One Piece / Tropes G to J

Tropes for One Piece
Tropes A to B (Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole, Arc Villain, Berserk Button, Beware the Silly Ones, Big Brother Instinct, Bowdlerise, Break the Cutie) | Tropes C to D (Call-Back, Chekhov's Gun, Cliffhanger, Combat Pragmatist, Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass, Curb-Stomp Battle, Dark and Troubled Past, Deconstructed Character Archetype) | Tropes E to F (Early Installment Weirdness, Famous Last Words, Foreshadowing) | Tropes G to J (Hate Sink, Heart is an Awesome Power, Hypocrite) | Tropes K to M (Laser-Guided Karma, Logical Weakness, Mass "Oh, Crap!", Moral Myopia, Muscles Are Meaningless) | Tropes N to P (Nice Job Fixing It, Villain, Oh, Crap!, O.O.C. Is Serious Business) | Tropes Q to S (The Reveal, Shout-Out, Spanner in the Works, Superpower Lottery) | Tropes T to Z (Wham Episode, Wham Line)

G

• Gag Nose:
  • Usopp and Kaku have a pretty long nose. This makes Luffy confuse the latter for the former once.
  • Buggy is so sensitive about his big red nose that, if you say anything that sounds like "red" or "nose", you are guaranteed to hit his Berserk Button.
• Gambit Roulette: It's important to remember just how completely insane Blackbeard's gambit was based solely on how lucky he got. The astronomical number of factors that could have killed his entire plan is just dizzying. First of all, if Luffy hadn't been in Impel Down around the same time as him, then Magellan wouldn't have been inconvenienced enough to release Shiryu; which would've resulted in him being hopelessly curbstomped by Magellan, with no one to help him. Luffy even getting into the prison relied on the actions of both Kuma and Hancock; two people he no control whatsoever over. Taking Ace instead of Luffy was the entire reason he was able to get past the Impel Down phase of his plan, since it's made quite obvious that he wouldn't stand a lick of a chance against Whitebeard under normal circumstances. The war resulting from Ace's execution weakened Whitebeard just barely enough so he make the kill. For his part, Blackbeard just assumed that it worked Because Destiny Says So.
• Game Changer: One Piece has a huge shake up to the Status Quo, right around the time-skip:
  • Whitebeard, World's Strongest Man and head of the most powerful pirate alliance, is dead, along with his 2nd division commander who was also Luffy's protective brother..
  • Blackbeard, in defiance of what is known about Devil's Fruit abilities, takes on a second one (Whitebeard's)!
  • Gecko Moria follows on the heels of Jimbei and Crocodile as newly-former Warlords of the Sea, let loose on the sea.
  • Sengoku retires as Fleet Admiral of the Marines, along with Garp.
  • Aokiji leaves the Marines, following a nasty spat with Akainu, who'd been appointed Fleet Admiral against Sengoku's advice.
  • Trafalgar Law and Buggy the Clown are now ranked among the Seven Warlords of the Sea...though Law has since been kicked out.
  • The Straw Hat Pirates form an official alliance with the Heart Pirates (Law's crew) to challenge one of the Four Emperors.
  • "Lucy" grabbed the Flame Flame Fruit, ate it, and revealed he was Luffy's older, thought-dead brother, Sabo. Who happens to be the Revolutionary Army's second in command.
  • Seven different pirate crews, with a grand total of about 5600 crew members, swear their allegiance to Luffy, forming the Straw Hat Grand Fleet.
  • Big Mom and Kaido team up to Take Over the World and find One Piece, officially being labelled by the Marines as 'The Worst Threat to the World.
  • The World Government abolishes the Seven Warlords System, after one too many flaws became a source for major embarassment.
• Gashadokuro: During the Wano Arc, Brook's soul form (complete with wisps and ghostly attire) is mistaken by a Gashadokuro by the Orochi Oniwabanshu, who are terrified of him.
• Gasshole: Franky's "Coup de Boo." It's equally funny and effective.
• Gate Guardian: Oimo and Kashii initially start off as this during the Enies Lobby Arc against the protagonists before making a Heel–Face Turn.
• Gayborhood: A whole island is this! The Kamabakka Kingdom, ruled by Emporio Ivankov.
• Gender Bender:
  • Emporio Ivankov can transform even the most manly of men into shapely women, and vice-versa, as well as himself.
  • Thanks to the wonders of the SBS, we have ones for the Straw Hat crew◊, featuring cheery and mellowed out former men and absolutely psychotic and Ax-Crazy former women.
• General Ripper: Akainu (when he was still known as Sakazuki) actually ordered his Buster Call warship to fire at an evacuee ship to remove the threat of any archaeologist escaping. Even Spandine, the man who ordered the Buster Call in the first place, was horrified by this.
• Generic Cuteness: Most of the attractive women look similar to each other. It wouldn't be a problem if one of them wasn't supposed to be the most beautiful of the world. It's hard to believe she earned her title when Nami is as cute as her but can't pull the "You'll forgive me because I'm cute" act.
  Nami: [Right after Nami crashed a boat in a moat] It was 100% my fault, but I'm cute so you'll forgive me, right?
  Usopp: I'll smack you!
• Genocide Backfire: The World Government was worried that the scholars of Ohara would discover the Void Century, a point in time they didn't want anyone to know about. Therefore, they exterminated the entire island. The Sole Survivor, Nico Robin, vowed revenge by discovering the Void Century; and the incident is what prompted Dragon to build the Revolutionaries. On top of that, thanks to Vegapunk, several research records from Ohara were salvaged and preserved in Elbaph.
• Genocide from the Inside: Enel destroyed his homeland after getting his powers.
• Genocide Survivor:
  • Nico Robin is the only survivor of her island of Ohara mainly due to the island's scholars doing a forbidden practice of researching "The Blank Century", a moment in history that the World Government is trying to keep from the world. When the World Government found out what they were doing, they carpet bombed the whole island with a Buster Call, a tactic that involves using warships to do so. After which she was hounded relentlessly by government agents when they noted she was alive (largely due to her ability to read Poneglyphs and fearing she would revive the Ancient Weapons which she clearly isn't trying to do), practically forcing her into piracy just to survive. The trauma is the main driving force behind the Water 7 and Enies Lobby arcs for her actions as she doesn't want that fate to befall the Straw Hats.
  • Trafalger Law's backstory had his hometown of Flevance massacred by World Government agents due to a lie the government spread about a skin disease called the Amber Lead poisoning, which manifested as white splotches on his skin, and claiming it contagious. In reality, it wasn't and was a generational disease caught from mining for the Amber Lead material. The World Government and the kingdom's royalty knew about this but didn't disclose it to the citizens and once the symptoms became more and more noticeable, the royalty fled and left their people there to fend for themselves. Law managed to avoid detection by hiding under dead bodies that were being wheeled out of the country.
• Genre Blind: King Neptune and his subordinate convincing themselves that the bomb in the treasure will turn out to be a dud and use it to justify not telling the Straw Hats. Even though the bomb ended up saving the Strawhats from Big Mom, it could have ended in different ways.
• Gentle Giant:
  • Dory and Broggy from the Little Garden island. Really tall, but are actually really nice guys. Even though they fight to the death every so often with the result being a draw almost every time.
  • Saul thought that the giants of Elbaf were all completely Ax-Crazy. Although, he was a Marine. He also was very gentle for Marine standards, since he was nothing but friendly to Nico Robin.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Jimbei does this to Luffy when he's having a Heroic BSoD over Ace's death.
• Giant Animal Worship: Happens during the Skypeia arc in a flashback to 400 years prior, with a giant snake called Kashigami who was offered the most beautiful woman on the island of Shandia to stop a curse (which was actually a disease called tree fever). The woman was saved by the pirate captain Noland, who killed the snake.
• Giant Equals Invincible: Completely averted. All being huge in this series means is that you're that much more obvious a target. Just ask Oars Jr. and pretty much the world's entire population of Sea Kings.
  • Conversely, Dorry and Broggy prove that a badass is a badass no matter what size they are.
  • Also, former Vice-Admiral Jaguar D. Saul earns some cred for taking an ungodly number of cannonballs to the face while barely flinching. It takes Aokiji (then known as Vice-Admiral Kuzan), a man who can create glaciers just by thinking about it, to finally take him down.
  • Somewhat less averted with the very largest Sea Kings, who are so large that most attacks would be like flea bites to them; this is why even after several hundred chapters of Sea Kings mostly being Worf Effect Fodder, Shirahoshi's ability to call Sea Kings to her aid still makes her a Person of Mass Destruction.
• Giant Feet Of Stomping: In Chapter 635, Robin sprouts a pair of giant legs from the ground and proceeds to stomp all over anyone unlucky enough to be nearby.
• Giant Mook: Done literally with the Marines, who have giants as enlisted officers and use them as mooks. Not that it helps.
• Giant Woman: Between Mermaid Princess Shirahoshi, Lily Enstomach (anime only), and numerous other background characters, there are plenty of examples (enough that some people on This Very Wiki have accused it of being Author Appeal).
• Gideon Ploy: The first scene where Luffy, Zoro and Nami first meet Usopp, has Usopp try to scare them away with pirate flags in bushes being moved around by his three kid friends while claiming to have a pirate army at his command; Nami sees right through it. Usopp often lies to his enemies about having an exaggerated number of men at his command and no one ever buys it.
• Girl on Girl Is Hot: Franky was rather pleased when Nami was searching Kalifa for the key.
• Giving Them the Strip: Usopp slips out of his shoes to escape Ms. Merry Christmas and Mr. 4's combined attack. This confuses the former long enough for Chopper to hoist her by her own petard.
• Give Me a Sword: Happens during Zoro's fight with Hatchan.
• Giving Up the Ghost: Brook gives up the ghost in Chapter 822. Made even funnier by the fact that of several people sharing the same terrifying experience, the living skeleton is the one that gives up the ghost, and it has his afro.
• Global Currency: Almost all the places shown use the Berry as currency.
• A God Am I: Eneru pretty much invokes this.
  • The World Nobles. As the descendants of the twenty kings who created the World Government (an organization encompassing over 170 countries), the "creators of this world", they consider themselves to be divine by nature. Even suggesting that they are nothing more than human, even by the words of one of their own, is considered to be blasphemy. They use this as justification for their reprehensible actions, including, but not limited to, slavery — and the worst part is that they can get away with it. As the descendants of those who created this world, the World Government considers them above the law entirely and condones their actions, to the point that the Marines ignore the numerous Human Shops that cater to them and other, lesser nobles, and are even sent out to retrieve any escaped slaves, despite slavery being outlawed centuries ago. Even defying a World Noble is considered to be the greatest of sins, and the offender risks the wrath of an admiral if the World Noble deems it necessary. Their power is so great, even the common people consider them to be "gods", at least in the metaphorical sense.
• Godiva Hair: Boa Hancock had this kind of hair for plot related reasons.
• Godly Sidestep: When the crew meet an old man who was on the one ship in recorded history to make it to the end of the Grand Line, Usopp asks him about One Piece. However, Luffy very angrily calls spoilers on him, saying he wouldn't like an adventure where he knew the outcome.
