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Ah, One Piece, a Long Runner filled with exciting adventures that is able to keep up with series such as Naruto and Bleach. Like those two series however, some of those adventures can get you to stay awake and not in a good way.

WARNING: All spoilers for the series are unmarked.


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    General 
  • Devil Fruit abilities in general can be completely nightmarish, given the right context. Even the most harmless thing you can think of can be turned into a deadly weapon in the right hands. This is especially evident with Paramecia, who have by far the most varied and strangest power sets, and often have the most lethal abilities. And then there's the undesired effect: Devil Fruit users lose the ability to swim and cannot come into contact with anything made from sea salt. And since the world is mostly covered in ocean, well, better hope you have a life preserver on you.
  • If Devil Fruits scare you, then SMILES are their own unique flavor of horrible. These are an attempt to create mass-produced artificial Zoan type Devil Fruits, which aren't exactly a success...
    • For starters: 90% of SMILES don't work, and simply give the consumer the Super Drowning Skills of a normal Devil Fruit. Why is this creepy? Because defective SMILES have an additional side effect: they permanently erase the consumer's ability to express negative emotions, instead rendering them unable to stop smiling and laughing at whatever happens to them.
    • And then there's what happens if you get one of the 10% that do work... for a certain definition of "work". At best, a SMILE User gains the ability to voluntarily transform one part of their body into a random animal part. More likely, you are permanently transformed into a bizarre human/animal hybrid, which can vary from relatively harmonious fusions like Speed (whose Horse SMILE left her permanently turned into a centaur) to repulsive and impossible mixtures of anatomy. And then you could be one of the unlucky ones who gets a really messed up SMILE, resulting in you permanently sprouting a partially formed and fully sapient animal from your body. Perhaps the most striking example of the final result is the Beast Pirate Dobon, who has been permanently transformed into the tongue of a giant hippo.
  • Happy-go-lucky Chopper on the 3rd Rumble Ball. Monster Point: He turns into a giant, mindless, hulking killing machine.
    • Chopper's last conscious thought before he went berserk. "Please don't let anyone enter this room." He knew what was about to happen.
    • At least post-timeskip, he is able to preserve his consciousness in said state with a time limit of three minutes, after that, he reverts back to normal.
  • Slavery:
    • Despite the World Government outlawing slavery, it's a very prevalent part of the One Piece world. It's frighteningly easy to be captured into slavery, with Boa Hancock and her sisters being quickly and randomly captured by slave traders while out at sea. Once captured and sold, slaves are collared and forced to do all their master's deeds until they die of exhaustion. If they try to escape, their collars explode. No matter how much they suffer, they are forced to smile, to show respect to their abusive masters. In fact, slaves don't even have the right to cry!
    • Worse, some owners buy slaves for the sole purpose of making them suffer. Hancock and her sisters were fed Devil Fruits to satisfy their masters' messed-up curiosity, and one of the nobles who wanted to buy Camie specifically stated how he was interested to see how long she could out-swim his school of deadly piranhas.
    • What makes it even worse is that even when slaves are freed, they are usually so traumatized and/or physically messed up that their recovery isn't necessarily assured. The Gorgon sisters and Koala were lucky in this regardnote , but not all of them were, as a woman in Chapter 763 reveals that her daughter came back in such a pitiful state after being saved from slavery that she didn't speak a word, and committed suicide three days later.
  • In general, the lengths to which the World Government is ready to go to uphold peace are frightening. For example, when they learned that Roger had a child, they didn't know who the mother was. Their solution was to examine any young or expecting mother who was suspected to be connected to Roger (which failed, because the one young woman who was connected to Roger held her child in her womb for twenty months, specifically to save him from being executed for the mere "crime" of existing). They are pretty hypocritical about peace and balance of power. After all, not only did they cover the escape of many insanely dangerous Level 6 prisoners from Impel Down following Blackbeard's breakout just so they could save face, but they also let the World Nobles (See above) do as they please.
  • The Void Century. The very concept of 100 years simply being erased from the history books is 1984-level nightmare fuel on its own, but there's the idea of what secrets are hiding in that forgotten era of time. Whatever it is, is so bad that even the incredibly corrupt World Government wants to keep it secret.
  • Caesar Clown: a mad genius with a face that makes him look like the hellish child of The Joker and a Hannya mask. He's a death-loving sadist who revels in creating weapons of mass destruction, because he views his ability to invent methods of inflicting death on a massive scale as proof of how smart he is, and is implied to be guilty of countless war crimes. He's an utterly ruthless monster who kidnaps innocent children as guinea pigs for an ongoing experiment to find a way to turn humans into giant Super Soldiers, revels in murdering people by exposing them to new formulas for poison gas, and is giddy with glee at using humans as test subjects for even the most fatal chemical or biological experiments. Making things worse, he's incredibly adept at putting on a veneer of being a loving and benevolent man whilst secretly caring only for himself; his underlings literally worship him as their savior but he kills them without a second thought if it will accomplish his mission, provide him with test subjects, or simply amuse him. He's the creator of Smiley, a terrifying Blob Monster made from a chemical weapon capable of annihilating an entire island, as well as the mind behind the insidious SMILE Devil Fruits.
    • Making things worse is that Caesar Clown also has one of the more subtly terrifying Devil Fruits in the series: the Logia known as the Gas-Gas Fruit. As anyone with even a basic high school understanding of science can tell you, there are myriad deadly forms of gaseous elements, from obvious airborne toxins to subtle manipulation of even normally benign gases, like oxygen. And as a master of chemistry, Caesar Clown knows them all, turning what an idiot would use as simply a variant on the Smoke-Smoke Fruit into a lethally versatile offensive arsenal, like covering enemies in clouds of inert gases and suffocating them into submission when they can't even see what he's doing, or pumping out pure oxygen and then igniting it to create explosions.
  • Doflamingo's ability in general is scary. He could attach strings to people and control them like puppets, forcing them to kill the people they love - as King Riku and Rebecca can attest to, good thing Luffy was there to stop her in the latter case. His bird cage is another level of hell, it's impossible to cut the strings and the people trapped within could do nothing but wait for the cage to enclose and inevitably cutting everyone within into shreds.
  • The fact that something like the World Government even exists as it does. All the things mentioned about it above, the rampant corruption, their questionable hiring practices, Impel Down... It's like the One Piece world is a place that happened after a The Bad Guy Wins / He Who Fights Monsters scenario in the distant past, with all the suck it entails.
  • Imagine being a normal citizen of Grand Line island near Ohara. Imagine that you have friends, maybe relatives, that live there peacefully. Then imagine after not hearing from anyone for months, you find out that the island was just erased from existence with no survivors. An entire rich civilization, well known for its scholarly learning, just wiped out in an afternoon with no explanation. (The true reason being the discovery of the Void Century, mentioned above.) This is the horror of living under the World Government. A government that protects citizens but can — and will — wipe everything you know and love out of existence for the sake of some horrible long forgotten event in the past they want to keep secret.
  • The 3 Ancient Weapons, Poseidon, Pluton, and Uranus. Created by the rulers of the Void Century, each weapon has the ability to devastate the world and the islands several times over. They are in fact the major reason why the World Government has officially banned the study of Poneglyphs, possibly justified by their sheer existential threat. And all the atrocities that followed in the process of hiding the Ancient Weapons from any prying eyes.
  • The Great Pirate Era itself. Although by reading the rest of the article, it sounds like a pretty awesome event, it's actually one of the far more nightmarish events that ever took place in the history of One Piece. Thousands of evil pirate crews took to the seas and terrorized innocent people and towns just to gain riches and power to reach the mythical One Piece, Gold Roger's treasure which no one was sure even really existed. In fact, the Yonko's protection only arose due to the slavery and all around chaos committed by these pirates. It's pretty easy to ignore, but our heroes, the Straw Hats, the Sun Pirates and the Whitebeard Pirates are among the rarest crews which do not endanger people, and are just adventuring for the sake of it. 99% of the Pirate crews are just for terrorizing the world, crushing dreams, robbing and killing people, and for decimating their opponents, until they get a check at the New World by the Four Emperors themselves profiting from the massive chaos resulting due to the Great Pirate Era, and the harsh climates of Paradise and the New World. And when the World Government and the Marines finally tried to put an end to this during the Marineford Arc later on, Whitebeard worsened the situation by confirming One Piece does exist, causing bigger chaos than ever by giving pirates incentive to be even worse in search of a treasure that does exist.
  • The genocide of the Lunarians, a race similar to the Shandians, Skypieans, and Birkans (except with black wings, dark skin, white hair, and the ability to create fire), who used to rule and reside from the Redline where the Celestial Dragons now dwell. Despite being said to be a Superior Species that could survive in any environment, the World Government found a way to wipe practically all of them from the face of the earth with only one known survivor, King The Wildfire. And even worse, they offer a reward for even rumors about finding a Lunarian in order to keep them as a test subject. If there are any other survivors around, they practically have to always be in hiding or alert to any possibility the government might capture them.

Super Rookies Era

    East Blue Saga 
Syrup Village Arc
  • Compared to Alvida, Morgan, and Buggy, Kuro acts like a genuine Knight of Cerebus, who makes for one terrifying example of how low a man can sink, coupled with the fact that he is a killing machine. Several moments stand out to show what a monster he is.
    • He observes the crescent moon above him on the eve of his plan's finale, before ruthlessly smashing an anniversary present from Kaya and attempting to murder one of his coworkers. Afterward, he walks into Kaya's room covered in Merry's blood and watches her sleep while stroking her face with his bloody weapons.
    • In a flashback sequence, Kuro calmly steps off his ship to confront the Marines pursuing him. Once Jango and his men arrive a few moments later, Kuro has slaughtered all but one random Marine who would later become Captain Morgan.
    • Kuro's Breaking Speech towards Kaya is dripping with this. Imagine someone you considered a close friend and loved one who you knew for three years, was revealed to be a dangerous criminal who had been plotting to kill you the entire time. Then, in the same fatherly tone they've always used, they discuss how they've always hated you and that killing you something they want to do for their pride. All while making Nightmare Face after Nightmare Face. This is the exact situation Kaya went through in under an hour.
    • Calling him a Bad Boss would be a major understatement, as while many One Piece villains have no problem killing their subordinates, he takes it up a level. From the moment he developed his plan, Kuro always intended to kill the men who served him loyally, even spending three years in hiding for his plan. Shortly after revealing this while fighting Luffy, Kuro proceeds to butcher his men as they beg and plead for mercy.
Baratie Arc
  • The idea of starving for over a month is a hell that almost anybody shouldn't go through. Sanji and Zeff's starvation is a testament to that. If they didn't live in the One Piece universe, they would've been dead long before a ship would've arrived.
  • Not to mention the fact that Zeff cut off and ate his own leg.
  • Mihawk shows up and proves to be a terrifying foe to everyone, cutting a ship with one slash and leaving the Pirate Armada nearly helpless. Then he curbstomps Zoro, traumatizing him and inspiring him to get stronger. And the fight is from Zoro's point of view.
  • While Krieg is a blowhard, he makes up for it by fighting dirty. He is not above using poison gas, even to any subordinates who disagree with him, can fake surrender to catch foes off-guard, nearly drowns Luffy after a fight so bloody its censored version is infamous for the changes it made, and wanting to keep fighting while unconscious.

Arlong Park Arc

  • Let's think of the situation that Nami's home island was in every day since Arlong showed up and took over. Everyone has to pay up Arlong's protection money...or his Pirates will kill everyone in the village. If one person fights back, they die. If a person is even caught with one weapon, they die. For every moment since Arlong arrived, the town has had to fear for their lives every waking moment, knowing one wrong move, one thing to tick Arlong off, means you or the entire village will die. The Marines are basically helpless because the small name guys who show up are too weak to beat Arlong's men, and the big guys who could stop him are being prevented from hearing a word about him thanks to a Dirty Cop on Arlong's payroll. By the time we meet them, the town has given up any hope of beating him. Now, remember that Arlong has subjected the entire island to this, and destroyed several villages already.
    • It gets worse when we learn later in the series that Arlong was only in the East Blue because his safe release was one of the conditions of Jinbe becoming a Warlord. It's possible that none of the Marines strong enough to actually stop him would have ever been sent to East Blue to maintain the World Government's political relationship with the Fishmen. Sure, Arlong had a bounty, but it was arguably smaller than it should've been, and very unlikely anyone strong enough to beat him would ever appear in East Blue. Even with the knowledge of what he was doing on Nami's island, it's entirely possible the World Government and Marines would've seen Cocoyashi and all the other villages as acceptable losses to maintain order.

    Alabasta Saga 
Little Garden Arc
  • Mr. 3's plan to make Zoro, Nami, and Vivi into wax statues, forcing them to suffocate in their prison, is really fucked up.
  • The premise of the island. The island has a set time of 1 year as it takes that much time for a Log Pose to adjust. Not to mention the extremely hostile life, which hasn't evolved like the rest, which involves dinosaurs and pretty much highly harmful insects. And if you try to leave? The Sea Kings take care of you.

Drum Island Arc

  • Wapol's cruelty despite his goofy behavior is definitely horrific and a Moral Event Horizon to any health professional during his tenure as king of Drum Island. Since Drum was known for its advanced medical knowledge, Wapol decided to make people beg at his feet by taking away the doctors, and any doctors who refused to be a subject under Wapol was either exiled from the country or killed. The most skilled Doctors who gave in were called the Isshi-20 who served only Wapol unless directed otherwise, leaving the citizens at the mercy of the well-meaning incompetent Doctor Hiriluk and the reclusive doctor Kureha for years.
    • Even worse this practice of doctor purging has been done by real life dictators such as during the 1950s Soviet-Era Doctors Plot
  • Chopper's transformations into his muscular form are pretty creepy, especially when he emits an ungodly roar and blank feral eyes after the death of his mentor.

Alabasta Arc

  • Rewind back into Alabasta, and we all remember the lovely scene of Crocodile sucking all the moisture out of Mr. 3. Seeing a human wither into a mummy, as Mr. 0 puts it, is very uncomfortable. Made all the worse when he does the same thing to Luffy. In fact, Luffy, who never had lost a fight until then, is suddenly beaten twice by the Warlord, showing things will no longer be easy for him, and every time he fights Crocodile, he comes close to death. Even when he wins the third round... using his own blood.
  • Not to mention Crocodile's systematic breaking of Vivi and the berserker frenzy he whips the rebels and Alabastan army into, to the point that even after everyone is knocked over by a gigantic explosion that would've wiped out everybody if not for Pell's Heroic Sacrifice, they just get right back up with crazed expressions and go right back to fighting.
  • In general, Crocodile's sadistic habit of giving people false hope in their last moments, then utterly crushing it. After locking everyone up in a drowning cage, he gives Vivi an (almost impossible) chance to find the key to save her friends... said key turns out to be fake. Before dropping Vivi from a building, he tells her that there is a bomb that will explode and destroy her country in five minutes. She survives and manages to find it, but the bomb is on timer anyway.

