Chapters · Alabasta › Little Garden

Chapter 127: Snail-o-phone

This chapter's foreshadowing ledger — what it plants, what it pays off, and what debuts here. Locked seeds pay off beyond your ⚓ progress; tap one to reveal it anyway.

Plants

15 seeds🌱 chekhov-explicit 🌱 name-etymology 🌱 slow-drip 🌱 visual-debut 🌱 chekhov-explicit 🌱 slow-drip 🌱 internal-accountability-corps 🌱 villain-catchphrase 🌱 officer-agent-codename-utterance 🌱 chekhov-explicit 🌱 named-before-shown 🌱 named-before-shown +3 more

Pays off

1 chainBaroque Works Bomb-In-Ale Trick-The-Giants-Into-Killing-Each-Other Plot

Firsts

**Chapter title — *Chapter 127: Snail-o-phone*** (page 1). The title names the **Den Den Mushi (snail-telephone)** — the first time the device is foregrounded as a chapter-title-object. The chapter is **named after the communication-device** that becomes the load-bearing prop of the back half: Mr. 3's Snail-o-phone is the channel through which Baroque Works HQ contacts the island. **First chapter-title-named-after-a-world-mechanism-prop** of the Alabasta saga. The Snail-o-phone is the **series' canonical telecommunication technology** — pre-loads every later long-range-call set-piece (the Marine intelligence-net, the Yonko-summit calls, the Buster Call relay). The device's design (a snail with a receiver-handset growing from its shell, facial expressions that mirror the speaker on the other end) is established here as Oda's organic-technology motif.
**Dorry and Brogy are both alive and reconciled** (pages 2-7). After the Ch. 0120-0126 wax-statue / sabotage ordeal, the two giant warriors are unfrozen, weeping with joy, and embracing (*'I'm so happy you're alive, old friend! Ho ho ho ho ho!!'* / *'Broggy, don't hug me so hard. My wound.'* — p. 6). The Strawhats (Luffy, Usopp, Nami, Karoo) weep alongside them at the scale of the giants' tears (*'Look!!! A rainbow!!!'* / *'They're like a waterfall!!!'* / *'Even his tears are gigantic!!!'* — p. 3). **Resolves the wax-statue-execution kill-clock** set up across Ch. 0124-0125; the giants survived.
Baroque Works Bomb-In-Ale Trick-The-Giants-Into-Killing-Each-Other Plot
Elbaf God Decides Right Combat Doctrine
**Sanji finds and answers Mr. 3's Snail-o-phone** (pages 8-9). Sanji (in Mr. 3's abandoned camp, p. 8): *'Mr. ...zero?'* He picks up the ringing Snail-o-phone and realizes the caller is asking for Mr. 3 (p. 9): *'Mr. 3?! So this is his Snail-o-phone...'* — Sanji recognizes that the device belongs to Mr. 3 and that *'the guy on the other end of this Snail-o-phone is...'* one of the Seven Warlords. **First on-page use of the Snail-o-phone as an intercepted-communication device** — Sanji decides to play along.
**Crocodile (Mr. 0) speaks on-page for the first time** (pages 9-17). The caller is **Mr. 0 — Sir Crocodile, the boss of Baroque Works** — heard but not visually shown (he is rendered as a heavily-shadowed silhouette behind a desk, p. 11, 17). **First on-page dialogue from Crocodile in the series.** He believes he is speaking to Mr. 3 and gives orders: confirm the kill of Vivi and the Strawhats, then go to Alabasta. The *Mr. 0 = Sir Crocodile* identity is internally consistent — Sanji deduces *'isn't Mr. Zero... the leader of Vivi's enemies?'* / *'one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea!!!?'* (pp. 8-9).
**Sanji impersonates Mr. 3 over the Snail-o-phone — first on-page Strawhat infiltration-by-deception beat** (pages 9-17). Sanji answers as Mr. 3 and reports *'Oh, yeah... mission accomplished'* / *'Everyone who knew your secret... has been eliminated'* (p. 10) — a deliberate **false report** to make Crocodile call off the hunt for Vivi. The deception nearly collapses when the Unluckies arrive with photographic proof (pp. 12-16) but Sanji recovers the lie (*'Turns out the Straw Hats were still alive. But it's okay, I finished them for good this time'* — p. 16-17). **First on-page Strawhat espionage / impersonation set-piece.**
**Crocodile's orders: go to Alabasta with the Eternal Pose, await further orders; this is Baroque Works' last electronic communication** (pages 11, 17). Crocodile (to 'Mr. 3'): *'Go to Alabasta... and await further orders'* / *'I want you to head for Alabasta with Ms. Golden Week'* / *'The time has come to begin the most crucial part of our plan'* (p. 11). And: *'this will be our last electronic communication. We can't have the navy catching on to us'* (p. 17). **Canonizes the Alabasta-arc plan-phase-shift** — Baroque Works is moving from the recruitment / target-elimination phase into the *crucial part of our plan* (the coup of Alabasta). Pre-loads the Alabasta-saga set-piece.
Eternal Pose Named On Page
Mr 2 First Off-Page Reference
**Miss All Sunday is present at Baroque Works HQ alongside Crocodile** (pages 11, 17). Miss All Sunday is shown at the boss's side — she receives the *'dispatch Mr. 2'* order directly (*'Yes?'* / *'Ms. All Sunday'* — p. 17) and is seen with Bunchi the riding turtle (p. 17). Confirms the **boss-and-VP command-pairing** established at Ch. 0114.
Unluckies Baroque Works Internal Surveillance Doctrine

