“She feels compassion for everybody, so she never stops fighting. She doesn’t want a single person to die in this rebellion.”
“No casualties? The world is full of peace-loving fools like her. Easy for someone who’s never seen a real battle, don’t you agree?”
“That’s right. But as long as you’re still around she’s going to kill herself trying to stop you. So I’m going to finish you here.”
This speech gives quite a bit of insight into Luffy’s character and plays off of his argument with Vivi earlier on. Again, he’s stupid, not naive. High wisdom, low intelligence. However you want to slice it.
And Crocodile’s line is interesting here as well, because it’s a similar thought to Doffy’s famous line during Marineford. Even with the kidnapping incident as a kid, Vivi has for the most part only known peace. The true scope of war is something she can’t really grasp, in comparison to Crocodile who has likely only known violence going out of his way to cause more violence and destruction.
Much, much later we will be introduced to the corrupt nobility of Dawn Island, who despite only knowing peace knowingly orchestrate the deaths of their poor population in order to gain a little bit of clout, and learn that Whitebeard--who grew up in a terrible situation--spent his fortune turning his war-torn homeland into a paradise.
One Piece’s ridiculous length allows it to do is examine certain themes or ideas from a bunch of different angles. So while on the surface Doffy’s (and I suppose Crocodile’s line as well) seem like a contradiction, but when you dig deeper it’s not that simple.
The World Nobles (and other regimes that follow their practices such as those on Dawn Island) build a false peace through violence and oppression, whereas Whitebeard never really abandoned his violent ways as much as find a constructive outlet for them on the high seas.
What is always interesting to me is that Oda presents all this in the background. Luffy very clearly says here that he’s not all that interested in the politics of Alabasta’s rebellion. His only interest is in protecting his friend. Luffy thinks Vivi is kind of dumb here, but he still supports her. There’s nothing in the narrative to suggest Vivi’s way of thinking is wrong, only naive. Alone her vision is impossible, she needs the help of someone stronger than herself to make it a reality. With the main character ostensibly not making a judgement, the reader is allowed to decide for themselves who they agree with.
