Curly Dadan

Curls of long orange hair frame a broad, mannish face on this heavyset, towering woman now in middle age. Flashbacks catch her with a cigarette between her lips. Her outfit runs to a white collared shirt, a pink beaded necklace, checkered trousers cinched by a wide belt, and heeled boots. The colors of her coat and shirt shifted over the decade and then inverted again two years later, though her figure stayed the same. In her youth she was strikingly lovely, far slimmer and curvier, and wore a single dress.

Dadan carries the manner of a small-time crook, prone to cowardice whenever Garp's threats hang over her freedom. Patience is not her strength, and raising Ace exhausted her long before Luffy arrived to compound the chore. Yet her bandits respect her enough to follow her into lethal fights. Her parenting methods were harsh, rationing food and forcing chores and even plunder, but the way Ace and Luffy spoke of her later suggests more warmth than she let on. She flashes bravery in spurts, charging in to save the boys from Bluejam before bolting once they were safe. Though she claims to despise children, she clearly loves Luffy and Ace as her own and is simply too embarrassed to say so. Ace's death devastated her, and she even attacked the normally terrifying Garp in her grief.

Born in the East Blue, Dadan founded her bandit family and racked up a 7,800,000 berry bounty. Garp blackmailed her into raising the infant Ace, then Luffy a decade later, shielding her gang from the law in exchange. The household clashed constantly, Luffy declaring his hatred of mountain bandits over dinner and the boys repeatedly running off, but Dadan and her crew rushed to Gray Terminal to save them from Bluejam, where she stayed behind to fight alongside Ace. She wept secretly when Ace and then Luffy each left to chase piracy. After the Summit War, news of Ace's death drove her to attack Garp with a club, and Makino had to intervene before Dadan declared her unbroken loyalty to Luffy. Two years on she celebrated his return by scrapbooking his exploits, later cheered his victory over Doflamingo, and grieved again over false reports about Sabo and Garp's disappearance.