+1 more in the dossier below

Arc: Little Garden · Saga: Alabasta · Volume: 14

Summary

Cover-page (p. 1): Chapter 127: SNAIL-O-PHONE + the cover-story serial Django’s Dance Paradise, Vol. 2: First, Know Your Place — Django in cloak-and-crescent-hat silhouette beneath a tree, a tattered Black-Cat-Pirates jolly roger floating in a thought-bubble, a snail on the tree-trunk (motif-rhyme with the chapter title).

The chapter opens on the giants reconciled (pp. 2-7). Dorry and Brogy, freed from the Ch. 0124-0125 wax-statue execution-trap, weep with joy on a scale that produces a literal rainbow and a tear-waterfall — the Strawhats (Luffy, Usopp, Nami) and Karoo weep alongside them (“Look!!! A rainbow!!!” / “They’re like a waterfall!!!” / “Even his tears are gigantic!!!” — p. 3). Dorry (recovering, p. 5) puzzles over how the duel went wrong (“But… how…!!?”) — and the giants deduce the truth: their century-old Elbaf-forged weapons broke from a hundred years of attrition, and an outside saboteur deceived them. Brogy and Dorry reunite fully (p. 6 — “I’m so happy you’re alive, old friend! Ho ho ho ho ho!!” / “Broggy, don’t hug me so hard. My wound.”), give thanks to the gods of Elbaf (p. 7 — “this is a glorious day!!!”), and immediately fall back into their comic blow-trading (“You hit my wound!” / WHAM!!! / “You looking for a fight!!?”). The bomb-in-the-ale plot has failed: the giants are alive, reconciled, and now aware they were tricked.

Cut to Mr. 3’s abandoned camp (p. 8). Sanji finds Mr. 3’s ringing Snail-o-phone and answers it. The caller asks for “Mr. …zero?” and then for Mr. 3 — Sanji realizes (pp. 8-9) that “Mr. Zero” is “the leader of Vivi’s enemies” and “one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea!!!?”, and that the device is Mr. 3’s Snail-o-phone. Sanji decides to play along: he answers as Mr. 3.

The caller is Sir Crocodile — Mr. 0, the boss of Baroque Works (pp. 9-17) — heard but rendered only as a heavily-shadowed silhouette behind a desk; his first on-page dialogue in the series. Believing he is speaking to Mr. 3, Crocodile asks whether the mission is accomplished. Sanji impersonates Mr. 3 and gives a deliberate false report (p. 10): “Oh, yeah… mission accomplished” / “Everyone who knew your secret… has been eliminated. So you can call off the hunt.” Crocodile gives orders (p. 11): the Unluckies are en route to confirm the kill and to “deliver something… to Alabasta. The Eternal Pose”; Sanji is to “go to Alabasta… and await further orders” with Ms. Golden Week, because “the time has come to begin the most crucial part of our plan.”

The deception nearly collapses (pp. 12-16): the Unluckies (Mr. 13 the otter + Ms. Friday the vulture) arrive at the camp, draw weapons on Sanji, and produce photographic wanted-poster proof that the Strawhats are still alive. Sanji fights them off (WAM!!! / “Four-eyed monkey!!!” / FWIP!! / “…you over-grown chicken!” — pp. 13-15) and salvages the lie back over the Snail-o-phone: Crocodile snaps a flower-stem in suspicion (SNAP!!, p. 16) — “You gave me a false report… didn’t you just tell me the mission was accomplished?” — and Sanji recovers it (“Turns out the Straw Hats were still alive. But it’s okay, I finished them for good this time. So there’s no need to send anyone else after them” — pp. 16-17).

