One Piece

!!General



* The series makes it clear that the Grand Line is not for greenhorns, not only being a sea where very powerful pirates sail, but home to unpredictable weather as well that only the most skilled and brave can navigate. This is best shown with Don Krieg who had sailed there with an armada and only managed to come back with one ship barely afloat and on it's last legs when they arrive at the Baratie. Showing that numbers to the sea mean nothing if the figures aren't strong enough. Knowledge of the sea likewise helps as Krieg admits he went in blind and tried to get Zeff to give him his log so better prepare. Even the starting Straw Hats (Luffy, Zoro, Usopp, Sanji and Nami) likewise weren't privy what they were about to get into and only thanks to running into Crocus that they're told how the sea works and what they need to navigate it.
 * Unlike the usual Shonen Upgrade, it's made clear early on, and later stated outright that someone has access to all of their Devil Fruit's powers from they second they eat them, they just need to think flexibly about what their powers could let them do and have proper knowledge of cause and effect. What looks like a standard power increase is actually a fruit user coming up with a new technique they could have used from the start, but didn't think to until that moment.
   * This is shown with Luffy, whose Gears all amount to doing things with his rubber body that would kill a normal person who tried them like increasing his blood flow in Gear 2nd (his rubber heart keeps it safe) or inflating his bones for Gear 3rd. On other side, Buggy has a power that could be exceptionally strong even in the New World but he's so lazy and unmotivated to improve he's an utter joke and mostly gets carried by his reputation.
  * Some fruits also need knowledge to work properly as well as imagination. Kanjuro is an Art Attacker; theoretically he could be the strongest character in the series as he's able to make real whatever he draws, but he's not an artist and his shoddy drawings inheritely hamstring his power to the level of a joke. Trafalgar Law's power makes him nearly a Reality Warper within bubbles he creates, but doing the more precise techniques of his Op-Op fruit requires him to have legitimate medical knowledge; as a child he couldn't save one of his closest friends because he didn't know how to stitch the types of injuries they were dying from.
  * In later arcs of the series, Luffy tends to really push himself to the limit to defeat his adversaries, most often then not running on sheer willpower and adrenaline till the fight's over. However this likewise leaves him little to no strength afterwards and barely able to move, often needing one of his crew or an ally to help him especially if he's in a hostile environment.
    *Likewise the series later subvert Shonen Upgrade, sure Luffy gets some nice power-ups to help him down the line against tougher opponents. But they don't automatically win him a fight.
       * Gum Gum Storm won him the battle against Crocodile. After the Davy Back Fight, he tried it on Aokiji and only just managed to shatter his body for a moment before he reformed around Luffy and froze him.
        During Enies Lobby arc, he unveils Gear 2 and 3, moves that increase his speed and enlarged his limbs for more power, the former winning him his battle with Bluneo. When he fights Lucci, while it does get around his Tekki ability which makes his skin like armor. It takes considerable effort to finally drop him and the move disengages several times during the fight. Luffy only get one hit off on him with his Gear 3 ability because Lucci thought the move was for show and took it head one the first time. When the fight resumes, Lucci figures out while it has power, it also decreases Luffy's speed and is able to easily zip around it. Not to mention the drawback of Luffy going chibi-size when he disengages the move. Luffy doesn't bother with it for the rest of the battle.
        Gear 4th a move that combines Gear 2 and 3 speed and power as well as Luffy's new Haki stabilizes. He unveils it against Doflamingo and again it penetrates his defenses. But Doffy barely recovers from the first onslaught and it took Luffy some wait time to try again and finally beat him. What's more once he gets to Totland to retrieve Sanji, it hardly affects one of the top commanders of Big Mom's forces, with that battle only won through some teamwork with Nami and creative use of his Haki. When tried on Big Mom, she blocked it easily with her own Haki, it keeps him on par with Katakuri but just barely by halving his power for the more speedy "Snakeman" variant and does absolutely nothing against Kaido despite hammering him with his hardest moves.
    St. Charloss, an utterly despicable World Noble, believes he can get away with anything without fear of retaliation because the Marine Admirals will protect him. Unfortunately for Charloss, he ran afoul of Luffy, who doesn't care about a law against attacking a World Noble. All Luffy saw was his friends being hurt by some spoiled brat that needed a good punch to the face, and Luffy delivered. As of the Reverie Arc, Charloss still didn't learn his lesson, as he tried to abduct Princess Shirahoshi and make her his wife, only to get brained by Donquixote Mjosgard, who as a fellow World Noble, also has complete legal impunity, even for the crime of attacking another World Noble. Being such a jerk will have repercussions eventually, especially if someone doesn't care about the law. And reality is about to come crashing down hard on the Nobility as Dragon and his Revolutionaries are ready to make their move on Mariejois.
        The Nobles' vile reputation would have tragic consequences on Mjosgard's relatives. The Donquixote patriarch and his family left the decadence of Mariejois. Unfortunately a young Doflamingo was corrupted by the toxic environment and said things that triggered severe retaliation from the commoners that suffered at the hands of the Nobility.
        In a positive example, later in the series, Saint Mjosgard, last seen in a flashback on Fishman Island after being saved by Queen Otohime, has made a Heel–Face Turn and helps the Ryuuga royal family, saving Otohime's daughter Shirahoshi. The World Nobles are born in a system that is insanely corrupt, and they have all their whims catered to, and are very much an archetypal example of Aristocrats Are Evil... but they're still people, and as such, they can change and undergo Character Development.
    Many of the Eleven Supernova want to challenge the status quo of the New World but find themselves woefully unprepared as they are rookie crews compared to the stronger pirate crews who established themselves long before the Supernova have begun their journey. The Straw Hats and Bonney Pirates get taken out (temporarily) before they even stepped foot until the New World. Some like Kidd, Luffy and Bege talk a big game about how they will bring down an Emperor but so far, no confrontation with any of the Emperors had ended well for them. Kidd was beaten senseless by Kaido and earlier, he lost an arm to a member of the Red Hair Pirates, not even to Shanks himself. Meanwhile Bege and Luffy barely managed to escape the Big Mom Pirates after their assassination attempt on Big Mom failed.

