I was rereading your masterpiece “fine thread between love & hate” again and something you mentioned in the comments got my attention, That there’s a lot of evidence in canon that Doflamingo was in love with Viola. Could you elaborate more on that?? I would love to hear your thoughts on the topic!
Oh I love that you reread it! That's amazing thank you! ❤️❤️❤️
Aaahhh I'm SO excited to receive this question! 😍 I'm very sorry for the delay in getting back to you, I've been so busy and wanted to do justice to the answer.
I tried to keep this as short as possible, but I failed 😅 Oh well, let's do this!
Evidence that Doflamingo was in love with Viola
When Viola is revealed to be working for Doffy, her men call her 姐さん "ane-san", which is a term used in yakuza settings and is reserved for the wife/lover/mistress of the mafia boss. This isn't a title that's just given out, even in a normal mafia setting, and there's no way Doffy in particular would let any woman he hooks up with have a title like that. He's so precious about his standing as we know, which means he made the conscious decision to order his men to call her that and to put her in a high ranking position in his crew. It also means that everyone knows she's Doffy's girl, it's not exactly a secret.
In chapter 734 he directly talks about her to King Riku. He has a bit of a whinge that Riku's family is giving trouble and says "Your family is acting up today, including Violet", to which Riku replies "You drove us to despair for the future so that's why we're fighting". Then Doffy completely changes his tone and language, and walks away from Riku, and says, "That's your view of it, but Viola is different. She's a very smart/highly calculating woman who took a gamble." This line depends a bit on translation and sub/dub, (I've put both English and Japanese below and provided my own translation above). I love the way it's done in the English cause he sounds super impressed like "that's my girl" 😍 (Admittedly he also calls her a tramp but, you know, he's mad lol)
Take note of his expression as well, he's mad but he also looks impressed with her actions. The shading and definition on his face here is no accident, especially compared to the previous panels where there's minimal defintion.
Anyway, two things about this:
He calls her Viola to talk about who she really is as an intelligen woman he knows well, not her Violet persona or who her dad seems to think she is.
He gives her a compliment He says "計算高い 女だ···!!" which translates to "highly calculating woman!!". He calls her intelligent and someone who makes a bet, which are reflections of his own personality traits and are exactly the sort of things he admires - he even says it with exclamation marks like he's impressed. It's the first and only compliment we ever see him giving to anyone that isn't to their face. His compliments are always as a means of gaining affection, like how he piles them on Trebol and Diamante (though it's shown he does actually find them incompetent), or to Law when trying to get him back. But he never compliments someone when they're not around to hear it. That's huge for him and shows he genuinely admires her
So in the anime, the scene where Viola confronts Doflamingo is done horribly and it pisses me off, but in the manga it's quite different. (Chp 788).
In the anime, he's doing his usual grinning thing, then they have a badly animated exchange, and it's portrayed as her being really stupid.
In the manga, he's not smiling when confronted by her. In fact, he's got the same look on his face when he has to kill Cora. He's genuinely PISSED.
Then Rebecca shows up to ruin their little moment (go away Rebecca!). Viola asks why she's there and not to get any stupid ideas, to which Doffy says "Then, why are you here, Viola?".
Take note again of the definition and shading on his face here, his expression is very similar to the panel above. He's angry but he's calculating, like he's waiting to see how she'll respond.
Let's quickly dissect his line as well while we're at it. じゃあ お前は 何をしに 来た ヴィオラ
He says, "お前" - omae. For a guy to refer to a girl as "omae", it basically translates to "babe" or "my girl". It's a colloquiel term a guy would use with his girlfriend. He wouldn't use that with any other girl, and would only ever otherwise use it with really close guy friends that he's known since childhood. It's intimate, it's informal, it's basically admitting they're dating.
(Note: Both Law and Zoro use omae when speaking to Robin and Hiyori 🤭)
And, of course, the most significant thing is he calls her Viola, her actual name. Here, he's talking to her as his girl, not his subordinate.
