Dressrosa

Dressrosa is a kingdom within the New World, and one of the Twenty Kingdoms of the World Government. It was first mentioned by Vergo. Dressrosa is the second island visited by the Straw Hat Pirates in the New World and the primary setting of the Dressrosa Arc.

Layout


Dressrosa is a luxurious, Spanish-themed island. Its most notable geological feature is the presence of huge rock formations located at the island's borders, with harbors located in-between them.

The port town of Acacia, located at the southeast of the island, has the Corrida Colosseum run by Diamante. Another town, Primula, is located on the western side of the island. The town of Sebio is located to the south. There's also the town of Carta located to the east. At the center of the island stands a huge, rocky structure called the Royal Plateau, which supports the Royal Palace at its top.

Dressrosa is connected to Green Bit by an iron bridge at the north of the country. The presence of the Fighting Fish has forced the bridge to be closed for 200 years. Trafalgar Law, Nico Robin, Usopp, and Caesar Clown stopped at a restaurant called "Cafe Bar La Baltad" near the bridge to gather information on Green Bit.

Dressrosa is relatively close to Punk Hazard, as travel between the two islands can be done in a short period of time. The island is also neighbors with three other islands, one of which being Applenine Island. Those three islands are close enough to catch Den Den Mushi transmission signals coming from Dressrosa.

By the end of the Birdcage game, almost all of Dressrosa had been left in ruins with the kingdom left severely damaged by the Birdcage.

Corrida Colosseum
The Corrida Colosseum is one of the most famous landmarks of Dressrosa. It is a building that is mainly used to host fighting competitions. It is located at the town of Acacia and was ran by the Donquixote Family.

Flower Hill
The Flower Hill was situated in the middle of the island, right next to the Royal Plateau. Its top is covered by several beautiful flowers, which were grown by the Dwarves after they were freed from slavery 800 years ago by the then newly-elected royal family, the Riku Family.

It was also the location of the secret headquarters of the Dwarves during Operation SOP. The Dwarves dug a tunnel that connected the hill with the underground trade port. It also had another tunnel that connected it directly to Green Bit.

After Pica changed Dressrosa's landscape, the ground below the hill rose and Dressrosa's Royal Palace was placed on the hill's top, forming a new Royal Plateau.

Toy House
The Toy House was a building located at the base of the Royal Plateau. Despite its name, the Toy House was not really a house, but rather an area of access that the toys used to reach the Underground Trade Port. The Toys had to return there every night in order to work at the Underground Trade Port.

The Toy House had four main entrances, each located at the four cardinal points and made with giant building blocks. The interior of the house was decorated with several inanimate toy statues.

Underground Trade Port
Dressrosa's underground consists of a huge, secret trade port where Doflamingo conducted his black market dealings. People who were transformed into Toys by Sugar usually worked there at night. The SMILE Factory was also located there.

The Officer's Tower was a building located at the center of the underground harbor where Sugar worked in transforming people into toys. It was securely guarded by Trebol and several soldiers.

Scrap Heap
The Scrap Heap was a massive underground chamber located below the Officer's Tower connected through pipes to several entrances above ground, including the Corrida Colosseum. Misbehaving toys, under the pretense of being defective, were sent there alongside the loser gladiators of the Corrida Colosseum, the latter which were captured by Trebol in order to be transformed into toys by Sugar. Kanjuro was also kept prisoner there after his capture by the Donquixote Pirates.

SMILE Factory
The SMILE Factory was a huge building located right beneath the Corrida Colosseum. It was here where Doflamingo produced his artificial SMILE Devil Fruits.

After Pica changed Dressrosa's landscape, the factory rose above ground.

Dressrosa's Royal Palace
The Royal Palace stood on top of a very tall landmark known as the "Royal Plateau". A lift at the center of the plateau, starting from the underground trade port, went through the Toy House area at the base of the plateau, the three floors of the plateau itself, the three base floors of the palace, to end at the first main floor of the palace. The palace had five main floors, where floors two to five were the areas of the central tower.

After Pica changed Dressrosa's landscape, the palace was placed on the Flower Hill, which was now located on a "new Royal Plateau". Also, the palace's central tower was destroyed by Doflamingo.

Details
Besides the Donquixote Pirates, there are many happy people and living toys in this country. The crime rate is very high because the women there are extremely beautiful, but also extremely temperamental, and they often stab to death the men that betray them. Yet behind this pleasant veil is a dark underbelly. The peoples' memories are manipulated somehow so they live happily and forget their loved ones, as the toys are human victims of a Devil Fruit user, the girl Sugar. At least in the port town are beautiful women who would turn violently murderous against unfaithful men, along with many other varieties of criminal activity. The country seems to be riddled with a high crime populace.

