The rejected-by-both-worlds liminal-figure origin — Chopper is neither full reindeer nor full human, and both communities reject him for that. This is the foundational character-wound that drives his entire arc: his eventual joining the Straw Hats is the structural payoff (a third community that accepts him as both at once). The abominable snowman misidentification register installed in this flashback is the visual template for every later Chopper-as-monster misread by strangers (Sanji’s ‘MONSTER!!!’ on p. 18 of this very chapter already re-stages it). Pre-loads the recurring Hiriluk-as-first-human-to-accept-him plot — the quack doctor whose flashback is foreshadowed by Kureha’s ‘has a deep wound in his heart’.