Monkey D. Dragon and his love for Luffy
I've been thinking a lot about Dragon and his love for Luffy lately so excuse me while I ramble.
Way too many people call Dragon a deadbeat or a bad father for leaving Luffy in Foosha under Garp's care, but let's take a look at the facts we have already been given:
Unlike some of the deadbeats we have in OP like, for example, Yasopp, who as far as we know, was just another civillian when Usopp was born, although he did hold the title of a renowed sharp shooter already (and he still ISN'T the worst father in OP, come on people, Judge is RIGHT THERE, give this man some grace), by the time Luffy was born, Dragon was already assembling the Revolutionary Army.
Dragon most likely had heard about Baterilla, and knew about Ohara, he wasn't about to make his own son the World Government's next child target by keeping him close.
Of course, the WG would already know that Luffy is Dragon's son, however, being also the Marine Hero's grandson gave him a certain protection, as long as Luffy couldn't be influenced by Dragon, the WG would be less likely to see him as an immediate threat, since he's instead being raised by a man loyal to the Navy.
Taking all that into consideration, Dragon made the hard but best choice to stay away from his son so he would be safe and sound and be allowed to grow up and have a childhood, instead of ending up a runaway from birth.
From flashbacks, we see that Dragon never forgot about Luffy either, he would sometimes visit Foosha to watch him from the shadows, and even when far away, he's always looking towards the East Blue.
There's also the time he saved Luffy from Smoker at Loguetown, he went out of his way to visit that place so he could see Luffy set off to the Grand Line, to do that the man had to actually take time to calculate Luffy's route and the day he would be arriving at that island so he could cross paths with his son, even if he still didn't reveal himself. After all, stopping his son in the middle of an essential step towards his adventures as a pirate to suddenly introduce himself as his father wouldn't be right.
Some may argue he could at least have met Luffy even just once, since by the age of 17 he was shocked he even had a dad, but let's be honest, the boy was always awful at keeping secrets, him not knowing Dragon was his dad was the safest option for him growing up, because he could easily say that to the wrong people, and then all the precautions would have been for nothing.
Not only that, If we think about it, Luffy knowing his dad from a young age would have been worse for both of them, because it would be complicated for Luffy to understand why his dad needs to stay away, and it would pain Dragon more to leave his son with the young boy now knowing he's somewhere out there and always waiting for at least a short visit.
Luffy already felt lonely without this knowledge as a kid, there's no doubt the feeling would have been even worse had he known about his parents' existence.
Through all of these details, it's clearly shown to us just how much Dragon actually loves his son and thinks about him, even if he can't be in his life.
All this to say that Dragon is far from the deadbeat some fans of One Piece make him out to be, if anything, he's one of the very few anime dads who is shown to constantly think about his child no matter how far apart they are, and how deeply his love for his son goes, even though he wasn't able to raise him.
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