• Godzilla Threshold:
  • Anyone holding a golden Transponder Snail has the means of initiating a Buster Call, a signal to rally dozens of Marine Ships with the combined might to raze an entire country or island. However, it is only used as an absolute last resort or under certain special conditions, as this fleet can fire indiscriminately, on friend or foe, if it means eradicating a given target. In the Eines Lobby arc, a captive Nico Robin knows of this power all too well as it completely destroyed her home of Ohara, and is horrified when Spandam is seen holding the golden snail. Then, he accidentally presses the button while other Marines are present.
  • This occurs in the Impel Down arc. By the time the arc is in full swing, two groups of people are on the attack while trying to break out of the prison and another group is trying to break in. With two of those groups containing people only Magellan himself is capable of stopping and one being a Zerg Rush, Magellan gambles and releases Shiryu, a former Warden that was put on death row due to being severely Ax-Crazy, thinking that Shiryu might stop some of the prisoners. This severely bites Magellan in the ass later, as Shiryu later saves Blackbeard from being poisoned and joins Blackbeard's crew, which leads to Magellan receiving a massive beating at their hands offscreen. It didn't even do anything to help stop the jailbreaks.
  • In the Fish-Man Island Arc, when Hody Jones reveals more and more of who he is and what he plans to do, the citizens eventually turn to calling on Luffy to stop him. What makes this a Godzilla Threshold is that their resident soothsayer, who is never, ever wrong, predicted that Luffy would destroy all of Fish-Man Island, not to mention Luffy being an extremely notorious pirate. They still decided that they would be better off with him than Hody.
  • Goes both ways for the Ancient Weapons. The World Government had originally banned their use for being too dangerous. By the time of the series, however, they've decided that the Age of Pirates is so bad that they need the weapons to end it. On the other side of the issue, Iceburg strongly believes that the weapons should never again be built, but hangs onto his copy of the Pluton blueprints so that if they ever are, the blueprints can be used to create a counter-force.
• Golden Snitch: In the second round in the Davy Back fight, the Straw Hats realize that since the third round is a one-on-one duel between captains, they can steal the captain of the Foxy Pirates, forcing the Foxy Pirates to default on the third round and winning the Straw Hats the game. The only reason the third round is not rendered completely pointless is that the Straw Hats don't want Foxy on their crew, even as a deckhand and opt to steal back Chopper (stolen by the Foxy Pirates in the first round) instead.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: Twice during the Marineford arc, all manner of pirate captains from the New World come out to support Whitebeard and Ace. Then later, after Luffy unwittingly unleashes his Haki and stuns the heck out of even the most badasses there. All the pirates (including Whitebeard and even Crocodile of all people) focus on helping him get to the gallows to rescue Ace]
  • And yet again in Chapter 602, when people from almost all the places the Straw Hats were training in for the past two years show up to keep the Marines from stopping their departure.
• Gonk: Expect at least one in each major story arc after Skypiea. Thanks to this being frequently applied to background characters, Only Six Faces can be averted.
  • The Straw Hats get themselves an entire crew of imposters after the timeskip, and each and every one of them is a gonk.
  • Every single doctor and nurse who turns away young Trafalgar Law because they think his disfiguring disease is contagious (it's actually caused by "amber lead" pollution that's only found in his homeland which was destroyed along with everyone in it by the Marines when the pollution got out of hand).
  • Special mention goes to Wanze and Duval, who were so gonky that repeated kicks to the face by Sanji rendered them better looking. Duval was actually thankful for this, as his face before his encounter with Sanji looked like Sanji's badly-drawn wanted poster.
• Good Is Not Nice: Zoro at times. He can be terrifying due to his reputation as a Pirate Hunter, occasionally sporting a Slasher Smile and delighting in the bloodlust of a good fight, frightening friend and foe alike. But he also has a soft spot for his crewmates and is known to go out of his way to help strangers, including a little girl and an injured man.
• Good Is Not Soft:
  • Luffy generally appears as an oblivious but kind-hearted person. But he is quite capable of taking on enemies and even friends if he feels they are wrong.
  • Shanks and his crew are rather laid back but when Higuma and his bandits beat and threaten to kill Luffy, Lucky Roux quickly appears to shoot a bandit on the head. Shanks even says he will tolerate being spit on, insulted, and having drinks poured on him but he won't stand for anyone hurting his friends.
• The Good King: King Nefertari Cobra and King Neptune only want the best for their people, and while they nearly are victims of a coup, their assilants are doing that purely for selfish or hateful reasons respectively. King Riku of Dressrosa turns out to be just like them, his "atrocities" are Doflamingo's fault.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Almost every character has at least one. An interesting case is Psycho for Hire Rob Lucci: his back bears a massive scar shaped like the emblem of the World Government (who are supposed to be the "good guys"), yet his story arc demonstrated that the opposite was true.
  • Gecko Moria and Crocodile have scars bisecting their faces. Zoro's got a big honkin' scar right across his chest from his encounter with Mihawk, Shanks has a facial scar from fighting Blackbeard, and Luffy has a scar where he stabbed himself in the face to impress Shanks (Shanks was not amused).
  • Not quite a scar, but similar in nature and meaning is Chopper's broken antler. His right antler is broken off at the base and reattached with a strip of metal. He lost his horn fighting All of the Other Reindeer to get what he thought was a miracle cure to heal his mentor/father figure.
  • Zoro's accumulated several scars over his career. Along with the chest scar above, he has scars on each of his ankles from attempting to cut off his own feet, and also post-Time Skip has a scar over his left eye from an unknown source.
    • These are somewhat justified; they're pirates, after all.
• Good Stepmother: Bell-Mere, a Mama Bear who even sacrifices her life to protect her adopted daughters Nami and Nojiko.
• Goo It Up:
  • The Wax-Wax fruit creates gooey wax that can be hardened to be stronger than steel.
  • Caribou ate the Numa Numa fruit, which essentially lets him transform his entire body into swamp gunk.
• Gory Discretion Shot: Done various times for random pirates and Marines dying and or being mortally wounded during anime adaptation of Marineford as Coby's Haki started to manifest.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!:
  • Viz's English translation heavily uses this. Luffy screams "DARN YOU!" after seeing Zoro get sliced by Mihawk.
  • Inverted with Funimation's English dub where the cursing ranges from occasionally to frequently (Even "shit" is used, albeit once in a blue moon).
  • Viz's manga is slowly beginning to avert this, as more recent releases of the anthology magazines have seen (as of the November 2010 issue) three uses of the word "damn" (by Luffy, Ivankov, and an unnamed prison mook) and one precise use of the word "bastard" by Crocodile, directed at Whitebeard.
• Goth Girls Know Magic: Perona are quite gothy and has one of the more "magical" Devil Fruit powers in the series.
• The Government: In business for nearly eight hundred years, and behind at least two conspiracies, one involving the Blank Century, a period of 100 years of which no historical records exist, save in the form of Poneglyphs. Can you read Poneglyphs? Better hope not, because if they find out, they'll send an entire armada against you and bomb the shit out of you, the island you're on, and everyone who has ever existed within fifty yards of you at any point in your entire life.
  • They're even shadier when you realize that they take orders (to a certain extent) from the Vinsmoke family, who are notorious underworld criminals, just because they also happen to be powerful royalty. Aside from the Vinsmokes, they also blatantly allow the World Nobles to do whatever they want, ranging from slavery and kidnapping to casual murder.
• Government Conspiracy: All information on the century preceding the World Government's rise to power has been erased, save for the ancient Poneglyphs. Any knowledge of these stones is forbidden under penalty of death. Past measures include leveling an entire island and placing a massive bounty on an eight-year-old girl. The Water 7 and Enies Lobby story arcs revolve around this conspiracy.
  • After Blackbeard stages a breakout, they cover up the escapes of the most horrendous and brutal criminals held in Impel Down just to save face.
  • Lesser cover-ups include crediting Smoker for Crocodile's defeat, and ordering Kuma to eliminate all witnesses in Moria's case.
  • The Five Elders hide that they are subordinate to Imu, the Shadow Dictator of the whole world
• Gracefully Demoted:
  • Garp asks for a demotion after the events of Marineford, where he ultimately allows for his adoptive grandson, Ace, to be killed by Akainu. He's reduced to a mere Marine instructor and is perfectly happy in his new role, but his reputation remains untarnished and he's still important enough to be assigned as an escort to the royals at the Reverie.
  • Sengoku resigns from the position of fleet admiral. Free from the burden of commanding the entirety of the Marines, Sengoku becomes a much more jovial fellow who pops in occasionally to taunt the new fleet admiral, Akainu, on how difficult a job it is.
• Grail in the Garbage: How Zoro acquired one of his swords, having found it in a bin of cheap swords. Of course, it sort of belonged there, considering it's cursed to cause horrible death for the wielder. Zoro gets it for free after proving that his mojo is stronger than the sword's.
• Gratuitous Disco Sequence: Zombie Night!
• Gratuitous English:
  • When Trafalgar Law activates his powers, he says "Room" followed by "Shambles". Justified in that his ability puts the 'room' in 'shambles'.
  • Zoro happens to call Luffy "Captain" several times. But then again, he's voiced by Kazuya Nakai. Viewers are probably half expecting him to scream PUT YA GUNS ON!! any time.
  • Franky is more likely to use English, particularly his "SUPER!" Character Catchphrase.
  • Luffy and Usopp use English when calling their attacks after they've transformed into Gear Second or Sogeking. In fact, Luffy has nearly all of his special move names in English starting with Gomu Gomu No, Pistol, Machine Gun, Bazooka, etc. To the point that non-English names are actually notable exceptions, such as Fuusen (Japanese name for balloon).
  • Ivankov.
  • Several of the opening songs employ this trope.
  • The Baroques Works agents' codenames are in English (for example, Mr 3 is pronounced Mr Three as opposed to "san," the Japanese word for three).
  • If Mr. Three had been rendered in Japanese, he would have been called San-san. More on topic, the numbers incorporated into their outfits and character designs are the Arabic numbers used in the West as opposed to Kanji. Similarly, MARINES is always written in romanji, but justice is always written in Kanji for some reason.
• Gratuitous French: Sanji and Robin's attacks. Sanji's voice actor actually pulls off the French pretty well, with only some L/R issues.
• Gratuitous Italian: Crocodile's technique, such as Desert Spada, Desert Girasole, and Ground Secco. He also uses Gratuitous Spanish and Gratuitous French.
• Gratuitous Spanish: Robin mixes in some Spanish with French in her attacks.
• Grave Robbing: That's how Dr. Hogback gets materials for crafting his marionettes.
• Gravity Sucks: One of Blackbeard's abilities.
• Greater-Scope Villain:
  • Kong is one of those. While he may not be the "bad" guy of the story, but when the Straw Hats face the World Government, the orders come from him.
  • The Five Elders are the leaders of the World Government, but they leave most of the anti-piracy policies to the Marines.
  • However, Imu is the true leader of the World Government and The Five Elders bow before him.
