Donquixote Doflamingo

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

- Donquixote Doflamingo

Donquixote Doflamingo is the main antagonist of the Dressrosa saga in the One Piece anime and manga. He was the captain of the Donquixote Pirates, the king of Dressrosa and a former member of the Seven Warlords of the Sea before his defeat by Luffy and arrest by the Marine Admiral Fujitora. Formerly the most influential underworld broker, Doflamingo's defeat and capture sent shockwaves throughout the New World, enraging his affiliates, including one of the Four Emperors, Kaido. He is the arch-nemesis of Trafalgar D. Water Law.

After his defeat and crimes, both of his titles as king of Dressrosa and as one of the seven warlords were stripped and he and most of his crew members were transported to Impel Down. He is a major antagonist in the Jaya Arc, a supporting antagonist in the Sabaody Arc, a major antagonist in the Marineford Arc, a major antagonist of the Punk Hazard Arc, and the main antagonist of the Dressrosa Arc.

In the original Japanese version, he was voiced by Hideyuki Tanaka with Tomoe Hanba providing the voice of Young Doflamingo. In the English version, he was voiced by Robert McCollum.

Personality
Doflamingo in most of his appearances is shown to be carefree and laid back. Unlike most members of the seven warlords, he is initially shown to not take anything too seriously and is shown to be excited by most things around him. Doflamingo is also shown in many of his appearances to always smile or to grin. In many cases, laugh and smile in situations where the level of danger is high such as Whitebeard leveling Marineford with his devil fruit ability. He also have glamorous and extravagant personality demonstrated by how he moves when he is orating or by how he sometimes walk as a flamingo.

Underneath how eccentric he can be, Doflamingo is extremely violent and bloodthirsty. As a child, Doflamingo was once a Celestial Dragon where he enjoyed abusing people around him and making them his slaves. Having lost his privileges as a Celestial Dragon, Doflamingo held an intense hatred for his father, Donquixote Homing, for sacrificing all the advantages of being a Celestial Dragon to live in the world with other people and for all the pain and suffering he had to go through. Doflamingo harbors rage against the Celestial Dragons for not accepting him back to Mariejois and vowed to get vengeance on them by destroying everything they hold close to them. Because of his violent nature and attitude, Doflamingo feels no empathy for anyone he has victimized or the lives he has destroyed and always justifies it with him being better than people in general.

Initially, Doflamingo respects his crew and at times can be lenient to them. Because of his crew's loyalty to him, Doflamingo in many cases shows a level of care for his crew. He was angry at one of his minions for laughing at Pica's voice stating that he does not tolerate anyone who disrespects his crew. Despite his care in the beginning, Doflamingo was willing to kill his own crew alongside everyone on Dressrosa and find another crew which hints that he only tolerated his crew for how resourceful they were to him and was willing to kill them when they were no longer useful to him.

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

- Doflamingo

Doflamingo believes that strong individuals have power and might. He also believes that the weak has no room in the future of pirates. He looks down on those who are weak and is shown to manipulate them for his amusement and for his advantage. With his belief, Doflamingo sees the future and believes that only the strong will be able to thrive. At the same time, because of his beliefs and ideology in strong people having domination, Doflamingo does not mind ruining the lives of those who are weaker than him and manipulating him. For example when Doflamingo learned of Bellamy's loss to Luffy, Doflamingo had no more use for Bellamy and forced Sarkies to severely injure him since he perceives him as weak.

Because of this belief, Doflamingo also have great pride in himself as a pirate. In his battle against Law and Luffy, Doflamingo on multiple occassions prided himself as a powerful person who would be able to defeat both pirates. During his battle against them, he often looked down on them often underestimating them until Luffy used Gear Fourth on him.

In addition to being very arrogant, Doflamingo is prideful of his own crew viewing them as powerful in their own rights. He had enough pride in his own family members that he would not tolerate anyone who would insult his crew such as laughing at Pica's voice. In his appearance on Jaya Island, Doflamingo was also shown to be prideful in his own pirate flag and jolly roger and intolerant to anyone who would disgrace it. He was willing force Sarkies to brutally harm Bellamy for disgracing his flag.

