It's official. Not only has This Bites! managed to gain a lot of awesome moments for such a self-insert fanfiction, it has its own share of scenes that will give you nightmares.
Warning: Spoilers Off applies to these pages. Proceed at your own risk.
Main Story
- It's subtle, but Nami is horrified when she discovers Cross's Made of Plasticine status. For the record, she just gave him one punch that laid him unconscious for several minutes, when a normal One Piece resident shrugs it like a small slap. How much do you bet that she thinks she could have killed Cross without meaning it? B.R.O.B. brings this up again much later, citing how likely it was that Cross making Smoker angry in Loguetown would end with the latter accidentally killing him: if a punch from Nami could knock him out, a punch from Smoker would have crushed his skull.
- What else would you call publicly broadcasted Electric Torture and real-time open-chest surgery?
- The foreshadowing scene of Mr. 13 and Miss Friday in the aftermath of Skypiea. Miss Friday is checking out a new arsenal and Mr. 13 is performing surgery on himself in preparation for their next encounter with Cross to the abject horror of the Transponder Snail they're using to listen to the SBS. Just imagine the poor snail's predicament. You're stuck in a room with unrepentant murderers who are entirely likely to take their frustrations at someone you've never met out on you simply because you're doing the job they asked of you.
- Chopper's Monster Point in canon was already pretty damn terrifying (at least pre-timeskip). His new 'Hyde' persona from playing around with Devil Fruit-based intelligence boosting is creepy at the best of times. The reveal that said Monster Point draws on Chopper's subconscious, which now contains his hyper-intelligent and amoral 'Hyde' persona?I stood stock still as the implications sunk in. And said implications were that if things proceeded anywhere even relatively close to canon, there was a non-zero chance of the Tower of Justice becoming a butcher's shop. Or some other unimaginable abomination of SCIENCE!
- Let's get it out of the way: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island. Full Stop. Omatsuri Island lives up to the nightmare, and with a trio of high-class authors, it can be seen and will keep you on the edge of your seat.
- To start with, the creeping dread as the world hears the broadcast and we see numerous people around the world start to realize that something is horribly, horribly, wrong.
- This is the case for the Straw Hats' loved ones, who are the first to see something is terribly wrong. Like when Zeff hears Sanji denying Zoro any of his food for not cheering for him in the dinner party, which makes him fall to his knees in pure horror, because Zeff knows that Sanji would NEVER say something so blasphemous as a chef no matter what, since Sanji understands full well what it’s like to starve and would never wish it on his worst enemy. And to hear that same man refusing to feed his own crewmate for something so egotistical is a massive red flag for him and his restaurant.
- Especially noteworthy is that even the likes of Moria's crew are horrified by the events there. Perona in particular freaks when she realizes the Lily Carnation invited everyone in the world for a feast.
- The horror of the broadcast actually drives Boa Hancock into a Heroic BSoD and makes the likes of Absalom, Jesus Burgess, and Emporio Ivankov vomit. Even Monkey D. Dragon is frozen in shock by the true form of the Lily Carnation and what it has done to his son’s crew.
- While Sengoku had been trying to be indifferent to the nightmarish broadcast, when Brief and Soundbite reveal the ungodly true nature of the Lily Carnation, Sengoku immediately sends for the other Admirals, planning to obliterate Omatsuri Island with MULTIPLE Buster Calls.
- Buggy is traumatized by losing his crew to Lily Carnation. He says that he wishes this fate to nobody, not even the Straw Hats, and is one of the people who roots for them the most.
- Special mention goes to Cross, who's corrupted first and the most. Within minutes after the second ordeal of hell, he becomes obsessed only with getting as many listeners as possible and grows more callous and uncaring of the unsettling events happening around him. Eventually, this devolves into Cross slowly becoming an attention-seeking lunatic and threatens Soundbite several times to shut up and let him show the world his crew falling apart without anyone stopping it. Just listening to him cheerfully wondering which of his crew will die first will give you chills.
- As the broadcast progresses we begin to see that something is terribly wrong with the majority of the crew. As the more "normal" members of the Straw Hats begin to act strangely as they are steadily corrupted into hostile mockeries of their usual selves. Vivi is one example as she begins to act less like the compassionate and benevolent princess we all know and love and is twisted into a coldhearted snob obsessed with her spa treatment. Much to the horror of Cobra and his council to see Vivi act so uncharacteristically glacial over something so petty. While the rest of the crew that isn’t missing are at each other’s throats.
- This escalates even further as Sanji maliciously blames Luffy for everything that is happening. And even more disturbing is that barring a horrified Conis and Soundbite… NO ONE speaks up against Sanji's words. Even Nami, despite trying to calm him down, seems to partially agree with Sanji if her halfhearted attitude was anything to go by.
- Several of the Straw Hats start to go missing as they explore the island. It starts with Boss and the TWDS who venture into the bay, but then Chopper, Su, and Lassoo are nowhere to be seen. And soon after, Vivi, Carue, Robin, and Usopp vanish during the dinner party. But nobody seems to notice or, like a deranged Cross, even care they're missing, as the rest of the Straw Hats are too busy despising one another to realize it.
