History Recap / OnePiecePunkHazardArc

* LeeroyJenkins: When Kin'emon thinks that the dragon he beat up earlier might have been Momonosuke, he ''charges back into the DeadlyGas'' to go find him, despite Brook pleading for him to stop. Needless to say, he ends up petrified, although luckily he gets better later.

* AdultFear: Your children have mysteriously disappeared and the government is actually covering up their kidnapping.

[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/punk_hazard_arc.png]]

The straw hats intercept a distress call from Kin'emon, a samurai from Wano Country who lost his son Momonosuke on the island of Punk Hazard, which is half ice and half fire. Smoker and Tashigi follow, and Law is already there. The island is the base of Caesar Clown, a scientist who formerly worked with Dr. Vegapunk, but now works under Joker/Donquixote Doflamingo to produce a substance needed to make [=SMILEs=], which are artificial devil fruits.

Luffy finds Momonosuke, who ate an artificial devil fruit and turned into a miniature pink eastern dragon, and his crew finds a group of gigantic children, who Caesar has experimented on. The experiments have involved addicting them to drugs, and shortening their lifespans considerably. Needless to say, anyone who finds this out ain't happy.

Smoker is absolutely ''furious'' that Caesar is doing this with the tacit approval of the navy, and helps Law defeat Caesar's marine ally, Vice-Admiral Vergo. He and Tashigi assist in evacuating the facility when Caesar loses it and unleashes a poison gas that petrifies anyone caught in it. Caeser's breakdown gets even worse when Luffy finds him and embosses his fist on Caesar's face.

* AdvancingWallOfDoom: Once all parties make it into the base, Caesar systematically either destroys the walls of the surrounding labs buildings or open the gates to let the killer gas in and forcing the groups to continue forward or be caught in it.
* AndShowItToYou / BeatStillMyHeart: Law gained the position of Warlord when he delivered the hearts of 100 pirates to the marines. Smoker also winds up suffering from this power.

* BalefulPolymorph: Momonosuke, who ate a SMILE (artificial Zoan-type Devil Fruit) without knowing what it was--which turned him into a small dragon--and now has trouble controlling his transformations between his human and dragon forms.
* BigBadDuumvirate: Caesar Clown and Vice-Admiral Vergo, together, act as the plot-shaking villains of this arc. Caesar is the more visible of the two, the one that largely got it all moving to begin with, and of course, the one that abducts and experiments on children. Vergo is the one that covers up Caesar's child abductions for his experiments and as Doflamingo's longest serving crew mate he's definitely higher in the pecking order than Caesar, not to mention being much more powerful.

* CallBack: Half of the Straw Hats, Law, Smoker and Tashigi are captured behind a Seastone prison, just like back in the [[Recap/OnePieceAlabastaArc Alabasta arc]]. Robin [[LampshadeHanging even notices how nostalgic it was]] (even though previously she was on the other side of the cage).
%%* CharacterDevelopment: Up to this point, accusations of Luffy being self-centered and [[HeroicNeutral "only caring about his direct-friends"]] is ''mostly'' correct. Now, observe the sheer cold and terrifying ''fury'' on his face when he listened with horror and rage at how Caesar Clown callously proclaimed the children he is experimenting on (whom Luffy has '''not''' personally-befriended at this point, mind you) can easily be replaced when they die in five years time. In spite of his claims to '''not''' be a hero, the boy has certainly ''has'' grown to become compassionate, kinder and selfless in the last 2 years.

* EnemyMine: In order to stop Caesar and Vergo, Luffy, Smoker and Law decide to work together. Law released Smoker on the account that he forget about him and Joker, while Luffy had allied himself with Law earlier on to help take down one of the Four Emperors. Smoker was notably pissed off about having to ally with Luffy and Law.
** Also, Kidd, Apoo and Hawkins are (somewhat) willing to discuss the possibilities of making an alliance. By the end of the arc, their alliance is official.

* ForbiddenZone: Punk Hazard to both pirates and Marines. Getting on shore is tough enough as one has to transverse the lake of fire. Coming in through the ice side is no picnic either.

** In chapter 682, after the two double team the dragon that has been chasing them, Brook observes that Kin'emon attacked it like a man seeking revenge and Kin'emon replies that Brook isn't far off. We learn in the Wano Arc that Kin'emon's master Oden was killed by Kaido of the Four Emperors whose Devil Fruit allows him to turn into a dragon.

