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Enel vs Luffy: A Win That Doesn't Sit Right

It’s come up a few times — especially among older One Piece fans — that Enel was wildly overpowered and that Luffy’s victory over him didn’t make sense. While many defend it using the usual arguments (rubber insulates, thematic symbolism, etc.), I’ve sat with it long enough to say:

Luffy’s win against Enel was unjust, forced, and straight-up plot armor — no matter how you dress it up.

Here’s where I stand:

Rubber ≠ Invincible

Let’s get the basic science out of the way: rubber does not make you immune to electricity. Yes, it’s an insulator — but only up to a point. High enough voltage or heat? It burns, melts, or breaks down.

Enel was throwing out millions of volts. Literal lightning bolts. Even real rubber would fail catastrophically under that much energy. So the idea that Luffy — just because he’s “rubber” — could be completely unaffected is ridiculous if we're supposed to take any physical rules seriously.

🧠 No Pain, No Fatigue, No Consequences?

Even if you want to say “fine, Luffy doesn’t conduct electricity,” that still doesn’t explain:

No skin burns?

No heat damage?

No nervous system disruption?

Not even a flinch at 200 million volts?

It wasn’t resistance, it was full immunity — which is absurd. There’s no tension when your hero takes a literal god’s most powerful attack and stands there smiling.

“But It Was Thematically Powerful!”

Sure. The underdog vs the god. The freedom fighter vs tyranny. I get it. But storytelling themes don’t excuse breaking internal logic. The world of One Piece had rules — until it didn’t.

If narrative symbolism allows the main character to be immune to anything that matters for the sake of a “message,” then stakes don’t exist anymore. That’s just plot armor with pretty words.

Enel Was Too Strong for the Arc

Let’s be real ��� Enel was endgame material, dropped into an early arc.

Observation Haki before it was even a concept.

Instant teleportation through electromagnetic pulses.

Flight, AoE destruction, and island-level nukes.

And yet he lost because his powers didn’t work on one person whose entire biology made him a hard counter?

That’s not a fair fight — that’s game-breaking enemy nerfed by design.

“It Was Consistent With the World!”

No, it wasn’t. Oda never showed any other character being 100% immune to a logia. Even characters like Ace and Crocodile had workarounds — water, haki, etc.

Luffy didn’t find a clever way to beat Enel. He just naturally negated everything Enel could do. That’s not creative — that’s convenient.

Retcon Defense (Gear 5 / Nika) Doesn’t Count

Let’s stop using Gear 5 and the Nika fruit retcon to justify this fight.

At the time of Skypiea:

Luffy was just a “rubber man.”

There was no divine fruit, no “sun god,” no cartoon logic.

He was supposed to be one quirky power among many, not The Looney Tunes Avatar of Destiny

Trying to explain away a bad matchup by referencing a reveal 20 years later isn’t clever — it’s retroactive damage control.

So Yeah — The Fight Was BS

Luffy winning that fight was:

Scientifically inaccurate

Narratively convenient

Unbalanced from a power-scaling standpoint

And the earliest example of Oda writing himself into a corner and plot-armoring the way out

I know it’s a fan-favorite arc. I know the drums of liberation hit differently now. But if we’re being honest?

Luffy should’ve lost.

And that could’ve made the arc even better — Enel leaving for the moon undefeated, the Straw Hats surviving through grit, not immunity.

👇 Thoughts?

I’m open to debate — but no “because rubber is immune” responses unless you're bringing actual insulation thresholds, thermal data, or at least internal logic. Let's have the conversation.

[batmaps06]

Might be me not having watched the manga but somehow I can't help but think that The latest One Piece episodes feel abit off because it undermines Luffy’s status as a Yonko. After defeating Kaido, he should be treated with the same fear and respect characters like Shanks or Big Mom command. Having him struggle against Kizaru without the narrative acknowledging that gap weakens the impact of his growth and makes the Yonko title feel more symbolic than earned.