- Conis remained as one of the few uncorrupted Straw Hats due to her being a Skypiean. But once she hears Su yelp after being shot, Conis’s sense of reason all but disappears as rage consumes her. And from what Lassoo briefly described, its alluded that Conis had gone completely insane in her fury before the Baron captured her.
- The only ones unaffected by Lily’s corruption are Robin, Conis, Luffy, Chopper, and the other animal members of the crew. Most likely for the former since the consumption of Devil Fruits has altered their biology to be immune to Lily’s pollen while animals and Skypieans were never expected to be on the island. Yet almost all of them still become victims of the Baron and are nearly killed by the island’s abomination.
- As the Baron forces Luffy to watch, struggling hopelessly as Lily devours almost his entire crew one by one, the loved ones of the Straw Hats are devastated.
- When Boss and the TWDS are the first to go, the Captain Dugong goes berserk and orders his crew to find the island so he can kill the Baron with his bare flippers.
- When Chopper disappears, and Doctor Kureha is so shocked that she can only muster a meek "eh?"
- When Conis disappears, the Shandians and Skypieans alike plunge into grief and fury. Wiper knocks out Pagaya as mercy to prevent him from hearing it while Laki comforts Aisa, who is crying over not only Conis’s death but the screams of all of the crew she can hear through her Haki.
- When Sanji disappears, the Baratie staff are in tears, begging Sanji to keep fighting, and Zeff is on the verge of breaking down himself.
- When Robin disappears, Aokiji is in tranquil sorrow and bows his head in shame.
- When Cross goes, Soundbite screams in despair, Pinky and Brain tear up in sorrow, and the astral projection of Merry, reflecting over how her keel is cracked, cries over his death and screams for Luffy to save the crew.
- When Usopp disappears, Kaya and the village boys cry in despair while Merry the butler hopes Luffy can save him.
- When Vivi, Carue, and Nami disappear, Cobra and Genzo both have heart attacks in sheer horror and grief at the possibility their daughters have perished.
- Finally, when Zoro disappears, his hometown's dojo grieves and Kuina's grave cracks at his supposed death, as if the spirit of Zoro’s old rival was also grieving the loss of her friend.
- And at the end of all of that, Ace listens to Luffy being nearly broken and is literally burning with Tranquil Fury, the rage of his Haki nearly overwhelming Squard and Whitey, and their snail only half-conscious. Then, when he hears Luffy at his breaking point, Ace snaps and is ready to fly to Omatsuri Island to kill the Baron along with Lily. And it's only through Squard and Whitey cuffing him with sea prism stone and convincing him his brother needs to do it alone that he barely calms down.
- As a measuring stick, at the end of it all, the only characters who weren't cheering for Luffy to kill the Baron and Lily were Doflamingo and the Five Elder Stars. Even Blackbeard and Sakazuki were rooting for Luffy.
- Even Doflamingo's minions don't share their master's stance. Considering that this includes Sugar and Trebol, that speaks volumes on how horrifying the situation is because it takes something very awful to scare Sugar through Fridge Horror and leave Trebol utterly disgusted with what's going on.
- One of the Baron's boasts is genuinely chilling.
Baron Omatsuri: You BASTARDS! I'll feed you to Lily in PIECES!- The fact that Lily Carnation was able to block all the calls being made by others trying to warn Cross. The last time someone tries, it blocks Tashigi by screeching a horrible message. If you look through the noise of the Zalgo text used to convey it, here's what it says:
MY FUN MY TOYS MY FOOD GO AWAY! - Chapter 36: Hancock nearly killing and forcing Marguerite to be eaten alive for the latter's suspicions. It goes to show that despite taking cues from the SBS, she's still the cold-hearted ruthless pirate that earned her rank as a Warlord.
- At least until Cross's impeccably timed SBS about tolerance makes her reconsider.
- If Cross or Chopper gets ahold of Spandam, what they will do to him for what he did to Robin will most certainly be this.
- Cross does. He proceeds to list off all of the various ways he had thought up to torture the scumbag. It's enough to leave the wardens of Impel Down standing in sheer awe.
- Spandam himself becomes fearsome at one point. When Robin insults his father, Spandam draws a gun and is about to just shoot her on the spot. If not for Vivi and Cross, the otherwise weak Spandam would have ended Robin, and the hopes of everyone who wants to learn the history of this world with her, on the spot.
- Also, when Cross and Soundbite read his blackbook, they find out he deliberately prolonged at least two wars that caused thousands of casualties with no care whatsoever.
- The Demon Trio against Enies Lobby's garrison. Just imagine being one of these poor schmucks, pitted against the one crew insane enough to start a war with the World Government. You have to fight while blind because there's a fog, and you see things within, and you're attacked by unseen assailants, and the song, holy mother of God this song
... - Robin's reaction to the Buster Call against Enies Lobby. The poor girl cannot help but remember Ohara's destruction and Cross has to give her a Cooldown Hug and swear that they will survive, no matter what.
