Characters / One Piece: Donquixote Doflamingo

All spoilers regarding the Super Rookies era are unmarked. New World spoilers are unmarked in character descriptions, and examples relating to the New World era can be spoiler-tagged if deemed necessary.

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Main Character Index > Seven Warlords of the Sea > Baroque Works | Donquixote Pirates (Donquixote Doflamingo) | Thriller Bark Pirates | Kuja | Sun Pirates

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"Heavenly Demon" Donquixote Doflamingo

Voiced by: Hideyuki Tanaka, Tomoe Hanba [young] (Japanese); Robert McCollum, Brittney Karbowski [young] (English)^note Other languages: Alfredo Gabriel Basurto [Netflix dub, first voice], Christian Strempler [Netflix dub, second voice] (Latin American Spanish)

Age: 39 (Pre-Time Skip), 41 (Post-Time Skip)

Debut: Chapter 233 (Manga), Episode 151 (Anime)

Devil Fruit: String-String Fruit

"The beginning is upon us! I suggest you prepare. We're drawing close to a new world in which only true pirates can survive. The weak should run while they still can or be swept away by the tides of time, as they roll back to reveal a new era of champions!"

— Chapter 801

The third of the Seven Warlords to be formally introduced, captain of the Donquixote Pirates and the former king of Dressrosa. Sly, rude and disrespectful towards the World Government, Doflamingo is sadistically playful with others, and seems to delight in causing and participating in chaos. In contrast to the sadistic way he treats most people, he is affectionate towards his quirky crew, who he insists to be his family (in a twisted reflection of Luffy's relationship with his crew). In turn, his crew all respect and love him, affectionately referring to him as "Doffy". He has eaten the String-String Fruit (Ito Ito no Mi), which allows him to produce strings and literally manipulate people like puppets, sever limbs with ease, and travel across the sky just as easily. He also demonstrates the ability to use Haki, being one of the few known users of Conqueror's Haki to exist.

Fitting in with his "puppet master" motif, Doflamingo eventually becomes the Underworld's top broker under the alias "Joker", and has countless underworld connections, including planting moles in the Marines, selling weapons to countries to provoke war, and formerly oversaw a massive slaver ring that catered towards the Celestial Dragon nobility. His most important partnership is with Kaido, who he keeps happy by producing artificial Zoan Devil Fruits known as SMILEs to maintain Kaido's beast army. He is a believer in the New Age, an era where pirates focus on what's around them rather than embark on pursuits of romanticism, making him the antithesis of the Great Age of Pirates that Gold Roger set in motion.

After the Time Skip, his influence is felt starting from the Punk Hazard arc and finally culminates with him becoming the main antagonist of the Dressrosa arc. It was revealed that he was a former Celestial Dragon before losing his status. After a series of long, grueling battles, his "family" is defeated, with Doflamingo himself beaten by Luffy with Law's aid. Due to Issho's actions, the World Government cannot cover up his activities and has no choice but to strip Doflamingo of his Warlord title.

Prior to joining the Warlords, his bounty was 340,000,000 Berries, the highest known bounty yet revealed in the series until post-time skip. Since he's arrested immediately following his defeat, it has not been reinstated.

Finally, he's also notable for being the first enemy to witness and fall to Gear Four, Luffy's incredibly powerful Next Tier Power-Up.

