One Piece / Tropes Q to S

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 (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)

Q

• Quack Doctor: In the past, Dr. Hiruluk is often called a wandering quack doctor who made the life of his patients worse. He's not doing it for conning people, though; he's just really inept at medicine but has a desire to help sick people since he was cured from a heavy illness in the past.
• Quicksand Sucks: Crocodile's Desert Girasole basically leaves Luffy sinking into a large pool of quicksand with seemingly no way of getting out. It's a good thing Miss All-Sunday is around at the time to help. There's also Caribou, who is basically a living swamp that everything sinks into. Said swamp has infinite space to hold things.
• Quirky Doctor:
  • Tony Tony Chopper is a blue-nosed reindeer who ate the Human-Human Fruit, giving him human-level intelligence. But while he's an extremely proficient physician thanks to his tutelage under Dr. Kureha, Chopper often acts like a child years younger than his actual age of 15. He's Easily Impressed and somewhat impressionable, performs a silly dance out of embarrassment whenever he's praised, and is mistaken for the Straw Hat's cotton candy-eating mascot rather than their doctor.
  • Dr. Kureha, Chopper's mentor and Parental Substitute, is a 141 years young doctor with the figure of a supermodel but the face of a wrinkly, old woman. She violently threatens her patients if they don't listen to her and is a habitual drinker. She loves Chopper like the son she never had and uses Reverse Psychology to get him to leave home and see the world while chucking battleaxes at him.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: Numerous, including Baroque Works, CP9 and the Donquixote Family.

R

• Rags to Royalty: The Toy Soldier/Kyros was revealed to be a lowly street thug before eventually marrying Scarlett, Rebecca's mother and becoming a member of royalty.
• Rage Against the Author: In the SBS section, Oda was hit by Nami for discussing her three measures. She also stole his wallet.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Plenty, but the Straw Hat crew quickly stands out especially when they add a reindeer-man, a cyborg and an undead skeleton to their ranks.
• Raised by Rival: A rare consensual example. In the past, some time before the execution of Pirate King Gold Roger, he had a talk with his greatest rival, Marine Vice Admiral Garp, that he had a wife and would-be child, and he trusted Garp enough (being the man who had faced him numerous times in battle) to entrust them to him. Garp agreed to it, because he didn't want to disrespect Roger and he had a plan for the child himself, i.e trying to make him a Marine officer instead of a pirate. Garp would then help Roger's wife, Rouge, with hiding from the masses and witness her birthing her son.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking:
  • Straight plays:
    • Every high-ranking Marine officer. Every one of them.
    • In most pirate crews, the captain is always the most battle-capable member of his or her crew.
  • Subversions:
    • Smoker started as a mere captain and reluctantly rose to commodore. It's been said that he'd have a much higher rank if he were more obedient and wouldn't be played straight for him until the Time Skip, where it was revealed he was promoted to Vice-Admiral.
    • Vice-Admiral Garp actually turned down a promotion to Admiral multiple times. The one time he's shown fighting that isn't against Luffy (and thus likely wasn't his best effort), he was fighting alongside Fleet Admiral Sengoku himself, indicating that the two are very likely on the same level. In fact, Garp's the Marine who was chasing after Gold Roger, and it is repeatedly stated that the two nearly killed each other multiple times, so he's likely close to Whitebeard's level.
    • The World Nobles seem to have virtually-absolute authority over all the people of Sabaody Archipelago, as well as the Holy Land of Mariejois, have the authority to call an admiral and battle fleet if someone ticks them off, and yet they have no fighting ability whatsoever, aside from being allowed to carry guns.
    • Buggy the Clown, post-Impel Down. After freeing a crew of high-level badass pirates from the prison, a series of misunderstandings leads to both them and the Marines assuming that he's a major player, and he plays along out of a mixture of opportunism and fear of disappointing his new crew. Once the prisoners start idolizing him, however, they creatively interpret his habitual cowardice and stupidity in positive ways, landing Buggy with a dedicated crew who are ALL far more dangerous than himself. This is taken to its natural extreme in the One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2 videogame, where a 'Dream Scenario' sees the world divided between three factions: The Marines, the Straw Hat and Whitebeard Alliance, and the Great Pirate Alliance... led by Buggy the Clown. Then in Chapter 1053, it is finally revealed that Buggy has become an Emperor of the Sea.
  • Aversions:
    • Spandam is weaker than your average Mook and yet is the undisputed leader of CP9, even though Lucci disdains him and could snap him in half with one finger. Played Straight after the Time Skip, whereas both Lucci and Spandam now work in CP0 now, Spandam is stated to be in a lower rank than Lucci, presumably a consequence for initiating the Buster Call on the World Government's judicial island.
    • All of the Galley-la foremen in Iceberg's employ are certifiably capable fighters, even those who aren't CP9 agents. Iceberg himself... is just really good at making and repairing ships.
• Rank Up:
  • Captain Smoker gets promoted by the Marines to Commodore. Commodore Smoker is not too happy about his promotion as he feels he didn't deserve it, but he does use his new leverage to operate wherever he wants. Then he's promoted to vice-admiral.
  • Tashigi is promoted five times from Ensign to Captain.
  • Coby goes from Chore Boy to Master Chief Petty Officer after some intense Training from Hell under Garp. After the Time Skip, he's a captain, the same rank as Tashigi, which means he ranked up even faster than her. And as of Chapter 906, Coby is now a Rear Admiral! Only one rank below Smoker himself.
• Rapid Aging: In Chapter 650, Hody and his gang end up turning into old men. Apparently it's one of the side effects of all of those pills they took.
  • Jewelry Bonney's Devil Fruit powers allow her to turn people elderly in an instant.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Luffy's "Gatling" and derived techniques. Also Franky's "Franky Iron Boxing"
• Rasputinian Death: WHITEBEARD. What he goes through simply has to be seen to be believed. Even the Narrator comments on it. Full list: 152 Gunshots, 267 Sword wounds (including one all the way through his chest), 46 cannon balls, and two counts of being impaled by LAVA. And this is from a man who is already very old and on freaking dialysis. Wow. Also, in the manga, HALF HIS FACE IS MELTED OFF! AND HE DIES. STANDING. UP. This may be a reference to Benkei.
• Razor Wind: Many of the attacks in the series, namely Cipher Pol 9's "Rankyaku" and Zoro's "Poundo Hou" and "Tatsumaki" techniques. Mr. 1 is a pretty blatant example, since he can slice things up just by waving his hands. We don't even see any wind.
  • In the anime Razor Winds resemble energy waves of varying colours.
  • Also, Eric the Whirlwind in one of the Filler arcs. If you count those.
• Real Men Don't Cry: Oh yes they do. Many of the manliest men in this series cry when the going gets tough. The biggest example of this is probably the death of Ace, which causes almost every major player on the pirates side of the Paramount War to become instantly demoralized and break into sobs. This includes Marco, Jinbei, and Whitebeard.
• Real Men Eat Meat: Luffy's favorite food.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Sanji has worn pink, and it is Chopper's identifying color. Donquixote Doflamingo wears a pink feathery overcoat, and has proven himself to be pretty badass at the Battle of Marineford. And of course, the manliest of men, Bon Clay.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Kings Nefeltari Cobra and Riku Dold are both good men who care about their people and are completely unburdened with things like arrogance or pomposity. Whether a Marine officer qualifies depends on how much they believe in "Absolute Justice." Smoker and Aokiji are the most fair, Sengoku is hard on pirates but chiefly concerned with the safety of the people, those he considers "innocent" at any rate, and willing to admit when mistakes have been made. When the government refuses to post wanted posters of some escaped prisoners to avoid admitting they escaped, Sengoku resigns in disgust. Garp is the rare case of being an unreasonable authority figure by being too lenient, as one of his subordinates lampshades he can't just report he let Luffy go because he's his grandson.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Arlong is quite fond of giving these to humans to show why Fish-men are superior. Luffy counters by inverting the trope, giving a Reason I Suck Speech stating everything his crew can do that he can't, then adding that the one thing he can do is kick Arlong's ass.
  • Cavendish unleashes one on the tournament spectators who were jeering and screaming for Rebecca's death. He calls them out on their cowardice as it is easy to scream for death from the safety of a spectator's seat, and if they really had a desire to see Rebecca dead, they should have joined the tournament.
• Reclining Reigner: Don Accino in the anime, who's quite chubby and is content to just lie on his sofa thing most of the time. He's very competent in battle though.
• Recruited from the Gutter:
  • Robin was a criminal who asked Luffy for a place on the crew instead of the other way around (Luffy's usual MO). At first it appeared they were just the latest in a long string of criminals she'd associated herself with, but it turns out that she'd been on the lam for 20 years and this was the first time she felt like she had a "home".
  • Zoro probably counts, too. Before he met Luffy, he was a drifter who'd gone out to sea, gotten lost, and couldn't get back home, so he resorted to bounty hunting in order to feed himself. He was imprisoned and on death row by the time he met Luffy, who saved his life and freed him. Zoro became Luffy's first crew member and ever-loyal Number Two as a result.
  • Shiliew is bored to death with Impel Down prison and, when the Blackbeard Pirates break in, he asks to join their crew and they let him in.
  • Luffy specifically recruits Nami to free her from Arlong's rule. That, and he needs a navigator.
  • It's heavily implied that most if not all of the Donquixote Pirates were recruited from extreme poverty, abandonment, and the likes, with most of their childhood appearances looking rough.
  • This is essentially how the entire Franky Family was made: Franky went around Water 7 and beat up punks who tried picking a fight with him, told off the Square Sisters for drinking underage and gave all the jobless, homeless bums around town a home, a job and a purpose for their lives. It's pointed out by Iceburg that this was likely Franky's way of trying to improve Water 7 and make up with his memory of Tom.
• Red Baron: Basically everyone who isn't a civilian or a total weakling.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni:
  • Taken to a pretty much literal sense with Oars and Nightmare Luffy.
  • Dorry and Broggy, who were called the Red and Blue Ogres.
  • Sanji and Zoro have a weird mix of this, with Sanji normally being Red, passionate and romantic, and Zoro being cold and deadpan. When they get into fights, however, Zoro gets his smile on and Sanji quits acting like a fool.
  • Luffy and Zoro, one being hot-headed, headstrong, and wild, with the other being calm, serious, and controlled (most of the time).
  • Orange-haired and red-eyed Nami who gets easily annoyed at the stupidity of the crew, versus black for Robin who laughs at their antics and has only once ever had a Demon Head (at an enemy).
  • With the formation of the Straw Hat Pirates/Heart Pirates alliance, we now have loud, cheerful, Hot-Blooded Luffy as the red to calm, serious, stoic Trafalgar Law's blue.
  • On the Marines' side, there's Garp and Sengoku, with Garp as the Red Oni and Sengoku as the Blue Oni. This is demonstrated further in the anime version of Episode 0, where Garp wears a red tie and Sengoku wears a blue tie.
  • The most obvious pair of them all: Akainu and Aokiji. It's in their code names, for crying out loud!
• Red Shirt Army: All Marines (besides those few with names and/or backstories) are just one big version of this trope.
  • Crews with hordes of unnamed generic members, such as Doflamingo's and Big Mom's, usually have those hordes treated as such.
