One Piece/Tropes Q-S

Trope list for One Piece, Q-S

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• Quicksand Sucks: Crocodile's Desert Girasole basically left Luffy sinking into a large pool of quicksand with seemingly no way of getting out. It's a good thing Miss All-Sunday was around at the time to help.
  • There's also Caribou who is basically a living swamp that everything sinks into. Said swamp has infinite space to hold things.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: Numerous, including Baroque Works, CP9.
• Race Lift: Miss Monday goes from being white in the manga to Ambiguously Brown in the anime.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Plenty, but the Straw Hat crew quickly stands out especially when they add a reindeer-man, a cyborg and an undead skeleton to their ranks.
• Rain Aura
• Rank Up: Captain Smoker gets promoted by the Marines to Commodore. Commodore Smoker is not too happy about his promotion as he feels he didn't deserve it, but he does use his new leverage to operate wherever he wants.
  • He has apparently been promoted to vice-admiral. Tashigi was promoted five times from Ensign to Captain.
• Rapid Aging: In chapter 650, Hody and his gang end up turning into old men. Apparently it's one of the side effects of all of those pills they took. Funny and sad at the same time.
• Rasputinian Death: WHITEBEARD. What he went through simply has to be seen to be believed. Even the Narrator comments on it. Full list: 152 Gunshots, 267 Sword wounds (including one all the way through his chest), 46 cannon balls, and two counts of being impaled by LAVA. And this is from a man who is already very old and on freaking dialysis. Wow.
  • Might I add that in the manga, HALF HIS FACE IS MELTED OFF! AND HE DIES. STANDING. UP.
    • This may be a reference to Benkei.
• Rated "M" for Manly
• Razor Wind: Many of the attacks in the series, namely Cipher Pol 9's "Rankyaku" and Zoro's "Poundo Hou" and "Tatsumaki" techniques. Mr. 1 is a pretty blatant example, since he can slice things up just by waving his hands. We don't even see any wind.
  • In the anime Razor Winds resemble energy waves of varying colours.
  • Also, Eric the Whirlwind in one of the Filler arcs. If you count those.
• Real Men Eat Meat: Luffy's favorite food.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Sanji has worn pink, and it is Chopper's identifying color. Donquixote Doflamingo wears a pink feathery overcoat, and has proven himself to be pretty badass at the Battle of Marineford. And of course, the manliest of men, Bon Clay.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Arlong is quite fond of giving these to humans to show why Fishmen are superior. Luffy counters by inverting the trope, giving a Reason I Suck Speech stating everything his crew can do that he can't, then adding that the one thing he can do is kick Arlong's ass.
• Reclining Reigner: Don Achino.
• Red Baron: Basically everyone who isn't a civilian or a total weakling.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Taken to a pretty much literal sense with Oars and Nightmare Luffy.
  • Also Dorry and Broggy, who were called the Red and Blue Ogres.
  • Sanji and Zoro have a weird mix of this, with Sanji normally being Red, passionate and romantic, and Zoro being cold and deadpan, when they get into fights however Zoro gets his smile on and Sanji quits acting like a fool.
  • We also have Luffy and Zoro, one being hot-headed, headstrong and wild, with the other being calm, serious and controlled (most of the time).
  • Orange-haired and red-eyed Nami who gets easily annoyed at the stupidity of the crew, versus black for Robin who laughs at their antics and has only once ever had a Demon Head (at an enemy).
  • On the Marine's side, there's Garp and Sengoku, with Garp as the Red Oni and Sengoku as the Blue Oni. This is demonstrated further in the anime version of Episode 0, where Garp wears a red tie and Sengoku wears a blue tie.
• Redshirt Army: All marines (besides those few with names and/or backstories) are just one big version of this trope.
• The Red Sonja: Alvida is infatuated with Luffy because of this trope, though she's apparently okay with killing him. Luffy doesn't really care.
  • She explains this. If he's able to be killed, then he wasn't the man she was looking for. She has faith in his ability to survive.
• Refuge in Audacity: Oh so very much.
