Recap / One Piece – Dressrosa Arc

Short Summary

Not even half of the main cast for this arc.

In some places, there are people who call the Family of D... "Sworn enemy of the Gods"!

— Donquixote Rosinante, Chapter 764

Continuing from the Punk Hazard Arc, the Straw Hats team with Law to continue the latter's plan after Doflamingo gives up his position as one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea and king of Dressrosa. However, Doflamingo won't take this offense lightly and prepares against their new found alliance.

Main Summary

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Tropes # to E

• Accidental Pervert: While searching for weapons, the dwarves crawl and look even under Robin's dress.
• Adaptational Badass: Downplayed. In the Manga, Doflamingo's final attack is completely crushed by Luffy's King Kong Gun. In the anime, he manages to clash with it for a few moments and draw blood on Luffy before his attack loses the struggle.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • In the anime, Episode 737 and 738 expands more on Chapter 794 on Sabo's time with the Revolutionary Army with Eiichiro Oda himself involved in writing the episode's script.
  • Admiral Fujitora first appeared in the manga at a casino roulette table, losing badly. The anime first shows him walking among the streets of Dressrosa and Zoro becoming leery of him in a chance encounter. Then we find him at the casino, where he's actually revealed to be a very good gambler. Some of Doflamingo's henchmen decide he's winning too much for his own good, and begin tricking him into placing the wrong bets by taking advantage of his blindness.
• Afraid to Hold the Baby: In his flashback, Kyros is afraid to hold his newly born daughter due to not wanting to taint her with his bloodstained hands. Even in her childhood, he has to wear gloves to play with her.
• Agent Peacock: Cavendish.
• All-Powerful Bystander: Fujitora is decidedly passive throughout this arc and only barely gets involved in the fighting, even ordering his men to ignore Doflamingo after he created the Bird Cage. This is because he wants the Warlord system dismantled, so intervening as an officer of the World Government would undermine the severity of their error in trusting Doflamingo to not abuse his amnesty.
• And I Must Scream:
  • What happens to the imprisoned gladiators as they are transformed into toys and unable to disobey any orders given to them.
  • Also what happens to King Riku III and his army as Doflamingo controls them into attacking innocent villagers.
    • And later, the Dressrosan citizens and the Marines.
  • Law's and Doflamingo's backstories. And in one of them, we get to hear more about the atrocities of the Celestial Dragons — in vivid details.
• And There Was Much Rejoicing: Everyone starts crying Tears of Joy after Luffy defeats Doflamingo. To hammer it in, the Bird Cage disappears, indicating that the nightmare is finally over.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • It quickly becomes obvious that Doflamingo has done very little to endear himself to others outside his crew, barring the masses. The Riku family outright despise him, and Law eventually reveals that he doesn't give a damn about Kaido — this plan of his was ultimately an attempt to kill Doflamingo, and he doesn't care if he has to die to do it. Doflamingo in turn couldn't give two flying fucks about the former, but returns the sentiment with the latter; both him and Law do everything and anything they can to piss each other off as much as possible throughout the arc.
  • In Chapter 764, Corazon reveals that the D. carriers are considered "the enemies of the gods," implying that the historic animosity between them and the World Nobles and the World Government by default (i.e. Gol D. Roger starting the Golden Age of Piracy, the actions of Monkey D. Dragon, Monkey D. Luffy constantly defying the world itself) goes beyond mere ideological conflicts. The hostile relationship of Law and Doflamingo, a D and a former World Noble, alluded to this animosity — the narrative all but states that their relationship was bound to turn antagonistic because of it.
• Artifact Alias: Even after Luffy's identity becomes publicly known, the citizens continue to refer to him as Lucy out of sheer habit.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Most Devil Fruits are just random fruits with a swirly pattern. The Flame-Flame Fruit looks like a bunch of flames. The Op-Op Fruit is a heart-shaped fruit, reflecting the heart motif of its current owner.
• Badass Family: The Riku family. There is Ricky/King Riku who entered in the tournament. His son-in-law, the Toy Soldier/Kyros, was the undefeated gladiator and now leads the attack force to destroy the factory. His daughter, Violet/Viola, is The Mole against Doflamingo and actively helps the Straw Hats foil his plans. His granddaughter, Rebecca, is the winner of her block in the tournament and holds her own in the final round against three heavyweights.
• Badass Pacifist: Rebecca and King Riku. Both of them are capable fighters, wielding swords with blunted edges. The former is famous as an undefeated gladiator who has never injured a competitor, only ever defended herself and tripped opponents into ring outs. The former was famously a king who championed the cause of peace and was applauded by his neighbors for never descending to war.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • When the Toy Soldier/Kyros was human and no one let him forget that he was a murderer, he wished that people would simply forget his existence. And after building a genuinely happy life for himself, his wish came true where everyone including his loved ones forgot he even existed thanks to Sugar transforming him into a toy.
  • Donquixote Homing wanted his family to get away from the World Nobles to live a normal life. He ended up choosing an island not under the control of the World Government, surrounded by victims of the Celestial Dragons and people who plainly hate their guts who sure enough lost no time to hunt them down and lynch his family. End results: his wife died from illness, his children were subject to the people's wrath, one of them grew up to be a psychopathic pirate and murder him for his troubles.
• Becoming the Mask: Usopp lied that he was a descendant of Norland to keep Robin and him from being kept prisoner by the dwarves. This came back to bite him when he's the only one left capable to complete the Tontatta's mission after they're defeated by Trebol and Sugar, and Robin is turned into a toy. Usopp is in the process of fleeing, but after hearing how the dwarves are putting so much faith in him to the point of even chanting his name, he hightails it back, and decides to become the hero they need him to be.
• Big Bad: Donquixote Doflamingo, as indicated by the last arc, is the main antagonist this time around. Everyone, from the Riku family to the Tontatta tribe to Law himself, has the ultimate goal of bringing him down, no matter what the cost. Doflamingo certainly didn't do himself any favors when he turned the country against him by setting up the Birdcage and causing the people to slaughter each other, in hopes that they would turn against the protagonists of the arc instead.
• Big Brother Instinct:
  • It's shown that Law was a loving brother to his little sister, Lami, and refused to leave her behind when he was offered passage out of Flevance. Her death when neighboring countries firebombed the hospital she was in and then massacred the rest of Flevance devastated Law, turning him into the nihilistic Creepy Child that he was when he first encountered the Donquixote Pirates.
  • Also Sabo big time! When Burgess attempted to go after Luffy's life to get his Gum-Gum Fruit powers, Sabo made damn sure Burgess wasn't even going to get to see Luffy. Sabo comments that he already lost one brother, he's not going to lose another!
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Sanji helps rescue his allies from Doflamingo just as the latter is about to attack the Thousand Sunny.
  • In Chapter 757, Kyros shows up in the nick of time to save his daughter from Diamante.
  • In Chapter 758, Usopp pulls this off by sniping a puppet designed like his scary face from afar into a building at a target he can't even see to save Luffy and Law from Sugar.
  • In Chapter 789, just as Doflamingo is about to make Rebecca kill Viola, Luffy wakes up, and in a split second, Law swaps Viola's position with Luffy's, and Luffy breaks Rebecca's sword, saving them in the nick of time.
• Blackmail: How Doflamingo faked his resignation. He knows something that the World Nobles don't want to be public knowledge, and by threatening to expose that info, got their aid.
• Blind Weaponmaster: Fujitora, the new Admiral.
• Book Ends:
  • Doflamingo's reign over Dressrosa began with crowds crying Tears of Joy after he "saved" the country from King Riku, who he was controlling. Ten years later, crowds are crying happily again, this time because the actual villain has been defeated: Doflamingo.
  • When we first see it, Dressrosa is a magical land where humans live alongside "toys". After the false peace is shattered, we leave Dressrosa as a magical land where humans live alongside "fairies".
• Breaking the Bonds: Doflamingo manages to get his Parasite String on Luffy... Luffy goes Gear Fourth and shatters them.
• Break Them by Talking: Doflamingo tells Law that if not for that blunder that he did years ago (accidentally bringing Vergo to Corazon), he could've prevented many deaths and tragedies, including that of Corazon's, and he tells Luffy that Dressrosa shall slowly be destroyed in 60 minutes and people will curse Luffy's name as they die until Dressrosa falls into dead silence. Both Law and Luffy retaliated in their own ways.
• Brick Joke:
  • Early in the arc, Luffy reveals his identity only to be dismissed because of a rumor that Luffy is 8 meters tall. Later during his fight with Doflamingo, a citizen brings up the same rumor.
  • Dagma is seen eagerly smiling when Doflamingo announces the bounties in the Bird Cage. When he appears next, firmly opposed to Doflamingo, he has some noticeable lumps on his head, suggesting his king had to 'persuade' him not to get greedy.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • The Riku Family become one to the populace of Dressrosa. Doflamingo used his Devil Fruit powers to trick King Riku and his army into slaughtering the people after he begged money from them to pay Doflamingo's ransom. It quickly becomes a Rebuilt Pedestal when the Doflamingo Family's actions are exposed.
  • The Donquixote Family themselves eventually become one by the end of the Dressrosa arc. The citizens are initially loyal to Doflamingo because he made the country wealthy for ten years. However, the pedestal is shattered once and for all when the Dressrosa citizens realize that he manipulated them for his own ends after the toys are transformed back into their true forms.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Hajrudin breaks his arm, along with many other bones, using his strongest punch against Machvise. The impact sends Machvise flying into the Birdcage, knocking him out, but a few panels later Hajrudin too passes out from the pain.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • Bellamy, after a whopping 401 chapters of being thought to be dead.
  • Koala, now an adult, also makes a reappearance. Not to mention Sabo.
  • Sengoku and Tsuru reappear in the present after the Marineford Arc. And, so does Jesus Burgess.
  • Rob Lucci appears as a member of CP0 after his future was uncertain due to Spandam's condemnation. Speaking of Spandam, he also appears, as Lucci's subordinate now.
• Cain and Abel: The Donquixote brothers, with big brother Doflamingo as the Cain to little brother Rocinante's Abel. Though they shared the same traumatic past, Rocinante grew up to be a good man who, while not perfect, was compassionate and saw it as his life's mission to stop his big brother's evil. Doflamingo, on the other hand, was The Sociopath from a young age (to the point that his brother doesn't understand how he can be related to their parents), killed their father, and cared about himself above all others. In their confrontation, Roci simply cannot bring himself to kill his brother, and as a result, Doffy kills him instead.
• Call-Back:
  • Luffy beat Don Chinjao by smacking him into the center of the ring where his repaired forehead split the ring in half. He does it again on a much larger scale in the finale of the Doflamingo fight where his final attack punches Doflamingo so hard, the impact splits what remains of the city in half.
  • Luffy continued to eat from the bento boxes that had fallen on the floor during his and Rebecca's brief bout, telling her that it still tastes delicious, referencing back to Zoro's introduction when he ate a rice ball a little girl had made for him despite being stepped on.
  • Sabo's identity is confirmed by showing the sake cups left at Ace's grave in the From the Decks of the World cover series. In the conversation itself, Sabo references the cups and bottle the brothers stole from Dadan to convince Luffy it's really him.
  • Both Luffy and Sabo note that Dressrosa under Doflamingo reminds them of their homeland of Goa.
  • Luffy defeats Bellamy in exactly the same manner their last encounter went, but by that time they had grown to respect each other, and Bellamy was breaking down from Doflamingo's treachery.
  • Luffy's final fight Doflamingo is a call back to his final fight with with Crocodile: The antagonist was a Warlord (and a really powerful one at that), who made a last-ditch effort to defeat Luffy by shaping their Devil Fruit power to form a blade and a spear respectively, only for Luffy to end the battle with a powerful punch. Crocodile was knocked into the sky through solid bedrock, Doflamingo was knocked from the sky, through the pavement itself, until he was several meters underground.
  • The arc is one big callback to Alabasta; The Big Bad is one of the Seven Warlords who took control of a nation by framing its current ruler, whose rule is centered around a dangerous power. Even their top minions have similar powers. Key differences is that unlike Alabasta, Dressrosa has been publicly ruled by Doflamingo for years, whereas Crocodile's coup was just getting off the ground when the Straw Hats arrived, and the power used by the former to maintain control is a Devil Fruit ability, while the latter wanted to obtain an ancient superweapon. In a sense, Dressrosa is what Alabasta could have become had Crocodile succeeded in his coup, as stated by Smoker. Learning this from Smoker is what prompts Fujitora's public apology to Riku Dold toward the end of the arc.
  • Viola says even as horrible as Doflamingo is, she does not trust the justice of the World Government (represented by Fujitora) to save Dressrosa, who granted Doflamingo his Warlord position in the first place. After the climax of the arc with Doflamingo's defeat by Luffy, Fujitora knowing that the WG are indirectly responsible for the horrors that befell Dressrosa, publicly apologises and bows before King Riku for Doflamingo's actions, and personally thwarts any plan to credit themselves through the Marines for saving the country.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: In Chapter 762, Gladius, Lao G, and Senor Pink are explaining the history of Flevance, the country Law is from, to Baby 5 while they casually raid a factory and beat up several pirates without stopping their conversation.
• Climactic Battle Resurrection: In Chapter 743, all those who were transformed into toys changed back into original form begin to wreak chaos against Doflamingo's regime.
• Colour Failure: Pica's henchmen when Luffy very loudly starts laughing at Pica's voice.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The dwarves were mentioned way back in Skypiea during Norland's flashback when one of the kids he was telling his tales to asked Norland to tell them about his adventures in the dwarves' kingdom.
  • Another reference to the alleged liar is that at one point in Law's flashback, he apparently went to the former's homeland of Lvneel as evident by its iconic palace in the background.
  • Many have likened the arc to the Alabasta arc and what it would be like if Crocodile had actually succeeded in his takeover. The story soon hangs at lampshade on it at the end by referencing this. Only this time, thanks to Fujitora's actions, the Marines are not allowed to make it look like they were the heroes.
• Contrived Coincidence:
  • Remember the moment at Loguetown, where Luffy was about to die on the execution platform of Gold Roger, and shouted out that he was going to be the Pirate King, then was saved by a freak strike of lightning? That same moment would be the moment that would cause Smoker to chase after Luffy — and the same moment that would make Bartolomeo into an obsessive Fanboy of Luffy and eventually led to him becoming a pirate.
  • X Drake was present on Minion Island in Law's flashback and not only was he outside the Bird Cage when Doflamingo arrives, he was also saved by the Marines around the same time Rocinante lied about Law's whereabouts. This coincidence was Lampshaded by Rocinante as it only makes his story more convincing.
  • When Rocinante requested Law to hand over the plans for Dressrosa to a Marine and bring help, Law manages to do both successfully. But the Marine he found was Vergo himself, out of every possible member. Rocinante lampshades this when he's brutally beaten by Vergo.
• Conveniently Timed Distraction:
  • When Thunder Soldier and some of the Tontattas are going to kill Doflamingo in the palace, they run into Lao G who hinders their progress. Before Lao G can finish off Thunder Soldier, the palace starts shaking due to Pica's ability, who's confronting Luffy's group at the moment. With Lao G distracted, three of the Tontattas pin down Lao G and allow Thunder Soldier and two of the Tontattas to escape.
  • When Zoro makes fun of Pica's laugh during their fight, Pica, who is controlling the plateau, gets so mad that he raises a bunch of spikes from the ground that interrupts the fights between the Colosseum combatants and the Donquixote executives. Dellinger stops his fight with Ideo to scold Pica but Ideo uses this moment to land a blow on him.
• Could Say It, But...: Bellamy gets around his Conflicting Loyalty towards Doflamingo and respect for Luffy by not helping Luffy escape the colosseum trap, but saying he's leaving himself and if Luffy happens to follow him to the exit, so be it. He gets called out on how this is an obvious excuse.
