How Arlong SAVED One Piece 

When racism saves one of the most succesful book series

Arlong went from "wow, I hate this guy, he is pure evil" to "wow, I hate this guy, he is pure evil... but I get it"

Arlong Park is almost universally regarded as THE arc that "if you don't get it by then you probably never will" and is considered the arc where people really get into One Piece. It cements Oda's writing as something special with a simple formula: Create a villain, show that they are extremely easy to hate and dastardly in some way, and make their defeat extremely cathartic. Luffy's "OF COURSE I WILL" is still one of his best moments imo, it really endears him to the viewer as this guy who'll go through hell and high water for his friends. Personally I was sold by Baratie, but the arcs setup with Nami's backstory, Arlong's defeat and the sheer amount of things introduced in it, is definitely peak Oda

I honestly think Blackbeard might be the only villain without a "fake smile". He was a sad child but now it seems like he has genuine fun doing what he does.

Arlong is the dude. He doesn't stop at cow tipping, he does VILLAGE tipping. In real estate he takes "flipping houses" to a whole new level.

Arlong in anime: *hangs around at Conomi Island and remain content* Arlong in live action: *already became the underground kingpin feared by all in the East Blue*

Fun fact: the word Ar Long in Malaysia & Singapore refers to loan shark, someone who lends you money and collects extremely high interest back. This was very prevalent in the 80s and 90s and loan sharks were living very luxurious life. Just like the way it was shown in one piece. As a kid who watched this arc in the 2000s, this arc was super relatable

7:57 You have to do every villains laugh in this series from now on

I love how luffy just had one reason to end arlongs empire. One simple sentence that made nika smite his crew. "you made my navugator cry"

So glad Arlong is getting the recognition and love he deserves, truly the first great one piece villain

I find Arlong fascinating, both from an early One Piece perspective, and as a particular representative of his species later in One Piece. In terms of early One Piece, Arlong is interesting, for me anyway, because of how different he is from the other villains up to that point. He's the strongest villain Luffy faced so far, thanks to being a Fishman AND from the Grand Line, but moreover, unlike every single previous villain, Arlong actually cares about his crew. All the previous villains, from Alvida to Morgan to Buggy (at least at first) to Kuro to Don Krieg, showed a complete disregard towards their crew and subordinates, often abusing them or even outright killing them when they stop out of line or disobey their orders. Arlong, on the other hand, genuinely sees his crew like his brothers, and actually gets REALLY mad if they're hurt by someone else (and in particular gets FURIOUS when Luffy uses one of them as a shield against one of his attacks). Arlong may be a cruel monster towards humans, but he'd never harm a fellow Fishman. This gets elaborated on during the Fishman Island arc, and it's here that I'm even more intrigued by his character. Arlong didn't always used to be like he was when we saw him in Arlong Park... that is to say, he was always bigoted towards humans and was incredibly conceded when it came to his inherent strength over humans as a whole, but he also didn't think that much of his fellow Fishmen as well. Heck, when he was part of the Sun Pirates, he even mocked fellow Sun Pirates crewmate Aladdin for formerly being a slave. That changed the moment he found out his hero Fisher Tiger was a slave to the World Nobles at Mary Geoise, and that Fisher Tiger endured the worst humanity had to offer, to the point where Fisher Tiger refused a life-saving blood transfusion because his hatred for humans ran so deep he refused to be indirectly indebted to them. Despite Fisher Tiger's last words basically being a plea not to let the cycle of hatred between Fishmen and humans continue, what Arlong took from this is that humans are bastards and basically vowed to get revenge on humanity as a whole for what they did to his idol. At the very least, this experience taught him to be closer to his fellow Fishman, I should think. His relationship with Nami is really interesting, in a creepy sort of way. It reminds me of his time when the Sun Pirates looked after Koala, where he mistreated her, but found it odd that she never cried and cleaned up the wounds he gave her. I think Arlong may have taken away the wrong thing when it came to the Sun Pirates taking care of Koala for a time, since when it comes to Nami, he genuinely seems to think that by giving Nami food, clothes, shelter, and money, she'll be content, and that she genuinely got over the death of Belle-Mere by throwing money at her (or maybe I'm confusing him with Kuroobi). At this point, his bigotry is so bad that he's completely incapable of feeling any kind of empathy towards humans. He views himself as the superior race, and humans a lower set of being, akin to rats, with Nami being the clever cat among the rats. In his mind, Nami is little more than a tool to do what he wants, and thinks that by giving her what she needs, and also dangling her hometown just out of her reach, he'll be able to keep her with him. The way he says that Nami will forever be his "nakama" or "friend" or "crewmate" is oozing with such twisted irony that really shows how truly depraved Arlong is as a villain. I think Arlong may be my favorite "love to hate" villain in all of One Piece because of that, actually.

