Characters / One Piece: World Government

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

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Main Character Index > World Government > Marines (Marine Admirals | Special Science Group) | Cipher Pol

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World Government

"Look at that symbol, pirates! It represents the unity of more than 170 nations allied across the Four Seas and the Grand Line. It represents the world!!"

—Part of Spandam's speech on what the World Government is, chapter 398

The World Government is the prevailing political body in the world. It is an organization comprised of the majority of countries in the world (about 170), and was founded by an alliance of 20 kingdoms going back to 800 years ago after the "Void Century," an era lost to history. This huge group is comprised of several organisations: the Marines, seagoing military/law enforcement, the secret services of Cipher Pol, and a judiciary system, all governed by the Five Elders. Yet even with this clear setup of power, some wonder who is truly in charge of the entire grand scheme. They are one of the main antagonist groups in the Series.

While they mainly appear in the background and let the countries govern themselves as they see fit, it is clear that the World Government is not benevolent and mainly seeks to preserve its supremacy across the planet, ruthlessly hunting down anything or anyone that could pose a threat to their power. Moreover, the Government is tied to many shady affairs, as it serves the downright monstrous World Nobles, the decadent descendants of its twenty founding kingdoms, and maintains an implicit Ancient Conspiracy. They are the ones against whom the Revolutionary Army are fighting.

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In General

• Ancient Conspiracy: The World Government was founded at the end of the Void Century. Though they cite the ancient weapons as the reason why researching it is forbidden, which is a genuine concern, it's heavily implied that what the leaders of the World Government fear the most is the existence and ideals of a vast kingdom that the alliance banded together to obliterate and wipe from history. What exactly it is they want to hide so badly is one of the series' biggest mysteries, both in-universe and out.
• Big Fancy Castle: Within Marijoa is the enormous Pangaea Castle, named after the supercontinent Pangaea and modeled after the Chateau de Chambord in France. It is the headquarters of the World Government, serving as the workplace of the Five Elders and Commander-in-chief Kong, a meeting point for high ranking Marines and the Seven Warlords, the location of the Reverie world council every four years, and the location of the Empty Throne.
• Child Soldier: As revealed in the backstory for the Cipher Pol 9, the World Government is not above taking or bartering children for service in the Marines or to be trained as assassins in the Cipher Pol organizations. They are also not above bartering with child traffickers for exotic children such as those of Giants and Fishmen to bolster their ranks.
• Cool Chair: The Empty Throne, which sits at the center of the World Government. It is surrounded by the weapons of the twenty kings who founded it, and no one is ever allowed to sit within it, for the world has no one ruler. Except there is a singular ruler, Imu, and when no one but the Five Elders is present, Imu sits in the Empty Throne.
• Create Your Own Hero: In a major case of Irony, they are directly responsible for galvanizing the Revolutionary Army into action and into becoming their biggest problem and threat. Dragon found what they did to Ohara utterly repugnant and unforgivable and that was what drove him to create The Revolutionary Army in the first place, saying that said action was the last straw.
• The Empire: The World Government is actually a corrupt and brutal oligarchy determined to exert control over the world and its past.
• Empire with a Dark Secret:
  • The Void Century prior to the formation of the World Government has been wiped from history, the only known record of it being the indestructible Poneglyphs scattered about the world. Whatever the founders did to establish their rule is considered so damaging that the current leadership will raze entire islands to make sure that knowledge never gets out.
  • The mere existence of Imu, the king who sits on the Empty Throne reveals the sheer extent of the hypocrisy of the World Government — that everything the World Government was founded on, everything it stands for, are nothing more than murderously-enforced lies to hide the will of an apparently immortal dictator. If this were to ever get out, societal collapse goes from being a genuine possibility to a Foregone Conclusion.
  • There's also the giant straw hat within the frozen vault beneath Pangaea Castle, which Donquixote Doflamingo refers to as their national treasure, a key to power, and something that would shake the world if it was unveiled.
• The Federation: What it poses as, a collection of kingdoms who are all equal to one another. To reinforce the image, there is no one king but rather a council of five to oversee them, as well as the Empty Throne that no king may sit in. This is a total lie.
• Fictional United Nations: The World Government is made up of 170 countries united to create order. Every 4 years, heads of state from 50 of these countries are invited to Marijoa to participate in the Reverie, an international conference to discuss and take action on important issues such as the threat of the Revolutionary Army or abolishing the Warlord system.
• Final Solution:
  • The World Government's answer to anyone who has pissed them off beyond reason, usually involving Poneglyph research, is to summon the Buster Call. It involves gathering a fleet of heavily-armed warships led by several Vice Admirals and packed with thousands of Marine soldiers, then carpet bombing their target with artillery until they exhaust all ammunition. By the time the Buster Call is finished, the island the target was on is left a burning hellscape with no survivors. The Buster Call is so extreme that only Admirals and higher ranks have the authority to issue one, with the first two calls shown being delegated to CP9 leaders.
  • Kuma's flashback reveals the World Nobles exterminate the population of an unaligned country every three years, with the depopulated land becoming part of the World Government's jurisdiction. For sport, by the way.
  • The Heavenly Tribute a nation must pay is based on its population, meaning a tyrant could lessen the cost by killing their less productive demographic like the elderlies. It is implied by the praises kingdoms doing so receive that it is not a loophole as much as what the policy encourages.
• Hegemonic Empire:
  • Joining the World Government is generally voluntary, with any country that is unwilling or too poor to pay the Heavenly Tribute tax/membership fee being free to be independent... Which puts them outside of the Marines' jurisdiction. Almost all unaligned countries are unaligned because they are too poor to pay the tribute and tend to become hotbeds of piracy and human trafficking without the protection membership bestows. Less well off member states fear being unable to pay the tribute and consequently being brought to ruin, and at least one country is known to have suffered a famine to pay it. Of course, the World Government is by no means above subjugating independent countries.
  • The New World has more free states, such as Wano, on account of more powerful individuals roaming those seas. The World Government is prepared to annex Wano in the event its overlord, Kaido, is defeated, though that plan doesn't pan out.
  • In Chapter 1095, it's revealed that at least in some cases, "voluntarily" joining is all bull. The World Nobles had a tradition every three years of the "Native Hunting Competitions", where random countries independent from the World Government are killed off root and stem, just for sport. Once the hunt ends, the country is automatically made a member of the World Government and exploited for the natural resources present there.
  • In general, if a kingdom is too poor to afford the Heavenly Tribute, the World Government is content to leave them alone as it's not worth the trouble. If it has valuable natural resources or something of interest to the World Government, expect them to start annexing by force at the first opportunity.
• He Knows Too Much: Researching the Poneglyphs is a capital crime. Exploration ships seeking them and related knowledge are relentlessly hunted down, and in the most extreme case entire islands may be razed via a Buster Call fleet to ensure that knowledge doesn't spread. Such was the case with the island of archaeology Ohara, and the lone 8-year-old survivor had a large bounty placed on her head just for claiming to be able to read the poneglyph runes.
• Holy City: The capital of the World Government is the Holy Land Marijoa (the official translation of the name seen late in the series, Mary Geoise). Said to be at the center of all the world's seas, it lies 10 kilometers above the surface atop the Red Line, a massive rock wall of a continent that circles the globe. The only permanent residents are the World Nobles, their servants and slaves, and high ranking government employees and leaders. The walled off world noble district, known as the "Domain of the Gods" takes up most city space. Ascending to the city and crossing through it is the only safe way to travel between the Paradise and New World halves of the Grand Line, if not the only safe and two-way route between the entire eastern and western hemispheres. The only other conventional routes are going under the Red Line through Fishman Island or over it at Reverse Mountain. The former is extremely perilous, while the latter is dangerous and a one-way trip into Paradise.
• Hypocrite: One of the many ways in which the World Government exemplifies the motto "the fish rots from the head" is that rank hypocrisy is baked into it from the start. They are known for committing several atrocities that surpass even pirates.
  • Slavery is officially illegal throughout the One Piece world, and the Marines are supposed to stamp out any who attempt to practice it. In reality, the World Nobles live in a city surrounded by slaves, and in fact largely keep the practice of slavery alive all by themselves because of how much abuse they foist onto their slaves, resulting in a massive turnover rate.
  • Many of the World Government's technological achievements were Tested on Humans, with the WG setting up facilities such as those in Punk Hazard to hold kidnapped prisoners and even children who were brought to the island to be used as guinea pigs by various dangerous Mad Scientist types the WG previously arrested. They arrested Vegapunk because his research into cloning was deemed too dangerous, and then they have him create their own Clone Army in the form of the Pacifistas.
  • The "Tenant of the Empty Throne" is a central idea in the World Government — that all the kings and queens of the world who partake form a council of equals, with the Five Elders largely being glorified administrators. Except there is a person who commands the Five Elders, and through them the entire World Government, making them the de facto king of the One Piece world: Imu.
  • Researching the Poneglyphs is forbidden, officially because it risks unleashing the Ancient Weapons onto the world but actually because it would reveal how the World Government really came to power. But when Spandam floats the idea of using Pluton to end the Golden Age of Piracy to the Five Elders, they immediately reverse their stance and allow him to obtain Pluton by any means necessary, including nabbing someone who can read the Poneglyphs.
  • They talk about divine rights to rule, race born with sins and use multiple holy titles but the Five Elders are basically demons in disguise.
• Inherent in the System: Lots of people join the Government and the Navy hoping to do good in the world and fight piracy — but while both of these things can be done under the World Government, serving the Government also means dealing with the World Nobles, who are above all "mortal" laws and thus cannot be dealt with legally, doing things just as bad, if not worse, than any pirate on the planet. Imu and the Five Elders go so far as to contemplate global genocide if that's what it takes to maintain their rule, showing that the system only protects the people insofar as it helps to perpetuate itself.
• One World Order: The World Government rules the majority of the entire One Piece world, enforcing its rules and superiority over its people. Even kings and queens of each nation are inferior to the government.
• People's Republic of Tyranny: While not advertising personal democracy, the World Government at least attempts to look like a federation of allied kingdoms who join with each other for mutual benefit, with even a symbolic ritual during Reveries of having all kings kneel in front of the Empty Throne to symbolize how they are all equal and there is no one true ruler. In reality, while members have a functioning federation between them, the World Government itself is more akin to an authoritarian empire sitting on top of it, with a ruling class who are not only allowed but encouraged to be above the law and an army of supposed protectors that is often just as responsible for heinous actions as the pirates they're supposed to fight. Countries are at times even forced to join the World Government. Even the ritual of the Empty Throne is a complete lie — there is someone who sits upon it and who is the true ruler of the world, that is treated like a divine monarch above every other being.
• She Is the King: It's repeatedly said that the World Government was founded by 20 kings. At least one of those kings, namely Nefeltari Lily of Alabasta, was a woman. Zigzagged in that she's referred to as a queen when spoken of in the singular.
• Slave to PR: While willing to cross many lines, the World Government still officially only has the Marines as law enforcement, and many Marines are unaware of how vile the World Government actually is. It's implied a good number of the rulers of its founding kingdoms are unaware of how bad things actually are, and the World Government would like to keep it that way. So most of the time, they have to perform cover ups to try and keep people in the dark and make excuses for their worst actions. This frustrates Fujitora, who feels the World Government values its reputation over actual justice, even if he's unaware of how tyrannical they actually are.
• United Nations Is a Superpower: The Marines are effectively the World Government's military force, and through them their will is enforced. Or else.
• Written by the Winners: They have a habit of rewriting facts and history to make themselves look competent and fair. The most striking example is the erasure of the Void Century. The fact they resorted to this instead of spinning it into propaganda is very damning.

Highest Leadership

Imu (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Imu

Debut: Chapter 906 (Manga), Episode 885 (Anime)

"Lily..."

—Chapter 1084

The mysterious holder of the Empty Throne that the Five Elders answer to.

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• Ambiguous Gender: While it's also difficult to know if it even matters, the silhouette they present during their introduction is deliberately hard to read for gender, and knowing the One Piece world it could easily be either.
• Ambiguously Human: A very thin build, unusual ringed eyes, and revered by the Five Elders with an almost god-like reverence that casts a most foreboding appearance. They also have the ability to transform into a gigantic creature with some sort of arrow-like appendage and given all the mysteries surrounding them, it's unclear whether this or their humanoid appearance is Imu's true form.
• Ancient Conspiracy: The Reverie ceremony begins with "the Empty Throne", which lies within Pangea Castle in Mariejois. All kings participating in the Reverie are asked to bow before the Empty Throne, which no one may ever sit upon, supposedly as a symbol of the vow that each of them take not to seek dominion over each other when they come together at the Reverie to discuss world affairs in peace. The fact that the Five Elders share authority over the Marines is also meant to show that the World Nobles will not tolerate any king ruling over them. The very next chapter shows Imu seated on the Empty Throne, and the Five Elders, previously believed to be the supreme authority in the World Government, bowing before Imu.
• Ancient Evil: Their confrontation with Cobra and later speculation by Ivankov implies that Imu is one of the twenty kings that founded the World Government, making them as old as the organization itself, if not older. This would make Imu somewhere between 800 and 900 years old if true.
• Antiquated Linguistics: When they finally speak for prolonged periods of time, it turns out they speak in a very dated manner. Fitting, given the same conversation implies Imu may be hundreds of years old.
• Arch-Enemy: Imu shares a personal enmity with the members of the D clan. When speaking with Cobra, Imu tries to downplay their threat but as the conversation goes on it becomes clear that just mentioning them, or at least Lily specifically, makes them furious. When Cobra confirms Lily was a D. bearer (and therefore, so are her descendants), that immediately sets them off and they respond by fatally wounding Cobra then and there.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: The Five Elders are shown bowing to them and asking for whose "light" will be extinguished from history.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: The "armor" in this case being the intangibility granted by the power of a Logia Devil Fruit. Imu attacks Sabo while the revolutionary is trying to save Cobra, and their piercing (seemingly without Haki) attack using — what appears to be a tail — rips through Sabo brutally, as if the other man didn't have a Logia fruit in the first place, and leaves Sabo bleeding quite heavily. It only adds to Imu's unnerving inhumanity that they are seemingly able to deal such a blow on a Logia.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: Whatever the hell their transformation is, it seems to have an arrow-shaped tail or appendage — the sharpness of which is proven when it impales King Cobra.
• Big Bad Ensemble: As the leader of the World Government, Imu is one of the top candidates as the primary villain of the series, alongside Blackbeard.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Imu has enough beef with the Nefeltari family that just mentioning Lily is enough to get them angry, but they nonetheless want Vivi brought to them alive.
• Connected All Along: Imu has some connection to the Nefeltari clan, specifically Nefeltari Lily—one of the twenty kings who founded the World Government 800 years ago. Ivankov later speculates that this is because Imu is really Saint Nerona Imu, another of the twenty founding kings and thus Lily's peer.
• Cool Chair: The Empty Throne is a large seat surrounded by swords that symbolizes supremacy over the world that no king can ever sit on. In truth, Imu sits on the throne and is the actual ruler of the world.
• Cool Crown: While mostly in shadow, their silhouette shows they wear a comically large crown, which serves to confirm the part about "no kings" being a complete lie.
• Dark Secret: Imu is the biggest secret of the World Government: their mere existence threatens the very foundation upon which the World Government was founded on, and if they were to ever be revealed to the public, risks societal collapse.
• Dartboard of Hate: Out of the four photos they have during their second appearance, Luffy's and Blackbeard's are sliced to pieces, and Shirahoshi's is pinned to the ground by a dagger. Only Vivi's is intact.
• Dissonant Serenity: The casual and emotionless manner in which Imu carries themself as they decide to test a weapon of mass destruction on the kingdom of Lulusia is horrifying.
• Eviler than Thou: The Five Elders were taken aback by Imu's decision to test the government's new superweapon on Lulusia and its civilian populace, before quickly rationalizing Imu's order.
• Evil Is Petty: It's revealed that Imu chose to eliminate Lulusia for no other reason than it being close to the Holy Land. Sabo's being there and the ongoing rebellion are unrelated to the reason the kingdom is destroyed.
• Face Framed in Shadow: As a shadowy ruler meant to be unknown to everyone, Imu wears a hood and is depicted as a pitch-black figure in the manga. The anime only adds little detail to their initial appearance, like the color of their eyes.
• Flowery Elizabethan English: Refers to everyone as thou or thee, in stark contrast to how everyone else in the series speaks.
• Foreshadowing:
  • After the Paramount War, Moriah is targeted for elimination by Doflamingo. Moriah asks if Sengoku put him up to it, but Doflamingo simply points up at the sky and says "Try higher." While at first, it seems like Doflamingo is referring to the Five Elders, this is the first indirect reference to a higher power in the World Government. On a related note, Sakazuki asks the Five Elders if they serve someone of an even higher rank.
  • It's stated that twenty weapons were placed before the Empty Throne by the kings who founded the World Government. However, if one actually counts how many weapons are shown on-panel, they'll find that there are only nineteen weapons present. The very next chapter, Imu is shown in their hidden chamber alongside a sword sticking out of the ground in the same manner as the nineteen weapons. Since one can infer that the missing weapon likely belonged to the Nefeltaris, the implication with Imu's sword is that they have some kind of connection to the ruler of the Nefeltari 800 years ago, which turns out to be the case.
  • As Ivankov notes, the Op-Op fruit being known to grant Eternal Youth means that it must have demonstrably done so at some point in the past, and Doflamingo desiring said ability despite the deliberate secrecy surrounding it was an indication that said person must have been somebody within the World Nobles or even a higher rank. Recognising Imu's name as one of the twenty founding sovereigns of the World Government indicates Imu is the one who received extended longevity treatment and continues to enforce the will of the founders in the present day.
• A God Am I: The Five Elders, who, as their political titles show, consider themselves gods even when compared to the god-complex World Nobles, treat Imu as a sort of supreme deity. While Imu doesn't claim they're a god themselves, they definitely act as one, such as deciding to wipe out an entire island on a capricious whim.
• God-Emperor: As the one who stands above the World Nobles who regard themselves as the descendants of "gods"^note the twenty kings who founded the World Government, Imu (who is strongly implied to be one of those self-proclaimed "gods") is treated by them with the same reverence reserved for a deity. Even an assassination order is rephrased as some kind of holy judgement. As seen by their brief scuffle with Sabo, Imu does indeed have some kind of great power to back this up.
• Goroawase Number: Their name can also be written as sixteen, which seems to be a reoccurring number for the World Government. In Doflamingo's flashback, a man states that a Celestial Dragon shot his sons sixteen times and the final attack of Doflamingo, a former World Noble, is named Sixteen Holy Bullets in reference to it. When Imu destroys Lulusia in chapter 1060, sixteen rays of light are seen coming down from the heavens.
• Greater-Scope Villain: As the shadow ruler of the World Government, Imu is the wirepuller behind everything they do and quite possibly the most influential figure in the setting of One Piece.
• He Knows Too Much: Anyone besides the Five Elders that catches a glimpse of Imu is killed almost immediately. Only a few who know escape with their lives, like Sabo and Wapol (the first due to Cobra's sacrifice, the second due to correctly knowing to run like holy hell, having eavesdropped and witnessed the murder of Cobra).
• Heroes Act, Villains Hinder: Imu is completely shrouded in mystery, but what little screentime they receive suggests that they seem to have no goals beyond preserving their own power and status, only raising a finger the moment anyone threatens their position. In a series where practically every major character is pursuing some dream or serving some ideology, Imu is a completely reactive character.
• Inconsistent Spelling: Their name can be spelled as "Im" or "Imu". The official English translation of the manga uses Imu.
• The Kingslayer: They kill King Nefeltari Cobra in cold blood for daring to question the Five Elders about the Poneglyphs and Ancient Weapons, in addition to the Nefeltaris carrying the Will of D., but his death was officially pinned on Sabo. In an inversion of the trope, Imu is in a higher hierarchy than Cobra.
• Knight of Cerebus: There is no humor or levity whatsoever when Imu is on-panel. Their presence in a chapter means something very serious is about to happen.
• Lack of Empathy: Imu doesn't seem to show any concern for human life; when they choose Lulusia as a spot to test Vegapunk's weapon, the main reason is simply that it was the closest location. When one of the Five Elders says there are many people on the island, Imu's reaction is that they don't care.
• The Man Behind the Man: As far as the world is concerned, the Five Elders are the highest authority in the World Government. In truth, the Five Elders bow to Imu and act in their stead, essentially making them responsible for everything the Five Elders have done.
• Meaningful Name:
  • When written in katakana, Imu's name is composed of the two radicals comprising the character for "Buddha".
  • Imu tends to refer to themself as "Mu," which can mean either "void/nothing" or "dream." After all, what else but a void could sit upon the Empty Throne^note In other words, nobody may sit upon the Empty Throne, and they're calling themself "Nobody.".
  • The katakana for the family name of Saint Imu, one of the First Twenty, "Nerona", can be combined to form the kanji character 神, which means "God".
• Nothing Is Scarier: Fitting for a character that calls themselves 'nothing/void', very little concrete info is known about Imu, to the point that we don't even know their gender or actual appearance. When we briefly see their transformation for the first time, we only see a dark silhouette that lets us only know that it's both humanoid-shaped and utterly massive.
• Not So Stoic: For an eerily inhuman Shadow Dictator, the subject of Lily spreading the Poneglyphs around the world and the actions that followed because of it is the only subject that actively agitates them.
• Ominous Visual Glitch: The anime adds scenes during the destruction of Lulusia featuring Imu in which shows their distorted eyes flickering between scenes of their butterfly garden. It adds to the feeling of wrongness that emanates from their very being.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Imu's existence and leadership is the World Government's Dark Secret, one that Imu and the Five Elders are desperate to keep hidden by any means necessary. However, when Imu overhears Cobra asking questions to the Five Elders about his ancestor Nefeltari Lily's disappearance and the significance of the letter "D", Imu appears before him and sits down on the throne, shocking Cobra and even the Five Elders that they chose to reveal themselves now.
  • Imu further compromises their secret existence by ordering Vivi to be captured alive, implicitly so they can meet her face-to-face for their own purposes. From what has been shown of them so far, Nefeltari Lily and her family lineage seem to make Imu act oddly compared to their usual self.
• Orcus on His Throne: Imu is content to let the Five Elders rule in their stead and never acts directly. Justified in that they can't do much else without risking to blow a civilization-shattering secret wide open.
• Pet the Dog: Imu is surpringly gentle towards the butterflies in the Room of Flowers despite their evident lack of care for humanity.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Not only is Imu the true ruler of the world but they also possess the Mother Flame, a weapon created by Vegapunk capable of obliterating entire islands in one attack. They’re no slouch when it comes to physical combat either, as not only did they No-Sell Sabo's Fire Fist, but just one attack from them critically injures Sabo, which forces Cobra to sacrifice himself to cover the young revolutionary's escape.
• Really 700 Years Old: According to Ivankov, Saint Imu of the Nerona family was one of the First Twenty that founded the World Government. He believes it was possible that Imu was granted eternal youth via the Op-Op Fruit and has been ruling over the world ever since. Imu's knowledge of the Void Century, including Nefeltari Lily and the meaning of the D., and one of the Five Elders referring to them as the "Creator" support this.
• Red and Black Totalitarianism: He is the true, absolute ruler of the world with a dark body and red eyes, contrasting the usage of blue and white by the rest of the World Government.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The sole physical feature that can be gleaned from their figure is their red, spiral-like eyes, which give a very menacing glare.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Im is the name of a jotunn in Norse Mythology. While little is known about him specifically, one thing that sticks out is that Im's father, Vafthrudnir, was a jotunn famed for his wisdom. Certainly makes the katakana 仏, spelling "Buddha", more meaningful.
• Sent Into Hiding: Imu's existence is kept secret to maintain the lie that there is no singular ruler of the world. Sabo catching a glimpse of them was enough to mark him for immediate death, though the destruction of Lulusia afterwards has nothing to do with him, and Wapol's immediate reaction to learning of their existence was to run to the ends of the earth in hopes that the World Government would never be able to find him.
• Shadow Dictator: Imu is the true ruler of the world, above the Five Elders themselves, whose mere existence goes against the World Government's tenet that there can never be one ruler above the rest. Also taken rather literally, since their body is cloaked entirely in shadow.
• Third-Person Person: Imu refers to themself in third person when they speak in chapter 1085. More interestingly, they refer to themself not as "Imu" but as "Mu." The specific character used can either mean "void" or "dream."
• Walking Spoiler: Their reveal comes in the middle of the Reverie Arc, which is already filled with big revelations for the entire story. The very existence of a higher power than the Five Elders is a spoiler in and of itself.