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A - D

• Actually a Doombot: The Doflamingo that was beheaded by Kyros was actually a string clone controlled by Doflamingo.
• Advancing Wall of Doom: His Birdcage creates a dome out of his strings that can cover an entire island. Strings hard enough to be practically unbreakable, and sharp enough they'll cut with the lightest touch. And then he slowly contracts the dome, turning it into a destructive wall that slices everything in its path and requires the strength of dozens of warriors just to slow it down.
• Adaptational Badass: Less with Doflamingo and more with his final attack, God Thread. In the manga, it's very easily broken through by Luffy's King Kong Gun without any clash happening. In the anime though, it manages to stalemate King Kong Gun for a longer while and even slightly pierce through Luffy's fist before he pulls through and defeat Doflamingo.
• Affectionate Nickname: His biological family, his elite officers and some of his more trusted subordinates call him "Doffy"; the cuter sound of the nickname shows how close they are to him.
• Agent Peacock: Doflamingo dresses in a very gaudy and flamboyant manner and acts hammy. He's also a Warlord and famed arms dealer who used his Razor Floss to nearly kill Smoker and kick Law's ass.
• Alliterative Name: Donquixote Doflamingo.
• Ambiguously Bi: The way he dresses, the way he acts, and the way he hits on Crocodile could hint this, although it's more likely he's simply mocking Croc given the entourage of scantily clad women lounging with him at his mansion.
• And There Was Much Rejoicing: Everyone at Dressrosa cheers when Doflamingo's atrocities are exposed and Luffy defeats him, freeing them from Doflamingo's ten year reign.
• Animal Motifs: The flamingo, wearing pink, flamboyant clothes and walking like a flamingo.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • He and Law outright despise each other. Their entire conflict is the result of another case of Arch-Enemy, mixed with Unknown Rival. Doflamingo's own brother Rosinante (aka Corazon, Law's idol) despised his brother as well, considering him to be pure evil, viewing the purpose of his existence as to keep his brother's "madness" in check. As such, as a Marine, he infiltrated his brother's pirate crew with the intention of preventing the tragedy that Doflamingo would bring about on Dressrosa. Doflamingo was completely unaware of this until the moments leading into Rosinante's death. Murdering Corazon resulted in Doflamingo earning Law's hatred — Law would then spend the next thirteen years of his life plotting his revenge. Law's actions during the Pirate Alliance Saga is what would cause his hatred to become mutual on both their ends, with the Dressrosa arc basically amounting to a pissing contest between the two over who can piss off the other more. Doflamingo eventually comes to hate Law so much that even during his final confrontation with Luffy (who he comes to hate almost as much as he does Law), one of his main motivations for trying to kill the latter is so Law can finally lose hope in getting his revenge.
  • It's clear that whatever's left of the Riku royal family hates him, and for good reason:
    • King Riku Dold III was blackmailed by him for ten billion berries in order to keep Dressrosa, and when the king finally managed to collect it by appealing to the people, Doflamingo used his powers to force the king and his soldiers to start killing people so that Doflamingo could show up and "save" everyone, ruining the king's good name and turning the very people he loved against him. His family is hunted down or imprisoned, and he himself becomes a convict gladiator.
    • Rebecca, his granddaughter, only a child when this occurred, lost her mother and eventually became a convict gladiator, forced to fight and win a thousand battles to gain her freedom, and unable to live with the toy who raised her and protected her. She enters the tournament with the objective to gaining the Flame-Flame Fruit, so that she can kill Doflamingo, and be reunited with "Thunder Soldier".
    • Kyros, his son-in-law and the father of Rebecca, was turned into a toy dubbed "Thunder Soldier", unable to protect his wife from Doflamingo's forces and had to raise his daughter without ever telling her who he truly was, lest he be tossed into the scrap heap, as his entire family had forgotten who he was due to the powers of Doflamingo's henchwoman, Sugar. He would later plan an assault on the toy factory and a rebellion against Doflamingo with the Tontatta Tribe, who also have a good reason to hate the guy.
    • Viola, the king's daughter, submitted herself into Doflamingo's service under the name Violet in exchange for sparing her father's life, being forced to work as an assassin for the last ten years for the man who ruined her family. Viola switches sides when she sees an opportunity to take down Doflamingo once and for all.
  • The Tontatta Kingdom has been enslaved by the Donquixote Family (both his crew and Dressrosa's original royal family).
  • This includes the Straw Hats now as well, since they find his actions during the Pirate Alliance Saga outright despicable and he considers them irritating nuisances for causing his hold over Dressrosa to be destroyed. Luffy especially stands out due to both men wanting to become the Pirate King, but their methods in achieving that goal clash with each other. The fact that Doflamingo made several of Luffy's friends angry and/or suffer (namely Law, Rebecca and Bellamy) is just icing on the cake. Doflamingo, however, didn't come to really hate Luffy until the latter activated Gear Four and proceeded to hand him a humiliating No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
• Arc Villain: Doflamingo is the man behind the villains of the Punk Hazard arc and takes center stage as the main threat in the Dressrosa arc. He lasts longer than the standard Arc Villain does as well, with his one-on-one fight with Luffy truly not starting until several chapters after the defeat of his final subordinate, Pica.
• Arms Dealer: Doflamingo has worked as one of the most influencial traders of the Underworld, under the name of Joker, for 10 years following his re-take over of Dressrosa.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: The story of his ancestors, the Donquixote Royal Family. They helped found the World Government and became World Nobles, but even before that the Tontattas tell that the ancestral Donquixote Family used the Little People as slaves. While Doflamingo's parents and younger brother were surprisingly decent people, Doflamingo acted like a traditional World Noble. Even after his family left Mariejois, he refused to let go of his "Noble" heritage.
• Artistic License - Firearms: At the climax of the Dressrosa arc an enraged Doflamingo frantically shoots Law multiple times as if he was using a semi-automatic firearm. However, he's using a flintlock pistol which in real life could only be fired once before the user had to reload them.
• Assassin Outclassin': He nonchalantly talks over the phone to Vergo even as one of his subordinates, Baby 5, tried several attempts to assassinate him in revenge for killing eight men who proposed to her. And even when he incapacitates said subordinate with his powers, he's still not breaking a sweat.
• Ax-Crazy: It was most shown when he was younger, but in times of significant stress he can turn into one hell of a dangerous nutcase.
• Bad Boss: While Doflamingo considers the officers as part of his family, he doesn't care the slightest for his peons, such as Bellamy or Disco.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: When he was 25-years-old, he kicked ass in a damned nice suit, and without that bow-legged swagger to boot.
• Bait the Dog:
  • If his very brief moment as a Benevolent Boss made you think he's more humane than initially presumed, juuuuuust read Arch-Enemy above. It reaffirms just how awful Doflamingo really is.
  • You know how Bellamy turning out to be alive in Dressrosa – after supposedly being killed back at Jaya – seemed to reveal that Doflamingo was a Benevolent Boss? Turns out that he not only ordered his minions to kill Bellamy in the colosseum because he lost his match and then failed to kill Luffy, but he had been intending on doing so from the beginning since he already considered Bellamy an "eyesore".
  • Even his supposed "devotion and care towards his new family" falls short when you consider that he only cares about them when they're convenient, ultimately puts his goals before them, will readily sacrifice them when it's needed, and he essentially preys on other people's suffering to make them join his family.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Subverted. At first (in order of chapters), you'd think that him being tortured by the mob as a child, along with having his childhood turning to hell after the fact that his family is a former World Noble is outed to the angry masses, turns him into the vengeful, violent man he is now. But then his brother Rocinante basically said that he was born evil and that the torture only made it worse.
• Benevolent Boss: If you're one of his high execs (such as Monet and Vergo), chances are he'll be friendly with you. Notably is Trebol's failure to protect Sugar, resulting in the loss of all their toy slaves and the uprising in Dressrosa. Such a big screw-up would be a You Have Failed Me moment for anyone else, but not for him. Then it's later turned on its ass when it's revealed he treated Bellamy, who idolized him, like crap because not only did the guy lose to Luffy, Doffy sees him as an "eyesore". Law also deconstructs the trope by revealing Doffy's "family" at its core: he only sees them as tools for his plans and will not hesitate to sacrifice them when it's convenient. All that kindness and forgiveness are just part of a mask he kept up for years.
• Berserk Button: He has four:
  • Being looked down on. He's a World Noble, dammit! How dare lowly commoners go against him!
  • While the reasons have not been given, he seems to despise anyone with the 'D' initials, though being a pseudo-World Noble could be an explanation. The fact that Law turned out to be one sent him flying into a rage that ultimately caused him to walk right into a very powerful attack.
  • Law's very existence is becoming one for Doflamingo, as he is now seen seething with rage every time he engages Law in conversation.
  • Now Luffy is counted among the list of things that really pisses him off; hard to blame him since Luffy defeated Doflamingo in an overwhelming beatdown.
• Big Brother Instinct: According to Buffalo, Doffy sees Baby 5 as his little sister and wanted to protect her from "personality flaws", which gave him ample reason to murder the eight men she easily fell in love with. Subverted; he only did so because he saw her as a convenient tool to keep around, a sentiment shared by his other crewmates.
• Blackmail: He does this a lot.
  • In the past, he stole the "honor money" that was meant for the World Nobles as well as their secret "national treasure" and then blackmailed them with it, claiming that he would blurt out their secrets if he isn't given some authority. That's how he became a Warlord, as well as how he can still hold some power over World Government agencies.
  • His Engineered Heroics below also involves blackmail.
  • Ironically, he's on the receiving end of this when Law holds Caesar hostage and blackmailed him into resign from the Warlord position. Unfortunately, the first example gives him the power to render this null and void.
• Black Sheep: He's a Black Sheep from a family of White Sheep. The other known members of the Donquixote family are very kind despite being World Nobles, while Doflamingo himself is every bit as cruel as is typical of them, even after losing his status.
• Blue Blood: He turns out to be this, what with being a (former) Celestial Dragon and all. Once he learns he can't have his status back, he vows to destroy the entire world.
• Book Ends: Begins and ends his one on one fight with Luffy by using a spider web like move made of threads. The first time, it manages to block Luffy's Elephant Gun, the second time Luffy's King Kong Gun destroys it and knocks him out.
• Break the Haughty: The entire Dressrosa arc is one long example of the trope for Doflamingo. After spending years as a cocky cackling control freak and puppeteer from the sidelines who has his best laid plans running smoothly and thinking himself untouchable, his entire SMILE operation and Dressrosa supremacy end up destroyed, his forces and minions are beaten, his resources halted, his privileges as Warlord removed and he ends up beaten into traction and locked in Impel Down to rot for his troubles. At the end, he doesn't mind much the latter because for him it means to safely enjoy the destruction of the status quo of One Piece's world within a prison cell.
• Cain and Abel: With his younger brother Corazon/Rocinante. Corazon believed his brother was born evil, and that he existed to keep Dofamingo's "madness" in check. In Law's backstory, Doffy kills his brother for siding with the Marines.
• Call-Back: His defeat mirrors how Chinjao was defeated earlier in the colosseum tournament. Both by flying to the air and trying to clash with Luffy, who then knocked them down with a technique that enlarges his arm and turns it black, and both cracked the ground in two as they fell, Doffy doing so in a more painful and epic manner.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: He's able to hold a pleasant work call with Vergo while Baby 5 is trying to murder him, and then subdues her like it's nothing.
• Character Tics: Every time he gets particularly vicious, or dangerously angry, a set of veins bulge out on his forehead. This is likely because his eyes are always covered by his shades, and Oda wanted him to have a way to show the state of his emotions. It works to a mortifying degree. Whenever Doflamingo's veins appear, it's an unquestionable warning sign someone, or even worse, everyone, is definitely screwed. As the Dressrosa arc goes on and his plans start to fall apart, his enraged look is now becoming the norm for him. This hits a breaking point when Luffy goes into Gear Four and starts overwhelming him. Being constantly sent flying through the city is making veins not only show up on his forehead but on his cheeks as well. His rage is also so palpable that nearby citizens flee in terror of the man and Doflamingo's trademark smile is replaced with bared teeth.
• Characterization Marches On: Seeing how quickly and permanently he is established as a Perpetual Smiler, it can be a little strange to see him frowning in his very first appearance.
  • Although it does make sense, as his first appearance takes place in Mariejois, the home of the World Nobles, the place he came from, and to which he can never truly return, with residents whose powers he will never truly wield again. That reminder is bound to be a sore spot.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: Doflamingo's smile rarely leaves his face, even as he's terrorizing people, making him look even creepier.
• The Chessmaster: He has moles (ex-crewmates) like Vergo in high ranking Marine positions and criminals like Caesar Clown under his influence. It's implied back on Jaya that he was planning for SMILEs to become the new thing even then, and then in the timeskip Caesar just so happens to have developed a weapon named Smiley. Oh, and SMILE turns out to be a codename for Artifical Zoan-type Devil Fruits, and he has a factory just for producing those, for his deal with Kaido. He even turned Law's blackmail on its head and used it to trap him. He also has backup tactics and plans in case of major things happening, and is also a good player of Xanatos Speed Chess.
• Climax Boss: His final battle with Luffy goes in four stages (fight with Luffy & Law, dealing with both Luffy and Law separately at the same time, battle with Luffy across Dressrosa, Race Against the Clock final showdown) which took over 30 chapters, with him being the first to push Luffy to his limits post-Timeskip, and signifying that the New World is only going to get more challenging from then on. Doflamingo himself seems to have regarded himself as the "gatekeeper" keeping all the major players in check, with it only going to be total chaos once they collide with him gone. He also marks the final instance where a Warlord is the Big Bad of an arc, after this point, the paradigm shifts to the Straw Hats and their allies fighting the Emperors and the World Government, and the Warlords are relegated to mostly secondary antagonists.
• Combat Pragmatist: While he is nonetheless extremely powerful, he tends to manipulate, trick, and weaken his opponents during his battles beforehand. Notably, he significantly delays his confrontation with Luffy by forcing him to fight his doppelganger and Bellamy.
• Control Freak:
  • Befitting for his "puppet master" theme, Doflamingo has a huge obsession with being in control. His Devil Fruit is the String-String Fruit that lets him manipulate people like puppets. He became the king of Dressrosa by making the inhabitants believe he was their savior and made the previous royalty look like fiends. The biggest thing that ticks him off is no longer having his Celestial Dragon status and being treated like a god. His rants to Tsuru about how he used to be some sort of "benevolent" deterrent against the major factors of the world threatening to tear the world apart highlights how influential he is, and thus how much effort he has put into making himself in control of people at a large scale.
  • It even extends to his obsession with Law. While Doflamingo's obsession with the Op-Op Fruit has everything to do with becoming immortal, if it was just that he could've found some way to have Law captured and killed, find the fruit again, and given it to another, more loyal subordinate to give him what he wanted. Even the difficulty of searching for the fruit and claiming it before the World Government can is ultimately little trouble for someone as well-connected as Doflamingo, seeing as he managed to find information on its location back when he was still just a rookie pirate in North Blue. Instead, he is intent on having Law do it because he fully expects his crew to act as sacrificial pawns if required, and hates that Law escaped his control. That's why he keeps referring to Law as if he's still his subordinate even thirteen years after Law left his crew, even going as far as saying that he "owns" Law. When he learns Law is a D, and thus, will never (willingly) be under his control again, that's when he finally snaps and decides to kill Law.
• Cool Shades: One of the coolest characters of the series, and is very rarely seen without his shades. When he isn't wearing them, his eyes are covered by something else or not in panel.
• The Corrupter: He's implied to be this to Trafalgar Law in the latter's youth. That phrase that Law said to Tashigi: "The weak cannot choose their way of death," comes straight out of Doflamingo's mouth at one point during his fight with Luffy and Law. With Law's flashback, it's apparent that Doffy did try to bend him to his whims, but Corazon's actions prevented it from fully happening.
• Crazy-Prepared:
  • Much of his schemes over the years have to been to cover any eventuality that he deems should be addressed for the sake of his world-ruling ambitions. He spent years blackmailing the World Nobles to avoid their interference in his plans, expanded his influence as a pivotal monopolizing dealer in the Underworld, and ensured his status as a Warlord to freeze his bounty and ensure the Marines would not hunt him as a pirate. He even had one of his most capable subordinates join the Marines as The Mole and work his way up to becoming a Vice Admiral just to have a well-connected Mole in Charge to keep any dirty dealings secret from the Marines and the public at large. For added protection in the case of resumed piracy, he became a prime supplier for Kaido using Caeser Clown, cemented himself as a Villain with Good Publicity in Dressrosa as a stable base of operations, and attempted to gain immortality through the Op-Op Fruit.
  • He managed to get the Flame-Flame Fruit shortly after Ace's death, and apparently did so solely to use it as leverage against Luffy if he needed to. That means he held on to a prized Logia-class Fruit for two years, just in case.
  • Despite the heroes turning his toys back into humans and exposing his atrocities, he goes into "Plan B" aka The Birdcage and ''traps the entire island" in a prison of string. Then demands the citizens kill his enemies to claim a "bounty" and for their survival, essentially turning the whole island against the heroes. Though he didn't count on the Colosseum tournament participants (i.e not part of his kingdom) turning on him and his troops because they were pissed at him.
• Create Your Own Hero: Or Anti-Hero, in this case. Every single misfortune he endured during the Dressrosa arc before his final defeat can be traced back to the murder of his father, which eventually resulted in his younger brother being taken in by Sengoku and becoming a Marine spy dedicated to stopping Doflamingo. Corazon, however, turned out to be a Doomed Moral Victor whose own death was the catalyst for the creation of the true (anti-)hero of Doflamingo's story: Trafalgar Law. Law's Roaring Rampage of Revenge is the driving force of the Pirate Alliance saga, and the ultimate instigator for the Straw Hats getting involved in the entire mess in the first place. Doflamingo is very much aware of this, which is why, even after coming to hate Luffy, he still hates Law more.
• Creepy Child: The first thing he asks for after leaving Mariejois is "where are the slaves?", and the second is for his father's gun to "deal with commoners who crossed his path". Later he went on to shoot his own father in the back of the head, decapitate his corpse, and then travel with his dad's severed head halfway across the world from the North Blue to the Red Line. And at that time he was only ten years old.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Averted, unlike several Warlords such as Moria and Crocodile who relies on concealed weapons in a straight brawl. While Doflamingo fights primarily with and heavily relies on his Devil Fruit powers, he is an incredibly skilled and powerful martial artist even without them.
• Cultural Translation: In Japan, his epithet is "Ten Yasha" (天夜叉), which Viz translated as "Heavenly Demon", presumably because the average westerner isn't expected to know what a yaksha is.
• Dark and Troubled Past: As it turns out, he does not lie when he talks about how bad his life was. When he was a kid, his father had his family live the simple lives as commoners, forfeiting their World Noble privileges and tried to live in a relatively more modest (but still wealthy) home. However, the citizens caught wind of a family of World Nobles living alongside them, and their home was eventually burned down. His family was forced into a dingy home near a garbage dump, and indeed, he and his brother ate garbage just to survive. His mother's health declined and she passed away, while the remaining family was nearly killed many times whenever angry citizens caught them. Both times the family tried to go back to Mariejois – the first by his father asking them politely, and the second by Doffy killing his father and attempted to return – they were refused, so he vowed vengeance against them. The worst part is that it's implied to be a Self-Inflicted Hell, he was so rotten and arrogant as a child and kept trying to act like a World Noble that it's his fault the normal people cottoned up to the fact of his family's lineage and they took their retribution for the abuses of the World Nobles out on his family.
  Doflamingo: There are few people who have led as unfortunate a life as I have.
• Death Glare: He performs this on some Dressrosa citizens after he gets launched off the palace by Luffy's Gum Gum Kong Gun.
• Defector from Decadence: According to him during his talk with Law. He mentions that he's not really with the Celestial Dragons anymore. As it turns out, it wasn't by his own choice – though his father apparently played it straight.
• Determinator: Doflamingo has an unbreakable will to survive, refusing to plead or die even when citizens tortured him in a failed attempt to break him, while swearing aloud to live through it to kill everyone in revenge; compared to how his father and brother were begging for mercy, this scene utterly horrified everyone who witnessed it. Even when being hunted down by the Celestial Dragons after learning their secret, Doflamingo managed to escape them due to his will to live. This trait eventually brought on his obsession for immortality, which is the main reason he took an interest in the Op-Op Fruit and is extremely bitter with Law for refusing to fulfill this desire.
• Diabolical Mastermind: The same way as Crocodile before him, Doffy poses as a benevolent king to his kingdom while secretly oppressing them and holding up a black market.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • Subverted. When Doflamingo begins his "Birdcage Plan," he assigns a 500 million berry bounty on Usopp – Almost twice that of the enemy leaders (300 million each). While overblown strength-wise, it's justified by the fact that Usopp knocked Sugar out with her victims restored and ritoting, thus he is responsible for Doflamingo's reign over Dressrosa coming under threat.
  • This is played straight with his reaction to people exploit Baby 5's neurotic obsession to be needed into marrying them. He not only kills the men in question, but also razes the towns they live in and kill everyone there.
  • This stems from his flashback with the would-be four top executives where they all commit extreme retributions whenever Doffy felt wronged in the slightest. Him being a former World Noble, who are known as this, also explains it.
  • Some adaptations and translations have him asking for his father's gun to deal with "a commoner who crossed his path on the street."
• The Don: The Donquixote family is the head of many big-league crime operations, which include slave trade, information broker, arm dealings and Devil Fruit black markets, and he's on top of it ever since they were only a pirate gang. Though his 25-year-old self looked more the part, he's still very much a classic example of The Don now as he was then.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Even as an adult, he still suffered nightmares of his hellish childhood, so to cope with it he drank generous amounts of alcohol.
• Dub Name Change: As a result of having his name spelled as "Don Quichotte De Flamingo" in Germany, his nickname "Doffy" was changed accordingly to "Deffi" to match the spelling. The name Don Quichotte De Flamingo itself has become more than just a form of Inconsistent Spelling, since it's pronounced quite differently from Donquixote Doflamingo.