    Skypiea Saga 
  • The whole premise of the island of Skypiea and its rulership is horrifying in itself. Though it appears as a Fluffy Cloud Heaven filled with nice people with wings in a way that it could be misconstrued as Heaven, it most certainly is NOT. Six years before the main story, the island was taken over by Enel, wielder of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit's Logia lightning powers and capricious Person of Mass Destruction who destroyed his own homeland, and decided to make Skypiea his new home along with his army of insane followers before declaring himself God. After Enel took over, all the citizens of Skypiea lived in literal constant fear of him. This is mainly because Enel combined his ability to use Observation Haki and ability to sense electric fields which allowed him to hear all the islanders' conversations and thus made him aware of almost everything happening in Skypiea. If anyone dared to speak out against Enel or challenge his list of various nonsensical commandments, he would shoot a giant column of lightning down from the sky to effectively eliminate the dissenter and their loved ones. Enel also made foreigners out to be criminals by imputing a crime for almost any of their actions (even snoring). Anyone would become criminal themselves upon helping a criminal. The citizens had to live in this isolationist dictatorship under an insane god-king for six years!!
    • Even worse, not only is Enel monstrously powerful with a Super Power Lottery and Genius Bruiser credentials, able to outwit Nico Robin of all people, under his belt, he's also 100% butt-fuck insane! He's a delusional psychopath with a God complex who literally believes himself to be God and kills people with impunity as such. He planned on killing everyone in Skypeia For the Evulz before moving on to the moon because he believed it to be the Home of the Gods. Thank Goodness Luffy managed to take him down.
    • Worse, even after being defeated by Luffy, Enel's still active as ever and is simply chilling around on the moon because he doesn't need to breathe oxygen. Heaven help the world if he decides to mess around with the Grand Line.

    Water 7 Saga 
Long Ring Long Land Arc

Enies Lobby Arc

  • The Buster Call. With the push of a single button, entire islands are erased. And not just in the figurative sense either, once the Buster Call is complete, maps around the world are redrawn without the target island. To give you an example of how nightmarish the Buster Call is, Robin, who not only managed to escape her home island's demise at the hands of the Buster Call, but is also one of the most fearless people in the entire story, is completely terrified of the mere possibility of a Buster Call being unleashed.
    • And even worse, a person able to trigger it is Spandam, who is completely incompetent, but also a complete sadist, meaning he could press the button by accident or on purpose at any moment. The former happens, and Spandam quickly spins it to the latter.
    • As another hint of how horrifying it is, when Spandam accidentally triggered a Buster Call, the Marines were willing to annihilate Enies Lobby, no questions asked. Even worse, if someone does question it, they are killed.
  • Chopper's transformation into his Monster Point state is equal parts tragic and horrifying. Desperate to help his friends and on the edge of death, Chopper turns himself into an unholy chimeric monster that combines the traits of many of his past forms which makes him completely mindless, destroys his own body, and hostile to anyone in sight. The little guy is begging to himself for none of his friends to see him in the state and he delivers his enemy in question an unsettling beatdown. Not to mention the uncanny roar it gives off that resembles a deer elk yell and a crying wail. Chopper does learn how to control his Monster Point form later on, but it doesn't negate how scary and intense he was in that form beforehand.
  • Rob Lucci. He's calmer, more subdued, lacks any quirks that lighten the mood of the story besides his pet pigeon Hatori, and drawn to be less exaggerated in comparison to the typical One Piece villain, to the point where he feels like he should be in another manga. The scariest part about him however is how bloodthirsty he really is behind that Stoic facade. He joined CP9 specifically so he could kill people on justified grounds.
    • His fight with Luffy is among the most brutal fights the young Captain has had yet, and one of the most brutal fights in the series in general. To the point where Zoro's fights look lighter by comparison. Lucci was beating Luffy so badly that it was upsetting to watch; stabbing him, beating him to a pulp, and even biting him in the shoulder in full Leopard form. By the end of it, Luffy couldn't even move on his own.
    • Lucci's strength. Franky surmises that if Luffy had lost that fight, Lucci likely would have killed the other Straw Hats with ease. And looking at his track record, Franky wasn't exaggerating. Consider how much trouble the other members of CP9 gave the Straw Hat crew. Lucci's power level is 4000, making him leagues stronger than most of them and almost twice as much as the other two strongest CP9 agents below him. Lucci's second fight with Luffy at first consisted of him effortlessly beating the crap out of Luffy without even going into his Devil Fruit form. It took Gears Second and Third just for Luffy come to an even playing field and make Lucci get serious. And even then Lucci came very close to killing him, leaving much of Luffy's blood littering the area.
  • Spandam's brutal beatdown of Robin. It disgusts even Lucci, and shows it's a good thing Spandam is a pathetic weakling, because when he has the advantage he can be scary.
    • Robin's revenge on him as well, in the anime. She snaps his spine in half, which is scary when it happens to anyone. At least it was deserved.
    • In Wano, it's shown what happens when a competent villain has Spandam's attitude. And Black Maria is truly fearsome.

Post-Enies Lobby Arc

    Thriller Bark Saga 
Thriller Bark Arc
  • We also have the Thriller Bark arc, which featured a gigantic ship shaped like a Haunted Castle that was home to Dr. Hogback, a Mad Scientist who made zombies (including freakish zombified, literal Mix-and-Match Critters), Perona, an Elegant Gothic Lolita girl who could summon ghosts that came out of the goddamned walls (and floors and paintings), and Big Bad Gecko Moria, a large, vampire-like man who could steal people's shadows, and briefly traps Luffy's shadow in the body of a humongous zombified giant.
    • The wacky personalities of the various zombies, including Oars (zombified super-giant) act as pretty effective Nightmare Retardant. Because it's hard to be terrified of such very silly creatures... though the method of creating them and the effect of the sun on shadowless people is very Nightmare Fuel-worthy.
  • Perona herself is much less scary than the rest, but still pretty creepy at points. That said, when she fights Usopp, she goes from being charmingly creepy to straight-up scary. For instance, she threatens to crush his heart even if she actually can't. At one point, the look in her eyes just screams "enjoying this more than she has any right to." Also, her ability is horrifying, as she can mentally drain people except if they are always negative.
  • The scene of Nami taking a bath goes from Fanservice to Fan Disservice when Absalom (who's quite the pervert) comes in and attacks her. Some fans think it looks like a rape scene. Worse is it's implied Absalom has done this to other women before!
  • Dr. Hogback, who reanimated Cindry's corpse because he 'loved her'. A man with so little respect for the dead that he makes her lick the goddamn floor even when her dead corpse cries from the treatment it is receiving. When Absalom bemoans his lack of a wife, the good doctor offers to build him one. Now, let's imagine what he's really been forcing Cindry to do every day for years.
  • The most nightmare-inducing part of the entire arc is, without a doubt, Moria's Villainous Breakdown. His greatest zombie defeated, Moria snaps, ranting about his Freudian Excuse, before entering his One-Winged Angel form in what might be the most terrifying transformation sequence out of this show. And while he's ranting he's got a most terrifying Slasher Smile.
  • Perhaps less than the others, but seeing that... giant thing at the end of the arc. To put it in perspective, Thriller Bark is the size of an island. At the end of the arc, we see this massive creature, easily dwarfing the entire island, merely staring on. It doesn't do anything, but narration hints it's why ships disappear in the Florian Triangle.
  • Even after all the zombies, the scares aren't over. Enter Bartholomew Kuma. Bible-toting titan of the Seven Warlords. With the other Straw Hats broken and beaten, he was going to perform clean up. Zoro manages to plead that he be taken instead of Luffy. Kuma agrees, but not before laying down the line to just the right music.
    Kuma: But before you can take his place, I will make you experience Hell.
    • He wasn't exaggerating. He extracts all the pain and fatigue from Luffy, which is manifested as a red bubble as big as Kuma, and puts it into Zoro. To elaborate, when one tiny little baseball sized blob of the pain bubble was pushed into Zoro, he reacted in sheer agony as if a bomb just went off in his chest, coughing up blood. The anime makes it even worse by having Zoro screaming in agony.
  • Those with katsaridaphobia (fear of cockroaches) will be caught off-guard by how much Usopp covers Perona with cockroaches.
  • For that matter, having your shadow stolen. Just imagine constantly having to flee sunlight like a vampire, lest you will be burned to a crisp. As Brook tells the Straw Hats, he witnessed firsthand one of Gecko Moria's victims going crazy from having his shadow stolen, then running into sunlight, which quickly immolated him to ashes in an extremely graphic manner.

    Summit War Saga 
Sabaody Archipelago Arc
  • The Celestial Dragons. They have a complete and absolute disregard for human life, and are utterly untouchable. They also get even more repulsive each time they're brought up, as you learn more about what horrible things they do.
    • As a testament to how unstoppable they are, Monkey D. Luffy punched one in the face, causing Kizaru, Sentomaru, and Kuma to fight the Straw Hats. Luffy and his crew were decimated.
    • It isn't just them: the other nobles and rich elites at the human auction are nearly as bad as they are, as are the employees and Disco, the guy in charge of the entire thing. A complete disregard of life and dignity isn't exclusive to the World Nobles. The entire scene is utterly unsettling to witness.
  • The fight with Kuma is Grade-A Nightmare Fuel and Tear Jerker fuel. Luffy has to watch all his friends slowly (as far as he can tell) die one by one, and all he can do is scream, begging them not to fight back and just RUN so they have a chance of meeting again, all while their killer has no expression as he does the deed and completely makes them vanishes by just a touch of his hand. Some of them cry out, begging Luffy for help as he stands there completely powerless against Kuma. Finally, he comes to a broken and bawling Luffy and he vanishes, too. Absolutely ruthless.

Amazon Lily Arc

  • The Boa sisters' backstory as slaves of the Celestial Dragons. We see very little, but judging by how they'd all die rather than having it seen and risk to be recaptured by the Dragons, it wasn't pretty. Sandersonia in particular has a panic attack just by hearing Hancock's recounting of those events, and the mere sight of that pushes Luffy— who asked Hancock to tell her story in the first place— to beg Hancock to stop.

Impel Down Arc

  • The Blugoris from Impel Down are freaky. Large, vaguely humanoid creatures wielding giant battle-axes... with no face. Just a small lump for a head and what appears to be a painted-on skull (though the anime establishes it as more of a hood).
  • Impel Down itself. All prisoners are first boiled alive upon being sent there, and part of the punishments involve walking upon a field of razor sharp blades until your feet are nothing more than shreds. The kicker is that this occurs on the first level. The tortures get progressively worse as you continue further deep into what other characters in the manga have explicitly referred to as 'hell on earth'.
    • Level 2 is full of wild beasts that are kept in the prison because if they were allowed to roam free, they would eat people.
    • Level 3 is blisteringly hot, and food and drink is restricted. And the piles of sand everywhere? That's actually the remains of prisoners' bones after they've died and withered away.
    • And the reason Level 3 is so hot? Because Level 4 is home to a gigantic cooking pot full of blood, in which prisoners are boiled alive as torture. Level 3 is used as a vent, so Level 4 is even hotter.
    • Level 5, for contrast, is kept at freezing temperatures. Prisoners can get frostbite, if they're lucky. Unlucky prisoners, on the other hand, might meet the wolves that roam the level. They're kept down there, because they would eat the man-eating monsters kept on Level 2.
    • And Level 6? There are no tortures or guards, just silent, pitch black prison cells where prisoners wait. The guards simply leave you down there until you fade from acknowledgment. Even the level itself is not publicly known to exist.
  • Magellan's Devil Fruit. Despite being a somewhat outstanding guy, there's a lot to be afraid of a man made out of pure poison.

Marineford Arc

  • Remember the World Nobles? Well, this arc gives us an even better look at how monstrous their power is. Nico Robin is stranded on Tequila Wolf, a massive island-sized bridge in the middle of the coldest part of the East Blue, where brutal overseers force an entire nation of people to live in abject slavery, literally working themselves to death to extend the bridge out through the ocean to link to islands they've never even heard of. Generations of laborers have lived and died here, resulting in a bridge whose rear is covered in the ruins of abandoned work camps, and whose people don't even know why they're building the damn thing, only that they'll be killed if they stop.
  • Remember that agonizing look when Luffy went through Ivankov's healing? It reappears when Ace dies, capping off a long Trauma Conga Line for the Straw Hat captain. The look of despair on Monkey D. Luffy makes it seem he is dying himself. The anime doesn't hold back any punches on adapting this scene.
  • How about when Akainu friggin' blows off half of Whitebeard’s face?!
    • Heck, Akainu in general, especially after he recovers from Whitebeard's beatdown and proceeds to chase after Luffy. The man's a damn tank and nothing is going to stand in his way. Not even the toughest pirates of the One Piece world.
  • Also in the Marineford arc, in the anime, we're treated to a shot of three Pacifista slowly walking towards the camera, with their faces silhouetted, aside from their glowing eyes. In the background we've got what looks like a large fire illuminating the Pacifista. It's pretty unnerving.
  • After the war is finally over and Sengoku is given a report on just how Blackbeard recruited his four new crew members. After making it to Level 6, he ordered everyone in their cells to fight to the death in order to determine who got to be in his crew. And even after he left, countless inmates that weren't killed but simply passed out from the fighting got up and started to swarm Impel Down. These are the toughest pirates to ever exist and it's heavily implied that several of them managed to steal Marine battleships and sneak out and the World Government doesn't even want to put out wanted posters because they want to cover up their incompetence.

The New World Era

    Fish-Man Island Saga 
Return to Sabaody Arc
  • Caribou. Just Caribou. He is a psychotic homicidal lunatic who prays to God to forgive his victims of their sins as he kills them.
    • His Swamp Logia powers are really grotesque looking, too. He looks like a puddle of melted flesh, although this can be attributed to being black and white and Oda's art style.
    • Also, the way he was kidnapping those mermaids eerily resembled a rapist assaulting his victim.

