The Sociopath: Difference between revisions

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** [[Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids|Sir Crocodile's]] charisma, manipulative tendencies, [[Lack of Empathy]], sadistic love of tormenting and dominating his opponents, and non-existent moral compass made him a textbook example of a sociopath during the Alabasta Arc. He's especially fond of crushing the dreams of idealistic people, and was spiteful enough to constantly batter the town of Yuba with sandstorms due to the mayor's refusal to stop believing that the town's water supply could be brought back after a drought. He's long since developed the ''beginnings'' of a conscience and is genuinely fond of Daz Bones/Mr. 1, but his sociopathic traits are still on full display even after helping Luffy out during the Marineford Arc.

** [[Agent Peacock|Donquixote Doflamingo]] checks off a disturbing amount of the criteria. He can [[People Puppets|literally]] and [[Manipulative Bastard|figuratively]] manipulate people like puppets on a string in order to get what he wants, views his closest friends as easily replaceable tools, has absolutely no empathy towards others, and revels in horrific, sadistic cruelty. Another sociopathic trait of his is that he had a [[Dark and Troubled Past|traumatic childhood]] {{spoiler|due to him and his family often being hunted down by angry mobs of people who wanted to kill them because of their ties to the corrupt Celestial Dragons}}. He also dips into [[Psychopathic Manchild]] territory as well, with the atrocities he commits ultimately being a glorified thirty year-long tantrum over {{spoiler|being denied his birthright as a Celestial Dragon}}.

** [[The Neidermeyer|Spandam]], {{spoiler|former}} leader of [[Secret Police|~~Cipher Pol~~]] is cruel and selfish to ridiculous extremes, and loves nothing more than lording his authority over others and crushing them under his heel. Being a [[Dirty Coward|cowardly wimp]] doesn't stop him from having an [[It's All About Me|overinflated ego]], nor does it stop him from [[Never My Fault|trying to make his stronger subordinates take the fall for his own screw-ups]]. And while he can be cunning when he wants to be, he practically wrote the ''book'' on [[Stupid Evil]] and is a frequent victim of his overly awful and poorly thought-out actions coming back to haunt him. It says a lot that his only positive relationship is with his sword, an ''object'' [[Cool Sword|(albeit one that can turn into an elephant).]]

** [[The Neidermeyer|Spandam]], {{spoiler|former}} leader of [[Secret Police|CP9]] is cruel and selfish to ridiculous extremes, and loves nothing more than lording his authority over others and crushing them under his heel. Being a [[Dirty Coward|cowardly wimp]] doesn't stop him from having an [[It's All About Me|overinflated ego]], nor does it stop him from [[Never My Fault|trying to make his stronger subordinates take the fall for his own screw-ups]]. And while he can be cunning when he wants to be, he practically wrote the ''book'' on [[Stupid Evil]] and is a frequent victim of his overly awful and poorly thought-out actions coming back to haunt him. It says a lot that his only positive relationship is with his sword, an ''object'' [[Cool Sword|(albeit one that can turn into an elephant).]]

** [[Aristocrats Are Evil|The Celestial Dragons]] are a ''collective'' of sociopathic nobles. [[A God Am I|Due to the belief that they're gods in human form]], they have full legal immunity and abuse their unchallenged authority with glee. Empathy towards others is so alien of a concept to them that they wear special breathing apparatuses so they don't have to ''breathe the same air'' as commoners, and they'll gladly take whoever they want as a slave that they can torture, rape, and otherwise abuse to their heart's content, [[Would Hurt A Child|children included.]] They're so spoiled and stupid that they're completely oblivious to how much people hate them, and are caught off guard anytime someone takes the ultimate risk by attacking one. There ''are'' several examples of non-sociopathic Celestial Dragons such as {{spoiler|Donquixote Homing and post-character development Mjosgard}}, but they're as rare as it gets.

*** Even by their completely low standards, Saint Charlos is a standout among them. Along with the cruelty and non-existent empathy mentioned above, he also shows off a clear need for constant stimulation (shown by him forcing a woman on the street to marry him since his current wives are "boring") as well as a tendency to make poor financial decisions (wasted a ton of money on a mermaid slave so he could feed her to his piranhas for fun).

** Blackbeard, Luffy's [[Evil Counterpart]] definitely seems to fit the bill. While he's [[Faux Affably Evil|ridiculously charismatic and ''seemingly'' friendly]], it's all meant to make you drop your guard before he stabs you in the back the second the opportunity presents itself. [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|He's betrayed everyone he's been a subordinate to]], and wreaks havoc across the sea without caring about who he hurts or what he destroys. And while he seems to care for his [[True Companions|"Ten Titanic Captains"]], {{spoiler|their fight with Boa Hancock shows that he's at least willing to consider leaving them to die if it means he can survive.}} Funnily enough, it's these traits combined with his appearance that make him the most stereotypical example of a pirate in the series.

*** Blackbeard's [[The Alcatraz|Impel Down]] recruits all show psychopathic tendencies, but former head jailer [[Ax Crazy|Shiryu]] embodies this trope in full. He abused the privileges of his position so he could butcher the inmates for fun [[Laser-Guided Karma|(which is what got him arrested in the first place)]], [[Manipulative Bastard|and tricked the current warden Magellan into freeing him so he could help stop a prison riot]] only to start killing his former subordinates before joining Blackbeard. Sadistic, treacherous, and completely devoid of empathy, he's even considered betraying Blackbeard if his plans start going south.