• Create Your Own Hero: Or Anti-Hero, in this case. Doflamingo, the villain of the story, is responsible for the creation of his own anti-hero in Law, who is willing to do anything and everything to kill him. Law's the one ultimately responsible for screwing up all of Doffy's plans, as he's the one who set the Straw Hats on a collision course with the Donquixote Family — while they were the ones who did most of the work, they wouldn't have even been there had it not been for Law in the first place. By murdering Rocinante, Doflamingo was instrumental in the creation of his worst enemy, something that he is very much aware of.
• Creepy Child:
  • Law. Even Doffy's crew thinks there is something wrong with him (justified, he has more than enough reasons to be messed up. Still, seeing that ten-year-old child strapping on bombs and saying he wants to kill as many people as possible before he dies and then stabbing someone is somewhat creepy). Thankfully, he grew out of this (or at least became much less so) by the time he was thirteen, thanks to Rocinante's influence.
  • Also Dellinger, who became part of Doflamingo's crew as a toddler (this is after we learn that most children who want to be part of the crew run away after two days).
  • And there is Doflamingo himself — his own brother could not comprehend how nice, compassionate people like their mother and father could give life to someone like Doffy.
  • Sugar, even though she's actually Older Than She Looks. She usually doesn't qualify appearance-wise, as she looks too cute to be creepy, but she more than qualifies in personality, especially after she wakes up following her first defeat.
• Crucified Hero Shot: After dealing with Sugar and restoring all the toys to their former selves, a bloodied Usopp is picked up by the grateful giant Hajrudin and presented to all the other warriors in the underground port in this fashion. Combined with the simultaneous breaking of the ceiling done by Sabo which lets in light, they take this as meaning that Usopp is actually a messenger of God and thus swear complete loyalty to their saviour.
• Cruel to Be Kind: Rocinante brutalizes the kids who join the Doflamingo family but only because he's trying to run them off so they don't become pirates.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Luffy lasted around five or so panels before delivering one to a guy who's twenty times his size — which surprises everyone except the readers.
  • Also Doflamingo to Smoker, especially how pissed the former was at the time.
    • Later, super rookie Bartolomeo to Vice-Admiral Maynard.
  • Luffy again, this time to an actual giant. He tanks the giant's One-Hit Kill and proceeds to knock him out with one punch.
  • Sabo effortlessly defeats Vice-Admiral Bastille.
  • After activating Gear Fourth, Luffy proceeds to beat the fuck out of Doflamingo, while deflecting any and all damage to himself. It took only one punch to defeat Doflamingo after he recovered, and it was quite pretty.
• Dancing in the Ruins: After Doffy was defeated in Chapter 790, there was a lot of rejoicing on Dressrosa, despite how the whole kingdom is ruined. The narration even lampshades this, saying how one can find happiness in a ruined country.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Rebecca and the Toy Soldier/Kyros's past is terrible enough, but Law's is so bad that it matches (if not tops) Robin's, and we all know how screwed up her past is. And then we get to the real version of Doflamingo's past, which just ups the ante on so many levels.
• Darkest Hour: First, it turns out that Doflamingo never quit the Seven Warlords of the Sea, and is therefore allied with Admiral Fujitora. Then Law gets shot multiple times and kidnapped by Doflamingo. Then one of Big Mom's ships arrives and attacks the Straw Hats at sea with the intention of capturing Caesar. Needless to say, it's getting much, much worse before it's getting any better.
  • Later, during the climax, another moment arises when Luffy is exhausted by using Gear Fourth to stomp Doflamingo, while the Birdcage is rapidly closing around them, when Doflamingo himself recovers and prepares to kill Luffy.
• Daydream Surprise: One happens to Usopp as he is attempting an impossible shot at Sugar. We first see him fail the shot which dooms everyone before he snaps out of it and takes the shot for real.
• Deadly Dodging: In the gladiator fight, Jean Ango throws numerous sharp weapons at Luffy, all of which he easily sidesteps using Haki. Then we see that all the weapons flew into Chinjao, who was standing behind Luffy. Jean gets extremely wide-eyed once he realizes who he's been accidentally hitting.
• Death of a Child: Horribly, horribly played straight during the flashbacks.
  • When Doflamingo took over Dressrosa using King Riku and his army as his proxies, we're shown heartbroken parents clutching their dead children, as King Riku and his army slaughtered them en-masse. No wonder King Riku and Rebecca were so despised by the common folk.
  • During his fight with Franky, Senor Pink is revealed to have had a wife and infant son. The son died from a fever while Pink was out on a piracy trip, and his wife left him after it led to her unraveling his cover story for his criminal lifestyle.
  • During Law's flashbacks, we see that, after a Hope Spot that the World Government might allow them to leave the war-torn Flevance, Law's school friends were all killed along with their supervising nun. His younger sister, Lami, is also shown to have died in a burning hospital, where she'd already been slowly dying of Amber Lead Syndrome. Is there any wonder why Law grew up disregarding life itself?
  • According to the atrocities of Celestial Dragons recounted in Doflamingo's backstory, the World Nobles are absolutely fine with murdering children just because they crossed their way.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: Law's parents were both upstanding doctors who wanted to heal people. They were victims of the raid on Flevance.
  • Doflamingo's mother was very kind and loving, but rendered deathly sick after his husband's decision to leave the safety of Mariejois led to the family being ostracized by both their homeland and everyone who found out they were Nobles (since the notion of Nobles being good is all but buried under the other 99% who are vile as sin) and she died from lack of nourishment, living in squalor, and being exhausted from running away from persecution all the time.
• Declaration of Protection: Sabo tells Fujitora that no matter where he was in the world, if Luffy were to ask for his aid, he'd be at his side in an instant. It then flashes to panel showing his reaction to Ace's death and the look of pain on his face as he remembers his loss. He lost Ace, and he'll never know whether or not his brother could have been saved if he had been there. He won't take that risk again and lose Luffy as well.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Thanks to Luffy "fixing" Don Chinjao's head for him (that Garp previously "broke") in the tournament, Chinjao gives up his grudge against Luffy and the Monkey D. clan.
• Defiant to the End:
  • How Donquixote Rocinante goes out, in a Dying Moment of Awesome.
  • Right before Doflamingo shoots him (again), he offers Law the chance to die via giving him eternal life instead, in exchange for one last wish. Law smiles, agrees...and proceeds to ask Doflamingo to bring Rocinante back to life and then lick the assholes of every single citizen in Dressrosa. Then he flipped him off and told him that he'll never get Caesar back or beat the Straw Hats, who, as he says, leave "sheer miracles" in their wake.
  • Even though Doflamingo can kill him in a heartbeat, Gantz nonetheless continues to taunt him and buy time for Luffy to regain his Haki and get back into the fight.
• Despair Event Horizon: Doflamingo abandoning his position as a Warlord was seen as a miracle to the various groups he oppressed on Dressrosa. Learning that it was a false report plunged them into the depths of despair and triggered much of the resistance the Straw Hats are able to support.
• Deuteragonist: Law becomes the secondary focal character for this arc. We finally learn about his powers and backstory to a much greater extent, and the primary driving force behind the arc is his 13-year-long conflict with Doflamingo. This is best highlighted by the Boss Fight with Doffy; Luffy usually fights the Big Bad of the arc one-on-one, but this time, he and Law Tag Team Doflamingo and one of his Co-Dragons (Trebol), and Law even goes solo against Doffy for a little while when he and Luffy are separated. Luffy only gets Doffy to himself after Law finally defeats Trebol, becomes too exhausted and injured to move, and can't fight anymore.
• Didn't See That Coming:
  • Sabo's appearance was something no one saw coming. As such, it made him the proverbial wrench in Doflamingo's plans, as his appearance allowed Luffy to switch places with him to rescue Law without worrying about the Flame-Flame Fruit falling into Burgess's hands. A classic case where Doflamingo's plans blew up right in his face (Sabo most likely would have never come to Dressrosa had it not been for the Flame-Flame Fruit), vindicating Law's claim that he had become overconfident.
  • Doflamingo also didn't anticipate Sugar's defeat by Usopp.
  • Doflamingo definitely didn't see himself being launched all the way to the middle of the town via Luffy using Gear Four's attack, Gum-Gum Kong Gun. In short, Doflamingo screwed up big time.
  • One can only imagine what final thoughts were going through Doflamingo's head when his "God Thread" was broken through and he saw and felt the oncoming fist of Luffy's "King Kong Gun" punch.
• Didn't Think This Through: While Doflamingo's father had some good intentions to give up his status as a Celestial Dragon and live a normal and humble life, it slipped his mind that the people in the country he and his family would be living in might have a very deep hatred for the Celestial Dragon and he and his family suffer for that.
• Doomed Hometown: Flevance, or "The White City" where Law was born.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Confident that he is pulling all the strings in the situation, Doflamingo at one point gloats that there is no way the Straw Hats could thwart his meticulous iron-clad plan. Cue then several scenes proving how completely wrong he is. What makes this even more ironic is that prior to this scene, Doflamingo stated that part of Luffy's success was thanks to his opponents completely underestimating him.
  • After witnessing Zoro's power, Sai calls Zoro humble for not entering the tournament, but the readers are fully aware that Zoro really wanted to enter the tournament in Chapter 718.
  • When Trebol sees Pica has been defeated and the factory is destroyed, he's not worried at all because they have Manshelly on their side to heal his comrades and restore the factory. Cue the next scene proving him completely wrong as Manshelly isn't even in the castle anymore.
  • Trebol stomped on the dwarves en masse, causing them to cry out "Pikyaaaaah!", which he thought sounded amusingly cute. When Law used his severed arm to slice up Trebol's chest, he cried out "Pikyaaaaah!". Cut to a shot at the SMILE factory, where some of the dwarves teared up out of nowhere, feeling like a heavy weight on their hearts was just lifted.
• The Dreaded:
  • Just the mere mentioning of Luffy's name, and the possibility of his presence is enough to send numerous gladiators of the tournament into near panic attacks. They only calmed down once they realized that the name on Luffy's back is "Lucy" and that the rumors state that he's an eight-meter tall giant.
  • Everyone freaked out even more once they realized Burgess, the commander of the first fleet of the Blackbeard Pirates, is not only participating in the tournament, but has just won the first block.
  • Bellamy's reputation has grown to the point where the members of his block intend to take him out first during their battle royale in order to tip the odds to be more in their favor.
  • Even though it was a ploy to trap Law, it becomes clear that Doflamingo would much rather have the Admirals on his ass than to face the wrath of Kaido. Considering how the Four Emperors tend to follow the Sorting Algorithm of Evil in that each one introduced is more antagonistic than the last, and that of the Four Emperors, Kaido is the only one that hasn't had any redeeming qualities mentioned about him at all, this is quite understandable.
  • In a flashback, Corazon, aka Donquixote Rocinante, reveals that people who bear the initial D. are this to the World Nobles. They tell their children boogeyman stories about how D is going to come and eat them up and have a saying about how D will always call up a storm. They refer to the "D clan" as "the enemy of the gods", with themselves as the gods.
  • Vice-Admiral Tsuru is apparently so formidable that when she came to hunt Doflamingo down fourteen years ago, Doflamingo immediately gathers his crew and skedaddles. And this is Doflamingo we're talking about, the same man who had no compunctions against fighting Admirals.
    • Then again, this was fourteen years ago, back when Doflamingo was still a relatively young and inexperienced rookie.
  • After Sugar gets incapacitated by Usopp, any mere mention of him is enough to set her off. Oblong objects, people with long noses, even a drawing of Usopp will sent her screaming in fear.
• Driven to Suicide: In one of Doflamingo's childhood flashbacks, one of the Nobles did something so bad to someone's daughter that when she got back home, she killed herself!
• End of an Age: Doflamingo's 10-year rule of Dressrosa becomes undone thanks to Luffy and Law teaming up to defeat him and expose his corruption.
• Enemy Mine:
  • After spending most of the arc as enemies, the Colosseum contestants realize they won't be able to do crap if they keep fighting each other, and decide to team up to help Luffy, Cavendish, and Kyros reach Doflamingo.
  • At the height of the disaster from the Birdcage, where it will kill everyone before Luffy can recover to keep fighting Doflamingo, the Marines see Zoro, Franky, and Bartolomeo's efforts at pushing the cage back and Issho orders everyone to join, Haki users with him and Zoro and the rest with Franky.
  • The unnamed gladiators who betrayed Usopp at the factory teamup with the heroes once Gatz reaches out to them.
• Engineered Heroics: Doflamingo did this to Riku, the previous king of Dressrosa, by first offering to allow him to buy the kingdom. When Riku tried to go the non-violent route and tried to get the people to give up money for it, Doflamingo did a Frame-Up by taking control of his body and had him attack the kingdom giving his people the impression that he had gone mad. Once the people hated Riku over it, Doflamingo swooped in to make himself look like the hero.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Cheating a blind man out of his money is noted by observers to bring shame of the Donquixote family, despite being pirates, and one member of the group mentioned they make more money when Buffalo isn't around, presumably because he prevents such scams.
  • Diamante doesn't have any love for Rebecca; but he won't tolerate a group of gladiators attempting to attack her after she won her block within the rules.
  • What happened to Law's hometown disgusted even the executives of the Donquixote family.
  • While Doflamingo normally commits his murders gleefully and without remorse, he took no joy in killing his own little brother Rocinante, and seemed genuinely upset that the latter had betrayed him. However, he later admits that he's glad he did it. Maybe due to the fact that he later rationalized it to murdering a traitor to the crew than his brother.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Cavendish during his first appearance has another male contestant commenting "he's so gorgeous" with hearts in his eyes.
• Everyone Has Standards: Why the Luffy - Law Pirate Alliance plan falls apart so rapidly. Law doesn't have it in him to actually exploit the Straw Hats for his own gain, and puts himself at risk to protect them rather than hang them out to dry so he can bring down Doflamingo. The Straw Hats themselves are too generally decent to let Doflamingo continue ruling in Dressrosa after learning how he oppresses the populace, even though defeating him outright would turn Kaido's fury against them rather than Doflamingo as was the original plan.
• Everybody Knew Already: The citizens of Dressrosa knew all along that the fairies are actually dwarves, and that Kyros and Rebecca are father and daughter. They pretended not to know to protect their secrets, out of respect. They also know that Luffy didn't really kidnap Rebecca at the end of the arc, but pretend not to so they can run after Luffy and his allies, thus preventing Fujitora from killing them.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
  • It is revealed Doflamingo's father decided to leave the World Nobles and live among the people. In the flashback Doflamingo clearly could not understand why, even wanting to shoot a kid simply because he insulted him. He refers to this time as "hell".
    • Which might turn out to be a subversion. The life among the common people quickly turned to hell for the Donquixote family, it's no wonder that Doflamingo came to despise his father for every horror his mother, brother and himself endured before he finally murdered him.
    • At the same time, his brother Rocinante experienced the same hell as him, but pointedly did not go insane. He actually joined the Marines when he grew up, being one of the genuinely heroic members. He even describes his older brother as someone who was "born evil," and doesn't understand how their kind mother and father could give birth to someone like that.
  • Self-centered bastard that he is, Doflamingo sees Law's wearing Rocinante's Corazon name and emblem as a deliberate insult towards himself. The notion that Law might be trying to honor Cora's memory doesn't seem to even cross his mind.
• Evil Power Vacuum: Due to having so much influence, Doflamingo's defeat by Luffy creates a massive backlash in the blackmarket underworld, costing all of the factions he barters with money that they couldn't get refunded, weapons that were essential to help win wars, and the artificial Devil Fruits they were after, the last of these affecting Kaido of the Four Emperors.
• Exact Time to Failure: Defied. The Birdcage will take an hour to fully close, but as Doflamingo points out it'll start killing people well before then. An hour is when everyone will be dead, with the deaths starting at an indeterminate time before that.
• Expy: A female warrior in the tournament named Rebecca seems to be modeled after Red Sonja as she wields a sword, is a powerful fighter known as the "Undefeated Woman", and wears a Chainmail Bikini.
• Extremely Short Timespan: The entire story arc takes place over the course of one extremely busy day. And not even a full day at that!

