When it comes to the best villains in the story,
two names are almost always on the table: Doflamingo and Crocodile.
However, who of the two is actually the better villain? I think there can only be one clear
choice here, however there is actually a lot more to this question than you might think. And so,
what I want to discuss with you today is why Doflamingo is the better villain and why that’s
actually not a bad thing for Crocodile at all. Now you might or might not agree with this statement,
and so I recommend you watch this video until the very end so you know what I really mean by that.
Oh yeah and before we get into it, if you haven’t subscribed
to the channel yet, make sure to hit that big red button below this video.
If you are interested in storytelling, even just a little, you will know that within the
long-lasting format of One Piece, Oda has been referencing events, themes and symbols from
before the time skip, after the crew has reached the new world, basically on a constant basis.
Fishman Island references Arlong Park, Punk Hazard mirrors Drum Island and then we come to Dressrosa.
What does this Arc and the main protagonist mirror from the first part of the story?
As my good friend mr Morj explains in one of his fantastic videos, there are actually some
interesting similarities between Enel and Dofi, as both of them have a serious god-complex,
ruling in tyranny over their people in the believe that they stand above everyone else
and ultimately are taken down by god’s natural enemy: Luffy. And I definitely agree with this
parallel and believe that Oda has integrated parts of Enel into Dofi. However, going not
only by the order of pre-time skip arcs, but also by the vast number of parallels between the two,
the main inspiration for Dressrosa and Doflamingo was without any doubt Alabasta and yes, no one
ales than Crocodile himself. In fact, the list of similarities between the two warlords is so long,
that I will move through it fairly quickly here to not make this video unnecessarily long.
Let’s start with the more obvious parallels and then move a bit deeper. On the most basic level,
both the second saga of pre-time skip, Alabasta, and the second saga of post-time skip, Dressrosa,
are about a Kingdom, that is suffering under the rule of one of the Shijibukai. One controlled by
a crocodile, the other by a flamingo, going with the animal theme of the warlords. Also
if you’re like me and for some reason completely missed this super obvious theme until now, here is
a quick overview: Crocodile is a Crocodile. Doflamingo is a flamingo. Mihawk is a hawk.
Kuma literally means bear in Japanese. Boa Hancock is of course a boa constrictor.
Jinbe means whale shark in Japanese. And finally, Gecko Moria has actually two animals.
There’s the gecko, but putting his name together, Ge-komoria, Komori actually means bat in Japanese.
There, if you weren’t aware of that yet, now you know.
Getting back to topic, Doflamingo and Crocodile share a lot more than just this superficial theme.
Both were the leaders of powerful criminal organisations with a number of devil fruit users,
including a bomber, someone who can change their weight, someone who can turn their
body into weapons, a power related to art and someone who can move freely underground.
Both the Baroque-works as well as the Donquixote family have themed code-names,
one with numbers, the other with playing cards. As a result, both Mr. 0 and Joker
operated under the façade of celebrated heroes in their respective countries,
committing dark dealings that contributed to the countries' deterioration. Both were trading
illegal substances as part of their scheme, Dance Powder and SAD. And both of them have mastered
their devil fruit powers to high levels, able to severely distort the surrounding environments.
Both of them at first seem to get decapitated, Crocodile by Vivi and Dofi by Kyros,
both of them easily avoid any harm however by displaying their skills.
Oh yeah, and for some reason both of them also seem to have thing for drape furry coats.
But this is far from all. Let’s move to a more personal level now. Even from a plot
and character perspective, Doflamingo is clearly referencing Crocodile’s story line. First of all,
both were present at Roger’s funeral being inspired to advance their efforts to reach the
top of the pirate world. Both aimed to do so by first establishing control over an entire country.
However both of them earned the scorn of the country’s princess. Both Vivi and Viola went
undercover in their respective organisations to oppose their evil schemes and protect their
father, King Cobra and King Riku. Both of them see their subordinates as tools to advance their
own goals. This can be seen especially well in how they treat those who do not perform well enough.
Crocodile completely disregarded Galdinao and Doflamingo lost any interest in Bellamy
after his failure against Luffy, exploiting his admiration for him.
And we can take this all the way to their respective conflicts with Luffy.
