One Piece Characters Who Should Stay Dead

Summary

• Retaining character deaths is crucial to maintaining plot impact and character development.
• Characters like Edward Newgate hold significant narrative importance through their demise.
• Disregarding character deaths can undermine the emotional depth and continuity of a storyline.

Spoilers ahead for One Piece

Somewhat recently in One Piece, Jaguar D. Saul, an ally of Robin thought to have been killed off many years ago, was revealed to have survived, and has simply been unable to contact Nico Robin during her lengthy escape from the World Government. This became somewhat contentious for fans.

Some argued against Saul’s survival, believing it undermined Robin’s backstory. Others advocated for it, believing the scope of tragedy within Robin’s backstory expanded far beyond Saul, and that he still advanced the plot and its emotional beats by surviving. This list will look at some other One Piece characters who seem to have passed on and should remain deceased for the sake of the plot.

5 Vinsmoke Sora

Sanji’s Mother

The Vinsmoke family controls the Germa 66, a military organization that makes heavy use of fascistic imagery and seeks to use scientific advancements to conquer the North Blue, and presumably expand further once that goal is achieved. Judge, the current head of the Vinsmoke Family, sought to turn his sons into unfeeling superhuman weapons to advance this goal. His wife, Sora, who was carrying his boys, was against this ambition.

Nonetheless, Judge forced a prenatal surgery onto Sora that would ultimately lead to his sons gaining enhanced physical strength. Sora took a counteractive drug that supposedly intended to reverse the effects of the surgery. However, it only affected her third son, Sanji, who was mercilessly bullied by his brothers as a result. Even more unfortunate, Sora grew very ill as a result of the drug and passed away when Sanji was a child.

Judge capitalized on her death to fully condition his other children to become brutal weapons, enabling their bullying of Sanji, who he classified as a failure. Sanji took solace in his cooking skills, which his mother doted on. With the aid of his older sister Reiju, Sanji escaped, eventually meeting Zeff, his mentor in cooking and combat, who he considered his true father.

Sora’s death and what it means for Sanji is reflective of a greater theme of inherited will. Even as Sanji’s powers are activated years later than his brothers, he feels the need to maintain his humanity, in part, to honor his mother’s memory. Furthermore, most of the figures from Sanji’s past that he holds in esteem are still alive. Retconning Sora’s death would do an immediate disservice to him and his backstory.

4 Donquixote Mjosgard

The One Good World Noble

Mjosgard was a World Noble and a member of the Donquixote Family, the very same family who vacated Dressrosa to rule as World Nobles. While one descendant, Donquixote Homing, renounced his position — resulting in the two diverging paths taken by his sons Doflamingo and Rosinante — Mjosgard, along with his father, Shivercalero, maintained his status and enjoyed its excesses up until 10 years ago.

Mjosgard lost his Fish-Man slaves due to a pardon Jimbei obtained for them upon joining the Seven Warlords of the Sea. This led a deeply entitled Mjosgard to travel to Fish-Man Island to recapture them. However, Mjosgard was uneducated in the dangers of the world, and was attacked by his former slaves. Otohime, the queen of the Ryugu Kingdom, prevented them from killing him and decided to get him medical treatment and send him back to Mary Geoise. While Mjosgard took a while to truly come around, eventually, Otohime’s kindness reformed him into an entirely different person.

Mjosgard, like Homing before him, declared himself a human rather than a god and ceased owning slaves altogether. However, his new behavior did not come without consequences. He was alienated by his fellow World Nobles, who negatively compared him to other members of his family. Once he accompanied Ryugu Kingdom’s royal family to the Levely, they were accosted by Charlos, a World Noble not unlike Mjosgard himself was all those years ago. However, Mjosgard prevented Charlos from capturing Shirahoshi, Otohime’s daughter, and even allowed pirates to assault the World Noble, a deeply serious offense.

