Villains With Obvious Weaknesses In One Piece

Luffy and the gang have come up against a vast array of powerful antagonists along their journey in One Piece, and while some have been extremely tricky to take down, there are others whose weaknesses are a little more obvious. Rather than these appearing as glaring weak spots on their bodies, these vulnerabilities tend to be associated with the villain’s personality, or in some cases, the limitations attached to their Devil Fruits.

However, there are many occasions where, despite a villain’s weakness being extremely obvious, it would still take Luffy a little bit of time to catch on, considering he’s not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. That being said, though, he and his crew were ultimately able to exploit most of these weaknesses to take down their marine and pirate enemies once and for all, with these characters below being the biggest examples of One Piece villains who possess vulnerabilities that are very hard to ignore.

8

Crocodile

The Warlord’s Sand Won’t Work As Intended If Someone Covers It In Liquid

• First Appearance: Episode 76

When the Straw Hats went up against Crocodile in the Alabasta arc, they were still largely unfamiliar with how Logia fruits actually work, which is why they had so much trouble overcoming the Warlord’s sand abilities. Despite Luffy being bested numerous times by Crocodile, it would turn out that the method of being him was actually a lot more on the nose than anyone realized at the time, as all it took was a little bit of water and a few splashes of blood to cancel out his Devil Fruit.

Liquid will solidify Crocodile’s sand techniques, making it much more difficult for him to outmaneuver his opponents in battle if they’re able to catch onto his biggest weakness. In the world of One Piece where Devil Fruits are very weird and wacky in how they work, many of them still have natural counters that can be easy to figure out when thinking about them from a logical perspective.

7

Hody Jones

Hody’s Energy Steroids Were The Source Of His Overwhelming Power

• First Appearance: Episode 529

Hody Jones may appear to be a super-powered Fishman when he rocks up at Fishman Island, but the truth is, there’s a very sinister reason why he came to acquire such a tremendous amount of strength in the first place. So that he can become strong enough to wipe out as many humans as possible, Hody Jones relies on Energy Steroid supplements to bulk up his body, increasing his power and making him extremely durable so that he doesn’t need to worry about being taken down in battle.

While he’s already a fairly skilled fighter, taking these supplements away would make Hody no less dangerous than the average Fishman. While Luffy and the crew were unable to accomplish this before Hody started going off the rails and transforming himself, in hindsight, it’s a pretty easy way to prevent him from becoming too big of a problem.

6

Spandam

Spandam Is A High-Ranking Marine With Barely Any Fighting Skills To Speak Of

• First Appearance: Episode 249

Fans might remember Spandam as the corrupt marine who accidentally ordered a Buster Call back in the Enies Lobby arc. Despite being tasked with kidnapping the infamous Nico Robin, Spandam himself isn’t exactly the most reliable Marine out there. In fact, this guy is a complete coward, and although he always carries a blade or two with him at all times, he’s clearly a pretty weak fighter.

Luffi, Sanji, and Zoro were too preoccupied with fighting CP-0 to catch up with Spandam, but it’s safe to say that the Straw Hat captain easily could have taken him down with a single punch by exploiting Spandam’s inexperience in combat. It’s hard to believe that Spandam even became a marine in the first place, considering how ineffective he is at his job.

5

Big Mom

Without Any Food To Snack On, Big Mom Will Lose Control

• First Appearance: Episode 571

One thing that is made crystal clear about Big Mom the moment she’s introduced in Fishman Island is the fact that she’s a huge lover of food. As someone who enjoys nothing more than setting up grand dinner parties and festive celebrations, Big Mom always needs a supply of sweets and candy to get her through the day, since if she doesn’t, she will begin to turn into a raging demon who essentially loses all her senses. As was shown in Whole Cake Island, ridding Big Mom of her food will cause her to completely lose control, destroying not only her enemies, but also allies in the process.

So long as someone is able to escape before Big Mom can catch them, they can easily cause her to turn on her own family if they succeed in stealing away her precious snacks. Another obvious weakness, which directly relates to her name, is Mothering Mode, where Big Mom will seemingly turn into an innocent mother anytime she spots a young child, though this has only been shown once in the Wano arc with Tama.