Egotism
As a former member of the Celestial Dragons, Doflamingo also have a high view of himself viewing himself as better than people in general. Before losing his privileges as a Celestial Dragon, Doflamingo already had the mindset like most members of the Celestial Dragon as a person who view themselves as greater than most people because of his bloodline. Doflamingo feels that he deserving of many things because of his bloodline such as being a Celestial Dragon again and claiming Dressrosa as his country since his ancestors had ruled it in the past.

While talking to Law and Luffy about his past, Doflamingo was only concerned about his own feelings about losing his position as a Celestial Dragon and his life stating that it was harder than anything Law, Luffy, and Bellamy ever went through going as far as using it justify his cruelty.

However towards the end of the Dressrosa arc, Doflamingo shows that his value for himself takes precedence even over the care and well-being of his loyal crew mates. He did not care if he had to kill off his own crew mates as long as he was able to put the negative publicity of Dressrosa behind him and move on to find other people who would be as loyal to him.

Sadism
"Mozambia: This is your doing! Do you find this entertaining Doflamingo?! Doflamingo: Yes, actually. If you don't mind I'd like to get this little shindig started sometime in the near future. Less you haven't had enough."

- Doflamingo admits finding it fun to force Mozambia to strangle Stainless.

Like most villains in One Piece, Doflamingo have shown himself to be a sadist who takes pleasure in people's pain and misery. As a child, Doflamingo enjoyed owning slaves and using his priveleges as a Celestial Dragon to abuse and torment people around him. As an adult, Doflamingo still takes pleasure in causing as much pain as he can such as forcing King Riku to kill his own citizens and then framing him as the villain behind the massacre. With his parasite string ability, Doflamingo is able to force people to do his bidding often times forcing them to do terrible things for his amusement such as forcing Atmos to cut down kill many of his own subordinates or forcing Mozambia and Stainless into a fight against their will.

With his powers, he also likes to find ways to cause as much pain as possible to people he strongly dislikes. For example, forcing Viola (who betrayed him) into trying to cut down and kill her family member Rebecca for no other reason than to cause as much pain as possible. Despite using his powers to force people to do terrible things for his own entertainment, Doflamingo is nonetheless also shown to enjoy seeing people in pain. After cutting off Law's arm, Doflamingo stood smiling around watching Law scream in agony with no care for how much pain he caused. Doflamingo also enjoys messing with people's minds as a way to break them such as mocking a distressed Law before attempting to kill him.

In addition to how much he likes to hurt others, Doflamingo sadism also presents itself by his violent actions such as cutting off Little Oars Jr's leg or summoning the birdcage on the people of Dressrosa in an attempt to kill all of them.

Rage
Doflamingo has little patience for people who he looks down on or who inconveniences. As a child, Doflamingo took revenge on his father for having the entire family leave Mariejois by killing him out of sheer rage. Despite having done that, he still harbors intense hatred for his father for inconviencing him and making him lose his position as a Celestial Dragon. Whenever he does not get his way or whenever people deny him what he wants, he is shown to harbor hatred for them such as the Celestial Dragons for not accepting him back at Mariejois. Whenever things do not go his way, Doflamingo is shown to get very angry. When Usopp caused Sugar to lose her consciousness and inevitably to break the curse she had on the people, Doflamingo was angry that his underground operation has been exposed. As a result, Doflamingo gave Usopp a high bounty for causing a lot of problems for him.

When Law brings up the "Will of the D.", Doflamingo reacts by nearly killing him in front of Luffy and the civilians of Dressrosa. As a member of the Celestial Dragons, Doflamingo is shown to have a deep fear and hatred for the Will of the D as they are like his destined enemies. When Law even reveals himself to have a "D" in his name, Doflamingo got angry and took the opportunity to sever his arm.

With his impatience, Doflamingo does not like anyone who stands in his way towards his targets such as the Corrida Colosseum men fighting him to prevent him from finding Luffy. As a result, he has no hesistance in injuring and killing them for getting his way.

