Oda just doesn't miss. Join Ashley as we look over the narrative beats that caused One Piece fans to lose their minds
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00:00 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 One Piece moments
00:11 that made our eyes bulge out of our heads.
00:25 Brook and Laboon's Connection When the Straw Hat crew meets Brook, a goofy
00:29 living skeleton with an Avro, they don't know what to make of him.
00:37 However, despite his outward silliness, he soon earns their respect, particularly after
00:45 they learn of his goal.
00:47 Fifty years ago, he and his late crew left behind a friend of theirs.
00:52 Brook wants to return someday to let their friend know he didn't abandon them.
01:02 What blows the Straw Hats' minds, and the audience's, is that his friend is a whale,
01:08 and one that they've met before.
01:10 The idea that Laboon, whom the Straw Hats met hundreds of episodes prior, would end
01:14 up being so important, is just one example of the amazing interconnectedness of the One
01:20 Piece world.
01:29 Not-So-Empty Throne
01:43 Fans are given a pretty good understanding of how the world governments of the One Piece
01:48 world works.
01:49 The world nobles rule, with the Five Elders acting as the main decision makers.
01:54 Meanwhile, the member nations' monarchs all convene at a summit called the "Leveley",
02:00 or the "Reverie", once every few years.
02:03 However, in the most recent summit, we're introduced to a symbolic empty throne.
02:09 This symbol ostensibly indicates that no one rules the world.
02:20 But soon after its introduction, we learn that the throne does have an occupant.
02:25 The Five Elders, who should be the highest of the high, instead bow to a mysterious person
02:31 named Imu, who sits atop the throne.
02:34 The fanbase and theorycrafters basically exploded after this revelation.
02:47 Blackbeard's Ultimate Show
02:53 Marshall D. Teach, better known as Blackbeard, is always a wildcard.
02:58 After showing up at the Marineford War, and killing his former captain Whitebeard, Teach
03:03 decides to show the world something it's never seen before.
03:17 After doing something yet to be revealed to Whitebeard's dead body, Teach reveals that
03:22 he has somehow acquired the earthquake powers of his ex-captain.
03:26 Not only are his new abilities literally earth-shaking, but Blackbeard also manages to do what no other
03:32 character has done before - possess the powers of two devil fruits.
03:41 Until this point, fans had been told that anyone who eats two of them will die.
03:46 But somehow, Blackbeard managed to upset the natural order, and leave all our jaws on the
03:52 floor.
03:55 7.
04:01 CP9 Revealed
04:09 Upon the Straw Hats' arrival at Water 7, Robin is approached by a masked person from
04:14 CP9, a secret government agency.
04:18 These masked individuals and a blackmailed Robin then attack Iceberg.
04:23 The town's mayor and head shipwright.
04:26 They seek the blueprints to an ancient weapon, Pluton, which Iceberg once had in his possession.
04:32 When Iceberg comes face to face with the assassins, a familiar bird lands on the shoulder of one
04:38 of them.
04:50 He and the audience realise, as the spies remove their masks, that they're actually
04:54 Lucci, Kaku, Khalifa and Bluno, most of whom have worked for Iceberg for years.
05:01 Like a ship encountering his namesake in the fog, Iceberg never saw it coming, and neither
05:07 did we.
05:12 6.
05:15 Raizo is Safe
05:23 The island, er, elephant of Zo, is ravaged by the Beast Pirates and its people, well,
05:30 Minx, subjected to torture and poison gas attacks.
05:34 Their attackers are in search of a Wano ninja named Raizo, who's supposedly there, but
05:40 the Minx are adamant that he isn't.
05:42 Because of how much they endured, the Straw Hats are reluctant to bring up their Wano
05:47 samurai friends.
05:49 That is, until Kinemon and company blunder in asking about Raizo.
06:00 Yet we and the Straw Hats are flabbergasted when the Minx inform them that Raizo is safe.
06:06 The sheer dedication and friendship in suffering what they have for one friend is incredibly
06:12 moving and surprising.
