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  • Cain and Abel and Seth: Luffy and Ace, and their third Sworn Brother Sabo.
  • Call-Back: AKA: Oda never forgets. We're building them their own page.
  • Call to Agriculture: Gan Fall. Once the leader of Skypiea (with his position actually named God). Now a pumpkin farmer.
  • Calling Your Attacks:
    • In fine Shonen form, though it should be noted that Usopp tends to enjoy subverting this by deliberately miscalling his attacks in order to throw opponents off. As expected from the style, quite a few of the names (especially those quickly made up) tend to be utterly hilarious.
      Sanji: Armée de l'Air Gum Shoot!
    • Averted with Hawkeyes (who's one of the most no-nonsense guys in the series) and Whitebeard (who's probably well past the whimsey age).
    • Hilariously subverted during the Thriller Bark arc when Luffy's shadow was placed inside Oars. Despite the fact that he isn't in his rubberman body, he still tries to use his special attacks.
      Oz(Luffy): Gum-Gum (Though it's not rubber...) Gatling!
    • This is actually a little problematic, too. Characters only act out the attack after saying the name, and some names are very long, which can lead to other people attacking them before they finish.
    • Deconstructed with Zeo: while camouflaged he calls out the name of his camouflaging skill, allowing Brook to locate and stab him.
    • Subverted when Luffy faces off against Fujitora. He's blind, and Luffy yells out his attacks so that, as he puts it, Fujitora will know exactly the attacks that kicked his ass.
  • Came Back Strong:
    • Brook died and came back as a skeleton, so he is much faster now, a lot harder to kill, and able to run on water.
    • For a villainous example, Hody Jones overdoses on steroids, but instead of dying, takes a page out of Dragon Ball Z and Super Saiyans into a more powerful form. Permanently. It inverts hard however when the aftereffects of the overdose catches up to him and his crew, causing them to undergo Rapid Aging, thus making them practically harmless.
  • Came from the Sky:
    • The Galleon at the start of the Skypiea arc.
    • Also Luffy's entrance into the war at Marineford.
  • Camp Gay:
    • Bon Kurei (Mr. 2), and damn proud of it.
    • Emporio Ivankov — Queen of the Kamabakka Kingdom.
    • The entirety of the Okama/Transvestite Kingdom is like this, in fact. They constantly flirt with Sanji and attempt to assimilate him into their culture by "awakening him to his true self" when he arrives on Moimoro Island — much to his abject horror.
  • Campy Combat: There is a fighting style known as Okama Kenpo used by okama which uses kicks and ballet-like movements. Bentham aka Bon Clay, a flamboyant okama in pink, is a master of the martial art.
  • Canine Confusion: The Wolf transformation Devil Fruit is considered a version of the Dog-Dog Fruit, despite dogs being descended from wolves and not the other way around. Other more distantly-related canine species are also classified as versions of the Dog-Dog Fruit.
  • Cannibalism Superpower: Normally, to inherit a Devil Fruit power, the current user has to die so the ability can "respawn" in the nearest fruit to then be eaten. But, apparently, you can bypass this burden by just eating the user whole instead, as demonstrated by Big Mom (accidentally) eating Mother Carmel and then immediately gaining her powers. This is evidently not a widely known fact, no doubt due to the shortage of cannibals running around the place.
  • Canon Immigrant: Ryuuma the zombie samurai in the Thriller Bark arc. The character is originally from an early Oda one-shot, Monsters, which pre-dates One Piece and had no relationship to the series originally, but now has a place somewhere in its distant past; Ryuuma's feat of slaying a dragon (mentioned by Hogback) happens there. He died at old age, still a great swordsman, and an unspecified time later Hogback and Moria found his corpse and reanimated it with Brook's shadow. Since Ryuuma was a prototype of Zoro in some aspects, it's almost natural he got to fight with him. Ryumma's homeland of Wano ends up being a major arc during the second half of the story, with several pieces from other arcs building up before the Straw Hats finally reach the country.
  • Can't Catch Up: Usopp, especially when his inventions put Nami — who had previously also been on the receiving end of this trope — significantly closer to the others than he is. This is also specifically pointed out by Zoro, who mentions (but not in front of Usopp) that Usopp has become an insanely powerful fighter, easily able to fight off a squadron of Marines by himself; it's just that everybody he's fighting is so strong that he hasn't noticed. Word of God says that Usopp will always be the weakest Straw Hat regardless of who joins in the future, or else the balance of the story would be upset.
  • Carbon Skin:
    • "Armament Haki" is a technique that lets a user manipulate their spirit energy to harden their bodies; this is conveyed visually as their bodies turning into a black, shiny substance that resembles graphene. Melee attacks with Armament Haki become way stronger. Devil Fruit users like Luffy who have malleable bodies benefit greatly, as the Haki lets them gain strength and durability without losing the flexibility of their powers (in Luffy's case, he's made of rubber).
    • Jozu ate a devil fruit that lets him turn his body into diamond, layering over his skin like a sheet. It makes him one of the toughest sons-of-bitches to hurt, but he can still be harmed by Haki like other devil fruit users.
  • Cartoon Meat: Luffy's favorite food is "meat" and is usually depicted as a cylinder of red meat with a bone sticking out both ends.
  • Cartoon Throbbing: When Nami ends up getting sick via a bite from a prehistoric species of flea from the island of Little Garden, Luffy ends up figuring out the hard way that something's definitely wrong with her after she starts seeming to not feel very good when he places his hand on her forehead...only to shriek and withdraw his now painfully burned hand from her forehead. Said hand turns red and starts briefly throbbing from the heat of Nami's fever.
  • Cartoon Whale: Downplayed with Laboon, whose head is a little more rounded than usual but otherwise fits the image to a T.
  • Cassandra Truth: Every toy in Dressrosa who tried to convince people that they used to be human, due to Sugar's power causing anyone turned into a toy to be erased from people's memories. Toys who tried to convince people were dragged away by Doflamingo's forces and scrapped.
  • Cast from Calories: Luffy's Gear Second speeds up his metabolism to a ridiculous degree, granting him Super-Speed. As a result, it burns calories very quickly and switches over to Cast from Lifespan if he doesn't have the necessary energy.
  • Casting a Shadow:
    • Blackbeard's Dark-Dark Fruit literally gives him the power of darkness, which seems to be a hybrid of this trope and Gravity Master.
    • Gecko Moria's Shadow-Shadow Fruit. In addition to bringing his shadow to life, he has the ability to steal the shadows of others and use them to create zombies.
  • Casting Gag:
    • Maddie Blaustein who voiced Dr. K in Cubix: Robots for Everyone would later go on to voice Doctor Kureha (using the same impression). As an in-joke, 4Kids added in new dialogue to have Doctor Kureha tell Chopper "You can call me Dr. K."
    • Franky was designed by Oda with Kazuki Yao as his Seiyuu in mind, who previously voiced Jango and Mr. 2 Bon Clay. All three of them use unusual boomerangs that are very sharp (which is more apparent with Bon-chan and Franky), as Jango uses his chakram, Bon-chan uses his detachable mascara and Franky uses his detachable sideburns. All three of them also change affiliations after their introduction arcs.
    • The Straw Hats' Japanese and English voice actors voiced the Fake Straw Hats in the Return to Sabaody Arc.
  • Casual Danger Dialogue: Done rather frequently to become one of the series' more subtle and outlandish moments of comedy. One noticeable example occurs during the third chapter of the Drum Island arc, while Sanji and Luffy are going to fetch Doctor Kureha to have her cure Nami of a particularly lethal case of the flu. Most of the conversation includes whether or not people in frigid weather like the one they're in go to sleep, and how women in said conditions keep their skins so smooth, while blissfully dodging killer rabbits and collapsing trees.
  • Catch-22 Dilemma: Discussed in the Fish-Man Island arc, during a flashback: Vander Decken is talking about marrying Princess Shirahoshi for her latent powers, who was still 6 at the time. His subordinate then tells him about a national treasure, a kind of drug that can age up whoever consumes it, and it might solve the age problem. The problem is, as said subordinate points out, the treasure is tightly guarded by the royal palace and the only legal way to obtain it is... marrying the royalty (the princess, in this case). In the end, though, Decken just decides to wait until she's aged normally.
  • Cat/Dog Dichotomy:
    • Lucci and Jabra of CP9 black ops group can shapeshift to a leopard and a wolf respectively. Both are also rivals to each other, although Lucci takes it less seriously than Jabra does.
    • Dogstorm and Cat Viper are the two Mink leaders of the island of Zou. They used to be friends, but nowadays they refuse to even see face-to-face, with Dogstorm being active on the day and Cat Viper at night. Dogstorm is the more regal, composed and polite one, while Cat Viper is the more energetic, stubborn and informal one.
  • Cat Fight:
    • Nami tends to most often be paired off in fights against female opponents. The most famously Fanservice-y has to be her fight against Kalifanote  and, to a lesser extent, Miss Doublefinger.
    • Bizarrely played with by Ivankov. In order to fight Impel Down's chief guard, Sadi-chan, he used his Devil Fruit powers to transform himself into a woman.
  • Catgirl: Nami's got a subtle cat theme but that's about as far as it goes. (Somewhat confirmed with a line of figures representing the crew as different animals.) There's also several Cat Boys, from the Zoan user Rob Lucci to the Black Cat pirates, who wear cat ears and Avaro Pizarro.
  • Ceiling Corpse: In Punk Hazard's frozen laboratory, half of the Straw Hats and the giant kids are running out of the facility when they see frozen corpses sticking off the ceiling. The Straw Hats have to cheer the kids up by singing.
  • Celebrating the Heroes: Almost at the end of each arc, the Straw Hat crew (and allies if they have any) will get celebrated by the locals for solving their major problem (usually by beating the Arc Villain).
  • Celebratory Body Tossing: In the Arlong Arc, Luffy gets tossed into the air by the villagers of Cocayashi after he defeats Arlong and subsequently destroys Arlong Park, freeing the villagers from the Fish-Man Pirates rule.
  • Cement Shoes: Luffy planted both his feet on the cement ground of the Arlong Park, then grabs Mohmoo the sea cow and throws him far away. Arlong, with his strength, picks up the chunk of ground Luffy stuck himself on and then throws him, with said chunk of ground, into the water. Luckily, the normal vulnerability to water of a Devil Fruit user only stops them from controlling their own powers instead of negating them entirely, allowing the townspeople to stretch his head out of the water so they can give him CPR.
  • Cerebus Retcon:
    • Initially played straight with Nami's distrust of pirates and obsession with treasure. It turned out her hometown was taken over by pirates and she struck a deal with the leader to buy back her town if she had enough money. Subverted in that after the Arlong Park arc, Nami remains still quite greedy because she can now spend the money for herself, though that's justified seeing as how she was part of a poor family and had to wear hand-me-down clothes for her whole life until the pirates came. However, she still values her friends much more than money, as seen in Thriller Bark where she gives away part of her treasure to an ally who helped her, and in Saboady Archipelego where she is willing to part with her money to get the kidnapped Camie back.
    • Post-time skip Sanji gets a major nosebleed every time he looks at a woman with Chopper commenting he was using up his stock of blood that matched Sanji's type. When they arrived on Fish-Man Island and meet mermaids, Sanji loses a dangerous amount of blood. This time Chopper didn't have any more blood to help him and no mermen or merwomen was willing to donate blood to a human. Fortunately, they were able to find a donor and Sanji gets better.
