Awesome / One Piece: Super Rookies Era

The only Badass Boast he needs.

Even when the Straw Hats were just starting out, One Piece had its Awesome moments.

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East Blue Saga

Romance Dawn Arc

• For Shanks, the whole saving-Luffy-as-a-child thing complete with LOSING HIS ARM to a Sea King and then scaring it away with a GLARE.^note This was likely the very first evidence in the series of the concept of Haki, though it wouldn't get that name for a very long time.
  • What really makes that scene is Shanks telling Luffy, "It's just an arm."
  • The image may be the header for the show's Tear Jerker section, but this is most certainly one of the most awesome and badass moments of the initial arc. Pretty heartwarming, too.
• One minor, but noteworthy thing: Lucky Roux is the very first person to score a kill in the entire story.
  • What really sells it is how causal he is about it. Out of nowhere, he shoots the bandit threatening his Captain at point blank range... all the while looking more focused on the hunk of meat he always seems to be eating.
  • Really, the entire exchange leading up to this shooting is a great Establishing Character Moment, reminding the audience that, while they are drink-loving party-goers, the Red Hair Pirates are still pirates, and they aren't to be underestimated.
    Higuma: Listen... I don't know what you think you're doing here, but you might want to leave. You wouldn't want something bad to happen. And I've got just the man to deliver that message.
    (One of Higuma's bandits points a pistol at Shanks' head)
    Bandit: I'll blow your head off if I have to! But that's up to you, my friend!
    Shanks: (smiling) Would you risk your life? Now that you've drawn your pistol are you willing to use it?
    Bandit: What the hell are you talking about?
    Shanks: I'm saying that guns aren't for threats, they're for actions.
    (Lucky Roux blows the bandit's head off)
    Other Bandit: You! You're a dead man!
    Another Bandit: These guys fight dirty!
    Yassop: (incredulously) Dirty?!
    Benn Beckmann: Who did you think you're dealing with? We've never claimed to be saints or anything.
    Shanks: You fellas are staring down a group of pirates.
• Koby's first Moment of Awesome, which occurred in the very first episode by telling off his boss, Alvida:
  Koby: You're the most... ugliest thing on the sea!! [...] I'm leaving and I'm gonna join the Marines! Then I'm going to spend the rest of my life beating up dirty pirates like you. [...] I'm gonna do what I want. And no one's gonna stop me! And when I join the Marines, [...] I'm gonna catch your lousy ass first!!
  • He gets another one when he sees Luffy and Zoro off after they defeat Morgan. He salutes them in respect, and then suddenly, from right behind Koby, all of the Marines Luffy and Zoro just liberated from Morgan join in the group salute. Let's think about this: Marines are saluting pirates. This is so far the only time the Marines ever gave such a form of respect to Luffy and his crew.
    • You've got to love what comes immediately after. The commanding officer tells Koby that "you've got a good friend there." He then promptly turns around and tells the other Marines that, because saluting pirates is really bad for a Marine, they all have to go without food for three days. Response? "YES SIR!"
• How about the fact that Luffy recruited Zoro at the execution platform? Either Zoro was going to remain a civilian and die, or join Luffy and become a criminal. He chose the latter.
  • Considering the kind of person Luffy is, this was, and still is, awesome. As noted by Zoro:
  Zoro: You must be demon spawn...But I'm not ready to die without a fight! All right, dammit! You've got yourself a pirate!!
  • And thus was the beautiful beginning of the Straw Hat Pirates...
• How about that first Gum Gum Pistol? Still so satisfying to watch.
• The amazing teamwork between Luffy and Zoro for their first team-up. There was no heads up or warning from Luffy for Zoro to attack Morgan while Luffy took out Helmeppo. Luffy entirely trusted Zoro to watch his back.
  Luffy: Nice, Zoro.
  Zoro: Leave it to me, Captain.

Orange Town Arc

• When fighting Buggy the Clown's second mate, after cutting open his own wound to show what a badass he is, Zoro gets kicked around a bit by Cabaji. Finally, he complains that he's tired, knocks Cabaji off his unicycle, and, when Cabaji rushes him, Zoro takes him down with one strike. This is Zoro's second fight scene.
• Buggy blowing up his own henchman with a cannon for making fun of his nose (or so he thought).
• Nami hands Luffy over to Buggy to get into his crew and rob him when his guard is down. Then Buggy has Nami set a fuse and shoot a Buggy ball at him. When she’s hesitates to do it, Luffy calls her out for getting in involved with pirates with a half-assed resolve.
  Nami: Resolve to do what? To kill people like it’s nothing? Is that a pirates’ resolve?
  Luffy: No. The resolve to put your life on the line!
  • Even better, he’s actually shocked that she tried to save him instead. He said this fully expecting to get blown up.
  • Speaking of which, this turns into a moment for Nami herself. When a mook lights the cannons’ fuse himself, Nami whacks him on the head in a spur of the moment. Without any time to dose it with water, she smothers the spark with her bare hands until it’s snuffed out.
• Luffy suplexed a giant lion. And then took out the lion tamer with one hit. All to make sure a dog gets some peace in its life. None Piece even notes how awesome it is:
  I think it's time to switch condiments, 'cause that weak sauce ain't helpin'! I killed a lion!
• When Luffy and Zoro go confront the Buggy Pirates, Luffy pushes Buggy's Berserk Button by calling him, "BIG NOSE!" and provoke the clown into firing one of his town-destroying Buggy Balls at the pair. Luffy inflates his stomach with "Gum Gum Balloon!" and bounces the ball back. The result is Buggy's entire crew being taken out, with the exception of Cabaji and Buggy himself.

Syrup Village Arc

• Kuro effortlessly sneaking behind the rebelling Siam and Buchi and threatening to kill everyone if they can't get past Luffy and Zoro in the next five minutes.
• Remember when Luffy was temporarily hypnotized? Yeah, not only did he effortlessly Gum Gum Gatling the other hypnotized Mooks, but he tore off the figurehead and part of the keel of Kuro's ship, easily three times his height and massive enough that the mooks did a Mass Oh, Crap! when he threatened to swing it at them. And let me remind you that this is all the way back before he got to the Grand Line.
• Usopp not hesitating to try and shoot Kuro point blank in the face with the pistol Kaya dropped to protect her. Kuro gets one in return for dodging that.
  • Just the fact that, as scared as he was, he was PERFECTLY willing to go up against Kuro and rescue Kaya the instant he found out his true plans. He even voiced his intent to stand against his crew at the seashore before he had any reassurance that Luffy, Zoro and Nami would help him out.
• Luffy's Shut Up, Hannibal! to Kuro, telling him that in his eyes, Usopp will always be better than him.
• Kuro deserves credit for putting up a much better fight than Buggy did without a Devil Fruit power of any sort. His Out of the Bag attack allows him to move too fast for the eye to see... and he is only an East Blue villain.
• Kuro's Lack of Empathy for even his own crew hits Luffy's Berserk Button, so what does Luffy do? Stand there taking his slashes until he gets an opening to grab Kuro and slam him down. Luffy then tells Kuro to his face he'll never be like him.
• Usopp's 'crew' managing to give Jango a decent fight. They didn't win, but being able to take a grown pirate off guard and give him a few licks is impressive for three little kids.
  • Even after Jango took them all down, they still managed to buy Zoro enough time to complete his combination attack with Usopp (detailed below); by sneaking up behind Jango (who was distracted trying to kill Kaya) and ramming a shovel up his ass. Doubles as a Funny Moment; the agonized expression on Jango’s face was priceless.
• Kaya having the guts to threaten to kill herself (and thus ruin Kuro's plans, as they need her alive to sign over her fortune to him) to protect Usopp's three friends.
• Luffy defeating Kuro by grabbing him during his ultimate attack and wrapping him up with his rubber limbs to immobilize him before finishing him off with one serious headbutt (called appropriately the Gum Gum Bell, as in Kuro's bell's about to get rung). He then proceeds to give a Badass Boast to Kuro's crew before pretty much telling them "Take him, leave, and never come back". And boy did they hurry to comply!
• Zoro and Usopp defeating Jango, particularly with the team work: Zoro cuts just the right branch to clear Usopp's aim, allowing him to nail Jango right in the face with a long range exploding shot.

Baratie Arc

• Luffy's fight against Krieg. Krieg fires stakes at him, which he simply runs straight through, getting impaled, punches through Krieg's spiked cape to hit him in the face.
  • Breaking Krieg's exploding spear...by punching the dang thing over and over again, tanking all the explosions until it breaks.
    • The manga had a somewhat more hardcore version of this moment, where Luffy apparently shattered the spear's blade with his teeth!.
  • Credit where it's due, Krieg No Selling Luffy's Gomu Gomu no Gatling, considering how many enemies have fallen to a version of that move.
  • As much of a Smug Snake Krieg is, he's the first Arc Villain to come genuinely close to killing Luffy, and would have if Sanji hadn't dove down to save him.
  • Luffy reversing Krieg's last ditch attempt to kill him into a super powered Spinning Piledriver to finish him off.
• The end of Zoro's first fight with Mihawk. First, he gets stabbed in the chest nearly to the heart with Mihawk's knife, but refuses to step back because he'd rather die than lose and break his promise. Then, he uses his ultimate technique for one final clash with Mihawk, only to have two of his three swords broken. Accepting defeat, rather than flee as Mihawk comes in for the finishing blow, he faces Mihawk so he can deliver the final blow to the front of his body. Mihawk expresses confusion at this, to which Zoro states, "A wound on the back is a swordsman's shame." Mihawk smirks and voices his approval of the gesture with a simple "Admirable." before following through on his strike.
  • Luffy attacking Mihawk with a Gum Gum Pistol after it looks like Zoro was killed, dispute having just seen how far out of his league Mihawk is.
  • Chapter 51 against Mihawk. When preparing his Three Thousand Worlds technique, there is a bead of sweat by Mihawk's eye. It is true that Mihawk effortlessly defeated Zoro regardless, but it was at that moment that Mihawk saw that Zoro truly had the potential to be the one to surpass him.
  • His sheer determination also earned Mihawk's respect, at first enough to ask Zoro his name after previously stating he can't be bothered to remember the name of every bug he steps on, and even wielding his actual sword as a courteous gesture of taking him seriously. And Zoro accepting defeat and not running from his finishing blow seals it, making him hold back enough to not outright kill Zoro, his Inner Monologue telling Zoro to not live so hastily; showing that Mihawk clearly wants Zoro to be the one to surpass him as the world's greatest swordsman someday. It helps that he's suffering from a serious case of Victory Is Boring disease.
• Sanji kicking Fullbody's ass and then delivering a couplet "Offending a chef at sea, is one mistake you should never make. Especially when that chef is me, Sanji."
• Krieg lifting the Mackerel Head (the Baratie's battleship) out of the water with one hand and tossing it towards the Baratie itself.
  • His true Moment of Awesome came when he opened fire on Hawkeye friggin' Mihawk. After the swordsman had cut his flagship to ribbons and easily taken out Zoro, he still had the cajones to fire at the man who could deflect bullets with his blade, without a moment's hesitation.
    • Unless of course that wasn't cajones so much as overconfidence.
• Mihawk attacking and giving chase to Don Krieg's massive crew of over 5,000, with his four inch knife, just because they disturbed his nap. He also sails the seas alone in a little raft. The same seas that are frequently described as being chock-full of freaky weather, (200 foot tall or more waves,) extremely powerful individuals, and giant monsters. Mihawk has more awesome crammed into him than most powerful crews have put together.
  • The wretched condition Krieg's ship is in when it shows up at Baratie? Mihawk did that. Alone. With his sword. And Krieg used to have more ships.
  • When Mihawk reveals himself, one of Krieg's pirates tries to shoot him. Mihawk just sticks out his sword and the bullets seem to go the other way. That's how skilled Mihawk is with the sword.
  Zoro: No. Shooting at him is useless. He deflected the bullets with his sword. [[...]] I've never seen such subtle sword-work.
  Mihawk: Without subtlety, a sword is but an iron bar.
• Gin being able to fight. He hasn't eaten in days except for what Sanji has given him, he was in a cell for 3 days and likely abused by the Marines who caught him... and yet he was still able to take out several Marines, capture the experienced (albeit handicapped) Zeff and defeat Pearl with a single blow.
• Luffy, who at that point was a complete nobody, defeating the supposed "strongest man in the world". And thus began the long-standing tradition of Luffy beating the crap out of jerkasses with over-inflated egos and showing them who's boss.
  • He did this even though Krieg actually did have some means to counter him, like a defense of spikes. Luffy punched through it, despite getting hurt. Along with Buggy, this might be his first victory that took some effort.

