Concerning Straw Hats is a One Piece & The Hobbit Crossover fanfiction by Mr. Chaos.
Shortly following the events of Orange Town, the still-forming Straw Hat Pirates enter a mysterious fogbank that transports them to the Grey Havens. While enjoying the elves' hospitality, Luffy meets Gandalf and discusses his newly discovered need for a thief on his crew. Gandalf has someone in mind, and a week later, the crew returns to the East Blue with a well-repaired ship, plenty of supplies, and a new burglar for their crew: one Bilbo Baggins who, five years since his journey with Thorin, is quite ready for a new adventure.
Can be read FanFiction.net
and Archive of Our Own
.
This fanfic provides examples of:
- Adaptational Badass: In One Piece canon, Moodie is a normal civilian who is there at Baratie as a date of Lieutenant Fullbody and witnesses Sanji delivering a Curb-Stomp Battle for antagonizing him. Here, she is daughter of Wrath who wields an Axe Hammer with one hand and knocks out Gin, The Dragon of Don Krieg, and Pearl easily.
- Ascended Extra: As is typical for the author. For example, in canon, Moodie is a one-off character who appears as Lieutenant Fullbody's date at the Baratie. In this story, Moodie Magnolia is the latest in a line of master coopers, daughter of a battle-ax of a woman whose name is literally Wrath, with a down-to-earth personality. Things go so differently with her that Luffy ends up inviting her to join the crew.
- Berserk Button: Bilbo's calm, cheerful personality typical of a respectable Hobbit fades only once, when he realizes that he left his Ring of Power in his other coat, which is back in the Shire. His thoughts momentarily turn murderous, determined to claw his way back to the Gray Havens and silence anyone who gets in his way—then Nami asks what's wrong, and his good Hobbit sense catches up with him: he may not have the ring, but it's secret and safe. And so, at least until he returns to the Shire, he's freed of its compulsion.
- Beware the Nice Ones: This has always been the case for the Straw Hat Pirates, and Bilbo fits in perfectly. Short, amicable, and gentlemanly as you can be, most people don't expect him to have any skill in combat. He hints at how dangerous he can be in Syrup Village, where he demonstrates the Hobbits' natural propensity for stealth, which looks like invisibility and teleportation. Then, at Baratie, he draws Sting with the intention to use it, and his ready stance alone is enough to cow the Krieg Pirates who were going to attack him.
- Cliffhanger: Chapter 12 ends with a Big "WHAT?!" on Patty's part, shared by the readers, when he finds Luffy, Sanji, and Fullbody pulling a Back-to-Back Badasses in the middle of the dining room with several patrons having been attacked.
- Cool Old Guy: Luffy sees Gandalf as this when he first meets the Grey Wizard who takes interest in him, and he even asks Gandalf to join the Straw Hats.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Much to everyone’s shock, including his own, Bilbo rebukes Mihawk for treating Zoro rudely before they’re about to duel, with his inoffensive tone being the only thing that keeps him alive. It then transitions into Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu? when Mihawk has a civil conversation with Bilbo and is completely enchanted by Sting, walking away from the conversation with a budding determination to find Middle Earth just to witness the craftsmanship of the elves and dwarves.
- Does Not Like Spam: While the Straw Hats all agree that they'll miss the Gray Havens after a week there, their initial arrival brings up a couple of gripes:
- Luffy prefers meat to vegetables and fruits, with the latter being far more abundant than the former.
- Zoro prefers booze to water and was disappointed that Gray Havens didn't have a single tavern.
- Dramatic Irony: Commodore Pudding and Lt. Com. Horn discuss in Chapter 12 a way of uprooting Arlong, certain that the reason he's gotten away with it for so long is Nezumi refusing to report a pirate in his territory. They're mostly right, but missing one key detail: the Smug Snake rat is corrupt, not cowardly.
- Dumbass Has a Point: Luffy justifies falling asleep while on lookout for the Kuro Pirates by stating that Nami is there to keep watch while he rests up to be at his best during the fight.
- Easy Logistics: Discussed by Moodie as she explains to Bilbo and Zoro about several crews, usually pirates, having run into the trouble of trying to maintain their own supplies they store at their ships as they are more focused on finding treasure and glory of adventure in the Grand Line. They believe that they can resupply on the next island they find or did not double check the barrels to see if they are secure or else their rations end up spoiled by the time they open them.
- Experienced Protagonist: Bilbo Baggins is this after his adventure to The Lonely Mountain with Thorin and Company five years ago. Zoro is pleased to hear it, having initially looked down on the hobbit.Zoro: (silently) He has already faced so many threats, taken lives from monsters, and yet he has not allowed it to taint him. Nor does he use it to boast like so many others would have.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Discussed between Bilbo and Moodie regarding about her mother being a Dwarf (the Dwarf from Middle-Earth to be exact, not the one from Tontatta Kingdom in Dressrosa) she inherit from. As this is the world of One Piece where there are common half-human individuals with different race heritage, it isn't farfetched.
