Luffy & the mystery woman finally meet at the end of this episode, and it seems it is almost nothing but pure fate that brings them together. Of course, we can also assume that they are just 2 people chasing the same or a similar goal and it is obvious that their paths would eventually cross on their separate adventures. Both of these interpretations are equally valid, just as the dual belief one can hold about free will and predestination both being important parts of the human experience. Everything is already decided, we are just bits of energy & chemicals acting out a mathematically calculatable reaction that has been unfolding since the big bang, or even earlier, but we all still have to wake up each day and make the choices presented to us, both are true.
She is portrayed with a classic trope of faking being a damsel in distress to manipulate her enemies into underestimating her so that she may take advantage of them to steal their stuff. My personal favorite example of this is the episode of the show Firefly (Our Mrs. Reynolds) with a redheaded woman who traverses the galaxy marrying lustful men to steal their stuff. Within this trope, the woman is always shown to be exceedingly intelligent, just as our mystery woman is able to predict the weather based on cloud patterns, and outsmart both the Marines & Captain Buggy to steal the map she wants.
As a ginger myself, I truly appreciate how often these crafty and intelligent characters are also portrayed as redheads. Even the redheaded member of the evil pirate trio seems to be calmer and more collected than his 2 comrades, having a more observant energy while the other two seem a tad unhinged. And then again, we see that Luffy’s father-figure/hero is also a redhead, and he is cool, intelligent, & fantastic in combat, all traits of most redheads. A direct example of Shanks’ awesomeness is when some sort of legendary beast monster sea dragon serpent thing emerges from the water and is intimidated by a single look from Shanks to swim away.
An interesting duality of Shanks is how is so absolutely calm & unfazed when he loses his own arm, even though earlier he absolutely freaked out when Luffy ate the devil fruit. It is unclear to me if he is upset because of the value of the fruit or because of the danger to Luffy, but it is one of the only times we see him lose his cool at all. The other time we see him become angry is when Luffy is in danger because Shanks is loyal to anyone he considers a friend, and this is obviously where Luffy gains his sense of loyal friendship from. In this flashback, Luffy is noticeably more angry & hyper, immature & reactive, but he assuredly grows to become more akin to Shanks stoic energy.
The serenity upon losing his arm is a solid example of stoicism, my personal favorite school of philosophy. It reminds me of an anecdote I learned in my first yoga class about a person running through the forest from a Tiger, running as fast as they can, unable to see what is in front of them, until they fall off a cliff. They grab a rock & a vine a few feet below the edge, but the tiger is just above them, roaring ferociously. The person then notices a single strawberry on the vine in front of them, which they eat, and it is the most delicious fruit they have ever eaten in their entire life. Then they fall down & die.
An interesting question I am left with after this episode is if Shanks lied to Luffy about the importance of his straw hat. He first states how important it is to him, and how important the person who gave him the hat was to him, stating clearly that he could never give up the hat, but then later casually gives it to Luffy. It is perhaps a manipulative action, but I think it also cements the relationship between the two and instills a strong sense of morality into the young Luffy that he carries for the rest of his life, and for Luffy, the hat truly is something he could never part with, mostly because it reminds him of the mentor who gave it to him long ago. It seems a situation in which reality mimics art.
We also see more mirrors & parallels between Luffy & Zoro in this episode. Zoro doesn’t go into too much detail, but he insinuates that his reputation as a pirate hunter is not as genuine as people believe. He only wanted to go home, and hunts 1 pirate to help his mission, but just keeps going and never makes it home. However, he lets people make those assumptions because, as we see at the end of the episode, his reputation is strong enough to often avoid conflict altogether. This yet another example of valuable manipulation in this episode.
Another curious aspect of this episode is a small detail comparing the bandits & pirates. While many would, and probably do, simply consider them both to be criminals, we are shown that there is in fact a clear distinction, at least between the 2 groups in this episode, in which pirates are more positive characters with a sense of morality & justice, while bandits are colder, evil characters creating conflict for their own entertainment & ego, willing to attack children, and just acting selfish. Now, perhaps Shanks’ crew is simply an exception to pirates being real bad guys, and that’s where Luffy learns his sense of piracy from, because other pirates we have seen thus far have all been pretty rough characters, but even they seem to have more fun vibes than the bandit character in this episode.
Final note, I think this is the first episode with actual curse words, at least in the English dub I watched, anyway. Both the words ‘dumbass’ & ‘bitch’ were used throughout the episode, and I find that an interesting choice, even just as a translation, because it really does identify the content as made for adults, or at least as a more serious & genuine content, than as a silly kids show trying to shelter the viewer from a more realistic story. Including those words is a choice, and while the animation & tone of the show can definitely feel like a children’s show, this seems, to me, to be the first indication that is certainly isn’t JUST for kids, even though I do believe it is a valuable thing for children to watch based on my experience thus far.