Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6
Now that we've learned a bit more about our favorite world noble shichibukai, I felt it appropriate to do a follow up to my (almost) award-winning blog, The Smiling Man. After the last chapter, a good bit of information behind Doflamingo's personality and behavior was explained. We now have enough to make a basic psychological profile for him. There are a few things we must look at. Let's start with his childhood.
We know Doflamingo was born a world noble, he later rejected his status. As he told Issho, he hated his childhood, going so far as to call it awful. I know some of you might simply write this off as him being a whiny spoiled rich kid, but you must understand that you cannot judge his life by comparing it to your own, but rather you must compare his life to those of his peers, which we cannot do at the moment, so we must take his word non-judgmentally. Just look at "his pace". That can be attributed his status. It's a well-accepted sociological pattern that those of a higher class are bred to maintain that class, whereby they maintain a commanding presence over those of a lower class. It's called charismatic entitlement. There is nothing pretentious about it. As a member of the ruling class, he was brought up to have a better command over people, if only a verbal one. He can control social situations the same way a king has that unspoken hold over the people he is addressing.
His status can also help explain his thirst for vengeance and belief that all people are hiding this desire deep within. We've seen this view of his at work already. The first time we saw a world noble, moments after he appeared he shot an already critically injured slave. That same person was later overjoyed when he shot Hatchan, saying he bagged a prize. Every world noble we've seen has been sadistic beyond measure. Charloss is a prime example of how and why Doflamingo thinks humans are constantly hiding their true bloodlusts. The only time he showed joy was when he shot someone, and he was cold and indifferent the rest of the time. Doflamingo saw all of this growing up. If world nobles had no qualms about beating and shooting their slaves amongst the commoners, you know they had no issue with doing it at home. Growing up in Mariejois, Doflamingo saw this a lot.
With that in mind, let's look at Doflamingo's behavior and abilities. For the most part, he is a product of his environment. He may have lost the title, but he has not lost the attitude of a world noble, having no regard for the life of anyone below him. Check his track record. He watched with amusement as he made Vice Admiral Mozambia strangle Vice Admiral Stainless. He nonchalantly made Atmos slaughter his own crew. He sees no problem with bending others forcibly to his will because he grew up with it all around him. In short, everyone below him he sees as his potential slaves.
We even see this play out in his political policies. He uses the Corrida Colosseum to have people fight to the death for his amusement. I would not be surprised if he saw this done with slaves in Mariejois. But now, we must ask, if Donquixote Doflamingo so despised his upbringing that he would throw away what one would consider the luckiest bits of divinity ever, why did he bring so much of his upbringing with him? You'll find the answer as surprising as I did. Doflamingo's actions are rooted, in of all things, compassion. Doflamingo does not want his subjects to hide their thirst for violence under the guise of proper behavior, so he gives it to them unadulterated on a silver platter in the form of the monthly gladiatorial tournament. He is letting people shed their skin of proper behavior and indulge in their basic human joy of watching other people spill their blood. You can take the world noble out of Mariejois, but you can't take the Mariejois out of the world noble.