Crocodile accepts the recovered report (p. 17): “You’re to go straight to Alabasta. … Hereafter, you’ll receive your orders directly, as in the past. … And this will be our last electronic communication. We can’t have the navy catching on to us. … That is all. I wish you success, Mr. 3.” He then turns to Miss All Sunday — present at HQ at his side, with Bunchi the riding turtle — and issues the chapter’s final order: “Dispatch Mr. 2 to Little Garden. Ms. All Sunday.” KLAK — the Snail-o-phone line closes.

Page 18 — SBS Question Corner, guest-hosted by Miss Valentine: a tempura-etymology question and Oda’s reply about the missing-scars panel-error from Vol. 1 page 51.

New reveals

Chapter title — Snail-o-phone (p. 1) — first chapter-title-named-after-the-Den-Den-Mushi communication device; the Snail-o-phone is the load-bearing prop of the back half.
Dorry and Brogy both alive and reconciled (pp. 2-7) — the giants survive the wax-statue execution-trap; weep with joy, embrace, reunite.
The giants deduce the bomb sabotage (pp. 5-7) — “the weapons… it must’ve been” — they realize they were tricked into the rigged duel by an outside saboteur. On-page failure of Mr. 3’s bomb-in-the-ale plot.
Elbaf weapons worn out by a century of combat (pp. 6-7) — even Elbaf-forged weapons degrade over the Hundred-Year-Duel; “these weapons haven’t been cared for over the last century. And neither have their owners.”
Snail-o-phone (Den Den Mushi) foregrounded as a device (pp. 8-17) — first chapter to feature the snail-telephone as a central plot-prop; the snail mirrors the facial expressions of the speaker on the other end.
Crocodile (Mr. 0) speaks on-page for the first time (pp. 9-17) — heard, never shown except as a shadowed silhouette behind a desk; first on-page Crocodile dialogue in the series.
Sanji impersonates Mr. 3 over the Snail-o-phone (pp. 9-17) — first on-page Strawhat infiltration-by-deception / espionage set-piece; Sanji feeds Crocodile a false report to call off the hunt for Vivi.
Crocodile’s orders: go to Alabasta, await further orders, deliver the Eternal Pose (p. 11) — Baroque Works plan-phase-shift; “the time has come to begin the most crucial part of our plan.”
Crocodile: this is the last electronic communication (p. 17) — Baroque Works switches to direct in-person orders to avoid Navy interception.
Mr. 2 dispatched to Little Garden (p. 17) — “Dispatch Mr. 2 to Little Garden” — first on-page active command involving Mr. 2; pays off the Ch. 0117 Mr. 2 off-page name-drop.
Miss All Sunday present at Baroque Works HQ (pp. 11, 17) — at Crocodile’s side, receives the Mr. 2 order, seen with Bunchi the riding turtle.
The Unluckies (Mr. 13 + Ms. Friday) deployed as kill-verification agents (pp. 11-16) — arrive at Little Garden to confirm the kill and deliver the Eternal Pose; nearly expose Sanji’s lie with photographic proof.
Cover-story — Django’s Dance Paradise, Vol. 2: First, Know Your Place (p. 1) — second installment of the Django cover-serial.

Foreshadowing seeds planted

Ch. 127 p. 1, pp. 8-17 — Snail-o-phone (Den Den Mushi) debut as a foregrounded device

The chapter is titled and structured around the Snail-o-phone — a snail whose shell grows a telephone-handset and whose face mirrors the expression of the speaker on the other end of the line. First chapter to treat the device as a load-bearing plot-prop rather than background. Establishes the series’ canonical telecommunication technology — the organic-technology motif (living-creature-as-device) that recurs across the entire series (Baby Den Den Mushi, Black Den Den Mushi for wiretapping, the Buster Call relay, Visual Den Den Mushi). Pre-loads every later long-range-call set-piece — Marine intelligence-net, Yonko-summit calls, the Marineford / Wano comms relays. The Snail-o-phone’s expression-mirroring is the install for the recurring gag/tension-device of reading the caller’s mood through the snail.

