Summary
- Doflamingo’s criminal empire involved creating artificial Zoan Type Devil Fruits for Kaido’s soldiers.
- After the events of Dressrosa, Doflamingo’s operation was dismantled, leading to his defeat by Luffy.
- Despite his defeat, Doflamingo’s knowledge of the world puts him at risk, suggesting future conflicts.
Even to this day, many consider Donquixote Doflamingo as the greatest villain in the entire One Piece story. Unlike some other villains, his backstory has to do with being a merciless Celestial Dragon, but unlike others of his kind, he lived through many of the horrors wrought upon regular people by the World Nobles. The man he turned out to be due to the complexities of his childhood led to him being a ruthless villain.
The underground business he created was one of the biggest in One Piece’s criminal underworld, so much so that it directly involved one of the most powerful figures in the world, Kaido. In this article, let’s go over the business that Doflamingo fostered, how his journey unraveled after the events of Punk Hazard, and where the villain is in the current era of the story.
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Joker’s Vast Criminal Empire
Doflamingo’s Prosperous Underground Business
|
First Appearance |
One Piece, Chapter 233, “The World’s Greatest Power” |
|---|---|
|
Debut Date |
June 10, 2002 |
|
Story Arc |
Jaya |
Doflamingo was first shown in the story quite early on, during the events of the Jaya arc. He used to be a Warlord of the Sea with a particularly notorious reputation due to his ruthless nature and mastery over his Devil Fruit. Operating out of the ancestral island that his family ruled over 800 years ago, the country of Dressrosa, Doflamingo founded a massive criminal empire under the alias of Joker.
The biggest part of his business had to do with the creation and facilitation of Smile Fruits; artificially manufactured Zoan Type Devil Fruits that bestowed their users with the powers to transform into an animal but in a way that was very different from regular Zoan Types. He provided these fruits to Kaido’s many hundreds of foot soldiers, in turn benefiting from the protection of one of the strongest pirates in the world.
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Doflamingo’s Journey After Punk Hazard
How Did His Story Play Out?
The entire premise of the Punk Hazard arc saw the Straw Hats deal with a distress call on the titular island where they found Caesar Clown engaging in horrible experiments on children. Among the various experiments being held on the island was the creation of the SAD, which was essential in the creation of Smile Fruits. While this seemed strange from the very beginning, it was shown that there was a much larger conspiracy at play.
As stated previously, the truth of the Smile Fruits was that Doflamingo had hired Caesar Clown to make the SAD under the alias of Joker. However, towards the end of the arc, the Straw Hats dismantled the entire operation, which essentially meant that Doflamingo no longer had the main ingredient for creating the Smile fruits, prompting his arrival on the island at the end of the arc where he almost killed Smoker. However, just before he was able to do so, he was stopped by Kuzan.
Kids who have never seen peace and kids who have never seen war have different values! Those who stand at the top determine what’s wrong and what’s right!
Furthermore, the Straw Hats then found their way onto Dressrosa after agreeing to help Kin’emon and Momonosuke on Punk Hazard to retrieve their comrade. Moreover, they also entered into an agreement with Trafalgar Law to defeat Doflamingo and Kaido, so this eventually brought the two forces into conflict with one another. This arc saw both forces fight for the fate of their crews as well as that of the country of Dressrosa.
Here, all the top commanders and allies of each crew fought against one another, which meant that Luffy and Doflamingo had to battle, which led to one of the greatest fights in the history of One Piece with some of the most dire stakes in the series. Due to the Warlord’s overpowered birdcage ability and the Awakened State of his Devil Fruit, he was Luffy’s biggest challenge at that point in the story, requiring Luffy to activate Gear 4 to defeat him.
This was also the first true test of Luffy’s Conqueror’s Haki, as Doflamingo was the first villain he had ever faced who had a proper grasp over this power. However, by the end of the arc, Luffy emerged victorious and Doflamingo was defeated. Due to this, his entire operation was shattered and the truth about all of his evils became known across the world, which forced the World Government to capture him.
The last time the villain was ever seen, he was in chains and was in the Impel Down prisoner uniform, implying his transfer to the lowest level of the world’s most secure prison. However, later on, it may have been implied that an assassin was sent after him, which would make sense as well considering how much of a loose canon he is. In the Marineford War, he was likely given some specific orders from either the Gorosei or Imu themselves, and he even knows of Marijoa’s secret treasure, which shows he knows much more about the world than he lets on.
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