Despite Luffy's generally easygoing personality along with his participation in the numerous gags and pranks he and his Straw Hat Pirates like to engage in, One Piece has also depicted some of the cruelest and lowest examples of human behavior in manga history.
Indeed, between the drunken revelry and fun times, almost every character in the series has experienced some dark and sinister moment that either crushed them, or made them stronger, but always changed them forever. Those moments of wickedness also affected fans who were often left as shocked, unnerved, and disturbed as the characters in the story. Below is an exploration of the darkest moments in the saga's long history.
10 Gol D. Roger's Execution
Gol D. Roger’s execution wasn’t a “dark moment” in the traditional sense of the phrase. He was the world’s most infamous pirate. Instead, it’s a dark moment for what it unleashed, which was the global “battle royale” for his treasure that pitted pirate against pirate, the government against the world, and children who, under different circumstances, might have found more uplifting and wholesome professions than piracy, against one another. While the ultimate legacy of Roger’s execution has yet to be played out, whatever it is, there will be blood, betrayal, and bedlam.
9 Buggy Kills His Own Men
It goes without saying that a pirate’s life in One Piece is a dangerous affair. There are risks at every turn. Despite this, a pirate should at least expect his captain to have their back. However, that wasn't true for the members of the Buggy Pirates. Despite coming of age as a member of the Pirate King’s crew, Buggy the Clown was never able to overcome his insecurities, especially those concerning how he looks like a clown. This was best demonstrated by his treatment of his crew, where he’ll kill any of them, on the spot, if they bring attention to the fact that he has a red clown nose or even if he mishears them commenting on his nose.
8 Sanji Locked Away By His Own Father
A chronic foodie and hopeless romantic, Sanji is widely seen as the kindest member of the Straw Hat crew, which makes any situation where he’s been wronged even more heartbreaking. While oftentimes he has only himself to blame, his father’s abuse of him as a child was sadly beyond his control. In one particularly shocking situation, because Sanji did not develop into the lethal weapon his father Vinsmoke Judge wanted him to be, and fearing others would find out about his "failure" of a son, he had him locked in an iron mask and imprisoned in a remote prison. The darkness of Vinsmoke’s action was made even more palpable by the fact that Sanji ultimately unlocked the same superpowers of his siblings and turned out to be quite capable as a fighter in his own right as an adult. All needed was the love and support of someone who believed in him.
7 Arlong's Betrayal of Nami
Although Nami is one of Luffy’s most loyal crew members, it wasn’t always that way. She started out having a very different set of loyalties namely to her hometown. That’s what caused her to steal from Luffy and bring the loot to Arlong as pay to free her village. While Nami’s betrayal of Luffy was significant, it was nothing like the betrayal Arlong had in store for her. Having secretly found out where Nami had been saving up money over the past eight years to pay him off, Arlong tipped off the corrupt Marine Genzo about the stash. When Nami was out stealing from Luffy, Genzo raided her stash and took all the money. As a result, Nami was forced to keep working for Arlong, exposing her only hope of salvation as a cruel lie.
6 Brook's 50 Years Of Isolation
Brook’s dark moment is less about sin and depravity and more about the darkness of his circumstances. To see his crew, a group of people he thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with, die one by one, and then living on alone - stranded in the middle of the sea - for decades in a body that was now only bones is not a situation many others can withstand without going crazy. However, Brook managed to maintain his spirit, which makes his rescue by Luffy and the others even more meaningful.
5 Big Mom "Eats" Her Own Son
It's no secret, that the powerful Big Mom is one of the more wretched individuals in the One Piece universe. Besides enslaving thousands of people and forcing them to pay for their own repression by giving up part of their souls she also manipulated and used her children as pawns in her political machinations. However, none of that compares to the time when she ate her son Charlotte Moscato in a hunger-induced frenzy. Not recognizing him in her frenzy, Big Mom initially confuses him for something to eat and begins to devour his “life span”. Begging his mother to recognize him as her son, Moscato tries to escape, but it's too late. After getting her fill, Big Mom leaves her son for dead and goes on to the next target of her hunger.
4 The Cold-Blooded Annihilation of Ohara
In a One Piece world filled with groups of despicable people, there are few more sinister the World Government, who will do anything to keep, strengthen, and expand their grip on power even committing instantaneous genocide. In one of the most gut-wrenching displays of their sinfulness, they order the summary annihilation of Ohara, a peaceful society of researchers dedicated to studying the poneglyphs. Understanding the poneglyphs would allow a researcher to unlock the mysteries of the Void Century, a period in time that the World Government wanted to be erased from history because it held clues of their weaknesses. Using a military option known as a “buster call” the Marines literally wiped Ohara off the face of the Earth, leaving Nico Robin as the sole survivor.
3 Whitebeard's Brutal Murder
While Whitebeard was a fearsome pirate, he was extremely loyal and supportive of his crew whom he treated as his own children. Accordingly, he certainly thought his crew was the last place a threat would come from. Squard, formerly one of Whitebeard’s most loyal allies, in the midst of the fight to rescue Ace, inexplicably turns and stabs Whitebeard because he thought he was committing too much of his resources to the rescue of one man. Squard still held a grudge against Ace’s father Gol D. Rogers and didn’t want his crew to sacrifice themselves for him. While Whitebeard was able to withstand Squard’s betrayal, he was then finished by a former trusted member of his crew, Blackbeard.
2 Ace's Heartbreaking Death
Portgas D. Ace was an instant fan favorite when he was introduced as Luffy's brother. Despite becoming one of Whitebeard's strongest commanders, Ace's pirate career went off the rails after he decided to go after Blackbeard to avenge Thatch’s death. While no one could fault him for protecting the honor of a fellow crewmate, his sense of duty put him in the hands of the World Government, which exposed Ace as Roger's son. In a series that became infamous for never truly killing any relevant character, Ace's tragic death at the fiery hands of Akainu stands out as the cruel exception to that rule, and it's a scene that will be forever burned into fans' memories.
1 Oden Being Boiled Alive
There’s no shortage of ways to die in One Piece but the death that befell Kozuki Oden was like none other. After losing in his attempt to regain control of Wano Country from Kaido, Oden and his loyal samurais were ordered to be executed by being boiled in oil. Ever the true hero, Oden made a deal with Kaido that would allow his followers to live if he was able to survive in the boiling oil for an hour, while lifting his friends on his back. Kaido agreed to the deal but when the time was up and Oden still stood, he cruelly shot Wano's hero, before killing his wife, taking his country, and forcing his son and followers to flee for twenty whole years, preparing their revenge. withstood the torment and save his soldier, in a true cringe moment, as he climbs out of the pot, Kaido deals with the ultimate betrayal and has him shot dead.
In a manga with a generally positive tone and a lead character who unabashedly fights for the rights of others to be happy, tragedy and darkness are still recurring elements of the story. For One Piece, the evil that lurks in the hearts of men and women is a central and consistent, albeit background feature of Luffy's quest to be the Pirate King, and the story's darkest moments are ultimately part of what makes it such a well-loved manga.
One Piece is available to read from Viz Media.