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The Marines

    General 
The members of the Navy, the international police force of this world. Though not inherently evil, the corruption of certain officers, the fanaticism of many others, and their subordination to the World Government (which is corrupt from the top down) means that the meaning of Justice is variable from one high-ranking Marine to the next.


  • 0% Approval Rating: Gradually over the course of the story, faith in the Marines continues on a downward slope, with the Enies Lobby Incident permanently tarnishing their reputation and the subsequent Thriller Bark and Sabaody Archipelago Incidents destroying any hopes of recovery. The final nail in the coffin, however, is Silvers Rayleigh's confession on the SBS about the truth of Gold Roger's capture and execution, which destroys their last shred of credibility. Notably, it was that confession that finally drove Sengoku to turn in his resignation.
  • Ascended Extra:
    • Many Marines have more screen time than their canon selves courtesy of the SBS.
    • Most notably, the members of the Zodiac of the Divine, G-8, Admiral Akainu, and Garp.
  • Badass Army: That they are.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: The Marines stationed on Enies Lobby, courtesy of the Straw Hats and their allies. Since they face even more forces than in canon, they get trashed until Garp and Sengoku arrive.
  • Defector from Decadence:
    • Beyond the Zodiac of the Divine and their subordinates, many Marines defected from the organization altogether in the wake of the Enies Lobby debacle; Sengoku says that there were more resignations in the 24 hours after Enies Lobby then there were in the two years before it.
    • Even when the broadcast of Enies Lobby was taking place, Marines all over the world outright joined the revolts against the World Government that had been started by the Straw Hats' assault.
    • The Giant Squad (excluding John Giant) leave after they realize the Accino family tricked them into letting the family into Alabasta, unwilling to endure more scrutiny, and the fate of Jaguar D. Saul only cemented their defection.
    • Several more left after the Straw Hats freed their shadows from Gecko Moria's control, and are now serving Lola in Skelter Bite.
    • Reaches its peak during the Tragedy of Marineford, when Hina and T-Bone lead a mass mutiny, culminating in more than 8000 Marines turning traitor, the Seawall being sabotaged before it can be deployed, and Isuka revealing herself to be part of the traitors and helping rescue Ace.
    • After the Marineford Misery, Instructor Zephyr and his forces loyal to him officially break off from the Navy out of disgust, forming the Neo Marines.
  • The Dreaded: The higher-ranking Marines are walking death to the average pirate.
  • Enemy Civil War: Besides the Zodiac of the Divine...
    • The Navy turns into this during the Enies Lobby arc, with most of their giants going on a rampage after finding out about Saul and Ohara. And in the aftermath, mass defections of Marines resign and a good number of Marine bases outright rebel.
  • Engineered Public Confession: Cross pulls one on Vice Admiral Onigumo, and his broadcasted response to murdering a shipload of Marines in an attempt to kill Luffy causes several Marines to look at their uniform in naked terror. If it weren't for Akainu calling in to promise execution to any Marines who didn't fight, they may as well have surrendered.
  • Evil Versus Evil: Some Marines come across as just as bad, if not worse than the very pirates they fight. Most notably Akainu and Onigumo.
  • Everyone Has Standards: Though all the Marines are tough on pirates, there's still a variety of lines they don't cross. In terms of standards, we have the moral and relatively merciful (Aokiji, Momonga, and Smoker), the more ruthless but ultimately neutral, if well-meaning (Sengoku and Strawberry), and the ones who are driven to utterly exterminate anything they perceive as "evil" (Akainu and Onigumo).
  • Fallen Hero: The Navy has become this in public opinion after the Straw Hat Broadcast Station reveals their worst acts of corruption, abuse of power, and plain old dickery to the world at large. It's bad enough that apparently, a large portion of their members defected or quit in disgust.
  • From Bad to Worse: The Straw Hats' assault on Enies Lobby, for the Marines and the World Government. Sengoku is so enraged that he plans on attacking the island with all available government forces. Unfortunately, fate is working against him.
    • The Straw Hats turned Oimo, Kashi, and the Watchdogs against all of the men stationed at Enies Lobby. Not only that, but it was broadcasted live on the SBS, for the entire world to hear, indelibly humiliating the Marines by making them look every bit as incompetent as Cross makes them out to be. And then Robin finally tells the truth about Ohara, with the entire world as her audience.
    • Not only that, but the Straw Hats' assault incited the other Super Rookies to commit dangerous acts, and it even caused some of the Emperors to act out, either to one-up the Straw Hats and/or to draw Marine attention away from them. In brief:
      • Shanks goes on a rampage in the New World, tying up every Marine on that side of the Grand Line. A later chapter reveals that what the World Government called a "rampage", his crew called an extremely rambunctious party. But then again, they did destroy a city as part of said party.
      • Cavendish decides he's getting overshadowed, so he raids a supply ship headed for Totland... just as Big Mom starts craving for the specific thing he stole, sending her on a rampage and deliberately leading her into Kaido's territory, thereby escalating the conflict. This forces the World Government to send half of their Warlords against her in hopes of calming her down.
      • X. Drake and Basil Hawkins attacked Thriller Bark and subsequently sent Moria on a wild goose chase all around the Florian Triangle after them. And with Crocodile in prison, Mihawk incommunicado, and Hancock ignoring any orders that don't threaten her title, that means that the Marines have no Warlords left to help with Enies Lobby.
      • Bartolomeo attacks a Celestial Dragon's yacht and then insults the Five Elder Stars, who send Akainu and five battleships after him.
      • Capone Bege raided Fort Lumose, stealing a fourth of the Marines' liquid assets.
      • Eustass Kid attacked Blackarm Island (implied to be the island where Z trains his recruits), drawing out a conflict in need of a speedy resolution for the Marines to have high-quality recruits to replace all their incoming losses.
      • Scratchman Apoo and Captain Dugong attack Task Force Cerberus, capsizing all their ships in the process.
      • Jewelry Bonney and Trafalgar Law teamed up and attacked Marine Base G-76, with the former even procuring a direct line to Marineford just to rub it in Sengoku's face.
      • And finally, Urouge did something at Kyuka Island that left several high-ranking Marine officers shivering in horror, including men like Garp and even Onigumo, of all people.
    • If that weren't enough, Robin's tell-all on Ohara causes Water 7 to finally cut off the World Government, and several Marines (mainly giants) mutiny after hearing of how Saul (who was popular among other giants) died and that they had been hunting his ward for over twenty years. This forces Aokiji to be left behind so he can quell the mutiny non-lethally.
    • The final straw is the crew outright disintegrating the World Government's flag during the SBS. Sengoku is so overwhelmed and enraged that he can't even go into his Buddha form anymore and instead suffers a heart attack. It is, as he puts it, by far and away the most embarrassing incident for the Marines and the World Government since Roger's execution. And it only became worse from there.
    • By the time the Straw Hats finally escape, the butcher's bill in the immediate area alone is as follows:
    Sengoku: Let me see if I have this straight. We have lost Enies Lobby. We have lost CP9. We have lost a dozen battleships. We have lost thousands of soldiers. We are still trying to locate where Kizaru landed. And we have months' worth of repair work to perform on the Gates of Justice. And meanwhile, the Straw Hat Pirates and their sixty allies all left the island alive?
    • The SBS broadcast of the World Government's crimes does even more damage. Water 7 canceled all contracts with the WG, and now refuses to do business with either them or anyone who doesn't follow suit. A full fifth of the World Government's member nations erupted in rebellion: mere hours after the broadcast, eight percent had outright declared their independence or overthrown the rulership, with another twelve percent struggling to hold off revolutionaries and uprisings, and a later chapter revealing that the final tally stood at a full 15% of the WG nations seceding. They've lost contact with dozens of Marine bases and vessels, and pirate activity is ramping up in a big way. In short, the day the Straw Hats hit Enies Lobby is, without a doubt, the worst day in the entire history of the World Government.
    • Or, rather, it was... until Cross gave Saint Charloss a live interview on the SBS, broadcasting to the entire world what kind of sociopathic, utterly corrupt monsters are sitting at the top of the World Government and profiting off of the blood and sweat of the peoples of the world.
    • And then Cross topped that with a one-two punch; Rayleigh revealing to the world via the SBS that the Navy never captured Gol. D. Roger, but instead he turned himself in because he preferred to be executed rather than succumb to his terminal illness, and arranging for the new Free Feather Report to reveal that Saint Charloss and his sister were beaten up by Doflamingo and the World Government instead blamed it on the Straw Hats.
    • Marineford similarly goes to hell once Luffy arrives on the battlefield. On top of galvanizing the Whitebeards and their allies, Cross' foreknowledge and own participation in the battle via the SBS allows him to make better tactical choices which subsequently screw over the Marines. In combination with the Masons' own plans, including a mutiny 'orchestrated' by T-Bone and Hina that prevents the containment walls from going up, topped off with Ace's executioner/friend Isuka going pirate to help Ace escape and Garp quitting after Luffy attacks him, Sengoku loses it and goes into his Buddha form, except this time he's very, very red with rage.
      • And even that doesn't go well, because his heart can't handle the strain and he suffers yet another heart attack. Things further go to hell when Hina has Jango hypnotize the entire battlefield, activating post-hypnotic suggestions he implanted in thousands of Marines who promptly turn against their comrades, making it impossible to figure out who's a turncoat and who is simply being hypnotized. Then, just when it seems that Akainu is going to kill Ace anyway, Dragon shows up, crushes his hand and rips it off, allowing Sabo to help Luffy and Ace escape.
      • And then Blackbeard shows up, with his canon Level Six Crew plus two extras in "Golden Lion" Shiki and Byrnndi World, who promptly start causing havoc on the battlefield. Then the rest of the Supernovas (sans Zoro and Nami) show up to save the ASL brothers, and turning things even more pear shape by defeating Sentomaru and Kuma. Then Whitebeard dies, but not before proclaiming that One Piece exists and that Luffy is Roger's rightful successor. And then, after Ace turns Whitebeard's corpse into charred bone, Blackbeard, in full Villainous Breakdown after having lost his shot at the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, is about to destroy the entire island, prompting Koby's plea to stop and subsequently Shanks' intervention, ending the war.
      • At the end of it all, the Marines completely fail in their objective of executing Ace. All they have instead, is the defection of eight thousand mutineers, the loss of twenty-nine of the fifty battleships they deployed (thirteen destroyed, seven severely damaged, and nine stolen), the loss of nearly all their Pacifistas and BioMEGAs, the loss of three Warlords, a crippled admiral, billions of beris in damage, the loss of over thirty thousand loyal Marines and counting, the increasing destabilization of the world's Balance of Power and a shit-ton of humiliation and loss of face that they may likely never recover from. Compared to that, the death of Whitebeard is a very, very small consolation prize.
  • General Ripper: The ones following "Absolute Justice" are this, most notably Admiral Akainu and Vice Admiral Onigumo.
  • The Good, the Bad, and the Evil: The personalities of those in the Navy range from the just (Smoker and T-Bone) to ones in the middle (Sengoku) to the Knight Templar (Akainu and Onigumo). And then there's Vergo, who only pretends to be a Knight Templar.
  • Just Following Orders: Arguably the Fatal Flaw of the entire Navy: as soldiers, they always follow the orders of their superiors. And considering the near completely corrupt World Government is the force issuing orders to the often-good Navy, a lot of those orders are morally questionable, if not flat-out evil.
  • Mass "Oh, Crap!":
    • The Marines stationed on Enies Lobby are on the receiving end while facing the Straw Hats.
    • Even those Marines not on Enies Lobby get in on it due to Cross's broadcast.
      • Due to the fallout of Enies Lobby, Marines all over the world fall under this due to Cross's reading of the CP9 blackbook, which causes countries all over the world to turn on the Marines and government officials. Made even worse by the fact that a significant portion of new rebels had been loyal Marines until that very day.
  • Pay Evil unto Evil: Nobody, not even Cross, complained when they initiated a Buster Call on Omatsuri Island.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Giants are this, and they did not take kindly to finding out the truth of what happened to Saul.
  • Reassigned to Antarctica: After the PR nightmare that was Enies Lobby, Sengoku reassigns practically every Marine that follows "Absolute Justice" to the New World to wage war against the Four Emperors so they are out of the public eye and cannot makes things worse than they already have. This includes Admiral Akainu and Vice-Admiral Onigumo.
  • Resign in Protest: A lot of the Navy's more moral members apparently quit in disgust after the Enies Lobby broadcast (Sengoku says a few days afterwards that they've had more resignations in the last twenty-four hours then they had in the two years beforehand).
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: During the attack on Enies Lobby, roughly half the Marines run away yelling things like, "I didn't sign up for this."
    • During the events of Enies Lobby, a large number of Marines (roughly 40%) in at least one kingdom that was rebelling against them quit and help the revolutionaries.
    • Apparently, roughly 15% of the World Government's nations have attempted or succeeded in launching a revolution.
  • Slave to PR: After Enies Lobby, the public opinion of the Marines is at an all-time low, with Sengoku stating there have been more resignations requested in twenty-four hours then there have been in the last two years. Meaning that on top of trying to recover from that fiasco, the Marines have become PR's bitch for the foreseeable future.
  • Tautological Templar: Vice Admiral Strawberry correctly assumes Koala wants revenge against him for having wronged her in some way, then insists that due to being a Marine and justice embodied, whatever action she blames him for were just and his victim(s) got what they deserved. Bad move.
  • This Is Unforgivable!: The Giants in the Navy basically form a lynch mob due to the dual actions of hearing about the destruction of Ohara, with John Giant being unable to refrain from disrespecting the deceased Saul, and the Marines hunting his (Saul's) ward for the past 20 years. Tsuru summed it up best:
    Tsuru: They want John Giant dead for his disrespect, they want Aokiji dead for freezing Saul, they want Akainu dead for bombarding him, they want you [Sengoku] dead for being in charge… basically, they want blood.
  • This Is Gonna Suck: Vice-Admiral Yamakaji's reaction when he realizes that he's got to inform Sengoku that Admiral Kizaru managed to get himself warped out off the battlefield and thus won't be able to participate against the Straw Hats.
    Yamakaji: "Well, Shit."
    • This also takes place in the run-up to Marineford, which has pretty much the entire Navy, even Akainu, realizing that even if they win, it will be a Pyrrhic Victory for them at best. Sengoku flat-out admits just before the war begins that the only reason he isn't giving up without a fight is that he's not authorized to make that decision, Aokiji is opposed on moral grounds, Akainu is opposed due to Pragmatic Villainy, the world in general is questioning the Navy's sanity, and even the grunt-level Marines basically agree that an old joke is true.
    For practically as long as the Navy had existed, it was a joke in the lower ranks that becoming a flag officer dropped your IQ by a standard deviation, though the men didn't actually use the term. These days, it was no longer a joke. Instead, it was the only sane explanation for the sheer madness command was planning to execute within a week.
  • Too Dumb to Live:
    • John Giant found out the hard way that saying Jaguar D. Saul was Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves was not a good idea. Especially not in earshot of a lot of other giants who greatly respected him.
    • Vice Admiral Onigumo should have thought more before he responded to Cross's taunts about murdering a boatload of his fellow Marines just because Luffy landed on it, especially since Spandam had fallen for it less than an hour earlier.

