Top 10 Shocking One Piece Moments

WatchMojo

Oda just doesn't miss. Join Ashley as we look over the narrative beats that caused One Piece fans to lose their minds

Transcript

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.

12:23 (upbeat music)

12:25 (upbeat music)

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