The Five Elders

In General

The Five Elders

^{Click here to see their transformations}

The Five Elders (Gorosei^note Five Elder Planets in Japanese) are the leaders of the World Government, which means that they essentially rule the world. They are a group of five elderly men who have power over the Marines (through the Fleet Admiral, who is constantly in contact with them) and the Cipher Pols. They're also the ones who make deals with pirates who want to become part of the Seven Warlords of the Sea.

Pretty much any information about them remains a mystery for most of the story despite their significant influence over the world. Their names are eventually revealed during the Egghead Arc, over 800 chapters after their first introduction.

Pictured above from left to right they are:

• Godhead of Agriculture: St. Shepherd Ju Peter
• Godhead of Finance: St. Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro
• Godhead of Justice: St. Topman Warcury
• Godhead of Environment: St. Marcus Mars
• Godhead of Science and Defense: St. Jaygarcia Saturn

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• Achilles' Heel: Implied — while the fact that Scars Are Forever implies there is a way around the absurdly powerful Healing Factor of the Elders, what that weakness is has yet to be revealed.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Played around with, but subverted hard in the end. The Elders present themselves as fair administrators of the world as opposed to the unambiguous depravity of the Celestial Dragons, but as the reader gradually finds out more about the Elders, the more it becomes clear that they're just as bad as the other Celestial Dragons, if not outright worse. For as bad as the Celestial Dragons are, they are ultimately products of a broken system that teaches them from childbirth that they are the infallible gods ruling over the world. While the Elders don't directly take part in the same hedonistic sadism as the Celestial Dragons, they are the ones actively overseeing and maintaining the very system that produced the Celestial Dragons to begin with. They don't merely enable the Celestial Dragons' atrocities either, they enforce them, and punish the few Celestial Dragons that don't fall in line. To the Elders, the status quo is how the world should be, and they are going to do everything in their power to make sure nothing changes. In short, the Elders aren't better people than the other Celestial Dragons, they're just better at hiding their depravity.
• Ambiguously Human: While they appear to be Awakened Mythical Zoan users based on the tell-tale black smoke ring around their animal forms, several other aspects of them do not fit into that mold. They seemingly don't age, have an incredibly varied and shared powerset by the standards of most Devil Fruits, a Healing Factor bordering on magic, and their transformations being introduced without the usual full Devil Fruit name all call into question if the Five Elders are actually Zoan users or simply beings whose powers are quite similar to them.
• Ancient Conspiracy: Their actions in regards to Ohara's scholars definitely show that they have something to hide from the general population. There are several other hints throughout the series that support this being the case as well.
• Arc Number: 5, Naturally. There are five of them, and the number 5 can be seen repeated five times in the magic-like pentagram Saturn teleports himself into Egghead in.
• Arc Villain: During the Egghead Arc, the Five Elders fight the Straw Hat Pirates themselves while trying to stop Vegapunk's message about the truth of the world from being shown all across the world.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: They're at the top of the World Nobles, and while they aren't the blatant dog-kicking psychopaths that most other World Nobles are, they still demonstrate that they generally could not care less about the lives of "commoners", with one of them outright comparing them to insects, and scorn the Nefeltari family as "traitors" for the apparent crime of choosing to stay amongst their kingdom and people, instead of moving to Marijoa with the other founders.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: In combat, the Elders attack relentlessly with little thought of strategy or defense. This is because they're seemingly immortal and can regenerate from anything, even being blown to bits.
• Bait the Dog: While extreme in how they deal with those who defy the World Government, they initially seem reasonable in comparison to the other World Nobles and showed concern for the potentially devastating effects of dangerous criminals on the public of the world. As the story progresses, it gradually becomes clear their concern is merely about how it would affect their reputation, they are shown to blatantly cover up the actions of corrupt individuals if it benefits them, and they're willing to serve a shadow dictator, which goes against the principles that the World Government was founded on, working on their tyrannical will.
• Blind Obedience: They are forever loyal to Imu, the true ruler of the world. No matter what order they give, even if it means committing the genocide of the Lulusia Kingdom, they agree without argument.
• Coat Cape: All five don garbs on their back when they go off to see Imu.
• Co-Dragons: They are actually servants of the true ruler of the world who sits on the "empty" throne.
• Complete Immortality: Implied and downplayed: they haven't aged at all since God Valley and possess a Healing Factor that leaves them seemingly impossible to kill no matter what they're hit with. Luffy flat out states that they're immortal during Egghead.
• Dark Is Evil: The World Government as a whole very much has a Light Is Not Good aesthetic, with many of their institutions and members having titles related in some way to heaven or divinity. This, however, is completely inverted with the Elder's transformations, which turn them into demons. The sheer discrepancy between how the Elders present themselves versus the beings they actually turn into can be seen as symbolic of the hypocrisy at the heart of the World Government. The World Government bases its rhetoric on a farce of "justice" and maintaining the peace, yet the people who actually benefit from this system are the most horrid tyrants imaginable. The uppermost echelons of the World Government are outright worse than the pirates they oppose: they are (possibly literally) demons who fooled the world into believing that they are gods.
• The Dividual: They're mostly treated and recognized as a group instead of separate individuals, despite each having a very distinct design. Their names and individual personalities begin to be revealed only after over a thousand chapters into the story.
• Dub Name Change: Not their actual names, but their titles:
  • Their literal translation from Japanese is "Five Elder Planets", which leads to a bit of Lost in Translation of their planetary theme naming for translations that shorten it to Five Elders.
  • The literal translation of their personal titles from Japanese is "Warrior God of (Discipline)", while the VIZ translation goes with the similar-sounding "Godhead of (Discipline)".
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • They're willing to ignore and even cover up outright illegal behavior of those in a high enough standing but it's been implied that associating with pirates will not be tolerated. The Germa 66 who maintain membership and influence in the World Government despite not even having a country and violently conquering all of North Blue are ejected after the incident involving Big Mom.
  • In general, they showcase that they do have some standards in how the World Government should conduct its affairs, but horrifyingly, they are willing to utterly discard these standards without a second thought should Imu request it, with barely any opposition expressed to his decisions. When they say the world is as the Creator wills it, they mean that said will shall be enforced like an act of god.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: All the Elders care about is maintaining order for the world and ensuring the government is portrayed as a benevolent force. When Akainu argues with them during the Dressrosa Arc, they shut him down, citing the Marines as being the image of the government and being meant to serve as their force of justice and obey orders. Innocent people dying means nothing to them so long as the World Government's reputation is good. With the reveal of Imu, the Elders further show how much they are willing to commit mass atrocities to appeal to Imu, who they basically worship as a God.
• Evil Is Bigger: Their transformations are massive, dwarfing several of the wrecked buildings of Egghead when confronting Luffy. They may as well be Kaiju.
• Evil Old Folks: They certainly have an ominous presence, and some of their decisions so far have been very questionable such as the genocide of an island of scholars who knew too much about the world's history. During the Reverie, they fully cross into this territory when they draw guns against the defenceless and wheelchair-bound Cobra when Imu appears before him, making it clear that his death was non-negotiable the second he caught a glimpse of Imu's existence, let alone spoke to them.
• Evil Reactionary: They try to suppress knowledge of the "Void Century". This is a time in the world's history that has been deleted from public records; bits and pieces of what happened during this time have popped up as the series has gone on, suggesting that the world (or part of it) used to be an incredibly high-tech society, including hints at the existence of robot armies, space travel, and technological superweapons. Because they try to kill or silence anyone with knowledge of the Void Century (the reason Robin, an Adventurer Archaeologist who can read the Poneglyphs said knowledge is stored upon, had a bounty as early as age eight) it's very possible they or their predecessors were successful evil reactionaries.
• Faux Affably Evil: In contrast to the World Nobles the Elders have decorum but they share the same belief that humans are insects that should just do what they are told. Mars and Saturn calmly state they can't be expected to care about human lives servile or not to their subordinates in a matter-of-fact tone..
• Godzilla Threshold: The Elders are usually content with letting their subordinates, be it the Marines or Cipher Pol, handle business with the world below them, outside of a few outlier individuals. Saturn's presence in the Buster Call fleet heading for Egghead indicates how serious a threat they think Vegapunk is to their rule with his genius mind, knowledge of the Void Century, and possessions of highly advanced and deadly technology such as the Seraphim. Saturn himself then tops this by summoning the rest of the Elders directly to Egghead in order to stop Vegapunk's broadcast that potentially contains information that will seriously harm their grip on the world, and to wipe out everyone on the island, including Luffy, who is the current wielder of Joyboy's powers and thus is the greatest threat to the World Government possible.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Two of them have scars on their faces, hinting at their combat ability, as well as making them more menacing-looking.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Being the superiors of the Marines, Cipher Pol, and the Seven Warlords of the Sea, they could be considered the true villains every time the Straw Hats face one of those groups. This is most apparent during the Enies Lobby arc, and later Dressrosa arc. They themselves are but subordinates to the real ruler of the world.
• Healing Factor: They possess the ability to recover from virtually any injury that goes beyond natural healing, being able to restore their physical forms as if they were never harmed in the first place. Saturn regenerates entire limbs from thin air, Ju Peter survives beheading with only slightly more recovery time than Saturn demonstrated with lesser injuries, and Mars dives through the barrier surrounding Egghead's Labostratum without any lasting injury (a barrier that previously was powerful enough to hurt Luffy in Gear 5).
• Heroes Act, Villains Hinder: As the story progresses the Five Elders become increasingly concerned with trying to keep the Straw Hat Pirates in check, seeking to preserve the status quo above all else.
• Humans Are Insects: They look down on humans, whom they see as inferior creatures.
  • Saturn says humans will "always breed more to make up for any loss". He's even downright offended when Vegapunk calls him on his Lack of Empathy, acting like it's common sense for him to be disconnected from the concerns of "mere insects". Even his own subordinates are mere worms to him: their concern over his health, when stabbed by Bonney, only annoyed him. Given his Arachnid Motif bestowed by his powers, it further highlights how he sees himself as naturally superior to them in the pecking order.
  • When Lucci asks him to spare Kaku, Mars is annoyed and replies that is hard for him to spare a bug during an extermination, highlighting how, in his eyes, all humans are the same.
• Irony: The five of them are an Omniscient Council of Vagueness intent on maintaining the oppressive and unbalanced status quo of the world government yet are each modeled after historical figures most notable for their pursuits of freedom and equality between people. Furthermore, their transformed forms are seemingly antithetical to their seat.
  • Marcus Mars, the Godhead of Environment, transforms into a creature said to appear only during periods of great famine and drought.
  • Nusjuro is in charge of Finance and Economy, but his transformed form is a barren, sterile skeletal being. He also wears a rather modest kimono, rather than the expensive-looking suits the others have, as if to imply miserliness.
  • Warcury, the Godhead of Justice can turn into a giant monster who used to prey relentlessly on innocent folks.
  • Ju Peter, the Godhead of Agriculture, transforms into a creature known for dwelling in deserts.
  • Saturn, the Godhead of Science and Defense, takes the form of a monster known not only for its savage and brutal nature, but also for its tendency to be warded off by superstitious actions like mantras or reciting paradoxes, both of which run antithetical to a scientific, strategic mind.
• Kaiju: Their transformations are massive, comparable in size to a giant, and monstrous.
• Knight Templar: Big time. Pretty much every decision they take is done mostly to keep order in the world.
• Lack of Empathy: Zigzagged. They are capable of some degree of remorse for their actions, such as the destruction of Ohara. However, they have shown countless times that they believe that the ends justify the means. No matter how many civilians die from the corruption of the government, they only care about maintaining order, lives be damned.
  Jaygarcia Saturn: Humans are no different than insects... Even if they lose their numbers, they will reproduce again.
• The Law of Diminishing Defensive Effort: The Five Elders don't bother to defend themselves in combat, despite having monstrous Haki which would permit it, because they're seemingly impossible to meaningfully damage and can regenerate from anything, even being blown to bits.
• Magical Star Symbols: When they arrive at Egghead, they are seemingly summoned out of a pentagram.
• Meaningful Name: They're named the "Five Elder Planets"^note The kanji for star can also be read as planet in Japanese, and each of the Elders are named after a planet.
• Mr. Exposition: Their role in the present tends to be commenting about recent events that might impact the current situation of the world, informing the readers as a result.
• Mysterious Past: For most of the story, it's heavily implied to have a story tied to the Void Century but is never revealed.
• Necessarily Evil: They view their actions as a necessary evil (although it's unknown what exactly they were afraid of the scholars finding). While they ultimately gave the order to destroy Ohara, they seemed very unhappy that the situation came to that.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: They order Guernica to kill Luffy during his fight with Kaido before he can awaken his Devil Fruit, even if it means he dies, and they anger Kaido. This act not only pisses Kaido off, but it actually helps Luffy awaken his Devil Fruit in the process, meaning he not only became stronger than ever, but they just lost one of their best agents for nothing.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: All five of them resemble historical figures notable for pursuing freedom and equality between people.
  • Shepherd Ju Peter resembles Abraham Lincoln (albeit with white hair).
  • Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro resembles Mahatma Gandhi.
  • Topman Warcury resembles Mikhail Gorbachev.
  • Marcus Mars resembles Taisuke Itagaki, leader of the Freedom And People's Rights Movement.
  • Jaygarcia Saturn resembles Karl Marx and Giuseppe Garibaldi, an Italian general and patriot who contributed to the Italian unification and the creation of the Kingdom of Italy in the late 19th century.
• No One Sees the Boss: Any Marine commodore rank or below aren't even allowed to look at one of the Five Elders, let alone talk to them. When Saturn arrives on Egghead, one low rank Marine looking at him has his head exploded for the act.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: While on the surface their extreme actions could be seen as them protecting order in the world, numerous instances like Flevance and the cover up of the prison break shows they are willing to put those same citizens they are supposed to protect in harms way out of greed or preventing their reputation and image from being shattered. With the reveal of Imu, it shows them being Co-Dragons to an Ancient Conspiracy that is willing to exact a purge towards anyone who could be perceived as a threat to the world government's power. They also downright enforce the slavery and racism in the system because they think some races deserve only enslavement because they are a sin against the world.
• Oh, Crap!: All of them are thunderstruck when they realize that not only has their collaboration with York been overheard by the Straw Hat Pirates, but that said pirate group has regained control over Egghead and fooled them into revealing their hand by using York to their advantage.
• Oh, No... Not Again!: Every time they're informed that Luffy did something against what the World Government represents, like defeating a Warlord, punching a Celestial Dragon or just messing around in one of their installations, the Five Elders react with annoyance.
• Older Than They Look: Implied. All of them are already fairly old-looking, but the flashback to the God Valley incident 38 years ago shows Saturn was also present, looking exactly the same as he does in the present. For contrast, Saint Figarland Garling was also present, but has since visibly aged into an old man by the present time.
• Old Master: Each of them, despite their old age, has a mysterious and frighteningly lethal power, fitting for the second-in-commands of the entire world of One Piece.
• The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: They're a group of old men who allegedly run the World Government, but between the Council of Kings handling international affairs, and the Fleet Admiral controlling the Navy, there's really no telling what they do day-to-day. The Five Elders have authority over everything and everyone under them, including the Kings and the Fleet Admiral, but most of the time they just vaguely comment on world affairs and focus more on perpetuating a conspicuous stalemate with their enemies. They have the larger goals which include ensuring that the government remains in control and continues to grow, dealing with those that seek to topple the government, and covering up their own history. And it's later revealed they don't quite have the highest authority either, as they secretly bow to one person by the name of Imu, who is the true ruler of the World Government.
• One-Winged Angel: All of them possess monstrous Zoan forms that they unleash when they need to engage in combat.
  • Saturn's hybrid form is a gigantic, demonic spider centaur with huge horns based on an ushi-oni. In his animal form, only his head remains human while the rest of his body is fully arachnid, his eyes becomes more bizarre, and his appendages are covered with corrosive venom. Notably, in this form Saturn doesn't even bother talking to his opponents, with most of his dialogues being mental conversation with his fellow Elders.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: They always remain in Mariejois in all of their appearances, yet during the Egghead Arc one of them, Jaygarcia Saturn, leaves Mariejois en route to Egghead to kill Vegapunk, showing how serious they are in completing the mission. Justified, as controlling the Pacifistas and the Seraphim on the island requires the orders of one of the Elders, the only people whose authority trumps even Vegapunk's own. As the situation on the island escalates to the point that a worldwide broadcast of Vegapunk threatening to reveal "the truth of the world" is set to occur in 10 minutes, the rest of the Elders join Saturn in attacking Egghead in a desperate attempt to thwart the impending reveal.
• Outside-Genre Foe: Played With. Devil fruits are native to the world of One Piece, but the powers and abilities displayed by Saturn and the rest of the Elders seem to be bizarre even by Devil Fruit standards, especially since they seem to share powers of the same type, which no Devil fruit or technology has demonstrated. This helps emphasize their nature as villainous counterparts to the Sun God Nika and his own outside-the-box powerset.
  • All the Elders seem to share a Psychic Link with each other that allows them to be in constant non-verbal communication, even when Saturn is mid-combat with Luffy. Whilst Den-Den Mushis allow for long-distance communication, this ability seems unique to the Elders and nothing like it has been demonstrated before. It's also shown that they can be summoned to each other's location regardless of distance through a magic-like pentagram, a feat never showcased before in a world where the main form of travel is across vast stretches of dangerous ocean.
  • All the Elders seem to be immune to aging either naturally or unnaturally, shown most overtly with Saturn looking the same in flashbacks to the God Valley incident and being unaffected by Bonny's Age-Age fruit. One marine even makes a comment that the last recorded depiction of the Elders was a painting rather than a photograph, emphasizing how long it's been since they ventured outside of the Holy Land.
• Perpetual Frowner: All five of them maintain a serious demeanor and don't even smirk.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • When Imu wants to test the new weapon the Mother Flame on the kingdom of Lulusia, the Elders try to persuade them from this not because it's wrong, but because there are a lot of people that live there who are a part of the World Government, despite the often-rebellious population. Once Imu makes it clear that they do not care, the Elders agree without hesitation.
  • The Elders don't care if Marines die, referring to them as "insects" and claiming that they can simply wait until new humans are bred to make up for any losses. However, they will still employ strategies to limit military casualties, unless it's necessary to achieve an important objective.
• Psychic Link: The Elders are capable of talking directly with each other with their minds regardless of distance, as Saturn is able to talk with the other Elders in Mariejois from Egghead, which is nearly half a world away.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: It turns out that these five old men aren't just bureaucrats sitting on a table, but they are capable of fighting back, which is a huge understatement, since Saturn alone has proven to be much more troublesome to fight than Admiral Kizaru due to the former's Healing Factor. V. Nusjuro is able to incapacitate the rouge Pacifistas in a flash. It shows that the Five Elders are much more capable on the battlefield than the Marine soldiers they deploy.
• Really 700 Years Old: Implied. The Perennial Youth Operation has been speculated to have been used on Imu, and during the God Valley Flashback, Saturn looks exactly the same as he did roughly forty years later, as opposed to characters like Garp, Kuma, and Garling who have aged to varying degrees. Bonney's Age-Age fruit fails to work on Saturn directly, making it clear that he can't be aged, either naturally or artificially.
• The Reveal: Sakazuki, Kong and the Marines think they are answering to the true rulers of the world... but the Elders themselves all answer to an even higher authority who is the absolute ruler of everything.
• They Look Just Like Everybody Else: Unlike the rest of Gonk Celestial Dragons, they have an ordinary appearance and dress in relatively mundane clothes while still being ruthless tyrants or rather, the servants of one.
• Scars Are Forever: The cut on Saturn's face adds to his weathered appearance and is a visual indicator that, for all their boasting, the Five Elders are not invincible. Ju Peter also sports a deep gash-like scar that runs across his collarbone.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: All of them wear pretty simple and sharp business suits, except for the one in the white robe.
• Slave to PR: In the end, all they really care about is maintaining the image of the World Government as a benevolent force for justice, rather than the corrupt oligarchy that it is. Examples of this include giving Smoker the credit for taking down Crocodile in Alabasta, and pretending that the Level Six convicts from Impel Down didn't escape, which is so bad that it causes Sengoku to resign as Fleet Admiral. Because of this mentality, they're incredibly upset when Fujitora announces that the World Government allowed Doflamingo's reign of terror over Dressrosa.
• Stellar Name: All of their first names are derived from the names of planets, with Saturn and Mars just taking the names directly and Ju Peter, V. Nusjuro and Warcury being variations on Jupiter, Venus and Mercury.
• Summoning Ritual: They are able to summon each other even from the other side of the world.
• Tautological Templar: At least in the anime rendition of the Ohara Buster Call incident, they've convinced themselves that they're "righteous" people, so everything they do, no matter how unpleasant, or the cost, is itself "righteous". The victims of Ohara would like to object. Oh wait, they can't, because a vice admiral killed them all for a minor chance that an archeologist might be on the ship.
• Threat Backfire: They keep raising the bounties on the Straw Hats because of how much they want them dead. The Straw Hats in general, and Luffy in particular, tend to see it as an accomplishment. Some other pirates also see increasing bounties as a symbol of pride.
• Treachery Cover Up: They tend to cover anything potentially embarrassing happening on the Government's watch:
  • Crocodile gets exposed trying to overthrow the King of Alabasta and defeated by the Straw Hats, a group of rookie pirates, but they say that the highest ranking Marine present was really responsible to save face. Smoker is pissed off when he learns of his undeserved merit.
  • Gecko Moria gets beaten by the Straw Hats, so they send Bartholomew Kuma to Leave No Witnesses. Then order Doflamingo to kill Moriah for being weak enough to get his ass kicked, and claim that he was killed in the Whitebeard War to maintain the Seven Warlords reputation.
  • Blackbeard, the man they chose to replace Crocodile in the Warlords, breaking out dozens of Level Six convicts from Impel Down? Pretend the whole thing never happened and not let the Marines issue bounties to track the escapees. Sengoku actually resigns because of this.
  • Explicitly defied in the Dressrosa arc. Most fans agree that Doflamingo's ties with the World Nobles would have allowed him to keep his Warlord status and given the chance, the Five Elders would have gone along with it, but Fujitora publicly announced what happened to other countries before the Five Elders even learned about it. When that happened, the Five Elders were put in a lose-lose situation: either let Doflamingo walk free and lose what little reputation they had, or allow Doflamingo to be arrested, let the Straw Hats take the credit, and piss off the World Nobles. The Five Elders ultimately chose the latter, but that doesn't mean they're happy about it given the bounty increases given to the Straw Hats and most of their allies during the arc.
  • After the Raid on Onigashima, the Elders note with the loss of two Emperors the world is likely going to change greatly and know they cannot cover up such huge news. However, they do try to minimize Luffy's success by removing the D. in his name and not posting his new bounty poster in his Joy Boy form. They were furious over Morgan's ignoring their demands and publishing it regardless.
• Undying Loyalty: They are all forever loyal to the true ruler of the world, Imu, who they revere as a god. No matter what Imu demands, they will follow their orders without hesitation, justifying their own cruelty as the will of the creator of the world.
• Villain No Longer Idle: The Five Elders, are known as The Omniscient Council of Vagueness for most of the story, implying they're just a bunch of old bureaucrats and not fighters. However, this is proven wrong when just one of them, St. Jaygarcia Saturn, crashlands on Egghead Island to take out the Straw Hats by himself. He displays abilities that are beyond what the manga has shown before and can be described as something closer to black magic. When Luffy proves to be too much for him to handle alone, Saturn brings the other four along to try and get the situation under control. As it turns out, the other four are equally monstrously powerful (with emphasis on "monstrously").
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Zigzagged. On the one hand, the Five Elders do try and preemptively eliminate Luffy before he unlocks the Fruit's true powers, even sacrificing one of their CP0 agents, only for Luffy to survive and awaken the fruit anyway. However, despite knowing the danger of it, they apparently make no overt moves to eliminate Luffy when he shows up as the newest wielder of the power, and repeatedly challenges the authority of the World Government.
• You Have Failed Me: Implied. When Guernica was given an order by them to kill Luffy during his fight with Kaido, he was shocked by the order, but carried it out knowing that if he failed, the Elders would have likely killed him.
• Youkai: Three of the Five Elders are based on Japanese demonic entities and one of them is based on a Chinese mythological monster. Only Ju Peter is not obviously based on a supernatural being, although given the demonic theme of the Five Elders one may equate him with the Mongolian Death Worm, a legendary Cryptid.
  • Saturn is revealed to be a Gyūki, an Ox-Demon Youkai, and his design and powers draws heavily from traditional depictions of the creature, down to having the ability to kill with a stare.
  • Marcus Mars is an Itsumade, a bird Yokai that is said to be an "eerie bird".
  • V. Nusjuro is a Bakotsu, which is said to be the vengeful, skeletal horse spirit that burned to death in its past life.
  • Warcury is a Fengxi, a gigantic boar from Chinese mythology that often terrorizes the countryside and causes great havoc.
  • Ju Peter is unusual in that he's only introduced as a Sandworm, and his title is also written in katakana.