Arlong Park Arc

• Sanji's cooking deserves a mention here. After all, it managed to hunger an ENORMOUS sea cow-monster to a crazed state from SEVERAL MILES AWAY and send said sea monster into a high speed pursuit after the Straw Hat's replacement ship (see Episode 31).
  • Sanji then proceeds to beat up said sea cow-monster (which is said to have destroyed an entire village) when it tries to eat him in addition to the food he'd offered it. He calls it 'exercise' afterwards.
  • Next time we see said monster, the Straw Hats tied it up and use it to pull their ship to Arlong Park.
• Zoro, still heavily injured from his fight against Mihawk, is brought into Arlong Park as a prisoner. After being released by Nami, does he stealthily escape? No, he beats the crap out of every Fishman there, then tricks Hachi into giving him a ride.
• When Nami pretends to stab Usopp but really stabs her own hand. She was willing to take it that far to protect her friends.
• Nami's adopted mother managing to blindside Arlong and shove a gun in his mouth. Had Bellemere known the full situation and just pulled the trigger, she'd likely have killed him then and there. Of course, then there's the fact that she chooses to die rather than abandon her children.
• Luffy's sole reason for challenging Arlong was because the Shark-Captain made Nami cry... on top of being a jerk. He proceeds to demolish Arlong Park and curbstomps that arc's Big Bad through the remainder of the building.
  • That one also is for the crew as a whole. Luffy places his hat on Nami and walks off. He comes to the rest of the crew, calmly waiting, and simply says "Let's go." Everyone falls in line and follows him to Arlong Park, ready to fight for their friend.
    • The next volume opens with a shot for each member of the crew. Nami is in tears, with the caption "STAND THE PAIN". The others? "STAND BY".
• Luffy introducing himself to Arlong. He smashes down the gate to Arlong Park, asks who's Arlong, then does a Slow Walk towards him. When two Fish-men try stopping him, he nonchalantly smacks their heads together without missing a beat. He then punches Arlong so hard he's sent flying into the wall of the place.
  Luffy: That's for making our navigator cry!
• Zoro's fight with Hatchan.
  • First of all, Zoro was burning up with a fever and hampered by his previous injuries from Mihawk and yet he still fought. Arlong himself was shocked and amazed that he was still able to stand.
  • Then, he caught Johnny and Yosaku's swords that were thrown to him from behind.
  • When Hatchan began punching apart a pillar and tried to have it fall on top of Zoro. Zoro just gets up and pushes him into the path of the collapsing pillar, stating "Why don't you take it yourself?" Sadly this doesn't happen in the anime.
  • And then, he dodged all six swords from Hatchan in close combat and while dodging, managed to cut Hatchan across the chest.
  • While a semi-conscious Zoro was tossed in the air, Hatchan began spinning his six swords like windmill, so that when Zoro fell back down, the rapidly spinning blades would slice him mercilessly. For a minute, it looked too late for Zoro to dodge them. Only for him to land safely to the ground, as he cut up Hatchan's hands in midair, spinning his body so that it matched the rotation of Hatchan's swords.
  • After the fight Arlong, probably the single largest human racist in the series, who inspired his only competition, has a complete and utter belief that no human can ever match up to a Fish-man. Upon seeing the wounds Zoro had been fighting with, it took him all of three seconds to decide that he was too dangerous to be left alive. To put this into perspective: Arlong, the first true Big Bad of the series, was more afraid of the unconscious, half-dead swordsman than anyone else. Considering he was defeated in the past by the then Vice-Admiral Borsalino (currently Admiral Kizaru), Arlong knew full well how powerful Zoro can become.
  • Zoro reminded Hatchan when they met again right before Sabaody that he wasn't able to touch him in their previous fight.
• Sanji kicks Kuroobi's ass through Arlong Park, after taking the pain of fighting him underwater, and taking the pain of rapid water pressure increase crushing him.
  • Early in the fight, Kuroobi demonstrates his Fish-man Karate skills with a punch that sends Sanji through the wall back out of the park several hundred feet. Sanji then gets back up and reveals that he had essentially No-Sold it.
  Sanji: So that's a 40th-dan attack? Pathetic. The old man's kicks were 400th-dan.
  • "The chances of you surviving are... ZERO!" "COLLIER! You said my chivalry was naive? EPAULE! That I can't protect anyone, huh? COTELLE! SELLE! POITRINE! GIGOT! MUTTON SHOT! Guess you don't... need dessert."
  • How Sanji forced Kuroobi to the surface: realizing that while Fish-men can operate on both land and underwater, they switch between breathing air and breathing water. He promptly exhales his held breath directly into Kuroobi's gills, nearly drowning him.
• After successfully deterring Arlong's henchman off his trail and coming up with all sorts of stories to tell his crewmates to excuse his escape, Usopp says to himself 'this is shameful', gets up and fights. It's the point where he turns away from being a true coward.
  • Usopp is able to outsmart Chu throughout most of their encounter, using his bag of tricks against a superior foe.
  • "What did you say was over?" "This fight! Did you know that grog burns?" Bad. Fucking. ASS.
    • And then he beat him half to death. With a hammer! And a rubber band.
      "I did it! I beat a Fish-man! YOU SEE THAT, LOSER? I BEAT YOUR ASS! I CAN'T BELIEVE I ACTUALLY DID IT! WHO'S A PIRATE NOW? I AM USOPP THE PIRATE!"
  • Earlier on, Usopp is hiding while Arlong is about to kill a man for possessing a weapon. If the town does anything, Arlong will destroy it. Usopp has no reason to reveal himself...but he does anyway. By shooting Arlong right in the face with an explosive. Usopp is scared to death, knows going up against Arlong and his entire crew isn't something he's capable of...but does it anyway. The end result is both the man and the village living to see another day and Arlong having such a Villainous Breakdown his men have to forcibly drag him away.
  • Arlong was angry when Zoro and Sanji beat Hatchi and Kurobi respectively, but when he learns that the cowardly and weak Usopp beat Chu? He looks like his brain broke. He can grasp that some humans exist strong enough to defeat fishmen, but Usopp just proved that an ordinary human can beat one of his elite fighters.
• Give Nojiko and Genzo credit where it's due. It was their efforts that got Luffy to survive the fight since they took turns trying to resuscitate him. Knowing full well that Arlong could kill them if he catches them, they still tried their best to help the Straw Hat captain get back in the fight.
• Nami's taken down her share of bad guys, but certainly her most stylish moment was leaving her village...and stealing everyone's wallets in the process.
• Arlong when, pissed off by Luffy's antics, his eyes turn red and narrow. Sanji realizes this means Arlong's going into Unstoppable Rage mode. He then proceeds to kick Luffy's ass around for a little while before going for the BFS (the "S" can stand for both "saw" and "sword"). That said, Luffy took the beating and just commented, "Damn, he's really pissed now."
  • A Marine ship fires a cannon ball at him, and he simply opens his mouth and destroys it with his jaws.
• Arlong and his his crew are arguably the first true opponents the Straw Hats faced that really challenged them. Buggy wasn't prepared for another Devil Fruit user, Kuro relied on manipulation and his crew, which he stupidly had hurt, and Krieg relied too much on his weapons. Each of the Fish-men is easily a match for the Straw Hats, requiring real struggle and skill to defeat them. Hell, Arlong was on the verge of killing Zoro before Luffy returned, and even then he put up a hell of a fight. He was the first one to really test Luffy at his own game.
• Arlong sinks his jaws into Luffy twice through their fight; once into Luffy's arm and once into his neck. The strength of those jaws had been shown to be capable of bending steel and crushing stone, but Luffy keeps him from doing either simply by beating him until he lets go. When Arlong bites into his neck and is about to tear out his throat, Luffy reaches back, grabs Arlong's blade-like nose with both hands and snaps it like a toothpick.
• One of the most amazing moments of the arc, and still one of the most bone-chillingly awesome moments of the series. Arlong and Luffy find themselves in the cartography room, where Arlong goes on a Motive Rant about how with Nami's help, he'll take over the world. The whole time, Luffy's just passively grunting while looking at the bloody pen. Finally, Arlong puts his saw blade to Luffy's neck and asks if he can use Nami as well as he does. Luffy then drops the pen, grabs the blade, shatters it with his grip, and says "USE?!"
• Then, Luffy proceeds to destroy the whole room for representing Nami's enslavement.
• When Luffy shatters Arlong's teeth for the first time (itself an awesome moment), he gives a short speech about all the traditional pirate activities he can't do (like wielding swords and navigating) and needs his crew to do for him. Arlong laughs and goes on a rant on how pathetic he finds Luffy and ends it questioning his worthiness as a pirate captain, asking "Just what can you do?" And Luffy responds with the most simple yet effective Badass Boast of all time:
  Luffy: I can beat you.

Loguetown Arc

• During Loguetown, right before Buggy attempts to kill Luffy in front of a huge crowd of civilians, Buggy asks Luffy if he has any last words. He does, and declares that he'll become the pirate king at the top of his voice, stunning the civilians.
• While out sword shopping Zoro is about to make a purchase, but is warned by the shopkeeper that that particular sword is cursed, as all who have wielded it in the past have met horrible deaths. Zoro proceeds to test out this curse in an awesome fashion by throwing it up into the air and seeing if it will come down on his arm blade-first. It doesn't. That's right, when Zoro goes sword shopping, he doesn't mess around. The shopkeeper is so impressed by this badass display that he immediately apologizes for trying to cheat him earlier and gives him the best sword he has (which is stated to be his family's heirloom, no less) and the cursed sword for free out of sheer respect.
• Dragon's Big Damn Heroes moment, savings Luffy from Smoker.
• Alvida has returned... as Ms. Fanservice? And she's mellow? And an actual challenge? Best. Devilfruit. EVER! Starter Villain be damned.
• Though technically filler (Oda came up with the scene, but cut it from the manga for pacing reasons), Usopp winning a sniping contest against Daddy Masterson, the Marines' Best Sniper was awesome. Usopp has to hit a weathervane from all the way across town or else Daddy will execute him on the spot. Nami tries to defuse the situation, but Usopp tells her it's all right and he takes the shot. A tense moment passes while everyone watches the weathervane... which doesn't spin at all. Nami and Daddy Masterson's own daughter both beg him not to kill Usopp, to which an impressed Daddy replies: "I can't shoot him. Usopp shot right through its crown". The weathervane didn't budge because Usopp shot it directly through the center of its mass, earning Usopp the victory along with the new goggles he was trying to buy earlier. Between Usopp and Zoro, it seems a Straw Hat Pirate can't even go shopping without putting their life on the line. And Usopp had recently learned to fight back, he was far from his best.
• And of course, another technically filler scene from the anime of Smoker's recollection of Gold Roger's execution. Just... everything about it, really. It's so good it even gets re-done in the later episodes whenever Roger's execution becomes relevant again, it's just THAT awesome.

Baroque Works Saga

Whiskey Peak Arc

• Zoro's fight with 100 assassins at Whiskey Peak. He fights 100 different assassins and 4 Baroque Works agents. And with the assassins he not only has a massive laugh attack the whole time, but also easily breezes through all of them in the most badass way possible, for a chapter.
  • Zoro issuing a Facepalm of Doom to Ms Monday, made even better by her bragging right beforehand that no man can match her strength.
    Zoro: What's the matter muscle woman? Isn't this what you wanted? To test your strength against mine?
  • Zoro vs Luffy. Zoro may often seem like second string compared to Luffy, but this battle showed he's every bit as tough as his captain. The fight ends in a stalemate when Nami interrupts them, but up to then it was a fairly even fight. And this is after Zoro had fought 100 bounty hunters and 4 single digit Baroque Works agents...after drinking a dozen men under the table.
  • Luffy and Zoro sending Mr 5 and Ms Valentine flying with offhand punches, expressing irritation that the "pests" were interrupting their fight.
• Mr. 9's Heroic Sacrifice to help Vivi escape. "Bye bye, baby."
  • We find out after the two-year time skip that he did indeed survive, as did Miss Monday, who performed a heroic sacrifice shortly afterwards. The two are currently living at Whiskey Peak, a married bounty hunter couple with a son.

Little Garden Arc

• During the conclusion of the Little Garden arc, Mr. 5 (a bomb-man) is about to kill Usopp by detonating his entire body. Suddenly, Zoro leaps out, and defeats Mr. 5 with one attack. While on fire.
  • And right before that, when he was still trapped, he actually started to CUT HIS OWN FEET OFF to escape.
    Nami: How did you think you were going to escape after cutting off your feet?
    Zoro: You've got it wrong, I was cutting off my feet so I could fight them, not escape.
  • On top of that, while waiting for Luffy to come and free them from the wax, Zoro poses with his sword. Nami asks what is he doing and he replies with "In case we become candles, I have a nice pose."
• It's not the most substantial arc in the world, but it's Usopp, and not Luffy, that ends up being the hero. Luffy's kick to Mr. 3's spinning candle of doom only managed to make things WORSE, in that it caused the wax to coat Zoro, Nami, and Vivi that much quicker. Not only this, but he also got himself snared by Miss Goldenweek's painting. Usopp, on the other hand, was the one who managed to exploit the wax's weakness by setting the whole thing on fire.
  • It actually took both of them working together. First, Usopp fires a Flame Star that the enemies think missed, but it was Exactly What I Aimed At; Usopp's shot burned off the Color Trap, freeing Luffy. He then, even while being squashed by Miss Valentine's Crescendo Stone, yells at Luffy to burn the rope he had Carue wrap around the wax because it's soaked in flammable oil, so Luffy grabs Mr. 3 by his flaming hair and does just that.
• Despite not playing a big role in most of the arc, Sanji gets his at the end when he intercepts a call from Mr. 0, meant for Mr. 3, and after convincing Mr 0 that he (Sanji) is the real Mr. 3, manages to 1) con him into believing that the Straw Hats are dead (which protects the entire crew from further pursuit from BW while sailing to Alabasta), 2) defeat the Unluckies when they try to kill him on arrival, and 3) intercept their Eternal Pose to Alabasta, which allows the group to leave the island without delay.
  • And it's worth noting that the aforementioned Mr. 0 is none other than Crocodile, one of the Seven Warlords. That's right, the saga's resident Chessmaster gets played hard.
• Nami and Vivi easily achieve theirs in the Little Garden arc by finally taking out that laughing hyena Miss Valentine.
• Luffy was facing Mr. 3, and he had many wax clones, bragging about how Luffy will never be able to hit him. Luffy hit the correct one, and knocked him out. When asked how he knew which one was real, Luffy's response? "Instinct." Apparently, even Luffy has class.
  • Luffy's retort is even better given that it's an Ironic Echo of Mr. 3's earlier taunts that he's "just a monkey operating on instinct."

Drum Island Arc

• There's when Luffy climbs a mountain... during a blizzard in freezing temperatures while having no ventilation... with his bare hands and feet... while carrying two of his crewmates, one of whom is in his teeth.
  • The Lapahns. And avalanches. And saving a little lapahn from an avalanche. And that the 'mountain' was a literal pillar hundreds of feet high with no handholds, and completely smoothed by gale force winds. Not to mention he is frostbitten to the point where his muscles were freezing. Not that wussy 'frost-bite' frozen, but frozen to the point of actually cracking apart.
  • Then taking a direct hit from a mortar shell defending Dr. Hiluluk's jolly roger from Wapol. Cue "Luffy Gets Angry" mode.
    Luffy: This flag isn't something you can break while laughing foolishly!
• Luffy asking Dr. Kureha to save Nami and Sanji when he himself was on the verge of freezing to death after the above-mentioned mountain climb.
• Chopper almost getting himself killed to get a mushroom he thought would save lives.
• Chopper defeating two of Wapol's top men in 3 minutes, the exact amount of time the Rumble Ball's effects last, demonstrating all of his seven forms except Horn Point in the process.
• Hiluluk. Oh God, Hiluluk — and it's made arguably more awesome by being his last words. "Sooner or later, I will die anyway. But a man does not die when he is shot. Nor does he die to disease, nor to eating a poison mushroom! He does not die due to a sword! A man dies when he is forgotten!"
  • It mirrors perfectly with Gold Roger's own death, right down to the philosophy on death.
  • Oh, and he goes out by drinking something that makes him explode. He may have been a quack, but he's got style.
  • We later learn that Wapol's twenty doctors were so impressed they did a Heel–Face Turn just to not continue being outdone by a fake doctor.
• Retrospectively, this arc gives the first glimpse of how dangerous Blackbeard is. He and his crew overthrew a kingdom by themselves... and this was before his big recruiting drive, so there were only four of them at the time.
• In a flashback, a young Vivi proves surprisingly mature when, after Wapol deliberately bumps into her at a Council of Kings meeting, she realizes that any personal disputes between members could escalate to international incidents, and pretends that she's fine. That incident left a strong impression on Dalton, who was impressed by her maturity.

