Short Summary:
Zoro! Sanji! Usopp! Nami! Sorry... but... I'm dead!
—Monkey D. Luffy
Luffy's bounty makes its way across the ocean, officially making him a concern to the World Government while his friends celebrate his progression. Meanwhile, the Straw Hats stop in Logue Town to gather some items for the Grand Line, but run into some old foes, and meet a new threat in the form of a Marine Captain named Smoker.
Main Summary:
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After defeating Arlong, the Straw Hats are enjoying a peaceful day sailing in the East Blue. The easygoing mood on the Going Merry ends when a piece of paper falls out of Nami's newspaper—it's a wanted poster of Luffy! After researching Luffy's victories over the East Blue's most notorious active pirates—Buggy the Clown, Don Krieg, and Arlong—the Marines have decided to give Luffy a bounty of 30 million Berries, the highest in East Blue. On a small island somewhere, Mihawk stops by and shows the poster to an old rival, recounting the latter's story about a small boy in a village and noting that he recently met this young man himself. Shanks is excited to see that Luffy's on his way.
It's time for the Straw Hats to enter the Grand Line. But before they do, they decide to make one last stop to re-supply. They soon arrive at Logue Town, which is also known as the "town of the beginning and the end", as it is where the Pirate King Gold Roger was born and where he was executed (thus acting as the prologue and epilogue of his own journey). The Straw Hats split up, each with their own agenda: Nami is going shopping for clothes; Zoro is looking for new swords to replace the two that Mihawk broke, having borrowed money from Nami (at a 300% interest rate, according to her); Usopp is looking for new tools; Sanji needs to buy more food; and Luffy wants to go see the execution grounds where Roger's life ended, and where the Great Pirate Era began.
Zoro is looking for a shop when he sees a pair of toughs accost a young lady. The lady turns out to be skilled at swordplay and defeats them both. Zoro is shocked to see that, without her glasses, this woman looks like Kuina! At a store run by a Ippon-Matsu, Zoro tries finding a pair of swords. Matsu, though happy to have a customer, is disappointed to learn that Zoro only has 100 thousand berries to his name. Seeing Zoro's remaining sword (the one that once belonged to Kuina), though, Ippon-Matsu goes into a cold sweat. Examining the sword with Zoro's permission, Ippon-Matsu struggles to keep calm as he makes an offer; if Zoro trades his sword to Matsu, Matsu will supply three quailty blades to the Pirate Hunter. Zoro refuses, and as Matsu frantically tries to barter, the same woman from earlier bursts in, excited; Zoro's sword is Wado Ichimonji, one of the 21 Great Grade swords (the second-highest sword grade in the world), and worth 20 million berries! Angry that his scam was exposed, Matsu returns the sword that the woman has come to pick up from a polish job. The young lady, Tashigi, states that it's her dream to confiscate the various high-grade blades being used for unsavory purposes by pirates and bounty hunters, unaware that the man she's speaking with is Roronoa Zoro, who was once the latter and is now the former. Nevertheless, Zoro is impressed with her good eye for fine weapons, and asks her to help him choose two good swords from the shop for him; she spots a sword and points it out to Zoro, but Matsu refuses to sell it. Zoro knows why: the weapon is cursed. Tashigi and Matsu reveal that the blade is Kitetsu III, a Grade sword (the fourth-highest grade level), and all swords with the Kitetsu name have caused their wielders horrible deaths. Intrigued, Zoro decides to test his luck against the sword's curse; he tosses the blade in the air, but it doesn't strike him coming down. Shocked by this, Matsu quickly gives Zoro his store's prize, Yubashiri (one of the 51 Skillful Grade swords, the third-highest grade), as an apology for trying to cheat him earlier; he allows Zoro to take both swords for free, as it's been years since he's met swordsman of Zoro's caliber. With both Kitetsu III and Yubashiri at his side, Zoro departs.