Saint Jaygarcia Saturn

"Godhead of Science and Defense" Saint Jaygarcia Saturn

Voiced by: Keiichi Noda (JP), Jerry Russell (EN), J.B. Edwards (EN, Ep. 511 onward)

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

Devil Fruit: Unknown Ushi-Oni Zoan

^{Click here to see his hybrid form}

^{Click here to see his beast form}

"Why is it... that human beings feel the need to do what they are explicitly forbidden from doing?"

—Chapter 1095

The first of the Five Elders to be formally introduced and fleshed out. Jaygarcia Saturn is the Godhead of Science and Defense.

---

• Arch-Enemy:
  • The Egghead arc reveals Saturn to be the arch-enemy of Bartholomew Kuma. While Kuma has been in conflict with the World Government from a young age, the one enemy that he's persistently been involved with is Saturn, who has been a looming presence in his life since the day they first met, when he was a child slave in God Valley. Saturn in turn seems to have a particular focus on squashing Kuma as "punishment" for him being both born of the Buccaneer race as well as upholding the folklore of Sun God Nika and his ideals of freedom. This animosity between them later passes on to Kuma's adoptive daughter Bonney, who blames Saturn for Kuma's full conversion into a cyborg, an act that functionally killed her father and causes Bonney to try and kill Saturn in turn. To cement this hatred, Saturn reveals to her that he is the reason why Bonney contracted the Sapphire Scales disease that her father gave up his life to save her from, as they were the result of Saturn's experiments on her mother Ginny while she was held captive as a slave wife. Everything that has gone wrong in Kuma's adult life, and by extension Bonney's entire life, can be attributed to Saturn and his sheer disregard for those he deems "human".
  • Saturn harbors a deep resentiment towards Nika, specifically the very concept of him. Whilst Imu and the rest of the Elders are in natural opposition to the Sun God, Saturn has taken personal effort to try and undo Nika's very existence, showing a targeted focus on destroying those who espouse the ideals of the Hope Bringer in the most cruelest manner possible, in order to dissuade others from believing in him. As the Devil Fruit is apparently born from the hopes and dreams of those seeking freedom, crushing their spirits before their death helps lower the chance of Nika's continued existence, with Saturn showing a vested interest in breaking Bonney's belief in Nika foremost over even trying to kill the fruit's current vessel whilst he's helpless before him. The fact that his years of effort still can't erase Nika is one of the few things that visibly irritates Saturn.
• Armed Legs: He prefers using his legs in combat when in his One-Winged Angel form, as they all end in vicious spikes. In his full animal form, they're so poisonous they corrode trees upon touch.
• Badass Boast: After Bonney stabs him and as the Marines present are freaking out about it, Saturn has one thing to say:
  "Calm yourselves, pitiful worms! If I had been afraid of that attack, I would have simply dodged it."
• Badass Bookworm: Represents science as a Godhead, and is absolutely a force to be reckoned with. He warns Vegapunk against disobeying his order to erase Kuma's mind, since, as a scientist himself, he will know.
• Bad Boss: Shows no concern for the Cipher Pol agents trapped at Egghead, outright dismissing their safety for the sake of acquiring York and the Punk Records. After his transformation, he brutally kills one unlucky Marine simply for looking at him. After Bonney stabs him in the chest, the vice admirals are shocked and try to aide him, but rather than be grateful for this, Saturn's reaction is to insult them by calling them pitiful worms. The only person he seems to show any respect to is Admiral Kizaru.
• Berserk Button:
  • He keeps a stoic and composed demeanour on at all times, but one of the few things that causes a change in his dispassionate countenance is the mention of the Sun God Nika. Kuma saying he wanted to be like him to Saturn as a child make him focused on giving the boy the cruelest punishment possible for his faith, and he even brought it up decades later against Kuma's daughter Bonney, making it clear that he never forgot about it and has always held it against him. As Saturn's actions and words imply he's sincerely trying to erase the concept of the Hope Bringer from the minds of the populace, getting confronted with the fact that his long years of effort are All for Nothing again and again visibly frustrates him.
  • Befitting an absolute Control Freak, he's also angered by any orders he gives not being obeyed, expecting nothing less than Blind Obedience from those he commands and swiftly punishing any dissenters. He blows up the head of one low-ranking marine who looks upon his One-Winged Angel form against orders without any warning, and showcased an annoyed countenance when Vegapunk tried to use his scientific genius to Take a Third Option with his more morally questionable demands, making it bluntly clear to him they would be followed out to the letter, nothing less. It's to the point that even with Kuma unleashing a powerful punch square in his face, he's more concerned with how he's still in one piece after he activated his Self-Destruct Mechanism, demanding answers from Vegapunk the instant he recovers as to how he circumvented his explicit orders. Learning that Vegapunk directly disobeyed the orders about the Pacifista's command structure to have Bonney be capable of overriding even his direct commands sends him into an icy fury, instantly stabbing the scientist through the back with an expression of visible anger.
• Big Bad Ensemble: He, along with York, are the Arc Villains of the Egghead Arc.
• Blatant Lies: After he realises that Bonney has no idea what Nika is supposed to look like, he claims her Nika-ish future form has lost its strength against him because Bonney is starting to doubt that somebody like Nika truly exists after witnessing her father's Dark and Troubled Past and all the abuse he suffered for upholding belief in the mythological being. Saturn states that her Imagination-Based Superpower hits a limit when Bonney is faced with harsh reality and the limitations therein, and thus she cannot draw on the strength of a being that isn't real... after Luffy used Gear Five multiple times throughout the arc and is lying mere feet away from them in plain sight. Of course it helps that Bonney is, at the time, unaware Luffy's Gear Five form makes him the incarnation of Nika.
• Break Them by Talking: As he holds Bonney in his grasp, he proceeds to gloat about how he screwed Kuma over by making him suffer a Death of Personality, in order to cure the very disease that he himself gave to Ginny and Bonney, by means of Devil Fruit experimentation. He then mocks her for believing in Nika, a "worthless Buccaneer legend". Justified, in that he is aware Bonney has an Imagination-Based Superpower, so breaking her spirit is the perfect way to weaken her.
• Control Freak: As the first Elder to get fully characterised, Saturn showcases the controlling and oppressive nature of the World Goverment's top brass in every scene he's in. Every statement he gives is to be taken as fact and followed with absolute Blind Obedience, with any digression resulting in punishment befalling on you or your loved ones. He rudely dismisses the opinions of others and overrules them without a second thought whenever he decides events will proceed as he decides, and constantly shuts down Vegapunk whenever he tried to use his scientific creativity to Take a Third Option, making it clear that this would not be tolerated.
• Deadly Gaze: One of his abilities is to cause physical harm to others simply by glaring at them intensely. When a low-ranking Marine looks upon him against orders, a quick gaze causes his head to explode. Sanji is knocked back by the force despite being Made of Iron. Against Luffy in Gear Five, Luffy reacts as if he was punched in the face but isn't meaningfully impeded by the attempt.
• Determinator: Even as he keeps suffering setback after setback and being constantly outplayed by Vegapunk's foresight, Saturn just becomes more committed to wiping out all his opposition on Egghead no matter the consequences. When Gear 5 Luffy flattens him and Kizaru both into discus shapes and flings them away, whilst Kizaru crashes into a battleship and has to recover from the bizarre attack, Saturn turns his trajectory into a boomerang arc and utilises his spinning momentum to turn himself into a buzzsaw-like attack back on Luffy immediately, to the latter's disgruntlement that no attack he pulls can meaningfully incapacitate him or keep him away for long, even at the height of his fruit's power.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • For the crime of looking at him, Saturn blows a Marine's head off.
  • He considers Kuma's persistent determination to believe in the folklore and ideals of Nika and freedom as sufficient grounds for him and his entire race to be wiped off the face of the Earth as long as they persistently resisted the will of the World Government. Later, it is implied that all the horrible things he did to Kuma and Bonney were driven out of spite for the former, just because he had the "gall" to declare his intentions to be like Nika to Saturn's face when he was just a kid.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
  • Saturn seems genuinely perplexed by the mere suggestion he should concern himself with the feelings of 'insects' around him, acting as if it's just common sense that he wouldn't. Likewise, he is absolutely convinced that making those who believe in Nika have the most depressing and cruelest ending possible will convince others of the folly in believing in a figure that "doesn't exist". He is completely blind to the fact that such constant oppressive policies will only make said victims believe in Nika more to allow themselves to keep going, leaving him continually frustrated whenever another mention of Nika pops up despite his best efforts.
  • After Vegapunk explains Kuma is still moving and able to attack him because of The Power of Love, Saturn can only respond that it's a 'flaw in the human form' and an 'error in the programming,' unable to see it as anything else.
  • It never even entered his mind that Vegapunk would risk his life to prevent the Pacifistas from killing Bonney using her father's image. Learning Vegapunk did exactly that furthers the Elder's Villainous Breakdown.
• Evil Counterpart: As the Godhead of Science and Defense, Saturn is similar to Vegapunk, but lacks the latter's moral standards. Both are Mad Scientists but their behavior and demeanor directly contrast each other. Vegapunk is a colorful, flawed and somewhat quirky individual who means well despite his missteps. Saturn is a drab dark humourless and manipulative totalitarian without any redeeming qualities who is actively malicious in his actions. Vegapunk seeks to protect the innocent through scientific advancement, Saturn twists Vegapunk’s efforts to satisfy his lust for power and eliminate any threats to the World Government's authority and reputation. Vegapunk is kind and empathetic, Saturn is cruel and displays a disturbing Lack of Empathy. Vegapunk is reluctant to experiment on human subjects without their consent. Saturn is all too happy to do inhuman experiments to other individuals which include Ginny, Bonney’s mother.
• Evil Is Bigger: Saturn's One-Winged Angel form is absolutely massive, so large that he's able to hold Bonney in one hand like she was a toy. His beast form is even bigger.
• Evil Is Petty: En route to Egghead, he orders that the ships containing innocent researchers who are unaware of Vegapunk's research be hunted down and sunk regardless, just in case somebody on board knows more than they should, which can be chalked up to brutal pragmatism. However, he later reveals this to Vegapunk's face, solely to spite him after he discovers that Vegapunk managed to work around his explicit orders with Kuma's Self-destruct, highlighting his petty malice.
• Faux Affably Evil: On the surface he comes across as soft-spoken and polite, cordial with friends and enemies alike, capable of giving credit where it's due, not blaming Kizaru for failing to defeat Luffy's Awakened form, and complimenting even his enemies where they do something unexpected... and as he takes the field against the Straw Hats and Vegapunks, he then coldly and nonchalantly proceeds to tell them to choose who dies first and in the most painful way, as he wants them to die regretting opposing the World Government.
• Extremity Extremist: In his One-Winged Angel form, he seems to attack almost exclusively with his legs if he performs a physical attack, while keeping his hands on his walking stick.
• Feel No Pain: Despite boasting abnormal power befitting one of the topmost rulers of the World Government, Saturn is surprisingly easy to injure, being stabbed and blasted clean through with little resistance. However, he never reacts like the injuries actually hurt despite this, at most, showing an annoyed glare at the audacity of somebody attacking him. Even getting smacked in the head hard enough to rip off his arm doesn't seem to genuinely harm him, with Saturn showing more outrage at Kuma's ability to still act in defiance of his will than pain at being attacked.
• Finishing Stomp: His favorite move in his One-Winged Angel form seems to be attempting to kill someone by stomping and impaling them with the deadly spikes each of his legs end with.
• The Force Is Strong with This One: When Saturn makes his move on Egghead everyone there that can sense Haki immediately can feel his presence, with Jimbei wondering what could be producing such an unearthly feeling around them. The Vegapunks likewise freak out when they realize that one of the Five Elders is on the island with them.
• Healing Factor: Almost as soon as he removes the sword that impaled him, the wound mends itself. Even the blood disappears. It's so powerful that he can regrow entire limbs, with them seeming to reform out of the cloudy aura emanating from his body as an Awakened Zoan. The effect looks like the body parts are almost being restored from thin air, in an unnatural manner that highlights Saturn's otherworldly abilities.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Activating Kuma's Self-Destruct Mechanism was what allowed Kuma's patternal instincts to take full control of his body, as the mechanism Vegapunk installed was a shutdown-switch rather than a bomb. This culminates on Kuma landing a Haki-Infused punch directly on his face which temporarily knocks him out, breaks his horns and limbs and allows the Straw-Hats to escape Saturn's influence joining the fight.
  • He orders the Kuma-shaped Pacifistas to stay behind on Egghead while the Buster Call takes place just because he wants Bonney to be killed by the very image of the father who selflessly gave up his life to save her, calling this "the height of folly". This backfires on him when it turns out Vegapunk has granted Bonney supreme authority over all Kuma-shaped Pacifistas, precisely because he knew there was always a possibility of this happening and wanted to prevent such a tragedy.
• Hope Crusher: He steps in to personally end Vegapunk's escape attempt and all of the Straw Hats with him, just when it looked like they had a chance to escape through the Pacifistas on their side and with gear 5 Luffy holding back Kizaru. He even allows Bonney to stab him with a sword, just to illustrate how pointless her efforts to land meaningful damage on him are to break her spirits, and outright asks the assembled allies paralysed before him what the most painful order for them to die in would be, just to make sure they die regretting ever crossing the World Government. All of his actions and lamenting how humans always do whatever they are explicitly forbidden from doing imply he cultivates this attitude to best undo the concept of Nika the Sun God itself, trying to destroy the faith of those who believe in the Hope Bringer in the cruelest manner possible, so the concepts that sustain the fruit eventually vanish along with it. Getting faced with the fact that generations of effort still isn't enough to undo Nika is one of the few things that can visibly upset him.
• Horns of Villainy: His monstrous form has a pair of huge horns to complete his demonic appearance.
• I Don't Pay You to Think: Every time Vegapunk protests his orders by coming up with alternative ways to address the key concerns behind them, Saturn quickly shuts him down by ordering him to follow his commands to the letter.
  "Do not answer. I'm not interested in the opinions of a scientist for hire."
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
  • Bonney rams a katana blade into his chest. He more or less seems unfazed by it, and quickly removes the injury.
  • Saturn's main attack in his hybrid or animal form is attempting to impale his enemies with the deadly spikes on his legs, which are poisoned as well.
• It's Personal: Saturn usually maintains a dispassionate attitude towards others, acting like responding to the animosity of "insects" is completely beneath him. However, after discovering that Vegapunk began researching around the Void Century, which is strictly forbidden by the World Government, and seemingly found a way around Saturn's order to put a self-destruct mechanism on Kuma, it puts a noticeable crack in his haughty demeanour, with Saturn becoming actively malicious and spiteful in his attitude towards Vegapunk and taking vindictive pleasure in his suffering, such as telling him the researchers who evacuated Egghead will be hunted down for possibly knowing some unfathomable secret and that Vegapunk himself is to blame for it.
• Knight of Cerebus: The Egghead Arc gets several times more dire once Saturn decides to deal with the heroes himself, lacking any hint of humor or whimsy about the matter. And being the first of the Five Elders to appear at length, he gives a glimpse at just how depraved they truly are and how much more rotten the World Government is to its core.
• Lack of Empathy: The Elders generally display a total lack of care for human life aside from sheer pragmatism, and Saturn appears to be the worst of them. He expresses no concern over the lives of the Marines and Cipher Pol agents under his command and was perfectly content in forcing Kuma into losing his free will for the Pacifista program and selling his daughter Bonney into slavery should he betray them, stating he cares nothing about the well-being of a child. And this is all while knowing the very disease he's using as leverage was his own fault. He's actually rather perplexed anyone would expect him to be capable of concerning himself with the feelings of 'insects' when Vegapunk calls him on it.
  "Hmph... Put yourself in my shoes. Would you bother yourself with the feelings of insects? It is impossible..."
• Laser-Guided Karma: Saturn sees most people as insects and can turn into a giant spider-like creature. When Bartholomew Kuma, the man whose life he made a living hell, finally gives him the face-cracking punch he deserves, he ends up squashed underneath a bunch of buildings like the parasitic bug he is. Sure, he doesn't actually die from it, but it's enough to precipitate a Villainous Breakdown.
• The Law of Diminishing Defensive Effort: Saturn would rather abuse his Healing Factor to break the spirits of his enemies than prevent any damage they could deal at all.
• Leave No Survivors: Saturn orders the ship full of civilians leaving Egghead destroyed because those aboard might know about the Void Century.
• Mad Scientist: Played With. He's not a complete science-obsessed Cloudcuckoolander like Vegapunk and his own pushing of the boundaries of possibility, but he oversees Science as a Godhead, and pointedly has none of Vegapunk's own empathy or good intentions for any scientific creations. He insisted the Pacifista army would be weapons of the government, rather than shields for the innocent like their creator and benefactor intended, and his use of science gets pointedly contrasted against Vegapunk's when he coldly threatens Vegapunk to stick to their agreement and utterly erase Kuma's personality, vetoing his suggestion of a Flip Personality and making it clear he'll use his own scientific acumen to make sure Vegapunk does nothing less than subject Kuma to becoming a mindless cyborg. It would later be revealed he experimented on Bonney's mother Ginny, resulting in her and then Bonney having Sapphire Scale disease, and then experimented on Bonney herself as an infant just to see if a baby could be given a Devil Fruit power before even being able to eat solid food.
• Major Injury Underreaction: When Kuma decks him in the face with a Megaton Punch hard enough to tear off one of his arms, he's unnervingly unreactive to the mangled state of his body, his first priority upon recovering being to demand answers from Vegapunk about how he managed to defy his commands, treating the grievous injuries as a further humiliation he has to endure rather than life-threatening wounds. Even if his Healing Factor can fix the damage in seconds, he still acts like the attack didn't actually hurt him.
• Manipulative Bastard: He had surveillance on Vegapunk during his conversation with Kuma. Disappointed with Vegapunk not taking advantage of the situation, Saturn forced Kuma to become a Warlord and into the Pacifista program to lose his free will and humanity or his daughter Bonney would either be sold off to slavery or killed. And then comes The Reveal he was the one who caused Ginny and Bonney's Sapphire Scale disease and knowingly used Kuma's kindness to turn him into a Full-Conversion Cyborg in service of the World Government.
• Never My Fault: When Vegapunk angrily tells him the researchers he ordered killed are innocent people who hadn't done anything Saturn responds by saying that its Vegapunk's fault for looking into the Void Century.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: He activates Kuma's Self-Destruct Mechanism expecting Kuma to blow up and take out the Revolutionary Army after being retrieved. Unbeknownst to him, Vegapunk's mechanism was not a bomb but rather a simple shutdown-switch that disables him from receiving any further orders. This allows Kuma to run purely on instinct allowing the Buccaneer to arrive on Egghead and save Bonney with the rest of the Straw Hats.
• No-Sell: As opposed to top-tier fighters who are barely phased or react to powerful attacks, he's vulnerable to being hurt even by regular swords, and he repeatedly suffers grievous injury courtesy of multiple people during the Egghead arc. However, his healing ability renders all form of attacks ineffective no matter how powerful. He's also the first person to be seemingly unaffected by Devil Fruit powers, even those of a Mythical Zoan, as Bonney was unable to age him at all, and Gear 5's reality-warping attacks, which were capable of brutalizing an admiral, don't even phase him or prevent him from quickly counter-attacking Luffy.
• Not So Stoic: Saturn appears as a stoic sociopath for most of his time on Egghead. However, when Kuma arrives to punch him in the face, his stoic facade slips first into fear, then disbelief, and finally into utter fury.
• Oh, Crap!: He finally shows fear when Kuma arrives in full Papa Wolf mode just in the nick of time to save Bonney from him before proceeding to attempt a Haki-Infused punch directly to his face.
• Painting the Medium: To highlight his demonic appearance, the font used to introduce him in the same panel is one that looks jagged, sharp and edgy.
• Personality Powers: The mythical Ushi-Oni is known for its savage and brutal nature — something which Saturn demonstrates in spades, crushing any enemy in his path mercilessly and deeming even the simplest of slights to himself as something worthy of death and torment. Similar to how the Ushi-Oni is said to be warded off by superstitious practices like chanting mantras, Saturn is the most adamant of the Elders in his hatred of the legend of Nika, doing everything in his power to eradicate even the slightest notion of faith in the Sun God.
• Poisonous Person: When fully transformed into a Ushi-Oni, the spikes on his legs become poisonous enough to melt trees upon touching them.
• Power Makes Your Hair Grow: His transformation makes his beard grow even longer and thicker, similar to a cloud.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • He agrees to let Vegapunk make a deal with Kuma because the latter would make the ideal host for the Pacifista Clone Army, though he proceeds to amend the agreement into making it effectively a Deal with the Devil, in order for Vegapunk to cure Bonney. He also agrees to let Bonney stay in Sorbet Kingdom instead of Mariejois saying that it doesn't matter where she is as long as she is under World Government supervision.
  • When finally facing the Straw Hats he immediately takes the opportunity to try and kill a weakened Luffy (who's just hit his Hour of Power limit) with a Finishing Stomp, but after his crew save him, he orders Luffy to be chained with Seastone cuffs instead. As he considers his true enemy to be Nika the Sun God and Luffy a mere vessel for his power, he is perfectly ok with just killing Luffy if the opportunity presents itself, but if Luffy can be captured instead, it would allow the World Government to somewhat contain their long-time foe. Similarly, since killing Luffy wouldn't actually destroy Nika, Saturn's focus is on destroying the faith of those who believe in the Sun God first and foremost before turning his attention to the fruit's current vessel, even if they're less of a physical threat to him than the awakened Nika.
• Punched Across the Room: When Kuma's punch connects with his face, it sends him down across several blocks away from his initial location and breaks through several buildings. Said punch also breaks one his horns, his hand and one of his spider-legs.
• Rage Quit: The mission to Egghead has three goals: kill Vegapunk, secure Punk Records, and secure the factory that produces the Mother Flame. Retrieving York joins the list later on. However, after Kuma lands a haki infused punch on his face despite all logic, allowing the Straw Hats to begin attacking him, Saturn loses it and orders a Buster Call to obliterate the island.
• Reminiscing About Your Victims:
  • As he holds Bonney in his grasp, he proudly recalls how he screwed Kuma over, before proceeding to reveal that it was him who was responsible for Ginny and Bonney developing the Sapphire Scales disease, by means of experimenting on Ginny with Devil Fruit extracts which were passed on along with her disease to her daughter. It doesn’t go well for him, because it gives Kuma time to catch up to the situation and go all Papa Wolf on his ass.
  • He later divulges to Vegapunk that he ordered the destruction of the civilian evacuation ship carrying the entirety of Egghead's unarmed denizens, just to see the pained look on his face.
• Satanic Archetype: He ticks several checkmarks for the Satanic archetype since appearing on Egghead—being summoned via a pentagram, his One-Winged Angel form resembling a giant demonic spider with horns, and he even initiated a Deal with the Devil type situation with Kuma, making him basically sell his soul to the World Government in exchange for curing his daughter's illness. There's also the fact that the Celestial Dragons fashion themselves as gods, with Saturn himself even having the title of 'Godhead of Science and Defense,' fitting the idea of the Devil and demons deceiving others into worshipping them. The cherry on top is that his name is one character away from Satan when written in Japanese: Saturn is written as サターン, or Satān.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!:
  • When he eavesdropped on Vegapunk and Kuma making a deal for the former to create clone soldiers using the latter's biological data, in exchange for Vegapunk curing Bonney's disease, he scoffed at their intention for the clones to become shields to protect the innocent civilians.
  Saturn: Clone soldiers are weapons!! And weapons are valued by how many they can kill.
  • He also views The Power of Love as simply a flaw or error in humans rather than a source of strength.
• Spider People: He has the ability to transform into a giant spider-human hybrid, implied to be an Awakened Mythical Zoan.
• The Sociopath: Saturn has zero empathy for anyone, has the expected Celestial Dragon perception of himself as above everyone else to the point they might as well be insects, and is able to appear reasonable when he needs to. He also rarely ever shows any emotion, fitting the shallow emotions aspect, and seems genuinely perplexed by the mere suggestion he should consider the feelings of anyone he sees as beneath him.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: He never loses his cool, even as he's inviting his enemies to decide who among them gets to die first. Young Kuma stating that he wanted to be more like the legend of Nika and save as many people as he could just made Saturn more coldly focused on breaking him for trying to go against the way the World Government dictates the world works. The end result is Saturn making Kuma and Bonney's entire lives a living Hell for no other reason but spiting Kuma for this, out of his commitment towards destroying the very concept of Nika itself.
• Summon Magic: Saturn is capable of calling forth the other Elders towards his location, which he demonstrates during the Egghead arc in order to prevent Vegapunk's global broadcast from revealing any dangerous information.
• The Stoic: Saturn never shows any emotion whatsoever, not even when directly overseeing and enabling some of the most horrid atrocities imaginable. The only thing that causes a slight change in his demeanour is the mention of the Sun God, Nika, causing him to sport a subtle irritated glare at the offender.
• Targeted to Hurt the Hero: Saturn's main tactic against the enemies of the World Government is to threaten those they care about to either force compliance with his demands or to serve as an example. His main target is not any living being, however, but the concept of Nika the Sun God itself, showing a targeted focus on tormenting and breaking any who believe his legend before killing them in the cruelest manner possible as a detriment to others from following their example. Should enough people's faith waver, it would erase the very concepts that sustain the fruit's existence and finally kill their long-time enemy for good. He even focuses on breaking Bonney's faith over targeting the fruit's current vessel when both are helpless before him. As for the crew of said vessel, Saturn makes it clear to them that their horrible demise is guaranteed, save the worst order for them all to die in one by one.
• This Cannot Be!: Saturn can't comprehend Kuma still being able to move and attack him via the Power of Love. Justified, as even Vegapunk admits this shouldn't be possible.
  Saint Saturn: Why is this happening, Vegapunk?! He should be dead!!! A few days after the Revolutionary Army... took Kuma away... I pressed... his self-destruct switch!!!
• Too Clever by Half: Saturn is genuinely extremely intelligent, as the Godhead of Science, but his inability to comprehend empathy and love blinds him to what others might do to protect the ones they love. His massive ego and sense of superiority over everyone else also blinds him, causing him to underestimate Vegapunk and be left blindsided when Vegapunk manages to find a loophole in his order to put a self-destruct in Kuma. He also didn't see Vegapunk putting Bonney at the top of the Pacifistas' command list to prevent her from being killed by the image of her father coming.
• To the Pain: Invites his enemies to choose between themselves who is to die first, in whatever order would be the most painful. In Saturn's mind, the more depressing and horrifying the demise of those who believe in Nika, the more damage is done to the very concepts that sustain the fruit's existence.
• Tranquil Fury: He doesn't say a word, but on learning that Vegapunk disobeyed his direct orders and made Bonney the topmost commander in the Pacifistas' command hierarchy, capable of overrunning even the Five Elders' direct commands, absolutely enrages him, with him instantly attacking the scientist with an uncharacteristic expression of rage visible on his face.
• Underestimating Badassery: Saturn genuinely believes that he's smart enough Vegapunk can't pull the wool over his eyes and if the other scientist tries anything while putting a self-destruct into Kuma, Saturn, being a scientist himself, will know it. Vegapunk still managed to outsmart Saturn by still putting one in, just not the kind that Saturn expected. Vegapunk also outsmarted him by putting Bonney above even the Five Elders on the Pacifistas' command structure.
• Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object: During the Egghead arc, Saturn becomes the "immovable object" against Gear 5 Luffy's "unstoppable force". Saturn's Deadly Gaze can either blow up heads at a glance, or acts as an especially damaging attack when used on the Straw Hats, but when used on Luffy, he acts like he just received an invisible punch in the head and shrugs it off without issue. Luffy proves capable of casually overpowering both Saturn and Admiral Kizaru at the same time, even making the admiral-class fighter cough blood from his mere grip strength, but whereas Kizaru gets knocked down whenever Luffy lands a direct hit on him, Saturn bizarre's Healing Factor ensures he can recover from any damage inflicted nigh-endlessly. Luffy gripes that no matter how imaginative or damaging the hit he lands, Saturn always retaliates without letting up once. The urgency in needing to halt Vegapunk's worldwide broadcast after his Dead Man's Switch is activated forces Saturn to summon the rest of the Elders to aid him in overcoming the stalemate, unable to bypass Luffy on his own.
• Villainous Breakdown: When Kuma arrives to attack him, Saturn's stoic, smug persona faulters as he cannot comprehend how its possible, to the point that he's too taken off guard to defend himself. Afterwards, Saturn is left absolutely livid to the point of :throwing aside everything on Egghead to destroy it in a fury. On a minor note, he is so furious that some translations have him drop his more formal speech pattern for a few moments when he asks Vegapunk what's going on. When Bonney demonstrates that she's capable of overriding his orders to the Pacifista thanks to Vegapunk installing her at the top of their command structure, it visibly cracks his stoic countenance and has him attacking in furious spite.
• Villain Has a Point: Saturn unfairly blames Vegapunk for the destruction on Egghead during the Buster Call claiming Vegapunk's own greed and lust for knowledge brought about the situation. While it's nothing more than a petty jab at Vegapunk, Saturn isn't wrong. Vegapunk chose to research the Void Century in secret and his Satellite, York, who is a manifestation of his own greed brought about the whole Egghead Incident and never bothered to keep his own greed in check. Vegapunk's silence towards his statement implies he doesn't disagree with him.
• Villain of Another Story: It soon become apparent that, while the Straw Hats have never been involved with Saturn until their first meeting with him in the Egghead arc, he's been the main villain of Kuma and Bonney's story since Kuma was a child. In fact, as it turns out every single bad thing in Kuma and Bonney's entire lives is Saturn's fault.
• Villain Respect: When he confronts Vegapunk face-to-face on Egghead and prepares to have him executed, he does mention that the contributions he provided to the World Goverment's military forces are appreciated regardless, as another scientist. It comes across more as mockery than anything, especially since it's revealed Saturn himself coerced Vegapunk and Kuma into making the Pacifista Clone Army into weapons of oppression, rather than shields for the innocent like they intended.
• We Have Reserves: Although he is pragmatic enough to not recklessly send his forces and risk heavy losses, he doesn't think much of them in general. As far as he's concerned, even valuable agents are worth discarding if the situation comes to that: even Rob Lucci did not so much as come to his mind when making a list of things to be preserved, until reminded. He also casually blows up a low ranking Marine's head for looking at him.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Zigzagged. Saturn's main target is Nika the Sun God. However, he is focused on killing the idea of the Sun God itself rather than any vessel it incarnates into, seeing it as a temporary victory at best. Therefore, when he has both Luffy and Bonney helpless before him, after he fails to immediately kill the weakened Luffy with a Finishing Stomp, he switches targets to breaking Bonney's faith in Nika instead of pressing his advantage against the holder of the awakened fruit.
• Wrong Context Magic: As opposed to normal Devil Fruits falling under the general usage of "superpowers" of a set type depending on the fruit, whatever abilities Saturn possesses practically fall under the heading of actual magic. He can teleport far distances through a demonic-looking pentagram, seems able to sense when the orders to not look at him are being disobeyed and easily blows up the offender's head with a Deadly Gaze, easily paralyses Vegapunk and the Straw Hats without any obvious gestures, and allows Bonney to stab him to demonstrate that he can remove the injury entirely, leaving not even a drop of blood behind, like the attack never happened at all. Vegapunk thinks that it must be a Devil Fruit's powers if he's not using some technology, but almost no Devil Fruit has demonstrated abilities this varied before. When Saturn is confronted by Catarina Devon, the latter even openly wonders what his powers are after seeing him.
• You Cannot Kill An Idea: No matter how harsh the punishments delivered or the horrific fates dealt to those who believe in the concept of Nika, the idea of the Sun God itself never vanishes from the minds and hearts of the oppressed, ensuring Nika continually appears to antagonise the World Government time and again over its long reign.
• Your Head A-Splode: When he catches a low ranking Marine looking at him, he casually makes his head explode with a glance.
• You Said You Would Let Them Go: Downplayed. Saturn made a deal with Kuma, holding Bonney hostage in order to ensure Kuma's compliance and make sure he doesn't escape with Bonney before his personality is erased. Once Kuma's Death of Personality is complete, however, Saturn actually does let her go and doesn't go out of his way to hurt her, but once she stabs him, he holds her up in the air and orders the Marines to execute her.