- Heroic BSoD: Usopp has a minor existential crisis after Bilbo tells him that he's a storyteller not a liar, as it makes him question his whole role in life.
- How They Treat the Help: Bilbo recounts some advice his grandfather gave him in regards to this trope, noting that he can tell Zeff is a good man from the respect his staff show him.
- Imagine Spot: Bilbo has one when he considers what would happen if he were to become the Straw Hats' cook, with his food being so good that the whole crew become too morbidly obese to do anything.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal:
- Jango turns against Kuro after the captain of the Black Cat Pirates kills his own subordinates for supposedly wasting his time, which is helped by Bilbo pointing out how his loyalty to Kuro has never been reciprocated by his captain in any form.
- After Krieg attempts to use the MH5 against the Baratie, ignoring the fact that more than half of his remaining crew is in the blast range without masks ready, and Usopp neutralizes the bomb, all of the remaining Krieg Pirates immediately turn away and abandon him. None but Gin even bother looking back.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: Moodie Magnolia looks like your usual beautiful woman in One Piece, but she is able to use a large Axe Hammer with relative ease and oneshots Gin and Pearl simultaneously.
- Morality Pet: Nami finds that she has trouble lying to or treating Bilbo as harshly as she does the others. She knocks him out with legitimate tears of sorrow when he tries to reach out to her after catching her trying to take the Going Merry behind the Straw Hats' backs and return to Cocoyashi where Arlong and his Fishmen Pirates are.
- Mythology Gag: In Chapter 12, Luffy complains of a torturous smell in the kitchen, legitimately dry-heaving from it. Said smell is the dessert that Patty just finished making: a cherry pie.
- Nightmare Sequence: Played for Laughs as Nami dreamed of having successfully freed Cocoyashi village after paying the 100,000,000 Beris to Arlong who honored the deal and she celebrated by drinking a glass of wine only to find the taste disgusting and choked on it. She wakes up to find out she was sucking on Luffy's dirty foot all along in her sleep and understandably had a Freak Out as a result.
- Noodle Incident: When discussing the need for a professional cook, the Straw Hats bring up past efforts from all of them that didn't go well.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: While the story focuses on Krieg's frontal assault from one side of the Baratie, it turns out that Usopp, Patty, and Carne took out all the pirates assaulting the other side of the restaurant.
- Original Character: A few Marines are introduced in Chapter 8 to arrest Kuro, part of a vessel prominent for resupplying other bases and ships.
- The leader is Lieutenant Commander Horn B. Horatio. Despite being a Perpetual Frowner, he's polite, amicable, and fair, his tone and behavior reflecting as much when his face doesn't.
- His two first mates are Rome and Mori, two very old men who rile Horn up at every possible occasion and have been with him (to his chagrin) since he enlisted; one would think they were the source of Horn's permanent grimace, if not for them showing a baby picture (stolen from Horn's mother) that showed Horn looking grumpy even as an infant. Despite this, the two easily grow serious whenever the job requires it; Bilbo likens the change to Gandalf when he examines a document.
- Pals with Jesus: Luffy befriends Gandalf, one of the Istari, a group of five Maiar who were tasked to aid the Free People of Middle-Earth indirectly.
- Point of Divergence: Bilbo indirectly points out how there are more than one way for people to enter Syrup Village prompts the Straw Hats to cover it's main road and the other half of the island to fend off the Black Cat Pirates.
- Sacred Hospitality: The Elves extend this to Luffy, Zoro, and Nami during their stay at Gray Havens, even repairing and upgrading their boat.
- Shout-Out:
- Sanji references the widow who donated two mites during his clash against Gin.
- In a loose reference to And the Giant Awoke, the way that Usopp neutralizes Krieg's MH5 bomb is with a thick coat of saltwater taffy.
- Sneeze Cut: In Syrup Village's tavern, while considering how Luffy would have to become a chore boy if he ate more food than they could pay for, the group also considers that only someone who courts disaster would consider employing Luffy. Cut to the Baratie, where Sanji sneezes.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Downplayed as Bilbo Baggins lived in the canon, he was no longer influenced by the One Ring after he unintentionally left it behind at the Shire. Years of holding on to the ring affected his mental health to the point he aggressively argued with Gandalf who convinced him to leave behind the ring and almost attacked Frodo when seeing it in his nephew's possession.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Gandalf fully agrees that a musician should be a top priority for Luffy's crew.note
- Team Member in the Adaptation: The very premise is that Bilbo Baggins joins the Straw Hats as their burglar.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: After changing out her canon red dress and hairstyle, Moodie Magnolia reveals herself to prefer wearing practical attire with pants and can fight with a sledgehammer weapon in battle.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The Elves of Gray Havens are unbothered by three humans appearing on their turf, let alone with one being a loud-mouthed Rubber Man.
- You Remind Me of X: Gandalf's first words to Luffy, when he finds him gobbling down meat at the elves' table:Gandalf: You know, it has been quite a while since I have seen someone eat like that. I dare say you'd give my friend Bombur quite the competition when it came to consuming a feast.