Alabasta Arc

• The final defeat of Sir Crocodile: he's punched through the solid stone roof of an underground chamber so hard a city block above him explodes, and he's not just punched once - Luffy performs a vertical variant of his iconic Gomu Gomu no Gatling that also adds upward rotational force, resulting in Crocodile being bombarded with punches across his entire body that also bust right through his Desert La Spada, delivering a glorious No-Holds-Barred Beatdown that he deserves every single second of.
  • In the anime this happens while Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" 4th movement plays. The recap movie changes the exploding city block to Crocodile being propelled vertically through a massive tower and rocketing out the top.
  • Funimation nailed this scene.
  • The music becomes awesome in hindsight when one considers what the second half of the Grand Line is called.
• Zoro's fight with Mr. 1. Come on, he had pity for the guy he couldn't defeat. Because when he would be able to do it, he was going to be the man capable of cutting steel.
  • Zoro tossing a BUILDING off of himself in Alabasta. He is a normal human with no special power other than raw badassery and more muscle than his looks give him credit. You should see his weight training regimen. When a swordsman regularly practices sword swings using a barbell bigger than him, you gotta realize the guy is Made of Iron.
  • Not to mention the finale. After being slashed across the chest and buried under rubble, Zoro stands up, absolutely tranquil, with the understanding that he needs to finish off Mr. 1 with an iaijutsu strike.
  Mr. 1: You failed with three swords. Can you defend yourself with only one?
  Zoro: I won't... defend...
  Mr. 1: So, you're prepared... to die!
  [Mr. 1 rushes towards Zoro as Zoro prepares his attack.]
  Zoro: One-Sword Style... Lion Strike!
  Mr. 1: Atomic Spurt!
  [Both unleash their attacks at the same time. Only Mr. 1 gets damaged and falls.]
  Zoro: (as he sheaths his sword) Thanks to you... I've finally reached the next level.
• Mr. Prince. Sanji uses the fact that Baroque Works had never seen his face to screw them over. Most of the crew (and Smoker) are trapped in a sea stone prison, where the room is flooding and they're staring down one of many Bananawani lining up to eat them. Sanji and Chopper beat up the Baroque Works agents outside and use a Den Den Mushi to call Crocodile out of his Casino, where he's lured further away by Chopper in his Heavy Point form (posing as Mr. Prince). While Croc's distracted, Sanji blows up the bridge entrance, makes his way in, and rescues the rest of the crew.
  • "Mr. Prince" also makes his entrance punting one of the massive Bananawani into the air with a single kick.
  • Doubling as a funny moment, once Luffy and Zoro are free they make a pile of Bananawani by the time everybody else turns around.
• In his and Chopper's fight with Mr. 4 and Miss Merry Christmas, Usopp takes a blow from a multi-ton metal bat. To the face. While being dragged at thirty miles an hour. And. Kept On. Fighting.
  • How about the speech he gave? An X-ray panel showed that is skull was shattered into pieces after taking that baseball bat. The same attack was also enough to put him in a body cast. And what did he do? He stood up, and he started talking. Then when he was done saying his piece, he used one attack to KO three enemies at once. If that's not badass, what IS?
  Usopp: LISTEN, CHOPPER! For a man...
  Miss Merry Christmas: It's about time you died, Long Nose! MOGURAZUKA MOLEHILL HIGHWAY!
  Usopp: Even... E-Even if... h-he's about to die... Facing fierce enemies...
  Miss Merry Christmas: Off to Hell you go! MOGU MOGU IMPACT!
  Chopper: Usopp!
  Usopp: E-Even if... There's no way... he can beat the enemy...
  Miss Merry Christmas: Mr. 4! Quit standing there laughing like an idiot! You're up to bat! 4-ton Bat! Here we go! MOGURAZUKA YONBAN KOUSATEN!
  Chopper: USOPP!!
  Miss Merry Christmas: No matter what weaklings do, in the end they're still weak! Just look at him!
  Chopper: YOU JERKS! You...!
  Miss Merry Christmas: Eh? You want a piece of this? Bring it on. We're gonna off ya just like we did that Long Nose coward!
  Chopper: SHUT UP! Usopp... Usopp isn't a coward!
  Usopp: There is a time... ... when a man... ... will not run from a fight.
  Miss Merry Christmas: Wha-? You're still...!
  Usopp: That time is when his friend... When his friend's dreams... ... are laughed at!
  • Even before all of the above, Usopp manages to use the confusion of the fight to sneak into the tunnels Ms. Merry Christmas dug and psych them out by hitting Mr. 4 with a (fake) five-ton hammer and playing the whole thing off like he was the one who singlehandedly defeated every Baroque Works agent up till that point. For a moment, his lies work for him, and Miss Merry Christmas is ABSOLUTELY GODDAMN TERRIFIED. It doesn't do much because the attack ultimately doesn't have much effect on Mr. 4, but in that moment, Usopp had completely played the brains of the duo, and convinced her he was a terrifying opponent.
• Nami gets another one during her fight with Miss Doublefinger, where she has her foot impaled on a spike but says that the pain is nothing compared to Vivi's, before finishing off her opponent. And this while trying to figure out her new Clima-Tact for the first time, so she was doing more useless gimmicks than anything.
• Chopper finding a GIGANTIC crab and piloting it for a getaway vehicle.
• Crocodile revealing just how beautifully he manipulated all of Alabasta, and handing Luffy his first and second total defeats.
• After an arc of being beaten soundly by every villain she encountered, Vivi finally gets her moment when she single-handedly sends two villains, Mr. 7 and Miss Father's Day, careening off the side of a clock tower in one hit, after she deliberately missed with her first attack so she could catch them off guard with the second. These were villains that, when Vivi was still on their side, were the next ones up from her (her partner Igaram was Mr. 8).
• Captain Smoker: TELL 'EM (his superiors) TO SHOVE OFF!
  • The dubbed version, while not as vulgar, is just as powerful: "Tell them I said go to hell."
  • He says this twice. Once when he went after the Straw-Hat pirates without orders, and then after being offered a reward by them simply because he was there when the Straw-Hats saved their bacon and they need to reward somebody. Apparently, he'd previously turned down a promotion, and one imagines he turned them down with those same words.
• Vivi's duck Karoo gets one as well, when he and Vivi are running away from Bon Clay, and Karoo runs straight up a several-hundred-foot tall wall, despite having gotten heavily injured in a stampede mere moments ago.
• Pell's speech before his Heroic Sacrifice.
  "I am a Guardian Deity of Alabasta. The Falcon! It is my duty... to destroy the enemies of the Royal Family!"
  • He survives an explosion capable of wiping out a city, at POINT BLANK RANGE!
• How about Robin joining the crew? Prior to this moment, when a crew member joined (barring Zoro), it was a Heartwarming Moment, and most fans had the expectation that Vivi was going to join. She didn't join, and then suddenly Robin was in the crew. Seeing her win over the crew was awesome.
  • How she did so was quite simple: Luffy accepted her offer, (because she isn't a bad person; also Luffy did tell her she could do what she wanted, if she wanted to join his crew, who was he to go back on his word?) Nami went from keeping her distance to calling Robin "Sis" due to Robin's jewel bag, and with Sanji, well, he was on board with the idea to begin with. Usopp and Chopper caved when she used her powers to help Luffy make silly faces. Only Zoro wasn't amused.

Sky Island Saga

Jaya Arc

• Luffy and Zoro have a chance to be awesome without beating anyone up on Jaya Island. In fact, it's awesome specifically because they didn't beat anyone up while taking ridicule from Bellamy and the rest of the bar.
  • In addition to that, when Luffy does fight Bellamy later on, it's wall-to-wall (to turn a phrase) Moment of Awesome. Luffy simply stands in one place while Bellamy bounces all over the place at a speed too fast for the naked eye, gleefully ragging on Luffy and his idealism. Then he finally lunges at Luffy... who knocks Bellamy out cold with only one hit, leaving a fist-shaped dent in his face. "Do I know how to throw a punch?" indeed.
    Bellamy: So you want the gold back, huh? Because Old Man Cricket's your friend?! Wake up! He's nothing but a decrepitated fool who spends all his time chasing after a 400-year-old lie! But that's probably what you like about him, huh? You like to call yourselves pirates, but you know nothing! There's no "City of Gold"! No "Island in the Sky"! Just oceans, ships and the men who sail them!
    Luffy: You asked if I knew how to throw a punch... [cracks knuckles]
    [...]
    Bellamy: SO LONG, STRAW HAT!
    [Bellamy lunges at Luffy for his finishing blow, only for Luffy to reel in his fist and slam him on the floorboards, knocking him out with one punch.]
  • What's more is that neither Bellamy nor his crew had any idea how much of a monster Luffy really was. Even after they got word of his updated wanted poster (which showed he outranked Bellamy in infamy), his behavior earlier made them think it was a fluke. One punch later, and the poster literally flew in Sarquiss's face as he and the rest of the Bellamy Pirates realize the bounty is no joke.
  • The best part is that Luffy doesn't even use his Devil Fruit or a named attack, he just uses a single, normal punch.
• Nami's true crowning moment of awesome comes when she navigates the Going Merry UP a Knock Up Stream, which is capable of tearing up small islands. Anyone can kick ass, but only Nami can predict weather on the Grand Line and sail a ship onto a sky island.

Skypiea Arc

• Luffy fighting Eneru. Eneru might seem relatively tame, but the beginning of the fight is epic. Eneru hits him with his strongest attack. Luffy is still standing, not even scratched. He figures he must have missed, so he sends a giant electric monster at him, which swallows Luffy whole but doesn't even leave a scratch. Then Eneru hits him with at close range with everything he's got. And then... Luffy hits him. A full page of the manga is given just to show the shock on Eneru's face.
  • And then after Eneru has to visibly collect himself and manages to barely fight off Luffy, Luffy yells at him that even if he gets past Luffy and onto the Blue, he will still have to contend with the 'hundreds of rubber monsters' down there. Given that Eneru has never heard of rubber his entire life and has no clue what's down in the blue seas it's clear he's terrified.
  • Every time Eneru has shown up to this point he's been totally untouchable and one shotted anyone he came across, Sanji and Zoro included. Everyone else is down for the count, except Nami and a little girl and it is left to Luffy who is quite literally Eneru's "natural enemy".
    • This may be Foreshadowing on Oda's part when you find out he Will of D means one is God's (Celestial Dragon's) natural enemy.
  • And then came the final part. Luffy's just had his arm grafted onto a giant metal ball by molten lava, and he still hasn't given up. Everyone in Skypiea is cheering him on to end the war for good. As Eneru mockingly says he'll simply dodge the next attack, Luffy winds up for a GIGANTIC Megaton Punch using the very golden ball Eneru grafted on him. It stretches on long enough to ring the golden bell, ending the four hundred year war.
  Luffy: LET THEM HEAR IT!
  * Luffy manages to hit the bell, crushing Eneru in between*
  Luffy: Can you hear it old man? The city of gold is here! Resting for over 400 years... The city of Gold... HAS BEEN IN THE SKY!
• Zoro realizes he needs a "flying slash" attack to be able to strike from a distance, so he develops the one-sword "36-Pound Phoenix" and uses it against Braham.
  • Then Zoro perfects the three-sword "108-Pound Phoenix", defeating Ohm by going through a wall AND Ohm's Iron Cloud sword, despite not knowing where Ohm was.
  • The Italian translation gives the technique a much more badass name: the "108 Devilish Passions of the Phoenix".^note "Devilish Passions" is probably a loose translation of the "Earthly Desires" told in Buddhism, where Zoro got the original 36 and then multiplied by 3 (for his three swords).
• Zoro's Badass Boast when asked what he could possibly do against Eneru:
  "By the time I'm done with him... this 'god' is going to bow before me! I don't believe in him anyway. What do I care about pissing him off?"
• Zoro is seen pushing off a huge weight again. This time it's a huge slab of marble...one-handed (because he had just caught Chopper with his other arm mid-fall).
  Zoro: Damnit! I almost died!
  Robin: That would've happened...to a normal person.
• There's something to be said of Nami being the lone survivor of Eneru's twisted game, and then managing to actually put a decent defense up against him to stall for time. Bear in mind that before this, the only person who was able to actually mount any sort of defense or offense against the guy was Wiper, and almost in a kamikaze attack.
• Sanji kicks Usopp out of the way of a gigantic lightning blast and takes it himself. To say the shot of his silhouette fading as the lightning rushes toward him is awesome would be a complete understatement.
  • And then, standing there, burnt to within an inch of his life by one of the strongest DF powers, he mutters "I was going to ask you for a light, but I guess now I don't need one." Bad. Ass.
    • It gets better: Sanji then proceeds to continue his boasting by telling God Eneru to "Get ready to cry." And then he falls unconscious on his face. And a few seconds later the ship engine Sanji had sabotaged starts exploding, throwing Eneru in visible distress.
• "Ordeal of Love." After Luffy, Usopp and Sanji spend a fair amount of time having trouble with one of the bad guys in the Skypiea arc, Sanji beats him by himself (with help from Luffy) while equating the beatdown to preparing a meal, complete with a line about "tenderizing the meat... brutally".
  • The Funimation Dub, while different in its script in this scene, still has kept the badass Sanji feel and the line about tenderizing the meat.
    (Dub) Sanji: I got a question. Do you ever cook? Well, you don't have to be a chef to know which dish is Best Served Cold.
• Chopper's fight against Gedatsu. Combination Moment of Awesome and badass level up.