Saint Marcus Mars

"Godhead of Environment" Saint Marcus Mars

Voiced by: Keiichi Sonobe (JP), Masato Hirano (JP, Episode 277), Randy Pearlman (EN)

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

Devil Fruit: Unknown Itsumade Zoan

^{Click here to see his beast form}

Marcus Mars is the Godhead of Environment.

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• Alliterative Name: Marcus Mars.
• Beard of Evil: He's got a long beard, shaped like a trident, adding points to his villainous design.
• Feathered Fiend: Mars possesses the ability to turn into an Itsumade, a gigantic and eerie bird.
• Giant Flyer: Mars can transform into a giant Itsumade, a bird yokai.
• Morphic Resonance: Mars' Itsumade form keeps the long hair of his human form.
• Toothy Bird: While transformed into an Itsumade, Mars has a large set of fangs in his beak, making his animal form look more monstruous.

Saint Topman Warcury

"Godhead of Justice" Saint Topman Warcury

Voiced by: Masato Hirano (JP), Kurt Kleinmann (EN)

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

Devil Fruit: Unknown Fengxi Zoan

^{Click here to see his beast form}

The seemingly oldest of the Five Elders, alongside V. Nusjuro, Topman Warcury is the Godhead of Justice.

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• Awesomeness Is a Force: The Egghead Arc confirms that he's capable of using Conqueror's Haki, which he can use as a Super-Scream.
• Bald of Evil: He's bald since his first appearance, which highlights his malicious ways of thought.
• Beard of Evil: He's got a long and thick mustache that sticks out from his face, similar to Whitebeard's, but it's much longer, thicker and wavier. It almost looks like a weapon. When transformed into a Fengxi, his tusks resemble his mustache, and because of that, the silhouette of his transformation during the Reverie made it easier to identify him.
• Fangs Are Evil: Aside of four large tusks, while transformed into a Fengxi, Warcury has an entire set of sharp fangs, making his animal form look more ferocious and dangerous.
• Full-Boar Action: He transforms into a Fengxi, a giant multi-tusked boar, and he can definitely hold his own in battle.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Warcury appears to have at least some standards compared to his fellow Elders. When Imu wanted to test the Mother Flame on Lulusia Kingdom, Warcury was the only one to note that the island was heavily populated. He was also disappointed when Jinbe resigned from the Seven Warlords of the Sea since it had improved relations between humans and Fish-men, showing that he values racial harmony. Still, he had no problem with having Lulusia Kingom destroyed when Imu reaffirmed the decision.
• Morphic Resonance: Warcury can become a Fengxi, which has two pairs of tusks shaped similar to his moustache.
• Punny Name: Warcury is a portmanteau of "war" and "Mercury".
• Sinister Swine: He's a prominent figure in the corrupted World Government and is able to transform into a Fengxi (or Houki in Japanese), a gigantic boar with four tusks.
• Super-Scream: In his Fengxi form, Warcury can release an incredibly powerful roar containing Conqueror's Haki, strong enough to shake Egghead and put Luffy, Dorry and Brogy on the defensive.

Saint Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro

"Godhead of Finance" Saint Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro

Voiced by: Kenichi Ogata (JP), Kent Williams (EN), Doug Burks (EN, 2nd voice), Doug Jackson (EN, 3rd voice)

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

Devil Fruit: Unknown Bakotsu Zoan

^{Click here to see his hybrid form}

^{Click here to see his beast form}

The only member of the Five Elders seen wielding a weapon, Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro is the Godhead of Finance.

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• Bald of Evil: He's old, bald, and a prominent member of the Five Elders, the leaders of the corrupted World Government. The bald head makes him look more cunning.
• Black Swords Are Better: The blade of his katana is pitch black, implied that he's among the top class swordsmen in One Piece's world.
• Flash Step: In his hybrid form, he moves so fast the Marines can't even see him clearly as he cuts down all the rogue Pacifista.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: He is the only one of the Five Elders to wear glasses, and he is as corrupt as the others.
• Hellish Horse: He is able to transform into a Bakotsu, a skeletal horse that is said to be the spirit of a horse that burned to death in a fire.
• An Ice Person: His sword can instantly freeze his enemies. Given his skeletal form, it may use the same principle as Brook.
• Master Swordsman: He keeps a sword in every appearance and when he arrives at Egghead, he cuts down numerous Pacifistas on Egghead, each with a single strike.
• Mysterious Middle Initial: What his middle inital, V. stands for remains unknown.
• Odd Name Out: Most notably, unlike the other Elders he shares the naming with the people of Wano, having "Nus" (Nasu) written in katakana and "Juro" written in Kanji.
• Our Centaurs Are Different: While in his hybrid form, V. Nusjuro keeps his human upper half while the lower half is that of a skeletal equine.
• Punny Name: V. Nusjuro is a pun on "Venus", which has the "-juro" suffix added to fit his Japanese-like appearance.
• Scary Skeleton: His Bakotsu form turns him into a gigantic and monstrous skeletal horse which is larger than even Saturn in his full Gyūki form.
• Uniformity Exception: V. Nusjuro is the only one of the Five Elders clad in white, while the others wear dark clothing.

Saint Shepherd Ju Peter

"Godhead of Agriculture" Saint Shepherd Ju Peter

Voiced by: Yasunori Masutani (JP), Michael Johnson (EN)

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

Devil Fruit: Unknown Sandworm Zoan

^{Click here to see his beast form}

The seemingly youngest of the Five Elders, Shepherd Ju Peter is the Godhead of Agriculture.

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• Creepy Cool Crosses: In his name: the Ju in Ju Peter is written with the kanji for "ten", which is shaped like a cross and therefore also used to refer to crosses (Juji, literally "Ten-Shaped"). Fits with the general divine motif of the Celestial Dragons.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Inverted. He's blonde, which would make him look nice, but he's actually a World Noble and one of the highest figures of the corrupt World Government.
• Off with His Head!: The transformed Ju Peter tries to swallow Luffy whole, only for Dorry and Brogy to slice his head off, freeing Luffy.
• Punny Name: Ju Peter is a pun on "Jupiter".
• Sand Worm: He has the ability to transform into a gigantic, monstrous worm that can burrow underground.
• Swallowed Whole: He tries to swallow Luffy whole, but is stopped by Dorry and Brogy after they slice him up.
• Tunnel King: Thanks to being able to transform into a giant worm, he is able to dig through the earth with ease.
• Uniformity Exception: Ju Peter stands out with his blonde hair, which makes him look younger than his four fellow Elders, and the monster he can transform into is the only one that is not based on a yokai or another old, mythical beast, but it is based on a much more modern creature instead.

The Holy Knights

In General

The Holy Knights

Debut: Chapter 1054 (Manga)

The Holy Knights

The Holy Knights are a squad of royal guards that operate within the Holy Land of Mariejois. In the World Government, they are the only authorized law enforcement within Mariejois, possessing more authority than even the Marines. They are responsible for handling disputes between the World Nobles.

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• Aristocrats Are Evil: They are the reason the Holy Land is how it is. In addition to Celestial Dragons genuinely not understanding that their behavior, slaving and cruelty makes them extremely hated throughout the world, the Holy Knights ensure that the status quo isn't broken. Their entire purpose is to punish World Nobles who antagonize other World Nobles, so while the Navy keeps them in power externally, trying to change the system from the inside is equally impossible.
• All-Powerful Bystander: They're strong enough that Dragon considers them to be a serious threat. However, they seem to only involve themselves in conflicts between fellow World Nobles, leaving the Navy to deal with conflicts that arise between World Nobles and anyone else.
• The Dreaded: They are feared by everyone as Dragon is wary of the Holy Knights making a move upon mentioning them in his meeting with Sabo and Ivankov.
• Dub Name Change: In some fan translations, they are known as the "God's Knights".
• Godzilla Threshold: Implied. They normally only involve themselves when conflicts arise amongst the World Nobles and leave the Marines to deal with conflicts with outside forces. However, Dragon is worried that they'll decide to go after the Revolutionary Army once they cause enough trouble.
• Internal Death Squad: They are mentioned to be the sole authority that can decisively solve conflicts between World Nobles and are World Nobles themselves. The first time they appear in action is when their leader executes a World Noble for allowing and condoning an assault against another Noble by pirates.
• Light Is Not Good: The Holy Knights are the equivalent of paladins but they serve the World Nobles and protect Mariejois.
• Praetorian Guard: The Holy Knights are the true guards of the Holy Land, moreso than CP0, and Dragon remarks that the real war will begin once they are mobilized, hinting at their potential power.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: The Holy Knights are made up of World Nobles who have decided to devote themselves to upholding the law as it applies to the World Nobles. Part of this involved becoming so incredibly strong that Monkey D. Dragon considers them a serious threat.

Saint Figarland Garling

Saint Figarland Garling

Debut: Chapter 1086 (Manga)

"Stand up for subhuman scum, and you sink even lower!!!"

—Chapter 1086

The supreme commander of the Holy Knights and a veteran of the God Valley Incident. Figarland Garling is the first of the Holy Knights to be formally introduced to the readers.

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• Anime Hair: Has a hair-and-beard combo that makes his head resemble a crescent moon. In the past, he used to just have the upper half of the hairstyle, lacking the Beard of Evil, with it appearing to be a common look amongst the World Nobles, many of whom have similarly curved-looking hairstyles.
• Badass Boast: A particularly brutal and cruel example: during the Native Hunting Competition on God Valley 38 years ago, he incurred a 10,000 point penalty when he killed the king of the natives the instant he tried to protest against his entire kingdom getting hunted for sport on the whim of the World Nobles. He claimed that he needed that much of a demerit to make the competition even remotely challenging... and judging by the Double Meaning of his title as "ruler" he very likely lived up to it and won, purely by killing that many people.
  Garling: The handicap will make for better competition.
• Cosmic Motifs: Like the Five Elders, he's a higher-up in the World Government and is associated with a celestial body. In his case, his hairstyle and beard make him look like a crescent moon.
• Double Meaning: He's called the former "ruler" of God Valley, but the title can be read another way to mean "champion". During the flashback to the God Valley incident 38 years ago, it's revealed that the World Nobles were at the land in order to host their Native Hunting Competition with the population, purely because the land had the title of "god" for its abundant resources. Garling is shown to have killed the actual king of the kingdom for understandably protesting against the unprovoked slaughter of his people, with it being further implied that he earned the title of "ruler" through then going on to win the competition... by killing enough to make up for the 10,000 penalty he incurred for killing the king before the twisted game started.
• Establishing Character Moment: Garling's first onscreen action is him executing Mjosgard—a celestial dragon who turned a new leaf —and declaring that standing up for subhumans (fishmen) makes you even lower than them. Right off the bat, the audience knows that Garling is a villain.
• Evil Old Folks: He's very old and declares in his introduction that standing up for "subhuman scum" sinks one even lower than them, making it clear that his moralities lie well in line with the rest of the Celestial Dragons. However, he was no less monstrous 38 years ago.
• I Was Quite the Looker: A flashback to 38 years ago shows that he was quite handsome when he was younger, a rarity among the World Nobles, with a number of Celestial Dragon women swooning behind him. He's even got a less actively unflattering outfit than most of his class that plays up his status as a viciously competent swordsman.
• Master Swordsman: Wields a sword, and is strong enough to worry Dragon.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: He's a horrifying demonstration of what happens when strength befitting those who deem themselves the topmost rulers of the world is paired with the monstrous entitlement and elitist attitudes of the World Nobles: he deals out immediate death the second he's offended or decides somebody is an eyesore, with no need to call an admiral. His first two appearances have him decisively and brutally killing somebody with zero remorse, and he's implied to have inflicted an utter massacre of the people of God Valley to emerge the champion of the Native Hunting Competition.
• Oblivious to His Own Description: His only line upon his introduction is to state that defending "subhuman scum" like the Neptune Royal Family makes you lower than them yourself, as he executes Saint Mjosgard. It is painfully clear that this description is more fitting for himself and his defense of the decadent and monstrous Celestial Dragons and their way of life, yet he seems utterly uncomprehending of it.
• Old Soldier: He's described as having "distinguished" himself during the God Valley Incident and even Dragon is wary about him.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: His sense of morality is in line with if not worse than his fellow Celestial Dragons, sharing both their Fantastic Racism and classism as he sneeringly calls the Neptune Royal Family subhuman scum and considers Saint Mjosgard worse than them for defending them.
• Sinister Shades: He has dark glasses that makes his glare somber, reflecting his vile personality.
• The Sociopath: He has absolutely no empathy towards anyone whose not a World Noble and no remorse for his depraved acts during the "Native Hunting Competition" at God Valley. The fact that he got "penalized" 10,000 points right from the start of the nobles' sick culling game by killing the country's king before the timer started yet still ended up winning in the end speaks volumes about how little human life that are not World Nobles matters to him — and even that will be rescinded if he deems a World Noble has "fallen" too low.
• Talk to the Fist: When the king of a country that is unaffiliated with the World Government protests at the hunting of his people for sport, Garling cuts him down mid-sentence.
• Villainous Valour: Monstrous sociopath he might be, but the man is no Dirty Coward. During The God Valley Incident he fearlessly rallies his fellow God Knights in a crossfire battle between Roger, Rocks and Garp, all the while looking more annoyed by the fear of those around him due to the situation than anything else.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: Played With. He's introduced being called a former "ruler" of God Valley, and in a flashback, it's shown that 38 years ago, he instantly struck down and killed the actual king of the land when he protested the World Nobles enacting their Native Hunting Competition in his kingdom for simple sport. However, the way the title is referred to can also mean "champion", implying that Garling lived up to his sick boast and won the competition by killing that many people to make up for the 10,000 handicap he got for killing the king early, rather than being a genuine ruler.