• Groin Attack:
  • Buggy is a victim in Episode 8, Kalifa gives one to Sanji while his leg is raised to head level (chivalrously stopped short of her face of course), and when Franky's turn comes in the anime (courtesy of Nico Robin's devil fruit power, which she used to try to shanghai him into the Strawhat Pirates by grabbing his balls; He joined out of his free will, though, and was more influenced by Iceburg reminding him of his childhood dreams and asking him to forgive himself than Nico Robin's torture) they do a quintuple take of it.
  • In Episode 183, Luffy gets a giant gold staff to the nuts.
  • In the anime version of Thriller Bark, when Absalom assaulted Nami while she was bathing, she retaliated with a kick to Absalom's nuts.
• Guest-Star Party Member:
  • Johnny and Yosaku, a pair of bounty hunters who are old friends of Zoro's, meet up with the Straw Hats at the beginning of the Baratie Arc, and accompany them throughout the Baratie and Arlong arcs.
  • Nefertari Vivi for most of the Baroque Works/Alabasta Saga. The Straw Hats first meet her in the Laboon Arc as "Miss Wednesday", and find out her true identity in the following Whiskey Peak Arc, which concludes with her accompanying them as they return her to her home land of Alabasta. She remains with them throughout the entirety of the Little Garden, Drum Island, and Alabasta arcs.
  • In the CP9 saga, during the second half of the Water 7 arc and the entire Enies Lobby arc, the Straw Hats (who wanted to get Robin back) were accompanied by three Galley-La shipwrights/carpenters (who wanted revenge against their former co-workers, who'd tried to kill their beloved boss and mayor) and the entire Franky Family (who wanted to get Franky back), forming a three-way alliance. Also along for the ride are a trio they befriended at the very beginning of the Water 7 arc, consisting of Kokoro (a middle aged woman who's actually a mermaid), Chimney (a Tagalong Kid) and Gonbe (a Team Pet).
  • Post-Time Skip, in the Pirate Alliance Saga, the Straw Hats gain multiple new traveling companions:
    • An adult-child samurai pair, Kin'emon and Momonosuke, whom the Straw Hats rescued on Punk Hazard, and who will presumably travel with them until they reach their home of Wano Country. After the end of the Dressrosa arc, their fellow samurai friend Kanjuro has joined them as well, as has their fourth companion Raizo by the end of the Zou arc.
    • Trafalgar Law, another of the Eleven Supernovas and a (now-former) Warlord of the Sea. He and his crew, the Heart Pirates, formed an official alliance with the Straw Hats as of the Punk Hazard arc; they fought together to bring down fellow Warlord Donquixote Doflamingo and his gang throughout Dressrosa; and now they've traveled to Zou together to reunite with the rest of their crews. At the end of the Zou arc, this is inverted, with five of the Straw Hats and the samurai traveling with Law and his crew while the others (see below) leave to retrieve Sanji from Whole Cake Island.
    • Three of the Straw Hats' new friends and allies, the Minks, accompany Luffy and a few of his crewmates to Whole Cake Island: Carrot, Pedro, and Pekoms (reluctantly in his case).
• Gunpowder Fantasy: Early chapters gave the sense that it was a Wooden Ships and Iron Men setting, with several characters possessing either Charles Atlas Superpowers or else having superhuman abilities from consuming Devil Fruit, and most pirates possessing flintlock firearms, with swords still being a preferred method of combat. However, the series progressed to full Schizo Tech as it went on, introducing cyborgs, trains that run over water, and transponder snails, living telepathic telecommunication devices used throughout the Blue Seas and Grand Line.
• Guns Akimbo: Used somewhat often, notable examples being Daddy Masterson and Braham. Doubled by Robin, who wields four pistols during the Water 7 arc.
• Guns Are Worthless: Averted for firearms in and of themselves, as when their bullets connect they do cause damage. However most characters who get shot at can either withstand the injury, Dodge the Bullet, or are simply Immune to Bullets by virtue of their particular Devil Fruit power.
  • Played with in the case of Fisher Tiger, a massively powerful Fish-man who died after getting shot repeatedly. He withstands the bullet wounds themselves just fine, but eventually succumbs to blood loss.
• Gut Punch: A literal and real life version happens when Akainu punches Ace with a fist full of magma and Ace dies in Luffy's arms.

H

• Hailfire Peaks: The island of Punk Hazard in the New World. One half is boiling hot because it is inhabited by a dragon, the other half is apparently freezing cold. Justified because this was the island Akainu and Aokiji fought on to decide who would lead the Marines. Even two years after the battle, the island's weather is forever changed.
• Hammered into the Ground: Happens to anyone who gets at the wrong end of Luffy's Gum-Gum Gavel attack.
  • Happened to Demalo Black after trying to intimidate Sentomaru by claiming he was Straw Hat Luffy. Sentomaru showed him the broad side of his axe.
  • Applied very literally with the Tontattas Tail Hammer attack.
• Hammerspace: Done literally with a Whitebeard Pirate Division commander, who keeps one in his stomach.
  • Also done with Capone Bege, Captain of the Firetank Pirates and one of the 11 supernovas. He keeps most of his crew, as well as cannons, horses, and other weapons inside of his stomach, and after they reach a certain distance from his body, they grow to normal size.
• Ham-to-Ham Combat: Pretty much always happens, considering the series takes place in a World of Ham.
• Hand Blast: This is the signature weapon of The Pacifista.
• Handicapped Badass: Shanks, full stop.
  • Also Isshou/Fujitora. Despite being blind, the man is an Admiral, so you know he has some serious pwnage in him even if we haven't seen much of it yet.
• Handsome Lech: Sanji, and probably Absalom before he became a Mix-and-Match Critter.
• Hanging Judge: The judge of Enies Lobby's Kangaroo Court is Baskerville, who appears to be a three-headed man. The right head favors convictions, while the left head suggests declaring the defendant innocent. The center head prefers the 'compromise' of death sentences.
  • Considering convicts are usually going to prison (Impel Down to be exact) death might be a good compromise.
• Hannibal Lecture: "These prisoners belong in prison!"
• Happy Dance: Chopper's got one he breaks into whenever someone compliments him (while trying to act angry about it).
• Happy Rain: Once Crocodile is defeated, it starts to rain seemingly across the entire island. Pretty much everyone is happy about this.
• Harmless Freezing: Semi-averted. After being frozen by Aokiji, great care is taken during the thawing processes of Luffy and Robin to avoid shattering through thermal expansion, and they are out of commission for a while after being defrosted. Not completely realistic, but better than most cases.
  • Played straight with the Impel Down escapees who were frozen and then instantly thawed via magma.
• Hate Sink: Has its own page.
• Hates Rich People: Given the kind of people they are, it's no surprise then that the World Nobles are pretty much reviled by anyone who isn't a World Noble or lesser Noble themselves. It's to the point where, when one family of World Nobles willingly cast off their status and went to live among the common folk, they weren't even there a week before the people were breaking down their door, dragging them out onto the streets, and crucifying them with the intent to burn them alive. The rest of the time, commoners are forced to simply bow and accept the continued presence of both kinds of nobility, especially the former since they have the ability to commit murder in broad daylight and not face punishment for it due to their high status.
• Heroic Ambidexterity: Zoro had signs of being left-handed (such as in his one-sword techniques, he primarily uses his left hand), but he can dual wield swords (and one on his teeth) just fine. Quite a number of people in the series have been fighting with two swords, but Zoro is the best among them.
• He's Back!: Luffy [regains his confidence when Jimbei reminds him that even though he lost his adoptive brother, he still has his crew.
  • After two years since the Whitebeard War, the Straw Hat Pirates have made a triumphant return and are on their way to the New World.
• He Knows Too Much:
  • As a child, Ace and his friend Sabo try to pull this on Luffy. They drop the idea when they realize neither of them has actually killed before.
  • Baroque Works tries to invoke this on Zoro at Whiskey Peak when they realize that he knows all about their organization. Unfortunately for them, they fail. Miserably.
  • Played frighteningly straight, when during the phone-call between Professor Clover and the Five Elders, he reveals the knowledge from the research the World Government tried to suppress on the Void Century, and is ordered to be shot before he finishes, and the island of Ohara where he and his fellow researchers reside to be a target for the Buster Call, and wiped out.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Has its own page.
• Heavy Sleeper: Luffy; Ace; Zoro; Garp.
• Heavy Voice: Usopp after he gains weight on the Bowin Islands
• Heel–Face Turn: TONS. Not all of them go so far as to join the winning team, but they do reform to some degree (Buggy) or at least stop being evil (CP9). Robin, Franky, Hatchan, Duval, Boa Hancock and her sisters, Mr. 2, Helmeppo, Paulie, Bellamy, Brownbeard, Perona are among the more notable examples, but there's still many more, major or minor. Hell, even Nami and Vivi (the latter even being an Arc Villain) were briefly antagonists, until it was revealed they were actually Good All Along.
• Hero Antagonist: Well, the protagonists are pirates, so at some least some of the people after them aren't just in it for the hyper-corrupt government. Good examples at this point are Smoker, Tashigi, Aokiji, T-Bone, Garp, Coby, Helmeppo, and some others. Though it is occasionally a point of contention, the staff of Impel Down have a strong case going for them as well, Hannyabal in particular.
  • Magellan may be in charge of LITERAL hell on earth Impel Down, but he's not sadistic, he doesn't enjoy fighting, and he doesn't actively try to mess with the prisoners. In fact, he imprisoned a warden that was a sadist. He also tends to go easy on people who (foolishly) oppose him, and he could destroy Impel Down and everyone in it by himself if he wanted to, as Blackbeard (who also has a very powerful Fruit) finds out the hard way.
• Heroic BSoD: Luffy when Ace dies, he has to be carried catatonic from the battlefield.
• Heroic RRoD: Gear Second puts much strain on Luffy, though he has been using it in short bursts without much trouble recently.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Pell gets a massive bomb away from Alabasta.
  • Zoro in Thriller Bark, when he agrees to die instead of Luffy and Kuma transfers all of Luffy's pain and fatigue to his body.
  • The jailbreak of Impel Down succeeded only because Mr. 2 stayed behind.
  • Ace saving Luffy from Akainu. He actually dies.
  • Mocha from Punk Hazard, keeping her crazed friends from the so-called "candy" in a way that nearly kills her.
  • Pedro dies stalling Perospero and his forces.
• Heroic Spirit: Luffy has shown moments of this time and again, e.g. when he was badly poisoned by Magellan.
• Hero of Another Story: The Eleven Supernovas are portrayed like this. They are made up eleven people, from nine different pirate crews, whose bounties exceed 100,000,000 — including Luffy and Zoro — who all reached the halfway point of the Grand Line at roughly the same time. All of the other crews can be assumed to have had just as crazy adventures as the Straw Hats to get that far through the Grand Line. For example, Luffy finds it weird that a member of Trafalgar Law's crew is a man-sized talking bear, seemingly without realizing that his own doctor is a transforming reindeer, the only difference is that we were given context for Chopper's existence.
  • Of course, "hero" is a bit of a stretch for most of the Supernovas, but then again, Luffy denies being a hero himself...
  • Everyone, really. Just see omake cover story. The POV of Omake-story included Enel, Coby, and Hatchan.
• Hero Killer: Akainu is the first villain to kill a major character within the timeline, which is Ace.
