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 arc/Pirate Alliance saga of the One Piece manga/anime. He was the captain of the Donquixote Pirates, the king of Dressrosa and a former Shichibukai 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 a Shichibukai were stripped and he and most of his crew members were transported to Impel Down.

He is voiced by Hideyuki Tanaka in the original Japanese version with Tomoe Hanba providing the voice of young Doflamingo, while Robert McCollum provides his voice in the English version.

History
Born a Celestial Dragon in the "Holy Land" of Mariejois, Doflamingo is the descendant of one of the royal families that helped form the World Government. At the age of eight, his father, Donquixote Homing, decided to abandon the splendor of Mariejois and live as commoners in an undisclosed northern country. Still accustomed to his old lifestyle, Doflamingo retained his entitlement and expected civilians to bow to him. Homing's attempt at integration became a fight for his family's lives, as their identity as World Nobles placed them under ruthless persecution by the country's inhabitants, as they burned the Donquixote mansion and drove the family into a makeshift home amidst garbage. Doflamingo and his younger brother, Rosinante, soon took to eating trash. Homing, regretting his decision, contacted the World Nobles in Mariejois as a plea for help, only to be rejected; this greatly upset Doflamingo, as he had overheard the conversation. Not long after, as a result of the family's horrid living conditions, Doflamingo's mother died of illness.

The embittered civilians eventually tracked down the family's refuge. Doflamingo, Rosinante and Homing were lynched and beaten severely; although they ultimately survived. While undergoing torture, Doflamingo swore to kill everyone; horrifying his brother, father and their captors. This act caused Doflamingo to awaken his Haoshoku Haki and knock out a mob who tried to lynch him.

At some point after that, Doflamingo met Vergo, Trebol, Pica, and Diamante and impressed by his ability to use Haoshoku Haki, Trebol believed Doflamingo to be chosen by heaven and then gave Doflamingo the Ito Ito no Mi and a pistol, giving Doflamingo the power to exact revenge on anyone he wanted to kill.

With the pistol, Doflamingo held his father at gunpoint blaming him for all the misfortune he has been point through and declared his intent on returning to Mariejois with his head. Homing simply apologized to his sons for failing them as a father as Doflamingo shot him while ignoring his brother's pleas not to.

Doflamingo then returned to Mariejois with his father's head but was rejected by the world nobles for living with peasants. Doflamingo fled but not without learning the secret national treasure of the world nobles which he would later use to blackmail them.

Bitter at this, Doflamingo swore to destroy everything the world nobles ruled over. He returned to the North Blue where his four friends swore their allegiance to him and follow him in whatever he did. Their loyalty was great as they would get kill anyone who hurt their leader and even went as far burning down a town that built an uneven road that caused Doflamingo to trip. Doflamingo's followers swore to make their leader into the Pirate King.

At age 17, Doflamingo witness the execution of Gol D. Roger and was shown smiling as usual.

Some years later, he and his followers gathered up a crew called the Donquixote Pirates which were a very infamous crew. Doflamingo was even reunited with his younger brother who disappeared fourteen years ago after he killed their father.

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!"

"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!"

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 were it was revealed that Eustass Kid had a 470,000,000 beri bounty.