Tropes A to B (Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole, Arc Villain, Berserk Button, Beware the Silly Ones, Big Brother Instinct, Bowdlerise, Break the Cutie) | Tropes C to D (Call-Back, Chekhov's Gun, Cliffhanger, Combat Pragmatist, Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass, Curb-Stomp Battle, Dark and Troubled Past, Deconstructed Character Archetype) | Tropes E to F (Early Installment Weirdness, Famous Last Words, Foreshadowing) | Tropes G to J (Heart is an Awesome Power, Hypocrite) | Tropes K to M (Laser-Guided Karma, Logical Weakness, Mass "Oh, Crap!", Moral Myopia, Muscles Are Meaningless) | Tropes N to P (Nice Job Fixing It, Villain, Oh, Crap!, O.O.C. Is Serious Business) | Tropes Q to S (The Reveal, Shout-Out, Spanner in the Works, Superpower Lottery) | Tropes T to Z (Wham Episode, Wham Line)
One Piece is the Trope Codifier for anime and manga, featuring a new Arc Villain for almost every arc, who are listed below (in order of the arc in which they appeared).
Main Arcs
- Romance Dawn Arc: The first half of the arc has two villains of the week: Higuma, a flashback villain who kidnaps Luffy, incurring the wrath of Shanks and the future Red Hair Pirates; and Alvida, the captain of the ship Luffy sneaks into in the present. Both went down in one chapter. The second half has Captain "Ax-Hand" Morgan, by virtue of terrorizing Shells Town and ordering the executions of Zoro and a little girl.
- Orange Town Arc: Buggy the Clown, who attempts to kill Luffy and Nami in Orange Town for their treasure.
- Syrup Village Arc: Captain Kuro, who plans to massacre Syrup Village to cover up any association with him and the village, and to cover up his primary objective of killing Kaya to steal all her wealth.
- Baratie Arc: Don Krieg, by virtue of attacking Baratie to kill all the chefs and making the ship his primary ship for conquering East Blue due to Dracule Mihawk destroying most of his ships beforehand.
- Arlong Park Arc: Arlong, who has enslaved Cocoyashi Village and its surroundings to extract all money he could. He killed Nami's mother and forced Nami to be in his crew so that he could use her skills to build maps which Arlong would have used for conquering East Blue. The villagers and Straw Hats take action against him after he cons Nami out of her hard-earned money.
- Loguetown Arc: A Big Bad Ensemble between Smoker, Buggy the Clown and Alvida, the former wanting to capture Luffy before he goes to the Grand Line and begins his journey to become the Pirate King, and the latter duo due to wanting revenge for their humiliating defeats against Luffy.
- Reverse Mountain Arc: Miss Wednesday and Mr. 9, by virtue of attempting to kill Crocus and Laboon for the latter's meat. Although they are both Harmless Villains, and Miss Wednesday is a subversion, being revealed to be Good All Along in the following arc.
- Whiskey Peak Arc: Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine are technically this, and although they terrify Vivi and Igaram, Luffy and Zoro consider them an annoyance at best.
- Little Garden Arc: Mr. 3, who was assigned by Crocodile to kill the Straw Hats and Vivi before they expose the latter's schemes to the world.
- Drum Island Arc: Wapol, the former ruler of Drum (now Sakura) Kingdom, who attempted to forcibly take back his country after being deposed due to running away from Blackbeard and his crew's attack.
- Alabasta Arc: Sir Crocodile, who executed a civil war in the eponymous nation due to well-timed False Flag Operations against the king whom he attempted to frame for the ongoing drought in the nation so that he becomes its ruler and finds the location of Pluton, one of the three Ancient Weapons.
- Jaya Arc: Bellamy the Hyena, who terrorized the island and stole from Luffy's friends.
- Skypiea Arc: Enel, the self-proclaimed 'God' of Skypiea. He planned to destroy the island due to his god complex and decided to wipe out all the Sky Islands. His influence can be felt in the subsequent arcs due to the introduction of Haki.
- Long Ring Long Land Arc: Foxy, being a threat only due to the Davy Back Fight he played with the Straw Hats, and would have resulted in the dissolution of the Straw Hats had he won. After Foxy is defeated, a last minute threat appears in the form of Admiral Aokiji, who tries to kill Nico Robin on a whim. He later serves as the Greater-Scope Villain of the Water 7 Saga after giving Spandam the means to enact a Buster Call and ordering Robin to be brought in alive due to his past with her.