  Chopper: NOW I'M A PIRATE TOO!

• Robin's awesomeness when her Adventurer Archaeologist and Badass Bookworm kick in as she takes on and defeats Yama, Chief Enforcer of Eneru's forces, after he destroys ancient ruins of Shandora. Even saying, 'Even if you choose to repent, I won't forgive you." for what he did to the ruins. And subsequently whips his ass via swinging him into a tree, sending him to crash into another tree, having his own Axe Dial belt used against him, turning down his pleas of mercy, hurdling him off of a cliff, and breaking his back before he even hits the ground after falling off of said cliff.
• Wiper himself is so Made of Iron that he took a 30 million volts and an El Thor head-on, and uses a Reject Dial, a device known to destroy a man's body after two uses, to kill off Shura, actually kill Eneru (though Eneru amplifies his heart to revive), and blast a gigantic beanstalk so that Luffy and Nami can confront Eneru. ALL. WITHOUT. DYING.
  Wiper: ENERU!!! Don't take my name in vain!
• Luffy destroying the Raigou thunder ball, exploding it followed by the rays of the clear blue sky shine through the massive hole in the clouds it made. Looks even more amazing in the anime.

Water 7 Saga

Long Ring Long Land Arc

• After seeing Luffy get the crap kicked out of him by Foxy, it was very satisfying to see him turn the fight around in one punch.
  Luffy: HELL YEAH!!
• Zoro's speech to a crying Chopper during the Davy Jones Games, being the only one who didn't panic about Chopper being taken by Foxy, also deserves a mention here.
  Zoro: Quit your bellyaching, Chopper! It's disgraceful! You made the choice to set sail as a pirate; only you! And now, you have to live with the consequences of that decision. We agreed to the terms of this game. You, Usopp and everyone else did the best they could. Not one pirate worth his salt is gonna sympathize with those tears! A man... would suck it up and quietly watch the rest of this game!
  • Chopper instantly takes those words to heart and fearlessly tells the Foxy Pirates to do their worst with him.
  Chopper: Boil me or cook me alive! Give me your worst, you bastards!
  Zoro: Attaboy.
• Then, Zoro's team-up with Sanji in the Groggy Ring. Despite the two of them initially bickering and arguing, they made one fine team at the end, beating the Groggy Monsters.
  • This deserves some clarification. They start out spending more time arguing with each other than fighting the Groggy Monsters and this, combined with the biased ref, results in their now weapon-using opponents giving them a horrifying beatdown, seemingly leaving them within an inch of their lives, to result in an easy win for the Groggy Monsters. This pisses Zoro and Sanji off enough to actually work together and obliterate the Groggy Monsters to win the game.
• During the Davy Jones Games, the referee clearly acted "dumb" to allow cheating for the Foxy Pirates and let them get away with everything, while penalizing Zoro and Sanji with every chance he gets. When finally, Sanji kicked one of the players at him to get even, he tried to give Sanji a red card ... only to find his cards and whistle were missing.
  Robin: You're such a naughty girl.
  Nami: What can I say? Old habits die hard.
  (While wearing the whistle, Nami pulls the missing cards out of Victoria's Secret Compartment)
  • Then, at the end of the game, when Zoro and Sanji won, Nami gave the semi-conscious referee his whistle back and reminded him blow the whistle. With Sanji's red card the only thing in mind, he quickly blew the whistle to signal Sanji's foul ... only for the announcer to proclaim that there was the whistle, making the victory official. The referee could only look on dumbfounded while Nami cheerfully thanked him.
• Foxy is a cheating egotistical lout, there's no denying that. But in his last bout with Luffy he proves to be a genius in how he applies his Slow-Slow Fruit in battle. He proves himself as both a Trap Master and a surprisingly competent boxer.
• Afro. Luffy. Dub. It's simultaneously hilarious and epic.
  • For those lacking context (or hype), it's the beginning of the battle between Luffy and Foxy. The moment you see Luffy with that afro, you know shit will go down.
    Chopper: Is Luffy gonna win?
    Robin: Of course. He's wearing an afro.
• Luffy's victory over Foxy. Despite getting the runaround and being constantly thrashed by Foxy's traps, Luffy is still able to fight, and during their last slug-fest manages to turn Foxy's powers on him. How? By smuggling a piece of mirror in his gloves, reflecting Foxy's Slow-Slow Beam back onto the cheater. After that, Luffy just has to land ONE solid blow on Foxy's face to send him flying.
• Supreme Admiral Aokiji recognizing the Strawhats, a tiny pirate crew mostly comprised of teenagers and with a relatively tiny collective bounty of 239 million, as a threat worth taking seriously. So much so that he launched a preemptive attack to squash them before they get too strong (albeit a lazy, half-hearted attempt).
• Zoro intercepting Aokiji's attack to save Robin.
• A small one from the anime in the fight against Aokiji; as Usopp and Chopper are trying to take a frozen Robin back to Merry to be thawed out, Aokiji begins to pursue them, only to be halted by Nami, who's by now fully aware of how outclassed she is by him. Her actions make it clear that she intended to potentially die just to buy Usopp and Chopper time.
  Luffy: Usopp! Chopper! Run and take her to get thawed!
  Aokiji: (slowly chasing after them) Don't bother. The world would be better off if she died.
  Nami (presses the Clima-Tact to his neck) That's funny. You could say the same about all of us pirates.
• Luffy sending the crew away to face Aokiji alone. To put this in context, Aokiji is one of the top fighters in the entire navy, which Luffy was aware of, but Luffy still refused to back down.

Water 7 Arc

• Usopp blasting down the door to the Franky House and challenging demanding the money that the Franky Family stole back despite them kicking his ass earlier that same day all so that the Going Merry could be repaired. Usopp may have gotten his ass kicked again, but the sheer amount of balls it must have taken to walk in there is badass enough. (may cross over with heartwarming)
• When Luffy leads the Straw Hats (well, the Monster Trio and Chopper) against the Franky Family to get revenge for Usopp. "Don't leave a single bone unbroken." In one chapter, the four of them systematically No-Sell and cut through everything that the Family can throw at them, with the latter going from sneering arrogantly to desperately throwing ANYTHING not nailed down at the Straw Hats as they realize just how phenomenally they've fucked up.
• The Water 7 arc as a whole was probably one of Luffy's greatest Moment of Awesome. When you look back at the series, Luffy has hardly ever taken any real initiative as captain. In fact, almost all of his decisions as captain of the crew were recruiting new members. Any important decisions were mostly agreed upon by the crew as a whole, so when you see Luffy deciding to part with Merry, and his duel with Usopp, it reminds the reader that Luffy is, in fact, captain of the crew.
• Zoro and Luffy cutting and punching through a tidal wave through sheer determination.
  • The build up to the part where Zoro cuts a sea train car in half too. The Franky Family is ready to dismantle the sea train car, when Luffy just calls Zoro and the following exchange takes place:
  Luffy: Cut it! It's in the way.
  Zoro: Sure.
• Zoro cutting cannonballs out of the air in Water 7.
• Sanji's fight with Wanze is awesome, especially when he took out the knives and chopped up Wanze's noodle armor, as well as having all those cut up noodles land neatly on a plate.
  • Sanji then decided the best way to finish the fight would be to beat him ugly. Wanze's face looking like it did, this didn't leave Sanji with much to do. Not one to be denied, Sanji then took the logical step of beating him pretty before proceeding to beat him ugly again.
    • And then when he met Duval it was established that beating somebody pretty is one of his special abilities.
• Usopp vs. Luffy for the Going Merry. Usopp fought Luffy and held his ground with clever tactics and balls-to-the-wall determination. He may have lost, but he got actual blows in, against Luffy.
  • You'd expect this small, weak, cowardly guy to just die right from the start, especially considering he was just mugged down by a street gang, but he still manages to plan out how to beat his foe. Luffy eventually says, "It stings... It burns... It hurts...!" Then, Usopp traps him in an explosion.
  • During that fight it took two shots from Luffy to bring him down, and both were pretty devastating blows, plus Usopp got the crap beaten out of him already earlier that day.
  • Usopp knows that his captain is right, and he's still willing to fight to the death for the Going Merry.
  • When Luffy tells Usopp to stop using pranks as his weapons Usopp says with full conviction:
  Usopp: THIS IS HOW I FIGHT.
• Franky should get a mention for fighting on even ground with Luffy.
• Iceberg manages to unite the shipyards of Water 7 and becomes the rather popular mayor of the city, making him too useful for the World Government to simply dispose of. He uses himself as a decoy and uses Obfuscating Stupidity to fool the World Government while having passed the real blueprints to Pluton on to Franky.
• Rob Lucci interrogating Iceberg for the location of the real Pluton blueprints and using skillful deductions to infer the truth, then deducing from Iceberg's reaction that his guess was correct.
• Sogeking's theme song. 'Nuff said.
• Water 7 has Chopper saving Nami from falling rubble and bursting out of the building as it burned with 2 more rescues, not including a mouse.
• When Franky tries to stop a train and then rebuilds himself into a cyborg.
  • Later he takes an iron bar to the head without flinching and the bar bends to the shape of his head.
• Tom's actions at his sentencing are a multi-layered moment of awesome.
  • First, when Franky tries to disown his Battle Frankies, Tom breaks his chains and punches Franky in the face, something he'd never done before, and tells him that is the one thing he must never do as a shipwright. As he's speaking, he rips out the harpoon stuck in him, which was said to be impossible to remove.
  • Tom, furious over what Spandam did to Franky, then runs over and gives Spandam a well-deserved punch in the face.
  • Lastly, knowing that he's doomed either way, Tom makes a deal with the judge- he takes responsibility for leading the attack, and uses the pardon to erase that crime. The judge warns him that it will result in Tom going back to where he was when he first made the deal, but Tom says he's fine with that, since he's proud to have built Roger's ship. By doing so, he saves Iceberg and Franky's lives, prevents the Pluton blueprints from falling into Spandam's hands and stays true to the philosophy he'd preached to Franky moments ago.

Enies Lobby Arc

• Zoro's absolutely fearless attitude towards the sea train falling toward the ground at Enies Lobby,and his "plan" to land it:
  Zoro: We leave it... to luck.
• Yokozuna flattening the gate, allowing the sea train to use it as a jumping off point.
• A combined Moment of Awesome and Funny for Luffy. Luffy approaches the Marines standing outside the gates to Enies Lobby. The Marines ready their weapons and prepare to stop him... then Luffy stops, bows his head and asks them politely to let him in. The Marines are actually stunned. Then they tell him that asking politely won't work... and what Luffy does next probably made them wish they had just let him in when he asked.
• Luffy storms Enies Lobby alone and proceeds to beat down hundreds upon hundreds of guards by himself. With his bare hands. And it is stated that of all the guards taken down, Luffy took down at least one thousand of them.
  • Furthermore, at least 500 of them were taken down in five minutes.

    Enies Lobby Guards: Hey, Straw Hat Luffy... How many dozens of people did you bring? Ha ha ha... Enies Lobby's forces are ten thousand strong!!!
    Luffy: Yeah... and I'm alone. Now step aside!!!!