“I’m not saying we should be thanking him even though I said we have him to thank” 😂 honestly, one of my favorite parts of your writing is these charming little acknowledgements of idioms and turns of phrase. They’re all very clever and smooth and are one of the big reasons why this channel is such a treat! When it comes to villains though, I think we should give Captain Foxy his due.

1:08 Nami already believed in money due to the fact she, Nojiko and their surrogate mother Bellemere were living in poverty long before Arlong and his crew showed up.

If Arlong appears again in the series, I hope he meets Koala. Seeing that kid made him see human a little better, before kizaru came. Just seeing the little good action, the old crew did really had a impact in the world and the relationship between fishman with humans. And obviously, seeing him talk to jinbei and Nami could be interesting.

Next villain: Foxy!

I would love to see Moria next for in my opinion thriller bark is a criminally underrated arc and I enjoyed rereading the arc after the kuma flashback

It was that along quote that helps support the idea that there were humans long ago changed by some kind of "curse". The fishmen and maybe even the minks and other races may not have always been around

2:36 Sounds like a World Noble talk that Arlong picked up on when he was their slave at Mariejois.

I can’t wait for the four hour analysis on foxy and his inevitable S++

I really like this deep dives into One Piece characters. Not the (far fetched) theories with outlandish claims that you see so often on One Piece RU-vid.

“Nah id be racist” arlong

Theres one odd panel of arlong during fisher tiger flashback. ARLONG says to jimbei who is beating an marine: thats enough bro! Put him down! Guys not even concious anymore. Coming from arlong of all people. This is wierd dialoque. Chapter in guestion is 621. This arlong panel is at the end of it

The walk through arlong park cemented one piece as the best anime I've ever watched

"From a much simpler time when many of you didn't even exist" I took that personally 😢

"Luffy... help.." I was hooked for life

Enel, Arlong and Crocodile are like starter Pokemon. A perfectly balanced type triangle. Electric, Water and Ground.

Zoro ain't beating the racist allegations

"All the best villains in One Piece are smiling" Like Foxy? 😆

do bellamy next! :3 love arlong being when one piece really built itself as one of shonen jump's greatest series(like how krillin/starting to focus on goku's growth with the tournaments helped save dragonball when before it was more closer to bulma's story.) and when i fully got into it when i already was enjoying the series(that alabasta/skypia.)/when i really loved nami as one of my favorite jump gals as i like how arlong cares for his crew compared to a majority of the villains and while it took till later on having a self contained story & my favorite luffy moment being when he describes the strengths of his crew/his own flaws & strength to help each other which i love way more than some other jump heroes resolves. kinda wish we saw arlong on fishman island as the main villain instead of hordy jones(or him hijacking it from him.) with luffy/nami(would've preferred her helping luffy or taking on zeo though her defeating fishmen way stronger than her is impressive.) taking him on with how it's likely we won't see him again.

I just realized, Luffy got a pair of cement shoes and went to sleep with the fishes during the Arlong fight.

been fully caught up for a while now, and arlong park is still in my top 3-5 arcs in the whole series. so much good about it

12:07 simple. “Alright Village is free. However, you’re still its leader, and I made no part of the deal guaranteeing YOUR freedom.”

You need to do an in depth analysis of Big-Mom. Because even tho her fall was I think ok at best, but mostly pretty mid, she's one of the most interesting antagonist, and, strangely enough, one with good intentions

Let’s get old Sclong head done. For one, itll be timely since it ties in with egghead. Two, who has taken more L’s than Moria? After his defeat he got his keister whooped again in marineford, we get shown just how bad Kaido beat him, he gets whooped again by blackbeards crew and his best bud absalom gets killed. He’s the essence of the song tubthumping.

i’ve been googling arlong on YT for ages. watched every video. my fav arc and character so thank god he’s been posted about!

Arlong and nami's story is an arc that consistently makes me tear up even just thinking about it Like in the live action during the 'help me' scene is legit cried which is super rare for me

Yuh, BLUE HAKI!!

I feel like arlong could have been on the straw hats side with jinbe in an alternate universe.

I just realized little Koala on Fisher Tiger's ship and the revolutionary Koala are the same person. It all makes so much sense now. This is what Luffy must feel like on a regular basis.

I am pleased by this analysis.

I love this idea you had, its so entertaining to watch something about a villain that we didnt appreciate enougg

5:55 Zoro can never beat those accusations huh?