    • The Tontatta Tribe being naive enough to trust Robin just because she said she is a good guy? Funny. Them working themselves to death in the Smile factory because they believe painfully transparent lies? Not as much.
    • A couple of the Donquixote Family officers and their initially-hilarious quirks turn out to be like this. The "pervert" Senor Pink, who dresses like a baby, does so because it was the only way he could get his brain-dead wife to smile at him. Ninja Maid Baby 5, who will do anything for someone if she feels they need her, is like this because her mother abandoned her as when she was a child for being "useless".
  • Cerebus Rollercoaster: One Piece should be called Cerebus Rollercoaster: The Series. To put it simply, a given arc will typically start with lighthearted moments between the Straw Hats on the ship, which continues once they get on their current island, although there will be hints of darker action. Then trouble starts, and the Straw Hats are once again fighting for their lives against a gang of villains, who will typically be led by a Jerkass at best. Subjects such as war, racism, slavery or the death of one's loved ones may become prominent. After the end of the struggle, things go back to being lighthearted, even with occasional jokes about the life or death experiences. Even fights can rapidly switch from serious to silly, such as when Zoro accidentally ends up handcuffed to Usopp, and the two of them and their opponents (who refuse to work together) argue over how to resolve the situation.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: While still light and soft for the most part, they have put some focus on themes such as slavery, racism, political corruption, anarchy, segregation, and moral absolutism. And in the Fish-Man Island arc, the mentality of the New Fish-Man Pirates can draw parallels to violent black supremacy groups, the KKK, xenophobic practices of ancient Japan, and Al Qaeda all at once!
  • Chainmail Bikini: In the Dressrosa arc, there is a female gladiator named Rebecca who wears one of these. Justified somewhat, as the Colosseum rules limit how much armor the fighters are allowed to wear.
  • Chameleon Camouflage: The minor villain Zeo is a carpet shark Fish-man, and can change his color to blend with the ground and apparently disappear. Played for Laughs when he gets stomped and clubbed by his own men.
  • Character Catchphrase:
    • Luffy's "I'm gonna be King of the Pirates!" ("Kaizoku-ou ni, ore wa naru!")
    • Franky's energetic "Supeeeer!"
    • Brook's "Skull Joke!" whenever he points out that he doesn't have whatever organ he has just mentioned, and "May I see your Panties?" when he meets any girl.note 
    • Dr. Kureha's "Are ya happy?"
  • Character Death: Throughout the first half of the series, the number of named people who die in the present time and not in flashbacks is limited to three persons: The Going Merry, Portgas D. "Fire Fist" Ace, and Edward "Whitebeard" Newgate. Since the time skip and the series escalates, more named and unnamed people, villains and allies, are dying from the fierce combat.
  • Character Development: Bucket loads of it, even to minor and flashback characters. It applies to pretty much all of the Straw Hats (especially before and after the time skip) and their allies.
  • Character in the Logo: The series has the silhouette of Luffy replacing the "I" in the logo of the series, as well other elements of Luffy, as his iconic straw hat.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: One Piece uses both Western and Eastern variantsnote  on absolutely everyone. Every power mentioned in the trope description — most often literally the intentionally hyperbolic description given — is displayed by someone in the series. Luffy punches hard enough to knock a grown man through a wharf and leave a knuckle-shaped impression on his facenote . Zoro slices through rocks and steel like paper. Sanji's incredible kicks allow him to walk on air. By the end of the Dressrosa Arc, the only Straw Hats who hadn't got in on the action are Chopper (whose Devil Fruit ability gives him actual Super-Strength) and Nami (who by that point had settled into a sort of Squishy Wizard role). This is without getting into CP9's Rokushiki (six specific Charles Atlas Super Powers: Soru, Tekkai, Geppou, Kami-E, Shigan, and Rankyakunote ) or Jozu's ability to pick up an iceberg. If you want an exhaustive list of everyone in the series covered by this trope, go check out the series character sheets. All 43 of them.
  • Charlie Brown from Outta Town: Sogeking. Chopper tries to pull this in Chapter 595, but quickly gives up when everyone instantly sees through the disguise.
  • Chaste Hero:
    • Luffy, clueless little lug that he is. This actually helps him immensely on Amazon Lily; he's immune to the powers of Boa Hancock's Devil Fruit because he honestly doesn't feel any lust towards her.
    • Zoro. When Nami is nude in the bath in Alabasta, he seems utterly disinterested.
    • Notably zig-zagged with Chopper. While Not Distracted by the Sexy around human ladies—which permits him to be present when Nami is bathing, or otherwise naked—he is very much attracted to animal characters, like a reindeer Mink nurse in the Zou arc.
  • Cheer Them Up with Laughter: In Nami's backstory, when she was still a baby, the village police Genzo unintentionally made her cry; after some failed attempts, he tried putting a pinwheel on his hat. His subordinate didn't believe it could work, but Nami eventually laughed at Genzo. This inspires him to put that pinwheel on his head at all times.
  • Cheerful Child:
    • Chimney; always smiling, even after a train crash.
    • Sanji during his childhood. Years of abuse and neglect beat it out of him, unfortunately.
  • Chef of Iron:
    • Sanji. Chef of the Thousand Sunny's galley he may be, but more often we see him kicking the crap out of villains.
    • Sanji's mentor/father figure Zeff passed on both his talent for cookery and his talent for asskicking to Sanji.
    • Zeff's other sous chef's at Baratie are also Chef's of Iron. Customers are reputed to come as much to watch them fight as to eat their food.
    • Wanze. Of the "uses cooking implements in combat/food is part of his fighting techniques" types, which is the complete opposite to Sanji. His disrespect to food and the kitchen causes Sanji to fight back against his noodle armor using knives, in one of the most hilarious Batman Grabs a Gun moments ever.
  • Cherry Blossoms: Featured prominently with Chopper. One of his attacks uses this.
  • The Chessmaster: Quite a few of the villains, and they do it superbly.
    • Captain Kuro is appropriately titled "Kuro of A Thousand Plans". He was hailed as a supreme strategist and, even after abandoning the sea and spending years as a butler, is revealed to have not lost his touch as his time in servitude was a long con designed to get him a local family's wealth for himself.
    • Crocodile manipulates an entire country for four years, pushing it ever closer to self-destruction, whilst keeping it secret from even the World Government and even lauded as a hero. All the while he has backup plan upon backup plan designed to leave as little as chance to possible. Only a Heroic Sacrifice and the fact that Luffy simply does not stop no matter what's put in his way prevents him from achieving victory.
    • Eneru is insane, but he is clever. He manipulated a final assault on him on Upper Yard from Shandians as well as the Straw Hats' adventurous natures then unleashed his subordinates on them, turning it to a survival game. He also successfully checkmated even Nico Robin when she tried to use knowledge she thought he didn't have against him.
    • Donquixote Doflamingo is no slouch, and is quite the chess-player himself. After his father abandoned his and his family's positions as World Nobles, he built a pirate crew from nothing, and is currently one of the biggest fish in the series, having succeeded where Crocodile failed; taking over a country, and didn't spend four years, only a single night to do it. He also managed to press-gang the government and the other World Nobles to play ball and give him pretty much free reign, while later allying with one of their greatest enemies, one of the Four Emperors, providing said enemy with artificial Devil Fruits. He managed to position himself snugly and is almost untouchable. His scheme failed mainly because of a mistake his subordinates made, some completely unknown factors, and pure luck on the Straw Hats' part.
    • Commander Jonathan from the G8 filler deserves a mention for out-smarting and out-maneuvering the Straw Hats on multiple occasions, and even uses actual chess pieces to plan out his strategies. And then lets them get away, saying he used the entire incident to boost his base's morale!
    • Marshall D. Teach, otherwise known as "Blackbeard", plays the Whitebeard Pirates and the World Government against one another in his master plan to become "Pirate King". While everyone is busy preparing for the battle, he uses the distractions to bust into the prison Impel Down to recruit the inmates and jumped into the battle at Marineford at the opportune moment to land the deathblow on Whitebeard and steal his Devil Fruit power for his own use.
  • Children Are Innocent: Generally most are, unless they grow up around adults filled with hatred-filled hearts. Notably we have the children of Punk Hazard, kidnapped by Caesar Clown who believed his lies about them being sick and the need of the "medicine" which is in truth an addictive and fatal drug. On the flipside, there is Hody Jones, who did grow up around adults with hate-filled hearts and hates humanity for no real reason otherwise.
  • Child Soldiers:
    • When they are suffering from their "medicine" the children kidnapped by Caesar Clown and experimented on become a powerful force as their desire for candy makes them attack anything that gets in their way.
    • The Vinsmoke children were trained as soldiers in childhood, as Judge intended for them to lead armies as soon as possible.
  • Chilly Reception: Nico Robin is an interesting case, as only Luffy knew of her good nature; the others only knew her as a villain, and one that had been particularly cruel to their close friend Vivi. What follows is an incredible display by Robin where she manages to defrost all of them by playing off their personality quirks, except for Zoro, who remained cold until at Skypiea.
  • The Chosen Many: Users of Conqueror's Haki are said to be extremely rare. Only one in several million people are born with it. Yet most major characters in the series have it, including Luffy and Zoro, all of the Four Emperors and several of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. Gold Roger and his Number Two Silvers Rayleigh had it as well.
  • Chromatic Arrangement:
    • Represented by the 3 Captains: Kidd (red; the most aggressive with the then highest bounty among Supernovas), Luffy (blue; the good guy), and Law (yellow; the laid-back) who made brief alliances outside the Slave Auction House during Sabaody Archipelago arc.
    • The Monster Trio and the colors that represent them: Luffy (red), Zoro (green), and Sanji (blue).
    • The 3 Admirals: Akainu (red), Kizaru (yellow), and Aokiji (blue).
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome: Played With. A civilian usually has to do something interesting or worthy before Luffy decides to help them, and he even makes a famous proclamation (later echoed by Zoro) in the Fish-Man Island Arc that he doesn't want to be a hero, because he assumes it means being completely selfless 24/7 - which would entail sharing his food with other people. That said, he and the rest of the Straw Hats tend to have an extremely low bar what counts as interesting/worthy; the arc immediately following Fish-Man Island even has him pursuing an SOS call from an unknown ship, despite Robin's warnings that it could be a trap.
  • Cigar-Fuse Lighting: This is how the Whitebeard Pirates' 15th division commander Fossa ignites his sword.
  • City of Canals: Water Seven, a city best known for its shipbuilders. After Enies Lobby, Iceburg begins a project to turn it into a City on the Water.
  • Civilized Animal: If it's not A Day in the Limelight for some side character, every chapter splash is practically guaranteed to feature one crewmember with this sort of animal.
  • Climax Boss: The opponents Luffy fights at the end of a saga tend to be these. So far, we have Arlong, Crocodile, Eneru, Rob Lucci, Gecko Moria, Hordy Jones, Don Quixote Doflamingo, and Charlotte Katakuri.
  • Cloudcuckooland: The world is definitely this. It wouldn't be uncommon to encounter a floating island that magnetizes things to it, a place that rains lightning, or an area that has air you walk on. That's not even counting the bizarre organisms that happen to live on this crazy town of a planet...