While Nami goes shopping, she notices that a storm is approaching. Sanji buys a giant fish, and sees a beautiful woman walking by. On the execution platform, Luffy marvels at what Roger saw before he died. Just then, the beautiful woman calls out to Luffy, glad to see him again, but he's sure he's never seen her before. She claims she has, and that he struck her. After she asks the gathering crowd who the most beautiful woman on the seas is (to which the men and women alike answer that she is), the nearby fountain explodes. However, the shrapnel just slides off of the woman's body. A group of cloaked figures appears, calling the woman "Alvida"; she is, indeed, that same female pirate Luffy met after leaving his village! After her defeat at Luffy's hands, she ate the Slip-Slip Fruit, and became a woman with super-smooth skin; it even changed her appearance. Now she wants Luffy to be her man, but he'll have to defeat someone else first...and the cloaked figures reveal themselves to be Buggy and his crew! Cabaji leaps out of nowhere and puts Luffy in a stockade on top of the execution platform. Meanwhile, Mohji and Richie are on their way to burn the Straw Hats' ship. Buggy declares that Luffy's going to have an execution, Grand-Style!
Luffy's friends and the CO of the local Marines, Captain Smoker, all get wind of what's going on. After meeting up with his sergeant—the young woman Zoro earlier befriended, Tashigi—Smoker decides to surround the execution grounds, but not move in until the pirates are tired out from fighting each other. He also sends out some of his forces to take down the pirates' ships. As the clouds darken, the rest of the Straw Hats make their move; while Zoro and Sanji go to rescue Luffy, Nami and Usopp head back to the Merry. However, despite Zoro's and Sanji's best efforts, Buggy's crew is able to keep them from reaching the execution platform in time. As Buggy prepares to chop off Luffy's head, the Straw Hat Pirate makes one bold statement: "I WILL BECOME THE PIRATE KING!" But as the blade closes down on his neck, Luffy just gives a huge grin and says to his friends, "Sorry, but...I'm dead!"
Then, out of nowhere, the platform is struck by lightning. No one is more shocked by this circumstance than Smoker: not just by Luffy's stroke of luck, but also by the fact that he smiled when he thought he was about to die. Another "dying man" smiled on that platform 22 years ago...Gold Roger! Smoker then realizes that, with the storm, not only have his men returned to the base for dry gunpowder, but the wind is blowing in such a way that the Straw Hats will be able to escape faster. It seems like the Fates themselves are helping their voyage. The Marine Captain swears not to let Luffy escape.
As Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji make their getaway, Buggy recovers. But before he and Alvida can make chase, they and the Buggy Pirates are captured by the Smoke-Smoke Fruit powers of Smoker. At the Going Merry, the storm is preventing Mohji from setting the ship on fire. Usopp and Nami show up, and their appearance causes Mohji to slip and fall unconscious. After distracting Richie with a Fresh Egg Star, Usopp and Nami quickly prepare to set sail. Elsewhere, the rest of the Straw Hats are confronted by Tashigi, who's furious to find out that the person she helped out with sword-shopping is Roronoa Zoro, bounty-hunter-turned-pirate. While Luffy and Sanji escape, Zoro duels her. Disarming her easily, Zoro prepares to leave, but Tashigi demands to know why she wasn't killed. Angry at the assumption that she was spared for being a woman, Tashigi states that she wishes she was a man, which is when Zoro finally loses it. He admits that Tashigi is too similar to his childhood friend in both appearance and personality, and demands that she stop being a copycat. Tashigi angrily retorts that maybe his friend is the copycat, and the two of them begin arguing childishly. Meanwhile, Luffy and Sanji are confronted by Smoker. Smoker's ability to turn into smoke allows him to avoid their powerful blows, and he defeats the two pirates easily. As Smoker has Luffy pinned down and is about to arrest him, the cloaked figure appears, stopping him. A blast of wind sweeps through the town, freeing Luffy and Sanji and sending them on their way towards the Merry. Smoker demands to know why this man, Dragon, is helping Luffy. Dragon's reply is basically, "Why not?" and leaves. Angry at allowing pirates to escape, Smoker and Tashigi decide to chase after the Straw Hat Pirates into the Grand Line. Buggy, who has escaped from the Marines along with his crew and Alvida, makes similar pledge, remarking that entering the Grand Line would be "nostalgic."