We want LUCCI !!! (Love this series btw very fun breaking down each villain piece by piece)

Luffy fought a lawful evil devil of a fishman. Then, he one punched the neutral evil celestial dragon. Then, he fought another lawful evil de3vil of a sandman. Finally, he fights a chaotic evil demon named Donquixote Doflamingo. After beating down a drunk chaotic dragon demon. The finally battles are against elder ach-demons! (DnD references)

We can’t make a mom tier list until we know croc-boy isn’t a mom 😂

Given the info released in the last few chapters, I think the fact that Arlong and his crew were mapping the sea floor around Nami's village to track the sea currents is pretty interesting

Keep up the awesome work and videos Liam love the video

The deal with Nami was to bye the Village, not the island so he would probably strike a new deal with Nami to get him off the Island

Arlong is the Magneto of One Piece, in terms of his hatred for humans and his rivalry with someone of his own kind who believes in peace with humans.

Nami's journey was also interesting as she was shown to be somewhat discrimatory vs Fishmen and dreaded the idea of going to Fishman Island but when she got to Saobody her beliefs were challenged and after hearing Jinbei's story she swore off her hatred of Fishmen with the exception of Arlong for personal reasons.

I bring this up all the time when ppl say Usopp is “still a coward”. Dude only believes he is. He was the first to attack Arlong, the strongest in East Blue

6:50 "stupid monkeys" is crazy

Thank you for helping us get through void month

haha your comment of Arlongs intro lmao. Facts 100% dope analysis and on point and although we didnt know it at the time but this was 300+ chapters of foreshadowing. Arlong was our intro to what the half way point of OP would hold, grandline wise, and how much there was still to explore, cause waiting to finally get to fishman island felt like forever. *Sanji* Mermaids

The walk to alrong park was the main reason which made me addicted to onepiece otherwise i was thinking to drop watching it at that time

I know he wasn't in the longer villain video, but I'd really love to see Spandam ranked. To me he's the main villain of Eines Lobby as much as Lucci; it's fine if this means he gets a bad ranking, I'd just love more analysis videos on the guy since I love to hate him. My favorite villain for real.

Thanks for your amazing videos injected straight into my youtube feed

My favorite Part about Arlong still is when he though that a map about the grand line made him unstoppable. His visions were a bit too grand for his abilities. Also: My vote for the next villain to rank is Spandam.

A+ was a bit much A was perfect

loving the series

There’s one aspect of Arlong that makes him nuanced: his genuine care for his fishman crew. By this point, we had seen several captains (Alvida, Captain Kuro, Don Krieg) who treated their crew as disposable tools or even harmed them directly. But Arlong actually expressed concern and even warmth for his fellow fishmen and called them his “brothers”. There was arguably more harmony between the Arlong Pirates than the Strawhats for most of the arc.

man, imagine not even having been born when Arlong's arc we airing......

Arlong park is the arc that got me into One Piece 🏴‍☠️

Arlong being a 90’s villain makes so much sense to me now

6:24 PERFECT Dalek impression

Being new to one piece, intro was live action. I think the Anime really hit me at that point. I think before it was more goofy from first viewing. Also I think I finally saw how Luffy didn’t care what someone’s background was or their motivations for doing things (nami betraying strawhats), he didn’t need a tragic backstory to help Nami, she was crying and that was enough for him. This was shown of course with recruiting the other members but it really shines through in Arlong park arc. Motivated me to keep watching. Just made it to egghead!

Arlong is my sunshine.

Next video: "How the 4KIDZ animation SAVED One Piece" (It was the only way to introduce the series)

Started watch One Piece around this time. At my grandparent's house who have been gone for over a decade now. It's crazy to think all the life changes that have happened but OP is still there.

I really like the scene on the flashback in which koala just starts frantically working and smiling on the sun pirates ship because she fears her death... Shit was so fucked up even Arlong was kinda shocked..... It was close. Oda is pretty good indeed.

'Its Like being seduced by a devil politician I don't know which is worse". 😂😂😂

I like how arlong hated the celestial dragons so much he became one even mimicking sabaody park with arlong park.

Even back when I was 13 and reading the Arlong park ARC for the first time, I have no such illusions that Arlong was anything less than a bloodthirsty monster. Yes, he acted as a big brother figure and loving boss to fellow fish men and crew members, but he also was corrupt to the core with how he was consistently bribing corruptible Marines like Nezumi. Teenage me knew appearing friendly and not likely to attack is how some merpeople lure in their prey, fish people in this case. While Sanji and the Baratie arc are what initially convinced me to stay with One Piece for the long haul, along with Drum Island and Alabasta’s adventures, Arlong’s arc still stands out as something I revisit now and again when on One Piece nostalgia trips. Especially now that Jinbe is an official member of the Straw Hat crew, I wonder how the “always had dreams of opulence/wealth and an innate desire for bloodshed” Arlong would react to his old Sun Pirates crew mate.