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander:
    • Luffy when he tries to be at his sharpest outside of battle, he can only pull this off. Most of the time he's something between The Ditz and The Fool.
    • Gedatsu. Even funnier when you realize that he lives on Skypiea, a Sky Island floating on a cloud...
    • Kizaru qualifies for this as well. Mistaking his wiretap-snail for a Transponder Snail, asking the pirates that he's supposed to arrest where his subordinates are, explaining his powers in an idiotic way while he is about to crush Zoro with his foot, etc.
  • Color Animal Codename:
    • The Marine Admirals all have this as their Nom de Guerre. The first one we meet in the story is Aokiji (Blue Pheasant), the second is Kizaru (Yellow Monkey), and the third is Akainu (Red Dog). The animal halves of their codenames are a reference to the three animal companions of the Japanese folktale Momotarō, which adds an extra layer of Religious and Mythological Theme Naming. Later on, we also meet Fujitora (Wisteria Tiger) and Ryokugyu (Green Bull) after the timeskip, as replacement Admirals for the now-resigned Aokiji and the now-promoted Akainu.
    • There are also the characters who were considered for the position of Admiral, Momousagi (Pink Hare) and Chaton (Brown Pig).
    • Shiki from the movie Strong World has the epithet Golden Lion.
  • Combat Breakdown: Happens to Luffy occasionally. Sometimes, when he fights villains who also use Good Old Fisticuffs, his battles devolve from utilizing super powers and acrobatic agility into straight up punching matches, the most notable example being the climax to One Piece Film: Z. Also happens to Senor Pink and Franky's fight, which eventually turns into them repeatedly suplexing and punching each other (respectively) until one of them (Pink) loses consciousness.
  • Combat Clairvoyance: Anyone who possesses Color of Observation Haki. Observation Haki allows the user to sense other living things around them and from their energy can predict what they will do next. It can be developed to such a degree that it can allow the user to see a little into the future. However the ability has some limitations that can be exploited. First, it specifically allows the user to sense "living" things or things with a will and intent. The user cannot sense or at least differentiate between non-living things. Part of why it allows the user to predict their opponents is by sensing their intent. They can't clearly sense an attack on them if it has no intent like a trap being sprung or random object that comes flying at them. While they can sense these things if objects about to injure them gets close enough (Haki grants the user a kind of passive field around them created by their aura) they would be injured if the object is moving to fast to react to. Likewise there is a limit to how far a user can sense other creatures and it's possible for skilled opponents to quiet their presence. Luffy has be struck several times by opponents outside of his sensing range using high speed projectiles. Next, following the too fast to react to mention, Observation Haki only allows you to anticipate and even see the next moves your opponent will make. However, that knowledge is useless against an opponent so much stronger and faster than you that you can defend yourself or even react to their attacks.
  • Combat Medic: Chopper, Doc Q, Crocus, Dr. Kureha, and "Surgeon of Death" Trafalgar Law.
  • Combining Mecha:
    • Parodied. In order to fight the massive zombie Oars, Franky, Chopper, Usopp, Zoro, and Sanji "combine" (really just stand on each other) into a massive humanoid figure dubbed "Big Emperor". It didn't do anything besides add extra comedic value, because Robin refused to "dock in" as the left arm, claiming that it would be "too embarrassing". In One Piece: Unlimited Cruise 2, they do this again, with Luffy and Brook joining in.
    • Played straight with Iron Pirate Franky Shogun, which is made up of the Black Rhino FR-U IV and Brachio Tank V.
  • Comically Missing the Point: Lady Kaya in Episode 45 of (the original Japanese version of) the anime, when her servant shows her a poster of a Wanted Luffy, and all Kaya notices is the fact that the back of her precious Usopp's head is visible in the background of the picture.
  • The Comically Serious:
    • Zoro. He's very serious and doesn't have much of a sense of humor, but he can be hilarious nonetheless, partially thanks to his crew.
    • Robin. To the point that even when the entire crew is open-mouthed and bulging their eyes at the sight in front of them, even Zoro, she retains her composure completely... but even she can't keep her composure when faced with the sheer naivete of the Tontatta.
    • Trafalgar Law during his alliance with the Straw Hats.
  • Commedia dell'Arte: One of the forms of Filler is an Elseworld starring the same characters in 19th century Japan. It has the pleasant side effect of giving more limelight to some of the more colorful (but less threatening) villains of the series by placing them in a situation other than extreme combat.
  • Competence Zone: Though most of the Straw Hats are very young, the general competence zone in One Piece is very adult-centric. There's literally no other pirate crew on the Grand Line as young as the Straw Hats — not even their peers the Eleven Supernovas. For the most part, the most powerful people in the world are in their middle ages or even their elder years, and most successful pirate captains are at least in their mid-twenties. This is largely part of the reason why the crew — led by the merely 19-year-old Luffy — tends to be underestimated by just about everyone they come across.
  • Compressed Adaptation: The Movie retelling of Alabasta cut out a lot of the build up and side information, resulting in a rather severe case of Continuity Lockout for non-fans. The retelling of Drum fared better by benefitting from adapting a shorter arc, a longer running time, and going with a "What if?" scenario instead of a straight adaptation.
  • Conforming OOC Moment: In the Alabasta arc, Luffy and Chopper, who usually have little interest in sex, both have a Nose Bleed when they peep at Nami and Vivi naked in the royal steambaths alongside Usopp and Sanji (in a later arc, Luffy doesn't even react when he sees Boa Hancock naked). According to Word of God, it's because the presence of their friends influenced them.
  • Continuity Nod: In the Post-War arc Luffy tells Dadan that he doesn't like bandits and we see an image of Higuma, the villain from the very first chapter.
  • Continuity Porn: Particularly after Water 7, many of the old independent arcs have been tied together to create a very complex story.
  • Contrived Coincidence: Saul had betrayed the Marines by rescuing Nico Olivia, who was headed to her homeland of Ohara. Saul himself was shipwrecked in a storm and ended up washing ashore on Ohara as well, and only realizes that the island is Ohara just before the Marines arrive.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: Ace and Akainu have the power of fire and lava, respectively, and can both use their powers without instantly frying absolutely everyone standing in close proximity. Seriously, Akainu fought with the Whitebeard pirates and Crocodile in a FROZEN SEA! How the hell is that possible?]]
  • Cosmopolitan Council: The Council of Kings.
  • Cool Boat:
    • The Going Merry and the Thousand Sunny definitely qualify for this. A number of other ships from the One Piece world could also hold this title, including the Whitebeard crew's Moby Dick.
    • Basically all of the great pirate crews' ships become this. The former Pirate King's ship is both legendary and infamous to the point that its maker, Tom, is sentenced to prison if not death for building it.
    • A special mention goes to Law's ship-submarine since it gives his crew a distinct advantage of mobility to him over mostly everyone in the One Piece world. If we also add that Law's Devil Fruit power gives him a complete control of space around him in a large radius, it is easy to see that his ship with him on board is basically an impenetrable underwater fortress, even more so when we think about how Devil Fruit users are totally useless in water.
  • Cool Chair: The Empty Throne, the symbolic seat of power located in Mariejois, at the center of the world. The chair itself is pretty ornate, but what makes it especially cool are the multiple weapons planted on the ground surrounding it, symbolizing the world's nations' pledge of allegiance to the World Government. Twenty swords are planted right around the throne, representing the founding members of the World Government, and many more are planted one level lower than the Throne, representing the rest of the world.
  • Cool Old Guy: Whitebeard, Rayleigh, Garp, and Gan Fall.
  • Cool Train: The sea trains in Water 7, Puffing Tom and Rocket Man.
  • Cooperation Gambit: Trafalgar Law, (who previously considered himself a rival to the other Supernovas. The Straw Hats in particular), forms an alliance with the Straw Hats to defeat Kaido (one of the Four Emperors) by cutting the weapons supply from his client, Doflamingo. Turns out Law was really after Doflamingo himself. Kaido is merely his backup plan and he used the Straw Hats to destroy Doflamingo's weapons factory so that Kaido will punish him for it.
  • Couch Gag: Not in the manga proper or the anime, but the SBS Question Corners in nearly every volume of the manga. Volume 10's SBS had a writer named Timmy Ueda start the SBS before Oda could — a practice followed up in Volume 11 with Martha Shimoda starting it. With a few exceptions, every Volume afterwards had writers following in Timmy's footsteps and started the SBS before poor Oda could.
  • Court Physician: The Drum Kingdom is well-renowned for having some of the most skilled doctors in the entire Grand Line, and twenty of their best were chosen to serve as the king's personal physicians while the rest were either banished or killed. This was done so that the people in the kingdom would have no choice but to submit to the king's whims in order to receive healthcare. They actually despised the king but had no other choice if they wanted to continue their work and research.
  • Costume Copycat: Post-timeskip, a bunch of wannabe pirates have done this with the Straw Hats in the hopes of cashing in on their reputation. They have poor timing, to say the least.
  • Cowardly Lion: Usopp and Chopper in particular, though Nami can be like this at times as well. Though with her, it's usually just as much a case of biding her time.
  • CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: CPR has been used twice in the series: on Luffy during the Arlong saga, and on Usopp during the Skypiea saga. The latter was more Played for Laughs. Ahead Of Its Time; only chest compressions are done both times, the Luffy instance being a full decade before doing so was recommended in real life... except that when giving CPR to a victim of drowning, it's recommended that you give them rescue breaths to help give them more air in the lungs.
  • Cranial Eruption: Many and often. The most ridiculous example was when Luffy spent their 100 million beri on the party in Water 7. Nami caused a lump roughly four times the radius of Luffy's head, on Luffy's head, among other injuries.
  • Cranium Chase:
    • In the Punk Hazard arc, the samurai Kin'emon's head is separated from the rest of his body — not only that, but his head is cut into pieces, too (which leads into a brief hilarity when the Straw Hats tried to put it together like a puzzle). It's revealed later that it's Trafalgar Law's doing.
    • Law, with his Devil Fruit power, can disassemble other people's body parts non-fatally. The first time we see him using his power, he detached a Marine officer's head and replaced it with a cannonball that was about to hit him — not long after, said head screams in agony as his body gets burned, without any concern to his, well, neck.
  • Crapsaccharine World:
    • On the off chance the World Government isn't oppressing you, the Pirates are. It looks like this might be changing though, by dropping the saccharine.
    • Sabaody Archipelago: It may look like a friendly tourist spot with bubble related attractions and fun amusement parks. But it is also a lawless region where Fish-men are discriminated, kidnappings and slavery are commonplace and the home of many a World Noble whom can do whatever they want due to their lineage, with the price of touching them leading to summoning an Admiral to their aid.
    • Dressrossa, which looks like a typical Mediterranean vacation spot, with the peculiar twist of living toys that amuse the populace. In rapid succession we learn that the king is a ruthless black marketing gangster and the toys are former people who crossed said king. Their loved ones have no memory of their existence, they can't resist orders from their creator, and they'll be turned to scrap if they tell anyone what's happening, so they have to live as Stepford Smilers basically forever.
    • Totto Land, a bright, happy Level Ate full of smiling suns and flowers and all that... ruled by Big Mom, who has been known to destroy entire islands if they don't pay their protection fees.