• Heroes Act, Villains Hinder and Villains Act, Heroes React: Individual arcs in One Piece vary between both tropes quite a bit. Some arcs have the Straw Hats stumbling upon a scheme being enacted by the villains, which they then throw a wrench in. Other arcs have the Straw Hats actively disrupting the status quo while the villains try desperately to stop them and maintain their own positions of power. Generally speaking, earlier arcs lean more toward Villains Act, Heroes React, with the crew befriending locals on the various islands they come across and trying to protect them from invading pirate crews. Later arcs lean more toward Heroes Act, Villains Hinder as the Straw Hats' actions create a major domino effect in the setting, prompting those sitting at the top to try to keep these cheeky upstarts in check.
• Heroes With Bad Publicity: The crew tends to be treated like this. They do a lot more good than harm, but still get chased out of places due to technically being pirates, and a series of bad coincidences.
  • This is mostly because the World Government would rather eat their shorts than admit that a band of pirates are more effective than their own forces (Especially since said forces are the villains Luffy's crew typically fight). During the Fish-Man Island Arc, Luffy outright states that he doesn't want to be a hero...for rather off reasons. The Straw Hats don't mind helping people and admire those that do, but they're not interested in getting good press.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Zoro and Luffy; Jango and Fullbody; Johnny and Yosaku; Coby and Helmeppo.
• He Who Fights Monsters: A lot of the Marines (Especially Akainu), and even the World Government in general, claim to wish to uphold peace, but they go so far that it actually makes them as bad as the pirates they're trying to kill, if not worse.
• He Who Must Not Be Seen: The mysterious Dadan went for nearly 600 chapters before being revealed in full. Dr. Vegapunk still falls under this trope, though it's probably just a matter of time.
• High Fantasy: This pirate story has sky islands, two main systems of superpowers, zombies, dragons, Fishmen and giant mermaids among other things.
• High-Pressure Blood: Mainly centered around Zoro. It got especially ridiculous during his fight with Mr. 1.
  • After the timeskip, Sanji gained this for comedic effects.
• High School AU: A series of commercials from Hungry Days has all of the One Piece characters in a High School setting. They are very well detailed and filled with a ton of Easter Eggs, plot references and cameos that will have you pausing every scene change to see them.
• Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Among other things, Luffy's grandpa Garp, threw him into the wild woods and once tied him to so many balloons that Luffy floated up into the sky. His "Fists of Love" are a trademark of his. Upon hearing this, the rest of the crew suddenly understand where Luffy gets his will to live from.
• Historical AU: The Boss Luffy Historical Special transplants the characters into 19th-century Japan.
• History Repeats: Arguably the case whenever Luffy introduces a new Gear form. Villain sees it, villain scoffs, villain gets hit hard in the face by Luffy's fist.
  • First, Bleno didn't take Gear Second seriously, seeing only steam and Luffy's need to aim his attack. Then he gets walloped in the chest by Jet Pistol.
  • Then Rob Lucci sees Gear Third and thinks Luffy's inflated arm is merely for-show and is hardly anything to be afraid of. He gets smashed clear out of a tower and nearly K Oed in one hit for his trouble.
  • And then Doflamingo, seeing Luffy's bouncy, inflated Gear Fourth mode, thinks Luffy looks ridiculous. Then Luffy pops him in the face with a compressed punch, knocking him clear off the elevated plateau of the palace and into the town below, leaving him wondering what he's doing there.
• Hit-and-Run Tactics: Usopp uses these tactics as standard procedure.
• Hoarding the Profits: In the gap between Skypiea and Long Ring Longland, Nami proposes to divide the crew's hard-fought gold... by immediately claiming 80% for her personal stash. Even Sanji, who usually worships the ground she walks on, protests.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Dr. Hiriluk told Chopper that the skull and crossbones was a symbol of strength for pirates. One problem: in medicine, the skull and crossbones mean certain death. This resulted in Chopper making a "medicine" for Dr. Hiriluk that was going to kill him.
  • It's a minor example, but during the Enies Lobby arc, Franky hits Spandam with his own elephant.
  • More traditionally, Dr. Hogback was flattened by zombie! Oars, who was his creation.
  • Usopp and Chopper defeat Ms. Merry Christmas by turning her own Combination Attack with Mr. 4 against her.
  • Many of Doflamingo's plans to eliminate the threat of Luffy and Law end up backfiring on him. His faking the abdication of his throne in compliance with Law's demands spurs the Thunder Soldier and Tontatta rebels into action when they might have waited, the tournament he holds with the Flame-Flame Fruit as its prize brings together several powerful parties, many of whom might not even have gone to Dressrosa otherwise, and between Sugar turning the losing gladiators into toys and his use of the Birdcage to try and silence everyone who knows too much, everyone of note unites in bringing Doflamingo down in the name of survival and repaying their debt to the Straw Hats after Usopp freed them.
  • Doflamingo's actions toward Kin'emon, Kanjuro, and Momonosuke during their voyage actually contributes further to his downfall in an extremely convoluted way. Had he not had his men attack them, Momonosuke wouldn't have gotten onto a ship heading to Punk Hazard, which wouldn't have caused Kin'emon to rampage through Punk Hazard looking for him, which wouldn't have caused some centaurs to send an SOS broadcast which got picked up by the Straw Hats and caused them to go to Punk Hazard. Their presence on Punk Hazard resulted in their involvement in the revolution on Dressrosa that resulted in Doflamingo's downfall.
• Holding Hands: Robin does this after meeting her mother for the first time, despite Ohara going up in flames.
  Robin: I've wanted to do this for a long time.
  • Also, Fisher Tiger and the human girl Koala, despite his attempts to swat her hand away. It spokes volumes that he let her hold his hand when he had been enslaved by humans and also, how relations between Fish-men and humans are terrible (putting it lightly).
• Holiday Motif:
  • Chopper has a bit of a Christmas motif, being a talking outcast reindeer with a funny colored nose, pulling his master's sleigh around, and being born on December 24th.
  • The female agents of Baroque Works are all named after days of the year, with the highest-ranking agents all being named after important holidays. This affects small parts of their designs the more you look. Miss Merry Christmas for example is a talkative old woman with a necktie resembling a Christmas tree, Miss Golden Week is a bored young girl who's abilities are painting-themed-given that Golden Week includes Children's Day and is celebrated with arts and crafts, and Miss Valentine who, according to an Imagine Spot in a side story, is really passionate about being a chocolatier.
• Hollywood Evolution: The crux of Shiki's plan to take over the world.
• Hollywood Healing: Bandaids heal everything... sort of.
  • Subverted when Zoro's bandages were taken off after it was believed he healed from the time when he took in all Luffy's pain and fatigue from fighting Oars and Moria into himself. However, when the Straw Hats were fighting a Bartholomew Kuma copy, the pain returned with a vengeance, and took even more punishment from Admiral Kizaru.
  • Averted horrifically when Arlong rips off Zoro's torso bandages to reveal the gaping, bleeding, very poorly stitched wound inflicted by Mihawk. Also in several other cases where band-aids only hide a wound that requires proper medical attention, such as the anime-only Puzzle.
    • This is lampshaded in a parody on the web comic VG Cats:
      Zoro: So, how's it look, Doc? Give me a few bandages and call it a day?
      Chopper: I'm afraid this is quite serious. You've taken heavy damage to your abdomen — We're going to have to remove most of your colon.
      Zoro: What's that, Chopper? "Band-Aids heal everything"?
      Chopper (holding up a colostomy bag): This is going to be your new rectum.
      Zoro: HEAL EVERYTHING
  • Lampshaded in the aftermath of the Alabasta Arc. Zoro removes his casts and bandages in order to train. When Chopper scolds him, Zoro complains that they prevent him from moving around.
  • Charlotte Moscato has his life force stolen by Big Mom. He shows up later alive (somehow) and with only a bandaid on his head.
• Hollywood Magnetism: It may have an aversion in the person of Eustace Kidd, who has magnetism powers; the main way he uses them is magnetizing multiple objects together in chains (like you can do at home with paper clips) to give himself Combat Tentacles. It's played straight when he uses his power to wrest guns from people's hands.
• Hollywood Voodoo: Basil Hawkins can use voodoo dolls to blackmail his foes into not harming him. Killer still outsmarts him.
• Home Field Advantage: Crocodile puts his sand powers to best use in the desert of Alabasta. The desert is also where he is least likely to encounter his Kryptonite Factor, water.
  • Among other cheating, Foxy rigs the "random" selection of the Davy Back Fight dueling arena to be his own ship where he has multiple traps and gadgets set up to beat his opponent.
• Honor Before Reason: Sanji is completely unwilling to hit a female for any reason whatsoever. While originally, this may have counted as a mere personality quirk, it became a serious issue at Enies Lobby where Kalifa nearly killed him because he was unwilling to fight back.
  • Sanji and Zeff also have a soft spot for the hungry. In their introductory arc, they fed Don Krieg and his crew despite the fact that they knew he would stab them in the back the moment he was full.
    • Much later in the story Sanji could have easily defeated Big Mom by either poisoning the wedding cake he was making for her or simply letting her starve to death in a tantrum, but his pride as a cook prevents him from doing so. Instead, he elects to make a cake that's so delicious it will KO her from taste alone.
  • At one point, when one of Shanks' crew wants to take revenge on Whitebeard for insulting him, Shanks tells him that his life is more important than honor.
    • Played with Whitebeard. When Shanks tells him that Ace isn't ready to fight Blackbeard, he laughs at him and tells him that Blackbeard's crimes are unforgivable, and that he has to be shown that you can't live on the sea without morals. However, it's later revealed that Whitebeard had a bad feeling about Teach, and discouraged Ace from going after him, even if his code dictates it. He was just covering for Ace. When Ace is captured, Whitebeard is perfectly willing to go against the entire World Government to bring him back, but he's very strategical, and scolds his sons whenever they rush in without thinking it through.
  • Also Luffy himself. No matter how much he needs to beat an opponent or how little he respects them, he'll never hit them while they're down. Another instance is against Lucci; he refuses Franky's help to fight Lucci on the grounds that he's his opponent and refuses to leave the fight even when his friends might drown. Justified since Lucci would've killed his friends if he left the fight.
    • During the Davy Back fight, the crew loses the first round and the Foxy Pirates recruit Chopper as their prize. The Straw Hats win the second round and Nami reasons that if they recruit Foxy as their prize, Luffy would automatically win the third round (a duel against Foxy) and they could get Chopper back without risk. Luffy hates the thought of having Foxy on his crew, however briefly, and rejects the idea.
  • Katakuri is so infuriated by one of his siblings interfering in a fight, he knocks out all his minions and purposefully wounds himself to make up for it.
• Honorary True Companion: The Straw Hats have amassed five (and one more that became a True Companion outright) so far:
  • Nefertari Vivi, princess of Alabasta and former Baroque Works agent "Miss Wednesday", from the Alabasta/Baroque Works saga. She traveled with them for three arcs, and for a long time fans believed (and the story hinted) that she would join the crew permanently as the next member; however, despite the temptation, she ultimately turned down Luffy's offer to join in favor of helping to rebuild her kingdom after the civil war (and as it turns out, Nico Robin joins the crew instead). The end of the Alabasta arc makes it clear, however, that she is their friend for life and that they'd gladly welcome her back if she ever changes her mind, and she still occasionally pops up in both cover art and the story proper, reading and reacting to news and stories of her friends' latest exploits, even notably realizing that Luffy's famous Ox Bell signal was a message of some kind (but she didn't know what it meant due to lacking context). The friendship that the first six Straw Hats have with her is so strong that when they find out she's disappeared and is presumed dead, Luffy is all but willing to end his dream to turn around and search for her.