• Oimo and Kashii deserve a mention for issuing a Curb-Stomp Battle to the Herculean destroyers, the biggest and strongest members of the Franky Family.
• The Galley-La foremen and Franky Family taking Oimo and Kashii down using tactics and skill to counter the giants brute strength.
• The Mooks of Enies Lobby have one when a bunch of Marines and government agents chase Luffy. He escapes to a rooftop when surrounded. But do the mooks give up the chase? No. They toss each other up to the roof. And this is while chasing a guy who has repeatedly escaped them and taken out hundreds of them with his bare hands. You've got to hand it to the Marines: they've got balls.
• Usopp turns Oimo and Kashii against the World Government by revealing that Dorry and Brogy, their former captains, were never arrested. Oimo and Kashii become both relieved and furious upon learning this, and promptly go on a rampage against the Marines and the government agents across the island.
• The two of them may not be able to stand each other, but when Zoro and Sanji team up, expect awesomeness to occur. Case in point, this scene during the battle at Enies Lobby:
  (The Straw Hats (minus Luffy) and their allies are riding Gomorrah, a gigantic fish through the place, and they're about to crash into a building)
  Zoro: A dead end? Do you see one?
  Sanji: Nah, I don't see one anywhere.
  (they proceed to OBLITERATE said building)
• Galley-La, the Franky Family, and Yokozuna holding off the Enies Lobby forces so the Straw Hats can deal with CP9.
• Every single moment the Straw Hats and Franky put Spandam through a bigger and bigger Humiliation Conga. The guy deserves it.
• When Luffy first uses Gear Second and hands Blueno his ass.
  • It's a minor one, but one of Luffy's first moves in that fight is punching Blueno into a pillar while the latter's in mid Flash Step. Made better by Luffy not even being in Gear Second at that time.
• When Franky inflates his butt and fires it. 4 words: greatest fart joke ever!
  • Here's a vid of the event, too.
• During Jaguar D Saul's attempt to protect Robin from the Buster Call, he lifts a Buster Call-level battleship And. Throws. It.
  • "I've got no idea what is right, so I'll just protect my friend!"
• Luffy's calm yet determined order: "Sogeking. ... Make that flag burst into flames."
  • Even moreso is the fact that Sogeking (the typically cowardly Usopp) carries out the order — the most dangerous thing he's ever been asked to do — without hesitation.
  • Part of what makes the moment so awesome is that, for once, Luffy is totally calm. This isn't him losing his temper or even Tranquil Fury like it normally is. He's calm and fully aware of the choice he's making by giving the order. Essentially, he's declaring war on the entire world.
• "ROBIN! SAY YOU WANT TO LIVE!"
  • Luffy essentially told the World Government "I DON'T GIVE A FUCK WHAT SHE'S DONE!! YOU GIVE HER BACK RIGHT NOW OR I WILL COME UP THERE AND GET HER MYSELF!!" And he proceeds to do just that.
  • The dub, which was amazing, had this little gem:
    Spandam: YOU'RE ALL GOING TO DIE! YOU MORONS CAN'T CHALLENGE THE ENTIRE WORLD AND EXPECT TO WIN!
    Luffy: OH YEAH?!? BRING IT OOOOOON!!!
    Spandam: (Screams Like a Little Girl)
• Franky's definitive Moment of Awesome comes right after Robin's flashback, where he manages to effectively ruin Spandam's long, drawn-out plan of acquiring the blueprints for Pluton that lasted for five years... by simply burning the blueprints and then declaring he's going to fight on the Straw Hats' side in front of the whole of CP9.
• A rather subtle one: when Usopp and Zoro are cornered by Kaku and Jabra, he proclaims his almost trademark "I've got 8000 pirates awaiting my command to destroy you!" Thanks to the activated Buster Call, which will decimate the island including the assassins, he can very well back-up that threat!
• Give one of the most popular antagonists in One Piece, Kaku, his due. He used Rankyaku in his half-Giraffe form to cut the Tower of Justice at Enies Lobby in half.
• Together, now: Strong... HAMMEEEERRR!!!!
  • View the Strong Hammer in Japanese or English.
• Franky's defeat of Fukurou. After blasting him from the air straight into the ground with his Coup de Vent, with so much force it causes a giant crater, what does Franky say? SUUUUUUPAAAAAAA! :D
• Kumadori. He swamps Nami easily, and would've succeeded in beating Chopper if not for Monster Point, and even then he stood up to that horrifying creature that would've made half the people in that tower shit their pants. There's also his epic entrance when he's paired against Nami, banging his staff against the floor while hamming it up. Dude is definitely awesome.
• Three Words: Monster Point Chopper. Some put an awesome video on YouTube to demonstrate. And when Kumadori is defeated, Monster Point Chopper just casually launched him to the other side of the island.
• Nami, when she BRINGS DOWN A FRIGGIN' THUNDERBOLT in the middle of a melee. This prompts the mooks to say, "I thought she was one of the weak ones."
  • Nami's fight with Kalifa. Breaking Kalifa's soap powers with rain, casting illusions, and finishing the whole thing off with a delayed lighting bolt to the chest. And to think that the Clima Tact was originally designed as a party trick.
• The Hunter... dude, Sanji has the best entrances EVER.
• Sanji heats up his leg and beats down Jabra with his burning leg.
  • To be more precise... Sanji turns on one leg, slowly at first, and then so fast all you can see is a blur. Then, he comes to a stop, with his leg looking kind of like hot steel. And then, yes. He kicks enemies with his burning leg. The end result being that a man who was able to turn his body into an ironlike state where he was invincible to swords and bullets and who has been fighting in this state for most of his battle with Sanji remarks that it feels like his bones are burning. And by "remarks," we mean "screams in agony." Oh, and the name of this ability? Diable Jambe. Or in English, Devil's Leg.
  • View the Japanese clip here, and the Funimation clip here, and watch as Sanji pulverizes Jabra.
• After debuting Diable Jambe to beat Jabra: "God may have created food, but the devil created spices. I guess it was a little too spicy for you."
• Demon Aura Nine Sword Style Asura. With something that sounds like that, you know this is awesome, as in "cut Sky Slicer into mist and then finish off the impudent mortal who thought he could defy you with Asura Silver Mist" awesome.
  • Before the above happened, Zoro and Kaku were evenly matched in their fight. Then Kaku said that what he was doing to save Robin was pointless. Before Zoro finished him off, he said THIS:
    Zoro: You did well, I commend you. Suffering is welcome on the path to bloodshed!
  • View the Japanese clip here, and the English clip here.
• Robin's steadfast refusal to go through the Gates of Justice, including holding onto a wall with her teeth and then having to be dragged along is even more awesome than any time she fought.
• Usopp's arsenal of awesomeness: one, shooting down the World Government flag with a firebird. Two, sniping Marines on top of a tower from an unheard of distance even with all that pesky wind. With a slingshot. While singing the Sogeking theme. Without hitting Robin even once.
  "LOCK OOOOOON!!"
  • The anime makes Usopp's sniping of the Marines even more awesome. The timing between various Marines being hit with Gunpowder Stars is about two seconds between hits in most cases. Two seconds is also the rough length of the whistling noise the shot makes in flight before it hits. This means two things: one, he's making those ridiculous shots with less than two seconds of aiming time per shot, since those two seconds include grabbing a new Gunpowder Star, pulling the slingshot back again, and firing, and two, going by some measures of the distance he was sniping from, his slingshot has a projectile speed on par with modern rifles. He then proceeds to take it one step further and starts rapid-firing several shots a second. Usopp apparently doesn't even need to aim to snipe like that.
  • The Kabuto (his slingshot) has Breath Dials to curve his shots, meaning he invented rifling. With a slingshot.
  • Heck, check out his pose when he's checking the wind with his finger, sun behind his shoulder. Usopp looks like a bonafide superhero.
• The moment when Robin is about to be shot to prevent her from being rescued is a definitive moment in the arc. All this has been about the Straw Hat-Franky Family alliance chasing Robin and finding the keys to her Power Nullifier cuffs. At this moment, when all that is about to be thwarted, Franky jumps to block the bullets. They finally caught up. Robin is finally close enough that they can protect her.
• Franky gets some much-needed catharsis when he saves Robin from Spandam's Elephant Sword Funkfreed. He then thanks the Straw Hats for giving him a chance to do something he'd wanted to do for 20 years: smash Spandam's face, as the Superlative Dubbing put it, "...until there was nothing left but bloody hamburger!" And he does it by taking said Funkfreed (in elephant form, meaning weighing a lot) by the trunk, and body-slamming him right on top of Spandam so hard he crushes Spandam's face, his pride, and part the Bridge of Hesitation!
  • He had even scared Funkfreed beforehand with his glare. While saving Robin's life, he scared a sword.
  • Credit to Funkfreed as well. It's a sword so powerful it let Spandam draw blood from Franky... who still was brave enough to stop it.
• Luffy's fight against Rob Lucci, where he initiates Gear Third: using his Devil Fruit powers to blow up his arm like a balloon and inflates it to a ludicrous size. He then punches Lucci, and knocks a huge hole in the tower to boot! View it in Japanese or English.
  • Just how powerful is Gear Third? Lucci is the strongest fighter to have ever lived in the CP9 unit and has butchered hundreds of men at once with just his bare hands, and no one but Luffy has been able to even make him flinch. This invincible assassin almost got OHKO'd by Gear Third. The move is that strong.
• Rob Lucci crosses the Moral Event Horizon in a flashback when he kills a pirate crew and 500 hostages at only 13 years old.
  • Incidentally, killing those 500 hostages was Lucci's way of resolving a hostage situation.
• Zoro finally meets his match against the Buster Call reinforcements, when a Marine Captain, Shu, rusts one of his swords with his Fruit. But the Marine gets outshined by Usopp, who oneshots him.
• Usopp cheering Luffy on:
  "Even though it's been blackened by explosions, we can still see the sky! We can still see the sea! This place... This place isn't like hell!"
  • Also, Usopp challenging Lucci to a fight, even though Lucci would be able to tear him up like paper. Whether he genuinely planned to fight Lucci or if he was just trying to get Luffy to stand back up, he was still deliberately taunting someone who could rip him to shreds.
• Luffy's defeat of Rob Lucci. What makes it so awesome isn't just that Luffy's finishing move, Jet Gatling, was the result of Gomu Gomu no Gatling being voted the most popular attack of the series, it's that the final blow is as much crushing to Lucci mentally as it is to him physically. Lucci realized that not only did he not win, he could not win — Luffy would never stop fighting to protect Robin.
  • The look of utter disbelief on Lucci's face when Luffy gets up again, after taking his strongest attack to his heart, while screaming bloody murder really cements that moment's awesomeness.
  • Funimation absolutely killed it when it came to Gum-Gum Jet Gatling.
• Sanji was the one shutting the Gates of Justice at Enies Lobby, destroying a HUGE Buster Call ship and disorienting the rest, allowing the Straw Hats to escape the supposedly inescapable Buster Call.
• Robin breaking Spandam's spine with a loud and clear Clutch. After seeing this spineless coward beat the shit out of her while she was completely defenseless for nearly 50 chapters, after learning the sheer spirit-crushing sadness of her backstory... we needed to see this. And DAMN, was it ever satisfying!
  • It also makes a nice bookend to the arc, which began when she tried unsuccessfully to do the same to Aokiji, but he just turned to ice and rematerialized like nothing happened.
  • At the same time, it serves as a nice return to form for Robin: after the hell that was Spandam and the Gates Of Justice, it's nice to see her out of her Sea Prism Stone handcuffs and snapping that pig like a twig In short: Robin's back, bitches!
• Aokiji's evaluation of the Buster Call and ordering a retreat of the remaining Marine forces shows just how tenacious the Straw Hat Pirates are: they're not only one of the few people to escape a Buster Call, they escaped with more people in their crew than when they arrived, and they sunk three of the ten battleships brought over. Aokiji declared the Buster Call a "total failure," the first and so far only one to be described that way.
• The first ship, Going Merry, turning up in time to rescue them from Enies Lobby which was about to be pounded out of existence by cannon fire guided only by the spirit of the ship and despite having a keel that had snapped in half. Then we get one of the biggest tearjerkers in the series.
  • To further put this into perspective: the Going Merry is, by this time, a "starter ship" that has gone through the wear and tear of being shot into the sky, taking a several mile fall on the way down, and all the bumps and thumps of general travel through East Blue with only amateur repairs to keep it going. Its keel is snapped and its ribs are cracked BEFORE it is left out for an extended period in the roughest water the Grand Line can offer. Trying to sail the Company Ship of Galley-La through the Aqua Laguna is considered suicide, nevermind a ship smaller than the waves at sea. Then, with only the quick patch-up Iceberg could manage as a single man while in the storm, the Going Merry sets off alone, making its way through the waves and between the innumerable Marine warships to save its friends. It proceeds to carry the Straw Hats through this chaotic battlefield, and makes it halfway back to Water 7, only allowing itself to begin to collapse when the crew is out of danger. Determinator doesn't begin to cover it.
  • Iceburg deserves a mention here. What did he do? He patched up a ship that was at the end of its rope to the point where it could safely set off. By himself. In the middle of a freaking hurricane.
• Everyone who charged into Enies Lobby defeating a force of 10,000 strong, with approximately hundred people, mainly shipwrights. Even better: not one fatality. Everyone who went to the island on that mission got out alive!

Post-Enies Lobby Arc

• Nico Robin gets hers when she uses her power to put Franky's "treasure" in a vice grip.
  • That was hardcore, hilarious... and disturbing as all hell, all at once. Naturally it all goes back to awesome.
  • Japanese and English clips here.
• One for Garp: when he launch the first cannon ball, Zoro notes that the shot was stronger than the one fired from a cannon and that they're lucky that Garp wasn't even aiming at them. Garp then claims that he was strongest in his prime.
• One for Franky and the new Thousand Sunny: When Garp, Luffy's grandfather, lifts up a ball and chain BIGGER THAN EITHER SHIP, Franky, the new guy, activates Coup De Blast, which blasts them one friggin mile away. The best part? Any damage that comes to it, Franky can fix up, no problem. Now thats what you call a good first impression.
• Shanks and Whitebeard's clash. How awesome was that one clash? Awesome enough to divide the sky into two.
• Ace completely outmatching Blackbeard's minions with no effort at all. Only Blackbeard himself, who is smart and has a powerful fruit, can stand up to him.
• Blackbeard stating, "Ace, your body is fire, right? I am... darkness." Swiftly followed by sucking a town into a black hole, THEN blasting it back out, THEN defeating Ace despite having a sun essentially thrown at him.