There seems to be a good number of citizens who have a great deal of respect and admiration for their king, Donquixote Doflamingo, as well as the Donquixote Pirates. Citizens tend to become angered when their king is disrespected or spoken ill of, and citizens become disgusted at the sight of someone tarnishing Doflamingo's name. This is due to Doflamingo deceiving them by controlling the former king, Riku Dold III, into committing tyrannical acts, and then appearing as a hero during the time of despair, while promising to return the wealth that was taken by the Riku family, all while keeping them in the dark about the conversion of citizens into toys.

The country also has a formal police force. They wear uniforms similar to those of the real world royal guard. Their hats have visors that say DP (Dressrosa Police) on the front. However, they do not have total jurisdiction over the island, as there are some areas under the control of the Donquixote Family that are considered safe zones where police (and Marines) have no authority. The Corrida Colosseum is one of those places.

It also has an official self-defense army, as Tank Lepanto is one of its captains.

History
Dressrosa was one of the 20 Kingdoms that fought the Great Kingdom. The Donquixote family originally ruled Dressrosa but the family moved to Mariejois and were replaced by the Riku Family.

Under the rule of the Donquixote Family 900 years ago, the island was very wealthy, but at the expense of the slave work done by Dwarves. When the Riku family took over and the Dwarves were freed, the country lost some of that wealth, but it was also known for its unparaleled peace. In retribution to being freed, the Dwarves grew several plants and flowers all around the island.

10 years ago, during his tenure as a Shichibukai, Doflamingo came to Dressrosa and overthrew the Riku royal family. He was able to ascend to the throne due to the concessions and pardons granted to him with his allegiance to the World Government. As such, the castle bears his smiley and the Donquixote Pirates use the island as their base.

With a member of the Donquixote Family once again in power, 500 Dwarves were captured and forced to work at Doflamingo's SMILE Factory. The country returned to a wealthy state not unlike the one it once had under the rule of the Donquixote Family centuries ago.

Doflamingo also took in Sugar who has the power to turn humans into living toys, erasing their past and making the people close to them forget who they were. He also created two strictly followed laws: every citizen must not be loitering outside their homes by midnight sharp, and humans and toys must not enter each others' houses.

After the Punk Hazard Incident, Doflamingo falsely renounced his pact with the World Government, along with his privileges as a Shichibukai, and his status as a king was supposedly abdicated, causing an uproar. This was rectified when CP-0 came along to report the falsification to the citizens, calming them down. At the same time, the Straw Hat Pirates, Kin'emon, Momonosuke, and Trafalgar Law were on their way to Dressrosa to destroy the SMILE factory. Franky, in particular, met with the Thunder Soldier, who is part of an organization who wants to destroy not only the factory, but the entire Dressrosa kingdom as well.

With the defeat of Sugar, all of the toy's reverted back to normal, as well as returning the memories of the people. This included Thunder Soldier who, upon reverting back to Kyros cut off Doflamingo's head. The rest of the kingdom went into chaos, with all the citizens turning against Doflamingo.

Following Sugar's defeat, Doflamingo played his final card: the Birdcage. Using his ability, he created a dome of blade-like strings that surrounded the island, preventing escape and communication to the outside world. At the same time, Pica used his ability to change the layout of the island, lowering the central plateau, bringing the SMILE Factory above ground, and raising the Flower Hill and palace even higher, setting the stage for Doflamingo's bounty hunting game, a strategy devised by Doflamingo in order to turn the majority of the population against his enemies while also serving as a metaphorical election.

The game involved the hunting of twelve individuals who had angered Doflamingo before the Birdcage was set up. The people had the choice to either go after Doflamingo himself or hunt those 12 criminals in order to end Doflamingo's game, which otherwise would never be over. Bounty rewards were also given as an extra incentive for the hunters to go after the targets, with their values being associated with the number of stars attributed to each individual in question.


 * 1-star (100,000,000) for each of the following: Rebecca, Nico Robin, Kin'emon, Viola and Franky.
 * 2-stars (200,000,000) for each of the following: Kyros and Roronoa Zoro.
 * 3-stars (300,000,000) for each of the following: Sabo, Monkey D. Luffy, Trafalgar Law and Riku Dold III.
 * 5-stars (500,000,000) for Usopp.