World Nobles

In General

Also known as the Celestial Dragons (Tenryuubito), they are the residents of the Holy Land of Mariejois and descendants of 19 of the 20 Kings who formed the World Government long ago. They're shown as a group of arrogant aristocrats, abusing their authority and keeping slaves with them. Noticeably, they treat everyone lesser than them with great disdain to extremely inhuman levels. Despite being really weak, no one dares to hit a Noble, as they can summon an admiral to their help. So far all the World Nobles shown have bulbous-like hairstyle, wear bubble helmets in order to not breathe the same air as the "lesser people," and their title is "Saint" (or in case of women, "Princess").

The main Nobles shown so far are Saint Roswald, Saint Shalria, Saint Charlos, Saint Jalmack, Saint Mjosgard and Donquixote Doflamingo (he's a former one, though).

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• 0% Approval Rating: Nobody likes the World Nobles due to their horrible, despicable actions — such is that when Luffy punches one of them for trying to auction off Camie as a slave and shooting Hatchan, everyone rejoiced. But perhaps the best example of this trope is exemplified by the backstory of Donquixote Doflamingo, whose family abandoned their titles to live among commoners. When the people discovered there were former World Nobles living among them (thanks in no small part to Doffy's bratty behavior), they immediately went on a violent witch hunt to vent their grievances towards the World Nobles on them, not stopping until the entire family was dead. As commented by Eustass Kid, not even the most monstrous pirate could even sink that low. Even Doflamingo hates them, even though his reasons are petty (they refused to let him back in because of his father deciding to become a "commoner", so Doffy vowed to destroy everything they hold dear). However, despite the hate, people normally dare not attack the World Nobles out of fear that they would incite the wrath of an Admiral.
• Arch-Enemy: According to Rocinante, those who carry "The Will of D." are considered "the gods' natural enemy". And by "gods", they mean themselves. Children in Mariejois were told horror stories about "D.", claiming they'll swallow them up, and the motto of its elders was that "D. will cause another storm" whenever one of them gets a highlight for doing something.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Most of them believe themselves to be gods that are free to murder and torture people for no reason, among many other crimes. At least for the males, they have the unusual title of "saint", which is often used more for members of the church — and these nobles are anything but saintly.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: The World Nobles in general are massive hate sinks, and have an equally repugnant appearance to reflect that. Conversely, the few World Nobles who are nice or do a Heel–Face Turn are drawn less ugly. Averted in the case of the Holy Knights, who are drawn with conventionally attractive features despite being no less monstrous than the other Celestial Dragons.
• Blackmail: Doflamingo found out a secret of theirs said to be so horrible that it would completely upend the World Government. He dangles this in front of them to retain his World Noble privileges despite no longer being an official member. Given what the government and the Nobles in particular have been shown to get away with openly, whatever Doflamingo found out must be really, really bad. Post-Reverie arc, there's a non-zero chance it's because Doflamingo somehow managed to learn about Imu, whose existence being revealed would cause an apocalyptic-level rebellion if the "Tenant of the Empty Throne" was proven a lie.
• Bullying a Dragon:
  • Despite considering those who carry "The Will of D." their natural enemies and treating them as their personal boogeymen according to Rocinante, they have a habit of kicking the beehive when dealing with them, so used to everyone bowing down to them and catering to their every whim out of sheer fear that they don't realize that the members of the D. Clan do not care about their supposed power and have zero problems answering an attack performed on them with blatant and unrepentant violence.
  • The main reason Rocks attacked God Valley and the Celestial Dragons there in the first place is because the Celestial Dragons thought it would be a good idea to raid Fullalead and take treasure from the island as their own. Garp outright tells Kong that he had warned everyone to leave Fullalead alone, and was perfectly willing to let the Celestial Dragons suffer retribution at Rock's hands, at least until Kong told Garp that Roger was also involved in said attack on God Valley.
• Create Your Own Hero:
  • Sabo likely doesn't have much love for them. Considering he comes from a noble family himself (not World class however), seeing them try to kill homeless innocents (which nearly got Luffy and Ace killed as kids) just to appease a visiting World Noble and was nearly the victim of said World Noble himself just for crossing his ship. It's safe to say he'll be more than glad to help take them down.
  • Fisher Tiger was a slave to them for a time but escaped and busted out other slaves in the process. The symbol of his crew, the Sun Pirates, is actually a re-branded version of the World Nobles symbol to represent his freedom from them.
• Create Your Own Villain: They seem to have a really bad habit of this if certain people escape from their cruelty and grow strong enough to be a threat.
  • Hancock in a way. She utterly loathes them due to the fact she and her sisters were kidnapped as kids, sold into the slavery of a World Noble and forced them to eat Devil Fruits just for their entertainment. It's obvious if Hancock had the chance, she'd kill one on the spot. Heck the main reason she helped Luffy at all, besides Love Sickness, is because of learning that he punched a World Noble.
  • Doflamingo is a result of them because he was a World Noble and carried their attitude as a kid. Even when he killed his father and tried to present his head as a peace offering, they refused to take him back due to the choice his father made to leave them. As such Doflamingo vowed to make them suffer and destroy the world that resulted from their forebears for the slight.
  • Movie-exclusive character, Gild Tesoro, suffered from them when they bought a girl he had fallen in love with and found out she had died thanks to them. His ultimate goal was to control the World Nobles through money.
• Culture Blind: They spend their lives doing whatever they want and being pampered and praised by everyone around them. This has resulted in them having a mindset that they are righteous in their haughty beliefs and heinous actions and are completely unaware about how much the rest of the world hates them.
  • Doflamingo and Mjosgard do, however, and are seemingly aware the days of the power of the Celestial Dragons are numbered.
• Dark Secret: They have a secret that would be so devastating if released they're willing to kill anyone that might know of it. Doflamingo successfully blackmails them into ignoring his activities with the knowledge of this secret, and they send an assassin to Impel Down to eliminate him as soon as they get this chance. Meanwhile, it's shown they have a cold storage vault containing a large straw hat just like Luffy's. Chapter 908 reveals that the secret may be that the so-called "Empty Throne" is not actually empty.
• Dirty Coward: They're generally armed mainly with simple pistols and are anything but brave.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • Crossing their path even unknowingly results in getting a bullet to the gut. Or in poor Sabo's case, being blown up by a cannon.
  • Perhaps the strongest deterrent, however, is the fact that they can, and if pressed, will, summon an admiral to take care of their aggressor. It's because of this that no one is willing to cross them. Perhaps the only people in the world that can get away with defying, and maybe even killing, a World Noble are the Four Emperors, because not even the admirals stand a chance against one of them, and another world noble.
  • You know it's bad when victims of their cruelty will go after any of them if they had the chance. Even if said World Noble has given up his title and probably has done nothing wrong to them as Doflamingo's family found out the hard way. The reason Luffy was willing to give one of them the shellacking he deserved was because Luffy already had a high price on his head and knew the Marines were after him anyway.
• Entitled Bastard: Their ancestors formed the World Government and for that they have near unlimited privileges, their favorite being able to torture, enslave and murder anyone not part of their class. As far as they are concerned commoners owe them everything and slaves should be happy to amuse them until they die.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: About the only good thing that can be said about them is how they genuinely love their family members, like how Mjosgard's relationship with his father was genuine, and how Roswald quickly came to see if Charlos was okay after Mjosgard bashed his brain with a mace.
• Evil Is Petty: If they aren't doing plain cruelty they will at least act as rudely as possible. They heckle Aramaki and Sakazuki mid-fight about how they will have them hanged or punished for struggling while the admirals try to repel Revolutionaries attacking Mariejois.
• Evil Makes You Ugly: Oda says he draws them as Gonk to highlight their horribly ugly personalities. When Mjosgard reappears having had a Heel–Face Turn, this comes with better looks.
• Fiction 500: They have a near limitless supply of money due to their Heavenly Tribute, a large monetary tribute that every nation in the World Government is required to contribute to. It's not uncommon for smaller countries to go destitute trying to meet the high amounts of cash demanded of them.
• For the Evulz: They commit heinous crimes day after day solely because they know they will suffer no legal consequences for them. And given how they act upon committing such horrifying deeds, they enjoy every second of it.
• A God Am I: When they aren't actively hated, they are revered to the point of worship. They are referred to as "the gods of this world" and they clearly believe in their own hype. According to Corazon, the Celestial Dragons refer to those with the name of D as "enemies of the gods", with the implication that they, themselves, are the gods. When Donquixote Homing took his family to live among the commoners, the other World Nobles described it as living among humans, as if they were something else.
• Gonk: Charlos, Mjosgard and Mjosgard's father. Saint Roswald and Saint Jalmack are more normal-looking, while Saint Shalria is more like Beauty Is Bad. Oda states in the SBS that he tends to draw the World Nobles as ugly to highlight their equally abhorrent personalities. Averted with Doflamingo's father, mother and brother, who all look normal, and with Mjosgard, who makes a return in the Reverie arc, and looks slightly less "ugly", signifying his changed nature.
• Hate Sink: By far, the most hateable characters in One Piece. Every scene they appear in just makes viewers detest them even more. Besides Doflamingo's family, none of them ever showed redeeming qualities. They just keep doing horrible things, confident that their status lets them do whatever they want. They buy and kidnap people to make them slaves, shoot people just for not kneeling before murdering them, make slaves eat Devil Fruits just for their own sick entertainment and much worse. Many characters suffered under them including Fisher Tiger, Hancock and her sisters and Koala, not to mention one of them (nearly) killed Sabo. Eustass Kid, himself a Psychopathic Manchild, claims that even the worst pirates are absolutely nothing compared to the World Nobles. Because of their horrible, horrible actions, it's a moment of celebration when Luffy and later Mjosgard punched Charlos in the face.
• Home of the Gods: They live in Pangaea Castle, Marijoa, which is treated as a holy land for it. They're mostly just nobles with self-inflated delusions of grandeur, but the top echelons of the Celestial Dragons have gained Physical God-like powers along with immortality, that they can definitely back up their boast of godhood.
• Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: In their "Native Hunting Competitions" they would descend down on a country that is not affiliated with the World Government to contend on who among them can kill the most natives. In the past used to do this every three years. By the end of the hunts, only then is the plundered country forced into joining with the World Government. The one seen in the manga took place in the mysterious God Valley, where things got out of hand on account of pirate involvement.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: If Roswald and Shalria's words about Devil Dias are typical of the Celestial Dragons, then to them, once someone is enslaved, they become mere animals at best and objects at worst. Charlos also calls Hatchan "it" and sees him as a caught animal and trophy.
• Kicked Upstairs: For all their authority, almost none of them are shown making any administrative decisions on behalf of the World Government, despite being the descendants of the kings who founded it. It appears that while the World Nobles are given free rein to do whatever they want, their extravagance is merely to pull the wool over their eyes while the Five Elders hold the real power and even they defer to one singular king, Im.
• Kick the Dog: They do this as normally as breathing. Perhaps the most common and casually performed instance of this trope is that they ride on their slaves, and complain about how slowly they go.
• Light Is Not Good: They're mostly dressed in white, believe themselves to be gods, and are quite possibly the biggest monsters in the whole series.
• Loophole Abuse: Anyone who attacks the Celestial Dragons gets Admirals sicced on to them, due to the Dragons being above the law. If a Celestial Dragon is the one doing the attacking, he/she faces no repercussions due to the above point. However this has its limits and if the Celestial Dragon goes over it, they’re likely to be punished severely by the Holy Knights.
• Mark of Shame: Their crest is the Soaring Dragon Hoof, which is branded on the slaves. That means that, as a slave, you're worth less than trash to them. A large number of Fishmen and the Boa sisters have it. In regards to the Boa sisters, their fear of being discovered as former slaves was so great that they lied about facing a powerful Gorgon who marked them as a curse, and justifying Hancock's Devil Fruit as part of the Gorgon's curse that anyone who looks at the marks on their backs will be turned to stone.
• Muggle: Most Celestial Dragons are physically normal humans who cannot fight worth squat. Their only real weapons are their money, their affiliation with the World Government (which includes the Marines), and their ability to wield a gun. Ironically, a lot of them don't seem to actually realize this, seeming to truly believe that they are all powerful, even though it's the Marines the people are afraid of, not them. When Mjosgard crash lands onto Fishman Island, he still demands all sorts of aid, believing his status entitles him to such things automatically. Unfortunately for him, it soon becomes apparent that when he's this far from Marijoa, and thus outside the reach of the Marines, he's completely helpless, and at the mercy of the others.
• Not Always Evil: When the World Nobles first appear in the Sabaody Archipelago arc, they are hatable, sociopathic, jackasses who kicked puppies as much as they breath For the Evulz. However, the second half of the story shows that some of them are not pure evil, particularly the Donquixote family, barring Doflamingo, who wanted to renounce their family's title as nobles to live with the commoners, because they see themselves the same as them and Saint Mjosgard, who saw the error of his ways and reformed thanks to Queen Otohime rescuing him ten years ago, helping her with her petition for equality between fishmen and humans. That said, the God Knights' entire existence serves to subvert this, as while Mjosgard was allowed to free his slaves without any problems besides the rest of the World Nobles deeming him strange, his decision to actively attack Charlos to prevent him from enslaving Shirahoshi, and later letting Leo and Sai do the same, allowed Garling to step in and lethally punish him.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: In the past they got stuck in a crossfire between Garp, Roger, and Rocks, and lived to tell the tale.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: The villagers who viciously attacked Doflamingo's family thought they could do this to the World Nobles as a whole since the Donquixote family members are (ex)World Nobles who decided to relinquish their titles and live among commoners. They severely underestimated how badly Doffy wanted to live...
• Pet the Dog: Whether it's out of their own selfish motivation or whatever (since we never get to see what Queen Otohime said to convince them), them pledging their support for Fish-Man Island is this.
• Quality over Quantity: The World Nobles only inhabit one city on the planet, and there's only nineteen family groups of them up there (not counting Doflamingo and Rocinante, who were considered traitors for leaving with their father, and Nefeltari Vivi and Nefeltari Cobra, who are descendents of Nefeltari Lily, who never joined the rest of the World Nobles in Mariejois), and most of the World Nobles don't bother fighting. But the World Nobles who do fight, such as Doflamingo (a Warlord of the Sea), the Five Elders (who have at least one Awakened Zoan, and likely more), and Figarland Garling, tend to be or are implied to be utter powerhouses, with only Vivi, Mjosgard, and Rocinante being potential aversions of this (and Vivi was able to become a Frontier Agent while undercover in Baroque Works before she turned 18, and Rocinante was able to become a Marine Commander even when — also — working undercover — and well, Mjosgard at least can carry around a heavy club and use it fairly effectively).
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Averted, they're total losers. The only abilities they have on their belt is using a personal pistol they keep on hand, and summoning a far more powerful Admiral to kick ass for them.
  • Doflamingo plays this completely straight; he is monstrously strong even by maritime standards, let alone a World Noble. A lot of that might have to do with his life in piracy. While he doesn't quite hold the authority of the World Nobles per se, his blackmailing of them does grant him similar political power.
  • Interestingly, the members of the Donquixote Family who have been named so far: Doflamingo, his little brother Rosinante, and Mjosgard — are all capable of fighting fairly well.
  • This later turns out to be played straight in their own hierarchy, as several of the highest-ranking World Nobles are confirmed to be combat-capable, including the Five Elders and Saint Figarland Garling, the leader of the Holy Knights.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: The male World Nobles are allowed to have as many wives as they want and discard them when they get bored of them. Ginny of the Revolutionary Army was abducted by the World Nobles and forced to marry one of them, and it's strongly implied her daughter Jewelry Bonney is a Child by Rape by the fact that Ginny was reduced to a Sex Slave for them and later thrown away like trash when she got sick.
• Royal Brat: Despite being descendants of the twenty kings who founded the world of One Piece and sitting at the very top of the legal food chain, all the World Nobles are basically bratty assholes who think they can get whatever they want, or cry/tattle to the Marines when they've been slighted in any way. Doflamingo, as a former World Noble, was raised as one, too.
• Sadist: Their idea of "entertainment" is twisted and horrific. It's common for them to brutally torture and kill their slaves just for a laugh. Anyone who manages to escape Mariejois are often maimed, traumatized, or even suicidal from their time there.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!:
  • As they are descended from the twenty kings who created the World Government, they are not only above all laws, they technically can make them.
  • The practice of slavery was made illegal by the World Government 200 years before the story began. The World Nobles, however, proudly parade their thralls through the streets, openly visit slave auctions and even kidnap people off the street to become their property.
  • Subverted when it comes to the law within Mariejois. World Nobles cannot just do whatever they want to other World Nobles and are subject to punishment by the Holy Knights if they break that law.
• Sheltered Aristocrat: Exaggerated. Due to their extremely spoiled lifestyle and being raised believing that they are gods, totally unaware that the reason why others don't attack them and bow to them due to the protection of the Admirals rather than out of respect and reverence for them, World Nobles are completely clueless about possible threats and out of their depth when they are in situations where their status doesn't matter or when an Admiral won't come to protect or avenge them. When they are faced by real danger or someone brave enough to attack them despite the Admirals' protection or who can do it without fearing retaliation for it, such as when Mjosgard found himself alone against his revengeful former slaves in Fishman Island, they'll continue to act like they are gods and order others to obey their whims, only realizing that they are in danger and panicking after being attacked or when being told that it's only because of the Admirals that people bow to them.
• The Sociopath: Most of the World Nobles tick every box: No empathy towards others; a need for stimulation; no remorse for their depraved acts; lie, cheat, and manipulate anyone for their own benefit; and the belief that everyone else is far beneath them.
• Terrified of Germs: Assuming they truly believe what they claim. They wear breathing apparatuses that look like space suits, simply to protect themselves from the air civilians breathe, even though there's nothing wrong with it.
• Tiger Versus Dragon: One of the main individual enemies of the Celestial Dragons was Fisher Tiger, who freed many of their slaves in a one-man assault before escaping. It's played interestingly in that these people don't have the stereotypical traits of dragons, like wisdom or even physical power.
• Too Dumb to Live: The World Nobles are so sheltered and catered to that they lack basic common sense. Some won't even defend themselves when faced with a clear and present threat, instead posturing and puffing up their own egos as if that's enough to save their lives.
• Upper-Class Twit: To the point where they wear glass helmets in order to avoid breathing the same air as the citizens.
• Verbal Tic: Many of them end their sentences with "eh". Even Doflamingo, when he was a kid.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • They're so arrogant and depraved that not even kids are spared from their cruelty. Sabo was nearly blown up by one just for passing his ship (he claimed it was for raising a pirate flag, but was more miffed at the former reason).
  • Hancock and her sisters were sold to them as slaves and forced to eat Devil Fruits for their sick entertainment, and Koala was so beaten down by them that she developed a defense mechanism of always smiling so that they would get bored and leave her alone. Even when she escaped, she couldn't turn it off quite yet.
  • In a childhood flashback where a violent mob attacked Doflamingo's biological family, one of the villagers recounted in anguish how his two young sons were shot sixteen times to death just for running in the path of an approaching World Noble.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Any slave that is useless to them, they will kill them or sell them off to slavery all over again like a broken toy.

Saint Roswald

Saint Roswald

Voiced by: Hirohiko Kakegawa (JP), John Tillman (EN)

Age: 53 (Pre-Timeskip), 55 (Post-Timeskip)

Debut: Chapter 497 (Manga), Episode 391 (Anime)

A noble who is the father of Charlos and Shalria.

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• Beard of Evil: Has a large fluffy beard and is no less evil than the rest of his social class.
• Classy Cane: Carries a literal wooden cane to walk on.
• The Collector: Has a thing for gathering up slaves that were once Pirate Captains, including Devil Dias and Jean Bart.
• Dastardly Whiplash: His black, curly mustache is reminiscent of one.
• Exotic Entree: According to his Vivre Card, his favorite food is monkey brains.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Has Usopp fall on his head.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Disapproves of his son "wasting" half a billion Berries on Camie if he's just going to feed her to piranhas- not because he's morally opposed to such cruelty, but because it's a waste of money.
• Sinister Shades: Sports a pair of sunglasses and isn't exactly friendly to say the least.

Saint Charlos

Saint Charlos

Voiced by: Chafurin (JP), Jason Kane (EN)

Age: 22 (Pre-Timeskip), 24 (Post-Timeskip)

Debut: Chapter 499 (Manga), Episode 393 (Anime)

One of the nobles Zoro encountered in the Sabaody Archipelago arc, though Zoro didn't know who he was at the time and mistook him for a lost stranger looking for directions. He is Shalria's older brother and the son of Roswald, though far more spoiled and bratty than his sibling.

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• Bullying a Dragon: In the Sabaody Archipelago, Saint Charlos wastes no time in bragging about how he shot Hachi in front of a clearly pissed off Luffy, and despite outright noting Luffy's rage wastes no time trying to shoot him, with utterly predictable results happening soon after.
• The Bus Came Back: After his helping of Laser-Guided Karma, he returns to the story in the Reverie Arc, where he sets his sights on Shirahoshi. For another well-deserved dose of Laser-Guided Karma.
• The Chew Toy: In most of his appearances, Charlos gets beaten to a pulp, and each is entirely deserved as it happens after commiting heinous actions.
• Detrimental Determination: The man simply cannot stop attempting to kidnap mermaids, regardless of how much of a karmic beatdown he receives, and refuses to learn his lesson, which nets him increasingly more violent retribution each time.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Saint Charlost attempts to shoot Zoro simply for standing in his way and offering him directions.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: In One Piece Film: Red, he is outright incapable of understanding why Uta wants to transform the world into one where everybody is truly equal. It actually makes him outright angry to consider such a thing.
• Fat Bastard: Is quite fat and is the poster child of the cruelty of the World Nobles, the fatness only adding to his uglyness, which reflects his equally mean personality.
• Gonk: Has a large head with over-sized lips, and a nose constantly dripping snot.
• Hate Sink: Even by the standards of the World Nobles, this guy is loathsome, and more-or-less has zero purpose in the story beyond being an absolutely disgusting (both physically and in terms of personality) dick to everyone he encounters, so that more likeable characters can beat the shit out of him.
• Karmic Butt-Monkey: He's turning into one among the World Nobles. Twice, he's been given a brutal, and well-deserved blow to the face that sent him flying across the room... both times, the perpetrator got away with it (Luffy escaped with help from Kuma, and the second was a fellow World Noble so they wouldn't suffer the same repercussions as other people). Then he gets hit in the head so hard, he gets spiked inside the floor. Notably, this always seems to happen whenever he tries to do something evil to a mermaid.
• Kick the Dog:
  • In his introduction, Charlos is riding a slave as a mount and frequently kicks him for being too slow until he pushes the slave to his limits and he collapses. He then chooses to sell him off to ensure the slave's continuing suffering.
  • Not long after we first see him kick his slave, he notices doctors and a nurse carrying a badly wounded man, so he cruelly kicks the injured man to the ground, even saying that he will help him die. He then decides to take the nurse Marie as his thirteenth wife (while casually saying that he's gotten bored of a few of his wives and plans on divorcing them) and forces her to come with him; when Marie's fiancé tries to save her Charlos immediately shoots him and takes her away.
  • He goes as low as to try to enslave Shirahoshi in front of her own family and new friends, while threatening to sic the CP0 agents on them if they try to interfere. Mjosgard puts a stop to it with a club to the face.
• Pay Evil unto Evil:
  • After shooting Hacchan, Luffy punches him hard enough to throw him to the other side of the auction room.
  • Later in the story, he's whacked across the face with a metal mace by a reformed Mjosgard.
  • When he tries to nab Shirahoshi once again, a furious Sai and Leo attack him with all their might and pancake him vertically into the floor.
• Psychopathic Manchild: When he shoots Hachi, he happily dances on the stairs singing how he caught an octopus slave for free. Earlier, he bought a mermaid for half a billion bellis just so he could watch her try to outrun piranha. Even his own father thought this was a waste of money.
• Punched Across the Room:
  • One of the most satisfying moments in the story. Luffy one-shots him across the slave auction room after attempting to buy Camie and shooting Hatchan.
  • Happens again when a changed and incensed Mjosgard, a fellow World Noble, bats him across the face with a metal mace for trying to enslave Shirahoshi.
• Sadist: One of the biggest examples. He wanted to buy Camie just because he wanted to race her inside a piranha tank.
• Squashed Flat: Sai's Drill Dragon Nail and Leo's Tail Hammer crumple his entire body up like an accordion. It's something straight out of a Tom and Jerry cartoon.
• Younger Than They Look: He’s 24 years old but looks twice his age.

