling among themselves over the One Piece, and is forcing Luffy to take accountability for his own career path.
Not all instances are as easy to justify, however. Many times during his voyage, Luffy sails close to death because he’s fighting marines or the World Government itself. Luffy attacks the government directly by assaulting Enies Lobby. He leads a breakout at the supposedly impenetrable Impel Down prison. He fights against the three Admirals during the Summit War and would die if not for Ace’s sacrifice. Most impressive of all, the Straw Hats clash against the Five Elders while attempting to save one of Dragon’s oldest friends.
Monkey D. Dragon’s first One Piece appearances came in chapter #100 and episode 52.
The frustration builds because, despite throwing his weight around in Loguetown, seemingly nothing can prompt Dragon to action in One Piece. The man’s job is literally to fight against the World Government, but while his own son risks life and limb beating up one authority figure after another, Dragon has remained skulking in the shadows ever since Loguetown.
Even Worse, Dragon Barely Moves At All For The Next 1000+ Chapters
Dragon Has Been Busy Behind The Scenes (Probably)
If Dragon isn’t saving his son or helping his son fight the government, one might expect him to be otherwise occupied fanning the flames of revolution, but One Piece confirms only a select few Revolutionary Army victories that occur during the story’s timeline. For the most part, it appears that Dragon has been orchestrating the liberation of islands enslaved by the World Government. It’s a worthwhile pursuit, certainly, but Luffy’s direct approach of going toe-to-toe against admirals, elders, and government agents is arguably causing bigger waves.
In truth, it feels like Dragon is simply waiting for the perfect moment to strike, biding his time before launching a single full-scale attempt to topple the World Government completely. This theory was seemingly confirmed by One Piece chapter #1083, when Dragon proclaimed that the “real battle” would begin as soon as God’s Knights mobilized. As of chapter #1139, God’s Knights have indeed mobilized, and are on a violent collision course against Luffy on the island of Elbaf. Dragon is still nowhere to be found.
The God’s Knights are elite warriors of the Celestial Dragons’ homeland. The Celestial Dragons sit above the World Government.
The frustration is mostly down to the question of why Dragon saves Luffy in One Piece season 2’s Loguetown arc if he has no intention of doing so again. The only plausible conclusion is that Dragon just so happens to be Loguetown at the same time as his son, so he decides to lend a hand on nothing more than a lucky whim.
Now Everyone Can Be Frustrated About Dragon In One Piece, Thanks To Netflix
It’s Time For Live-Action Viewers To Understand The Problem With Dragon
Netflix’s live-action adaptation has opened One Piece to a far wider audience, and newcomers to the franchise are already experiencing how such an epic and expansive tale can be a patience-tester. One Piece season 1 teased a rematch between Zoro and Mihawk that, even assuming Netflix lets One Piece run indefinitely, won’t transpire onscreen until the 2040s. Indeed, characters like Mihawk and Shanks won’t appear in any capacity for a very long time if future One Piece seasons follow the source material faithfully.
Nevertheless, Dragon is perhaps the most frustrating absentee in One Piece, and season 2 will finally make that as clear to Netflix viewers as it has been to manga readers for 25 years. Audiences will watch eagerly as Dragon dramatically interjects to save Luffy from Smoker. They will naturally expect this cloaked stranger to maintain some kind of watch over Luffy’s progress as the story continues. They will then gradually feel the sting of disappointment upon realizing that Dragon is just going to stand on the sidelines for most of One Piece‘s story.
One Piece season 2 is currently without a release date, but is expected in 2025 or 2026.
It will, however, be very interesting to see whether Netflix’s version of One Piece offers any additional details that might illuminate Dragon’s motivations more than the manga originally did. One Piece season 2 could, for example, explicitly show that Dragon visits Loguetown on Revolutionary Army business, which would at least confirm that he doesn’t deliberately set out to rescue Luffy. Such a small addition might help alleviate some of the frustration Dragon has typically incited over the past two decades.
One Piece (Live-Action)
7/10
- Release Date
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August 31, 2023
- Network
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Netflix
- Showrunner
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Matt Owens
- Directors
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Tim Southam, Marc Jobst, Josef Kubota Wladyka
- Writers
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Tiffany Greshler, Diego Gutierrez, Allison Weintraub, Lindsay Gelfand
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Iñaki Godoy
Monkey D. Luffy
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