Battles started breaking out all over the country as Doflamingo used his "Parasite" technique on several civilians and Marines, with citizens attempting to suppress the controlled people, while at the same time trying to catch the 'criminals'. As Luffy, Law and Zoro raced towards the palace, they were joined by the colosseum's strongest participants, all united under the same goal, to take Doflamingo's head (much to Luffy's annoyance). The participants eventually ended up facing, and defeating, the executives of the Donquixote Family (the sole exception being Baby 5 who defected), with Zoro beating Pica, Kyros cutting down Diamante and Franky felling Senor Pink, with the last victory allowing the destruction of the SMILE factory and liberating all the captured dwarves. What's more, both Jora and Sugar were defeated a second time by Leo and Usopp respectively, the formers victory leading to the rescue of the Dwarf princess Mansherry. Elsewhere, Sabo faced Admiral Fujitora, but the battle ended with both sides standing down, after the Revolutionary heard Fujitora out.

In the end, it was left to Law and Luffy to face Doflamingo and Trebol. However, after landing a few blows on Doflamingo, Luffy was stalled by Bellamy, leaving Law to face the king and his executive by himself. Believing his victory is assured having 'defeated' Law, Doflamingo decides to instigate his "end game", and starts contracting the Birdcage with the intent of killing everyone on the island who knows his secret within one hour. As Luffy again confronts Doflamingo, it is revealed that Law's defeat was actually a clever ruse to create an opening for his last, devastating, and fatal attacks, which left the Surgeon of Death immobile. However Doflamingo still managed to stand, leaving it to Luffy to face the Shichibukai. Fortunately, Law managed to land a mortal wound on Trebol despite his incapacitated state. After Trebol attempted, and failed, to take down Law with him, Luffy quickly left the Surgeon of Death with his allies, as the Straw Hats captain faced Doflamingo by himself.

The Birdcage continued to slowly close, destroying more and more buildings in the process. Luffy battled Doflamingo, although his attacks were not effective enough to pressure the Shichibukai, which lead him to activate Gear Fourth. The sheer speed and power sent Doflamingo flying from the palace roof and crashing into several buildings. However, Doflamingo was not down for the count, and he used his awakened Devil Fruit abilities to turn buildings into string and attacked Luffy. The Birdcage was beginning to catch up to the weaker citizens, but Riku gave them a rousing speech which boosted their spirits and encouraged them to keep running. Meanwhile, Zoro, Kin'emon, and Kanjuro headed toward the Birdcage with the intent of stopping it, and Luffy landed a decisive blow on Doflamingo, causing him to crash into the palace.

However, Doflamingo was not down for the count, but Luffy lost his Gear Fourth abilities. Both Doflamingo and Jesus Burgess attempted to capitalize on this by killing Luffy, but Sabo intercepted Burgess, and they had a massive battle which destroyed more of what was left of the city. Gatz from the Corrida Colosseum as well as several gladiators came to Luffy's aid as they confronted Doflamingo while Luffy regained his Haki. However, Doflamingo easily massacred them and in a fit of rage made the Birdcage shrink faster. However, nearly everyone on Dressrosa decided to assist Zoro in holding back the Birdcage, and they briefly succeeded in bringing it to a standstill. This allowed Luffy enough time to regain his Haki and confront Doflamingo again, and he finally defeated Doflamingo with one giant punch, making the Birdcage disappear.

The end of Doflamingo's tyranny caused everyone on Dressrosa to cheer with happiness, and despite nearly all the town being reduced to rubble, everyone was still happy as they were finally free.

Manga and Anime Influences
Dressrosa draws inspiration from the real-life country of Spain, particularly the autonomous communities of Andalusia and Catalonia, as evidenced by the architecture, clothes, flamenco dancers, typical cuisine, and Spanish terminology. The architecture present in Dressrosa is similar to the style of Park Güell, a garden complex in Barcelona designed by Antoni Gaudí. The passionate murders that are so common in Dressrosa is also commonly present in Spanish literature, particularly during the Romantic era in early 19th century.

The Fighting Fish native to the island seem to resemble bulls, both in appearance and temperament. Bullfighting itself is a common sport in Spain.

It also has some hints of the country of Italy, as it features a large colosseum where gladiators would fight to the death for the amusements of the spectators.

The citizens being transformed into toys and having the memories of their existence erased from the human citizens is similar to how countries in the past remove "unwanted elements" from society, turning them into nonpersons, who effectively cease to exist. Spain under Franco was one of the countries that employed such methods.

Trivia

 * Dressrosa means "pink dress" ("rosa" means "pink" in many Latin languages).
 * According to Luffy and Sabo, Dressrosa is similar to Goa Kingdom, as both countries function through extreme class separation and discrimination caused by the royal families and nobles.
 * Doflamingo offered to sell King Riku the rights to rule Dressrosa for 10,000,000,000, which is the highest monetary value to be ever stated in the series.

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