  • Jimbei, "First Son of the Sea", former Warlord of the Sea and former Sun Pirates captain. He served as a vital ally to Luffy during the latter half of the Paramount War saga (during the Impel Down, Marineford, and Post-War arcs), and they grew close during that time. Two years later, at Fish-Man Island, Jimbei meets the rest of the crew and allies with Luffy again to bring down the Arc Villain. While he declines Luffy's offer to join the crew for the time being due to unfinished business, he promises to return after he completes said business and join if Luffy and the others still want him. Since then, he has appeared in cover spreads and stories, including receiving a cover story mini-arc of his own. The "Honorary" part finally gets subverted as of the Tottoland arc, where Jimbei officially quits Big Mom's crew so he can join the Straw Hats. He's forced to stay behind temporarily when the rest of them go to Wano, but meets back up with them there and reaffirms himself as the 10th crew member.
  • Trafalgar Law, "Surgeon of Death", captain of the Heart Pirates, member of the Eleven Supernovas/Worst Generation along with Luffy and Zoro, and former Warlord of the Sea. After originally meeting the crew at Sabaody Archipelago, he pulled a Big Damn Heroes moment at the battle of Marineford when he and his crew showed up to save Luffy. After the timeskip, during the Pirate Alliance saga, he makes an official alliance with the Straw Hats. Though Law initially tries to treat it as a professional business agreement between rivals, Luffy sees it more as a friendship agreement and treats it as such (even refusing to allow Law to end the alliance when he attempts to do so in Dressrosa); as a result, Law gets drawn in to the point where he's treated like an unofficial member, and he eventually seems to accept the idea that he has become friends with them. Though Law will almost certainly never join the Straw Hats due to being the captain of his own crew, their alliance remains intact as of the Wano arc, and when the arc ends and Law declares that he's Luffy's enemy again, nobody is fooled.
  • As of Wano, Yamato, Kin'emon, and Momonosuke have become this as well. All of them want to travel with Luffy, but Momo needs to stay as the shogun of the nation now that Orochi has been rightly deposed, Kin is his right-hand man, and Yamato decided to stay in the shogunate to protect it from the Marines. Despite this, Luffy openly tells them that not only is Wano now Straw Hat Territory, but that all three are welcome as his crewmates whenever they would like to sail with him.
• Homage:
  • Van Auger is way too similar to Adolphus from The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.
  • Whitebeards's mustache, which is near-identical to the one sported by◊ the ∀ Gundam. The fact that they're both the strongest in their respective categories is probably another one.
  • Impel Down seems to be built like Hell in The Divine Comedy.
  • Bartolomeo has examples In-Universe:
    • His Bari-Bari no Pistol move is intentionally one to Luffy's signature Gomu-Gomu no Pistol.
    • His ship is also clearly one to the Going Merry, on top of being more Hero Worship for Luffy. The Going Luffy-Sempai anyone?
  • Two examples for Germa 66:
    • To SHOCKER. Compare the '76 villain's logo◊ and the imposing board meeting of evil.◊
    • To The Man in the Iron Mask: What happens to little Sanji when his father realizes he'll never be as good as his siblings.
• Hook Hand: Crocodile.
• Hope Spot: Cruelly, cruelly used in the Marineford arc. Luffy finally reaches Ace, after nearly a hundred chapters of getting dragged through hell and back. Mr. 3 conveniently appears to help him free his brother and the two briefly fight alongside each other in one of the most awesome scenes yet. And then, not ten chapters later, Oda manages to break the fandom's heart.
• Horned Humanoid: Chopper and some other Zoan users, like Jack the Drought. Less explicable though is otherwise 'regular' humans, like Hannyabal, Moria, and Magellan. Like being up to 30 feet tall or having fangs, having horns is just something some humans in One Piece do, and compared to all the other weirdness, it doesn't even merit an explanation.
• Hostile Weather: Becomes a plot point in Water Seven, where upcoming Agua Laguna interferes with a rescue operation.
  • Pretty much all of the Grandline, not to speak of the New World, feature weather phenomena that sink entire fleets if the navigator isn't skilled enough to evade them.
• Hot-Blooded: During Luffy's "Gear Second" transformation, due to the fact that he's using his powers to pump his blood at an accelerated rate, he's literally running on hot blood.
• Hot Fish-man On Giant Action: Played straight, subverted, then played straight again. There are people called "Wotans", a hybrid race of Fish-men and Giants. While Fish-men are generally taller then humans, Giants are dozens of feet tall, which brings up a interesting question of how that works, playing this straight. Until later with the discovery of a 'giant smelt-whiting mermaid' which is, as the name suggests, possibly as big as a whale herself, giving the option that Fish-man/Mermaids/Merman are not all the same size. It is then played straight again with her admirer, a human sized Fish-man, who wants to marry her.
  • And then, of course, we have Queen Otohime, human sized, and her husband, the giant King Neptune. At least only one of the children is a giant, right?
• How Do I Shot Web?: When Kaku first uses his Devil Fruit, [he accidentally changes into a full giraffe instead of a half-giraffe as intended. After that, however, he gets the hang of the applications of his new power surprisingly quickly.
  • Nami's first fight with the Clima Tact was this trope non-stop. It doesn't help that she was trying to read the instruction manual while under fire... and that about two thirds of the functions of the weapon were party gags. Dammit Usopp.
  • This applies often to most of the Devil Fruits. Only a small amount of fruits have both descriptions and pictures in a catalog, and although a user intuitively knows what the fruit is after they eat it, they have to figure out how it functions by experimenting. Many Devil Fruit users become stronger by figuring out more creative uses for their Fruit power.
• Hufflepuff House:
  • During the Water 7 arc, we had the Galley La Company which consists of 7 shipyards. Only the 1st one is ever shown on screen and do anything at all.
  • In the same arc, we were introduced to the Cipher Pols, the intelligence arm of the world government. There are 8 official CP and the secret mythical CP9, surpassed only by Cipher Pol Aigis 0. Only the CP9 really contribute to the plot, the others only really there to serve as warm-up bosses and round out the setting.
  • Also in that arc, the Puffing Tom train is also said to have stops at Pucci and San Faldo, but the main characters never visit either of these locations despite them implied to be major economic partners with Water 7. The Puffing Tom and Rocketman trains instead take a special trip to the World Government's judicial district, and the route between Water 7 and there is the only route seen in the series. However, at the very least, Pucci made it into a side story in the manga featuring CP9 trying to finance Rob Lucci's extensive medical bills in the vicinity of Enies Lobby after this arc's events, since its mayor was a subject of interest and this vignette gave him a chance to appear.
    • Another stop mentioned is St. Poplar, which has even less significance that more or less got mentioned to aid believable world-building.
  • The Red Line is a continent in the form of a ring spanning the circumference of the world and is suggested to be quite heavily populated, but aside from a description of its geography and climates, the only named locations on the Red Line are where it intersects with the Grand Line, where most of the series takes place. One of these is Reverse Mountain, which the main characters pass by early on. The other is Mariejois, the capital of the World Government. Every character thus far associated with the Red Line is from one of these two locations (possibly because Mariejois may be hoarding most of the Red Line), despite every other region of the world having a lot of characters from a variety of locations and backgrounds. Even the sky has its own diverse cast!
• Huge Girl, Tiny Guy:
  • The chapter cover of 632 shows that Miss Monday and Mr 9 somehow got together after Baroque was disbanded. They even have a kid!
  • Also, Big Mom and her husbands.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Taken to extremes with Fish-Man Island's king and late queen. The king, Neptune, is a colossal merman, only dwarfed by Giants. Meanwhile, his queen, Otohime, was a goldfish mermaid about the same size as a human woman, or a bit smaller. Oh, and their daughter took after her father, being at least 5 times Otohime's size at age four. Try not to think about it too much, for your own good.
  • In the case of Fish/Mermen though, it's justified as all sorts of different species can come from a couple, Mermen or Fish-men. And example would be that having an octopus Mermaid give birth to a shark Fish-man wouldn't cause anyone to bat an eye.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Pretty much the view of a lot of Fish-men and probably some Merfolk. But given what they used to do them, and in some areas still do, it's not hard to see why they would see them that way. In a show of Fantastic Racism, Fisher Tiger climbed the Red Line and set fire to the city of Marejois in the name of all Fish-men, after freeing all the slaves, including the human ones, even though he hated humans. On the flip side, there are Fish-men like Arlong, who let their hatred of humans who have oppressed them warp them into monsters on an equal level.
  • Tony Tony Chopper also initially distrusted humans, and he subconsciously makes up for his growing trust for them when they compliment him by dancing and insulting them.
    • Although not quite humans (I think), the same went for Skypeians, removing the Shandians from their own land. This inspired Wiper to conclude All Skypeians Are Bastards.
• Human Doorstop: In the fight against Mihawk, Luffy grabs a conveniently standing around Buggy and uses him as a shield... Buggy subsequently gets cut up into several little pieces. Good thing that's Buggy's power.
• Human Popsicle: Little Garden arc, when Mr. 3 tried to lock Vivi, Nami, and Zoro in wax.
• Human Resources: Gecko Moria cuts off your shadow, and powers his zombies with them.
• Humongous Mecha: The new Soldier Dock weapons 4 and 5 combine to form "IRON PIRATES... GENERAL FRANKY!!!"
• Hurricane of Puns: Many of the attack techniques are based on puns. One good example is Violet's Mekujira, which takes the form of giant whales made of tears. "Mekujira" is Japanese for the corner of the eye, though the specific kanji reads as "Tear Whale", hence the pun and the form of the attack.
• The Hyena: Hamburg; Miss Valentine
  • Also Bellamy, whose Red Baron title was "The Hyena".
• Hyperspace Arsenal: Franky and Don Krieg. With the former, Heaven knows where he finds the space for all that weaponry...
  • Then there's Garp, who pulled out a massive iron ball and chain that was around three-quarters the size of the ship he was standing on (and presumably storing it in).
  • There's also one pirate from Whitebeard's crew◊ who has this as a superpower.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • When Buggy reveals his splitting power, Luffy calls him a freak.
    • Cheerfully lampshaded by the show momentarily pausing while a stamp is struck on the screen that reads: "Rubber Man —>"
  • Also in chapter 438, Zoro lectures the crew about respecting Luffy while he was yanking on Luffy's mouth.
  • Absalom calling Sanji a pervert. Immediately lampshaded by both Sanji and two zombie henchmen.
  • In Chapter 655, upon entering Punk Hazard, Usopp yells at Luffy, Zoro, and Robin for picking a fight with the World Government. Who was that again who shot down the WG's flag in Enies Lobby?