  • To clarify: got a crazy theory on what'll come up? Oda will most likely top it in the most out-of-field way possible.
• Rescue Arc: The Enies Lobby Arc revolves around the Straw Hats trying to save Robin from the clutches of the World Government, who plan on harvesting her knowledge of and then killing her for reading illegal inscriptions.
  • The Impel Down arc begins with Luffy's attempt to rescue his brother Ace from the most fearsome prison in the world.
  • After failing to spring Ace, Luffy decides to bust out of Impel Down (a prison considered impregnable), with an army of over 200 rowdy criminals including two Revolutionaries, two Warlords, and Buggy, and head to Marine Headquarters to join the Battle Royale With Cheese and attempt to stop Ace's execution.
• Retired Badass: Red leg Zeff, Silvers Rayleigh, Shakky, and Doctor Kureha.
• Revealing Coverup: When the denizens of Punk Hazard's attempt to fool Smoker into leaving the island backfires because he's familiar with the island's history.
• Rightful King Returns: Wapol came back to his kingdom and got promptly sent flying into the sky by Luffy. Also, King Nefertari returned after Luffy kicked Crocodile's ass and peace returned to Alabasta.
• Right-Hand Hottie: Femme Fatale Kalifa fulfills this role for Iceburg in One Piece just before being revealed as an assassin/ spy sent by the world government.
• The Reveal: Ace is actually Gold Roger's son.
• Reverse Mole: Nico Robin. Also possibly Bartholomew Kuma as a mole in the World Government for Dragon, though we didn't get more than vague hints regarding this.
  • As of the latest chapter,Kuma is revealed to really be a mole for Dragon and that this was his reason for saving the Strawhats back at the Sabaody Archipelago.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified: Dragon is leading a revolutionary war against the tyrannical, slave owning, massacre happy, conspiracy loving World Government. Fisher Tiger rescued slaves and lead an attack against the incredibly corrupt and decadent nobility. Other revolutionaries are shown freeing Robin from a work camp. The worst thing anyone to do with the Revolution has been shown doing is Ivankov's Gender Bender antics. Now Oda may turn this around when we learn more about the Revolution but so far they've been portrayed as entirely heroic.
  • Though if you pay attention one of the Revolutionaries seems to have just shot someone execution-style in the coverstory, usually something that isn't seen as very humane, but it remains to be seen what the overall attitude of the movement is.
  • And of course there is also the fact that the Revolutionaries spread their ideals through warfare so it seems to zig-zag between this trope and The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Chopper. Also baby Laboon in flashbacks, and the Spaceys in Eneru's cover story.
• Ridiculously-Fast Construction: At one point during Thriller Bark, Franky, Usopp, Sanji and Zoro come across a place that they can't jump over. Usopp, Sanji and Zoro turn around and in about five seconds, they turn back around and see that Franky just built a bridge. Later on, Nami runs across it and comments how quickly yet well made it looks.
• Right Makes Might: According to the author, those who have stronger convictions will always prevail.
  • Wait, so does that mean that, at least at this stage of the game, Kuma, Magellan, Kizaru and Sentomaru's convictions are stronger? Interesting.
    • The trope still stands as Luffy gave up the unwinnable fight and told his friends to run, causing his convictions to drop, and thereby lose them the battle.

Donquixote Doflamingo: (on the Marineford battle) Justice will prevail, you say? But of course it will... Whoever wins this war, becomes justice!

• Roaring Rampage of Rescue: Luffy on several occasions, but most notably during the Marineford arc, when his Foe-Tossing Charge lasts for several episodes and (amongst other things) sends a giant flying.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Vivi
  • Queen Otohime of Fishman Island, makes time in her day to be a mother of 4, schoolteacher, rescue worker and activist.
• Rubber Man: Monkey D. Luffy himself.
• Rule 34: Quite a bit of it, mostly involving Nami and Robin.
• Rule 63: While a normal rule of the internet, this one bears special notice in that ever since the introduction of Ivankov's ability to pull a Gender Bender at-will and Oda's illustrated response to a fan question as to what it would look like if applied to the main cast, there has been an absolute deluge of Gender Flipped art on the internet, and Oda has only himself to blame.