Fish-Man Island Arc

  • Hody Jones in general. He's basically One Piece's response to Adolf Hitler... or at least, Hitler if he had been stopped before he could have achieved his dreams of conquering his own country...
    • Hody Jones' latest form can be this, with that huge, gaping murloc-like jaw. The anime cranks his Energy Steroid usage up to eleven by giving him blood-red eyes when he does so.
      • If it's any consolation, he doesn't get a chance to do anything other than receive a truly incredible No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from Luffy, which he definitely had coming. But when he's rendered immobile, his eyes start jittering around as his body wigs out to the steroid overuse. There's a reason why it was the former page image.
    • A flashback shows Hody and his officers visiting the home of a Fishman who gave blood to humans, shooting him dead in front of his child and putting the place to the torch.
  • Cruel to Be Kind though it was, Koala's scream and the hiss of her burning flesh when she gets rebranded still belong here.
    • Not to mention the blank, terrified look upon waking up, still smiling. The kind of trauma she had to go through to ingrain that on her on threat of death must have been unimaginable. In fact, what happened to Koala was so bad that even Arlong, who's a racist jerkass that hates humans, is completely disgusted.
  • Hyouzou earned his place here by being a blood-drunk kind of Drunken Master. It's one thing when you're the strongest swordsmen among the Fish-men with Combat Tentacles that lets you wield up to six swords in one go. That's textbook badass. But throw in a hopeless addiction to alcohol that completely robs him of his sense of judgement and you have the equivalent of a runaway lawnmower on your hands. He's twisted into an uncontrollable monster who juliennes the hell out of anything he sees, even his own allies! When the enemy is running away from one of its own powerhouses, you know shit is about to hit the fan.
  • We find out what exactly humans did to Hody Jones and his crew to make them so hateful: Nothing. That's right. Hody Jones and his lieutenants hate humans not from experience, but because they were taught to hate them. And by none other than Arlong himself, no less. This sadly is Truth in Television. A person might become racist because someone molded them into one through indoctrination at a young impressionable age without anyone to show them otherwise.
    Fukaboshi: He's not a fishman... He's a monster brought to life by our hatred! The New Fishman Pirates; they're nothing but remnants of a grudge from ages past. We allowed their evil to fester in the shadow of Fishman Island, and they began to champion this meaningless grudge. Flying its flag in some misguided sense of pride, they fear a future without it. In truth, they want humans to be evil, otherwise, there is no reason to justify their crusade. All they desire is bloodshed! And despite what they say, they don't want peace for fishman either! All of their fury, their hatred, it doesn't come from experience or logic or fact. They have no substance! Just empty cruelty!
  • The price of using the Energy Steroids is ghastly. Your body rapidly ages until you are old and frail, and your lifespan drains dry. This happens to all of the New Fish-Man Pirates executives, especially Hody Jones, who used so many more than his peers that he's now a veritable fossil hunched over and forced to use a cane. Also of note was that when he and Hyouzou took especially large doses of the steroids, their hair went white long before their bodies shriveled up. It got so bad that Neptune has to reconsider a proper punishment now, seeing as they are suffering already.
  • We now have a first full look of Big Mom. It's a slight case of Early Installment Character-Design Difference, but still. The anime adds blood-red eyes to her, just like Hody, which somehow manages to make her even more terrifying. Yeesh.

    Dressrosa Saga 
Punk Hazard Arc
  • The guys in Chapter 656 who kidnapped the remaining Straw Hats look pretty creepy with those diving suits.
    • Wait, there's more: brought to an island half on fire, half frozen, in a nursery-like room full of giant children. There's also the question of "what exactly 'divided' that samurai like that?", which doesn't get an answer until Law is reintroduced.
  • Two words: frozen corpses.
  • Chapter 675 shows us how Mocha snapped back to her senses, which doubles as a Tear Jerker: with a very creepy set of hallucinations terrifies her, and her memories of Usopp and Nami trying to snap the children back to their senses makes her scream for Nami and Usopp's help and apologize for not listening to them earlier. And because it bears repeating, this terrifying withdrawal episode happened to a child.
  • The Blob Monster Slime released by Caesar in Chapter 668 isn't a pleasant sight.
    • It's not just its looks that are monstrous, it's also basically invincible. It constantly releases poisonous gas, so you can't get too close without a mask, and cutting or shooting it just makes it spew out more. Plus, if you touch it, you are instantly infected with its poison, and the effects aren't pretty. So, if you can't attack it with weapons, or even attack at all, what's left? How about fire? Nearly all creatures fear fire, so let's try torching this one. But wait, this thing's made up of gas, so it'll just explode if set aflame. And even though it's not good with water, the poison that it spills in still works. And then it shows off its Devil Fruit ability.
    • And things just got even worse: after eating a bait made by Caesar, it changed into a huge cloud of gas that petrifies its victims fast as shit. Bonus points for how scary the statues look and the guy begging for help as he's being petrified.
  • Monet's monster form is actually pretty frightening. Seeing the Cute Monster Girl grow a giant set of teeth capable of biting off a Marine's shoulder. Brrr.
    • Later on, Zoro cuts her in half vertically. She survives, but that was only because Zoro decided not use Haki. Because Monet is too scared of what Zoro could have done to her, she is unable to put her body back together right away. Seeing her two halves moving about erratically, melting into snow and getting back into shape time and time again, is disturbing as hell. The look of absolute rage on her face(s) is not a pretty sight either, and gets even scarier when you compare it to how calm and cute she looked before.
    • There's also her ability to weaken someone by embracing them. You have to remember that Monet is a snow woman, and falling asleep in the snow can effectively kill someone. Monet does something similar, by weakening an opponent with the cold she exudes and causing them to fall asleep. The scares doesn't end there though. When she used it on Luffy, she described that his heart would freeze and he would die in his sleep. So Monet basically kills people with hypothermia. Urrggh...

Dressrosa Arc

  • You see the toys in Dressrosa? They used to be human. Not only that, but everyone, even those closest to them, forgot they existed in the first place. Worse yet, they can't report on it, because if toys even try to step in a human's house or talk to them too closely, they get declared "broken" and thrown into the scrap bin. That is already scary and sad enough, but to top it off, some of these toys have been in this situation for ten years.
  • It sort of takes a lot of the excitement out of the Tournament Arc that's happening in the Corrida Colosseum when it's revealed that the losers are dropped through a Trap Door into a dark pit where they wait to be turned into toys.
    • Speaking of taking out the excitement... the entire tournament is shown to be for naught for nearly all the participants given that with said transformation everyone will proceed to lose memories of these humans-turned-toys and consequently the tournament they took part in.
  • Doflamingo puppeteering King Riku into killing his own people against his will. His Slasher Smile framed in shadow does not help matters.
  • Usopp's face and his scream on the last page of Chapter 742 qualifies. It even qualifies as Nightmare Fuel In-Universe, at least for Sugar, who passed out from the scare! To some, it would probably be a Nightmare Retardant because of how exaggerated it is, and because Usopp is generally known for his ridiculous wild takes, but a such detailed and distorted face actually looks like something Junji Ito could have drawn in a less comedic context...
  • The Birdcage. Doflamingo traps all of Dressrosa in a literal birdcage made from his threads. Said cage hurts anyone who tries to leave and cuts off all communication with the outer world. Law then says Doflamingo intends to kill all of Dressrosa before the truth about the country leaks. And Doflamingo says that what will follow will be worse than the time he puppeteered King Riku into killing his own people. Doflamingo reveals he can control anyone he wants that's trapped inside the cage, says he could have ruled over Dressrosa with terror from the start if he wanted to and starts a hunting game where you either kill him to get out of Dressrosa, or kill the people he designates. And the "Holy Shit!" Quotient breaks again.
  • Chapter 760: We're finally given a hint of what Doflamingo's youth was like. He was a Spoiled Brat who couldn't appreciate why his father insisted that they abandon the rank of Tenryubito and live among their subjects. The few flashbacks we get show young Doflamingo brazenly asking where all the slaves are, angrily demanding to borrow his father's gun so he can shoot a "lowly commoner" who "dared talk back to him," and stubbornly blaming his father for his mother's death because he moved them to "this filthy outside world." And after his mother's death, he kills his father, and tries to make the World Nobles take him back into their community by presenting them with his father's severed head. When they refused this offer, saying that he and his family were traitors that could never come back to the holy land, he decided that he'd retaliate by throwing the world into chaos however he could in what amounts to a terrifying, decades-long temper tantrum.
  • What happened to the White City, just... everything that happened. Especially when you realize lead poisoning of that level does exist! (albeit it's very rare now due to modern medicine).
    • The truly frightening part is the very likely inspiration: Asbestos, a highly profitable mineral that was once used all around the world, and can be found in all kinds of goods, but use of asbestos was discontinued when it was discovered to cause serious and even fatal diseases. And much like in the case of the Amber Lead, many governments initially ignored the scientific and medical reports about asbestos' toxicity, continuing to allow its use into the 1980s, while the ill effects were demonstrated since the 1890s. In fact, the Amber Lead Poisoning has a real life equivalent with asbestos, mesothelioma. Even the country of Flevance may be based off a town whom thousands of people died from mesothelioma via asbestos, Casale Monferrato.
      • It also mirrored "itai-itai byou" or the 'it hurts, it hurts, disease." It was due to cadmium poisoning, a result of Japan's industrialization in the early 20th century. Their growing need for cadmium led to improper mining and water being contaminated. The same water was used to irrigate rice fields so the cadmium accumulated in people.
    • It gets worse. Amber Lead poisoning isn't contagious, but that didn't stop people from thinking it was. They closed off the country and shot anyone who tried to leave. Eventually, a war broke out and the soldiers were sent to kill everyone in the town. So how did Law escape? He hid in a pile of corpses. Keep in mind he was about ten at the time. No wonder the guy is so messed up now.
      • The invading troops went out of their way to kill the children. Unseen soldiers told a Sister that they would evacuate the children; when the kids were rounded up, they killed them all and left their bodies cooling in the street.
      • Trafalgar Lami's Cruel and Unusual Death; she was burned to death. What's worse, this could have been avoided if Law had brought her to run with him instead of hiding her inside a closet. But then he would have no reason not to join his classmates to "escape", and thus would have been deceived and killed. The image of a ten year old Law bawling his eyes out in front of his burning, corpse-filled home is horrendous.
  • Chapter 763: Doflamingo's real origin story. Once Doflamingo's family left Mariejois, it didn't take long for the people of the island they set up their new home on to find out they were former Celestial Dragons, especially with Doflamingo spouting it out to everyone. Many of the citizens turned out to be victims of the Celestial Dragons' cruelty, and since the Doflamingo family wasn't a part of them anymore and the island wasn't a part of the World Government, things went to hell quickly. The Doflamingo family had to go on the run after their mansion was burned down, moving from place to place in squalor, the strain of which eventually lead to Doflamingo's mother dying of sickness brought about by exhaustion and their horrible living conditions. All the while, Doflamingo's father tried to plead with the Celestial Dragons to let his wife and children back into Mariejois, and eventually just his children once his wife had passed, but the Celestial Dragons refused all the same. Eventually, the mob ended up finding and torturing them, even when Doflamingo's father begged them to take out their anger just on him instead of his children. Small wonder Doflamingo still has nightmares about it as an adult.
    • This chapter also provides even more evidence of just how monstrous the Celestial Dragons really are on the whole. Even setting aside their blatant refusal to accept Doflamingo and his brother back into Mariejois, despite it being their father who made the decision to leave and them being in desperate peril, the stories the mob hunting the Donquixote family have of their experiences with the Celestial Dragons are downright bone-chilling. One man tells of how his two sons, five- and two-years-old, were killed by being shot sixteen times just for crossing the path of a Celestial Dragon in the street. A woman tells of how her daughter had been taken up as a plaything by the Celestial Dragons, and as a result of whatever horrors were inflicted upon her, she came back home a disfigured mute who committed suicide three days later. A former slave tells of how the Celestial Dragons plucked out his eyes for entertainment while a man mentions how they burned his wife alive. And to top it all off, their demands of extravagant tributes from citizens has led to countless people starving to death. It doesn't excuse their hunting down and torturing of Doflamingo's family, but it's easy to see why they'd have such a seething hatred for any World Nobles.
    • Indeed, the way Doflamingo first used his Conqueror's Haki was declaring he'd kill the entire mob himself.
  • Chapter 764 reveals that, to Corazon, the scariest part of that night wasn't the torture he endured. It was seeing his own brother seething with hatred and vowing to kill everyone in revenge. Corazon wonders how his kind-hearted parents raised such a monster.
  • A chilling detail regarding Corazon's death: in order to protect Law from Doflamingo, rather than erecting a bubble to cancel noises within a certain range, he chose to silence Law himself, muffling any noises Law produced and reducing the chance of his discovery by the Donquixote Family to zero as long as he remained still. While it ultimately saved his life, it also meant that Law could clearly hear the Donquixote Family beating Corazon for his treason, Doflamingo's horrifying intent to hunt Law down to the ends of the earth to brainwash him into Undying Loyalty, and no matter how hard he screamed and tried to break out, he was unable to muffle the sounds of Doflamingo emptying his gun into Corazon and the sound of his body hitting the trunk he'd locked Law into.
    • Corazon's last moments are pretty heavy in Adult Fear: he KNEW he was at the end of the line yet desperately stayed alive as long as possible, because if he had died too soon, Doflamingo would have heard Law crying and be able to capture and brainwash him until he would have accepted to DIE. Remember, Law was a 13-years-old at the time.
  • Chapter 771: After Baby 5 mistakes Sai's words for him hitting on her and Sai jokingly tells her she can be useful to him by killing herself, Baby 5 takes this seriously and happily turns her arm into a gun and aims it at her head. After learning that her mother abandoned her for being useless and tells her that no one needs her, the fact that Baby 5 is willing to go this far to be useful to someone and be completely happy about it is quite disturbing. And despite being enemies, Sai was disturbed by this so he stopped her from killing herself.
    • The disturbing face of Baby 5's mother seen in her flashbacks as a child. No details, just a silhouette with scary eyes and wicked teeth. It makes sense since we're seeing this through the eyes of a young Baby 5, but it's still quite startling. It brings to mind those fearsome masks often associated with African natives, which is what Baby's culture seems to be similar to.
  • Chapter 772: Dellinger gives in to his Fighting Fish heritage and goes full Blood Knight on Ideo. It's the shots of his face spattered with blood and a sharp toothed psychotic smile that seal the deal.
    • When he transforms, his human teeth all fall out to make room for his shark teeth.
    • Here's a picture of it, if you're wondering.
  • Chapter 781: The Birdcage starts shrinking. It's bad enough that it's basically a razor wire fence that will shred you to ribbons if you so much as touch it, but now it's actively chasing everyone inside, Advancing Wall of Doom style, and in an hour, it will collapse to nothing, dicing anyone who's survived that long into finely-shredded chunks of meat. Yikes.
  • Chapter 782: The rest of Doflamingo's backstory is revealed: When he was 10, not long after he escaped his torture with Haki, it is revealed that his executives were originally just 4 dudes who picked him up and decided to raise him up. With the knowledge that he has the Conqueror's Haki, they instantly decided to help him with revenge and payback, even bowing to him. And thus, a Psycho-Jerkass was grown and raised. And the worst thing is, anyone could have turned out that way in these circumstances.
  • Chapter 783: Doflamingo describes in greater detail the fact that his Birdcage is shrinking. Within 30 minutes, people will probably start dying; and wondering who will the be the first to go: the elderly, who probably won't know what's coming until it's too late? The children and babies, who can't escape properly? Within 40 minutes, there will be loads of shouting and screaming. Within 50 minutes, the entire country will be squashed like a tomato and soaked in red. After an hour, "there will be no more sound being made from those pesky humans". This guy is insane.
  • Chapter 795: "Suicide". Imagine if you will: a man who has been captured eighteen times, subjected to ten thousand different means of torture and still lived. Forty death sentences, all of which meant nothing. When hung, the rope snapped. When put to the guillotine, the blade was shattered. When accosted by spears, they were snapped with ease. A man who has been so desensitized to his own deathless nature, this invulnerable giant, this monster finds it amusing to walk off the edge of Sky Island and plunge headfirst into the earth, thousands of feet below, just to see if it does anything. All it does is give him a migraine. This man is the Yonko Kaido, and now you know why the entire world fears him.

