ONE PIECE VILLAINS # 6 : ARLONG

ARLONG

In my opinion the first truly great villain in One Piece is the sawfish fishman Arlong who was once a member of the Sunny Pirates. This was a pirate crew of all fishman that was once led by Fisher Tiger and later Jimbei. After they broke up Arlong took some of the remnants of the crew and created hsi own pirate crew. Arlong decided it was best to take over the world one sea at a time starting with the weakest East Blue. With his years of experience as a pirate he knew East Blue was well known for being the easiest prey for Fishmen who are far stronger than ordinary humans. His arrival in East Blue was around the time when Nami was but a small child and way before Luffy's adventure began. He used an idea of extorting money for protection form villagers rather than going through the trouble of wreaking havoc on numerous island to gain his wealth and power. This method worked well for him until the fateful day Monkey D. Luffy arrived at Arlong Park.

Arlong's design and strength went way beyond those of other villains Luffy had faced until this point and made him a very memorable villain even to this day. Arlong's main characteristic was his hatred for humans as far as calling them lesser life forms than Fishmen. This trait is one thing that probably allowed him to torment them so easily with no remorse. This aided him with his excessive love for money and enable him to take advantage of the physically weaker humans in East Blue for his own motives. Also as we later find out more of Fishman history we can see how truly well developed Arlong's character is at this time. His motives and past once revealed allow us to see he had much more to him than most other villains at the time in One Piece. His racist attitude is a new concept because he does not just despise people he actually thinks they are inferior to Fishmen in every aspect. He is also a villain which hurt to a vast extent one of Luffy's soon to be crew mates in the form of Nami. With this we actually begin to have more vested in hating him as a villain since he destroyed the life of someone we had gotten to knwo and care for throughout the journey. This could be one reason most people still remember him vividly when they think back to old viallins in One Piece. Another thing is he has some redeemable qualities in the fact he cares for his crew as opposed to most of the villains we have seen so far. Once he finds out they have been injured by the human scum of Luffy and the others he goes into a great outrage. Although he shares this trait with Luffy he still far away from being a good person, but we can understand his pain once we learn of the Fishman history in the Saobody Arc.

His skill and power as a fighter are supposedly unmatched in East Blue, because of his Fishman strength and crew. He also has brought a creature from the Grandline which also garners him more fear an power. He has tremendous fighting capabilities as well as certain attributes that make him a very dangerous opponent to Luffy. He can regrow his teeth and has a supposedly unbreakable razor sharp nose at his disposal that inflicts great damage on all he touches. As he fights he even gets stronger with his rage and it powers him up even more. With all his advantages Arlong seem to be a shoe in to defeat Luffy, but once Luffy understands the pain Nami went through there is no stopping him. As this fight ends the entirety of Arlong Park is destroyed and all the Fishmen are soundly defeated. The island and Nami's village are finally free from this horrible tyrant. This is the beginning of Luffy developing his true strength of character that he will use much throughout  One Piece .

As I stated before Arlong is a very important villain in the scheme of things and not only is he unique, but he also helps to improve our understanding and love for Luffy. Many people have said the Arlong Park arc of One Piece is what sold them on the story and made them true fans. This is mainly due to the greatness and believability of Arlong as a villain. Therefore to me Arlong is the best villain of the entire East Blue saga and still to this day ranks up there with many of Luffy's other great enemies. Feel free to let me know what you thought about Arlong and give me your perspective on him. If you liked this feel free to share it with other like minded people and if you hated it do not tell me so I don't cry.