E - L

• The End Is Nigh: While he doesn't announce The End of the World as We Know It, in his appearances he often makes speeches about a war that will destroy the current status of the world and bring a new age, all of this with a big smile that imply he's very eager for said war. Ironically, as he himself says in his rants, it's his own defeat that sparks the beginning of said war.
• Enfant Terrible:
  • He was one as a child. As much as you'd expect from a child who was a World Noble. What really takes the cake is that he killed his own father apparently for wanting his family to live like commoners. His own younger brother believed that Doflamingo was simply born evil.
  • To say nothing of the time when Doflamingo, bruised and beaten and being tortured at the stake, shouts at the mob torturing him that no matter what happens, he will survive, and when he gets down, he will kill each and every single one of them. Even the mob was taken aback by this. And you know how he escaped that mob? By using Haki to knock them all out, being one of the youngest characters in the series to use that ability.
• Engineered Heroics: Ten years ago, he manipulated King Riku and his army into collecting money from his citizens and then massacring them, making them look bad in the process, while he and his group shows up at the right time to "save" the populace and become their new "good" king. No wonder he's got such a good publicity in the island despite his attitude.
• Entitled Bastard:
  • As a (former) World Noble he thinks he's entitled to everything. He really hates the World Nobles for not letting him rejoin them because of his father's actions even after he killed his father and he wants to destroy the world they built just for that.
  • This is what actually got his family in trouble in the first place. Even though he knows he's not a World Noble anymore after his father moved from Mariejois, he kept acting like a brat to the townspeople. That eventually tipped them off that the family were former World Nobles and came after them with extreme prejudice.
  • The four Executives, particularly Trebol, kept on fostering and encouraging Doflamingo's so-called "fate" of being the future "King of the Seas", who can do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted.
• Et Tu, Brute?: He killed his cherished younger brother Rocinante when he discovered he was a Marine.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: It's implied that part of what motivated him to kill his father was his mother's death, which he believes could have been prevented with the top class medicine they would have had access to when they were World Nobles. In a flashback to Doffy's childhood, his mother was the only person he displayed genuine concern and affection for, even bringing her food while she was sick, and is devastated when she dies in front of him and his brother.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: This is Zig-Zagged a bit.
  • While he does put on a show of affection for his top officers, and part of the reason he killed his father was because the hardships of their life outside of Mariejois resulted in his mother's death, it's implied that the only reason he likes his officers is their Undying Loyalty. He has no problem asking them to die for his sake, even if he'll regret it.
  • He was attacking the Thousand Sunny with the intent to rescue Caesar but stopped the moment Law put a sword near to Giolla's throat and let them escape. Let´s remember the fact that Caesar was necessary to Doflamingo in order not to anger Kaido, one of the Four Emperors.
  • You do not laugh at his top executives. He considers them to be his family, those who shared both joy and sorrow with him, so he will not tolerate any disrespect towards them.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • He might be one of the crueler Warlords, but he's not the type to start fights over dreams, and even if he is, he'd make sure he didn't lose which is why he personally (well, almost personally) beat up and dismissed Bellamy.
  • He also reacted very badly to Monet's apparent death, to the point that he jumped off a window four stories high to head off to Punk Hazard. He deems his execs his family, and will go to great lengths to protect and avenge them.
  • When it's discovered that Law was from Flevance, a country no longer existing due to a tragedy involving a substance called Amber Lead, he berates Giolla for bringing it up since it clearly disturbs Law. He along with his crew explain the truth about Flevance: Amber Lead was poisonous but the World Government let the country's oblivious citizens get rich from it so they could profit from them in turn. They promptly abandoned them and quarantined Flevance when everyone inevitably got sick, sending the population into civil wars out of desperation to escape. He may be quite the bastard, but even Doflamingo found the fate of Flevance to be an atrocity and reading about it caused him to dwell on his own past, causing him nightmares.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • Though he himself would never admit it, Law is very much alike to former mentor/current Arch-Enemy Doflamingo. Both are cunning, charismatic men with a cruelty streak a mile wide and a severe case of misanthropy. However, Law, beneath all his cruelty, has genuine empathy and care for others – he doesn't hesitate when protecting some of his weaker allies, he shows great benevolence to his crew, and he expresses outright disgust for Caesar after he revealed his experiments on children and his method for keeping them from running away. Compare this to Doflamingo, who only shows fondness for his closest crew mates yet isn't above ordering them to sacrifice themselves for him and his goals, and facilitated the kidnapping of children for the experiments of the Mad Scientist on his payroll. Law ultimately lives the sake of another, his goal of stopping Doflamingo ultimately to fulfill the wishes of the man who saved his life. Doflamingo lives for the sake of himself, to wrought his vengeance on the world to get back at those who denied him what he perceives as his "birthright". Thus, Law has no fear of death – he knows his quest to end Doflamingo's madness may very well end in his demise, but while he does not long for it, he won't hesitate to face it if it means accomplishing his goal. Doflamingo, in turn, is an Immortality Seeker who fears his death, to the point that he won't hesitate to send the "family" he supposedly cherishes so much to their deaths if it means prolonging his life and/or furthering his own goals.
  • With the rest of his upbringing revealed, he takes an evil turn compared to his younger brother – from their nature and personality to their mentor and their life choices. Despite their shared tragedy, Rocinante took after their parents and grew up to be an altruistic, compassionate man. Doflamingo, on the other hand, was deemed to have been born evil, his miseries just served to reinforce the worst traits in him; he never grew out of the bitterness of having been denied his birthright and wanted to destroy the world for it. In their childhood, Rocinante was taken in by Sengoku and became a Marine, while Doflamingo was taken in by the four executives and turned to a life of piracy, growing up with a conviction that his new 'family' fostered that he had the makings to become the Pirate King. In the end, Rocinante abandoned his mission and sacrificed his life for a boy unrelated to him. In contrast, Doflamingo would sacrifice anyone for his goals and all his actions are ultimately for the sake of himself, and the people he keeps calling 'family' are just means to an end.
• Evil Is Petty: When it comes down to it, all of his horrible actions are just him trying to get back at the World Nobles simply because they refused to give him his title back after he killed his father and presented his head to them.
• Evil Laugh: Read as "Fuffuffuffuffu." Sounds like "Eughahahahahaha."
• Evil Mentor: He is one towards Law. When Law was a young boy, he envisioned him becoming his right hand man, and in his own mind a sacrificial pawn that required "re-education" to become as such. His brother, Rosinante saved Law from this fate. Law still held teachings from Doflamingo however, firmly believing "the weak can't choose how they die" and Law himself acknowledging their similarities.
• Evil Power Vacuum: Claims that with his defeat there will be a power struggle for control over the New World between the pirates, Marines, and Revolutionary Army. Time will tell if he's right.
• Evil Puppeteer: Doflamingo is a thoroughly sadistic person with Razor Floss powers that he mainly use for People Puppets – he can manipulate people's bodies, usually to harm each other.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Whenever he's not laughing, his voice is suitably deep and menacing, courtesy of Hideyuki Tanaka.
• Explaining Your Power to the Enemy: Averted. Pre-Time Skip, no one had any idea why or how Doflamingo could manipulate people to his whims. In the Dressosa Arc, Law had intel on his Devil Fruit abilities due to previously being a part of his crew. Although, near the end of the arc, Doffy did reveal Devil Fruits could affect their surroundings with experience called "Awakening", but didn't really go into detail.
• A Father to His Men:
  • You'd never expect it from the guy, but he treats every member of his crew with love and respect, from silently weeping and driven to a berserk rage over Monet's sacrifice, to thanking Vergo for his hard work before his death, and forgiving Baby 5 and Buffalo when he finds their still-alive decapitated heads alone on a life boat. He even has shown forgiveness towards Law to an extent, willing to take him back despite his betrayal. Turns out there's a reason for it. His mom died when he was eight and he killed his father at age 10, then he gained 4 followers not long after and he went on to assemble other ones that then became the Donquixote Pirates. So the crew are like a family to him.
  • Law calls this trope on its ass since at its core, Doflamingo only really cares about himself, and WILL throw his crew members lives away if he felt it necessary. In the past he even wanted his last remaining relative, Rocinante, to sacrifice his life to provide him with immortality using the Op-Op Fruit. When he finds out that Law gains this ability, he's adamant about trying to get Law to perform that on him.
  • Though previously Law used Giolla as hostage knowing that Doflamingo wouldn´t attack the Sunny where Caesar, a man he needed in order not to infuriate Kaido, was. Unfortunately it's hinted that Giolla knows that affection is short-lived and Doflamingo would go through any lengths if pushed enough (and that Law may be waiting exactly for that reaction); she promptly runs away.
    Doflamingo: What do you plan on doing to Giolla? You of all people should know the lengths my family is willing to go for me.
    Giolla: [Boasting out loud] That's right Law… If it's for the young master, I would gladly lay down my lif-
    Law: [Law uses Room to switch her out with a rock and we see Giolla running away] If by "lengths", you mean running... as fast and as far in the opposite direction, then I do know…
    Doflamingo: …
• Faux Affably Evil: Doflamingo has a rather jovial and polite manner of speaking most of the time and rarely stops smiling... even when he's torturing people, attempting mass murder, or otherwise kicking the dog.
• Finger Gun: His Tamaito technique fires a string out of his finger like a gunshot.
• Flashback Nightmare: He had one once, involving his Dark and Troubled Past above.
• Flechette Storm: His Flap Thread technique has him arranging his strings in a wing-like formation and then sends them towards the target rapidly.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: He has yet to remove his sunglasses (except once in flashback, and we only see one of his eyes, in an extreme closeup), but is definitely the most amoral of the Warlords, especially with Moria, Crocodile and Blackbeard who were very malevolent people. And being an epic scumbag seems to be par for the course for the Celestial Dragons…
• Freudian Excuse: He claims to have had the most unfortunate life imaginable and that claim has a decent amount of substance to it. He and his family were World Nobles who tried to live as ordinary humans rather than gods and were hunted like animals by those who had been wronged by other World Nobles. Doflamingo had to eat out of trash cans, his mother died from disease related to them living in a dump and when they're finally caught, he, his father and brother were crucified and tortured with the express purpose of keeping them alive to prolong their suffering.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: However, a big reason all that happened was because Doflamingo acted like a Spoiled Brat, such as demanding people kneel before him because he's a World Noble, which outed his family as former World Nobles. That could possibly be attributed to being raised in the environment where people in it thought themselves as beings superior to mere humans, except his brother Rocinante had the same upbringing and remained a grounded and emphatic individual as his parents taught him to be. Rocinante himself was of the opinion Doflamingo was just born evil. Also, a case could be made for his inner circle aiding and abetting his worst tendencies and deliberately feeding his ego and senses of entitlement and moral infallibility, but, at best, they were a contributing factor to what made him become as awful as he did, not a deciding factor.
• Genre Blindness: He falls into a common pitfall of Shonen villains and heroes alike; he simply allows Luffy to transform into his Super Mode without any interference due to underestimating him and it consequently costs him the fight.
• Goggles Do Nothing: He wore goggles in addition to his sunglasses when he was younger for some reason.
• Gorgeous George: Donquixote Doflamingo wears tight pants, an open shirt, and isn't wearing a feather boa so much as a feather longcoat. He's also an unrepentant and cruel Combat Pragmatist.
• Graceful Loser: A Double Subversion occurs after the end of the Dressrosa arc. After being taken into custody he acts every bit like the Sore Loser you would expect but after Tsuru delivers a Shut Up, Hannibal! speech he concedes that things were probably inevitable and takes comfort in the fact that with all the powerful people in the world, the Celestial Dragons are likely to be thrown from their seat of power. In the end, he simply asked for daily newspapers.
• Hannibal Lecture: After being taken into custody he rants to Tsuru that if not for his presence on the seas, the world would've gone to chaos a long time ago since he was in "control" of everything. By being removed from the playing board, factions from all over (Worst Generation, Marines, the Warlords, the Four Emperors, Revolutionaries, etc) are going to vie for the open seat of the Pirate King throne. Tsuru doesn't care and tells him to shut up.
• Hated by All: Though he had good publicity as the King of Dressrosa and a Warlord, he starts to lose his beloved reputation when the Dressrosa citizens finally remember the atrocities committed under his name. Eventually, they join forces with the rebels and declare war on the Donquixote Pirates. By the time the Marines take him to Impel Down, people now remember Donquixote as an evil pirate who hijacked Dressrosa and brought a reign of terror throughout the kingdom.
• Heal Thyself: He can use his string powers to stitch back his own ruptured organs.
• Hidden Depths:
  • He was rather upset when Monet didn't answer after being given a fatal wound by Caesar, and is grateful to Vergo for sacrificing himself, and even acknowledged how Vergo had been at his side longer than any other, thanking him for all the years of loyal service. And the fact that he went alone to check Punk Hazard out says a lot. Not something you'd expect from the most amoral of the Warlords.
  • Going by Monet's last thoughts, there is something far more to him than we think. For one, her thoughts suggest that he, a man who plans to spearhead a movement against an era driven by dreams, aspires to be the Pirate King.
  • Flashbacks presents the reason why he's a World Noble but isn't living like a God-Emperor in Mariejois... and it was worse than imagined, to the point that he continued to have nightmares about it until adulthood.
• Hidden Eyes: Even on the rare occasions when he's not wearing his shades, Oda makes sure that we don't see what they're covering (though we see one eye during his Catapult Nightmare). The most ludicrous example is the Chapter 794 cover page, in which he is outright covering his face after lending his shades to a flamingo. The closest we can guess about his eyes is when the Slave Auction House got wrecked pre-timeskip; His Transponder Snail has been shown to wear the same glasses as he does, except for this particular instance.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: After the Dressrosa arc, the once formidable Warlord and King of Dressrosa has lost everything that ever mattered to him and is detained in Impel Down as a deranged wreck.
• Humans Are Bastards: He claims that all humans, however proper and respectable they may be, deep down crave for blood and death of others. This viewpoint was probably the result of his past; when the surrounding people found out about his family, they went on an insane witch-hunt of a rampage. After seeing the worst of humanity from common people, hearing about the atrocities of the World Nobles and them refusing to help his family, no wonder he has this view.
• The Hyena: It is very rare to see him not laughing, and even rarer to see him without a wicked smile.
• Hypocritical Humor: When witnessing Luffy activating Gear Four, he starts chuckling and sarcastically asks Luffy "what can rubber do?" Reminder: Doflamingo is a "String Human". He's not in a position to be mocking seemingly useless powers, and it's surprising that he was so condescending to Luffy when he assumed that form, given how deadly Doflamingo is in the application of his own powers.
• I'll Kill You!: While a group of angry people were holding him, his brother, and their father tied up and his father begged the mob to spare the lives of his children, Doffy screamed out he would kill every single one of them. The furious mob was actually taken back by this.
• Immortality Seeker: Doflamingo's obsession with keeping himself alive above everything else led to his obsession with the Op-Op Fruit, whose user can grant eternal youth at the cost of their own life.
• Inconsistent Spelling: His family name has been romanized as both "Donquixote" and "Don Quixote" in official media. The German localization spells his name as "Don Quichotte De Flamingo", which is one way to interpret the katakana of his name, but it has also resulted in a different pronunciation as well.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: His solution to being rattled by a particularly horrible nightmare involving his childhood is to use a drink.
• Ironic Echo:
  • Doflamingo says to Law that "weaklings cannot decide how they die" – the same thing Law himself previously stated to Tashigi in Punk Hazard.
  • Law returns the favor by repeating Doflamingo's words about the countless fools who underestimated the Straw Hats and were broken by them after Doflamingo starts indicating they are as good as defeated.
• Irony: For all his grievances of being robbed of a life as a Celestial Dragon, being ousted from Mariejois in the end resulted in a better life for him. He would not have become as powerful or as infamous as he became, and he would not have found the True Companions that he gathered during his life of piracy.
• Island Base: After many years of piracy, Doflamingo overthrew King Riku in Dressrosa and became the king, ruling for ten years until he's defeated by Luffy. During that time, he kept in check many big players in the One Piece world and controlled most of the black market and underworld, all while enjoying his life as a king in Dressrosa.
• It Only Works Once: He starts the solo fight against Luffy using his thread in a spider web like fashion which is strong enough to block Luffy's Elephant Gun. At the end of the fight, Luffy's learned from the trick and how tough Doflamingo is, so increases his move to King Kong Gun while in Gear 4th in the final clash while Doffy uses the same move in conjunction with firing spikes of threads at Luffy. This time, Luffy's attack gets through and wallops Doffy.
• It's All About Me: The World Nobles won't give ME back MY title because of my father leaving it all behind? WELL IF I CAN'T HAVE IT, THEN SCREW THEIR WORLD!
  • Even though his past was genuinely tragic, it was no excuse for his actions. Look no further than his brother Rocinante, who went through exactly the same things he did and turned out to be one of the most kindhearted characters in the series. At the core of the matter, Doflamingo only thinks about himself, resulting in a genuine Lack of Empathy. Thus he shows no sympathy for the plights that Luffy and Law went through (one of which he knows quite well), and outright shouts at them that their tragedies do not compare to his.
  • He genuinely cares about his gang, whom he calls his family, but even then he puts himself and his goal above them and would not hesitate to demand their sacrifices for his sake. To his credit, many of them would do it willingly, like Vergo and Monet. In Law's flashback, we found out that this attitude also extended to his only remaining relative by blood – his younger brother Rocinante, as Doflamingo wanted Rocinante to consume the Op-Op Fruit and die to give him immortality (though it's unknown how Doflamingo's emerging suspicion of Rocinante ratting out his family to the Marines factored in this scheme). In keeping with this extreme selfishness and egoism, once he knew Law had eaten the Fruit, Doflamingo immediately demanded to retrieve the boy, so that he could "educate him the importance of dying for [Doflamingo]". He would likely have gone through with it too, had Rocinante not pulled a Heroic Sacrifice to ensure Law could get away from him.
  • Law eventually calls bullcrap on Doflamingo's definition of "family", claiming that Doflamingo only calls them family when they're convenient to him. And Law might have a point – flashbacks reveals that the Donquixote Family started when the four who'd later become his chief executives noticed Doflamingo's charisma and will to survive, particularly the Conqueror's Haki, appointed him their leader, and were fanatically loyal to him, under the belief he was the future Pirate King. Given how his 'family' was founded, and how his upbringing from that point on had over and again reinforced his already unhealthy mindset, it's no wonder that Doflamingo's ego and selfishness grew to what it became. Law goes further and calls Trebol's reasons for following Doflamingo and their "family" to be delusional and pathetic; while Trebol may consider Doflamingo and the executives to be "equals", Law says that Doflamingo just considers them to be stupid, willing puppets who does what he wants. The above point also contributes to Law's argument.
• It's Personal: Law's entire business with him originates from Doflamingo's murder of Law's benefactor and Doflamingo's younger brother Corazon 13 years ago. And Doflamingo himself has a MAJOR beef with the World Nobles who're the reason for who he is now.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: His scenes with Vergo, Monet and Pica may attempt to paint him as A Lighter Shade of Black but he is still willing to sacrifice them without any hesitation. During the Birdcage, when called out that it will also kill his loyal crewmates, Doflamingo just replies with a Slasher Smile that he will find new family somewhere else, showing that he views his crew as simply stepping stones for his ambition.
• Just Between You and Me: He seems very fond of sharing his beliefs or relevant information with opponents.
• Just Shoot Him: While one of his Bullet String attacks would be about as, if not more, deadly than a pistol shot, he's quite liberal with his use of firearms compared to most One Piece Devil Fruit users.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: After years of getting away with murder and quite a number of evil deeds, Doflamingo's immunity eventually expires when the Straw Hats and Law destroy his criminal organization and free Dressrosa from his ten-year grasp. To make sure it sticks, Fujitora then exposes what Doflamingo did to Dressrosa to the entire world, ensuring that the World Government is forced to expel him from the Warlords and imprison him in Impel Down.
• Kick the Dog:
  • He forced Atmos to murder his own crewmates, with Doflamingo cackling all the way.
  • Forcing King Riku to gather all the money of his kingdom, only to be used like a puppet to slaughter his own citizens.
  • Forcing Bellamy to kill Luffy to regain his favor (after Bellamy and Luffy had developed a great deal of mutual respect for one another), beating the shit out of him, insulting him to piss off Luffy, and then using him as a Human Shield when Luffy flies into a rage.
  • Really, it says something that the main use of his People Puppets power is to force someone to kill those close to them, and pointless cruelty and sadism have both become defining character traits of his.
  • Generally, most of what he says or does to Law is a practice in Kicking The Dog. Choosing to shoot Law specifically with lead bullets was a cruel reference to the Amber Lead Syndrome he had as a boy, for example. Also, seeing as how it was already a Curbstomp Battle, ripping Law's arm off was also largely unnecessary and savage.^note That particular action of his, ripping Law's arm off, later bit him in the ass when Law used Room to manipulate said arm to slice Trebol through his stomach.
  • Forcing Viola to work for him by threatening to kill her father even after he had already completely defeated/overthrown him and had no reason to do so.
  • When Viola attacks him to buy time for Luffy's recovery, he easily overpowers her even in his weakened state. Rather than finish her off himself, he takes control of Rebecca so that she will be the one to cut down Viola.
  • Attempting to kill his own crewmates with the Birdcage who are nothing but loyal to him.
  • Something more personal to himself, the setup name for his final attack "16 Sacred Bullets of the Assassin, God Thread" is a mocking reference to a man who was part of the mob that tortured him claiming his sons were shot dead 16 times by Celestial Dragons. Another glimpse to how badly Doffy still wished he could be a Celestial Dragon.
• Ki Manipulation: He has awakened Armament Haki and Supreme King Haki.
• Knight of Cerebus: Doflamingo doesn't have any eccentric quirk and is a significantly more serious threat than the Straw Hats have faced before especially being a former World Noble.
• Knowledge Broker: This is part of his third occupation as the underworld figure "Joker".
• Know When to Fold 'Em: He gives up on killing Smoker after Aokiji makes it clear he won't let that happen. He did try once, but Aokiji froze him, although it had no apparent effect on him. He probably could have done okay in a fight against him, but he went to Punk Hazard to clean up a mess, kill some people who knew too much, and retrieve a valuable employee, NOT fight an ex-Admiral, and he knew right away that there was no way around Aokiji after he showed up to the party.
• Lack of Empathy: He takes delight in seeing the suffering of others believing that is the real desire of human beings. Doflamingo seemed incapable of understanding the reasons for why Law would care so deeply for Corazon. He argued back and forth that Law has him to thank for his abilities as a pirate and Law is ungrateful and petty for turning against him. In response, Law claims he only has Corazon to thank for the life he holds to the present day. Reading the letters of "Corazon" on Law's jacket, he couldn't understand why Law wore them and named his crew the Heart Pirates, instead belittling him for not holding the heart seat of his executives.
• Large and in Charge: This is both played straight and subverted to a degree. Doflamingo is incredibly tall, standing at a mighty 305 centimeters (10'), and he towers over most of his subordinates. However, three of his four Co-Dragons are actually even taller than he is, dwarfing him by several feet.
• Large Ham: He's actually been slightly mellower since the Time Skip, but make no mistake – Donquixote Doflamingo loves to ham it up. Especially when he's happy and excited about something (like during the Whitebeard War or when he starts getting the upper hand in his fight with Luffy and Law or when he goes on another Whitebeard War-esque rant about the New Age while being transferred to prison).
• Laser-Guided Karma: All his wrongdoings come back to bite him in the ass later. He murdered his loving (if misguided) father for making them leave Mariejois for the commoner life (which, admittedly, went to hell). His brother came to hate him for it, joined the Marines, and then infiltrated his crew with the intention of bringing him down. He eventually succeeded in keeping the Op-Op Fruit out of his hands, preventing Doffy from being given the immortality he so desperately craves. Doflamingo promptly murdered him, causing Trafalgar Law to swear revenge and spend the next thirteen years plotting it. All of it culminates in the Dressrosa arc, where over the course of a single day, the Straw Hats and Law manage to cause the criminal empire he's built over the course of his entire lifetime to fall apart in the most spectacular fashion possible, finally shattering his grip over a kingdom he's been ruling for over ten years.
• Laughing Mad: His anger at how things ended up in Dressrosa is replaced with voracious laughter as he rants and raves in his cell in a ship on the way to Impel Down.
• Lean and Mean: Unlike the super bulky Moria and Kuma, Doflamingo is rather lean.
• Leave No Witnesses: With his plans for Dressrosa falling apart, Doflamingo goes to his backup plan: exterminating the entire island.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: The final confrontation with Luffy and Law. At the outset of the fight he eats a strong combination attack from the duo, and it serves at the first time someone really gets a good hit in on him. After that he gets back up, grins, and proceeds to "start wailing on both'', and continues to do so for several chapters (pausing only for a Motive Rant) until Luffy pulls his own Let's Get Dangerous!.
• Lightning Bruiser: He is fast as hell, hits like an out-of-control dump truck, and can shrug off just about anything.
• Loose Lips:
  • As a youngster, he behaved like an entitled brat and let slip he was a Celestial Dragon, even though his father forfeited their status. With that, he unintentionally set a chain of events that led to the destruction of his home, the death of his family, and his life as a pirate.
  • He's clearly learned a lot from this experience, since after murdering his father at the age of 10 and returning to Mariejois, he somehow stumbled upon the National Treasure of Mariejois and learned its secret, arousing the fears and wrath of the Celestial Dragons. He kept the secret for decades, and managed to exploit the World Government and get a Warlord position of it, in exchange for keeping his lips sealed about what it is to the world.