Approaching a lighthouse through the storm, the Straw Hats re-pledge their dreams in a make-shift launching ceremony. Sanji's going to find the All Blue. Luffy's going to become the Pirate King. Zoro's going to become the world's strongest swordsman. Nami's going to make a map of the world. And Usopp is going to become a warrior of the sea. The Straw Hats are heading towards the Grand Line!
It's time for the Straw Hats to enter the Grand Line. But before they do, they decide to make one last stop to re-supply. They soon arrive at Logue Town, which is also known as the "town of the beginning and the end", as it is where the Pirate King Gold Roger was born and where he was executed (thus acting as the prologue and epilogue of his own journey). The Straw Hats split up, each with their own agenda: Nami is going shopping for clothes; Zoro is looking for new swords to replace the two that Mihawk broke, having borrowed money from Nami (at a 300% interest rate, according to her); Usopp is looking for new tools; Sanji needs to buy more food; and Luffy wants to go see the execution grounds where Roger's life ended, and where the Great Pirate Era began.
Zoro is looking for a shop when he sees a pair of toughs accost a young lady. The lady turns out to be skilled at swordplay and defeats them both. Zoro is shocked to see that, without her glasses, this woman looks like Kuina! At a store run by a Ippon-Matsu, Zoro tries finding a pair of swords. Matsu, though happy to have a customer, is disappointed to learn that Zoro only has 100 thousand berries to his name. Seeing Zoro's remaining sword (the one that once belonged to Kuina), though, Ippon-Matsu goes into a cold sweat. Examining the sword with Zoro's permission, Ippon-Matsu struggles to keep calm as he makes an offer; if Zoro trades his sword to Matsu, Matsu will supply three quailty blades to the Pirate Hunter. Zoro refuses, and as Matsu frantically tries to barter, the same woman from earlier bursts in, excited; Zoro's sword is Wado Ichimonji, one of the 21 Great Grade swords (the second-highest sword grade in the world), and worth 20 million berries! Angry that his scam was exposed, Matsu returns the sword that the woman has come to pick up from a polish job. The young lady, Tashigi, states that it's her dream to confiscate the various high-grade blades being used for unsavory purposes by pirates and bounty hunters, unaware that the man she's speaking with is Roronoa Zoro, who was once the latter and is now the former. Nevertheless, Zoro is impressed with her good eye for fine weapons, and asks her to help him choose two good swords from the shop for him; she spots a sword and points it out to Zoro, but Matsu refuses to sell it. Zoro knows why: the weapon is cursed. Tashigi and Matsu reveal that the blade is Kitetsu III, a Grade sword (the fourth-highest grade level), and all swords with the Kitetsu name have caused their wielders horrible deaths. Intrigued, Zoro decides to test his luck against the sword's curse; he tosses the blade in the air, but it doesn't strike him coming down. Shocked by this, Matsu quickly gives Zoro his store's prize, Yubashiri (one of the 51 Skillful Grade swords, the third-highest grade), as an apology for trying to cheat him earlier; he allows Zoro to take both swords for free, as it's been years since he's met swordsman of Zoro's caliber. With both Kitetsu III and Yubashiri at his side, Zoro departs.
While Nami goes shopping, she notices that a storm is approaching. Sanji buys a giant fish, and sees a beautiful woman walking by. On the execution platform, Luffy marvels at what Roger saw before he died. Just then, the beautiful woman calls out to Luffy, glad to see him again, but he's sure he's never seen her before. She claims she has, and that he struck her. After she asks the gathering crowd who the most beautiful woman on the seas is (to which the men and women alike answer that she is), the nearby fountain explodes. However, the shrapnel just slides off of the woman's body. A group of cloaked figures appears, calling the woman "Alvida"; she is, indeed, that same female pirate Luffy met after leaving his village! After her defeat at Luffy's hands, she ate the Slip-Slip Fruit, and became a woman with super-smooth skin; it even changed her appearance. Now she wants Luffy to be her man, but he'll have to defeat someone else first...and the cloaked figures reveal themselves to be Buggy and his crew! Cabaji leaps out of nowhere and puts Luffy in a stockade on top of the execution platform. Meanwhile, Mohji and Richie are on their way to burn the Straw Hats' ship. Buggy declares that Luffy's going to have an execution, Grand-Style!
