Oda's showing a kid being bullied prior to his painful death. He's getting pretty dark
- Let Ace get murdered right in front of Luffy
- Had Usopp get literal abandonment issues from his father
- Had Sanji starve for 3 months and Zeff ate his leg
- Had Robin experience genocide
- Had Nami watch her adoptive mother get murdered right in front of her
- Had Chopper live a lie and poison his father out of love from said father
- Had Brook lose everyone from poison, buried all of his crewmates and wanter a ship for 50 years
- Had Fishmen deal with actual racism
- Had characters who went through slavery
- Had Law's entire family be murdered due to illness
- Had Big Mom eat a bunch of children
- Boiled fucking Oden alive
- Had Bonney be an absolute byproduct of rape
- Had Kuma turn into a cyborg to save his daughter
- Had Loki straight up get called ugly by his mother at birth
Like....i could keep going. One Piece might present itself as lighthearted but conceptually its actually really fucked up lol.