One Piece Season 2 Ending Explained: What is Operation Utopia?

The second season of Netflix’s ‘One Piece’ brings back the Straw Hats, who are on their way to the Grand Line. As their adventures continue, they inadvertently become embroiled in the political issues of several kingdoms, forced to intervene and save the lives of innocent people. On the way, they discover several islands, meet new people, and expand their crew, while also facing off against some of the toughest enemies. And yet, all of this is just the beginning of their never-ending adventures. SPOILERS AHEAD.

One Piece Season 2 Recap

Luffy and his crew make their way to the Grand Line, where they battle one challenge after another. In the midst of this, they cross paths with the agents of Baroque Works, an evil organisation led by a mysterious Mr. Zero, whose identity is not known to anyone in the world. They have been causing trouble in the kingdom of Alabasta, and by the end, the true scale of their plan comes out. One of its agents is Miss Wednesday, who later turns out to be Princess Vivi of Alabasta, working undercover to find Mr. Zero and stop him once and for all. At first, the Straw Hats take her on to help her get back to her kingdom, but as more of Baroque Works’ nefarious agents cross their paths, they realise that there are much bigger things at play here.

Their journey leads them from Loguetown to islands like Little Garden, where they befriend giant ogres. Their journey this season ends at Drum Kingdom, where a decisive battle breaks out to stop an evil king. At the same time, the Marines continue their quest to capture and bring to justice pirates like Luffy. Captain Smoker tries to capture Luffy at Loguetown, but is stopped by a mysterious figure. Later, Garp tells him that Baroque Works is a bigger problem than Luffy, so he embarks on the quest to track down its operatives and Mr. Zero, assisted by his sword-nerd second-in-command, Tashigi.

Is Wapol Dead? Who Becomes the New Leader of Drum Kingdom?

The final episode focuses on the war for Drum Kingdom as the oppressive king Wapol returns to reclaim his throne, while the villagers prepare to fight. The Devil Fruit that Miss All Sunday gave him bestows him with the power of eating anything and turning into a weapon. So, he eats his own army and turns them into monsters. Since Dalton is the leader of the surviving Drum Kingdom, he is lured into the woods where Wapol and his forces ambush and injure him, leaving him for dead. Meanwhile, Wapol’s monsters descend on the villagers, who are led by Zoro, assisted by Usopp,and try their best to fend off the enemy even when they were never trained for warfare. Wapol, on the other hand, heads towards his castle on the hill, where the rest of the team, led by Luffy, fight him and his two cronies.

Kureha flees right before the fight, but that turns out to be a good thing because she finds Dalton in the woods and saves him. It turns out that he, too, has powers of a Devil Fruit with which he can turn into a monster himself and fight Wapol’s monsters. Luffy and Sanji fight Wapol, unexpectedly helped by Chopper, who grows to a monstrous size. After a lot of fighting where neither side is ready to let up, Luffy and his friends finally succeed in defeating Wapol, who is chucked out of the window, likely falling to his death. While we don’t see his corpse, the confirmation comes from the fact that all the soldiers he had eaten up and turned into monsters revert to their natural form. This happens at a critical moment as Zoro and the villagers seemed to be on the breaking point. With Wapol and his Devil Fruit powers gone, Drum Kingdom is safe again.

Dalton takes charge of the situation, ready to build the kingdom anew. Before the battle, he told Zoro that he was just trying to keep things together and did not think about becoming the leader that the kingdom needed. However, considering how much he cares about the people and how better a person he is compared to Wapol, there is no better choice than him to become the next King of Drum Kingdom and lead it back to its glory days. He is also not alone in his endeavour, as despite her efforts to run away, Kureha has returned to the kingdom. With Wapol gone, she and the rest of the doctors don’t need to fear for their lives, and they can go back to being the medical professionals whose job is to save lives and who are interested in exploring and experimenting with cutting-edge medicine. In the hands of Dalton and Kureha, Drum Kingdom is safe again.

What was Hiruluk’s Cure?