    Sengoku 

Fleet Admiral Sengoku "The Buddha"

The highest-ranking Marine, in charge of the entire organization. At 77 years old, he is a veteran from the days of Gol D. Roger and one of the most powerful men in the world in both authority and strength, backed up with his Human-Human Fruit, Model: Buddha. His good heart rarely shows beneath the stern, uncompromising supporter of Reigning Justice.


  • Arch-Enemy: CROSS. Cross has made Sengoku's already stressful job into a complete nightmare, culminating in a non-fatal heart attack. It's one-sided though, as Cross is more disappointed in Sengoku than anything else and holds no personal animosity towards him (and in fact is hoping to recruit him to his side).
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: His Buddha form is very large, both in height and width, and imposing.
  • Badass Boast: When one of the Marine’s doctors tries to get him to stay behind at Marineford due to his heart attack, Sengoku informs him that he will be doing no such thing in a very impressive way.
    Sengoku: You seem to have failed to take something into account during your diagnosis, Doctor. I am no mere human being. I am Sengoku, Fleet Admiral of the World Government's Navy. I might be older than Whitebeard by five years, but the fact remains that it will take far more than one measly heart attack caused by one measly pirate to incapacitate me and keep me from popping his head from his scrawny neck. Do. I. Make. Myself. Clear?
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: Fleet Admiral Sengoku wishes for the Straw Hats to engage in 'traditional piracy' over the SBS and even plans on saying prayers for those who'll end up losing their homes. When he gets his wish, he's happy... then he recognizes the voices/names on the broadcast and realizes exactly which island they're destroying: Enies Lobby.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Do not insult Sengoku's choice of goats as a pet. Not even if you're Akainu.
    • As of Enies Lobby, the Straw Hats (Cross in particular) are this to him.
    • In a version that is not even remotely Played for Laughs, the subject of his deceased son in all but name Rocinante is taboo. Even for Kong, who is technically above him. Double on this if there's even a hint of it being used as emotional blackmail.
  • Big "SHUT UP!": His reaction to Onigumo responding to Cross's taunts after the former murdered a battleship load of Marines just because Luffy landed on it.
    Sengoku: SHUT THE HELL UP, YOU DAMN SPIDER!
  • Butt-Monkey: Though the status didn't really cement itself until the Enies Lobby arc; during and after that, his job as Fleet Admiral has been literally one crisis after another. The SBS has made such a mess of things that when the Cipher Pols start disappearing, he's beginning to seriously regret his life choices.
    Sengoku: Why did I want this job again?
  • Calling the Old Man Out: Sengoku is on the receiving end by Tsuru when the full story of Ohara is broadcast, especially regarding why Sakazuki was never court-martialed for genocide. When she brings up the consideration that Cross might have a point, Sengoku responds with the weight the Fleet Admiral has and the lengths that he believes has to be taken to win the war on piracy, and as a result, the bond the two veterans used to share is severely damaged.
  • Can't Kill You, Still Need You: He hates Akainu's methods, and he fully admits it, both to Tsuru and Akainu himself. However, he also says that thanks to the ever-increasing number of pirates, the Marines simply can't afford to throw away an Admiral-level fighter.
  • The Chains of Commanding: Suffers under this a great deal. When Cross airs the World Government's dirty laundry to the world, including a number of incidents he personally signed off on, they get heavier and heavier. It gets to the point that he honestly hopes for death during the upcoming war with Whitebeard. He even remarks that it's a good thing he'll retire if he survives the war: that way, he'll still have something of a soul to sell.
  • *Crack!* "Oh, My Back!":
    • His heart attack when he got too angry at the Straw Hats' antics is a result of his age catching up with him. Though he recovers, he has to keep a careful lid on his temper lest it happens again. Yet even restrained, he's still fully capable of cowing Akainu.
    • He goes through at least two more heart attacks during Marineford, first after Isuka reveals her true colors and blows the execution stand to save Ace, and another one after Garp declares to him that he quits. The second one puts him out for the rest of the battle, and he only manages to rouse himself to contribute when Blackbeard arrives.
  • Death Seeker: Downplayed, but he's honestly not all that bothered by the idea of dying during the war with Whitebeard by the time he's decided to resign.
  • Dented Iron: He's even older than Whitebeard, and it's made clear that the stress he's been having to deal with is causing serious health issues for him (even more so than in canon). While he did survive his heart attack during the Enies Lobby arc, he remains in poor health for the rest of the story, even into the War of the Best.
  • Dramatic Irony:
    • Sengoku used to have "screaming nightmares" of Akainu becoming Fleet Admiral. Considering what happened after the War of the Best in canon, he had every reason to worry, and he may still if canon hasn't been warped enough to prevent that travesty.
    • He's convinced that Tsuru hates him by the time war is declared. While she is (understandably) upset with him over his actions, she doesn't seem to hate him. She's more disappointed in him than anything, and like Cross, hopes to one day turn him to her side as a Mason.
  • The Dreaded: He's able to cow almost any pirate and almost any Marine. At the peak of his anger, even Commander-in-Chief Kong is intimidated.
  • Enraged by Idiocy: He is very pissed at Spandam's cruelty and incompetence throughout Enies Lobby.
  • Everyone Has Standards:
    • Sengoku fully admits that he despises Akainu and his methods and would've gotten rid of him years ago if the Navy didn't need his strength, and says as much to the man's face when reassigning him to the New World.
    • After the events of Omatsuri Island, Sengoku grants pardons to the Toothbrush Mustache Pirates and the Tearoom Pirates for their deeds in ending Lily Carnation's threat and gives the Straw Hats a head start to bug out of the island before he sends a Buster Call to raze the island to the ground and ensure nothing like Lily Carnation can ever happen again.
    • He's clearly pissed when Onigumo has a battleship destroyed and a thousand Marines murdered in a vain attempt to kill Luffy.
    • He also had no intention of giving Cross his ridiculously huge bounty, opting for one that wasn't much higher than Luffy's, and was furious when he found out Garp had altered his bounty request. Considering that Cross is the primary reason for his heart issues, that is remarkably moderate and measured for Sengoku.
  • Flat "What"/Big "WHAT?!": When he realizes that the Straw Hats are storming Enies Lobby to get Nico Robin back, he starts out with a Flat "What" and, as it becomes more apparent, ends up with him screaming out "WHAT?!?!?!" in his Golden Buddha form.
  • Game Face: Can and has cowed many a lesser individual with a mere flash of his Buddha Zoan form. Whether this is due to Conqueror's Haki or raw killing intent remains to be confirmed.
  • Give Me a Reason: When Akainu is in his office after the events of Enies Lobby, Sengoku explicitly states that while he knows Akainu is too useful to discharge, the Admiral has caused so much negative press that if he gives Sengoku any reason at all to declare that You Have Outlived Your Usefulness and throw him into Impel Down, he will take it, consequences be damned. And even when Akainu restrains himself from protesting his new orders, Sengoku makes it extremely clear that as far as he is concerned, Akainu is on his last warning.
  • Godzilla Threshold: During Marineford, he thinks he's hit it when Gold Roger uses Soundbite to speak from the grave and beg Luffy to save his son, ordering Isuka to execute Ace. But that's not it. Nor is it when Isuka reveals herself to be a deep-cover mole who betrays the Marines to save Ace. No, what finally pushes him over the edge is Garp quitting the Marines after Luffy attacks him to protect Ace. Sengoku literally goes red with rage after that.
  • Good Is Not Soft: He is the head of the Navy. He's neither evil nor corrupt, but he's ruthless whenever he feels he needs to be. Unfortunately, whether or not his ruthless actions have been justified has so far been a crap shoot, leaning towards no.
  • Heel Realization:
    • He seems to have at least a bit of one at the end of a side story that's named after him during the Sabaody Revolution (found here) that also details his career as a Marine—and how he went from a good man to being unintentionally corrupted by the Government due to all the horrible choices he had to make, and times when he was faced with only being able to choose the Lesser of Two Evils—and times when he did things that were undoubtedly evil.
    Sengoku had only one thing to say.
    “When... did I begin to accept
    this?”
    He can no longer truly remember.
    And that scares him like nothing’s ever scared him before.
    • The first part of "Marineford Misery" has another where he considers that his work with the Marines didn't become corrupt as time went on but rather that the corruption had been there from the beginning.
  • I Did What I Had to Do: Deconstructed, maybe unintentionally, maybe not. Does he have to make hard choices to keep the world safe? Yes, it should be in the job description as Fleet Admiral. Does he exploit all other venues BEFORE resorting to extreme measures? He has never been shown, even in canon, to employ anything that isn't the most extreme measure available, PERIOD.
  • Joke and Receive: During the Marineford Misery arc, Akainu informs him that Cross has failed their gambit of turning one of Whitebeard's allies. Sengoku mentally curses Cross to the deepest, darkest pit of hell, unaware (like the rest of the world) that that's exactly where Cross is: the Seventh Hell, the Hell of Darkness.
  • Large Ham: After realizing that the Straw Hats are invading Enies Lobby, he starts Chewing the Scenery. This is immediately Lampshaded by Garp.
    Sengoku: GAUTAMA FUCKING DAMNIT! SOMEONE GET ME GARP! GET ME TSURU! GET ME AOKIJI! GET ME EVERYONE RIGHT FUCKING NOW!
    Unlucky Vice Admiral: E-everyone-!?
    Sengoku: EEEVERYYYOOONE!
  • Master of All: Ludicrous amounts of Charles Atlas Superpower, a masterful tactician, mastery of all three forms of Haki, and a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit, a type that is even rarer than Logia. It's only his age and health that downplay his threat level.
  • Moral Event Horizon: In-Universe example. Reached this in the eyes of Tsuru (and many other Marines' eyes) due to the destruction of Ohara, and most notably the lack of actions taken against Admiral Akainu for the aforementioned genocide.
  • Mercy Lead: As thanks for killing Lily Carnation, Sengoku informs the Straw Hats that the Marines are on their way to the island.
  • Necessarily Evil: As the leader of the Marines, he is basically overseeing the war on piracy, and he's had to make a lot of unsavory decisions since then to keep the world safe from pirates. And considering that his signature of approval is on a full third of the clandestine missions of CP9, that's a lot of unsavory decisions. Unfortunately, as the Marines are essentially supporting and ruled by an insanely corrupt system that is all but out of a dystopian setting, it makes him look, at best, incredibly naĂŻve regarding the long-reaching consequences of his choices. This leads directly to the next trope on the list.
  • Never My Fault: The SBS sparks his ire for many reasons, but on several occasions that spark was caused by Cross airing out the Marines' and World Government's dirty laundry for the world to see. Maybe it's because of the burdens of command, the belief that some things were Dirty Business which nonetheless had to be done for the greater good, that what had been done was due to Morton's Fork and taking the best option available at the time, or simply being blinded by Pride. Whatever the reasons, he is very good at working himself up over how Cross is saying things that will damage the standing of the Marines and the World Government while conveniently ignoring how everything broadcast over the SBS is the unvarnished truth, and that none of it would be anywhere nearly as damaging to the World Government if it were anything other than an utterly reprehensible, thoroughly corrupt system that is responsible for God-only-knows how many atrocities, crimes against sapience, and general vileness.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
    • Having Spandam placed in Impel Down, in a cell by himself, with no guards watching over him allows Ivankov to pump him for information to send back to the Revolutionaries.
    • According to Tsuru, his attempts to prevent sensitive information from being leaked have allowed the New World Masons to patch leaks of their own before they got out of hand.
    • His decision to reveal that the Marines are executing Ace because he is Gold Roger's son is the reason why Dragon showed up at Marineford and foiled their last chance to kill Ace by crippling Akainu. As Betty puts it, that revelation changed the context of the war from lawful to tyrannical, and the moment Dragon heard it, he made a beeline for Marineford.
  • Not Me This Time: Despite the man being the bane of his existence (or at least his health) and the very incriminating signature on the bounty request form, Sengoku was not responsible for Cross's insanely high bounty (he ordered him to be given a still very high, but understandable, bounty of 500,000,000). That would be Garp, who forged Sengoku's signature to give him that bounty to get back at him for what happened during his appearance on the SBS. And as it turns out, the Five Elder Stars were also planning to give him said bounty, and just took advantage of Garp doing it.
  • Odd Friendship: Has this with Garp, just like in canon.
  • Old Soldier: He's 77 (five years older than Whitebeard) and the highest-ranking Marine in the world. Deconstructed, because as the story shows, being a soldier at his age is not very conductive to one's health.
  • One Degree of Separation: He's technically Law's adoptive grandfather, as indicated in Law's own character entry. Law, of course, will one day ally himself with the Straw Hat Pirates. Sengoku is currently unaware of the relation, while Law knows of Sengoku's connection to Corazon/Rocinante but not how deep it actually runs... at least, until Cross fills him in.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: As noted under I Did What I Had to Do and Never My Fault, Sengoku stands staunchly by his decisions as necessary for the sake of the world no matter how drastic and extreme they are, even if he may not personally like having to make them. So needless to say, it's damn shocking when Sengoku admits that he would release Ace and hand him back over to Whitebeard when face-to-face with the Emperor and only won't because the power to do so doesn't lie with him this time. He even addresses Whitebeard by his real name to emphasize his thoughts on the matter.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Stern and serious Sengoku contrasting with the Hot-Blooded Rebellious Spirit in Garp. Although Sengoku loses his temper far more easily.
  • Sanity Slippage: From the moment the Straw Hats start invading Enies Lobby, he's furious. And the fury keeps growing with every passing hour until, by the time he's on his way to Enies himself, he seems to have cracked. In the aftermath, while he's mostly managed to put himself back together, he's clearly on a hair-trigger, with everyone operating on egg shells around him.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In Chapter 71, he finally reaches his limit after Rayleigh reveals the truth behind Roger's execution.
    Sengoku: I. Am. Done. The exact instant that Fire-Fist's execution is over and done with, I resign. Find someone else stupid enough to put up with this PR death sentence, because I don't intend to. To put it as politely as possible, I quit, deal with it.
  • Slasher Smile: Gets an outright demented grin when he talks to Spandam after the latter accidentally broadcasts his plans to use Pluton and overthrow the WG.
  • Slave to PR: Has been this since the Enies Lobby debacle, and gives it as the main reason he allows Perona's ascension as a Warlord. Apparently, there is an outcry from certain women's rights groups over there being only one female Warlord (Hancock) and says Perona's inclusion will be sure to placate them.
  • Super Mode: His Golden Buddha Zoan form, which possesses enough raw power to leave island-sized dents in the gargantuan Gates of Justice.
  • Take This Job and Shove It: At the end of the Sabaody Archipelago arc, he calls Kong and bluntly declares that he's going to quit the Marines the instant Ace's execution is over, one way or the other, declaring that it's not worth having to deal with the constant PR nightmares anymore.
  • Tautological Templar: Subverted. He is honestly a good man that thinks he must do the things he's done for the sake of peace, but in practice, his own actions paint him as someone that merely believes themselves to be good without actually being good.
  • Tempting Fate:
    • He told Vice Admiral Yamakaji that "Nothing can make me angrier than I am now." He promptly regretted it when Yamakaji told him that Admiral Kizaru, in his 'eagerness' to join the fight, ended up getting himself warped away to parts unknown. Sengoku's reaction is to slam his Buddha head into the Gates of Justice in exasperation.
    • While he's angry that there will be pirates listening in to it, even he can't argue with the contents of the SBS where Cross goes over how to avoid Tempting Fate.
  • Tranquil Fury:
    • According to Cross, the tone of voice he uses when addressing him via Soundbite is best compared to "the void between the stars."
    Ah, yes. Jeremiah Cross. The biggest fucking aggravation in my career, if not my life. I have only one thing to say to you.
    I'm coming for you.
    • After the events of Enies Lobby, due to his heart condition, this is apparently the only type of full-out fury he can express without straining his heart. This does not make him any less terrifying when he's angry.
    • When Kong tries to bring up his adoptive son in an attempt to convince him to not resign, the answer he gets is a blast of Conqueror's Haki that makes him briefly black out and the previously getting-drunk Sengoku suddenly being completely sober.
    • After Gold Roger calls in on the SBS from the other side to beg Luffy to save Ace, Sengoku snaps, his rage circling all the way back to this as he orders Isuka to execute Ace.
  • The Unfettered: Unlike Garp and Tsuru, Sengoku progressed past the rank of Vice Admiral to eventually become the head of the Navy, the better to focus on the war against piracy. He's not ignorant to the evils of the World Government, but he doesn't let them stand in the way of accomplishing his goal. But it becomes a lot harder for him once Cross starts broadcasting.
  • Unstoppable Rage: What the Straw Hats have driven him to by Enies Lobby. By the time Cross starts reading CP9's blackbook of morally questionable assassinations aloud on the SBS, for the entire world to hear, Sengoku doesn't even bother being surprised anymore, just angry.
  • Villainous Breakdown: It's the Straw Hats' fault, of course. By broadcasting their assault on Enies Lobby, they cause him to literally blow his top and shift into full-on Golden Buddha Mode. If that wasn't bad enough, they end up inspiring several other pirates, from their fellow "Super Rookies" to the Four Emperors themselves, to go on a crime spree simultaneously. The broadcast also ends up causing a spontaneous uprising of almost every Giant in Marineford after they heard the truth about Jaguar D. Saul's death and Ohara. Eventually, the stress from all of the above becomes too much, and he suffers a (non-fatal) heart attack as a result. And then, he becomes even more pissed when Spandam's evil is publicly broadcasted, and tries to take Cross down for exposing the Government.
  • Villain Respect: Begins to respect Luffy after the events with Lily Carnation for destroying such a deadly threat.
  • You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Quotes this verbatim when the Oars Jr. Pirates arrive at Marineford riding Sea King sized Sea Turtles.

