Curly Dadan

Curly Dadan is a friend of Monkey D. Garp and the foster mother of Portgas D. Ace and Monkey D. Luffy. Garp entrusted her to take care of Ace shortly after the boy's birth. Later, Garp also left Luffy in Dadan's care. She took care of Sabo too when he moved in. Dadan lives on Mt. Colubo near Foosha Village. She is the mountain bandit boss of the Dadan Family and a wanted criminal. Dadan was first mentioned in the Post-Enies Lobby Arc, when Woop Slap read about Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates waging war on the World Government. Dadan is a rather tall and overweight middle aged woman with long, orange, curly hair and a big, masculine face. In her appearance in Luffy's flashback, she was seen smoking a cigarette. She wears a white collar shirt, a pink beaded necklace, chequered trousers held up with a large belt, and heeled boots. After ten years, her outfit changed to a black shirt with a light-colored open coat over it, and two years after that, the colors became inverted; otherwise, her appearance has not changed over the years. In her youth, Dadan was once a very beautiful woman, being much thinner with a curvier body outline. She wore a one piece dress. As far as personality goes, Dadan's is that of a somewhat stereotypical petty criminal, a bit cowardly in regards to Garp blackmailing her, her freedom, and Garp himself. She also does not seem to be too patient as she was beginning to get sick and tired of raising Ace because of his antics and became even more aggravated when she was left with Luffy. Though despite this petty side, the other mountain bandits hold great respect for her, and will follow her orders even into a deadly fight. The methods that she supposedly used to "discipline" both Luffy and Ace were rather questionable (though Luffy seemed to be able to easily put up with them on account that the treatment he received under his own grandfather, Garp, was hardly any better) since they included providing them with limited food, making them clean the house, hunting for them, and even resort to criminal activities (i.e. plundering people). However, judging from Luffy and Ace's regard for her whenever she was mentioned, she may have been a better person than anyone might have thought of her. She has also been known to show brief signs of bravery, as seen when she and her family of bandits came to rescue Ace and Luffy from Bluejam; only to scamper immediately afterwards upon securing the two boys' safety. Although she says that she hates brats, she appears to really care for Luffy and Ace like they were her own children but seems too embarrassed to admit it. In the anime, this is later proven true when Ace, Sabo, and Luffy decided to leave the bandits cottage and make a hideout of their own. At first she tried to show that she did not care, but once it started raining heavily, she ordered the bandits to go look for them. When they finally did, she went and visited them secretly during the night, only to be hit out of the boy's hideout from a trap that they had built. Upon learning of Ace's death, Dadan was extremely distressed, mostly at the thought of how much Luffy would be hurting over the loss of Ace. She was upset enough to even attack and beat up Garp, someone whom she was usually deathly afraid of, further demonstrating her hidden concern towards the boys. Dadan even shed tears at Sabo's presumed fate, as she previously learned of his survival.