#arc: sabaody

[kaizokuou-ni-naru]

What! Are your top five reveals in One Piece! Which ones made you go “holy shit” or “hell yeah” the most!

i'm taking reveal here to mean 'points at which previously-hidden information is revealed to the audience,' not just where we're told something new. so:

THE FREEST MAN ON THE SEA: maybe not as dramatic or seismic as some other things on this list, but to me luffy telling rayleigh that to him being the pirate king just means being the freest in the world is the single most important thing we ever learn about luffy's character, and it defines the themes of the whole series. it recontextualizes everything about luffy and the way he interacts with the world and the way he pursues his goal because now we finally know what that goal actually is, and what it means to him. and for the whole first half of the story we don't know this! it's easy to forget because we're, what, six hundred chapters past it now, but we get all the way to sabaody without really knowing what drives luffy, and then we get it and it slides into place perfectly.

WORLD SANK: a recent one, but so satisfying and well-placed. the sunken world reveal is the best kind of big lore reveal, to me, because it's something that makes so much sense it was completely possible to predict it years ago (and people did), and now that it has been confirmed, it's opened up a massive world of implications and questions that are incredibly fun to think about. i'm really excited to see where the story goes with it.

NIKA: i'm sort of rolling everything we learn about gear 5/nika/joyboy in the 1040 chapters of wano together here; i've written at length before on this blog about why i like the nika reveal so much, so i'll just say now that it takes one piece's most fundamental and powerful themes and symbolism (liberation and joy and the sun) which have been built up across the story and reveals to you that those things are a real literal force in the narrative strong enough to turn a draconic tyrant into a garden snake. and having established what he has now about nika, the way oda has continued to explore the implications of that figure existing in the world has been absolutely fabulous to read.

RAIZOU IS SAFE: a smaller and more arc-specific one compared to some of the others on this list, but i just really like the way this reveal is done. the interval between the dressrosa team's arrival on zou and the reveal that raizou was there the whole time isn't even particularly long, but it's the execution which makes it; the devastation of the city, the solemnity of the whole moment, inuarashi and nekomamushi bowing their heads, luffy and the strawhats' reactions. i like the minks a lot, and this is the moment that defines them as a group, as well as establishing the themes of loyalty and sacrifice that will go on to become very prominent in wano.

ROGER WAS DYING: i've talked before about how i really like the handling of roger as a figure and how our knowledge of him evolves and becomes more personal and human over the course of the story. the turning point in that evolution is the introduction of rayleigh; his reveal that roger was not caught, that he turned himself in because he was dying, and that they found the truth of the world there at the end of the grand line. it shifts the whole presentation of the story; we've been told about roger from the very start of the very first chapter, and it's here that we learn the information we thought we had about him has been woefully incomplete. there's a bigger mystery here, one greater than just 'what treasure did roger leave.' and i really like we get this context about roger in the very same scene we learn what it means to luffy to be the pirate king.

[ato-dato]

THE cowboy ever I fear

[beaulesbian]

ONE PIECE ep. 1115 || Bepo saving Law

Trust them, Captain! From the extremely cold port of the north till now, we've always survived! So none of us will die here! We've overcome so much together! So, Captain! Don't die! Please, don't die!

+ manga ch. 1081

[biscuitboba]

Uhh... zoro worrying and/or thinking about his captain's safety pre-TS era???

Orange town

Arlong park

Reverse mountain

Alabasta

Jaya

Water 7

Enies lobby

Thriller bark

Sabaody archipelago

Post war

[jimstermimster]

You, dinner, tomorrow.. me!!!

Theyre so funny... Old married couple after husband points to east thinking it was south

Sorry is zosan boring to u guys i literally love them ssososo much

[monthlymanga]

One Piece moments in my gallery that left me devastated

Some are understandable others might not be to y'all

Seeing Chopper in this state - ch.143

Tom's speech about loving your creations, bc at the very least if you don't love the things you make, who will? - ch.356

When Merry spoke her final words - ch.430

Brook regaining his will to live - ch.489

The beginning of their separation - ch. 512

Bon Clay in impel down - ch.536

Whitebeard and his fatherly love - ch.563

Whitebeard and Ace - ch.573

Universally agreed most devastating scene - ch. 574

The abducted kids from Punk Hazard - ch.688

[beanghostprincess]

Robin and Brook are the leaders of Sanji's protection squad (parent figures edition)

[every-sanji]

[lowqualityonepiece]

more chopper appreciation

[alazystranger]

zoro really went hmm noise and chaos? sounds like my soulmate is back

that moment when you realize the wait for your husband to come back from the war is finally over:

the way he's staring intensely at that grove like he can feel his luffy senses tingling after 2 years always gets me lol

[kaizokuou-ni-naru]

Bit of an odd question: Does Duval have an accent in the original Japanese?

In translation, he has a country accent and it's specifically noted that it comes out when he gets mad. Does he also have an accent in the original text and if so, what kind?

yeah, he slips into a sort of generalized touhoku (northeast japan) dialect when he gets worked up! touhoku-ben is treated as a stereotypically rural, 'hick' type of accent in japanese media- bartolomeo also speaks with a fairly heavy touhoku dialect. with duval, it's particularly noticeable in how his personal pronoun slips from the typical masculine ore to the dialectal ora, and he starts appending the particles be and ccha onto his sentences, which are characteristic of touhoku-ben.

[avianssphere]

a mish mash of sillies as i drew as i finished up wano

[beaulesbian]

"i have a weakness for powerful stares from lady sailors." "if you want to be saved, a strong but gentle lady sailor is the best!"

hello??? 🌈🌈 lesbian!nami fans winning like every arc!

[biscuitboba]

No but zoro and his self sacrificing tendency for luffy is very SICKENING cuz-

In arlong park despite being heavily wounded, roronoa zoro's number one priority will always be about luffy. Saving/protecting luffy. Even after hearing from sanji that luffy was at least somewhat 'still alive/fine' but zoro really said "huh, wdym by half-fine??"

Zoro think about yourself first, for once? Im so serious??

Or remember in sabaody arc right after thriller bark arc when zoro hadn't fully recovered from his injuries?

And then when they caught sanji in a metal net and tried to drown him, luffy being luffy his first instinct of course was to go after sanji. But then, despite (still) being injured, zoro really said "you can't you idiot, you will drown. I will save him in your place instead despite my currently very unwell condition"

I also don't think seawater is good for your wounds SIRR??

Im skipping to post TS era, but in wano arc when luffy and zoro fought against kaido-

(need to stop using this panel but maybe not)

Kaido was trying to kill his unconscious captain. At that point zoro was already badly beaten. Like really really bad. But zoro being zoro with his 30+ broken bones really said "okay traffy listen, i may or may not die from this next move that i'm about to perform, but hey, whatever it takes to protect my captain right?, i'll leave the rest to you"

Like yeah, luffy will always be his number one priority even before himself wbk, but i just think that he is insane about his captain and maybe you gotta chill just a lil bit zoro??

But tbh, if i were him i'd risk it all for luffy too so who am i to judge??

[dykealloy]

it's a good episode.

[animeyanderelover]

Why is it that the one character I find most attractive in One Piece, second only to Nico Robin, is the one who appears every 200 episodes?