    Whole Cake Island Saga 
Zou Arc
  • As the Straw Hats venture through Zou, the sight of wooden crosses covered in blood are seen several times. We then learn that Jack and his crew showed up looking for Raizo the ninja. The minks have no idea who that is and tell them, several times. A leader of the village even offers to allow Jack's crew to search for Raizo as thoroughly as they wish to prove the minks aren't lying. Jack's crew ignore him and just declares they're going to rampage.
    • Worse, the rampage wasn't what destroyed everything as the Minks did manage to fight back fairly well. Jack brought in Caesar's gas weapon to destroy everything.
  • Chapter 810: We see the aftermath of Jack's massacre. Several Minks were crucified, injured ones were slaughtered. Dogstorm lost a leg, and Cat Viper lost an arm. All shown in gory detail.
  • Zunisha, the colossal elephant on whose back Zou is situated, is amazing for the simple concept of an ancient creature so huge, it carries an entire island and a civilization on its back, but has also some really creepy elements. First, it looks like it has no eyes: they are so small and hollow, the sockets seem empty. Secondly, you have to wonder how absurdly and disproportionately long its legs must be, since they must reach the bottom of the sea. Apparently, its design is inspired by similarly grotesque elephants in a painting by Salvador Dalì, whose works may well qualify as Nightmare Fuel for many, so no wonder. Finally, one should ask what may happen if Zunisha went out of control for any reason...
    • As Chapter 821 showed, Zunisha is not simply a giant elephant carrying an island, but a sentient being. Thankfully, it is a benevolent being who doesn't mind carrying an island on its back and will only go on the offense when commanded to by someone who can hear the voice of all things. However, that doesn't mean one should provoke it into asking for someone to give it the attack command. Zunisha shows just how immensely powerful it is when it obliterated Jack's Fleet and Jack himself with just one swing of its trunk.
    • As much as Asshole Victim Jack deserved it, the fact that until he was dredged up, he was completely immobile, yet conscious and couldn't die because of being a Fish-man.
  • Chapter 815 reveals why Sanji's invitation to Big Mom's tea party is an offer he couldn't refuse: If he had, Big Mom would have killed one of his friends and sent him their head. It could have been one of the Straw Hats, someone from the Baratie, or even someone from the Kamabakka Kingdom. Big Mom has so much power that she can find out everything about her targets' loved ones, and use them as leverage against them. The Emperors of the Sea have so much power that their demands become inevitable fate...
  • Chapter 817 reveals that Momonosuke and Kin'emon aren't actually father and son. Chapters 818 and 819 reveal that Momonosuke's real parents were executed by Kaido, and that Momo had to witness at least his mother getting killed.