Whenever anyone angers Doflamingo, the latter takes out the opportunity to use extreme force of violence such as shooting Corazon for only wanting to protect Law against him or attempting to drown a man all because he did not fight in the tournament for his own amusement.

Natural Abilities

 * Leadership: As the former captain of the Donquixote Pirates and a powerful former member of the Shichibukai, Donquixote Doflamingo had complete authority over his crew. In addition, he was the king of Dressrosa, which gave him dominion over an entire kingdom. Upon his defeat at the hands of Luffy, Doflamingo was stripped of his titles of King and Shichibukai.


 * Inhuman Physiology: Doflamingo was one of the most powerful pirates anyone, including Luffy, to ever face. This is noteworthy as he was present in the war between the Marines and Whitebeard Pirates, a battle in which most of the series' strongest individuals, such as Sengoku, were in some way injured. As further proof of his power, he is able to face off against former Shichibukai Crocodile and later emerge unharmed. He is the only Shichibukai known to fight one of his former colleagues, Gekko Moriah, and seriously injure him (though he was aided by a small group of Pacifistas and Moriah had yet to recover from his injuries from the war). He was so powerful that Law suggested that if Doflamingo resigns from his position, the Marines will send their top fighters, the admirals, against him. This was also confirmed when Kuzan told Smoker to immediately warn Sakazuki about Doflamingo, and the fleet admiral should dispatch the admirals. His strength over the lower ranked Marines was enforced when Doflamingo toyed around with Vice Admirals Mozambia and Stainless, and then later defeated Vice Admiral Smoker, both occasions with tremendous ease, showing that he has the ability to take down at least a Vice Admiral at Smoker's level (who's formidable as a Logia-class Devil Fruit user). He is so strong that Law, a super rookie and a Shichibukai, chose not to fight until he encountered Doflamingo to save energy and have a higher chance against him.
 * Superhuman Strength: Because of his height, width, size, and build he can effortlessly carry around a full grown human being without tiring, like the former Shichibukai, Trafalgar Law. He also showed enough strength to equally clash against Crocodile's hook with just a kick. Furthermore, he has tremendous strength, as his leg strength is so great that he managed to produce a 360 degree razor-sharp shock wave, enough to cut through all three of the Dressrosa palace towers in one swing, almost instantly. He even managed to give Luffy a devastating kick even though he was defending with Haki, a maneuver which Luffy was able to easily block Hody with, while at the same time sustaining no injury.
 * Superhuman Speed, Reflexes, and Agility: Doflamingo has considerable reflexes and agility. He was able to dodge Oars Jr.'s attacks with relative ease and completely jumped over Oars Jr.'s gigantic body. He was fast enough to escape through the eye of Crocodile's sandstorm and exit unscathed.
 * Flash Step: Doflamingo is fast enough to keep with Luffy while he's in Gear Second.
 * Superhuman Dexterity: Because of his Devil Fruit, Doflamingo is very precise with using the strings to commit his powerful attacks by maneuvering his fingers in flawless coordination.
 * Superhuman Durability, Endurance, and Stamina: When Baby 5 attacked him and actually hit him with an explosive round, one that he did not even attempt to dodge, Doflamingo took no damage at all and continued his conversation, not even paying attention to it. He was able to block a Diable Jambe enhanced kick from Sanji with his knee and block the subsequent barrage of kicks that followed with his arm without taking damage. He took a direct attack from Luffy's Red Hawk, a move that caused even a steroid-enhanced Hody Jones to spew blood, and recovered in mere moments, though he did cough up a little bit of blood upon being struck. However, Law stated shortly afterwards that the attack only managed to inflict superficial damage to the Shichibukai. Even after taking Law's Gamma Knife, and then quickly followed by a point-blank Counter Shock, which ruptured his organs, he was able to stitch them back together and continue fighting Luffy and taking several Haki-enhanced Gear Second and Haki-enhanced Gear Third moves claiming they felt like tickles, and were weak.
 * Pain Resistance: Even after taking numerous blows from Luffy in Gear Fourth, to which sent Doflamingo rocketing through dozens of buildings and a mountain he was still able to fight and even control his Haki and awakened powers. Furthermore, despite being so severely exhausted and injured, Doflamingo was able to fight dozens of powerful gladiators and defeat them all with little effort. After all this, it took Luffy's powerful King Kong Gun to finally knock him unconscious.
 * Thermal Resistance: He was able to block a Diable Jambe enhanced kick from Sanji without feeling the effects of the attack's intensive heat and managed to prevent himself from being completely frozen by Kuzan, as shortly after the ice encased him, he shattered the frozen prison, showing absolutely no pain or discomfort from doing so.
 * Experienced Combat: Doflamingo has also shown considerable hand-to-hand combat expertise, specializing in a kick-based style of combat, as he was able to deliver a single roundhouse kick to his opponent badly wounding him and fluidly dodge his attack in an instant.