* HailFirePeaks: What was initially thought to be an island of fire turns out to be both fire AND ice due to the island being the spot where Akainu and Aokiji fought for the position of fleet admiral. Their powers wound up changing the whole climate of the island which is still in effect after two years.
* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: Due to the fact that there anywhere from four to five swordsmen (including Tashigi) in this arc, plus Law, who is capable of this without killing the target, there was a lot of this going around. Victims include: Kin'emon (who was split into thirds), Tashigi, Scotch, Monet, and Vergo. Only Monet wasn't a victim of Law's devil fruit, and the only reason she survived was because she is a logia and Zoro didn't put any Haki into his attack. She is also the only vertical example of this.
** Also Buffalo and Baby 5. Damn it, Law, calm the fuck down.

* JumpingOnAGrenade: Mocha, one of the giant sized kids Caesar experimented on but didn't lose her senses from withdrawal like the others, found out about the danger the candy was to herself and her friends and teamed up with Chopper. In order to keep the other kids from stealing it back from her and endangering their lives further she eats all of it herself.
* KarmaHoudini: Caesar ''tries'' to invoke this by saying that he's protected by Donflamingo and Kaido, but unfortunately for him he's trying to pull this on Luffy.

* PowerIncontinence: Momonosuke, as the consequence of eating one of Vegapunk's failed artificial Zoan fruits. He turns into a dragon, but an extremely small and goofy-looking one with absolutely no idea how to harness any of his powers (he makes clouds to walk on once, but he was unaware of what he was doing at the time). He didn't even know that Zoans could transform back to their human forms, or to a hybrid.

* SpannerInTheWorks: Luffy, as always. In fact, the three strongest of the protagonists of this arc (Luffy, Law, and Smoker), and their respective crews, allies, and subordinates are all this. Thanks to a timely distress call, Luffy and co. ended up going to Punk Hazard. Smoker, still obsessed with chasing after Luffy, orders the men and Tashigi to follow them. Then, at the island, thanks to Law hearing news of their arrival, decided to finally turn on Doflamingo. What was once a highly secret operation that involved producing faux-devil fruits and a major WMD for Doflamingo is now in complete ruins, with the scientist responsible half-way dead and two of his most reliable subordinates on the verge of or ''already'' dead. All just because some samurai ran off to the island to find his kid, which ''caused'' the aforementioned distress call.

* TheStarscream: Law was under the service of Doflamingo, but betrayed him at some point, deciding to steal the SAD tankers from him, preventing him from creating more Smile Devil Fruits. Not to mention he plans to head to Dressrosa with the Straw Hats, to destroy the Smile factory located there.

* TranquilFury: Luffy, when confronting Caesar. He's quiet and calm, but he introduces himself with a Gear 3 attack and it's obvious he's '''furious''' with Caesar for [[WouldHurtAChild hurting children]].
* UndyingLoyalty: Monet is totally willing to destroy the island for Doflamingo, even knowing that it will kill her too.

* WhamEpisode: Trafalgar Law returns having become a Warlord of the Sea, Punk Hazard is revealed to be the location of Akainu and Aokiji's fight, Law and Luffy form an unprecedented pirate alliance, Law is revealed to be a former subordinate of Doflamingo, The SAD Ceasar Clown produces happens to be used by Doflamingo to make SMILE artificial Zoan type Devil Fruits for one of the Four Emperors, Kaido is revealed to be the target of Luffy and Law's alliance, and Aokiji returns to save Smoker from Doflamingo. Truly a Wham Arc for the ages. Well, until later arcs inevitably surpass it, because this is One Piece.

* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway: Kin'emon has the devil fruit ability to... summon clothes. It doesn't actually slow him down any because he's a BadassNormal anyway, but it bears noting.

* TheWorfEffect: Smoker gets hit with it rather badly throughout the arc. First he was beaten by Law (which gets a pass because he's a Warlord of the Sea). Then it was Vergo (though it was heavily implied that he could've beaten him and lost only to get out of debt to Law). Then he suffered a ''severe'' NoHoldsBarredBeatdown at the hands of Doflamingo....

* [[WouldHurtAChild Would Perform Experiments on a Child]]: Caesar, who's using the kidnapped children for his experiments which so far have caused them grow giant sized. What's more is that he's keeping them sedated by feeding them candy made from a highly addictive drug. If the kids go too long without it, they go into violent withdrawals which cause them to hallucinate and attack anyone on sight, too much at once or prolonged exposure is going be fatal.

The straw hats intercept a distress call from Kin'emon, a samurai from Wano Country who lost his son Momonosuke on the island of Punk Hazard, which is half ice and half fire. Smoker and Tashigi follow, and Law is already there. The island is the base of Caesar Clown, a scientist who formerly worked with Dr. Vegapunk, but now works under Joker/Donquixote Doflamingo to produce a substance needed to make SMILEs, which are artificial devil fruits.