Thriller Bark Saga

Thriller Back Arc

• 600 MILLION BERRI JACKPOT!! It's the dubbed version, in case you were wondering.
• During the Thriller Bark Arc, when the Rolling Pirates give Luffy his first shadow power-up (episode 370), they ask him "Can you use a sword?" He replies "No, not one bit." Then they toss a sword towards him, he catches it and then slashes a tree to splinters so quickly we can't even see it.
• One Moment of Awesome came in the end of the Thriller Bark arc, where Luffy absorbs the shadows of a hundred powerful warriors and becomes Nightmare Luffy, developing crazy power, speed, and resilience. The catch? The shadows only stay inside his body for ten minutes. Luffy wipes the floor with Oars, until the time is up. Oars still isn't beaten. Then he leads the all of the Straw Hats to kick his ass anyway.
  • The very start of the fight when Nightmare Luffy starts pummeling Oars is awesome, even more so in the anime
    Nightmare Luffy: There's only one Luffy and that's me! GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT?!
  • Lola warned Luffy that the weak-willed would lose their sense of self if they absorbed too many shadows. She initially thought he might be able to handle twenty, far more than any of the other victims. Instead he absorbed all of their captured shadows and never lost himself.
• That whole part where Zoro fights Kuma. Especially the part where he takes all of Luffy's pain into his body. That was so much pain, it inverted the colors of the show. Pure unfiltered awesome.
  • "Realization of a man!!"
  • And in anime. One of the most awesome moments of a series already loaded with awesome moments.
  • Chapter 1102 brings even more awesome in hindsight, as we see a shortened version of the scene from Kuma's perspective. Kuma, who had been taking enormous amounts of pain from the Sorbet citizens weekly when he was a teenager, mentally noted that even he would pass out from the sheer amount of pain Luffy accumulated fighting Moria and Oars. Zoro, despite being heavily wounded himself, took it all in to protect his captain.
• Zoro's whole fight with Ryuuma was undeniably amazing. From exchanging cuts and slashes that completely destroying the room they were in, to fighting up on top of the tower and finishing it with an aerial fight.
  • The best part of this fight was this quote from Ryuuma just before the destruction began:
    Ryuuma: It feels as if I am about to fight a titanic creature... It even sends shivers down my body. What a feeling! Yohohoho!
  • This guy, an undead samurai with Brook's entire moveset and an excellent sword, was scared of Zoro!
  • More likely Ryuuma's zombie body still had memories from his past life (similar to zombie Cindry) and the body shivered from excitement in front of a great challenger. "A titanic creature" refers to a dragon which he had once slayed meaning that he compares Zoro to a dragon. It's a great compliment from a hero of Wano and CMOA/ Fridge Brilliance in hindsight.
  • And directly beforehand, when they first met face to face, and Zoro smugly announces that he's going to defeat Ryuuma and take his sword. Brook actually faints from his coolness!
    • And now you can too! Experience the original subtitled hardcore fight here, or allow the dub to soothe your fanboyism here.
• Sanji became so angry that that he exploded with rage and Zoro even comments on how he would transform if he got any angrier.
  • View the explosive rage in subtitles, or witness the fury in English dub.
• Usopp in Thriller Bark. Seven words: "I just naturally have... A NEGATIVE PERSONALITY!" To explain, Usopp is probably one of the few people in the world who is immune to Perona's Negative Hollows. They have the power to drain all the optimism from whomever they pass through. Trouble is, it's hard to suck optimism out of a pessimist. In fact, Usopp's so pessimist that he turns the attack on the ghosts...and even Perona herself, causing all of them to become depressed.
  • And then he tops that later in the fight by being a coward: "Somebody save me! Save me... SOGEKING!!!"
    • Immediately after that, he defeats a ridiculously strong zombie bear by shoving his arm down its throat in order to get it to swallow salt (the zombies' weakness).
  • And when all the other Straw Hats just stand around gawking in horror as Oars is about to smash the unconscious Sanji it is a clearly-terrified Usopp who actually does something about it: firing at Oars's head and turning the giant's attention towards himself.
  • For crying out loud, he defeated someone referred to as "The Ghost Princess" by making her faint from fear using nothing but adhesive, toys and a giant balloon.^note Granted, the adhesive stuck Perona in place so she couldn't run away from the wind-up roaches, putting her in such a Freak Out that the sight of the the giant hammer (balloon) coming down at her was too much for her mind to take.
  • For extra awesome: in the Manga, when Usopp knocks Perona out, her unconscious body is shown foaming at the mouth, which the Manga uses as an indicator of someone being knocked out by Conqueror's Haki - which means that Usopp either has Conqueror's Haki, or he's managed to be so good at lies and trickery that he can produce an effect indistinguishable from it.
• It falls to the background in comparison to all the other action going on, but during the battle with Oars Chopper pulls off a few awesome moments. He pulls off an autopsy on the giant zombie mid-battle, recognizes the critical weak points of a bad right arm and being vulnerable to freezing (which was how he originally died and, because the Straw Hats followed this advice and aimed their attacks accordingly) Nami made it rain, Franky and Usopp fired an air cannon to freeze the rain and pin him in place, and Zoro and Sanji forced his back straight—left Oars ultimately helpless in the face of Luffy's final attack, which made sure Oars stayed down by pulverizing his spine.
• When Franky went up against the Spider-monkey. He really wanted to try out his nunchucks, but the Spider's too big for that. So he finds a couple of the castle's pillars, and attaches them to the nunchucks, and begins to whale on the spider-monkey. In a panic the spider-money manages to web up the super-nunchucks, and as he laughs in relief, Franky just glares at him for spoiling his fun and shoots him.
• Any time Franky busts out his mad building skills. Whether he makes an unusually ornate bridge in less time then it takes somebody to notice, or he's building a staircase in mid-battle so he can punch a giant in the face.
• During the Thriller Bark arc, two of the Straw Hats had been cornered by a giant zombie monkey spider which, like the other zombies, had no known weakness. Cue a quaint little song being sung from the unseen rafters, and suddenly the abomination is freaking out; turns out, he remembers this song. The music stops, Brook attacks, and as he's walking away his Diagonal Cut kicks in and the enemy gives up the ghost. Brook wouldn't have batted an eyelash... even if he had any left. Ladies and gentlemen, the musician has arrived.
  Brook: Three verse humming... ARROW NOTCH SLASH!
• Another for Brook is his zombie's fight with Zoro. Ryuuma's body may be stronger than Brooks and that Zoro was a sword down but still, Brook was a close match he might not be able to beat Kaku, but he would still hold his ground.
• He gets another when he slices through and purifies a corridor of zombies while still singing. What makes it so awesome is that the zombies start to panic and run JUST from hearing his song in the distance.
  • He only took about 4 seconds to hand the whole group their collective asses.
• Really just the whole thing with Brook's singing terrifying the zombies. He started singing to himself to keep his spirits up because of how creepy Thriller Bark is, but it turns out that he's so good at dispatching zombies that he's become a nigh-legendary boogieman. On an island full of zombies.
• When the Straw Hats fought Oars together. Highlights include: Zoro using Franky's heavy nunchucks, Franky making a staircase mid-fight so he and Chopper can punch him in the face, Usopp's giant-sized Phoenix Star, Brook's electric arrow attack, and managing to pin him to the ground with his own horns for a while, so they can all start whaling on him.
  • The true moment goes to Sanji for tripping a massive giant's leg with the move "Bad Manners Kick Course". All to be seen in this dub scene.
• Laboon in the Rumbar Pirates' flashback. After leaving Laboon behind because he couldn't come with them to the Red Line, we see Brooke and Yorki's crew sailing through dangerous and stormy seas and the reverse mountain, making it to the twin capes where Crocus allows them to stay. Then he asks "By the way, is that whale that followed you your pet?". Cue Reaction Shot from the whole crew, who found out Laboon followed them through all of those hazardous waters. A baby whale swam through a upstream current while following their friends' ship!
• A minor moment only in the anime, but do you remember when Sanji was daydreaming of Robin docking? Cue the Death Glare from Robin. Seriously, THAT DEATH GLARE! Apparently, even thinking about docking is a Berserk Button for Robin, but more importantly, it turned a gag into something truly awesome.

Paramount War Saga

Sabaody Archipelago Arc

• Luffy doing the in-universe unthinkable: Walking up to a World Noble — a descendant of the twenty kings who oversaw the World Government's creation, and the only ones above their laws, whom you must never, ever offend lest you want to go to toe-to-toe with an Admiral — and punching him square in the face.
  • It's even more awesome in the anime.
  • He punched that guy so hard he punched the colors out of the show.
    • Though let it be known that the above scene, in the anime, was inspired by a similar scene in the sixth movie, which can only be described as the single most awesome non-canon moment in the entire series.
  • When Boa Hancock heard about this, she broke down, started to show the vulnerable, warmer side of herself, mentioned only one other badass she heard do such an audacious act (she was freed from the World Nobles' captivity by him and was understandably terrified of him) and helps Luffy understand her Jerkass behavior. After hearing that Luffy is more likely to do it again as he dislikes them, she pulls a Heel–Face Turn.
  • The only thing about this that could possibly be spun as not awesome is the fact that if Luffy hadn't done it, Zoro was going to slice the bastard to pieces.
• Usopp got one in the Sabaody arc: dropping down from the ceiling and flattening the most sickeningly evil character we've seen thus far. With his butt.
• The Thousand Sunny, the Straw Hats' ship, claimed one of these moments. Two words: Gaon Cannon! In Zoro's own words, it's a little TOO awesome.
  • For those of you who want to see, the Gaon Cannon attack has been animated. And yes, it's exactly as awesome as many figured it would be
• The glory of Luffy, Trafalgar Law, and Eustass Kid walking out to brutally Curb Stomp a Marine unit responding to Luffy's little diplomatic incident on Sabaody. Three pirate captains, shoulder to shoulder, in a world where rank is a BIG DEAL.
• The Sabaody Archipelago Arc upgraded Gold Roger's dying words into a full blown Moment of Awesome by revealing some key information about his death. He wasn't captured, he turned himself in; he didn't care about being executed, as he had a deadly illness and was going to die anyway. The day before his execution, he spoke to his former first mate, and told him: "I won't die, partner." What did he mean by this? Simple. With his last words, he both ensured his place in history, and changed his own execution from a chilling warning to all aspiring pirates, to the event that sparked the Golden Age of Piracy, the World Government's worst nightmare.
  • It was also one of the most awesome callbacks ever, as it ties in with Dr. Hiriluk's dying speech, where he asserts that a man only dies when he is forgotten. With his last words, Roger ensured that the world would NEVER forget him.
• When Rayleigh offers to tell the crew where the One Piece is, Luffy loudly declines and says he'll quit being a pirate if he knows where it is. Why?
  Luffy: I don't want to go on a boring adventure like that!
• A huge Moment of Awesome for Silvers Rayleigh, he not only blocked a kick/laser beam, he cut a logia user and made him bleed.
• Silver Rayleigh's very first appearance. A scene so manly that your testicles will grow.

Amazon Lily Arc

• "I TOLD YOU TO STOP!" Luffy just shouting this at Sandersonia and Marigold, managed to knock out a large portion of the audience instantly. The ones that weren't commented on him having "the king's disposition", which even scared Boa Hancock. This moment was raw (and to Luffy, unintentional) awesomeness.
  • How about being able to resist Boa Hancock's...er, charms?
  • There's an even earlier hint of Luffy having "The King's Disposition" or "Haki". During the Duval encounter, he stopped Duval's Motobaro without flinching and said "There's no point in us fighting!". Haki activates unconsciously and Motobaro goes the opposite way before collapsing. In the manga, Motobaro was foaming at the mouth!
• A moment from the Amazon Lily arc, detailing the background of Hancock. A Fish-man, by the name of Fisher Tiger, climbed up the Red Line, bare-handed, and defied the Celestial Dragons, essentially a death sentence that has only been done twice, once by Tiger, once by Luffy, and raged through the city to free the Fish-men enslaved there. And not just the Fish-men, as he freed anyone who was a slave. Pretty goddamn high Awesome Quotients from the Fish-men in general.
  • Speaking of Hancock, after a single campaign, she got herself a bounty of 80,000,000. No one, not even any of the Straw Hats, got that kind of bounty from their first act of piracy. From just that, the Government quickly and cautiously approached her and offered her the position of Warlord of the Sea.

Impel Down Arc

• In the Impel Down arc, Going Gear Second and giving the Chief Warden Magellan a speech on why he's not giving up his plan to save Ace, then proceeding to give him a Gomu Gomu no Jet Bazooka. To give you an idea, Luffy smacked a man whose body is coated with an armor of corrosive poison. And his hands are starting to feel it. That's pretty hardcore.
  • And that leads into another Moment of Awesome / Heartwarming Moment, though not from Luffy. Unfortunately, Magellan defeats Luffy and he's carted off to Level 5 of Impel Down. Back on Level 4, Mr. 2 gathers Mr. 3 and Buggy back together and says that they need to rescue him immediately. When Buggy demands to know why they should go to certain death for him, and Mr. 2 replies "Because he's a friend!! I don't need any other reason!!!
    • Luffy gets another one here... Yes, Luffy was beaten and not only taken down to Level 5, the "freezing hell", but he was also covered in a mixture of so many poisons that the doctors said he could not be cured. Imagine, that would have been absolutely agonizing. And yet, Luffy is still trying to get up and save Ace. When Mr. 2 drags him into the forest in search of "Iva-San", whom he believes can cure Luffy, he is attacked by vicious and powerful wolves — and then Luffy gets up, stares one in the eyes, and makes the entire pack (which may have been at least 20 of them) collapse purely through using the king's disposition, despite his absolutely horrifying condition that, by all rights, he shouldn't even be standing from. Absolutely incredible.
    • Here we go again. Luffy, amazingly, asks Iva-sama to help Bon Clay, despite his horrifying condition, which makes Bon Clay look like he merely got a scratch. This request was more than enough for Iva-sama to help him and Bon Clay.
    • Will the awesome never end? Luffy is subjected to an absolutely agonizing process to heal his body that will take days, and relies on his willpower. Everyone in the Okama Paradise comes up to his cell to cheer him on. Seven Twenty hours in — the first ten of which Bon Clay had spent in dead sleep while he recovered from his injuries — the screaming stops, and Iva-sama declares Luffy dead. Then Luffy slams his fists on the door with full force, never mind that he was tied up in several layers of huge chains, screaming "FOOOOOOOODDDD!" Iva-sama is naturally astounded, not even a day had passed since it began!
    • Somehow, Luffy has managed to pull together a kick-ass team well worth reckoning with. Who's on said team? Crocodile, Jimbei, Ivankov, and Inazuma. It's likely the other Baroque pirates will stay by Luffy's side with Crocodile involved. Add on Buggy and Hancock, and you have three Warlords of the Sea, two high-ranking Revolutionaries, and two crews at Luffy's command. WG beware.
    • The caption at the end of the chapter just makes it all the better: This is one crazy team!
• Another one for Buggy: breaking out of his cell in Impel Down. Granted, the Marines weren't aware of his Devil Fruit power, or even that he had one, but given that this is the Marines' top prison, that is still awesome.
  • And if that doesn't wet your pants, this will: Luffy and Buggy team-up.
  • The Luffy/Buggy/Mr. 3/Mr. 2 team-up is a Moment of Awesome, especially at the end of Chapter 532 when they all work together to take down a minotaur.
    • Then they're joined by Crocodile and Mr. 1. Let's rehash that: Luffy, Buggy, and Mr.'s 0, 1, 2, and 3, all working toward the same goal, plus Devil Fruit newcomer Ivankov and Warlord of the Sea Jimbei. This arc balances on the edge between Badass Crew and Badass Army.
• Reread that last part: Magellan is a Crowning Badass of Awesome. He's fought those opponents without even coming close to losing.
  • To be clear, he defeats the entire Blackbeard crew without breaking stride. So much as daring to stand against Magellan is considered bad ass.
• Vice Chief Hannyabal, who was presented as the Starscream of the Impel Down arc, had a CM of A near the arc's end when he tries to take on Straw Hat Luffy and is beaten bloody as a result, but refuses time and time again to get out of Luffy's way and has a Heartwarming Moment when he explains why he can't let Impel Down fall, as the weak and ordinary citizens of the world who fear pirates depend on Impel Down to keep them safe. This was the guy who considered letting two pirates escape so as to pin the blame on his boss and get his job.
  • Made even better when said boss shows up, and after one-shotting Blackbeard's entire crew, also commends his right hand man for lasting this long, proclaiming that there's no one else who could take his place as chief.
    • Also made better by how it's a villain taking a brutal beatdown from a hero and getting back up again. You could easily see this scene being repeated with Luffy being the one getting pounded into mush.
      Hannyabal: I said you shall not pass... and you shall not!!!
• Ace, Jimbei, and Crocodile get one off-screen. Namely, when prisoners are brought to Impel Down, they are stripped, boiled on an iron kettle, tossed into water reaching a hundred degrees, and "baptized". According to one of the officers, they went through all that without lifting an eyebrow.
  • Especially Ace and Crocodile, who's Devil Fruits are specifically weaker to water than the average. (Water extinguishes fire and clumps sand).
• Bon Clay has been on a roll since his loss in Alabasta. Not only did he get himself captured to save fellow former Baroque Works members, but in the Impel Down arc he teamed up with Luffy and has since helped take out the fearsome (but oddly adorable) Minotauros, impersonated the Vice-Chief after regretfully leaving Luffy to fight Magellan alone, and to atone for running away went down to Level 5, the Freezing Hell, where he rescued Luffy from his cell and fought off killer wolves, that had been too bloodthirsty for the upper levels, while half-naked and bloody!
  • Want to know how he assumed the appearance of Hannyabal, the man who curb stomped Buggy and Mr. 3 (granted, it is Buggy and Mr. 3)? Beat him to a pulp? Oh, no, no, no. Used his shapeshifting powers to become Nami and used the good ol' hot, sweaty girl wants to remove her clothing gambit, resulting in the vice warden being Bound and Gagged in a storeroom wearing nothing but his own boxers.
  • This couples as a Heartwarming Moment: as soon as Bon Clay learned that Luffy's healing process depended upon his willpower and that it would take over two days, which would cause Luffy to be unable to rescue his brother, he refuses to eat or sleep and stands in front of Luffy's locked recovery room and begins to cheer him on. The other okamas, including even the cynical Iva, join in after seeing his resolve and spend eight hours yelling encouragements to Luffy as he goes through the painful healing procedure.
    • And now he appears to have pulled a Heroic Sacrifice, staying behind while the others escape so he can imitate Chief Warden Magellan to open the Gates of Justice. Magellan comes and confronts him too late to stop him. Just as Luffy realizes what he's done and contacts him. The whole thing is an Awesome Moment, Heartwarming Moment and a bit of a Tear Jerker.
      Magellan: Do you have any last words?!
      Bon Clay: (smiles) I have no regrets.
    • This is the whole of Episode 451 in the anime. As the music surges, Bon Clay throws off his disguise, and faces down Magellan. "Do you have any last words?" To which Bon Clay responds, with a smile, "Satisfaction!" Magellan's fist comes down, the screen goes white, and a single rose petal falls to the water. The dub retains the impact; when Magellan asks what are Bon Clay's final words before he annihilates him, Bon Clay boldly responses with "Have at Thee!!"
  • This is an important Character Development for him as he had previously ran away and hesitated to fight him because he feared justifiably for his life against a man whose touch and breath can kill you in one hit. The sheer determination to save his friends, had given him enough resolve to face him with complete satisfaction of his friends' safety and insult him while making this man like an incompetent officer is awesome beyond words.
  • It's even implied that Magellan was demoted all because of what Bon Clay did.
    • And somehow he survived. And is the new queen of New Kama Land to boot.
• And now there is Emporio Ivankov, the retired Queen of Kamabakka Island. Don´t let him fool you guys. He may look like a parody of a Drag Queen, but he can repel a cannon ball by batting an eyelash! And then he turned the poor guy, who attacked him, into a woman!
• When Inazuma uses the powers of the Choki-Choki Fruit to cut up the floor and manipulate it like cloth to block an oncoming wave of knockout gas.
• The entire Impel Down Arc is made of Crowning Moments of Awesome, with MR. 3, OF ALL PEOPLE getting one as well, when he blocked Magellan's highly poisonous Hydra attack with his Candle Wall, despite being only a quick sprint away from complete freedom, urging Luffy and company to escape.
  Mr. 3: I'll be damned if I'll stay in your debt, Straw Hat!
  • He then, along with Luffy, gets ANOTHER Moment of Awesome when he gives Luffy wax BOXING GEAR, who then fights off Magellan while Mr. 3 put up guards. I repeat, Luffy fought a MAN MADE OF POISON WITH BOXING GLOVES!!!
• Jimbei the Fish-man is showing himself to be a walking Moment of Awesome.
  • Evidence 1: He knocked out multiple enemies at one time by PUNCHING THE AIR!
  • Evidence 2: HE THREW THE SEA! Yeah, you read right! HE THREW THE GODDAMN SEA WITH HIS BARE HANDS! And no, he doesn´t possess a Devil Fruit power! He´s "just" a Fish-man and simply THAT GOOD!
  • Evidence 3: HE SUMMONS A SCHOOL OF WHALE SHARKS!
  • In short, he's the One Piece version of Aquaman. Namely, the UBER BADASS one from the DC Animated Universe, in a universe where Aquaman is absolutely deadly.