• Rule of Cool: Do most of the Devil Fruit powers make sense or follow any sort of physics? No. Are they cool? Yes. On a more wide range, the series itself seems to run on this at times. And it is awesome.
• Rule of Funny: Tons of things. For one, it's the only reason that Chopper and Brook always jump in to save Luffy when he falls overboard, despite the fact that not only do they share his Super Drowning Skills, one was never able to swim in the first place and the other has had them longer than the other two combined.
• Running Gag: Numerous. A significant amount passes over into Brick Joke-territory.
  • For example, Luffy and Usopp's impersonations of various characters, mostly crewmates.
  • Whenever Chopper meets someone, chances are they'll mistake him for a raccoon dog, despite his antlers.
    • Or they'll mistake him for something else, depending on what form he's taking at the time.
  • During the Enies Lobby arc, characters will shout angrily whenever they happen to run into Franky, apparently forgetting that he already made a Heel Face Turn.
• Running Gagged: Usopp's lies. This slowly started fading out due to his Character Development. In the beginning, Usopp would lie often and sometimes for no good reason. Now he lies rarely and usually has a battle plan whenever he does.
• Sand in My Eyes: When Franky hears the story of why Usopp wanted to fix Merry, him and his two girls start to cry Manly Tears. When Usopp calls them out on it, Franky says: "I'm not crying dammit!"
  • Heck, this is a bit of a Running Gag for Franky.
• Sarcastic Confession: In the G8 filler, when a captured Zoro was being interrogated by the Marines how he snuck into the fortress. Zoro tells them in a bored voice that he fell from the sky.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Captain Kuro and Admiral Kizaru. Though with the latter he's very cheery. Unfortunately almost every pirate is afraid of this guy and that's before having some knowledge what he can actually do.
  • Kuma also manages to pull this off in the anime, despite the fact that he's technically not wearing glasses.
  • Rayleigh in the anime, too.
• Scenery Porn: Seriously, just LOOK at some of these places.
• Schizo-Tech: In a world with relatively old-fashioned technology, we have things like cyborgs that are capable of firing laser beams from their mouths, though this is Hand Waved by saying that the mind behind said laser-firing cyborgs is several centuries ahead of its time.
  • Franky was sent by Kuma to a futuristic winter island where the mind in question was born.
  • They also apparently have flat-screen TVs and stereo speakers. Seriously.
    • Its a wonder what snails can do.
  • Justifiable - most of the islands are separated by wild weather, sea kings and wonky magnetic fields. One region's advances take a long time to spread, except when it is beneficial for the World Government or Marines who can bypass those obstacles.
• Scissors Cuts Rock: Luffy, being a rubber man, is immune to Eneru's electricity-based powers. However, Eneru finds ways to hurt Luffy anyway by applying electricity indirectly, culminating in his tossing Luffy overboard with a gigantic gold sphere attached to his wrist serving as an anchor. Luffy defeats Eneru as soon as he gets out of the mess, but Eneru did turn what should've been a Curb Stomp Battle into one where he had the edge.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Beautiful: Boa Hancock. That is, until Luffy comes along.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right: Jinbe after Luffy's fight with Hody, as he gives Luffy a blood transfusion despite Fishman Island's law that Fishmen are not allowed to give blood to humans. Jinbe justifies this by noting that he's pirate, and acts outside the law anyway. However, it's made clear that after the events of the arc thus far, none of the Fishmen are really interested in enforcing that law anymore, least of all against the guy most responsible for saving Fishman Island and everyone on it.
• Sdrawkcab Name: Elbaf. Fable.
  • The Viz translation missed this and Romanized the land as "Elbaph".
  • One of Smoker's attack names is "Moku Moku no Cloud". "Moku" spelled backwards is "Kumo", or "Cloud".
• Sea Monster: The Sea Kings. They are HUGE, see for yourself.
  • That little spec on the big one's nose? Thats a pirate ship.