 * Genius Intellect: Aside from his tremendous combat skills, Doflamingo had great amounts of influence on the world, being a Shichibukai and a world famous pirate. He was also known as Joker, the most powerful broker in the underworld.
 * Business Management: He was active in the realm of underworld brokering (including slavery, production and distribution of weapons of mass destruction, and Devil Fruit trafficking) in the New World, and the most resourceful and influential broker there was. Doflamingo's influence extended to several countries at war, as he was the only one providing weapons for them. His defeat made them unable to support themselves any longer and forced many of them to surrender. In addition, Doflamingo was the owner of the once-most popular Human Auctioning House in Sabaody Archipelago, but gave it to Disco when he lost interest in slave-trading in favor of the Battle of Marineford and the New Age. His abandonment of the auction hall made it succumb to ruination, further demonstrating the power of his influence (and the consequences for the lack of it).
 * Master Manipulator: Being able to deceive the entire world that he resigned from the Shichibukai is considered to be an impossible feat by anyone less than a World Noble, as Doflamingo was indeed one, which gave him the privilege to do as he pleased on a global scale, without any fear of repercussions. Upon his father dragging him away from such a luxurious life he lost all the privileges; however, he has managed to obtain knowledge of the Mariejois' national treasure, which, when used in combination with the powers of the Ope Ope no Mi, could shake the foundation of the world, a fact he used to blackmail the Celestial Dragons when they failed to kill him, allowing him to regain (to a limited extent) the privileges of a Celestial Dragon and mobilize the CP-0 to falsify his resignation from the Shichibukai.
 * Psychological Manipulation: He is well-versed in psychological warfare, as he prepared to use the fruit as bait to break apart the alliance between Luffy and Law, believing that Luffy would never allow anyone else to have it. True enough, after learning of the fruit being offered as the grand prize at the Corrida Colosseum, Luffy immediately entered himself into the contest to try to win it. This displays great insight from Doflamingo towards other people. He also used his influence to have the media print out falsified news of his resignation from the Shichibukai in order to set a trap for his foes. Upon Sugar's defeat, Doflamingo regained control over Dressrosa via turning everyone else against his enemies with prize money and the chance to survive, showing ample strategic preparation and flexibility.
 * Killing Instinct: Doflamingo possesses an extremely bloodthirsty mentality as he brutally punished a gladiator for not shedding any blood for the spectators of his Colosseum fights and casually licked some of the blood from his gladiator victim off his own face. He also believes in the existence of an inherent cruelty in all human beings regardless of personality that is brought by the excitement of seeing blood and death. He would go as far as committing patricide at the age of 10, and fratricide at the age of 28, both incidents stemming from his contempt for his victims' actions.
 * Sheer Willpower: Doflamingo has an unbreakable will to survive with pride, refusing to plea or die even when citizens tortured him in a failed attempt to break him, while swearing aloud to live through it to kill everyone in revenge; compared to how Homing and Rosinante were begging for mercy, Doflamingo's willpower utterly horrified his father, brother and the torturers alike.
 * Supernatural Vitality: Even when being hunted down by the Celestial Dragons, Doflamingo managed to escape them due to his will to live. Even after taking Law's Gamma Knife, and then quickly followed by a point-blank Counter Shock, which ruptured his organs, he was able to stitch them back together using his Devil Fruit.
 * Mental Endurance: Doflamingo is one of the most carefree characters within the series, this is due from his traumatic experience when he was a child. Doflamingo always smiles even in the most dangerous and fatal situations, such as the Whitebeard War, even laughing at the blood, gore, and suspense, even the power of Whitebeard's Devil Fruit, to which he laughed when the latter tilt all of Marineford and a good portion of the ocean. Doflamingo has a complete and utter lack of fear and doubt, going as far as to rob the World Nobles of their tributes, so he could blackmail the government, even after the Battle of Marineford, he would continue to maintain his confident smile while everything was under control.
 * Cold Fury: Despite smiling all the time and his relaxed attitude, Doflamingo gets extremely angry given his production of SAD and his status as king of Dressrosa, such as when Law defeated Vergo, destroyed the SAD supply, captured Caesar, and used that to threaten Doflamingo into abdicating his position as a Shichibukai, and losing control over Dressrosa, he succumbed to fear, despair and fury, he keeps smiling and decided to just laugh everything off. Even in the most upbeat battles regarding his childhood memory and desire to become immortal, Doflamingo would use psychology, and given his power, he retains his trademark smile, he even stated the reason he keeps smiling is because he couldn't get any madder.