In both cases it needed Luffy to uncover their true face
and liberate the country form their tyranny. At first, both Crocodile and Dofi seem superior to
Luffy and in both cases Luffy manages to take them out in the end anyway. Also the way Luffy
destroys Doflamingo's string clone is similar to Crocodile's defeat, as they both are sent
up to the ceiling and were beaten up by an attack which involves Luffy punching them multiple times
until the ceiling gets destroyed as they fall to the ground. And ultimately both of
them not only lost their status as warlords, but also ended up in level 6 of impel down.
As you can see, the parallels between both villains are endless and I think it should be
self-evident that Doflamingo is strongly inspired by Crocodile’s role pre-time skip. So now,
you might say. ‘Well if Doflamingo is just a copy of Crocodile, doesn’t that make Crocodile the
better villain?’ So let’s talk about why I think Doflamingo is superior here from a storytelling
perspective. The most fundamental assumption here is that good writers improve over the curse of the
career. They learn what works, what doesn’t, how to structure things better and improve characters.
And while for most authors this will happen over the course over multiple books, screenplays and
stories, Oda has been writing the same story for over 20 years. And so all of his trial and error
as well as all of his experience and improvement are visible throughout that same story
line. So as a result I think that Oda made it a point to revisit Alabasta, that was already great,
and wanted to prove that he can make it even better. A similar setting, but better.
Similar story, but better.
This doesn’t mean in any way, that I dislike Alabasta in the slightest. Just the opposite,
the fact that Alabasta was such a fantastic saga was the thing that made Dressrosa what it is in
the first place. Also as one big caveat here, I’m strictly talking about the manga here. The anime
adaptation of Dressrosa was in my opinion way worse than the manga, while the anime did really
well with Alabasta. That being said, Dressrosa is woven way better into the overall flow of
the story and the overarching events than Alabasta did. Once it was over, it basically
felt a bit like a hard cut. Similarly, Dressrosa integrates many of the major themes of the story
little better than Alabasta does. The helplessness of the Marines in Dressrosa has more weight and
Fujitora’s experience with Luffy happens on a more fundamental level I think than with smoker,
who’s transition happens over a longer period of time. Even an admiral could do nothing in
the face of the warlord system, but in the end Fujitora actually abolished it.
But moving on to the villains themselves, I think it’s great that Oda made Doflamingo
what Crocodile aspired to be. He wanted to gain control over the country and build his power from
there. Doflamingo actually managed to do so. He completely overthrew the king and ruled openly.
As a result, I think that in the final moments of both battles, the positions of Luffy and the
villain are extremely important to the symbolism of the arc and time. Against Crocodile, Luffy
is below him and defeats by punching him into the sky, revealing him as the crook and monster he was
to all of Alabasta by literally throwing him into the light. Luffy being below him during the final
moments represents Luffy's climb and eventual triumph over Crocodile as the underdog, recovering
from his previous losses. It is a struggle for Luffy to punch Crocodile into the open and through
bedrock, further symbolising the barrier Crocodile has created to protect himself from the public.
Luffy vs Doflamingo on the other hand contrasts this. Luffy is now above the villain,
symbolically representing that Luffy is now the one with the upper hand.
Doflamingo has already been revealed to the country of Dressrosa as the monster he is,
so they are in the sky and being watched by everyone on the island.
Luffy's final attack against Doffy is a complete curb stomp, with not much that can be done to stop
it. The ground underneath them being demolished is symbolic of the foundation of lies the country was
built on being crushed. This is further symbolised in the techniques Luffy uses to defeat them.
Luffy defeated Crocodile's single attack (Spada) with a flurry of multiple punches (Storm)
while Doflamingo's multi-pronged attack (Spider Web + God Thread) was broken
through with one huge punch (King Kong Gun).
I think it is clear that these two scenes are meant to mirror each other. And so once again Oda
uses all the good he did with Crocodile to enhance Doflamingo. And so, I think that both Crocodile
AND Doflamingo are fantastic characters. However, I think that Dofi is superior in the sense that
Oda was able to build on, improve and expand what he did with Crocodile. Also, I do think
that Doflamingo’s character overall is one of the most complex in the story so far.
If you want to learn more about that, I recommend that you check out my character analysis here.
Thanks guys. Peace.