The backstory of this One Piece character explains his villainous turn

Characters in A piece often have some of the most compelling and tragic backstories in anime, and Donquixote Doflamingo is no exception. As a warlord of the seas, Doflamingo’s influence and power were as great as the Grand Line, but despite his successful criminal empire and position within the World Government, he had plans for revenge that he was never able to realize before his defeat at the hands of Monkey D. Luffy.

Donquixote “Joker” Doflamingo was a man doomed no matter what he did, with a complicated story of nature and nurture that produced one of the most evil and bloodthirsty criminals on the Grand Line. His story is certainly a cautionary tale, but Doflamingo’s role in A piece is not over yet, considering how closely he is connected to the secrets of the World Government.

The Outcast Prince: Donquixote Doflamingo’s Descent from Nobility

The world government has abandoned Donflamingo’s family

The Donquixote family was one of the twenty noble families that founded the World Government, making them Celestial Dragons. When Doflamingo was eight years old, his father, Donquixote Homing, decided to give up his family’s noble titles to live among the common people, stripping the Donquixote family of their Celestial Dragon status. Now from the common people, Doflamingo’s family moved away from Mary Geoise and lived in a northern island nation. They tried to get along with the islanders, but were hated and despised by the common people, as they were formerly Celestial Dragons.

Tensions between the Donquixote family and the common people grew and reached a boiling point, resulting in a lynch mob attacking and burning down their estate, forcing the Donquixote family to flee and live in a dilapidated shack. Homing attempted to get help from the Celestial Dragons, but they rejected his family’s pleas for help and left them to their fate. Doflamingo was forced to eat garbage to survive alongside his younger brother, and to make matters worse, Doflamingo’s mother became bedridden due to her living conditions and eventually died, leaving Homing alone with his two sons. The remaining family did not have much time, however, before the common people found them and lynched Doflamingo along with his younger brother and father.

Fortunately, all three remaining members of the Donquixote family survived their ordeal and Doflamingo soon met Trebol and others, who eventually became officers in the Donquixote Pirates. When Doflamingo showed that he could use Conqueror’s Haki, Trebol and the others decided to follow and serve Doflamingo, giving him Ito Ito no Mi, String String Devil Fruit, and a pistol to exact revenge.

With his newfound powers, Dolfamingo used the gun Trebol gave him to kill his own father in revenge for everything his family had endured because of Homing’s foolishness. After killing Homing, Doflamingo brought his head back to the Celestial Dragons to allow him and his brother to return to Mary Geoise, but they were rejected as traitors. When Doflamingo returned to Trebol and his crew, they vowed to serve him and help Doflamingo become the Pirate King on his path to eradicating the Celestial Dragons.

Doflamingo’s rise to warlord of the seas

Donflamingo became king of Dressrosa and founded a criminal empire

For years, Doflamingo was on his journey with the other Donquixote Pirates as he stole money from various World Government nobles and blackmailed the World Government into making him Warlord of the Seas. Due to his previous status as a Celestial Dragon, Doflamingo knew many of the nobility’s secrets and had no problem using his knowledge to force the World Government nobles to make him Warlord.

With his newfound status as Warlord of the Seas, the Donquixote Pirates came to Dressrosa, the kingdom the Donquixote family ruled over before helping to establish the World Government as one of the twenty founding families. Doflamingo decided to reclaim his ancestral home and made a deal with King Riku Doldo III to leave the island in exchange for 10 billion berries, which Riku accepted, only for the king to be installed the next day. Using his Devil Fruit powers, Doflamingo took control of King Riku and the soldiers of the Dressrosa Kingdom, having them attack and slaughter throughout the kingdom until he and the Donquixote Pirates came to the rescue as heroes of the people, becoming the new king of Dressrosa soon after.

Doflamingo had little concern for innocent lives and saw himself as above the common people. Considering he was once a Celestial Dragon, Doflamingo’s ego and hubris are understandable, but his passion for cruelty and unnecessary bloodshed makes him a truly evil character who takes pleasure in the suffering of others. Despite his status as King of Dressrosa, he was little more than a tyrant who manipulated his people for his own ends, dividing the kingdom into humans and toys to keep the population in check. Using Sugar’s Devil Fruit ability, he managed to turn countless citizens into toys who secretly worked in his SMILE production facilities.

Unlike former warlord Sir Crocodile, who failed to seize control of the Alabasta Kingdom and create a haven for his criminal organization, Doflamingo succeeded in every way Crocodile failed. Doflamingo became king of Dressrosa, used the kingdom as a haven for his crime family’s activities, and used the people of Dressrosa as a labor force to produce SMILEs for his deal with Kaido. As Warlord of the Sea, Doflamingo had free reign to do whatever he wanted without worrying about the World Government intervening – at least until the Straw Hats.

Doflamingo, the Puppet Master

Joker’s control over the underworld

With the help of the Kingdom of Dressrosa, Doflamingo built a vast criminal intelligence network and used his position as a warlord to become one of the criminal underworld’s most successful intelligence brokers under the name “Joker.” Doflamingo had eyes and ears everywhere in the criminal underworld and created a vast spy network that kept Doflamingo informed of what was happening in the wide world beyond Dressrosa.

Years before the Donquixote Pirates conquered Dressrosa, Doflamingo had his officer Vergo infiltrate the Marines and feed him information. For fifteen years, Vergo had risen through the Marines’ ranks, reaching the rank of Vice Admiral as Doflamingo’s informant. Vergo helped Doflamingo avoid the Marines when necessary, but the information Vergo provided him was worth more than gold to the information broker who manipulated events behind the scenes.

As an information broker and leader of a crime family, he quickly took control of the underworld and, with the help of his partner Caeaser Clown, created a monopoly on the production of SMILE Fruits. Using SMILEs, Donflamingo secured a beneficial relationship between his crime family and the Beast Pirates under the Emperor of the Seas, Kaido, who sold him weapons in exchange for the artificial Devil Fruits.

Dolfamingo has the most manipulative nature of all the characters in the series, so the String String Devil Fruit was the perfect power for him as he preferred himself as a puppet master of the criminal underworld and certain world events. Despite Doflamingo’s tragic past, this does not excuse his later actions, but informs them and the viewer why Doflamingo is the way he is. Unlike other villains in A piece Donquixote Doflamingo is clearly more evil than any other villain in the series that ranges on the scale of evil. He may be misunderstood, but Doflamingo’s actions are unforgivable, even if they were justified in his eyes.