06:15 5.
06:17 Ace's Father
06:28 The Marineford War delivers bombshell after bombshell, and it all kicks off with a whopper.
06:34 Luffy's brother, Portgas D. Ace, is said to be executed.
06:39 Sure, Ace is high up in Whitebeard's crew, but there's a deeper significance to executing
06:44 him specifically.
06:45 Atop the execution platform, Fleet Admiral Sengoku urges Ace to declare the truth, and
06:52 fans were sure that this is when Ace and Luffy's father, Dragon, would get a name drop.
06:58 Except Sengoku drops a nuke.
07:01 Ace's father is actually the late pirate king, Gold Roger.
07:17 This revelation had fans re-examining everything about not only Luffy and Ace's relationship,
07:23 but also struggling to comprehend that the protagonist's elder brother was the child
07:28 of the most famous pirate in One Piece history.
07:34 4.
07:36 Shank Stops the War
07:43 Marineford is crazy from start to finish, and this is how it ends.
07:48 Pirates and marines alike are engaged in meaningless conflict, and when brave young Kobe steps
07:53 in to put a stop to things, it looks like he's about to die.
07:57 Except the last person fans expected to get involved arrives at the last minute to save
08:03 him.
08:04 Shanks.
08:05 Luffy's mentor and one of the four emperors rolls up with his crew and challenges everyone
08:13 there to a fight, if they still want to battle.
08:17 And nobody wants to mess with him.
08:19 The shock of one of the series' most enigmatic figures showing up out of the blue is matched
08:24 only by the flecks he pulls in making a war blink first.
08:31 3.
08:35 The Straw Hats Are Separated
08:51 For most of One Piece, each story arc follows a similar structure.
08:55 The Straw Hats come to a new island, have an adventure, beat up a bad guy, then go on
09:00 to the next island.
09:01 But when they arrive at the Saberdy Archipelago, they bite off more than they can chew.
09:06 They're faced with several strong foes that they can't defeat, and into the mix comes
09:11 the warlord Bartholomew Kuma.
09:18 The titanic, soft-spoken man slaps Zoro, making him seemingly vanish.
09:23 One by one, each member of the crew is sent away using Kuma's powers, leaving only Luffy,
09:29 distraught and beating his fists against the ground.
09:32 Luffy's horror and anguish mirror our own, as this left everyone completely shook.
09:42 2.
09:48 Ace's Death
09:51 There are a few ironclad rules in One Piece, and for most of the series, fans thought that
09:57 one of them was characters only die in flashbacks.
10:00 But once again, the Marineford arc changed everything.
10:04 Following Luffy's rescue of Ace, the hot-blooded young pirate - Ace, not Luffy - is goaded
10:10 into fighting by the ruthless Admiral Akainu.
10:14 Overwhelmed in battle, Ace steps in to save his brother, when Akainu makes a move for
10:19 Luffy, taking the blow and receiving a mortal wound.
10:23 Luffy's complete breakdown is all of us in this moment.
10:29 The loss of a beloved character is shocking enough, but this death completely changed
10:34 the aforementioned rule, raising the stakes for the rest of the story.
11:00 5.
11:05 Basic One Piece lore.
11:07 Luffy ate the gum-gum fruit, so he has rubber powers.
11:11 Except 1,000+ episodes in, we learn that it's not quite the case.
11:16 After a near-death experience, Luffy's fruit awakens, and we learn that it's actually
11:22 based on the fictional sun god, Nika.
11:25 It's less rubber and more rubber hose animation.
11:34 The peak of Luffy's powers lets him bend the laws of physics in cartoony ways that
11:39 are both ridiculous and ridiculously powerful.
11:43 This revelation had absolutely everyone's eyes popping out of their heads, and our brains
11:48 struggling to keep up.
11:49 That is when we weren't busting a gut laughing.
11:57 Which One Piece moment had you cartoonishly surprised?
12:01 Send us flying with your favourites in the comments below.
12:16 Thanks for watching.
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12:25 (upbeat music)