Summary
- Wapol selfishly hoarded doctors on Drum Island to control his subjects, leading to a bleak and oppressive rule.
- Arlong's deep hatred for humans led to tyrannical rule over Nami's village in pursuit of power and control.
- Big Mom's cruel treatment of her family and citizens highlights her tyrannical reign and disregard for life.
Though One Piece as a series is known for its fun, colorful and vibrant aesthetic, the world itself is packed full of all kinds of evil and dangerous individuals. Sure, Luffy and the Straw Hats may all be pure-hearted pirates, but not everyone who sails across the vast open seas is as kind or considerate, with several malicious characters going on to become tyrants who enjoy nothing more than oppressing their citizens and keeping an entire population under their thumb.
One Piece: 9 Best Underdogs, Ranked
Despite having the odds stacked against them, these One Piece underdogs overcame the adversity to grow and develop as characters.
While some of these tyrannical rulers have thankfully been taken down from their high-hose by the Straw Hats, some are still out there, enjoying the high life at the expense of their own citizens. With that being said, these are some of the very worst tyrants within the One Piece story who relish using their prestigious status and influence for their own evil deeds.
8 Wapol
Wapol Kept All Of Drum Island's Doctors To Himself To Ensure His Servants Were Dependent On Him
Wapo, with his childish personality and obsession with eating anything he lays his eyes on, isn't exactly a man who seems all that fit to be a king. However, when he decided to conduct a "doctor hunt" on Drum Island, keeping only a handful for himself, it meant the people would be forced to answer to him as leader, unless they wanted to try fending for themselves, with nobody to help them if they happened to get physically injured or infected by a virus.
In fact, Wapol would become so insecure about his position that he even established his own defense force, who were more than willing to fire at innocent civilians even if they hadn't done anything wrong, such as when a group tried to assist Dalton, only to be gunned down. Wapol's tyrannical rule would eventually be put to an end thanks to the Straw Hats, though before they arrived, it was a very bleak and depressing place to live for the residents.
7 Arlong
Arlong Brought His Hatred For Humans To Nami's Village And Wiped Out Anyone He Saw As "Inferior"
After witnessing the death of his master, Tiger Fisher, at the hands of a group of humans, Arlong would come to develop a seething hatred for anyone who wasn't a Fishman. He makes this clear right off the bat when he and his rag-tag crew arrive at Nami's village, only to murder her mother before then forcing Nami to work for him while promising that he would free her village if she fetched him enough Berries.
One Piece: Best Donquixote Doflamingo Quotes
Donquixote Doflamingo's lust for power in One Piece is illustrated in his self-serving and arrogant speaking style.
A few years later, though, once Nami had actually acquired the treasure, Arlong decided to break his promise and continued ruling as the vicious and sleazy ruler of what he had dubbed Arlong Park. It is soon revealed that Arlong had big plans to rule the entire East Blue, and considering how much suffering he spread across Cocoyasi Village, it would have been truly disastrous if he had achieved his ambitious goal if not for Luffy and the gang stopping him when they did.
6 Big Mom
Big Mom Doesn't Exactly Act Like A Loving Mother To Her Kids
At first glance, Whole Cake Island can seem like a place that's full of joy and happiness, but this is simply a facade that hides the harsh reality of what the people living there go through on a day-to-day basis. As an immensely powerful Yonko who is prone to letting her emotions get the better of her, Big Mom's kids are always fearful of getting on the wrong side of their mother, especially since she possesses the ability to extract people's souls and turn them into Homies if they get on her bad side.
Despite her entire crew being made up of her own family, Big Mom has been shown numerous times to be a pretty cruel mother. Pudding, for example, was bullied as a child because of her third eye, with Big Mom openly admitting she only keeps Pudding around because she can read the Poneglyphs. Chiffon, on the other hand, was mocked by her mother for resembling Lola, despite them being twins. When Big Mom enters a hunger frenzy, she's also not shy about tearing the entire island to shreds and isn't interested in minimizing the collateral damage along the way.
5 Enel
The Self-Proclaimed "God" Of Skypiea Isn't Shy About Electrocuting Anyone Who Questions His Authority
Because Enel is an extremely skilled user of Obsveration Haki, or "Mantra" as he calls it, it means he can hear the residents of Skypeia mocking or ridiculing him from miles away. Anyone brave enough to speak up about Enel's tyranny is immediately struck down by his deadly lightning strikes that come from his Devil Fruit, allowing him to keep his people submissive without even needing to lift a finger.
The truth is, after taking down Gan Fall and becoming the supreme ruler of Skypiea, Enel never had any intention of providing for his people. In reality, all he wanted to do was acquire the golden bell and eventually make his way to the moon, so needless to say, the lives and well-being of the Sky People meant next to nothing to Enel during his reign over the islands.
