Very curious to see Buggy’s flashback with Shanks and how they were basically friends. Even in the flashback, Buggy was pretty evil & Shanks was pretty kindhearted, so it is interesting that they would still gravitate towards each other. I think there are a few factors that could contribute to this and I hope it gets developed more in future episodes. We see that Buggy immediately becomes obsessed with the map upon finding it, when we don’t even know if it is reliable or actually leads to good treasure. Buggy does not seem to be one to think ahead much but his cleverness & stoicism help him get through, somewhat similar to Shanks. However, when things go very poorly for Buggy, he is quick to blame it all on Shanks and never let the grudge die, even when Shanks had no ill intention & didn’t really do anything wrong.
We see more of the Nami & Buggy similarity in this episode, where Nami hates pirates for stealing but steals from them while Buggy is upset that Nami would steal what he already stole. I think that Nami certainly has a more moral attitude about life, the universe, & everything, but she also makes choices based on self-interest. However, I think this applies to most of the protagonists & is part of what makes One Piece such a powerful show: these characters are very human, they have flaws, and they have grey morality, like most real people. Nami joins Luffy’s crew for her own purposes & goals, but this will also provide benefits to Luffy & the rest of the crew. Luffy has also shown this inclination, as has Zoro when he discusses his backstory, & ultimately, Buggy & Shanks are no different.
I like that Luffy becomes chill & happy & optimistic again after defeating Buggy and getting his hat back. He lost his cool over the hat, just like we saw Shanks do, and then calmed down, again just like Shanks, and I think that is just some good character development & world building. We see that Luffy does feel better when he gets his revenge & I think this demonstrates a strong sense of justice. Luffy is also honest to a fault, sharing details with the townspeople he did not need to share, resulting in them chasing the crew out of town. My interpretation was that Luffy both found this funny and also found it to be useful in helping unite the town against a common enemy after they had been suffering and wanted to defeat the pirates but were too late. Luffy always has positive intentions.
Last note, Luffy keeps just falling into new ships, bigger & better each time. The first ship was the one he & Koby stole from the Marines and now this one that Nami stole from Buggy’s crew. This is a fun dynamic & I hope it continues until he just accidentally winds up with a wholeass bi sailing ship with 3 masts and everything.