  • Crashing Through the Harem: In a One Piece filler episode set in ancient Japan, Zoro [a wandering monk] at one point crashes into a room full of women. One of them kicks him out of there.
  • Crazy-Prepared:
    • Crocodile had absolutely no reason to believe that anyone would find his bomb in time. Despite that, he still engineered his plan in such a way that even if the cannoneers are killed, the bomb would still do a lot of damage. Also, he has a retractable dagger under that hook.
    • Usopp at times, especially for his fight with Luffy.
  • Creator Cameo: The character Odacchi from the One Piece Soccer Special, who was not only named after Oda but was voiced by him as well.
  • Creepy Crosses:
    • Subtle example in Episode 3; during the exposition about Devil Fruits, they appear ordered in a cross shape.
    • Then there's the scene when Zoro discovers that all the inhabitants of Whiskey Peak are bounty hunters. Cut to a closer look at the giant cacti near the town, revealing that they're actually hills. The "quills" are actually cross-shaped grave markers.
    • Mihawks's black sword and the dagger he wears on his necklace are cross-shaped, which is strange considering his vampire motif.
  • Credits Running Sequence
  • Criminal Doppelgänger: Inverted. The crew is wanted by the authorities, and therefore all have wanted posters. Their pictures are all from photographs except for Sanji, whose photo they could not take; they (badly) drew his wanted picture instead. At one point, the crew get attacked by a guy who looks exactly like Sanji's terribly-drawn wanted poster, because he's fed up of being mistaken for Sanji.
  • Cross Counter: This occurred during a brief brawl that Luffy had with Zoro on Whiskey Peak.
    • Also happened numerous times in the fight between Sanji and Mr. 2.
    • In the Fish-Man Island arc, this happens with Luffy and Jimbei (And Sanji, who got caught in the crossfire) after Robin interrupted their fight.
  • Cross Dresser: Bon Kurei alias Mr. Two.
  • Crossover: One shots with Dragon Ball and Toriko. The latter even got an anime episode.
    • There's also a crossover episode between the three of them.
    • As part of the One Piece 100 We Are ONE project (held by Shueisha in commemoration of the manga's 100th volume), the July 19, 2021 issue of "Weekly Shonen Jump" included a collaboration poster called Where's Wally? in One Piece, set on Onigashima and featuring a mix of One Piece and Where's Wally? characters. The official Twitter account for Oda's staff also posted parts of the illustration and held a giveaway for people who could find specific characters on the poster.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Luffy, and occasionally Sogeking. Shanks's crew were this way in Luffy's flashback, another one of the ways in which Luffy takes after his mentor.
  • Crucified Hero Shot: In the Dressrosa arc after defeating Sugar, in an unexpected manner, Usopp is lifted by a giant holding him in this position and telling all the men and women who were just toys and now back to normal it is thanks to Usopp, their hero. All the former toys ask what they can do to repay this and Usopp has them attack the factory close by. For their hero, and revenge against Doflomingo, they happily charge at it.
  • Crying Wolf: Usopp falsely reports that pirates are coming (which was a way of trying to convince his mother that his father was coming back for them). It catches up to him when he has to convince Kaya that her butler is a pirate and she won't believe him because of his lies and the fact that he already hates the butler. Becomes Fridge Brilliance when you know that his name is a portmanteau of the word uso (Japanese for "lie") and Aesop (a famed storyteller).
  • Cue the Sun: Inverted in Episode 405. [It is only when Luffy is down on the ground sobbing over the disappearance of his friends that the light from the sunset filters through the trees.
    • Also inverted near the end of Thriller Bark, where the sun rising was a very BAD thing, meaning that four Straw Hats would die unless Moria was forced to return their shadows.
    • Much, much earlier, however, this was played straight in Episode 43 after the fall of Arlong Park.
    • In between all that, when Luffy busts up Eneru's Raigoh.
  • Culture Chop Suey: An early episode had rice balls (edited out by 4Kids to be cookies), even though the pirates are mostly based on Western fictional depictions of pirates.
    • Several pirates, such as Zoro and Shanks, also seem to prefer sake over rum.
    • While the official language of One Piece is English, the Marines have taken a liking to Japanese kanji. Whether or not this is subtle symbolism has yet to be revealed.
  • Culture Clash: It's not a good idea to go around cutting down trees without consulting the natives first, even if it's for a good cause. Or killing giant animals that they worship.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Has its own page.
  • Curse That Cures: Brook ate the Revive-Revive Fruit, which meant that when he died, he'd be able to come back and live a second life. It took him a year to find his body, by which time it was a skeleton.
  • Cursed with Awesome: Pretty much the crux when one eats a Devil Fruit. You're cursed by the sea and will sink like a rock if you even fall in ocean water (or lose your strength in knee-high water). But the trade off is that you get fantastic powers out of the deal. The only limit is the users imagination as even seemingly useless Fruits can have a good use if one thinks hard enough about its properties.
  • Curtains Match the Window: Nami has both orange hair and orange eyes, possibly in honor of her cat motif.
  • Cute Clumsy Girl: Tashigi. Less extreme version of the trope so far, though.
  • Cute Ghost Girl: Perona initially subverted this slightly by controlling ghosts rather than being one, though it's played straighter later on, when she reveals that she can project her consciousness out as a ghostly version of herself.
  • Cute Giant: Princess Shirahoshi.
  • Cutlass Between the Teeth: A key part of Zoro's fighting style.
  • Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Played straight with just about every villain in the series with a Devil Fruit power. Subverted when their Devil Fruit powers help them do their job, the best example of which being the roaming New World reporter Abusa (a.k.a., Absalom, wielder of the Invisibility Fruit. Similarly subverted with Wapol after his defeat, who uses his powers to become a successful toymaker.
  • Cybernetics Eat Your Soul — This is what happened to Kuma, as his deal with Saturn to cure Bonney's disease required him to lose his free will.
    • Completely averted by Franky, who is almost entirely metal, but the most boisterous member of the Straw Hat Crew.
      • Luffy actually accuses Franky of being an example of this once, but that was strictly for Rule of Funny.
  • Cyborg: Franky, obviously. Especially after the two year skip. Also, Kuma and the Pacifistas.
  • Cycle of Revenge: The Fish-Man Island arc is all about this, bringing together several subplots that have been running since almost the very beginning of the series. For what is considered a generally silly shonen series, Oda gives a very nuanced view of the problems of hatred and forgiveness.
    • Queen Otohime is the most open minded of the Fish-men/mermaids, always advocating peaceful reconciliation rather than continued retaliation, though the issue weighs heavily on her and she can't bring herself to stop those who have truly suffered from slavery from striking back. She holds this view even to her death, with her passing her goals down to her children.
    • Fisher Tiger supports Otohime's philosophy much more than is first apparent, but can't just leave those who are enslaved to their fates, so leads strikes against the World Government, freeing Fish-man, mermaid, and human alike. He always leaves his human enemies alive and truly believes in a peace, but still cannot bring himself to totally forgive humans for what they have done. This ingrained hatred eventually leads to his death, as he refuses to accept a human blood transfusion, which is the only way he can live.
    • Jimbei eventually finds a place between Tiger and Otohime's philosophies, but his role, especially in the flashbacks, is mostly one of learning. His arc is one of understanding the situation and his role in the present story is advise and lead those on the thorny path of inter-race relationships and hatred, explaining why the (mostly) human Straw Hats defeating Hody will cause even more problems.
    • Arlong is the first seen to be totally against peace (indeed, the first person really seen in this conflict), with the things he's seen and suffered driving him to return in kind to humans. The flashbacks show he originally was not as willing to totally kill and subjugate humans, but the continued hatred, prejudice, fear, and finally the death of Fisher Tiger convince him that humans are nothing but trash.
    • Hody Jones is even more extreme than Arlong. While Arlong was just a racist, taking his vengeance on humans, Hody sees anyone who associates with humans as his enemy, and subsequently attacks and kills Fish-men and mermaids. He's basically the result of a child growing up in a culture dominated by hatred and racism and his actions show it in horrifying detail, being very willing to declare war on all of humanity and destroy the world. He's second generation Arlong and epitomizes the problem of passing down hatred to one's children. He even states outright that humans have done absolutely nothing to him personally.

    D 
  • Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You:
    • Luffy, your dad is a revolutionary and the most wanted man in the world.
    • In the Dressrosa Arc a father was turned into a toy and had to stay by his son and wife as a toy because they forgot all about him. Come Chapter 742 with Sugar's defeat, the father is returned to normal and reunited with his family.
  • The Daily Misinformer: The World Economic Journal in One Piece is a newspaper that has millions of subscribers across the world. Not only is its editor-in-chief a major player in the criminal underworld, said editor, "Big News" Morgans, is trying to screw over both the World Government and pirates by reporting falsehoods and half-truths that psychologically screw with pirate-kind, while simultaneously refusing to conform to World Government censorship.
  • Dance Battler: Sanji; Mr. 2 Bon Clay; Boa Hancock.
    • Bon Clay's fighting style, Okama Kenpo, also has a mastery-level version called Newkama Kenpo, practiced by Iva and the residents of Kambakka Kingdom.
  • Dance Party Ending: Happens at the end of two arcs. The first one happens after everyone gets back from Enies Lobby after kicking Spandam's ass. The second one happens after Moria's defeated and everyone sings "Binks' Sake".
    • In general, the Straw Hats tend to throw a party at the end of every arc they can, to celebrate their victory properly. They're obviously never alone, as their allies of the arc also join in. That includes the Marines in the Punk Hazard arc.
  • Danger with a Deadline: Anyone who drinks Hero Water gains incredible physical strength for a short time, but it will inevitably kill them five minutes after consumption. Alabasta's finest guardsmen drink it in an attempt to defeat Crocodile. Unfortunately for them, Crocodile is well aware of the lethal side effects and dodges their attacks and floats away with the powers of his Sand-Sand Fruit, letting them drop dead without lifting a finger.
  • Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Chopper must take care not to take three rumble balls within six hours; otherwise,he undergoes a ferocious transformation that, despite being powerful, is dangerous to himself as well as his allies. Post-timeskip, he can control this form and only needs one Rumble Ball to access it, but it exhausts him so much that he must rest for three hours after using it.
  • Dangerous Phlebotinum Interaction: What is currently established about Devil Fruits is that, among other things, you do not eat another Fruit if you've already eaten one — it's believed that the "devils" inside the Fruit will fight each other, but it's confirmed that it causes the eater to implode. Subverted when [[spoiler:Blackbeard, already a user of the Dark-Dark Fruit, manages to get Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit power, though the process of how he did so is still unknown.
  • Dark Action Girl: Catarina Devon is a Blackbeard Pirates commander who was in the backstory a serial who beheaded several women she found beauiful. She uses a spear in combat.
  • Darker and Edgier: Movie 6, Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island. Among other things, the Straw Hats are driven to distrust each other, the violence is more brutal than in the series proper, the villain absorbs his comrades into his "Lily", a Man-Eating Plant that creates replicas of the villain's former friends, and last but not least, it's the first and only movie where Luffy kills the antagonist.
    • The main series itself has become this after a string of developments during the Paramount War that will surely leave their mark on the world.
