Villains With The Most Tragic Pasts In One Piece

One Piece has villains of many kinds who come in all shapes and sizes. The nature of evil is not endemic to any one setting, as the series shows antagonists coming from all walks of life. That said, a common denominator for some villains is a tragic past.

While some villains appear to know relatively little about tragedy, others have intimate experience with it that served as a motivator for their turn to evil. In some cases, one might wonder if these villains would have ever become evil at all, had their pasts not been so heavily shaped by the tragic events that transpired. These villains have some of the saddest backstories in the series.

1

Gecko Moria

Lost His Entire Pirate Crew to Kaido

• Debut: Chapter 449 (Manga), Episode 343 (Anime)

Gecko Moria is a pirate known for his lazy behavior, preferring to derive strength from his Devil Fruit rather than any actual physical ability. Yet his deterioration hides a tragic backstory that caused it. Moria was once the captain of another crew, the once prestigious Gecko Pirates. However, they all perished at the hands of Kaido, despite their apparent renown.

This traumatized Moria enough to form his next pirate crew out of zombies, rationalizing that his beloved subordinates failed merely because they were alive. Unfortunately, Moria more recently lost one of the few living crew members in this newer, largely zombified crew. His ally, Absalom, was murdered for his Devil Fruit at the hands of the Blackbeard Pirates. This frustrated Moria enough to refuse an alliance with the crew, who largely care about power over the wellbeing of one another. He was taken hostage, but has since escaped captivity, alongside another living crewmate, Perona.

2

Donquixote Doflamingo

A Celestial Dragon Defanged

• Debut: Chapter 233 (Manga), Episode 151 (Anime)

Judging by his childhood, one may argue Doflamingo was a pampered brat who may have been evil had he experienced a “good” past. After all, he was one of the World Nobles, a coalition of clans whose parents founded the World Government and abandoned their birthright as rulers of kingdoms for even more money, power, and prestige. Being effectively above the law, practices like keeping slaves, assassinating disobedient citizens, and viewing themselves as gods are standard in this ruling class.

It is for reasons like these that Donquixote Homing sought to abandon his status, and live as a commoner. As a result, Doflamingo and his family were moved out of Mary Geoise, the World Government’s capital, where the nobles lived, and had their benefits stripped. Yet their prior status as World Nobles engendered hatred from other civilians, who suffered greatly thanks to the actions of World Nobles.

This resulted in Doflamingo and his younger brother, Rosinante, along with their parents, all being subjected to lynch mobs who continually attacked them. Homing attempted to have the World Nobles restore his relatives to their prior status for the sake of their protection, but was flatly refused. Homing’s wife died penniless and disease-stricken, while her husband and children continued to suffer. Despite his unpopularity with the civilians, a small gang led by a mucus-covered man was impressed by Doflamingo’s Conqueror’s Haki, and saw fit to serve him, giving him a gun and a Devil Fruit. Out of anger, Doflamingo shot his father dead, claiming it was an action through which he forgave his father for putting him through so much pain.

Doflamingo’s enablers became the highest ranked officers in his subsequent crew, the Donquixote Pirates. They later took over Dressrosa and were responsible for a period of suffering in the kingdom through their actions. Despite having much in common with the World Nobles, Doflamingo has nurtured a lifelong hatred of them, due to losing his prestige.

3

Kurozumi Orochi

Once An Innocent

• Debut: Chapter 927 (Manga), Episode 921 (Anime)

The Kurozumi Family was a disgraced clan in Wano, who made efforts to usurp the throne when the Shogun (who was of the Kozuki Family) seemingly could not produce an heir. After assassinating the other daimyo, their efforts were in vain, as Kozuki Sukiyaki, who would later become the next Shogun, was born. After the punishment of the head of the Kurozumi Family, which resulted in them losing effectively all their power and their leader being forced to commit seppuku, the clan became widely detested. This resulted in many of their members being hunted down and killed by the citizens of Wano Country.

One such member who fell victim to these lynch mobs was a young Kurozumi Orochi, the grandson of the original culprit in this rebellion. Orochi was unaware of the reason why he was so detested, but grew to detest the citizens of Wano, in turn, who made his life a living hell. He was eventually approached by Kurozumi Higurashi, one of the few survivors of the clan, alongside Seminaru, both of whom encouraged Orochi to become the shogun in his grandfather’s place.

Despite the familial animosity, Orochi decided to worm his way into the Kozuki family’s good graces, and used various forms of treachery to amass his fortune and reputation, preceding his ascent to shogun. His oppressive rule was matched with a concentrated effort to slander the Kozuki family, likely in response to the long-held prejudice the citizens had over his own. Orochi was eventually defeated by Kozuki Oden’s retainers after years of concentrated effort.

4

Kurozumi Kanjuro

Guilty By Association

• Debut: Chapter 700 (Manga), Episode 629 (Anime)

Two members of the Kurozumi Family were performers in a popular theater troupe, who were murdered onstage for their relation to the Kurozumi Family. This resulted in their son, Kanjuro, affiliating himself with the other relatives of the Kurozumi clan who were actively working to make their new leader, Kurozumi Orochi, the subsequent shogun of Wano.