Whole Cake Island Arc

  • Chapter 827 gives us our first real good look at Big Mom and her many Disney-esque servants. Bright colors, singing, out of context it looks happy. But when you consider Big Mom's Establishing Character Moment was eating one of her own crew, has a history of decimating islands if they don't deliver her sweets, and will murder a loved one if you don't accept her Tea Party invitation, and in the scene itself, her declaring she doesn't care whether the jam is the usual stuff or made out of human blood, makes it quite creepy. Said scene is also coupled with small scenes of her troops murdering people in other countries to gather cake ingredients.
    • The anime manages to make it even creepier due to the carnivalesque music and the incredibly disturbing visuals coupled with Big Mom's Nightmare Face. They also used the animator who likes to go for a messier look to the characters and give them more rubbery motions, adding to the surreal terror.
    • Charlotte Muscato running away in a blind panic at the sight of his swirly-eyed, nightmarish mother is chilling enough. Watching Charlotte Muscato's eyes roll back in his head as he grasps for the last ounces of his soul, then witnessing how everything goes dark around him as he falls down dead, pale and lifeless? You'll need to hug somebody good and tight afterward.
  • Chapter 829 gives us our first good look at Big Mom in action and establishes her character: an Ax-Crazy glutton who will murder anyone, up to and including her own children, if she doesn't get the food that she wants the moment she wants it. And, to make matters worse, she has the power to steal souls with a few words and a simple touch. Basically, in the span of one chapter, the previously enigmatic Big Mom has established herself as one of the most dangerous and terrifying characters in the entire series. In what could be the most "sugary" arc in the story yet!
  • We later find out that Big Mom sincerely has no control over herself during these 'Hunger Rages'. Meaning even if she were aware her son was begging her to stop and wanted to spare him, she physically can't. When her children say nothing will stop her except getting the food she's craving, they're right. She literally cannot snap out of her rampages any other way.
  • Chapter 831: The idea of having a place called the "Seducing Woods" in and by itself. The fact that there's dangerous creatures that can "think" is bad enough, but the whole forest going out of the way to keep the Sanji Retrieval Team (sans Pedro and Brook) confused and lost is worse. Bonus points go to the forest as the trees hide the skeletons of the poor souls who had wandered there before.
    • The whole place can be compared to that infamous forest scene in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with a sugary coat of cuteness and talking animals and plants just to hide how fucking terrifying it is. The moment you enter, it's a never-ending walk with no exit in sight, and the trees and shrubbery you thought were totally non-sentient? They can think, and they know where you are...
  • Chapter 833: There are some specific moments in this chapter:
    • Sanji's past. He was abused heavily not just by his father but by all of his siblings. His father even locked him away and placed an iron mask on him for cooking food for a few commoners. His treatment was so bad that he ran away from home to East Blue. While still a child.
    • The Germa 66 mindset. Every soldier has been thoroughly conditioned to follow their superiors' every order, even if it costed their lives. We get to see that first with Sanji's eldest brother, who says "Wall" in response to being threatened by a soldier on Broccoli Island, and one of his men actually jumped and took the bullet meant for him! A few chapters later, during the fight between Sanji and his father Judge, Judge calls out for a wall, and then stabs one of the men to get an advantage over Sanji!
    • After their duel, Sanji has bracelets placed on him. Sounds like nothing... until Judge reveals that the bracelets are like the collars that the slaves belonging to the World Nobles wear and will explode if Sanji tries to leave!
  • There's a reason everything in Totto Land is alive. Big Mom ate the Soul-Soul Fruit, allowing her to manipulate people's life spans, and every six months she takes a month off of the citizens of Totto Land to bring other things to life. In other words, she's slowly killing her own subjects! Even worse, she takes the life force from those who answer "Life" when asked "Life or Leave"? What's the consequences for answering "Leave"? A later chapter reveals the answer: you don't, because Big Mom will kill you and kill anyone connected to you!
    • Not only are Nami and the others completely overwhelmed by Brulee and her forces, but they learn they've been observed since first arriving on Whole Cake Island. The Straw Hats are beginning to see the true power of the New World.
  • Big Mom keeps eating all the food Homies alive. Some of them beg and scream for their lives, while others resign to their fate.
  • When Charlotte Cracker bursts into the Seducing Woods, he literally scares the life out of the forest Homies with blast waves of pure malice. The anime makes it so much worse — we see them withering and crumbling and melting and turning all pale and sickly and hollowed out mouths and eye sockets where their faces used to be and then a panning shot of heaps of dead Homies and OH HOLY MOTHER THE SCENERY IS A BYPRODUCT OF HELL. Showing death to anthromorped objects in a show that young teens watch. Smooth as stalactites...
    • And then the carnage continues as Cracker kills Homies simply by running past them and, several times, he stomps over and smashes the lifeless vessels of the dead Homie trees. He becomes a Walking Wasteland after passing through the Seducing Woods while giving chase to Luffy.
  • Chapter 839: While trying to find Niji, Sanji is led into a room chock full of People Jars, containing Germa 66 soldiers. Although we don't know who or what these soldiers are or are going through at that point, Sanji is quite understandably shocked.
  • Chapter 845:
    • There's something really disturbing with having foods that are sentient and constantly singing how wonderful they taste for lunch. Sanji is understandably freaked out.
      • That also adds more disturbing aspects to Big Mom's character. How twisted is she to use her powers to bring food to life when she plans to eat it? Horrifying concept, huh?
      • When Yonji eats a pancake, it screams in pain at first... before asking him if he finds its taste pleasing to his palette. His only comment is how excessively loud his "meals" are. Brr...
    • This chapter shows more twisted members of the Charlotte Family by introducing a small girl called Charlotte Anana who tattles on the Head Chef because she wants the chef's knives so that she can stab her plush toy with. The worst part? Big Mom doesn't mind that even when some of the other members of her family ask her not to encourage this behavior by off-handedly saying that everyone has 100 to 200 people they want dead and accept the idea as a fact.
      • Another one of Big Mom's children wishes to kill Anana for being "rotten to the core", and Big Mom doesn't mind that, either. Anana may not be a saint, but that's just disturbing to hear coming from a child's mouth.
  • Chapter 846:
    • Charlotte Smoothie's Devil Fruit power. She is able to somehow actually drain a person of some sort of "juice" or liquid of some sort, and drinks it. The poor victim is left shriveled up and left on the floor, twitching and obviously still alive.
    • Amande slowly, painfully bisecting King Baum with her sword, even telling the tree she's doing it just to make him suffer.
    • Mont-d'Or's twisted Book World traps Luffy in an illusion full of bizarre and even somewhat disturbing images and physics. Mont-d'Or's shadowed face burning into the Book World is quite creepy in itself.
  • Chapter 847: Mont-d'Or's Book World ability is used to help Big Mom collect exotic humans and animals and preserve them by trapping them in books where they will never age or escape for eternity. These people are able to speak, and are totally conscious and aware of their situation. And what's worse, they're pinned down with the same kind of pins you'd see in butterfly or insect collections. Even the Vinsmoke family is (understandably) freaked out.
  • Chapter 849: Reiju reappears, and she's received a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from an unknown assailant.
  • Chapter 850: Holy shit: Pudding is revealed to be the three eyed girl. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but she's also revealed to have been evil all along and is one of Big Mom's most trusted children who was playing a long con with the Straw Hats and Sanji, She gleefully exclaims to a tortured and restrained Reiju that she's going to murder all of the Vinsmokes. And the reason she freaked Nami and Luffy out earlier? She told them her plans, and that they're going to die too. And there's also the matter of that horrific Slasher Smile she flashes Reiju... *shudder*
    • A flash back is shown revealing the gruesome incident where Pedro lost 50 years of his life and his left eye — which was not in battle as one would be led to think it was. Big Mom was going to punish him for trying to steal her Poneglyphs and putting out Tamago's left eye, so she made his crewmate Zepo spin her wheel of death and it landed on 100 years. Zepo had only 30 years left in the tank, so he died. (If Zepo happens to be Bepo's father, then it takes on a whole new meaning of tragedy.) Then, Big Mom didn't even give Pedro a chance to mourn and immediately resolved to yank the unpaid 70 years out of him. Pekoms bawled buckets before Big Mom and that was only enough to make her shave a decade off the sentence. In response to this, Pedro literally paid back an eye for an eye and torn his own eyeball fresh out of his socket as a peace offering. What makes this so horrifying is that Oda shows the bloody eyeball in full to portray this moment, and Oda rarely takes the blood and gore to such an extreme like this. Moreover, even though he gave up an eye, Big Mom took just another decade off the sentence and Pedro had 50 years of his existence taken away (if an eye is just worth a decade, then what does it take to make her round off even more — total blindness and quadruple amputation!?!). Even after this incident, Pedro has become all the more uncaring about what happens to him and his remaining life, intending to fall here at Totto Land if need be.
      • You'd think that such an absolutely gorey scene would be censored as hell for the anime right? Think again.''
    • Luffy deliberately trying to tear his own arms off to escape Mont-d'Or's book world prison. And he's pulling so hard that parts of his skin is starting to break off.
  • Chapter 851:
    • Pudding is the user of the Mem Mem Fruit (as in memory) and she can manipulate the memories of anyone she gets her hands on. She uses it to ensure that no one can remember her true nature, leading to many dark thoughts on what she could (and probably, has) done with this power.
    • Opera's calm demeanor as he escalates from using torture devices on Nami to preparing a crossbow to shoot at her until she reveals Lola's location.
  • Chapter 852:
    • The reveal that Vinsmokes Ichiji, Niji, and Yonji were programmed from birth by Judge to become remorseless killers; Judge thought Virtue Is Weakness, so he made his sons literally and psychologically incapable of feeling empathy, resulting in them becoming complete assholes. Sanji was originally intended to be like his brothers, but his mother Sora basically poisoned herself with a dangerous drug in hopes of saving her quadruplet sons from their father's plans. Out of the four of them, however, only Sanji came out successful. It casts a chilling light on the Vinsmoke children's pasts, largely because of the many ways the Lineage Factor can be altered in both body and mind, and the things Judge was willing to do to fulfill his own ambitions of world conquest.
      • Also, look at how Reiju still has most of her compassion intact despite being enhanced, while only three of her four younger brothers have zilch due to Judge's experiments. Could Reiju have been a Flawed Prototype that Judge used to perfect his psychological alterations?
    • Mixed with Tear Jerker, the pure horror Vinsmoke Sora went through when Judge decided to genetically alter her children is nightmare-inducing, too. She had the sheer misfortune of marrying an Evilutionary Biologist who also happened to be a warmongering king who believes in Might Makes Right, who also performed genetic experiments on all his children while Sora was pregnant with them, against her will. She had to resort to taking a drug that poisoned and eventually killed her to save her quadruplet sons, but she only managed to save Sanji when they were born. One must wonder about the guilt and pain she felt, seeing how only one of her sons still retained his humanity that her monstrous, warmongering brute of a husband saw as as a removable weakness, instead all four of her sons like she intended.
    • Tamago's Devil Fruit powers (the Egg-Egg Fruit) are about as bizarre and disturbing as one can get, even for One Piece. Every time his body get torn apart, he dissolves into an egg yolk and reforms as a hideous-looking embryo which quickly evolves into a much stronger form in the life cycle of a chicken, going from a literal egg human to a chick human, and then a full-blown chicken human. And from what it looks like, those transformations are permanent. However, if he isn't hurt badly enough, Tamago simply gets maimed and lives with the scars even after his body successfully evolves.
  • Chapter 854: Charlotte Linlin gleefully rehearses the wedding's details with Pudding, starting with the bride shooting her groom point blank when he lifts her veil for kissing her, and it gets worse from this.
  • Chapter 857: We learn the past of Capone Bege. He's an utter savage who allegedly decapitated animals just to watch their bodies twitch and die. Worse, he earned his reputation because he targeted powerful criminal organizations and pirate groups that stood in his path in the exact same way — kill the head of each organization and no one else, then flee and watch the body squirm. He also planned to do this on Big Mom, by the way.
  • Chapter 859: Caesar Clown bombastically explains the mechanics behind the inhumane weapons he designed to poison Big Mom complete with a detailed explanation of the chemicals designed to murder her, and the whole time he's talking, he's got a twisted expression of utter, psychotic rapture on his face. Scarier yet is he has amassed enough poison to kill a normal person three times over and the plan is to use ALL of it on Big Mom simultaneously.
    • Turns out the seemingly invincible Big Mom has one glaring weakness. She endears a photo of someone named Mother Carmel, but if anything bad happens to it, she goes utterly ballistic. The fit she throws makes the ones she has when her eating disorder gets the better of her look like baby tantrums. The one time someone accidentally inflicted harm to the picture, she made a shrill, almost alien-sounding bloodcurdling wail, dropped to her knees and lost her body's fortuitousness, which scraped her knees badly enough to bleed out, and set off her Conqueror's Haki, causing her fellow family members and crew to faint- and we're not talking some weak, run-of-the-mill pirates fainting — it's potent enough to make the best of the best faint! Bege wants someone to split that photo in two, causing her to freak out and become vulnerable long enough to shoot her up with deadly poison.
    • It's not that surprising to hear a Yonko has Conqueror's Haki like Shanks, who can bring down 100,000 people in one blast, but he uses it for all the right reasons and possesses a level head. But knowing a batshit insane person possesses this power who could flip out at any moment without warning, knock her victims out, and then proceed to rip their life forces out while they lay unconscious if she dare so pleases is like installing a revolving door on the entrance to Hell itself and politely asking nothing to come through, just stopping short of laying out a welcome mat.
  • Chapter 860: It doubles as Black Comedy, but among the beverages offered at the Tea Party are fluids taken from living beings Charlotte Smoothie is willing to wring juices out of. They are a giraffe that makes a funny-sounding cry and an attractive woman who stabbed 100 men. The latter may have gotten a long-overdue taste of karma by suffering this fate... but what did that poor giraffe ever do...?
  • Chapter 861: The diabolical tea party is finally underway. And the chances of successfully rescuing Sanji look even more so bleak than ever.
    • Vito notices practically all of the oldest and strongest members of Big Mom's family are in attendance of the ceremony, including the unbeaten Sweet Commanders. He's scared stiff. This, coming from a man who lies down with an entire mafia as his bedfellows, is frightening in itself.
    • When a female door Homie overhears Bege's plan to assassinate Big Mom, all Bege has to do is look at the offending Homie and Gotti hacks her whole face off with a cutlass to quash a risk of loose lips, which falls to the ground like a hollow wooden mask and splits in two.
  • Chapter 862:
    • Big Mom had a backup plan ready if Pudding failed to do her part. She wordlessly bobbles the pearl ring on her finger as a signal to the priest overseeing the wedding, and then he takes out a pistol that was easily concealed under his robes. Then, we see just about everyone else in her family is packing heat in the shadows, and she intends to murder off the Germa right in front of her guests.
    • And when that doesn't work, Katakuri lines up a shot at Sanji's head. Sanji makes a clean dodge, leaving the priest to catch the bullet... right between the eyes.
  • Chapter 863:
    • Big Mom makes Nightmare Face after Nightmare Face, especially when she gives Jinbei a good staredown. An ultra-potent one at that.
    • The giant wedding cake took the head chef and his cooks days to complete, and probably left no opportunity to prepare a backup — had they thought to make one. When Luffy and his mirror doppelgangers mess up Big Mom's wedding cake, this becomes a fatal mistake: her eating disorder flares up and she demands a new one from the cooks — now. Needless to say, telling Big Mom to her face that you can't give her what she wants is an instant death sentence.
    Charlotte Linlin: THOSE WHO STEAL MY FUN, I SHALL STEAL THEIR LIVES!
    • It's noted Big Mom's power to steal life force and souls is from calling out to someone's very attachment to life. If the person is afraid of death or dying, that makes an attachment so great that she can kill them instantly!
  • Chapter 864:
    • Big Mom becomes so angry at the sight of Mother Carmel's photo being broken that she does not have a freak-out like Bege had hoped she would. It did one better — she cannot even process her rage.
      • For a few seconds, it looks like she's having a big buildup to a total meltdown, as her eyes turn swirly and her face goes blank... and then she just stops. That's when the others realize she's become too angry to scream. What she just witnessed pissed her off so badly that her mind checked out on her, unable to deal with it. And all of her children are actually thankful for it, because they remember the last incident, where she instantly went berserk. In order for the plan to succeed at this point, Luffy has to force Big Mom to freak out by showing her the picture and making it impossible to ignore.
      • To top this all off, Katakuri, the man with the highest bounty and arguably biggest threat level among all the children there, is the most afraid of what's going to happen next, because he's already seen a glimpse of the imminent future, and it's terrified him enough to make him go pale.
    • There is a chilling moment between Judge and Perospero where Judge protests that he's going to be assassinated and that even the underworld has honor. As he justifies the action as a power play and Big Mom preying on Judge to steal his resources, Perospero says almost the exact same line Meruem said to a bunch of female dancers pleading not to be eaten: "Do you listen to what a cow says before eating it?" While Judge definitely had it coming for all the things he had done to his own family and others, it's still unsettling to watch someone dehumanize a person to the level of an animal on the chopping block.
  • Chapter 865: Big Mom finally sees the broken photo of Mother Carmel shoved right onto her face... and rips loose an ungodly bellow of Conqueror's Haki that completely levels the wedding hall as it ripples out for miles. Several pages are dedicated to her scream alone, showing it knocking out the weaker folks at the wedding, causing somebody to foam at the mouth, horrendously paining those who stayed conscious to hear it and those without earplugs to block it out, and rendering even the Sweet Commanders paralyzed.
    • Seeing Bege, Vito, and Gotti casually walk up to Big Mom to deliver the final blow is equal parts awesome and scary, but what really ratchets it more toward scary is they're taking advantage of her grief to initiate their killing strike. It's made clear that Big Mom really cared and loved Mother Carmel through a flashback that proves that Carmel was her caregiver as a little girl.
    • Bege's triumphant Slasher Smile as he prepares to bring the curtain down on his near-flawlessly executed assassination plan.
  • Chapter 866: Even as a child, Big Mom was a horrifying threat when it came to sweets. Fasting for seven days after tasting a delectable treat of semla drove her to such a point that she burned the village of Elbaf to the ground. Even one the warrior elders notes that she's not so much a child as she was a demon. And this was when Linlin was but five years old.
    • Five-year-old Linlin shows just how frightening being Obliviously Evil can be: she spanked a bear just once and killed it, she swatted a fly on a giant kid's face and broke many of his bones, tried to straighten a long arm tribe kid's arm, and tried to rip off the fins from a Fish-man child, all of this being well meaning but with disastrous results. In fact, her destructiveness was why her parents had to abandon her.
    • Seeing Linlin acquire her swirly eyes of hunger mania for the first time as a little kid all because she enjoyed one especially delicious sweet. And that's before she's compared to a demon.
    • When the subject of a twelve-day cultural fast comes up and you know beforehand that you're going to subject someone with a lifelong eating disorder to it, you know it CANNOT end well. It marks the baleful beginnings of her insatiable cravings and not even the first catastrophe among a career spanning decades of razing places all in the name of sweets. Causing mass casualties from at least the age of five to sixty-eight? No wonder she became a Yonko.
    • The anime rendition of Linlin's semla-craven rampage makes it even worse by the tone of her voice at the end of the episode changing from a tantrum to eerily tranquil like a hardened serial killer.
  • Chapter 867:
    • Linlin killed several giants in the act of running berserk across Elbaf (the next chapter shows three freshly-dug graves for them with their gear marking their burial ground). One of them was even a legendary warrior who was too old to recover from his injuries and a hero among the giants.
    • Mother Carmel is actually a slave trader, who's been using her Orphanage of Love and Holy Mother image as a facade to sell children as Child Soldiers or slaves to the highest bidder, including the World Government. Worse, she's done so for fifty years.
    • Not to mention that Mother Carmel disappeared alongside with the rest of Linlin's friends at the girl's sixth birthday. She searched for them high and low, but they were nowhere to be found, leaving her scared, sad and alone on what was the happiest day of her life. At the age of six.
      • Making things even worse is a heavily implied scenario. Judging from the bite marks in the table and in the shredded clothing lying around Linlin when she was done eating, and the suspicious screams and cries shown on the last cutaway panel amidst the happy narration of how she remembers things, Linlin may have accidentally eaten Carmel and the children alive.
      • This becomes outright confirmed later on along with the revelation that Mother Carmel was the previous holder of the Soul-Soul Fruit powers. This also brings with it the horrifying revelation that one can steal the powers of a Devil Fruit user by eating them.
      • The anime adaptation of this scene in Episode 837 is just as nightmare inducing, if not more so. As right as she was about to finish eating the last of the croquembouche, she suddenly emits a shockwave and her eyes morph into hearts as she hallucinates about her fellow orphans and Mother Carmel as floating hearts. They then tell her how much they love her and that they'll always play forever, as she stuffs more and more pastries into her mouth. Not only does it look and feel extremely creepy despite the saccharine colors, but there's also the fact that there was no more croquembouche left on the table, and she somehow kept guzzling more of it down. And these are BIGGER than the ones she ate at first: PEOPLE-sized. And each time she eats one, a heart appears and floats off to the heavens, as if to symbolize another person gobbled up and taken out of this life.
      • One might question why the children didn't run away when it was apparent that Linlin was about to devour them. The anime makes it apparent that her Conquerer's Haki kicked in right at the moment her binging reached its peak. They were either knocked out or paralyzed, unable to escape.
  • Chapter 868:
  • Chapter 871 shows just a freakishly powerful the Big Mom Pirates really are, as they completely overwhelm Luffy, Sanji, and the Vinsmokes. Big Mom is such a monster, she's able to easily defend against Luffy's Gear Fourth Kong Gun (albeit with Busoshoku Haki), the same technique which previously overpowered Doflamingo and Cracker. And within mere moments, just blocking a single attack from Big Mom's freakishly powerful fist completely knocks out his transformation.
    • Luffy taunts Big Mom about taking down Kaido first and then coming back for her, but she laughs that he'll never defeat that "thing". Let that one sink in for a while: even one of the four most powerful people in the whole world who is regarded as a demon sees him as a threat and a creature.
    • Stussy, a major player of the criminal underworld and Big Mom's ally, is really an agent of Cipher Pol Aigis 0 under deep cover much like CP9 spent years building trust at Galley-La, and that flapper getup betrays a deadly vixen. She saw no problems in attempting to murder Du Feld while he was by himself and then have it covered up in the news and has a bizarre sniper-range version of the Shigan technique (the Finger Pistol). And it's very likely she's an Observation Haki user. She knew Morgans was watching from behind a corner, too.
    • Morgans is revealed as a manipulator of the truth who prints false stories in the world news, and Stussy strongarms him into doing it under pain of death. We also get some insight on how CP Aigis 0 was probably able to manipulate the newspapers that time Doflamingo lied about his resignation — murderous intimidation.
    • The booby trap inside the Tamatebako Box finally goes off when the box breaks open after Du Feld knocks it off the Whole Cake Chateau's cake layers until it finally crashes to the bottom, causing the dynamite inside to burst. The Minister of the Left did not say just how powerful it would be... a monumental explosion erupts from the box with such ferocity it breaks the foundation of the Chateau to bits and causes the entire thing to tip over. Now we know why the Minister of the Left got so scared when he heard it was stolen. He wasn't just worried about it falling into possession of a Yonko... he was worried it would go off in the wrong place and kill loads of innocent people, probably hoping it would be opened as soon as it was stolen, while in an unpopulated area. And worse yet, we've seen a bomb used by Crocodile with an even more powerful explosion that was meant to destroy an entire city, which someone survived at point blank range. And it wasn't even someone in the New World. The minister wasn't using overkill in the box — if anything, he was using the bare minimum that he needed to deal with the threats in his neck of the woods.
  • Chapter 872:
    • Mixed with Tear Jerker; though they're villains, a few of Big Mom's children start showing concerns towards the sudden toppling of Whole Cake Chateau. Charlotte Brulee starts crying desperately as she witnesses the possibility of losing her entire family, while Capone Bege laughs satisfyingly that an Emperor and her crew is finally falling. And Charlotte Galette, who was with the majority of the family when disaster struck, screams as she nearly falls to her death, only to be luckily saved by her older brother, Charlotte Katakuri. The panic that all the inhabitants, not just Big Mom's family, goes through brings to mind real life tragedies involving massive building collapses, either accidental or intentional.
    • The chapter ends with Big Mom's children getting ready to head after the Straw Hats and Firetank pirates only for Big Mom to enter one of her cravings, this time for the wedding cake that was just ruined. Charlotte Smoothie sees it happen firsthand, and one look at her mother's deranged state puts true terror in her. Even one of the top three most dangerous people among her family knows this means extreme trouble is right around the corner.
  • Chapter 873:
    • Big Mom has killed another one of her children while suffering from hunger madness!! Charlotte Opera, S.O.B. though he may be, was implied to have tried to stop her, and died much the same way Charlotte Muscat did.
    • Big Mom is in the full throes of her craving-induced frenzy. By Katakuri's own admission, failure to give her what she wants could result in the destruction of her island territories when she goes on a rampage. And they can't re-build the cake she wants... because head chef Streusen got himself knocked out and suffered broken bones galore when he fell. And to make matters worse, she's pining away for something that she never tasted, so her children literally have zero ability to comprehend what she expects to sate her craving... until Pudding intervenes.
    • Think that Big Mom's feeding frenzy means that the Straw Hats will be able to escape in the confusion? Perospero begs to differ — by convincing her that the Straw Hats have taken some of the wedding cake, he's re-directed the berserk Big Mom in their direction.
      • Of course, Big Mom growls at Perospero that if she finds out this is all a lie, she'll murder him. The look of terror on the Candy-Candy man at his mother's Nightmare Face sells that this is no bluff.
    • At the end of the chapter, Big Mom has caught up with the Straw Hats. It looks like a Hopeless Boss Fight is inevitable, now... and she's wielding Napoleon as a sword. Give a lunatic with the strength of a demon a sword? The danger meter just redlined. And then the next chapter reveals Big Mom learned to use the very same Giant's technique that Dorry and Brogy used to slay a giant killer fish.
  • Chapter 874:
    • Their firepower aside, Prometheus and Zeus are rather goofy characters, dangerous sure, but not particularly frightening, especially next to their creator. Then Prometheus goes all out, and it looks like something out of Majora's Mask. Poor King Baum...
  • Chapter 878: The cannonball Homies. Dear God, the CANNONBALL Homies... you can see some of them are very happy to explode, but a few of them are downright begging not to be exploded. Either outcome is completely awful.
  • Chapter 879: After snapping out of their funk over what their flight from Whole Cake Island cost, the Straw Hats start prepping the ship for their escape from Totto Land. Then Carrot takes up a lookout position and spots the absolute last thing any of them wanted to see: Big Mom, still in her nightmarish hunger-craze, appearing to actually ''walk on water'' to continue the pursuit, completely unfazed by any of the abuse she took in the previous chapters. Losing Pedro and Luffy only managed to gain them a hair's breadth of breathing room.
  • Chapter 880: While the Thousand Sunny takes fire from Big Mom's ships and from soldiers in the mirror world, Carrot spots a massive tsunami controlled by Big Mom. The chapter ends with Nami apologizing to Luffy, saying she doesn't think they'll make it.
  • Chapter 881: In what is one of the most cruel and unusual injuries ever seen in the series, Luffy happens to be communicating to his crew through an already broken mirror fragment. He is caught by surprise by Katakuri and takes a violent kick to the hands and face which shoves the mirror shard into his mouth. The fragment, smashed by the kick, SHATTERS into even more tiny pieces INSIDE of there. Luffy has to break off from the fight for a few seconds to wring out his mouth to dislodge and throw up the fragments stuck inside. But Katakuri won't let up for a second and is still beating down on Luffy from the back as he's puking up mirror shards.
  • Chapter 883: What's under Katakuri's scarf is actually shown: those scars on his cheeks are actually a Glasgow Grin. His mouth is filled with huge razor sharp teeth and capable of becoming massive due to his mochi-powers. Furthermore, anyone who sees Katakuri eating is brutally murdered for discovering he's Not So Stoic after all.
  • Chapter 888: While most of Carrot's transformation sequence is fairly standard and the end result is awesome, one mid-transformation panel is utterly terrifying, with Carrot unleashing a Mighty Roar as her eyes are little more than white pinpricks in the mass of her wildly growing hair. Yikes!
  • Chapter 889: Continuing from the last chapter Big Mom has become progressively skinnier from not eating enough, causing her to look spindly. Then it gets worse when she initiates a Combination Attack with her homies and Prometheus becomes part of her hair, now ablaze with a devilish face, Napoleon suddenly goes from having his face on the skull and crossbones on his hat to becoming the face of the sword itself... and Zeus is basically the same.
    • In a Single Bound, Big Mom leaps onto the Thousand Sunny and corners the crew. Not only does she take up the entire deck of the ship and everyone gets very freaked out, Jinbei actually suggests they might have to jump ships. As in abandon the Thousand Sunny and lose another ship.
    • Also from Chapter 891, we see Chopper going into Monster Point to take on Big Mom. This in itself is no longer Nightmare Fuel after the timeskip, but he says he's doing it to jump on Big Mom and drag her into the sea with him! He's a main character, so he probably wouldn't die for real if he did that, but the thought that our lovable 17-year-old reindeer has become that desperate is more than a little disturbing.
    • Prometheus went to go consume fires to heal from battle... and comes back supermassive. He's so outrageously huge not even the sea will douse him.
  • Chapter 900 is a doozy. Just when it looks like the Straw Hats are about to escape Totland, everything falls apart. Oven uses his powers to heat up the sea and instantly defeat the Sun Pirates, the Big Mom Pirates bring in special weapons to overwhelm Germa and the Vinsmokes, and Big Mom's flagship, the Big Mama Chanter, fires a deadly barrage at the Thousand Sunny, and seemingly sinks it, the final panel being of the Straw Hats' tattered Jolly Roger floating in the water. Even worse, Oda picks here of all times to go on a break, leaving us with the most horrifying and suspenseful cliffhanger he's ever made, meaning we have to wait a full two weeks to see if the Straw Hats survived.
    • To add to it, the new song Big Mom sings while this is happening is horrifying. The opening lines have her describing the cake positively, before letting out "So risky" in a sinister tone, and then she further describes the horrors of Totland. You can stay, but you can never leave, or else she'll kill you. And, to show how deranged she is, Big Mom STILL describes herself as a "good queen". And now the song is animated in what's one of the most disturbing things in the anime to date.
      • Fortunately, come Chapter 901, and we find out that it was actually the Sun Pirates' ship and not the Thousand Sunny: Wadatsumi swapped the ships at the last second and accidentally broke off the top of the mast, explaining the floating Jolly Roger, causing a whole lot of relief after two weeks of anticipation.
    • If you have thalassophobia (the fear of huge things in bodies of water) Wadatsumi grabbing the entire Sunny and pulling it under the water instantly will trigger you.
  • Chapter 902. Though the Straw Hats escape, the Sun Pirates and Germa 66 are still there, and to make things worse we hear one more creepy song from Big Mom. Even worse, she threatens to have Luffy turned into a Homie.

