Fridge Brilliance
General
- Luffy's and Usopp's first attempts at a Jolly Roger are both met with derision, but in real life, a lot of pirates' flags looked kind of stupid, because they were designed by pirates, not artists.
Romance Dawn
- Alvida is more focused on her street cred over being seen as "the most beautiful." While this could be seen as Xenafication, it actually fits more in line with Alvida's aggressive mindset... as well as showing a lot more confidence in her appearance since she is still shown to be fairly feminine (Pink ship, glitter bombs, having Koby do her toenails, etc.), she's just wanting to be seen as powerful as the primarily Male top pirates (Buggy, Kuro, Krieg and Arlong). Although she can be seen possibly staring at her own reflection before boarding the other ship - her main concern is making a name for herself than just her looks.
- Furthermore, Alvida seems to have a bit of an Inferiority Superiority Complex considering how she becomes instantly murderous upon finding out that she wasn’t on Zoro’s list of bounties. Why would this be? Well, her bounty of 5,000,000 Berri is the lowest one shown in the live action (the next lowest, Buggy’s, being three times hers) and one of the lowest ever in the manga/anime for a character that has screen time. In other words, chump change compared to the big names in the world. And given how much a pirate’s identity is tied up in their bounty, it’s little wonder that she might feel insecure by comparison.
- Why in the first episode, did Luffy really expect to have a reward poster, despite having done almost nothing? Simple; he sees the reward number as an indication of a pirate's power. So when he defeated Alvida, he clearly thought he deserved a number greater than hers, clearly forgetting that he has to do things against the government before he can be put on a reward poster.
- Of the main cast, Zoro is the one most adamant against the series' tradition of Calling Your Attacks ... because with his sword in his mouth, he can't.
- On the other side, it makes absolute sense that Luffy and Sanji share the same independent belief on it. Of the crew, they were the two mentored by great pirates. Shanks and Zeff respectively must have passed on that conviction to them. It's just a thing great pirates do in this world.
The Man in the Straw Hat
- Nami likely felt more sympathy for Orange town because her own home was destroyed by pirates in an almost similar manner. Hence, her stopping in shock at the destruction she stumbled upon.
Tell No Tales
- Koby in the manga/anime is highly intelligent, but extremely timid in the beginning. Vice Admiral Garp is, by contrast, extremely confident, but a bit Book Dumb. How does the live action show the difference in their intellects? By having Garp play Go with Koby. Those familiar with the game will know that there is a handicap system in place for less experienced players to have an even shot against more experienced players, involving giving the less experienced player free stones at the start of the game. The lowest handicap is just letting the less experienced player play as black, which always plays first and thus has a slight advantage. Koby does begin playing as black, but does not seem to get extra stones and still plays a close game. Then he takes Garp’s advice and stops second guessing himself and plays a bit more aggressively. In the end? The colors have switched, indicating that Garp is the one playing with an advantage. Not only that, but, given the dialogue, Koby is absolutely kicking Garp’s butt. Given the short timeframe this happens in, the only reasonable conclusion is that Koby was already this good at the game and just needed to stop getting in his own way.
- After Buggy is taken out of the sack hood, you can notice his bandana is covering where his right ear would be. When he told the Straw Hats he had "eyes and ears everywhere" he likely planted it on Luffy's hat when they were unconscious - which was why Luffy's hat was left with him while all of their other belongings were taken. It would also explain how Buggy heard Luffy tell Nami he put the map in a "safe place".
- Going out of his way to chase down Luffy seems a bit beneath Arlong, but Nami had contacted one of his men in the previous episode that she had the map to the Grand Line. Buggy then tells Arlong under duress that Luffy was the one who had it. Arlong then decides to go after Luffy himself. If not for just the map, but also to get his precious cartographer back. Arlong even tells Nami when she returns to Arlong Park that he thought she was attempting to escape him, which she denies.
The Pirates are Coming
- Kaya barely had enough energy to walk around without Klahadore there to support her. But when Usopp tries to warn her that he's actually Kuro the pirate, she has the energy to slap him indignantly. This could be implying that she's slowly regaining some strength as she didn't drink any of the poisoned soup from that night. Even with Nami, she wasn't given any of her tea unlike when Usopp was with her. This probably added to her recovery.
Eat at Baratie!
- Of course Luffy would think an IOU would work at the Baratie. Makino let him keep a "treasure tab" for all his meals when he was still at Windmill Village.