** [[A Nazi By Any Other Name|Hody Jones]] is what happens if you take Arlong's sociopathic tendencies and [[Up to Eleven|ramp them up to eleven.]] He's even more cruel and racist than he ever was, and doesn't even care about his fellow fishmen - he assassinated the queen of Fishman Island so he could make race relations between humans and fishmen even worse than they already were, and happily kills many members of his own race without a second thought. His reckless abuse of steroids and ~~poorly-thought~~ ~~out~~ ~~schemes~~ also show ~~that~~ ~~he's~~ ~~[[Didn't~~ ~~Think~~ ~~This~~ ~~Through|prone~~ ~~to making~~ ~~impulsive~~ ~~decisions~~.]]

** [[A Nazi By Any Other Name|Hody Jones]] is what happens if you take Arlong's sociopathic tendencies and [[Up to Eleven|ramp them up to eleven.]] He's even more cruel and racist than Arlong ever was, and doesn't even care about his fellow fishmen - he assassinated the queen of Fishman Island so he could make race relations between humans and fishmen even worse than they already were, and happily kills many members of his own race without a second thought. He doesn't even ''have'' a reason to hate humans, unlike many other villainous Fishmen. His hatred doesn't come from a place of pain or tragedy, he's just a racist on a power trip. His reckless abuse of steroids and overly destructive plans also show a nonexistent sense of impulse control and strategic planning.

** [[Mad Scientist|Caesar Clown]] has got nothing resembling moral standards or decency, and has dedicated his life to performing sick, twisted experiments on people purely to spite his scientific rival Dr. Vegapunk. Whether they're innocent children or his own men, he suckers people into letting him perform secretly fatal experiments on them without any remorse, and is surprisingly good at pitting his men against each other once they start to realize what a scumbag he is. He's also as impulsive and hedonistic as he is depraved, and puts himself in mortal danger by {{spoiler|trying to swindle the obscenely powerful and vindictive ''Big Mom'' out of her money and immediately blowing it all on hookers and booze}}.

** While not an example himself, Kaido of the Four Pirate Emperors has a knack for hiring them. Not only are Caesar Clown and Doflamingo associates of his, but he also has a pair of these among his [[Co-Dragons|Lead Performers.]]

*** [[The Brute|Jack "The Drought"]] is ''ridiculously'' low functioning to the point that he's defined by his [[Too Dumb To Live|suicidal recklessness]]. [[Ax Crazy|Sadistic, irrational, and unhinged to the extreme]], Jack's got a lust for violence that can't be satisfied outside of horribly killing and torturing anyone that isn't under Kaido's protection. He's so psychotic that he's willing to pick fights he can't possibly win, which has led to a humiliating defeat for him on more than one occasion. Interestingly, the Wano Arc ''does'' portray him as a semi-[[Voice of Reason]] among Kaido's men, showing a rare ability among sociopaths to learn from his mistakes.

*** [[Evil Genius|Queen "The Plague"]] comes off as [[Camp|silly, hammy, and just plain fun to be around]]. But make no mistake: [[Beware the Silly Ones|under his flamboyant exterior is a heart that's ice-cold]]. A depraved [[Mad Scientist]] who'd put Caesar Clown to shame, Queen views most of his men as expendable cannon fodder and turns them into a pack of rabid Ice Onis with a deadly bioweapon to get an edge in battle. His [[Lack of Empathy]] naturally goes far beyond them, since he gladly forces the Beast Pirates' prisoners to slave away and die for his amusement, and flies into a murderous rage when a geisha he hits on turns him down. While generally better at thinking things through than Jack, he shows that for all his smarts, he's willing to engage in [[Stupid Evil]] acts of his own by trying to kill Big Mom, one of Kaido's fellow Emperors, because she wanted to eat his favorite food.

** Speaking of [[Psychopathic Womanchild|Big Mom]], she's probably the biggest example of this trope in the series. While she isn't emotionally cold, [[Ax Crazy|she's terrifying mercurial]] and will [[Mood Swinger|flip from one emotional extreme to the next at the drop of a hat]]. [[It's All About Me|She has an ego as bloated]] as her [[Fat Bastard|body]], and any slight towards it will be met with murderous fury [[Abusive Parents|that her own children are in no way, shape, or form safe from.]] And despite having the emotional control of a toddler, she can be [[Consummate Liar|cunning]] and [[Manipulative Bastard|manipulative]] when she wants to be, as shown by the effort she puts into keeping pirates indebted to her under her thumb, or the way she tries to orchestrate {{spoiler|the deaths of the entire Vinsmoke family under the guise of a friendly wedding}}. Aside from her maternal figure Mother Carmel, [[Lack of Empathy|she doesn't care about anything or anyone other than herself]], and uses her children as tools and bargaining chips in her pursuit of power and sweets. Even her goal, a seemingly noble desire to establish a world where all the races can live in harmony, comes less from a genuine appreciation of diversity and more from a willingness to keep a collection of interesting creatures under her care.

*** Interestingly, [[Freudian Excuse|Big Mom's backstory shows that she was groomed into being a sociopath by malevolent caretakers during her childhood]]. {{spoiler|Mother Carmel was not, in fact, a kindly old nun, but a ruthless child trafficker who sold kids that she'd take in to slavery without feeling any shame or remorse. Her lies about wanting to create a world where people can see eye-to-eye no matter their differences is what motivates Big Mom's villainy to this day.}} Streusen, on the other hand, saw her as his meal ticket and exploited her powers to help him terrorize the seas and establish a base of power in the New World while actively nurturing her worst impulses. Had it not been for them, Big Mom would have likely grown out of her [[Creepy Child]] phase since she was ultimately a naive and well-meaning little girl whose innocence [[Obliviously Evil|made her oblivious to way her ridiculous strength would hurt others.]]

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