  • Later on in the same arc, Smoker gets on Trafalgar Law's case about trespassing on an island barred even the Marines. As Law points out, Smoker is himself doing that right now.
• Hypno Fool: Jango.
  • Luffy, too. He managed to get hypnotised when Jango was miles away from him and had his back to him.

I

• I Am Not Left-Handed: When Luffy and Blueno duke it out, Luffy reveals that he has come up with a new way of using his gomu-gomu ability. He proceeds to kick Blueno's ass with it.
• I Am Not Weasel: Tony Tony Chopper is occasionally mistaken for a tanuki, or in his Heavy Point, a yeti or gorilla.
• I Am Your Opponent: This is a shonen series, so this is obviously used a lot. Notably, it's one of the only 'rules' of fighting that Luffy really gives a shit about.
• I Can Still Fight!: Has increased in frequency as the enemies get stronger and more capable of doing permanent damage. The first notable example might be Aokiji, who Luffy continued to fight despite his limbs being frozen solid. Most of these cases has been justifiable thanks to the urgency of the situation — either they beat the enemy, or the enemy kills them.
  • Deconstructed in Zoro's case. In the beginning, his miraculous ability to recover from the most hideous injuries seemed to be a case of Hollywood Healing. Not until he'd essentially been brought back from the brink of death does he show any signs of pain, and still keeps on fighting as if nothing had happened. Finally, he keels over at the worst possible moment, defenseless. He's so injured that he has to be carried from the battle, and still insists that he can fight. It's painful to watch.
• I Can't Do This by Myself: Monkey D. Luffy gets an entire speech dedicated to the fact he can't survive without his True Companions. A recent arc also had Luffy alone making several off-hand comments wishing his crew was present to do what he could not.
  Luffy: Of course I don't know how to use a sword, Shark Face!!! I don't know how to navigate either!!! I can't cook!! I can't even tell lies!!
  Usopp: Hey.
  Luffy: I know I can't live without help from a lot of people!!!
  Arlong: Shah ha ha ha ha ha ha... what a clever boy you are to admit your own helplessness!!! What a burden it must be for your crew to have such an idiot for a captain. I don't know why they fought so desperately to save you. You lack the slightest shred of dignity or ability! What gives you the right to be the captain of a ship!!? Just what can you do!!?
  Luffy: I can beat you.
• Icarus Allusion: Parodied when the giant squid Daidalos flew too close to the sun and turned into surume (dried squid), traumatizing his friend Ikaros.
• Iconic Outfit: A person wearing blue shorts, a red vest and a hat coincidentally made of Straw? That could only be what Luffy wears all the time. Most of the more important characters have them as well, including all of the Straw Hats (who have multiple).
  • The typical Marine garb (white button up, blue slacks, boots, and a baseball cap) counts as well, as it's become synonymous with mookdom and Foe Tossing Charges and the like.
• An Ice Person: Aokiji turns into living ice. Freezes stuff. And makes Puns about it.
• Identical Stranger:
  • Tashigi apparently looks like how Kuina would have looked like if she hadn't died. When Zoro first sees her, he doesn't take it well.
  • Played for Laughs with Duval and Sanji...'s poorly sketched wanted poster.
• Identity Concealment Disposal: Garp, Franky, and Sakazuki's faces were hidden by a dog mask, a festival mask and a cap respectively. Franky's mask is somewhat justifiable, but Garp's mask has no in-universe explanation besides his regular randomness and he never uses it again after he reveals his face.
• Idiot Ball: The citizens of Fish-Man Island grab this so often, it makes you wonder if they're just genuinely stupid. After all, tens of thousands of them trusted Hody.
  • The Straw Hats arguably had a collective pick up of it as well, on the same arc. In a group with many intelligent people, you'd think they'd warn everyone a famous criminal with a Logia ability is trapped securely inside the barrel. Then again, the fact that the barrel was so tightly secured should have been more than a good reason to not try to open it. It wouldn't be so bad, except Caribou now knows Shirahoshi is one of the ancient weapons alongside Pluton, Poseidon. Secrets that are sure to endanger Fish-Man Island, Ryuugu Kingdom and Wano if exposed. And Caribou is with full knowledge of said secrets, which he offers to share with Blackbeard.
• Idiot Hair: Lulu, one of the Galley-la foremen, generally has a straight "spike" of hair sticking out of his head at a random direction. When he tries to push it down, it just pops back up again somewhere else, and can get extra-ridiculous when it sticks out of his mustache or the back of his hand, and it eventually spreads to other people.
  • Marguerite is a more typical example, with a few stray unruly strands of hair.
  • After his upgrade, Franky can grow his hair in any style he wants.
• Idiot Hero: Luffy. He is the main protagonist, and generally a childish fool outside of battles.
• The Idol's Blessing: Luffy received his trademark straw hat from the legendary "Red-Haired" Shanks (who in turn received it from the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger), the man who first inspired him to become a pirate.
• Ignorant About Fire: Corazon of Donquixote Pirates is so clumsy that he accidentally set himself on fire whenever he tried to light a cigarette.
• Ignored Enemy:
  • Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine got this in the duel between Luffy and Zoro.
  • This becomes comic when Monster Chopper was rampaging through the Tower Of Justice, as Nami tries to talk some sense into him, completely ignoring CP9 agent Kalifa, which annoyed her, and eventually prompted her to attack Chopper, and later Nami.
  • In the Corrida Coliseum round 1c, Luffy and Don Chinjao ignore Don Chinjao's grandson Sai and the boxer Ideo as they charge at each other. Luffy and his foe even, respectively, knock them out of the of the tournament for simply being in Luffy and his foe's way as move to attack each other.
  • During Reverie/Leveley, following Dalton intimidating Wapol into submission, Wapol shouts threats at Dalton and Dr. Kureha but is promptly ignored by the pair while they chat with Vivi, Rebecca and Shirahoshi about the strawhat crew.
• I Have No Son!: Inverted with Ace refusing to recognize Roger as his father.
  • And played straight with Whitebeard towards the traitorous Blackbeard.
• "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight: Ivankov vs. Kuma. Subverted, because he isn't.
• I Let You Win: Garp's "fight" against Luffy can be seen as this. Garp basically provoked Luffy to punch him as one final lesson of tough love, because he didn't want to contribute to Ace's death, but not abandon his duty either.
• I Like Those Odds:
  Marines: Hey, Straw Hat Luffy... how many dozens of your cohorts did you bring? Ha ha ha. There are 10,000 soldiers on Enies Lobby!
  Luffy: Yeah... I'm by myself. Get out of my way!
• I'm a Humanitarian: Subverted with Wapol, as he used his eating ability to fuse his subordinates, Chess and Marimo, together by eating them, but they came out of a door on his stomach in their fused form, Chessmarimo. Still didn't stop Luffy from shouting "CANNIBAL!!!" though.
  • Played horrifyingly straight with Big Mom, who ate one of her own subordinates as he screamed in agony, for no reason either. Then subverted as it turns out everything can move and talk where she lives, including food. Then again straight and up to eleven as it's revealed she ate her surrogate mother and family in an eating mania!
• Imagine Spotting: Done in the Thriller Bark Arc by Robin, after Franky's second proposal to use Tactics 15. She swore she would never do such a thing, and Sanji agreed with her, until he imagined what her helping Tactics 15 would entail (namely being held upside down with the miniskirt she was wearing at the time). Robin saw into his fantasy and gave him a truly frightful glare in response.
  • In Punk Hazard, it was Robin's Imagine Spot and Usopp doing the spotting. She, Usopp, Luffy, and Zoro were trying to get across the island's middle lake, and Robin imagined Usopp and Zoro serving as living boats for the two Devil Fruit users, which Usopp called her out on.
• Immune to Slapstick: Robin to some degree. Although she doesn't balk at partying and laughing with her crewmates, she's the only member of the Straw Hat crew that never gets Super-Deformed and is never targetted by a gag. That changed as of Chapter 924. It seems Oda does not intend to let anyone off.
• Immunity Disability: While fighting a giant zombie, Chopper, the team's doctor, tells it that the fact that it can't feel pain is its greatest weakness, as it has no way of knowing how much damage its body parts are accumulating until they're so injured that they simply stop responding altogether. The Straw Hats eventually beat it by shattering its spine, leaving the thing laying on the ground wondering why it can't move.
• I'm Not a Hero, I'm...: Being pirates, the Straw Hats do this several times.
• Impact Silhouette: Done by Sanji to Kuroobi during their fight.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Both Luffy and Robin get this from Crocodile in the Alabasta Arc.
  • Whitebeard gets this from one of his captain allies, with a BFS, no less.
  • And Ace has been impaled by Admiral Akainu. With his fist.
• Implacable Man: Magellan, the prison warden of Impel Down.
  • Don't ever let Admiral Akainu think you are a threat to justice.
• Impossible Hourglass Figure: While most of the women have always been shapely, the progressing art style is letting this get out of hand. Almost all pubescent or post-pubescent women have massive breasts and hips, but no waistlines or visible musculature. Nami alone should be toppling over with her odd proportions.◊
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: The duds the Straw Hats wear in the Unlimited video games. They're pretty insane.
• Impoverished Patrician: Wapol got kicked out of his kingdom by an old woman doctor. He comes back and all he had to his name was two servants and a hippo that he rides on.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Usopp, Yasopp and Van Auger.
• Improvised Lockpick: During the Marineford Arc, the key that holds Ace's handcuff is shot down by Kizaru, so Mr. 3 creates a duplicate key with his wax powers. It works.
• In-Series Nickname: Doffy for Doflamingo, Cabbage for Cavendish, Traffy for Law, and plenty more.
• Incendiary Exponent: Sanji — cue jokes about the "burning sensation" in his feet.
  Sanji: I'm so pissed off I could explode!
  Random Zombie: (incredulous) He already did!
  • Boa Marigold combines this with Prehensile Hair.
• Inconsistent Dub: In the English dub of "Episode of Sabo", Diamante's Devil Fruit is referred to both the Ripple-Ripple Fruit and the Flutter-Flutter Fruit.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Of a sort. When it comes to women crying, Sanji will believe the woman no matter what else has happened. When dealing with Assassin Violet on Dressrossa, he continues to believe in her even after she led him into a trap, beat the crud out of him, and could see through his lies with a Devil Fruit power. And all she saw was his honest and true concern for her well being.
• Incredibly Conspicuous Drag: All the crossdressers are incredibly ugly and clearly don't shave, though they still behave much like women. The only exception so far is Izou: The only thing that gives away his sex is his lack of a cleavage.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: There have been a few over the course of the series, but Foxy the Silver Fox is probably the best example, especially in the anime.
  • Gedatsu's Ordeal would probably have a much lower survivability rating (and he wouldn't be in this category) if he weren't Too Dumb to Live and Laughably Evil.
    • Word of God says that the survivability rating of his ordeal would be 5% if he wasn't such an idiot.
  • Hannyabal may be The Starscream of Impel Down, but you can really see his position when he takes a stand against Luffy leading a massive jailbreak.
  • Spandam subverts this. While he is laughably incompetent, he has just enough successes and shows more than enough cruelty during them to be loathsome instead.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Oda has this down to a fine art. The perfect visualization of this trope is one of his signatures.
