The whole plotline of the evil pirate with no money asking to be fed, & Sanji feeding him when the restaurant kicks him out, and then that guy bringing back his captain to attack the whole restaurant and Sanji still offering to feed them both is a great example of Sanji holding true to similar morals as the rest of the Straw Hats, regardless of the consequences. I think this is also shown in Sanji constantly smoking, almost always shown with a cigarette in his hands or lips, a commitment to doing something repeatedly. Sanji seems to always have a calm and cool demeanor except when flirting with Nami, and I think there is something romantic to be said there.
I really appreciate how we are being served with the variations on the Jolly Roger. We know from real history that pirate flags were very varied and unique to indicate specific crews & notoriety, and there were real examples of pirates flying under false flags, as well as Privateers & the like blurring these lines from the get-go. Seeing Don Krieg use a Marine flag to attack unsuspecting victims reeks of realism & anchors the plot with reasonable tactics. We have seen a clown nose Jolly Roger, a cat Jolly Roger, and more, and people do seem to always recognize the specific crew, including in this episode with the double hourglass Jolly Roger and the people at the restaurant identify that it means their time is up. The pirate with the captain has yet a different jolly roger on his clothes with a snake instead of a skull. This is the first episode in which we see Sanji’s wanted poster, which features him blowing smoke into a Jolly Roger symbol. I wonder if the pirate in the title animation, Gold Roger, is also tied to the Jolly Roger as a semi-fictional mythological character of legend.
This is the first episode (I think) that mentions the name of this story arc, the East Blue, in reference to Don Krieg being a threat to this region. It is fantastic foreshadowing the way we were given reference to sailors getting scurvy on long adventures and now we see a pirate crew without proper stores & rations that is dying of starvation & dehydration. This whole episode’s plot was pretty novel & surprising; I was genuinely unsure of how much of the narrative was going to go.
We see that Luffy is still dedicated to fulfilling his punishment to work at the restaurant for a week even if the rest of the Straw Hats want to leave. It makes me wonder what the motivation for the rest of the kitchen & restaurant crew is to work on this ship. We see that they use oversized flatware as weapons & the head chef has a bazooka cannon shaped like some sort of shellfish, so perhaps they just identify as cooks and that’s what they do. Kaya & Merry mentioned going to shop in some city a few episodes back, so maybe there is some exchange of currency (or berries?) that the owner uses to pay his crew so they continue to work. Maybe they are just pirates or sailors who don’t know any life other than to serve a captain and this captain wants them to work in a restaurant.
Last note, it seems that “Don” is not just his name, but a title of sorts, based on a comment that he is the only one who deserves to be called Don. Again leading towards a post-apocalyptic setting, this is likely a holdover from contemporary Mafia leaders who are called Don, & namely popular movies & other media that use this term has possibly influenced the cultural zeitgeist over the centuries so that this serious character uses that title due to ancient references to Hollywood films. I think something similar could be true of the concept of the pirate flags, as well, with both historical and fictional pirate flags contributing to the One Piece world’s usage of them.