• Refuge in Audacity: One Piece thrives on this trope. One of your crewmates kidnapped by the World Government? Wage war against them, save your friend, and destroy the place in the process. Think you're safe? Pushing is lethal. A whale in your way? Punch the whale's eye. Luffy has been through all of the listed examples so far, but there is way more than just those, to the point where this trope could be one of the show's major themes.
  • Another Luffy example: Whitebeard says he is going to be King of the Pirates. NOPE! That's Luffy's job. Whitebeard is so impressed and amused that he doesn't even mind Luffy saying that. Luffy would later say this to another Yonko, Big Mom, who had a decidedly more negative reaction.
  • Robin can talk about gruesome fates as easily as she can talk about weather, as she's actually either lived through or witnessed most of them, first hand.
    Robin: Be careful. If you fall, you'll most certainly die.
    Nami: HOW IS THAT SUPPOSED TO HELP?!
• Refused Reunion: In chapter 1053, former shogun Kozuki Sukiyaki (former shogun of Wano and father of Kozuki Oden) turns out to be alive and well, revealing his true identity to Robin and explaining how, after he'd been deposed and imprisoned by Kurozumi Orochi, he broke out about ten years later after Oden's execution and went into hiding, living as the hermit Tenguyama Hitetsu. Now, despite Orochi and Kaido's defeats and Oden's son Momonosuke becoming the new Shogun, Sukiyaki admits that he'd rather stay hidden from his grandchildren because of the shame he feels over his failure to protect Wano.
• Relative Ridicule: Montblanc Cricket and his family have been ridiculed for centuries because Cricket's ancestor, Montblanc Noland was considered a liar about finding the city of gold, Shandora, and was executed for it, with the king that killed him even fabricating a humiliating fairy tale about it. Ever since arriving on the island of Jaya, Cricket has spent his life trying to find proof that Shandora really did exist and that Noland wasn't a liar. All of his efforts finally end up paying off when he hears Luffy ringing the bell up in Skypeia, confirming that Noland really was telling the truth.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming:
  • The franchise gives us Pluton, Poseidon, and Uranus, three ancient and ungodly powerful secret weapons. They're all named after Classical gods, and from the sound of it are meant to evoke the "land, sea, and air" arrangement of Kronos' three sons (Uranus isn't directly named after Zeus, but presumably that would be too obvious).
  • King Neptune and his late wife Otohime are both directly named after mythology; with Neptune being the Roman equivalent to Poseidon and Otohime being the daughter of the Japanese sea-god Ryūjin, fitting a couple of Merfolk. And to tie with the previous point, their daughter Shirahoshi is the current incarnation of Poseidon.
  • Prometheus and Zeus, Big Mom's top homies, are respectively named after a Greek titan that brought fire to mankind and the Greek god of thunder.
  • Also Loki, the Giant Prince of Elbaf, is named after — yep, you guessed it — Loki, the Trickster God of Norse Mythology. Makes sense, considering that Loki was also said to be a Jötunn, which are a race of giants.
    • On the other hand, it is also likely that his name is a reference to Utgard-Loki, a Jötunn whom, unlike the Norse god of mischief, is the ruler of Utgard in Jotunheim, the homeland of the giants.
• Re-Release Soundtrack: One of the ending themes was removed from the US Funimation version due to licensing issues and replaced with the ending that followed it on both the DVD and simulcast. In this case, the actual animation was replaced as well.
• Rescue Arc:
  • The Arlong Park arc, the earliest rescue arc in the series, details the Straw Hats' efforts in trying to free Nami and her village from Arlong's tyrannical enslavement.
  • The Enies Lobby Arc revolves around the Straw Hats trying to save Robin from the clutches of the World Government, who plan on harvesting her knowledge of illegal inscriptions and then killing her for reading them.
  • One Piece Film: Strong World is about the Straw Hats' attempt to rescue Nami from Shiki, who wants to conquer East Blue.
  • The Impel Down arc begins with Luffy's attempt to rescue [his brother Ace from the most fearsome prison in the world.
  • After failing to spring Ace, Luffy decides to bust out of Impel Down (a prison considered impregnable), with an army of over 200 rowdy criminals including two Revolutionaries, two Warlords and Buggy, to head to Marine Headquarters to join the Final Battle and attempt to stop Ace's execution.
  • Luffy and co. venture into Big Mom's territory to rescue Sanji from an arranged marriage between his birth family and the Big Mom Pirates. This begets more rescue attempts as they also rescue Jimbei and Sanji's family from Big Mom's evil plans.
• Retcon: The Armament Haki turning the users' skin or weapons black and shiny was added in after the Time Skip with no explanation given for its lack of existence before the Timeskip; before, it was simply invisible. With so much importance placed on Haki usage in the New World, there needed to be a way to more clearly distinguish when it was being used or not.
• Retired Badass: Red Leg Zeff, Silvers Rayleigh, Shakky, and Doctor Kureha.
• The Reveal: Has its own page.
• Revealing Cover Up: When the denizens of Punk Hazard's attempt to fool Smoker into leaving the island backfires because he's familiar with the island's history.
• Revenge by Proxy: One pirate in the Dressrosa Tournament is after Luffy because of what Garp did to this man and his family years ago.
• Revision:
  • At the end of the Thriller Bark Arc, Lola tells the Straw Hats about her mother, a prominent New World pirate and someone who might help them for her sake. When her mother is properly introduced, not only is she no friend to the Straw Hats, she harbors a fierce hatred for Lola herself over some past grievances. Another of her children explains the discrepancy by indicating that Lola was blissfully unaware of their mother's negative qualities.
  • The pirate crew that Laboon has been waiting for over 50 years for, according to a reliable source Crocus has, quit the Grand Line and tried sailing through the Calm Belt. Later, when the Straw Hats meet a member of said crew, Brook, a flashback reveals a large portion of the crew had caught a deadly virus. The crew then split, with the sick members taking the ship and going into the Calm Belt as a form of Suicide by Cop(or alternatively, banking on the extremely slim chance of escaping) while the healthy members got a new ship and continued on before being wiped out by another pirate crew.
  • When Shanks confronts Whitebeard about Ace's hunt for Blackbeard and tries to get him to call Ace off, Whitebeard bluntly refuses and states that Teach's crimes were unforgivable. A later arc reveals that Whitebeard had already tried to get Ace to let Blackbeard go and Ace didn't listen because he was so enraged by Teach's treachery. Whitebeard and the other members of the crew continue to publicly insist that he ordered Ace to pursue Blackbeard in order to prevent Ace from losing face.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified: Dragon is leading a revolutionary war against the tyrannical, slave-owning, massacre-happy, conspiracy-loving World Government. Fisher Tiger rescues slaves and leads an attack against the incredibly corrupt and decadent nobility. Other revolutionaries are shown freeing Robin from a work camp. The worst thing anyone to do with the Revolution has been shown doing is Ivankov's Gender Bender antics. However, one of the Revolutionaries seems to have just shot someone execution-style in the cover story, usually something that isn't seen as very humane. There is also the fact that the Revolutionaries spread their ideals through warfare, so it seems to zig-zag between this trope and The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized.
• Rewatch Bonus: Where to begin? It's got foreshadowing galore, Easter eggs here and there, and trivial lines that will blow up in your face 500 chapters later. And it all just makes perfect sense and shapes the One Piece world and its characters beyond the first glance. The fandom jokes that Eiichiro Oda (the creator) has the memory of an elephant; You know that one minor character who's seen in one chapter and then forgotten? He'll be back, 400 chapters later, and often in a big way. As for specific examples:
  • In Chapter 13, Luffy seems to conduct a conversation with Shushu, a dog. A conversation where Luffy speaks and Shushu just barks. The reader accepts this as an Acceptable Break from Reality (Luffy and the audience believe Shushu understands, let's apply Bellisario's Maxim and move the story along), subconsciously accepts Shushu as an Intelligible Unintelligible, or just writes it off as Luffy being an idiot. Then, in Chapter 647, it turns out that this might have been the first foreshadowing that Luffy can "hear the voice of all things." This happens again with Laboon in Chapter 105.
  • The Punk Hazard arc stands out, as it's considered the starting point of the Yonkou Saga, where the Straw Hat pirates would meet important allies for the rest of the saga. Aside from the foreshadowing of the Wano Kuni arc, the Punk Hazard has significant character interactions between Law and the Donquixote Family, which become clear during the Dressrosa arc. If you know Law's backstory, Law's interactions in Punk Hazard will hit very differently than originally.
• Ridiculously Alive Undead: Brook, thanks to the revive-revive fruit, is a living skeleton who can get bruised despite lacking skin, and when asked by Luffy, he confirms that he is capable of pooping. He also eats despite lacking a stomach, is shown frequently to be a Dirty Old Man, and like every other devil fruit user, he is weak to sea water.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Chopper. Also baby Laboon in flashbacks, and the Spaceys in Eneru's cover story.
• Ridiculously Fast Construction: At one point during the Thriller Bark arc, Franky, Usopp, Sanji, and Zoro come across a place that they can't jump over. Usopp, Sanji, and Zoro turn around and in about five seconds, they turn back around and see that Franky just built a bridge. Later on, Nami runs across it and remarks how quickly yet well made it looks.
• Right Now Montage: Each chapter has a title page that shows exactly one scene in the life of a character the Straw Hats have met before. Often, these title pages make a story when put together and even reveal some important facts.
• Rightful King Returns:
  • Played with and ultimately subverted in the case of Wapol. By birth, he is the rightful king of Drum Island, and he is returning after he was driven out of the kingdom by pirates. However, he was a tyrant and a coward who fled to save his own skin rather than protect his subjects. The same day he returns, he gets sent flying into the sky by Luffy. His former subordinate Dalton ultimately is elected king after the end of the arc.
  • King Nefertari returns after Luffy has kicked Crocodile's ass and peace has returned to Alabasta.
  • Donquixote Doflamingo retook control of his family kingdom after eight centuries. Like in the case of Wapol, the usually idealistic trope is twisted in his hands, him being evil and those having ruled in his stead good and fair people.
• Right-Hand Hottie: Femme Fatale Kalifa fulfills this role for Iceburg in One Piece just before being revealed as an assassin/spy sent by the world government.
• Right Makes Might: According to the author, those who have stronger convictions will always prevail.
  • Luffy gave up the unwinnable fight and told his friends to run, causing his convictions to drop, and thereby lose them the battle.
  Donquixote Doflamingo: (on the Marineford battle) Justice will prevail, you say? But of course it will... Whoever wins this war, becomes justice!
• Roaring Rampage of Rescue: Luffy on several occasions, but most notably during the Marineford arc, when his Foe-Tossing Charge lasts for several episodes and (amongst other things) sends a giant flying.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge:
  • Whitebeard goes for Akainu with extreme prejudice after Akainu kills Ace.
  • The entire conflict in Dressrosa between Law and Doflamingo is a culmination of 13 years of plotting by Law to get revenge on Doffy for killing Corazon, whom Law idolized.