These relatives had avenged the deaths of Kanjuro’s parents, and Kanjuro’s status as an orphan made him willing to act as a spy for the Kozuki Family, during their loss of political power and the time leading up to it. This was accomplished by becoming a hair thief, who eventually caught the notice of Oden and his entourage. His long term involvement with the group earned him and his eight fellow subordinates the title of the Nine Red Scabbards. Having continually fed the Kurozumi clan knowledge of his activities with the Kozuki clan, Kanjuro revealed his hand and was eventually killed by his former ally, Kin’emon.

5

Senor Pink

Lost His Family

• Debut: Chapter 702 (Manga), Episode 632 (Anime)

Senor Pink is a member of the Donquixote Pirates, who has been with the crew for over a decade. He eventually fell in love with a woman named Russian, who had a hatred of pirates. He lied to her that he was a banker, and the pair wed and had a son by the name of Gimlet. Unfortunately, Gimlet passed away, seemingly during his infancy, while his father was away on business. To make matters worse, Russian discovered Pink’s deception and left her husband. She ended up being caught in a landslide and was reduced to a vegetable. Deeply regretting the suffering he put her through, Pink visited his wife and put a baby bonnet on his head, which made her smile, even in the midst of all that had occurred between the pair. She eventually passed, but Pink decided to dress as an infant in memory of the family he lost.

He was subjected to deep humiliation because of this outfit, but did not seem to care. Despite being out of shape and wearing an odd outfit, Pink is still a hit with the ladies, but wishes they would go after someone younger. To this day, he is still a member of the Donquixote Pirates, and has notably clashed with Franky of the Straw Hat Pirates. After their battle, the two developed a mutual respect, and Franky shows an interest in hearing about Pink’s past, should the pair meet again.

6

Charlotte Linlin

Forgotten By Family

• Debut: Chapter 651 (Anime), Episode 571 (Manga)

Charlotte Linlin, despite her massive size and strength, was the child of normal human parents. She was difficult to control, and was left at Mother Carmel’s foster home in Elbaf, where they hoped she would be taken care of, due to the orphanage accepting all of them. Although she found acceptance there, she was also prone to causing trouble due to her rambunctious nature along with her massive size and strength. She became hated by all giants due to her inadvertent killing of Jorul during the Winter Solstice Festival. Linlin had difficulty fasting, as was standard for the festival.

However, her resulting exile from Elbaf was the least of Linlin’s problems. Mother Carmel was actually a human trafficker, whose custody of orphans resulted in them being sold off to marines, such as John Giant, the first ever Giant to enlist in the organization. However, Linlin’s sixth birthday celebration led to her devouring everything with teary eyes. It is implied that she ate not only the food prepared for her, but also her fellow orphans, and Mother Carmel (who formerly ate the Soru Soru no Mi.) Linlin awakened with Carmel’s Devil Fruit powers. Her carnage was witnessed by Streusen, a pirate chef, who approached her to form a crew.

Linlin eventually became a pirate captain and mother, who took many husbands to advance her agenda of a harmonious multi-racial community. After a stint with the Rocks Pirates, Linlin became a fearsome captain in her own right, forming the Big Mom Pirates, and bearing a number of powerful children, who doubled as her subordinates.

7

Kaido

Only Ever Valued For Strength

• Debut: Chapter 795 (Manga), Episode 736 (Anime)

Kaido and Linlin had something of a brother-sister relationship during their time with the Rocks Pirates. This is somewhat fascinating when one considers their parallels and pasts. While Linlin narrowly avoided a lifetime of exploitation before starting out as a pirate, Kaido was practically born into it. Kaido was a child soldier in the Vodka Kingdom who helped them rob other territories for World Government membership. After he began questioning this method, Kaido was pawned off to the marines, who he was continually captured by and escaped from, but not before helping himself to the food on their battleships.

He was invited to join the Rocks Pirates by a young Edward Newgate, and was a force of nature even then. The crew later broke up after losing in a fight against the likes of Monkey D. Garp and Gol D. Roger at God Valley. Presumably sometime after, Kaido was experimented on at Punk Hazard, alongside his future crewmate, Alber (who would go under the codename “King.”) The resilience of the pair meant they endured torture in an effort to examine their endurance. The pair eventually broke out and formed the Beasts Pirates.

Kaido was used again by the Kurozumi Family to become the muscle in their operation to take over Wano. He notably killed Kurozumi Higurashi for interfering in his duel against Oden. The Beasts Pirates held a long-term alliance with Orochi, the new shogun of Wano, that eventually went sour when Kaido unsuccessfully executed him in favor of installing another, stronger, Shogun more closely aligned with him.

In essence, Kaido has had a might makes right mentality drilled into him from a young age. While he was undeniably always good at taking on others, he was essentially either exploited or rightly seen as dangerous in any circumstance where he could’ve been saved from this path. Kaido has been defeated and captured by the marines on occasion, but they have consistently failed at putting him to death. Kaido’s endurance has turned his suicide attempts into a hobby, an aspect which led Urouge to pray for him during one such attempt.