    Garp 
See his entry under the Zodiac of the Divine.

    Aokiji 

Admiral Kuzan, a.k.a. Aokiji

The Blue Pheasant of the Marines, and the only Admiral with a true moral compass, albeit one bogged down by the orders he follows. Prior to Marineford, his motto was Lazy Justice; he eventually sheds this to embrace Atoning Justice.


  • Adaptational Badass: While he was already terrifying in canon, it's stated that he can actually create ice that is cold enough to replicate dry ice with his powers. For reference, dry ice is -70 C/-100 F below normal zero temperatures.
  • Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
    • Downplayed. In the manga, Kuzan allies himself with the Blackbeard Pirates for as-of-yet known reasons and has had little to no interaction with Blackbeard before that point. In This Bites!, Kuzan is directly responsible for Blackbeard being made a Warlord (having interfered with Ace's battle with him long enough for Blackbeard to trap him in his darkness). It's also made very apparent that Kuzan wants absolutely nothing to do with Blackbeard.
    • In canon, despite Aokiji challenging Akainu to a duel over ideological differences, neither of them really wanted to kill the other, with Akainu having chosen to stay his hand for what might have been the only time in his life when he won. Here, Aokiji still challenges Akainu to a duel, but this time it's very clear that they both really, truly want to see the other dead.
  • Arch-Enemy: To Cross. Unlike Sengoku, whose own failings elicit disappointment from Cross more than anything else, Cross hates Aokiji for the emotional trauma he put Robin through, which directly led to the Enies Lobby arc. After learning Aokiji is responsible for Ace's capture and kept it a secret even after learning of the sheer corruption of the World Government and being challenged by Cross to figure out on his own how to work through it, Cross makes it clear that he will never forgive him and that, as far as Cross is concerned, all the deaths that come about as a result of the War and its aftermath all land on Aokiji's shoulders.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: After sparing the Straw Hats on Long Ring Long Island, Aokiji admits that Robin finally found the friends she'd been searching for for twenty years, who would challenge the world itself for her sake. But then he asked her if they could win that challenge, which killed the growing trust and belief in the Straw Hats Robin had been building up until then.
  • The Atoner: In the second part of the Denouement, he quietly makes his peace with his actions and decides to dedicate his life to fixing them.
  • Blindfolded Vision: As both a symbol of his shame in indirectly causing the "new" War of the Best and to literally avert his eyes from all the destruction resulting from the fallout, he wears his sleep-eye mask over his eyes during the start of the Marineford Misery arc. He only takes it off when he starts fighting Whitebeard, claiming that the old man is the one person there he can fight without regrets.
  • Break Them by Talking: He's subjected to this by Cross, and it's enough to make him actually want to kill him.
  • Collateral Damage: While he's not shown deliberately hurting any other Marines directly during Marineford Misery, he doesn't care in the slightest who he's hitting due to his Blindfolded Vision, because everyone is a valid target as far as he's concerned. Him included.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Even when they're much-expanded, he still subjects the Straw Hats to this.
  • Fatal Flaw: His laziness. Aokiji isn't just lazy in regards to his work, he's lazy in regards to everything, which, when it comes to things like moral dilemmas, manifests as indecision. When faced with something like a philosophical quandary, he'd rather have someone give him their own answer or issue him orders for him to follow instead of personally finding an answer that's in accordance with his own moral beliefs. This flaw directly leads to the Marineford Misery arc, which saw tens of thousands of people die, something that Aokiji is bitterly aware of.
  • If I Wanted You Dead...: Cross and Robin do this on behalf of Aokiji, stating that if he was there to kill them, he'd have sunk their ship from miles away.
  • My God, What Have I Done?:
    • His reaction to the War of the Best, Blackbeard becoming a Warlord, and the imprisonment of Ace, Squard, and Whitey Bay implies he's having a massive one of these under his "cool" exterior. Particularly given he was (by accident) partly responsible for Ace's capture and allowing it to happen in the first place. This is more-or-less explicitly confirmed during the War, when he decides to fight with his sleeping mask on and his Observation Haki as a replacement for vision, implicitly so he doesn't have to see all the people who died because of his choices.
    • Noticeably, in part 4 of Marineford Misery, after the Red-Hair Pirates arrive, Lucky Roo actually throws his arm around Aokiji's shoulders in an apparent show of camaraderie. Even though they're on opposing sides, Aokiji makes no move to attack.
  • My Greatest Failure: Killing Blackbeard and releasing Ace, Whitey, Squard, and their crews when he had the chance would have prevented the War of the Best from ever taking place. Aokiji followed the orders of the Elder Stars, didn't do any of that, the War happened, and it's stated that him hearing Blackbeard's declaration that he will be the Pirate King will haunt him for the rest of his life.
  • "No More Holding Back" Speech: When he returns to Marineford, two weeks after the War of the Best, he challenges Akainu to a duel for the position of Fleet Admiral in one of these.
    Akainu: If your sabbatical is over, then get back to your post, Admiral Aokiji.
    Aokiji: No.
    Akainu: "What was that, Admiral Aokiji?
    Aokiji: I said 'No'. For the past twenty years, I've ignored my better judgment and followed orders because it was the easiest thing to do. But following the order to let Blackbeard live has caused one of the worst disasters in living memory. I doubt I can ever make up for what I've done anymore. But I'm going to try, starting now.
    (Pulls off, freezes and smashes his sleeping mask)
    The era of Lazy Justice is over. From this point forward, my Justice is that of Atonement. I will put everything that I have into fixing the mistakes that I've made, and I'm not going to let anyone tell me that I'm wrong. Not the Elder Stars. Not Jeremiah Cross. And not you.
    (Summons an ice partisan)
    Former Admiral Sakazuki. You are guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the genocide of the civilian population of the island of Ohara. The weight of these crimes makes you fully unsuitable for serving the Marines, let alone leading them. I challenge you to a duel, Sakazuki. The island of Punk Hazard, one week from today. The winner will succeed Sengoku as Fleet Admiral. The loser will die.
  • Spanner in the Works: He's torpedoed two of Cross's long-running plans due to his actions. First, he ends up destroying all the work Cross had put into trying to get Robin to trust and believe in them by making her cave into the fear that they're not strong enough to fight the World Government, resulting in the events of Enies Lobby going on largely unchanged. He also inadvertently saved Blackbeard and caused Ace to be captured, setting up the War of the Best that Cross had been desperately trying to prevent. As a result, Cross developed a seething hatred for the man, and refused to consider a Defeat Means Friendship possible with him even before he learned that Ace had been captured after all.
  • Symbolically Broken Object: His motto of "Lazy Justice" is embodied in the sleeping mask he always wears, and used during the Marineford War to not look at all the casualties. When he makes his declaration of pursuing atonement from that point on, he tears off his sleeping mask, freezes it, and then crushes it.
  • Thousand-Yard Stare: When Akainu destroys the Moby Dick, it's implied that he's having flashbacks to Ohara. Tsuru notices it.
    Much later, she’d fully appreciate how far away his eyes had seemed at the sight of Akainu remorselessly destroying a ship.
  • Tranquil Fury: When he returns to Marineford after the War of the Best, his previous laziness and Stopped Caring attitude have faded away in favor of disgust, both for the World Government and what he himself did because he wasn't willing to work up the energy to care and was Just Following Orders. Akainu himself notices that the scowl on Aokiji's face is even more severe than his. Despite this, Aokiji never raises his voice, even when he's challenging Akainu to their Duel to the Death.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He unleashed an Ice Age on Banaro Island when Ace, Squard, Whitey Bay, and their crews were fighting Blackbeard and his crew and winning, giving Blackbeard an opening to absorb them into his darkness, and then blackmail the Elder Stars into making him a Warlord in exchange for handing over Ace like in canon. Even though he didn't know who was fighting when he did it, much less that his actions would allow the War of the Best to take place In Spite of a Nail, he's partly responsible for it as a result. This knowledge is not lost on him. At all.
  • Villainous Friendship: A one-sided variation with Blackbeard; while the latter calls him "friend" for saving his life accidentally (due to Aokiji freezing Banaro Island and giving him the opportunity to absorb Ace, Whitey Bay, and Squardo), Aokiji is utterly disgusted by both Blackbeard and himself.
  • Where It All Began: In the aftermath of Marineford, he heads to Ohara (the place where all his moral struggles began) on the advice of Tsuru, to find the peace and quiet he needs to finally make a decision on his moral stance with the World Government.
  • Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: His attitude towards Blackbeard's positive opinion of his intervention in the latter's fight with Ace.