Tropes F to L

• Faint in Shock:
  • In Chapter 742 has an example that is both serious (due to being a plot point) and hilarious: Usopp is fed the fake grape that was intended to knock Sugar out. He screams so loudly and makes such a horrifying expression that it causes Sugar to scream her lungs out in return, and she faints as a result.
  • A few chapters later Usopp shoots in front of her a projectile that expands into the same Nightmare Face, causing her to faint again.
• Faking the Dead: Rebecca's mother Scarlett does this so she could marry and be with Kyros.
• False Utopia: When Doflamingo tries to guilt Luffy by saying Dressrosa would still be happy if the Straw Hats hadn't come to the island, Luffy points out that that happiness wasn't real and the supposed "peace" they disrupted was nothing more than a facade.
• Fanboy: Believe it or not, Bartolomeo has become a huge fanboy of the Straw Hat Pirates following the Loguetown Arc, to the point that he gets shy just being around Luffy and snaps into Inelegant Blubbering upon seeing Zoro.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
  • Dressrosa is a mix of Spain and Italy, as seen in several details (for example, typical dishes ate by Luffy and co include paella and pasta). To hammer this home further, the Dressrosa-native major characters (Riku, Kyros, Viola, Rebecca, and Scarlett) are all given European Spanish accents in the anime's English dub.
  • In this arc we're also introduced to the people of "Ka no Kuni" (the Flower Country), who seems to be based on China.
  • Rommel from which Cavendish/Hakuba comes from appears to be at least based on London due to the Big Ben-like clock.
  • The city that Law hails from, Flevance, seemingly takes cues from Casale Monferrato, as both are nicknamed "The White City" and are prosperous because of the materials that are exclusive to their city, the Amber Lead (Flevance) and the asbestos (Casale Monferrato), and both materials are also toxic.
• Fastball Special: Zoro had to stop Pica from killing Usopp and the rest of the people on the Old King's Plataeu, but couldn't make it into striking distance fast enough on his own. So he came up with a strategy involving this maneuver, and recruited Orlumbus to aim him at Pica and throw him across town.
• First Time Feeling: In the anime, when Dellinger gets cut in the chest by Hakuba, he's shocked to see his own blood on him and he's too scared to fight back, allowing Hakuba to cut him several times.
• Flechette Storm: The things Gladius ends up bursting tend to release deadly shrapnel.
• Flashback: A few interspersed through the story.
  • Some of them focus on the current Riku Family, the people who ruled Dressrosa before Doflamingo stole the kingdom from them.
  • Chapter 761 started a flashback which shows us Law's Dark and Troubled Past.
• Flipping the Bird: Manga-only, since, as usual, the anime censors it out.
  • Sai does this to "Lucy" at the Coliseum, right after apologizing to him (to Luffy's confusion).
  • When Doflamingo taunts the nearly dead Law and offers him the chance to die by giving him eternal life in exchange for one wish, Law's reaction is to troll him by seemingly agreeing and then demanding that he revive Corazon before licking the assholes of every citizen of Dressrosa, then telling him that he won't be getting Caesar back or beat the Straw Hats, before giving him the finger as one final "screw you" to Doffy.^note In the anime, this is changed to showing a quick montage of the Straw Hats' many "miracles" that Law is referencing.
• Foe Romance Subtext:
  • In-Universe example. Baby 5 believes she has this with Don Sai, despite his fervent denials and the general lack of hostility between them despite being opponents and enemies. Then Sai decides he's going to marry her, removing the "sub-" part.
  • In a more traditional example, Donquixote Doflamingo and Trafalgar Law. Doflamingo's twisted obsession with Law overshadows the relationship he has with his remaining executives to an extreme degree. Doflamingo can't stand the fact that Law left him and chose his younger brother over him, makes several attempts to try and sway Law back to his side using overwhelming force, and outright snaps when Law reveals he's a D, the Arch-Enemy of the Celestial Dragons that Doflamingo was once a part of, as it means Law will never willingly be under his control again. On Law's end, he initially wanted to be like Doflamingo, but after Corazon showed him compassion and got killed saving his life, he rejected his former mentor, especially when it became clear that Doflamingo only valued him as a tool for his own ambitions. The entire situation reads as an abusive ex-boyfriend trying to get their ex back under their control, and said ex doing everything they can to spite them in return.
  • Viola tracks down Dolfamingo to kill him and addresses him by the nickname "Dofy." Doflamingo in-turn calls that a "passionate" decision of hers, alluding to the famous tendency of Dressrosa women to stab their lovers in fits of passion. In an SBS, Oda states the subtext is intentional; their history is too mature to go into for this series, but adult readers can use their imaginations as to why two seeming enemies are hinting at intimacy with one another.
• Foe-Tossing Charge: When it's finally time for Luffy and Chinjao to face one another, they don't care about who gets in between them.
• Foregone Conclusion: A few aspects of Law's flashback, which took place more than halfway through the arc:
  • We already know from the second we meet him that Donquixote Rocinante a.k.a. Corazon is going to be murdered by his brother Doflamingo at some point during the flashback, as Law already explicitly told Luffy that this happened, and it's also stated to be the reason that Law stopped working for Doflamingo.
  • Rocinante (an undercover Marine) and his boss Sengoku are trying to bring down the Donquixote Family and prevent them from taking over Dressrosa; considering the present-day events of the arc, it's obvious that they will fail.
  • Conversely, there's some tension and drama behind Rocinante's efforts to steal the Op-Op Fruit for Law before either the Marines or the Donquixote Pirates get it. Since it was established about 100 chapters prior that Law ate the Op-Op Fruit, it's clear that Corazon will succeed in stealing it.
  • Considering Law was still alive in the present, it was clear that he'd be cured of his Amber Lead Syndrome.
• Foreshadowing:
  • During Rebecca's first appearance, she talks to Luffy about the statue of Kyros and remarks that she is quite fond of it. It's later revealed that Kyros aka the Toy Soldier who Rebecca wants to live with is none other than Rebecca's father!
  • During Rebecca's flashback to her time with her mother, looking closely at the dinner table shows a third chair and plate at the table. That's Kyros' place, with the man himself having been removed from the memory.
  • "The D. will surely bring another storm!" First said by Law to Doflamingo as the reason for why he trusted Luffy so much. The flashback of Law's past reveals that he originally heard this from Corazon, after Corazon learned that Law himself was a D.
  • The panic throughout the world that transpired when Doflamingo created the fake story that he resigned from the Warlords was a clear indicator of the backlash that would occur following his defeat.
  • In retrospect, the Straw Hats' Colosseum allies taking down Doflamingo's executives, which is usually an act relegated to future crew members, should've been a clue that they would pledge themselves as Luffy's followers.
  • In a foreshadowing moment to a future arc, Doflamingo's declaration that he knows the world-ending secret of Mariejois hints to the fact that there's a secret ruler governing the Five Elder Stars, and the world.
  • A subtle bit of foreshadowing to another future arc: when Doflamingo issues bounties on his enemies in Dressrosa, there's a certain samurai who becomes an ally to the Straw Hats who is never added to the list or given a bounty. That same samurai is later revealed to be The Mole in the alliance, explaining the reason for this.
  • When Viola first encounters Sanji, it's right after he's heard that Dressrosa women often kill their paramours and she asks for his help in murdering a man. While ostensibly a lie to lure him into a trap, Sanji is confident Viola was telling the truth and it's revealed that she truly does want a man dead, Doflamingo. Later on, it's heavily implied Viola and Doflamingo had something resembling a romantic relationship.
• Four Lines, All Waiting: There are a lot of concurrent plotlines running within this arc, such as the tournament with the Flame-Flame Fruit as its prize, Law and the Straw Hats planning to take down Doflamingo and his family, Kinemon finding his brother in arms Kanjuro, as well as the tragedy of the Dold family.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Doflamingo did indeed go through extraordinarily difficult times as a child, but he was shown to already be an Entitled Bastard before they began. His brother Rocinante, who went through the same hardships and nevertheless turned out a moral and compassionate man, says that Doflamingo was born evil.
• Friendly Enemy: Senor Pink and Franky bond during their fight out of respect for each other. When the battle is over, Franky expresses a desire to get a drink with Pink at some point in the future.
• From Bad to Worse:
  • Things start going downhill for the Straw Hats and Dressrosa citizens the moment Sugar is defeated by Usopp.
  • Before that, Sugar's ambush party Zerg Rush Sugar, she turns a lot of the dwarves into toys, Trebol himself intervenes, Sugar turns Robin into a toy, Trebol stomps Usopp, and leaves him for near-dead...
  • When the battle for Dressrosa reaches its climax, Doflamingo invokes this on the citizens by starting to crush Dressrosa down so that he would remain a Villain with Good Publicity.
  • In the flashback with Law, after having already been shot and badly injured by the Diez Pirates, Corazon's fate is sealed the moment he slips up in front of Vergo and reveals that he can talk, and Vergo reads his letter to the Navy and discovers that he was spying on the Donquixote Family. He proceeds to beat Corazon to near-death and report this treachery to Doflamingo, and at this point, Roci realizes that he has no chance of getting out of the situation alive, and instead just focuses on making sure Law can survive and escape.
• Gender-Blender Name: Luffy's name to enter the tournament is "Lucy".
• Generation Xerox:
  • The Toy Soldier/Kyros and his daughter Rebecca are both gladiators with incredible skill who are widely hated by the audience.
  • Not only has Law grown up to strongly resemble his father, but he's also become a world-renowned surgeon just like both of his parents.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: The only reason Pica lasted as long as he did against Zoro was his Devil Fruit power allowed him to merge with, travel through, and leave, stone at will. The minute Zoro corners him, Pica goes down in one shot.
• Godzilla Threshold: Doflamingo is forced into this when Luffy and crew shatter The Masquerade that he had been using to keep control of the country while maintaining his underground deals as The Don of perhaps the entire world. He can't let the truth get out, so he uses his Devil Fruit's ultimate technique: the Birdcage, imprisoning the entire island and letting nothing in or out. But that's not the extent of it: in order to ensure that nobody ever learns the truth, he plans to kill everyone on the island.
• Good All Along: Viola was the former princess of Dressrosa. She's only working with the Donquixote Family to protect her father, the former King Riku III.
• Good Parents: Law's parents were shown to be very loving and attentive while also using their own expertise to nurture their son's interest in medicine.
• Greater-Scope Villain:
  • Kaido is still lurking in the background, as Law points out that if they take Doflamingo down right now, Kaido will come after Luffy and Law instead.
  • Jesus Burgess' presence in the Colosseum means that Marshall D. "Blackbeard" Teach is in the background as well, and has his own designs in store, one of which involved the Flame-Flame Fruit.
  • Big Mom's also still an active player, as she's still ticked off at Caesar (who is in the custody of the other half of the Straw Hats), added with Luffy's declaration of war against her at the tail end of the Fish-Man Island arc.
  • Finally, there's Admiral Fujitora, who is opposed to Luffy and Law, and to Doflamingo, though as it stands his intentions aren't entirely clear.
    • He later temporarily allies with the pirates and Dressrosa and helps expose Doflamingo's crimes to the world.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Cavendish's beef with the Supernovas as their antics (more specifically, Luffy's, Law's, and Kid's) during the Sabaody and Marineford arcs dwarfed his reputation and he thinks killing them will help him regain it. So much so that he's willing to get himself disqualified from the tournament just to get a shot at killing Luffy.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Lots of them in addition to Law, Kin'emon, and Momonosuke from the previous arc, the most prominent being Kyros, Rebecca, Viola, Leo, and Bartolomeo. Sabo, Koala, and Hack sort of count too, despite their belonging to the Revolutionaries.
• Gulliver Tie-Down: Robin is subjected to one of these by the Tontatta on Green Bit after they capture her.
• Handicapped Badass:
  • The Toy Soldier only has one leg but that doesn't stop him from easily escaping the police and attacking Doflamingo's men. It's revealed that he himself cut off his leg that was cuffed to Seastone to attack Doflamingo, who threatened his wife and daughter.
  • Law loses an arm to Doflamingo during their second battle near the arc's climax, but with his ingenious use of his Devil Fruit power, he still manages to land nigh-fatal attacks on Doflamingo and Trebol, which is more than Luffy had managed up to that point.
• Harmful to Minors: Holy crap, did Law see things no one should ever have to see when he was a child. First, he saw his parents get shot. Then he left and saw the nun who was taking such good care of him until then, as well as all the other kids she took care of, all dead. Then he returned home to see it burning to a crisp, with his little sister inside. No wonder he became so cruel. And as if that wasn't enough, he had to hide beneath piles of corpses to escape the quarantined White City.
• Hated by All: The Riku Family became widely hated by the populace of Dressrosa after Doflamingo used his Devil Fruit powers to manipulate King Riku and his army into slaughtering the people after he begged money from them to pay Doflamingo's ransom. Ten years later, it quickly transfers to the Donquixote Family when the truth of their rule comes to light, such as the toys actually being humans, including the realization that Doflamingo was responsible for the tragedy that befell Riku's family.
  • If your kingdom's subjects discover the truth about how you began your rule as king, you won't last long, as Doflamingo gets despised by everyone when they discovered the truth about what happened with the Riku family 10 years earlier.
• He Knows Too Much: Once Sugar is defeated and his crimes are revealed to the public, Doflamingo creates a Birdcage with the sole purpose to kill everyone on the island so that the truth doesn't leave the island.
• Heroic BSoD: Rebecca suffers through one when Diamante reveals that he was the one who killed her mother.
• He's Back!:
  • Chinjao, in an odd way since he's probably unconscious while it happens — once Luffy punches his skull back into its original shape, he splits the floor of the Colosseum just like he used to be able to in the old days!
  • While Luffy and Bartolomeo are discussing how to obtain Ace's Devil Fruit, a man pushes Bartolomeo aside, telling Luffy he can't have it. The annoyed Luffy then gets a good look at this friend who had seemingly been killed during their childhood and understandably jawdrops in response.
  • Upon Sugar's defeat, all those subjected to Forced Transformation into toys resume their original forms.
  • Before fighting Pica, Luffy's opponents from the Colosseum express their gratitude for being saved by "God" Usopp. However, for one reason or another, each of them wants to be the one to kill Doflamingo and Luffy doesn't want anyone getting in the way of his fight. So begins an epic race to see who'll kick Doflamingo's ass first!
• Heel–Face Turn: Violet is an assassin working for Doflamingo, but Sanji realized that she is actually rather kind, and works for Doflamingo against her will. As soon as he exposes that and reveals that even in the dire situation she put him in, he still believes in her and will not doubt her, Violet changes her mind, frees Sanji, and tells him to run and warn his friends.
• High-Heel–Face Turn: Viola (by virtue of never really being a heel to begin with) and later, Baby 5.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Doflamingo making a false report that he quit as a Warlord did trick Law and the Straw Hats, but the Hope Spot also enraged many of his oppressed subjects who decided to fight back now because they can't take him playing with their lives anymore. Between Rebecca, the toy soldier, and the dwarves, their attempted rebellions set the stage for the Straw Hats to bring down Doflamingo once and for all.
  • In a way, Sugar lost due to overconfidence. When Usopp was knocked out, she fed him the ultra-spicy grape the dwarves wanted to feed her. However, it caused Usopp to scream so loudly and make such a Nightmare Face that it scared the living crap out of her, causing her to faint.
  • Sugar's power in general becomes this for the Donquixote Family. It was a good source of slave labor for the Family, but when all the toys are freed and everyone in Dressrosa remembers just how widespread and terrible the Family's abductions have been, it instantly turns the entire country against them.