Luffy's friends and the CO of the local Marines, Captain Smoker, all get wind of what's going on. After meeting up with his sergeant—the young woman Zoro earlier befriended, Tashigi—Smoker decides to surround the execution grounds, but not move in until the pirates are tired out from fighting each other. He also sends out some of his forces to take down the pirates' ships. As the clouds darken, the rest of the Straw Hats make their move; while Zoro and Sanji go to rescue Luffy, Nami and Usopp head back to the Merry. However, despite Zoro's and Sanji's best efforts, Buggy's crew is able to keep them from reaching the execution platform in time. As Buggy prepares to chop off Luffy's head, the Straw Hat Pirate makes one bold statement: "I WILL BECOME THE PIRATE KING!" But as the blade closes down on his neck, Luffy just gives a huge grin and says to his friends, "Sorry, but...I'm dead!"
Then, out of nowhere, the platform is struck by lightning. No one is more shocked by this circumstance than Smoker: not just by Luffy's stroke of luck, but also by the fact that he smiled when he thought he was about to die. Another "dying man" smiled on that platform 22 years ago...Gold Roger! Smoker then realizes that, with the storm, not only have his men returned to the base for dry gunpowder, but the wind is blowing in such a way that the Straw Hats will be able to escape faster. It seems like the Fates themselves are helping their voyage. The Marine Captain swears not to let Luffy escape.
- "These things cannot be stopped. An inherited strength of will. One's dreams. The ebb and flow of the ages. As long as people hunger for freedom...these things will exist." -Gold Roger, King of the Pirates
As Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji make their getaway, Buggy recovers. But before he and Alvida can make chase, they and the Buggy Pirates are captured by the Smoke-Smoke Fruit powers of Smoker. At the Going Merry, the storm is preventing Mohji from setting the ship on fire. Usopp and Nami show up, and their appearance causes Mohji to slip and fall unconscious. After distracting Richie with a Fresh Egg Star, Usopp and Nami quickly prepare to set sail. Elsewhere, the rest of the Straw Hats are confronted by Tashigi, who's furious to find out that the person she helped out with sword-shopping is Roronoa Zoro, bounty-hunter-turned-pirate. While Luffy and Sanji escape, Zoro duels her. Disarming her easily, Zoro prepares to leave, but Tashigi demands to know why she wasn't killed. Angry at the assumption that she was spared for being a woman, Tashigi states that she wishes she was a man, which is when Zoro finally loses it. He admits that Tashigi is too similar to his childhood friend in both appearance and personality, and demands that she stop being a copycat. Tashigi angrily retorts that maybe his friend is the copycat, and the two of them begin arguing childishly. Meanwhile, Luffy and Sanji are confronted by Smoker. Smoker's ability to turn into smoke allows him to avoid their powerful blows, and he defeats the two pirates easily. As Smoker has Luffy pinned down and is about to arrest him, the cloaked figure appears, stopping him. A blast of wind sweeps through the town, freeing Luffy and Sanji and sending them on their way towards the Merry. Smoker demands to know why this man, Dragon, is helping Luffy. Dragon's reply is basically, "Why not?" and leaves. Angry at allowing pirates to escape, Smoker and Tashigi decide to chase after the Straw Hat Pirates into the Grand Line. Buggy, who has escaped from the Marines along with his crew and Alvida, makes similar pledge, remarking that entering the Grand Line would be "nostalgic."
Approaching a lighthouse through the storm, the Straw Hats re-pledge their dreams in a make-shift launching ceremony. Sanji's going to find the All Blue. Luffy's going to become the Pirate King. Zoro's going to become the world's strongest swordsman. Nami's going to make a map of the world. And Usopp is going to become a warrior of the sea. The Straw Hats are heading towards the Grand Line!