Saint Shalria

Saint Shalria

Voiced by: Rumi Kasahara (JP), Tiffany Grant (EN)

Age: 15 (Pre-Timeskip), 17 (Post-Timeskip)

Debut: Chapter 497 (Manga), Episode 391 (Anime)

A female noble, who appeared in the Sabaody Archipelago arc. She is the daughter of Roswald, and she shares her people's collective arrogance and depravity.

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• Evil Brit: She has a British accent in the FUNimation dub.
• Kick the Dog: Tried to shoot Camie just to take away the Straw Hats' prize.
• The Smurfette Principle: Is the only shown and named female World Noble so far.
• This Is Unforgivable!: Vows to make the Straw Hats' lives a living hell for beating up her family.
• The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: She's far prettier than her known relatives, Roswald and Charlos. This contrasts Mjosgard, whose father is even uglier but was born pretty ugly himself.
• Younger Than They Look: Who would've thought a girl with her figure would be the same age as Chopper?

Saint Mjosgard

Saint Mjosgard

Voiced by: Tetsuo Goto (JP), Dallas Reid (EN)

Debut: Chapter 625 (Manga), Episode 545 (Anime)

^{Click here to see his new appearance (Spoilers!)}

A male World Noble. He visited Fish-Man Island eight years before the story started, in a failed attempt to retrieve his escaped Fishmen slaves.

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• Beauty Equals Goodness: When he makes his surprise heroic entrance in the Reverie, he reveals to the audience his brand new look, having become actually kind of handsome, with a Lantern Jaw of Justice and serious, focused eyes. This signifies how he's truly ditched the World Noble lifestyle and become a good person, as Oda has stated that he purposely draws the World Nobles as Gonk as he can to signify their ugly personalities.
• Break the Haughty: Mjosgard's life experiences have disabused him of the World Noble god complex, as shown when he apologizes to the Fish-man royalty for Charlos' attempted kidnapping and tells them Otohime got him to reconsider the way he treats people.
• The Bus Came Back: Makes a surprise return in the Reverie arc, where he proves his surprising Heel–Face Turn by saving Shirahoshi from Charlos.
• Category Traitor: He is condemned to death for siding with the fishmen and pirates over a fellow World Noble.
• Combat Pragmatist: When he intercedes and attacks Charlos for trying to kidnap Shirahoshi, he just hits the unsuspecting Noble without any warning.
• Crucified Hero Shot: A glimpse of it, as he's being executed by Figarland for defending the fishmen.
• Double Standard: He is accused of making favoritism by Fukaboshi for giving Sai and Leo permission to attack Charlos while telling him to stand down and don't harm him. Mjosgard acknowledges this and explains that this is his way of preventing Fishman Island from suffering any consequences for Shirahoshi's rescue: unlike the Neptune family, who are officially allied with the World Government, the two pirates have no official support from any nation, which means the World Government won't go and attack anyone else as Revenge by Proxy.
• Fat Bastard: Is rather hefty. His father is even worse. Though it's subverted by the time of his return, where he's no longer fat and has pulled a Heel–Face Turn.
• Gonk: Has a rather oddly shaped head, and like Charlos, he has a snot-dripping nose. His father even more so, with an enormous mouth surrounded by neck fat but the top of his head is tiny is comparison. Later becomes subverted when he returns, signifying his changed outlook on life.
• Heel–Face Turn: After his near death experience at the hands of the citizens of Fish-Man Island. Having learned both what the average person actually thinks of the World Nobles rather than what he was told people thought of them and also learned what mercy was when Queen Otohime put herself in harm's way to protect him he now feels compassion for commoners, refuses to own slaves and refers to himself as a human rather than a God. The other World Nobles view him negatively because of this but haven't stripped him of his power or position in society, but it ultimately gets him killed by Garling and the Holy Knights for being a Category Traitor.
• Heroic Sacrifice: His decision to let Sai and Leo get away with flattening Charlos and taking responsibility for this act resulted in his death at the hand of the Holy Knights..
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Most of the time, World Nobles are so far above the law that they can get away with pretty much anything. Much to his misfortune, Mjosgard discovers that he cannot get away with everything; while Queen Otohime saved and eventually redeemed him from the atrocities he committed as a stereotypical World Noble, his status ends up not being enough to save him from being executed after he uses it to protect her family from the depravities of a fellow World Noble. So many World Nobles are able to commit crimes by abusing their privilege, yet it is the one that tries to use it for good that gets his revoked.
• Laser-Guided Karma: While he is introduced as an unrepentant bastard of a human with the typical Celestial Dragon complex, he receives unconditional kindness and protection from Queen Otohime against the Fish-men who would kill him. He then pays it back many years later when he protects Otohime's daughter from harm by other Celestial Dragons.
• Loophole Abuse: Usually, no one dares to assault a World Noble because an Admiral will be sent to deal with the assailant. However, since Mjosgard is a World Noble himself and thus considered above the law, he can assault other World Nobles with impunity. Unfortunately his status didn't protect him from execution by St. Figarland Garling, yet another World Noble.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: He spent the majority of the Reverie making sure Neptune's family remain safe from threats, even from fellow World Nobles. For his efforts, he was rewarded with a cruel public execution in front of the other World Nobles.
• Pay Evil unto Evil:
  • He was nearly on the receiving end of this when he was almost killed by his former slaves on Fish-Man Island.
  • Later on, he's on the giving end of this trope to Charlos, who abused his power to kidnap a standing princess for his own petty amusement, and as a fellow World Noble, can get away absolutely scot-free.
• Pragmatic Hero: When Charlos goes after Shirahoshi a second time, Mjosgard allows Sai and Leo to attack with his approval, but stops Fukaboshi. When Fukaboshi calls him out on the seeming double-standard, Mjosgard replies that Fukaboshi, as prince of a nation, would get a target painted on his back if not all of Fishman Island, and there's only so much Mjosgard alone can do about that. Leo and Sai on the other hand, being pirates, can escape more of the consequences by simply running.
• Properly Paranoid: While he does everything in his power to keep the royals of Fish-man Island safe during Reverie, Mjosgard also goes to a lot of extra trouble to keep the royals themselves from getting their hands dirty in spite of extending his privileges to Sai and Leo so they can attack World Nobles. His words to a frustrated Fukaboshi about how the two pirates can run if worst comes to worst imply that he is worried that even if his status makes such actions technically legal, there will be personal consequences that his privilege will not be enough for. His words prove prescient when he is executed for protecting the royals.
• Purple Is Powerful: Mjosgard's outfit is partly characterized by purple even after his Heel–Face Turn and return during the Reverie arc and he's very high up in One Piece's political hierarchy due to his status as a World Noble.
• Redemption Equals Death: Unfortunately and unfairly, all his benevolent actions after his Heel–Face Turn and becoming the Token Good Teammate among the current Celestial Dragons, especially his actions during the Reverie, in the end just led to him being considered a Category Traitor by his fellow and executed under the orders of Figarland Garling. Despite meeting an unjust end though, one of his last acts was saving not only Shirahoshi from being taken prisoner by Charlos, but also preventing Fukaboshi from intervening because if he had, he would have been held responsible for Charlos' injuries along with Mjosgard due to being from a Kingdom in the World Government. In essence, Mjosgard saved both Queen Otohime's daughter and son.
• The Reveal: Mjosgard's clan is revealed to be Donquixote.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He never even meets the Straw Hats personally, and it's stated that nobody outside of Mariejois was told of his death — but his actions directly prevent one of the Ancient Weapons from falling into the Government's hands.
• Sole Survivor: While traveling to Fish-Man Island to collect his escaped slaves, the ship he is on was attacked by Sea Kings. By some sad twist of fate, he is the only one left alive when the wreckage reached the seafloor.
• Sukhomlinov Effect: It's probably not a coincidence that when he makes a surprise Heel–Face Turn, his outfit has been drastically simplified and made less gaudy-looking. He's lost the elaborate High Collar of Doom and all of the... thingamajigs on the front of his suit, he wears a normal light purple dress suit underneath, and most crucially, he's abandoned the bubble helmet because he no longer sees himself as different from the commoners.
• Taking the Heat: In Chapter 1084, when Charlos attempts to kidnap Shirahoshi again, he grants Sai and Leo permission to attack him, saying that he himself will take full responsibility if it comes down to it. This act costed him his life.
• Token Good Teammate: After turning a new leaf, he becomes the only good Celestial Dragon in the present story. He's also a relative of the Donquixote Family, a family which — save for Doflamingo — has the nicest World Nobles. Roswald even wonders how this family is not like the rest of their selfish kind. This is even reflected in his change in design, with the removal of his helmet and a much less extravagant, more humble clothing, along with a more serious, focused and approachable face
• Took a Level in Badass: After returning during the Reverie, not only has he slimmed down quite a bit, but he skillfully swung a large metal club about the same size as him against Charlos in order to save Shirahoshi from becoming a slave.
• Took a Level in Kindness: After returning in the Reverie Arc, he vows to use his influence to keep the Fish-man royalty safe during their visit and the other World Nobles complain that he's the only one of them to not own any slaves, showing that Otohime's kindness indeed affected him.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Otohime takes a literal bullet to save him from a furious crowd and he tries to kill her. Later, when he's healed and dismissed, he keeps insulting them and swears revenge. The events of the Reverie reveals that he later had a change of heart and feels gratitude towards Otohime, which is why he rescues Shirahoshi from Charlos (even bashing him with a mace in the process) and claims he wants to help the Fishmen.

Saint Jalmack

Saint Jalmack

Voiced by: Yasunori Masutani (JP), Brian Hathaway (EN)

Debut: Chapter 588 (Manga), Episode 502 (Anime)

A noble that visited Goa Kingdom ten years before the start of the series, and was the one responsible for sinking Sabo's ship.

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• BFG: Uses a large bazooka to sink Sabo's ship.
• Hero Killer: He shot a bazooka to Sabo's ship and sank it. Fortunately, Dragon saved Sabo from drowning.
• Karma Houdini: Gets away with blasting a pirate ship with Sabo inside of it because his ship crossed his path, but he claims it's because Sabo raised a pirate flag.
• Knight Templar: Saint Jalmack shot Sabo mainly because he had risen a Pirate flag, though he was more angry at Sabo's boat crossing his path.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He only appears in a single chapter, yet his actions in nearly killing Sabo caused the boy to be rescued by Dragon and later go on to join the Revolutionary Army becoming its Chief of Staff and become a major thorn in the side of the World Government years later.

Saint Donquixote Homing

Saint Homing

Voiced by: Manabu Muraji (JP), Mike Pollock (EN)

Debut: Chapter 760 (Manga), Episode 699 (Anime)

"But we [World Nobles] are humans. We always have been."

— Chapter 673

A World Noble who treated commoners much better than the rest of the nobles. He and his family stepped down from their positions before the series began, inadvertently leading to Doflamingo's Start of Darkness.

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• Abusive Dad: Subverted When Doflamingo mentions his father early on in the Dressrosa arc, implying that Homing must have done something truly heinous to shape Doflamingo into the monster he is today. Then, he appears in Doflamingo's flashback where he's presented as one of the very few good-hearted Celestial Dragons.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Not exactly physical beauty, but he and his wife have rather gentle countenances in contrast to the Celestial Dragons' default smug expression. They're also the nicest Celestial Dragons depicted so far, with Homing even proclaiming that he is a mere human and giving up his status to live a humble life. Unfortunately, his humility was marred with naivete and ignorance (much like every other Celestial Dragon) on how much the common people despised the Celestial Dragons. His wife was poised enough to apologize to her children for not being in good health, despite the horrible conditions they were forced into.
• Boom, Headshot!: Dies when his son Doflamingo shoots him in the head.
• Bumbling Dad: Homing really did have the best of intentions when he moved his family out of the holy land, recognizing Mariejois as a toxic environment that only bred cruelty and decadence; however, his family's background as Celestial Dragons quickly invited persecution from vengeful commoners, causing all of them to suffer as a result.
• Contempt Crossfire: After he renounces his nobility, his fellow World Nobles turn their backs on him, while the common folk take out their anger on him and his family in revenge for the World Nobles' atrocities.
• Decapitation Presentation: Doflamingo shot him the the back of the skull, and took what remained of his head to Mariejois in a futile attempt to regain his status among the World Nobles.
• Face Death with Dignity: He calmly accepts his end when Doflamingo comes to kill him, comforting Rocinante and apologizing to his sons.
• Nice Guy: Unquestionably the nicest World Noble shown in the series. While there is no doubt Homing was naive about the world below, his heart was in the right place and sincerely wanted what was best for his family to live a humble life away from the toxic environment of his home.
• Not Quite the Right Thing: His decision to give up his and his family's nobility in a nutshell. In theory, refusing to be associated with his fellow nobles was a good thing; in practice, it resulted in his family being targeted by their enemies, his wife dying of a preventable disease, and his son shooting him in the head in a futile attempt at regaining his nobility.
• Token Good Teammate: He and his wife believe they are equal as commoners, while the other Celestial Dragons consider themselves gods among humans and mistreat anyone who isn't like them. Their belief bit them in the ass, sadly, when people still targeted them for the things their peers did.
• Too Dumb to Live: He willingly abandons his World Noble privileges which results in his family being persecuted, his wife dying and he himself getting killed by his son Doflamingo.
• Undignified Death: Dying at the hands of his ten-year-old son Doflamingo, and later having his head decapitated in an effort to return to Mariejois.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Although his renouncement from the seat of the World Nobles was meant as atonement for his and his family's former attitudes towards common folk, it ended up causing his son Doflamingo to grow into the villain he became. Once they were found out, as they were on a non-World Government allied nation, the civilians hunted his family down and burnt their houses. This lead to his wife dying in a shabby area to a preventable disease and he and his sons being tortured brutally, leading to his eldest son Doflamingo snapping and declaring vengeance, which soon led to Homing's death by his eldest son, and Doflamingo's further corruption at the hands of Trebol and the future Executives of the Donquixote Pirates. Doflamingo would later murder his brother Rosinante, and then go on to destroy Dressrosa and the Royal Family, which he turned into his den for the illegal operations for Kaido and the rest of the Underworld.
• White Sheep: He, alongside his wife and Doflamingo's younger brother Rosinante, are the nicest Celestial Dragons depicted so far, even going so far as declaring himself as human and forgoing his status as a World Noble to live the life of a simple commoner with his family.

Impel Down

In General

"You're nothing but pirates and rebels who became notorious for your wicked deeds!! Were you allowed to roam the seas again, law-abiding citizens would live in such fear for their loved ones that they couldn't sleep at night!! This prison was constructed as a warehouse for scum like you so that decent people could live in peace!! If you were to get out, you'd terrorize the world!! But I'm not going to allow that to happen!!"

Hannyabal (Chapter 543)

Also known as the "Underwater Prison" or the "Great Prison", Impel Down is the World Government's prison for all kinds of criminals and pirates. Imagine a fusion between Alcatraz and the "Inferno" of The Divine Comedy, and you get the idea.

The prison is divided into six levels, each signified by a number. The higher the number, the deeper the level extends underwater. The bounties of the prisoners scale linearly with the prison level. Each level has its own methods of torture:

• Level 1: Crimson Hell: The prisoners are forced to run from the guards and the blue gorillas through a forest made of trees with leaves as sharp as razors. For this reason, the leaves, stained by the prisoners' blood, appear red. If one wants to avoid the torture, there's a giant hole that leads to Level 2. Buggy used to be in this level, and avoided torture thanks to his Devil Fruit ability.

• Level 2: Beast Hell: The halls are inhabited by dangerous beasts like manticores, giant scorpions, and a basilisk who chase and devour any prisoner they encounter, all while a large sphinx guards the exit. For this reason, the prisoners prefer to stay in the jail cells. Buggy says that all the prisoners on this level have a bounty higher than his (15 million berries). Galdino used to be kept on this level.

• Level 3: Starvation Hell: This level is hot and has a desert-like terrain. The prisoners are kept in a near death state, fed just enough water and food to keep them from starving. All the criminals with a bounty higher than 50 million berries are kept here. Bentham also used to be here, despite having a bounty of 32 million.

• Level 4: Inferno Hell: This level is even hotter than Level 3 (whose heat in fact comes from the level below) due to the presence of a large pool with boiling blood. Here, the prisoners are constantly working supplying wood logs in the pool or under torture. Daz Bones used to be kept in this level.

• Level 5: Frozen Hell: In contrast to the level above, this one is a desolate tundra where prisoners either die because of the freezing cold (which is so intense the prisoners lose pieces of their bodies due to frostbite) or starvation (due to the food becoming frozen and inedible). In this level there is also the wolf unit that hunts down the prisoners. The wolves used to be kept on Level 2 with the other beasts, but they were transferred to Level 5 because the wolves used to hunt down and eat the other beasts! Criminals with a bounty higher than 100 million are kept here, and Magellan sends Luffy here after having captured him.

• Level 5.5: New Kama Land: Not an actual level, but a hidden and secret sublevel carved long ago. It's inhabited by the okamas and ruled by "Queen" Ivankov. After the latter escapes with Luffy, Bentham becomes the new "Queen".

• Level 6: Infinite Hell: The lowest level, reserved exclusively for criminals so strong and/or dangerous that they are essentially "erased" from history, to the point that even this level's existence is considered a secret. The prisoners are fed and left alone, letting them die out of boredom, such as Shiki who, after a while, was almost Driven to Suicide. Ace used to be here before being moved for his execution. Jimbei, Crocodile, and some of the new Blackbeard Pirates used to be here too. After his defeat and capture, Doflamingo is being kept here.

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• The Alcatraz: It's the One Piece world's best prison. The only ones able to escape are Shiki — who had to sacrifice his own legs — and Luffy, who only managed it with the help of many strong allies and lots of luck.
• Boring, but Practical: A literal example in Level 6. The prisoners there are so tough that every torture method available is ineffective on them. So how does one punish someone that strong? The answer is: you don't. You just feed them and leave them alone until they want to die out of sheer boredom.
• Circles of Hell: While Impel Down is not exactly hell, it's based off the Inferno from The Divine Comedy, which codifies this trope, and every level has a different torture.
• Hellhole Prison: This prison is one of the worst portrayed in fiction, with only the toughest prisoners able to endure the terrifying tortures without going crazy or wishing to die. Considering how some of the staff members are dressed like devils and the levels are like Circles of Hell, it's the closest it can get to a literal example of the trope.
• Homage: The prison is built like Hell in The Divine Comedy.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: When Impel Down is first introduced to the audience, it's established as an intimidating and impenetrable prison that most characters would be foolish to try and infiltrate. However, this setting is still in the first half of the Grand Line; as such, many of the threats of the New World are so intimidating that they would likely merit an instant placement in Level 5 or higher. Notably, once Blackbeard and his crewmates recover with newer and more powerful crewmates, they easily deliver a Curb-Stomp Battle to Magellan.

Staff

In General

• Devil's Pitchfork: Impel Down's mooks generally wield a trident, to reflect the place's Dante's Inferno-esque inspiration.
• Gender Bender: One of the staff is a recipient of Ivankov's ability. Surprisingly, they react well to their "true form" and help Ivankov as a result.
• Good is Not Nice: Despite their affiliation with the World Government, most of the wardens are actually good people who want to protect the citizens from the criminals they imprison; however, they have no qualms with inflicting inhuman and cruel tortures on the prisoners.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: While the torture they inflict on the prisoners is horrifying, said prisoners are all wanted criminals who have usually committed heinous crimes.
• Putting on the Reich: The commanding guards and wardens are typically dressed in this fashion (except for Hannyabal), especially Magellan, right down to the arm band. Despite this, they're — for the most part — good people and have good intentions.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: As with every organization in One Piece, the higher the rank of a guard, the stronger they are. The nameless mooks are all beaten easily by Luffy, while the warden, Magellan, proves too strong for Luffy to handle, even with the combined effort with other prisoners. The under-warden, Hannyabal, is also a very competent fighter, despite lacking any Devil Fruit ability. This gets subverted after Magellan gets demoted while Hannyabal becomes the new warden.

High Ranking Staff Officers

Magellan

(Former) Chief Warden / Under Warden Magellan

Voiced by: Mitsuaki Hoshino (JP), Jeremy Inman (EN)

Age: 45 (Pre-Timeskip), 47 (Post-Timeskip)

Debut: Chapter 528 (Manga), Episode 425 (Anime)

Devil Fruit: Venom-Venom Fruit

"Never forget that I have both the power and the authority to execute all of you right here and now!"

—Chapter 531

Magellan is the chief warden of Impel Down, the most feared and impenetrable prison in the One Piece world. As such, he's a very imposing man with a stern, business-like manner. Even when things get out of hand, he keeps up his professional manner, inspiring hope and admiration in much of the prison staff. He forms a bit of an Odd Couple with Under-Warden Hannyabal, a Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass Starscream, who, despite his eccentricities, Magellan endorses as his successor.

Magellan has the power of poison, granted by the Venom-Venom Fruit (Doku Doku no Mi), and is consequently one of the most dangerous fighters in the story. He can cover himself and others with poisonous corrosive slime, and emit poison gas (which he's able to breathe without issue). The effects of his poison can manifest themselves in a variety of ways, from blinding tear gas to paralyzing neurotoxins. As a side effect, Magellan has taken a liking to actually ingesting poison; while it can't kill him, it gives him severe bowel troubles, forcing him to spend much of his time relieving himself. After the Impel Down arc, he's beaten to an inch of his life and has to be hospitalized and sedated to prevent him from killing himself. He eventually gets over it, but is still demoted to Under Warden during the Time Skip, much to his dismay.

