Try not to get hung up on the words "common enemy"…
http://www.onemanga.com/One_Piece/306/03/
and
http://www.onemanga.com/One_Piece/318/16/…The shooting of the horse was the incident that triggered his rage and caused him to hate the guy, but you could easily make the case that he didn't do the whole thing on behalf of the old man in a fit of righteous indignation. Foxy was purposely provoking Luffy, and as a byproduct of doing what he wanted (ie. kicking Foxy's ass) he helped the old man and horse.
I don't agree with you. You are stretching the arguments to make them fit whatever point you are trying to make. (which is funny since as I understood it you didn't agree with Malintex in the first place :wassat:)
Foxy provoking him or not, he already wanted to kick the guy's ass. which was What Malintex asked about.
And again, even if it was all to help the old man, the old man was already established as friendly to Luffy – they were on the "same side". Luffy fights for those who are on his side, and that's not a noble action -- it's selfish and biased. Thanks to Luffy's gullibility he will easily befriend people and stick up for them. The argument being that everyone who sides with Luffy is "a good guy", and everyone who provokes him is "bad", regardless of their ideology, justifications, or motives.
Yes… that was the point. the argument Malintex was making was:
> But he hasn't exactly risked his life thus far for someone who was just nice to him.
The reason you help people you are friendly with over some complete stranger that you know nothing about is that you can see their point of view, where they are coming from. I can never agree with calling that "selfish and biased".
You can make up whatever argument you want to further this view of Luffy. You can even defend him helping Robin in alabasta DESPITE her status as an enemy just because she would eventually turn into a strawhat. Seriously, If you think Luffy is some selfish bastard you are just looking for things that aren't there. It's like the " <insert characters="" here="">represents the seven deadly sins" argument. Just because you can almost fit it if you try hard enough doesn't mean that is what it really is.
http://www.onemanga.com/One_Piece/223/17/
and
http://www.onemanga.com/One_Piece/223/18/…And here is a case where Luffy is ready to fight over 'nothing'. Again it's an issue of pride, not right or wrong. Someone rubs him the wrong way so he's ready to kick their ass. He has no idea whether Blackbeard is a saint or the nastiest sombitch to roam the planet -- he is ready to kick his ass over a dispute of pure opinion. That's not heroic at all.
Oh come on. You can't seriously be arguing that if Luffy is supposed to be a good, caring guy with empathy for others that he can't have any disagreements without having the moral right on his side.</insert>