Smoker’s force of fate register from Ch. 0099 (applied to Luffy as an individual pirate) scales here to nation-scale (Alabasta). The arc-as-history-pivot awareness installs Smoker as a Marine-as-historical-observer archetype.
Why this matters
Pre-loads his forward-canon Marineford-witness role and his broader recurring positioning as the Marine officer who understands what’s actually happening at major-arc inflection points.