• Rogues Gallery:
  • While this series isn't in a superhero setting (except for the Chopperman specials), the Straw Hats do face a number of colorful and varied adversaries (some with superpowers, some without) who show up in two or more arcs, including arcs that may fall within the same overall saga, and who oppose them in at least two of those appearances. To date, foes who fit the bill include other pirates such as Buggy the Clown, "Iron Mace" Alvida (both before and after she got her Devil Fruit, the second time in a Villain Team-Up with Buggy), Foxy the Silver Fox (if you include his anime-only appearances), Charlotte "Big Mom" Linlin, and the Blackbeard Pirates; Marines such as Smoker, "Black Cage" Hina, Vice-Admiral Momonga, Aokiji, Kizaru, and Akainu; and World Government operatives such as Dracule Mihawk, Sir Crocodile and the agents of his secret Baroque Works crew (specifically the Mr. 5 team, which serves as main antagonists in two arcs), the Cipher Pol 9 agents, Bartholomew Kuma, Gecko Moria, and Donquixote Doflamingo. Of those listed here, though, circumstances may change their standing on the list, since Mihawk is a Noble Demon and semi-Friendly Enemy who only opposes the Straw Hats and other pirates by virtue of him being one of the Shichibukai, Smoker eventually becomes more of a Reasonable Authority Figure whose only real reason for continuing to (officially) pursue the Straw Hats is because they're pirates, Aokiji only opposes the Straw Hats due to his position as an Admiral up until his defection from the Marines, Buggy and Crocodile enter into an Enemy Mine situation with Luffy during the Summit War Saga, and Bartholomew Kuma is more of a Stealth Mentor rather than being truly malicious.
  • On the flip side, any pirate or other criminal who has a bounty poster (including the Straw Hats themselves) counts as being part of a Rogues Gallery for the Marines.
  • In the series' Chopperman specials, where Chopper is cast as a superhero, he gets a cast of regular enemies to fight, based on the other members of the crew: Dr. Usodabada (Usopp), Zorogilla (Zoro), Sanjilops (Sanji), Robiflowan (Robin), and the Luffy-Bomber (Luffy) and Frangashan (Franky) mecha. Amusingly, the Luffy-Bomber does a Heel–Face Turn in his first appearance.
• Royally Screwed Up: The World Nobles, otherwise known as the Tenryuubito (or "Celestial Dragons"). In particular, we meet a family of three World Nobles, St. Rosward and his children, St. Charlos and St. Shalulia. Their only claim to influence is being the direct descendants of kings who founded the One Piece-verse's World Government. However, that claim allows them to perform atrocities ranging from shooting people for having the gall to speak to them directly to randomly naming women on the street as the newest additions to their long lines of wives (and sending the ones they're tired of back to the common folk) with absolutely no fear of retribution as the government will sic a Marine Admiral, complete with fleet, on anybody who dares defy them. Not that Luffy cared.
  • Hell, they're even above monarchs of the countries that encompass the World Government, yet they do no actual governing at all. Lesser nobles of such countries with monarchs of a similar mindset are willing to do anything to impress them in hopes that they will use their authority to up their status as nobles. One notable instance of this was Goa Kingdom, the place where Luffy and Sabo were born, and the place where they and Ace were raised.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something:
  • Vivi, who infiltrated Baroque Works as a bounty hunter to figure out who was trying to bring down her country, and who later joins forces with the Straw Hats to save it from Crocodile.
  • Queen Otohime of Fish-Man Island makes time in her day to be a mother-of-four, schoolteacher, rescue worker, and activist.
  • Ricky/King Riku secretly participated in the Corrida tournament to win the Mera Mera Fruit to overthrow Doflamingo. Likewise, his granddaughter Rebecca is doing the same and manages to win the D round to advance to the finals. And then there is Violet/Viola, Riku's daughter who is a mole and is helping the Straw Hats against Doflamingo.
  • The royal Vinsmoke Family of Germa Kingdom actually participates in battles against enemy forces. Expect nothing less from Sanji’s family.
• Rubber Man: Monkey D. Luffy is a particularly literal example, in that he can't truly shapeshift like some Rubber Men, but he can stretch any part of his body to ridiculous lengths, is extremely resistant to electrical and blunt-force attacks, and uses rubber's natural "snap-back" in most of his attacks.
• Rubber Orifice:
  • Luffy is the Rubber Man and a Big Eater. Combine the two, and you can regularly see him eating party-sized portions of food at once.
  • Wapol is an Extreme Omnivore (the only thing he can't eat is Seastone). He can easily stretch out his mouth to eat objects as big as a house.
• Rugged Scar: Invoked by Luffy, who gave himself a scar under his eye in honor of his hero Shanks. Shanks himself has a claw mark scar over his eye from his fight with Blackbeard.
• Rule 34: Quite a bit of it, mostly involving Nami and Robin.
• Rule 63: Though a normal rule of the Internet, this one bears special notice in that ever since the introduction of Ivankov's ability to pull a Gender Bender at-will and Oda's illustrated response◊ to a fan question as to what it would look like if applied to the main cast, there has been an absolute deluge of gender-flipped art on the Internet, and Oda has only himself to blame.
• Rule of Cool: Do most of the Devil Fruit powers make sense or follow any sort of physics? No. Are they cool? Yes. On a more wide range, the series itself seems to run on this at times. And it is awesome.
• Rule of Funny: Tons of things. For one, it's the only reason that Chopper and Brook always jump in to save Luffy when he falls overboard, despite the fact that not only do they share his Super Drowning Skills, one was never able to swim in the first place and the other has had them longer than the other two combined.
• Run or Die: Pre-Time Skip (and sometimes post-Time Skip), this is what to do if an Admiral shows up.
• Running Gagged: Usopp's lies. This slowly starts fading out due to his Character Development. In the beginning, Usopp lies often and sometimes for no good reason. Now, he lies rarely and usually has a battle plan whenever he does.
  • Until you realize that his lies have become a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. For example, he lies about fighting a dragon (which comes true in the Punk Hazard arc), he lies about fighting a three-headed dog (the Thriller Bark arc), and he lies about a giant goldfish (one shows up at the end of the Little Garden arc).
• Running Gag: Numerous. A significant amount passes over into Brick Joke-territory.
  • For example, Luffy and Usopp's impersonations of various characters, mostly crewmates.
  • Whenever Chopper meets someone, chances are they'll mistake him for a raccoon dog, despite his antlers.
    • Or they'll mistake him for something else, depending on what form he's taking at the time.
  • During the Enies Lobby arc, characters will shout angrily whenever they happen to run into Franky, apparently forgetting that he already made a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Nami has a bad habit of fighting Devil Fruit users that end up making her flat-chested in some way. Kalifa smooths out her curves, Giolla makes her completely flat, and Ain reduces her to a child's age.
  • Whenever Luffy meets a character from a different species (like a living skeleton or a mermaid) he asks "Do you poop?".
  • Luffy has a terrible habit of accidentally hurting Zoro when using his abilities. Doesn't matter whether Zoro is awake, in combat, or asleep, he'll get struck by an oblivious Luffy who didn't think his plan through.
  • Luffy's terrible drawing skills, to the point of kind of making people uncomfortable, or making folks super embarrassed when he's trying to help them. It was heartwarming when he drew his Jolly Roger on Laboon, but since then he's freaked the crew out trying to draw his ideal shipwright in Water Seven, and humiliated Foxy by drawing a new Jolly Roger for him, among other things.
  • Since the Timeskip, Franky's able to instantly change the style of his hair with the push of a button(the button being his nose). In every arc since, he's given himself a new outrageous hairstyle.
  • If you see Luffy, Law and Kidd together, expect all three to start bickering with each other.
  • The Celestial Dragon Saint Charlos is starting to become one. To elaborate: the guy tries to get a mermaid slave, gets beated for it, and doesn't seems to learn anything from the experience, as he tries to do it again.

S

• Sand Is Water: In the Alabasta arc, there's an anime filler where we see a ship that, you guessed it, sails on the sand as if it was water.
• Sand In My Eyes: When Franky hears the story of why Usopp wanted to fix Merry, he and his two girls start to cry Manly Tears. When Usopp calls them out on it, Franky says: "I'm not crying dammit!"
• Sarcastic Confession: In the G8 filler, when a captured Zoro was being interrogated by the Marines about how he snuck into the fortress. Zoro tells them in a bored voice that he fell from the sky.
• Satellite Family Member:
  • Bell-mère's role consist solely of being a good parent to her adopted daughters Nami and Nojiko and dying to set up their backstory.
  • Zeff's role to be a good father figure (and foster father) to Sanji, which Vinsmoke Judge failed to provide due to his It's All About Me mindset. Zeff was a major influence for the type of man Sanji grew up to be.
  • Played for Drama in case of Sanji's mother Sora and brothers. Their role was only being pawns in Judge's own ambitions. Sora wanted to rescue her sons from becoming monsters but succeeded only with Sanji. It's Invoked Trope with Sanji's brothers: he wanted to make them in his own image so they're The Dividual.
• Save the Villain:
  • Downplayed in Alabasta. Luffy carries Robin (who had saved Luffy's life twice before, but was the mole right-hand woman of Big Bad Crocodile) out of the collapsing tomb, despite her being resigned to death after her last lead on the Rio Poneglyph turned out to be useless. She reasons that as he forced her to live when she wanted to die, and she has no place to go or return, he should let her in his crew, and he does.
  • Luffy has Zoro rescue Smoker before the lot of them drowns. Luffy says he doesn't think Smoker's a bad guy despite the fact that he is ruthlessly hunting down the entire Straw Hat crew across the Grand Line. Indeed, Smoker is actually the good guy since the Strawhats are pirates and as a Marine it is Smoker's job to hunt them down.
• Say My Name: A regular occurrence, mainly when a character is shocked or pissed enough, or injured in front of their friends. Specific examples include:
  • Moria's reaction to seeing Luffy again after his humiliation at Thriller Bark.
  • When Usopp asked Silvers Rayleigh about what the titular One Piece is and whether it exists, Luffy, who vehemently refuses to learn anything about it ahead of time, screamed his friend's name at the top of his lungs before he could even finish his sentence.
  • Luffy is generally fond of screaming his enemies' names after they piss him off enough.
  • After Nami hits her Rage Breaking Point when her village goes to fight Arlong, she stabs her tattoo whilst screaming Arlong's name repeatedly.
• Scare the Dog: One of the first memorable moments is Shanks scaring off a giant eel to cement how much of badass he is. Later Luffy does it similarly with a bison. Much later, it's revealed what they did was a form of Haki that only a select few are capable of doing.
• Scars Are Forever: Plenty of examples. The most prominent ones come from Luffy, below his left eye, and Zoro, the huge scar he got from Mihawk early on. After the timeskip, they got even more of them.
• Scary Shiny Glasses:
  • Captain Kuro.
  • Admiral Kizaru, though he's very cheery. Unfortunately, almost every pirate is afraid of this guy and that's before having some knowledge about what he can actually do.
  • Kuma manages to pull this off in the anime despite the fact that he's technically not wearing glasses.
  • Rayleigh in the anime.
• Scary Stinging Swarm:
  • In the Jaya arc, the South Bird that Luffy and Chopper are chasing drops a beehive and a wasp's nest on them, one after the other.
  • One of the dwarves in Dressrosa has this as a Devil Fruit power.
• Scenery Dissonance: A Type 2 example. Near the end of Dressrosa arc, the battle of Dressrosa is over, and the kingdom is in ruins. Yet, by the next day, the citizens are happily resuming their lives and rebuilding the city, and even throw a small celebration over the heroes (our protagonist group) who saved the country from being utterly destroyed.
• Schizo Tech: In a world with relatively old-fashioned technology (we're talking sailing boats and flintlocks), we have things like cyborgs that are capable of firing laser beams from their mouths, though this is Hand Waved by saying that the mind behind said laser-firing cyborgs is several centuries ahead of its time.
  • Franky was sent by Kuma to a futuristic winter island where the mind in question was born.