- As the morale of the Marines is steadily dropping and some are considering surrender, Admiral Akainu calls in, leaves Soundbite spitting smoke and flame, and declares that he will find any Marine that surrenders and will execute them. It's enough to put all thoughts of mutiny out of everyone's mind.
- What the World Government is planning on doing to Spandam.
- Luffy is quite the easy-going, mellow individual... until someone decides it would be a good idea to raise a hand against his crew. The transition from the Luffy we know and adore to an unholy fury who mercilessly pounds Lucci into the ground for thinking to kill the Straw Hat Pirates is really, really jarring.
- From the World Government's perspective, Cross is this. A regular human for all appearances, but has information he simply should not know about their activities and employees, from what goes on in Impel Down, the identities and abilities of nearly all of their heavy hitters, and he's amassing influence among the pirate and civilian populations of the world, including several of the Emperors (has earned respect from the Whitebeard Pirates and Shanks, though simply being a member of Luffy's crew would probably get him something for the latter), and has now caused the single largest rebellion in WG history. The worst part? He essentially appeared from nowhere at the behest of what is more or less a capital G god who could destroy the world anytime they wanted but doesn't simply because it would be boring that way.
- He's a walking case of Break Them by Talking as well. He's already convinced a number of Marine officers to partially defect, and the aforementioned rebellion included a large number of Marines, up to entire bases. He's also managed to shake Aokiji and give Sengoku a heart attack through sheer stress/rage-inducement.
- After Aokiji inadvertently helps Blackbeard defeat and capture Ace and his allies, the Admiral asks Blackbeard just why he's going through so much trouble and endure so much pain. Blackbeard tells him that it's all for the sake of his goal: To become King of the Pirates. The Dark Reprise is suitably chill-inducing to both Aokiji and the readers, especially considering the atmosphere of all the times Luffy said the very same thing.
- When Luffy first said it, Cross felt the world resonate with the reaffirmation of a fact. When Blackbeard said it, it gave Aokiji nothing less than existential dread.
- Also, just how Ace, Squardo, and Whitey were defeated. They were giving Blackbeard and his crew the beatdown, when Aokiji's Ice Age swept through, freezing them all solid and giving Blackbeard the chance to swallow them all into his Black Hole. As such, when Aokiji investigates, Blackbeard is the only living being still present. Moreover, Blackbeard outright states that if he dies or loses his focus, his victims will be lost to the void, never to be seen again.
- Aokiji's thoughts reveal that thanks to the events at Enies Lobby, the plan of the Five Elder Stars has changed. Now they're planning to use Ace for something even worse.
- Despite being only three feet tall, Hiuo Hiruno manages to be utterly horrifying on account of both her powers and personality. During her introduction, she freezes Vivi's arm completely just for kicks. If not for Don Accino's intervention, Vivi's arm would've had to be amputated.
- Her family tortures their bounties until they're "corpses with a heartbeat", doing such things as sneaking onboard a ship to destroy all forms of navigation then having vultures circle it with giant mirrors to reflect the sun and slowly cook the crew. All the while, their Hiruno's ship slowly sails towards them, staying just out of cannon range.
- The Florian Triangle. The sheer wrongness of it comes from it being so utterly devoid of life, to the point that even Soundbite couldn't hear anything alive nearby, you cannot help but succumb to insanity. The Straw Hat Pirates fight the gloom with cheer to preserve their sanities.
- The authors' portrayal of Absalom's lusting tendencies? Not Played for Laughs: Cross flat-out describes him as a predator who would unrepentantly assault and violate any defenseless woman he can find. Even worse, he gets violent when his victim tries to protect herself.
- A nervous Merry—remember, she's got the body of a little girl—asks to know if she could be molested too. Cross's answer is that he hopes Absalom did not and will not sink to such depravity.
- Perona's Freak Out when Chopper reveals he's actually in her bedroom while she's asleep and vulnerable. And Chopper has a Mr Hyde-style Split Personality with a passion for medical experimentation. Not so funny anymore, huh?
- Mixed with Tearjerker: Perona's bedroom is heavily fortified to ensure absolutely no one except her can enter. She's unable to trust her crewmates with her safety. And considering her crewmates are Absalom and Hogback? She is completely justified.
- Lola knows full well that if her family (specifically her siblings) ever finds her, she'll be killed. She stays under the radar as much as possible, including hiding that she knows Haki to keep anyone from looking too deeply into her history.
- At the end of chapter 50, Moria Awakens his Devil Fruit.
- Seriously, everything about Moria's Awakened Shadow-Shadow Fruit power is High Octane Nightmare Fuel, from the writhing fence of shadow thorns that shred everyone that gets close, to the morphing army of Doppelmen that chase the crew through his manor, to the catastrophic waves of shadow that he belches out. And that's not counting his case of extreme Sanity Slippage, shown by friendly calls for his victims to come out followed by threats of extreme bodily harm.
- Subconsciously, Moria's shadows recreate his memories, including the day Kaidou massacred his crew. Hearing it from his perspective is even worse: the torn remnants of his crews' bodies, the sheer monstrosity that is Kaido's presence, and the fact that his crewmates have no names in his mind, only last words. The amount of zalgo text in this chapter is astounding.
