Summary
The titular One Piece ofOne Pieceis a mysterious object which serves as the driving force for a number of pirates. It was obtained in the past byGol D. Roger, and intrinsically connected to the “King of the Pirates” moniker he received. Roger notably desired for it to be found by someone else, and mentioning it at his execution influenced a new generation of pirates.Monkey D. Luffyseeks the One Piece as a personal goal, but many other foes of his are more concerned with the power to be potentially derived from it. That said, there are others who serve as antagonists, yet seem much more content without the legendary artifact.
5Dracule Mihawk
The World’s Strongest Swordsman
A living legend in his own right, Dracule Mihawk seems largely concerned with challenging, and, in some cases, nurturing an opponent who can one day claim the title of World’s Strongest Swordsman from him. Although he managed to effortlessly defeat Roronoa Zoro in their first encounter, he saw enough potential in the young pirate to take him on as a student. In the meantime, he has shown to be a deeply difficult opponent for most who wish to face him. His slashes are strong enough to devastate entire pirate crews, and few have shown the ability to match his strength when he fights seriously.
Despite all his accomplishments, Mihawk seems less comfortable with seriously attempting to obtain the One Piece. Mihawk believes the effort required for obtaining the One Piece is significantly more than even obtaining his title. This is likely because physical strength and skill are far from the only things needed in such an endeavor. Mihawk notably lacked a pirate crew for the majority of his known career, and likely had no interest in cultivating people with talents needed to reach the One Piece.
Even as Mihawk gained some authority as a co-captain of Cross Guild, the decision its members took to search for the One Piece wasput forward by Buggy, the false leader of the organization. It is unclear how immediately willing Mihawk will be to humor his underlings, but for the moment he still seems disenchanted with the idea.
4Enel
The Former “God” of Skypiea
This sky island dweller is shown to have a lust for power, destroying his own home island of Birka and then forcibly inserting himself as theruler of Skypiea. Enel also amassed a number of followers in his own organization, God’s Army. He proved to be a largely unbeatable foe, only losing once Monkey D. Luffy, a pirate who could neutralize his Devil Fruit, showed up.
Despite his power, Enel has seemingly little interest in obtaining the One Piece or any potential power it holds. This fact seems influenced by a general amount of apathy towards the outside world. His goal is, instead, the Fairy Vearth, a Birkan land of legend which turns out to actually be the moon. After taking out an alien pirate crew and befriending a number of automatons stationed there, Enel seems content for the time being with his status as ruler of the moon.
3Hody Jones
Captain of the New Fish-Man Pirates
This great white shark fish-man had a goal of instituting global fish-man supremacy. This was a result ofthe racist ideals Arlong espousedto him and his future crewmates when they were children. However, unlike Arlong, Hody Jones had no personal experiences with humans or their racism. He was more than willing to harm other fish-men who got in the way of his goal, in stark contrast to Arlong. In another departure from Arlong, he seemed unwilling to compromise with humans or even merely use them to achieve his goals. Unlike Arlong, he was more willing to pay or compromise with other fish-men to bolster his numbers, but this did little to prevent him from being defeated by a team-up of the Straw Hat Pirates, and Jimbei, their future crewmate.
Hody’s actions and beliefs speak to a level of inexperience with the outside world. He believed he was capable of uprooting humanity despite the various foes he would have to face in accomplishing such a goal. Hody likely either didn’t care or may not have even known about the One Piece. Perhaps he may have wanted it to aid him in his goals, but considering he cared little for piracy except as a medium through which to hate humans, it is equally possible he would simply try to achieve this goal by destroying whatever was in front of him.
2Magellan
Impel Down’s Vice Warden
This top jailer is aligned with the World Government, who themselves have a somewhat complicated relationship with the One Piece. The exact nature of the treasure is not widely known, but seeing how they dealt with Roger, it is likely the government care about it in the abstract of not wanting another pirate to come across it.
Magellan, on the other hand, seems more centrallyfocused on Impel Down, the prison he was formerly in charge of. When faced with pirates or criminals, Magellan seems largely to care about them purely to the extent that they are incarcerated. He tends to defer to the marines when it comes to actually apprehending said criminals. He eventually even seemed fine conversing with Donquixote Doflamingo, once the pirate was imprisoned. Although Magellan would probably come into conflict with a hypothetical pirate king if they met face-to-face, it tends to be the kind of subject that would be more frequently in the jurisdiction of others in the government.
1Crocodile
The Founder and True Leader of the Cross Guild
The antagonistic Crocodileonce had aspirations of becoming the Pirate King himself. However, he was quickly humbled out of that idea by Emperor Whitebeard, who dealt the man a devastating defeat. Since then, he has refocused his goals on gaining power elsewhere, attempting to seize Alabasta for himself while crafting a public image as a hero. By the time the Straw Hat Pirates were on his radar, he had long since given up his dream of finding the One Piece. His plans for Alabasta were stopped by the Straw Hat Pirates, and resulted in Crocodile ending up incarcerated.
After teaming up with Luffy to escape Impel Down, Crocodile had little interest in dealing with the pirate, or the One Piece. Nonetheless, he did maintain an interest in power, forming the mercenary group, Cross Guild, who offered bounties for the capture of marines. But like Mihawk, Crocodile has been inadvertently roped into searching for the One Piece, as Buggy energized the crew in his espousal of this goal. Considering he gave up on this idea himself years ago, he probably has complicated feelings towards being made to re-engage with it.