  • They also apparently have flat-screen TVs and stereo speakers. Seriously.
  • It's a wonder what snails can do.
  • Justifiable -, most of the islands are separated by wild weather, sea kings, and wonky magnetic fields. One region's advances take a long time to spread except when it is beneficial for the World Government or Marines, who can bypass those obstacles.
• Scissors Cuts Rock: Luffy, being a rubber man, is immune to Eneru's electricity-based powers. However, Eneru finds ways to hurt Luffy anyway by applying electricity indirectly, culminating in his tossing Luffy overboard with a gigantic gold sphere attached to his wrist serving as an anchor. Luffy defeats Eneru as soon as he gets out of the mess, but Eneru did turn what should've been a Curb-Stomp Battle into one where he had the edge.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Beautiful!: Boa Hancock. That is, until Luffy comes along.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Several characters end up doing what is right over what is ordered of them. The Straw Hat nearly always defy the current way of things because it makes a friend suffer. Likewise, some Marines bend the rules because their codes trump orders they know are wrong.
  • One of the big no-nos in the One Piece world is to attack a World Noble. Luffy, despite having been warned several times to not do it and having promised to let them be, ends up doing that exactly to save his friends Camie and Hachi which bites him in the ass because Admiral Kizaru comes to hunt down the Straw Hats.
  • Then Vice Admiral Kuzan (Aokiji) disregarded the orders of apprehending every Ohara citizen and allowed a young Robin to escape because he wouldn't go so low as to kill a child.
  • At the end of the Alabasta Arc, Captain Smoker lets Luffy go despite being a pirate, because he knows Luffy's working to save the country from Crocodile.
  • Jimbei after Luffy's fight with Hody, as he gives Luffy a blood transfusion despite Fish-Man Island's law that Fish-men are not allowed to give blood to humans. Jimbei justifies this by noting that he's a pirate, and acts outside the law anyway. However, it's made clear that after the events of the arc thus far, none of the Fish-men are really interested in enforcing that law anymore, least of all against the guy most responsible for saving Fish-Man Island and everyone on it.
  • Admiral Fujitora also lets Luffy escape and exposes Doflamingo's scheme to the world at the end of the Dressrosa arc because he is disgusted by Doflamingo and is aware that Luffy has saved the country.
• Sdrawkcab Name: Elbaf is reverse for Fable.
  • The Viz translation missed this and Romanized the land as "Elbaph".
• Seadog Peg Leg:
  • As a series about pirates, it inevitably has an example in the form of "Red Leg" Zeff, a retired pirate whose kicking strength was legendary (and still is fairly strong nowadays), but he had to sacrifice one of his legs in order to eat it so he wouldn't die from hunger while stranded on a desert island with a young Sanji, who had all the "regular" food.
  • The main antagonist of the tenth movie One Piece Film: Strong World, Shiki, is a legendary pirate with two swords replacing both his legs (which he had to cut in order to escape jail). It was not a big deal for him though, thanks to his floating powers.
• Sea Monster: The Sea Kings. They are HUGE, see for yourself◊.
  • That little spec on the big one's nose? That's a pirate ship.
• Secret Art: Rokushiki (Six Powers). Known only to CP9 and certain Marine officers.
• Selective Enforcement: During the Davy Beck arc, the Straw Hat pirates have to play games against the Foxy pirates. One of their biggest disadvantages is that the referee is a member of the Foxy pirates who ignores any and all fouls committed by his side while making sure the Straw Hats can't get away with the same things.
• Self-Deprecation: In one of the specials, Oda created a character for himself. His defining moment makes him look like an idiot and he even gets beat up by, of all people, the quartet of Buggy, Hatchan, Jango and Bon Clay.
• Self-Duplication: Nico Robin acquires the ability to do this during the Time Skip.
• Self-Punishment Over Failure: After Luffy and Zoro defeats the corrupt and megalomaniac Marine Captain Morgan, his subordinate Lt. Ripper decides not to capture them, but tells them to go away from the island. While they're grateful to our protagonists for doing what they did, because they're still pirates and Ripper intentionally let them go, he then punished himself, along with his subordinates, with no lunch for a week.
• Semantic Superpower: All of the Devil Fruits seem to have no real upward limit on how they can be used, save for the user's imagination. It's specifically stated that Devil Fruit abilities never grow stronger with use; their users grow more creative. For just one example, Kalifa's Bubble-Bubble Fruit. At first glance, the ability to control bubbles doesn't seem that interesting, but it lets her use soap bubbles to clean off not just dirt, but somehow a person's power too, reducing their strength and turning their bodies into weird doll-like shapes with reduced friction.
• Senseless Sacrifice: This is performed by the elite guards of Arabasta who drank the hero water (a drink that makes you incredibly powerful at cost of killing you in 5 minutes) just to save the princess from the Big Bad. He just stood on the rooftop of the palace and waited until they died, unwilling to fight against them just because they did it.
  • A non-lethal, comical variant, where if Luffy fell into the water, Chopper, followed by Brook, would jump in to rescue him, forgetting that they are also Devil Fruit users and cannot swim, either. Zoro or another crewmate usually saves them each time.
  • Another non-lethal, but less comical, version happens in the Water Seven arc. As the Sea Train is heading towards Enies Lobby with Franky and Nico Robin, the two people who can revive the ancient weapon Pluton (Franky has the blueprints while Robin can read Poneglyphs), Franky joins up with Sanji and "Sogeking"/Usopp to save Robin, who's held at the front of the train. Since they can't defeat the CP9 agents guarding her, Franky opts to separate the engine and front car from the rest of the train while said agents are in the former and Sanji, Robin and Sogeking are in the latter. As Franky demonstrates later, he has the blueprints on his person and can destroy them if necessary, so in theory, this would result in CP9 leaving empty-handed. Unfortunately, Blueno's Devil Fruit powers enable him to create a door bridging the gap between the two cars, allowing him to take Robin back. In the end, Franky's sacrifice to save Robin only resulted in CP9 temporarily escaping with both of them.
• Sent Into Hiding:
  • Portgas D. Ace's mother Rouge held him for twenty months in her womb just to make sure the public won't know he's the son of her lover, Pirate King Gold Roger. Because of the stigma that a pirate's son will Turn Out Like His Father let alone him being the son of Roger and that the Marines, after Roger's death, started a witch-hunt of every woman ever affiliated with him, searching for the possibility of an offspring. This costs her her life.
  • As a favor of Roger himself to his rival, Vice Admiral Garp, the latter also tried to keep Ace hidden and was there when Rouge gave birth to him. Then he brought Ace to his hometown in East Blue and got Curly Dadan to raise him (along with the young Luffy) with the intention of making them Marine officers. Ace himself also tends to go by his mother's maiden surname rather than his dad's.
  • As far as those who live in the territories of the World Government know, the Five Elders are the highest authority in the world. But the Reverie Arc revealed the existence of someone who the Five Elders answer to: Imu. Imu's existence is kept secret to maintain the lie that there is no singular ruler of the world.
• Serial Escalation:
  • At first glance, the search for One Piece, the fabled titular treasure of the deceased Pirate King Gol D. Roger, seems like a But Not Too Challenging endeavor that any chivalrous pirate could undertake. Nonetheless, as the story unfolds, the stakes get higher, and the implications of discovering and seizing the mysterious One Piece and the title of Pirate King become more profound. It is apparent from the outset that the task is not as straightforward as it appears, as Mihawk himself implies to Luffy while they are in the East Blue.
  • The achievements Luffy does that increase his bounty become more and more ludicrous as his adventure progresses. ^note Luffy's first bounty of 30,000,000 was due to him defeating the top three pirates of his home sea. The second bounty of 100,000,000 was the result of him defeating a Warlord of the Sea. The third bounty of 300,000,000 was because of him openly declaring war on the World Government, defeating two of their top spies, and destroying one of their strongholds. The fourth bounty of 400,000,000 was because he defeated another Warlord, broke in and out of the government's maximum-security prison (taking over 200 prisoners with him), participated in the Battle of Marineford, and was recognized as the brother of a division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, the grandson of a Navy Vice Admiral, and the son of the most dangerous man in the world. The fifth bounty of 500,000,000 was due to him forming an alliance with another notorious rookie pirate and defeating an infamous underworld broker and among the most powerful of the Warlords. The sixth bounty of 1,500,000,000 was the result of him being recognized as the brother of the Revolutionary Army's second-in-command, becoming the captain of a massive seven-division fleet of 5,000+ men, infiltrating the territory of one of the Four Emperors, attempting to assassinate said emperor, and defeating two of her three top brass. Finally, the seventh and most recent bounty of 3,000,000,000 was due to him not only defeating another of the Four Emperors and the man deemed "the strongest creature alive", but also due to the revelation of him being the newest incarnation of Joy Boy.
  • Each Finishing Move Luffy uses to knock out each Big Bad is more over the top and devastating than the last, as is how much damage he takes before managing to pull off said finishing move. ^note For clarification, Arlong, the first major villain of the series, is defeated by Gum-Gum Battle Axe, an immensely powerful downward kick. Crocodile is defeated by Gum-Gum Storm, a flurry of punches akin to Gum-Gum Gatling. Eneru is defeated by Gum-Gum Rifle, which increases the velocity of Luffy's punch. Rob Lucci is defeated by Gum-Gum Jet Gatling, which is an enhanced Gum-Gum Gatling. Gecko Moria is defeated by Gum-Gum Giant Jet Shell, which combines elements of Gears Second and Third. While there is no major defeat in the Marineford Arc, One Piece: Pirate Warriors has Luffy defeat Akainu with Gum-Gum Giant Gatling, an enlarged version of Gum-Gum Gatling. Hody Jones is defeated by Gum-Gum Elephant Gatling, which combines Gum-Gum Gatling with Gear Third and Haki. Donquixote Doflamingo is defeated by Gum-Gum King Kong Gun, a massive, Haki-coated version of Gum Gum Giant Pistol. Charlotte Katakuri is defeated by Gum-Gum King Cobra, which has Luffy wrap his arm around him before slamming it into his opponent. Lastly, Kaido is defeated by Gum-Gum Bajrang Gun, a much larger version of Gum-Gum King Kong Gun (as in, Luffy's fist is now the size of Onigashima).
  • The opponents Luffy and his crew face get more and more challenging as their journey progresses. To clarify:
    • The first saga of the story had pirate captains of Luffy's home sea as the main villains. And with one exception, none of them had Devil Fruits. After entering the Grand Line, Luffy faced his first real challenges in Crocodile, a Warlord of the Sea, and Eneru, both of whom were only defeated because of Luffy finding vital weaknesses of theirs. Afterwards, Luffy fought assassin Rob Lucci and fellow Warlord Gecko Moria—people that forced Luffy to use Gears Second and Third to defeat both of them. The final opponent Luffy fought with his crew before the Time Skip was the Pacifista in Sabaody, an opponent that Luffy couldn't defeat on his own—and that was just one Pacifista out of many.