  • Doflamingo sets up a tournament with the Flame-Flame Fruit as the prize to distract Luffy. This also brings in many powerful figures from outside Dressrosa who want the Fruit, which Doflamingo is happy to turn into toys and laborers. Naturally, when Sugar faints and the gladiators are freed, they aren't exactly happy about the treachery and form the army that defeats most of Doflamingo's subordinates.
• Hope Crusher: This turns out to be the trigger for the arc's conflict. After it's revealed that the story of Doflamingo's resignation from the Warlords was fake in order to trick Law and the Straw Hats, Kyros and the dwarves, who had been filled with hope that he'd be abdicating as Dressrosa's king, were devastated, with it being the last straw to them, prompting them to declare war on Doflamingo. Usopp, Franky, and Robin are all shocked that it was their crew's fault this was happening.
• Hope Spot:
  • Just as in the previous arc, this happens to Doflamingo. A lot.
  • One for the heroes, S.O.P suceeds, the toys are returned to human, Doflamingo's true nature is exposed and it seems that he's been killed by Kyros. All's well, right? Nope! Turns out the one beheaded was a clone made of string. The real one throws out the heroes from the palace, traps the island in a cage made of string, raises the palace and factory over the island and makes a kill-him-or-be-killed game for the citizens.
  • In the flashback, we get one where a nun of Flevance assures Law that the World Government has assured their escape, and to bring his sister Lami to them. Law later sees his sister dying in the burning hospital, and the nun and her protectorate shot by the invaders.
  • It seems all assured that Law will cure himself from the disease, Corazon has found the Devil Fruit, and everything will be all right. Soon after, Corazon makes a mistake during the escape, Doflamingo becomes highly suspicious of his brother, and then it goes downhill from there.
• Hotter and Sexier: This arc probably has the highest percentage of skin shown in the series. Random side characters are just walking around in bikinis, nevermind all the named characters that show off their flesh. Dressrosa itself is known for its passionate romances and it's the first time one of the Straw Hats actually was romantically kissed.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: At the start of the arc, Doflamingo was a villainous, yet respected and loved ruler of Dressrosa, with his crew being adored by everyone. Cut to the end of the arc, and the Donquixote Pirates are entirely routed by the people once Doflamingo's crimes come out to the open, with the crew being effectively destroyed, while Doflamingo himself falls to a mad ranter blabbing about how he was the lynch pin of the world after being arrested.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • Trebol calls Luffy a "snot nosed punk".
  • Trebol also found the Tontatta's death cry of "P~gyaa" to be hilarious and later made the same sound when Law dealt a fatal blow to him.
  • Franky and Senor Pink calling each other "perverts", which is lampshaded by both each other and by those watching the fight.
  • The gladiators are so determined to pay the Straw Hats back for freeing them from a life as toy-slaves that they are determined to defeat Doflamingo on their behalf, even if they have to beat the crap out of Luffy to stop him from defeating Doflamingo first. Similarly, when Luffy rejects their offer to become their official superior, they consider pinning him down and forcing him to drink the ceremonial sake.
  • Law declares his alliance with Luffy over. Luffy calls him selfish, as only he can decide when their alliance ends.
    Law: "Now who's being selfish!?"
• Ignored Enemy:
  • In the C-Block of the tournament. When it comes down to only four fighters (Luffy, Chinjao, Ideo, and Sai), Luffy and Chinjao decide to settle the battle and charge toward each other. Knocking aside Ideo and Sai, who were still fighting each other mind you, like they were rag dolls.
  • When Giolla was about to attack Nami, Chopper, Brook, and Momonosuke, they all stopped what they were doing when they hear Law calling on the Transponder Snail. After Law tells them to meet him at Green Bit and then hung up on them, Nami and the others start panicking and complaining over Law's order while ignoring Giolla, who is standing there angry because she's being ignored.
  • During the fight between Don Chinjao and Lao G, Chinjao ignores Lao G when he hears that Baby 5 wants to marry Sai and tells Sai that he's against their wedding while Sai argues back. The mooks who are watching the fight are worried that Lao G will get really angry for being ignored but due to his old age he didn't hear a single word Chinjao and Sai said. Lao G used this opportunity to use his ultimate attack on Chinjao when he granted Sai the title of Don.
• Ironic Echo:
  • When Law is trying to use his powers for the first time to heal Donquixote Rocinante, he is told that his Fruit's power "isn't magic" and can't automatically heal him. Fast forward to the end of the arc when civilians are being healed of their wounds. It turns out all they need to get better is a dandelion mixed with the Fruit's power and one man says the miracle healing is "like magic."
  • Bellamy asking Luffy if he can throw a punch. Back on Jaya, it was a case of Underestimating Badassery. Here, it's a broken man begging his friend to put him out of his misery.
  • Law telling Tashigi that the losers aren't allowed to choose their fates. It gets turned on him when Doflamingo shoots Law for insubordination.
• Irony:
  • This is how most of the executives and Doflamingo himself, are defeated:
    • Sugar (whose power is to create toys) gets knocked back into unconsciousness by a toy (a replica of what knocked her out the first time). Earlier, the grape that was meant to knock out Sugar was used on Usopp instead, but because of his epic reaction, the grape still does its job in the end.
    • Machvise (whose fighing style is slamming his enemies with downward force) is sent flying upwards.
    • Baby-5 defects for someone who refused to take advantage of her mentality.
    • Lao-G (an old master who stores his youth through qigong) loses to someone much younger than he is (via a move passed down from his own grandfather, whom Lao G cheap shotted).
    • Dellinger (a speed based fighter, who prides in his half fishman heritage) gets caught off guard and cut down by someone even faster than he is (a relatively normal person).
    • Gladius (who attacks opponents while they are distracted) gets taken down because he himself was distracted.
    • Giolla is incapacitated by the bodies of the fallen executives she had hoped to revive. Earlier on, her obsession with art is what ultimately defeated her, although indirectly ^note She and Brook had fun musing about incomprehensible arts, and then Brook asked her to de-art him so he can play his instrument; Giolla agrees, then she got Single-Stroke Battle'd.
    • Diamante gets taken down when he stops his usual tactics of playing dirty and goes for a straightforward fight. Oh, and knocked back to the gravestone of someone he killed before.
    • Pica (attacked all the weakened fighters to prevent them from grouping together, in order to kill King Riku without interference) is defeated because the fighters he didn't attack grouped together anyway, also by going full body giant, and turning his back on them, he made himself a bigger target, and more vulnerable to being cornered. ^note (Orlumbus threw Zoro in order to close the distance, who then proceeded to cut down the giant stone body and then the real one, finally Elizabello II punched away all of the giant debris from the plateau, protecting King Riku in the process).
    • Trebol's No Sense of Personal Space backfires big time when he decides to crush the apparently defeated and now missing-an-arm Law up close and personal, and Law uses his powers to slice up Trebol... with the arm he just lost.
    • And finally, Doflamingo, He played gambits to counter the Straw Hat Pirates tendency of being spanners and to his shock, they happen anyway. Organized a tournament to get Luffy off his back and wear him down, most of the contestants would eventually be the ones to take down his executives. Prides himself in being above everyone, having heavenly blood, he later gets sent down to the depths of the earth, by a commoner he belittled.
  • Bellamy was introduced trying to pick a fight with Luffy, to which the latter ignored, until he involved a new friend he just met. Having reappeared again in the Dressrosa Arc, his tune has changed, and near the arc's climax, he is forced to fight Luffy against his will, even tearfully apologizing when he successfully lands an attack at him. Even the exact same punch which Luffy used to defeat Bellamy is moment of Tear Jerker than anything awesome unlike last time.
  • During Sakazuki's meeting in Mariejois, a caption of the Gorosei, titles them the "Supreme Authority of the World Government", reminding us that they are politically the most powerful men in the world. But Sakazuki accuses them of rolling over to the whims of the World Nobles, allowing them to be exploited by Doflamingo. And that's not talking about a few arcs later...
  • As a child, Sabo almost died from an explosion caused by a World Noble shooting his ship. As an adult, he ends up eating the Flame-Flame Fruit, becoming immune to fire.
  • As Sengoku notes, the only person he can talk to about Rocinante (Corazon) is Law, the child he died to save, who would grow up to become a pirate.
  • Admiral Fujitora forcibly "closed" his own eyes because he got tired of seeing all the crap that goes on in this world. But after hearing the citizens of Dressrosa trying to protect Luffy he begins to realize that he not only blinded himself to the bad things, but the good things in his world as well.
    • As a blind man, he is the Admiral least blinded by his own beliefs.
• It's All About Me: One of Doflamingo's most prominent traits. He acts as if the world revolves him and all his tragedies. While his past was horrible, it is no excuse for his actions, especially when his younger brother went through the exact same hell and turned out to be a genuinely altruistic and noble person, bent on ending his older brother's madness. Doflamingo, however, only ever thinks of himself, which contributes to a Lack of Empathy that allows him to commit the most disgusting crimes with no weight on his conscience. His only redeeming quality is the genuine fondness he has for his executives, and even then he only cares for them, yet won't hesitate to kill them if their loyalties ever turned, like Law and Corazon's did. He even takes sadistic delight in tearing apart the families of others, the Moral Myopia of his hypocritical actions not even occurring to him. Yes, Doflamingo is a man who knows the true nature of the world — but in the end, he's still the same Spoiled Brat he's always been, no better than the World Nobles he was once a part of and now despises so much.
• It's Personal:
  • Chapter 724 reveals that Law never intended to go after Kaido, only to get revenge on Doflamingo. Thus the conflict is personal on both sides as the two prepare to fight.
  • When unveiling his plan B, Doflamingo assigns bounties to his enemies: 3 stars for the heads of each organization ^note Luffy, Law, Sabo, and King Riku, 2 stars for top-tier threats ^note Zoro and Kyros, and 1 star for the remaining present members^note Robin, Franky, Kin'emon, Rebecca, and Viola . Usopp, arguably the weakest and least threatening adversary, gets assigned 5 stars simply because he was the one to successfully undo Sugar's spell.
• Jaw Drop:
  • An epic, collective one when Zoro slices a mountain-sized Pica to bits in Chapter 778.
  • When Luffy is met by Sabo in the Colosseum, whom he long believed had perished 12 years before.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: This is what Cavendish turns out to be. Sure, he's a vain Narcissist with a hugely swelled ego, and his grudge against the Eleven Supernovas is petty and disproportionate. However, he sticks up for Rebecca in the Colosseum, and actually proves to be very honorable; once Usopp restores all the toys to normal, Cavendish drops his grudge against the Straw Hats and becomes their ally, providing vital aid on multiple occasions. This culminates in him agreeing to protect a badly injured Law (another Supernova Cavendish once hated) when Luffy asks him to, and when Law begs to be left behind so he can watch Luffy's fight with Doflamingo and die with him if he loses, Cavendish decides to stay with him and die before Law does if it comes to that.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Doflamingo proves himself as this, as even though the previous arc established Doflamingo cares about his crew, Doflamingo doesn't care about them that much either, and intends to kill them with everyone, claiming that he will just find a new family. Note, that includes Trebol, the guy who gave him his Devil Fruit and the first sort of power by forming the future Donquixote Pirates.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Doflamingo got away with a lot of evil actions such as blackmail, murder, and enslavement. Even so, he was quite beloved by the populace at Dressrosa. It wasn't until 10 years later that the truth of his rule was revealed and the Straw Hats take him and his family down for good.
• Knew It All Along: Rocinante/Corazon, an undercover Marine spy working for Sengoku, repeatedly denies being a Marine when Law asks him about it, since he knows that Law despises the World Government and the Marines by extension (with quite good reason) and doesn't want the kid to hate him. When Doflamingo corners him and is about to kill him, Roci admits as much to Law, who is hiding nearby (while making it seem like he's directing his words to Doffy), and Law barely cares and silently notes that he's known that for a long time, clearly far more concerned about Corazon's safety at this point than anything else.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Bartholomeo's Running Gag throughout the whole arc. He's a crafty combatant and a mean sonofabtich to most people, but to the Straw Hats he's just their enamored fanboy, and even practiced a few of their poses and moves. He gets to live out his dream by helping them take down Doflamingo.
• La Résistance: The Revolutionaries are on the island as well.
  • A massive army of Dwarves and the Thunder Soldier were this to the current regime, before the Straw Hats gave them a little push.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia:
  • After Sai and Boo, among others, are transformed into toys, not only does Don Chinjao forget about them but also the Marines waiting outside wonder about these unfamiliar names on their list.
  • Sugar's ability in general, once she makes you a toy. All memory of that person fades and no one even knows they existed.
  • Chapter 794 reveals that this is the reason why Sabo never contacted Luffy and Ace for all those years. After he was shot down by Saint Jalmack, the physical and mental trauma of the event left him absolutely no memory of anything except his hatred of his parents. He wouldn't regain those memories until he read an article about Ace's death.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Maynard attacks Gambia and throws him into the Colosseum's trash room, only for Bartolomeo to send him into the trash room.
  • Probably one of the biggest examples in One Piece. Little did Doflamingo know that when he shot his brother to death, karma, in the form of his former protegee Law, would come around and bite him in the ass 13 years later, resulting in the undoing of the empire he's spent years building. In one day.
• Legend Fades to Myth: The statue of Kyros, a warrior said to have fought three thousand battles straight in Corrida Colosseum without suffering a single blow. Rebecca derides this legend as nothing but a fallacy, claiming it to be an effigy of an idealized gladiator, used to give false hope to the convict gladiators, during an argument with the Toy Soldier. The irony is that the Toy Soldier is, unbeknownst to her, Kyros himself — and her biological father. What's more, the legend is real. He really is a prisoner who did achieve 3,000 victories. Ironically, he only needed 100 to be freed but willingly chose to keep going.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!:
  • Upon their arrival in Dressrosa, the crew splits into three teams: Law, Robin, and Usopp will go to Green Bit to give back Caesar Clown; Nami, Chopper, Brook, and Momonosuke will stay behind to guard the Thousand Sunny, and the Monster Trio, Franky, and Kin'emon will find and destroy the SMILE factory, and rescue Kin'emon's samurai friend Kanjuro. Over the course of the arc, they keep splitting up into different groups.
  • About a third into the arc, Sanji, Nami, Chopper, Brook, Momonosuke, and Caesar leave Dressrosa and head towards Zou in order to escape the Big Mom pirates.
• Lilliputians: The Tontatta kingdom in Green Bit, whose inhabitants are tiny but extremely strong and fast gnomes with vulpine traits (pointy noses and tails) and have a thing for stealing weapons and clothes from people and manipulating plant-life.
• Living Toy: A whole island of 'em!
  • Was Once a Man: Most of them used to be humans but were transformed by Sugar.
• Load-Bearing Boss: Doflamingo's entire facade of a utopian kingdom hinges on a single member of his crew, Sugar, never falling unconscious. The moment she does her powers are undone and everything he has built crumbles.
• Loved by All: Prior to that tragic night, the Riku Family was quite beloved. Afterwards, the Donquixote Family was held in high regard, because during their reign the country gained immense wealth and prosperity. After the truth came out, the adoration rightly turned back to the Riku family, for good.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: The Thunderous Soldier of Rage reveals to Robin, Franky, and Usopp that he is Rebecca's biological father. His family forgot his existence when he was turned into a toy, and so he was forced to raise his own daughter without ever telling her who he is, lest he be tossed into the scrap.