M - R

• Made of Iron: His durability is rather astounding. He casually shrugs off being frozen by Kuzan and an assassination attempt by Baby 5, and earlier he also left the Marineford War unscathed. Also note that the fight with him lasts for around 30-40 chapters (instead of the usual 20s for the other Big Bads) partly because of this. He only starts getting what could be his first real deep hit on-screen with Luffy's Gum Gum Red Hawk move, and then he keeps standing; he also calls Luffy's subsequent Gear Second and Third attacks "weak". Even when Law uses his Gamma Knife to cut his insides, he can patch it up with his powers^note Though the anime added scenes that imply that the damage really was severe and he had to divert focus to fighting Luffy and keeping his injuries in check. So, it's very likely he was weakened by the time Luffy took over. It's only when Luffy goes Gear Four that his "toughness" starts to break, and it ends with his defeat. The only character who's taken more punishment on-screen was Whitebeard, who by comparison took an extreme case of Rasputinian Death to finally put down.
• Magnetic Hero: Rather, Magnetic Villain. Doflamingo is noted to be exceptionally charismatic. Indeed, the (modern) Donquixote Family had its beginnings when four men were astonished by his willpower and drawn to him and decided to follow him in spite of his youth, certain that he would eventually conquer the seas.
• The Man Behind the Man: He is behind Caesar and Vergo. And Kaido is the man behind him.
  • Even earlier, he was behind Bellamy and he ran the auction house in Sabaody.
• Maniac Tongue: Pre-Time Skip, it was quite common to see him giving a toothy grin with his tongue out. Post-Time Skip, it's been happening less and less, presumably because he's not in the mood with things not going his way.
• Manipulative Bastard: This is how Doflamingo works; As he told Bellamy, it didn't matter if Sky Island or the City of Gold existed; just use the people's beliefs to bring them to their knees!
  • He organizes a tournament with the prize being Ace's Devil Fruit so he could distract Luffy from his mission at Dressrosa.
  • This is best summed up by Law: "Provoking people is what he does best." This is after Doflamingo irritates Luffy by insulting Bellamy in front of him and then uses Bellamy as Human Shield against him.
• Master of All: Doflamingo possesses and demonstrates mastery over all forms of Haki, is an excellent hand-to-hand fighter, and has completely mastered his versatile Devil Fruit to become an Awakened user. This makes him one of the strongest fighters of the world, able to survive in the New World (in part also thanks to his multiple connections) and Luffy's toughest foe by far up to the Dresrosa arc.
• Master of Threads: Doflamingo's String-String Fruit ability allows him to generate strings from his body for a variety of uses such ensnaring opponents, taking control of their bodies, or stitching up wounds. He can also compress his strings into various constructs such as ropes, whips or bullets. When he awakens his Devil Fruit power, Doflamingo can turn entire buildings into strings.
• Meaningful Name:
  • His namesake, Don Quixote, is an iconic dreamer, in stark contrast to Doflamingo's insistence that dreams are just that, dreams. Ironically, he does share one connection to Don Quixote. Neither of them realize that their beliefs are merely a product of their own insanity.
  • His epithet Ten Yasha (rendered as "Heavenly Yaksha" or "Heavenly Demon" in the English translation) refers to the Yaksha: spirits in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist folklore with dual personalities that guard the resources beneath the earth. Doflamingo tends to switch between amusement and murderous rages, and gave Dressrosa wealth... if only by exploiting the dwarves beneath the flower fields.
  • His prior history of raiding ships with tributes to the Celestial Dragons from the nations of the world and his own former status as a Celestial Dragon himself could be another reason for his epithet. Literally taking the world's treasures and preventing "godlike" nobles living separately from the world in the "Holy Land", from having them.
  • The "Heavenly Demon" itself may also be meaningful as since he's an ex-World Noble who are considered "Heavenly" and the fact he turned to piracy (hence "Demon"), he's considered a figurative Fallen Angel.
• Might Makes Right: In his speech during the Paramount War, Doflamingo explains his belief that "good" and "bad" are ever-changing concepts enforced by who's in command, alas, the winner of the war.
• Misery Builds Character: He believes no one is more entitled than he is because of the sole reason that no one compares to the struggles he's experienced. To the point, Law and Luffy's struggles are childish games to him. It's also a requirement for those in his crew, who he calls his family. When he met Law, he thought the young boy would grow into his right hand man for all the struggles he's experienced and the boy's desire for destruction. According to an SBS, he took in Monet and Sugar, knowing they came from a terrible environment. Baby 5 and Senor Pink have confirmed backstories exploring their loss. It's implied that he might also consider Bellamy as weak for being a punk who became a pirate out of boredom, which is why he coldly rejects him. Law points out that Doflamingo uses the misery of his crew to establish loyalty and manipulation, under the front that they are his "family" who only have each other.
• Modest Royalty: Downplayed, as his usual feather overcoat is extravagant all right, but he tends to dress more like an eccentric pirate than a king.
• Momma's Boy: A more bitter, sadistic one. When his family lost their nobility and were thrown out on their asses, his mother fell sick and, even though her sons tried to bring food to make her feel better, she died. This caused the already unstable Doflamingo to lose it and blow his father's brains out in revenge, as he blamed him for her death. Considering Doflamingo would later also shoot down his Double Agent younger brother, Rocinante (even if he wasn't too happy about it), it can be said that Doflamingo's only actual loved one was his mother.
• Moral Myopia:
  • He treats his own crewmates like family and gets angered if something serious should happen to befall them. Yet has no qualms with tearing apart other peoples' families such as the Riku Family, who had given into his demands without any resistance whatsoever when he first arrived at Dressrosa for kicks and giggles.
  • He was pissed about all the crap Luffy and the Straw Hats, and Law, put him through, ruining his control over the country and trying to mess up his business partnership with Kaido. Never for a second does it occur to him about what he's done to his own country for 10 years, including enslaving people, tearing families apart, removing the royal family from their position of power, having them hated and feared, and hunted down, with them either being killed, or again enslaved; and indirectly having dozens of children taken from their homes and experimented on for his own shady business deals.
  • Despite having been on the end of horrible treatment when he was younger, he decides to do even worse actions as an adult that make what the mob did to him and his family seem like child's play.
  • This is played with as far as his crew mates go. If you're part of his inner circle, you are family to him and there is absolutely no length that he won't go to for you. On the other hand, if you're lower on the totem pole, he'll act like you're family to him until you displease him, in which case he's every bit as abusive and hazardous to life and limb as someone like Kuro or Crocodile. Law calls out Doflamingo's and Trebol's idea of a "family", as even the Executives aren't immune to being sacrificed if it means furthering his plans.
• Motive Rant: After he and Trebol beat Luffy and Law, he lets off a particularly large one. He's basically lashing out at the world at large because his right as a World Noble was made void after the rest of them called his family "traitors", following his father choosing to be a commoner.
• Narcissist: In every possible way...
  • Doflamingo is extremely arrogant, which is explainable by way of the fact that he is a former Celestial Dragon. He takes immense pride in his bloodline, in spite of the fact that he is a former Celestial Dragon, and thus technically has no right to any of the privileges of his status as one of the descendants of the creators of "the world".
  • His Berserk Button is anyone believing in even the slightest that they have a chance at beating him.
  • Despite loving his crew and seeing them as family, he displays self-centered affection towards them. When he learned Law had eaten the Op-Op Fruit, he only had it in his mind to teach Law the value of dying for him. Also when he asked Monet to blow up the island to kill Law and the Straw Hats. Law even points out that Doflamingo's only considers people "family" when they're convenient to him.
  • He claimed Luffy and Law's hard pasts had no comparison to his own and believes no longer being considered a Celestial Dragon is his greatest shame.
  • He outright says to Luffy that "commoners" are worthless unless they're being manipulated by him, and that the slaughter he commits against them is their own fault for being born of "common blood".
• Never My Fault: His past actually was pretty horrifying and traumatic, but to be perfectly honest, odds are that none of it would have happened if he hadn't continued to act like a stereotypical World Noble and hadn't called attention to his family as a result, and the rest of his rationale reads like something akin to "Daddy made me stop hanging out with the cool kids and now they won't let me back into their club". While he may have experienced genuine tragedy and great misfortune, he has completely failed to take any responsibility for his part in it. It's especially glaring when you consider that his brother Rocinante went through the exact same thing as he did (through no fault of his own, to boot) and wound up being one of the most genuinely kind characters in the series, which renders no small amount of credence to his theory that Doflamingo genuinely was just a bad seed.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Apparently based on French singer Michel Polnareff◊.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Let's just say that people unfortunate to end up in a fight with him don't make it out safe and sound.
  • Smoker gets one at the end of Punk Hazard, only saved by the timely arrival of Aokiji.
  • Law gets beaten around Dressrosa, culminating in Doflamingo shooting him. It's so bad that even after being released from Sea Stone chains, Luffy has to carry him around for several chapters.
  • Bellamy gets one when he tries to confirm that Doflamingo wants him dead. By the time Luffy and Law arrive, they find him face-down as Doflamingo's footstool, and Doflamingo later raises his face to show that it's covered with bruises, blood and tears.
• Normally, I Would Be Dead Now: He probably should have died after having several of his internal organs ruptured by Law, regardless of his ability to sew them back up. He also probably should have died after taking a severe beating from a Gear Four enhanced Luffy while in this state. He definitely should have died after being knocked unconscious by the King Kong Gun due to the fact that the strings holding his torn organs together should have dissolved immediately. But he doesn't die, because… he just… well… doesn't.
• Not Hyperbole: When Doflamingo says that no one has endured the horrors that he experienced as a child, we're treated to images of him complaining about living a normal life after his father forced their family to give up their statuses as Celestial Dragons, making us think his "nightmare" was just a life without luxury. A few chapters later it's revealed the citizens of the island Doflamingo's family moved to learned they were former World Nobles and burned down their mansion, forcing them to go on the run and hide in a trash dump where his mother died after falling ill from the unsanitary conditions. Life didn't get much better after that, with Doflamingo and his brother forced to eat out of trash cans and forced to flee from angry mobs. Finally, his family was cornered by the islanders who crucified them to their house and shot arrows at them. As much of a scumbag this guy is, his past is genuinely tragic and horrifying.
• Not Quite Flight: His Devil Fruit power allows him to swing from clouds, essentially allowing him to fly.
• "Not So Different" Remark: When he's downed after Law's Radio Knife attack, Doflamingo claims that they're very much alike, something the latter doesn't even deny. The only thing that truly separates them is Law's empathy and compassion (sides of himself that he rarely ever shows).
• Not So Stoic:
  • He has been shown to be annoyed before, like during his first appearance when he was summoned to Mariejois, but never outright angry. That is, until Law defeated Vergo, revealed his own plans with the special weapon SAD, and boasted that he's going to ruin whatever schemes he has and his influence in the world. That is the first time he's seen visibly enraged.
  • Also when he didn't hear Monet's response as she had suffered a fatal blow to the heart by the unknowing Caesar Clown, prompting a very out of character moment of him rushing to Punk Hazard alone.
  • Then Law gives him an ultimatum: Either step down from his position as a Warlord and face the Marine Admirals, but getting Caesar back, or staying a Warlord, but facing Kaido's wrath for not being able to provide him with any more SMILEs. Forget the SAD thing, this is when he got really pissed off.
  • It continues when he loses his calm demeanor after Fujitora attacks both him and Law with meteors. It seems the stress of the last arc and this one has really gotten to him.
  • And then Sugar got knocked out. By the time he has his final confrontation with Luffy and Law, Doffy is so enraged that all he can do is laugh it off and try to kill them. Eventually, he's so fed up that he attempts to murder everyone on the island to keep the events of Dressrosa from getting out.
• No-Sell: As lampshaded by Law when Luffy gets a seemingly good hit on Doflamingo with Red Hawk, none of Luffy's attacks outside of Gear Four can actually harm Doflamingo. It's to the point he laughingly claims his strongest Gear Third blows feel like tickles. This serves to illustrate Luffy must continue getting much stronger to progress through the New World.
• Off with His Head!: Inflicted it on Crocodile with his powers, though obviously that didn't stick. Found himself on the receiving end of it thanks to Kyros, but that didn't stick, either.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • When Law reveals that he's set him up so that his options involve either stepping down and getting the Admirals on his ass or staying put but losing his bargaining chip with Kaido (the absence of which will almost assuredly get him killed by an enraged Kaido), this is his initial reaction before he begins to flip out.
