A shocking reveal at the start of this episode is that Luffy apparently has zero sailing skills and is fully relying on Koby to navigate their ship. This goes back to Luffy’s undying optimism in the face of difficulty, he wants to be a mighty pirate but has virtually no experience even being on a boat, it seems. The second theme that is quickly confronted is that Koby believes that any person who the Marines would put in prison is obviously an evil person, whereas Luffy just kind of ignores this sentiment towards the person he intends to add to his crew. This mirror between the 2 current protagonists is made even clearer when Koby states the infamous Star Wars line “I’ve got a bad feeling about this” in direct contradiction to Luffy’s optimism.
Upon meeting Zoro, he also seems to mirror Luffy but in a much different way. While they are both very tough characters with a strong sense of morality & virtue, Zoro tries to act rough & mean & independent while, as we know, Luffy is more fun & friendly & open to teamwork. Zoro hides his hunger until the Marines & little girl leave, he doesn’t want to be thanked or appreciated for saving anyone, and often thinks about a childhood event (that we hopefully will get more information about in future episodes) while stating he has no regrets in life even though he is currently tied to a post in a prison yard facing almost certain death.
I think what really makes this a powerful episode is that we are given a deeper look into the Marines culture & such, demonstrating that they are certainly the true evil characters in this tale, sowing chaos with no concern for the people they are meant to be protecting. People think that Captain Morgan’s son is a little nepo baby but his father doesn’t actually listen to him. However, because the Marines are regularly enacting violence against the locals, the locals assume that the son does have the influence to bring about more violence. This chaos is advantageous for the Marines to keep up the illusion that they are unstoppable, but then their own hubris causes them to leave their fortress more or less unguarded while Luffy waltzes in to try to rescue Zoro & his swords.
Koby continues to have an attitude that the Marines are moral & righteous & just, even as he sees the way they act and treat people. Propaganda is very strong and effective, and part of the Marine culture we see is Captain Morgan repeatedly calling any crime, any disobedience, any failure, etc all to be traitorous treason. By consistently referring to any who oppose him as treasonous traitors, it contributes to convincing people less familiar with the situation that his violent tendencies are necessary to maintain order and preserve the status quo. I think we see a lot of the same attitude from the current American federal government administration.
My last note is just noticing the young woman who makes a brief appearance in this episode and also had a brief appearance in the last episode. I have no idea who she is and hope I didn’t miss some exposition about her, but I am excited to see how she fits into the story in the future.