Crocodile

Crocodile (クロコダイル, Kurokodairu), Also known as King of the Desert (砂漠の王, Sabaku no Ō), was the president of the secret criminal organization, Baroque Works, and the main antagonist of the Baroque Works Saga. His known codename in the organization was "Mr. 0" (ミスター・ゼロ, Misutā Zero). He is the second longest running primary villain of the series as well as the second villain to hand Luffy a complete and utter defeat, both of these feats second only to Smoker. He was originally introduced as one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea but was stripped of his title after attempting to take control of the desert kingdom, Alabasta. He was first introduced as a major enemy of Luffy's, however, the two later formed an uneasy alliance during their escape from Impel Down and the latter half of the Battle of Marineford.

Appearance

 * Voice Actor: Not Known (English), Ryūzaburō Ōtomo (Japanese)

Crocodile is an enormous man, standing at 253cm (8'3"), with a wide chest, broad shoulders, muscular arms and legs and thick neck. He has pale skin and nape-length, deep black hair which is kept neatly slicked back, though strands tend to fall in front of his face during battles. Crocodile has various battle wounds, most notably a long stitched scar above his nose that stretches across his face, as well as a missing left hand, which has been replaced with a large hook made from a tough gold alloy. He has deep set, drooping eyes framed by many wrinkles, and thin eyebrows that appear to be in a perpetual 'sad' position. Crocodile speaks with a deep, relaxed voice, his age is 44, and bithday is September 5th.

His theme of dress is meant to convey the image of an Italian mafia boss. In his original appearance, Crocodile wore a bright orange, black-striped button up vest over a long-sleeve white shirt, a blue scarf, dark brown suit pants and polished black shoes with gold buckles. He also wore a long, thick, dark green pelted fur coat on his shoulders.

After he was incarcerated at Impel Down, he wore a striped prisoner uniform, like most other prisoners, yet he was permitted to keep his gold hook. After joining Luffy and Jimbei to save Ace, he donned a black shirt, a green scarf, dark grey slacks, and a black overcoat with brownish-tan fur trim. After the Battle of Marineford, he's seen sporting an attire which resembles his one from Alabasta greatly, consisting of a vest over a plain shirt, a scarf around his neck, suit pants, elegant shoes and a fur coat hanging from his back.

In all his appearances he wears a single gold hoop earring on his right ear, and usually has several golden rings with different colored gemstones on every finger except the ring finger for some unknown reason.

His animal theme is the crocodile. His name, the Banana Gators he kept as pets and his large scar (which resembles a "crocodile's smile") are reflections of his theme.

Personality
Crocodile is confident in himself and in his abilities (Crocodile's confidence comes from his own skill and power. His great power is shown when he beats Luffy, almost killed him), and enjoys toying with his opponents, often smiling smugly when facing an opponent that he knows is weaker than him. However, due to his confidence, he seriously underestimated Luffy's willpower, which eventually led to his defeat.

His willingness to kill shows his cold-hearted nature and he will not think twice about sentencing another person to death. He is also very quick to anger if someone insults him in any way. This is seen when Sanji insults him over his Transponder Snail. Crocodile comments that anyone who has ever insulted him, has been killed by him.

However, he has a habit of insulting others and frequently uses the term 'worthless' to refer to the desperate struggles of his enemies. Although he has referred to many of his opponents' struggles as worthless in the past, he hasn't referred to his opponents' struggles since he first fought Luffy. He will usually insult others and generally say that they are not in his league; whether he's fighting a rookie or fighting a fellow Warlord Don Quixote Doflamingo who had a former bounty almost 300,000,000 higher than his own).

If Crocodile is extremely angry or annoyed with his victim, he will rarely kill them outright. He often leaves them to suffer until they slowly die. This proves to be a bad habit of his as it led to his defeat. In his first fight with Luffy, instead of killing him, Crocodile leaves Luffy to suffer. This allows Luffy to recover (with an aid of Pell) and finally defeat him. This habit and sheer luck itself are the reasons Luffy lived through any of his fights with Crocodile. This also led to Galdino (Mr. 3) surviving the attempt by Crocodile to feed him to the Banana Gators.

Crocodile shows no care for any of his subordinates. He is fully willing to sacrifice them to achieve his goals (such as Operation Utopia, where the entire Baroque Works would have been killed by the resulting cannon blast), or if they insult or fail him (such as Mr. 3 and Nico Robin did). He felt no true attachments to these people and only views them as pawns. However, the few that are strong earn his respect. The prime example is Mr. 1, whom Crocodile went out of his way to rescue from his cell.

