This article contains spoilers for the One Piece series.
One Piece is an incredible manga, and it’s all thanks to the work of one man, Eiichiro Oda. One Piece has some of the best lore and writing seen in shonen series, but of course, the manga still has some flaws, especially when it comes to characters being saved by the plot.
It’s no secret that Oda hates to kill off characters, but there are some extremely weird instances in the manga where the characters were simply saved by the plot, and things made little sense.
Roronoa Zoro
Oda Created a New Drug Just to Have Him Back Fighting
Zoro is the swordsman of the Straw Hat Pirates and one of the members most involved in battles. Due to that, Zoro always finds himself in bad situations with some powerful opponents.
Zoro has had his share of plot armor, as expected, in the story. Most recently, in Wano, Oda invented a new drug for the plot. This drug was from the Minks, and it helped him get back on track to fight his main opponent, King with the only downside being Zoro feeling twice as much pain after it wore off. This was quite an odd choice and one that didn’t make much sense.
Kinemon
Sustained Attacks That He Shouldn’t Have Survived
Kinemon was one of the central characters leading up to the battle against Kaido and Big Mom in Onigashima. As the leader of the Red Scabbards, Kinemon led an attack on Kaido and sustained quite serious injuries from direct hits. He even took a Conqueror’s Haki-infused hit to the head from Kaido, and was sliced apart.
Other characters among the nine Scabbards, such as Ashura or Izo, died from far fewer injuries.
Trafalgar D. Water Law
Used His Awakened Devil Fruit Against Big Mom
Big Mom is a terrifyingly powerful pirate, as she was one of the Yonko. However, during the Wano arc, most characters had their hands full, including Luffy. So taking down Big Mom came back to Law and Kid. During this battle, they both somehow used their awakened Devil Fruits, which didn’t quite make sense for them at the moment since there was no setup for it.
Law even tanked some powerful attacks from Big Mom, some that shouldn’t have been possible at all. Oda nerfed Big Mom quite a lot for this battle, not even having her use Conqueror’s Haki so that Law and Kid could make it out alive.
Eustass Kid
Another Character Who Got Lucky Against Big Mom
Just like Law, Kid had to fight Big Mom during the Wano arc of One Piece. During this battle, Kid also somehow used his Devil Fruit awakening despite no prior mention of it. This was quite odd, as he had no moments leading up to this— even less than Trafalgar Law.
Oda just really needed a way to take down Linlin. Law and Kid didn’t even really defeat her. They simply knocked her off the floating island of Onigashima.
Blackbeard
The Plot Is Always on His Side
Blackbeard is one of One Piece’s main antagonists. However, he is always getting quite lucky in the story. Just like Luffy, Blackbeard was heavily poisoned by Magellan. Normally, that should’ve been where his adventure ended.
However, Blackbeard managed to survive somehow and was treated for the poisoning by Shiryu. There was no antidote to all the toxins, as Magellan said himself, so what happened was never explained by Oda. This is even crazier when taking into consideration the fact that Luffy needed a miracle from Ivankov to survive the same fate.
Monkey D. Luffy
Luffy Came Close to Death More than Once
Luffy is One Piece’s main character and, of course, had his own moments where he was saved by the plot. Luffy has, more than once, almost faced death in One Piece.
One of the biggest examples of that in early One Piece is his first defeat against Sir Crocodile. Luffy would have died there but was by the water he shot in the air. Luffy also had a clutch moment in Impel Down where he was poisoned by Magellan. He was saved thanks to Ivankov, but it was stated that his life expectancy would be reduced due to that.
Pell
Oda’s Most Outrageous Fake-Out Death
Undoubtedly, the character that most fans think of when the topic of being saved solely by the plot comes up is Pell. Pell is one of the loyal servants of the Arabasta royal family. In one of the most essential moments of the Arabasta arc, he chose to sacrifice himself by carrying a gigantic bomb out of range of the city.
Pell, despite being the direct target of the explosion, survived. This is definitely a controversial choice from Oda and the worst fake-out death the series has seen.
One Piece Chapter 1158 will be out in one week. As usual, One Piece is set to drop on Sunday. In Japan, One Piece drops at 12 AM JST on Monday. However, the vast majority of international readers will see the chapter available on August 31. The official release date of One Piece Chapter 1158 is August 31, 2025. Fans can read the chapter for free on Manga Plus.
