Eiichiro Oda's OnePiece is one of the longest-running manga series in the world. The manga has been serializing for decades and over time, it has become the best-selling manga overtaking the likes of Dragon Ball, Golgo13, Naruto, etc. It is the common consensus that it is very difficult to remain popular over the years, but One Piece has managed to do so exquisitely.
There are many reasons behind its success— world-building, characters, and, fights, etc. It is widely known that almost all OnePiece characters influence the story in one way or the other. One of the main powers in OnePiece are the Celestial Dragons, who have plenty of mysteries surrounding them.
Who Are The Celestial Dragons?
The Celestial Dragons are the descendants of the founders of the World Government. They are of royal lineage and consider themselves to be untouchable. The Celestial Dragons hold a lot of power as they are directly related to the nineteen kings who created the World Government.
Most of the Celestial Dragons are very obnoxious and they resent the common people. Whenever they are outside Mary Geoise, they wear an oxygen tank as they do not want to breathe the same air the ordinary people. The highest-ranked Celestial Dragons are the Five Elders. They are only supplanted by Im in terms of authority.
What Powers Do They Hold
Being the descendants of the older kings, the Celestial Dragons hold a considerable amount of power. They are heavily protected by various organizations. When Luffy punched Charlos at Sabaody Archipelago, it resulted in mass unrest. The Marines immediately swarmed to the location where the auction was taking place. Sengoku had to send Admiral Kizaru to check on the situation and prevent any further harm to the Celestial Dragons.
During the Levely arc, the Celestial Dragons were seen being accompanied by the CP0. They can order the CP0 to assassinate any person that they want. In addition to their power to get anyone assassinated, the Celestial Dragons can also enslave any person that they like. No one can question them about their sordid taste, which makes them among the most detestable characters in the entire series. With such immense political power, the Celestial Dragons can cause a lot of problems for anyone.
The Influence So Far
So far many characters have endured a lot of terrible things because of the Celestial Dragons. The most despicable thing that the Celestial Dragons are involved in is slavery. Since they consider everyone worthless, they don't see a problem in turning them into slaves. The Celestial Dragons turned the Boa sisters into slaves along with countless others. These sisters were saved by Fisher Tiger, who infiltrated Mary Geoise and saved all the slaves.
The Five Elders were responsible for the Ohara Incident. When Clover started to talk about the Void Century to the Five Elders, he was shot. Then the Five Elders asked Spandine to commence the Buster Call as they recognized the threat that Clover and the scholars of Ohara posed to the authority of the World Government. The Buster Call resulted in the deaths of countless innocent people. The only survivor of this tragedy was Nico Robin.
The Celestial Dragons have been involved in the main story several times already. They played a major part in the events that transpired during the Sabaody Archipelago arc. Punching Charlos caused huge Navy deployment on the mangroves, which included Kizaru. Kizaru nearly wiped out the entire Worst Generation on his own. He went after the Straw Hats and they almost died, however, they were saved by Silvers Rayleigh.
Charlos was once again involved in trouble during the Levely arc, where he tried to enslave Shirahoshi. This was of course an outrageous act, but no one could defy him. Luckily for Shirahoshi, Donquixote Mjosgard was present at the time of the incident and he thrashed Charlos with a club, and thus saved the Mermaid Princess.
​​​​​Role In The Future
It is no surprise that the Celestial Dragons have a major role to play in the series. After all, the Five Elders have many mysteries surrounding them. They are knowledgeable about the past, and they know about the Void Century. The Five Elders desperately want to stop anyone from learning about the past. They will do anything in their power to stop others from gaining this knowledge and potentially ending their tyrannical rule. The Five Elders have sent CP0 to deal with Nico Robin as they know she is a major threat to their authority.
The Celestial Dragons can be considered to be the main enemies instead of Blackbeard because they are a much bigger organization, which has brought the downfall of countless nations, that haven't sworn fealty to them. The Celestial Dragons will undoubtedly find ways to hinder the progress of the Straw Hats as their superior, Im considers Luffy a major threat. The showdown between the Celestial Dragons and the pirates will surely go down as one of the most iconic fights in the series.