  • He has one when he realizes that the "Lucy" running around the Colosseum is not Luffy anymore, who is currently rampaging his way in his castle.
  • He has yet another one when Sugar lost consciousness, making ten years of slave-making go up in smoke, and causing chaos in Dressrosa as the toys turned back to normal and people regained their memories.
  • He gets one at the start of the fight against Luffy and Law. Luffy rushes for Law out of the blue but Doffy realizes too late it's a bluff. Law uses his ROOM and Shambles moves to switch places with Doffy and warp Luffy closer to him. By the time he realized what happened, Doffy's hit by Luffy's Red Hawk move.
  • When Law's flashback is over and the surgeon pirate reveals he is also a D., this is what happens to him because, as a (former) World Noble, he was taught to fear the D people.
  • As he laughs at Luffy's attempts to stop him, he was totally surprised when Law suddenly swaps places with Luffy and hits Doflamingo with one of his strongest attacks: the Gamma Knife.
  • Doflamingo laughs at Luffy's new Gear Four form and tells him that if he's trying to simply intimidate him, he's failing. Then Luffy starts attacking and Doflamingo is suddenly not laughing anymore…
  • He gets two in the climax of his fight with Luffy. First, when Luffy manages to break free of his Puppet attack upon going Gear Four, meaning he can't simply take control of him as he's done so many that's come before him. And second, when he sends his strongest attack at Luffy by turning the strings into bullets and firing them at him. Luffy's King Kong Gun however proves stronger, barrels through the string, and right towards Doflamingo. His last expression before it hits is one of utter disbelief.
• Older Than He Looks: He's currently in his early 40s, but looks like he's a decade younger at most.
• Ominous Walk: More like Ominous Wobble. Yes, he is such a vile and dangerous character that he can kick your ass while his injured self can do little more than shuffle forward slowly. Think flamingo legs.
• Omnicidal Maniac: He states to Bellamy that his goal is to destroy the world. As Law (used to) share this thought, he deems Law to be his right-hand man (before he defects). His reason for destroying the world is that he's spiteful at the World Nobles for not giving him his rightful title, so he swore to destroy everything the World Nobles possess.
• One-Man Army:
  • Aside from everything else about Doflamingo, his Devil Fruit is specialized in wide-scale attacks, with much of his most powerful techniques ideal for groups of enemies.
  • When Doflamingo arrives on Punk Hazard, he knocks out half a large platoon of Marines with Conqueror's Haki then utterly decimates Smoker. The remaining Marines don't even try to fight back.
  • Towards Dressrosa's climax, a small army's worth of gladiators and convicts try to kill a severely weakened Doflamingo. He butchers every last one in less than a minute in-universe.
• Only in It for the Money: Most of the things he does are for monetary gain, and when something is looking like it isn't going to be profitable, he ditches it and anybody tied to it. Somewhat debatable however, as Monet implies that Doflamingo does aspire for something other than monetary gain: to become the Pirate King. That, and wanting to get back at the World Nobles for shunning him and his family.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: If that Cheshire Cat Grin leaves his face for any reason or length of time, run. Although seeing him smile is no guarantee of safety either.
• Outgambitted:
  • For someone who is a mean player of Xanatos Speed Chess, Doflamingo doesn't expect on Law destroying his business at Punk Hazard merely by one-shotting Vergo and swapping Smoker's heart with Monet's before handing it to Caesar and to get backmailed into either giving up his Warlord status or antagonizing Kaido.
  • He massively underestimates just how much trouble the Straw Hats would be. Sabo and Luffy switching places screws up most of his plans, then things go straight to hell when Usopp knocks out Sugar and all of the living toys turn back into humans, while everyone's memories in Dressrosa come back and realize how despicable he is.
• Papa Wolf:
  • Laughing at his executives is a no-no. They are his family, with whom he shared many joys and sorrows, so laughing at them is asking to be Buried Alive by Pica, as some poor soul in the crew almost experienced (although Baby 5 shot the guy and caused him to fall off, she at least spared him from such a fate). Most likely has to do with him despising how his real family turned out to be.
  • What does he do after Monet's voice unexpectedly falls silent? He jumps out of a four story building to fly over to Punk Hazard from Dressrosa to deal with whoever stopped her.
  • He crushes entire islands for taking advantage of Baby 5's inability to refuse requests. Subverted later when it's revealed that he and his crew just don't want to lose such a "convenient" person.
• Parental Substitute: He seems to have been either this or a surrogate big brother to the younger members of his crew Buffalo, Baby 5, Dellinger, and Law. He took special effort in raising Law, personally overseeing his education and having him trained under his executives since he believed that the boy had great potential. This may be why he takes Law's defection and efforts to undermine him so personally.
• Past Experience Nightmare: He continued having nightmares, well into adulthood (age 25), about his childhood past being tortured by angry citizens wanting revenge against the Celestial Dragons. It's also revealed that, to cope, he used to drink a lot of alcohol.
• Patricide: He mentioned that he killed his father when he was 10. His father, Donquixote Homing, was a Defector from Decadence that is World Nobles, and Doffy hates him for it, to the point of calling him "such a foolish father". Understandable to an extent since Homing was too naive to realize how bad living outside Mariejois would turn out to be. Even to the present day, he continues to resent his father.
• People Puppets: His Parasite move lets him take control of people, and manipulate their movements while making hand gestures as if controlling a marionette's strings. He mostly uses this to make his enemies kill each other For the Evulz.
• Personality Powers: Doffy ate the String-String Devil Fruit (Ito Ito no Mi) that allows him to create and use strings, and is a Manipulative Bastard and Control Freak who specializes in Xanatos Speed Chess and playing people for fools. He also possesses Conqueror's Haki, which is noted to be the rarest form of Haki that is only possessed by people with leadership qualities. Doffy is a (now former) ruler of the Dressrosa kingdom, and he has an entitlement complex ten miles high due to being a former World Noble.
• Person of Mass Destruction: His String-String Fruit has a considerable amount of catastrophic destructive power, with his Birdcage potentially destroying everything in a whole island radius. When Doflamingo makes full use of his Awakened powers, he can even transmute the environment around him into thick string constructs used for wide-scale attacks of mass destruction. It's established by a panicked Marine in the aftermath of his battle with Luffy, Dressrosa was in fact completely destroyed and left a barren crater.
• Perpetual Smiler: Always seen with a twisted grin on his face, that makes him much creepier. It's a really big deal when he's not smiling.
• Pet the Dog: For as much of a monster he is, he does have a few small moments of mercy:
  • He agrees to Violet's terms of giving her service to him in return for the survival of her father.
  • He's genuinely protective of Baby 5, even going out of his way to stop the revolting suitors who try and take advantage of her people-pleasing nature. He also refuses to punish her for raising arms against him for it.
• The Philosopher: Sometimes he waxes about his world views, and whenever he does it, it gives an ominous feel to it. See Might Makes Right and Humans Are Bastards above for two instances.
• Playing Card Motifs: Among the Underworld he goes by the alias "Joker", which also reflects his status as a Wild Card, while his Co-Dragons have suit-themed names.
• Playing with Puppets: He regularly uses his "Parasite" move to control his victims into attacking others for his amusement. Preferably their loved ones or friends. The night he claimed the throne on Dressrosa, he had King Riku and the army attack the citizens.
• Polite Villains, Rude Heroes: Perhaps "polite" is too strong of a word, but Donquixote Doflamingo is a Faux Affably Evil tyrant who always wears a smile on his face, even when committing heinous atrocities. Trafalgar Law, Doflamingo's Foil and the Deuteragonist of the Dressrosa arc, is a rude constantly scowling young man whose cold demeanor belies a genuinely decent human being.
• Powers Do the Fighting: Subverted. He could just sit down and shoot strings at his opponents or make his People Puppets attack, and in fact, he prefers to; however, he's an extremely dangerous physical fighter as well, and he's at his toughest when he's airborne and mobile.
• Practically Joker: Perpetual Slasher Smile, cruel beyond measure, an incomparable manipulator, a garish outfit, outright stated that he wants to watch the world burn...hell, Joker is his alias in the black market.
• Pride: He's very proud of his status, to the point that he brutally punishes Bellamy for disgracing his flag because he suffered a defeat from Luffy. Being a former Celestial Dragon has inflated his ego so much that ANYONE looking down on or opposing him will suffer his wrath and consider himself a god, such that when he was finally defeated, it looked like how Lucifer fell from the Heavens, resembling a most classical sense.
• Psychotic Smirk: His lips are always twisted in a malicious grin that hides his rage toward the world but shows his twisted and sadistic personality.
• Psycho for Hire: He's one of the less sane members of the Warlords, albeith aware of the situation of the entire world. He also takes on contracts from various underworld brokers to peddle in illegal substances for them.
• Psycho Pink: He always wears a feathery pink overcoat. He's also a narcissistic psychopath who’s pulling the strings of half the world in an effort to destroy it.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Deep down, he's just an overgrown Spoiled Brat throwing a huge temper tantrum over the "cool kids" (read: the World Nobles) not letting him back into their club.
• Punched Across the Room: Once Luffy enter Gear Four, he starts the showcase of new power by punching Doflamingo straight off the palace, through a few buildings and into the central district of the city. Counts as Laser-Guided Karma as well since when Luffy and Doflamingo finally square off the first time, Doflamingo had managed to punch Luffy across the room into a wall. Luffy returned the favor big time. Later, Luffy's "King Kong Gun" punches Doflamingo into the Earth, so much that the ground splits in two..
• Pungeon Master: His string power's attack names often end with -ito (string).
• Pragmatic Villainy: Doflamingo's supposed "care" for his crewmates is only to keep them loyal to him so that they would happily do his dirty work without any question.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: His whole inner circle is absolutely made of this. Members include a man dressed as a baby, a woman who can't bring herself to refuse requests, and a man made of slime who has issues with personal space, a girl who's actually in her twenties due to her unique power, and so on.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: He's not only in charge of a pirate crew, but also is the King of Dressrosa. It would also take nothing less than a Marine Admiral to take him down, and he shows no hint of fear or apprehension when he actually does encounter the Admiral sent after him. At this point, he's probably one of the single strongest non-Four Emperor combatants in the series and has what is most likely the single best track record of them all.
• Razor Floss: He has the String-String Fruit which lets him shoot out strings from his fingertips, or occasionally other parts of his body. The string can slice clean through many things larger than its width, even meteors. Considering he has a vast empire (both literal and underground) and many connections and moles in Marines and World Government, it's a Stealth Pun – he's the man pulling the strings in both figurative and literal level.
• Riches to Rags:
  • He came from a wealthy family before he became a pirate. His father had his family leave Mariejois to live amongst commoners, and they ended up living under such horrible conditions that his mother became ill and died. As he put it, he saw the "Heaven" and "Hell" of this world. Then it becomes Rags to Riches as he worked up for years, and now he's one of the strongest pirates, one of the Underwold top dogs, and a king.
  • By the end of the Dressrosa arc, he went from a king to an insane prisoner of the Marines.
• Riddle for the Ages: The part of his face obscured by his shades. We do see a close-up of one eye during a Catapult Nightmare in a flashback, but Oda seems to go out of his way to keep his upper face obscured at all times. Even in a cover page where he gives his shades to a flamingo, he's still covering his face with one hand. The closest we can get is this pre-timeskip moment, and considering Transponder Snails tend to show the other party's facial features, it's safe bet that this is how his eyes would look.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge:
  • After receiving a Sadistic Choice by Law, Doflamingo reaches Punk Hazard returning the decapitated heads of Baby 5 and Buffalo to their captured bodies, and ruthlessly mowing down the Marines, all while demanding the Straw Hat Pirates. He was also going to beat Smoker to death, and would have succeeded if not for Aokiji intervening.
  • His entire motivation is to do this to the World Nobles: Destroying the world which they effectively lord over, because they refused to give his title back, which he killed his father to get.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Outside of being the King of Dressrosa and a former World Noble, he runs a 2000-strong pirate gang and is the head of many lucrative and shady operations in the underworld, on top of being The Chessmaster and one of the series' most dangerous fighters. This is especially important since most corrupt royals and government officials in One Piece would rather cower and send much stronger underlings to do their work for them (Spandam, the World Nobles, etc.)
• Running Gag: Viewers never see Doflamingo's full face without his trademark glasses. Never. Even when he's chilling on a island or sleeping or even defeated and his glasses shattered, the panels always pans away from his revealed face or has it covered somehow. The best we got is seeing one eye during one of his past nightmares; a close-up shot of his lone eye at that. When being taken to Impel Down, the glasses are back on.