Logue Town has the following tropes
- A Day in the Limelight: Sanji, Usopp, and Zoro get some episodes to themselves in the anime. Only Zoro's episode was in the original manga; Usopp's was cut (see
What Could Have Been on the Trivia page), and it's unknown whether Sanji's was cut as well or a completely original story. - Adaptation Expansion: The anime version has the crew milling around town for a while before Buggy makes his revenge attempt, and Luffy actually meets and avoids being captured by Smoker during this time. The race back to the Going Merry is also altered, such as Luffy fighting against Smoker alone (in the manga, Sanji was with him), and Nami, Usopp, and Sanji defending the Going Merry against the Marines.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Initially, Luffy actually does try to talk his way out of being killed by Buggy, though he does it so nonchalantly that you have to wonder whether he's serious:(completely deadpan) "Sorry. Now please let me go."
- Bait-and-Switch:
- When a little girl accidentally spills ice cream on Smoker's pants, he's initially framed as if he'll be another villainous Marine, only for his reaction to instead reveal that he's just a gruff but noble Hero Antagonist.
- In the anime, when Mihawk delivers Shanks Luffy's Bounty Poster, Shanks looks like he's about to challenge Mihawk to a fight... only for it to suddenly cut to Shanks throwing a party to celebrate and encouraging Mihawk to drink with them in celebraton of Luffy's first bounty.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Smoker, Buggy, and Alvida are all the primary antagonists for this arc. Of those three, only Buggy and Alvida are working together, while Smoker just happens to be in charge of the Marine Base at Logue Town, and makes it his mission to capture any pirate that sets foot on the island.
- Book Ends: Gold Roger, the Pirate King, was born and executed in the titular city. It's for this reason that Logue Town is known as "The Town of the Beginning and the End".
- Breather Episode: Begins a tradition where, after a major chapter in the Straw Hats' journey concludes, they get a more low-key trip that lacks a central villain and is more about Character Development and Worldbuilding. These arcs though tend to provide important set-up to later events, introduce characters who become important fixtures in the series and provide some pretty big revelations.
- Broken Win/Loss Streak: In Usopp's anime-only episode, the bounty hunter "Daddy the Father" is credited to have never lost a duel. However, he reveals to Usopp, Nami, and his daughter that he actually did lose a duel once, to Usopp's father Yasopp, which nobody ever learned about. Though he and Usopp don't have a traditional duel like they originally agreed, he challenges Usopp to an alternate duel by having him shoot a far weather vane rooster, and when Usopp succeeds he is credited as the winner of the challenge, marking his second defeat.
- In addition, the Straw Hats (along with the Buggy Pirates) are the first pirates to escape Loguetown since Smoker assumed command of the local Marines.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Dragon, who shows up to save Luffy but won't become important again till the Return to Water 7 Arc.
- Continuity Nod: When the Marines take Luffy's actions into account to decide his bounty, they specifically consider his defeats of Buggy, Krieg, and Arlong. The fact that Luffy was the one who defeated Captain Morgan was never reported by his subordinates, and Kuro's attempted attack on Syrup Village was specifically kept a secret by the select few who knew about it (and Kuro is believed to be dead), so naturally neither of these victories were included in the Marines' research for his bounty.
- Cooking Duel: Sanji faces a literal one in the anime adaptation, during his filler episode.
- Cool Bike: Smoker's. The best part? It runs on him!
- Cowboy Cop: Smoker. We figure that much when, in one of his early scenes, he says that being told what to do is one of his pet peeves.
- Curbstomp Battle: Zoro beats Tashigi quite easily, disarming her without even scratching her person (and in the manga, the entire fight took place off-screen).
- Deus ex Machina: As far as we know,note this is how Luffy survives his execution (but not the lightning strike, as he's made of rubber), and escapes Smoker's grasp. On the other hand, both those scenes show the role fate plays in Luffy's journey. Smoker (who witnessed Roger's execution) decides to swear on his career to catch Luffy after seeing the former. Lampshaded by Sanji in the former who asks Zoro if he believes in a God, to which he replies that it's not the time to be asking such questions.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Buggy and Alvida seem to be the initial antagonists until Smoker upstages them as the real threat to the Straw Hats.