• Secret Art: Rokushiki (Six Powers). Known only to CP9 and certain Marine officers.
• Self-Deprecation: In one of the specials, Oda created a character for himself. His defining moment makes him look like an idiot and he even gets beat up by, of all people, the quartet of Buggy, Hatchan, Jango and Bon Clay.
• Self-Duplication: Nico Robin has acquired to do the ability to do this during the Time Skip in One Piece.
• Senseless Sacrifice: A nonlethal comedic variant. There's been at least one instance where Luffy fell into the water, and Chopper, and later Brook dove in to save him, forgetting that they are also Fruit Eaters, and can't swim either. Zoro saved them each time, though.
• Serial Escalation: Each Finishing Move Luffy uses to knock out each Big Bad is more over the top and devastating than the last.
  • Along with how much damage he takes before managing to pull off said finishing move.
• Shapeshifter Guilt Trip: Subverted and then played straight as Sanji has no problem kicking Mr. 2 around when he looks like Usopp, but the minute he transforms into Nami...
• Shapeshifting: All Zoan fruits do this, allowing the user to shift between their natural form, a particular animal form, and a hybrid of the two. Chopper is notable in that his Rumble Ball temporarily grants him further variations. Some Paramecia fruits grant similar powers, most notably Mr. 2 Bon Clay's, which lets him transform into other people.
• Shark Man: Any shark-type fishman, Arlong and Hody being prime examples.
• Shiny Midnight Black: Robin has this kind of hair.
• Ship Sinking: All of them; Word of God says that there are no canon relationships and never will be.
• Shonen: One of the more well-known.
• Shonen Hair: Notably absent. While Luffy have one it looks pretty normal compared to other shonen hairs.
• Shonen Upgrade: Began during the Alabasta arc, done in the Skypeia arc with a few characters, but most apparent during the Enies Lobby arc (see Took a Level In Badass below).
  • Kuma sent each of the Strawhats to islands relevant to their abilities resulting in a major upgrade to all the Straw Hats when they get back together post Time Skip.
• Shooting Superman: You would think that by this point, everyone would know that trying to hurt Luffy with a bullet would be almost suicidal. Especially since the bullet might come back and shoot you instead.
  • And now after the Time Skip he can absorb enemies' attack and return it with twice the power.
• Shout-Out: There's a Shout-Out to the second Terminator film in episode 443 where Crocodile takes a headshot and the resulting hole and camera angle is identical to the one in the scene where the T-1000 is headshotted during the film's climax.
  • Saint Jalmack the Celestial Dragon's cube-shaped air helmet looks a lot like the ones at the end of WALL-E.
  • The maw of Bowin Archipelago looks a lot like Unicron.
  • In chapter 592 of the manga, Brook is referred to as Master Satan.
  • Sanji's fight with Scarlet in Movie 10 is a very blatant one to King Kong, only ending with Scarlet being knocked down through the tower instead of off of it.
  • A possible shout out is Brook opening his afro/skull as though it is on a hinge and storing items (namely his Tone Dial) inside, in a similar fashion to Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo.
  • In episode 467, The art shift made to represent extreme hot blood and Luffy's large spinning fist are strangely familiar...
    • Additionally, one of the Kuja tribeswomen looks a lot like a brown-haired Yoko. Since the director for that episode had worked on Gurren Lagann, it's probably not a coincidence.
  • This is farfetched but Diamond Jozu might be a reference to the old American folk song Diamond Joe, with his "diamond studded jaw".
  • In chapter 619, Neptune pulls off an attack which, down to the arm movements and the effect, resembles a Kamehameha wave.
  • Nearly 600 chapters after his meeting with Luffy, Gaimon reappears in a cover page with a new friend. Together, they are Gaimon and Sarfunkel.
  • In Thriller Park, one of Hogback's minions is a bat with the number 21.
  • Another farfetched one: Sanji's a cook, and his nickname is Black Leg. Pata Negra, its Spanish translation, is a world famous type of ham.
  • On the cover of chapter 641, we finally see Vivi after two years. Not only that, but she shops smart, she shops S-Mart.
