One Piece is a series filled with some of the goofiest yet tragic characters, with some of the saddest backstories ever written. Even though the series seems fun and silly on the surface, it goes to some incredibly dark places throughout the Twenty-Six-Year run. Not everyone’s tragedy is equal of course, and some have been through worse than others, so this ranking is subject to everything the character has gone through to date.
This article comes with a huge spoiler warning for One Piece through the current chapter 1092. The manga is available to read on Viz or MangaPlus, so catch up before reading any more! Or don’t, be free like Luffy would want you to be!
11. Doflamingo
Just because he’s a villainous monster doesn’t mean Donquixote Doflamingo doesn’t have a tragic past. Hell, that tragic past arguably led to his becoming an absolute monster later in life. Doffy was born a Celestial Dragon, with everything he could ever want all in the palm of his hands. His father gave up their title when he was just a young boy and moved down to the Grand Line among the normal people. It was the greatest mistake he ever made and led to the deaths of himself and his wife.
Donquixote swore revenge on all below the Red Line and that he would return to power one day. This leads him on his murderous, maniacal rampage to take over Dressrosa, turning it into his own personal money machine at the expense of the people. His sad past is only more tragic because Corazon took a completely different path, and maybe Doflamingo could have too.
10. Senor Pink
Doflamingo’s big baby of a crew member is powerful as all hell despite how ridiculous he looks. Pink used to be a hardboiled, all-business man with a serious streak, but he did have one weakness that made him a different person. His wife, Russian, found a way to Senor Pink’s hardened heart and made him into a softer, kinder individual, especially after giving birth to their child Gimlet. Out of love for them, he kept his identity as a pirate a secret, instead telling Russian that he was a banker. When he was out on a raid with the Donquixote Pirates, Gimlet became sick and died, destroying Russian. It was only made worse when she found out the truth about Senor Pink and ran off in tears only to be caught in a landslide.
Russian lay in a vegetative state from that day on, despite Pink visiting her often to try and bring her back to reality. She simply stared ahead most days until Pink put on Gimlet’s old bonnet, and brought a smile to her face finally. It was a heartfelt moment that solidified the character as a tragic, flawed soul instead of an outright villain, simply in league with the wrong people. His Swim-Swim Fruit is currently being used by the Blackbeard Pirates though, so hopefully Senor Pink is still alive out there somewhere.
9. Big Mom
Charlotte Linlin isn’t someone anybody expects to have a tragic back story since she’s a terrifying Emperor of the Sea. She does though, and it’s also horrifying in addition to the tragedy. Big Mom was born to normal-sized parents as a massive child with an insatiable appetite that they eventually found that they couldn’t provide for. Heartbroken and with Linlin not knowing why, they leave her behind at Mother Carmel’s orphanage.
The kindly old woman takes the child in, though she’s harboring an even more diabolical secret. Carmel is actually a human trafficker who specializes in finding powerful children for the World Government to train as assassins. Despite her plans to turn Big Mom over as one of her latest contributions, Carmel is foiled by Linlin herself when she serves a birthday dessert to her. Carmel is devoured along with the other orphans by Linlin while she’s in a hunger frenzy, though Big Mom doesn’t realize it. The kid grows up thinking that she was abandoned by everyone she ever loved, and it makes a character of almost total evil into a tragic one.
8. Tony Tony Chopper
Poor Chopper has had it bad from the start, and things only got more tragic before he met Luffy. When he’s born on Drum Island, Chopper has a blue nose, an outcast from his herd of reindeer. Then he stumbles on the Human-Human Fruit and eats it, becoming a giant Reindeer/Human monster until Dr. Hiriluk takes him in. It seems like Chopper finally finds a family with the old quack doctor. Unfortunately, the takeover by Wapol and Hiriluk’s illness takes its toll.
Making things even more tragic is when Chopper tries to cure Hiriluk. He searches far and wide, giving him a soup made from a deadly mushroom. Chopper only meant well and believed the skull and crossbones next to the mushroom in his book to mean freedom. All because Hiriluk had shown Chopper that skull and crossbones before, and told him about a land of cherry blossoms far away. Thankfully, Kureha takes Chopper in from there and trains him in medicine, before he meets the Straw Hats and makes history.
7. Nami
Nami has one of the earliest tragic backstories in One Piece. Her arc actually gives a wrap-up to the East Blue saga that brings everyone in to save her. When she leaves them all at the Baratie and takes their treasure, Luffy’s crew isn’t prepared to find out why Nami betrays them. The sad truth of her family history, as well as her village being taken over by Arlong when she was a young girl, are just the tip of the tragedy. The death of Bellemere is merely the start of Nami’s long road to freedom.
After Arlong kills Bellemere and takes the town hostage, Nami offers to work for him. Her only catch is that Arlong allows her to buy Coco Village back from him, and the Fishman seemingly agrees to the deal. Now, an outcast from her village and the only family she has left, Nami is betrayed by Arlong when she finally has the money to free those she loves. This culmination of Nami’s tragic story is one of the most powerful moments of the East Blue Saga and gives Nami one of her earliest major character arcs.
6. Koala
Much like Boa Hancock and her sisters, Koala was one of the slaves in Marijoa. She was finally free when Fisher Tiger led a raid years ago. She was just a young girl, taken away from her parents, for servitude. Koala is branded with the Claw of the Celestial Dragon, with an attitude that reflects it. Koala was always eager to please, and when she was given to the Fishman Pirates after Fisher Tiger’s raid, tasked with bringing her back home to her family, it seemed she would never be broken of it. Until Fisher Tiger burned her brand off with the Sun Mark taken by the Fishman Pirates.