• Inevitably Broken Rule: One of the core rules about Devil Fruit powers is that a single person cannot have more than one Devil Fruit power. If a Devil Fruit user tries to eat another Devil Fruit, they will die. It's said that the powers come from a demon possessing your body. Eating another fruit and inviting a second demon into your body causes the two demons to fight over you, destroying you in the process. Marshall D. Teach, "Blackbeard", became one of the most dangerous men in all the world by taking the powers of a second Devil Fruit on top of his own Dark Dark Fruit powers. The devastating power of his former captain Whitebeard. Marco, a member of Blackbeard's former crew, remarks that Teach has a very unique body compared to other people, which is why he was able to break this rule.
• Info Drop: It thrives on this. Often tidbits mentioned in passing are revealed to have enormous significance. Eiichiro Oda's usual ploy is to have something relevant to the current arc, only to expand upon it at a later time. Continuity Porn contains one of the most major examples of this.
• Inflating Body Gag: Luffy does this deliberately through him Gum Gum balloon attack, sucking in so much air that he turns, quite literally, into a balloon. Worth mentioning is his second fight with Crocodile where he ingests an entire barrel of water and turns into "Water Luffy". He later developed a much more potent version by distributing the air he inhaled to his Haki-infused muscles, bulking him up considerably and becoming very bouncy. In spite of how ridiculous it sounds, it really made him a Person of Mass Destruction.
  • Chapter 1080 of the manga reveals that a new devil fruit called the Inflation Fruit exists, under the command of one of Blackbeard's crewmates.
• Inner Monologue Conversation: During the Arlong Park battles, Nojiko and Genzou have such a conversation while underwater and trying to rescue Luffy.
• Innocuously Important Episode: The otherwise standalone Skypeia arc sets us up for the Straw Hats getting the Thousand Sunny and features the first undeniable onscreen use of Haki. It also sets up Sun God Nika, a figure that is ''very important'' from Wano onwards.
• Insane Troll Logic: The World Government's inherent nature.
  • CP9's justification for the amount of collateral damage they were willing to inflict to capture Robin is ridiculous. #1. Robin knows how to read Poneglyphs, indestructible records of the time before the World Government, information that includes plans for doomsday weapons. Thus, it's okay to kill anyone attempting to name that civilization. #2. They consider this a Godzilla Threshold, and thus authorized the use of The Dreaded "Buster Call" to eliminate her — which has never failed to wipe out everything it's directed at right down to the bedrock. #3. They thus consider her a Call waiting to happen, as if she's a living nuke, meaning any and all efforts are authorized to capture her, including killing anyone around her. Wait, what? ...it's like saying Agent Mulder "might" learn Things Man Was Not Meant to Know, so we have to Nuke 'em if we find him but can't catch him, so it's okay to fire wildly into a crowd of people to kill him, because we'd have to nuke the city anyway. The point where the reader figures out that the World Government is evil.
  • They launched the Buster Call because the agents handling the Ohara-Robin situation were either idiots or assholes . The World Government know that she didn't present a danger to the public at large (at least until she started joining dodgy organizations and pirates), but could possibly threaten the legitimacy of their authority. They couldn't tolerate that, so they spread propaganda about her and the island she originated from to justify their actions (like wiping out the island). If it helped, their tactics usually were to have The Men in Black tail her, or wait for the Gullible Lemmings to tip them off of seeing her.
  • Later, at some point during the Paramount War, a massive breakout occurred other than one caused by Luffy, as a result of Blackbeard's actions, and several Level 6 prisoners escaped: Just one of them can present a national threat, so Sengoku orders that the information about who escaped be retrieved to issue out bounties, only to be told that the World Government have decided to keep this a secret, so that the citizens of the world don't lose faith in them in such a delicate time...except that there are dangerous criminals running around in the open as Sengoku hears this, and could literally be anywhere, meaning no-one in the world is safe. We don't even know the number of prisoners who broke out. Only the reader knows they've actually been recruited by Marshall D. Teach, widely considered the single most lethal pirate alive. So the authorities are told not to handle a serious situation by the government because then they look inept, until one of them does something (and it'll be something big from the sounds of it)...after then they already look inept. Sengoku after hearing this absurd decision almost immediately quits.
  • Zoro accuses Tashigi of copying his dead childhood friend because they have similar looks and both try to get stronger to upset the stigma that women are weak.
• Inspirational Insult: In the first chapter of One Piece, Shanks gives a young Luffy a good-natured jab about how Luffy will never succeed as a pirate, which prompts Luffy to declare that we will succeed and be a better pirate than Shanks. Shanks gives his hat to Luffy in encouragement after that.
• Instant Armor: Mr. 3 can create a giant suit of armor using his Wax-Wax powers that he calls Candle Champion.
  • Magellan can sort of do this by using his Venom-Venom powers to coat his body in liquid poison, which (in the anime at least) is potent enough to dissolve bullets and swords.
  • Silvers Rayleigh describes Busoshoku (Color of Armaments) Haki as "an invisible suit of armor".
• Instant Awesome: Just Add Mecha!: Made out of wax rather than metal, but it's the thought that counts.
  • Or, in one case, out of noodles.
  • There's an actual mecha made of metal, the Iron Pirate Franky Shogun. No prizes for guessing who made it.
• Instant Dogend: Chain-smoking Sanji.
• Instant Flight: Just Add Spinning!: Miss Valentine's Kilo Kilo Fruit power allows her to make her body lighter. While being light, she can spin her umbrella to fly.
  • Buffalo of Donquixote Pirates uses Spin Spin Fruit power to spin things on his body, allowing him to fly. He notably spins his odd dreadlock hair and the juttings on his shoes to make himself a biplane.
• Instant Ice: Just Add Cold!: (former) Admiral Aokiji is a big offender. Though somewhat justified in-story, since his ability is not freezing but creating limitless amount of ice from Hammerspace.
• Instant Knots: Pauli from Water 7.
• Instant Waking Skills: Zoro seems to possess this.
• Instant-Win Condition: The whole Marineford War played with this. The whole affair started when the Marines was going to execute Ace and the pirates refuse to accept that fact and wanted to free Ace. For the pirates' side, they need to free Ace and then lead him to safety. For the Marines' side, all they need to win is for Ace to die. Then it really happened but the Marines refused to back down even after that. One character futilely asked why the bloodshed continues even when the victor had achieved their objective. In the end, Shanks came, and proclaimed that anyone who still wants to fight will face him and his crew. With that, the Marineford War Arc ended.
• Instrument of Murder:
  • The chancellor of Alabasta's saxophone/gun.
  • Caesar Clown wields a pair of "Gastanets," castanets that release a highly explosive gas when clicked.
  • The pirate Scratchmen Apoo is an instrument of murder. No, he doesn't use an instrument of murder, he is one.
• Insurrectionist Inheritor: Hannyabal, Vice Warden of Impel Down, is so ambitious about being the Chief Warden that he sometimes calls Impel Down as "his", and generally is boastful about it. The Chief Warden, Magellan, is sometimes annoyed at Hannyabal for this, but he also believes that Hannyabal's a worthy successor for the position - no less because the latter's actually sincere in his efforts in keeping the criminals from harming the public. After the Time Skip, Hannyabal eventually gets promoted.
• Intangible Man: With the exception of Blackbeard, any Logia Fruit user can become this to avoid attack. You can't physically attack them without either exploiting a specific weakness, possessing Seastone, or being able to use Color of Armaments Haki.
• Intergenerational Friendship: The Straw Hats all have a variety of ages. The original five (Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, and Sanji) are between 17-19 pre-timeskip. Then Chopper (15), Robin (28), Franky (34), and Brook (88) joined.
• Intergenerational Rivalry
  • Luffy, a rookie pirate, and Smoker, a marine captain. Their rivalry is of the potential-threat dynamic. After seeing Luffy survive public execution via a nigh-impossible lightning strike destroying his platform, he's convinced that Luffy has what it takes to become the next pirate king, and sets out to the Grand Line to stop him before he gets too much stronger.
  • Roronoa Zoro and Hawkeye Mihawk, a mastery dynamic. Mihawk is a veteran pirate and the world's greatest swordsman, a title Zoro is vying for. Mihawk sees a lot of potential in the young pirate and actively encourages him to train in order to surpass him, even taking him on as a pupil, moving the two closer to a student-teacher dynamic.
• Internal Reveal: When the Straw Hats were brought to the Sabaody Archipelago, they were in search of a man who could prep their ship for Fish-Man island. Then the readers were told that this person was the Pirate King's Number Two, which made fans eagerly await his inevitable meeting with Luffy.
• Intrinsic Vow: Subverted with Luffy, who can’t overcome any sort of hypnosis even when his precious True Companions are in life-threatening danger.
• Invented Invalid: Whenever Vice Admiral Vergo is going away, he claims it as "visiting his sick little sister". What he actually does is meeting his boss Doflamingo and/or his associates.
• Inverse Law of Complexity to Power: The Devil Fruits.
• Invisibility: Absalom has this power, and later Shiryu replaces him.
• Invisible Jerkass:
  • Absalom again, being a pervert who lacks Sanji's chivalry.
  • Shiryu, his successor, is even worse, being a sadist who joined Blackbeard.
• Involuntary Group Split: The party was forcibly split twice during the Skypeia arc — once by a giant lobster, then, a few chapters after reuniting, again by a giant snake. It arguably happened again in Thriller Bark (though the party split on its own, the metaphorical falling rocks prevented the two teams from reuniting), and the grand-daddy of all party splits happened at the start of the next arc, courtesy of Bartholomew Kuma, and lasted a grand total of two years in-universe. Of course, the very day the party got back together, they were split (into larger groups, at least) by powerful ocean currents.
• Ironic Echo:
  • When Blackbeard reveals the Power Nullifier aspect of his Devil Fruit powers, he states that all of the overconfident fruit users of the world will be powerless against him. He later tries this against Whitebeard, and promptly gets a chunk gouged out his shoulder for his trouble. Whitebeard then notes that Teach is too reliant on his Devil Fruit Power.
  • In the anime at least, when Marco blocked Kizaru's first attack, he claimed it hurt, to which Kizaru responded, "Don't lie." After that when Kizaru blocked Marco's attack, Kizaru remarked that it was painful, causing Marco to respond, "Don't lie."
  • At the climax of Enies Lobby, Spandam, close to triumph, taunts Robin by telling her the war between Ohara and the Government is over and Ohara lost. Much later, in the Egghead arc, Vegapunk says the opposite, that Ohara won.
• Ironic Hell: Sanji in Kamabakka Kingdom, the "kingdom of transvestites".
• Irony:
  • Even though Luffy and his brothers aren't biologically related they couldn't love each other more than they do while Sanji's relationship with his biological brothers couldn't be filled with more contempt and hate.
  • The wounds in the back are usually associated with cowardice, as it's stated from Zoro and Whitebeard lacking them. The most notable lethal injury in the back, however, belongs to Ace, who is a Fearless Fool.
• Irrational Hatred : The leaders of the New Fish-Man Pirates hate humans for years of Fantastic Racism, but apparently never experienced any of it for themselves. Their hatred stems from the negative environment they grew up in, and have no personal grudge against mankind. It's described as a 'grudge without substance.
