ONE PIECE: The King of Extremely Punch-able Villains

in The Anime Realm3 years ago (edited)

ONEpiece018.jpg

So, I've watched How Oda Writes Great Villains by Mr. Morj. It was a great analysis on why ONE PIECE villains work so well. One thing he said is something I noticed early on and loved so much, not only in ONE PIECE but Dragon Ball before it as well.

One Piece Villains are totally unsympathetic!
By the end of each villain's arc, you want nothing more than punching them in face!

Mr. Morj in the linked video, said a lot of things better than I can say them, so I'll put the video below then add my comments to it. If you're new to One Piece there are spoilers in the video so you can skip it as my comments on the video are standalone.

It's interesting that ONE PIECE doesn't only make their main villain as unsympathetic as possible, but even minor ones too. The first three in my "list of villains I want to see punched" are all from ONE PIECE and all of them got their beating coming to them

  1. Saint Charlos! (God! That was a satisfying punch!)
  2. Orochi Kurozumi
  3. Spandam (Can't believe there are two people more hateable than this guy!)
  4. Hody Jones (Even if his plan succeeded he wouldn't survive in the next step. I feel sorry for him.)
  5. Donquixote Doflamingo (As much as I like him, I really wanted Luffy to destroy him!)

Finally Bellamy isn't on top of the list but can't say that punch wasn't Satisfying!

Early Example: Arlong

x47iXc6.jpg

Arlong is one of my favorite examples, because he is not totally evil like all the villains that came before him, (and most after him.) Arlong cares for his men, unlike any person Luffy fought before. You can see that in his actions as even when he sees his men as inferior, he's enraged when they're hurt. Arlong character becomes more complex in retrospect when we meet other fishmen.

But in the context of his arc early in the series, Arlong is totally unsympathetic! He sees humans as nothing more than trash. He conquers a village in the weakest sea and demands money to let them live. He enslaves a girl for eight years and lies about his promise to her to free her in the end.

Even if you see Arlong's point of view, you still can't forgive him and that makes you cheer for Luffy even more when the fight eventually happens. Arlong is the best villain in East Blue Saga! The formula Oda used to write him, is used, refined, deconstructed and subverted in almost every villain after him!

DBZ Example

D1LQ6N1U4AEn5EE.jpg

One Piece isn't the only series that succeeds with only completely black characters. The best example I can think of from other works is Dragon Ball's Freeza! (By the way, there's no 'i' in his name.) He's an evil ruler of the galaxy who's so evil that destroying planets is an everyday occurrence to him, and he is evil about it! (Some characters later in the series destroy planets because they are supposed to.) Freeza is a type of villain you would hate even before seeing him, and watching him beat all Goku's friends, making you want to see beaten at any cost.

DKQ8fZXW4AE5Z9x.jpg

One Piece and DBZ villains are the type you love for their role in the story, because they do their villainy so well, but you absolutely hate them as a people. That's why Doflamingo is one of my favorite characters of all time, despite being utterly morally wrong! He's so good at doing bad things that you can't help but admire his cunning and stubbornness.

By the way, this way of writing villains is the opposite of Naruto's way, where almost every enemy has a legitemate cause to fight for. Hunter x Hunter does things differently too, because it gives you morally deprived villains then give them

Oh, despite saying all of this ONE PIECE does have morally grey villains and even good characters who are opposed to the heroes at many points in the series. One of them is in my Top 3. The vast majority of villains are "Black" however.

What I want to say is that if you like villains who have no sympathetic side, ONE PIECE is your best bet, and advice you to at least watch a few arcs of the anime before dropping it.

What do you think?


First image is from One Piece Chapter 232. Arlong image is from here. Freeza image is taken from here. Doflamingo is taken from here.