- Water 7 Arc: Franky and the Franky Family, a group of bounty-hunting ship dismantlers who steal the money needed to repair the Going Merry from the Straw Hats and beat up Usopp, actions that would lead to a ripple effect wherein Usopp and Luffy would come to blows over the fate of the ship. However, a conspiracy comes to life in the second act when Robin, who disappears early in the arc, attacks the mayor of Water 7 in his home, causing the Straw Hats to become public enemies number one. Uncovering the truth reveals that Rob Lucci, one of the shipwrights of Water 7, is a member of CP9 who is under orders from Spandam, to capture Robin and Franky as they possess the knowledge and blueprints to revive the Ancient Weapon Pluton.
- Enies Lobby Arc: Spandam, head of Cipher Pol 9, with Rob Lucci as the Dragon-in-Chief, who wishes to send Robin through the Gates of Justice so she can be tortured for information the Government could use to revive the Ancient Weapon Pluton.
- Post-Enies Lobby Arc: Vice Admiral Monkey D. Garp is a Double Subversion. He comes to Water 7 to confront the Straw Hats, but it turns out he just came by to see his grandson Luffy. Later, however, he returns to chase them away after being ordered by Sengoku.
- Thriller Bark Arc: Gecko Moria, who's stolen Brook's shadow (and later the Monster Trio's) and wishes to build an army of zombies to take revenge on Kaido. After his defeat, a last-minute threat comes in the form of Bartholomew Kuma, who is given orders to eliminate the Straw Hats and everyone who witnessed Moria's defeat.
- Sabaody Archipelago Arc: A Big Bad Shuffle between multiple arc villains:
- The arc starts out with "Iron Mask" Duval, leader of the Flying Fish Riders who has beef with Sanji due to resembling Sanji's badly drawn wanted poster. He's quickly taken care of after Sanji (literally) rearranges his face, and renames his group the Rosy Life Riders due to this changing his outlook on life.
- Afterwards, the next arc villains are the Rosward Family, members of the World Nobles who try to buy the mermaid Camie. However, because they are personally weak, the moment Charloss gets punched, he summons the Climax Boss of the arc...
- Admiral Kizaru, who, due to how inexperienced and unprepared the Straw Hats are for the New World, acts as the Wake-Up Call Boss by utterly wiping the floor with them, and it eventually leads to Bartholomew Kuma separating them.
- Amazon Lily Arc: Boa Hancock, Warlord of Amazon Lily who imprisons and tries to execute Luffy due to him seeing the slave mark on her back. She makes a Heel–Face Turn halfway through the arc after being humbled and ends up falling for him.
- Impel Down Arc: Warden Magellan, who wants to prevent Luffy (and later Blackbeard) from freeing the inmates there and stop further chaos in the prison.
- Marineford Arc: Fleet Admiral Sengoku, who tries to execute Ace and leads his army into battle against the Whitebeard Pirates. Due to mostly being a Non-Action Big Bad, however, his position is taken over by "Blackbeard" Marshall D. Teach, who kills Whitebeard and steals his Devil Fruit, and Admiral "Akainu" Sakazuki, who kills Ace.
- Post-War Arc: Bluejam, who leads the Bluejam pirates in Luffy's flashback to his childhood for the majority of the arc alongside the cruel nobles of the Goa Kingdom such as Sabo's father, Outlook III. Bluejam later gets an offer from the King of the Goa Kingdom to help burn down Gray Terminal and kill its residents to not leave a bad impression on the visiting Celestial Dragon Saint Jalmack in exchange for making him a noble only to go back on his word and leave him to die in the destruction too.
- Return to Sabaody Arc: Demalo Black, whose coasting off the Straw Hats' fame by disguising himself and his crew as Fake Straw Hats to recruit powerful pirates for the New World provided an annoying wrinkle in the real Straw Hats plans to reunite. However, he is usurped by Sentomaru, who tries to capture the real Luffy when the would-be pirate king returns from his training.