  • Anyone else think the giant crab-based submarine the Foxy Pirates use in episode 226 looks a lot like another aquatic animal-based submarine a certain other group of three uses?
  • Pirates Docking 6's scene in the anime has Franky shouting YATTE YARUZE, and the 'combining beam' is red in color, a motif that shows up in Dancougar, one of Franky's seiyuu's most iconic roles.
  • The dragon the crew encounters on Punk Hazard resembles a Monstrous Nightmare.
  • In Chapter 657, Sanji said to Franky "that weird body of yours isn't just for show.
• Shower Scene: Nami has had these during filler and in Thriller Bark. She even develops a technique for it over the time skip.
• Shown Their Work: Oda.
• Shut UP, Hannibal: At the turning point of the CP 9 saga, when the Straw Hat pirates face of with the leader of a secret government agency.

Spandam: "Look at that symbol, pirates! *point to the flag of the world government* That mark represents the unity of over 170 nations! This is the world! Do you understand how insignificant you are to stand against us!!?" Luffy: "I understand very well. Sogeking, shoot that flag."

• Signature Laugh: Several major and not so major characters in the series have a unique laugh.
• Significant Birth Date: Luffy's birthday is on Children's Day (May 5), Usopp's is April Fool's Day, and Chopper's is Christmas Eve. Sanji's, Franky's, and Brook's are word puns. Zoro's birthday is also a word pun, but it falls on Armistice Day.
  • Specifically invoked for most characters, as birthdays are usually determined by a fan suggesting one to Oda with logic based on this trope, with Oda response being Sure Why Not.
• Single-Stroke Battle: Zoro vs. T-Bone.
  • Invoked Trope: This is forced because Zoro is on a train and T-bone is on the tracks, they only have time for one slash and both realize it. Except... Zoro's attack is a feint, leaving T-bone's flank open. Clever girl...
  • It's either Subverted or taken to the next level with Brook vs Himself (His fighting style in a super powerful zombie body). Both use their ultimate technique, which consists of walking toward the other with their sword out. In the end, it's so fast (or so special) that it becomes a Zero stroke battle. The loser simply falls down.
• A Sinister Clue: Inverted with the main cast, they all have something special on their left side, like Usopp's armband, Chopper's antler plate, Nami's tats, Zoro's earrings, Luffy's scar, Sanji's covered eye; in fact, there's a list somewhere that contains all the important left things.
• Sinister Shades: Vice-Admiral Kuzan, before he became Admiral Aokiji.
  • And Donquixote Doflamingo.
• Sinister Surveillance: Eneru during his time as God literally turned Skypeia into Big Brother in Heaven by using his Devil Fruit abilities to increase the strength of his Haki/Mantra to hear the conversations of everyone on the island. Intruders, "blasphemers" and those who his men hadn't eliminated yet were punished by him with a column of lightning from above.
• Skyward Scream: Happens at least three times throughout the series.
• Slasher Smile: Sported by several characters, mostly prominently Donquisote Flamingo.
  • Zoro often wears one, which is fitting for a guy who is often accused of being insane.
• Slave Brand: The Hoof of the Soaring Dragon. Also Nami's old Arlong tattoo.
• Sliding Scale of Animal Communication: Chopper is at Level 4 since he Speaks Fluent Animal. Mermaids are somewhat of a level 5 since Camie has the ability to talk to fish, and in a recent flashback: Shirahoshi might be able to talk to FREAKING SEA KINGS!!!
  • According to chapter 626, Shirahoshi does indeed have the ability to talk to FREAKING SEA KINGS, though she seems to be unaware of her ability to do this.
• Sliding Scale of Realistic Versus Fantastic: Firmly on the fantastic end.
• Sliding Scale of Silliness Versus Seriousness: This series doesn't so much ping-pong back and forth as it occupies both extremes simultaneously.
• Smoking Is Cool: Sanji, Smoker.
• Smug Snake: If the villains aren't a Magnificent Bastard or iredeemable, they are this, especially Foxy and Buggy.