Devil Fruit
He ate the Ito Ito no Mi (String-String fruit) which was given by Trebol that allowed him to control and manipulate strings. Using his "Parasite" technique it allows him to control other people no matter how they resist and would usually use it when he wants the victims to fight against each other. He is show to be able to slice objects as he slices off Oars Jr.'s leg in one swift motion. He is able to create clones of himself called Black Knight which could be mistaken to be the real Doflamingo. His mastery in the fruit was so great he manages to achieve a rare power called the "awakening" in which he is able to turn the ground and buildings around him into string which is useful in offense and defense.

Haki
Doflamingo possesses two types of Haki :Busoshoku and Haoshoku. His first demonstration was when first seen when he attacked the marines on Punk Hazard.

Haoshoku Haki
Doflamingo is one of the few people who possesses this type of Haki, he is first shown when he first arrived on Punk Hazard and immediately knocked out the marines present. As a child, Doflamingo first awoke it when he and his family were being tortured and he unconsciously used it to save himself while swearing revenge. Doflamingo possession of this Haki is what caused his future elite officers to swear their allegiance to him and treat him like royalty.

Busoshoku Haki
Doflamingo possession of this was first shown when he imbued them into his strings to seriously injure Smoker, a logia devil fruit user. Doflamingo displayed it again on Dressrosa, when Luffy attempted to attack him and he used it to protect himself a from a gear second Luffy.

Quotes
"Who's going to be happy seeing you safe and sound after running around like a coward? If you can't cut down your foe, take a blow and bleed for yourself! Every human being... even the most pious saint, harbors a latent streak of barbarity that surfaces when he sees blood! Blood and death! This is entertainment!"

- Donquixote Doflamingo

"The fact that you miserable brats thought, for even an instant, that you could actually beat me is the highest disgrace! Understand this. I am of the noblest blood in the world... a Celestial Dragon! I possessed the rarest of powers. Nobility by birth! However! One day my father decided that our family of four should give up the greatest power there is and come live in this cesspool of a world! Live like a human, indeed. What a stupid, stupid man! And what do you think happened? I witnessed both heaven and hell by the age of ten. So I killed my father, the root of my suffering... and took his head to Mariejois! But the Celestial Dragons in heaven would not take back anyone from the line of traitors. There was no escape from this hell. And that's when I swore that I would destroy everything they hold dear about the world they control! The lives you've led cannot compare to what I've been through! I don't have time to waste with you miserable brats!"

- Donquixote Doflamingo

Trivia

 * Doflamingo is one of the few characters in which his devil fruit abilities is revealed but is then named many arcs later after its introduction.
 * Doflamingo had the highest known bounty in the series at 340,000,000 berries in the pre-time skip until the post-time skip where it was revealed that Portgas D. Ace had a bounty of 550,000,000 berries in the One Piece 15th Anniversary: Dive to Grand World minibook.