Having a body made of rubber might not seem like much of an advantage on paper, but we’ve seen One Piece’s Monkey D. Luffy think up some spectacular uses of his abilities throughout the course of the series.
Luffy’s imagination seems as flexible as his body, creating a character who always keeps the audience guessing with his increasingly creative approaches to the many challenges he encounters. To fans, the Gum-Gum Devil Fruit power (or Gomu Gomu no Mi) has a presence as familiar as that of its bearer, though all that attention means it’s easy to forget some of the lesser-known facts as the ability grows and evolves alongside Luffy.
Let’s take a closer look at the Gum-Gum power, and revisit aspects of it that deserve more attention.
The Gum-Gum Power Absorbs Impact Damage
This one shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s ever bounced a rubber ball before, but Luffy is remarkably resilient to the damages typically sustained when a person falls from a great height. The Gum-Gum power transforms the bearer’s entire body into rubber, which naturally absorbs the shock damage created from a body’s impact meeting the floor.
This means that Luffy can survive multi-story falls despite reaching the terminal velocity that would undoubtedly kill any other person, enabling him to stand back up and continue fighting. It allows for him to do battle in otherwise precarious terrains, emphasizing his inherent ability as a warrior capable of adapting to any situation.
Rubber’s natural absorption of impact damage also means that the Gum-Gum power makes Luffy relatively bulletproof -- considering most of the bullets used in the world of One Piece are the widely-issued circular ones. Since the bullets are not sharpened at the tip, shooting one at our favorite rubber pirate creates more blunt force trauma than a penetrating sharp force injury, which the Gum-Gum power is highly resistant to.
This allows for Luffy to not only absorb any bullets shot into him but fling them back at their shooters with equal speed, creating a defense just as deadly as his offenses.
The Gum-Gum Power is Resistant to Water & Electricity Pressure
Following along rubber’s list of natural immunities, electricity is a well-established insulator against electricity. This gives Luffy an impressive advantage against those who would use electricity to their advantage during fights, namely many of the electric Logia fighters.
As shown in his battle against Enel, an opponent whose electric body deterred those he encountered from using melee attacks and other close combat techniques, Luffy’s rubber body acted as an insulator against any possible damages. This subverted his previously high defensive skills by allowing Luffy to hit him without any fear of the repercussions. For these reasons, it was also possible for Luffy to do battle with electric Logia users without the weaponization of Haki, which Luffy did not develop a mastery of until later in the story.
The Gum-Gum power also builds resistance against water pressure, allowing Luffy to do battle despite the considerable restraints a submerged environment can provide. While ordinarily, a Devil Fruit user shouldn’t be able to survive submersion in water, Luffy’s ability to stock a bubble with enough air to survive temporarily, and his possession of a malleable body, make him capable of withstanding the punishing crush of water pressure at the bottom of the sea.
The Gum-Gum Power Uses Physics To Pack Powerful Punches
You might not have heard the term 'potential energy' since Physics class, but it’s a big reason why Luffy is so prone to fighting with only the help of his body. Though his fighting strategies are generally close combat, he’s capable of stretching various limbs back to their breaking point, building up potential energy like a spring. The result is a high-velocity blow with the impact of a far-ranged attack, often devastating to opponents who are unable to avoid it.
Luffy’s preference for this style of attack makes him relatively immune to other damages; enemies who attempt to stretch or twist him quickly find that it’s a fairly useless mode of attack. There is, however, a limit to how far he can stretch himself back. Pulling himself too far can result in bleeding and painful tears, with the added side effect of needing several moments to revert himself to his original shape. When engaged in battle with a quick-moving opponent, this can be particularly dangerous, as the moments in which he’s reverting his stretched body back to its original shape leaves him vulnerable to attacks.
The Gum-Gum power additionally offers no resistance to fire, ice or slicing attacks, as rubber operates much in the same way. Cold temperatures limit the lengths to which he can stretch, as it makes him vulnerable to potentially breaking, with fire having the opposite effect.
The Gum-Gum Power Can Increase Blood Flow
Though Luffy’s Gum-Gum power transforms his body into rubber, his blood remains unaffected, which is a significant advantage. By stretching his blood vessels wider, Luffy boosts the speed of his blood flowing through his body, allowing him to move faster and fight harder.
While this does come at the price of quickly depleting his bodily energy and rendering the body part in question an angry lobster red, this technique also lays the foundation for him to then ignite the limb with the use of Haki, creating a more powerful attack.
The Gum-Gum Power Inflates Luffy's Bones & Organs
The advantages of a rubber body don’t end with flexibility and the ability to stretch oneself thin. Luffy’s also capable of increasing the surface area of his body, enlarging different parts to create more powerful attacks. This is done by inflating his bones and muscles, transforming his arms or legs into enormous versions of themselves to create more devastating blows.
The same principle seems to have been applied to his lungs; when encountering Marigold’s poisonous breath, Luffy took a breath large enough to generate huge gusts of wind capable of clearing the air. Luffy’s stomach additionally seems to be capable of stretching well beyond the point of a normal human’s, which is likely responsible for his large appetite.
A stretchable stomach makes him not only capable of attacking huge quantities of food but also a far quicker digestion period, resulting in his comically insatiable hunger!
