One thing that made the Baratie arc to me almost perfect is the sincerity of its side characters. Patty and Carne’s characterization and this whole new category of pirates that change their ways to follow a dream. This fits nicely with setting the tone of the series, in which the sea’s lawless nature allows for anyone to truly find their place. Criminals at sea are as welcome as anyone else and can make their journey about anything as long as they have a ship.
After Sanji’s easily defeating Fullbody who himself easily defeated Johnny and Yosaku, here’s another power scaling tool: Don Krieg, who’s gonna do a great job in showing how Luffy’s ideals surpasses his (another pirate who doesn’t respect his crewmates much like Kuro, although to a lesser extent) and will set a theme in the Grand Line and how the crew must approach it. Rereading has reminded me that one of the first things that set apart our main character from other pirates is how he approaches his crew and recruits them and how he feels about them. I think this blends in absolutely perfectly with the more recent themes in the series, where we learn that Luffy’s power, amongst many other things, is to rally people to his cause. Surely the drums of libération serve this exact purpose, and reading the early chapters shows that this has always been a structuring storyline. This also serves in showing the importance of food in the story, and, completely unrelated, how absolutely necessary Nami is to the crew in their hopes of reaching/navigating the Grand Line. And also the East Blue truly was the weakest sea because how is Don Krieg the strongest? Come on…
Sanji’s gimmick of using the word crap has seriously been one of the best jokes surrounding his character since the beginning. Also, after reading some of the most recent arcs, rediscovering Sanji’s character truly brings a deep sense of nostalgia in a way; upon first reading, I completely overlooked him and thought of him as another typical shounen character. But now I can’t help but see his deep sensibility in everything he does 😭 Oh Sanji of the true lost potential…don’t mind me thinking of what used to be, and what could have been!
(On a much less serious note, Oda again with the brothers dynamic! He truly is obsessed…sets a tone for how we should see the next brothers that will appear)