Recap: One Piece Skypiea Arc
Having rode the Knock Up Stream, the Straw Hats make it into the sky and reach the island, Skypiea. But not shortly after their arrival they're branded as criminals and soon find themselves caught in a ancient old war between the Skypieans, the Shandians, and the "God" of the island (really just a fancy term for ruler of the island) Eneru who seeks the island's destruction.
has the following tropes:
- Acrofatic: Skypiean Priest Satori. His brothers, Hotori and Kotori also count. Yama is like a damn ballerina compared to these three, though.
- A God Am I: Eneru, who truly thinks he is a God with Rumble-Rumble Fruit powers and enhanced Mantra.
- Air Jousting: Shura vs Gan Fall.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever/One-Winged Angel: Eneru transforms into a much larger form covered in lightning in the climax.
- Ax-Crazy: Eneru is easily one of the most psychotic villains in all of One Piece.
- The Beastmaster: Ohm and Shura.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Satori. Ho ho ho!
- Big Bad: Eneru
- Bolt of Divine Retribution: Eneru fires one whenever someone speaks out against him, or time runs out in one of the Games his men take part in. Notable when one isn't fired when Conis denies his godhood in front of a crowd...because he has something far more terrible planned for the island.
- Chekhov's Gun: Nora, the giant snake.
- The golden orb Luffy had grafted on his arm. By Eneru.
- Combat Clairvoyance: Mantra allows for this.
- Cool Airship: The Maxim.
- Cool Horse: Subverted. Gan Fall's pet bird Pierre ate the Horse-Horse Fruit that Gan Fall claims lets him turn into a Pegasus. This◊ is the actual result.
- Cue the Sun: When Luffy destroys Eneru's Raigo, it clears away the thunderclouds and lets in the sun.
- Cowardly Lion: Nami and Usopp.
- Death from Above: Eneru's Raigo.
- Deus Exit Machina: This arc featured the former Trope Namer: Eaten By A Snake, in which Luffy during his duel with Wiper unceremoniously ended in a stalemate when...Luffy was eaten by a snake.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Sanji tells Eneru "Thanks for lighting my cigarette" just as Eneru electrocuted him. And before fainting, he says "To get ready to cry."
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Luffy fights a Physical God, and wins. Really emphasized when Eneru transforms into a Raijin-like being, only to get smacked into the Golden Bell.
- Disney Death: Pagaya. Lampshaded when the group scold him when they were mourning his apparent death, and he replies "Oh! I'm sorry I survived!"
- Disproportionate Retribution: While they're waiting for Nami to get back with the money. The Straw Hats try to just mill around and act normal but everything they seem to do raises their criminal level with the White Berets, even just laying down and snoring. Though it turns out the White Berets are doing it deliberately, as they were ordered to by Eneru.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The Shandians, of course, visually resemble the Native Americans, and they're waging war with the Skypeians for "Vearth" (Skypeia's soil/the former Jaya), to return to their homeland which they were driven out of.
- Flashback: One that pops up right in the middle of the climax to the explain the true story of Norland and Calgara.
- Another one deals with Gan Fall's period as God of Skypiea, the attempts to make peace with the Shandians, and how he eventually had his role taken by Eneru.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Rubber beats Electricity. Eneru finds out the hard way. Heck, he didn't know what rubber was before Luffy hit him!
- Floating Continent: Which even has its own ocean!
- Fluffy Cloud Heaven: Skypiea has the appearance of one. One of the first people encountered is even a winged young woman playing a harp.
- Folk Hero: "Great Warrior" Calgara, and Noland to the Skypieans.
- Forbidden Zone: Upper Yard, as it is God's (i.e: Skypiea leader's) territory.
- Foreshadowing: Mantra, which would later be known as Observation Haki. And the first appearance of Klabautermann, the spirit of the Going Merry.
- Usopp also took a load of Dials, which turned out to be very useful in future arcs.
- When Eneru decreed that with Luffy powerless to fight him, no one would ever defeat him, Luffy retaliates that the Blue Sea had beings more powerful than even him. He had no idea how right he was.
- Genius Bruiser: Eneru. The man knows things that Sky Islanders would not usually have a clue about, such as gold, or even much of the history of the Skypeian-Shandian war (even more impressive is that he wasn't born on Skypeia). One could possibly assume that he had the greatest intellect in all of skypeia. He himself referred to his knowledge (along with his Mantra ability) as "omniscience".
- High-Altitude Battle: The final fight against Eneru, which isn't so much defeating him as reaching him.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: During the fight with Luffy, Eneru manages to temporarily defeat him, but grafts a gold ball on his arm to both weigh him down and incapacitate him. However in the climax of the arc, Luffy uses the same ball to stop Eneru's Raigo (a huge lightning ball) as well as punching it right into Eneru to both defeat him and ring the bell.
- Earlier in story during the Orb Ordeals, Satori got his Tama Dragon attack thrown back at him. He survives but it distracts him long enough for Luffy to sneak up on and grab him before Sanji finishes him off.
- Hair of Gold: Conis.
- Hope Spot: A villainous version, as the first time Luffy reaches Eneru he manages to catch him with his trident giving Luffy to option of getting impaled or falling. Luffy falls...only to grab onto the solid cloud Nami is on and sling himself back up.