- The draugr. The zombies when they still had living shadows had hints of humanity and emotions. Moria then used inert shadows of things to forcefully animate the corpses, turning them into basically Dead Guy Puppets he controls through the force of his own will.
"But what really sold it were their faces. The zombies, they were undead, sure, but at least they'd had souls; stolen souls, imperfect substitutes for life, but they had emotional range, to an extent. But the creatures that were swarming towards us now, these, these draugr… empty, hollow rage and nothing more. If ever there was an example of unlife upon this island, we were staring them down right this moment".- Moria's Nidhogg. Moria first has his Doppelman devour all the loose shadows it can grab as well as the entire field of thorns mentioned above. Once it has eaten enough, he begins to transform into something that Cross couldn't even describe and made everyone nauseous at its appearance. Even Chopper was aghast over how could Moria be still alive after such a transformation.
- The only reason Moria was even able to get up from being given a Luffy-sized sedation? Kuma.
- While Zoro remained mostly stoic while taking all of Luffy's pain, Nami taking Cross's pain has her convulsing on the ground and clawing her shoulder open. Afterward, Zoro is standing with his arms folded and surrounded by blood but Nami is lying on the ground and looking like she had gone through a meat grinder.
- When Zoro bargains with Kuma for Luffy and Cross's freedom, the Warlord points out that one life can never be worth two, and so asks Zoro to choose between his captain and his third mate. Thank God Nami was still awake and willing to help...
- Once Boss!Kabuto finally gets his voice, everyone questions him about his past, which drives him into immediate PTSD over the horrors with other animals he grew up with. It was so traumatic he loses his voice and devolves back into insectoid chittering and eventually has to be sedated to finally calm him down.
- The "Laughing Man," a.k.a. Dr. Indigo from One Piece Film: Strong World, already a clownish-looking yet completely menacing Mad Scientist, has now redoubled on his experiments and created new things not seen in canon such as Booster IQ which he field tested on the Amigo Pirates. All this is due to his anger and envy at a rookie like Chopper showing him up just as he's about to unveil his 20-year masterpiece.
- The fact that the Marines even have a special rule to allow Child Soldiers in the Navy, written by none other than Admiral Akainu, to allow children seeking revenge against pirates to join.
- Strong World Part I opens with the news that the islands Picowana, Tikoshi, Isle of Peridox, the Bullion Atoll, Etonori, and Rendion in the East Blue have been wiped off the map (implied to be by Shiki's Crew).
- The last two islands particularly horrify both the Pirate and Marine branches of the New World Masons because unlike the previously destroyed islands, Etonori and Rendion were inhabited. The resulting destruction is so bad that both the Marines and Pirates pledge to stop them before anything else is targeted.
- Strong World (aka Merveille) itself is this. Boss Kabuto's PTSD is very well earned as pretty much every animal on the islands is pumped full of drugs that boost strength, intelligence, and aggression and fight amongst each other 24/7 without rest. The rampant lethality requires that their maturation be artificially accelerated just to keep the population stable.
- Brook's description of being alone for fifty years in the Florian Triangle even gives Franky chills in chapter 56.
- The World Government has just gathered the greatest scientific minds (Vegapunk, Hogback, Ratchet from Movie 7, and a recently captured Indigo) to work for them. Whatever the WG is working on involving them is nothing sort of fear-inducing.
- Through a Snail call with the Five Elder Stars, Akainu is currently forming his own private force, which he states is currently starting small but will grow in number.
- Cross in Chapter 60. After proving that Hody Jones was the one who murdered Queen Otohime to Jinbe, Chew, and Kuroobi, the latter two demand to know why. Cross goes berserk, launching into a tirade and actually trying to kill them, to the point that he needs to be restrained and knocked unconscious.Cross: Why... Why... why!? WHYYY!? WHY THE HELL DO YOU THINK, YOU BASTARDS!? YOU’RE THE ONES WHO FUCKING TOLD HIM TO! YOU TOLD ALL OF THEM! HODY, DOSUN, ZEO, DARUMA, IKAROS! YOU PREACHED SCRIPTURE AT THEM AND THEY FUCKING FOLLOWED IT TO A T!Kuroobi: W-We never told them to—!Cross: YOU DIDN’T NEED TO! YOU SPENT THEIR MOST MALLEABLE YEARS TELLING AN ENTIRE FUCKING GENERATION THAT HUMANS WERE THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL, THAT THEY WERE TO BE HATED AND DESPISED, NO MATTER THE COST! WHAT THE HELL ELSE DID YOU EXPECT?! THAT THEY WOULD JUST OH-SO-NICELY APPLY FUCKING NUANCE?! CONSIDER ANYTHING OTHER THAN HATE, EVEN IF IT HURTS THEM OR ANY OTHER FISH-OR-MERFOLK IN THE PROCESS?! MERCY, COMPASSION, COMMON-FUCKING-DECENCY! BECAUSE OF YOU, THOSE WORDS MEAN NOTHING TO THEM! THEY’RE NOT EVEN PEOPLE ANYMORE, JUST WALKING CORPSES FILLED WITH HATE! YOUR HATE! BECAUSE OF YOU WORTHLESS SKIDMARKS, HODY AND THE REST HAVE HURT THOUSANDS, WILL HURT THOUSANDS MORE, BUT NOT BEFORE I TEAR OUT YOUR FUCKING TONGUES AND SHOVE THEM—!(Koala knocks Cross unconscious)
- The real motive behind Flevance's destruction — the Elder Stars didn't care about a whole country disappearing as long as the resident D. family was annihilated. Double as a Tear Jerker.
