 Despite seeming like a goofy and comical series at times, One Piece has plenty of its darker moments, which are often shown through the series' various villains and their actions. Out of the menacing and wicked bunch, who is the cruelest of them all? Hello my Nakamatachi, this is Joygirl with a video ranking the top 5 cruelest villains in One Piece. But before we dive into this discussion of various evil characters, we should set some parameters as to how I arrived at this list. So as per the title, this will be a discussion of the top 5 cruelest villains in One Piece. This means that this is not a video of my favourite villains in the series, but a discussion of those who in my opinion are the cruelest. Although after watching my list, you may find villains who are not included, but you may feel strongly about, which is very understandable because this was actually quite a hard list to create, so please do leave a comment below listing your top 5 cruelest villains. And there are many truly detestable characters in the series who may fit this description, so the definition of cruel which I use to construct this list are individuals who willfully caused pain or suffering to others without feeling any concern nor care. Going further, individuals who in my opinion stand out above the rest as those who not only carelessly and willfully caused others pain, but also did so out of their own perverse pleasure. Individuals who committed truly twisted and sadistic acts. For example, Kaido, while certainly a terrifying and cruel antagonist who plays a huge role in the tragedy of Wano, does not feature as part of this top 5 precisely because, at least to me, he isn't portrayed to derive some twisted personal enjoyment in witnessing the pain of the Wano citizens as we have seen in some of the other villains throughout the series. Similarly, Akainu, though his cruel ruthlessness was on full display when he had no qualms in decimating the entire island of Ahara, including its children. I can't say that it fits the definition of a truly twisted or sadistic act, as it didn't seem like he was doing it for his own perverse enjoyment and was simply acting out his own moral code of absolute justice. I should also disclaim that I'm only including characters who are the main villains of an arc and with those limits set, let's get into it. Arlong the Saw was pun intended? The truly big fish of East Blue. Most of the villains we had encountered so far in the series had not been as fearsome as this fisherman who had terrorized inhabitants of the Kokoyashi village and threatened to take over the entire East Blue. Whilst we had seen cruel antagonists before, such as Klahador who had tricked a young girl who thought of him like family, all the whilst plotting her murder, or Don Creek who had no compassion for anyone who didn't blindly follow his will, including his own crewmates. Arlong was the first villain in the series who instilled so much fear as we witnessed his incredibly wicked actions. As a fisherman who believed in the superiority of the fisherman race, he was extremely dismissive of humans, showing no hesitation to kill entire towns full of people. However, his cruelty is best shown through his relationship to Nami. After murdering Nami's mother right before her eyes, Arlong forced Nami to work for him as a cartographer, brutally mistreating the young girl such as by locking her up and starving her, despite supposedly considering her as a part of his crew. The cruelest action of them all however, was perhaps when he felt no remorse and conversely displayed amusement when betraying his promise to free Nami and her village when she was able to save up 100 million bellies. Watching Nami's hopes and dreams being stolen away after all the years and pain she went through to achieve such a seemingly impossible task was gut wrenchingly painful and could make someone's blood boil at the cruelty of this fisherman which seemed to have no limits. And so whilst we have seen other villains since this early arc, Arlong remains a notable character to earn spot number 5 on this list. Moving on to number 4, Big Mum. Contrary to the bright and colourful Disney-esque fairytale design of Big Mum and her Toto Land, this sole female Yonko is a terrifying antagonist in the series who uses her power and position to commit some truly cruel actions. Not only are her raw powers and unnatural superhuman strength deserving of mention, what makes her scarier is her deranged psyche and her seeming enjoyment in the terror that she creates seen often through her sadistic amusement and laughter amidst chaos and destruction. This is a fear instilled in both those who live outside in her external protected territories as well as those inside her kingdom. Big Mum is known to devastate any protected territory which fails to pay the monthly fee of an inordinate amount of confections, and for those living inside Toto Land, each citizen must donate one month of their lifespan to their Empress every six months or risk losing her protection and being kicked out. However, in reality, Big Mum never plans on actually allowing anyone to leave, meaning that such an attempt would result in a death sentence. Leading us to the Yonko's creepy devil fruit which is a large part of why she features on this list. Big Mum's Sorosoronomi allows her to steal the souls of anyone who fears her, with which she can infuse into objects to create homies which serve as her servants. Using this power, Big Mum can both take an amount of one's lifespan or even its entirety, effectively killing an individual immediately. Furthermore, whilst the greedy Empress claims that she wishes to create a peaceful haven at Toto Land for all races to live without any discrimination, it's clear that she doesn't actually practice these principles. Big Mum is seen to cruelly discriminate against her own daughter, calling Pudding's third eye creepy and forcing her to cover it with bangs as well as collecting rare species or individuals for her own personal greed and amusement rather than actually recognize them as human beings, such as when she referred to both Brooke and Chopper as exotic pets. Witnessing Big Mum in her manically unstable tyranny is enough to send chills down spines. Her sadistic exploit of both her own strength and twisted devil fruit power cements her firm place within this list of the top 5 cruelest villains. 