- Divine Intervention: Discussed by Sanji and Zoro when Luffy narrowly survives his execution.
- Establishing Character Moment: See Pet the Dog.
- There's also Tashigi and 2 bandits arguing, and when the bandits try to attack her, Zoro tries to help, but Tashigi can handle her own and defeats the 2 bandits.
- Foreshadowing:
- During a cut to Windmill Village, the mayor, Woop Slap, muses that Luffy becoming a famous pirate may be fate, hinting at both his parentage and The Reveal regarding the Will of D.
- More minor, but also more immediately relevant - Smoker and his squadron are implied to have "special" measures for Devil fruit users, a whole saga before seastone is formally introduced in the Alabasta arc.
- Luffy survives an almost direct lightning strike without a single issue due his rubber body, long before it becomes relevant in the Skypiea arc.
- Gonk: In Sanji's anime-only episode, Carmen's assistants Leo and Jose are quite ugly, in stark contrast to their gorgeous and fiery boss. Leo looks like a living chibi, with a stunted but proportional body and a massively disproportionate head (with small, normal-sized facial features that make his head look all the bigger), whilst Jose borders on Facial Horror — initially, he appears to be wearing sunglasses with pronounced forehead wrinkles, but in fact he's a case of Eyes Always Shut; those black circles are his nostrils, with tiny beady eyes sporadically opening directly above them between what look like wrinkles.
- Graceful Loser: Carmen in the cooking contest against Sanji. She doesn't even bother to wait for the results to be announced before conceding.
- Hero Antagonist: Smoker and Tashigi.
- Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: Smoker and Tashigi start their slow-paced Stern Chase in Logue Town.
- Identical Stranger: Tashigi to Kuina, Zoro's deceased friend. Not just in appearance, but in her views as well. This understandably sets Zoro off when he defeats her, and he lets out his feelings about this in an emotional rant.
- Idiot Ball: Pretty bad even by Luffy's standards, as he pretty much allows himself to get caught by the Buggy Pirates, and he doesn't realize that they're about to execute him until five minutes after they've explained that they've come for revenge.
- Implacable Man: Smoker. Hell, his (second in the anime) fight scene with Luffy (and Sanji in the manga) is similar to the T-1000.
- Knight of Cerebus: Downplayed, but Captain Smoker is the first opponent in the series up to this point that Luffy genuinely is unable to beat, and who almost manages to arrest him—in the end, it's pure luck and a willingness to run that saves him from being captured and executed. As a result, Smoker becomes the only foe for quite some time that Luffy is shown to genuinely fear, most notably in how he panics and immediately flees after accidentally running into Smoker in Alabasta.
- Lean and Mean: Alvida, who ate the Slip-Slip Fruit and lost a lot of weight as a side effect, going from a Small Name, Big Ego Fat Bastard to a Nigh-Invulnerable World's Most Beautiful Woman.
- Logical Weakness: Very subtle and hard to spot, but Smoker doesn't use his devil fruit powers at all after the storm hits and the winds pick up. Because what do high winds do to smoke? They disperse it.
- Love at First Punch: Alvida is now attracted to Luffy because of the way he defeated her in her first encounter.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Hundreds of chapters later, the story still hasn't confirmed whether the lightning strike that saves Luffy here is Divine Intervention (as Sanji speculates), caused by Dragon or someone else, or just pure coincidence.
- Meaningful Name: Marine Captain Smoker. A certifiable badass with two cigars in his mouth, who turns out to have eaten the Plume-Plume Fruit (Moku Moku no Mi), a Logia type Devil Fruit with the elemental power of Smoke.
- Nigh-Invulnerable: The introduction of Logia Devil Fruits through Smoker's Plume-Plume Fruit. Even though Luffy will later fight and defeat more powerful elements, he remains unable to lay a finger on Smoker up to the Time Skip because smoke doesn't have an exploitable weakness.
- Not Afraid to Die: Luffy's smile just as Buggy is about to lop off his head is the most overt example of his inability to fear death in the entire series. His attitude towards his incoming death is so similar to Gold Roger's final moments that it's what drives Smoker to chase after him into the Grand Line.
