Curly Dadan

Curly Dadan is a friend of Monkey D. Garp's and the foster mother of Portgas D. Ace and Luffy. Garp entrusted her to take care of Portgas D. Ace shortly after the boy's birth. Later, Garp also left Luffy in Dadan's care.

Dadan lives on Mt. Corbo near Fuschia Village. She is the Mt. Corvo mountain bandit boss of the Dadan family and a wanted criminal.

She was first mentioned after the Enies Lobby incident when Garp come to Water 7, which he claims that he left Luffy and Ace to train with a friend. Her name was first mentioned by mayor Woop Slap after he saw Luffy new bounty and questioned "Does Dadan know!?".

Appearance
Dadan is a rather tall and overweight woman with long, curly hair and a big face. In her appearance in Luffy's flashback, she was seen smoking. She wears a collar shirt, a beaded necklace, chequered trousers held up with a large belt, and heeled boots.

Personality
As far as personality goes, Dadan's is that of a somewhat stereotypical petty criminal, a bit cowardly in regards to Garp blackmailing her, her freedom, and Garp himself. She also doesn't seem to be too patient as she was beginning to get sick and tired of raising Ace because of his antics and became even more aggravated when she was left with Luffy. The methods that she supposedly used to "discipline" both Luffy and Ace were rather questionable (though Luffy seemed to be able to easily put up with them on account that the treatment he received under his own grandfather, Garp, was hardly any better) since they included providing them with limited food, making them clean the house, hunting for them, and even resort to criminal activities (i.e. plundering people). However, judging from Luffy's and Ace's regard for her whenever she was mentioned, she may have been a better person than anyone might have thought of her.

Monkey D. Luffy
Luffy's first encounter with Dadan occurred with the latter already on the verge of declining Garp's request to have her and her family of robbers look out for the boy's well-being as they already have their hands full with Ace alone. As for Luffy, this initial lack of affection was reciprocated due to his dislike of mountain-dwelling bandits, owing to the boy's past experience with Higuma, and even went as far as sticking his tongue out at her during the first mealtime together.

Portgas D. Ace
Having been entrusted with the young Ace by Garp, Dadan knew first-hand just how troublesome the future 2nd Whitebeard Division Commander was at his youth. So much that she became terrified at the thought of having another "brat" brought by Garp under her wing. She is apparently aware of Ace's connection to Roger, but seemed willing to honor her friendship with Garp and kept that shocking piece of information discreet.

Taking Care for Garp's Grandchildren
As Dadan was a criminal noted to have performed countless crimes, Garp blackmailed her, threatening to arrest the Dadan Family if they refused to take care of Ace and Luffy. As the Dadan family accepted Garp's offer, the Vice Admiral kept the Government's eyes diverted from the bandits' actions.

When the bandits, Ace and Luffy are eating dinner, Luffy states he hates mountain bandits, remembering himself about Higuma. Dadan gets angry yelling at Luffy, saying he could just as well leave and starve to death. One of her fellow bandits tells her to calm down. Luffy angers her even more when he tells them he didn't eat enough. She says to him he should be glad that he can even eat at their place and that he'll start the next day working around the house. She tells Luffy he can have one bowl of rice and one glass of water, telling him that he should fetch his own food if he wants more. Luffy says that's all right, leaving Dadan comically offended. He then tells Dadan he is strong enough, as strong as a pirate, which he'll become. Dadan is then in shock seeing Ace and Luffy leave. She states that the two grandsons of Garp are way too strong for them to handle.

One of the bandits reports to her that Luffy is missing and she tells him that she couldn't care less. If he died, it wouldn't be her fault. While taking a sip of beer, she also says they already gave up on Ace. She states she is not able to handle the son of the devil.

One week later, Luffy returns injured and with shredded pieces of clothing. She freaks out at seeing him and sends him to bed. The next day Luffy follows Ace, again. She then angrily yells at Luffy for leaving his errands behind.

Though Dadan is shown to be angry when Ace nearly killed people who offended his heritage, Ace did seem to like her.

Translation and Dub Issues
Dadan's full name has yet to be officially romanized by any source. Neither the official English editions, (FUNimation, Viz) nor anyone on the Japanese side of production (Oda, Shueisha, Toei) have given any official spelling of the name. Thus, "Curly Dadan" is only a fan transliteration, with other possibles being "Kaari" "Carly", "Karly", "Kurly", etc. Until an official spelling is written, nothing is technically "Correct" much in the same way Oars' name was similarly misspelled early on (as Oz, Odz, Odr, etc). The katakana of her name is the same for the mother godness from the hinduism, Kali.

Trivia

 * The mayor of Luffy's hometown, Woop Slap, knows about her, as he states "Does Dadan know!?"
 * Just before he dies, Ace asks Luffy to tell Dadan "goodbye" for him.
 * The Dadan Family seemed to be a notorious group of mountain bandits as Garp claimed their crimes were "more than the stars".

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Curly Dadan