* WhamEpisode: Trafalgar Law returns having become a Warlord of the Sea, Punk Hazard is revealed to be the location of Akainu and Aokiji's fight, Law and Luffy form an unprecedented pirate alliance, Law is revealed to be a former subordinate of Doflamingo, The SAD Ceasar Clown produces happens to be used by Doflamingo to make SMILE artificial Zoan type Devil Fruits for one of the Four Emperors, Kaido is revealed to be the target of Luffy and Law's alliance, and Aokiji returns to save Smoker from Doflamingo. Truly a Wham Arc for the ages.

* UnfriendlyFire: Monet dies when Vergo stabs her removed heart, thinking that it was Law's.

* ShutUpHannibal: Caesar's BreakingSpeech to Luffy only serves as an indication of how much of a SmallNameBigEgo he is and that he is really out of touch. He claims that Luffy is a small fish and asks him if he was willing to take on the big names backing up ''his'' ego: one of the Four Emperors, and the Warlord of the Sea Donquixote Doflamingo. Anyone who knows shit about Luffy these days knows that he'd be willing to take on the entire '''''WORLD''''' if it came to that. As such, Luffy decked him and retorted that he's ''always'' fighting guys like that.
* SmallNameBigEgo: Caesar. He's got a lot of big names backing up ''his'' ego, but the truth of the matter is that he's a weakling. Once Luffy bothered to take him seriously in a fight, he was getting tossed around like a chump and tried to play the small fish card. That didn't end well for him.

* AFatherToHisMen: Brownbeard cares very much for his underlings. Thus, once it is revealed to him that Caesar is a BitchInSheepsClothing, he immediately pulls a HeelFaceTurn and helps Nami (stuck in Sanji's body) and Usopp, and later on Zoro, Brook, Sanji (stuck in Nami's body), and Kin'emon get to the laboratory to stop Caesar and save his men.
** Smoker. It's made even more obvious in this arc.
* AdvancingWallOfDoom: Once all parties make it into the base, Caesar systematically either destroys the walls of the surrounding labs buildings or open the gates to let the killer gas in and forcing the groups to continue forward or be caught in it.

* GovernmentConspiracy: Kids being kidnapped off of ships to be used for Caesar's experiments and someone in the Marines keeping it a secret.

!! Short Summary

** Law tells Luffy that the only way to survive in New World is to either ally oneself to an Emperor, or become one, noting as well that Luffy isn't one to serve others. After [[Recap/OnePieceWholeCakeIsland the Whole Cake Island Arc]], Luffy becomes the fifth Emperor.

* GenreSavvy: Knowing Luffy's nature, Smoker expected him to head to the volatile Raijin Island after leaving Fishman Island.

** Strangely averted with Doflamingo. Oh sure, he may have killed Bellamy, but to be frank that guy was a dick and wasn't worth the trouble. As for his other subordinates, who are far more competent, reliable, and much smarter than Bellamy, he legitimately cares about them. He apologized to Monet for asking her to die for him, yet she was about to do so ''willingly'', he apologized to Vergo for sacrificing him and thanked him for all his hard work, he has stated that he saw Law as a little brother (though that is debatable), he did not blame Baby 5 and Buffalo for failing to complete their objective, stating that they were following orders and did all they could, and when Monet unexpectedly died and was unable to perform her suicide attack, being unable to answer him on the Den Den Mushi, he went to Punk Hazard ''himself''.

* ShutUpHannibal: Caesar's HannibalLecture to Luffy only serves as an indication of how much of a SmallNameBigEgo he is and that he is really out of touch. He claims that Luffy is a small fish and asks him if he was willing to take on the big names backing up ''his'' ego: one of the Four Emperors, and the Warlord of the Sea Donquixote Doflamingo. Anyone who knows shit about Luffy these days knows that he'd be willing to take on the entire '''''WORLD''''' if it came to that. As such, Luffy decked him and retorted that he's ''always'' fighting guys like that.

* CharacterDevelopment: Up to this point, accusations of Luffy being self-centered and [[HeroicNeutral "only caring about his direct-friends"]] is ''mostly'' correct. Now, observe the sheer cold and terrifying ''fury'' on his face when he listened with horror and rage at how Caesar Clown callously proclaimed the children he is experimenting on (whom Luffy has '''not''' personally-befriended at this point, mind you) can easily be replaced when they die in five years time. In spite of his claims to '''not''' be a hero, the boy has certainly ''has'' grown to become compassionate, kinder and selfless in the last 2 years.

* ImplausibleFencingPowers: After getting his body back, Kin'emon first action is to ''cut an explosion'' after one of the slimes explode. Needless to say, both Zoro and Brook are impressed.