    Akainu 

Admiral Sakazuki, a.k.a. Akainu

The Red Dog of the World Government, and one of the most infamous Marines in the entire world for his tendencies to murder anyone and everyone who he views as having betrayed Absolute Justice. His motto is Thorough Justice.


  • Adaptational Karma: Akainu so far got nothing but a beatdown from Whitebeard in canon. Here he loses a hand because of Dragon and temporarily gets reassigned for his crimes.
  • Adaptational Villainy: One of only two redeeming qualities Akainu had in canon was that he respected Aokiji and chose to spare him after defeating him in their duel. Here, Akainu makes it clear that he has always hated Aokiji for not believing in Absolute Justice.
  • Artificial Limbs: It's confirmed in Part 2 of the Denouement that he's had an obsidian prosthetic added in place of the hand he lost to Dragon.
  • Broken Pedestal: Becomes this to Irian after his injuries in the War of the Best make it clear that he's not an avatar of her god. Downplayed in that she still believes in his Justice and continues to follow him loyally anyway.
  • Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Sengoku outright says to his face that if Akainu weren't so unbelievably strong he would have dishonorably discharged him and/or tossed him into Level Six of Impel Down years ago.
  • Dehumanizing Insult: People who don't really like him (Tsuru, Sengoku, Bonney, etc.) almost always called him 'mutt'. They also used dog metaphors like keeping on a leash, but even then, they couldn't stop Akainu's You Have Failed Me ultimatum in Enies Lobby.
  • Determinator: Whatever else you can say about him, he's this. In Marineford Misery, the story itself refers to him as "a man with an unshakeable will."
  • Disabled in the Adaptation: He loses a hand during Marineford, courtesy of Dragon.
  • The Dreaded: Akainu is feared by pirates and lower-ranked Marines for his willingness to kill anyone who violates his "Absolute Justice."
  • Engineered Public Confession: Technically, he did this to himself when he called in to the SBS to do the You Have Failed Me threat. Either way, the world heard it and combined that with the true story of Ohara, he was negatively received by the public enough that Sengoku knew he had to send him away from the limelight.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
    • He and Sengoku are in full agreement, when they see Lily Carnation's true form, that the island should be Buster Called ASAP.
    • Once Blackbeard shows off how much of a monster he really is, Akainu completely, if grudgingly, ditches his pursuit of Luffy and Ace to help take him down, correctly deeming him to be the bigger threat. He later deems Blackbeard to be an "unholy monster" and it's implied that he hates Blackbeard even more than he does Luffy or Ace.
  • A God I Am Not: Irian, the high priestess of a religion on one of the islands he went to in the New World to replenish the Navy's forces, views him as the incarnation of her island's volcano god. He tried to talk her out of it before an unexplained Noodle Incident made him decide not to.
  • Hero Killer: As of the Marineford Misery arc, he has killed the Moby Dick's klabautermann, and this is before you take into account his canon status (and all the pirates (and Marines) he's killed in the war).
  • Know When to Fold 'Em:
    • He acts very tough to everyone except Garp and Sengoku, because they are the two Marines that can beat him, and Sengoku is also his superior.
    • He forgoes chasing after Luffy and Ace after losing a hand to Dragon and then witnessing Blackbeard's arrival, recognizing that the latter is a bigger threat.
  • A Lighter Shade of Black: He's this to the World Nobles and Five Elder Stars, as while he undoubtedly carries out the same Absolute Justice that they do, he at least genuinely believes in it, whereas the World Nobles mostly seem to view it as more of a means to an end.
  • Malicious Misnaming: On the receiving end thereof: Fullbody refers to him in Marineford Misery as a "Mad Dog", and the name seems to be spreading.
  • Not So Above It All: During the broadcast from Omatsuri, upon Soundbite's revelation about what fuels Lily Carnation's illusions, he grants Coby and Helmeppo permission to faint when they request it.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: During the incident with Omatsuri Island, when Garp and his apprentices are looking through old information concerning Baron, which Akainu comes to investigate since Garp is suspiciously quiet during an SBS broadcast, which usually sends the older man into fits of laughter that have to be subdued by Sengoku. After a quick tongue lashing from Garp about how Baron is from his glory days, he immediately understands and with some level of fear concerning the situation, begins helping Garp, Coby, and Helmeppo search for information.
  • Pet the Dog: While minor, he seems to have a soft spot for Jonathan since the man is his favorite student.
    • Also, he granted Coby and Helmeppo permission to faint in the above viewing of Lily Carnation.
  • Pragmatic Villainy: He has serious doubts about challenging Whitebeard because he knows that even if the Marines win, the lack of manpower that will result is going to be a serious issue in ensuring Justice throughout the world. He finds it more pragmatic to just silently execute Ace without a public display or wait until their forces are better reinforced for a public execution, but questions why the Elder Stars are so determined to pull this stunt now. During Marineford, he feels his concerns were vindicated after the Blackbeard Pirates show up and prove themselves to be worse than the Whitebeard Pirates and their allies ever were.
  • Reassignment Backfire: From the point of view of the non-Absolute Justice believers, at least. The Five Elder Stars ordered him to start recruiting new Marines from the New World while he's assigned there to start replenishing the forces they've lost.
  • Reassigned to Antarctica: After the PR nightmare that was Enies Lobby, Sengoku reassigns him, and every other Marine that follows "Absolute Justice," to the New World to wage war against the Four Emperors so they are out of the public eye and cannot make things worse than they already have.
  • Tyrant Takes the Helm: Briefly, at least. In Part 3 of Marineford Misery, after Ace is freed and Sengoku undergoes another heart attack due to Isuka's betrayal, Akainu threatens/motivates the remaining Marines into pursuing the now-retreating Whitebeard Pirates. Only time will tell if he takes the position of Fleet Admiral like he did in canon.
  • The Worf Effect: He suffers this with the loss of his hand courtesy of Dragon who showed up in time to defend Luffy and Ace from him and demonstrates to everyone why he was the "World's Most Wanted Man" for a good reason.
  • You Have Failed Me:
    • Tells the recruit-level Marines (through the SBS no less) fighting the Straw Hats on the Bridge of Hesitation (who are considering retreating after Onigumo murdering a battleship with hundreds of their comrades on board was broadcast to them thanks to Cross and Soundbite) that anyone who runs away will be subject to this. Cross tells them that he's well aware why they're doing this and he forgives them for it.
    • In Marineford, after Ace is rescued, several Marines have taken a group of pirates who surrendered prisoner. Akainu (who previously gave the Marine forces an order to Leave No Survivors) immolates both them and the pirates.

    Kizaru 

Admiral Borsalino, a.k.a. Kizaru

The Yellow Monkey, and the most morally unclear of the Admirals, Kizaru is somewhat oxymoronic in that despite having the power to move at the speed of light, he's very lazy. His motto is Unclear Justice.


  • Bearer of Bad News: During his Curb-Stomp Battle at Sabaody, he informs everyone over Ace's upcoming execution. Cross is not happy to learn this. At All. We later learn this was part of the Five Elder Stars' plan to try and lure the Straw Hats to Marineford so they could publicly broadcast not only Ace's execution, but the destruction of the Straw Hat pirates.
  • Blinded by Rage: When he's about to kill the Straw Hats and the Supernovas, he lets his Observation Haki drop for a second due to his fury... which lets Rayleigh intervene and get a hand on his leg.
  • Brilliant, but Lazy: When he arrives at Enies Lobby, he initially doesn't see any reason to join in fighting the Straw Hats himself until Yamakiji points out that him fighting them means he wouldn't have to explain why he didn't fight to the currently enraged Sengoku.
  • Butt-Monkey: While he's no less competent or dangerous as in canon, he's been on the receiving end of quite a lot of abuse, with the aftermath played for laughs.
    • He's refracted by Nami into the Red Line during the Enies Lobby battle, leaving him in a full body cast.
    • The previous example leaves Sengoku furious with him, likely on his getting taken out by a sheer coincidence.
    • Rayleigh scares him him shitless, breaks his leg like a twig, and hurls him all the way to the Elder Stars room, leaving him paralyzed for the immediate future and humiliated again.
    • Marco was warned by Izo, (who was warned by Cross before the War began) that the Marines were planning to use seastone handcuffs on him, and when Kizaru tries to do that, snaps the handcuffs on his wrist instead. Note that this happens while he’s hundreds of feet up in the air, causing him to fall Ă  la Wile E. Coyote.
    • Chapter 84 mentions that while he retains his rank, he has been ordered to undergo mandatory remedial training because the higher-ups are fed up with how often he's getting seriously injured.
  • Curb Stomp Cushion: He utterly destroys the Supernovas and the entirety of the Straw Hats, at the same time. The Straw Hats got trounced, but the rest of the Supernovas and Luffy managed to land some blows that he notices could have genuinely killed him.
  • Deus Exit Machina: During the battle at Enies Lobby, he was accidentally reflected into the Red Line by Nami throwing up a mirage, and the resulting injuries incapacitated him for the next few weeks.
  • The Gloves Come Off: When the Supernovas and the Straw Hats finally get a few hits in and actually make him bleed, his entire demeanor changes, and he decides he'll kill them all right there and then.
  • It Only Works Once: Use a reflective surface to counter his light abilities? He's not gonna fall for it a second time. During the Sabaody battle, he immediately shoots Nami first so that she's put out of the battle and can't nail him again. Kid entraps him in a metal reflective sphere? He'll use the friction from his speed to melt through it.
  • Moral Sociopathy: In comparison to Aokiji and even Akainu. Unlike the other two, who have genuine (if twisted) morality that drives them in their own pursuits of justice, Kizaru is the literal embodiment of Lawful Neutral and Just Following Orders: he doesn't care about the spirit of the law, just the letter of it. This shows starkly during the leadup to the War of Best and during it; whereas Akainu is opposed to the war for pragmatic reasons and Aokiji for moral reasons, Kizaru goes about it with hardly a whiff of reluctance or fear, even trying to joke with Aokiji at one point when the man is clearly not in the mood for his antics.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: As Cross states in the SBS following the War of the Best, Kizaru telling Cross about Ace's execution before the Straw Hats were to disband shot the Five Elder Stars in the foot.
  • Oh, Crap!: When he realizes that Silvers Rayleigh has a firm grip on his leg, and that he isn't letting go.
  • Properly Paranoid: At Marineford, Kizaru is carrying a pair of seastone handcuffs in his pocket, but is afraid to use them against Marco the Phoenix because he’s afraid Cross might know about them and have warned Marco about them. He tries using them when Jonathan prompts him to. Cross did know about them, and he did warn Marco.
  • Watch Out for That Tree!: Kizaru in his light beam form ends up flying into a mirage, gets refracted out the other side and out of the fight... and right into the Red Line.