He also lacks almost any code of honor and does not see the point in offering those who are about to die a chance of dying honorably. One of the few signs of honor he displayed at all was in his third fight with Luffy. He states that Luffy deserves an honorable death from his venomous hook. However, due to the situation at the time of battle, this could be considered more as an act of cruelty than honor. Although, it's also possible that due to the fact that he almost never fights with his poison hook, it is a tribute to Luffy's tenacity, as he stated himself. Another example of his odd sense of honor is seen when Whitebeard was injured by Squardo. Crocodile refused to fight him in his weakened state. Later, he even saves Ace's life. He also saves Mr. 1 and Luffy from Mihawk. Nevertheless, he says 'that he just doesn't want the Navy to get their way.'

Crocodile has shown to be extremely cynical and cold-hearted. He displays complete disregard of the romantic pirate lifestyle, stating that all the things the Pirate King once had mean nothing to him. He places more importance in military power. Crocodile believes that only ignorant fools declare their grandiose dreams. Several times he refers to trust and faith in others as idiotic. He has stated that he has done away with countless people similar to that. He goes so far as to mock those who fight for others, making their defeats all the more harsh. He too admits by his own confession, that he is not always rational.

He may very well have been a happy, carefree person once. Crocodile and Luffy even shared the same dream. Despite this, his time in the Grand Line has corrupted him and jaded him, causing him to turn into the cruel person he now is. Conjointly his time in the Grand Line caused him to let go of his dream.

Apparently, after losing to Luffy and stripped of his title of Warlord, Crocodile lost interest in the outside world. This caused him to not escape with the rest of his subordinates during the breakout, and eventually to his transfer to Impel Down. His only motivation to leave Impel Down was for a chance to kill Whitebeard.

In addition he seems to have mellowed out a small amount since his defeat. He does seem more willing to help others (when he offers to help Luffy escape from Impel Down). He will even accept help from others. All in all, it was because the help from others benefited him. Before he went to Impel Down, he did not care if his allies were going to get killed. He might have even killed them himself. Though, in Impel Down, he goes back to help his allies as they were being decimated by the Demon Guards.

He has complete and utter lack of fear and doubt. He is often very composed, even when facing fearsome opponents like Whitebeard, Dracule Mihawk and Akainu. He rarely loses his temper (one of these occasions would end up costing him, leading toward his final defeat in Alabasta). Upon his capture, he simply disregarded the notion of escaping simply because he didn't feel like it. Similarly, he smiled at the news that he was to be sent to Impel Down, and appeared unshaken during his stay there. Crocodile is, in fact, one of the very few prisoners seen completely unaffected by the tortures and conditions of Impel Down. He is also the only one who appears to be enjoying himself (he is initially seen smiling and mocking his fellow prisoners). Crocodile says that he was in Impel Down because he chooses to stay. He ultimately decided to leave only because of the chance to kill Whitebeard. Crocodile appears to act largely on whims and selfish desires; he simply goes with the flow.

In spite of this, recent revelations reveal he may not be as heartless as he lets on. During the war, he goes beyond his personal agenda several times to save his allies' lives. He not only prevents Ace from execution; but saves both Mr. 1 and Luffy from being killed by Mihawk; and prevents Admiral Akainu from cornering Luffy and Jimbei as they desperately try to escape from the admiral's onslaught. He claims the motive for his recent actions is that the navy can't keep doing whatever they want. He has recently shown himself to be very adventurous, preparing to head out to the New World, following the war.

In Japanese, Crocodile has a Laughter Style that starts with "Ku" (i.e. Kuhahahaha!), and also tends to laugh at a much slower pace.

Neutral

 * Nico Robin
 * Monkey D. Luffy
 * Portgaz D. Ace
 * Jimbei
 * Marshall D. Teach

Rivals

 * Warlords of the Sea
 * Dracule Mihawk
 * Don Quixote Doflamingo

Enemies

 * Ward Newgate
 * Nefeltari Vivi
 * Nefeltari Nebra
 * World Government
 * Navy
 * Marshall D. Teech
 * Emporio Ivankov

Abilities and Powers
Crocodile is extremely knowledgeable and cunning (one of the most knowledgeable characters introduced), which is apparent from his ability to mastermind Baroque Works while keeping the World Government completely in the dark about what he was doing and making himself a hero in the eyes of the people. He is also skilled at making flawless plans and noticing things that most other people wouldn't. He can deduce a correct conclusion from nearly no information (e.g. seeing the white wrappings on the Straw Hats arm and almost instantly figuring out it was a safeguard against Mr. 2's infiltration).

He also seems to have a better understanding of Devil Fruits than most people; as evidenced by his mastery of his Logia-type powers. This is also seen when he revealed that the Demon Guards were actually "Awakened" Zoan fruit users while other people were unaware that they were even Devil Fruit users.