Reverie Arc

  • Chapter 904 has one slick piece of dialogue thrown down by Belo Betty about Blackbeard's reputation. Blackbeard apparently does not care about the people in his crew so much as uses them as pawns or stepping stones, which opens the door for a lot of terrible discussion about him being just an Opportunistic Bastard above anything else. It also serves as another piece of evidence showing how he's the anti-Luffy and what he would do in a situation where Luffy would show Undying Loyalty to friends even at the expense of something he wants: for a recent example of this, Luffy was very much ready to sail back to East Blue to protect Zeff on Sanji's behalf (thus negating over two years of progress on the Grand Line and potentially ruining his chance to become the Pirate King); Blackbeard doesn't care about anyone except for his core crew and he's one of the most powerful people in the world.
  • Chapter 905 has Stelly casually asking Garp to be his escort. Remember, Garp has the strength of an Admiral if not Fleet Admiral, and he just asked Garp as an escort as if Garp was under Stelly at each step. Kind of wondering how much fucked up in the mind most of the royalty are.
    • Snippets also show that Stelly most probably disposed off the King of the Goa Kingdom along with his children to secure himself as the King, even though the King was an Asshole Victim. One wonders if Stelly is as bad as the Celestial Dragons, if not worse.
  • Chapter 906 shows that Mariejois is decked with Travelators, conveyor belts that get people moving without having to walk. How do they operate? Slave labor! And it's clearly in the worst conditions too as the slaves seek death.
    • The fact that the Celestial Dragons have the power to send assassins into Impel Down to go after Doflamingo. Even in prison you're not safe.
    • The fact that Charloss, the Asshole Victim Celestial Dragon Luffy punched way back in Sabaody, is not only not repentant, but also desires Shirahoshi as a woman to lust upon, or worse. If anyone remembers what happened before the aforementioned punch, Shirahoshi could be in way more trouble than we imagined.
    • In the final page of the chapter, we’re treated to a scene where a guy wearing a crown goes down to a dark vault with Luffy’s wanted poster in hand, opening what appears to be a frozen vault. Inside the vault is... a large Straw Hat. This itself is tame. But it opens up implications of what that hat could entail if they need it locked away in a frozen vault.
  • Chapter 907:
    • The feared Saint Charloss strikes in broad daylight to capture Shirahoshi as his pet. Worse, this would have sparked an international incident and ruined Fish-Man Island's chance to relocate, because King Neptune was about to strike, thinking that this behaviour was typical of humans. Thank god for Saint Donquixote Mjosgard arriving on the scene.
    • From a conversation they share over Den Den Mushi, Big Mom and Kaido seem to imply they were once WORKING TOGETHER. On top of that, it's noted that before Roger's era and thus before Shanks rose up as a fourth great power, it was their era, only contested by the emergence of Whitebeard as the strongest force alive at the time.
  • Chapter 908:
    • Bartholomew Kuma is back... and he's in terrible shape. Unsurprising in hindsight, as he is still deprived of his free will and is now in the "care" of Saint Rosward, the father of Saint Charloss. Rosward proves that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree as he stabs poor Kuma just to demonstrate his subservience; the infiltrating Revolutionaries and a returning Jewelry Bonney are mortified at the scene.
    • Remember that black figure inspecting the vault a couple of chapters back? They return in this chapter and prove that the creed of "No one may sit on the Empty Throne and own the whole world for themselves" is complete bullshit by sitting on said throne... and the Five Elders call them their master and bow to them. Imu, as they're called, is the true ruler of the One Piece world. We may have just seen our first glimpse of the series' true Big Bad.
    • As Imu is marching up to its throne, we also see pictures of Luffy, Blackbeard and Shirahoshi scattered on the floor and mutilated, implying that they have a vendetta against them, as well as an unharmed picture of Vivi that it's carrying. Their hatred of Luffy and Blackbeard is understandable as they are actively destabilizing its world, but their interest in Shirahoshi and Vivi is a mystery. And bear in mind that the girls are in its castle right now, completely unaware that they exist.
      • In Shirahoshi's case, it may have to do with the fact that she is Poseidon, one of the 3 Ancient Weapons capable of bringing devastation to the world.
    • As they walk to their meeting with Imu, the Five Elders remark that the waves of change that began during the Summit War are getting harder and harder to manage. Their response? Consider something called "a great cleansing."
    • At the very end, the Five Elders ask Imu if they have decided which "light needs to be extinguished from history." Given the circumstances, it sounds as if Imu intends to wipe out an entire nation, right down to their very memory. And based on who we're seeing, it might potentially be Alabasta and all of its citizens, who've already suffered because the World Government is utterly useless and have just finished rebuilding from it.