Ch. 127 pp. 9-17 — Sanji impersonates Mr. 3 over the Snail-o-phone — first Strawhat infiltration-by-deception beat

Sanji answers Mr. 3’s Snail-o-phone and deliberately impersonates Mr. 3 to feed Crocodile a false mission-report and call off the hunt for Vivi. First on-page Strawhat espionage / impersonation set-piece — the crew’s first use of deception-as-tactic against Baroque Works (vs. their usual head-on combat). Sanji’s improvised cool-headed lie under pressure (recovering the deception when the Unluckies expose it) is the first on-page Sanji-as-tactician beat. Pre-loads Sanji’s recurring infiltration / disguise / deception roles across the series (the Mr. 2 face-swap chaos in Alabasta, the Germa-66 raid suit forward-canon, the Wano disguise arc). The impersonate-the-villain-over-comms-to-misdirect-HQ tactic is the install for later Strawhat comms-deception (the Enies Lobby Den Den Mushi feints, the Dressrosa SMILE-factory infiltration).

Ch. 127 pp. 9-17 — Crocodile’s first on-page voice — boss-of-Baroque-Works heard but not shown

Sir Crocodile (Mr. 0) speaks on-page for the first time in the series, rendered only as a heavily-shadowed silhouette behind a desk at Baroque Works HQ. The named-and-now-voiced-but-still-not-visually-shown staging extends the Ch. 0113-0114 named-before-shown slow-drip: Crocodile was named (Ch. 0113), confirmed as boss + Warlord (Ch. 0113-0114), and is now voiced (Ch. 0127) — the visual debut remains forward-canon (~Ch. 155+). The silhouette-behind-the-desk staging is Oda’s standard crime-boss-reveal grammar — pre-loads the full Crocodile visual debut. His calm, clipped command-register (“I asked you a question.” / “In other words… you gave me a false report.”) installs Crocodile’s cold-tactician characterization before his face is ever seen.

Ch. 127 pp. 11, 17 — Baroque Works plan-phase-shift: go to Alabasta, begin the crucial part of the plan

Crocodile: “Go to Alabasta… and await further orders. … The time has come to begin the most crucial part of our plan.” / “This will be our last electronic communication. We can’t have the navy catching on to us.” Canonizes the Alabasta-arc plan-phase-shift — Baroque Works moves from the target-elimination / recruitment phase into the active coup-of-Alabasta phase. The comms-blackout (switching to in-person orders) is the operational tightening that signals the endgame is beginning. Pre-loads the entire Alabasta-saga set-piece: the civil war, the Rainbase / royal-palace plot, the crucial part being the seizure of Alabasta from within. The deliver the Eternal Pose to Alabasta courier-instruction routes the navigation-MacGuffin toward the next arc.

Ch. 127 pp. 11-16 — the Unluckies deployed as kill-verification / internal-surveillance agents

Crocodile: “The Unluckies are on their way there now… to confirm that the job is done… and deliver something.” The otter-and-vulture pair (Mr. 13 + Ms. Friday) arrive at Little Garden, draw weapons on the impostor, and produce photographic wanted-poster proof that the targets are still alive. First on-page operational deployment of the Unluckies — the internal-surveillance / punishment-squad doctrine (Ch. 0107-era install) is now demonstrated in action as a verify-the-kill-and-punish-false-reports enforcement mechanism. Pre-loads the Baroque Works compartmented-cell paranoia-architecture that structures the whole organization — Crocodile trusts no agent’s report and sends animal-auditors to confirm.

Payoffs (seeds from earlier chapters that resolve here)

