Here. This scene fits in a way with that SBS I pointed out, as well as my little theory about what makes an antagonist worth reappearing in the story or not. This here is the first real time Luffy mentions a real distinction in pirates: since the pirate way of life depends completely on said pirate, there should be an infinite amount of categories of pirates. Therefore the kind of pirates Luffy respects seems to be one, and the others are all in the « other » category. Here you understand that the reason behind this is not only because he turned his back on his life as a pirate, but also because of how he treated his crewmates. Luffy cherishes the people who chose to give up their past life to achieve his dream. Off the top of my head I don’t remember another time where Luffy clearly says he’s never becoming a pirate like another one of his opponents, but I’ll be excited to report on it once I stumble upon it.
I was a little surprised when I saw this! It’s true that Luffy vowed to defeat Kuro’s crew for the village, but I thought seeing their captain attack them would’ve inspired enough pity in him to leave them alone. But then I remembered that Luffy doesn’t operate on pity, ever, and well they deserve what they’re about to get (if they get it).
And here is Luffy stating the precise reason why he could never lose against Kuro, AKA the fight of two sets of beliefs, with the one that is clearly superior, in this case Luffy’s. Once again I can’t exactly remember if this happens again, where Luffy is convinced he’ll win simply because of the superiority of his beliefs over his opponent’s.
Here we understand that Usopp’s way of pirating surpasses completely Kuro’s, because he understands the importance of dreams and teaches his subordinates to, as well.
I loved this page, it’s genuinely beautifully drawn, the expressions are excellent. Also it shows that the disbanding of a pirate crew IS a big deal, regardless of the nature of said pirate crew. This directly mirrors KuroMs treatment of his own crew and how undignified it was compared to this. A pirate crew is sacred and should be treated as such. The use of a full page, the scale of the panel in the middle, trult everything points to the seriousness of this event.