4 Doflamingo
Doflamingo Lets His Family Run Rampant On Dressrosa While He Sits Back And Admires The Suffering
By the time Doflamingo reaches Dressrosa, he has already become an immensely dangerous pirate due to his powerful Devil Fruit and his obsession with inflicting as much suffering as possible as a result of his horrific childhood. Because of this, he wasted no time in turning the bright and vibrant island into his own personal paradise at the expense of the people living there.
One Piece: 5 Unconfirmed Theories The Narrative Supports
These One Piece theories are rooted in the evidence present in the series' ongoing narrative. Some may even be proven true.
Anyone who even tried to step up to Doflamingo and overthrow him would be turned into a toy by his helpful companion Sugar, which would cause them to literally be removed from other people's memories, essentially removing them from existence entirely. He would also force the dwarfs living on the island to work themselves to the bone in his SMILE fruit factories. As seen through characters like Kyros, Rebecca, and Viola, living in Dressrosa is far from easy when the sadistic Doflamingo is watching over the island.
3 Kaido
Kaido Turned A Wonderful Country Into A Bleak And Depressing Military Base
Wano was the perfect country for Kaido to use as his base of operations. As an island outside the World Government's jurisdiction, Kaido would easily convert Wano into, more or less, a big munitions factory where he and his vicious Beast Pirates could create weapons to trade for Doflamingo and Caesar's SMILE fruits to help bulk up their army. With the factories poisoning the water supply, alongside his destructive tirades destroying entire towns and cities, Kaido would inflict a great amount of suffering across the country.
The reason Kaido was able to turn Wano on its head so easily is because of his overwhelming power as a Yonko, alongside his Devil Fruit, which allows him to turn into a ferocious Azure Dragon. Kaido would mercilessly kill Oden, Wano's hero, in an attempt to squash any resistance from the locals and would even go as far as to burn down Kuri Castle in the process. When Kaido isn't intimidating locals with his size and strength, he's getting blackout drunk and obliterating cities for the fun of it.
2 Orochi
Orochi Poisoned His Own People So They Could Never Express Negative Emotions
Though Kaido is initially the Straw Hats' main target when they arrive in Wano, they soon realize he's not alone in ruling over the once beautiful country of samurai. The official Shogun of Wano, Orochi, is a sick and twisted individual who has an obsession with getting revenge on the people of the country due to his unfortunate upbringing. However, to say Orochi treats his citizens like dirt would be putting it mildly.
Not only does Orochi hoard all the land's food and water for himself so that he can enjoy big and illustrious banquets, but he would even go so far as to feed his people leftovers of faulty SMILE fruits without them knowing a thing. Before long, all Wano's citizens could do was laugh due to the side effects, making it impossible for anyone to even show any kind of resentment towards their truly evil ruler.
1 Imu
Imu Has Spread Their Corrupt Influence All Throughout The World Government
Admittedly, not a lot is known about the shady being known as Imu, but what has been established is that their influence has spread throughout the World Government, making them the person calling the shots from the top of the food chain. While the Five Elders are already known for being pretty cruel rulers, they've got nothing on Imu. Any time Imu decides that the people of the world are learning a little too much, they will gladly order a person, city, or even an entire island to be exterminated, as shown when they gladly obliterated Lulusia Kingdom and had Cobra murdered.
Imu has been shown to possess not an inch of remorse for their actions, and considering they essentially control the world through using the World Government, it means they've been able to evade any sort of punishment, letting them cause as much carnage as they please. It's interesting to wonder how much safer and more hopeful the One Piece world would be if Imu hadn't existed, as they've certainly proved themselves to be a truly unforgivable tyrant despite their brief screentime.
- Release Date
- October 20, 1999
- Network
- Fuji TV
- Directors
- Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Maeya, Yûji Endô, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou
Cast
-
Mayumi TanakaMonkey D. Luffy (voice) -
Kazuya NakaiRoronoa Zoro (voice)
WHERE TO WATCH
One Piece is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. The series follows protagonist Monkey D. Luffy and his Straw Hat Pirate crew as they explore the Grand Line to find the King of the Pirates' ultimate treasure, the One Piece, in order to become the next king. The manga's popularity helped it spin off into a larger media franchise, including an anime with more than 1,000 episodes.
- Writers
- Jin Tanaka, Akiko Inoue, Junki Takegami, Shinzo Fujita, Shouji Yonemura, Yoshiyuki Suga, Atsuhiro Tomioka, Hirohiko Uesaka, Michiru Shimada, Isao Murayama, Takuya Masumoto, Yoichi Takahashi, Momoka Toyoda
- Franchise(s)
- One Piece
- Creator(s)
- Eiichiro Oda