    Wano Country Saga 
Wano Country Arc
  • Chapter 909: Under the corrupt daimyo Orochi and the shogun Kaido, murderers are allowed to roam the streets freely and pose as public officials who control the justice system and can use it to pin the blame on the innocent. One could go against them and end up being the victim instead very easily.
    • Even scarier is that this was done in real life, known as Kiri-sute gomen, where Samurai had the right to kill anyone of a lower class for perceived affronts.
  • Chapter 911: We find a young girl by the name of Tama (Otama). For all her cute looks and innocent personality, she has one of the more disturbing devil fruits in canon. Not only does her power work in such a way that those not aware of what she is doing could mistake it for an act of self mutilation, the end result is a bit of dango, which when fed to an animal permanently binds it to Tama's will, making it forget its old community and family to follow this girl and do anything she says.
    • If you find this power cute, it is later shown that those who eat SMILE fruits and gain power from it are susceptible to Tama's power. That's right, she can make her fellow humans (and presumably other sentient beings) her pets.
    • Granted, the people she uses it on were themselves far from saints but still, seeing these people's personalities permanently altered and not just turning on their now former friends, but made to like it? Even Big Mom herself only took part of and would let you simply die instead if you so chose.
  • Chapter 917: Jack is back from his failed attack in Zou, and he's more furious than ever! Also, he is the ruler of one of Wano's districts.
    • Holdem, in previous chapters, tortured a little girl by pulling on her cheek with pliers, and then had plans to execute Kiku and hold Luffy and Zoro hostage to lure out a thief. While this was in no danger of happening due to them being, well, Luffy and Zoro, it still gives a taste of the horrible lives the citizens of Wano live every day under its rulers.
  • Chapter 918: Just before Luffy and Zoro return with a ship full of food, one of the Leftover Village residents was about to kill her infant child before hanging herself.
  • Chapter 919: The children of Wano are being indoctrinated into being loyal to the Shogun. Slightly less scary is that their teacher seems to be a rokurokubi, but considering this is One Piece with all the fantastic fruit...
  • Chapter 922: Kaido destroys Oden Castle with a single Breath Weapon attack, with Luffy and Law legitimately horrified at the obliteration caused by the attack, with Uncertain Doom for the Straw Hats and their allies still inside the castle.
    • Not only that, Kaido is drunk. You thought Hyouzou was scary when he was wasted? Fire-breathing dragons and alcohol do not mix!
    • As if we need further proof of Kaido's danger level, we get one comment from somebody whose own debut was filled with violence. Jack voices concern about his boss about to go on a rampage and being out of control. Let that one sink in. Jack is scared of what Kaido does when he's drunk. This is the one person whose own lackeys fear as unreasonable, who took on insurmountable enemies without care. Kaido is bad enough that even Jack thinks twice about what terrors will come in his wake!
  • Chapter 923: Kaido knocks out Luffy in a single hit while he was in Gear Fourth: Boundman! Even worse, none of the attacks that Luffy landed on the mighty emperor during the chapter fazed him; Kaido treated this fight as a minor annoyance and was more angry at Luffy for proclaiming that he's going to be Pirate King than assaulting him. The chances of beating Kaido is at best 30% if Luffy team ups with you, Law? May want to look again...
    • What makes this so nightmarish is that Gear Fourth was a form that Luffy transformed into in order to take on the mightiest of foes in the New World. The same form that dominated a powerful Shichibukai as broken as Doflamingo, defeated Sweet Commander Charlotte Cracker, took down the second-in-command to a Yonko, Charlotte Katakuri (a one billion Beli pirate), and even momentarily pushed back Big Mom herself. Kaido hits Luffy ONCE and it's over. No wonder Big Mom laughed at Luffy's statement that he'll defeat Kaido...
    • Worse still, what makes Luffy so angry was when he found out Kaido brutally attacked Tama and Lady Speed during his drunken rampage. And Luffy, wanting revenge for what the Yonko did to that little girl, still couldn't even put a scratch on him!
  • Chapter 924: Part of Kaido's prison is a weapon workshop where you are literally worked to death. Skeletons adorn the place.
    • There is a mysterious prisoner that is clearly very strong. Poison fish does not work on him, and you better debone the fish before you give it to him or else he'll spit it out and stab someone in the neck.
  • Chapter 925: Remember Absalom and his Clear-Clear Fruit, giving him invisibility? He's dead now, and his power has been given to Shiryu, the ultra-violent former warden of Impel Down that defected to the Blackbeard Pirates. Oh shit. Oh yeah, and how about Catarina Devon? Remember her? She ate a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit that, among other things, allows her to do what Bon Clay's Devil Fruit does, just better.
  • Chapter 942:
    • This chapter was nothing but dark for Wano in general. First off, Yasu, the ever-smiling stranger that Zoro befriended is killed (with his daughter, Toko, actually seeing this happen). The worst of it, however, are the people of Ebisu Town who tried to save him and were too late. Being unable to convey their true feelings, they are perpetually smiling as they cry, and while Zoro is angry at them for this, Hiyori explains that having no more emotions, all they CAN do is smile. The reason for their unnatural smiles? Kaido and the SMILE Devil Fruits that he brought to Wano.
  • Chapter 943:
    • This chapter explains how SMILE Devil Fruits work. Only 10% of people who eat the fruit get turned into half beasts. For everyone else, they still lose the ability to swim but also lose the ability to express sadness or anger, even if they still feel those emotions. A large group of Kaido's own crew are like this and are called the "Pleasures" because they appear like they can only feel pleasure. This pales in comparison to what Orochi did with them, though. Because he did not like the fact that the suffering in Ebisu Town was causing so much grief, he hid failed SMILEs in the capital's garbage that would be found and given to the people of the town, poisoning them to only smile.
    • Speaking of smiles... Kaido’s. Just the single panel alone, will send chills up your spine.
  • Chapter 944:
    • One can only understand how furious and heart-wrenching it must be for Kidd to see his former friend and crewmate, Killer, turned into the crazed Kamazou the Manslayer. Especially when Killer is seen laughing and crying in the same way that those who ate the SMILE Devil Fruits have done...
    • Then there's the last panel of the chapter with a very familiar face. Nicer due to her amnesia she may be, but Big Mom is still Big Mom. Further proven in the next chapter when she knocks out Queen in one punch.
    Big Mom: Oshiruko...
  • Chapter 945: Hawkins proves himself to be ruthlessly cunning, and we learn he doesn't just use his damage transfer power on his own subordinates:
    • When Law shows up to save his crew and finds only Shachi and Penguin in the prison cage without Bepo, Hawkins reveals that Bepo is being kept somewhere else to keep Law from using his powers to simply easily rescue all of them. Furthermore, Hawkins has bewitched the three of them to be his "extra lives", and demonstrates this by cutting his own arm, only for the wound to be transferred to Shachi.
    • So, essentially, Hawkins rubs it in Law's face (while wearing a Psychotic Smirk) that not only are Law's subordinates hostages, but he can't fight back at all because any damage he does to Hawkins will be transferred to his crewmates instead. Plus, there's the implication that Hawkins will simply keep harming himself — and thus, hurting Law's crew — until the latter surrenders.
  • Chapter 949:
    • The description and showing of the Mummy virus that the "Plague Bullets" carry. The worst part of it all is that this is only one of the probable HUNDREDS that Queen has manufactured to use as weapons.
  • Chapter 951:
    • Kaido and Big Mom are now face to face. What's the first thing they do? They attack one another and cause the same phenomenon that happened between Shanks and Whitebeard. And the poor mooks who belong to Kaido (along with Queen) are trying to escape knowing all too well that two Emperors clashing is essentially the end of the world (or the island they are on, at the very least).
  • Chapter 954:
    • You think the Calamities are bad? Apparently, Kaido has a group of pirates under his command known as the "Numbers", who are not only gigantic but are likely as dangerous as the Calamities judging by how the unfortunate kids who spot them have to keep quiet so they won't get eaten.
    • The good news? Big Mom and Kaido have stopped fighting before they could cause serious damage to Onigashima or Wano. The bad news? They have officially formed an alliance to conquer the entire world.
    • Perhaps worse is the fact that there probably isn't anyone or anything left in the world that could challenge these two, outside of the pirates currently on the island. Whitebeard and Shanks working together might have been able to stop them, but... well, that ship has sailed. It turns out that disrupting a long-standing balance of power has long-term consequences, eh, Akainu?
  • Chapter 956:
    • Something has happened in the Reverie regarding Alabasta. The way Garp frames it (don't take this incident as a general indicator for humans at the surface) heavily implies the World Government has finally decided to exterminate Alabasta, as was hinted in the last arc.
    • Similarly, regarding the fierce battle mentioned early on, it seems the Marines and the World Government were the clear winners of the Kuma rescue attempt, and something terrible befell Sabo and the Revolutionary Agents at the Reverie, judging by the shocked expressions of the readers. And worse, no one else knew that such a battle happened at the Reverie, until Morgans grew a spine and reported the truth.
    • Even worse, the Seven Warlords have been officially revoked of their statuses, making them prime targets for the World Government to arrest. Granted, they deserved it, but the sudden betrayals by their long-standing Marine allies is still a shock to behold.
    • This is actually the worst case scenario for Boa Hancock, since she relied on her Warlord status to protect her home from invasion by the World Government and prevent possible recapture and enslavement of herself and her sisters as former slaves of the Celestial Dragons. Now that her status is revoked, the Marines are at her door in droves to take her and her sisters down as criminals to possibly experience the same hell they escaped by sheer luck years ago!
  • Chapter 957:
    • So while the lore dump is awesome, it also gives us a rather dark image of the Rock's Pirates and what it took to finally take them down. Imagine a pirate crew so dangerous and horrifying that it spit out some of the biggest names in all of One Piece, including two of the four current Emperors (Kaido and Big Mom) and one of the former (Whitebeard)!
    • While it is awesome, just how strong were these guys to have Roger and Garp put their differences aside just to protect the Celestial Dragons and their slaves?
    • Now the implications of Big Mom and Kaido joining up with the dissolution of the Seven Warlords system. The "War to End All Wars" is looming closer and closer...
  • Chapter 958: Orochi used his knowledge of the alliance's new meeting place to cause an incident the night before the Fire Festival. Whatever it was, not only did it deprive Momonosuke and the Akiaza Nine of their allied forces, but the Straw Hats can't be contacted either, indicating that something has happened to them as well. To make matters worse, the manga went on break following this chapter, making us wait two weeks in suspense to find out the details.
  • Chapter 959:
    • Good news: Orochi didn't capture and/or wipe out the alliance to overthrow him. Bad news: He didn't have to. All he needed to do was bomb all the bridges connecting Wano's regions to prevent them from meeting up at Tokaige Port, leaving the entire alliance unable to mobilize and sending the Akiaza Nine into despair.
    • Despite Tama's assurance, the Thousand Sunny's hiding place in a cove is discovered and bombed by Orochi's forces. Even worse, the chapter only spares a single panel on it before focusing on other details, with a flashback note  beginning at the end of the chapter, leaving the Sunny's fate unknown and us wracking our nerves for the next few weeks!
  • Chapter 968:
    • Although most of the chapter was heartwarming and technically a Breather Episode, the end of the chapter surely counts. Orochi at this point has successfully entered into an alliance with Kaido, and has officially begun the coup for the Shogun post to dethrone Oden.
  • Chapter 970:
    • After failing to stop Kaido thanks to dirty tactics on Orochi's forces' side, Oden and his forces are captured and are sentenced to be boiled alive.
  • Chapter 971:
    • So you'd expected Oden and his retainers to be boiled in water? Nope. Oden and his men are to be executed in boiling oil. And considering this oil can kill a man in seconds from the poor sap that had the bad luck to slip into the pot as he was leading Oden to be boiled, one can only imagine the pain Oden is going through after he made his bet with Kaido and Orochi.
    • We also find out why Orochi wants to bring Wano to ruin: so that he can get revenge on the entire country for blacklisting his entire family for his grandfather's failed attempt to kill the shogun. And not just close relatives, distant relatives as well! Basically, if anyone had Kurozumi blood in their veins, they were to be killed on the spot! Oden dancing naked in the streets once a week was Orochi making him "apologize" for what had happened to the Kurozumi clan. If he didn't do it, Orochi would have sent Kaido to kill hundreds of people.
  • Chapter 972: After the people learned Oden basically humiliated and sacrificed himself for the sake of their protection, they beg Orochi to let him live. How does he respond? By calling them worthless trash and having his men shoot arrows at them. It was then the people of Wano realized that not only was Orochi a monster of their own creation, but they'd ignorantly condemned their savior to die. The subjugation of Wano for the following decades was their own fault, and every soul in the country knows it.
  • Chapter 974: We finally learn the identity of the mole working for Orochi the whole time: Kanjuro. It turns out he was an artist who at a young age watched his whole family die due to having Kurozumi blood. When he met with Orochi, he was more than willing to accept being his spy. This is quite the shocker for both the readers and the Scabbards who have thought Kanjuro as their ally.
  • Chapter 982: Orochi's intended punishment for Momonosuke? Public execution. Not just any public execution. He intends to crucify the poor boy!
  • Chapter 985: Kaido reveals his plan. He and Big Mom will conquer the world with the Ancient Weapons and take One Piece for themselves. To do this, they will transform Wano into New Onigashima and make it into a giant pirate fortress and force all of its citizens into slavery, including the ones in the Flower Capital. Orochi is outraged, but he doesn't get the chance to protest as Kaido cuts him down. Admittedly satisfying though this gruesome fate IS, the fact remains that Kaido is now the ruler of Wano and he will make it into a place worse than what Orochi had.
  • Chapter 993: Even after all the damage from the Scabbards' attacks, Kaido is, relatively speaking, unharmed. Sure, he's been stabbed, struck by Electro, cut several times, burned by his own breath being redirected on him, and even had four of the Scabbards nail him with one of Oden's techniques, but that was nothing for Kaido. And to make it clear he's done playing around? He uses wind scythes to tear off one of Kiku's arms.
  • Chapter 1005: Black Maria's feelings for Sanji aren't completely fake... but that's not good news, as she does not plan to release him even after he calls Robin for help. She instead plans to keep him as a pet who will love her and only her, and plans to keep beating up his helpless, tiny (compared to her) form with brass knuckles until he submits to her.
  • Chapter 1008: Somehow, Orochi is still alive and he's planning on burning down the entire castle as a way take down all his enemies at once, even if his own henchmen die as well.
  • Chapter 1013: Kaido beat Luffy close to death a third time. As the expression goes, "In a one-on-one fight, if it's on air, land, or sea, bet on Kaido."
  • Chapter 1035: King's past as a lab rat in Punk Hazard due to being a Lunarian is shown to be a torturous experience with him being trained up to an experimentation machine to test his durability. What is even worse he is practically still a young teenager at the time. It is no wonder he took Kaido's offer to escape when he had the chance.
  • Chapter 1043: Kaido beat Luffy closer to death than anyone else has done- assuming that Luffy isn't straight-up dead- taking him down a fourth time, having much, much less help than Luffy had. In short, in a one-on-one fight, it is still a safe bet on Kaido.
  • Chapter 1045: When Luffy is eaten by Kaido, Luffy puts his hands through Kaido's eyes to grab his nose and eject himself. Later, Luffy punches straight through Kaido's face. The cartoony visuals really obscures how painful it should be.
  • Chapter 1053:
    • This chapter, above all else, gives rise to precisely what Ryokugyu is all about, from the establishing shot of the abandoned Udon Prison, with greenery, shrubs and flora already having reclaimed much of this territory... only to lead way to the sheer horror that lied inside. By which we mean complete mass impalement of all these former Animal Kingdom Pirates, the worst of which was King And Queen. Queen, as a special note, for this first and only time in canon, is slimmed down... as a result of Ryokugyu's powers taking a page from Cell, absorbing and sucking victims dry, until they are naught but husks. The moment ends with him wishing to seek the approval of Fleet Admiral Sakazuki, via bringing him Luffy's head. This last part bears repeating: Ryokugyu, the final Admiral, the Green Bull, wants the approval... of Sakazuki. The exact admiral responsible for Ace's death. Needless to say, Admiral Ryokugyu earned his The Dreaded status.
    • News of the Revolutionary Army comes out, and something truly horrible has happened. Cobra is dead. And Vivi's gone missing! But the dubious reputation of the news rears its ugly head again when it pins the blame on Sabo. It has a very unwanted effect that even Sakazuki finds troubling. Numerous countries abused by the Celestial Dragons begin revolting, and Sabo becomes their poster boy for the movement. Remember that Cobra was the only kind king in power among 20 kingdoms where 19 submitted to the Celestial Dragons, and had been slandered by Mr. 2's impersonation as a cruel ruler and was gravely ill. The oppressed only saw him in a distorted perception by comparing him to their own horrid rulers.
  • Chapter 1054: We finally start getting a look at Ryokugyu’s personality and it turns out he gives Sakazuki a run for his money in the Ax-Crazy department. Upon being confronted by the samurai, he goes on brief rant about how he believes that anyone who isn’t a citizen of World Government can’t be considered human. Which means he can freely slaughter the people of Wano to get to Luffy, since they don’t count as human.