- Parents as People: In the anime, a filler episode features a flashback duel between two of these — Yasopp (Usopp's father) and the unsubtly-named Daddy "The Father" Masterson.
- Pet the Dog: Smoker's Establishing Character Moment is giving money to a little girl who accidentally spills ice cream on his pants, so she can buy more ice cream. Amusingly, everything involving Smoker prior to this moment seems to be setting him up as another selfish and arrogant Marine (like Axe Hand Morgan), and right before he offers the girl money for ice cream, the camera lingers on him (framed ominously) long enough to make the audience think that he's going to Kick the Dog instead.
- Rule of Symbolism: Quite a number of these for such a small arc:
- Zoro shows interest in a sword that is believed to be cursed and killed all its previous owners. Zoro tests his luck against the sword's curse by throwing it in the air, and raising his arm to a 90 degree angle to see how it will land. It misses his arm and lands on the floor instead. He then decides to take it. This is another example of an ongoing theme that Zoro is some kind of immortal.
- It is revealed that it rained on Gold Roger's execution, with him smiling during his death, and likewise in Luffy's near execution, it rains while he smiles at his imminent death. And Dragon, the man who saves Luffy, was present for both of them.
- The Straw Hat Pirates begin their journey into the Grand Line by leaving Logue Town. The stories of them coming together and their time here are the prologue to their adventures in the Grand Line. Likewise, it is also revealed this is Gold Roger's hometown: the prologue and epilogue of the life of the Pirate King.
- Super Smoke: Who else?
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Smoker. The first Marine to hand Luffy his ass, he effectively captures him. He's even far stronger than his rank implies, and is bored with the level of pirates that have been coming his way and finds them overrated. His level of strength gets the Straw Hats (apart from Luffy) wary when they're facing a number of them with his rank in a future arc.
- Wham Shot: The very last panel of Chapter 97 - it may seem quaint now, but Alvida in Loguetown was the readership's very first sign that they should've been paying attention to the cover arcs all along.
- Where It All Began: Loguetown is where it all began for the first Pirate King, and the place where the adventure begins again, this time for a new Pirate King.
- Who Would Be Stupid Enough?: In the anime-exclusive episode, "Usopp vs. Daddy the Parent", Nami wonders "what the idiot who'd challenge him to a duel looks like" and after being shocked that it's Usopp, she follows with "Oh. Like that."
- Wind Is Green: When the rain stops and wind picks up, the wind has a green hue.
- The Worf Effect: Two of Luffy's earlier foes, Buggy and Alvida, get owned by Smoker in the space of five minutes, and Luffy (along with Sanji in the manga) is also Worfed in a similar fashion by the Marine Captain. Yep, this opponent is definitely not like the others.
- Worthy Opponent: In Usopp's anime-only episode, Daddy the Father comes to respect Yasopp after he not only manages to beat him in a duel, but spares his life. When he learns that Usopp is Yasopp's son he gives him a chance to prove himself in a challenge, and comes to respect him as well when he wins it.
Story Impact
- After the scuffle in Logue Town, the Buggy Pirates set off for the Grand Line. Buggy's past with Roger is also foreshadowed.
- Smoker is introduced as the first Logia-type Devil Fruit user in the series.
- Just as Buggy is about to execute Luffy in the same spot as Roger, Luffy has the same reaction as the Pirate King 22 years ago when he was executed, smiling, being one of the first parallels between Luffy and Roger.
- The Dressrosa Arc reveals that Bartolomeo the Cannnibal was among those who witness Luffy's miraculous escape from Buggy and was inspired to become a pirate like his hero, being another parallel between Luffy and Roger who inspired many at his execution to follow in his footsteps.
- Just as Smoker is about to capture Luffy, he is stopped by a mysterious man he recognized while Luffy escapes to the Grand Line. The man is revealed in later arcs to be the Revolutionary Army's leader Monkey D. Dragon, Luffy's biological father.
- Smoker follows Luffy in the Grand Line.