She says "Wouldn't it be too convenient for me to walk away having been an officer? Either I die or you die, Doffy". He pauses, not smiling, and then he switches into crazy mode and says "What a passionate decision, Violet".
(Sidenote, she looks so stunning in that panel. Justice for Viola! The anime ruined her!!)
When he talks about her as Viola, he has a very different expression on his face compared to when he talks about her as Violet. When he says Viola, it's calculating, it's thoughtful. When he says Violet, it's the crazy face we all know and love. It's like he's turned off the part that cares and is fully committed to seeing her as just another pawn to be killed.
Her calling him Doffy
The only people in the series who are allowed to call him that have been Cora, and his four execs who are his besties. So the fact that he'd let her say his name is wild. It shows he trusts her and thinks of her as his real family. Again he's super precious about stuff like this, there's no way he'd give his nickname to the girl he only hooks up with.
She's the only person to make him falter
The anime doesn't show this properly but in the manga it's more obvious. Right after Viola starts fighting him, the birdcage stops moving. Completely stops. It doesn't get pushed back, it doesn't get halted because of everyone pushing on it, it straight up stops.
It doesn't move for a full few seconds, and everyone wonders what's happened, including Zoro who realises something is wrong, before it then starts up again.
It doesn't stop until he's taken out by Luffy later. So, this means something happened to Doffy that affected his concentration enough to make his powers stop working. Not even Luffy decking him halfway across the country, or Law exploding his insides and ranting at him about Cora, and his descent into absolute madness made that happen.
Considering the timing of the birdcage stopping pretty much right after Viola starts fighting him, I fully believe it's her "betrayal" that causes it. The fact that he also refers to her as betraying him is very telling, too. I think this indicates that they were in a very intimate relationship for a long time. Long enough and close enough that her actions caused him to falter for the first time.
She's seen his eyes and probably memories
This is more speculation, but I think she's the only person to have seen him without his glasses. Her powers for one make that possible, so he would be more inclined to take his glasses off around her as there's no point keeping them on, thereby forging a deep intimacy with her that he doesn't have with anyone else. Also, she'd be able to read his mind and memories, breaking through his usual barriers and facades.
Proof in point in the panel below.
She's a princess and he's a Celestial Dragon
Again speculation, but as he's a Celestial Dragon I think he wouldn't believe anyone is worthy of him except royalty. She's a princess and I think he'd consider her to be the only person actually worthy of his genuine affection.
In conclusion, I believe he fell in love with her
They are clearly very close from the way they talk to and about each other. I'm of the belief that the combination of her powers and his own ability to read and manipulate people led them to forging a relationship originally based on trying to get the better of the other, that gradually became more and more intimate over the decade he was in power. 10 years is a long time to be with someone, and with her isolated from everyone she'd ever loved and known, I'm sure he would have used that to his advantage to encourage her loyalty to him. But he probably wasn't expecting to fall right back lol. Maybe the manipulator got manipulated - oh the irony.
I know there's a general view that Doffy assaulted her and they weren't in love, but I disagree. Oda said of their relationship that it was adult and referred to Dressrosa being the country of passion - that's not the phrasing you would use if it's straight up assault. And also I think when people view them in this way, they completely miss the nuance of Doffy's character and what makes him so terrifying and interesting in the first place.
When I say he's in love with her, I want to clarify that I mean in his way. I think he's capable of love, but not in a way that's kind or gentle or forgiving. It's possessive, controlling, narcissistic and destructive. I don't think he'd even realise he loved her until maybe that moment when she confronts him and his powers falter, which is why I think he then decides to use Rebecca to kill her as he knew it would hurt her the most. I think if he'd had his gun, he would have shot her like he did Law and Corazon, but as he didn't, that was the next best option.
Well I hope this answered your question and I'm sorry for this being so long. I love to dissect these kind of interesting relationships and could talk about them for far too long 😂
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