3. Crocodile Our introduction to Crocodile's diabolical character was a moment which truly marked the dangers of the Grand Line which Luffy and the Straw Hats faced. As the first warlord of the seas which the crew must defeat, of course not counting the brief clash between Zorro and Meahawk as the latter wasn't truly an antagonist of the crew, Crocodile catapulted us to a new level of intensity and threat in the series. This leader of the Baroque Works crime syndicate showed practically no code of honor, sadistically taunting and toying with those weaker than him as well as showing no emotional connection nor concern for his own subordinates. As a sophisticated villain, Crocodile's extreme cruelty was best epitomized through his master plan to conquer the alabaster kingdom. Whilst being praised as a hero for protecting the kingdom from pirates, this evil mastermind had been devastating the country himself through destructive sandstorms and artificial droughts to sow discord among citizens and incite a civil war to overthrow King Cobra. Crocodile's evil scheme was pretending to be a saviour and his true feelings of utter disgust at the alabaster inhabitants truly encapsulates the depth of this man's brutality. So despite being one of the first major villains introduced early in the series, Crocodile remains a notable foe for his extensive diabolical plan in deceiving and devastating an entire nation with plans for world domination at a scale which we had not yet witnessed prior to this point. As the first villain to have shown us the extent of this harsh cruelty of the grand line, Crocodile sits high at number 3. Moving on to a villain introduced much more recently in the series, Orochi at number 2. The cruelty of this detestable character knows no bounds. Whilst like most of the other villains included in this list, Orochi has a tragic backstory which may help us understand his motivations, his actions are still in no way justifiable. Something particularly interesting which seems to point further at Orochi's cruelty is his absolute selfishness, even to the expense of a fellow Kurozumi. Despite Orochi's perverse nature stemming from his own experiences as a persecuted Kurozumi, he seems to have no qualms about ordering his relative Kanjuro to suffer the same fate as their enemies and even death if necessary. Furthermore, his plans to get revenge for the persecution of his family does not end with the Kazukis which his spineless trickery already resulted in the death of Oden, but Orochi has also proven that he harbors absolutely no concern for the Wano citizens whom he believes to be also at fault for the persecution of the Kurozumis. The shocking extent of this hatred and cruelty was displayed through his sadistic treatment of Abizutown. On top of tyrannically oppressing its people, Orochi even robbed their ability to mourn and cry, feeding them the leftover remains of the failed Smile Devil fruits with the twisted intent to steal away their human expressions so that he can bask in the semblance that his citizens are always happy under his rule. This repulsive action and his extreme selfishness earns him a very high spot on this list, so much so that I think he could even be argued to be placed at number one if it wasn't for the extent of the sadistic tendencies displayed in my actual number one pick. But before we reveal who that is, time for an honorable or rather dishonorable mention, another truly reprehensible being, Saint Charles. This celestial dragon is a truly lonesome individual whose cruelty became painfully apparent from his very first introduction and then continued remorseless disgusting behavior. As the first world noble we were introduced to as an individual carrying this title, Saint Charles is the face of the abhorrently ignorant and spoiled ruling class who has complete disregard for all others not sharing their rank. And whilst definitely a character who fits the description of a top 5 cruel villain, he has been left out of this list because his cruelty seems more to be due to his environment and position which has led to his cruel ignorance rather than being a particularly perverted individual and also because the role he has played in the story so far means that he may not be seen to be a main villain of any arc. So moving on to number one, the most cruelest individual in the series, another former warlord and celestial dragon, Don Quixote, Doflamingo. Apply fitting his nickname Joker, Doflamingo is a sadistic individual through and through. This characteristic has been shown to us on a number of occasions with one of his earliest appearances in the series portraying his enjoyment at using his string devil fruit powers, the Ito Ito no Mi, to control others into making them fight. A twisted trait which we have witnessed on multiple occasions and could be argued to be exemplified on an even bigger scale to the gladiatorial fights in the Colosseum at Dressrosa. Doflamingo's perverse nature became only more apparent in the Dressrosa arc where we witnessed the extent of his cruelty. Having deceived the Dressrosa kingdom by again using his powers to control their king and soldiers in attacking their own citizens, this sadist then took over, pretending to be the nation's hero whilst turning all of those who dared to oppose him into toys whose former human existence would be erased in the minds of all those who knew them. Furthermore, when the citizens of Dressrosa finally broke away from his evil spell, Doflamingo showcased his absolute disregard for them despite having been their celebrated ruler for years. Forcing them into a psychologically twisted game to kill each other and capture his enemies without having any real intention to let anyone live. Perhaps because of his celestial dragon heritage, Doflamingo also exhibits a keen blood lust, seen brutally beating up a gladiator who didn't shed any blood during his fight as well as creepily licking the blood of the gladiator off his own face. And whilst he does display care for those whom he considers part of his family, Doflamingo shows no remorse or hesitation at killing his own blood family members when he is betrayed. Don Quixote Doflamingo for all his brutal actions and his incredibly complex but twisted psyche is the epitome of a cruel one-piece villain, lending him the very number one spot on this list. And there you have it, my top 5 on the cruelest villains of one-piece. Please let me know your top 5 by leaving a comment below and please don't forget to subscribe for more one-piece discussions whether it be another top 5 ranking or simply to discuss one-piece villains because we would love to have you on board. This is Joygirl and I'll see you again soon.