    • The opening song for the Marineford arc ("One Day" by The ROOTLESS) seems to reflect this. Up until that point, the series openings have had a cheerful, light-hearted tune, while "One Day", on the other hand, give us a somehow sad and less colorful beat.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Has its own page.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: In an odd sort of reveal, antagonists Magellan and Hannyabal have proved that while, yes, they stand in Luffy's way, they are not bad people and really are just trying to keep dangerous convicts locked up away from everyday civilians. Made more impactful by the fact that the whole Impel Down crew seems to be a parody of Demons and imps.
    • Not to mention "Dark King" Silvers Rayleigh.
      • Before either of them came Nightmare Luffy; even though he looks like a blue version of the Hulk, and speaks with a menacing rumble, he's still the same good guy he always was.
  • Dawn of an Era:
    • In the story, the Pirate King, Gold Roger, ignited the Golden Age of Piracy with his death.
    • This and the End of an Age occurred at the same time at the tail end of the Marineford Arc. Just when his death and a marine victory was poised to snuff out the Golden Age of Piracy, Whitebeard, with his dying breath, proclaimed, with the entire world watching, "ONE PIECE EXISTS!" This proclamation started an entirely new age of piracy, and the beginning of a new era. However, just minutes later, Blackbeard (the probable Big Bad of the series) makes his own declaration: that the new era that's dawning is his era.
    • Near the end of Punk Hazard, Trafalgar Law throws back Donquixote Doflamingo's previous New Era Speech claiming that by destroying the Diabolical Mastermind's operations, he and Luffy are creating a new era of their own, and that it'll be impossible to restore the previous status quo.
  • A Day in the Limelight: The cover stories give some supporting characters their very own adventures. In order: Buggy, Coby & Helmeppo, Jango, Hatchan, Wapol, Ace, Gedatsu, Miss Goldenweek, Eneru, CP9, the then-seperated Straw Hats, the Straw Hats' allies, Caribou, Jimbei, the Straw Hat's allies (again), the Straw Hat Grand Fleet (plus Bellamy), and Bege.
  • "Day of the Week" Name: Several code names in Baroque Works.
  • The Dead Can Dance: Brook is able to sing and play a song on the piano. As for the other zombies, well, Everybody Zombie Night!!!
  • The Dead Have Eyes: Anything and everything on Thriller Bark. Including Ryuuma and Brooke.
  • Deadly Environment Prison: Impel Down is situated in the bottom of an ocean — which, for Devil Fruit users, is no good news. Not just any ocean either; it's in the Calm Belt, a zone on the Grand Line's border where there are no winds blowing and Sea Monsters are abundant; only Seastone-coated ships (usually that of the Marines) can pass through it easily.
  • Deadly Scratch:
    • During the Little Garden arc, Nami is stung by a mosquito while traversing the jungle. She writes it off as a minor bug bite, but the beginning of the following arc has her suddenly develop a nasty fever that none of the crew know how to treat, forcing them to detour to an island called Drum Island. When they get her to the doctor, Kureha, she reveals that the bite actually came from a prehistoric mosquito (Little Garden is kinda behind the times being filled with dinosaurs) and Nami would've been dead within a week if they had waited any longer.
    • During his final battle with Crocodile at the climax of the Alabasta arc, Luffy ends up scratched by his poison hook filled with scorpion venom. While it does affect him, Luffy manages to power through to finally defeat Crocodile, only afterwards nearly dying from the poison. Luckily, Nico Robin managed to swipe the antidote off of Crocodile and give it to King Nefertari Cobra to administer it to Luffy.
    • During the Fishman Island arc, Luffy gets nicked by Hyouzou, an octopus Fishman that secretes deadly poison, while fending him and his fellow cronies off. The Fishman thinks Luffy will die from it after being chased off, but luckily Luffy had developed Acquired Poison Immunity by this point (largely due to barely surviving being coated in poison by an opponent way prior to this arc), so it ended up saving him as Chopper explains while examining him.
  • Deadly Upgrade: Chopper's three rumble balls. Arguably Luffy's Gear Second as well, since Lucci has said that his life span is being used up twice as fast whenever he enters it.
    • Ivankov's Emporio Vigor Hormones can give a powerful adrenaline boost, but will have equally powerful side effects afterwards.
    • As noted above, Kuma.
  • Deadpan Snarker: There's a lot of instances, but it's mostly Nami, who regularly reacts this way to the antics of her crew. Special mention goes to Robin for essentially NOT being one, as most of her responses to anything is often sincere.
  • Deal with the Devil: Kuma agreed to be the prototype for Vegapunk's Pacifista project and lose his free will (the latter due to Saturn amending the deal) to cure Bonney's disease.
  • Death by Childbirth: Portgas D. Rouge, although justified in that she purposefully extended her pregnancy for 20 months at the cost of her life so that her son wouldn't be connected to Gold Roger.
  • Death by Materialism: A non-lethal version of this was the defining moment of Sanji's life; he left his home to seek his fortune, but was marooned on a desert island with Zeff, who took the lion's share of the food and threatened to kill Sanji if he was bothered before they were rescued. Sanji made his share last several weeks, then attacked Zeff in desperation... and discovered that Zeff's bag of "food" contained only inedible treasure. Not only that, Zeff cut off his own leg and ate it. Bonus points; Zeff's fighting technique was based solely upon kicking, meaning his self-mutilation ended his career as a pirate. Sanji became fanatically devoted to Zeff and to feeding the hungry, knowing that food and friends are far more important than treasure.
  • Death by Origin Story: All over the damn place. It used to be that the only time anyone died in One Piece was via flashback.
  • Death Glare: An actual power; some pirates are so badass that people actually faint in their presence.
  • Death of a Child:
    • The World Government was less directly involved, but the result is very frightening. When it was discovered that amber lead, a substance that the city of Flevance was mining, was poisonous, the World Government and Flevance royalty kept the truth secret, for the business was too lucrative for them to stop. Eventually, all the Flevance townspeople contracted lead poisoning, with the children having it even worse: they weren't expected to live past the age of ten. When word of the disease spread out, the neighbouring countries believed it to be contagious, and the city was quarantined, with anyone who managed to escape being shot on sight, as they were treated like monsters who escaped their cage. This lead to a full-on war which the Government did nothing to stop (The only thing they did was evacuate the royalty). As a result, the soldiers mercilessly wiped out everyone. The nun who was taking good care of Law, the other kids who were under her watch, Law's parents and little sister... all of them were killed, leaving Law as one of the only, if not the only survivor. Although the World Government was less directly involved, it was still a bloodbath they helped create.
  • Death Seeker:
    • Robin, twice. The first time, heartbroken after her "last hope" of achieving her dream fails in Alabasta, she decides she wants to die and doesn't try to escape from the crypt collapsing around her, actually protesting at first when Luffy saves her. This leads to her joining his crew, where she becomes happier than she's ever been in her entire life. Later, she gives herself up to the government to save the Straw Hats and actively resists their attempts to rescue her, eventually explaining her belief that, no matter how kind they are to her, they will eventually see her as a burden and betray her as everyone else has, in which case she'd rather die right now than have that happen. Only after they finally convince her that they'll never betray her does she decide she wants to live.
    • Jimbei makes it pretty clear that he expects to die during the Marineford arc, and that he's okay with it. Ultimately, however, he survives, and doesn't seem to mind.
    • Kaido's sole goal appears to be his own demise. He has tried to kill himself every possible way, but seems to be either functionally immortal or literally too strong to die. His years-long plan is to start a war that consumes the entire world in the hopes that someone strong enough to kill him will show up to the fight.
  • Death World: At most, 5/8 of a death world. The most settled area, the Blue seas (North Blue, East Blue, West Blue, South Blue) is most definitely not dangerous, once you get past the fact that there are numerous pirates (It's hinted now that it has more raiders than Pandora) and a few giant sea monsters. The first part of the Grand Line, "Paradise", fits the description of a death world, as it has giant sea monsters, even stronger pirates, it's nearly impossible to navigate without a special compass, and the weather defies logic itself. Then comes the "New World," which we know next to nothing about. We do know, however, that it slaps physics in the face even by Oda's standards, with pirates that are to the pirates of "paradise" what the pirates of "paradise" are to most pirates in the Four Blues, islands that are partially invisible, have lightning rain, one that seems to be a floating Gantz in the middle of the sky, and it's outright stated that it only gets more insane from there.
  • Debating Names: Late in the Water Seven saga, the Straw Hat Pirates have gotten the new ship that Franky built for them. As the crew is leaving the island, flashbacks reveal that Iceburg was the one to come up with its name, the "Thousand Sunny", with the other crew members agreeing that this sounds better than anything they'd come up with — Luffy had several names that were basically lists of three animals, Zoro and Sanji contributed "Big Boss Lionel" and "Monsieur Sunflower" respectively, while Robin wanted "Being of Darkness". In the present day, Franky's own suggestion — "New Battle Franky, Lion Gang Champion" — also gets vetoed after the crew hears it and decide they like Iceburg's suggestion better.
  • Debut Queue: The original five Straw Hats were introduced in successive story arcs.
  • Decade Dissonance: You have an island that's still stuck in the prehistoric era, another island that has what would be called modern technology, and then we have an island where there's a train that runs along some tracks that are right in the water. Not to mention an island where everything is basically a cyborg.
  • Declining Promotion: Marine Vice Admiral Garp has refused offerings of being an Admiral numerous times. He just likes to goof around, that's why.
  • Deconstructed Trope:
    • I Can Still Fight! was deconstructed where Zoro normally recovers with Hollywood Healing. It was after he was brought back from the dead, that he showed signs of pain, even some time after recovering from his injuries, and still continued to fight like it was nothing. It was during a battle when he keeled over at the worst possible moment, defenseless and needing someone to carry him away from the battle, while still insisting he could fight.
    • Vivi's Mary Sue tendencies. Her sweet and kind personality has made her fear getting anyone hurt or killed on her behalf, making Ingram worry whether she would be a good leader, which eventually manifests into a Chronic Hero Syndrome, making her Crocodile's personal chew toy and Luffy calls her out on it. Her optimism actually masks her anxiety over her country and a seething hatred for Crocodile. While her fighting skills are good enough for her rank in Baroque Works (considering she infiltrated them at age 14), among the Straw Hats she lagged behind.
    • Feels No Pain is deconstructed when Chopper remarks how Oars's inability to feel pain is a weakness since while zombies would react to pain out of memory, they are unable to tell how much damage their bodies accumulate until it is too late. The Straw Hats exploit this by shattering Oars's spine, leaving him parlyzed on the ground and wondering why he couldn't move.
    • The Impel Down and Marineford arcs effectively deconstruct Luffy; he's hopelessly outclassed by everyone else, and charging into battle and defeating the Big Bad with willpower alone just doesn't cut it this time.
    • At the start of the Fish-Man Island Arc, Sanji (who had spent the last two years on an island full of only Gonk transvestites) suffers a nosebleed every time he sees a genuine woman: while this is comedic in every other anime (and every other time in this one too), the frequency and severity of the nosebleeds caused near-fatal hemorrhaging at one point, requiring some immediate blood transfusions; furthermore, Sanji has a particular blood-type and while Fish-men and humans have the same blood, such transfusions are taboo due to their long history.