Tropes M to R

• Made of Iron: Doflamingo can essentially be the King of this Trope. Listing all of the punishment he has taken and is still fighting strong:
  • Taken a Red Hawk punch (which took out a roided out Hordy in one shot).
  • Took a direct hit from Law's Gamma Knife technique, which destroyed all of his organs to the point of only being held together with his strings.
  • Has a Gear Fourth Luffy use him as a human hacky-sack, relentlessly punching him back and forth across the whole country, smashing buildings and mountains wherever he hits, for several minutes. And he still doesn't stay down!
• Magnetic Hero:
  • The Straw Hats, as usual. Note how quickly the Dressrosan resistance movement throws itself behind them, despite the fact that they've been trying to oppose Doflamingo with very little success for almost a decade. Law, too, goes from viewing them as mere allies of convenience to being willing to sacrifice himself for them in only slightly more time. Later revealed to have slightly more justification than past arcs. A big part of the reason all the rebels put themselves behind the Straw Hats so quickly is the way they were briefly fooled by Doflamingo's false resignation from the Seven Warlords. The sheer despair brought on by a brief hour or two of false hope pushed them into acting much more rashly then they had in the past decade. As for Law, his You Shall Not Pass! moment (and possibly his rescue of Luffy in the Paramount War) was at least partially motivated by the things Corazon told him about the "D clan", A.K.A.: "the enemies of the gods."
  • That, and a sizeable part of the resistance movement: The Tontatta Kingdom, are made up of dwarves are naive enough to believe that Usopp is Noland's descendant, and his arrival must therefore mean that it was a day of reckoning at hand. Viola also saw honest motives in Sanji (among other things), and decided to let him help her. Perhaps most importantly is that other than them, no-one else wanted Doflamingo off the throne, at least until Sugar was knocked out, that is.
• Manly Tears:
  • Kyros cried at the grave of their murdered friend and both Kyros and Riku cried at the birth of Rebecca, their daughter/granddaughter.
  • Donquixote Rocinante had these when he was reflecting over all of the tragedies Law suffered, feeling so much sympathy for the poor boy that he couldn't help but burst into tears.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!":
  • When Luffy laughs at Pica's high pitched voice, which he's very sensitive about. What really makes it bad is that, at the time, Pica is even larger than Oars.
  • Another one when Doflamingo starts constricting his Birdcage to kill everyone in the kingdom.
• Meaningless Villain Victory:
  • Trebol's win against Usopp gets wasted when Sugar ends up accidentally causing Usopp to knock her out.
  • Doflamingo actually won the first round against Gear Fourth Luffy by simply outlasting him, even managing to take down a few of the gladiators and coming dangerously close to killing an exhausted Luffy. He fails due to the heavily coordinated efforts between the Dressrosan citizens, allies, and other gladiators, and Luffy recovers.
• Mêlée à Trois: Eventually becomes this between the Straw Hats and their allies (including the Revolutionaries) who want to take out Doflamingo, the Donquixote Pirates who want their enemies dead, the Marines who want to take out and/or capture the Straw Hats and Doflamingo's crew and stop this whole mess, and the confused citizens who just want to survive, trying to capture the people on Doflamingo's blacklist.
• Moment of Weakness: When Rebecca tells the Thunder Soldier that he isn't her father but a one-legged toy during their argument about her participation in the tournament to fight Doflamingo, the toy soldier is understandably shocked and leaves to start the uprising with Rebecca shocked and saddened at what her actions have caused. Except that the toy soldier is actually her father, whose transformation into a toy is why Rebecca doesn't remember him.
• Mugging the Monster:
  • Spartan, a star of the Colosseum, mocks "Lucy" for being a puny old man. He attacks him, only to be easily defeated. To be fair, he didn't know "Lucy" was actually Luffy in disguise.
  • Some of Doflamingo's peons try to swindle a blind man out of his money when they're gambling. That blind man turns out to be an Admiral, and when Luffy tells him what actually happened, he makes a gravity well on the floor to crush the men inside.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When the Thunder Soldier tries to dissuade Rebecca from participating in the tournament following the news of Doflamingo's false resignation, she harshly yells that he isn't her real father but a one-legged toy. She regrets her actions and attempts to plead with the toy soldier to come back, but is unsuccessful.
• Mythology Gag: In the anime, Usopp has a brief Imagine Spot of what Luffy would look like as a toy. Toy!Luffy looks almost identical to how he did as the Giant Luffy Bomber in the special Chopper Man episode.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • You could say that as much as Law was a Spanner in the Works to Doflamingo, what really brought him down was his own tournament for the Flame-Flame Fruit. While intended as a trap for Luffy, the Colosseum is where Franky meets the Thunder Soldier, who invites him and the other Straw Hats on the island to take part in the Tontattas own revolt against the Donquixote Family. Sabo and the Revolutionaries were also drawn to Dressrosa by the Flame-Flame Fruit, and by swapping places, Luffy is able to attack Doflamingo's castle unnoticed. The other warriors in the tournament, after losing their matches, were turned into toys, so when Sugar's spell was undone, they used their newfound freedom to wreak havoc against Doflamingo's Officers, when before most of them had no grudge against the Warlord.
  • Had Sugar killed Usopp or turned him into a toy on the spot, Operation SOP would have failed.
  • If Lao G didn't publicly acknowledge Baby 5 was being kept precisely for being an Extreme Doormat, she wouldn't have defected to the Straw Hat Grand Fleet.
• Nightmare Face: When Usopp is force-fed the ultra-spicy grape that was intended for Sugar. He then makes such an epic and scary face, that it causes Sugar to scream herself and pass out. Then when she wakes up anyone with a long nose (or anything that looks like a long nose) scares her.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Two of the gladiators, Abdullah and Jeet, are clearly likened after real life pro wrestlers Abdullah the Butcher and Tiger Jeet Singh. Likewise the Kerry and Bobby to the real life Funk Brothers.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished:
  • Subverted. At the end of the arc we find that, while Luffy defeating Doflamingo has liberated Dresrosa, Doflamingo was still a weapons supplier to countries at war and without him around those still in the midst of it on the losing side have no choice but to surrender as they have no way to defend themselves now. However, Doflamingo did provide weapons to both sides of the countries at wars so without him the fighting will end soon.
  • Doflamingo's father found this the hard way when he relinquished his World Noble status for atonement of their crimes, as it later led to his wife's death, he and his children being cruelly tortured by the mob with justifiable hatred against the World Nobles, him later being killed by his eldest son when all hell broke loose, the same son becoming a pirate fixed on destroying the world, and later his youngest son's death at hands of Doflamingo.
• No Name Given: Unlike Doflamingo's father, Doflamingo's mother is never named. Somebody better go on the SBS and ask Oda what her name is!
• Not Just a Tournament: The tournament is really a trap by Doflamingo to catch Luffy and Law.
• Not So Stoic/Not So Above It All: Quite a bit of comedy in this arc arises when characters who are normally The Stoic and/or The Straight Man cannot help but react to the increasingly wild circumstances this way:
  • Zoro tries to scold Luffy for provoking the enemy (Pica) by laughing at his high-pitched voice, but Zoro ends up laughing at it, too.
  • Robin shows that she has finally succumbed to her crewmates' influence by having a Face Fault/Wild Take multiple times.
  • Even Law gets into this thanks to spending so much time with the Straw Hats; he gets pulled into their casual pace in Chapter 700 with his "I don't like bread" line (and has a Face Fault when he realizes it), gets many a Wild Take in exasperation of Luffy dragging him all over the kingdom, and when they end up on the back of Cavendish's horse after riding around on a cow (Moocy) for several chapters, Law silently laments, "The cow had more space."
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging: As Usopp tries to run away, he hears the captured Tontatta dwarves' admiration and faith in him, knowing full well it just a result of the lies he fed them. He tries to tune it out as he escapes, but it gets to him until he eventually decides to head back and save them.
• Oh, and X Dies: About ten or so chapters before Law's long-awaited flashback, Law tells Luffy that a person he loved, Corazon (the "Cora-san" he mentioned earlier), was murdered by Doflamingo 13 years ago; as a result, by the time we reach said flashback and meet Corazon, it's a Foregone Conclusion that he won't survive it.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Law once he realizes the implications of Doflamingo's actions. Fooling the world is well beyond the power of a Warlord. The only people who have the power to pull off such a grandiose stunt such as that... are the World Nobles. The mere possibility that a Warlord is one of the default rulers of the world and can do whatever the hell he wants can make anyone below the power of an Emperor freak out — including a fellow Warlord such as Law.
  • Hilariously, "Usoland" upon seeing the Tontatta people's plans to wage war against Doflamingo with him, the "descendant of a legendary hero", as their leader.
  • Jean the Bandit in the tournament when his projectiles don't hit Luffy, but do hit Chinjao, who No Sells a little thing like getting stabbed.
  • The Straw Hats, particularly Usopp, get two in Chapter 730 when they realize 1) there is a Marine Admiral on Dressrosa and 2) a ship from Big Mom comes after the Thousand Sunny.
  • Sorta one for Doflamingo, when one of the guards announces that they have spotted Luffy in the palace. He turns toward the monitor to whom he thinks is Luffy fighting in the ring and promptly yells "Then who's the brat fighting in the Colosseum?!"
  • Everyone in the Executive Tower after Trebol throws a ship at it (forgetting that his partner, Sugar, was still inside).
  • A plot critical one is Usopp's reaction to being fed the poisoned grape is so outlandish it frightens Sugar, enough to make her faint and undoing all the toys she created.
  • The Donquixote Family, including Doflamingo himself, after all the toys are reverted back to their original forms due to Sugar being knocked out, exposing their evil deeds.
  • Law when Doflamingo uses "Bird Cage," realizing that he intends to slaughter everyone on the island to prevent his secrets from getting out.
  • The underlings standing right next to Luffy when he very loudly starts laughing at Pica's high pitched voice
  • Usopp's turn to get the "Eneru Face" when Doflamingo makes him target number one for changing his slaves back into humans.
  • Rebecca after she finally manages to make it to the Flower Field only to find herself face to face once again with Diamante.
  • Usopp gets one when he realizes that, thanks to Sugar erasing his memory of Robin by turning her into a toy, he almost abandoned a close friend without even realizing it. He becomes immediately fixated on eliminating Sugar so she can't do the same to Luffy.
  • Corazon in the flashback when Law brings back a Marine to help him only to find that it's Vergo.
  • Cavendish and Gladius when they both see Bartolomeo charging towards them with a large barrier like a bulldozer.
  • Doflamingo in the finale of his fight against Luffy when he see Luffy's no selling his ultimate attack in the final clash and Luffy's attack headed straight for him.