East Blue Saga
Romance Dawn Arc

    Zoro's deceased rival Kuina was skilled enough to defeat adults in her dojo, but how did she die? She dies offscreen after falling down a flight of stairs; a completely anti-climatic death but still lethal nonetheless.
        Her fate in the 4Kids dub was that she was crippled by friends of a man she had defeated earlier: being good in the dojo doesn't necessarily mean good in actual fights, especially when outnumbered and unprepared; also, it shows how The Power of Friendship isn't always a good thing.
    Despite Luffy and Zoro saving Shell Town from Morgan and the populace grateful to them for it, the recently appointed captain of the Marine base, Ripper, is forced to order Luffy and Zoro to leave since they are still pirates, though he doesn't report them as a favor for stopping Morgan.

!Kuro Arc

   * Upon Usopp's debut arc, he has a reputation of being a compulsive liar. In particular, Usopp has a habit of warning the town that pirates are invading every morning as a sort of alarm clock for the townspeople. When the real pirates started showing up, Usopp tried to warn the village, but nobody within the town believed him because of his reputation, and the fact that he and the person he was accusing couldn't stand each other.

!Arlong Arc

    * Characters having to fight through grievous injuries is also brought up in the Arlong arc, where Zoro is at a disadvantage in his fight against Hachi due to a massive chest wound inflicted on him by Mihawk that was very amateurishly patched up: though he does eventually win the fight, Hachi attempts to attack Sanji later on and almost succeeds in taking him out, only for his wounds to open up again at the last second, taking him out of the fight before he can do anything.

!Baroque Works Saga
!Little Garden Arc

   * Giants Dorry and Broggy had been fighting for almost 100 years with their weapons and fists: it turns out that, after 100+ years, even with constant maintenance, weapons will eventually break; this was a rather joyful use of this trope, however, as everyone had thought Dorry had been killed.

