Lili-Chwan
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One Piece deals with the search and quest for balance. Dreams are directly related to the impabalance in your own life. it's because you miss something in life that your want increases. A perfectly well-balanced person does not have wants or needs in life, and if you do not have such a thing, then it means you are perfectly fine the way you are. To reach the end of the world, to find One Piece, you need someone with really strong desires and ambitions, and those only come from very strong influences in your life. The greater the diffulty in your life, the greater your character strength.
So, people who overcome a very traumatic experience are, undoubtly, stronger for it. If Luffy is searching for the strongest, as he should, then it's not surprising that he finds those who had to surpass increasingly worst situations.
Secondly, the Straw Hats are very unique individuals. They stand out from whatever community they belong to. Luffy does not pick those that blend in, he picks those that are separate. One could even say that he picks those who are strong and ostracized by those around them. Those with pure heart, great ambitions, and depth of character.
To be honest, it's not really about picking them, it's about finding those of like experiences. No matter what happened in their lives, Luffy befriends people for what they are now. Luffy forgets the past, and doesn't even want to know it. To him, what matters is how you act in the present, and the person you are in the present. To someone that has been traumatized, repressed, humilliated, blamed for existing, find great solance in the purity of someone like Luffy. The past weights someone down, even if their wills become stronger for surpassing hardships. They make you stand out. And to find someone that takes you for what you are, and not for what you were, is one of the greatest things in the world.
Finally, to Luffy, and to most D's, and to most of the higher pirates, it's all about being free. And such a great necessity for freedom can only come from a great repression in the past. You don't get to become such a high-character pirate if your only repression was being forced to go to sleep at 9pm instead of 10pm. You don't become truly good or truly evil without watching the extremes of human nature. And you don't achieve such a great, almost fanatic obsession for being free without a great and traumatizing childhood.
It's not that every person in One Piece has had a bad childhood. In fact, many characters had great childhoods (but bad teenager or adult experiences). But those that move the story along are the ones that had, and that is why you are mostly focused on people with traumatizing experiences. If this was a show about something other that life-risking pirates in search for freedom, then you'd see a different level of trauma. But everyone has a bit of trauma in their lives.
So, people who overcome a very traumatic experience are, undoubtly, stronger for it. If Luffy is searching for the strongest, as he should, then it's not surprising that he finds those who had to surpass increasingly worst situations.
Secondly, the Straw Hats are very unique individuals. They stand out from whatever community they belong to. Luffy does not pick those that blend in, he picks those that are separate. One could even say that he picks those who are strong and ostracized by those around them. Those with pure heart, great ambitions, and depth of character.
To be honest, it's not really about picking them, it's about finding those of like experiences. No matter what happened in their lives, Luffy befriends people for what they are now. Luffy forgets the past, and doesn't even want to know it. To him, what matters is how you act in the present, and the person you are in the present. To someone that has been traumatized, repressed, humilliated, blamed for existing, find great solance in the purity of someone like Luffy. The past weights someone down, even if their wills become stronger for surpassing hardships. They make you stand out. And to find someone that takes you for what you are, and not for what you were, is one of the greatest things in the world.
Finally, to Luffy, and to most D's, and to most of the higher pirates, it's all about being free. And such a great necessity for freedom can only come from a great repression in the past. You don't get to become such a high-character pirate if your only repression was being forced to go to sleep at 9pm instead of 10pm. You don't become truly good or truly evil without watching the extremes of human nature. And you don't achieve such a great, almost fanatic obsession for being free without a great and traumatizing childhood.
It's not that every person in One Piece has had a bad childhood. In fact, many characters had great childhoods (but bad teenager or adult experiences). But those that move the story along are the ones that had, and that is why you are mostly focused on people with traumatizing experiences. If this was a show about something other that life-risking pirates in search for freedom, then you'd see a different level of trauma. But everyone has a bit of trauma in their lives.
