Doffy is a complete menace and he changed up the game when it comes to villainy. Now I feel like there are different types of villains, therefore different levels of villainy.
There are definitely tiers to this. Let's go back to the card system used in elementary school.
You got the yellow card villains like Joker & Mephisto. It's typically not gonna take all of the justice league or the avengers to take this threat down. This could be a one-man job. Of course, things could get messy, but containing this threat is not impossible for one.
Then you have villains a step above like Pain and Obito from Naruto. These are the red-card villains. These are usually villains with a backstory, a motive beyond just being evil, and they mean business. This is personal to them and they're gonna make it personal for everyone else.
Pain is a great example of this because you can understand where he's coming from and that makes him dangerous. He's also the first villain I actually felt lowkey made sense. He's also what made me pay more attention to villains.
Then you have the blue card villains. These villains are more like global threats or have the potential to be global threats. Under NO circumstances, should this threat roam free. Villans like Thanos, Madara, Omni Man, and of course...Doflamingo. They can't be talked down like the red-card villains.
Now Madara Uchiha is a blue card threat because all of the five great nations had to band together to take him down. And they still couldn't take him down. It was up to Naruto and Sasuke who were kinda like gods towards the end.
I feel like Madara was so strong they replaced him with someone that could be sealed a little easier - Kaguya.
Thanos is a blue card threat because he nearly destroyed the universe.
Omni Man shouldn't really have to be explained. This man is brutal and even went as far as to take out any potential threats before they even saw anything coming.
And then there's Doffy. Doffy is crafty with it; scarily smooth with it. This threat was able to cut ties with his own family. This threat was able to take over a whole nation in secret and make it appear as if nothing had happened. When Dressrosa first appeared, it seemed like a magical Disneyland of sorts. No one ever guessed that there was some darkness underneath it all.
Let's dive deeper.
First, in order to try and understand the mind of a villain we must take a look into what shaped them and molded them: the backstory.
"Doffy" otherwise known as Donquixote Doflamingo was born into the Donquixote family. The Donquixote family is one of twenty royal families that formed the World Government and moved to Mary Geoise.
So Doffy is a wealthy, royal villain.
The complete opposite of Pain aka Nagato who was in poverty.
And the complete opposite of Batman - a wealthy superhero.
At the age of 8, Doflamingo's father decided to live a normal life and give up the life of being a World Noble. They couldn't have been hurting too much because they still seemed to be well-off in a northern country. I think Doffy had a hard time adjusting because he was used to being treated a certain way.
He was royalty, after all.
And arrogance usually comes with royalty and I can't say that I fault him.
So not only was he having a hard time adjusting, but the surrounding people made it hard as well. They did not like World Nobles and directed all of their anger and hatred toward the Donquixote family. Now I got kinda fed up with the Leaf village and how they treated Naruto, but at least they didn't burn down Naruto's house.
These people burned down their mansion and forced them into a makeshift shack on a pile of junk. This family went from lavish living to being forced to eat out of garbage cans. That's pretty traumatic if you think about it.
Naturally, Homing, Doffy's father, called the World Nobles for help but they turned their back on him in his time of need. I mean, they didn't see it as their problem anymore since Homing wasn't really associated with them anymore. I mean I can't really fault them. If I part ways with a job, I don't expect to be able to come back or ask for help.
Even if I did leave on good terms.
And if the place of employment asked me for help with something, I can honestly say I wouldn't care to help. I'm no longer there. It's no longer my problem. Harsh sure. But going above and beyond for a job that can replace you at any time or any given notice is even harsher.
Anyway, not only is the Donquixote family having a really hard time settling in and being accepted by the others, but to add more insult to injury, Doffy ends up losing his mother. Due to the conditions that they were subjected to it, it's not necessarily surprising.
Even still, the hell was not over yet.
I guess everyone decided that burning down their mansion wasn't enough justice for them, so they hunted them down and attacked Doflamingo, Homing, and his younger brother Rosinante. Now they survived the attack, but at what cost? More trouble seemed to come his way because at some point he met Trebol, Vergo, Pica, and Diamante and knocked out a mob with Haki.
It was like he couldn't catch a break.
Doffy is still a child throughout all of this, so all of this has to be extremely traumatizing. I can't imagine how much hatred Doffy felt, but I do know that he blamed his father for everything that happened to them.
They honestly would have been better off living on an abandoned island somewhere, but that doesn't really provide the normal livelihood that Homing was looking for. Whatever the case may be, this couldn't have been what Homing had in mind. This was a nightmare. Ultimately, this seemingly innocent decision of his led to him being snuffed out by his own son.
Who snuffed Homing out at the age of 10 might I add.