!Alabasta Arc

   * When the crew set to cross the the desert to reach Alubarna, they have to wear cloaks and such since they'll be traveling in high heat and can't risk exposing their skin much to the dismay of Sanji who had picked Nami and Vivi's clothes for them.
    * Chopper, being a animal raised on a winter island, naturally has trouble traveling through the desert since well, heat and fur don't exactly mix on top of the clothes he's already wearing.
   * During the desert trip, Luffy gets into an argument with Vivi on how to handle the rebel situation. Stating while finding the rebel leader, Kohza, to prevent the war is a good goal, it's not going to stop Crocodile since he'll just adjust his plan to keep the war going. Thus needs to be a top priority before convincing the others. A fact that indeed comes to play once the war gets underway as Crocodile's continued presence continues to escalate things until Luffy finally takes him down.
      *That said despite this, things don't go according to plan due to the fact Crocodile constantly being two steps ahead of them and the crew have to switch up their goals through the arc. At first trying to find Kohza, but by the time they reach where they think his base was. He's moved the rebels to another location. After which Luffy suggests taking out Crocodile but he lures them into a trap and Luffy's first fight against him doesn't go well since Crocidile's logia powers make him invulnerable to hits. The other Straw Hats and Vivi try to get ahead of the rebels before they reach the capital and start their clash with the Royal Army, hoping Vivi can stop them. But moles inside the rebel camp stop this and the war goes on as planned. Vivi decides to blow up the palace to get people's attention but Croc prevents this and even wounds Kohza when he tries to order a ceasefire. It's only near the endgame that the crew finally catch a lucky break as Croc's down to his last plan (a bomb) which they manage to stop and Luffy finally managing to knock him out. Is it any wonder they all collapsed at the same time once the ordeal was finally over after all that?
    While Croc's powers are sand based and being in a desert does give him an advantage. It'll still harden once liquid is thrown on him. Something Luffy figures out when some of the water he was given splashed on his hand and he briefly managed to touch Crocodile. By the second fight, he gets a barrel of water to even the playing field and by the third, his blood is more then enough to go one on one with Croc for the final encounter.
    After being defeated by Crocodile for the second time, Luffy rushes to confront him again, only to pass out from blood loss a few minutes later.
    Luffy manages to defeat Crocodile by knocking him out, then launching him into the air of Alabasta. That doesn't stop the battle, though. Due to the fog of war, hardly anybody besides the Straw Hat Pirates notice, and Vivi's anguished shouting that there's nothing left to fight for literally go unheard over the sounds of the battle. It's only when it starts to rain — which is what everyone was fighting over in the first place — that anyone can tell that the battle is over.

Skypiea Saga
Jaya Arc

    When the crew meet Cricket, he attacks them thinking they're trying to take his gold... and instantly collapses due to just recently come up from a diving expedition and not giving his body time to recuperate.
    As Bellamy finds out the hard way, working on a assumption and first looks don't automatically mean its the right one. When he met Luffy, Luffy didn't see him worth fighting against at the time and let him beat him up with no damage to him in the slightest. When he attacked Cricket however, that made it personal and when Luffy confronts him for real, Bellamy is floored in one hit.

!Skypiea Arc

    *When the crew first arrive in the White Seas, Usopp gets curious and goes for a dive into the cloud water, diving deeper and deeper. When the others realize he's not coming up, Robin is the one to note they're on a sea in the air and it quickly hits everyone that Usopp reached the "bottom" of the sea and fell out of the clouds. If it wasn't for Luffy's rubber power and Robin's Hana power being able to sprout eyes on his arm to locate him, Usopp would've been a dead man.
    * Wiper attacks the crew not long after, but Luffy, Zoro and Sanji have difficulty fighting him since they're not used to the change in air pressure. By Luffy's next encounter with him, his body has gotten accustomed enough to breathe properly.
    *During the Survival Battle, Eneru fights one of the Shandians near a cloud river. Since his power is electricity based, he accidentally zap the nearby water and ends up electrocuting those fighting along the river in the process.
    Rubber of course can't conduct electricity, so naturally when Luffy fights Eneru, the latter's lightning powers don't work, forcing him to use other means to get around Luffy's power.
        Likewise Eneru grafting the golden ball onto Luffy ends up backfiring when he sets to use an bigger electrical ball to wipe out Upper Yard, only for Luffy to jump right into it. Again, Luffy's body is rubber and the ball ends up conducting the electricity, enough to implode the electrical ball before Eneru can launch it.
    "Communication is Key" is virtually a theme in most of the arc but none more prevalent in the Norland flashback. Norland and his crew had made friends with the Shandian tribe after some initial hostility. But then suddenly the tribe acted coldly around them out of the blue and it's found out that the crew had chopped down some sacred trees without consent from them. Norland's crew set to leave, but one of the tribe reveals to the chief, Kalgara, that Norland did so because the trees were the cause of an illness that had stricken the land. By the time Kalgara realized this, Norland had set sail but his tribe and he were able to at least shout out an apology and gratitude to them.