- When Shakky asks the Straw Hats what they are doing in Sabaody, Cross answers by making Soundbite hack into various conversations pertaining from the slave trade including slavers crippling an escapee, a slave family being separated, and even a slave being branded with a hot iron. It's enough to sicken Shakky into forcing Soundbite to cut off and put the rest of the Straw Hats into rage.
- As they travel through Sabaody Park, Cross asks Soundbite if he's ok after both hearing and broadcasting the horrifying slave conversations and their encounter with Fantastic Racism. The gastropod replies by reminding Cross that he ate his iPhone and has access and can hear the entire Internet, which includes even access to the dark web and all its contents. Cross and even Gif are visibly worried for him, only for Soundbite to say he's fine since he can usually ignore them with memes plus he can finally do something about it with Cross's master plan for the slave trade.
- Soundbite sounds an alarm to the horrifying act of a World Noble shooting an innocent in cold blood followed by more shots for good measure. Cross's reaction is to approach the dead body, pay last respects to it, and then return to his crew and inform them their plan starts immediately.
- When Cross starts enacting his united plan with the other Supernovas to rob all the slave trade centers and free the slaves, Disco panics and tries to call Doflamingo to protect him, only for Trebol to inform him that one of their crew is already on the island ready to take care of them.
- Most of Chapter 68 is an interview with Saint Charloss, exposing the entire world to just how batshit insane and evil their World Nobles are. It takes literally everything that Cross has not to keep from either puking or trying to kill the "man" sitting across from him with his bare hands as Charloss blithely chatters on and on about the most inhuman and monstrous acts without the slightest care in the world.
- Early on, Cross takes a quick break to vomit and talks with one of Charloss's servants who admits that most are dead or insane after three weeks of the job.
- One of the "games" he mentions playing involves starving a bunch of slaves to the point of near-death, and then tossing them a bunch of table scraps to watch what happens. Usually, "what happens" is that the slaves die of what's heavily implied to be refeeding syndrome. The inventor of this "game", Saint Ancel, likes to vary up his share in some sort of sick experiment, though the goal is left unclear. This revelation pushes Zeff's Berserk Button so hard that his chefs have to stop the ex-pirate from murdering his Transponder Snail in disgust, with Zeff screaming that he will use the corpse for fertilizer rather than poison anybody by making escargot from its meat.
- Charloss mentions that the World Nobles use fashion magazines to both hunt for spouses (read: Sex Slaves) and to assassinate any model who's too good looking for "daring to equal the radiance of the World Nobles".
- Shortly after the interview is over, Cross mentions that one World Noble discussed during it was Saint Caulia, who collects human body parts. He mocks one of Charloss' underlings by taunting him that Caulia is looking for a "good arm" for her collection. Also, she makes drapes out of human skin, having tattooed people Flayed Alive for interesting patterns.
- Perhaps the most chilling part is when Charloss shares a Tone Dial recording of his uncle lecturing him on just why the World Nobles do the things they do, and what their plans for humanity are.
Tone Dial Recording: "You must understand: what we do — the expansion of the empire, the conquest of the world to form a true World Government — we do for moral reasons. If humanity is shaped so that it can act with a coherent will together, then it no less forms an organism than the cells of the human body do. These cells perform particular functions, but they all do so not to serve the will of odd groups or individual cells, but for the body's purpose as a whole, and by doing so they create a conscious being. This superorganism has rights, and its rights matter far more than the rights of its cells.
Its right to exist coherently is firstmost in our world. As it is now, by allowing plurality, and by failing to unify and shape humans what we have is a schizophrenic and weak superorganism — though you could barely call it that at all. Truly, this 'democracy' notion is like allowing a retarded baby to be born.
If human society has a variety of different sectors desiring different individualistic things, then the superorganism has no clear conscious drive. Totalism is the moral and religious goal to give it a coherent drive by putting every unit to a purpose that adds up to a single drive to expand and maintain the superorganism with a maximally clear consciousness.
Well, at first you need strong leaders to collectivize society. You need to collectivize the economy, and collectivize the people. Getting rid of dissident elements, and not allowing any further weak generations to be born.
Through development you can eventually reach the stage where society is composed of people who are perfectly subservient to the plan, and there is a collective agreement on where we must go. We can begin to upgrade people and transform ourselves into human 2.0, all the while purging any plurality.
At that point, the technocrats are simply instruction nodes in the system, and everything will run a lot smoother because all dissent has been gotten rid of. What was first a dream of a party which had to be impressed upon the rest of the people is now the dream of the whole of the people. A unified consciousness is born.
