I made a presentation about this for power point party on our OnePiece server, and now thanks to seeing @art-in-progressosoup ’s post I’ve been inspired to share it here as well. Please enjoy my take on which Radiant orders I think each of the Straw Hats would be part of and why.
The most obvious one of the lot: Luffy is the Willshaper. His character motivations are entirely built around freedom, and he literally fights oppressive governments at a whim. Not much to say about it really, so moving on.
Zoro is very clearly a Stoneward; his most important character trait is his immense loyalty to Luffy and his crew. He often takes a protector role for the weaker members of the crew, is very firm on his values and ideals, and he’s the most competitive one regarding fighting prowess (he literally wants a sports title, essentially).
No, her mirage skill is not the only reason why Nami is a Lightweaver. She’s a thief, a con artist; lies are her bread and butter, or they used to be at least, and her relationship to lies and deceit are important to her character arc. The scene at Arlong Park where she finally asks Luffy for help, that’s a Truth she spoke! Also, her map making is absolutely artistry and probably needs eidetic memory, so she’s got those aspects covered as well.
I considered Lightweaver for Usopp as well since he’s a storyteller, but ultimately I feel Elsecaller is a better fit—his dream is literally to reach his highest possible potential by becoming a brave warrior of the sea. His dream can only be reached when he believes it is reached, which pushes him so much further than where most people would set the bar for “brave warrior of the sea”, but Usopp has more potential, so he’s still going. He’s also incredible at encouraging others and tactics, so there’s that.
Sanji is a Windrunner, even if current canon Sanji is not a very good one (yet). While Sanji absolutely has the protective urges of a Windrunner, they tend to only apply to women (save a few exceptions), so I doubt current canon Sanji would make it past the second Ideal. Which is actually why I’d really love a Windrunner arc for him; it’d give him the character development that’d finally make him the amazing character he could be.
This is one of the few picks that has to do with the powers the Radiant order would grant; as a doctor, Chopper is clearly an Edgedancer. He very much keeps the regular people of the world in mind with a desire to help them, which fits wonderfully.
Robin is the most obvious one besides Luffy—she’s a quintessential Truthwatcher. Her goal to find the true history of the void century, her scholarly nature, it all just screams Truthwatcher.
Another one I consider fairly obvious; Franky is a Dustbringer. He’s a tinkerer, takes things apart to build something new out of the pieces, and he’s a literal walking artillery tank. Add to that the thematic aspect of responsibility with the plans for the ancient weapon that he protected for years, then destroyed them at the risk of his own life before allowing the World Government to get them—that’s a Dustbringer if I’ve ever seen one.
Now, I will say that I might’ve changed my mind about Brook since I initially made this presentation, but I’ll share my initial pick first, which is Lightweaver. The reasoning for it is honestly fairly simple; he’s an artist. As a musician, he fits the Lightweaver bill just as well as Usopp would as a storyteller or as Nami does as a map maker. Some of his powers also include creating illusions, which was a nice bonus. However, my eyes have recently been opened to the idea of Edgedancer Brook, and I might update this post at some point to add that.
Before you start yelling at me that he’s a pirate, just hear me out, okay? Yes, Jimbei is a pirate, yes, he clearly doesn’t follow the law—at least not the law of the World Government—but that doesn’t mean he can’t be a Skybreaker. (We’ll ignore that he was a Warlord cause that’s not actually my argument for him being a Skybreaker, but he also was a Warlord, which legitimised his actions for years under the law. Anyway.) But he does follow a code, in a way; he follows Luffy. Much like a certain Stormlight character, he chose a person to follow as his code, and he follows it without question. He’s a Skybreaker in their best form, a Skybreaker with firm morals who recognises the faults of official codes of law and found other, better codes to honour.
Vivi is a Straw Hat, fight me—and she’s a Bondsmith. Now, Bondsmiths as an order are a bit irregular insofar that they’re always at least partially circumstantial. Every Bondsmith we know in Stormlight canon becomes one out of necessity, it’s always tied to the situation demanding someone to take up that mantle. And that is exactly what Vivi does in Alabasta. There’s probably an order that’d fit her equally well if not better personality/character wise, but her choices are what make her a Bondsmith; she chooses to fight for unity and peace for her people, she chooses to take action politically within the World Government and is working to forge more unity there as well. She is Luffy’s counterpart, building new, better structures where he tears down the old corrupt ones.
And here we are, the Straw Hats as Knights Radiant!
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(I do have a bunch of other One Piece characters sorted into Radiant orders, but I don’t have nice little slides for them, so I might add them later if I ever make those.)
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