CP9 Saga
Water 7 Arc

    The CP9 Frame-Up of the Straw Hats is very effective because while they are moral pirates, they're still pirates and the shipyards do tend to get pirates who try to stiff them on payments as seen earlier when a crew had tried to do so and got beaten up for their trouble.
    During the Aqua Laguna storm; Luffy, Nami, Zoro and Chopper end up in the old regions of the city which were submerged and now exposed due to the tide receding and a tidal wave about to come in. The four manage to get out of the area and to a bridge leading to higher ground. But the wave is much bigger than anticipated and they're still caught at the tip of it. They're only saved due to Paulie using his rope skills to pull them away and even then they have to run to further high ground before the the rest of the wave catches them.

Enies Lobby Arc

    Due to Sanji's upbringing by Zeff, this keeps him from hitting girls, no matter how much he wishes too. This becomes a problem when he's initially paired against the sole female CP9 agent, Kalifa. While he can defend against her and even proves to be match in speed, it means nothing if he won't strike back. This ultimately leads to his defeat and Nami having to take his place.
    Luffy put everything he had in defeating Lucci to the point where he couldn't move afterwards: unlike the other arcs before, however, Luffy and his crew are still in danger despite all the most powerful fighters being defeated and the marines nearly kill Luffy became he is too weak to move when they aim their cannons at him.
    The fate of the Going Merry is pretty understandable all things considered. Since entering the Grand Line, the Straw Hats' ship has taken numerous hits, such as the mast being torn off, enemy fire, and outright sabotage; every time, the Straw Hats patch it back up. However, when they reach Water-7 and have the Merry checked out by actual shipwrights, the assessment is that the ship is beyond repair and will break apart at any moment, since the keel (the spine of the ship) is cracked, and it's impossible to repair it. As Zoro pointed out, while adversity makes people stronger, an object will just wear down until it breaks: after Enies Lobby, the ship does just that.

Return to Water 7 Arc

    Garp introduces himself to the crew by smashing in the door in the cabin where they're stating, wanting to go for a Dynamic Entry. Once things have settled down, his Marines and he fix the door much to his squad's chagrin.
    Garp initially didn't want to fight the Straw Hats and was just wanted to see how Luffy was doing. Though when he reported it to HQ, they scolded him for his neglect and forced him to go capture them.
    At the end, the crew realize Usopp, who had left them due to an argument, wants to return and they want to welcome him back. But Zoro stops them and firmly tells them that, while he likewise feels the same, Usopp disobeyed Captain's orders for his own self-interest and have to show him the consequences of such. The Straw Hats may be a tight-knit group but they're still a crew first and foremost and Luffy, being their captain, has to act as such if they're going to proceed further into the Grand Line. Indeed, when they sail off, they ignore Usopp's shouts until he finally swallows his pride and apologizes.

Thriller Bark Saga

    The giant zombie Oars had lost his right arm in life. Dr. Hogback was able to reattach it, and Oars' entire body is surgically modified to be very powerful, but it's still dead flesh and can never truly heal. Oars' right arm will always be weaker than his left, something Chopper realizes and so has the Straw Hats focus their attacks there to render it useless.

Paramount War Saga
Sabody Arc

    Zoro suffers from grave injuries that put his life in danger — as usual; but, unlike the other times where he has an Unexplained Recovery and the injuries are usually never mentioned again, one arc later Zoro tries fighting and his wounds cause him to be temporarily paralyzed. Then two arcs later, even after resting and being treated (by Perona, believe it or not), his wounds re-open when he tries to fight and move, resulting in him getting his ass kicked by Apes: he muscles through them some (small) time later — after they copied his skills and called out the toughest one of them.