    Komei 

Vice Admiral "White Feather" Komei

A Vice Admiral and master tactician, and a former student of Tsuru. Well-known, widely respected, and with a straight moral compass, it's only his acute self-preservation that prevents him from joining the Masons.
  • Ascended Extra: In the anime, he's exclusive to a Filler OVA. Here, he's involved in the main plot, if only briefly for the moment.
  • Badass Normal: He went from an unimpressive recruit to one of the most well-known and well-respected Vice Admirals in the Navy, and while he's a master of Haki, he doesn't have Devil Fruit powers.
  • The Dreaded: Privateers are so afraid of him that they will try taking on the Thirteen Supernovas in close combat rather than risk the consequences of disobeying him.
  • Fair-Weather Friend: As useful as he could be to the New World Masons, Tsuru doesn't believe Komei would stand by them if things start to look bad for them, so she refused to allow him to join.
  • Secret-Keeper: He has discovered the existence of the New World Masons several times, and has chosen to let Tsuru give him Laser-Guided Amnesia each time rather than expose them to Sengoku.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: He and Tsuru are genuine, if fair-weather, friends, but they get on each others' nerves quite a bit.
  • Worthy Opponent: Komei and Cross consider each other to be this.

World Government

    General 
  • 0% Approval Rating: Even more so than the Marines. When it comes down to it, they're the source of almost of all the Navy's corruption due to being their bosses, which many openly recognize. That's why the Divine half of the Masons are so intent on bringing the World Government down: they feel that as long as the WG is in power, the Marines will never be able to fully reform into a genuine force of justice.
  • Arch-Enemy: To the Straw Hat Pirates. No one in history has done more damage to the World Government and their reputation than the Straw Hats have in the short time since their inception. It's to the point that they put the priority of destroying the Straw Hats on a live broadcast on the same level as killing Ace to wipe out Gold Roger's bloodline. In return, the World Government has screwed over so many members of the crew over the years that all of them hate the institution as a whole, even if they do respect many under the World Government's employ.
  • The Corrupter: The Navy would probably be a lot less twisted and have fewer Knight Templar members if it wasn't for the fact the Government is calling all the shots.
  • The Government: Thanks to the SBS and Cross's foreknowledge, the general population of the One Piece no longer blindly swallows whatever the World Government says. They're now completely aware of the sheer corruption present within the institution, with any doubters being silenced after Charloss's interview during the Sabaody Archipelago arc. All of this turns the World Government into, well, the Government.
  • Inherent in the System: People who join and serve the World Government for altruistic reasons are faced with this problem: no matter how much they want to make the world better, their efforts are doomed to failure because the WG is ruled by the World Nobles, who only care about their hedonism and little else, and lash out viciously when anything dares to threaten their way of life. While there are a few good eggs among them, most of them are irredeemably corrupt and that corruption has spread to everywhere else. That's why both the Revolutionary Army and the New World Masons conclude that the only way to change the system is to more or less destroy it and replace it with something better.
  • The Man Behind the Man: They are this to the Marines: while the Navy does most of the groundwork and carries out their will, the Government is making all of the decisions.
  • Villain Has a Point: As much as Cross despises the World Government, he fully approves of their policy with Impel Down's Level Six. There are some truly monstrous people in the world that are better off forgotten and left to rot in the Eternal Hell.

    Imu 

Imu

The true ruler of the World Government, whose existence is one of the biggest secrets in the world.
  • The Dreaded: Even the Five Elders fear them.
  • The Ghost: They aren't even mentioned until the Denouement, where they call the Five Elder Stars, no doubt in response to the colossal fuck-up that was Marineford Misery.
  • Hidden Villain: Their existence is shrouded in mystery, and the only ones who know they exist are the Five Elder Stars, who answer directly to Imu. They're an even bigger mystery to Cross since his knowledge of the manga ends at the Dressrossa Arc. For reference, Imu was never properly revealed until the Reverie Arc.

    Five Elder Stars 

Five Elder Stars

Five aged men who bear the highest authority of the World Government. Everyone in the Marines and Government, save only for the World Nobles, answer to them, while they answer only to Imu.

While not stated in-story, canon reveals their names as Saint Shepherd Ju Peter (the young-looking blonde), Saint Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro (the bald, sword-carrying Elder who wears a traditional Japanese outfit), Saint Topman Warcury (the bald, liver-spotted and mustached Elder), Saint Marcus Mars (the Elder with a long white mustache and beard and long white hair) and Saint Jaygarcia Saturn (the Elder with a full white mustache and beard, white dreadlocks under a flat back hat, and a cane).


  • Adaptational Badass: At least one of the five Elder Stars (potentially all of them) can use Conqueror's Haki, and possesses it to a sufficient degree to affect (not knock out, but affect) Admiral Aokiji.note 
  • Ascended Extra: In the original story, they've shown up maybe half a dozen times over the course of twenty years. Here, they're mentioned... still not too much, but more frequently, and are shown truly making decisions that affect the world.
  • Bald of Evil: Two of them are bald, emphasizing that they're cunning and evil.
  • Beard of Evil: Two of them have a beard, indicating that they're old corrupted rulers.
  • Epic Fail: A rare Played for Drama example takes place in Marineford, given how the aftereffects of the battle are going to lead to the Navy's ability to keep the peace being crippled, as well as one of the Emperors losing his life and a considerable part of his crew (even if Ace survived).
    • What the Summit War—their attempt to kill the Straw Hats and end Roger's bloodline—ends up being for them. Ace escapes with his life, a mass mutiny takes place mid-battle that leads to roughly 8000 Marines defecting to the side of the Whitebeard Pirates, Akainu is crippled, Luffy successfully leads a mass breakout from Impel Down, Sengoku and Garp both quit—the latter before the War even ends—one Warlord is fired and two others desert, and the Straw Hats except Luffy aren't even there.
    • Afterwards, things just get worse. Thousands of Marines and Devil Dogs were hypnotized by Jango, and have to be interrogated before they're released (if they're released), nearly 30,000 Marines were either killed or seriously injured, the worldwide maritime insurance industry is apparently on the verge of collapse, damage estimates are into the billions of beri figures, 13 battleships of the 50 deployed were destroyed, 7 more damaged, and 9 more stolen, 3 Aegis Zero agents were petrified by Hancock and then taken prisoner by Dragon, and all of the BioMEGAs and Pacifistas except for Kuma were destroyed. The final cherry on top is Cross announcing on his final SBS that the Straw Hats were on the verge of separating after the Sabaody Revolution to get stronger before entering the New World, and if Kizaru hadn't told them about Ace's imminent execution, it would have gone without a hitch since the Straw Hats would have been none the wiser. He figuratively rubs this fact in their faces in their misguided attempt to execute them all. This ends up having Imu call them up for a chat. And the sole Consolation Prize they got of Whitebeard's death? It wasn't even because of them: Blackbeard and his crew dealt the killing blow. It truly was a Marineford Misery...for the Elder Stars.
  • The Evils of Free Will: Implied, with their overall distaste towards the idea of freedom that Cross is spreading via the SBS at the start of chapter 64.
  • Fatal Flaw: Their passivity. All the Elders care about is maintaining order for the world and ensuring the government is portrayed in a good light. Even with all the damage that the Straw Hats have done to the World Goverment's reputation, they still refuse to take direct action.
  • Genocide Backfire: Their first solution to any potential problem tends to be mass-murder, and it just keeps blowing up in their faces.
    • They launched a Buster Call against Ohara to stop research on the Void Century. Twenty years later, Nico Robin blew the whistle on the day's events to the entire world via the SBS, which contributed to making the world grow more unstable.
    • In spite of all their efforts, they were unable to find Gold Roger's child before Ace was born and safely hidden, and had nothing to show for it but a pile of dead women and children.
    • Since they couldn't properly identify the D. bloodline hiding in Flevance, they outright quarantined and razed the entire country as soon as they had an excuse. It left young Law a ginormous grudge against the World Government that only died down because of Rocinante, and it returned with a vengeance after Funkfreed told him and Cross the Awful Truth.
    • Narrowly subverted after Omatsuri is beaten. They think of using the Lily Carnation as a weapon, but realize this trope will happen and decide against it.
  • Godzilla Threshold: When they hear Saint Charloss's interview on the SBS basically airing out all the horrible things that happen in Mariejois (and basically driving faith in the WG, rather than the Marines, to an even more all-time low), they're initially just as angry as with any other SBS. But when Dragon calls Cross's bluff and acknowledges that he'll owe him for the rest of his life for continuing said interview, the Stars decide to pull all the stops to finally get rid of Cross, from sending an Admiral to Sabaody to recalling Akainu from the New World to even contacting the Scientists to unleash their latest projects.
  • Horrifying the Horror: On the receiving end. A quick call from Imu makes them drop everything they were doing and go answer to them.
  • Ignored Epiphany: An example that is more related to intelligence than morality: when Cross and Rayleigh detail over the SBS how the Government never truly captured Roger and that the Pirate King turned himself in to die on his own terms, they briefly consider releasing Ace and calling off the War. Notice the "briefly" part.
  • Make an Example of Them: The core of their Godzilla Threshold option. With their reputation irreparably damaged and the Revolutionary Army's leader owing Cross more than he'll ever repay, they will embrace the WG's now corrupt look and use excessive force to kill and destroy the Straw Hats to show the entire world what will happen if the WG is ever in danger. They also intend to capture Cross alive just so that they can publicly execute him alongside Ace to make their message clear. This worries Cross since he believes executing anyone alongside Ace, no matter who they were, would ultimately dilute the message they were originally trying to send, which implies it's more about messaging a drastic change in methodology for their goals, shifting away from simply extinguishing Roger's bloodline to something even more drastic, demonstrating that the only "peace" in the world is with the World Government.
  • The Man Behind the Man: They actually wanted to give Cross his colossal bounty on purpose, unlike Sengoku (and Garp, before he was embarrassed on the SBS), and just exploited Garp doing it before they did in the hopes (that even they admit are unlikely) that someone with more "bullets than brains" would get rid of him for them.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Ordering Kizaru to tell the Straw Hats about their plans for the War was what let Luffy save Ace - ironically, their attempt to get the Straw Hats to charge in to help save Ace was doomed before it started, thanks to Kuma's last act before he became PX-0. As a result, Cross was able to warn the Masons and Luffy about everything that he knew, the Straw Hats were able to give Luffy a number of gifts to help him save Ace, and the Masons were able to set up the mass mutiny led by Hina, T-Bone, and Isuka. This is very specifically Lampshaded when Cross thanks the Elder Stars at the start of the Denouement.
  • Not So Above It All: When Cross manages to get Saint Charloss on the SBS, one of them hopes that he inherited some brains from his father Roswald. Charloss almost instantly proves that he didn't. The Elder Star responsible promptly receives a Dope Slap.
  • Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: After Cross made the decision to continue with his interview of Charloss, ruining the Government's reputation beyond any hope of repair, the Elder Stars - well, don't suffer a Heel Realization. They don't consider the idea of changing things so that people won't want to rebel, or anything that would involve giving up power or changing the system to be more benevolent - instead, they decide to double down and Make an Example of Them with the Straw Hats and Ace.
  • Oh, Crap!: Their reaction after Cross spells out that the Straw Hats were about to disband after Sabaody, and if Kizaru hadn't come after them they would have been oblivious to Ace's planned execution and wouldn't have gotten involved in the subsequent war, meaning it might have gone the way the Elder Stars wanted. More specifically, this is their reaction when this revelation leads to Imu summoning them for a chat.
  • Smug Snake: A downplayed example: they are genuinely dangerous and competent, and even Cross and Dragon recognize that defeating the Government (or rather, the World Nobles) for good is going to be an uphill battle. Among other things, they "recruited" several of the Straw Hat's foes to work for them, eventually leading to the BioMEGA project, and apparently came up with the plan to blockade Sabaody that took a literal army of pirates including all thirteen Supernovas and their crews to get past, and have managed to use propaganda to control most of the world for decades. But at the same time, they've never managed to score a true victory onscreen against the Straw Hats.
  • Tautological Templar: Sengoku plays with this trope, but is honestly a mostly decent man. The Five Elder Stars, in the end, have never really given any indication that they're as sympathetic and well-meaning as Sengoku is.
  • Then Let Me Be Evil: A zigzagged example, since they were never good. However, after the Elder Stars decide the Straw Hats have pushed them to their Godzilla Threshold during Cross's interview with Saint Charloss and that they'll never be able to get back to the way things used to be while still holding on to power, they decide to effectively abandon all pretenses of being good in favor of being openly tyrannical.
  • This Is Gonna Suck: In Chapter 68, when they learn that Cross has somehow managed to get Saint Charloss of the World Nobles to make a live interview on the SBS, after establishing just which of the World Nobles Charloss is, all of them are resigned that this is going to make their already crippled publicity go straight down the toilet.
    • Also, in the Denouement, right after Cross thanks them for warning the Straw Hats about the War and allowing them to save Ace, Imu calls them. Considering how badly they've bungled the Summit War and a lot of the events in the past year... well, the narration says that their phone to Imu ringing at that point, implictly for them to explain their failures, was the first time they felt fear because of Cross.

