Antagonists

Antagonists are characters in the story of One Piece who oppose the protagonists—the Straw Hat Pirates—or their allies. Each story arc in the series typically features a main antagonist, and supporting antagonists of varying significance.

Overview
Antagonists in One Piece mainly come in two types: Enemy pirates and World Government forces, particularly the Marines. Because the protagonists are pirates themselves, they typically clash with other pirates, while the marines and other World Government organizations are naturally antagonistic towards them due to their criminal status. To date, the only canon arc to focus on antagonists wholly unaffiliated to any of the aforementioned groups is the Skypiea Arc.

Antagonist are usually defeated by the protagonists in the arc they appear in, but almost never killed. It is not uncommon for former antagonists to return in later arcs as allies of the Straw Pirates. By contrast, it is rare for a character to feature as a major antagonist again if they were already defeated in the past. Sometimes antagonists may feature in multiple arcs within the same saga, only being defeated for good in the last of arcs.

In order of descending importance, antagonists can be labelled as main, secondary, tertiary, major and minor. A main antagonist is the most significant enemy of the Straw Hat Pirates in a given arc. They are often the leader of an antagonist group and the most powerful or dangerous of the group. Typically the main antagonist is fought by the main protagonist Monkey D. Luffy.

Story Arc Antagonists
This section focuses on antagonists from the main storyline of One Piece, consisting of the canon story arcs and the anime-only arcs.

Antagonists by Saga
The following is a description of antagonistic forces by story arc.

East Blue Saga
This saga does not feature overarching antagonists, consisting of relatively independent stories.


 * Romance Dawn Arc: Features three separate antagonist forces: Higuma and his bandits, Alvida and the Alvida Pirates, and Morgan and his Marines. Of these, Morgan is the only to play a role in more than one chapter, making him the de facto main antagonist.
 * Orange Town Arc: Buggy and the Buggy Pirates.
 * Syrup Village Arc: Kuro and the Black Cat Pirates.
 * Baratie Arc: Krieg and Krieg Pirates.
 * Arlong Park Arc: Arlong and the Arlong Pirates.
 * Loguetown Arc: Smoker, Tashigi and the Marines. The Buggy and Alvida Alliance acts as a secondary antagonist group.

Filler Arc:
 * Warship Island Arc: Eric, and Nelson Royale and the Marines.

Arabasta Saga
The overarching antagonist group of the saga are Baroque Works.


 * Reverse Mountain Arc: Mr. 9 and Miss Wednesday.
 * Whisky Peak Arc: Mr. 5, Miss Valentine.
 * Little Garden Arc: Mr. 3.
 * Drum Island Arc: Wapol and the Bliking Pirates.
 * Arabasta Arc: Crocodile.

Filler Arc:
 * Post-Arabasta Arc: Dick and the Dick Bandits.

Sky Island Saga
This saga does not feature overarching antagonists.


 * Jaya Arc: Bellamy and the Bellamy Pirates. Marshall D. Teach and the Blackbeard Pirates as secondary antagonists
 * Skypiea Arc: Enel and God's Army.

Filler Arcs:
 * Goat Island Arc: Minchey and the Marines.
 * Ruluka Island Arc: Wetton and the Ruluka Government.
 * G-8 Arc: Jonathan, Shepherd, and the Marines.

Water 7 Saga
The overarching antagonist groups of the saga are the World Government and CP9.


 * Long Ring Long Land Arc: Foxy and the Foxy Pirates. Aokiji as a secondary antagonist.
 * Water 7 Arc: Rob Lucci and CP9. Franky and the Franky Family as secondary antagonists.
 * Enies Lobby Arc: Spandam, Rob Lucci and CP9.
 * Post-Enies Lobby Arc: Monkey D. Garp and the Marines. Marshall D. Teach and the Blackbeard Pirates as secondary antagonists.

Filler Arcs:
 * Ocean's Dream Arc: Noko and Drim.
 * Foxy's Return Arc: Kibagaeru, Foxy and the Foxy Pirates. Aokiji as a secondary antagonist (adapting the events that originally occurred in the Long Ring Long Land Arc in the manga).

Thriller Bark Saga

 * Thriller Bark Arc: Gecko Moria and the Thriller Bark Pirates.

Filler Arcs:
 * Ice Hunter Arc: Accino and the Accino Family.
 * Spa Island Arc: Doran. Foxy Pirates as a secondary antagonist group.

Summit War Saga
The overarching antagonist groups of the saga are the World Government and the Marines.


 * Sabaody Archipelago Arc: Charlos and the Celestial Dragons. Kizaru, Sentomaru, Pacifista and the Marines.
 * Amazon Lily Arc: Boa Hancock and the Kuja Pirates.
 * Impel Down Arc: Magellan and the Impel Down staff. Marshall D. Teach and the Blackbeard Pirates as a secondary antagonist group.
 * Marineford Arc: The Marines and the Seven Warlords of the Sea. Marshall D. Teach and the Blackbeard Pirates as a secondary antagonist group.
 * Post-Marineford Arc: Bluejam and the Bluejam Pirates.

Filler Arc:
 * Little East Blue Arc: Largo and the Amigo Pirates.

Fish-Man Island Saga
The only overarching antagonist of the saga is Caribou.


 * Return to Sabaody Arc: Demaro Black and the Fake Straw Hat Crew. Caribou and the Caribou Pirates.
 * Fish-Man Island Arc: Hody Jones and the New Fish-Man Pirates. Vander Decken IX and the Flying Pirates. Caribou as a secondary antagonist.

Dressrosa Saga
The overarching antagonist group of the saga are the Donquixote Pirates.


 * Punk Hazard Arc: Caesar Clown, the Punk Hazard staff and the Donquixote Pirates.
 * Dressrosa Arc: Donquixote Doflamingo and the Donquixote Pirates.

Filler Arcs:
 * Z's Ambition Arc: Shuzo and the Neo Marines.
 * Caesar Retrieval Arc: Breed.

Whole Cake Island Saga
The overarching antagonist groups of the saga are the Beasts Pirates and the Big Mom Pirates.


 * Zou Arc: Jack and the Beasts Pirates.
 * Whole Cake Island Arc: Big Mom and the Big Mom Pirates.
 * Levely Arc: Charlos and the Celestial Dragons. Peachbeard and the Peachbeard Pirates.

Filler Arcs:
 * Silver Mine Arc: Bill and the Silver Pirate Alliance.
 * Marine Rookie Arc: All-Hunt Grount, Ant De Bonham, Shimoi Zappa, and the Marines.

Wano Country Saga
The overarching antagonist groups of the saga are the Beasts Pirates and the Big Mom Pirates.


 * Wano Country Arc: Kaidou and the Beasts Pirates, Kurozumi Orochi and his forces, Big Mom and the Big Mom Pirates. CP0 and briefly, Marine Admiral Ryokugyu as secondary antagonists.

Filler Arcs:
 * Cidre Guild Arc: Cidre and the Cidre Guild.

Final Saga
The overarching antagonist group of the saga is World Government.


 * Egghead Arc: Saturn and the World Government. Kizaru and the Marines as secondary antagonists.

Other Antagonists
This section goes over antagonists in other material, such as movies, TV specials, video games and one-shots.

Trivia

 * In an SBS answer, Eiichiro Oda presented a reasoning as to why Luffy does not kill his enemies, stating that having one's dreams shattered is as painful as death and that victory and defeat matter more to pirates than their lives.