Marineford Arc

• Luffy should get one just for falling from the sky above Marineford, while Whitebeard had came from below the ocean earlier in Chapter 556.
  • Especially as Sengoku's reaction is "GARP! IT'S YOUR DAMN FAMILY AGAIN!"
  • Oh, it gets better... In the next chapter, he says that if Whitebeard wants to be Pirate King, he'll have to go through him first. while standing by his side. And, if the smile is of any indication, earned the old man's respect. The reactions of quite a lot of the bystanders are priceless. The entrance itself is pretty awesome, with the team shot, and the resulting mix of surprise, relief and Oh, Crap! from various characters.
    • To reiterate, Luffy momentarily stopped the whole war.
    • And the chapter after that... After quickly chatting to Whitebeard like they were equals, Luffy bounds off to rescue Ace. This is a combined Moment of Awesome — first, he's saved from Kizaru by Ivankov, then Jimbei makes Moria's zombie-raising powers useless through using salt water from the ocean itself (remember, he can THROW THE SEA), and then, Luffy's response to Ace's urging him to flee? Punch out a GIANT (made even more awesome by the fact that he did it with a technique that made his fist even bigger than the giant's whole body) and then say, "I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU SAY! I'M GOING TO SAVE YOU EVEN IF IT KILLS ME! The kicker? Whitebeard then effectively orders Marco to protect Luffy. Now Luffy is cutting a path through the Marines towards Ace, and one of Whitebeard's finest, as in, the guy who blocked an attack from Kizaru, is protecting him. This is going to get real interesting.
    • A point for Luffy's INTELLIGENCE(!)... when Crocodile rushes to attack Whitebeard, Luffy intercepts the strike. After the fact, Crocodile notices that Luffy had the foresight to get his arm wet, exploiting Crocodile's weakness to water.
  • And that epic punch up there is made even more epic by the fact that it was done in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann style. So it looks like a Giga Drill Breaker.
• Props for Monkey D. Dragon for making both marines and pirates shit their pants just by being mentioned. The moment Sengoku revealed that Luffy is Dragon's son, even some of the Whitebeard pirates looked afraid of him. Whatever Dragon did offscreen, it clearly left an impression.
• Luffy now standing in front of ALL THREE ADMIRALS seconds away from Ace's execution. If this isn't a holy shit moment, nothing is. Why else would it be this very page's image?
• In the anime, there's the brief clash between Mihawk and Jimbei. Mihawk wins, sending Jimbei flying. And if that wasn't awesome enough, Mihawk does it WITH ONE STRIKE.
• Luffy, after getting badly Worf'ed by the Marines' higher ups — especially the Admirals — came back roaring. After getting beaten up by Kizaru et al and having his body run out on juice on him, he begs Ivankov to inject him with Vigor Hormones again and, upon seeing the decapitation about to take place, yells out a very familiar STOP IT ALREADY! Luffy's Haki finally unleashes itself, knocking out Ace's executioners along with many other Mooks in the vicinity. Sengoku and Ace are both left speechless, Aokiji's surprised, Ivankov's amazed, and Whitebeard just thinks "that little snot-nosed..." That's how you prove yourself, Luffy.
  • It's also very much worth noting that that was the moment Luffy (unintentionally) painted one massive target on himself. The Marines immediately made targeting him a priority. And that's picking him over Whitebeard. Yeah, that's right: the Marines find this kid who keeps getting stomped by the Admirals to be more of a threat than the man who can actually go toe-to-toe with their best men.
• Portgas D. Rouge, Ace's mother, gets one for carrying him inside for twenty months. Why does she do that? To hide the fact that Ace is GOLD ROGER'S SON!
• Whitebeard finally gets to show us that he is easily the most badass character in the entire franchise in this arc. Before we list off the massive amount of badass things he pulls off, this has to be mentioned. Whitebeard is 72 years old, has been on life support for about 10 years, has a heart disease and is half blind and half deaf. Even before the battle of Marineford he's one leg in the grave. And despite that, he manages to pull off the following:
  • He can create shockwaves that are powerful enough they could potentially break the world.
  • He refused Gold Roger when he wanted to tell him the location of One Piece because "I already have a family, and that's all I need".
  • He treats every member of his crew as a son or daughter (with the exception of Blackbeard, who he "disowned") and will risk his life for every single one of them (which is how the Marineford arc starts, as Ace has been captured). He even gets stabbed by one of his "sons" who thought he betrayed them, and... gave him a Cooldown Hug.
  • He starts off the battle by creating powerful enough shockwaves to create 2 tsunamis the size of Tokyo Tower.
  • Even without using his Shockwave powers, he can block the strike of a 90 foot tall giant with one hand on his bisento before knocking off balance and FLIPPING THE FUCKING OCEAN.
  • Keeps fighting after Akainu punches him with lava. HE DOESN'T EVEN SLOW DOWN. This same attack killed Ace in one hit.
  • He is the only one who has beaten Akainu, despite having half his face burned off.
  • His Dying Moment of Awesome finally comes after having been stabbed, shot, bombarded, punched through the stomach and having half his face burned off, and he still beats Blackbeard down so hard his entire crew has to intervene. After that, we are told he survived 267 stab wounds, 152 gunshots, 46 cannonballs, having his face melted and his guts being burned by lava. AND HE STILL DIED STANDING UP.
  • And then to top it all off, when his cape falls from his shoulders it reveals that despite his front being a scared, broken mess, his back hadn't received a single wound or mark over his entire life. Recall Zoro's words when he refused to turn his back when he first fought Mihawk. Epic Call-Back to show just how much this kind of pride means to a true warrior.
• Donquixote gets one in the Marineford Arc after helping to incapacitate Oars Jr. and setting the invading captains against their crews. He gives a Breaking Speech on how flimsy and warped the ethics of the world are, and almost Breaking the Fourth Wall by noting how the roles of good and evil in regards to the Marines and pirates are always shifting:
  "The one's who stand on the top determine what's wrong and what's right!!! This very place is neutral ground!!! Justice will prevail, you say!? But of course it will!!! Whoever wins this war will become Justice!!!"
• In Chapter 560, Boa Hancock breaks Smoker's Seastone Jutte with a simple kick. Remember that Hancock is a fruit user. She broke a weapon made out of her Kryptonite Factor and as hard as diamond. With a kick. Without a scratch. And afterwards can still look down on Smoker so far she's actually looking up. Bad. Ass.
  • Only the tip of Smoker's weapon is made of Seastone. The rest is presumably just some regular sort of metal or else Smoker, a Logia, couldn't wield it himself.
  • Her stealing of the keys for Ace's cuffs. Damn, she's as good as Nami!
  • And in another chapter, she kicks a Pacifista in the face and it explodes!
    • Not only that, but she's later confronted by Sentomaru for destroying quite a few Pacifistas. Remember that it took the entire Straw Hat crew to bring down just one of these things.
    • Well, the Pacifista though were programmed not to attack her because she was their ally. Still shows she has a ton of raw power though, especially since her fruit powers are useless against emotionless beings.
    • You might want to tell that to the cannonballs and the jutte she petrified. They are not only emotionless, they are non-sentient! That's right, she is so badass her power works on stuff that for all purposes should be immune!
• Chapter 562 not only has the army of Pacifista turned the tides of the battle in favor of the Marines, but Whitebeard is betrayed by one of his own men and stabbed clear through his chest.
  • Whitebeard's reaction to this is definitely awesome. Despite having just been impaled by a BFS, he calmly asks what the attacker's problem was, and, after finding out it was due to a ploy by the Marines to turn his allies against him, he tells the guy that they are all his sons anyway, and gives said allies an escape route in case they really felt he was going to sell them out. He then turns around and attacks the Marines by himself, head on, completely ignoring the wound.
    • Whitebeard actually hugs his comrade turned assailant, saying that he'll always be one of his "sons".
• Chapter 564...Sengoku wasn't kidding about Whitebeard being the strongest. He just tilted the ENTIRE FREAKING MARINEFORD ISLAND, AND THE SEA ALONG WITH IT!! And has also one-shotted another Marine Giant, aptly named John Giant. He is the man!
  • The admirals also deserve credit. They managed to prevent the platform Ace was on from being destroyed...could they be Haki users too? And Akainu just began raining down a literal meteor storm of magma fists. The One Piece equivalent of the Armageddon is on full assault and they are still treating it like a tea party.
    • According to Word of God, we are only about half way through the series. There has to be SOMETHING more than this later on.
    • And imagine how strong Roger was. He was on par with a younger and most likely healthier Whitebeard, probably even stronger, AND managed to become the Pirate king.
• Marco further proves why he is the 1st Division Commander by kicking Aokiji in a way that would make Sanji jealous when he was about to finish Luffy off.
  • Kizaru effortlessly intercepting and kicking Gear Second Luffy.
    • Fleet Admiral Sengoku and Garp preparing to fight. Yeah...someone is about to get rage stomped.
• Whitebeard gets another one for concealing another freaking ship underneath the water, in case of anything.
  • That said, give Oars one for being alive much less carry a ship smashing though a wall that Whitebeard himself couldn't break though.
• And what about Crocodile? If stopping Ace's head from being chopped off doesn't qualify, then how about purposefully defying Donquixote Doflamingo? Doflamingo is the man with the highest bounty we know of in the entire series thus far, four times greater than Crocodile's bounty was. It goes to show just how badass Crocodile can be, despite not even being the arc's Big Bad.
  • Crocodile? That's not the crown of badassery, considering that Crocodile's power comes from his manipulation ability. The way he dinks away Mihawk's BFS with his hook handed arm because he notices that Mr. 1 is "taking a nap" and because he's not in the best mood because he is disappointed that Whitebeard isn't STRONG enough, and then goes to only become important when needed, such as saving Luffy and stopping Akainu for no reason except that that Impel Down prison place was getting pretty boring.
• What no CMOAs for the latest chapter? It's a huge Moment of Awesome for the World Government... and Luffy. Kizaru defeats Marco after a Vice Admiral puts Seastone cuffs on him and Kizaru fires straight through him. Jozu is frozen solid. Whitebeard is on his deathbed impaled by several Vice Admirals and Marines while his commanders and the pirates are getting cut down all around him. Koby and Luffy fight and Luffy one-shots Koby like it's nothing. Finally, the biggest Moment of Awesome in the chapter, Ace is seconds away from being executed when Luffy screams out with his Conqueror's Haki, knocking out hundreds of Marines and stopping them from beheading Ace.
  • Ahem: I AM WHITEBEARD!!! The only Badass Boast he needs.
• The latest chapter is a huge Moment of Awesome. Luffy defeats Garp (though Garp actually threw the fight), Luffy tries to free Ace, Sengoku attacks Luffy whilst turning into a giant Buddha that effortlessly damages Gear Third Luffy, destroying the platform.
  • Luffy sustains damage from Sengoku's attack, but his Gear Third Gigantic Rubber Balloon technique, with assistance from Mr. 3's Candle Wall, protects all three of them from the attack, even as the execution platform crumbles.
  • And that would have been impossible without Mr. 3. Yeah, the wimpy Smug Snake actually disguised himself as one of the execution soldiers and crafted the key to Ace's cuffs. And then his Candle Wall managed to absorb the blow of Sengoku's Buddha punch. And why is he doing all this? To repay Mr. 2! His quote alone makes it his greatest Moment of Awesome.
    "If the reason I am here right now... was to avenge my fallen friend, would you laugh at me, hmmm?!"
  • And what is this? The Whitebeard Jolly Roger, formed out of flames, as Ace and Luffy go complete Bash Brothers!
• Chapter 572. Whitebeard shouting his final order, and then prepares himself to fuck up the Marines is simply the most badass thing he's done this whole battle.
  • Luffy and Ace being Back-to-Back Badasses and fighting all the Marines together is equally badass.
  • Luffy and Ace are equally badass until Aokiji arrives to try and stop them. What follows is Ace's best moment outside of flashbacks, as he uses his elemental advantage and gives an Admiral, who is stronger and more experienced than him, pause.
• Akainu mocking Whitebeard just so Ace will lose control and attack him, then Akainu nails Ace while telling him that fire can not possibly defeat magma. It says a lot that he killed Ace, who had just stopped Aokiji, with ease.
  • Kind of dark, but he should get another one just for negating the series' infamously thick Plot Armor.
  • Akainu's refusal to allow Luffy to live even after being punched by Whitebeard; that man will only be stopped by killing him.
• Oh Whitebeard, will you ever cease to amaze us? Despite every single hit he's taken. You usually fall over dead when half your fucking face is melted off by magma. Even then he still has enough force to not only smash the Akainu but as well as continued destruction of the HQ along with separating the Marines from the pirates.
  • In one hit.
  • Earlier, Akainu made the statement of how he aimed to defend Marineford against tyrants like Whitebeard. So guess what Whitebeard does? He purposely directed attacks towards the buildings, destroying them, while mocking Akainu about protecting it. And after Akainu had killed Ace, in a brutal and calm fashion, Whitebeard smashed and utterly pounded Akainu to the ground in two blows and at the same time, he managed to split the entire island and everything in it in half. Don't mess with Whitebeard.
  • How about the arrival of Blackbeard and his new crew? Zehahahahahahahaha!
• Whitebeard's death. He dies on his feet, never falling down, from 267 slashes and stabs, 152 bullets, 46 cannonballs, and half his goddamned face being melted off... without a single wound to his back. He never, EVER retreated.
  • That was after he made Blackbeard crap his pants in fear. After BB taunts him, Whitebeard starts beating the ever loving shit out of Blackbeard. Including a Quake to the face. And in the end it took Blackbeard's entire crew attacking all at once to take down GARbeard.
    • And his last words? "THE ONE PIECE IS REAL!". And they were being broadcast to the entire Sabaody Archipelago! Sucks to be Sengoku, as the world's pirates just had their ambitions jump-charged.
    • To put the above words in context, the Marines were pretty close to wiping out pirates everywhere. The current age was slowly ending, and if they had managed to execute a member of Whitebeard's crew (let alone Whitebeard himself) without a reprisal, it would have ended right then and there. But then Whitebeard says those last words, and it starts a new age of piracy.
  • On the flip side of the coin, Blackbeard and his crew combine this and the Moral Event Horizon by way of Akainu. Blackbeard took the head quake, a move that may have killed a Vice Admiral and leader of the Giant Squad and a Haki-infused slash to his aorta, and lures Whitebeard into a trap, where they kill Whitebeard like Sonny in The Godfather, and Blackbeard's laugh and lack of pain after the attack shows that he may be sneaky, dirty, and underhanded, but he just took two killing blows, and killed the World's Strongest Man.
• In Chapter 577, Blackbeard makes the entire world reach for its brown pants when he manages to STEAL the power of the Quake-Quake Fruit from Whitebeard's corpse. That's right: Marshall D. Teach has broken the cardinal rule of "No one can have more than one Devil Fruit", thus becoming the most powerful man in the world. And if that weren't enough, they're two of the most broken Devil Fruit powers in the series, earthquakes and darkness!
  • Also Jimbei tells Akainu to go to hell when he insists on killing Luffy. This is a man made of magma vs. a Fish-man. Followed shortly by Ivankov using his Hell Wink to get Akainu out of the way.
  • The true Moment of Awesome came when Blackbeard declared, "This is...my age!" So, for all technical reasons, he's declared himself to be Pirate King.
• Sengoku telling Blackbeard where to shove his talk of sinking Marineford by hitting him with the Buddhist palm in his giant Buddha form, causing Blackbeard and his entire crew to spit up blood from the force of the attack. Do not fuck with Sengoku.
  • Blackbeard gets on in return for still being confident in his ability to win.
• Akainu is still going at it. It seems nothing will stop this monster. Oh wait, CROCODILE!
  Crocodile: If you want to protect him, you should damn well do it properly! How long do you mean to keep letting [The Marines] get exactly what they want?!
  • Do you honestly think such a measly thing as a bunch of Whitebeard division Commanders and a Level 6 Prisoner could defeat Akainu? The man who can defeat Akainu doesn't have the strength yet since Whitebeard died.
• Finally, Trafalgar Law pulling a Big Damn Heroes moment to rescue Luffy.
  • Along with what he says with it — though they may become enemies in the future, he'll be damned if Luffy is going to die today.
• With the arrival of Chapter 579, what sort of awesome will they pull off this t— JESUS CHRIST IT'S SHANKS! GET IN THE CAR!
  • Koby's display of both courage and compassion defying Akainu because he wishes to stop the war and end this senseless violence since the Marines already completed their objective is awesome in so many ways. First of all, if only for a few seconds, he stops the war. All of it. Pirates and Marines alike just stop dead in their tracks. Not just the grunts, either. He managed to get Blackbeard's attention. Now, that is an EPIC What the Hell, Hero? speech. He calls out the Marines for abandoning the lives of their comrades to death just to fight pirates who are trying to escape, making their deaths meaningless. As if that wasn't already kickass, Koby, according to Shanks, changed the fate of the entire world due to his seconds of courage. Now, that is awesome.
    Koby: There's no point in fighting anymore! There's no point in killing! It's over, we won! We can end this! These are human lives, this is wrong! They have families; children! They're our friends and we're watching them die! We killed Ace, Whitebeard is dead, the pirates don't have the will to fight anymore! What are we trying to prove? What's the point?! There are wounded men out there, we can save them if we stop fighting! But, no! We're just making more victims, more casualties! Those Marines have nothing to be proud of! Why are they dying?! What are they even fighting for?!
  • Even him crying the whole time does not diminish it. He is not crying out of fear; he is crying from the loss of his fellow Marines and being able to hear their deaths (due to beginning to awaken his Haki). His bold move doesn't come from recklessness or foolhardiness, but from compassion and moral integrity. This just makes it even more awesome.
  • What's also awesome is that it goes to show just how far Koby has come ever since we first met him. He started off as a boy who trembled before Alvida and has become someone brave enough to stand up against someone as scary and ruthless as Akainu. when you remember who motivated him to change so drastically. Even more brilliant when you realize whose life Koby just saved... It also shows how much Koby's stayed the same, having the same, "I have no regrets" attitude to almost being killed by Akainu as he was when he was going to be killed by Alvida.
  • Ben Beckman stopping Kizaru in his tracks (with a pistol, no less, something a Logia shouldn't even be concerned by), as well as the sheer Oh, Crap! look Akainu and other Marines had once Shanks showed up.
• How do you end a war? If you're Shanks, you say it's over, and it is. The man only had to state that whoever still wants to fight will have to take them on. Cue the group shot of the crew. Bad. Ass.
• The reason the World Government can't cover up their massive defeat of the pirates as planned, in the Marineford Arc? Buggy's holding the last Video Transponder Snail, which he uses to give an interview while a battle is going on.
• Mihawk nails another one in the Marineford Arc, topping his first Moment of Awesome by ten-fold. You know those huge waves Whitebeard created, that Aokiji froze? He cut the ENTIRE TOP HALF OF ONE CLEAN OFF, AND IT WAS JUST A MISSED ATTACK AT LUFFY!
• In Chapter 559, after Luffy is beaten down once again by Smoker, Hancock comes out of nowhere and saves him, easily swatting aside the Logia user who has been an undisputed badass up to this point. Yeah, it's becoming pretty clear that she didn't just get into the Warlords with her looks.
• In the Marineford arc Ivankov's shown that that eyelash thing isn't just a joke. He uses a More Dakka version of it to beat the shit out of Kuma.

