Arcs

This page is a place for me to write down my thoughts as I finish the arcs so expect frequent updates to this page. Press the buttons to jump to a specific saga, or scroll down through them all!

East Blue Saga Alabasta Saga Sky Island Saga Water 7 Saga

EAST BLUE SAGA

Romance Dawn

This arc is such an incredible start to the story I love it so much. Zoro and Luffy's first meeting will probably be my favourite scene in the whole anime forever.

Orange Town

The arc gets off to an incredible start, with Luffy getting taken away by that giant bird and Zoro frantically rowing after him.

This arc is very silly but I would expect nothing less from Buggy the clown. He's a really fun character with cool devil fruit powers and a begrudinging backstory with the main character's father/mentor figure, what more could you want from a character?

Nami is here properly now!! and she's brilliant. Her development in this arc alone is impressive, with her starting off hating pirates and as using Luffy solely as bait to steal from Buggy, to seeing the way he acts with Zoro and watching him defeat a lion to save a dog's treasure, and deciding that maybe this whole pirate thing isn't as bad as she originally thought.

Syrup Village

Okay so I did watch the live action before the anime but this arc is so much better in the anime. My first tears of the series were cried! Usopp is so brave for deciding that if his town want him to be a liar, then he wil be, and he has to fight the pirates before anyone even notices. The scene where Nami shoves Zoro down an oil covered hill and he spends the next 10 minutes trying to run back up it will forever be hilarious.

Baratie

SANJI IS HERE!!!! and Nami is gone :(

Luffy deciding that he wants Sanji to join his crew before even tasting his cooking, simply because he saw him being kind and feeding someone who was hungry is such a touching moment (and is something that I think Sanji needs to be reminded of at times).

Zoro's fight agaisnt Mihawk was so incredible to watch. The way that he initially panics because he realises that he isn't quite ready to take him on yet, and then he proceeds to do it anyway because he has to follow his dream and Mihawk is the only thing standing in the way of that. The moment when his swords break and he acknowledges that he's lost, and so turns his front to face Mihawk, not even allowing the finishing blow to destroy his pride. The promise he pledges to Luffy as he bleeds out on the boat, that he will never lose again until he has become the world's greatest swordsman, the way that he asks "Is that alright with you, King of the pirates?". This fight cements how dedicated Zoro is to his dream, and just how strongly that he believes in Luffy's one too.

Also, the way Sanji's face lights up when he talks about the All Blue is so special.

Arlong Park

This arc was absolutely incredible. I cried again. Nami is so strong I love her so much more after finishing this arc. Deciding at age 5 that she had to single-handedly steal enough money to save her entire village is a burden that no one should ever have to carry, and the rest of the village finding out within days of her agreement with Arlong but keeping their new knowledge hidden from her so that she doesn't feel compelled to do it just for their sakes unintentionally isolated her even further from them.

The way that Luffy fights Arlong for Nami despite never knowing what he even did to her is such an incredible display of both their friendship and Luffy's character. He doesn't care what Nami did or why she did it, he just knows that she's upset and it's Arlong's fault, so he's going to pay for that.

I hope Luffy finds his musician soon, or at least a doctor. They really need a doctor.

Loguetown

I had heard great things about Loguetown so I was pretty excited for this arc. There were so many increidble moments, with Buggy and Alvida teaming up to become the unexpected duo of the century, Zoro claiming a new sword whilst trying to avoid clashing with Tashigi because she looks like Kuina, Usopp proving himself as a sniper and learning more about his father, Sanji entering a cooking contest to win the elephant blue fin tuna, and of course, Luffy almost dying in the same place as Gold Roger himself only to be saved by a bolt of lightning. Talk about plot armour am I right?

Warship Island

Okay so this is the first filer arc and to be honest it kind of shows. It was fun, but I don't think I'd ever watch it again.

ALABASTA SAGA

Reverse Mountain

Okay this one was really fun. WE MADE IT TO THE GRAND LINE!!!!!!! I loved how happy they looked as they went over the mountain. Miss Wednesday and Mr 9 really remind me of Team Rocket from Pokemon.

Whiskey Peak

MISS WEDNESDAY IS PRINCESS VIVI?????? When I tell you I was in actual shock over this. I love it when Zoro uses his 3 sword style so the part where he fought off the entire town was super awesome.

AND THE ZORO AND LUFFY FIGHT. THAT WAS SO COOL. AND SUCH A THEM THING TO DO. It's great when we get to see glimpses into Luffy's incredibly strict but also entirely chaotic moral code. I love these characters so much.