- Fishman Island Arc: A Big Bad Duumvirate between Hody Jones and Vander Decken IX. Hody Jones is the captain of the New Fish-Man Pirates who wants to wipe out all humans, and eventually the "prideless Fishman", of Fishman Island out of racial superiority. Vander Decken teams up with Hody to take down King Neptune and take Princess Shirahoshi's hand in marriage. However, Decken turns out to be a Big Bad Wannabe, as he is anticlimactically taken down by Luffy.
- Punk Hazard Arc: Caesar Clown, who is producing SAD which would be used by Donquixote Doflamingo to create SMILEs for Kaido and turn kids into giants for Big Mom. His defeat ends up causing both Doflamingo and Kaido to start treating the Straw Hats as a threat.
- Dressrosa Arc: Donquixote Doflamingo, who rules Dressrosa as its king after controlling the original king with his powers to go on a rampage and then "saving" the country, placing it under a dark conspiracy where the toys that live there are in fact cursed victims forced to work for him. After his conspiracy is unveiled and the curse is broken, he ensnares the island in his "Birdcage" to kill everyone on the island. After Doflamingo's defeat, a last-minute threat comes in the form of Admiral Fujitora, who confronts Luffy.
- Zou Arc: Jack "The Drought", one of Kaido's lead performers who attacks the land of Zou and the Minks that inhabit it due to believing that they were hiding the ninja "Raizo of the Mist" from the land of Wano. Strangely, while he is the main villain of the arc, the Straw Hat Pirates never actually meet Jack face to face in the arc with Sanji's group only meeting some of his crew members after he already left to free Doflamingo while Jack and his crew are defeated at the end of the arc by Zunesha the giant elephant carrying Zou on it's back.
- Whole Cake Island Arc: "Big Mom" Charlotte Linlin, who arranges a marriage between her daughter Charlotte Pudding and Sanji, who is revealed to be the son of Vinsmoke Judge, in an effort to take the Germa 66's technology and achieve her dreams of gigantifing her family as she could not patch things with the real giants. But because Linlin herself is too powerful for Luffy to defeat at this point in time, her son and strongest commander, Charlotte Katakuri, becomes Luffy's opponent during the arc's climax.
- Reverie Arc: This Breather Episode has two minor villains: Saint Charlos, who learned nothing from his last encounter with mermaids and tries to make Princess Shirahoshi his slave before being easily disposed of by Donquixote Mjosgard., and Peachbeard, Blackbeard's subordinate who tries to pillage a town in Lulusia before being overwhelmed by the Revolutionaries and the kingdom's citizens. The true main antagonist of the arc and the Greater Scope Vlllain of the entire manga is Imu, the true ruler of the world.
- Wano Country Arc: Kaido, the King of the Beasts, who is in collusion with Wano Country's shogun, Kurozumi Orochi having teamed up together to take over the country and rule it with an iron fist for the past twenty years. Orochi is revealed to be a Big Bad Wannabe as Kaido decapitates him for being an annoyance to his plans, and then teams up with Big Mom in order to fully turn Wano into a lawless pirate empire and take over the world. Orochi, who is revealed to be Not Quite Dead thanks to his Devil Fruit, serves as a distant secondary threat in Act Three when he sets fire to Onigashima and later commands his mole to blow up the weapon cache beneath the island to kill all of his enemies in one fell swoop, though again he pales in comparison to Kaido and Big Mom who are the ones the heroes are actually focused on fighting. After Kaido's defeat, a last-minute threat comes in the form of Admiral Ryokugyu, who wants to capture Luffy and confronts the Red Scabbards, though is eventually deterred by Shanks.
- Egghead Arc: Similar to the Sabaody Archipelago Arc, this arc features multiple arc villains as the series begins its final saga:
- Rob Lucci returns as the primary threat the Straw Hats need to face again, as Lucci is ordered by the World Government to Vegapunk before the latter finds out about the Void Century and to capture Robin in order to reset the chaos in the world, but ends up focusing on fighting Luffy despite being explicitly ordered not to.
- After Lucci's defeat, the next villain is York, one of Vegapunk's Satellites, who is revealed to have ratted out Vegapunk's studies of the Void Century to the World Government so she could become both a Celestial Dragon and the sole Vegapunk, along with supplying Imu with the Mother Flame. However, she is easily defeated by the Straw Hats and is taken hostage so they can escape from the island, which then leads to...