    World Nobles 

World Nobles

The descendants of the kings who founded the World Government, and the epitome of the government's corruption. They are above all law and punishment and abuse this to enslave and/or kill anyone that strikes their fancy.


  • Achievements in Ignorance: Cross is convinced that he and Charloss have accidentally killed (or driven underground/to Revolutionary islands) the modeling industry after his live interview on the SBS reveals that the World Nobles regularly peruse fashion magazines; any models who stand out will either be claimed as a "spouse", which means they effectively get abducted to Mariejoise to suffer repeated sexual abuse before being discarded, tortured and/or killed when their "lover" tires of them, or will be murdered by a jealous World Noble for "trying to match the radiance of a Celestial Dragon".
    • Gild Tesoro confirms in the Denouement that the modeling industry is "dead in the water."
  • Arch-Enemy: The D, of course, but also the Nefertari Royal Family of Alabasta as well. They have never forgiven the Nefertaris for refusing to ascend to Mariejois with them, and retaliated with many minor offenses over the years until the Alabasta arc happened and they placed a bounty on Vivi, forcing her to go on the run with the Straw Hats. After that, said grudge match was no longer one-sided, and Alabasta retaliated by seceding from the World Government.
  • Defiant to the End: Any World Noble worthy of the prejudice directed at them would never even conceive the idea of saying 'please', let alone begging, even if they were in the middle of a lynch mob which included the knights supposed to defend them and no Admiral could be called to save their skin.
  • The Dog Bites Back: When Saint Jamolomew was about to shoot a clerk for listening to the SBS, he is stopped by one of his own guards. When the other guards move to subdue him, he stops them dead by simply pointing out with the Marines dealing with all the fallout from Enies Lobby, they simply have no-one to spare to stop them. All the bystanders promptly get up and start eyeing him as well. The woman who was about to be killed locks the door and puts out the 'Closed' sign.
    Guard: He's all alone. So the question isn't really what he will do to us. Rather... I'd say it's what we're going to do to him.
  • A God Am I: As per canon, the Nobles eventually adopted this mindset thanks to their wealth, biological ties to the WG's founders and generations of extravagance.
  • The Hedonist: An entire city full of them, with each generation worse than the last. As hedonism is the cornerstone of their Blue-and-Orange Morality, they have absolutely no idea how horrifying their actions are to the rest of the world, instead dismissing the difference in ideals as one between "gods" and "mortals".
  • Jerkass: With a handful of exceptions, most of which are dead, all of them are rotten to the core, as Charloss reveals in his interview.
  • Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: According to the Tone Dial that Saint Charloss played in Part 4 of the Sabaody Revolution, they're this. While the prospect of a single government unifying the world is not automatically a bad thing, according to the last bit of the recording, it's not so much about unifying the world as it is about them being on top.
  • Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Due to their social upbringing, they say the most offensive things without a thought. This comes back to bite the Elder Stars hard when Cross gets Charloss on the SBS, and the Noble airs out all the sickening and immoral dirty laundry of what goes on in Mariejois without even realizing what most of the world would think about it, torpedoing any chance of the WG ever getting back to the status quo to such an extent that Dragon acknowledges Cross's claim that he owes Cross more than he can pay back, driving the Elder Stars to their Godzilla Threshold option.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Given by a random guard who has finally had enough of a Celestial Dragon's cruelty and he, his fellows, and all the bystanders decide to take matters into their hands, "fulfilling the dream of every single civilian alive with the misfortune to have crossed [the Celestial Dragons'] path."
    Guard: What this is... is Justice.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: Charloss is most definitely one as he gleefully tells everyone live on the SBS, aware he is being broadcasted, about what goes on in Mariejois and doesn't even consider it to be something horrifying. For a small sampling of those horrors both from can and here...
    • Working slaves to death by using them as human steeds or to power escalator-style moving sidewalks.
    • Making slaves fight each other to the death to settle petty grudges.
    • Shooting, maiming and killing people on a literal whim.
    • Kidnapping people off the street as "wives" or "husbands" or targeting models in magazines for either "marriage" or for death because they are "trying to match the radiance of the World Nobles".
    • Starving slaves to death and then giving them "table scraps" so that they die of refeeding syndrome for fun.
    • Collecting severed human limbs.
    • Making drapes from human skin.
  • Token Good Teammate: Donquixote Mjosgard is, at the moment, the only known living World Noble who isn't a Psychopathic Manchild (and he was one in the past, granted, before his Character Development). He's also directly helping ensure the safety of Grove 77 on the Sabaody Archipelago, to prevent any of the other Nobles from going there themselves to take slaves.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Charloss. His stupidity made the Elder Stars facepalm, as he was aware he was getting broadcasted over the SBS and still exposed all the activities taking place in Mariejoa, shattering almost all of the faith still remaining for the Government. He willingly agreed to the interview, even, and didn't notice the very obvious trap Cross set up for him. It takes Cross sabotaging the auction for Charloss to realize he is an enemy of his at all, and even then, he initially thinks the hold-up is part of a game until Cross orders Soundbite to mute him. As such, his comeuppance happens easily.

    Cipher Pol Aegis Zero 

Aegis Zero

The strongest of all the Cipher Pols, who answer to and directly serve the World Nobles. In canon, Cipher Pol Nine managed to find their way into the ranks of Aegis Zero at some point. Here, the only known member of Aegis Zero is Stussy.


  • Adaptational Wimp: In a sense. Cross and the Masons "poached" every single member of Cipher Pol Nine after Enies Lobby, meaning they lost several of their potential recruits.
  • Cyanide Pill: An exaggerated case: they have Dyna Stone capsules on them in case they're captured. For those who don't know, Dyna Stones are extremely powerful explosives that blow up when they come into contact with oxygen, and are said to have power on par with the Ancient Weapons. Using even one won't just kill them, it'll also kill their opponent/captor and, if the stone sample is big enough, quite possibly destroy the island they're currently standing on.
  • Dwindling Party: Three of them are now out of action thanks to Boa Hancock petrifying them.
  • Right Behind Me: When two of them are fighting Hancock, she does this to distract them with Monkey D. Dragon. They have an immediate This Is Gonna Suck reaction when they realize she isn't bluffing.
  • Sole Survivor: As of the Marineford Misery arc, they're the only Cipher Pol left that's still loyal to the World Government.
  • Taken for Granite: The three agents they sent to Marineford all get petrified by Hancock and then taken prisoner by Dragon.

    Stussy 

Stussy

The first known agent of Cipher Pol Aegis Zero, the branch of the Cipher Pol agency that is directly connected to and works for the World Nobles.
  • Adaptational Badass: She can use Armament Haki to an advanced enough degree that she can "vulcanize"/blacken her limbs. She also came close to killing Hancock.
  • Adaptational Early Appearance: She appears in Amazon Treachery, when she's sent by the Government to assassinate Hancock, as compared to canon when she didn't appear till the Whole Cake Island arc.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: She's genuinely shocked (and impressed) when the BioMEGA prototype actually manages to leave even her disgusted.
  • Frame-Up: Her mission in Amazon Treachery was to murder Hancock and frame Luffy for it. After poisoning Hancock enough to paralyze her, Stussy readied Armament Haki to beat her to death and sell the ruse, but she was interrupted by Luffy and Marguerite showing up.
  • Master Poisoner: She uses a poison "patch" when she tries to assassinate Boa Hancock.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivers an extremely nasty one to Ratchet when he tries to protest how credit for the BioMEGAs will go to Vegapunk.
    Ratchet: T-This wasn’t the deal, damn it! Hogback and Indigo, those two are criminal pirate scum, take their works all you want, but I’m nothing of the sort! I’m nobility, I’m important, I matter! Hell, I’m here voluntarily—!”
    Stussy: You were volunteered. By your mother, as part of a plea deal so that you would escape the good graces of Impel Down. Or worse. Because we all know that once you had that little island-turtle of yours under control, you would have been casting your gaze onto much farther, much more illegal horizons, correct?
    Beat
    Stussy: Let’s take this opportunity to clear up any further misconceptions, shall we? You have no rights, you have no liberties, and you only barely have more privileges than your fellow inmates because we felt like it. You work for us because we desire it, and you are still breathing because we allow it, and the only reason you’re setting foot off this island is because I need someone to operate the world-changer you and your fellow wastes of flesh created. Without that, I have no use for you and your life is forfeit. Are. We. Clear.

    Government Agents 

Government Agents as a whole

Government spies, messengers, knights, and bodyguards who directly work for the Government itself instead of the Navy, and who as a result tend to be even more corrupted by the Nobles than the Marines.
  • Dead Man Walking: After Charloss's guards all failed to stop his interview with Cross, Soundbite corrects Cross when he says they're all this, as "dead man walking" is "far too generous a term for how dead they are."
  • Go Mad from the Revelation: It's revealed in Part 4 of the Sabaody Revolution that a lot of the Noble's bodyguards apparently tend to either die or go crazy within a few weeks of guard duty, due to all the horrors they witness.
  • Jade-Colored Glasses: The guards who don't go crazy wear these, and for the most part don't really care that much about what they have to do for their bosses.
  • Only in It for the Money: Considering the sheer wealth that the World Nobles have at their disposal, apparently a few weeks working directly for one is enough to have the people who do so set for life.
  • Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: At the end of the Enies Lobby broadcast, when one of the Nobles is about to shoot a civilian, one of his guards stops him from doing so, says that he joined the Government to help people, and then forms the other guards and civilians in the restaurant into what is implied to be a lynch mob for said Noble.
  • You Have Failed Me: It's noted by Cross and Soundbite that Charloss's guards are almost guaranteed to get this from the other Nobles after they didn't stop his interview on the SBS. Even though it's not their fault, Charloss stopped them.

    Spandam 

Spandam

The corrupt-to-the-core leader of Cipher Pol No. 9. Described as a sub-human degenerate and the textbook definition of a malignant narcissist, there is seemingly no depth he won't sink to in order to achieve his ambitions. After the events of Enies Lobby, he was stripped of his position and imprisoned in Impel Down.