4

Bellamy

Bellamy Always Lets His Arrogance Get The Best Of Him

• First Appearance: Episode 146

Bellamy is a character who has a very bad habit of bad-mouthing others when he probably shouldn’t. While he’s far from weak, Bellamy’s arrogance is ultimately what always results in his downfall. Back in the Jaya arc, he was more than happy to mock Luffy, only to then get knocked out in front of his entire crew by a single punch.

He would once again try to act all high and mighty in Dressrosa after he was recruited by Doflamingo, but once again, he was way in over his head as Doflamingo would inevitably betray him and throw him to the side like he was trash. If Bellamy had been a little more humble and respectful to those that he met on his journey, it’s highly likely he could have made a pretty decent pirate, rather than being forced to retire after being humiliated so many times.

3

Smoker

Smoker’s Heavy Reliance On His Fruit Ability Can Be More Of A Detriment Than An Advantage

• First Appearance: Episode 48

While there are many characters in One Piece who possess Loga Devil Fruits, Smoker is a Marine who relies quite heavily on his smoke when taking someone on in an intense battle. Most of the time, he will use his ability to navigate around his environment in the blink of eye after turning into a puff of smoke, and while Luffy had no idea what to do about this in the early arcs, it wouldn’t take long before he realized that Smoker actually has one giant vulnerability.

As Rayleigh explains, Armament Haki is the trick to harming someone who is using a Logia Devil Fruit ability, meaning those who possess it can easily deal damage to Smoker, even when he’s transformed. As a result, this powerful ability is both a blessing and a curse, as while Smoker has found some pretty creative ways to use it offensively, his habit of depending on it so often can also be a detriment.

2

Blackbeard

An Absurdly Powerful Pirate Who Tends To Get A Little Too Overconfident

• First Appearance: Episode 146

As someone who’s in possession of two of the most powerful Devil Fruits in the series, it makes sense why Blackbeard would feel confident in his abilities, though the issue is that he often takes this to the extreme. There have been many cases, such as with Luffy in Impel Down and Whitebeard in Marineford, where Blackbeard will approach his target without a care in the world for his own safety, only to then turn into a coward when they start to power up and overwhelm him.

Though he is usually able to make it out of these confrontations alive thanks to his immense power, it’s easy for Blackbeard’s victims to pick up on his tendency to overextend his confidence, considering he is still a human after all. Blackbeard also receives much more damage than the average person because of his ability to hold two Devil Fruits, and while this weakness isn’t as obvious, it does still mean that his overconfidence can become an even bigger problem for him to deal with.

1

Buggy

The Mighty Yonko Turns Out To Be A Big Coward

• First Appearance: Episode 4

Buggy the Clown may enjoy acting like a legendary pirate who everyone should fear, but the truth is, he’s probably the biggest coward in the entire series. It usually only takes a single attack until Buggy starts screaming in horror and running away, and thanks to his unique Devil Fruit, he can be sliced apart without picking up a single scratch. While this should make him feel a lot safer when entering combat, in contrast, he’s actually scared of taking on pretty much anyone who is even remotely powerful.

This obvious weakness has been taken advantage of several times, not only by Luffy but many other characters too. Most recently, Crocodile and Mihawk have been using Buggy’s cowardly nature to control him in their group, known as the Cross Guild, even though Buggy himself still tries to present himself as the leader. The fact that Buggy managed to reach the status of Yonko is truly bizarre, considering everybody knows he’s a big crybaby, but it just goes to show just how much luck this guy has on his side.

One Piece

Release Date

October 20, 1999

Network

Fuji TV

Directors

Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Maeya, Yûji Endô, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou

Writers

Jin Tanaka, Akiko Inoue, Junki Takegami, Shinzo Fujita, Shouji Yonemura, Yoshiyuki Suga, Atsuhiro Tomioka, Hirohiko Uesaka, Michiru Shimada, Isao Murayama, Takuya Masumoto, Yoichi Takahashi, Momoka Toyoda

• 

  Mayumi Tanaka

  Monkey D. Luffy (voice)

• 

  Kazuya Nakai

  Roronoa Zoro (voice)