Amazon Lily Arc

    When Hancock explains to Luffy about her, Marigold and Sandersonia's past, they still have trauma over being slaves to the World Nobles, especially at such a young age. So much so Sandersonia has a relapse just remembering it, starts screaming and has to be calmed down. However when Luffy reveals he knocked out one obnoxious World Noble, Hancock breaks down in tears, happy that someone was able to fight a World Noble without fear of the status or immediate retaliation and becomes nicer to him from then on, even falling in love with him because of both the aforementioned World Noble incident and his kindness. Despite being a Warlord and acting haughty, Hancock's still a scared, sensitive girl underneath who does not want to be hurt again.

Impel Down Arc

    Luffy once tried fighting the prison warden, Magellan, who has the power to produce and attack with deadly corrosive poison: seeing as how only Mooks had been poisoned by Magellan at this point, the audience and Luffy himself thought he stood a chance from the moment Luffy launches a Jet Bazooka that actually DROPS the hulking Magellan... but no; touching him with that attack and many more poisons launched at him nearly kills Luffy within just 2 measly episodes of starting the fight.
    During the prison escape, a few prisoners go on ahead to secure a boat for them to escape on. They reach the front gate and get ready for a fight... and find no one there and all the ships that were docked have been moved away from the compound. After all, the prison is in the middle of the ocean surrounded by Sea Kings, so it doesn't take much for the prison staff to just phone ahead to the boats to rob them of an escape vehicle. The breakout would've ended then and there if Jinbe, a fishman, carrying Crocodile, Mr. 1 and Buggy on one of the entrance doors, hadn't swam out to procure a ship. And even then it took having to summon some friendly whalesharks to get the rest of the prisoners (including Luffy) to said ship since there was no time to turn around. And even then, it took Bon Clay having to stay behind to ensure the gate that leads to the ocean to said prison can stay open long enough for the escape ship to get through.

Marineford Arc

    When Luffy's group arrive at the battlefield, their ship gets caught in a wave caused by Whitebeard and frozen by Aokiji leaving them stuck at the top. The group try to get the ship to slide down the frozen wave by trying knock it free from the ice... and only end up cracking the ice around the ship and plummeting downward from the air.
    At Marineford, Luffy is willing to give his life to save his brother. Unfortunately for him, he is one of the weaker fighters in the war on top of the injuries he gained from going to Impel Down; he is mercilessly knocked around by the marines and the Warlords.

        Kizaru: You have to have more than just courage. Willpower alone means nothing without strength. Strawhat, without enough strength, you cannot save anyone no matter how hard you try.

    While making his way through the battleground, Luffy is forced to square off against Mihawk. a master swordsman who had beaten Zoro at the beginning of Luffy's journey. Luffy's set to use his Gum Gum Bazooka move against him... and instantly get his arms cut off. Or rather, that would have happened if the foresight didn't hit him before he launched the move to which he quickly redirects it into the ground. Mihawk even praises him for that wise decision.
    At one point Oars Jr. tries to reach Ace on the execution podium. However since he's a giant, he only serves as a huge target to the Marine forces and both loses a leg to Doflamingo and gets skewered by Moria before his hand can even grasp Ace. This ended up being a double edged sword, as Oars Jr. ended up landing right on a section of the collapsible wall where the Marines had planned to trap Whitebeard and his forces within the bay. His blood spilling on the gears and keeping them from operating fully, giving Whitebeard's forces an entry point into the plaza grounds.
    As Akainu says outright after delivering the fatal wound to Ace, Ace may be able to make himself into a being of pure fire, but Akainu can turn himself into magma. As Magma both burns hotter than fire and has actual mass to it instead of just ignited air, it manages to smother his fire and strike Ace with no Haki needed.
    In the end, Ace and Whitebeard are killed at the end of the arc and the citizens think with one Pirate Warlord gone, they'll gain peace. But thanks to Whitebeard's final declaration that One Piece exists, this just opened up the floodgates for more pirates to hit the seas and run rampant. Even worse, with Whitebeard gone, his territories were now fair game and left a vacuum that Blackbeard, Whitebeard's killer, quickly occupied since he knew of his territories from sailing in his crew. The Marines may have "won" the war, but just removed one powerful figure to let more ambitious, power hungry and, worse of all, less restraint-full, ones to take their place. The end result by the end of the arc is that the Marines are now stretched too thin to handle the threats. Even by the time of the two year timeskip, they've barely got any sense of normalcy achieved, Blackbeard is growing more and more powerful day by day And the secret leader of the world, Im, decides to take some more drastic and world changing measures.

