WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for One Piece, Episode 941, "Toko's Tears! Orochi's Pitiless Bullets!" now streaming on Funimation and Crunchyroll.
Orochi ranks as one of the vilest adversaries in all of One Piece. Being the cruel-hearted Shogun of Wano, he's a coward whose paranoia about any potential uprising has turned him into a target of ridicule among his own guards. His petty sins continue to pile up throughout the series, but this episode put in stark perspective the sheer depths to Orochi's cruelty.
He is responsible for Yatsuie's execution last week, delivering the killing bullets that ended his life. Orochi's sins are further revealed this week, showcasing a cruel action he performed in the past compounded with a present sin. All this adds up to one thing: an angry Zoro and an irate Sanji.
Smile Fruit
Kaido had long been importing the artificial SMILE Fruit from Donquixote Doflamingo and Caesar Clown, until the Straw Hats destroyed the factory producing them awhile back. SMILE Fruit are artificial Devil Fruit, concocted with the enigmatic chemical SAD. These fruits ultimately paled in comparison to their organic originals. Only one in every 10 SMILE Fruit actually worked as intended, with that one granting anyone who ate it the powers of the beast. However, the other nine only granted the curse of the Devil Fruit, as well as an extra, crueler fate. No one who consumed a malfunctioning SMILE Fruit could ever express any other emotion other than joy and laughter.
Kaido, being a socipathic pirate with a powerful legion of soldiers, compelled his pirates to consume the Fruits, with only those who got a working Fruit being allowed to become one of his Gifters -- powerful pirates. The other nine out of ten became Pleasures -- pirates who had no extra powers, but smiled.
However, the defective fruit still retain their power to curse any who eat it. Orochi, tired of hearing the poor starving people of Ebisu Town complain about their hunger, palyed a cruel trick to get them to stop annoying them about their needs: he gave them the defective SMILE Fruit, cursing them with the inability to ever cry about their pain ever again.
This leads to the scene of Ebisu Town mourning their lost patriarch, Yatsuie, by laughing with tears in their eyes, unable to do anything else while Orochi, overseeing the process, mocks them. Not content to cross the moral event horizon once in the episode, Orochi tops himself by attempting to murder a child in public.
Orochi Tries to Kill Toko
What triggers Zoro to attack Orochi himself is when Orochi tires murdering Toko. Toko, being Yatsuie's daughter, was one of the many souls Orochi condemned to eternal laughter. With the young girl cradling her father's corpse in the street, she ends up falling in Orochi's vision. Orochi had previously ordered Toko to be executed, which led to a series of events that culminated in Hiyori, posing as a geisha in his service, faking her own death.
In a murderous rage, he fires multiple times right at Toko, planning on murdering the girl in the view of his entire town. However, before the bullets can reach him, Zoro dives in, slicing up a barrier to intercept the bullets. Joining him is a similarly angry Sanji, who decided to assist Zoro's defensive maneuver.
It is clear that Zoro and Sanji, now in the middle of town, are angered enough by the revelations surrounding Ebisu Town to launch a full-scale attack on the Shogun right then and there. Orochi had better watch his back, because he's found a way to enrage the strongest pirates in the Straw Hat crew.
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