- Admiral Kizaru and Saint Jaygarcia Saturn, the former being sent alongside an army of Marines to siege Egghead Island and kill Vegapunk, and the latter being sent to take care of the situation himself and force the Pacifistas to stand down. Later, it's revealed Saturn was involved with Bartholomew Kuma and his loved ones past suffering since he was the one that gave Ginny Sapphire Scales that went to her daughter Jewelry Bonney as well and forced him to become a mindless cyborg to save Bonney. Eventually, when Kuma suddenly reappears on Egghead defying all logical explanation, Saturn becomes so enraged that he starts a buster call on Egghead to kill everyone present. When Vegapunk sends out a pre-recorded message in order to reveal the truth about the world's history, Saturn gets so serious that he summons the other four elders to Egghead in order to stop it.
- Kuma's flashback has two main villains: The previous ruler of the Sorbet Kingdom, King Becori who attempted to Kill the Poor so he could pay less taxes to the World Government, and Alpha, the CP8 agent keeping Bonney under house arrest.
- That said, the arc begins to branch out into numerous villains as their goals finally collide with the heroes, such as Blackbeard launching an attack on Koby and Law while van Augur and Devon are sent to Egghead to accomplish an unknown mission, Saint Charlos trying to kidnap Shirahoshi (again), Mihawk, Crocodile and Buggy forming the Cross Guild, and Imu killing King Cobra and testing the Mother Flame on Lulusia.
Filler Arcs
- Warship Island Arc: Commodore Nelson Royale, with Eric the Whirlwind as Dragon-in-Chief, who plans on hunting down the dragon Ryuu to eat his bones and obtain immortality. In the last phase, Eric overthrows Nelson and reveals that he wants to obtain the bones for himself.
- Goat Island Arc: Minchey is technically this, by virtue of hunting down Zenny's treasure, but turns out to be a Big Bad Wannabe as he is quickly taken out by the Straw Hats. Later, Captain Moore tries fighting the Straw Hats himself, but is shipwrecked not long after.
- Rainbow Mist Arc: Wetton, a former pirate who took over a small village as its mayor, who tries finding the titular Rainbow Mist.
- G8 Arc: Jonathan, commander of the Marine base G8, is considered this. He has no actual ill-intent, as he just wants to protect his base from the Straw Hats when they crash-land onto it from Skypiea.
- Ocean's Dream Arc: Drim, who steals the Straw Hats' (except Robin's) memories. It's later revealed he was Brainwashed and Crazy by the true villain, Noko, who wants to feed on memories to become a dragon.
- Foxy's Return Arc: Foxy, who tries taking revenge on Luffy after his defeat back at Long Ring Long Land.
- Ice Hunter Arc: Don Accino and the Accino Family, a group of bounty hunters who antagonize the Straw Hats by stealing the Thousand Sunny's Jolly Roger.
- Spa Island Arc: At first, Foxy is this yet again, when he crosses paths with the Straw Hats at Spa Island while trying to steal Sayo's notebook containing information on making jewels. However, it turns out the real villain is the island's owner, Doran, who enlisted Foxy's help and captures Sayo.
- Little East Blue Arc: Largo and Corto, who cross paths with the Straw Hats while looking for an overgrown bug Boss, protector of the island Little East Blue, under orders of Shiki (who would become the Big Bad of the arc's follow-up film One Piece Film: Strong World).
- Z's Ambition Arc: Vice Admiral Momonga appears to be this, being the one taking Lily's father Panz Fry to Impel Down. However, partway through the arc, Shuzo, a member of the Neo-Marines, comes along to kill Panz Fry.
- Caesar Retrieval Arc: Breed, who kidnaps Caesar Clown and plans on using him to create his "dream kingdom".
- Silver Mine Arc: Bill, a subordinate of Gild Tesoro (Big Bad of the follow-up film One Piece Film: Gold), who captures and tries to execute Luffy.
- Marine Supernova Arc: All-Hunt Grount, who tries attacking the Sanji Retrieval Team when they infiltrate his base for food.
- Carbonic Acid King Arc: Cidre, who targets the Straw Hats and Boa Hancock for their bounties.