What determines what this consciousness will want is the conditions of survival. By unifying society towards this goal the initial party are essentially crafting the genome of this new organism. Its purpose foremost will be that of all life; to survive. That alone is good. To survive and expand. Its purpose is to grow itself.
The superorganism will — assuming that lightning-empowered heathen had some iota of sense in his heretical brain — one day spread out into space to consume everything. With us at the head of it all.- Read plainly, they plan on turning everyone on the planet into Pacifistas or variants of Pacifistas and conquer the universe as the only beings capable of thought and sapience.
- Doflamingo uses his powers to control the guards in the Human Auction House despite many of them being critically injured, forcing them to attack anyone nearby. Worse, Doflamingo isn't even on the island when he's doing it, performing the entire act remotely.
- For a terrifying moment, he has Cross on his strings, and pumped the man with so much Conqueror's Haki that Cross stopped being human, and became a puppet in his mind. It was only the Dark King that snapped him out of it.
- Afterwards, Doflamingo admits to his subordinates that he decided whether to kill the Straw Hats or not with a coin flip. This revelation legitimately shocks those selfsame subordinates.
- He then states that the recent events have changed his minds from changing business from slavery to SMILE's. Instead, he'll be taking advantage of the crushing of the slave market by exporting Dressrosa's toys. Meaning he'll have Sugar turn more individuals into toys and sell them off.
- The revelation that the entire time he's been manipulating the pirates, including Cross. He intentionally tripped the otherworldly traveler in front of Charloss, subtly manipulated him through his disguised executives, and bamboozled them from the moment they set foot in the Auction House by controlling a string clone of Disco...with the real one rotting in his office. He leaves all of them with a message, carved a thousand times across the inside of the Auction House: "DON'T LEAVE ME HANGING." It leaves Cross in hysterical laughter.
- ...and then Kizaru shows up.
- When Kizaru reveals to the assembled group of Straw Hats and Supernovas he's easily curb-stomping that Portgas D. Ace was captured four months ago and his execution will be in 10 days. This shocks everyone present but none more than Cross, who initially doesn't believe him since Ace's Vivre card has been seen healthy. When Luffy pulls it out to check, however, it bursts into flames.
- Doflamingo somehow manages to locate where the currently injured Celestial Dragons who were caught in the crossfire at the Auction House are, gives them all a Breaking Speech of his philosophy and then uses his String-String Powers to control Roswald, forcing him to actually beat his children in a cruel echo of Doflamingo's own abuse as a child when he and Rocinante were beaten by an angry mob for being children of a (former) Celestial Dragon.
- When separated by Kuma, Conis ends up on the island where the Jewel Tree Adam is planted, which, in case you forgot since it was mentioned during the Enies Lobby arc, is in an eternal war. She is immediately reminded of Upper Yard during Eneru's survival game. Worse still, Merry is sent to Davy Jones Locker, the LAST GRAVEYARD FOR ALL VESSELS! She faints within mere seconds of finding out where she is.
- Project: Snake Eater. The World Government's new superweapon, created for the purpose of annihilating Amazon Lily and the entire Kuja clan. It starts out looking awful enough as a tortured giant cyborg mongoose the size of a Sea Train. Then it gets worse, with tricks including dozens of centipede-like legs that grotesquely burst out of its body, a giant drill head that unfolds into an articulated fanged maw big enough to bite off Marigold's head, and an internal symbiont in the form of a giant cyborg centipede that's bigger than the original mongoose! Oh, and its only truly vital organ is a grotesquerie in its own right; a sphere of metal that extrudes writhing fleshy tendrils and throbs like a beating heart, which keeps on functioning even the rest of the body has been destroyed. And to make things worse, this monstrosity is tough. As in, it takes on Luffy, Marigold, Sandersonia, and Marguerite at the same time and it almost beats them. If it hadn't been for Hancock's arrival, and the creature turning out to be vulnerable to both her Conqueror's Haki and her Love-Love Fruit powers, it's anyone's guess who would have survived.
- The Snake Eater on Amazon Lily? It was just the first of a line of monsters known as BioMEGAs the mention itself enough to unease Hancock. Created by the joint cooperation of Ratchet, Hogback, and Dr. Indigo, Project BioMEGA (Biological Mechanically Enhanced Genocide Armament) are designed to be superior to Vegapunk's Pacifistas (once Vegapunk himself perfected the other scientists' designs). When Tashigi asks if they're meant to prevent or cause genocide, Ratchet laughs and says it's up to the interpreter and the sponsor of their project.
- Several BioMEGAs were released in Impel Down as a field test, and the one patrolling Level 2 is just as terrifying as the Snake Eater. A giant ant with mantis-like, serrated bladed arms and a snake-like lower body, the cybernetic creature carries a yellow fungus that, while it doesn't hinder the monster, causes immense pain to any jailer beast or prisoner the BioMEGA runs into and stabs with its stinger. What's worse, the fungus warps the creatures it infects into zombie slaves of the BioMEGA. This thing is so bad that not only does it take out two of the Zoan guards patrolling Level 2, but when the opportunity for revenge comes, the prisoners and the uninfected beasts of the level team up to brutally take it down once and for all.