• The Smurfette Principle: As could be expected from a Shonen series, most significant groups and teams only count one female among them. The Strawhats used to walk that way until Robin joined them as an Affirmative Action Girl.
• Social Darwinist: Captain Morgan; Arlong.
• So Last Season: After the Time Skip, the Marines get a taste of this when they see two Pacifistas easily defeated by Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji. The Mecha-Mooks aren't going to cut it against the Straw Hats anymore.
  • It has to be noted that Sentomaru mentioned that the two PX units that Luffy, Zoro and Sanji defeated were of the same model as the ones that previously attacked the Straw Hats on Sabaody. This implies that there are newer, stronger Pacifista models that even the Monster Trio might have trouble against. However, this in no way detracts from the pure awesomeness of the two PX units being OHKO'd after only one of them almost completely defeating the entire Straw Hat Pirates two years prior.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Justified in that the Grand Line acts as a natural selecting factor: the farther you go, the more powerful enemies you're likely to encounter, because only the strong get that far.
  • But subverted by Mihawk, Aokiji, and Kuma, who wipe the floor with their chosen opponents and don't kill them only because they have ulterior motives. Also subverted by Crocodile who, while beaten by Luffy in his arc, is still able to fight with some of the strongest characters introduced in the series and hold his own.
    • To be completely fair, Crocodile's Logia ability has a very huge weakness - without which Luffy would not have been able to win (as he did not have any idea what Haki was at that point in time). It may be safe to assume that not a lot of people know about this weakness, thus making Sir Crocodile an extremely dangerous foe for many.
  • Also subverted in the opposite fashion by the Flying Fish Riders, who are far weaker than the Straw Hats' previous opponents, and easily defeated.
  • Subtly averted with the henchman of Gecko Moria in the Thriller Bark arc, as they go down much easier than the previous arc's villains, CP9.
  • No mention of the Sabaody Archipelago arc? First the Straw Hats run into a Pacifista, a cyborg duplicate of the Warlord of the Sea Bartholomew Kuma, that they defeat with great effort. They are then immediately confronted by another Pacifista, Admiral Kizaru and Sentomaru. The Straw Hats are utterly annihilated and only saved from being killed by the timely intervention of the real Kuma.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Chopper, of course. Due to him eating the hito-hito fruit, he can translate them for humans as well.
• Spell My Name with an "S": Happens across multiple languages
  • Most notably are Luffy to Ruffy (German) and Zoro to Zolo (English).
    • To be fair, though, Zoro's name change was justified by the fact that the owners of Zorro threatened to sue.
  • Not to mention Enel/Eneru. (the latter is official)
  • Paramecia/Paramythia
  • Poneglyph/Ponegliff
  • And Brook/Brooke. (the former is official)
  • Is it Oz, Odz or Oars?
    • Word of God says "Oars", as his descendant's ship's sail carries the name.
  • One of Whitebeard's subordinate Captains (the one that shanked Whitebeard), has variously been referred to as Squado, Squad, Squardo, Spardo and many other names besides. (English manga uses Squard)
  • There's also Dracule/Juraquille (former is correct), Jozu/Joz/Jose/Jaws(first one, if going by the English manga), Margaret/Marguerite, and Jinbei/Jimbei.(Actually confirmed as Jinbe in a Data Book, though FUNimation and Viz use Jimbei)
  • And some fans disagree on whether it's Blueno or Bruno. He has a sign in his tavern in Water 7 which reads "BLEUNO", which is possible, since "bleu" is French for "blue", and in Japanese both would be pronounced like "blue" in English.
  • Some fans also think it should be spelled Iceburg or Iceburgh, due to it being written as "ICEBURG" in the manga at one point and apparently being a pun on Pittsburgh. However, it's also written as "ICEBARG" in the anime at one point, which means that "Iceburg" was most likely a misspelling on Oda's part (whose English is far from perfect) and that it is actually meant to be Iceberg.
  • However, the best example has to be the spelling of Mr 2.'s codename. Officially, and according to Word of God, it's "Bon Kurei", referencing the Obon festival. However, absolutely EVERYONE, even OFFICIAL SOURCES FROM JAPAN, romanise it as "Bon Clay". Apparently no one except Oda got the reference.