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• Acid Attack: His Devil Fruit grants him power over multiple kinds of poison, including a corrosive one, which Magellan drips from his horns to fight.
• Acquired Poison Immunity: Parodied. Thanks to his Devil Fruit, he can eat poisonous food; however, they still give him diarrhea, so he's busy on the toilet most of the time.
• Advancing Boss of Doom: Once Magellan gets involved, most of the focus is on staying ahead of him because very few people in Impel Down can seriously challenge him. Once he enters his Venom Demon form, though, he becomes this in truth: a rapidly-advancing wall of red sludge so toxic it can even infect stone, much less any hapless prisoners who fail to outrun it.
• Almighty Janitor: Downplayed. While Magellan is by far the strongest fighter of the Impel Down staff, after the Time Skip he's demoted to Under Warden for his failures.
• Arc Villain: He's the primary antagonist of the Impel Down arc, and never appears again in the main story following that arc, but he's by no means an actual villain.
• Bad Boss: Subverted with Hannyabal. Despite their bickering, they get along occasionally. Played straight with other subordinates, as he usually breathes poison gas on them to keep them in line, and he doesn't hesitate to use his poison attacks while they're in the vicinity.
• Bad Powers, Good People: You'd think there wouldn't be much "good" to do with a power that revolves entirely around fatally poisoning mass amounts of people, but Magellan put it to good use by becoming the warden of the world's toughest prison, a place where most of the inmates certainly deserve a good poison bath.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: His horns are detachable, and can be worn on his hands to function as this. He can also infuse them with his poison to make them more lethal.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Downplayed; Magellan poisons Luffy after defeating him but poisons him to the point that even an antidote wouldn't be able to save him and leaves him to die a slow death on Level 5. However, Bentham manages to find him and save him by bringing him to Ivankov who is able to save Luffy. Later, Magellan does the same to the whole Blackbeard Pirates and leaves them all poisoned as he walks on by coldly stating he doesn't have time to waste on them any more than he has. In fairness, he's dealing with a mass breakout and has no idea Shiryu would bring them the antidote to save the crew.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Spends very little time actually doing his job on account of being occupied in the bathroom suffering intense bouts of diarrhea for several hours a day, but god help you if you have to actually face him in a fight. A slight subversion in his case, though; when Shiryu was still Head Jailer (prior to his replacement by Sadi Chan), Shiryu was considered more dangerous due to actually being around more often, and was likely too competent at his job for his own good.
• Combat Pragmatist: He has his silly moments, but during fights, he doesn't screw around; when Magellan runs across Blackbeard's crew, he doesn't even bother asking why they're there without official permission, he just one-shots them all on sight.
• Claustrophobia: Inverted. It's hinted he has the opposite problem — agoraphobia, the fear of open spaces — making him well-suited to his job as warden of the facility.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Magellan is one of the strongest fighters in the One Piece world, and prefers doing a quick job rather than playing with his foes; therefore, he tends to use the Venom-Venom Fruit powers to immediately poison his enemies and make them unable to fight back. His fight with Luffy doesn't last long, and the latter only manages to hit Magellan once before succumbing to the poison. Later, during the riot at Impel Down, the Blackbeard Pirates invade the prison... Magellan just bathes the whole crew in poison, leaving them writhing in pain while he continues to pursue the jailbreakers. The second time around, though, he's not so lucky, as Blackbeard has gathered stronger allies from Level 6.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique/Poison Is Corrosive: His ultimate poison Kinjite (literally "Foul Hand"), which he uses in his Hell's Judgement technique; Magellan is forbidden from using this, because it could potentially melt all of Impel Down.
• Deadly Gas: He can make not only liquid poison, his most used type, but also poisonous gas.
• Demoted to Dragon: Almost literally. After failing to prevent the escape of many prisoners, led by Luffy, he gets demoted to Under Warden during the timeskip.
• Distracted by the Sexy: He easily falls for Hancock's charms, preventing from interfering with Luffy's break in at first. Hannyabal calls him out on this after they receive a report after Hancock leaves.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Dresses like an SS officer and uses poison gas, yet he's an heroic character.
• The Dreaded: Most characters react to the idea of Magellan appearing the same way — with an Oh, Crap!. The only people that ever try to pick a fight with him are usually over confident, unaware of his strength, or Too Dumb to Live.
• Driven to Suicide: He's so distraught about allowing so many prisoners to escape Impel Down that he has to be sedated to keep him from killing himself in shame.
• Everyone Has Standards: Although Magellan is very cruel towards the prisoners, former Chief Jailer Shiryu's rampages across Impel Down killing off prisoners left Magellan less than pleased, particularly as Shiryu had no damn reason for doing so; as a result, Magellan was forced to imprison Shiryu in Level 6, as he was far too dangerous to be ignored.
• Godzilla Threshold: Deconstructed. Faced with a prison riot, an escape attempt involving countless Level 6 prisoners, and the sudden appearance of Blackbeard, he authorizes Shiryu's temporary release to deal with the latter. He really, really doesn't want to resort to that, but considering Impel Down is being attacked by no less than three separate groups at once (two of which containing some serious heavy hitters), he's kind of out of options. Too bad for him, Shiryu ends up betraying him to join the Blackbeard Pirates.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: His decision to release Shiryu to deal with Blackbeard backfires horribly. Not only does he betray them for the Blackbeard Pirates immediately, Shiryu saves them from being killed by Magellan's poison and aids Blackbeard's raid on Level 6, recruiting several of the world's most dangerous criminals for his crew and unleashing them upon the world. It would eventually lead to Teach stealing Whitebeard's Devil Fruit for his own and becoming one of the Four Emperors.
• Good is Not Nice: His methods are rather brutal and can hurt his own subordinates, but his main goal is to keep dangerous criminals locked up so they don't harm innocent civilians.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: After getting in another fight with the Blackbeard Pirates and their newly acquired members, he's beaten badly and is left with scars on his face, which are still present even after two years.
• Hero Antagonist: He's brutal, but still fair and reasonable; the only reason that he's even coming into conflict with Luffy is because Luffy's goals (freeing Ace) just so happens to conflict with his own (keeping order and making sure that a bunch of incredibly powerful and dangerous criminals stay locked up). If it wasn't for the conflict of interest, he'd be more than happy to live and let live.
• Horn Attack: Played With. His "horns" are fake, and he can detach them to wear them on his hands as weapons.
• Horned Humanoid: Subverted. He has a pair of long horns that help give him a demonic appearance, but they're actually fake.
• Implacable Man: In the second half of the Impel Down arc, he pursues Luffy and the escaped prisoners without leaving them any time to breathe, and becomes an almost-literal Advancing Wall of Doom after activating his deadliest poison. No one wants to fight him, anyone who gets caught in his poison is left for dead so more people don't die, and by the last chapter of the arc, only a very small percentage of the original escapees manage to get out alive. However, later subverted off-screen. Turns out he gets beaten to within an inch of his life after Luffy has left, by the Blackbeard Pirates and their new recruits.
• It's Personal: At first he only tries to stop Luffy from escaping because, well, it's his job to prevent prison escapes. This changes when he finds Hannyabal beaten badly from his fight with Luffy, giving Magellan personal motivation to hunt down the pirate.
• The Juggernaut: Let's be clear about something. The entire second half of the Impel Down Arc basically amounts to Luffy and the gang running away from this guy. And that's not even going into when he uses Venom Demon: after that, Mr. 3's wax (which is immune to his normal poison) can barely slow him down for a few moments.
• Large and in Charge: He's tall, extremely broad, and the chief warden of the prison. After the timeskip, he's been demoted to being the under warden.
• Made of Iron: And how! Even by the standards of this show, Magellan is ridiculously durable; the man's tanked everything from bullets to cannon fire, and it doesn't seem to even faze him. Even Luffy's Gear Second attacks, which could seriously injure a normal opponent and send them flying through a room, can at most bring him to his knees. The only real wound he suffers is a blow to the forehead from his fight with Ivankov, not that it did much. This record gets broken when he is beaten by the Blackbeard Pirates, who give him some scars on his face.
• Make an Example of Them: If you anger him in front of other prisoners, he'll reduce you to sludge on the spot to show them what happens when you piss him off. It's quite good at helping him maintain order, given no one wants to be the next "example".
• Mighty Glacier: Never moves at a pace faster than a brisk walk. He moves faster using Venom Road, but he only does so to reach places he can't get to via walking. Still, he's hard to take down, and it's better to avoid his attacks at all costs.
• My Greatest Failure: He's so broken after having failed to prevent the escape that he has to be sedated to prevent him from committing suicide, and doesn't protest when he's demoted from chief warden.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Luffy tries to do what's always worked until then, assuming being The Determinator would let him blow right past Magellan. It doesn't end well for him.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: He does not mess around. If he thinks someone's a threat, he doesn't even bother asking any questions, he just goes straight for the kill.
• Obviously Evil: Subverted; despite his appearance resembling a demon and having the ability to control poison, a typically villainous power, his goals and motives are only technically evil in the sense that they conflict with Luffy's. If anything, he's more of a Knight Templar, in that anyone who comes to his prison must be a terrible criminal — and for the most part, he's correct. However, he does work for the World Government, which means that any people they deem too dangerous (which could be even as simple as political dissidents!) could land there.
• One-Man Army: He could kill every single person in Impel Down if he wanted to. He also one-shotted the Blackbeard Pirates simultaneously.
• The Paralyzer: He can generate all kinds of poisons, including paralytics.
• Person of Mass Destruction: He could potentially destroy all of Impel Down if he decided to.
• Pet the Dog: Although he bickers with Hannyabal most of the time, after seeing the latter horribly beaten by the prisoners and Blackbeard, Magellan takes a moment to commend the unconscious Hannyabal for holding them off for as long as he did, acknowledging Hannyabal as the only person worthy to be his successor. This scene shows Magellan's true feelings towards Hannyabal despite all their bickerings.
• Poisonous Person: His Devil Fruit allows him to produce and control different types of poisons, from toxic gas to paralytic neurotoxins, all the way to hyper-corrosive acid.
• Power-Up Food: Even before he powers himself up with poisonous food, he's stronger than most men, given his huge size. Poisoned food, used to fuel his powers, cranks it up to superhuman levels.
• Punch-Clock Villain: He is merely doing his job and keeping dangerous inmates in prison. He only comes into conflict with Luffy because the latter is attempting to break Ace out of jail, something he cannot allow.
• Purple Is Powerful: His poison is a sickly purple looking color, and is a powerful paralysis-inducing toxin. Said power also makes Magellan one of the most dangerous people of the One Piece world.
• Rank Up: Inverted. Because he couldn't prevent the mass escape, he goes from chief warden to under-warden.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Magellan is brutal as Warden, but he doesn't tolerate himself or anyone abusing their position. He gives Hannyabal permission to engage in the riots until he arrives with backup and locked away Shiryu years ago because he was killing prisoners out of boredom. While it's true the prisoners were condemned for unforgivable crimes, Magellan viewed Shiryu far too dangerous to be left alone and imprisoned him to keep him from killing anyone else.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Magellan's eyes become red when he summons his Kinjite poison, his most dangerous technique that — if maintained for too long — can destroy Impel Down itself.
• Red Right Hand: Subverted. Despite his demonic appearance and Bulgori-like hands, he's only evil in the fact that he's working for the World Government, and is just trying to keep bloodthirsty criminals behind bars.
• Shaping Your Attacks: Hydra is hydra-shaped, while Venom Demon: Judgemant of Hell takes the shape of a huge skull-faced demon.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Subverted. While his overall strength is unclear in comparison to characters such as the Warlords or the Admirals, he still has one of the best combat performances of any Arc Villain. He's one of the few villains in the series to hand Luffy a complete and utter defeat without any rematch thus far; even later enemies in the New World, especially those that use poison, are less of a threat due to Luffy's own experience with Magellan's poison.
• Story-Breaker Power: Magellan has the Poison-Poison Fruit, one of the most effective Devil Fruits in the series. Everything about him — his sweat, his skin, even his breath — is all poisonous and he has different varieties from poison that acts like tears gas to poison that can make your skin melt. He can also generate massive waves of poison out of himself, create hydra heads of pure poison to attack people, and any contact with him or his attacks instantly poisons the target. His poison is so powerful that it can kill a person within minutes unless an antidote is administered; even then, if hit by too many types of poison, then you're likely too far gone to be cured and are sentenced to a slow and painful death. The worst part is even if someone has an ability capable of blocking the poison, such as Mr 3's Wax-Wax Fruit, Magellan can just make his poison strong enough to melt steel. Plus, he isn't even a Logia type, so he doesn't have any of the usual weaknesses of a Logia Devil Fruit user.
• Superpower Lottery: Magellan's ability to manipulate poison makes him a very deadly opponent. His ability to coat himself in a layer of poison makes it nigh-impossible for opponents to fight him in close combat without killing themselves. Even for opponents who try to run, he has many ranged options such as Hydra, Venom Blowfish, or Venom Road; when he really means it, he can also use Hell's Judgement above. Even without his poison, Magellan himself is a hulking tank of a man who's ungodly tough to take down. With this kind of powerset, is it any wonder he's the warden of a maximum security prison?
• Technicolor Toxin: Magellan's poison is purple and can kill a person in seconds, if drowned in it. His strongest poison, so toxic it corrodes Impel Down itself, is red.
• Terror Hero: Not a hero by any means, bin the grand scheme of things, he's generally a morally good character whose take-no-shit attitude and tendency to go straight for the kill is designed to sow fear among prisoners to help make maintaining order easier. Given the fact that the prison holds some of the world's worst criminals and a breakout would spell disaster, this is not the worst approach to take.
• Touch of Death: Played Straight and Subverted, in a way. If you're a normal person (as in not a Determinator), you'll definitely die if he touches you, but it won't be painless and instantaneous. You will suffer.
• Trademark Favorite Food: His favorite food is poison soup (which he can eat because of his Devil Fruit), and he likes it so much that he eats it despite knowing that it will cause him to spend hours on the toilet.
• Tranquil Fury: He spends the second half of the Impel Down arc boiling mad from everything that's happening, but keeping it all under the surface.
• Tyke Bomb: A SBS reveals that he had his Poison abilities since he was a small child, but fortunately Magellan just didn't have the disposition to effectively use it then. He also didn't have a very happy childhood because of it, either.
• Top-Heavy Guy: He's a large, imposing man with legs that are comparatively very tiny.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Despite his arguments with Hannyabal, Magellan is noticeably upset when he finds him defeated by Luffy, and states that he will not accept anyone else as his successor if he dies.
• Walking Wasteland: The Venom Demon technique melts everything around Magellan.
• Wardens Are Evil: Subverted. With his demonic appearance, Nazi-esque uniform, poison powers, and ruthless disposition, many prisoners naturally fear him. But he really means well, and he makes a point that the prisoners have to be confined, lest they would terrorize the populace. He's also disgusted at the murderous antics of his former colleague Shiryu, so much so that he ordered him to be imprisoned.
• Winged Humanoid: Has two large wings on his back to go with his overall devil motif. Subverted, as they're actually fake.
• Wings Do Nothing: Wears a pair of demonic wings that serves no purpose.
• You Shall Not Pass!: He's determined to not let anyone out of Impel Down.

Hannyabal

Chief Warden Hannyabal

Voiced by: Tetsuo Goto (JP), Brad Jackson (EN)

Age: 33 (Pre-Timeskip), 35 (Post-Timeskip)

Debut: Chapter 526 (Manga), Episode 422 (Anime)

"Welcome to my Impel Down. Oh, excuse me. I said "my" by mistake. I'm getting ahead of myself. I am Hannyabal, the Under Warden... for now."

—Chapter 526

Hannyabal is the overly ambitious under-warden of Impel Down. He appears to be a tall man with a pot-belly and a massive chin, wearing a pharaoh's headress. His continuous Freudian Slips about his desire to become Warden and silly antics often gain the ire of Magellan, who either Dope Slaps him, or outright poisons him in anger. Despite his finding him irritating and too ambitious, Magellan considers Hannyabal as his only worthy successor to Chief Warden of Impel Down.

As of the timeskip, he achieves his dream and becomes the Warden of Impel Down with former Jail Head, Domino, as his number two.

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• Badass Normal: Just because he doesn't have a Devil Fruit power, doesn't mean he can't kick ass. He'd just rather not.
• Black-and-White Insanity: Discussed. While fighting Luffy to stop his escape, Hannyabal says that pirates are nothing but scum who, if they were to leave Impel Down, would terrorize the good citizens. While Hannyabal is not completely wrong, he says it to the good-natured Luffy. Right after his speech, Blackbeard knocks him out and tells him that the world is not just black and white.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Despite acting like a moron and getting yelled by Magellan most of the time, he's the Under-Warden for a good reason. And during the timeskip he even gets promoted.
• Determinator: Arguably rivaling Luffy himself. Luffy beats him to a bloody pulp and is in every way the better fighter, but Hannyabal refuses to go down. Blackbeard has to do a sneak attack to put an end to it.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Apparently something of a weakness of his. It's not just that he gets tricked by Mr. 2 disguised as Nami, it's that a flashback to his first day on the job has pretty much the exact same thing happening to him at the hands of a Vamp.
• Double Weapon: His naginata Bloodsucker (Kessui), which looks more like two katana merged at the hilts.
• Flaming Sword: His naginata's blade can be set on fire.
• Foreshadowing: Long before he serves any purpose but Butt-Monkey Plucky Comic Relief, some of the guards comments on his ability to walk through the superheated and supercooled floors of Impel Down with no ill effects. Implying he's not just an idiot.
• Formerly Fit: Not that he was the epitome of fitness before but, after the timeskip, he has gotten much fatter.
• Gonk: He has an actual "hannya" face and his body has a beer belly.
• Hero Antagonist: Arguably even moreso than Magellan. While he's an overly ambitious and duplicitous man, he lacks (at least overtly) the sadistic tendencies of his coworkers, and his real motivations are to protect the innocent people on the outside.
• Hidden Depths: Despite outwardly being a goofy Starscream among the Impel Down staff, when the chips are down he reveals himself to be a Determinator on the level of, or perhaps even more than Luffy, all to protect the innocent people of the world from the prisoners of Impel Down.
• Horned Humanoid: Unlike Magellan, whose horns appear to be fake, Hannyabal's horns are real and give him a demonic appearance, in line with the prison's Dante's Inferno theme.
• Lantern Jaw of Justice: Exaggerated — that long chin of his is a hint of his hidden sense of justice.
• Large and in Charge: He's not as big as Magellan, but is bigger than an average human and he's the second highest authority in the prison. Post Time Skip, he's in charge of Impel Down!
• Laughably Evil: Nearly every time you see this guy, he's acting or saying something that's funny. This abruptly stopped when he faced off against Luffy.
• Large Ham: His loud personality and his starscream attitude has been consistent since he was very young.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Throughout the Impel Down arc, he's basically doing nothing so Magellan would be removed as Warden. When it becomes clear that Luffy might actually succeed, he puts his foot down and holds the line.
• Meaningful Name: His name is Hannyabal and has an actual "hannya" face.
• Mr. Vice Guy: Aside from his Starscream tendencies, he's a man willing to do anything to protect the innocent from the criminals.
• Number Two: To Magellan, he's the under-warden, and Magellan himself considers Hannyabal the only one worthy of succeeding him. He gets promoted after the Time Skip.
• Obviously Evil: Subverted. He certainly looks evil, and is willing to sell out his superior for a promotion, but his motivation is to protect the innocent.
• Punny Name: Hannyabal is a combination of both Hannya, the death mask his face resembles, and Hannibal.
• Passing the Torch: Despite not liking how he wants to take his place, Magellan says that Hannyabal is the only one worthy to succeed him. After the timeskip, he really becomes the new chief warden.
• Rank Up: After the timeskip, he actually does become the new chief warden of Impel Down.
• The Starscream: Openly declares his ambition to become chief, often in earshot of Magellan. Despite this, Magellan considers him to be a worthy successor.
• Theme Music Power-Up: Parodied. When Hannyabal uses his flaming naginata technique, he has guards in the background playing drums and singing a song to cheer him on.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Hannyabal never wears a shirt. This is lampshaded by the guards when Mr. 2 posed as him, that even in the extreme temperatures of Level 4 and 5, Hannyabal would never wear anything but his pants to show how badass he is. Unfortunately, given his potbelly, it also doubles as Fan Disservice. Averted post-timeskip, as he wears a complete uniform after he becomes chief warden.
• You Shall Not Pass!: When push comes to shove, Hannyabal will not let criminals escape from Impel Down, even if he runs out of strength. When Luffy is about to escape, Hannyabal remains still and block his path, explaining he doesn't want violent criminals to run free and attack innocent people. However, Blackbeard puts a stop to Hannyabal's resistance.

Domino

Head Jailer Domino

Voiced by: Naomi Shindo (JP), Haley Esposito (EN)

Debut: Chapter 526 (Manga), Episode 422 (Anime)

"Come with me. We'd better hurry."

—Chapter 526

One of Impel Down's high officers. She's serious and strict, to the point of scolding Magellan, the chief warden, for spending too much time in the washroom.

She greets Hancock during her visit in the prison (actually a way for Luffy to sneak in) until she's petrified by her Devil Fruit power. After going back to normal, she doesn't remember being turned into stone and accompanies Boa Hancock to Magellan's office.

During the timeskip she's promoted to head jailer, a post left vacant after Shiryu's arrest.

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• Ambiguously Gay: Domino, like most people, is affected by Boa Hancock's power, implying she does find her attractive. However, Hancock's charm is shown multiple times to hit even the women.
• Coat Cape: Wears one to indicate her promotion to head jailer.
• Commissar Cap: Has one to complete her Nazi-esque uniform.
• Cool Shades: Wears a pair of red-jaded glasses.
• Failed a Spot Check: If she had done a decent body search, she would've realized Luffy was hiding in Hancock's coat.
• Informed Ability: To be a head jailer, she has to be one of the prison staff's strongest members, but she's never seen in action since Boa Hancock quickly petrifies her and Domino spends most of the arc as a statue.
• Meaningful Name: Domino comes from dominus, which refers to a person who has control over others, a fitting name for a high-ranked individual.
• Ms. Exposition: When Hancock visits Impel Down, Domino explains her (and the audience) many details about the prison, like the "baptism" of boiling water every prisoner has to endure, the Transponder Snail security and the newest Level 6 prisoners.
• Nice Girl: Domino is remarkably polite to Hancock during her visit to Impel Down, even assuring her that the full body search and Sea-Prism Stone Handcuffs where done simply out of keeping up the prison's reputation and not out of mistrust. Given that most of the Impel Down are Punch-Clock Villains it's likely she like this on her off hours too.
• No Badass to His Valet: It doesn't matter if Magellan is the prison's highest authority and can kill her at any time if he wants to, she still scolds him for wasting too much time in the washroom.
• No Shirt, Long Jacket: After becoming Head Jailer, Domino no longer wears a shirt under her jacket.
• Non-Action Guy: Domino is the only high-ranked officer who doesn't display any fighting skills. In fairness, she didn't have the time to show them since Boa Hancock petrify her before she could do anything.
• Passionate Sports Girl: In a drawing of her when she was a kid, she's playing football.
• Taken for Granite: Before she can spot Luffy, Boa Hancock turns her into stone with her Mero-Mero Fruit power. She gets back to normal but doesn't remember it.
• Whip of Dominance: She's the Head Jailer Domino and carries a whip with her, as a sign of her station and to complement her authoritative appearance. It's not shown if she can actually use it in combat as she's taken out by Hancock before she got the chance.

Sadi

Security Chief Sadi

Voiced by: Yuka Koyama (JP), Marissa Lenti (EN)

Age: 21 (Pre-Timeskip), 23 (Post-Timeskip)

Debut: Chapter 531 (Manga), Episode 432 (Anime)

"Mmm... I love the sound of screaming!"

—Chapter 531

The Security Chief of Impel Down and the one in command of the Jailer Beasts. She's a sadistic person who enjoys hearing the screams of her enemies (and even of her allies) and, fittingly for her sadist personality, she has a pitchfork with a concealed whip as a weapon of choice. She has a crush on Magellan.

When Luffy infiltrates Impel Down, she sends Minotaurus to stop him and is later assigned to guard Level 5's entrance. After Luffy, Ivankov, Jimbei, and Crocodile escape from Level 6 and defeat the Jailer Beasts, she angrily attacks them and fights Ivankov, who manages to tie her up using her own whip.