  • Defeated and Trophified: Charlotte Mont-d'Or, one of the pirate Big Mom's sons, has a Devil Fruit ability of "book manipulation"; among other things, he can put living people inside books. Big Mom has him put a lot of unique people and animals inside big books in her palace's library for her collection.
  • Defeating the Undefeatable:
    • Luffy defeating Eneru, although that was more to do with being a Rubber Man, defeating Rob Lucci of CP9, and defeating Gecko Moria, with a thousand shadows within him.
    • Crocodile also counts, since Luffy would've died THREE times over if not for his insane luck and Crocodile severely underestimating him (and having some help on the side from Robin and Pell).
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Starting in the end of the Impel Down Arc and throughout the Marineford arc, several major enemies that Luffy has gone up against join his side, though Bon Clay is the only one that actually considers him a friend, the rest are just along for the ride.
    • Earlier than that, Mr. 2 Bon Clay tries to invoke this trope with Sanji after their fight. Sanji just kicks him in the face anyway.
    • Whitebeard's crew takes this to an extreme. After they kick your ass, you become a part of the family, whether you want to or not.
    • As a direct result of his defeat at Luffy's hands, Chin Jao's drill-shaped head was restored. In gratitude, he's sworn to put his grandson's pirate fleet under Luffy's command.
  • Defector from Decadence: Ace and Luffy's brother Sabo fled his aristocratic family after the rulers of Goa attempted to burn a slum.
    • According to Chapter 760, the father of Donquixote Doflamingo was this. He willingly gave up his power and prestige to live among the common folk. This is eventually what prompted the son to murder the father.
    • Sanji as well. He was born as a prince of the Germa Kingdom but hated his life there thanks to his physically and emotionally abusive father and brothers, and ran away as a child to escape and live a normal life as a commoner (with his father outright encouraging it and disowning him), which he was perfectly fine with.
  • Defector from Paradise: The later descendants of the Celestial Dragon Donquixote Family are this. The Celestial Dragons, a society of the highest class of nobles in the verse, live a life of utter luxury and peerless authority on the high capes of Mariejois, often called the "Holy Land". In the backstory, one of them, Donquixote Homing, decided to leave the place with his family and live in a more humble place because he, unlike other nobles, considered himself "a human being".
  • Defensive Feint Trap: A favorite tactic of Usopp's.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: Boa Hancock.
  • Delayed Reaction: Ivankov has one of these when he discovers that Luffy is Dragon's son, and it is very humorous.
    • On Fish-Man Island, Jimbei had one of these when he realized the mermaid princess was in front of him.
  • Department of Redundancy Department:
    • Sogeking, the Japanese version of Usopp's alternate persona Sniper King, is a Portmanteau of the Japanese word "sogeki" (sniper) and the English word "king". When he gets a bounty, the poster gives him the Red Baron "King of Snipers" Sogeking. For comparison, that's like calling Bruce Wayne "Man of Bats" Batman.
    • Then there's Eustass "Captain" Kid, who would then be "Captain Captain Kid". However, the "Captain" nickname is in English, so it's not as redundant in Japanese.
    • Manga Chapter 124: The Tea is Good. After Luffy is hypnotized into having a picnic with Ms. Goldenweek during Little Garden, the following dialogue takes place
      Luffy: "The tea is good"
    • Later...
      Luffy: "Aah... the tea is good"
      Usopp: "LUFFY! What are you doing?!"
      Luffy *struggling to resist*: "THE TEA... IS GOOD!"
  • Depending on the Artist: Breast sizes in the anime post-Time Skip. The most consistent thing is that they're generally much larger than Oda actually draws them.
  • Depleted Phlebotinum Shells: Sea Prisms are well-known as DF nullifier, so it's only a matter of time until one makes ammunition out of it. Bege bluffed he has Sea Prism bullets, but we later get to see Sea Prism nails. Woe betide to any DF user who get hit by one of these and unable to remove them. It also gives an explanation why they're not commonplace: only the Wano craftsmen are able to refine them to this size.
  • Desert Bandits: Parodied and then played straight. In the anime the crew encounters a gang of desert pirates who later fight a gang of desert bandits. Both groups believe that the desert will decide their fate in all maters, including an encounter with a large-dung beetle.
  • Designated Girl Fight: Nami is a major offender; Robin's been noticeably immune, though.
    • Zig-zagged at Little Garden, where the crew is attacked by four Baroque Works agents, including Miss Valentine and Miss Goldenweek. Miss Goldenweek only plays a passive role in any fights, though, and Nami and Vivi are quickly incapacitated, leaving Valentine to hand Usopp his ass until they're freed and one-shot her.
    • Averted in Thriller Bark, where Perona ends up fighting Usopp.
    • Played also in the Baroque Works Saga — amongst the final team that fights the heroes, there are two girls. One of them, Miss Merrychristmas, is not exactly... ladylike. She, along with her partner, fights Chopper and Usopp. Miss Doublefinger, on the other hand, who is a typical Dark Action Girl, have a one-on-one fight with Nami.
    • Zig-zagged in the CP 9 Saga: The CP 9 have one female member, Kalifa. At first she fights Sanji — he is much stronger than her, but the fight still ends with obvious results, due to Sanji rather wanting to die than kicking a girl. A short while later she is pitted against Nami (who started off going up against Kumidori before fleeing,) and we get the straight example.
    • Bizarrely played with in Impel Down arc when Ivankov is breaking out of Impel Down he's confronted with one of the wardens, the only female among them. In order to fight her, Iva uses his Devil Fruit powers to physically turn himself into a woman.
    • Averted in the Punk Hazard arc. Monet, the female on Clown's team, fights male Zoro and female Tashigi together, with Zoro doing most of the work. This fight also contrasts him to Sanji — Sanji would have fallen over at once to Monet's sex appeal, while Zoro has no problems chopping her into tiny bits (luckily for her, she has a Devil Fruit preventing this from being fatal).
  • Destroy the Abusive Home: Luffy does this on Nami's behalf in the Arlong arc, making a deliberate effort to destroy Arlong Park's main tower once he realizes what the place has been to Nami and how she'd been kept there agianst her will.
    "The problem is this room! She hated being stuck here! I'll smash it to smithereens!"
  • Destroy the Villain's Weapon: Subverted during Luffy's battle with Don Krieg. Krieg attacks with his Mighty Battle Spear, a weapon that explodes on impact. Luffy makes several attacks aimed specifically at the tip of the spear, taking multiple hits but eventually destroying it. Once the spear's point is destroyed, Luffy taunts Krieg by telling him his power's been cut in half now that his Mighty Battle Spear is just a bomb on a stick. The subversion is that a bomb on a stick is still a pretty good weapon, which Krieg continues to use until Luffy's attacks near the end of the fight knocks it out of his hands.
  • Detachment Combat: Buggy's Devil Fruit ability allows him to do this. His body can split apart into multiple pieces, all of which save his feet have the ability to fly according to Buggy's will. This makes him immune to attack by blade, as not even the greatest swordsman in the world can actually damage him with a slash.
    • Inverted with Trafalgar Law, who has the ability to detach other people's body parts and combine them with other people/objects.
    • Marine captain Berry Good also has this as his power, but by becoming bouncy balls.
  • Determinator: A lot of the male characters including and especially, Luffy, Zoro and even Usopp.
    • This trope has been increasingly subverted throughout the series, however. Determination is fine, but there are clear points in which not even Luffy, Sanji, or Zoro can power through their injuries or defeat the truly top-tier opponents they face. A running subversion is Luffy's exhaustion after using the Gears to fight Big Bads... regardless of his determination or the threat to his life, he cannot move when he's that tired.
      • In the Whitebeard War arc, this has been deconstructed rather well. Luffy has more determination and guts than anybody there, but the enemies he faces are simply too damn strong.
  • Deus Exit Machina: Trope Namer for the redirect Eaten By A Snake.
  • Devil's Pitchfork:
  • Diabolus ex Machina: Marineford Arc, to the point of overkill.
  • Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Sanji gets electrocuted by Eneru, and then says "Thanks for lighting my cigarette." Then he tells him before fainting to "Get ready to cry."
    • When Robin was held hostage at Enies Lobby by the World Government, and she expressed concerns that the Straw Hat crew would eventually see her as a burden, the Straw Hats deliver a double whammy: First, Usopp (as Sogeking/Sniper King) burned the World Government flag, a signal that the Straw Hat Pirates were ready to wage war against the World Government. Then, after the fact:
    Spandam: YOU'RE ALL GOING TO DIE! YOU MORONS CAN'T CHALLENGE THE ENTIRE WORLD AND EXPECT TO WIN!
    Luffy: OH, YEAH?!? BRING IT OOOOOOON!!!!!
    • To a significantly lesser extent, Luffy telling WHITEBEARD to shut up and that he's going to be King of the Pirates and impressing the old man could be said to fall here.
    • There's also Buggy completely gimping Mihawk's swordsmanship after Luffy used him as a human shield. Too bad he had to chuck that bomb at him afterwards...
    • This quite literally happens (sort of) in the manga when Trafalgar Law gave Eustass Kid (who was infamous for killing people if they did so much as look at him funny, as well as having the highest supernova bounty) the middle finger.
    • Luffy strikes again. This time is with Big Mam, one of the Four Emperors. He tells her it's too dangerous to leave her in charge of Fish-Man Island, so when he gets to the New World he's going to kick her ass and claim the said island as his OWN territory.
    • The Dressrosa arc consists of Law doing this as much as he can to Doflamingo, starting with blackmailing him into a lose-lose situation and later escalating into pretending to agree to a deal he offers, only to troll him and literally flip him off before telling him he'll never beat the Straw Hats...all while Doflamingo is pointing a gun at him.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The Straw Hats and Shandian forces are all but entirely defeated by Eneru, and Nami is too scared of his awesome power. It's starting to look like he might be the Almighty God after all. And then, Luffy appears and kicks him in the stomach. Open a can of whoop-ass that momentarily knocks him out, makes him afraid to challenge him, and when he finally reaches him, he finishes him by knocking him through a giant bell in the air.
    • Wiper killed Eneru first by wearing Seastone skates, and puts him in lock firing a Reject Dial on his chest. However, Eneru's powers allowed him to restart his own heart, leaving Wiper very exhausted, despite the fact he should be dead himself.
    • The Straw Hats defeating Oars, a zombie giant about four times the size of normal giants. He is known for conquering an entire continent. And then in the same battle, the Big Bad Gecko Moria grew to a massive size by taking in the strength of 1000 shadows (including Luffy's) to increase his power. Luffy used both Gears together to knock Moria into the main mast/tower, which fell right on top of Moria, knocking him out and releasing all the shadows.
  • Didn't Think This Through: The pirate who pretended to be Luffy thought it would be a clever way to gather powerful minions using Luffy's reputation, however, he didn't realize how much trouble he'd wind up in by boasting that he's one of the most wanted men in the world, especially when he doesn't have the power to back it up.
    • Especially when the real Luffy happens to drop by and reveal that the guy who was pretending to be him is a complete fake.
    • Even moreso when it's revealed that a couple of the guys who joined up with Demalo Black were Starscreams who had intended to infiltrate his ranks and kill him while he was off-guard to boost their reputation.
    • A post-mortem example in the giant, Oars. During the battle on Thriller Bark, Chopper identifies the reason he died in the frozen wasteland he was found in. Just like currently, he wasn't wearing any damn clothes.
