I really enjoy the slightly subtle fact that the children are more keen to copy Captain Usopp’s actions than they are to listen to his words. They acknowledge that his words are both lies & useful advice, but still choose to just do what they think is the right thing to do because they know their captain would just do what he thought was the right thing to do. This is a great lesson for all of us.
I think there is a lot to be said about Kuro trying to delete his reputation from existence. While other characters are trying to build their reputation, or utilize their reputation to their advantage, or disguise their true reputations temporarily, Kuro is attempting to walk away from his. It is quite fascinating how the show, through multiple episodes, explores the complexity of one’s reputation and how important it is to carefully develop a reputation because of how seriously they stick with a person.
Kuro continues to belittle, insult, & threaten his crew before quickly dispatching them, and mentions how they are pawns, a chess metaphor. Chess lingo has such a romanticized reputation of its own, being somewhat impenetrable to outsiders, but rather simple for people who are familiar with the game to understand. There is sort of a stereotype that chess players are elitist & pretentious, and we also see a lot of ego from Kuro in this episode when he is so enraged by the insults of Luffy, a person he has never even really met before. The idea that anyone would ever insult him as Kuro is outrageous to him, even when he was calmly taking criticism from Usopp as Klahadore only days before. I think it is pretty obvious that Klahadore was a false reputation he was not attached to, but that insult to Kuro, his true reputation, cut something deep inside him, even as he is desperate to rid himself of the Kuro reputation which he has decided does not serve him any longer. These are the deep introspections that I believe many of us, not just villains, must deal with every day.
Last note, we see that Usopp & Zoro are bad navigators when running lost through the woods, struggling to identify directions or follow sounds or tracks, which seems to confirm the usefulness of Nami as a navigator for the Straw Hat Crew. Conversely, Jango does seem surprised by how close behind him Zoro & Usopp are, but that could also be a result of Jango being lost for a while trying to track down the Usopp Pirates.