    • After the Time Skip, Luffy managed to easily defeat a Pacifista—the enemy that gave him and his crew a hard time two years ago—with a single punch. Then, he fought Hody Jones, who gave Luffy a slightly more difficult challenge before his defeat. Upon entering the New World, Luffy's first major opponent was Doflamingo, a Warlord so powerful, he considers attacks from Luffy's previous Gears to be ticklish. It's only when Luffy activates Gear Fourth for the first time that he manages to defeat Doflamingo. Afterwards, Luffy fought Charlotte Katakuri, one of right-hand men of one of the Four Emperors. Luffy managed to defeat him by slowly matching him in power before unleashing another form of Gear Fourth on him. The major opponent that Luffy defeated in the Wano arc was Kaido, an Emperor. Even at his full power, Luffy is still unable to defeat him. However, things change when Luffy manages to awaken his Devil Fruit and unlock Gear Fifth, allowing him to easily turn the tables against Kaido and defeat him.
• Sewing Needle Sword: One of the Tontatta Dwarves, Leo, uses a needle as a sword, which he mainly uses in conjunction with his Devil Fruit, the Nui Nui no Mi (Sew-Sew Fruit), a Paramecia Devil Fruit that allows him to stitch things together without the need of a physical thread.
• Sexy Silhouette: After easily incapacitating Nami who interrupted her bubble bath, Kalifa proceeds to taunt Nami by slowly getting out of her bath and slowly getting dressed behind a screen where her naked silhouette is shown.
• Sexy Surfacing Shot: In the "Glorious Island" special there is a close-up shot of Nami rising from the water in a bikini and sitting up in the border of the pool floating in the ocean.
• Shadow Walker: Variation. Gecko Moria can detach his shadow which can move freely far away from him. He can then teleport to switch places with it. This is used to reach great distances safely as well as acting as decoy.
• Sham Wedding: Sanji gets roped into a sham wedding as part of a political deal between his father Judge and Big Mom. However, Big Mom planned on double-crossing Judge the entire time and tried to have her daughter Pudding assassinate Sanji at the altar. But these plans went to hell after Sanji complimented Pudding's third eye, which made her break down as Bege attempted to assassinate Big Mom.
• Shapeshifter Guilt Trip: Double Subverted. Sanji has no problem kicking Mr. 2 around when he looks like Usopp, but the minute he transforms into Nami...
• Shapeshifting: All Zoan fruits do this, allowing the user to shift between their natural form, a particular animal form, and a hybrid of the two. Chopper is notable in that his Rumble Ball temporarily grants him further variations. Some Paramecia fruits grant similar powers, most notably Mr. 2 Bon Clay's, which lets him transform into other people.
• Shapeshifting Heals Wounds: Tamago of the Big Mom Pirates can only transform into a new form when his previous one has been beaten, becoming progressively more like a giant rooster as he goes. Naturally, once he's taken on the new transformation, any injuries he's incurred from the previous one disappear.
• Shared Signature Move:
  • Most of the members of CP9 have their own unique variants of the Rokushiki techniques when the martial art first appears. Some of these have since been re-used by other world government agents, such as Who's Who using Lucci's Shigan Madara.
  • In the Paramount War arc, a major Wham Shot occurs when Blackbeard uses Whitebeard's signature earthquake-causing punch, revealing he has somehow stolen the latter's powers
• Share the Male Pain: When Nico Robin tried to shanghai Franky into joining the Strawhat Pirates by grabing and squeezing his balls, everyone watching, men and women, felt bad for him, especially Chopper, who said it was painful to even watch.
• Shark Man: Any shark-type Fish-man, Arlong and Hody being prime examples.
• She's All Grown Up: In the Dressrosa arc, Koala, the slave girl that Fisher Tiger rescued, makes a reappearance◊.
• Shipper on Deck: The two managers of Blue Station in the Water 7 Arc apparently ship Paulie/Nami.
• Ship Sinking: All of them; Oda says that there are no canon relationships and never will be, with the sole exception to date coming so far out of left field that there was really no time for shipping to occur.
• Ship Tease: Being in a world with No Hugging, No Kissing, this was bound to happen.
  • Sanji and Zoro get loads of Ho Yay scenes and filler has no problem having them sleeping with their faces an inch apart or having them Almost Kiss twice.
    • Sanji in general tends to be involved in a lot of the Ship Tease due to the fact that he flirts with every single pretty woman he sees and quickly falls for those who treat him nicely. The most prominent ship tease comes from Sanji/Nami, but other big ones include Sanji/Viola, Sanji/Pudding, Sanji/Cossette... and it goes on. And then there's the Sanji/Usopp and aforementioned Sanji/Zoro Ho Yay.
  • Even in canon. There's Franky/Robin, Usopp/Kaya, Luffy/Nami, Zoro/Nami, Sanji/Nami, Vivi/Kohza, and Zoro/Robin… hell, it's apparently possible for everyone in the crew to be shipped with everyone else...
  • In fact, Zoro and Nami have a lot of Belligerent Sexual Tension. Add in Nami the Tsundere and Zoro the Jerk with a Heart of Gold and you have a winner.
  • Nami isn't Tsundere towards Usopp, but instead she's been seen to be quite fond of Usopp from times to times. She wept after he left during the Enies Lobby arc and was the most adamant to defend him against Zoro when he came back. She also buried his face in her chest when they meet each other after the Time Skip. The way they also comment on how they have developed gender-wise ("You have become a little manlier, Usopp!", "I see you have blossomed too, Nami.") is not too common for two friends to do.
  • Luffy/Hancock made fun of this and Mary Sue fan characters in general, apparently. It's very easy to ship them together since Hancock is unambiguously madly in love with Luffy, but Luffy, being Luffy, never noticed, or is simply not interested. He even blatantly said "I'm not gonna marry you!" at one point… Doesn't stop her trying to get him, though.
  • There's even Usopp/Perona for the fact that Usopp called Perona "cute" at some point of their fight and also being the only man besides Moria to tame her bossy personality to the point of making her call him "Usopp-sama", something not even Zoro or Mihawk could do during the 2 years timeskip; bonus points for the rather suggestive way Perona floated through Usopp and how the Usopp vs Perona fight ended: he left her tied to a bed covered with a sticky substance and completely passed out.
  • In Chapter 643, Robin says she "can't turn down a request from a handsome man." The handsome man in question? Jimbei!
  • In Chapter 673 there was a moment where Robin lets Franky rest his head on her lap, a gesture that's considered even more intimate in Japan.
  • In the SBS for Volume 48, Oda was asked who would fill which roles if the Straw Hats were an official family. He answered that Robin and Franky would be the mom and dad to the rest of the Straw Hat crew, with the exception of Grandpa Brook.
  • In the SBS for Volume 76, Oda was asked what the Straw Hats would be if they weren't pirates (or the obvious jobs like cook for Sanji and doctor for Chopper). He answered that Franky would be a pilot and Robin would be a cabin attendant, implying that the two of them would still be working close together even if they weren't pirates.
  • During Chapter 800/early Zou, Franky and Robin can be seen wearing matching shirts and booty shorts and sitting together.
  • There is also some involving Nami/Luffy. For example, whenever Luffy leaves his straw hat behind before fighting an opponent, he always gives it to Nami for safekeeping. Also, there have been times where Nami's been in danger and the person she thinks about the most is Luffy (examples come from Strong World Movie). Justified in how he is the captain, strongest member of the crew, and therefore the most likely person to be able to save her. To extend on this, there was a small moment at the end of the Alabasta Arc in which the Straw Hat Crew went to the hot springs, and when Usopp and Sanji want to peek on the girls (Nami and Vivi), Luffy comes along with them. That's not all; when Nami notices them, she does the Happiness Punch attack (in which she shows herself naked), and Luffy reacts along with them, complete with slight nosebleed. This is Luffy we're talking about, whose only canon lovers consist of meat and adventure, and if we take into account that he did not react with perversion at all when seeing Hancock, the in-universe sexiest woman alive, then that says tons. Although considering what Word of God has said about the manga, he might just be messing with his fans a bit. In one of the latest chapters, she actually hugged him when they meet again after being separated for an entire arc. It also wasn't lost on some fans that Luffy appears to be sitting with his arm casually resting behind Nami's back on the 20th anniversary manga cover.
  • Robin and Chopper also have plenty of this sort of interaction, if you squint. They share a cotton-candy Indirect Kiss during Davy Back Fight, hang out around Water 7 more than they do with anyone else in the crew (before and after her disappearance, at least), and he too gets to rest his head on her lap on more than one occasion. He was of course distraught when he thought she was kidnapped again, while she very vehemently opposed to Franky making faces in Chopper's body. Given that she is nearly twice his age and that he is not really human to begin with, this likely means nothing, but hey, it's cute.
  • Sanji and Nami inevitably get this as well, mostly because he blatantly lusts after her (like every other woman) and she occasionally responds with friendliness rather than irritation — usually when she's trying to manipulate him, if he's cooked for her, or if he's protecting her. However, the Zou Arc and Totland Arc are both filled with more ship tease than usual; Nami appears to be the one most distraught about him leaving to get married and is almost as vocal as Luffy when it comes to defending his actions. And upon seeing him again? She says: "Sanji!...I was so worried we wouldn't see each other again!".
    • This freaking panel broke the Sanji x Nami shippers' minds almost immediately. It also helps that the very next panel seems to show Pudding looking at them with envy.
  • Sanji and Charlotte Pudding in the Totland Arc, which is natural seeing as how they were put into an Arranged Marriage. They're both chefs and seem to click immediately with one another. And despite Oda's infamous No Hugging, No Kissing philosophy, for all intents and purposes they become an Official Couple in Chapter 845 when Sanji gives up the idea of running away and decides to marry her. This particular ship, however, appeared to be sunk even deeper than usual when she turns out to be a sadistic psychopath who was planning to murder him. But then the tease comes BACK in full force later on when he makes her genuinely smile and cry after complimenting her "freaky" Third Eye when no one else would. And even though she tries shooting him to fulfill her duty to Big Mom, a few chapters later, she appears jealous when Sanji catches Nami in his arms and smiles at her! (Which is also fuel for that ship at the same time)
  • In Chapter 806, Wanda, the dog mink says that Brook is very popular among the canine minks because they are very fond of bones. Seems harmless enough; dogs love bones! Her facial expression suggests otherwise.
  • Luffy/Reiju has some right off the bat from her introduction... mostly because she technically ends up being Luffy's First Kiss when she gives him a Kiss of Life to suck poison out of his body. Granted, it was just to save his life, but the blatantly flirtatious way she did it wasn't lost on the shipping community.
  • Zoro and Hiyori get a Meet Cute when he saved her life, a Sleep Cute that made Brook jealous and due to Cast Herd, she's his companion for most of Wano.
• Shōnen: One of the more well-known.
• Shonen Hair: Notably absent. Although Luffy arguably has one, it looks pretty normal compared to other shonen hairs.
  • Gladius from the Dressrosa Arc has literal giant spikes for hair. Using his powers, he can actually weaponize them.
• Shooting Superman: One would think that by this point, everyone would know that trying to hurt Luffy with a bullet would be almost suicidal. Especially since the bullet might come back and shoot you instead.
  • After the Time Skip, he can absorb an enemy's attack and return it with twice the power.
  • It's not just Luffy. The Marines also have a habit of desperately firing their guns/cannons at Logia users, who usually just stand there amused and let them fire away. Special mention goes to Kamakiri, who knows full well that Enel is an electricity Logia yet attacks him head on anyway.
• Shout-Out: See this page here
• Shower Scene: Nami has had these during filler and in Thriller Bark. She even develops a technique for it over the time skip.