S - Y

• Sadist: Big time. You could write a 5 page essay explaining how cruel and sadistic this man is and listing his many actions to that end, but here's one thing that settles it; in the middle of the chaos of the final battle, even after having his entire empire destroyed, his kingdom razed to the ground, being beaten across the country by Luffy, and his organs ruptured by Law... he still just can't help but crack a big ol' smile when he's given the opportunity to try and force Rebecca to murder her aunt Viola.
• Sadistic Choice:
  • After Law captures Caesar, he gives Doffy a ultimatum of quitting the Seven Warlords. If Doflamingo remains a Warlord, he doesn't get Caesar back, leaving him unable to create SMILE, and thus can't provide Kaido with it, invoking the Emperor's wrath. However, if he steps down from his position as a Warlord, he gets Caesar back and can continue providing Kaido with SMILE, but the Marines, and especially the Admirals, won't stand idly by anymore. He steps down from the Warlords and decides to take his chances with the Admirals. Except that, as it's revealed, it was actually a ploy to trap Law and the Straw Hats. He managed to fool them into thinking he had stepped down from his position so he could lure them into a trap.
  • And then he issued one to the entire island: With the truth of his rule revealed, they can either come and kill him if they have the fortitude to end the chaos caused by the "Birdcage", or it can come to an end quicker if they collect the bounties he's issued on the heads of the heroes that have been huge Spanners In The Works.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!:
  • Doflamingo has immense knowledge of how the One Piece world works, allowing him to be incredibly well-connected. This includes the World Government, thanks to his position as a Warlord and insider knowledge of Mary Geoise, and the Four Emperors, thanks to his high-profile status in the underworld as a broker. He is so well-embedded that he can sell arms to forces encouraging regional instability, employ a renegade World Government scientist and supply his creations to none other than one of the Emperors themselves, and set up an illegal (or at least extra-legal) slave ring and receive no repercussions purely because it caters to the World Nobles, while he himself is acting officially as the World Government's privateers, assigned to take care of its problems… despite being the source of its many headaches! He can provide succor from pirates and underworld brokers to political leaders and the global elite, and most aren't even aware of it.
  • His whole scheme of quitting the Seven Warlords, then claiming it was a mistake and thus still retaining his position, is no simple feat. As he considers this, Law realizes that only someone with connections to the Celestial Dragons could pull off such a large-scale deception (just to fool a mere ten people, no less) without any consequences. This is Deconstructed because, due to having these many connections, Doflamingo is also the one who keeps in check the current balance of the world, and his defeat irreparably breaks the status quo, causing every major force to move into a huge war that will change the world forever. Doflamingo even tells the Tsuru after his defeat "that there are no longer any rules!".
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Doflamingo is the King of Dressrosa and, along with that, he doesn't just have connections to the Celestial Dragons he used to be one and knows enough secrets to backmail the Celestial Dragons.
• Self-Duplication: He can make clones made of strings, called "Black Knight", which acts as his proxy and can be used to lure people, like with Kyros, who beheads a clone instead of him, or fight at his place. Each clone is however much weaker than him.
• Self-Made Man: He went from an orphan, to a pirate gang leader, to an underworld arms dealer-slash-Devil Fruit dealer-slash-knowledge broker, to the Warlord of the Sea, to the King of Dressrosa. However, he very much resents that this had to be the case instead of simply being given great fortune by his status as a World Noble. Even then, though, being a former one has already helped him a lot.
• Self-Surgery: Doflamingo saves his life from Trafalgar Law's Gamma Knife by stitching together his damaged internal organs with his Devil Fruit. This ability allows him to tank many attacks from Law and Luffy.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: In his twenties, he wears suits, like this one. After reaching his thirties, however, he begins looking more like a pimp.
• Shout-Out Theme Naming: His surname is a reference to Don Quixote, the main character of the famous Spanish novel The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha.
• Sibling Murder: He murdered his own younger brother in cold blood when he found out he was a Marine and joined his crew as a mole. In the act he felt anger towards his brother for having to murder another blood relative and was even shaken while shooting him. In the present day, he feels relieved that he murdered a hindrance to his goals.
• Silly Walk: In his debut he walks with a bowl-legged waddle like a flamingo showing his eccentric personality.
• Sinister Shades: Doflamingo constantly wears a pair of dark shades, making him appear more mysterious and sinister.
• Sins of Our Fathers: He is considered a traitor to the World Nobles because of something his father did: he dared to leave Mariejois to live like a normal human being. Those same normal human beings hate the World Nobles for their horrible, horrible actions (and who wouldn't hate them) and persecuted Doffy's family once their heritage is revealed. Even if Doffy's father is one of those few nobles who didn't mistreat people lower than him.
• Slasher Smile: Doflamingo constantly smiles to hide his constant rage toward the world that made him suffer, but highlights his arrogant and psychotic nature.
• Smug Super: He always sees himself as unbeatable right up until the very end. It shows in that he always grins when he thinks he's in control of the situation. It's worth noting that this guy is the strongest Celestial Dragon, former or no, seen in the series thus far. And like his former brethren, he is incredibly arrogant.
• The Social Darwinist:
  • During the battle of Marineford, he delivers a speech about how Might Makes Right.
    Doflamingo: Are the pirates the bad guys?! Is the Navy the good guys?! Things like that change with the seasons!! Kids who've never known peace… and kids who've never known war… have complete different ideas of right and wrong! It's the job of those at the top to decide what's good and what's evil! Right now, it could go either way! Justice will prevail?! Of course it will!! Because the side of justice... will be whichever side wins!!
  • He later expresses his opinion that people were born to be in their station in life, and that Bellamy could never be anything more than a lowly thug.
  • It gets much more darker later as he firmly believes that since he's a World Noble, he has privileges over every other people in the world, and that he can't stand the thought of anyone else looking down at or even besting him. And like a World Noble would, he'll call everyone else "commoners" and that they deserve being treated like dirt by him because they "choose" to be born that way. Even if he's a former World Noble.
• The Sociopath: Manipulative like you wouldn't believe, extraordinarily selfish, possessing a complete Lack of Empathy, and a violent sadist to boot. Even when he was young, his behaviour (which included asking his dad for a gun to kill someone over a petty argument) raised some serious red flags about his twisted mind and what he would go on to become and do.
• Sore Loser: Played with. This is seen on Tsuru's ship heading to Impel Down after his loss, chained and pinned down to the floor, rambling about the fact that if Fujitora had worked together with him, he would've won. Tsuru tells him to quit bitching and accept the reality that he was defeated by a bunch of kids he kept looking down on. He scoffs and says it's all the other crazy pirates the Marines should be worried about now, not him. He takes comfort in believing that the resulting chaos from all of those pirates making their various power plays will bring down the World Nobles he resented so much.
• Spoiled Brat:
  • Despite all his talking down on Luffy and Law, calling them brats and stating that adults like him don't have the time or patience to deal with their "kiddy games," one can easily tell that Doflamingo, at his core, is little more than a Psychopathic Manchild who's pissed off at the world because he's this trope, instead of the Royal Brat that he used to be, all because his father happened to have the shred of human decency the rest of the World Nobles lacked and left Mariejois with his family to live a normal life. All his despicable actions as a pirate are little more than him having thirty year-long temper tantrum over being denied what he considers his birthright.
  • He was no saint before this, but flashbacks shows that this attitude of Doflamingo was enabled and reinforced in no small part by four youths who'd later become his top executives, who took him in after his father's death. Seeing his potential (Conqueror's Haki and all), they raised him, and held him as their future king, catering to his every (ax-crazy) wish and whims, essentially encouraging the worst traits in Doflamingo and making him the man he is now. The Executives consider themselves to be Doflamingo's equals for raising him, but Law just states that Doflamingo essentially got free slaves out of the deal: the Executives themselves.
• Status Quo Is God: This is discussed and defied multiple times in his speeches, claiming a big war will shake and change the world. Of course, Doflamingo himself isn't a fan of this trope because of his past as former celestial dragon, that causes him to hate the current status and balance of the world and want to destroy it.
• Stepford Smiler: His default expression is a humongous grin and he instinctively tries to smile no matter the situation. Unlike most examples, in his case it doesn't hide sadness but rage, toward the world that made him suffer.
• Superpower Lottery: Much like most of his fellow Warlords, he has a very strong Devil Fruit. His "Parasite" technique seems to have no limits; he can control anybody like a puppet, they can't resist at all (unless you're Luffy with Gear Four), and he can spread the strings across the distance of an entire island and control hundreds of people at the same time. Not even Sanji or Diamond Jozu (who can toss icebergs) could resist at all. Also, his strings are powerful enough to instantly amputate Oars Jr, the 300 foot tall giant. He himself even boasts that he's acquired one of the most powerful and rare Devil Fruits. He can even use said strings to perform first aid on himself, such as repairing organs after Law used his "Gamma Knife" to inflict serious internal injuries on him. And not to mention, he has "awakened" his Devil Fruit power, much like the special Zoans in Impel Down, granting them even more powers than before. What does his awakened power do? Turns the very environment around him into string to use for massive attacks. Luffy notes that that his awakened power makes him seem more like a Logia now than a Paramecia. And that's not even counting the Birdcage.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: After Law reveals that he's a "D", Doflamingo claims he doesn't care about the superstition that the letter is associated with in his homeland, but his attacks grow more reckless and he visibly becomes extremely angry.
• Swiss-Army Superpower: His control over what he can do with his strings can reach downright absurd levels. Razor Floss is its most basic application. From there, you can go for People Puppets, Not Quite Flight, Self-Duplication, All Webbed Up, Combat Tentacles, Some Kind of Force Field combined with The Walls Are Closing In, and even Self-Surgery.
• Thicker Than Water: Averted. Go ask his old man and his brother Corazon how much he cared about them. No wait, you can't – as they're dead. However, he did care for Corazon... until finding how his brother was a mole.
• Threshold Guardians: He is the final antagonistic Warlord in the series and possibly the strongest^note Mihawk is implied to be stronger, especially since beating him is Zoro's end goal, but it's debatable whether he can be considered an antagonist or not, having no exploitable Weaksauce Weakness like Crocodile and requiring the full scope of Luffy's post-Time Skip power-up with Law's assistance to take down. The antagonists the Straw Hats have to contend with immediately afterward are Emperors, who all have Co-Dragons that are on the same level as Doflamingo or worse.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: His Conquerer's Haki emerged when he was ten years old during a moment of extreme stress, when he was being pursued by a mob of people bearing a mile-wide grudge against the World Nobles and wanting to torture him.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior:
  • When he was young he was so accustomed to his spoiled life as and status of a World Noble that he felt he could ask for his father's gun to sort out someone he had an argument with.
  • At no more than ten years old, he gave death threats to a mob that was trying to kill him and his family. Even the mob was creeped out by that.
  • In the original sketch Oda made of the Warlords as children, he can clearly see him smoking a cigarette like a mob boss.
• True Companions: His executives are the only ones he shared his joys and sorrows with, after the death of his family. This goes even further with the four top executives (Diamante, Trebol, Pica and Vergo), who are practically his surrogate family. Law points out that Doflamingo only considers those useful to him a "family".
• Underestimating Badassery:
  • Goes to great lengths not to do this when he finally conflicts with the Straw Hats, having learned from the mistakes of those before him. However, once he gained the upper hand, he starts falling prey to this, something that Law calls him out on:
  Law: "Will you be one of the countless many… that have come to regret underestimating them?"
  • The moment he fell into this completely, Luffy went Gear Four on his ass. His final one was when he actually thought that enraging Luffy with more of his spiel about being "royalty" and that "commoners" such as Luffy and everyone else deserved to be beneath him was a good idea. One of his ultimate, awakened Devil Fruit attacks, "God Thread" and his nearly impenetrable "Spider Web" were both shattered against Luffy's "King Kong Gun" and sent Doflamingo flying straight into the ground, shattering his glasses and knocking him out.
• The Unfettered: Doflamingo has done nearly anything to achieve his goals. He considers the crew he loves like a family sacrificial if need be, like when he asked Monet to blow up the island and herself to kill the enemy. He brought his father's head to Mariejois in a failed attempt to become a World Noble again. When he gained an interest in the Op-Op Fruit, he was prepared to force his brother, Rosinante, to eat it (unaware that Rosinante had already eaten a Devil Fruit) and then order Rosinante to give up his life in exchange for giving Doflamingo eternal life, knowing that even though Rosinante is a traitor, he still could not reject his orders. However he ended murdering his brother when he confirmed he was a Marine spy and that the Op-Op Fruit was already consumed by Law.
• Unreliable Narrator: His telling of his origin leaves out a lot of key details such as how a bunch of commoners who had a grudge against World Nobles horribly brutalized him and his family (his mother died of exhaustion from being pursued) as well as how his father tried to bargain for his sons to become World Nobles again because he didn't want them to suffer anymore. But thing is, what he ended up saying never contradicts those facts that comes later.
• The Usurper: Zigzagged. Doflamingo's ancestors the original rulers of Dressrosa before they became World Nobles, so in his eyes, he's reclaiming his birthright. For the inhabitants of Dressrosa, however, he's the one who dethroned the Riku family with force and deceit, and rejoyce when Luffy takes Doflamingo down.
• Verbal Tic: As a child, he ended his sentences with "eh", like many other World Nobles.
• Villain Has a Point: Doflamingo has vast insight on the workings of the world owing to his background as a Celestial Dragon and later life as the king of the underworld network.
  • He accurately states how the Marines do horrible things and get away with calling it justice because they are the biggest fish in the sea as it were. With the revelation of Im's existence and the corruption of the Gorosei, this is completely true.
  • Following his defeat, he claims that there will be a power struggle that will dethrone the World Nobles as the supreme authority in the world. Given that he lists the Four Emperors, Warlords, Supernovas, Marines, Revolutionary Army, and any D's as a possible contender for this spot and characters from each faction have a gripe with the Nobles, it's hard to argue with him. This all ultimately comes to pass exactly as foretold.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • As the Alliance's plan continued to succeed during the Punk Hazard arc, topped off with the Sadistic Choice above, Doflamingo lost it, went into an immediate Unstoppable Rage, and ran roughshod on G-5, slaughtering Mooks and beating Smoker to near death, all while demanding the heads of the Straw Hat Pirates and Law. The only reason he didn't succeed in killing Smoker was because of Aokiji. He still shows shades of it, as he seems more susceptible to losing his cool when things don't go his way, such as when Fujitora attacked him unexpectedly.
  • He likewise doesn't seem to take injuries well, or at least the idea of "brats" like Luffy and Law thinking they can take him: First time Luffy manages to land a hit on him, he starts going off the deep end, ranting about he's descended from the world's "most noble bloodline," angrily expressing his hatred of his father for leaving Mariejois with his family to live a normal life (and his beef with the World Nobles because of it), and how brats like Law and Luffy shouldn't get cocky.
  • The entirety of the Dressrosa arc is one long string of breakdowns for Doflamingo. First, after the Straw Hats succeed in knocking out Sugar, everyone who was turned into a toy goes back to normal with no way to reverse it, thus not only dismantling his entire operation, but also restoring the memories of all of the people who had been forgotten. This immediately starts a revolution in Dressrosa, with the entire country calling for his head. Doffy does not take this well, becoming the most visibly angry we've ever seen him get. Secondly, once Law mentions that he has the "D" name, his attacks become less focused and much more wild, leaving his defense full of holes. Law takes advantage of this and manages to score a blow to his midsection as a result. He considerably wises up afterward, though.
  • Eventually, he gets so fed up with everything falling apart around him that he makes his Bird Cage shrink, intent on killing everyone in Dressrosa. Luffy is having none of that and proceeds to enter his Gear Four form to give Doflamingo the comeuppance he had coming since the beginning of the series, shrugging off his attacks and pounding the prick into submission. Doflamingo's face is teeming with rage and humiliation, since this is most likely the first time in his life he has ever been overwhelmed (at least by someone that isn't an Emperor, if his fear of Kaido is any indication), despite the powers and influence he wields, especially to an "idiotic rubber nobody" that he believes Luffy to be. This finally culminates in his defeat when Doflamingo is slammed into the ground by Luffy's King Kong Gun.
  • As he's been taken to Impel Down aboard Tsuru's ship, he loudly rants that he was the only one keeping all the opposing forces in check, and that a major conflict will potentially happen around who'll rule the seas.
• Villain Respect: He respects Crocodile and recognizes his strength, expressing disbelief that anyone short of an Admiral within the Marines could have defeated him in Alabasta and during the summit war even offer Crocodile to become his subordinate, an offer Crocodile immediately refuses. He also respects Tsuru as much as he fears her; back during his days of active piracy, he would drop whatever he was doing and flee on sight the minute he saw her ship rather than tangle with her, and after he is placed under her watch following his capture, he is unfailingly deferential and polite to her, and this is someone who has casually run his mouth to Admirals.
• Villainous Valor: He might've been a brat as a child, but it takes guts to declare that you're not only going to survive the torture inflicted upon you and pay it back tenfold while your father and brother beg for mercy and death respectively. This, together with the fact that he exhibited Conqueror's Haki at that age, convinced the four executives to follow him and found the Donquixote Pirates. So if there's one thing more impressive than Doflamingo's ability to dole out punishment, it's his ability to endure a lot of it.
• Villain with Good Publicity: As the king of Dressrosa, Doflamingo had absolute dominion over the entire country, being able to do so as a Warlord. A good number of Dressrosa citizens have a great deal of respect and admiration for him, to the point citizens tend to become angered when he is disrespected or spoken ill of in public. Doflamingo appeared to be benevolent on the outside, when in truth, he manipulated the former king to ran rampant across the kingdom and deceived his way into the hearts of the people of the country as their saviour. His actions of converting citizens to toys and erasing memories of such citizens further demonstrate a maliciousness towards the kingdom. When the kingdom learns the truth of the toys thanks to Usopp and the Tontattas, Doflamingo resorts to psychological means to control the citizens, noting that he should have used tyranny to rule over them from the beginning. He forces everyone in Dressrosa to kill and harm each other, and takes advantage of the people's fear and greed for his own entertainment, offering freedom from his game of death and prize money by capturing his enemies.
• Visual Pun: He ate the String-String Fruit (Ito Ito no Mi). It allows him to create lethal Razor Floss which can cleave through most materials, do Building Swing using the clouds, and more. He also controls a massive Underworld empire, with moles in the Marine and involved in various weapons trafficking while maintaining a public persona of a benevolent king of Dressrosa. He's the man pulling the strings, figuratively and literally.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Doflamingo is much stronger compared to anyone Luffy has fought so far in the New World, forcing him to actually bring out his brand new technique, Gear Fourth, for the first time in order to win against him. Even after that, Doflamingo quickly discovers how Luffy's new form works and is able to fight him evenly, boiling down to a clash of their ultimate attacks that Doffy ultimately loses. Even after defeating him, Luffy stays unconscious for days.
• Wild Card: For the World Government, he acts on his own whims and couldn't care less about their issues, only coming to their call if it's something that interests him (such as the War with Whitebeard). In fact, the way he got his position was largely through blackmail by intercepting ships with kingdom offerings to the Celestial Dragons. Fittingly, his alias in the Underworld is "joker".
• Wolverine Claws: A variant. His basic move Goshikito is him clawing his foe with his strings extending from his fingertips. His Full Bright is a stronger variant. His Athlete (Asuriito, Leg Shave String) is another variant done with his feet.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: While he was driven insane by his extremely tragic past and aims to destroy the world that the Celestial Dragons so cherish in order to make them pay, it is actually subverted when his brother shows that he was already evil to begin with. So rather than being a Woobie, he is just acting like a Spoiled Brat that had his allowance cut off, and he just kept falling to the deeper end.
• The Worf Barrage: When Luffy activates Gear Four for the first time, Doflamingo tries to use Athlete's Thread on him, an attack that previously sent Gear Second Luffy flying away as well as cutting him. Against Gear Four? It just harmlessly bounces right off Luffy's body. Much to his shock.
• Worthy Opponent: Doflamingo considering anyone "worthy" is a huge stretch, but he certainly fears (jury's out on whether he respects her) Tsuru, as she relentlessly pursued him back during his career as a pirate. Even after he was captured, he was still unfailingly polite to her and obeyed her commands, and this is someone who has happily run his mouth to Admirals.
• Would Hurt a Child: While it's unknown whether or not he would do this personally, but he did facilitate the kidnapping of many children for Caesar Clown's experiments, and then had Vergo cover them up. Also indirectly, children were among the casualties during his takeover of Dressrosa, and he was the one directly controlling King Riku's soldiers when they were being forced to slaughter civilians.
• Written by the Winners: Strongly believes in this, as shown by his speech during the Marineford War. Which becomes incredibly unsurprising once you learn that he's a descendant of the "winners."
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Thinks Luffy is fighting him on Dressrosa because Luffy is trying to be a hero. It never occurs to him Luffy has come after him out of personal outrage from his petty cruelty to others.
• Xanatos Speed Chess:
  • He didn't lose his cool even when Caesar Clown, Vergo, and Monet were defeated. He instead simply ordered Monet to blow up the island after Baby 5 and Buffalo retrieved Caesar. When he found out that the island didn't blow up, he decided to go there himself. He only started to lose his cool when he learned that the Straw Hats and Law managed to leave the island with Caesar in their hands before he reached Punk Hazard.
  • With Sugar's defeat, the horrible truth of his ten-year long rule starts to unravel. So what does he do? Through the "Birdcage", he entraps the entire island, cuts off communications with the outside world, controls the citizens to kill each other, then promises the terror will only stop if they either have the stones to come up and kill him, or hunt down the group that gave him grief (The Straw Hats currently on the island, King Riku's family, Law and Sabo) for a bounty.
  • After all of the above fails and everything keeps falling apart, Doflamingo essentially flips the entire chessboard over by making the Birdcage shrink so it will kill everyone in Dressrosa.
• You Have Failed Me:
  • To Bellamy, in the end of Skypiea arc. Though Bellamy didn't die from the wounds and went on to get stronger while still loving Doflamingo.
  • And in Dressrosa arc he pulls it on Bellamy again, this time for failing to kill Luffy before he even has a chance to. Though the way Dellinger puts it, it seems like he was going to have Bellamy killed off regardless if he succeeded or not since he's apparently an "eyesore".
  • He also later does this to one of his peons in Momonosuke's flashback.
  • Consistently subverted with his executives. Despite that one setback that completely destroys ten years worth of work and endanger his alliance with Kaido because of their failures, he chooses to focus his anger on Luffy and the others instead of his subordinates. He even lampshades it to Viola while explaining that he always forgives his loyal followers of any failure.

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