• Once More, with Clarity:
  • Chapter 742 repeats certain scenes in Rebecca's past and the flashback when Doflamingo overthrew the then-ruling family with more detail; such as the Toy Soldier/Kyros standing next to Rebecca and her mother as they watched Dressrosa burn, Kyros returning to the palace to save King Riku from Doflamingo while becoming a toy, Kyros protecting Rebecca and Scarlett as they fled from Doflamingo's men and the circumstances surrounding how Scarlett died trying to get food for Rebecca while Kyros could only watch.
  • When the anime introduces Kanjuro, the brief flashback to him sacrificing himself to buy Kin'emon time to escape is repeated, only this time, Kanjuro is clearly seen.
  • Sabo's conversation with Luffy and his reaction to Ace's death are two moments that were respectively done in silence and very briefly shown. Chapter 794 shows both of them in more detail.
• One Degree of Separation:
  • There are quite a few of competitors who have connections with Luffy. There is a Fishman called Hack who is a friend of Jimbei's. Bellamy was a pirate that previously ran into Luffy. There is also Chinjao who once fought Garp.
  • In Chapter 731, Koala has a connection with Jimbei, as well as Robin, and Sabo is known to Luffy.
• Out-Gambitted: The end of last arc and the beginning of this one can be described as Law and Doflamingo competing to one-up each other, the winner being a third party.
• Out of Focus: Several of the Straw Hats ^note Nami, Sanji, Chopper and Brook actually get Put on a Bus after the first act of the arc.
• Page-Turn Surprise: Much like Eneru's famous face, Usopp's wild reaction to being force-fed a super-hot grape is revealed from turning the page, and takes up the whole thing.
• Papa Wolf:
  • The Toy Soldier for Rebecca who punched a playground bully for making Rebecca cry and saved her from a pack of wild dogs and from kidnappers. And back when he was human, when Doflamingo threatened his wife and daughter, he didn't hesitate to cut off his chained leg to attack Doflamingo.
  • Oddly enough, Donquixote Doflamingo was one. Whenever one of the children of his crew, such as Baby 5, Buffalo, or Law were attacked, Doflamingo immediately steps in to eliminate the enemy.
  • In the same fashion as his brother, Donquixote Rocinante was one towards Law. He threatened anyone who mistreated Law with death and outright burned down the hospitals of the medical staff that refused to treat him and called Law a monster. Thankfully, Rocinante turned out to be a much better father-figure and Parental Substitute than Doflamingo could ever hope to be.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Mostly played straight with the factory destruction team's disguises.
  • Played straight with Zoro and Sanji, who are only wearing sunglasses and a beard and moustache (which don't match their hair), and Robin and Usopp who are only wearing hats and sunglasses/goggles. Law is also only wearing sunglasses and a mustache, but at least he has a rather large hood that prevents people from seeing his face clearly.
    • However, Law's hood is part of an open black jacket which is the only thing on his torso, hence revealing his tattoo of HIS OWN JOLLY ROGER on his chest. Hardly the world's best disguise.
  • Franky's disguise is slightly more convincing due to him having a different hairstyle but he doesn't wear any pants other than his speedo and his metal parts are clearly visible.
  • Subverted when Kinemon is easily recognized and ambushed by Doflamingo's men because of his samurai topknot. Double subverted when nobody, not even Gladius, sees through his Doflamingo disguise.
  • Subverted and justified with Luffy. The gladiators believe Luffy is a eight meter tall giant, so they don't recognize him even when Luffy slips up and announces his name. The only ones to see through his disguise are Bellamy and an old rival of Garp.
  • Jesus Burgess wore nothing put a paper bag on his head when fighting in the tournament. Yet no one could tell who he was until he removed it.
  • Sabo's Lucy disguise fools everyone despite the fact that his hair colour is different, he's wearing a different outfit, a good head taller (although that's no big deal in the One Piece world) and he's got a very distinctive scar in a completely different place from Luffy's. Diamante only starts to suspect something's amiss when he notices how different his fighting style is.
  • When Bartolomeo meets Usopp, he quickly notices his unusual nose and asks Robin to confirm if Usopp is Sogeking.
• Parental Substitute: We find out that the Thunder Soldier was this to Rebecca after the death of her mother, including protecting her from wolves, bullies, and kidnappers.
  • Subverted. He is her father, but never told Rebecca, knowing that doing so would get him tossed into the scrap heap and would leave her without protection, since his family had forgotten his existence ever since he was turned into a toy.
  • Rocinante/Corazon also became this to Law, who had lost his real family to genocide. The two of them were even planning on fleeing from Doflamingo and the Marines to live together on their own before shit hit the fan, and Law was so devastated by "Cora-san"'s death that he spent the next 13 years of his life planning to get revenge on his murderer, Doflamingo.
• Person of Mass Destruction:
  • Pica's ability to meld with the plateau means his punches have the approximate mass of an entire town falling on people.
  • Fujitora is able to pull down meteors with his gravity powers, and at the arc's end lifts the entire city's worth of rubble to rain down on his enemies, which he uses to sink an entire fleet.
  • Doflamingo's Birdcage can trap and slaughter the entire country. Zoro lampshades this when deciding to push the cage back. It's only the power of one man, so surely everyone in Dressrosa ought to be able to overpower it, right?
• Pinned to the Ground: When Rebecca attacks Luffy in the Corrida Colosseum, he dodges her attack, jumps into the air and pushes her to the ground using his feet against her arms landing on her stomach pinning her to the ground.
• Platonic Declaration of Love: Right before Corazon locks young Law into a trunk to hide him from the Donquixote Family, since he knows that Doflamingo is going to murder him and this will be the last time Law ever sees him alive, Cora gives him one of these, along with his signature goofy smile. Law reciprocates the feeling.
• Plot-Triggering Death: The death of Donquixote Rocinante, the former Corazon of the Donquixote family, is a major part of the Dressrosa arc, and ultimately the primary driving force behind the Pirate Alliance Saga. His death earned Doflamingo Law's hatred, causing him to spend the next thirteen years of his life plotting his revenge. Had Rocinante never died, it's highly doubtful Law would've been a pirate at all, let alone being one of Luffy's primary allies.
  • Law probably would have still been in the Donquixote Pirates if not for Rocinante's influence. Although, his premature death probably moved him from receiving a normal life.
  • The fact that Luffy and Law's alliance has led to this arc, which now involves practically every major power in the world, you could easily argue that Rocinante's death is now pivotal to how this era will be shaped — not in an overt way like Whitebeard's or Roger's, but as the result of how he shaped one person (Law), who would go on to carry out his wishes no matter what the cost.
• Pose of Supplication: Once the fight with Doflamingo is finished, Issho does this on behalf of the Marines to King Riku due to the World Government letting Doflamingo take over Dressrosa but being unable to do anything about it thanks to his Warlord status.
• Psychopathic Manchild: This arc reveals that Doflamingo's motives and actions are him throwing a thirty-year-long temper tantrum thanks to the World Nobles denying him his "rightful" place with them in Mariejois.
• Put on a Bus: Happens to Sanji, Nami, Chopper, and Brook. In Chapter 730 they encounter one of Big Mom's ships, which is there to capture Caesar. Sanji asks Luffy for permission to counterattack (which Luffy grants), and they aren't seen for 65 chapters afterwards, only reappearing in Chapter 795. In real world time, this is over a year.
• Race Against the Clock: From Chapter 780 till Doflamingo's defeat in 791 when the birdcage was shrinking around the island.
  • Eventually, Zoro figures out they can extend their time a little by pushing the cage back, Haki users can push it directly, it can't cut Bartolomeo's barriers, and the factory is made of seastone and thus cannot be affected by the strings. This turns into a new race against the clock as they have to keep the birdcage open long enough for Luffy to recover.
• Rescue Romance: This is how Scarlett fell in love with Kyros.
• Revenge: A major underlying theme of the arc.
  • Don Chinjao wants revenge on Garp for taking away his pointy head, preventing him from accessing his immense wealth. He tried to take it out on Luffy, only to let the grudge go when Luffy restored said pointy head.
  • Donquixote Doflamingo wants revenge on the World Nobles for rejecting him and refusing his plea to rejoin their number. So driven by his hatred that he swore to destroy the world they lorded over in retaliation and went on the destructive path of a pirate, a madness that continues to this very day.
  • Trafalgar Law's Roaring Rampage of Revenge is the ultimate driving force of the Pirate Alliance Saga. Whereas Doflamingo is driven by revenge for the sake of himself, Law is driven by revenge for the sake of the man who saved his life. By killing his brother, Doflamingo was responsible for the creation of his worst enemy, something he is very much aware of. The two hate each other so much that much of what happens throughout this arc is a result of them trying to piss each other off as much as possible, and this continuous cycle of revenge ensures that their conflict only ends when one of them is dead.
• Rightful King Returns: An interesting twist where Doflamingo returns to take control of Dressrosa, the kingdom originally ruled by his family, after eight centuries of it being ruled by someone else (the Riku family) by means of bloodshed and deception, whereas those who ruled in his stead were kind and fair. Thus it gets flipped on its head when resistance fighters try to place Riku and his family back on the throne, which they succeed at.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Later revelations make it clear that this arc is the culmination of the one that Law has been on for the last thirteen years of his life. The narrative all but states that by killing his brother, Doflamingo was instrumental in the creation of his own worst enemy.
• Rock And A Hard Place: When the people were running away from the Birdcage only for a ticked off Doflamingo to come at them.
• Rousing Speech: Riku gave one to the people to hold out and not get killed until Doflamingo was defeated.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: One odd example here, Doflamingo somewhat fits this mold but it's still a bit murky if he truly does care for his people, or just needs the kingdom for his own ends. Played straight with the Riku Family. King Riku III made reparations to the Tontattas for the grief the Donquixote Family put them through and was willing to make sacrifices to keep the kingdom under his rule and had even planned to give the money back to his people if not for Doflamingo framing him.
• Rule of Symbolism: The ending of Luffy and Doflamingo's fight has the latter slammed down to the ground below, indicating how Doffy, who takes great pride in his blood and heritage (despite no longer being truly a part of what it entails), is now forced to join the "commoners" he looks down upon. It also visually echoes Luffy's final fight with Crocodile — which is incredibly ironic, considering how Doffy first took note of Luffy when he figured out that he was the one who beat Crocodile in the first place. Along with it is Doflamingo's signature Sinister Shades being shattered by the blow, which seems to signify the end of Doflamingo's power.
• Running Gag:
  • Every time Corazon tries to light his cigarette, he accidentally sets himself on fire.
  • Luffy is once again believed to have kidnapped a princess.