    • At Marineford, almost everyone on Ace's side come together to get Luffy over to Ace's execution stand. Finally, after a great deal of effort and several You Shall Not Pass! moments pulled by supporting characters, Luffy gets there. Only for Fleet Admiral Sengoku, who's been standing next to Ace the entire time, to ask if they thought he was just going to stand there and let them get away.
  • Died in Ignorance:
    • After failing to defeat Kaido on battle, Oden and Toki give their lives to ensure the survival of the Akazaya Nine, Toki using her time travel powers to fling them into the future, to lead an uprising to defeat Kaido and overthrow the shogun Orochi twenty years hence. The two died not knowing it only got to that point because one of the Akazaya Nine was a spy for Orochi, and Toki accidentally undermined her own prophecy by sending said spy into the future to continue sabotaging the heroes' efforts.
    • Ace dies believing he and Luffy's brother Sabo had died in their childhood, and that his death would leave Luffy all by himself. In reality, Sabo was alive but amnesiac. Sadly, it was only seeing the news of Ace being killed in Marineford that caused Sabo to regain his memories and eventually reunite with Luffy.
  • Died in Your Arms Tonight: Ace in the Marineford arc to Luffy.
  • Died Standing Up: Whitebeard kept standing even when being pummeled by the Blackbeard Pirates, and did not fall after screaming his last words.
  • Dig Attack: Miss Merry Christmas, who can turn into a mole, can dig underground and then entrap an enemy's legs from underground with her claws, then dragging him towards her partner, Mr. 4, to be bashed by his heavy baseball bat.
  • Dine and Dash:
    • Luffy's brother Ace has a bad habit of this, first dining and dashing in a flashback on Drum Island, then doing so again in the present Alabasta.
    • Luffy himself does the same thing in Alabasta, and at the same restaurant Ace was eating in (he unwittingly sent Ace crashing through the wall as he rushed in).
  • Dirty Old Man: Averted in general with the exception of Brook, who gets bonus points for being a Dirty Old Man post-mortem.
  • Disability Superpower: Usopp's depressed "negativity" and massive inferiority complex allowed him to be the only one who could fight the Dementor-like powers of Perona.
  • Disappeared Dad: Dragon and, less spoilerifically, Yasopp.
    • And of course GOLD FREAKING ROGER.
  • Disappointed by the Motive
    • In the Fish-Man Island arc's climax, Hody Jones is a Fantastic Racist who utterly hates humans. However, it's revealed in an exchange that occurs between himself and Prince Fukaboshi that he was just raised to be a bigot. He's never had a bad experience with humans personally, but when in Rome.... Fukaboshi immediately sends out a mass-communication admitting that Hody's grief is "one without substance".
    Fukaboshi: What happened to you? Did humans enslave you? Did they hurt your loved ones? Answer me, Hody! What the hell did those humans do to you?
    Hody Jones: ...nothing.
    • One year before the story's beginning, the "Pirate Noble" Cavendish took the world by storm. One year later, Cavendish's fame was eclipsed by Luffy and several other rookie pirates now known as the "Worst Generation." Being the Attention Whore that he is, Cavendish has sworn vengeance on those pirates. Even Luffy is smart enough to realize this is a rather petty grudge.
  • Discovering Your Own Dead Body: Happens in Brook's backstory. His Devil Fruit ability is to revive back when he's dead (among other slew of underworld-themed abilities). So when he dies, his soul comes back... but he had to spend a year finding his body because it's trapped on a ship in the middle of a foggy sea. By the time he found it, it already became a skeleton. That's how he becomes a Dem Bones guy nowadays.
  • Dismissive Kick: The first scene of Boa Hancock involves her kicking a kitten out of her way. Later, after she's shown to be a sympathetic character, there's another scene where she kicks a puppy and a baby seal out of the way, and this time it's Played for Laughs.
  • Disney Death: In the early days of One Piece, no named character outside of a flashback ever died. Pell and Conis's father are two perfect examples of this (the latter survived a massive lightning bolt, and the former survived a massive city-wide explosion at ground zero). However, named character deaths slowly became more common as the series went on, and with the deaths of Ace and Whitebeard, this trope seems to have been abandoned.
  • Disney Villain Death: After Luffy defeats Shiki, he's sent plummetting towards the sea, and the islands suspended in the air by his power follow suit.
    • Subverted with Whitebeard's fight with Akainu, which the former ends by dropping the latter down a chasm. However, being a Blob Monster and a ridiculous Determinator, Akainu bursts back out of the ground a few chapters/episodes later, battered, but otherwise fine.
  • Distant Finale: One of the prototype "Romance Dawn" chapters ends with Luffy as an adult with a strong resemblance to Shanks, about to make landfall on a new island with his full crew of pirates.
  • Distressed Dude: Ace in Impel Down; Law for a fraction of Dressrosa; Luffy and Zoro briefly in multiple different arcs each.
  • Ditching the Dub Names:
    • When the show was dubbed by 4Kids, the names of many characters were changed from their original, such as Zoro becoming Zolo and Ace becoming Trace. When Funimation took over, they kept the name changes for the Toonami broadcast for a while but used their original names for the uncut versions. After Toonami went to Adult Swim, Funimation abandoned the dub names for the characters completely, only doing a dub name for Sniper King (whose name is still translated from Sogeking).
    • The anime's Italian dub originally changed a few names, such as Luffy being called "Rubber" (which already got retconned as a Nickname around the Sabaody arc) or Usop's name being pronounced "Asop". Starting from the dub of One Piece Film: Gold, the Japanese names were used instead.
  • The Ditz: Luffy; Gedatsu; Porche of the Foxy Pirates.
  • Divine Intervention: Luffy is about to be executed by Buggy when a lightning bolt strikes the execution stand, knocking Buggy out and destroying the bonds that held Luffy without injuring him. Sanji's reaction is to ask Zoro if he believes in God.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Fake Robin crouching in front of Chopper, holding a cucumber and offering it to him.
  • A Dog Named "Cat": Multiple.
    • Iceberg has a pet mouse that he named Tyrannosaurus on a whim.
    • Kuzan has a giant pet penguin named Camel.
    • One member of the Super Spot-Billed Duck Squad is named Kentauros, Greek for Centaur.
    • Overlapping with A Pig Named "Porkchop", in One Piece Film: Gold, Kent Beef Jr. is accompanied by a bull named Pork.
  • Doing In the Wizard: The Going Merry's Klabautermann is perhaps the only supernatural occurrence that has never received a rational explanation in-story.
  • The Don:
    • Crocodile in Alabasta, where he dresses like a Mafia boss, owns a casino, and leads a secret group of assasins/bounty hunters.
    • Capone "Gang" Bege, modeled after Al Capone and head of a mafia-style pirate crew.
    • Donquixote Doflamingo is this for the New World. He, too, has interesting fashion sense, leads a large pirate crew, and is involved in quite a bit of arms dealing and production.
  • Do Not Go Gentle: Roger's last words kicked off the golden age of piracy. Whitebeard's last words arguably kicked off the silver age.
  • Doomed Hometown: Robin's West Blue home of Ohara, and Law's North Blue home of Flevance. Not counting the royalty of Flevance (who left before the destruction started), each of them are the only survivors of said hometowns.
    • While not an entire town, Gray Terminal in East Blue, where many of the poor people from that country lived, was destroyed by the royalty of the country in anticipation of a World Noble visiting. Luffy, Ace, and Sabo were the only survivors.
    • This almost happened to Zou and the Minks, but the Straw Hats managed to save them from the poisoning inflicted on them with a poison gas weapon, so while the buildings and architecture were still destroyed or badly damaged, the people themselves survived.
  • Dope Slap: When someone isn't getting hit with a slap, it's this.
  • Double Jump: Geppo, although it goes a lot further than just double-jumping...
  • Doves Mean Peace: Played With regarding Hattori, Rob Lucci's pet white pigeon. Lucci is a cold-blooded government assassin who is willing to murder hostages so they don't get in the way of his target, so him having a pet that symbolizes peace seems ironic. But from Lucci's perspective, his acts of "Dark Justice" are all meant for maintaining peace and the greater good (In the aforementioned hostage situation, the hostages were a king's guards who had been captured by pirates. Lucci decided that if they were too weak to protect the king then, they needed to be eliminated so the king would hire new guards who would do a better job keeping his country safe in the future), making Hattori a fitting pet.
  • Dragon-in-Chief: Spandam may have been the leader of Cipher Pol 9, but his main subordinate Rob Lucci might as well as been considered the true Big Bad of the Enies Lobby Arc.
  • The Dreaded:
    • Dragon, Luffy's father. The most dangerous man in the world, and yet so far he hasn't really done much of anything.
    • Dracule Mihawk is the world's best swordsman, and one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. While being The Dreaded is standard fare of all Warlords, when you can deter the resident Leeroy Jenkins (read: Luffy) from attacking, you deserve a special mention here.
  • Driving Question: Four have cropped up over the series.
    • The first and most obvious one is "What is the One Piece?", a mysterious and legendary treasure which drives the entire plot. Gol D. Roger's crew found it before the series started but has yet to be revealed as they left it behind. Whitebeard's last breath is the confirmation of the treasure's existence, but not its contents or even context.
    • The second is "What is the Will of D.?", referring to the middle initial "D." that several characters bear (Roger, Ace, and Luffy, to name a few).
    • The other two are more personal ones pertaining to certain characters.
      • For Robin, it's "What happened during the Void Century?" Her island of Ohara was razed by the World Government for discovering something relating to that and how she was pursued most of her life.
      • The last one is Ace's, one that practically came to define almost his entire existence, and one of the main reasons he bothered to keep on living: "Did I deserve to be born?"
  • Dr. Jerk: Doctor Kureha. The residents of Drum Kingdom call her a witch, although if you say it to her face, she just might will kick your ass.
    • And of course, Chopper picked this up in that he will, if praised or thanked, say that doesn't fool him, though it's a lot easier to see through his Jerkass facade since he usually does a dance when he's happy.
    • And Dr. Kureha is Mother fricking Teresa compared to Dr. Hogback.
    • Trafalgar Law is also very blunt, like when he states that if Luffy and Jimbei don't rest, their wounds will open and they'll die.
  • Drums of War: Parodied. During Hannyabal's fight with Luffy, the former's subordinates pull out drums and start banging them as the Theme Music Power-Up to "support" Hannyabal as he's getting serious.
  • Drunk with Power: Captain Morgan.
  • Drunken Master: Hyozo is this, to the point of his nickname being the "Alcholic Assassin".
  • Dual Wielding: And triple-wielding, and sextuple-wielding and nonuple-wielding...
    • The sextuple-wielding thing is a little easier to understand when you mention that it was an octopus man who did it.
    • X Drake dual wields a cutlass and an axe. Of course, that's when he's not using his Devil Fruit Power to assume the form of a T-REX.
  • Dub-Induced Plot Hole: The 4Kids dub had a bunch.
