Just a little thought that came to me regarding these pictures:
and:
I still can't believe that Moria thought for a second that Oars with Luffy's Shadow inside would be enough to triumph over Kaido, let alone help him achieve the title of Pirate King, what a delusion. I think that Luffy, in a way helps villains, by waking them up from the delusions they trap themselves into and he does that by as much force as needed to get to their tough skulls. After that, they can move on to do better things in life like Buggy and Crocodile have been doing. That might be the reason as to why they seemingly don't hold grudges against Luffy when they see him later, as they on some level, realize he has done them a favor in a strange sort of way. This can be seen recently in Bellamy's case, as these villains don't necessarily believe the protagonist's ideals to be completely wrong, it's more of a case of them living in a non idealistic world thus they need to see the proof of such ideals and that proof is the good old might. This also ties in to Doflamingo's speech about the victors writing history or reality if you may allow me to say, so in a way, Luffy, the good protagonist substitutes the villains reality and force them to see his own through his titanic resolve. All of this he does subconsciously (of course as he is a baka
), and is another amazing quality he posses in addition to what Mihawk described about his ally making personality. Another hero, could have simply killed the villains, yet Luffy crushes their evil and sometimes unrealistic dreams and goes on giving them the chance to rebound and choose other more grounded dreams. Except for Enel, that guy is beyond repair.
The following paragraph belongs to a poster from Arlong Park with the alias "Tangaroa", with minor changes.
Been thinking that Luffy is like a divine wind, punishing those who stray from the right path while leaving better crews in their wake.
Dofla, Crocodile & Arlong were trying to start kingdoms, Kuro planned to murder his crew and escape to the land. Moriah had given up on true nakama for automatons but after Luffy was finished he was left only with his living crew.
Foxy was using the sacred Pirate games to graft and he too lost all his gains. Lucci and CP9 faced him and after the beat down became converts. Don Krieg tried to run from the grand line and lost everything. Wapol impersonated Pirates, just as bad, but now knows not to do it again.
Eneru has an endless sea to sail
Now Crocodile has returned to the sea and he's moving forward again.
Buggy, who has never really changed has done nothing but prosper.
Probably not everything fits but it's an interesting way to look at it.
Part of it but not the essence. Oda presents a certain ideal, an idealistic way of life (determined, mentally strong, free, romantic, unmaterialistic, following your dream without ever giving up...) which is represented by Luffy in all his traits, even his innocent, child-like behavior which can be over the top sometimes.
Some villains in One Piece on the other hand are used as an antithesis to Luffy. It was first introduced in the East Blue saga where Oda first established the themes ,with Loguetown being more or less the climax of that, before expanding on them on the Grand Line and now New World.
If we take Buggy´s materialism and his malice, Kuro´s cowardice in giving up on piracy or Krieg´s shortcut to strength, they all clash with Luffy´s ideals, so basically, to put it bluntly, you show what´s right (Luffy) by underlining what´s wrong (most of his opponents).
Now in Moria and Crocodile´s case, they both once were proud pirates with a dream, implied by both their stated goal to be Pirate King and their presence at Roger´s execution, but they were both initially denied that dream since they were both beaten and more or less crushed by people who either were part of the Yonkou and later became part of it (admittedly, in Croc´s case, we learn that only later). This is were real determination kicks in though, moving forward despite the tragedy you experienced and staying true to you and your dream but both Croc and Moria were not able to do that and now searched for alternative ways for power, basically Krieg´s mistake already, and also got comfortable in their position as Shichibukai since they lost their will to carry on.
They were already, mentally broken characters when Luffy faced them which also explains why Luffy could beat such opponents even though, considering their implied, past strength and their position, it should not be possible, since fights in One Piece, especially the ones Luffy fight, are clashes of will and determination.
Now in Croc´s case, it seems like Luffy´s display of real determination (almost dead two times, poisoned but still fighting) affected him, besides the outlook of having an opportunity to kill Whitebeard, in Moria´s case, we will see.
Luffy does not crush their unrealistic dream or anything though, since it would imply that his dream is unrealistic as well, but he crushed their way of following it.