I actually had the doubt as Doflamingo also made it look like he cared about his (not biological, because that one is ded) family, but i wasn't sure if it would be as how Arlong cared, or if he even cared at all. I don't know why but i so expected Buffalo and Baby 5 to be unalived after they failed and returned so miserably beaten...I'll admit it, i was surprised by doflamingo's mercy. Those two are so very interesting...

Times like this (break weeks ) we need you more than ever! Thank you for your consistent injections of fictional pirate content!

He was definitely the most threatening for sure. I mean. Arlong park was a very great arc even today

another fun one, thank you milord liam!~ playing catch up with your play list of videos so a few ocmments incoming :P

5:24 he even kicked out Sanji making it his only nice gesture he ever did

Arlong bans weapons for the same reason anyone bans weapon, and makes the same fake justifications for the same reason anyone does.

8:45 Doffy did say that, though he was smiling, he wasn't happy, he was so pissed off and annoyed that he couldn't do anything other than smile.

I started to watch in 99. Still watch and read religiously. One piece has been my favorite thing for over 20 years now

Arlong is the most iconic villain of the series literally my very first episode of One Piece I watched when this man appeared I remember how scared I was when he was pissed those eyes shook me lol.

I think if Nami gave him the money, he would have given her the village back... only to come and take it back a few days later. He said he would give her village back, not that he wouldn't take it again.

The "Dead Mothers" tier list needs to be next

Can you make a playlist for your villain ranking videos? They aren't named as such so if I wanted to see your other takes on the rest of the villains, I'd have to watch all of your videos (which I thought I did).

_"I won't lie, the Arlong Pirates made my life a living hell. But y'know, if it wasn't for that nightmare, I would never have met my friends. That awful time made me who I am. I can't hate you just cause you're a fishman, so you, you don't get to pity me just because of my past. I'm fine with my past, because I'm happy in the present!"_ *- Nami, One Piece ep. 547*

Arlong is one of those villain that IF he would have not lost all of his hope for humanity and met luffy in very different situation than portraited, we would have the scariest and most loyal ally ever. I'm talking about the crew level of loyalty here, because this man is obsessed with his goal, unfortunately that he turns out like that. His reaction to the new world after luffy beat everything and conclude the story is one of the most important reaction I want to see happen.

you should rank Rob lucci next since he just got relevant again in the anime

15:40 I'm gonna go ahead and disagree on that point of Arlong being partly responsible for Nami's development, as I do not ascribe to the "what doesn't kill me makes me stronger" sentiment. It wasn't Arlong who made her decide to get stronger and stop crying, that came from Nami herself. We are NOT just the sum of our experiences, they shape us for sure but they don't define us, Nami could've just broke under all the trauma but she didn't and that was from her own strength. It isn't Arlong we have to thank for the Strawhats to have such a strong navigator, but Nami.

6:49 Geto, is it you?

Post Arlong Park, my head canon is he was arrested and made a slave in the holy land. Hears about nika while in there and the next time we see him is when he is set free by the Warrior of Liberation or Koala (Revolution Army.) He returns to Fishman Island and becomes the guy Fisher Tiger could've been if he didn't die.

I genuinely didn't know that One Piece back then was in dire need of saving.

It's amazing how someone like Arlong had such a profound effect on Nami and how much differently One Piece would have turned out if Arlong never killed Bell-mere or came to Cocoyasi Village. Also Liam please do Buggy next.

I like the observation that he cares about his crew. All major villains going forward (Excluding Foxy of course) seem to have no care for their subordinates until we hit Doflamingo at punk hazard. Even Hordy, who believed in Arlongs way, didn't seem to care for his people or his crew, just about creating hate for hate. I bet Arlong wouldn't approve of Hordy. We see Moria, who did care about his crew, but they all died and he put up a wall of indifference until Absalom finally got got. Crocodile, who is strictly business. Spademan, who only cared about himself. Enel, who's god complex separates his need for companionship. Even Akainu burns his own men for showing fear.

Do Don Chinjao next.

Can you continue the one piece 101 series please I loved how you break down characters

When we make it to the Holy Land of Marijoa we will find out that Arlong is not only alive but is a pet of a celestial family. And that family reveals that Nami was stolen from them and this is why they have Arlong in a tank

Next could be interesting to do Arlong 2.0, Arlong Junior, Arlong Lite, We have Arlong at Home Jones 🧐 or if you’re tired of Fishmen there’s room for more Warlords on the list like a certain Moria. Either way thanks for the video, always enjoy some fictional pirates or hunters injected into my YT feed!

Kaido and BM being shown as examples of villains that don't show sorrow or loss is wrong. Kaido grieves over Linlin's defeat (and cries constantly), Linlin cries over Caramel and wonders where she went.

Foxy. I want to see you defend him then tear him down before defending him being A tier.