Tropes S to V

• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: When Law realizes Doflamingo used the World Government to fake his resignation for his plan. He rightly deduces that no pirate, even a Warlord, would have that kind of power... unless he was a World Noble.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Fujitora should have reported to Marine Headquarters about what happened once communications with the outside world were re-established, so the World Government could tastefully edit the information before releasing it to the public. What he did, on the other hand, was have a subordinate announce a full disclosure to neighboring islands, then publicly bow before King Riku as an apology for the Government's policies that led to Doflamingo taking over. As you can imagine, Sakazuki was not pleased by this citing it made the Marines look bad and gave him an ultimatum: Bring back the heads of Luffy and Law or he'll shut him out of every Marine base. Fujitora couldn't care one lick about it.
• Secret Legacy: This arc sheds some light on the D and their relationship with the World Nobles (and by proxy, the World Government). Here, it is revealed that the D are considered to be the mortal enemies of the World Nobles. The World Nobles tell their children horror stories about the D in order to scare them into behaving, and whenever a D starts to make a name for themselves, all the elders moan and groan about how that D "will surely bring forth another storm!" — something previously mentioned by Law in the Post-Marineford Arc. This is all relevant in that Law is a D, and Doflamingo is a former World Noble — implying that their animosity was fated. When Law reveals to Doflamingo that he, like Luffy, is also a D, Doflamingo becomes so enraged that he ends up walking into one of Law's attacks.
• Secret Relationship: Kyros and Scarlett married in secret due to the scandal that would result from the two of them being together. Although ironically enough, turns out the whole populace already knew about it and were okay with it, deciding to respect their decisions.
• Self-Made Orphan: It is revealed that Doflamingo killed both his father and brother.
• Self-Inflicted Hell:
  • One has to admit Doflamingo was the main reason for his own "hell" when he was a kid. It was his idea to go out telling everyone that they were World Nobles and acting as he was still one.
  • The anime adds an extra scene for padding that makes this the case for Doflamingo's father rather than Doffy himself, as it's Homing who tells people in this scene that he and his family used to be World Nobles and he doesn't seem to notice that the people were afraid of them until it was too late.
• Serial Escalation:
  • This arc has the potential of topping both Punk Hazard and Marineford in the JustForFun.Holy Shit Quotient, especially when it comes to character returns. First it was the long-thought dead Bellamy. Then Jesus Burgess, captain of the first fleet of the Blackbeard Pirates. Then there was Koala, who is now a member of the Revolutionary Army and a master of Fishman Karate. Chapter 801 sees the return of Spandam and Rob Lucci (and implies Kaku) as members of CP0. The biggest one of all, however, is the fact that Sabo is alive, and has joined the Revolutionary Army.
  • As for non character return-related shenanigans, this arc involves two Warlords of the Sea (Doflamingo and Law), the World Nobles (the Donquixote Family via Doflamingo), some of the Marines' top brass (Admiral Fujitora as well as Vice-Admirals Maynard and Bastille), two Emperors (a ship belonging to Big Mom has appeared to take Caesar as well as destroy the Straw Hats in the process, while Kaido is still mentioned as an overlying threat for Doflamingo), Cipher Pol Aegis-0 (though they haven't done anything yet, it's implied they're up to something bad), and the Revolutionary Army (especially Koala and Sabo.)
• Sense Loss Sadness: The formerly human Thunder Soldier hates being Unable to Cry or feel the warmth of people's bodies, like his wife's when she died in his arms. When Rebecca holds his hand at the end of the arc, he cries Tears of Joy.
• She's All Grown Up:
  • Koala, the slave girl Fisher Tiger had saved makes a reappearance◊.
  • Not to mention Sabo; he renters the narrative not as the scruffy young kid with a tooth missing, but as a sharp dressed and fair-faced adult.
• Shoo the Dog: Law's attempt to end his alliance with the Straw Hats about a quarter of the way through the arc seems to be an effort to do this. It's made pretty clear that Law genuinely does not want to drag the Straw Hats into his personal fight with Doflamingo, and he noticeably tells Doflamingo that the alliance is over right on the heels of Doflamingo almost killing half the Straw Hats and then threatening to take the other half hostage to get Caesar back. Law claims that he was just using them, but Doflamingo correctly deduces that Law is actually sacrificing himself to buy them more time. Later, when Luffy comes to rescue him, Law continues to attempt to end it (emphasis on attempt) and threatens to kill Luffy if he frees him, though he eventually finally seems to accept that Luffy is determined to keep the alliance and help defeat Doflamingo, and will not be deterred. At the end of the arc, it's obvious without any conversation between them that the alliance is still intact.
• Shout-Out:
  • Might be a coincidence but the fact the Dressrosa has a legend about "fairies" along with Luffy's fake alias being "Lucy" and the prize being around a Fruit that can make fire. Along with the bag that Jesus is wearing reading "Happy Store" point to signs of sly nods toward fellow shonen manga, Fairy Tail. the fairies in question are actually dwarves, but they do have tails. As of Chapter 744, Sabo can now be reasonably compared to Natsu of Fairy Tail. He's been trained by a "Dragon", has Dragon-themed attacks, and now he's Playing with Fire thanks to eating the Flame-Flame Fruit.
  • The Factory Destroying Team's disguises seems to be one to Reservoir Dogs along with that fact one of the star gladiators of the Colosseum is named "Senor Pink".
  • A character entering a tournament under an old man alias. Why does that sound familiar?
  • The scene where Robin is held prisoner by the dwarves is taken straight from Gulliver's Travels.
  • Two alias names being used as Lucy and Ricky.
  • Viola's past appearance looks like a certain fairy tale princess.
  • It may or may not be intentional, but Robin as a toy looks quite a lot like Raggedy Ann.
  • The scene where the Doflamingo Family Mooks try desperately not to laugh at Pica's voice, on pain of death, makes one wonder whether they find it "wisible".
  • Doflamingo's "game" seems to have overtones of a certain clown "agent of chaos". Considering his alias...
  • A guy armed with multiple swords fights a skyscraper-sized giant with a weak point at the base of the neck, and another giant shatters his own arm by punching someone too hard.
  • Franky is revealed to have a "backup cola supply" that lets him restart after taking heavy damage, and gets part of his face torn away to reveal his metal endoskeleton and a glowing red eye.
  • A blonde-haired boy kills his own father because he's responsible for the death of his loving mother because the lifestyle he made her endure worked her to death, and decides he was better off rejecting his humanity and believes that humans are no better than playthings. He also tries to control people against their will and once tried to control the world itself.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Doflamingo is a recipient for this twice, one from Law and one from Luffy.
  • With Law, he tries to guilt trip him by stating that this was the country Corazon wanted to save, and that it was Law's fault it ended up in Doffy's hands — only for Law to ask him if he really believes that. Doflamingo pauses, laughs, and admits that Law is right, and that even if the Marines had found out about his plans, he would've found another way to take over Dressrosa.
  • With Luffy, he again tries the guilt trip route and says that thanks to the arrival of him and his crew, Luffy is at fault for ruining the "peace" of Dressrosa, and that when the people die from the Bird Cage, they will forever curse his name for doing so, and calls Luffy a pain in the ass for all the trouble he's caused. Luffy retorts that the supposed "peace" he disrupted was nothing more than a façade, and that if anyone is a pain in the ass, it's Doflamingo for making his friends (Law, Rebecca, Bellamy, and others) cry, enraging his comrades (Franky, Law, and others), and refusing to fall, so he'll shoulder it all to make sure not a single person dies, and take Doflamingo down here and now.
• "Shut Up" Kiss: To stop Kyuin from talking, Franky kisses her and she ends up in a Post-Kiss Catatonia.
• Significant Name Shift: After Rebecca regains her memories of Kyros, she no longer refers to him as Thunder Soldier, but by "father".
• Sins of Our Fathers:
  • Don Chinjao wants to kill Luffy because of his grudge against Garp. It's the first notable case that someone wants to kill Luffy for a reason that isn't because he's the son of Dragon (in fact, had Chinjao known about Dragon, he would've made sure that Luffy was never born). Sure, it's still a familial relation, but the point still stands.
  • Because Rebecca is the granddaughter of the previous Dressrosa King and everyone hates him, the audience immediately boos her the moment she steps into the arena.
  • When their neighbors discovered that the Donquixote family were World Nobles, they formed a mob and started torturing them as payback for all the horrible things the Nobles have done to them and their families over the years, despite the fact that Homing and his wife were probably the only ones who have never taken part in any of that. Though, Doflamingo didn't help their case by being a more standard Noble.
• The Sociopath: Though it was fairly obvious from previous arcs that Doflamingo is one, this arc fully reveals the true extent of his sociopathy. It isn't pretty.
• Spanner in the Works:
  • It'd be quicker to mention who doesn't fit this trope. Doflamingo sets up what seems like the perfect trap for the Straw Hats, but because he's upset so many different people it all becomes moot. Violet and the Tontattas supply the Straw Hats with intel on Doflamingo's operations, the Revolutionaries bail Luffy out of the Colosseum, the various pirates and warriors drawn to the tournament throw in their aid to bring down the Donquixote Pirates Officers. Law's decision to fight Doflamingo and losing, while unintentional, motivates Luffy to escape the Colosseum and bring the fight to the Warlord's castle, coincidentally coming in the nick of time to save the Thunder Soldier from his own failed assassination attempt. And when the dust has settled, it's revealed that Doflamingo's defeat has upended the schemes of multiple factions, who were depending on the weapons Doflamingo produces. Back in Punk Hazard, Caesar Clown said Law's decision to team up with Luffy and stop the Fake Devil Fruit production would turn the New World upside down — he wasn't kidding.
  • Sabo's presence as a member of the Revolutionary Army investigating his weapons deals is something Doflamingo might well have been able to account for. His being Luffy's brother, and perhaps the one person Luffy would give the Flame-Flame Fruit to, no questions asked, is not. The only thing that kept Luffy from immediately joining in to help fight Doflamingo was fighting to claim the fruit. Sabo's taking Luffy's place in the tournament frees him from that and allows Luffy to focus on Doflamingo.
• Suddenly Voiced: Corazon finally speaks for the first time after Law revealed he was a D. This shocked Law so much that he didn't realize it was Corazon who was talking despite him being right in front of him.
• Sue Donym: Luffy enters the tournament as "Lucy" because he almost registered for it with his real name. Having written down "Lu" and rather use a more clever alias, he just finishes off his registry as "Lucy".
• Superpowered Evil Side: Cavendish is revealed to have one, so when he falls asleep, Hakuba awakens and brutally attacks everyone around him, killing and/or incapacitating them.
• Supporting Protagonist: The Dressrosa arc is the story of Kyros as he avenges the dethroned former royal family. And also, it is about Law and his pursuit of vengeance against Doflamingo — and his alliance with the Straw Hats.
• Take a Third Option: Doflamingo was given a choice to either renounce his title as one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, get Caesar back, and have the Admirals on his ass, or keep the title, lose Caesar, and subsequently have Kaido on his ass. It originally seemed he chose the former, only for it to turn out that he used his influence as a former World Noble to fake his resignation and trick Law into a trap.
• Tears of Joy:
  • Luffy is reduced to tears when he meets Sabo again.
  • In Kyros' flashback, he and King Riku cry tears of joy at Rebecca's birth.
  • When Luffy defeats Doflamingo, the citizens roar with joy and cry tears of happiness, especially Rebecca and Kyros.
• Tempting Fate: Doflamingo gloats to Riku that he's made a fool-proof plan to capture the Straw Hats and that none of them will ever find his hidden black market harbor. Not only is Luffy no longer in the colosseum and someone has taken his place but also Usopp and Robin are currently in said harbor with the Tontatta, and know about the abilities of his most important executive.
• Tender Tears: Rebecca has moments when she easily cries or gets teary but considering her past and how everyone is fond of jeering and insulting her, it's not too hard to see why.
• This Is Unforgivable!: The Dressrosa citizens are aghast when they realize Doflamingo's atrocities, immediately resorting to beating up his subordinates, calling for his head and eventually rooting for Luffy to defeat him.
• Time-Limit Boss: Doflamingo, once he starts making his Birdcage shrink; Luffy only has one hour from there to kick his ass, or else the country will be shredded to bits.
• Tired of Running: In the finale of the arc, the pirates start to head off when Issho moves in to capture them. Luffy, running late due to wanting to see Rebecca one last time, arrives just as Issho starts to begin his assault. The others tell him to just run around him and head for the boats. But Luffy instead directly attacks the Admiral, stating if he wanted to be King of the Pirates, he'll eventually have to fight Admirals and the Emperors sooner or later and he didn't put his journey on hold for two years of training just to keep avoiding fights with them. He doesn't get the chance to finish due to being pulled away, but this declaration makes it clear what'll happen if he ever runs into one in the future.
• Together in Death:
  • A non-romantic but still heartwarming variety. Law blames himself for dragging Luffy into his personal fight with Doflamingo; therefore, if Luffy dies in the final battle, Law plans to invoke this trope in penance and allow Doflamingo to kill him as well, joining Luffy and Corazon in death. Cavendish counts too, since he allows this on the condition that Law will only die after Cavendish himself also dies. Thankfully, Luffy survives, so none of that becomes necessary.
  • Invoked during Senor Pink's battle with Franky. As his vision fades, Pink thinks about his wife and deceased son upon taking a hail of Franky's punches.
• Touch of Death: Sugar's ability lets her turn anyone into a toy she can control if she can touch them. When the Tontattas try to rush her, she taps a dozen of them as they charge and turns them into her protectors, and when Robin tries to restrain her, she's able to twist her fingers to graze Robin's hand, turning her into a doll.
• Tournament Arc: The first half of the arc (albeit with lots of other storylines mixed in), with Ace's Devil Fruit as the prize. "Lucy" (an alias used by Luffy in Round 1, before handing it off to Sabo for Round 2) is the winner.
• Town with a Dark Secret: The secrets all eventually come out, to Doflamingo's detriment.
  • It's ruled by Doflamingo so this is a given. The toys used to be human and were changed by a Devil Fruit user Doflamigo brought with him to the island. What's more, anyone who knew the turned humans lose their memory of them. We also find out that there's an ongoing internal war between the dwarves and the Donquixote Family that has been lasting for 900 years.
  • Some of those gladiators in Corrida Colosseum, more often than not the fodder ones that are simply washed away? They're actually Condemned Contestants, those who are trying to rebel against Doflamingo. Lots of them are already in bad shape, heavily covered in bandages and missing An Arm and a Leg. Oh, and the colosseum battle wasn't supposed to be about killing.
  • If that wasn't bad enough, we learn from Rebecca and the Thunder Soldier's flashback that it was their family that Doflamingo overthrew to claim the kingdom. Even framing the family for supposedly burning it down to gain the people's favor. A stigma which still stands in the present day.
• Trash the Set: By the time the fight against Doflamingo is finished, the whole city has been scrapped to the center of the island thanks to the Birdcage with the only things still standing being former and new Royal Plateaus since they were in the center of the city.
• Trauma Button: Sugar gets this after her force-feeding Usopp a spicy grape causes him to make a Nightmare Face, scaring the living daylights out of her. When she wakes up, she starts freaking out at or avoiding anyone with a long nose, or anything even resembling one.
  • Usopp later exploits this by creating a similar head model and launching it from afar. Even if it doesn't hit her, the point is to send it her way close enough to scare her again, pressing this button extra hard.
• Treachery Cover Up: Defied by Fujitora, who absolutely doesn't want to let the situation with Dressrosa be covered up after he learned about what happened in Alabasta from Smoker. When he confronts Riku Dold after Doflamingo's defeat, he publicly admits that the real party responsible for allowing Doflamingo to take control of Dressrosa was the World Government, then bows before the King and issues a public apology on behalf of the Government. All while a Transponder Snail is broadcasting this to neighboring islands. With word having spread before they could change the story to save face, Sakazuki and the Five Elder Stars have no choice but to formally strip Doflamingo of his warlord status and allow the Straw Hats to take the credit for freeing Dressrosa. They don't take this well, though.
• Troperiffic: Yes, and for a single arc, that makes it all the more impressive.
• Unable to Cry: The Thunder Soldier, due to being a toy, can't cry. But after seeing Rebecca, his biological daughter, who he became a Parental Substitute for but was unable to tell her who he really is, cry herself, he was more than willing to.
• Underestimating Badassery:
  • Doflamingo once he gained the upper hand, which Law calls him out on for.
  Law: "Will you be one of the countless many... that have come to regret underestimating them?"
  • For a hero on villain example, the Tontatta dwarves and Usopp believed Sugar to be nothing more than a weak little girl, which she lampshades. She's actually a lot faster than she looks, enough to turn a good chunk of the dwarves into toys in the blink of an eye via Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs.
• Undying Loyalty:
  • Law's love for and devotion to Corazon and his legacy is the primary driving force of this arc and ultimately the saga. He is so loyal to Corazon's memory that he spent the last thirteen years of his life plotting his revenge on Corazon's murderer, Doflamingo. Law himself outright states that everything he will do on this earth until the day he dies will be for the sake of Corazon, including the one thing his idol was never able to do, even in the face of death — pull the trigger.
  • Bellamy is a Deconstruction. Even when it's made clear that Doflamingo cares nil for him, his principles won't allow him to turn against the idol he has devoted himself to for so long.
• Unexpected Character: In-universe, it's Jesus Burgess.
• Ungrateful Bastard: The no-name tourney gladiators turned to toys that Usopp freed quickly turn on him when Doflamingo puts a price on his head. Fortunately, Gatz managed to get through to them and they helped Luffy during the final round of his fight with Doflamingo.
• Unlikely Spare: After Luffy splits the Coliseum platform in half with Don Chinjao’s head, the next round is delayed by fifteen minutes to bring out the spare arena.
• Unreliable Narrator: Leo on Princess Mansherry. He first describes the girl as irritable, short-tempered, rude, and ungrateful, but when we actually meet the girl she's as sweet as a pea. He only thinks she's rude because she's deredere towards him (which he's perfectly unaware of) , and picks on him specifically when she wants to be spoiled and is denied that.
• Use Your Head: Don Chinjao's fighting style. He can even do a Gum-Gum Gatling-style rapid-fire attack... with his head.
• Vagueness Is Coming: According to the narrator, the seven division leaders of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet will be responsible for a big event that has yet to be explained.
• Villainous Breakdown: As par for course, Doflamingo gradually loses it as the arc goes on and everything goes straight to hell once Sugar gets knocked out. It culminates to him ranting about his superiority as a former World Noble, who bears the blood of the "creators" after Luffy manages to hit him. He then gets so fed up with all of his life's work falling apart around him that he tries to slaughter the island, only for his awe-inducing rage and humiliation to increase when Luffy's response to that is to go into Gear Fourth and hand him a severe No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. Eventually, Doffy is reduced to wobbling about and attacking random people as he demands that Luffy come face him, after Luffy extended his Haki too much and needed a break.
• Villainous Valor:
  • Doflamingo may be in the running for being the biggest Jerkass in the manga, but you gotta admit, the only thing more impressive than his ability to dish it out is his ability to take it.
  • Invoked by Cavendish. When the Colosseum audience is booing Rebecca and calling for her death, he calls them out on how she's risking her life in the arena and they don't get to look down on her unless they are willing to take the same risk.