• Irrevocable Order: Spandam is given the normally admiral-only privilege of initiating a Buster Call, where ten large battleships led by five vice-admirals arrive at a location and bombard the place with explosive cannonballs until the place has been leveled and no survivors remain. Spandam accidentally signals the Buster Call to the island where he lives and works, and no command exists to rescind it. From then on, the Straw Hat Pirates' main objective shifts from defeating Spandam to holding up against the Marines and getting off the island.
• Is It Always Like This?: After Robin joined the crew, this is the first thing she asked Nami after seeing how lively everyone usually is.
• Island of Mystery: Features several such islands as settings. There is the dinosaur inhabited Little Garden, the horror themed Thriller Bark with all its zombies, the sky island Skypiea which has xenophobic Native American inspired warriors and corrupt religious zealots, and many other such islands.
• It Amused Me: In the One Piece world, the more powerful you are, the more liable you are to do impossible (and sometimes downright immoral) and/or pointless things for kicks. Take Mihawk for example, who hunted down the last ship of an entire fleet that he decimated for disturbing his nap, just to kill time.
• It Has Been an Honor: While facing the Fishman Pirate's charge, Robin states that is has been an honor sailing with the Straw Hats in case they don't get out (episode 554)
• It Runs on Nonsensoleum: Oda usually gives ridiculous answers to questions about how things work, usually as a joke and an added reason of avoiding the question.
  • Like Zoro being able to talk with a sword in his mouth because his heart allows him to...
  • Or Sanji's Diable Jambe not burning his leg because his heart is burning even hotter...
  • Brook's afro survived after his death because it has deep roots...
  • Nami's punches hurt Luffy's spirit...
    • Which it turns out is an actual power, though not one Nami is confirmed to have.
  • Franky's body is powered by cola...
  • How did T-Bone survive his encounter with Zoro? It just happened. It just happened in a manly way.
  • The coats that the Marines wear — the ones bear the word "Justice" on their backs — are worn only on the shoulders as capes, not tied down or anything. They always stay in place because in the Marines' minds, justice never falls.
• It's Personal: "White Horse" Cavendish has a deep personal grudge against Luffy and those who fought in Whitebeard's Summit War for taking the newspaper's attention away from him. Even Luffy realizes this isn't the best reason to hate someone.
  Luffy: That's called unjustified resentment.
• It's the Only Way to Be Sure: The Buster Call is the World Government's answer to threats considered so dangerous that they must be completely destroyed no matter the cost. Once signalled, entire islands will be erased along with anyone on or fleeing them to ensure no possibility of escape.
• I Was Quite a Looker: Flashbacks apply this to Whitebeard, before, you know, it was replaced by sheer badassery.
  • The OVA of Chapter 0 shows that Rayleigh was also quite handsome.
  • You would have never guessed, but Kokoro used to be HOT (WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS) when she was younger. Yes, this Kokoro.
  • Chapter 762 reveals the Donquixote executives as a whole for this trope. The most jarring is Señor Pink pink, who eats normally and looks damn good in a suit!
  • Believe it or not, Big Mom was a completely different woman in her twenties. Although she was probably just as strong, gluttonous and crazy as she is now, if age hasn't mellowed her.
• I Will Wait for You: Laboon to the Rumbar pirates when they left him.
• I Would Say If I Could Say: A lot of Brook's jokes revolve around him doing or saying he'll do stuff, then note that he can't because he's a skeleton (even though he still can but...)

J

• Jade-Colored Glasses: Some hinted at, others outright stated, some of the Straw Hats' enemies (Crocodile and Moria for example) were once just as optimistic and earnest in their goals just like Luffy, but a great deal of hardship through the Grand Line and New World turned them bitterly cynical. In fact, Luffy himself could have been sporting his own specs after Ace's death had it not been for Jimbei.
• Japanese Spirit: One Piece has incredibly strong themes of idealism and dreams which naturally tie themselves into this concept. Every one of the protagonists, and plenty of antagonists, are sailing the high seas because they have a dream to fulfil or an ideal to uphold, and often sacrifice much to persistently pursue that dream at all costs. Luffy in particular has an ultimate "To Be a Master" aim, to become the King of the Pirates, and has such a strong resolve to achieve this goal that "I'm gonna be King of the Pirates!" is basically the kid's catchphrase.
  • Even with the rather intricate Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors system, Heroic Resolve tends to be the factor that decides the fights in favor of the heroes.
  • Whilst most of the main characters were already renowned for their strength before joining the crew, and do get stronger as the story progresses, it isn't until the Enies Lobby arc that the story's tone changes more towards self-improvement, overcoming impossible obstacles and drawing on innate strengths. It's here that the Straw Hats' happy go lucky adventure to this point is deconstructed and it's shown without any uncertainty that they will not survive without the resolve to improve and protect each other. All of the Straw Hats have to take a level in badass and re-examine their commitment to their goals to even begin to tackle this arc. It's also when we start to find out about some of Luffy's innate gifts as the son of a powerful revolutionary and the grandson of a legendary hero of the marines.
  • Considering that they are criminals and all, the Straw Hat Pirates end up doing the morally right thing a lot more often than the Marines sided with the corrupt World Government.
  • There exists a force known as Haki which actually means "ambition". This manifestation of spirit allows the user to sense Power Levels and harden their bodies for both offence and defence. Luffy is gifted with the rare Conqueror's Haki with which you can literally knock out Weak-Willed opponents with sheer spirit alone.
• Jaw Drop: Constantly.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Oda seems to love this trope.
  • Zoro often acts distant and somewhat insensitive, even towards his crew sometimes. But he has plenty of Pet the Dog moments with Luffy and particularly with Chopper who he harbours a Big Brother Instinct towards. Despite distrusting Robin when she first joined, he immediately caught her after Eneru attacked her. He was also willing to give up his life to save Luffy. And knocked out Sanji when the cook tried to sacrifice himself instead.
  • Nami is generally a less heroic member of the crew, and can be pretty selfish when it comes to money. However, she also forgave a former member of the gang who had terrorized her village, trying to help him buy back a kidnapped mermaid friend with the money the crew had earlier collected, and was willing to give part of her wealth to Rolling Lola (who had helped her out earlier). Granted, she fits the trope better after the Time-Skip.
  • Curly Dadan, Ace and Luffy's foster mother. She constantly complains how her wards were a nuisance and can treat them quite harshly, but she is very protective of them. And she bursts out into tears both times when Ace and Luffy set out to become pirates and they tell her that they owe her and like her. While cursing and calling them bastards. This is proven further when she attacks Garp with extreme rage for letting Ace get killed and Luffy traumatized, then calls him out that he apparently thinks his duty is more important to him than his own family.
  • Sanji isn't shy about being rude and insulting towards the other male members of the crew, especially Zoro, but on several occasions, he is willing to go far for them despite claiming he only cares about women. One particular scene was him telling Usopp who had then left the crew out of fear the crew will leave him because he was so weak that "There are certain things I can do that you can't. Just like there are certain things YOU can do that I can't!" and after Usopp successfully snipes a group of Marines targeting Robin, it was Sanji that yelled out "LOOK! OUR SHARPSHOOTER RULES!"
  • Trafalgar Law has a reputation of being a ruthless and cruel pirate captain of the Worst Generation, and, post-timeskip especially, is a cold, stoic Perpetual Frowner revealed to be motivated by getting Revenge for his beloved deceased mentor, even if he has to throw the entire world into total chaos to do it. Nevertheless, he cares for said mentor and his crew very much, willing to do whatever necessary to protect his crewmates from harm, and it's heavily hinted that he's come to care about the Straw Hats as well after allying with them. He genuinely looks after their safety and that of his other allies, and tries to keep them out of his personal fight with Doflamingo. He's also shown to have plenty of standards and a relatively-functional moral compass, especially for a pirate.
  • Cavendish is a grade-A Narcissist and Attention Whore who hates and wants to violently murder the Worst Generation for incredibly petty reasons (they stole his "popularity" by getting a ton of publicity and taking attention away from him). He also has a Split Personality named Hakuba who's a violent Serial Killer. Despite this, we see hints even early on that he's not so bad when he sticks up for Rebecca during the Coliseum tournament by calling out the entire crowd who is booing and jeering at her. Later, he's shown to have quite an honorable side: after Usopp saves him from having been turned into a toy, he drops his grudge against Luffy and wants to defeat Doflamingo to repay his debt to them, and promises to look after Law (another Worst Generation member he hates) when Luffy asks him to, to the point of being prepared to die defending him if necessary.
• Jesus Taboo:
  • Eneru ran into this problem. In the televised Funimation dub, he was called King instead of God, while Viz went the Dragon Ball route and simply used the untranslated equivalent Kami instead, though they also still occasionally refer to him in a more neutral sense as a god.
  • Played straight with Jesus Burgess being changed to G. Zass Burgess in the Funimation dub.
  • Averted in both cases by the Funimation DVD dub, however.
• Joker Jury: The Eleven Just Jurymen, made up of condemned criminals who vote guilty to take as many others down with them as they can. Also overlaps with Jury of the Damned.
• Jolly Roger: Every pirate crew has a Jolly Roger or "Skull Mark" that is almost invariable based on the skull-and-crossbones design. In most cases, the skull is superimposed over the crossbones rather than above them. For instance, the Straw Hats have their skull wearing a straw hat.
• Journey to the Sky: The first half of the "Skypiea Saga" in One Piece concerns itself with this kind of plot, as the protagonists are attempting to reach the aforementioned Skypiea, which is a island in the sky (floating above a dense mass of clouds). They manage to do so by sailing through a gigantic water spout that is conveniently timed to erupt just below the cloud mass where the island is.
• Justice Will Prevail: The Marines are firm believers. Unfortunately, the vast majority of them are either of the Knight Templar mindset or just terribly misguided. In one memorable moment towards the end of the Battle of Marineford, the Marines undergo a mass Heroic BSoD when faced with the Blackbeard Pirates' immense power. They are snapped out of it by the Fleet Admiral's Rousing Speech about how they must win because justice must never fall — inspiring a number of troops to pursue the retreating survivors of a separate band of pirates that had already been defeated.
  • Earlier in the same arc, Donquixote Doflamingo also claims Justice Will Prevail... but only because history is Written by the Winners and, thus, whoever wins becomes Justice.
• Just Following Orders: While the Marines have their fair share of psychos, monsters, and bastards, there are plenty who are just good guys doing their duty and following their orders (with a rare few willing to simply ignore their orders if they believe that they are too excessive/extreme). Sengoku, T-Bone, and Kaku fit best into this trope.
• Just Friends: Luffy, in his own pure-hearted way, does love Hancock back; the same way he would love and lay down his life for any of his precious friends. Hancock, although aware of this, personally wished it were something more.
• Just One Man: Luffy was able to knock out five hundred Marines at Enies Lobby by himself. Unfortunately, when one of them was trying to report it, he got knocked out just as he said five. This made Spandam underestimate Luffy more than he did already.
  • Luffy knocked out 50,000 Fish-men in one go by glaring at them. The rest of the crew got annoyed because that only left the other 50,000 for the rest to split between them.

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