As a consequence, he was executed and crucified by Figarland Garling, the Captain of God’s Knights and a future member of the Five Elders. Mjosgard’s death established that, if they act against the collective agenda, even World Nobles can be dealt with. While this death being undone wouldn’t fully void this moment, it would deeply soften the impact of the first World Noble canonically shown murdered, something needed in contrast to their supposedly untouchable status.

3 Ashura Doji

Loyal In The End

The Nine Red Scabbards were retainers of Kozuki Oden. The young Daimyo’s charismatic personality and strength were enough to draw a motley crew of retainers to him. One such figure was a dangerous outlaw known as Ashura Doji, who eventually accepted Oden’s superior strength and acted as his retainer. However, Ashura lost hope in Oden’s cause with his master’s death, the disappearance of some of the Scabbards (who time-traveled to the future with the powers of Oden’s late wife, Hiyori), and the pointless deaths of his comrades who did not believe they would return.

As a result, Ashura reverted to banditry, founding the Mt. Atama Thieves and taking up the alias Shutenmaru. After Yasuie, a former Daimyo loyal to the Kozuki Clan, gave his life in a bid to aid their efforts, Ashura rejoined the Nine Red Scabbards. Unfortunately, they were betrayed by Kanjuro, one of their own, who was secretly a member of the rival Kurozumi clan, planted by Orochi. Kanjuro manipulated the Scabbards, by using the powers of his Devil Fruit to create an illusion of Oden. Ashura became immediately suspicious of the fake Oden, correctly guessed it was a fake, and held him off for the sake of his comrades, despite dying in the process. Ultimately, Ashura proved he was loyal to Oden in the end, and was more than willing to give up his life for the cause he was once thought to have abandoned, and undoing his death would cheapen the character arc that led to it.

2 Edward Newgate

Roger’s Rival

Edward “Whitebeard” Newgate was a pirate captain given the rank of Emperor, signifying pirates the World Government viewed as especially threatening. He was notably a rival and friend of the late Gol D. Roger, with whom he shared a mutual respect. Despite this fact, Newgate had few ambitions in the way of power. He saw fit to “rule” territories as a way to protect them, take on crewmates as his “sons,” and ultimately provide financial aid to his home island of Sphinx, which had no government protection and saw increased crime when Newgate was a child.

Nonetheless, he still amassed a huge number of followers, with several pirate captains pledging their crews as subordinates. His crew had an all-out war against the government, intending to rescue Ace. Unfortunately, this failed. Newgate and Ace both died, and the crew’s territories were taken by Blackbeard, who was actually Marshall D. Teach, a traitorous ex-subordinate of Whitebeard.

Whitebeard’s death is how Blackbeard establishes control, as a lot of key elements of Whitebeard are taken and molded by Blackbeard for his own nefarious purposes. A surviving Newgate would likely negate most of the efforts Teach made to claim his territories, and also make him too frightened to actively pursue control. This is likely why Blackbeard made extra sure Newgate was dead, and had the majority of his subordinates fill his former captain with bullets.

1 Jaygarcia Saturn

A Withered Elder

Jaygarcia Saturn is one of the Five Elders first introduced to the audience by name. With his fellow elders, he is seen throughout the story of One Piece, shown as part of the public face of the World Government. In actuality, they are all subordinates to Imu, with specific fields of politics that they are each in charge of as the designated “Warrior Gods.” Saturn is the Warrior God of Science and Defense, and he accompanies Kizaru, in secret, to the attack on Egghead.

Saturn is, like his counterparts, shown to be a deeply arrogant figure. While more cultured and refined than most World Nobles, he is no less condescending towards those who rank below him, tending to view them as little more than insects. He is also shown to physically attack his own subordinates if they do anything that displeases him.

Due to his personal failure in letting Luffy escape, Imu killed Saturn, causing him to wither away as a dark energy escaped his body. He is quickly replaced by Figarland Garling. Ultimately, Saturn’s death shows just how disposable the Five Elders are to Imu, and allows the mysterious figure to let its mask slip a bit more, showing how truly cruel the being is, even to one of its supposed closest confidants.