• Show, Don't Tell: The series subtly but effectively establishes how insignificant Luffy's 100 million berry bounty is in the grand scheme of things when Rockstar, a newbie in Shanks' crew, tries bragging about his 94 million berry bounty on Whitebeard's flagship, only to find that no one has heard about him. It later turns out that the division commanders have bounties in the hundreds of millions, while Whitebeard's bounty was over 5 billion berries.
• Shown Their Work: Oda frequently incorporates real life phenomena into his work that's usually pretty close to the original event or story, minus some typical One Piece shonen exaggeration. Examples include the Going Merry's Klabautermann spirit and the Brocken Spectre as the source of the giant shadows seen early in the Skypeia arc. Even something as mundane as the Marines' saluting palm-inward is derived from real naval practices which were done to avoid showing tar-stained hands to superiors.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!:
  • At the turning point of the CP9 saga, when the Straw Hat pirates face off with the leader of a secret government agency.
    Spandam: Look at that symbol, pirates! *point to the flag of the world government* That mark represents the unity of over 170 nations! This is the world! Do you understand how insignificant you are to stand against us!!?
    Luffy: I understand very well. Sogeking, shoot that flag.
  • Also happens in the Arlong Park arc where Arlong starts condescendingly bragging about how superior the Fish-men race is to humans after breaking a stone pillar with his teeth. Luffy tells him to shut it after shattering the remainder of the stone pillar with his fist, saying that it's no big deal as he can easily shatter stone himself, and he doesn't need to use his teeth. He drives it further, saying that trying to break things with one's teeth is just plain stupid.
• Signature Laugh: There are many, many characters in the series that possess their own unique laugh; especially villains.
• Signature Team Transport: Most crews have one, each having a particular design for their ship. And then, there's Going Merry and Thousand Sunny for the Straw Hats.
• Significant Birth Date: Luffy's birthday is on Children's Day (May 5), Usopp's is April Fool's Day, and Chopper's is Christmas Eve. Sanji's, Franky's, and Brook's are word puns. Zoro's birthday is also a word pun, but it falls on Armistice Day.
  • Specifically invoked for most characters, as birthdays are usually determined by a fan suggesting one to Oda with logic based on this trope, with Oda making them canon.
  • Although the date is not notably significant, Shanks and Mihawk share a birthday (although Mihawk is the elder by several years). They consider each other a Worthy Opponent and were almost evenly matched before Shanks lost his arm.
• Significant Name Shift: When she first joins the Straw Hat Pirates, Robin refers to the other members by their position on the ship, such as calling Nami "Miss Navigator" or Zoro "Mr. Swordsman", only ever calling Luffy by name. She does this to keep her distance from the crew, assuming that they will eventually betray her like so many other people she thought she could trust. Once the Straw Hats risk their lives to rescue her from CP9, she realizes that she's safe with them and starts calling everyone by name.
• Silly Brain Diagram: In volume 59, one page of the SBS question-and-answer column included "inner brain diagrams" of the nine Straw Hats at the time, with five words each, along with one of the author's own brain (which just reads "world peace"). Jinbei's brain diagram was later included in SBS volume 99, after he officially joined the crew.
• Silly Walk: There are Jango (moonwalk à la Michael Jackson), Doflamingo (who walks like a flamingo), Perona (who seemingly has pigeon toes) and everyone from the Long Leg Tribe.
• Simple Solution Won't Work: Vivi hopes to stop the war in Alabasta between the royal army and the rebel army by telling rebel leader Kohza, an old friend of hers, that Sir Crocodile has been the one orchestrating events to make her father King Cobra look like a tyrant. Except Crocodile has numerous backup contingencies to keep the conflict going without Kohza, including agent provocateurs planted in both armies and a subordinate who can shapeshift into King Cobra to continue angering the population. Luffy refuses to go along with Vivi's plan because he knows that the only way to stop the war is to focus on taking down Crocodile's organization Baroque Works so they can't keep interfering.
• Single-Season Country: Due to how messed up the weather is in the Grand Line, some islands are known for having a single season all year round. For example, Alabasta is a Summer Island, and the Drum Kingdom is located on a Winter Island.
• Single-Stroke Battle: Zoro vs. T-Bone.
  • Invoked Trope: This is forced because Zoro is on a train and T-Bone is on the tracks, they only have time for one slash and both realize it. Except... Zoro's attack is a feint, leaving T-Bone's flank open. Clever girl...
  • It's either Subverted or taken to the next level with Brook vs Himself (His fighting style in a super powerful zombie body). Both use their ultimate technique, which consists of walking toward the other with their sword out. In the end, it's so fast (or so special) that it becomes a Zero stroke battle. The loser simply falls down.
• Single Tear: Whitebeard shed one when Ace died.
• A Sinister Clue: Inverted with the main cast, they all have something special on their left side, like Usopp's armband, Chopper's antler plate, Nami's tats, Zoro's earrings, Luffy's scar, Sanji's covered eye; in fact, there's a list somewhere that contains all the important left things.
• Sinister Shades: Vice-Admiral Kuzan, before he became Admiral Aokiji.
  • And Donquixote Doflamingo.
• Sinister Surveillance: Eneru during his time as God literally turned Skypeia into Big Brother in Heaven by using his Devil Fruit abilities to increase the strength of his Haki/Mantra to hear the conversations of everyone on the island. Intruders, "blasphemers" and those who his men hadn't eliminated yet were punished by him with a column of lightning from above.
• Sins of Our Fathers: One of the major themes of the series is whether or not an innocent child should bear the sins of their parents if they are criminals. The main reason why Ace's execution (and eventually Luffy's death) was such a high priority to the Marines is because of their biological heritage. Both their fathers were/are notorious, world-renowned criminals: "The Pirate King" Gold Roger and "The Revolutionary" Monkey D. Dragon respectively. Thus, the first and greatest crime that both brothers committed (at least in the eyes of the world), was the sin of being born into this world. Even if they had never become pirates, they would have never been allowed into the Marines and would never have a chance at a normal life — for the world itself would never have allowed them to live. This was the main source of Ace's angst, and in [his dying moments, he admitted to Luffy that all he ever wanted to know is whether or not he deserved to be born. Most tellingly, Oda has stated that one of the themes of One Piece is that heritage doesn't matter and family is who you choose.
• Skeletal Musician: Brook.
• Skeleton Motif: This motif is played with in Chopper's past: while he's making a soup for his ill foster father, he's reading a book of kinds of mushrooms; he comes across one noted with skull and crossbones near it. He thinks that it's like the pirates' jolly rogers, i.e symbolizing their free spirit, so he tries to obtain it. Of course, unbeknownst to Chopper, said mushroom turns out to be poisonous (the true meaning of such skull symbol), but his father just chooses to eat the soup with it so he won't let Chopper down.
• Skyward Scream: Happens at least three times throughout the series.
• Slasher Smile: Sported by several characters, most prominently Donquixote Doflamingo.
  • Zoro often wears one, which is fitting for a guy who is often accused of being insane.
• Slave Brand: The Hoof of the Soaring Dragon. Also Nami's old Arlong tattoo.
  • Which are closely related: In addition to the mark of the Arlong Pirates, most of them have the mark of the Sun Pirates as well, which was derived from, and designed to obscure, the Hoof of the Soaring Dragon. By making every member of his crew bear the mark, Fisher Tiger meant to erase any difference between those that had been slaves and those that hadn't.
• Slave Market: Donquixote Doflamingo has one, managed by his subordinate Disco. Though not long before the Amazon Lily arc Doflamingo chooses to stop the business, leaving Disco in disarray.
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: In a manga centered around pirates who make a living robbing and killing (although the protagonists never seem to get around to much of that), slavery is treated as an especially terrible crime. Examples include:
  • Nami being tricked into indefinite indentured servitude by Arlong.
  • The case of the World Nobles who treat practically everyone as animals.
  • Boa Hancock and her sisters whose experiences as slaves deeply traumatized them.
  • The country of Dressrosa with half its populace being enslaved by Doflamingo via the Devil Fruit powers of one of his crew to turn people into toys.
• Sliding Scale of Animal Communication: Chopper is at Level 4 since he Speaks Fluent Animal. Mermaids are somewhat of a level 5 since Camie has the ability to talk to fish, and in a recent flashback: Shirahoshi might be able to talk to FREAKING SEA KINGS!!!
  • According to Chapter 626, Shirahoshi does indeed have the ability to talk to FREAKING SEA KINGS, though she seems to be unaware of her ability to do this.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: Mostly far on the idealistic side even though it takes place in a world existing firmly on the cynical end of the scale. It still lies mostly optimistic side as the story itself is still light-hearted and playful and rotates around a group placed about as solidly as possible on the idealistic end.
• Sliding Scale of Realistic vs. Fantastic: Firmly on the fantastic end.
• Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: This series doesn't so much ping-pong back and forth as it occupies both extremes simultaneously. Oda has said that the reason Luffy's power is so silly is to make sure that the series cannot become too serious.
• Slippery as an Eel: There's Hammond, a villainous Small Name, Big Ego character who's also a Daggertooth Pike Conger Fish-man.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Half of Punk Hazard.
• Small Parent, Huge Child:
  • All of Otohime's children grew up to be taller than her, with her shortest child Manboshi being more than twice her height. The tallest child, Shirahoshi, was already bigger than Otohime when she was less than a year old, and as a teen, Shirahoshi is over 30 feet taller than her mother. None of the children are bigger than their giant-sized father Neptune, though.
  • By age five, Charlotte Linlin was already several times larger than her average-sized parents. She was too big and strong for her parents to handle, so they abandoned her on Elbaf in hopes that the giants living there would be able to take care of her.
  • Edward Weevil is exactly ten times the size of his mother, Miss Buckin, who is just over two feet tall. He's also about a foot taller than his alleged father Edward Newgate, better known as Whitebeard.
• Smoking Is Cool: Sanji, Smoker.
• Smug Snake: If the villains aren't a Magnificent Bastard or iredeemable, they are this, especially Foxy and Buggy.
• The Smurfette Principle: As could be expected from a Shōnen series, most significant groups and teams only count one female among them (ex. there's only one female Emperor, Warlord, Supernova). The Straw Hats used to walk that way until Vivi joined. Once she left, they went Smurfette again for the span of a half a chapter until Robin joined them for good as an Affirmative Action Girl.
• Social Darwinist: Captain Morgan, Arlong, Crocodile.
• So Last Season: After the Time Skip, the Marines get a taste of this when they see two Pacifistas easily defeated by Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji. The Mecha-Mooks aren't going to cut it against the Straw Hats anymore.
  • It has to be noted that Sentomaru mentioned that the two PX units that Luffy, Zoro and Sanji defeated were of the same model as the ones that previously attacked the Straw Hats on Sabaody. This implies that there are newer, stronger Pacifista models that even the Monster Trio might have trouble against. However, this in no way detracts from the pure awesomeness of the two PX units being OHKO'd after only one of them almost completely defeating the entire Straw Hat Pirates two years prior.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Justified in that the Grand Line acts as a natural selecting factor: the farther you go, the more powerful enemies you're likely to encounter, because only the strong get that far.
  • This is played blatantly straight during the East Blue Saga, where each major pirate Arc Villain has a higher bounty than the previous Arc Villain. Buggy's is 15 million, Kuro's (deactivated) bounty is 16 million, Krieg's is 17 million, and Arlong's is 20 million. The (relatively) higher gap between Krieg's and Arlong's is to emphasize how much more dangerous Arlong is compared to the other pirates in East Blue, and he indeed proves to be a much more difficult opponent for Luffy than the others.