Mentions / appearances

Characters present: Dorry (pp. 2-7 — alive, reconciled, weeping, deduces the sabotage), Brogy (pp. 2-7 — alive, reconciled, “I’m so happy you’re alive, old friend!”, comic blow-trade with Dorry), Luffy (pp. 2-7 — weeping with the giants, “Look!!! A rainbow!!!”), Usopp (pp. 2-7 — weeping, “I know how Broggy feels!!!”), Nami (pp. 3, 7 — weeping, “My ears!!”), Karoo (pp. 3, 7 — “QUACK!!!”), Sanji (pp. 8-17 — finds and answers Mr. 3’s Snail-o-phone, impersonates Mr. 3, fights off the Unluckies, recovers the false report), Crocodile (pp. 9-17 — Mr. 0, heard on the Snail-o-phone, shown only as a shadowed silhouette behind a desk; first on-page voice), Nico Robin (pp. 11, 17 — Miss All Sunday, present at Baroque Works HQ at Crocodile’s side; receives the Mr. 2 dispatch order; seen with Bunchi the riding turtle), Mr 13 (pp. 12-16 — Unluckies otter, arrives to confirm the kill, draws weapon on Sanji), Ms Friday (pp. 12-16 — Unluckies vulture, arrives with Mr. 13, produces photographic proof).
Cover-story appearance: Django (cover-serial Django’s Dance Paradise, Vol. 2: First, Know Your Place).
SBS appearance: Miss Valentine guest-hosts the Question Corner (p. 18).
Mentioned (not appearing): Mr. 3 (his abandoned camp + Snail-o-phone are the setting of the back half; impersonated by Sanji; named by Crocodile as the order-recipient), Vivi (Crocodile asks whether “Princess Vivi” has been eliminated — p. 10), Miss Goldenweek (Crocodile orders Mr. 3 to “head for Alabasta with Ms. Golden Week” — p. 11), Mr. 2.
Crews/Groups: Baroque Works (Crocodile / Mr. 0, Miss All Sunday, the Unluckies, Mr. 3, Mr. 2, Miss Goldenweek), Straw Hat Pirates, Giant Warrior Pirates (Dorry + Brogy).
Locations: Little Garden, Grand Line, Alabasta (the destination Crocodile orders the agents toward; Baroque Works HQ — interior shown), Elbaf (referenced — the giants’ homeland, source of the worn weapons; “give thanks to the gods of Elbaph”).
World-Building: Eternal Pose (Crocodile orders it delivered to Alabasta), Seven Warlords of the Sea (Crocodile / Mr. 0 confirmed as one).

Notable panels

Page 1 — Cover-page: Chapter 127: SNAIL-O-PHONE. Cover-story Django’s Dance Paradise, Vol. 2: First, Know Your Place — Django in cloak-and-crescent-hat silhouette beneath a tree, hands raised; a tattered Black-Cat-Pirates jolly roger (cat-skull flag) floats in a thought-bubble out over the sea where a ship sails away; a snail rests on the tree-trunk (motif-rhyme with the title).
Page 2 — OOOOOH / WAAAAH!! — a giant’s vast open-mouthed weeping face, tears spraying (PLOOSH!!).
Page 3 — THOOM THOOM THOOM — the reconciled giants weeping; the Strawhats react: Karoo “QUACK!!!”, Luffy “Look!!! A rainbow!!!”, Usopp “They’re like a waterfall!!!”, Nami “Even his tears are gigantic!!!”; Usopp “I know how Broggy feels!!!”, Nami “My ears!!”.
Page 4 — Full-page DOOM!!! — the two enormous giants embracing / falling together in the jungle, the tiny Strawhats and Mr. 3’s camp visible at their feet.
Page 5 — A giant (Dorry) coming to: “I must’ve passed out.” / “But… how…!!?” — the giants begin to deduce: “The weapons… it must’ve been…” — “Mr. Giant!!!” / “Dorry!!” — Usopp: “Oh, I get it!!!”
Page 6 — “…in a battle between giants that lasts 100 years.” / “Even weapons forged in Elbaf get worn out…” — KLA—NK! — Usopp/Luffy: “It’s a miracle!!” / “This is incredible…” — WHAP!!! Brogy hugs Dorry: “I’m so happy you’re alive, old friend! Ho ho ho ho ho!!” — Dorry: “Broggy, don’t hug me so hard. My wound.”
Page 7 — Brogy: “I give thanks to the gods of Elbaph!!! This is a glorious day!!!” — “These weapons haven’t been cared for over the last century. And neither have their owners.” — the giants resume comic blow-trading: “You hit my wound!” / WHAM!!! / “You’re at it again!!?” / RRMMB / “You looking for a fight!!?”. Nami sweatdrops in the foreground.
Page 8 — WOOOOOOO — Mr. 3’s empty camp; a ringing Snail-o-phone on the wax-table. Sanji (smoke trailing, brow furrowed): “Mr. …zero?” / “…the leader of Vivi’s enemies?” / TAP TAP — Sanji’s hand reaching for the receiver — “Then the guy on the other end of this Snail-o-phone is…”
Page 9 — Sanji close-up (cigarette, sweating): “One of the Seven Warlords of the Sea!!!?” — the Snail-o-phone mirrors a face: “You’ve been gone a long time.” / “Have you accomplished your mission, Mr. 3?” — Sanji (realizing): “Mr. 3?! So this is his Snail-o-phone… Now I get it.” — wide shot of the wax-camp.
Page 10 — Snail-o-phone close-ups; Sanji answering as Mr. 3: “Oh, yeah… mission accomplished.” — Crocodile (off-snail): “Have you eliminated Princess Vivi and the Straw Hats?” / “I asked you a question.” — Sanji (reclining, lying): “Everyone who knew your secret… has been eliminated. So you can call off the hunt.”
Page 11 — A hand placing a lily in a vase; Crocodile: “The Unluckies are on their way there now… to confirm that the job is done… and deliver something… to Alabasta. The Eternal Pose.” — wide panel: Baroque Works HQ interior — Crocodile’s snail-shaped Snail-o-phone large in frame, chandeliers, arched windows; Miss All Sunday small at the side. Crocodile: “Go to Alabasta… and await further orders. … The time has come to begin the most crucial part of our plan.” — first on-page look at Baroque Works HQ.
Page 12 — WOOOOOOO — two new Snail-o-phones with otter-mask and vulture-mask faces (the Unluckies’ arrival mirrored on the snails). Sanji: “Who are these guys?” — SHEEN / CHAK!! / VEEEN — the Unluckies (Mr. 13 in polka-dot otter-suit, Ms. Friday) draw weapons (a sword and a pen-gun) on Sanji.
Page 13 — POW POW POW POW / BOOM!! — Sanji dodges the Unluckies’ attack: “Whoa!!! Ugh!! What the heck is that!!?” — WOOSH!!!
Page 14 — Sanji counter-attack: “You want to kill me?” / “Just try it, you… four-eyed monkey!!!” — WAM!! — Sanji kicks Mr. 13; KA-CHAK!! — the Unluckies regroup.
Page 15 — POW POW POW POW!!! — Sanji fighting the Unluckies mid-air: “Now… just a… darn minute…” — FWIP!! / WOMP!! — “…you over-grown chicken!” — and Sanji recovers the call: “Turns out the Straw Hats were still alive. … Really. Oh, um… nothing. Huff…”
Page 16 — A flower-stem in a glass; KLINK (ice). Crocodile (suspicious): “Still alive… you say?” — SNAP!! — Crocodile snaps the flower-stem: “…the mission was accomplished? Didn’t you just tell me… you gave me a false report.” — Sanji (sweating, recovering): “Er, yes. I thought it was… but they weren’t as dead as I thought.”
Page 17 — Crocodile (shadowed silhouette behind a desk at HQ): “You’re to go straight to Alabasta. … Hereafter, you’ll receive your orders directly, as in the past. … And this will be our last electronic communication. We can’t have the navy catching on to us. … That is all. I wish you success, Mr. 3.” — then to Miss All Sunday (shown with Bunchi the riding turtle): “Dispatch Mr. 2 to Little Garden. Ms. All Sunday.” — Miss All Sunday: “Yes?” — KLAK — the line closes. Final order panel — Mr. 2 dispatched + last-electronic-communication.
Page 18 — SBS Question Corner, guest-hosted by Miss Valentine (header art: a snail-curl gag composition with several characters). A reader-letter on the Portuguese etymology of tempura; Oda answers a follow-up about the missing-scars panel-error from Vol. 1 page 51 (two side-by-side panels showing the correction).