When Wapol’s oppression robbed Drum Kingdom of its peace and prosperity, forcing the doctors to either submit to their king or abandon their homeland and run away, Dr. Hiruluk was one of the few who not only escaped Wapol’s grasp but stayed on the island because he refused to leave his people. While Kureha seemed to have given up on the kingdom and its people and didn’t seem to care (though she clearly does), Hiruluk decided to find a solution to all of the kingdom’s problems. He believed that there was a cure-all that could fix the whole thing and restore the peace of the land. The locals believed that the cure-all was in the dangerous part of the forest in a mushroom, but Hiruluk remembered a story about how a person was cured of his maladies when he saw cherry blossoms for the first time.

Hiruluk believed that recreating the same thing would save his people, that the cherry blossoms would remind people of the hope for a better future, which is why he creates a concoction that he leaves for Kureha before he goes on the suicide mission in front of Wapol. With the Drum Kingdom free of Wapol’s terror and ready to enter a new era, Kureha decides to give Hiruluk’s cure to the people. She shoots it out of a cannon in the sky, which turns pink. Soon, cherry blossoms start to rain down on the people, and they are reminded of the magic and miracle of hope and goodness. As Hiruluk predicted, it does have a massive impact on the people, and while all their problems might not be solved right away, it does mark the beginning of a better future under good leadership.

What did Kureha Give to Chopper?

As the people of Drum Kingdom welcome this change, Tony Tony Chopper embarks on adventures of his own. Before leaving the island, Luffy invites Chopper to join his crew as their resident doctor, and the baby reindeer accepts their offer. He is heartbroken to leave his home, and he cries his heart out when he sees the pink cloud and the rain of cherry blossoms because it reminds him of his father-figure and mentor. At the same time, being a pirate and sailing under the banner of skull and crossbones is something he has always wanted. When he leaves, Kureha gets angry at him, but in her heart, she, too, knows that little Chopper must make his own journey.

As her seal of approval, she leaves a bag of supplies for him, so that Chopper knows that, despite their goodbye not being ideal, she still cares for him and is rooting for him. She also becomes intrigued with Luffy whom she compared to Gol D. Roger, mentioning the connection between them through the Will of D. While one might think as a confirmation of Roger being Luffy’s father, the Will of D simply means that they have a lot of similar characteristics, which are only seen in those marked with the “D” (that may or may not refer to Davy Jones), which refers to the enemies of God. Like most things in the ‘One Piece’ universe, there are a lot of layers to this phrase, which will be revealed over the course of the story. For now, Luffy and his team are headed towards their next mission.

What is Operation Utopia?

Having saved one kingdom, Luffy and his team are in no mood to stop. With Princess Vivi on board and the evil machinations of the Baroque Works out in the open, Luffy decides that their next stop should be Alabasta. As Garp mentioned at the beginning of the season, the country is on the brink of a civil war, which turns out to be a part of the plan executed by Mr. Zero and his henchmen. The Straw Hats are not only going to take Vivi back home, but they are also going to help her save her kingdom. The final scene of the season shows the audience what the heroes are up against by revealing the identity of Mr. Zero. He is the leader of Baroque Works and has, so far, been operating from the shadows, sending his operatives to kill people who stood in his way.

The shocking reveal is that Mr. Zero is Sir Crocodile, a former pirate who is now one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. They are assigned by the World Government, which has voided all the bounties on them, giving them legal permission to remain as pirates in exchange for curbing the wannabe pirates. The fact that he is running Baroque Works as Mr. Zero shows that he has his sights on bigger things, and becoming one of the Seven Warlords was just a way to get the government off his back. With the Straw Hats ruining his plan of having Wapol back on the throne of Drum Kingdom, he needs to rework his plans a little. The goal, however, still remains on crumbling Alabasta’s order, plunging it into civil war, and weakening the hold of their king, Nefertari Cobra, so that the kingdom is ripe for the pirate’s taking.

In the end, he tells Miss All Sunday, whose real name is Nico Robin, to kick off Operation Utopia. According to the manga, causing strife in Alabasta and overthrowing its king is just the beginning of Crocodile’s plan. His real focus is on a ship named Pluton, which is such a powerful weapon that it can lead him to form a powerful government of his own to rival the World Government, creating his own version of utopia. Because the ship is somewhere in Alabasta, he zeroes in on the kingdom, doing whatever he can to get Cobra out of the way and making him reveal the location of Pluton. He would have been able to do it all, with so many of his agents actively working on it. But with the Straw Hats on their way to Alabasta, one can safely assume that his plan is not going to work out after all.