Post Marineford Arc

    In a flashback after Marineford arc, we see that a young Luffy was very inexperienced with his stretching powers. Sure, his now rubber body could take blunt blows to an extent, but he couldn't do much offensively, often, quite humorously, ricocheting his punch off the ground and right back into his face. It took years of practice until he was able to finally punch straight on ahead as he could by the time he was a young adult.
    While a young Ace, Luffy and Sabo were tough fighters back in the day, a lot of their opponents were adults and Ace didn't get his fire power till later in life. More often than not, when the three ran into trouble too tough to deal with, they would often just cut and run if possible.
        When the Grey Terminal was set on fire by the nobles of the island, Luffy and Ace were caught in the middle and cut off from escape due to the Bluejam Pirate Ace and Sabo had stole from who grossly outnumbered the two. They would've been killed right then and there if Dadan and her bandits hadn't shown up to save them.
    After Ace finds out that Sabo's ship was blown up by a cannon shot, he tries to rush off and confront the World Noble that did the deed. Dadan has to hold him down and tell him that while she knows how he feels, at his age, he doesn't have the strength to do anything, let alone avenge Sabo, and must grow stronger to protect those he loves.

Fishman Island Saga
Straw Hats Reunion Arc

    A group of lowlifes think that, with the the Straw Hats M.I.A for two years, it'd be a great idea to assume their identity and gather up strong pirates to sail to the New World with. The thing is though, their leader, real name Demalo Black, has no strength or power to speak of other then the lies he told and just has said pirates working under him via Luffy's reputation from the Marineford war. So when actually confronted by Marines and their captain, Sentomarou, he's knocked out in one hit and the ruse quickly exposed.
        To top things off, had Black not been captured by Sentomarou, he would have likely ended up dead. At least some pirates were only interested in joining the "Straw Hats" for the chance to stab the infamous Monkey D. Luffy in the back, and climbing the ranks in doing so.

Fishman Island Arc

    At the start of the Fishman Island Arc, Sanji (who had spent the last two years on an island full of only Gonk transvestites) suffers a nosebleed every time he sees a genuine woman: while this is comedic in every other anime (and every other time in this one too), the frequency and severity of the nosebleeds caused near-fatal hemorrhaging at one point, requiring some immediate blood transfusions; furthermore, Sanji has a particular blood-type and while fishman and humans have the same blood, a law forbade the transfusions due to the long history. A more minute example occurred at the end of the arc when Jimbe offered to give blood to Luffy, who saved the day: when pointed out about the law, he reminds the people he is still a pirate.
    In the flashback involving Fisher Tiger, he and his Sun Pirate come across a former slave girl named Koala who was a Perpetual Smiler however she explains that it was defense mechanism against the World Nobles as it was the only way to get them to stop beating her since they got no enjoyment from her suffering. Despite managing to escape, she couldn't really turn it off quite yet and it took some time to do so.
    While Fisher Tiger fought against slavery and the like, he himself was once one, having suffered cruelty at the hands of humans and could never quite get over it. It's what leads to his death when he's mortally wounded and could've been saved by a blood transfer, but refused since it was human blood and his hatred wouldn't let him take it. Something he himself lampshades as he lays dying.
    As much as a bastard he is, Hody does have a point about how foolish it was for Shirahoshi to keep quiet on having seen him assassinating her mother in the past. Which in turn could've prevented the events of the arc from coming to pass since the Royal Guard could've had him and his group arrested sooner.
    Hody gains power from a substance known as Energy Steroids which boost his strength. However, he overconsumes them to keep his edge against Luffy during their fight. Once finally beaten, the after-effects of the steroids overuse kick in: His body becomes shriveled and old, rendering him powerless.

