User blog:DancePowderer/The Smiling Man, Part 3

Part 1 Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

I thought it was over with part 2, but chapter 727 all but forced me to write more. Doflamingo's conversation with Riku really hit home for me. I want to look at two things: How he became a shichibukai and what he said about the world nobles. Let's look at how he became a shichibukai first.

In short, Doflamingo hijacked a world noble treasure/tax collection ship and held it for ransom until he got a position in the shichibukai. This might not seem like much, but as an avid pirate aficionado, there's something I need to point out. Allow me to make a real world comparison. Treasure ships were cargo ships that made runs from South America to Spain and Portugal during the world's Colonial Period. These runs were few and far between. In total, there were two to three treasure runs a year at best. These ships were heavily guarded. Imagine how well guarded you think they'd be, then quadruple that. As such, very few were successfully looted, so it was a big deal when one was. My personal favorite was the attack on Nuestra Señora de la Cabo, landing those involved the biggest treasure haul in pirate history. A world noble tax collection ship basically equates to this. So hijacking one of these is no easy feat. Doflamingo went above and beyond what he needed to do to become a shichibukai if you ask me.

Now, let's look at the real reason I wrote this. This chapter gave us just the magic nugget we needed to be able to say something about him. Donquixote Doflamingo said he does not fear the world nobles. He does not fear the people who have absolute power in this world, the people who can give whole countries to whomever they see fit, the people who can shoot to kill for no reason and without a second thought, the people for whom the slave trade exists. He fears none of them. I will not go into why he doesn't fear them, that much should be obvious. But I will look at what that means. Without any threats, Doflamingo has no reason to fear anything in his life. He has no inhibitions whatsoever on the macro-cosmic scale. Ladies and gentlemen, Donquixote Doflamingo is insane. I say that not as an exclamatory and with no exaggeration of any kind whatsoever. I mean it in the purest sense of the word. When it comes to what insanity is, I fall into the Soul Eater category of thought. Insanity is a complete and total lack of fear. Fear is what keeps us in check. Fear is the filter through which all thoughts, and ideas pass for rational analysis before action is taken. His mind is the perfect example of entitlement reinforced by experience as supports for his insanity. He has lived as a god, lost the title, but maintained the power that comes with it. Not only that, the sky is his boulevard, and he can bend any number of people he wants to his will. His heritage has removed any inhibitions of personal guilt, replacing it with entitlement and justifying it with a complete lack of consequence. He doesn't just think he can get away with anything he wants, he knows he can get away with anything he wants. He expects to get away with anything he wants. It is really and truly quite terrifying when you think about it. I don't see any way he can possibly be brought down. The only thing that makes my blood go colder than that is the thought of what will happen to him when he is finally defeated. He is going to fall hard, in every possible way. The nervous breakdown to follow his defeat just makes me shiver, and anyone with even a shred of compassion would agree with me.