- This means it was also likely he and Koby ran off without paying their bill at the bar when Zoro's fight broke out. Which would be easy to do amongst the chaos.
- In the anime and Manga, Don Krieg was said to be the "Emperor of the East Blue"... but he has a lower bounty compared to Arlong, by about three million or so Berri. And was kind of seen by many fans as a rather weak villain in comparison to the more personalized threats like that of Morgan (who held Zoro against his will), Buggy (who knew Shanks), Kuro (who was cruel to Kaya) and Arlong (who stole Nami's life) in the East Blue saga. So instead of having a random pirate be the one who was seen as the ruler of the East Blue, they changed it to Arlong; the highest bounty in the East Blue and someone who could feasibly have one of the weaker seas under his thumb. Especially given that Arlong is also connected to the Celestial Dragons in the original source material.
The Chef and the Chore Boy
- Arlong mentions the oppression the fishmen live in more than in the manga/anime, but it makes sense considering that his past as a sun pirate was already revealed ten years ago in the manga.
- Arlong's speech makes more sense when you think about Tiger, he wanted peace but was enslaved and betrayed by humans then Jinbei joined the people who killed their brother.
- It's telling that the only fishman we see who is not a pirate works as a maitre D, one of several stereotypical minority positions in early Hollywood films.
- Arlong tells Zeff he's looking for Luffy who has something of his. Arlong obviously could be referring to the map, but he also considers Nami his "property".
The Girl with the Sawfish Tattoo
- While it was him being flirtatious, Sanji telling Nojiko he can make a lot with very few ingredients is in line with his rule on never wasting food.
- Belle Mere dying is actually more than Honor Before Reason; Arlong was clearly angry and would have torn apart the house no matter the excuse she could come up with, and he wouldn't have been happy to see she tried to hide Nami and Nojiko. Even if she had gotten him to leave without seeing the two girls, any slip-up where their existence is revealed to Arlong would invite the same response, if not even worse. In short, telling the truth and offering up her money as 'tribute' for her daughters was the only reasonable way they could survive.
Worst in the East
- During the final fight with Arlong, Luffy calls him out for trying to steal and destroy Nami's dream, explicitly comparing him to the likes of Alvida, Kuro, and Morgan. Oddly, he doesn't mention Buggy, who is the go-to "we beat this guy" they usually refer to. The Fridge kicks in when you realize that, in his own way, Luffy is showing his respect for Buggy still trying to live up to his dream (to also be King of the Pirates) and hasn't yet abandoned it the way Kuro turned his back on piracy, and Alvida and Morgan try to destroy others dreams in pursuit of their own interests.
- Luffy is also following Shanks' creed of "it doesn't matter if you mock me, but don't mess with my friends". The others all directly antagonize and insult Luffy's friends, while Buggy was mostly focused on mocking Luffy himself.
- Also during the final fight with Arlong, Luffy does start the damage (realizing he can destroy Arlong's plans, if not defeat the fish-man himself), but after a while, he also spends a lot of time dodging, relying on Arlong's own hatred and rage to get the better of him, smashing support columns on his own while trying to kill Luffy. It highlights how, for all his talk of fish-man superiority, Arlong's whole agenda is reckless and self-defeating, being built solely on hatred.
- In the final scene as the Straw Hats do the barrel pledge, Usopp is the only one whose childhood self doesn't seem to have a particular dream. Because back then, he was content in living in his own fantasies, and merely wanted his father to return back to Syrup village to be a family. But now, after going through everything with the Straw Hats, he finally realizes what his dream is: to have his own adventures and to be a great warrior of his own merit.
Fridge Horror
- While drinking at the Baratie bar, Helmeppo warns Koby about high ranking marines and the restrictions they have. Helmeppo seems to allude to his father when he remarks that a powerful marine stepping out of line can cost them an arm. Helmeppo doesn't elaborate any further on how his father may have gotten his moniker "Axe Hand Morgan" from."You color outside the lines, you get your arm chopped off."
- Canonically, Captain Morgan lost his arm fighting the Black Cat Pirates (he didn't kill Kuro, but he did kill most of his men). Of course, he may have chopped off other people's arms before.
- Arlong Park having plushies seems normal when you know Arlong based his base on the theme park in Sabaody, but Arlong said he would kill anyone who can't pay tributes, even the children. Considering Arlong's greed, these plushies were probably not bought but taken from kids killed by his crew...