- The first thing Caribou does when he shows up in Impel Down? Remind us all graphically that, even if he was a mere mook by New World standards, he's still far worse than almost anything in Paradise can handle. Which he does by using his Swamp-Swamp Fruit powers to swallow up a Blugori, with the terrified ape struggling helplessly all the way as he consumes it. The sight so horrifies and enraged Saldeath, the Blugori trainer, that he puts out a "Kill on Sight" for Buggy, since it was Buggy's Tempting Fate that seemed to bring Caribou to the prison.
- The various upgrades of Impel Down itself, taking the canon nightmarishness to a new level.
- Level 2 gets canals installed so that Sea Kings can roam the floor.
- Level 3 becomes even drier and more inhospitable, but also new mechanisms that the wardens can use to shift the geography.
- Level 4 gets the stone replaced with metal, which literally cooks the prisoners when they walk on it. It also gains reflective mirrors which can concentrate the heat into incinerating beams.
- Level 5 gets thin ice pit traps into freezing waters and is also the new home of Hiuo Hiruno, the wielder of the Cold Cold Fruit who is given special treatment in exchange for using her powers to make the level even colder than before.
- The description of Level 6. At first glance, it's little more than drab cell blocks as seen in canon, but there's a psychic pressure to the place as a result of it having the highest concentration of the most dangerous and unrepentant criminals in the entire world. Even Luffy has to admit that there is nothing that the staff of Impel Down could put down here that would be more dangerous or terrifying than the inmates.
- Not in the heat of the moment, but with a cold, rational decision, Luffy orders Crocodile to kill Shiliew of the Rain with "extreme prejudice" before they escape. It may have been at Cross's recommendation (disturbing in and of itself), but Luffy's more than willing to let the order go. And Croc delivers, lopping off all of Shiliew's limbs and dehydrating him so he doesn't even get the mercy of quickly bleeding out. He'd be dead within the hour, but it'd be a slow, torturous hour.
- When Crocodile comes for him, Shiliew doesn't even blink. He just muses that Impel Down should have implemented his policy of driving sea prism stone spikes into the spines of any captured Logias.
- Akainu's "secret weapon" for the Battle of Marineford are mercenaries hired from four different New World cultures, all of whom are frightening in their own right.
- The Horny Vikings-themed Vikverir are little better than pirates in their own right, being Tempos-worshiping raiders and mercenaries who live to fight and care about nothing more than spilling blood.
- The knight-themed Angevins are... well, they're the only people on the Marineford battlefield who wholly and sincerely approve of the World Government's efforts to murder Ace just for the crime of bearing Roger's blood in his veins.
- The Finnish-themed Suomi, despite acknowledging some morally objectionable behavior on the World Government's efforts to hunt Ace, are so obsessed with law and order that they see no reason not to fight on the Government's behalf. They're master riflemen who can reinforce their bullets with Armament Haki, and go into battle so hopped up on combat drugs that they're oblivious to pain and all but invisible to Observation Haki.
- Then there's the Polynesian-themed Irian, who belongs to a religion that practices Human Sacrifice, thinks Akainu is her god's mortal avatar, and wields the Chord-Chord Fruit to compel others to do whatever she wants. In the first chapter of the Marineford Misery arc, she's shown skulking behind the battlefields and hunting down would-be deserters, using her powers to send them running back into the fray as uncontrolled cannon-fodder, conscious and aware even as their bodies literally throw themselves to their deaths.
- The secret weapon of the Vikverir: Jotuns. A species of mutant Giant from their homeland who are such absolute berserkers that they Feel No Pain, and will continue fighting despite even the most grievous wounds until killed deader than dead. They actually bring down Little Oars Jr..
- Blackbeard beats Magellan and makes it to Level 6 of Impel Down after all. The icing on the cake is his encounter with the World Pirates, who are absolutely terrified of him. And then he implicitly kills them all with some of Magellan's worst toxins he had been keeping in his darkness from the fight. Slightly mitigated when it was revealed later on that Blackbeard actually lost his fight with Magellan and only survived because of a sequence of events involving Caribou. Still, the fact that he survived an all-out fight with Magellan at all is terrifying enough.
- Impel Down is already some pretty serious nightmare fuel. Now try to imagine a place even worse than that. Say hello to Serpent, the Eternally Rotting Tree on the Never Day Isle of Nox Vestibule, a.k.a. "The Seventh Hell — the Hell of Darkness". Located in the North Blue "in the shadow of the Red Line", this is the World Nobles' personal jail, their dumping ground for all who have ever dared to openly challenge the iron grip the World Nobles have on the world; political prisoners, dissidents, and revolutionaries of all kind. It's a massive labyrinthine fortress full of traps and monsters, overseen by the most ruthless and heartless guards the World Nobles can get. Prisoners are thrown in and left to rot, devolving into feral, cannibalistic beasts. It's a place so foul that the World Nobles didn't trust Impel Down to enact it: let that sink in. The only people who know it exists are the guards and the denizens of Mariejois, who actually broadcast the suffering and degradation of the prisoners from the island to their city as entertainment for the World Nobles. And guess where Cross has been since the Straw Hats were split up?