  • The algorithm spirals out of control with the Four Emperors. Over the course of East Blue and Paradise (and early New World), the opponents the Straw Hats faced only became gradually stronger during their journey, ending with Doflamingo at 340 million berries. The Emperors and their crews had bounties that ballooned into the billions. To make matters worse, the Emperors themselves are Nigh-Invulnerable.
  • But subverted by Mihawk, Aokiji, and Kuma, who wipe the floor with their chosen opponents and don't kill them only because they have ulterior motives. Also subverted by Crocodile who, while beaten by Luffy in his arc, is still able to fight with some of the strongest characters introduced in the series and hold his own.
    • To be completely fair, Crocodile's Logia ability has a very huge weakness — without which Luffy would not have been able to win (as he did not have any idea what Haki was at that point in time). It may be safe to assume that not a lot of people know about this weakness, thus making Sir Crocodile an extremely dangerous foe for many.
  • Also subverted in the opposite fashion by the Flying Fish Riders, who are far weaker than the Straw Hats' previous opponents, and easily defeated.
  • Subtly averted with the henchmen of Gecko Moria in the Thriller Bark arc, as they go down much easier than the previous arc's villains, CP9.
  • No mention of the Sabaody Archipelago arc? First the Straw Hats run into a Pacifista, a cyborg duplicate of the Warlord of the Sea Bartholomew Kuma, that they defeat with great effort. They are then immediately confronted by another Pacifista, Admiral Kizaru and Sentomaru. The Straw Hats are utterly annihilated and only saved from being killed by the timely intervention of the real Kuma.
  • It's also subverted by the Fish-Man Island Arc. Hody is a pushover compared to basically anyone Luffy faced during the Summit War Saga. Ditto for Caesar Clown, who is stronger than Hody but is similarly weaker than the villains of the same saga. The trope only really starts being played straight again when the Straw Hats take on Doflamingo during the Dressrosa arc, who gives Luffy his first truly difficult fight since the Time Skip.
• Soul Eating: Big Mom ate the Soul-Soul Fruit, which lets her physically interact with people's souls. The first time she demonstrates this power is during a hunger filled rampage where she eats a portion of one of her children's souls, shaving 40 years off his life and killing him.
• Spanner in the Works: Has its own page.
• Sparing Them the Dirty Work: Kyros believes that Rebecca, his daughter, is pure, while he, a known murderer, is dirty. So when he saves her from being cornered by Diamante, Doflamingo's underling, he says that it's his duty, and not hers, to defeat Diamante.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Chopper, of course. Due to him eating the Human-Human Fruit, he can translate them for humans as well.
• Spectator Casualty:
  • In the Dressrosa arc (specifically the Corrida Colosseum tournament), one of the battle royale participants, Elizabello II, prepares to launch a strong attack that can potentially demolish fortresses. The spectators are naturally frightened by this. Bartolomeo manages to block it with his barrier powers, though.
  • In a later fight, Burgess with his signature move Surge Elbow (a shock wave fired off an elbow strike) likes to charge recklessly, hitting the spectators in the process.
• Inconsistent Spelling: Happens across multiple languages.
  • Most notably are Luffy to Ruffy (German) and Zoro to Zolo (English).
    • To be fair, though, Zoro's name change was justified by the fact that the owners of Zorro threatened to sue.
    • Justified? YMMMV.
  • Not to mention Enel/Eneru. (the latter is official)
  • Paramecia/Paramythia
  • Poneglyph/Ponegliff
  • And Brook/Brooke. (the former is official)
  • Is it Oz, Odz or Oars?
    • Word of God says "Oars", as his descendant's ship's sail carries the name.
  • One of Whitebeard's subordinate Captains (the one that shanked Whitebeard), has variously been referred to as Squado, Squad, Squardo, Spardo and many other names besides. (English manga uses Squard)
  • There's also Dracule/Juraquille (former is correct), Jozu/Joz/Jose/Jaws(first one, if going by the English manga), Margaret/Marguerite, and Jinbei/Jimbei. The last is actually confirmed as "Jinbe" in a Data Book, while FUNimation and Viz, and thus TV Tropes, use Jimbei.
  • And some fans disagree on whether it's Blueno or Bruno. He has a sign in his tavern in Water 7 which reads "BLEUNO", which is possible, since "bleu" is French for "blue", and in Japanese both would be pronounced like "blue" in English.
  • Some fans also think it should be spelled Iceburg or Iceburgh, due to it being written as "ICEBURG" in the manga at one point and apparently being a pun on Pittsburgh. However, it's also written as "ICEBARG" in the anime at one point, which means that "Iceburg" was most likely a misspelling on Oda's part (whose English is far from perfect) and that it is actually meant to be Iceberg.
  • However, the best example has to be the spelling of Mr 2.'s codename. Officially, and according to Word of God, it's "Bon Kurei", referencing the Obon festival. However, absolutely EVERYONE, even OFFICIAL SOURCES FROM JAPAN, romanise it as "Bon Clay". Apparently no one except Oda got the reference.
  • The currency itself. Is it beri, beli, berri, belly, or berry? It doesn't help that Oda has used more than one spelling on the actual bills.
  • There's also Big Mom. For a long time, people were in debate over whether or not it was Big Mom or Big Mam, and even the wiki went with the latter. However, it has since been confirmed to be Big Mom.
  • We now have Madame Shirly/Shyarly/Sharley
  • One of the most shocking instances came with the name of the final island. For years, fans and official translations referred to it as "Raftel". Come One Piece Stampede and Chapter 967, it turns out that it's really spelled "Laugh Tale". Animators on Stampede even asked Oda multiple times if that was the correct spelling, and every time he said "yes". The events of 967 showcase why it's called that.
• Spike Shooter: Miss Doublefinger, due to eating the toge-toge no mi/Spike-Spike Fruit.
• Spin-Off: With the debut of the Super Strong Jump magazine (essentially Jump made for 10 and younger). Chopperman was was spun off into his own series. The series is neither written or drawn by Oda and takes place in an alternate universe where Chopper is a health teacher at a elementary school. Nami is the principal of said school, most of the students are kid characters or chibi versions of characters from the main series. Usopp is still the main villain however.
• Spit Take: Luffy and Usopp order several barrels of water, not realizing that they are sitting next to Smoker and Tashigi. Once they do, they end spitting a whole bunch of water right into the Marines' faces. It is hilarious.
• Spoiler Cover: The cover for the manga volume 75, which is during the Dressrosa arc, will automatically spoil the reappearance of Sabo, Luffy and Ace's childhood friend, who was thought to be dead when they were kids.
• Spoiler Opening: While most of the openings confine themselves to just showing new characters, the fifth and sixth featured previews of upcoming scenes, while the third showcased Robin as a crew member... nearly twenty episodes before her Heel–Face Turn. Oops.
  • The 11th opening just goes right ahead and pretty much shows every new character and such from where the anime currently is right up to the current manga arc.
  • The 12th opening spoils the hell out of Impel Down and Marineford.
  • The 21st opening subverts this, while it does show some hints (such as silhouettes of Luffy's and Carrot's new forms), it doesn't outright show any spoilers until after they've been shown in the series.
  • The 22nd opening OVER THE TOP lives just up to that name by having ridiculous amount of spoilers for those that don't read the manga. It actually opens with a spoiler! To list some, it spoils Luffy being imprisoned after getting one-shotted by Kaido, Sanji's Raid Suit appearance, Hawkins being in this arc in addition to his new One-Winged Angel form of his powers, Orochi and his powers, Yasu's execution, and Kaido's Dragon form going against Gear Fourth Luffy.
    • And the spoilers given by OVER THE TOP don't end there. That OP managed to do the impossible and spoil things for the manga readers as well such as the implication that Kyoshiro is one of the Nine Red Scabbards (confirmed in Chapter 973) and a new Gear Fourth form. There was another spoiler for manga readers that was subtle enough to remain unnoticed until the event happened, that being Kanjuro's reveal as the traitor. In the opening, he is the only one whose back is turned to the camera. Additionally, he is looking at Raizo, the one whose location he sold out.
• Spontaneous Weapon Creation: A few times, with Logia users Aokiji and Kizaru Shaping Their Attacks.
  • Aokiji is An Ice Person, and by taking a few blades of grass and breathing onto them, he freezes himself up an Ice Saber.
  • Kizaru manipulates light, essentially enabling him to wield a Laser Blade.
  • Baby 5 has the Paramecia Buki Buki no Mi, a fruit that allows her to turn herself into various weapons.
• Stab the Picture: When Imu is first introduced, they're shown with destroyed pictures of Luffy, Blackbeard, and Shirahoshi, though Vivi's picture is notably left untouched.
• Stalker with a Crush: Vander Decken IX is one toward Princess Shirahoshi. After touching her with one of his hands, and acquiring her as a target, he ends up relentlessly sending her "love letters"- giant thrown axes.
• Standard Evil Organization Squad: Cipher Pol 9 is a secret squad of World Government assassins.
• The Starscream: Hannyabal.
  • And shockingly, a recent flashback reveals that Ace was one when he first joined Whitebeard's crew.
  • Avalo Pizarro seems to be thinking of becoming one from Chapter 595.
• Starstruck Speechless: When Bartolomeo tried to talk to his biggest idol, Luffy, for the first time, he stutters and gags his words. Only when Barto faces away from Luffy can he speak normally.
• Starting a New Life: Several of the minor villains get mini-arcs showing what they've done with their lives after being defeated by Luffy.
• Start of Darkness: When Fish-men first appear in the series, they seem like little more than racists who terrorize innocent humans for sport. As it turns out, they've got a damn good reason to distrust, if not outright hate, humanity for the things they've forced Fish-men to endure. Not that unrepentant murderer Arlong is going to be turned by giving him a hug or anything, but you can definitely see where his species is coming from.
• Stealth Pun:
  • One for Daz Bones/Mr 1. His dream is to become a superhero, with "super" being a play on "supa", the name of his Devil Fruit. He is literally the Man of Steel.
  • Sanji would develop a technique where he could change his opponent's looks by kicking them in the face. He can literally "rearrange your face". Or, alternately, "beat the ugly out of you".
  • The receiving line of the golden snail is the silver snail. Unlike the golden snail, which is simply made of gold, the silver snail resembles an old man.
  • Kalifa of CP9 eats the Bubble Bubble Fruit and becomes a "soap woman", using her sexiness in tandem with her odd soap powers. "Soaplands" are a type of brothel in Japan.
  • Cavendish at one point tries to keep control of himself and not let his Hakuba personality take over. Normally Hakuba appears when Cavendish is asleep. His struggle with himself gets to the point where he's both at once, half-and-half. So he's half-asleep.
  • In Chapter 818, a Poneglyph that Robin finds turns out to be a map to a certain island, and three other Poneglyphs show the way to three other islands. At the center of these four islands is Laugh Tale. Thus, the classic end of a pirate journey: X marks the spot.
  • Doflamingo is an underworld bigshot with multiple moles planted on various major organizations and possessing the power of String-String Fruit. He's the man pulling the strings.
