A filler arc set between the Dressrosa arc and Zou arc. It acts as something of a tie-in to One Piece Film: Gold as well.
Short Summary
As Luffy, Zoro, Ussop, Robin, and Franky along with Law, Kinemon, and Bartolomeo sail off to catch up with the other Straw Hats after the events of Dressrosa. Their ship is suddenly attacked by pirates after the new bounties on the Straw Hats heads. Luffy and Bartlomeo are captured and send to the Silver Mine which is governed over by a pirate named Bill, who ate the Smelt Smelt Fruit and can make silver objects from his body by eating ore. It's up to Luffy and Bartolomeo to free themselves so that they can save their friends and continue their trip.
Main Summary
Tropes
- A Day in the Limelight: This arc is meant to give some more depth to Bartolomeo.
- A Twinkle in the Sky: Happens to Peseta when he gets defeated by Zoro
- Amazon Brigade: All of the Sweets Pirates are female.
- Call-Back: Not the first time Luffy was stuck to a ball of metal as he is at the beginning of this arc. Though in this case, it's a silver ball and his whole body is encased in it rather than just his arm.
- The Cameo: Mr. Tanaka shows up at the start of the arc, receiving Bill's monthly tribute to Tesoro. Likewise, Tesoro shows up in Bill's flashbacks and in person at the end of the arc.
- Childhood Friends: Bartolomeo and Desire grew up on the same island together and were even planning to go to sea together until Barto became obsessed with Luffy.
- Continuity Snarl: Unlike Strong World and it's "Little East Blue" arc, which seemed to take place between Thriller Bark and Sabody. And Film: Z and "Z's Ambition" arc, which indicated it took place between Fishman Island and Punk Hazard. There's virtually no way this arc could fit in with the upcoming Film: Gold because all of the Straw Hats are present in that movie when we learn in the next arc, Zou, that Sanji had willingly left with the Firetank Pirates to save his friends and the whole point of the arc after that, Whole Cake Island, was to go and reclaim him with the crew split up: half going to Wano and the other half accompanying Luffy for the retrieval task. Whoopsie on the writers part.
- Contrived Coincidence: Desire, the leader of the Sweets Pirates, turns out to be a childhood friend of Bartolomeo.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Once Luffy is finally released from his silver prison, every fight becomes this for him. Including the one he has with Bill, who he takes down with virtually no effort whatsoever.
- The Dreaded: Gildo Tesoro, the main villain of One Piece Film: Gold, who is alluded to in the present and only makes appearances in flashbacks until the last episode of the arc. He is called the "Monster" of the New World and stated by Koala to have power equal to that of the Celestial Dragons. Bill is terrified of him.
- Extreme Omnivore: Bill's Smelt-Smelt Fruit allowed to him eat ore with no problem, and then allow his body to shape the metal into any form he wanted.
- Foil: Bill is one for Luffy, as he also has gained the alliance of many other pirate crews. Unlike Luffy, who is okay with his fleet doing whatever they want, he wants them to all work together to take out stronger pirates and promises that all their dreams will come true if they do. Also unlike Luffy, he's lying and is just using them for his own purposes.
- Japanese Delinquents: Desire and her girl gang dress and act like this.
- Minion Manipulated into Villainy: Desire and her gang joined Bill after he saved them following the majority of their crew being wiped out by a mysterious attacker. Towards the climax of the arc, Desire realizes that Bill was the one who attacked her crew.
- No Ontological Inertia: Averted. Even though Luffy defeated Bill, all the molten metal Bill released to destroy the island didn't vanish. This is because Bill's Devil Fruit doesn't let him smelt metal out of nothing and he has to load up on actual ore, meaning that it wasn't going to go away.
- Town with a Dark Secret: The pirates of Silver Mine seems to have a strong alliance under Bill, who promises that all their dreams will come true if they work together to take out other crews. Except that Bill forces the pirates that fail to work in the secret underground mines and punishes anyone who tries to escape.
- Tsundere: Desire gets mad at Bartolomeo for favoring Luffy over her. She also gets mad and blushes when Luffy praises her after she gives him one of her chocolate bars.