  • Adaptational Karma: In canon, Spandam got a beating from Robin and Franky, got fired from his cushy job by the Government, and had to work as Rob Lucci's secretary to pay his father's hospital bills, but he still got off rather light, coming out of it better in the long run if anything by getting made a member of CP0 after the timeskip. Here, his crimes are broadcasted to the world; he gets charged, arrested, and locked in Level Five of Impel Down; and then the Newkamas kidnap him, whereupon Ivankov spends the next few months torturing him for information. It's unclear whether he's still alive after Ivankov and company break out.
  • Berserk Button: The only remotely admirable quality he has is how much he respects his father; anyone who insults Spandine in front of him gets a summary execution, even if they're someone his own life depends on. Of course, his father was ALSO a corrupt jerk like he was...
  • Butt-Monkey: Enies Lobby had Cross (deservedly) make him into this, and life has just been one misfortune after another for Spandam ever since.
  • Deer in the Headlights: Twice within minutes. First, when Cross has the mortars fire on his location. Second, when Luffy launches Jabra at him. Both times, he has to be yanked out of the way.
  • Demoted to Extra: In canon, he returns from his long bus trip with the rest of CP9 as members of CP0 following the timeskip, now acting as Lucci's subordinate. Here, with CP9 becoming the token evil teammates of the New World Masons as "Jormungandr", and Spandam subjected to Adaptational Karma, he is effectively removed from the story after the Enies Lobby arc, being sent to Impel Down Level Five to be tortured by Ivankov and the Newkamas.
  • Dirty Coward: One of his primary traits. So long as he has his agents doing his bidding, he feels invincible. When things start going out of control, he panics.
  • Engineered Public Confession: Cross engineers this, letting the Marines listen to Spandam's broadcast that he activated the Buster Call and that he doesn't mind if they all die. They are NOT thrilled. Spandam also let out that he plans to use Pluton to oust the Elder Stars and take over the world himself, which led to Sengoku calling on the SBS to enthusiastically tell him to return to HQ and receive everything he had coming to him.
  • Fate Worse than Death: Twice before the Straw Hats reached Enies Lobby, Cross specifically stated that the only way he would allow Spandam to survive their invasion was if he could make Spandam face one of these instead. He ensures it first by finding and broadcasting CP9's black book, and second by broadcasting the aforementioned Engineered Public Confession to the world. When the Straw Hats caught up to him, Robin and Franky took their well-deserved revenge—brutally torturing him—before leaving him to the Marines, who sent him to Impel Down, where the Newkamas abducted him, leading him to be tortured for information by Ivankov.
  • Hate Sink: There is absolutely no redeeming quality about him beyond the aforementioned Berserk Button; he started his career being an arrogant asshole, he framed Franky and Iceburg's mentor and father figure Tom for the sake of his personal ambitions rather than because of duty, he enjoys torturing and abusing prisoners under the flimsiest of pretenses, his reason for nearly killing Franky by throwing him off a window this time is because he got mocked, etc. Even Lassoo though it was okay to eat Spandam in revenge for what he did to Robin because he was horrible enough that he didn't count as human. In the aftermath of Enies Lobby, Sengoku's first action in trying to redeem the reputation of the Marines and the World Government was to record and publish every single detail of the punishment they were about to level on him, noting that not even Cross could call it anything but "justice."
  • It's All About Me: Cross calls him a textbook example of a malignant narcissist, and he more than lives up to it, caring only about advancing his career while paying shallow lip service to his duty.
  • Jerkass: All the way. He is one of the few characters who laughs at Robin's suffering when Ohara fell.
  • Karmic Butt-Monkey: He is such an asshole that Cross makes sure he suffers even more than his canon counterpart.
  • Let's Get Dangerous!: Insulting his father makes him become a genuine threat to the Straw Hats and risk his life even without Funkfreed. If Vivi didn't awaken her Conqueror's Haki, Robin would have died on the spot.
  • Like Father, Like Son: About the only difference between father and son are around twenty IQ points and a few details that are different about their appearances.
  • Manipulative Bastard: He doesn't show it in the present because Cross has made punishing him his top priority on Enies Lobby, but his blackbook shows he had wars between third parties started or prolonged through his agents.
  • Obviously Evil: He looked like a villain even before he got the leather brace after Franky broke his face with a pistol whip, has a tendency to monologue and laugh like a cut-rate villain when it seems things are going his ways, exploits any justification he can to be a sadist...they couldn't make it any more obvious that the only reason he had his position was because of his father's connections.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: To the point of delusion. He doesn't understand that the assassins at his command merely tolerate him rather than respecting him, and he overstates his importance while being nothing more than their over-glorified secretary.
  • Stupid Evil: He has a blackbook, which should have been forbidden in CP9, to stroke his ego, and doesn't even bother to hide what kind of person he is, which results in Cross exposing him through the SBS easily.
  • Too Dumb to Fool: Robin does her best to delay him from reaching the Gates of Justice, pointing out facts that should make him upset. He is so delusional it fails miserably.
  • Unwitting Pawn: He's this to Admiral Aokiji. He didn't have a clue that he was set up against the Straw Hats in order for the Admiral to do away with his own doubts and pretend to himself that his way was right, choosing to revel instead in having the power of the Buster Call at his fingertips, without ever considering the reasons WHY it was given to him.
  • Weak Boss, Strong Underlings: Spandam is only a threat to the weakest member of the Straw Hat Crew and isn't even respected by the assassins at his command. They just tolerate him and do his bidding because Spandam is their superior.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: It's unclear what happened to him after he fell into Ivankov's hands. He apparently wasn't among the people involved in the breakout, meaning that he's still in Impel Down, or that the Revolutionaries somehow smuggled him out. Or just had him killed after Ivankov finished interrogating him.

    Dr. Hogback 

Dr. Hogback

One of the former Co-Dragons of Gecko Moria who was in charge of "outfitting" his zombie army, a master surgeon who was admired to the point of idolization by Chopper, which made the blow all that much harder when Cross told him the truth.


  • Berserk Button: Being called the second greatest doctor in the world. He takes great offense to being deemed less than Dr. Vegapunk.
  • Evil Genius: Obviously. Hogback is a master surgeon, to the point that he single-handedly outfitted Oars for New World-grade warfare.
  • Evil Laugh: His Signature Laugh, "Fosfosfosfos!"
  • I Love the Dead: It's never seen onscreen, but Perona thinks he's this, and there's no strong indication she's wrong...
  • Mad Scientist: He actually gets into a rant on it.
    Hogback: I am not crazy! I am not and have never been anything less than the absolute picture of mental health! It is a legitimate fact proven, by a symposium of scientists the world over that I myself was a part of, that doctors are incapable of suffering from the pedestrian affliction recognized as 'going mad'! The word you're looking for in my field is 'medical genius'!
  • Named by the Adaptation: Dr. Hogback was only ever addressed as such in One Piece. In This Bites!, he gives his full name as Huberto P. Hogback.
  • Put on a Bus: He's arrested by Kuma and forced to work for the World Government on, among other things, the BioMEGA project.
  • Straw Misogynist: His repulsive nature is only highlighted further when he proves how little he thinks of women in general beyond his views on Cindrey. When Conis "accidentally" knocks over a suit of armor and Usopp remarks on her clumsiness, Hogback claims that because she's a woman, she'll always be The Klutz.
  • Trapped in Villainy: Played with. He's evil, but he wants to work for Moria, not the Government.

    Dr. Indigo 

Dr. Indigo

The Dragon of Shiki during Strong World, and one of the only known members of his crew from before he went underground at Merville, who is behind the Booster IQ that was given to the Amigo Pirates, and the mutated animals the Straw Hats encountered during the Strong World incident.


  • Arch-Enemy: He's this to Chopper, and it's mutual: Chopper is disgusted with him for creating the Psycho Serum Booster IQ, and Indigo hates Chopper for constantly upstaging him in scientific feats.
  • Better to Die than Be Killed: He tries to douse both himself and Chopper with cyanide when he realizes he's going to lose.
  • The Dragon: He's the only member of Shiki's crew that Shiki seems to actually know and get along with on a personal level, or care for to any real extent, and was the force behind mutating all the animals on Merville.
  • Evil Genius: Well, obviously. He's a doctor, and pretty clearly evil.
  • Fantastic Racism: Like his captain, he's planning to "dance in the ashes of the accursed East Blue."
  • Genre Savvy: He destroys all of the cures for IQ poisoning he has on hand after Shiki poisons Nami, so Chopper can't heal her (he failed when Chopper realized he could just ask the islanders how they did it), and realized that a chemical barrage wouldn't be enough to take down a Straw Hat.
  • Mad Scientist: Well, obviously.
  • Monster Clown: He dresses like a clown, complete with facepaint and oversized shoes with whoopie cushions in the soles, so he makes farting noises whenever he takes a step. He used to be prone to miming instead of speaking, but he gives that up after he hears about Chopper's scientific prowess on the SBS. Despite these goofy traits, he's a sadistic killer who regards death and destruction as funny and human lives as expendable.
  • Poisonous Person: His special combat style is "Chemical Juggling", where he hurls different toxic or caustic chemicals at foes. It's not a Devil Fruit, it's just very quick hands and a well-stocked arsenal.
  • Put on a Bus: He's captured after the conclusion of Strong World, along with the rest of the Golden Lion Pirates, and is promptly forced to work for the Government. He's planning to escape with Hogback, but it's implied that any successful escape will likely take some time.
  • Trapped in Villainy: Played with, like Hogback. He's evil, but he's loyal to Shiki, not the Government.

    Ratchet 

Ratchet

A former enemy of the Straw Hats, Ratchet is now a fellow scientist developing weapons for the World Government.
  • Ascended Extra: He is a villain from a movie, and doesn't appear in the canon story. Here, he plays a role in the main story.
  • Butt-Monkey:
    • Stussy tolerates him. At best (for him).
    • It later becomes clear that no one has any respect for him. His attempt to needle Hancock sees him get knocked down, stepped on, and stunned senseless by a blast of her Conqueror's Haki, and none of the surrounding Impel Down staff bother to put up a front of even remotely caring.
  • Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: He was responsible for releasing the prototype BioMEGA on Amazon Lily, and through Double Speak, he mocks Hancock with this after she arrives in Impel Down. He gets literally trodden on by her and then blasted with Conqueror's Haki, and nobody nearby bothers to pretend they care in the slightest.
  • Evil Laugh: Mekakakakaka!
  • The Friend Nobody Likes: After the aforementioned blast of Conqueror's Haki, nobody in the room with Hancock cares much about his state (besides that he's still alive, as they have orders to keep him that way).
  • Got Volunteered: He believed that he was part of the group because he volunteered, hence his better living conditions compared to Hogback and Indigo. However, Stussy revealed that his mother volunteered him so the World Government wouldn't arrest him, since his ambitions of taking over the world would put him against them.
  • Noodle Incident: The events of The Giant Mechanical Soldier of Karakuri Castle have occurred in the past, although the particulars haven't been revealed. Needless to say, Ratchet holds a grudge against the Straw Hats, particularly Luffy.
  • Take Over the World: Still his main goal — but the fact everyone knows about it now, plus his imprisonment/"volunteer work" for the World Government, makes his chances of actually pulling it off... pretty bad.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: He doesn't really like Stussy. She doesn't really care about that, and tends to use him as a punching bag when she's annoyed. Or he's annoyed her. Or if she feels like it.
  • You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: His reaction when Stussy tells him that the assassination community has decided that getting the Straw Hats involved in a mission invalidates the results.

    Sentomaru 

Sentomaru

The personal bodyguard/observer of Doctor Vegapunk, as well as Ratchet, Hogback, and Indigo after their conscription. He doesn't mind the first part and actively hates the second part.
  • Everyone Has Standards: He's likely hovering somewhere on the Neutral spectrum at worst, with no strong indications that he's especially good or evil (besides that he works for the Government), but he's got no issue making his distaste with Hogback and Indigo explicit and has no issues killing them. With that said, it also goes the other way. Unlike the woman who made it clear to Indigo that he had no choice in the matter of working for the Government (said woman's heavily implied to be CP-0 agent Stussy), he's not the sort of person who'd shoot somebody just to make a point.
  • Fountain of Youth: Jewelry Bonney deages him to childhood after she arrives at Marineford with the other Supernovas.
  • Oh, Crap!: When he sees the barrier that kept the Pacifistas from hurting Luffy, Ace, and the escaping Revolutionaries, he realizes that Bartolomeo just showed up. And that the rest of the Supernovas are backing him up.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Jewelry Bonney, after de-aging him, threatens him that she Would Hurt a Child, he decides to make tracks, and orders Kuma to leave and take him with him.
  • This Cannot Be!: When Bartolomeo shows up, he briefly goes into denial.

    BioMEGAs 

Biological Mechanically Enhanced Genocide Armaments

The World Government's response to all the anarchy and chaos caused by Cross's SBS transmissions and the Straw Hat Pirates' actions. A series of creatures created in a joint effort between Ratchet, Hogback, and Indigo (with fine-tuning from Vegapunk) to be used to enforce the World Government's will and destroy its enemies, reflecting their now openly corrupt stance on their leadership of the world.
  • Animalistic Abomination: All BioMEGAs are these, since they are Mix-and-Match Critters sewn together (courtesy of Hogback) with cybernetic enhancements (Ratchet's contribution) and running on unnatural stamina levels (Indigo's involvement). The BioMEGA in Marineford downplay the "abomination" part, though, compared to the ones in Impel Down.
  • Attack Its Weak Point: All of them share the same weakness of a central organ that is a mix of metal and flesh with writhing tendrils. Destroying that will kill the BioMEGA. Of course, complete immersion in boiling blood or an exact strike to the organ while unexposed seems to do the trick as well.
  • Expy: Two of the BioMEGA in Marineford seem to have been inspired out of universe by the ultralisk and hydralisk.
  • Hated by All: As stated above, everyone in Impel Down, guard or prisoner, despises the BioMEGAs, and would like nothing more than to see them go. The fact that they have attacked the guards, the prisoners, and even the creatures inside regardless of who they are makes it very easy to understand why. When the Minotaurus managed to cripple the BioMEGA on Level 2, the beasts and the prisoners actually teamed up briefly in order to make sure it was Killed Off for Real.
  • Mix-and-Match Critters: Each of them are composed of more than one animal used in its creation, adding to their nightmarish appearance.
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: BioMEGA is short for Biological Mechanically Enhanced Genocide Armament. Extra emphasis on the Genocide.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: All of them have nothing but wanton destruction and slaughter in their programming. The prototype, the Snake-Eater, was used in an attempt to wipe out the Kuja in Amazon Lily. Other BioMEGAs are seen in Impel Down, where they indiscriminately kill prisoners and Guard creatures alike.
  • Original Character: These monsters were specifically created for the fic since they are the response of a Spanner in the Works like Cross and the Straw Hat Pirates' actions now known worldwide due to the SBS transmissions.
  • Rasputinian Death: You can tear off their legs, tear off their heads, or rip their entire body in half, but as long as its heart keeps beating, a BioMEGA won't die. And as long as it won't die, it won't stop trying to attack.
  • Took a Level in Badass: The BioMEGAs that show up in Marineford are advanced enough that they can withstand a prolonged assault from New World level pirates, whereas the Impel Down BioMEGA were destroyed by Luffy, a strike from Vice Admiral Momonga, Magellan, Inazuma, and Crocodile single-handedly.
  • Unfriendly Fire: Several of the BioMEGA in Impel Down get destroyed by the jailors, rather than the prisoners: Luffy weakens the one on the second floor and Minotaurus leads all of the remaining beasts and prisoners to literally tear it apart, while Momonga and Magellan kill the ones on the third and fourth floors, using excuses like "I was aiming for Straw Hat Luffy and missed" (Magellan) and "I thought it was going to attack us" (Momonga). Ivankov and Inazuma kill the BioMEGA on the fifth floor while Crocodile kills the one on the sixth floor, both offscreen. The reason why is that the BioMEGA do attack even the jailors.