  Ivankov: Galaxy Wink!

  • Then we learn in Chapter 560 that he/she knows Kuma... somehow (later revealed they were both in the Revolutionaries with Dragon. And Kuma apparently was afraid of him/her). When it turns out Kuma doesn't even recognize them anymore, he/she delivers this ball-bustingly awesome line:
    Ivankov: I don't care if your memories have been erased or vat! If you EVER forget your fear of me... I'LL JUST POUND IT BACK INTO YOUR BODY! PREPARE YOURSEEEEEEELF!
  • How about in 547 when Ivankov smashed through a solid wall with his face?
• Further evidence that Jimbei is a walking Moment of Awesome:
  • His reaction to a Zombie Apocalypse? Wash it away.
  • Moria realizes his zombies are useless against Jimbei's command over the salt water surrounding the area. He pulls out some of his hidden shadows and absorbs them, dramatically increasing his size before he goes after the Fish-man with his gigantic pair of scissors. Jimbei one-shots him.
  • He blocks an attack from Akainu. This guy blocks freaking lava.
    • With his body.

Post-Marineford Arc

• Doflamingo, on the last page, is with a bunch of Pacifistas and appears to be beating Moria for an undisclosed reason, though he mentions that Moria's death would be a cover up, him purported to have been killed in the Marineford battle. When Moria asks if Sengoku ordered it, all Doflamingo replies with is, "Try higher." ... so... something's going on with the Gorousei/Five Elder Stars^note The only known authority in the World Government that is higher than the Marines' Fleet Admiral. Yes, they are the same old men who were responsible for permitting the annihilation of Robin's country, Ohara, for its forbidden studies of the Blank Century.. Something big. YEAH.
• How does Blackbeard get 4 level 6 Prisoners to be his crew? By having ALL the Level 6 prisoners battle it out to the death, with the promise of the survivors being set free and allowed to join his crew.
• Sengoku gets one for having some moral fiber. Upon hearing news that more Level 6 prisoners have escaped than just those in Blackbeard's crew, he immediately wants bounties issued so people will be warned. He is not happy when he learns the World Government is going to pretend the criminals don't exist.
• And now, a cross between Heartwarming Moment and Moment of Awesome when we're shown the crew's (sometimes tearful) realization of their own lack of strength. Usopp puts it best when he says that he's always thought somewhere inside that Luffy was powerful enough that he could just sit back and watch him just become Pirate King. And then watching their conviction and dedication to becoming stronger so that they can help Luffy as well.
  • Usopp, in particular, had become comfortable (and fat) during his stay in the Boin Archipelago. But when he got his hands on a newspaper detailing what happened during the War, his response was to go on a berserker rage and attempt to escape the island by himself. Said island is populated by man-eating plants and giant insects, all of which get stronger the closer you are to the island's edge, and the island itself attracts Sea Kings. Usopp didn't give a shit — his Captain needed his support.
• Sixteen bells. SIXTEEN BELLS. Luffy sneaks back into Marineford, steals a Marine ship, sails around the area once, fights his way into the Plaza, goes and rings a sacred bell, throws a bouquet of flowers down, gives a solemn moment of silence for Ace and everyone else who died in the war, and escapes. Sure he had Jimbei and Rayleigh with him, but still.
  • Although Luffy couldn't save his brother Ace from death, his deeds during the Paramount War Saga will always be remembered by everyone at sea, including the New World. This is evident from the assaults on the Thousand Sunny.
• Sabo has practically gone and given the World Nobles the middle finger, raising his pirate flag and setting sail on the day they were meant to arrive.
  • That page is also a crowning moment for Oda himself. Remember that crossed-out 'S' in Ace's tattoo? Take a look at the flag in the last panel of that page. Just one more instance where Oda proves that he has planned out everything years in advance.
    • Oda never forgets you know.
• Rayleigh gets more support for his badass credentials. His ship sinks in stormy weather when he tries to find Luffy on Amazon Lily. What does he do? He swims from the Grand Line, through the Calm Belt, and fights off a Sea King. Damn.
• The "New World" itself gets this the first time we see it, along with the possible terror it brings. What do pirates in the New World call the first half of the Grand Line? "Paradise".
  • Namely, Basil Hawkins sails to Brownbeard's island, defeats one his men, then calmly sits down on him and does his tarot card thing, then politely asks Brownbeard to repeat what he said as Brownbeard prattles about his relatively low bounty, then muses that he thought his name was so stupid, he misheard him. He then tells him he doesn't like jokes, and he sees Brownbeard's death as he morphs into his Scarecrow form and unsheathes the sword. Not bad.
• The cover to Chapter 597 shows Gold Roger and Whitebeard posing back to back.

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