It's said that Doffy snuffed out his father so he could regain his status. Even going as far as to try to offer up his father's head as his ticket back in. Of course, they didn't accept him back anyway, so it was for nothing. But that's the first moment I realized that Doffy was a menace.
A different breed.
This is Trebol's fault, by the way. He's the one that gave Doffy the pistol and a devil fruit.
At this point, Doffy kinda got trapped in a cycle of anger. Because he was angry with his father. Angry with the people. And now angry with the Celestial Dragons. Afterward, he apparently fled with some sort of knowledge regarding the national treasure of the Celestial Dragons and used his knowledge as blackmail.
At this point, after failing to get back in good with the World Nobles, it's said that Doffy ended up returning to North Blue. Where Vergo, Trebol, Pica, and Diamante supposedly elect Doflamingo as their leader. They were convinced that he was going to be the next Pirate King.
I'm not sure what it is about loyalty in one piece, but one piece takes loyalty to a whole different level. Zoro for example and then this group that flocked to Doffy; it's said that they burned an entire town when Doflamingo tripped over some pavement.
I literally trip and fall over myself all the time and no one burns any towns down for me. I just have to look around and hope that no one saw me and go on about my day.
And I'd like to add that I'm pretty sure that having people around like Trebol did NOT help with Doffy's arrogance and it maybe even played a role in things getting worse. So that's the gist of Doffy's childhood and we can kinda see why Doffy is the way he is. I strongly believe that environment influences who you become as a person.
Look at Serial Killers for example. We've heard of plenty of serial killers having some sort of messed up and neglected background and while that may not be the case 100% of the time, it's definitely a factor.
Now obviously it doesn't excuse it, but it at least answers the why or what led to this.
Let's skip to adulthood Doffy.
This is the second moment I realized that Doffy was a menace. A different type of villain.
When he was 31, Doffy started doing some dangerous things. Which included stealing money from the World Nobles and even going as far as to blackmail the World Government.
All so he can attain the position as one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea.
I mean that's dedication right there.
Do you know how bold you have to be to mess with the government?!
Anyway, one night, Doffy appeared at Dressrosa in Riku's chambers. Now Riku recognized Doffy as a descendant of the Donquixote family and recognized him based on his feats as a pirate, so that has to say a lot about what Doffy accomplished. I mean you don't get famous for no reason. But basically, Doffy demanded 10 billion berries in exchange for leaving the country alone.
Like a good king would do, Riku complied.
But Doffy kinda hoed him.
Doffy took the money and didn't back down like he said he was. Instead, Doffy used his Devil Fruit to control Riku and made Riku rampant throughout the city. He didn't spare the foot soldiers from this treachery, either because Doffy made them attack innocent civilians. Then, he basically swooped in and saved the day. I mean with all of the mass confusion going on, it's not like they would say no. I don't know if this is just plain evil or genius or both, but there's nothing more dangerous than a villain that uses his head.
I'm honestly surprised he didn't do away with the King immediately but I guess he only kept him alive because of a slight interference. Because we did have Kyros try to come to the king's aide, but naturally, Doffy threatened to take out his family and then had Kyros turned into a toy. Somehow the king did manage to get out thanks to Kyros.
But Viola is ultimately what kept the king alive as Doffy found her devil fruit useful. This island that Doffy took over was basically his base. This man was trading weapons - which was in turn instigating wars.
Anyone and everyone that opposed him was turned into a toy by Sugar. The worse part about that is that their pasts would be erased and it eventually made them forget who they were. He even went as far as to come up with a law that kept humans and toys segregated.
Not to mention, that Doffy ended up gaining a powerful influence in the underworld under the alias Joker. I'm sure everyone has heard of SMILEs, which are artificial devil fruits created using SAD. These fruits created Gifters, Pleasures, and Waiters.
When we realized just how powerful Doffy was, I honestly did not know how Luffy was going to take him down. I felt this way with Crocodile, Lucci, and Doffy.
Doffy to a greater extent of course.
Doffy has the most basic devil fruit - Ito Ito No Mi.
A string devil fruit.
It sounds like the most basic thing ever, but the way Doffy utilizes his devil fruit is pure genius.
Honestly, the tape guy from MHA needs to step his game up.
He has no excuse if Doffy can literally be a beast with his.
Anyway, I've said all I wanted to say about Doffy for the most part. Doffy is basically a menace for many reasons and I really feel like his childhood is a big part of his menacing ways. He's definitely an interesting villain and is probably my favorite villain along with Dio from JoJo's and Pain from Naruto. But how do yall feel about Doffy? What do you like or dislike about him? Is "menace" the perfect way to describe him or not?