- Cross himself is shown to be being hunted by one of the cannibalistic prisoners and the description of her is already horrifying enough alone. Her presence and approach is enough to cause Soundbite to descend into sheer terror. Cross has also took a knife to the belly before the Marineford SBS began and is in a terrible state by the time the prisoner finds him and is unable to fend her off, leaving Lassoo and Funkfreed to save him. What's probably worse is that Kuma sent him there with a half-explicit intent to die if he can't get strong enough otherwise.
- Chapter 82 gives us some more insight into Serpent's layout, denizens, and other charming little facts. Like the fact that the guards deliberately give the prisoners insufficient rations to force them to fight and cannibalize each other. Or that the resident "internal" guardians include Giant Spiders and the Flawed Prototypes of Pacifista-style Living Weapons.
- Blackbeard's jailbreak recruitment drive actually manages to be even worse than in canon. How? Because his crew now includes Byrnndi World and Shiki.
- Shiliew of the Rain turns up alive after all. No, Crocodile kept his word; Shiliew is just that tough that he survived being sucked dry of moisture and having all his limbs cut off. To get him back into fighting condition, he's been turned into a nightmarish cyborg, his emaciated carcass buried under masses of machinery and even grafted limbs taken from the BioMEGAs. The only thing left of the old Shiliew are his eyes, which are more terrifying than ever.
- Blackbeard completely SNAPS when Ace torches Whitebeard's body before he can extract the Tremor-Tremor power. He becomes a ranting raving incoherent mess tossing out death threats until he decides to kill everyone by essentially nuking the island with his darkness. It’s such a horrifically bad situation that it actually triggers an Enemy Mine between ALL of the formerly fighting forces—Marines, pirates, mutineers, and revolutionaries—to try and stop the encroaching darkness, as they realize that they can't outrun it. It's a literal fight or die situation.
- During this time, Sengoku can only watch in despair, Perona is damn near crapping herself. And Doflamingo? He's still laughing at the chaos, despite the fact that he's likely to get caught up in it too!
- Think that losing out on the Tremor-Tremor Fruit would slow Blackbeard down? Nope, he just compensates, by means of using Byrnndi's attempted mutiny as an excuse to kill him and take the More-More Fruit instead, which he then uses to scare the rest of his new crew members into submission. By turning into a giant bigger than Sanjuan Wolf. And casually holding the giant underwater with one hand whilst giving a speech on how he'll do anything and endure anything for the sake of his dream.
- It should say something that Shiki, of all people, is perfectly willing to stay loyal to Blackbeard no matter what, even when all the other Level Six escapees are considering turning tail. While not outright said, it would seem that Shiki views Blackbeard as the next incarnation of his previous captain.
- It's noted that, years later, the rest of Blackbeard's crew are occasionally tempted to return to what became known as "World's End Island" to seek out Byrndi's corpse... but they never go through with it, because they're terrified of what they might — or might not! — find...
- Like in Stampede, Bullet gets out of Impel Down. But this time, it's not because he escapes and goes rogue. It's because he agrees to become a Warlord, putting him fully at the World Government's disposal.
- Imu is starting to get involved. What happens next can't be good.
Specials
- The 2018 Halloween special, while hopefully non-canon, shows Luffy, Chopper, Usopp, Vivi, Carue, and Conis getting what is heavily implied to be a potentially lethal dose of radiation poisoning due to finding what's heavily implied to be a pre-Void Century version of the real-life Waste Isolation Pilot Plant replete with a version of it's proposed warning system for future discoverers. Realizing what it is nearly sends Cross into a panic attack until Robin snaps him out of it, and he has Nami and Zoro help him seal the damn thing back up, with a newer message carved into it.Robin: "It said, 'You should not have come here. This is not a place of honor'..."Full Inscription: You should not have come here.
This is not a place of honor. No great deed is commemorated here. Nothing of value is here.
What is here is dangerous and repulsive.
We considered ourselves a powerful culture. We harnessed the hidden fire, and used it for our own purposes.
Then we saw the fire could burn within living things, unnoticed until it destroyed them.
And we were afraid.
We built great tombs to hold the fire for one hundred thousand years, after which it would no longer kill.
If this place is opened, the fire will not be isolated from the world, and we will have failed to protect you.
Leave this place and never come back. - The 2019 Halloween special pays homage to the 1989 Halloween strip series◊ from Garfield. Merry wakes up to find out she is all alone in a Derelict Graveyard of ships and she is standing on an abandoned and neglected version of herself (the Going Merry ship). She then hears the voice of Luffy and Sanji and runs down to see them only to have them vanish before her eyes. That's when she finally wakes up from the nightmare and see Franky, whom she's overjoyed to see. Some can even speculate this special was made to showcase Merry's fear once the crew separates for the time-skip.
- The 2020 Halloween special sees what is largely a Breather Episode with a side of Becoming the Costume... except that several of the crew (Chopper, the TDWS, Billy, and Carue) dressed up as food. This may not sound horrifying until you remember that the captain is Luffy.