As a former Warlord, Crocodile is one of the strongest characters. He was the Warlord with the first lowest bounty at the time (81 million Berries), Hancock having a silightly lower bountey than his, and they are likely to be the only ones known to have a bounty of less than 100,000,000 berries (excluding Blackbeard), although had his bounty represented his threat level at the time he met Luffy, it would have more than doubled and broken the 160,000,000 berry mark.

Indeed, when Crocodile was stripped of his Warlord status and was transferred to Impel Down, he was placed in Level 6, where the world's absolute worst criminals are kept. He is also one of the few people to be able to take a "baptizing" in boiling water in Impel Down without flinching, which is considered an impressive feat.

While Luffy was unable to fight against Mihawk and was forced to only avoid his attacks, Crocodile intercepted Mihawk's attack without seeming to be worried at all about facing an opponent as strong as Mihawk, and even talked down to him, which may be due to the fact that swords are virtually useless against Logia-users like him. He seemed to be able to face off equally with Doflamingo, and was uninjured after facing both Warlords. Crocodile was even able to fight Admiral Akainu and appear completely unharmed afterwards.

Despite his powers being of the Logia-type, which allows him to turn into sand to avoid injuries, he is fairly resilient. He was able to take a serious beating from Luffy in their third battle while he delivered attacks of his own, as well as take a direct strike from the diamond form of Jozu with only slight damage.

He defeated Luffy no less than twice before he was eventually defeated; in fact if it were not for a matter of luck and several helpers, Luffy would have been killed in all two battles: either from attacked severly (first fight), or poisoning (third fight). Moreover, if Luffy's sweating had not served as a way to nullify Crocodile's Logia-Type defense, and if Robin had not supplied Luffy with the antidote to his hook's poison, the third fight would have effectively favored Crocodile as well.

Cursed Fruit
He mastered the Devil Fruit, the Sand-Sand Fruit to the point of perfection where he can turn into sand reflexively if attacked. This ability was proven true when Doflamingo cut his head off while he was distracted. While in a desert area, his powers make him nearly invincible. Crocodile has the ability to create huge sand storms, make multiple bladed weapons out of sand, and create quicksand. He can also suck all the moisture out of any object, living or non-living, by placing his right hand on them. This ability makes him able to utterly destroy his surroundings.

Crocodile's Hook
In addition to being one of the few characters shown to have complete mastery over their Devil Fruit, Crocodile is also formidable in hand-to-hand combat. He fought using only his hook for most of his third match with Luffy, and only resorted to his Devil Fruit powers near the end when things weren't going in his favor (not to mention his hook had been broken by Luffy). The hook is made mostly out of a golden alloy (which makes it resistant to corrosion) that is extremely tough and resilient; as shown when it took no visible damage from the Night when Crocodile defended Daz Bonez from one of Mihawk's attacks.

The golden part of the hook is hollow and can be taken off to expose a poisonous hook hidden inside of it. This part of the hook has a powerful scorpion venom, which is strong enough to melt through rock and kill anyone with the effect of a single slash. In the unlikely event that this hook becomes damaged, there is a knife hidden underneath that can be used in its place. The hook can also serve at times as an improvised mace-like weapon of sorts, evident when Crocodile merely slammed Luffy into a wall via smashing him with the hook.

During his incarceration in both a regular prison and Impel Down, Crocodile was permitted to keep his hook, despite it being a potential weapon, lending credence to the assumption that the hook is a prosthesis rather than a bizarre gauntlet.

The Disillusioned Youth
22 years before the start of the storyline, Crocodile witnessed the execution of Gol D. Roger at Roguetown.

It can be assumed that he received both the scar on his face and the amputation of his hand before eating the Logia type Sand-Sand Fruit, though he may also have been attacked after consumption through means of Haki.

Crocodile's dream was to become the King of the Pirates, suggesting that he was like Luffy once. He once went to the New World, and grew adapted to the place's erratic environment. As time went by, though, he grew in power and experience, and lost sight of the importance of dreams or trust in other people. His vast amount of experience later helped him earn a spot as one of the Warlords of the Sea. At some point, either before he became one of the Warlords or after, Crocodile came to let go of his dream of being the King of the Pirates, and, after learning of a weapon called Pluton, changed his focus and became very interested in it. This gave him the desire to create an organization called Baroque Works.

During his time as a rookie, he had crossed paths with Emporio Ivankov, resulting in Ivankov gaining insight on Crocodile's precious weakness. The nature of their relationship, and the aforementioned weakness is still unknown. At some point in his life he was defeated by Whitebeard; this gave birth to a strong desire to take the old man's head. This desire to kill Whitebeard is what gave him enough motivation to leave his cell in Impel Down when given the opportunity.