    Final Saga 
Egghead Arc
  • Chapter 1059:
    • We're introduced to a brand new type of Pacifistas known as the Seraphim which are cyborg clones that combine the DNA of the Warlords with Lunarian DNA. The Kuja Pirates and Blackbeard Pirates confront S-Snake and S-Hawk, who are cloned after Boa Hancock and Dracule Mihawk respectively. Their designs are based on a SBS panel in which Oda drew the original Warlords as kids and so far, each one has dark skin, black wings, and a flame on their back like a Lunarian. One panel showed a close-up of S-Snake where she looks sinister and has star pupils in her eyes. Worse, they're ludicrously strong compared to the old models. S-Hawk sliced through a mountain with ease and put Blackbeard on the defensive immediately. After the fight was over, both models were completely unscathed.
    • Blackbeard's sheer callousness after Hancock manages to petrify all of his underlings. Rather than risk her using her devil fruit on him the moment he lets her go, he decides to just kill her even after Hancock warns him that if she dies, all her victims will be trapped as statues forever. Even though two of her victims were his lieutenants Catarina Devon and Vasco Shot, Blackbeard just writes them off.
    • Speaking of which, Catarina Devon expresses interest in adding Hancock's head to her collection, to which Blackbeard simply retorts that she can do as she likes once they've stolen her ability. Vasco Shot, for his part, suggests that they can have more fun with Hancock if they allow her to live.
    • The fact that, according to Hancock, killing the current user of the Love-Love Fruit does not undo any petrifications they may have caused beforehand, and as such a successor user of the fruit would be unable to reverse said petrifications (as they are built upon the previous user's qualities), leaving the effect permanent. Coby is justifiably freaked out hearing this, lampshading that Hancock is more dangerous than he initially thought.
      • Also, the fact that she's aware of this, means that this already happened enough times to make someone realize that particular side-effect of the Devil Fruit and recorded it. There's some stone statues out there that weren't initially statues...
  • Chapter 1060:
    • We get a glimpse of Imu's power as they completely destroy Lulusia Kingdom with what looks like the power of a hurricane combined with a fireball. An entire island, an entire kingdom, is erased from the face of the planet in mere moments. The Buster Call order on Ohara is nothing compared to what just happened and, suddenly, the story that God Valley simply disappeared doesn't seem so farfetched anymore.
    • At the same time, the Five Elders give the order to cut off the signal of the Surveillance Unit tapping on the Revolutionary Army's transmission, before going on to state matter-of-factly that, as far as the Marines are concerned, no information was intercepted and nothing of note was detected. After all, as far as anyone knows, the Lulusia Kingdom never existed.
    • The Five Elders' choice of words implies that Lulusia was already slated for eradication before they knew Sabo was there. To highlight how bad Sabo's situation is, even they have to take a moment to be horrified for him!
    • The anime's adaptation of this chapter does not shy away from depicting the sheer horror the citizens of Lulusia experience before their deaths. One second they are celebrating their freedom from their tyrannical king, the next second the sky turns dark as the Mother Flame approaches, with one girl clinging onto her father in fear. While this happens, we're treated to glitching images of Imu in their garden as the Five Elders callously command the Marines to cut off the Surveillance Unit. Then the Mother Flame opens fire, the sky turning blood red as numerous beams of crimson light rain down from the sky. Their attempts to run for safety become pointless as the island itself is obliterated in an apocalyptic explosion, leaving nothing but a hole in the sea where Lulusia once stood. It really does paint Imu as a wrathful, evil god raining down divine retribution on those who oppose them..
  • Chapter 1061:
    • The shot of the giant mechanical shark below the Sunny looks like it could be the first search result for "thalassophobia", though it immediately turns out to be a very silly-looking shark.
  • Chapter 1063:
    • We finally get to see some of the new Devil Fruits the Blackbeard Pirates have stolen, and they're definitely terrifying:
      • Doc Q's Sick-Sick Fruit is especially chill-inducing, by allowing him to create any disease he wants. While in the chapter is mostly Played for Laughs by creating a Gender Bender disease, just imagine if Doc Q wants to try some of the most lethal diseases from our world, like leprosy or tuberculosis.
      • Van Auger, meanwhile, gets the Warp-Warp Fruit, which straight up gives him Villain Teleportation. Even worse than a hyperlethal sniper, is a hyperlethal sniper that can appear and shoot you from anywhere.
      • The anime version of the scene in which Cracker tries and fails to stop the Blackbeard Pirates from kidnapping Pudding is made even worse. What was a one page part of a cover story in the manga is extended into a haunting scene, juxtaposing the whimsy of Cracker's food-based abilities with the despair that the Blackbeard Pirates bring. Even Brulee, who's seen weeping rather expressively in the cover story, can only be brought to stunned silence as she finds her brother's frozen body.
  • Chapter 1073:
    • The attack of Sphinx by Captain Ratel demonstrates how a lot of marines can be no different from the pirates they fight. Much like Ryokugyu did in Wano, Ratel explicitly states that, since Sphinx is not affiliated with the World Government, he can slaughter them without hesitation to find Whitebeard's (non-existent) treasure. He further demonstrates his lack of humanity towards the citizens of Sphinx by threatening to shoot an elderly woman and some children. Thankfully, he was stopped by Edward Weevil, who forced him and his crew to retreat.
  • Chapter 1078:
    • The traitor among Vegapunk's satellites is revealed to be York. The chapter ends with her looming over the good doctor with a demented, lopsided smile, declaring that she both wants to be a Celestial Dragon and that there's "really no need for two Vegapunks." It really brings her actions of grievously attacking the other satellites into a new, chilling light - beyond getting rid of those who would try and stop her, she's destroying the competition to become the only Vegapunk.
    • S-Snake being completely ruthless against her foes. Remember that she's a clone of Hancock, and serves as a stern reminder of how nasty the real Hancock was before falling in love with Luffy changed her for the better.
  • Chapter 1079:
  • Chapter 1080:
    • We now know the devil fruits of Vasco Shot and Avalo Pizarro. Vasco has the liquor fruit and when Koby escaped he was ready to burn the whole town so Koby can't hide. Not even caring about how many of their men would be killed.
    • Pizarro can fuse with the island. Meaning that you can't hide from him, he can be anywhere and you can't be sure the field won't change. The only reason he didn't go after Koby was because Teach would be angry by the damages he would cause.
  • Chapter 1081:
  • Chapter 1085:
    • Imu speaks for the first time. Despite their even tone, they are still highly intimidating as they cow Cobra before fatally injuring him with what looks like an arrow made of pure dark energy. On top of that, when an eavesdropping Sabo intervenes to try and save Cobra, the Five Elders reveal themselves to have... some kind of horrifying, bestial Devil Fruit powers. Sabo barely escapes from five screeching beasts and their leader because Cobra took the blow. Cobra shares his last words, but even the reader can't hear all of them, because the speech bubble is blocked out by a horrific screech from one of the beasts.
    • To compound the problem, one of these dreadful creatures is en route to Egghead, where Luffy and his team are presently based.
  • Chapter 1086:
    • A bit of additional horror for how Imu actually thinks and acts: it's finally revealed why the kingdom of Lulusia was chosen to be destroyed. Was it because of the Revolution that happened there, and Sabo happening to be there was a sort of unintentional bonus? No, Imu had it erased from history just because it was the closest target the weapon could fire on. Even the Five Elders are a bit taken aback - they thought the test fire would be somewhere remote that could be easily dismissed as the Grand Line being weird, not a populated island that had literally just attended this year's Reverie.
    • The scene includes lines of dialogue such as "It's close" and "There are many people there", both of which could happen in a mundane context, and the casual and emotionless manner in which Imu carries themself doesn't help. It's even worse in the original Japanese version; Imu simply says, "chikai" ("near"), when the Five Elders question their decision to test the Mother Flame on Lulusia. This single word manages to convey Imu's cold cruelty in a brief but powerful manner.
    • The Five Elders themselves, despite their initial shock at Imu's decision, are frighteningly quick to not only accept it, but also rationalize it, saying it'll make an example out of Lulusia, and be a good test for the weapon's potential to quell conflicts.
    • Sabo's description of the weapon that destroyed Lulusia: a strange flying object that was neither a living thing nor a natural phenomenon, casting a massive shadow from above the clouds before engulfing the entire island in colossal rays of light.
    • Mjosgard's execution. While it was to be expected he would have to pay for authorizing pirates to attack another World Noble, Garling's tone makes it sounds like it was more because he did it for the sake of a commoner than because of how hard Charloss was hit. The only privilege World Nobles aren't given is being compassionate towards other classes, and it's violently enforced.
  • Chapter 1089:
    • We see the effects of Lulusia's destruction, and find that it wasn't just the island itself that was affected: a worldwide earthquake rocked the entire world, up to and including the Red Line and Grand Line. Not only that, but sea levels rose by a whole meter. Several coastlines were swallowed up, and we see several coastal villages are now underwater. We see a shot of Iceburg, and Fridge Horror kicks in when you realize that Water 7 and other islands were already struggling with high tides. With the destruction of Lulusia, Imu didn't just snuff out the kingdom itself, they may have very well killed hundreds of thousands across the world.
      • But wait, it gets worse! Imu personally goes to oversee the remains of Lulusia... and finds that there is nothing left. Literally; where Lulusia used to sit, there is now a giant hole in the sea that seems to stretch down forever. It really is like the Five Elders said: as far as the rest of the world is concerned, Lulusia NEVER EXISTED.
    • York claims that she can replicate the Mother Flame using the facilities on Egghead, effectively granting the Five Elders the power to freely use its destructive capabilities whenever they want. Upon learning of this, they quickly agree to her terms and offer arrangements to make her a World Noble as she wished.
      • Earlier in the story, the Five Elders discussed how they may have to commit a global cleansing to regain control of the world. With an infinite supply of Mother Flame from York, they very well could achieve this. Even worse, since the seas rose by a meter with the destruction of Lulusia, it's possible that enough islands getting destroyed would flood the entire world until only the Red Line, Mary Geoise and the Celestial Dragons remain.
  • Chapter 1090: Saturn's cold logic regarding how individual humans have the same value as insects and that lost lives can be replenished over time is enough to unnerve even Vice Admiral Doberman, who's a follower of Absolute Justice.
  • Chapter 1094:
    • Things are actually looking up for the heroes, as Atlas managed to turn the Pacifistas to their side and Bonney is relatively safe. But then, the Pacifistas turn against them again after an order is broadcasted from the ships. Vegapunk realizes that it can only be one of the Five Elders. At that time, the Marines are told that Saint Saturn is to make landfall, and all low ranking Marines are to avert their eyes as a demonic pentagram circle appears on the ground, out of which raises Saturn. One Marine doesn't heed the warning and accidentally looks into Saturn's eyes, and his head pops like a balloon instantly. And then we see Saturn's full form, in which he's gigantic, has massive devil horns on his head and has the backside of a spider.
    • Bonney's NDE attack is surprisingly brutal: she shoots her targets with a bullet that instantly ages them to death and back, leaving them traumatized when they return to normal. A literal near-death experience!
    • Saturn's intimidating Haki manages to frighten everyone who has learned to sense Haki, even Admiral Kizaru and Luffy in his Nika state. The only person who doesn't give pause is Bonney, who is hurtfully furious with Saturn, because she learned from Vegapunk that Saturn gave him the order to have Kuma stripped of his memories, and she plunges a sword into the Elder's body and draws blood.
  • Chapter 1095: The chapter is not titled "A world where you're better off dead" for nothing.
    • Bonney managed to stab Saturn... except then he just pulls out the sword and the wound disappears, blood and all, while cooly stating that if he was in danger he would have simply dodged it. This display makes it clear that fighting an Elder, let alone hurting one, is a very difficult task.
    • A Celestial Dragon casually shooting Clapp for being too loud in front of young Kuma. The abuse that Clapp suffered was so hard that he's missing one eye at the time of his death.
    • Every three years, the Celestial Dragons hold a population extermination tournament on an island not affiliated with the World Government, with one of them (this being the one Kuma was at) being God Valley. When the king of God Valley tried to protest his people being hunted for sport, he's cut down by Garling for his defiance.
  • Chapter 1098:
    • The chapter reveals the grim reality of Bonney's birth: She is heavily implied to be a Child by Rape, with her biological father being the Celestial Dragon who bought Ginny after the latter was captured.
    • Bonney is revealed to have the Sapphire Scales disease. The disease causes her to feel pain any time she is exposed to natural light, forcing her to stay indoors. It is stated that even those who avoid sunlight will eventually die before reaching the age of ten.
    • The last panels show that King Becori is planning to slaughter the parts of Sorbet Kingdom he deems to be weighing the country down, just like what the Goa Kingdom tried to do with the Gray Terminal. In fact, the subsequent chapter reveals that Becori was inspired by the Goa Kingdom's example, again showcasing the monstrous perception of "lesser humanity" that the World Government encourages only perpetuates a cycle of harm beyond the borders of individual kingdoms.
  • Chapter 1103: Just when one would think Saint Saturn couldn't get any worse, he drops a bombshell: he's not only the one who gave Ginny Saphire Scales in a failed experiment, he got curious if someone could get a Devil Fruit before having the ability to eat solid food. So he decided to experiment on Bonney as an infant. When Vegapunk calls him on it, Saturn is perplexed why anyone would expect him to have even considered feeling empathy for 'insects.'
    • And remember: all this, and all the other hardship he inflicted on Kuma following the God Valley incident, Saturn set up because Kuma talked back to him once. Sure, him being the last Buccaneer didn't help, but imagine having basically your entire life taken apart, everything that makes you happy twisted to cause you grief and anguish, because you stood up for yourself to the wrong guy ONCE.
  • Chapter 1104: As satisfying as it is to see Kuma deck Saint Saturn in the face, Saturn is so utterly livid in response he instantly orders a Buster Call on Egghead, throwing away everything on the island. Worse, this isn't a standard Buster Call, but one from the gigantic fleet surrounding Egghead Island. This is the depths of how monstrously vindictive Saint Saturn truly is.
  • Chapter 1107:
    • Remember the Blackbeard Pirates ship that was seen approaching Egghead back in chapter 1079? After Luffy sends Saturn flying, he's approached by Van Augur and Catarina Devon, who physically touches Saturn in order to be able to replicate his form and declares that their mission is complete. When Saturn demands to know what their goal is, we finally learn the true scope of Blackbeard's ambition:
      Saturn: You people are always up to strange business. What are you really after?
      Van Augur: The world.
    • Even worse is that before they can leave the island, they encounter Caribou who wants to join up with them as Blackbeard is his idol. Keep in mind the intel Caribou has about Poseidon and Pluton, meaning that Blackbeard will soon know where to find two of the three Ancient Weapons. Sure enough, the next chapter has him offer to share the information if the two commanders take him with them.
  • Chapter 1108: Saturn losing his humanity upon entering his beast form. The most uncanny thing about it are his eyes, which are just two round circles with two dark-colored irises lacking the pupils.
    Sanji: He's less and less human by the minute...
  • Chapter 1109: Saturn, under the threat of Vegapunk's message revealing what looks to be an unpleasant truth to the entire world in under 10 minutes, goes on to summon the rest of the Five Elders to Egghead.
  • Chapter 1110: The other four Elders land on the Egghead and reveal their transformed forms in a double spread:
    • Mars is a bird with sharp teeth, long hair, and a snake's tail
    • Warcury is a boar with four long fangs that are bent upwards
    • Nusjuro is a skeletal horse with skin pieces hanging on his body.
    • Ju Peter is a sandworm with a wide mouth with hyper-realistic human teeth and a cross on the face.

Other

    Movies 
  • The sixth movie, infamous among fans for just being creepy for a One Piece film, has its own page here. The sixteenth movie has a page here.

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