Tropes W to Z

• Wake-Up Call Boss: This is the arc that gave Luffy his first serious fights since the Time Skip. First it was an old, legendary pirate that used to fight his grandpa back in the day — regardless of his age, he certainly isn't a pushover. He is soon followed by Doflamingo himself, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea.
• Web Comic Time: Clocking in at over ninety chapters (which, if you include the annual three week break and the month Oda took off due to sickness, is almost two and half years in Real Life), it is one of the longest arcs in the manga.^note The Wano Country Arc, while much longer, is taking place in the span of a few weeks The thing is, the events of this arc spanned over a single day in-universe.
• Wham Episode: Forget Wham Episode, Dressrosa is a Wham Arc.
  • Chapter 700 gives us plenty, such as Buggy being revealed to be a Warlord and Doflamingo having Ace's Devil Fruit.
  • Chapter 704 gives us Jesus Burgess, one of Blackbeard's men as a participant of the gladiator tournament. Oh, and Bellamy's still alive.
  • Chapter 705 gives us the gravity controlling blind man who Luffy met earlier being a replacement Admiral, Fujitora, and the appearance of CP-0.
  • Chapter 722 confirms that Doflamingo is a World Noble (or rather, used to be, as the rest don't consider him to be one anymore). It also mentions that the Nefertaris were also one of the founding families of the World Government, but chose not to reside in Mariejois, meaning that both Vivi and Cobra are (technically) World Nobles as well.
  • Chapter 730: Sanji's group encounter one of Big Mom's ships with Caesar, revealing they're after him for stealing from them to fund his research.
  • Chapter 731: Sabo's alive!
  • Chapter 735: Fujitora revealing his intentions: Eliminating the Warlord system, starting with Doflamingo.
  • Chapter 744: Sabo manages to eat the Flame-Flame Fruit and gain Ace's fire powers!
  • Chapter 763: Law is revealed to be a D!
  • Chapter 764: Corazon says that those with the Will of D are considered to be "the enemies of God".
  • Chapter 769: Doflamingo brutally attacks Law, cutting off his right arm.
  • Chapter 783: Gear Fourth. That is all.
  • Chapter 793: Kid, Killer, Hawkins, and Apoo revealed that the Yonko they are targeting is Shanks.
  • Chapter 799: The Corrida Colosseum gladiators and the dwarves ally each other into seven crews, and offer to join Luffy.
  • Chatper 800: Luffy refuses their offer on the grounds that he's sailing for freedom, not to be a big shot. Once the other captains realize this they agree to be allied with him anyway, birthing the Straw Hat Fleet.
  • Chapter 801: The Straw Hats all get bounty increases but Sanji's wanted posted is listed as only alive for unknown reasons. On a smaller note, Lucci and Spandam is revealed to be one of the CP0 members and Doflamingo foreshadows the upcoming war for the Pirate King title.
• Wham Line:
  • Trafalgar D. Water Law
  • "People of D are said to be the enemies of God! "
  • "Gear...Fourth!"
• Wham Shot:
  • The final page of Chapter 731 shows the graves of Ace and Whitebeard. The very last panel on the page shows the three sake cups in front of the graves.
  • In the cover story for Chapter 778, Jimbei hears that the townspeople have found something in the ruins. It's a poneglyph.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Queen Riku. In one of Kyros's flashbacks, King Riku has a wife, who looks similar to Scarlet and has Viola's eyes. She's no longer around by the time Doflamingo attacked Dressrosa. Given that there's no mention or appearance of her later, chances are likely she died suddenly.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Fujitora gets this from Maynard on the Admiral's decision to focus on the Straw Hats and not Doflamingo even after Doflamingo's evil is exposed and he starts killing everyone with his Birdcage technique.
• The Worf Effect: Sabo has little issue matching Jesus Burgess in combat and easily defeats Vice-Admiral Bastille when confronting the Marines. It quickly becomes obvious that the only enemies on the island that can threaten him are Admiral Fujitora and Doflamingo himself.
• Worf Had the Flu: Part of the reason young Law stood no chance against Vergo is because he had just received the Op-Op Fruit to cure his chronic Amber Lead Sickness and his body had not yet fully recovered from a long debilitation, when in the past, Law proved to be quite a scrapper despite his small size, and extremely vicious when he had nothing to lose. Law also had no experience using his brand new Devil Fruit powers, either. Vergo easily overwhelmed him before Law was even able to run away.
• Worth Living For: Trafalgar Law was jaded as a child — the world used him, his friends, his family, and his city to dig up the poisonous Amber Lead for profit and abandoned them for a disease that would kill him in three years, a disease that made him nothing more than a monster in the eyes of the common citizen. Bitter and angry and despairing over how his life was ruined because of something that was out of his control, all he wanted to do was destroy everything in sight, because he felt that was all he could do. Law only felt the will to live again after Corazon showed him love and compassion, and had every intention of spending the rest of his life with him — only for Corazon to give up his life so he could live. Now, the only reason Law bothered living to this very day was to kill Corazon's murderer, Donquixote Doflamingo.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • The soldiers that were exterminating the citizens of Flevance didn't even spare Law's friends. What's even worse was that the children were deceived into thinking they'd be allowed to escape.
  • Vergo demonstrates this in a terrifying manner when he beats young Law to a pulp after finding out he's helping Rocinante betray Doflamingo.
• Would You Like to Hear How They Died?:
  • Burgess tries to pull this on Sabo at the end of their fight in a last gambit to kill him and claim the Flame-Flame Fruit. Telling Sabo that Ace's last request before being handed over to the Marines was that Blackbeard not tell his brothers about what happened to him. But Burgess proceeds to mock the futility of the request as the World Government made his capture into a spectacle anyway. Sabo gives him a face full of flames in response.
  • More successfully, Diamante pulls this on Rebecca, specifically holding the pistol he used to kill Scarlet and taunting Rebecca with the promise of killing her the same way.
• Xanatos Gambit:
  • If the Straw Hats succeed in destroying the SMILE factory, Kaido will kill Doflamingo for Law, assuming Law can't do it himself.
  • Issho could've interfered directly as soon as Doflamingo started the Birdcage, but refrained from it as he saw it as an ample opportunity to showcase how flawed the Seven Warlords system was. If Luffy lost, then he would simply step in and beat Doflamingo himself. But if Luffy won, which did happen, he could show the world the result of the actions of a corrupted Warlord. Despite the plan however, Issho admitted that there was no excuse for letting the kingdom suffer as it did and personally apologized to King Riku on behalf of the Marines once all was said and done.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: What Doflamingo intends to do to Fujitora if he succeeds in killing everyone in Dressrosa. Fujitora flat out tells Doflamingo he's aware of the things he has done in the past and he intends to take him down in the future, and also tells him his plan to dismantle the Warlord system. But Fujitora assures him that he won't touch him and his crew at the moment and will only focus on arresting Luffy and Law, even after Doflamingo sets up the Birdcage. With the Birdcage up, Doflamingo tells his crew that the Marines won't be a problem to them, and when he's done using Fujitora he plans on killing him because he knows keeping him alive will cause problems for him in the future.
• You're Not My Father: In a heated argument about Doflamingo's faked resignation, a frustrated Rebecca shouts at the Toy Soldier that he isn't her father but just a one-legged toy, only to quickly regret what was said. Irony is that Rebecca didn't know that the Toy Soldier aka Kyros is actually her father. She does an inversion at the end of the arc when she learns that he's spread a rumor that she's the daughter of a foreign prince to spare her the shame of having a murderer for a father.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Literally. In Chapter 755, the dwarves find out that their princess, Manshelly, isn't held in the SMILE factory like they were led to believe, but in the royal palace.
• You Shall Not Pass!:
  • Law fights Doflamingo on the bridge to buy time for the Thousand Sunny to get away and for the other Straw Hats to destroy the SMILE factory.
  • Sabo single handedly prevents the Marines from chasing after the Straw Hats and their allies.
• Zerg Rush: The dwarves at the Toy Factory do this to Sugar underestimating her as a weak child . She immediately proves them wrong by rapidly changing a huge number of dwarves into toys.

Story Impact

• Doflamingo explains his leverage over the World Government despite being a former Celestial Dragon is that he knows a well-guarded secret within Mary Geoise that would shake the world if ever made public. Come the Reverie arc, that secret entails the true power behind the World Government.
• Sabo is revealed to be alive and a member of the Revolutionary Army alongside Koala, the former slave girl that met and befriended Fisher Tiger in his final days. Sabo takes Luffy's place in the tournament and eats the Flame-Flame Fruit.
• Doflamingo is defeated by Luffy and arrested, his organization collapse within one day's time frame. Doflamingo predicted his downfall would cause a major upheaval in world and leads to an inevitable destruction of the status quo. This begins to occur in the ending of the Wano arc when his customer Kaido and Big Mom after defeated by Luffy, taking their places among the Four Emperors alongside Buggy.
• Most of the gladiators freed by Usopp pledge allegiance to Luffy in gratitude. They end up forming the Straw Hat Grand Fleet under (officially) Luffy, but divided into 7 individual fleets wih pirate crews led by Cavendish, Bartolomeo, Sai, Ideo, Leo, Hajrudin and Orlumbus, totalling 5600 individual pirates.