- Island With A Dark Secret: Fittingly, the Fluffy Cloud Heaven Floating Continent is actually an Orwellian Dystopia whose ruler hears the thoughts of all its citizens and smites anyone with a dissenting opinion.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Wiper. He has a short temper, and is hostile to all outsiders, but cares very deeply for people, and wants to fulfill his ancestor's dream.
- The Legend of Chekhov: Carries over from the last arc: Not only is the Sky Island true, but most of Jaya itself became a part of it, meaning the "City of Gold" was Real After All and Noland wasn't a liar. Moreover, it had a Poneglyph describing the Ancient Weapon Poseidon.
- Light Is Not Good: God Eneru. His immediate subordinates are called "The Priests of Skypeia", while his army is officially "God's Enforcers".
- Mêlée à Trois: Between the Straw Hats (who are gold hunting), Eneru's group, and the Shandians.
- Morph Weapon/Whip Sword: Ohm's cloud sword weapon.
- Nice Girl: Conis.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Satori. His casual and playful demeanor made him look ridiculous, but his trickery, reliance on Mantra and Impact Dials made him a rather dangerous (if annoying) foe.
- No Sell: Rubber against Electricity. Yeah, Eneru's screwed.
- Earlier, Eneru makes a show of no-selling everything that was thrown at him. He was shocked when Luffy managed to hit him.
- Oh Crap: The legendary one after Eneru realizes his powers have no effect on Luffy.◊ Any similar reactions afterward was promptly called "The Eneru".
- Poke the Poodle: The arc ends with Luffy deciding that the crew (for once) try to steal the gold from Shandora before the Shandians and Skypieans find out. They "steal" about 200 millions worth...However, since Shandians don't value gold, it doesn't really do them anything. In fact, they were wondering why were running before they were about to give them a huge golden pillar as tribute to their efforts. Only Robin knew the truth (and found it all very amusing).
- Physical God: Eneru. His Logia Devil Fruit: The Rumble-Rumble Fruit (Goro Goro no Mi) grants him the power of lightning, and all that entails even averting Convection Schmonvection and acting as a Magical Defibrillator to himself if he is killed (making him practically immortal), not to mention amplifies his Mantra ability to the range of the entire island: His abilities were truly god-like, and it's not hard to see how he'd delude himself into thinking he's one.
- Predecessor Villain: The King of Lyneel, who had Noland executed in a show trial for "deceiving" him of the "City of Gold", and the God of Skypeia during Calgara's time, who led the Skypeians to claim Jaya (which had recently become part of the sky island) for themselves, and begin a campaign to remove the Shandians from their home.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: Skypiea's Priests, along with the Commander of God's Enforcers, Yama. They're pretty effective fighters, though.
- Rule of Symbolism/Faux Symbolism: Zig-zagged over the place in this arc as expected:
- There been a golden gate at the entrance of Skypeia and even a young woman playing a harp, leads to more Heaven themes.
- Upper Yard, the forest of Skypeia, is also called "God's Land", and therefore sacred. Why? Because nothing grows in Skypeia, a Sky Island, the God of Skypeia four centuries prior considered it "his great miracle", and waged war with the Shandians for that reason.
- Zoro faces off against Sky Priest Ohm in his ordeal of Iron: Which has a 0% survival rate. Zoro eventually defeats him, continuing the theme he's an immortal.
- God Eneru uses a Cloud Dial to create a Cloud Ball, with his staff making for a brief shout-out to Sun Wukong.
- Luffy faces off against a god, and pretty much wins.
- Running Gag: Captain McKinley been ran over by a woman riding a Waver, and knocked into a building.
- Shout-Out: In Upper Yard, the largest plant is a massive beanstalk called " Giant Jack"
- Shmuck Bait: When the crew get to Skypiea, they run into a toll gate and are asked to pay 1,000,000,000 Extols to enter (Extols being the Skypiean's equivalent of Beris). When the crew reveal that don't have that much, she lets them in anyway but fails to tell them they would be branded as criminals for doing so.
- Soft Water: Sadly averted in that the landing after leaving Skypiea accumulated more damage to the hull of Going Merry that was already caused by Bellamy's crew. This'll have consequences an arc later.
- Played very straight in this arc. Justified somewhat with the oceans being "Island Cloud".
- Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Subverted. Eneru is actually the strongest antagonist Luffy has ever defeated. He easily curb-stomped all of his opponents, and the only reason Luffy stood a chance against him at all is because he had the devil fruit power Eneru was least capable of countering. The fact that his fight with Luffy was still a close one shows how far up the ladder Eneru actually was.
- Strange Salute: The White Berets of Skypiea. HESO!
- Swallowed Whole: Luffy and later Nami, Asia, and Gan Fall get this when Nola accidentally swallows them.
- Unholy Nuke: Eneru's ultimate move, Raigo.
- Villain with Good Publicity: God Eneru during this tenure as...God. Though, it's portrayed more realistically: It's because he's a totalitarian dictator that the Skypieans praise and fear him. After the Skypieans find out that he plans to annihilate Skypiea, while many where terrified, some were genuinely upset that their God would do such a thing.
- War Arc: Not as big as Alabasta, but the early part of the arc sees the crew getting unwittingly involved in one between Eneru's forces and the Shandians who are trying to reclaim their homeland, Upper Yard.