Critics from Anime News Network highlight the episode's use of graphic imagery to convey Law's trauma, including:
The episode utilizes a "flashback within a flashback" structure. It begins in the town of Spider Miles, where a ten-year-old Law has already joined the Donquixote Pirates. The narrative then recedes further to reveal the collapse of Flevance. One Piece (Dub) Episode 701
Episode 701 serves to humanize the stoic "Surgeon of Death" by showing the roots of his nihilism. Law is introduced as a child who has "seen hell" and lost his capacity for hope, leading him to stab Corazon at the end of the episode as an act of raw, unchanneled rage. Critics from Anime News Network highlight the episode's