One Piece is home to one of the anime industry's greatest rogues galleries. With legendary bad guys such as Kaido and Crocodile, for example, this franchise has made a name for itself with legendary villains who serve as the exact antithesis to everything that the heroes stand for, wreaking havoc in their wake. Many of these villains don't just stand out due to their evil nature, but also their backstories that led them to this life.

However, among the One Piece fandom, the common opinion is that the main villain of the story's Dressrosa arc, Donquixote Doflamingo, is the best villain out of them all. From his entrancing personality and sadistic nature to his nuanced backstory, Doflamingo stands out from the pack as a ruthless and vindictive antagonist who has more depth than many heroes of the story, so let's look at just who this villain truly is.

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Origins

Doflamingo once held the highest power

Unlike many other villains in anime, Doflamingo's backstory is very nuanced and has a hint of tragedy in it. Though his actions throughout the series are completely unjustifiable and his villainous outlook on life is unforgivable, seeing his backstory and the difficulty with which he spent some part of his childhood definitely makes sense as to why he would end up in the life he had.

Born a member of the Donquixote family, Doflamingo held the title of Celestial Dragon, meaning that his family was one of the ruling elites of the One Piece world. This is because, 800 years before the start of the current story, 20 families came together to defeat the Ancient Kingdom, forming the World Government and cementing themselves as the highest authority on the planet. The Donquixote family was one of these families that once ruled over Dressrosa.

Due to this, Doflamingo's entire family grew up in Marijoa, knowing privilege like nothing else. This meant that he could do whatever he wanted without any repercussions, which included detestable things like owning human slaves. However, this does raise an important question about whether he should be judged. These things are objectively wrong, but if a child grows up in an environment where it's fine and is told that they are allowed to do this, could they really be judged for thinking it's fine if that's all they know? This dichotomy is why Doflamingo is such a nuanced and beloved character.

One day, Doflamingo's father decided that the family was to move out of Marijoa to live like normal people. However, once they arrived in their new homes, they were beset by the population who demanded their heads to pay for the crimes associated with being Celestial Dragons. Following this, the family lived in squalor for a time, where Doflamingo and his brother were forced to eat trash to survive.

This had a massive impact on the young Doflamingo, who hated his father for taking him out of a life of luxury to live in such debasement. Eventually, he shot his father as a means of revenge 2 years after his mother died, taking his own life and that of his younger brother into his hands, where he came across Trebol. After eating the Ito Ito no Mi, Doflamingo founded the Donquixote Pirates, which would lead him to a life of infamy.

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A Warlord of the Sea

Doflamingo becomes a feared pirate

After killing his father, Doflamingo took his head back to the other Celestial Dragons on Marijoa in the hopes of being welcomed back into their ranks. However, they spurn him, accusing him and his family of being traitors who are never allowed back into Marijoa, crushing Doflamingo's dreams of going back to his old life of luxury and peace.

However, more than this, it set his mind on destroying the system. Doflamingo was someone who had seen both sides of the world, which he called heaven and hell. The former he saw during his time in Marijoa by having everything that he ever wanted available to him based on his whims, and the latter he saw when his entire family was persecuted and driven to squalor after they left Marijoa. By seeing the cruelty of both the Celestial Dragons and regular humans, Doflamingo decided that he wanted nothing to do with their world.

And so, he decided that he wanted to smash the world to pieces. Eventually, he went back to the Donquixote family's ancestral home of Dressrosa, which he managed to completely take over in a single night. By using his powerful Ito Ito no Mi Devil Fruit to control King Riku's forces, he destroys much of the city by framing the king, only to swoop in later on as the savior, gaining the love and admiration of the entire population of the island.

From here, Doflamingo and his Donquixote Pirates ruled over Dressrosa for the next 10 years, not only making it a prosperous land but also one that served as a base for all of their illegal underground operations. Due to this newfound power, Doflamingo became Warlord of the Sea and one of the most feared pirates on the entire Grand Line, especially because he was able to use his birth as a Celestial Dragon to pull strings that even most other Marines couldn't.

One Piece can be streamed on Crunchyroll.

One Piece (1999)

One Piece is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. The series follows protagonist Monkey D. Luffy and his Straw Hat Pirate crew as they explore the Grand Line to find the King of the Pirates' ultimate treasure, the One Piece, in order to become the next king. The manga's popularity helped it spin off into a larger media franchise, including an anime with more than 1,000 episodes.

Release Date

October 20, 1999

Main Genre

Anime

Seasons

20

Creator

Eiichiro Oda

Number of Episodes

1082+

See at Hulu