• Stealing from Thieves:
  • The beginning of the of the series had Nami doing this to other pirates she came across (the anime even featuring her much earlier than where she originally debuted likewise robbing pirates and corrupted Marines). Initially it seemed she was doing this out of greed until the Arlong arc where it's revealed she was actually doing it to buy back her home island from Arlong, captain of the Fishman Pirates, due to a deal she made with him for an agreed sum he set. She was nearing her goal until Arlong paid a crooked Marine captain to raid and confiscate her treasure, then feigning ignorance when she confronted him about it, prompting Luffy and his developing crew to fight him head on. After Arlong's defeated, she still keeps her thieving skills handy, this time for the Straw Hats and her's benefit, against the rival pirate crews they face. Not afraid to steal the opposing force's treasure if the opportunity presents itself.
  • One Piece Film: Gold: The middle of the film have the Straw Hats teaming with a rival of Nami's name Carina to rob from the villain of the movie, Gild Tesoro, both as revenge for tricking them and putting the crew under his debt after losing in a crooked Craps game and likewise to save Zoro who he has captured. Ultimately Carina is the one who gets away with the goods after Tesoro's defeated, having stolen his entire city wide golden boat. But not to say the Straw Hats don't leave empty handed, they both regain their freedom, Zoro and Nami manages to get away with some of Tesoro's golden rings to boot.
• Steamrolled Smart Guy: The Straw Hat Pirates are unable to control Luffy's reckless impulses.
• Step Servant: Nico Robin's childhood was dominated by being forced to work by her Aunt, cleaning the house for reward of little food and even less warmth. She was even excluded from family outings..then things got worse.
• Stepford Smiler: Its said that the slaves become this in order to survive their harsh treatment under the world nobles.
• Step into the Blinding Fight: Absalom uses this against Sanji while the latter tries to protect an unconscious Nami.
• Steven Ulysses Perhero: A few characters have Devil Fruits that go extremely well with their name:
  • Smoker, whose Moku Moku no Mi ability lets him transform into smoke.
  • The Marine Very Good, which can also be read as Berry Good, ate the Beri Beri no Mi which lets him transform into berry-shaped balls.
  • Charlotte Perospero ate the Pero Pero no Mi. "Pero" means to lick, and he seems to enjoy using his powers to cover people in candy and lick them.
  • An interesting case with Baron Tamago, who ate the Tama Tama no Mi. The fruit allows him to transform steadily into a chicken, and whenever he transforms with the fruit, he gains a new name and moniker reflecting his new appearance.
  • Momonosuke's mother, Kozuki Toki, ate the Toki Toki no Mi.
  • Kurozumi Orochi is able to transform into the legendary Yamata no Orochi.
• Stocking Filler: Fishnets are standard issue for the transvestites of Newkama Land. According to Oda, they wear them for the same reason people climb mountains — because they're there.
• Story Arc: Not counting some filler, the show entirely consists of arcs of different length. And even most filler consists of these.
• Straight for the Commander: In the Alabasta Arc (specifically in the Alabasta civil war), our heroes deemed that the situation has too far gone south to be resolved in peaceful ways. Luffy then deduces that there's only one other way to solve the conflict: Beat the guy behind them all, Crocodile. His crew were initially surprised about Luffy's plan but it works in the end.
  • Really, this is often Luffy's strategy: Rushing in first to find the one behind the conflict (and/or the strongest of the enemy) and then beating them, often conflicting with the rest of the crew's plan.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Luffy manages to smuggle Princess Shirahoshi (with good intentions) by having her hide in her pet shark Megalo's mouth. Brook thus argues that since he only saw Luffy and Megalo leave the castle, Luffy couldn't have kidnapped her. Neptune immediately suggests that she might have hid in Megalo's mouth (all the other members of his court burst out laughing, saying that the idea's too weird).
  • Chapter 649 has a Call-Back where Zoro argues he doesn't want to be a hero because that would mean he would have to share his beer. Earlier, Luffy had this exact same thought except with meat. Nami lampshades it.
  • Another example with Luffy and Zoro, from Skypeia: While exploring the jungle, Zoro does a "Tarzan yell" every time he swings from a vine. Naturally, Nami thinks this is totally stupid; however, elsewhere, Luffy (who is fighting Satori) ends up swinging from a vine as well...and gives several Tarzan yells. Usopp might count too, since he named his new grappling-hook-swing-rope invention the "Usopp AaaahAahhAhhh", but it's unknown if he planned that name from the beginning or chose it thanks to Luffy's Tarzan call.
• Strange Salute: The White Berets of Skypeia. HESO!!
  • Also, the Marine's own salute is palm inwards.
    • Word of God states that this is because Marines work with tarred objects and deem it disrespectful to show one's superiors blackened hands, hence the inward salute. This incidentally comes from British Naval practice in the Golden Age of Piracy.
    • This makes it a bit of Truth in Television since the modern day naval salute (of both the Royal Navy and US Navy) is still palm inwards. In fact, it's the palm outwards salute of the RAF and British Army that may be considered a Strange Salute since most modern armies salute with their palms downward (or inwards).
• Stupid Sexy Flanders:
  • Chick Ivankov. Brr...
  • Also, what happens when Nami sees Kalifa. She thinks to herself, "I'd like to have her as my secretary!" Until she remembers... "Wait, I'm not a dirty old man!"
• Submarine Pirates: The Heart Pirates, led by "Surgeon of Death" Trafalgar Law.
  • Earlier, the court of the Drum Kingdom when they were operating as pirates to avoid Blackbeard.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Robin. Most of the time, she's calm and doesn't usually participate in the crazy antics the rest of the crew end up getting into. It's "most of the time" because during the later part of the Water Seven/Enies Lobby arc, she eventually burst into tears and begged Luffy and the others to save her.
• Sunk Cost Fallacy: When the residents of Nami's village decide to try and remove Arlong by force, Genzo talks them down citing how long they've waited for outside help. Subverted when it is revealed that Genzo, and the rest of the villagers, were well aware of Nami's plan to buy the village from Arlong. Instead of "we've waited so long we have to keep going" its "Don't make trouble when our Plan A is almost finished." When Arlong ends up duping Nami out of all of the money she gathered thus far, the villagers instantly take up arms.
• Super Drowning Skills: Anyone who has a Devil Fruit loses the ability to swim. On top of that, they can't use their powers to get out of the water (though others can do so for them in certain cases, such as stretching Luffy's rubber body when he can't move).
• Super Gullible: The Tontatta tribe believe anything you tell them, making them easily exploited by hero and villain alike.
• Super Not-Drowning Skills: Merfolk deserve a mention as fFish-men can actually drown if their gills are covered, but most Merfolk don't have any gills and breathe in water anyway.
• Superhero Speciation: There can only be one of each Devil Fruit at a time, so when a person, animal or object eats one, they are the only one with that power. When they die, a nearby fruit will turn into their Devil Fruit ready to be eaten again.
• Superhuman Trafficking: Fish-men are sometimes sold as slaves, and Fisher Tiger's crew worked to free those slaves. Fisher Tiger himself also was a slave.
• Super Mode:
  • Luffy's Gear Second and Gear Third techniques, though they only power him up for an instant. Gear Fourth and Gear Fifth are more traditional examples of this.
  • Zoro using his Asura technique and Sanji using Diable Jambe. Both of whom were super badass to begin with, they just took it to the next level.
  • Parodied by Tony Tony Chopper in filler, who turns into Chopper Man and can fly.
  • Subverted by Franky who changes into a centaur in reverse. However when he locks you with his extra legs, he can make a more powerful ultimate punch than usual, finishing the opponent. Interestingly, when he last did this and defeated his opponent, he yelled "SUUUUUUPER!" for good measure.
• Supernatural Martial Arts: Fish-man Karate; Rokushiki; Okama/Newkama Kenpo.
• Superpower Lottery: See Here.
• Super Smoke:
  • Most Logia can do this as a rule. The heavier ones can't as easily, but generally make up for it with sheer power.
  • Smoker is a literal example of this.
• Super Special Move: Luffy can enter various "Gears"; Gears affect his overall physiology and the properties of his attacks, allowing him to perform stronger and more versatile versions of his many attacks. In Gear 3rd for example, where he can enlarge parts of his body, he can perform "Gum Gum Giant Pistol", a version of "Gum Gum Pistol" with a disproportionately massive fist.
• Super-Strength: Pretty much a default power for almost every combatant in One Piece. Even relatively weak characters like Bellamy and Chopper are super strong. Even random civilians and grunt pirates tend to be at least strong enough to shatter stone with a punch. In addition, Muscles Are Meaningless is in full effect so don't expect the ladies, kids or thinner people to be any weaker than the muscle bound meatheads just because of size. In fact, if you're a pirate or a Marine, it's openly considered an oddity In-Universe if you don't have super strength.
• Super Supremacist: Both Arlong and Hody Jones believe that Fish-men like them should rule over humans because they're stronger. Arlong is shown ruling a village of humans, while Jones fully intends on making every human subservient to Fish-men, starting from terrorizing the 4-yearly meeting between national leaders in the verse to make the strength of Fish-men known.
• Suppressed History: The Void Century, after which the World Government took power. It's in fact a (little-known) crime for anyone to be able to read the ancient historical texts, because they might find out the history that was lost (which likely involves the World Government's methods of taking power). In the case of Nico Robin, other crimes were given to conceal this crime.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • When Usopp tries to show off his bravado and lets out his justice speech in the Enies Lobby Arc, no one can really hear him because he's on the top of a building and too high and far for his words to reach.
  • In the Return to Water 7 Arc, Garp introduces himself to the crew by smashing in the door in the cabin where they're stating, wanting to go for a Dynamic Entry. Once things have settled down, him and the Marines under his command fix the door much to his squad's chagrin.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: In a flashback in Episode 8, when Shanks tries to get Buggy to join the celebration, Buggy blurts out that he didn't steal anything. (He did.)
  • When Dr. Hogback, who'd until then regarded Usopp, Chopper and Nami as guests, catches them snooping around, Usopp says, "We didn't see anything! Especially not the zombie you're making!"
  • In TV Special 4, while pretending to work for Buggy, Zoro deliberately attacks Mohji and Richie to protect Vivi. Right afterwards, he says "Sorry, my hand slipped", with Cabaji calling him out on his lie.
• Sweat Drop: This series is filled with them, it's so common that even inanimate objects will have them (figureheads of ships and even a dead skeleton).
• Swirling Dust: In the anime, Luffy's use of Haki causes a rapidly expanding wind or pressure wave that makes loose items such as paper, dust, leaves, or hair blow away as if caught in a sudden gust.
• Swiss-Army Appendage: Doflamingo has a woman working for him who's been shown turning her arms into cannons, axes, scythes, and her fingers into a gun.
• Sworn Brothers: When Luffy, Ace, and Sabo were kids, they shared a drink together. Because of some tradition, this meant that they were all now brothers. This explains why Luffy always called Ace his older brother.
• Systematic Villain Takedown: Usually when the Straw Hats have to take on a group of opponents, they'll slowly be fought one at a time before the climatic showdown between Luffy and the main Big Bad, though in later arcs not always by the main group but whatever allies join them. This happens with the following groups:
  • Orange Town Arc: Buggy Pirates
  • Arlong Town Arc: Arlong Pirates
  • Alabasta Arc: Baroque Works
  • Skypeia Arc: God's Army (also the first arc where someone outside the main group takes out one of them).
  • Enies Lobby Arc: CP9
  • Thriller Bark Arc: Thriller Bark Pirates
  • Fish-Man Island Arc: New Fish-Man Pirates
  • Punk Hazard Arc: Caesar's group
  • Dressrosa Arc: Donquixote Pirates
  • Land of Wano Arc: Animal Kingdom Pirates

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