~GreatRingmaster

Their arc's not even properly over, and already I miss CP9 terribly. They were just such a perfect set of villains!

No other villain in One Piece have I found so genuinely, viscerally despicable as Spandam. I rank him right up there with Umbrige (of H.P.) as one of the few villains I wholeheartedly wanted to see crushed by the heroes. I generally find myself either sympathetic or indifferent to most villains, so hatred comes as a welcome change.

Lucci's extremely twisted, severe sense of duty and morality were a perfect compliment to Spandam's self-serving sadism. Lucci was the villain who you (or at least I) wanted to understand, even you didn't like him per se, because it was clear that there was some sort of internal logic guiding his actions, even if it wasn't one that would be intuitive to most people.

Kaku completes the triumvirate of villainy for me, as the genuinely sympathetic villain who's really a victim of unfortunate circumstances. I am, as ever, a sucker for this sort of thing, especially when it's tastefully understated as it is here.

I'd also include Kalifa in my roster of major CP9 villains, even if she's a somewhat more straightforward character than the others. I like that simplicity. Her life appears to be built around murder and sex, and she pursues both with equal gusto and equal lack of shame or guilt. There's something really fun about that.

Speaking of fun, I don't think I could ever get as emotionally involved in the other CP9 members as I have with the main four I've just listed, but I appreciate them all the same. They're entertaining characters, who are interesting to see fight, but who don't break your heart when they're defeated. Which is really all they need to do.

I really hope we see more of these folks in future. They're too good to be completely forgotten when Our Heroes set sail for the next port.

...And while I'm on the subject, whatever happened to Smoker and Tashigi? If they turn out to be gone forever I shall be deeply disappointed.