Diary of Koby-Meppo

Ayy Koby is back, long time no see buddy. Garp is wayyyyyyy less serious than I thought he would be. Dog man falls asleep because he stayed up too long eating donuts.

Little Garden

The dinosaurs really shocked me I can't lie, but I love dinosaurs so I got really excited. SANJI KILLING A T REX WITH A SINGULAR KICK ????? I know he's supposed to be strong but that felt a bit op. Love love love that we got to see more of Nami and Usopp as a duo, and that Usopp was so inspired by the warriors of Elbaf.

I could write essays on the part where Zoro tries to cut off his own feet, only stopping to pose instead when Luiffy shows up because he trusts that he'll save him. The entire thing is such a stupidly Zoro thing to do it drives me insane how in character it was.

Drum Island

Vivi is honestly such a godsend, they'd all be dead without her. The part where she yells at Luffy for being so reckless and tells him that they have no choice but to bow and beg for help was such an important moment for the both of them. It demonstrates how Vivi is willing to do anything for the people that she craes about, and it shows Luffy that he can't just do whatever he wants and hope that it will work out when other people's lives are at risk.

Luffy giving Nami his hat again, I love that this is becoming their thing now. Everyone died in that avalance but they all walked it off because they all have crazy insane plot armour.

CHOPPER IS HERE!!!! and he made me cry with his backstory! it was so sad when the doctor ate the mushrooms knowing they were poisoned becasue he was going to die anyways and he saw how much Chopper had risked to get him the cure.

Alabasta

ACE IS FINALLY HERE AND HE IS THE COOLEST CHARACTER IVE EVER SEEN. I know that a lot of the start of this arc was filler but it was so much fun, Ace turns up, reveals absolutely nothing about Luffy's backstory despite his very presence being a massive reveal, turns Sanji bisexual, and then dissapears into the desert. ALSO. Zoro telling Chopper that his dream has kind of changed, but that he doesn't know how to explain it. His dynamic with Luffy never ceases to drive me insane.

Luffy fighting Vivi in the desert was such an important moment for her character, Luffy flat out telling her that "people die" so she shouldn't worry about putting all of their lives on the line, because its unrealistic to save an entire country with no one getting hurt. It also revealed a fair amount about how Luffy considers death, he isn't afraid of it, rather, he's reached the ultimate form of acceptance in which is it nothing more than a part of life to him.

Sir Crocodile is such a cool villain. I still don't entirely get what he was trying to do in the end, but the whole criminal organisation thing was a neat idea. The Rainy Dinners part was probably my favourite bit from him, and Sanji got to play as Mr Prince again so that was great.

Miss All Sunday you are my hero. Robin's devil fruit powers are so interesting and very useful.

This arc did a really good job at displaying the desperation and determination from Vivi to save her people, her yelling up on the clocktower even though no one could hear her, showing that even when things seem hopeless she never gives up on what she believes in. I'm sad that she didn't leave to join the strawhats, but I know that it wouldn't be right for her character, to worry so much and to fight so hard to save her kingdom only to then abandon it all on a whim just wouldn't make any sense, but I do like that they made her conflicted about the decision. And the goodbye to her, with all of them showing the X on their arms as a symbol of their friendship.

Post-Alabasta

lowkey obsessed with the way that they all got an episode about following their dreams execpt from Usopp who had to talk a child out of killing herself with a firework.

SKY ISLAND SAGA

Goat Island

Another filler arc but it was nice to step away from all the action for a minute and watch them mess around again.

Ruluka Island

Another filler arc, seriously? 3 back-to-back? Anyway it was pretty decent. I like that Robin is getting more involved with the crew now because she is awesome.

Jaya

This arc wasn't very long but it had a lot crammed into it. Firstly, the fight with Bellamy - or not fight I guess. That did shock me a bit at first, but then it made so much sense. It mirrored the scene from Luffy's childhood where Shanks lets someone throw a drink at him in the bar, and upon realising this Luffy's response made so much more sense. It shows development in his character that he is finally able to understand what Shanks was doing that day, and shows that he is able to acknowledge that some people's minds just cannot be changed.

Also the stuff with Ace and Buggy right at the start was so unexpected but it's good to know that Buggy is out on the Grand Line now and seeing Ace again was awesome.