Dressrosa Saga
Punk Hazard Arc

    When the first few Straw Hats (Luffy, Zoro, Usopp and Robin) arrive on the island, it's mostly heat and fire, so they dress for the occasion. When they cross the river, the other side is a frozen tundra and they nearly freeze to death, not helped that they were knocked into icy waters while crossing. Luckily the mooks they come across had appropriate wear to steal from.
    When everyone makes inside the base once Caesar's "killer gas" floods the island. Caesar tries to take care of them initally blowing up hole in the wall and closing the doors so the protagonists get caught in the gas. So naturally when the they make it pass the closing doors, they're safe right? Nope, Caesar just re-opens said doors, forcing the protagonists to keep running.
    Monet tries her best not to underestimate the Straw Hats through the saga, but a few lucky breaks make her too cocky. It comes to a head when she fights Zoro who purposefully holds back against her. But, after he lets Tashigi have a go at her, Zoro decides to get serious and Monet instantly realizes he was just playing with her initially and could've killed her easily if he wanted.

Dressrosa Arc

    While the protagonists manage to expose Dolflamingo's plans, that doesn't mean much since he's a very powerful pirate regardless. All doing that just showcased his true colors and he decides to ultimately just kill everyone with his powers once outed.

Pirate Emperor Saga
Zou Arc

    The Straw Hats stopping Luffy from mentioning Kin'emon. Of course, the Minks were nearly all killed by one of their enemies, who brutally tortured and poisoned them even when the Minks had no clue about Raizo, and even trying to help him find Raizo. It will be natural that the Minks will hate the Samurais with a passion. Or that's what they want you to think. Both of the leaders were loyal retainers of the Samurai's bosses, and they in fact hid Raizo from Jack so that he doesn't get to kill Raizo. In fact, this leads to another layer of Reality Ensues, once the Minks find out about the Straw Hats' connections to the Samurais of Wano, they are hailed as heroes of Zou and the Straw Hats befriend the Minks even more quickly.
    After being pushed in his conflict with the Minks, Jack the Drought attempts to attack the Minks' home, the giant elephant Zunisha: since he was attacking something big enough to have a sustainable ecosystem with little more than cannons, it hardly had an effect. The only reason it almost worked is because Zunisha was sentenced to not fight, even in self-defense, unless commanded; once the order is given, Zunisha takes out Jack's entire fleet in a single attack.
        In addition, while Jack is a fishman monster with a one billion berry bounty and powerful enough that it's warranted, he's still a Devil Fruit user. When Jack's ship sank, he sunk to the bottom of the ocean, unable to move. Even though he can breathe underwater, being trapped with no way out means he would've eventually died if not for his fellow pirates managing to find him and, pardon the pun, fish him out of the water.

Whole Cake Island Arc

    One-Man Army or not, there was no way Luffy and Nami were going defeat Big Mom's Pirates after defeating Cracker. Especially since they had just come off a grueling 10 hour fight against said person and Luffy suffering a beatdown from Sanji (who was trying to drive the two away to protect them). By the time her family came to confront them, Luffy was running on fumes, injured and likely exhausted. He puts up an admirable front with Nami providing support where she could, but ultimately there were too many to fight. Soon the heavy hitters and Devil Fruit users joined the fray and manage to overwhelm the two, leading to their capture.
    The initial plan to assassinate Big Mom involved firing poison gassed filled rockets at her when she was vulnerable & then escaping using a captive Brulee's mirror power to escape into a mirror to safety. However they didn't anticipate Big Mom screaming and in turn breaking the mirror they intended to escape through. Since that was their only escape plan, the protagonists find themselves in enemy territory and outnumbered severely. It was only luck and some quick thinking that they barely managed to get away.
    As a flashback shows, Big Mom wasn't always evil, she was just born with abnormal strength when she was little. When her parents abandoned her on Elbaf, her caretaker Mother Carmel, however didn't really discipline her and teach her right from wrong (largely because she was hoping to sell her off to the Marines). So Big Mom's ideals ended up skewed as she grew up, living her wanting to make a land were people could sit and eat together, but only on her terms and never really accepting a person's deformities.
    Sanji volunteers to recreate the wedding cake Big Mom was going to eat to stop her hunger induced rampage. But since the thing was so massive and took days to prepare. The most Sanji and Chiffon can do on short notice is 10 Hours at best, forcing their friends to survive in that timeframe while they make it.
    Since Big Mom is coming after the crew non-stop, so ends up burning a lot of calories in her rampage. So much so she actually slims down considerably.
    While Perospero manages to create a new arm using his Devil Fruit powers after losing it in an explosion, he didn't treat the actual wound. After several hours of ignoring it to pursue the Straw Hats, he's forced to get medical attention due to his worsening condition.