    • First, there's the skipping of the Laboon arc, which featured the Straw Hats meeting a whale living at the entrance of the Grand Line. Said whale was kept by a pirate crew as a pet until they decided that it would be too dangerous to take him into the Grand Line, so they left him there and told him that they would be back... and fifty years later, they're still not back. It was this arc that introduced the concept of Log/Eternal Poses (or Grand/Eternal Compasses for 4Kids dub viewers), but it gets worse; Much, much later on, it's revealed that the Straw Hats' future musician and ninth member was a member of this crew, and the only one who survived the journey. Reuniting with the whale was his whole reason for joining them in the first place.
    • Then, there's the skipping of the Little Garden arc, which was the Mr. 3 team's introduction. This arc provided much character development for Usopp, and inspired him to visit the giants' island, Elbaf, one day. In addition, Sanji acquires an Eternal Pose to Alabasta in this arc, which meant that the Straw Hats could set sail for it immediately instead of waiting a year for their Log Pose to record Little Garden's magnetic field. Then, there's the "Mr. Prince" subplot, which starts in this arc and eventually leads to the Straw Hats escaping Crocodile's death trap in Alabasta. Lastly, Mr. 3 makes another appearance in the Alabasta arc, but since he hasn't ever met the Straw Hats in the dub, this leads to some awkward plot holes.
      • That's not even getting into the fact that the Straw Hats' meeting Broggy and Dorry are what enable Usopp to get Oimo and Karsee to Heel–Face Turn in Enies Lobby.
      • Unfortunately for 4Kids, they did not anticipate Oda's faithfulness to all tropes Chekhov's.
    • Since one of Sanji's defining characteristics is being unwilling to fight women, the German dub's decision to make one of his opponents (who he ended up cracking the skull of) a woman was quite awkward.
    • The FUNimation dub isn't entirely immune, either: at the end of the Alabasta arc, it's stated that Mr. 1 was killed in the battle. This is a little strange, since he later shows up alive (albeit in prison). The scriptwriters appear to have simply conflated "cut down" (by Zoro) with "killed outright", when it really only meant "defeated".
    • Another minor error in the Funimation dub is during the Post-Marineford arc when Zoro somehow knew that Kuma sent the other Straw Hats around the world. Despite that Zoro was the first to be sent away and had no way of knowing if the others made out or were sent flying by Kuma as well.
    • Oddly enough, 4Kids did manage to invert this trope by skipping the Warship Island filler arc. Said arc had two instances of Zoro contradicting future developments in the manga, particularly when he cuts through steel before he should know how to do so.
    • In the Buggy arc of the 4kids dub, Zolo calls Nami by name when she hasn't introduced herself or had it said in his presence.
    • 4kids also suggests that Roger was hanged, when all other evidence suggests he was decapitated or impaled with two swords.note 
    • Another minor one in the Funimation dub, when a preview for a Dressrosa episode has the narrator refer to Law by his full name (Trafalgar D. Water law) long before it was revealed in his flashback.
  • Dub Pronunciation Change: In the Italian dub, Usopp's name has the first two letters pronounced like the English word "us". After the episode 578, they go back to the correct Japanese pronunciation.
  • Dub Species Change: Chopper is often mistaken for a Tanuki by people in the original version, but translations often change it into a raccoon.
  • Dude, Not Funny!: An in-universe example: When Arlong's name is brought up in Chapter 617 Brook, who had no knowledge of Arlong or of Nami's Dark and Troubled Past, attempted a Pun based off of his name. Cue...
    *Thwack!* Brook: "Oww!! Hey, why'd you kick me Usopp-san!?"
    • It should be noted that Brook was present when the crew ran into Hatchan again, but he could've forgotten the brief explanation of Hatchan's past connection to Arlong, or not realized how serious the issue was.
  • Dude, She's Like in a Coma: Happened to Nami when Absalom was trying to marry her while she was unconsious.
  • Duel to the Death: During the Time Skip, the Fleet Admiral position was left vacant due to Sengoku's retirement. Sengoku originally nominated Aokiji for the position, but several officials wanted Akainu to take it, making him another contender. Normally, Aokiji is a lazy ass who frankly wouldn't have cared who got the position — but that was only if Kizaru had wanted to take the position. Aokiji was strongly opposed to Akainu becoming Fleet Admiral, and this unprecedented conflict, the first ever feud between Admirals, boiled down to a death match on the barren island of Punk Hazard, with the winner becoming Fleet Admiral. The battle would last ten days and permanently alter the landscape of the island, turning one half into a frozen wasteland, the other half a fiery one. The winner would be Akainu. However, in a rare moment of sympathy, he spared Aokiji's life. Aokiji would then ditch the Marines, not wanting to serve under Sakazuki and a form of justice he was opposed to.
  • Dumbass Has a Point: Luffy has some moments.
    • Coming out of Reverse Mountain, the Going Merry seemed like it would crash hopelessly into Laboon, a giant whale right at the entrance. Luffy went below deck and used the cannon as a retrorocket. Instead of crashing catastrophically, it bumped into Laboon only hard enough to break off his special seat.
    • In the Alabasta Arc, Luffy refused to follow Vivi to Koza's main base, pointing out that the only way to stop the rebellion was to stop Crocodile, even if it meant allowing the deadly battle between the rebels and royal army to commence.
    • After dropping down from Skypiea, Luffy suggest the crew get a shipwright to fix the Going Merry (despite him suggesting a musician after the crew was surprised by his words).
    • While infiltrating Big Mom's home island, Nami freaks out when a giant crocodile in human clothes speaks to them and walks away. Luffy points out they have seen weird things like that before, pointing to their present company Chopper and Carrot, a literal bunny-girl.
  • Dumb Is Good: Luffy is probably one of the nicest guys you will ever meet, even though he's not very smart.
    • This series actually tends more toward averting this trope. Yeah, there's Luffy and Zoro, but there are plenty of genuinely smart characters just among the main protagonists, and even more that just happen to be among the "good" side.
  • Dumb Muscle: Gedatsu; Hamburg of the Foxy Pirates; Oars Jr; "Blood Splatterer" Coribou.
  • Dying Moment of Awesome: Gold Roger's last words inspire the Great Age of piracy. Whitebeard does something similar moments before his death, confirming Roger's words on live television.
    • Instead of just giving up and letting go like most people do, Brook and his crewmates decided to go out while singing to leave a message that could be returned to Laboon!
  • Dysfunction Junction: The Straw Hats. All of them have some sort of scarring past:
    • Luffy was abandoned by his parents and abused by his grandfather in training (though both of these experiences were Played for Laughs), but was given a relatively stable upbringing with the mountain bandits of Goa and his adoptive brother, Ace. Still, he suffered a traumatic experience after eating his Devil Fruit where his idol, Shanks, lost an arm saving him from a Sea King. He and Ace then suffered an arguably even more traumatic experience during the fire that burned Grey Terminal, which eventually ended with the supposed death of their other best friend and sworn brother, Sabo. Of course, Sabo turned out to have survived, but that's a moot point considering Luffy didn't find out until years later, long after the traumatic experience of losing Ace.
    • Zoro's parents are unknown; he appears to have been raised by a strict but decent kenpo sensei. He lost his closest rival, the sensei's daughter Kuina, in an accident. How bad his childhood actually was depends on how close he and Kuina actually were, which is unknown to this day, but the fact that Zoro took Kuina's sword after her death so as to carry on her will and their promise implies that they were close.
    • Nami had one of the worst upbringings. Her parents were killed in a war when she was a baby, and she and another girl, Nojiko, were de facto adopted by Bellemere, a wild child-turned-Marine, who brought them home. When Nami was 10, Bellemere was murdered by Arlong when she used all the money she had to pay for the lives of her children instead of herself (she didn't even have to, since they weren't registered). She was conscripted into Arlong's pirate crew for her mapmaking skills, then dicked around for a 100-million-beri bounty on her town's freedom that Arlong never intended to allow her to pay.
    • Usopp's dad, Yasopp, left him and his mother, Banchina, behind to become a pirate (though with her consent). His mother fell ill shortly after. He started telling lies about his dad returning to cheer his mom up, but she died anyway. He kept lying as a protective mechanism, but it ultimately cost his village as they refused to believe him when pirates invaded and attempted to sack the town. On a plus, his stories cheered up a local girl, Kaya, who also lost both her parents, and he had a group of kids that worshiped him and his tall tales.
    • Sanji's ship was attacked by the pirate "Red Leg" Zeff, but a storm wrecked both ships, leaving Sanji and Zeff the sole survivors on a small, barren, desert isle. They nearly starved to death. At first Sanji thought Zeff kept most of the food he salvaged from the wrecks, but after weeks alone (half of which was after he ran out of the little food he had), Sanji found out that Zeff gave him all the food they had. He also lost one of his feet (in the manga, he ate it; in the anime, he lost it saving Sanji from the shipwreck). They were rescued just in time, and Zeff went on to open the floating restaurant Baratie with Sanji as one of his apprentices. Many chapters later, we discovered that in his early years Sanji was abused by his brothers and his father both emotionally and physically.
    • Chopper was ostracized for his blue nose, and kicked out of his herd after eating the Human-Human Fruit. He was also rejected by Drum Kingdom's humans as a monster. The only human who cared for him was a quack doctor named Dr. Hiriluk. Being trained as a doctor, he got confused by the skull-and-crossbones, which Hiriluk described as a symbol of strength for pirates, but in medical terms meant certain death. As a result, he accidentally fatally poisoned Dr. Hiriluk. So his father-figure walked into a trap set by Drum's King, Wapol, and committed suicide.note 
    • Robin had arguably the worst past of the Straw Hat members recruited in Paradise. Initially abandoned by her parents and left to her abusive aunt and uncle until she learned to be a top archaeologist at age 8, her parents (along with all the other people of her land, Ohara) were exterminated by the World Government for learning too much about the "True History". Although Robin was allowed to escape, she ended up on the lam, spending the rest of her childhood being betrayed by various people for an unprecedented bounty until she took cover in the Baroque Works crime syndicate.
    • Franky was taken in at Water 7, and trained to be a shipwright along with adoptive brother Iceburg. His mentor, Tom, was prosecuted for building Roger's ship, Oro Jackson, but cut a deal where he would build the Sea Train. After building it and four lines, he was framed by the World Government when they used ships built by Franky to attack Water 7. When they tried to take Tom to Enies Lobby to be executed Franky tried to stop the Sea Train, and got run over in the process.
    • Brook entered the Grand Line 50 years before as a musician after befriending the young whale Laboon and promising he would return for him at Reverse Mountain. Eventually becoming his ship's captain, he and his crew were wiped out by an enemy with poisoned weapons. Although he revived with the Revive-Revive Fruit, his ship's rudder was broken, so he was stuck in the same spot for over 50 years with no way to return to his friend as promised. He wasn't even revived instantly, and spent the first of those fifty years in soul form, wandering aimlessly until he found his body, which had already decayed into a skeleton by then. And as mentioned above, he spent the remaining 49 years alone, with nothing to eat or drink, and only the corpses of his crew to keep him company.
    • You can include the immediate affiliates of the Straw Hats, Jimbei and Trafalgar Law, as well. Jimbei had to overcome the death in combat of his best friend and original captain, legendary Fish-man pirate Fisher Tiger. And Law's family was murdered by the World Government, after which one of his allies and father-figure in the Donquixote family, Corazon, the alter-ego of Doflamingo's brother Rosinante, who was a marine that infiltrated his ranks, was murdered by Doflamingo himself.

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