  • The currency itself. Is it beri, beli, berri, belly, or berry? It doesn't help that Oda has used more than one spelling on the actual bills.
  • There's also Big Mom. For a log time, people were in debate over whether or not it was Big Mom or Big Mam, and even the wiki went with the latter. However, it has since been confirmed to be Big Mom.
  • We now have Madame Shirly/Shyarly
• Spike Shooter: Miss Doublefinger, due to eating the toge-toge no mi/Spike-Spike fruit.
• Spin-Off: With the debut of the Super Strong Jump magazine (essentially Jump made for 10 and younger). Chopperman was was spun off into his own series. The series is neither written or drawn by Oda and takes place in an alternate universe where Chopper is a health teacher at a elementary school. Nami is the principal of said school, most of the students are kid characters or chibi versions of characters from the main series. Usopp is still the main villain however.
• Spit Take: Luffy and Usopp order several barrels of water, not realizing that they are sitting next to Smoker and Tashigi. Once they do, they end spitting a whole bunch of water right into the Marines' faces. It is hilarious.
• Spoiler Opening: While most of the openings confine themselves to just showing new characters, the fifth and sixth featured previews of upcoming scenes, while the third showcased Robin as a crew member... nearly twenty episodes before her Heel Face Turn. Oops.
  • The 11th opening just goes right ahead and pretty much shows every new character and such from where the anime currently is right up to the current manga arc.
  • The 12th opening spoils the hell out of Impel Down and Marineford.
• Spontaneous Weapon Creation: A few times, with Logia users Aokiji and Kizaru Shaping Their Attacks.
  • Aokiji is An Ice Person, and by taking a few blades of grass and breathing onto them, he freezes himself up an Ice Saber.
  • Kizaru manipulates light, essentially enabling him to wield a Laser Blade.
• The Starscream: Hannyabal
  • And shockingly, a recent flashback reveals that Ace was one when he first joined Whitebeard's crew.
  • Avalo Pizarro seems to be thinking of becoming one from Chapter 595.
• Stalker with a Crush: Vander Decken the IX
• Standard Evil Organization Squad: The Cipher Pol 9.
• Start of Darkness: When Fishmen first appear in the series, they seem like little more than racists who terrorize innocent humans for sport. As it turns out, they've got a damn good reason to distrust, if not outright hate, humanity for the things they've forced Fishmen to endure. Not that unrepentant murderer Arlong is going to be turned by giving him a hug or anything, but you can definitely see where his species is coming from.
• Stealth Pun:
  • One that would get more to a Western audience: When Monkey D. Luffy first meets Coby, he pops out of a barrel. Think it over.
  • Another one is for Daz Bones/Mr 1. His dream is to become a superhero, with "super" being a play on "supa", the name of his Devil Fruit. He is literally the Man of Steel.
  • Sanji would develop a technique where he could change his opponent's looks by kicking them in the face. He can literally "rearrange your face". Or, alternately, "beat the ugly out of you".
  • The receiving line of the golden snail is the silver snail. Unlike the golden snail, which is simply made of gold, the silver snail resembles an old man.
  • Kalifa of CP 9 eats the Bubble Bubble Fruit and becomes a "soap woman", using her sexiness in tandem with her odd soap powers. "Soaplands" are a type of brothel in Japan.
  • Bepo is a human-level sentient polar bear who goes from being a vicious kung-fu brawler one second to an apologetic depressive the next. In short, he's a bipolar bear.
• Stepford Smiler: Its said that the slaves become this in order to survive their harsh treatment under the world nobles.
• Stocking Filler: Fishnets are standard issue for the transvestites of Newkama Land. According to Oda, they wear them for the same reason people climb mountains--because they're there.
• Story Arc: Not counting some filler, the show entirely consists of arcs of different length. And even most filler consists of these.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Luffy manages to smuggle Princess Shirahoshi (with good intentions) by having her hide in her pet shark Megalo's mouth. Brook thus argues that since he only saw Luffy and Megalo leave the castle, Luffy couldn't have kidnapped her. Neptune immediately suggests that she might have hid in Megalo's mouth (all the other members of his court burst out laughing, saying that the idea's too weird).