Wano Arc

    Luffy tries to battle Kaido as payback for Kaido trying to blow up his crew and allies and attacking Tama and Speed. While he's able to land a few hits on Kaido due to the latter being drunk, they hardly have any effect, and once Kaido sobers up, he beats Luffy in one hit.
    "Sangoro" (Sanji) sets up his soba shop on yakuza turf, so when he refuses to pay them the proper "protection fee", they run off his customers and try to intimidate him into shutting it down. When Sanji and Franky beat them up for it (and because they wasted food), Kyoshiro's gang isn't just cowed into dropping the issue; instead, they send assassins (Page One and X Drake) after Sanji to make an example of him for defying the yakuza.
    Most of the villagers from Ebisu Town have missing teeth, including younger people, likely as a result of malnutrition making their teeth fall out.
    After saving Hyogoro's life from Dobon, Luffy shares some of his meal tickets with him as an act of kindness, despite sharing being against the rules. Unfortunately, Hyogoro is an old, enfeebled man who has been stuck in the prison camps for decades and thus it is immediately obvious to all the guards he got the tickets illegally, forcing Luffy to assault the guards to save him.
    The Big Mom Pirates make a grand show of having their ship, The Queen Mama Chanter, get pulled up the waterfall into Wano. They fire all cannons at the obstacles, Big Mom makes a proclamation of how she'll take Luffy's head and not even Kaido will get in her way, only for King in his pteranodon form to swoop in and boot them right back into the water. He even notes the absurdity of thinking one single ship being enough to conquer Wano. Even with a number of the crew's strongest fighters and a Yonko herself onboard, rushing headfirst into enemy territory, on a waterfall no less, is a risky move.
        On the note, when Big Mom falls into the ocean, everyone, even her own family, thinks she's drowned. No matter how strong her physical body, her will or her powers are, Big Mom is still a Devil Fruit eater; even she is powerless submerged in the water, and unlike Jack, she's no fishman. If she hadn't washed on shore, she very well would've perished.
    When an amnesiac Big Mom arrives at the prison and attacks Luffy (because he ate all the o-shiruko that she wanted), Luffy manages to get the death collars off of Hyogoro and himself just in time to save them from dying. Hyogoro notices that he did so via a very advanced form of Armament Haki, and tries to get Luffy to do it again to defend them both from Big Mom. Luffy attempts it...and she sends the two of them flying into a wall. As Luffy notes, he just did the technique without thinking, and so wasn't going to be able to perform it again—on purpose this time—so soon, especially without really knowing the mechanics of it.
    Once Queen leaves Udon prison to deliver Big Mom to Kaido, Luffy thinks he'll have an easy time just dealing with the guards since he figures the prisoners will support him. However the prisoners are ordered to pin down Luffy by the head guard who comply much to Luffy's confusion. They explain while they would love to see their jailers beaten, they don't really have anywhere to go if Udon falls since, other then the Flower Capital, every other place is a wasteland and Udon at least feeds them in exchange for their labor.
    Even when Luffy declares his intention to fight for the country, the prisoners are still wary of him since he's an outsider, and even then later find out he's a pirate which doesn't ease their concerns considering one of their oppressors, Kaido, is one as well. It takes Momonosuke, the one true prince of the kingdom, to tell them that Luffy is an ally of theirs and can be trusted.
    With several public betrayals, multiple losses to the Straw Hats (only their fearsome reputations gave the system any merit), and the fact that they generally don't ever listen to legal authorities, even the corrupt World Government has to admit that the Warlords are much more trouble than they are worth. Inevitably, when two kings motioned to have the system abolished, it eventually passes with a majority vote.
    While many clashes between the strongest fighters in the setting end with the loser being vanquished by the winner's ultimate attack (often after failing to win with their own ultimate attack), Oden's fight with Kaido ends with one of Kaido's underlings tricking Oden by making him think his son Momonosuke had been taken hostage, enabling Kaido to take down Oden when he tries to save his son. This goes to show that underhanded tactics can often be the key to victory, and that letting your guard down in a life or death battle can be a fatal mistake.