I don't think that I can talk about this arc without acknowledging the introductions of some major characters: mainly Blackbeard, Whitebeard, Bartholomew Kuma, and Donquixote Doflamingo. There isn't much to say yet about the latter 3 of the 4 characters (other than wow why is Whitebeard so big), but it was interesting that both Luffy and Zoro picked up on Blackbeard being more than one entity. Also I'm sure Ace will be pleased to know that he's getting close.

On and final note, my favourite episode of this arc was the one where they had to hunt for the bird in the forest and everyone was getting attacked by the bugs. Luffy being autistic about beetles is so important to me.

Skypiea

This arc was so much fun I genuinely do not understand why so many people skip it. Their outfits were all so good I'm obsessed with them, I've been waiting to see Sanji wear something more casual for ages, like dude you're a pirate the suit just feels a bit too formal for that lifestyle. The white white sea was a really cool concept that I honestly was not expecting, although I wish we got to see Sanji get more excited about the sky fish.Zoro denying God's existence and then later leaving the boat saying that he wants to go and fight him can be something so personal actually. The episode where all of them reunited in the forest and went camping and got drunk with the wolves was so much fun, I love it when they are allowed to be silly together and just have fun. Nami wearing reading glasses I will never forget about you.

We got some new group dynamics in this arc too which was really fun! Robin, Zoro, Chopper, and Nami worked great together because Nami and Chopper's fear was offset by Robin curiosity and Zoro's nonchalantness. Luffy, Usopp and Sanji working together to take down the priest was cool to see too, I really liked how despite being physically much weaker than the other 2 Usopp was still majorly involved in the battle and the victory. Then we got Sanji, Nami, and Usopp together! I think they're quickly becoming my favourite trio in this show, and I'm kind of sad that 2 of them spent most of the arc being electrocuted becuase the parts where they were all awake and working together (saving Nami from Enderu) were so good.

Luffy spent half the arc inside of a snake which was kind of lame but I did like that we were able to see him express a wider range of emotions, with him openly admitting that he was scared when the 'cave' flooded and how he was crying when Nami found him because he was starting to think that he'd never make it out. When he finally got out and saw everyone had been electrocuted and he ran over to Zoro and said "Zoro how could this happen when you were here". what if i exploded.

THE ARLONG PARALLELS WITH NAMI GOING WITH ENERU IM GOING TO BE SICK. BUT THEN HER SAYING THAT FRIENDSHIP IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN TREASURE. THAT SHE DOESN'T WANT ANY OF THE TREASURE IF SHE CAN'T HAVE HER FRIENDS TO SHARE IT WITH. THAT SHE FIGHTS ENERU WITH NO REGRETS BECAUSE SHE WON'T LET WHAT HAPPENED WITH ARLONG HAPPEN AGAIN. I'm so proud of her, her character has developed so much since the start.

G-8

This has been my favourite filler arc so far. I liked hoe light-hearted the arc felt even though they were in a pretty serious situation, from Nami playing dress up to Sanji showing off his culinary skills and all of them disgusing the Going Merry as a marine warship.

WATER 7 SAGA

Long Ring Long Land

I'm aware that this arc gets a lot of hate but I can't really figure out why. It was so much fun, and a nice break from all the serious stuff that's been happening with the plot recently. The Davy Back fights are a cool idea, and I do like how the silliness of the entire situation helped to offset the high stakes of it all. It did get a bit repetitive towards the end, with the second round of Davy Back fights which probably could've been avoided as there was no real reason for Luffy to even agree to them in the first place, but the first round of them was so much fun to watch with so many great moments from Sanji and Luffy's attempt at building a boat, to Zoro teaching Luffy how to rollerskate.

Ocean's Dream

I'm not normally a fan of the memory loss trope, but this was handeled pretty well. I liked that it was used to show far far the characters have come, especially Nami. Another Zoro and Luffy fight but I didn't like this one because Zoro was being mind-controlled so it wasn't about them and they had no reason to attack each other, but because it was still them there was no angst from Luffy's end so the entire thing felt kind of flat and pointless.

Foxy's Return

Honestly this arc kind of felt like a waste of time, and the transition from the previous arc to this one felt strange too especially considering they'd already left Foxy. It wasn't bad, it just felt very unnecessary, especially because it was too short to get any real plot and just reused parts of the Long Ring Long Land arc to fill the episodes. I think that for this arc to have the effect that they wanted it to then it should've contained more episodes and focused harder on Foxy's goals of revenge, but I am also aware that it was just filler so they didn't want to get too carried away with it.

Water 7

~ currently watching ~