She snaps out of her slave mindset after that. Then she slowly comes out of her shell as she sails with the Fishman Pirates back to her home. Even Arlong is growing to appreciate her, and Jimbei especially has taken to the child. Koala has been given a second chance, all thanks to the selfless acts of Fisher Tiger. Naturally, it crushes her to find out that her village betrays those acts. They turn Fisher Tiger over to the Navy and set up an ambush after he brings the child home, which ends up killing him. Koala still carries on the lesson she learned from him though, working alongside the Fishman Hack as a Revolutionary.
5. Franky
Franky is the only Straw Hat who ever got a chance to meet Gold Roger himself so far. Though it was as a young child, Franky was an orphan, taken in as the apprentice of Tom for Tom’s Shipwrights when he met the King of the Pirates. His mentor, Tom, actually built the Oro Jackson, Roger’s infamous ship, and is given the death sentence for it in turn. Tom’s ingenuity leads the World Government to spare him for ten years while he works on his Sea Train, but unfortunately, they still choose to kill him after he creates the revolutionary transport.
Poor Franky just can’t take it, especially when the World Government uses his own inventions to sabotage Tom. He throws himself onto the tracks in front of the Sea Train, taking a full-force hit from it. Franky falls into the waves, barely alive. Then pulls himself together, making much of his body new with cybernetic enhancements! It’s still a tragic beginning to the hard-boiled cyborg of the Straw Hats.
4. Brook
The oldest of the Straw Hats, Brook also has one of the longest, loneliest lives out of the crew. He set out originally as a young man with the Rumbar Pirates. Just a crew known for their jolly singing and merrymaking, years before Gold Roger was even a rookie. Before long they met a playful whale named Laboon as a friend in their adventures. When his pod accidentally leaves him behind, Laboon sticks by them throughout their travels. Eventually, when they enter the Grand Line, they determine it will be too dangerous for Laboon. Instead, they tell him to wait at the lighthouse at Reverse Mountain with Crocus. Of course, Crocus was a young man then.
Unfortunately, the Rumbar Pirates fall to ruin not long into their journey. Their captain catches a devastating disease before the crew succumbs to it as well. Eventually, their ship a wrecked and lost at sea, and Brook ended up as the last one of his crew to succumb to starvation. The power of his Revive-Revive Fruit brought him back to his body eventually, but at that point, he was just bones. Now, he travels with the Straw Hats to keep his promise to Laboon, with a Tone Dial of the Rumbar Pirates last song by his side.
3. Law
The Number One sad boy of One Piece, Trafalgar D Water Law has been through a lot in his twenty-six years on the earth. He was born in the midst of a seemingly prosperous time for his country. Then it was all thrown into shambles by the disease White Lead brought to the city. Law was just a child when he saw his parents die. All they leave is a dire warning- don’t tell anyone his true identity, that he carries the Will of D. While they die he manages to escape. Then he becomes a killer with nothing to lose since he’s already infected with White Lead Disease.
When he finally falls in with the Donquixote Pirates, it seems like Law will just be another killer with them until he dies early. Corazon takes pity on the kid though, and goes off with him in the hopes of finding a cure. Eventually, they come back to find the Op-Op Fruit. Doflamingo kills Corazon while Law can only hide and wait until he’s far enough away. It’s a tragedy that puts Law on a path of revenge to Doffy and brings his and Luffy’s fates into line.
2. Vinsmoke Sanji
Sanji has a sad enough backstory when he first debuts in the East Blue saga. He has a tragic history as an orphan before meeting Zeff. Even when he does come into contact with the old geezer, they wash up on an island together in the middle of nowhere. Even worse, there is only so much food between them. They survive the entire time, with Zeff giving Sanji all the food and instead opting to eat his own foot for survival. It’s a dark, dark backstory for what begins as a goofy cartoon.
That’s not all the tragedy Sanji has gone through though. It’s later revealed in Whole Cake Island that his family is the royal Germa force of the North Blue! His father was an absolute bastard to him as a child, seeing Sanji as just another failed experiment. That’s how he ends up as a cook on a small sailing vessel. Before ending up with Zeff, of course, and it’s history until he runs into his family again. Judge is even enough of a bastard to take Zeff, hostage, as collateral for making Sanji do their bidding!
1. Nico Robin
Does anyone equal the tragedy of Nico Robin when it comes to the characters of One Piece? Just a strange young girl alone on Ohara, living with her Aunt’s family. Meanwhile, her mother is out exploring for the scholars. Robin finds her way into the Ohara Scholars meetings though, and learns that they’re researching something forbidden called the Void Century. Unfortunately, the World Government also finds out about the research happening here and decides to take a look for themselves.
Robin not only sees her mother die right in front of her but her entire country is bombed out of existence. It’s a tragic beginning to a character that only faces a life on the run for the next twenty years. Robin doesn’t find peace until the Straw Hats have to literally go to war for her. They make her realize that she still does have a home on the treacherous seas around them.
Though One Piece likes to give the characters tragic backstories, it also loves to give them bright futures. Despite everything, Luffy is still bringing smiles and joy to everyone he meets. No doubt the Joyboy will help brighten up the lives of even more characters with tragic backstories in One Piece arcs to come, too.