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• Affectionate Nickname: Invoked, as she wants to be called Sadi-Chan. In the English dub she demands to be called 'Mistress Sadie', which is fitting given her dominatrix nature.
• Anti-Hero: While she's guarding a prison full of evil pirates, she enjoys whipping the prisoners or her subordinates. She also plays the role of antagonist in the arc, trying to prevent Luffy from escaping Impel Down.
• Bad Boss: She's fond of whipping the Jailer Beasts, her subordinates, as a punishment for their failures.
• Badass Cape: She's said to be stronger than the four Jailer Beasts combined and wears a large white cape.
• Badass Normal: She doesn't have any Devil Fruit but is much stronger than the Jailer Beasts, each of whom has an awakened Zoan Devil Fruit power.
• Bondage Is Bad: Downplayed. Despite being a sadist who enjoys torturing others for her own amusement, she is an officer working for the World Government.
• Combat Sadomasochist: Sadi is a succubus-themed jailer who fights using a whip, and loves hearing the screams of her enemies in combat.
• Designated Girl Fight: Invoked. Aside from Domino, Sadi is the only female jailer and Ivankov, upon realizing he's facing a woman, uses his powers to switch gender.
• Devil's Pitchfork: Like most of the guards, her weapon is a pitchfork (which conceals a whip) to go with her demonic appearance.
• Dominatrix: Sadi is a succubus-themed jailer and gets so sexually excited from the screams of others that she becomes a parody of the concept of a dominatrix.
• The Dreaded: The Jailer Beasts, her subordinates, are deathly afraid of making her angry because she has the habit of whipping them.
• Femme Fatalons: Her long nails aptly hint at her twisted sexual sadist self.
• Fragile Speedster: She manages to dodge most of Ivankov's attacks while destroying the walls, but once she loses her weapon, she goes down quickly.
• Hot as Hell: While she's not an actual demon, her stripperific outfit (which includes demon horns), combined with her sadistic and dominatrix-like personality give off the vibe of a succubus.
• Lady in Red: Sadi is a sadistic woman dressed on a red BDSM-themed suit to go with a more devilish appearance. Downplayed in the anime, as it's changed to hot pink.
• Loves the Sound of Screaming: Sadi finds pleasure in causing pain to the prisoners or when she punishes her subordinates.
• Mama Bear: Despite being abusive towards them, Sadi gets really angry if someone hurts the Jailer Beasts.
• Meaningful Name: Her name is, very fittingly, short for "sadist".
• Mix-and-Match Weapon: Her weapon is a pitchfork which conceals a whip, to combine her succubus-appearance and her dominatrix personality.
• Ms. Fanservice: She's a dominatrix who wears a very skimpy devil outfit and gets sexually excited when she makes the others scream by whipping them.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: She's in command of the Jailer Beasts and is said to be stronger than all four of them combined.
• Smug Super: She refuse the marines' help, claiming Impel Down's staff is enough to catch Luffy. She's right, as Magellan captures and sends him to Level 5, but then he escapes along with some really strong prisoners...
• Stripperiffic: Her outfit leaves most of her skin exposed.
• They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: She demands to be addressed as "Mistress" Sadi, otherwise, she would punish her subordinates.
• Token Evil Teammate: While most of the staff genuinely believe they're in the right and are protecting innocent people from criminals, Sadi-chan just seems to be in it to torture people.
• Underboobs: Her outfit doesn't cover the lower half of her breasts.
• Unwilling Suspension: Ironically enough for a dominatrix, Ivankov defeats her and ties her to the ceiling with her own whip until Magellan rescues her.
• Verbal Tic: She often stops mid-speech to say "... mmmmm..." before continuing it.
• Whip of Dominance: To go with her Demon / Dominatrix theme, her main weapon is a pitchfork which can turn into a lash, and is strong enough to smash a large stone bridge.

Saldeath

Captain of the Guard Saldeath

Voiced by: Kazuya Nakai (JP), Orion Pitts (EN)

Age: 16 (Pre-Timeskip), 18 (Post-Timeskip)

Debut: Chapter 530 (Manga), Episode 431 (Anime)

"Give up. Resistance is futile. You're trapped in an undersea escape-proof prison. You never had a chance. But you should be glad that I captured you, because the floor under this is patrolled by four roaming jailer beasts."

—Chapter 530

One of the chief guards of Impel Down and the one in command of the Blugori of Level 1. He's a calm and level-headed person and is probably the least brutal of all the high ranked officers. He doesn't fight on his own but controls the Blugori using his flute.

During Luffy's infiltration, he tries to stop him in Level 3, but since the Blugori are easily defeated by him, he's sent to quell the riot in Level 2. After Luffy escapes again, Hannyabal sends him to Level 4 but he and his Blugori are defeated by Ivankov with a single blow.

After the timeskip, he has grown proportionately taller.

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• Affably Evil: While he's more of a Hero Antagonist, he's the least brutal of all the staff, to the point that he says Luffy and his allies are lucky to be captured by him.
• Hat of Authority: Wears a white horned hat with a black skull on it. The skull is the same on the Blugoris' faces, as a visual hint that he controls them.
• I Got Bigger: After the timeskip, Saldeath goes from tiny to willowy.
• Improbable Age: He's a high-ranking warden in the worlds most important prison at only 16/18.
• Instrument of Murder: Saldeath's pitchfork is actually a flute, used to control the Blugori.
• Large and in Charge: Inverted. Despite being one of the high ranked officers, he's the shortest person in all the prison. Played straight after his growth spurt over the time-skip.
• Non-Action Guy: He doesn't fight himself, instead controls the Blugori with his flute to attack the enemy.
• Punny Name: In Japanese, his name sounds like Saru Desu, which means "I am a monkey". He doesn't like when someone mishears his name, like Luffy.
• Winged Humanoid: Subverted. He has a pair of black bat-like wings, but they're probably part of his uniform and cannot be used for flight.

Other Guards and Beasts

The Jailer Beasts

The Jailer Beasts

"These jailer beasts are cold-blooded monsters that treat human beings like trash!"

—Bentham (chapter 532)

Four (five after the timeskip) strong guards under Sadi's authority. They have all eaten an unknown Zoan Devil Fruit and have awakened their power, giving them a strong healing factor that allows them to recover quickly.

Despite their dumb-looking appearance, they're all brutal guards who would gladly smash any rioting prisoners with their weapon, though they also have a big fear of Sadi.

Due to their great stamina and healing factor, they face Luffy and his allies multiple times (especially Minotaurus), but they always get defeated and, once Jimbei, Crocodile and Ivankov join Luffy in the escape, they basically stop being a threat.

After the time-skip, a fifth jailer beast, Minochihuahua, joins them.

Tropes pertaining to all of them:

• Animorphism: Each ate a Zoan Fruit and awoke its power, making them much tougher than usual. It borders with Informed Ability because they're always seen in their hybrid form, and it's confirmed that they've eaten a Devil Fruit because it's explained by Crocodile.
• Beast Man: They are Zoan users and appear only in their hybrid form, which makes them look more beast than human.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Despite their goofy appearance, given by their tiny eyes and dropping nose, they're actual brutal guards and among the strongest in the prison.
• Black Bead Eyes: With the exception of Minozebra, they have little black dots as eyes making them look like puppets.
• Blood Knight: Likely because of their Zoan Devil Fruits, they are all ruthless and like brutalizing their enemies.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The original four Beasts are defeated quickly by Jimbei and Luffy when they make it to Level 1 of the prison.
• The Dreaded: Because of their blood lust, they're the most feared individuals in the prison, right behind Magellan.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: They are the first awakened Devil Fruit users to appear on the series. However, they lack the mythical flames later awakened Zoans have, like Lucci and Kaku in their animal forms.
• Gonk: They all have silly body proportions, Black Bead Eyes (save for Minozebra) and snot that drips from their noses. It's not a good reason to underestimate them.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Aside from Minorinocheros, who wears overalls, and, later, Minochihuahua, they only wear a pair of shorts.
• Implacable Man: Thanks to their "Awakened" Devil Fruit powers, they can heal from heavy injuries in a short period of time and it doesn't matter how much Luffy and his allies beat them, after a short while they are back to fight them again.
• Lightning Bruiser: Having awakened their Devil Fruits, they're all incredibly fast and strong and, if that isn't enough, they recover quickly and after a short while they can fight again.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Their intelligence has apparently been affected by their powers and regressed to a point between animalistic and merely infantile, although they're smart enough to clearly understand Sadi's orders. They're still one of the biggest threats in the entire prison, and even enjoy their job in their own way.
• Super-Toughness: Thanks to their awakaned zoan Devil Fruits, the Jailer Beasts possess exceptional endurance and toughness, making them hard to beat. Even after being defeated, they quickly recover from their injuries.
• Theme Naming: Their names are their animal Devil Fruit with the prefix "Mino": Minotaurus, Minokoala, Minorhinoceros, Minozebra, and Minochihuahua.
• Top-Heavy Guy: Save for Minochihuahua, who's fairly proportioned, the others have a large upper body with short and tiny legs.
• Wardens Are Evil: They are violent beast-like wardens and often torture the prisoners. Of course, said prisoners are mostly people who deserve it.

Minotaurus

Voiced by: Kappei Yamaguchi (JP), Josh Martin (EN)

Debut: Chapter 525 (Manga), Episode 422 (Anime)

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• Brutish Bulls: Despite his goofy look, Minotaurus is a ferocious half-bull jailer that constantly beats up the prisoners.
• Bullying a Dragon: He beats a chained Jimbei without fear. When the latter is freed, he repays the favour.
• Carry a Big Stick: His weapon is a large club with sharp spikes.
• Our Minotaurs Are Different: Having eaten a bull Devil Fruit, always appears as a bull-man, although he looks more like a spotted cow.

Minorinocheros

Voiced by: Hiromu Miyazaki (JP)

Debut: Chapter 532 (Manga), Episode 433 (Anime)

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• Carry a Big Stick: He punishes the prisoners with two spiked maces.
• Dual Wielding: He fights with two maces.
• Rhino Rampage: As his name attests, Minorinocheros' Devil Fruit gives him the ability to become an half-rhino man.

Minozebra

Voiced by: Takahiro Fujimoto (JP)

Debut: Chapter 533 (Manga), Episode 434 (Anime)

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• Carry a Big Stick: His weapon is a rod with a mace head at the end.
• Shrinking Violet: He's quite shy, as he's seen hiding behind Minokoala.

Minokoala

Voiced by: Keiji Hirai (JP)

Debut: Chapter 531 (Manga), Episode 432 (Anime)

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• Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: His fur is yellow and his nose is red.
• Big Eater: He's almost always seen with some eucalyptus leaves in his mouth.
• Power Fist: His weapon is a pair of spiked brass knuckles.
• Stock Animal Diet: Despite not being an actual koala and simply having the power to turn into one, he likes eucalyptus leaves and carries a bag of them around his waist.

Minochihuahua

Debut: Chapter 662 (Manga)

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• Angry Guard Dog: If he's as bloodthirsty as the other Jailer Beasts, considering he's a literal guard, he's an almost literal example of the trope.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: Apparently, his weapon of choice is a hanged skeleton, noose and all.
• Sixth Ranger: He joins the Jailer Beasts during the timeskip.

Blue Gorillas

Blue Gorillas/Blugori

Debut: Chapter 526 (Manga), Episode 423 (Anime)

The Blue Gorillas, nicknamed Blugori, are animals so strong that they hunt Sea Kings for food. They mainly reside on Level 1, where they chase the prisoners, but can move to the other levels as well, though they aren't much of a threat to higher-ranked prisoners. They are under Saldeath's command, who controls them using a flute.

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• Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: They're known as Blue Gorillas exactly because their fur is blue.
• Elite Mook: Downplayed. They are much stronger than the common guards, and are tough enough to take care of the Level 1 prisoners, but when put against Luffy or some stronger prisoner, they're ineffective.
• The Faceless: Their cloaks cover the upper sides of their bodies. How they can see while wearing them is a mistery.
• Informed Species: Their faces are hidden by their cloaks and the rest of their bodies don't exactly resemble a gorilla.
• Killer Gorilla: They're gorillas so strong they hunt Sea Kings and are vicious prison guards.

Level 2 Beasts

Level 2 Beasts

The Sphinx

The Basilisk

A Manticore

Level 2, known as "Wild Beast Hell", is filled with dangerous monsters that will chase and eat every prisoner they encounter. The monsters in question are:

• The Sphinx: A large lion-like creature with a human face and feathers. It's the strongest monster of the level, and is tough enough to destroy the floor under him.
• The Basilisk: A big chicken with a reptilian face and a constantly hungry expression.
• The Manticores: Lions with human faces. Ferocious creatures who devour even the prey's bones. They can even speak human language, but not understand it. They therefore simply repeat random words they hear from the prisoners.
• The Puzzle Scorpions: Giant poisonous scorpions which can combine themselves to become a giant centipede.

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• Basilisk and Cockatrice: The second strongest monster is a large basilisk (that, ironically, is a giant chicken monster that looks more like a cockatrice). However, he doesn't have the petrifying gaze.
• Beware the Silly Ones: No one of them looks remotely scary (save the Basilisk, and even then he looks more crazy than intimidating), yet they are all strong monsters.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: The puzzle scorpions. While they don't look scary, they're actually quite big and dangerous, and, if combined, they become an even larger centipede.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: There are many manticores and puzzle scorpions, but are all small fries for Luffy. The basilisk and the sphinx, on the other hand, are quite tougher opponents, and there is only one of each of them.
• Gonk: Each manticore has a different human face, but every single one is goofy.
• King Mook: The Sphinx is the leader of Level 2 monsters and is the strongest among them.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: The manticores are basically lions with a human face, the Sphinx is similar to a giant winged manticore and the Basilisk can be described as a chicken with a reptile face.
• Mooks: At least for Luffy, the manticores are easy to deal with. Not so much for Buggy and the Level 1 and 2 prisoners.
• Our Manticores Are Spinier: The manticores in the One Piece world are human-headed lions that are led by a sphinx.
• Our Sphinxes Are Different: The Sphinx is the King Mook of the Manticores of the Level 2: Beast Hell of Impel Down. It has a goofy-looking, almost apelike face, a giant lion body (as big as a house), and feathers along its forelimbs and shoulders.
• Running Gag: Involving the Manticores's habit of yelling names of underwears and the Sphinx's habit of shouting casual names of noodles pasta since they can learn the words they hear from the prisoners but don't understand their meanings.
• Scary Scorpions: The puzzle scorpions, despite their appearance, are actually deadly poisonous and can combine themselves together to become a giant centipede.
• Super-Persistent Predator: The basilisk keeps chasing Luffy and Buggy for a long while until he's stopped by Luffy's gear third punch.

The Wolf Unit

The Wolf Unit

Debut: Chapter 536 (Manga), Episode 425 (Anime)

A pack of vicious wolves that reside in Level 5. It used to be in Level 2 but, since the wolves are so voracious that they used to prey on the other beasts too, it has been moved.

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• Ax-Crazy: As if their constant maniac expression isn't enough, these are voracious predators that would hunt anything.
• Informed Ability: They are said to be so dangerous that if they were in Level 2, they would promptly eat the other beasts, including the Sphinx. However, both Luffy and Bon-Clay defeat plenty of them with much more ease than the Sphinx. However, they are more clever than any of the beasts in Level 2 like when they dig below Galdino's wax cage after realizing they can't break it.
• Maniac Tongue: Just to show how deranged they are, their tongues are constantly sticking out.
• Savage Wolves: They are wolves so savages that not even manticores are safe from them and have to be kept in a different level.

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Prisoners

In General

• Asshole Victim: They suffer many kinds of torture in prison, which become progressively worse for every level, and all of them lead to an unpleasant death. However, if they are in prison it means they must have committed serious crimes. However, the World Government has no compunctions about jailing political dissidents of just about every stripe, and most of the Newkama Landers are a genuinely nice bunch of party animals, so not all of the prisoners are inherently bad people.
• Break the Haughty: Many have had their spirits broken by the terrible tortures they've been forced to endure, and used to be criminals in the past.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: It doesn't matter on which level the prisoner goes, they will suffer a terrible death, be it by blood loss, being Eaten Alive by monsters, starved in a desert, boiled alive, frozen or by pure boredom.
• Literally Shattered Lives: The prisoners in Level 5 suffer a slow and painful version of this. The temperature is so low, they suffer from frostbite and their bodies slowly fall apart.
• Stewed Alive: Prisoners in Level 4 are forced to carry giant logs to keep the flames of the boiling blood pool going, but some end up falling in said boiling blood.

Newkama Landers

The followers of Emporio Ivankov, they were once prisoners of the Great Gaol of Impel Down that were "spirited away", while actually they were just freed by Ivankov or had found a way to reach him. They resides in the hidden Level 5.5, built by a prisoner with tunneling Devil Fruit powers where they constantly party and keep an eye on the situation in the prison. After Luffy's outburst, they evade with their leader. After the Marineford saga, they finally reach Kamabakka Kingdom, where they joined the local Okama subjects.

For Emporio Ivankov himself and Inazuma see their entries on the Revolutionary Army page. For Caroline see his entry on the Anime-Only page.

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• Attractive Bent-Gender: Apparently, when a male Newkama is turned in a female he instantly becomes a hottie, it's more glaring when nearly all the males are quite gonky.
• Badass Crew: They're all martial arts masters in Okama Kenpo and Newkama Kenpo, you better believe they're badass.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Think a bunch of gender-switching, easy-going, partying guys is harmless? Think again. The same goes for the inhabitants of Momoiro.
• Chef of Iron: All the high-level masters of Okama and Newkama Kenpo can use the "Attack Cuisine", which can strengthen the human body from inside. Sanji is the only person who managed to master it without becoming an Okama.
• Distaff Counterpart: The Newkama are a sort of counterpart to the Kuja Pirates.
• Fan Disservice: While at least the Newkama in Impel Down can be quite pleasant, the crossdressers of Kamabakka are straight awful.
• Gender Bender: Basically any single member may have or not change sex at least once, courtesy of Ivankov's Horm-Horm powers. The Newkama philosophy is that a person should be whatever makes them happiest, whether it's a man, woman, or okama.
• Gonk: Many of the male Newkama are plain ugly. Ditto for "Caroline" and all the other Okama on Kamabakka Kingdom.
• Humiliation Conga: One of the members: he was once a prince whose father was turned into a Okama after visiting Ivankov's Kingdom, then he lost everything, became a pirate and was imprisoned. To cup it all, when he tried to take revenge on Iva he had his own bullet reflected back at him and then was turned into a woman.
• I Choose to Stay: A large portion of the Newkama decided to stay in Level 5.5, rather than breaking out. Bon-chan ends up becoming their new "queen".
• Large and in Charge: Caroline, the substitute Queen of Kamabakka Kingdom in Ivankov's absence, is about twice the size of a normal human in most regards — as seen in his fight with Sanji, his legs are twice as big around as Sanji's, and Sanji's head only comes up to his waist. Plus, he has a very large head, comparable to the size of Ivankov's own.
• Real Men Wear Pink: And dresses, skirts and bloomers too. Momoiro literally means "Pink".
• Refuge in Audacity: Pretty much everything they do are made crazy and over-the-top as much as possible.
• Seashell Bra: One of the male Newkama sports one.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Justified as the poor sop was just turned into a naked chick in front of a whole room of people. Also the Okama tends to have "girlish-sounding" voices.
• Stocking Filler: All the Newkama wear these.
• Training from Hell: The "Bride Training" required for the Attack Cuisine. Sanji managed to skip it in exchange for another, harder training.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Averted by the Impel Down denizens. The people of Kamabakka may look more like Creepy Crossdresser type, but they're actually of a really good nature.
• Zerg Rush: While escaping from Impel Down.

Enies Lobby Staff

In General

The Judicial Island of Enies Lobby

The hordes of Marines guarding the island of Enies Lobby. Other than 10,000 Mooks, there are the giants Oimo and Kashi, the Watchdog Unit of the Law, the Just Eleven Juryman and the three-headed judge Baskerville.

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• Blade Below the Shoulder: All the Watchdog unit members wear blades under their arms.
• Cool Mask: The Jurymen all wear unique masks.
• Elite Mooks: The Watchdog Unit, giants and Eleven Just Jurymen serve as Baskerville's elite forces and thus take more time to defeat compared to the other Marines.
• Epic Flail: The Eleven Jurymen all wield flails as weapons.
• Horse of a Different Color: The Watchdog Unit members ride, well, watchdogs.
• Jury of the Damned: The Eleven Just Jurymen are made up of condemned criminals who vote guilty to take as many others down with them as they can.
• Kangaroo Court: The jurymen are all condemned criminals sentenced to death, so their only desire is to take as many people as possible with them to hell.
• Knight Templar: The Eleven Just Jurymen and Baskerville are members of the judicial system and they're all vehement on bringing criminals to justice.
• Mooks: The army of 10,000 marines who aren't special guards all exist to be easily taken out by the Straw Hats and their allies.
• Verbal Tic: To highlight their craziness, the Jurymen like saying "Guilty!" a lot.

Baskerville

Baskerville (Bas, And, and Kerville)

Bas voiced by: Mahito Ōba (JP), Jeremy Inman (EN)
And voiced by: Keiichi Sonobe (JP), Jerry Russell (EN)
Kerville voiced by: Kōji Haramaki (JP), Ray Gestaut (EN)

Age: Bas: 48; And: 53; Kerville: 42

Debut: Chapter 379 (Manga), Episode 267 (Anime)

From left to right: Kerville, And, and Bas

The Chief Justice of Enies Lobby who appears as a three-headed man. In reality, he's three people who are acting as one body. The left head is Bas, his right is Kerville, and his middle is And.

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• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Baskerville's middle head is bizarre compared to the other two, coming up with weird compromises such as requesting executions for criminals or giving himself extravagant titles. All three are weird to some degree as they're actually three people who love pretending to be one person with three heads.
• Hanging Judge: His left (who wants the verdict to be punished with incredible torture) and central head (who always gives death penalty) give rather severe sentences to anyone they accuse, regardless of their innocence.
• Insane Troll Logic: While Baskerville's left head almost always declares the accused as guilty and Baskerville's right head almost always declares the accused as innocent, Baskerville's middle head insists on offering a "compromise" between the other two. However, his idea for a compromise is execution, which is as extreme of a punishment as possible.
• Multiple Head Case: Subverted. At first, it appears that Baskerville has three heads, each with their own different personality. However, they're actually three people sharing one shirt simply because they're friends.
• Nice Mean And In Between: Each head varies in terms of their judgements: Baskerville's right head is the Nice head, preferring to declare the accussed innocent. Baskerville's left head is the Mean head, preferring to punish the accused. Baskerville's middle head attempts to be the In-Between, but his idea of a compromise is ordering executions for the accused, possibly making him more the Mean of the trio than the left head is.
• Top-Heavy Guy: Inverted. And, the middle head, is actually a man with very large legs but a comparatively tiny upper body.
• Two Men, One Dress: Although they pose as an individual with three heads, Baskerville is actually three people sharing the same clothes, with Bas and Kervill having a really long arm while And has large legs.
• Uncertain Doom: The Sea Train runs over the three people who comprise Baskerville, and it's unknown whether it kills them. They are not shown among the Marines and Government agents being evacuated from the island during the Buster Call, but it's possible they have already boarded one of the battleships if they did survive.

Oimo and Kashii

Two giants who work as part of the Enies Lobby staff. Information on them can be found here.

Other Employees/Associates

Kong

"Commander-in-Chief" Kong

Voiced by: Unshō Ishizuka (JP), Jim Foronda (EN)

Debut: Chapter 0 (Manga), Episode 0 (Anime)

Twenty years ago, at the dawn of the Golden Age of Piracy, Kong was the Fleet Admiral. He's since been promoted. Now one of the most powerful people in the World Government, Kong's authority extends to not just the Marines but the Warlords, espionage agents, Cipher Pols, and Impel Down and Enies Lobby staff as well.

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• Chekhov's Gunman: First seen in silhouette in "Chapter 0," and his existence was hinted at as early as the "Yellow" databook.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Apparently not exactly a "bad" guy, but whenever the Straw Hats face a member of the Government's military, with the exceptions of any time the Five Elders decide to give orders themselves, their orders come from him.
• Heroic Build: One of the bulkier characters in the series, implying he's a great fighter.
• Improbable Hairstyle: A large spike-shaped hairstyle, with a lizard-like spiked beard to go along with it.
• Minor Major Character: Despite being the supreme commander of the World Government's military and outranking even the Fleet Admiral, Kong makes very few appearances in the story. In over a thousand chapters, his most notable appearance is a single conversation with Sengoku.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Seems like a nice enough guy, accepting the wishes of Garp and Sengoku when they resign with only a small amount of protest.

The Marines

The main military force of the World Government. See their page here.

Cipher Pol

The main intelligence agency of the World Government. See their page here.

The Seven Warlords of the Sea

The main privateers of the World Government. See their page here. No longer affiliated with the World Government.

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