  • Chapter 649 has a Call Back where Zoro argues he doesn't want to be a hero because that would mean he would have to share his beer. Earlier, Luffy had this exact same thought except with meat. Nami lampshades it.
• Strange Salute: The White Berets of Skypeia. HESO!!
  • Also, the Marine's own salute is palm inwards.
    • Word of God states that this is because Marines work with tarred objects and deem it disrespectful to show one's superiors blackened hands, hence the inward salute. This incidentally comes from British Naval practice in the Golden Age of Piracy.
      • This makes it a bit of Truth in Television since the modern day naval salute (of both the Royal Navy and US Navy) is still palm inwards. In fact, it's the palm outwards salute of the RAF and British Army that may be considered a Strange Salute since most modern armies salute with their palms downward (or inwards).
• Straw Vulcan: Bellamy derides the Straw Hat crew for chasing fairy tales, and even provides a logical explanation for ships falling from the sky. However, this is meant to portray him as a villain... except he totally has a point. They ARE chasing fairy tales.
  • No, that would make him a rival/antagonist. What makes him a villain is that he's an asshole.
• Stupid Sexy Flanders: Chick Ivankov. Brr...
  • Also, what happens when Nami sees Kalifa. She thinks to herself, "I'd like to have her as my secretary!" Until she remembers... "Wait, I'm not a dirty old man!"
• Submarine Pirates: The Heart Pirates, led by "Surgeon of Death" Trafalgar Law.
• Super Drowning Skills: Anyone who has a Devil Fruit loses the ability to swim. On top of that, they can't use their powers to get out of the water (though others can do so for them in certain cases, such as stretching Luffy's rubber body when he can't move).
• Super Human Trafficking: Of Fishmen.
• Super Mode:
  • Luffy's Gear Second and Gear Third techniques.
  • Zoro using his Asura technique and Sanji using Diable Jambe. Both of whom were super badass to begin with, they just took it to the next level.
  • Parodied by Tony Tony Chopper in filler, who turns into Chopper Man and can fly.
  • Subverted by Franky who changes into a centaur in reverse. However when he locks you with his extra legs, he can make a more powerful ultimate punch than usual, finishing the opponent. Interestingly, when he last did this and defeated his opponent, he yelled "SUUUUUUPER!" for good measure.
• Superpower Lottery: Devil Fruits come in three types. Paramecia gives you a quirky ability. Zoan allows you to transform into an animal. Logia types grant you utter control over an element of nature, allow you to produce it in massive quantities from your body, and allow you to turn into that element to become practically invincible. Each is rarer than the next. There's also rare divisions within the three classes. Zoan for example, has Ancient Zoans and Mythical Zoans. The former is extinct animals like dinosaurs, the latter is outright fictious monsters like a phoenix. Yeah...
  • Then again, it seems that those with Paramecia powers can get pretty creative with their uses, and some Paramecia-type fruits are incredibly powerful, see: Magellan, Kuma, and Whitebeard.
• Super Robot: Franky is a cyborg, but he might as well be one. Made even better with his Japanese VA being Fujiwara Shinobu. He's getting closer to one post-timeskip, and has an actual Combining Mecha!
• Super Smoke: Most Logia can do this as a rule. The heavier ones can't as easily, but generally make up for it with sheer power.
  • Smoker is a literal example of this.
• Sure Why Not: Oda takes pretty much any suggestion for a character's birthday... including his own.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: In a flashback in episode 8, when Shanks tries to get Buggy to join the celebration, Buggy blurts out that he didn't steal anything. (He did.)
  • "We didn't see anything! Especially not the zombie you're making!"
  • In TV Special 4, while pretending to work for Buggy, Zoro deliberately attacks Mohji and Richie to protect Vivi. Right afterwards, he says "Sorry, my hand slipped", which Cabaji calling him out on his lie.