Open questions raised

Has Sanji’s deception actually worked? Sanji recovers the false report and Crocodile accepts it (“I wish you success, Mr. 3”), but Crocodile’s flower-snap shows he is suspicious. Forward-canon: the deception buys the Strawhats time, but Crocodile dispatches Mr. 2 anyway — the lie is only partially successful.
What is the most crucial part of our plan? Crocodile says the time has come to begin it but does not specify on-page. Forward-canon: the coup of Alabasta — the civil war, the royal-palace plot.
Will Mr. 2 reach Little Garden, and will he encounter the Strawhats? Crocodile dispatches Mr. 2 to Little Garden. Forward-canon: Mr. 2 Bon Clay crosses paths with the Strawhats and becomes a major Alabasta-saga figure.
Why has Baroque Works gone to a comms-blackout? Crocodile says “we can’t have the navy catching on to us.” Implies the Navy is closing in on Baroque Works’ communications — pre-loads the Alabasta-saga tension between Baroque Works and the Marines.
What happens to the Eternal Pose Crocodile ordered delivered to Alabasta? The Unluckies were to deliver it. Forward-canon: the Strawhats need an Alabasta-bound route — the Eternal Pose / navigation-MacGuffin remains in play.
Who is Crocodile, visually? He is now voiced but still shown only as a shadowed silhouette. Forward-canon: the full visual debut is ~Ch. 155+.

⚓ Where are you in One Piece?

⚓ Uncharted waters