Are any of the Celestial Dragons in One Piece good? Morality of series' ruling class, explored

One of the most intriguing aspects of author and illustrator Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece manga series is the level of detail and care put into the series’ societal worldbuilding. Fans are constantly treated to detailed experiences and looks of how the in-series world’s social hierarchy is structured, and how the various groups within relate to each other.

Arguably the most prominent example of this is the establishment of the Celestial Dragons, which are a class of non-ruling nobles within the One Piece world. While the average Celestial Dragon may not hold any authority in the World Government, they are basically gods in every other aspect of their existence, and are clearly superior to “normal” humans socially speaking.

Likewise, many of One Piece’s Celestial Dragons are shown to be rotten to the core, absolutely corrupted by the absolute power which they are given in the world’s society. However, there are some Celestial Dragons who’ve shown themselves capable of moving beyond their title and place in the social hierarchy, leading fans to question if there are more like them.

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Homing and Mjosgard of the Donquixote family likely give One Piece fans false hope on the Celestial Dragons overall

Are any of the Celestial Dragons good? Explored

As mentioned above, the One Piece anime and manga series have shown fans two examples of Celestial Dragons who were able to overcome their prejudice towards those socially lower. Intriguingly, both members are from the Donquixote family, which beloved series antagonist Doflamingo belongs to. One of them is actually Doflamingo’s father Homing, while the other is Donquixote Mjosgard.

However, Homing and Mjosgard went about this process in very different ways. Homing chose to fully abandon his title as a World Noble, claiming he has always been a human despite being born into the class of Celestial Dragon. Likewise, he moved his family to the islands below Mariejois and the Red Line after abandoning his title in order to live amongst his fellow humans. As One Piece fans are familiar with, this unfortunately didn’t go quite as well as he had hoped.

Mjosgard, on the other hand, found more success in the way he overcame his own corruption. One Piece’s Fishman Island arc first introduced Mjosgard as a terrified and shipwrecked sailor on Fishman Island. However, the kindness Queen Otohime showed him helped him to overcome his fear of Fishman, and eventually his corruption as a Celestial Dragon. This was shown by his actions during the Reverie arc, which saved Princess Shirahoshi’s life.

While Mjosgard eventually paid the ultimate price for his actions like Homing did, he nevertheless was also able to overcome his corruption and turn over a new leaf. Likewise, with both of their story arcs now concluded as of this article’s writing, fans are curious to see if any more Celestial Dragons will be revealed as “good” like they were.

Unfortunately, it’s more likely than not that these two Celestial Dragons will be One Piece’s sole exception to the rule that is the Celestial Dragons’ characterizations. For starters, such corruption which is so widely festered amongst a group of people is difficult to overcome. Likewise, the series has shown that those Celestials who go against the status quo are quickly and forcibly dealt with in one way or another.

There’s also the mob mentality aspect which will always leave those going against the status quo feeling alone and outnumbered. In turn, this deters breaking free of the norm and encourages anyone who even thinks of changing their ways to not do so. With all of this in mind, it seems unlikely that any of the other Celestial Dragons in the series have any sort of good in their hearts at the time of this article’s writing.

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