    Devil Dog Mercenaries 
An army of mercenaries Akainu hired from different factions in the New World. Each are specialized in their own right. Consists of the Vikverir, the Angevins, the Suomi, and the Laut Kecil.

  • Aristocrats Are Evil: The Angevins are all drawn from their homeland's nobility, and are so morally questionable that they actually approve of the World Government's attempts to kill Ace just for being Gol D. Roger's son. They even disregard Cross as an "upstart peasant" when he lambasts Sengoku for all to hear. Then the chapter "Denouement" notes that after the Marineford War, the Angevins honorably buried their dead... but left their fallen footmen and banner-carriers to just rot where they fell.
  • Axe-Crazy: The Suomi are hopped up on combat drugs making them oblivious to pain. The Vikverir Jotunns are likewise doped up, but even more so.
  • Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: The Jotunns tamed by the Vikverir are a Giant subspecies covered in thick, shaggy white fur.
  • Blood Knight: Vikverir live for the glory of the fight. For this reason, they are very eager to face against the Whitebeard Pirates coming to Marineford.
  • Broken Pedestal: Irian was disappointed that her volcano god's avatar was Not So Invincible After All after being maimed by Dragon in "Denouement". In fairness, Akainu did try to dissuade her from worshiping him.
  • Cold Sniper: Suomi are expert marksmen with rifles and, thanks to their Psycho Serum drugs, fight with no concern to their health or well-being.
  • Custom Uniform: Irian decided to trade her island native attire for a female Marine officer's uniform customized for her. She was in love with modern clothing she wore during her conversation with Akainu who notes that it suits her.
  • Dance Battler: As influenced by her Chord-Chord Fruit powers, Irian fights with two daggers to set rhythms. She can change the rhythm and thus the dance, but her attacks follow a pattern of offense and defense. What makes her especially dangerous is that she forces others to become dance battlers as well, making her opponent follow her rhythm and thus become predictable.
  • Evil Is Bigger: The Vikverir's secret weapon are a group of mutated and berserk giants called Jotunns, who Feel No Pain and fight on no matter how heavily-injured they are unless they're rendered Deader than Dead.
  • Eye Scream: Irian loses one of her eyes to Rob Lucci towards the end of the War, unintentional considering that he'd been aiming for her temple.
  • Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: The Suomi's stance on Ace seems to be that while he isn't responsible for Roger's crimes, he has still broken the law and thusly needs to die.
  • Hollywood Natives: Laut Kecil are Polynesian-inspired, worship Uwalun, a volcano god with Human Sacrifice, and are more like Akainu's personal army than the other Devil Dogs since their head priestess, Irian, considers him their god made flesh.
  • Horny Vikings: Vikverir are more representative of this than Elbaf's giants. Also counts as a Barbarian Tribe.
  • Knight in Shining Armor: The Angevins, at first glance. Armor? Check. Riding on horseback? Check. Completely devoted to uphold Justice with a complete Black-and-White Morality mindset? Uh...
  • Knight Templar: The Angevins are this, as indicated above, but the Suomi are strict followers of Absolute Justice as well.
  • A Lighter Shade of Black: The Suomi are this compared to the other Devil Dogs (save the Vikverir, arguably) — the Angevins supported Ace's execution even after they learned he was being executed for the Sins of the Father, the Vikverir just didn't care, Irian was planning to offer Cross up as a sacrifice (and is loyal to Akainu regardless). The Suomi... still support the execution and the Marines, but they admitted that Cross had a point about Ace not being responsible for Roger's crimes (and their stance is that Ace still broke the law, which is true). "Denouement" plays into this by noting that the Suomi are the only one of the three Devil Dogs factions who are reconsidering their alliance with the the World Government in the wake of the Marineford War, if only for practical reasons that it looks like the World Government may now be little more than a Paper Tiger.
  • Mythology Gag: The Jotunns are based on the Yeti Cool Brothers from the Punk Hazard arc of canon.
  • Original Character: Just like the BioMEGAs, these factions were all created for the fic due to being New World-grade natives Akainu has personally approved and hired to fight in the Marineford War, thanks to the amount of normal Marines that have been wiped out, rebelled or quit after Enies Lobby, Sabaody and other disasters thanks to Cross's influence.
  • People Puppets: Irian ate the Chord-Chord Fruit. Just by touching the Marine deserters, she forced them to go back to fight as cannon fodder, aware of what they're doing but unable to control their bodies. She describes the Chord-Chord Fruit's powers in Marineford Misery Part 2 as "allowing (her) to make anything follow a rhythm".
  • Punch-Clock Villain: The Vikverir don't seem to hold any real animosity towards the Whitebeard Pirates and their allies: they're just fighting for the Marines because they're allied with them. This sets them apart from the rest of the Devil Dogs, as the others are all followers of Absolute Justice.
  • Shout-Out:
    • The Vikverir worship a god called "Tempos", which is an alternative name for "Tempus", a War God from the Forgotten Realms setting. Specifically, Tempos is the name by which Tempus is known amongst the Viking-inspired Uthgardt barbarians of the Frozen North.
    • The Suomi are based on Finnish soldiers, but their habit of going into battle doped to the eyeballs on Psycho Serum is an homage to Aimo Koivunen, who famously overdosed himself on methamphetamine in an effort to escape from Soviet pursuit and spent a week in a drug-fueled frenzy, in which he fought his way some 250 miles from his starting point before being injured by a land mine and spending a week lying in a ditch in the freezing cold waiting for rescue.
    • The Jotunns, of course, take their name from the giants of Norse Mythology.
  • The Dragon: Irian is this to Akainu as she and her people think of him as their god's mortal avatar.
  • Signature Laugh: Irian's "Ruhahahaha!"
  • Weaksauce Weakness: Irian's power allows her to easily turn the tide of battle by making everyone dance to her tune... but a strong disruption will knock her out of her rhythm, such as the Foghorn Button. And if you establish your own song before she can get her feet under her, then she's just a New World priestess with Haki. Which is still dangerous, mind you...

Impel Down

    Magellan 
See his entry under the Zodiac of the Damned.

    Hannyabal 

Hannyabal

The Vice Warden of Impel Down, whose life goal is to remove the "Vice" part of that title. Smug and overconfident (and a bit of a Butt-Monkey), he nevertheless is dedicated to keeping the prisoners of Impel Down inside the walls, so that none of them can threaten the outside world.
  • Butt-Monkey: He tends to be getting punched in the face by life whenever we see him.
    • Iron Butt Monkey: It all comes to a head when he faces Luffy during the prison break and takes hit after hit as he says he will fight on, even as he is finally knocked unconscious.
  • The Starscream: He still blatantly seeks to overthrow Magellan and become the Warden, even if he's half-hearted in the declaration due to the World Government's involvement with Impel Down.
  • Taken for Granite: He is, of course, turned to stone by Hancock so Luffy can sneak into Impel Down. She further uses his petrification as an excuse to buy them more time by claiming she did it because he got grabby during her search.

    Domino 

Domino

The Vice Head Jailer, and probably the most level-headed member of Impel Down's staff, Domino is one of the top subordinates to Magellan.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: When Sengoku discloses the truth behind Ace's parentage and execution at the start of the War, Domino is enraged and declares it to be a matter of tyranny, not justice.
  • Miss Exposition: Explains that Impel Down is actually a sovereign nation, not a direct agency of the World Government.
    • Later on, she also explains the retrial and appeal system of Impel Down.
    Then as I was saying, it is rare but possible for prisoners to appeal to us. If they make a sufficiently convincing case, we submit a report to issue them a retrial. [...] A process that has done nothing to help the Government's case. Nobody in living memory has ever had their case overturned… that is, until we had almost a dozen successful appeals during the last four months. A time period that just happens to be the exact length of time those very retrials have ceased being conducted upon Enies Lobby. But even then, with any failed retrial our job has always been to assume that they're very skilled liars and punish them accordingly. And that the World Government bears incontrovertible proof of their guilt, justifying whatever happens to them as a result.
  • Never Hurt an Innocent: Part of Impel Down's code is that they will not stop anyone they know to be innocent from leaving, and Domino takes this seriously enough that she's utterly enraged when she learns the Government was trying to kill Ace before he was even born, and sentenced him to death years later, just for being Gol D Roger's son.
  • Punch-Clock Villain: She's only doing her job of keeping criminals in Impel Down from getting out and punishing them for their crimes. She makes it clear that Impel Down's policy is "guilty until proven innocent", and would have no issue with letting people walk if their innocence has been undeniably proven.
  • Scary Shiny Glasses: She is able to pull this off easily, much to Tashigi's comical dismay.
  • Stealth Expert: She was able to sneak up on Vice Admiral Momonga without him noticing.
  • This Is Unforgivable!: She is furious when she discovers the truth behind Ace's execution, and calls the World Government demanding they cancel the execution immediately. The fact she's met with bored indifferent silence only infuriates her more as she vicously shouts that what they're doing is not justice, but just pure tyranny.

    Saldeath 

Saldeath

The head of the Blugori, whose size does not correlate to his level of authority within Impel Down's walls.
  • Abhorrent Admirer: In Impel Downfall 4, he declares the one thing that truly scares him is the idea that Sadie might start trying to flirt with him if he has a growth spurt.
  • Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Faced with the possibility that Straw Hat might actually escape Impel Down, he pleads for Luffy to agree to spare Magellan's life if he manages to defeat the warden.
  • It's Personal: Buggy deciding to invoke Tempting Fate and then turn it up a notch put him on Saldeath's personal "kill painfully and, if possible, slowly" list.
  • Villain Respect: He is impressed by Cross after listening to his To the Pain speech he gives Spandam, and claims that if he wasn't an enemy, he'd be scouting Cross for a position at Impel Down.

    Sadi-chan 

Sadi-chan

One of the head torturers of Impel Down, and the boss of the four Demon Guards.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: In a twisted way, but it's clear she's broken up about the BioMEGAs putting most of the Demon Guards in the infirmary.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: As she puts it...
    Obviously, I'm not going to intentionally inflict mind-warping aaaagony~ upon innocent people, mmmm~ but even you must understand how effectively a wolf can make itself look like the most innocent lamb that ever sailed the seas. We wouldn't make any attempt to stop someone who we knew to be innocent from leaving, but that kind of certainty could only come if someone had been born here.
  • I Gave My Word: After Luffy beats and later subdues Minotaurus with Conqueror's Haki, she keeps her promise that she will let the prison break party go without further incident. Mind you, she did it with the knowledge that Magellan is the final obstacle.
  • Sadist: It's how she got her name.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: She is very clearly not happy about the Marines who have been assigned to Impel Down in preparation for the upcoming war.
  • Villain Respect: She too is listening to the To the Pain speech Cross gives Spandam, actually takes notes on future torturing ideas from that speech, and tells Saldeath Cross would become an executive in Impel Down in six months rather than a year as said by Saldeath.

    The Demon Guards 

The Demon Guards

The four Awakened Zoan guards of Impel Down, some of the most dangerous fighters within its walls after the likes of Magellan and Hannyabal. Their forms are a cow, a zebra, a koala, and a rhinoceros.
  • The Determinator: All of them in theory, but the Minotaurus in his duel with Luffy. Luffy has to use Conqueror's Haki to end it.
  • Enemy Mine: The Minotaurus, when given a chance to target either Luffy, Buggy, and Mr 3, or the BioMEGA on Level 2, completely ignores the former.
  • Put on a Bus: All of them but the Minotaurus were sent to the infirmary after a run-in with a BioMEGA, and even their Healing Factor will apparently need weeks or even months before they are fully recovered.

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