Crocodile

Crocodile (クロコダイル, Kurokodairu), also known as "King of the Desert" Sir Crocodile (砂漠の王 サー・クロコダイル, Sabaku no Ō Sā Kurokodairu), is the former president of the mysterious crime syndicate Baroque Works and the main antagonist of the Alabasta Arc and Alabasta Saga as a whole. He is one of the longest running and most noteworthy primary adversaries of the series, as he was the first enemy to hand Luffy a complete and utter defeat, as well as one of only two who has defeated Luffy more than once. He was originally introduced as a Warlord but was later stripped of his title after attempting to take control of the desert kingdom Alabasta. His frozen and former bounty is 80,000,000 berries.

Thanks to Luffy, he managed to escape from Impel Down and went to Navyford to participate in the war; after that, he and Daz Bones decided to head out to the New World.

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 * —Crocodile.

Appearance

 * Voice Actor: John Swasey (English), Ryūzaburō Ōtomo (Japanese), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (German), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (French), Not Known (Latin American Spanish)

Biography
Once one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea and president of Baroque Works.

With the power of the Logia Curséd Fruit, Sand-Sand Fruit, he can change his body to sand or suck moisture from whatever he touches.

His plan to take over Alabasta Kingdom was foiled and he was thrown into Impel Down, but he says he will escape to the New World someday.

Appearance
Crocodile is a tall man with a wide chest, broad shoulders, muscular arms and legs, and a thick neck. He has pale skin and nape-length 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 at the bridge of his nose that stretches across his face and a large hook made from a tough gold alloy in place of his left hand. His eyes are deep-set and heavy-lidded, and his thin eyebrows are characteristically drawn upward in the middle. This gives his usual facial expression a feeling of condescension and distrust. Crocodile speaks with a deep, relaxed voice, and he is usually seen smoking a thick cigar produced by his company.

In all his appearances, he wears a single gold hoop earring in his right ear, and he usually has several golden rings with different colored gemstones on every finger except the ring finger, for reasons unknown. (In the anime version of the Alabasta arc, it was his middle finger that was bare. This has since been corrected in recent arcs.)

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 all reflections of this theme.

The Young Past Days
In SBS Volume 63, Oda drew the Seven Warlords as children, Young Crocodile has almost exactly the same hairstyle as his adult self but is missing his trademark scar and hook. He is wearing simple clothing with a large pistol slung on his belt.

Pre-Timeskip
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 peach shirt, along with 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 with a light green trim over his shoulders.

After he was incarcerated at Impel Down, he wore a striped prisoner uniform, like most other prisoners, but was somehow permitted to keep his gold hook. After joining Luffy, Natsu Dragneel and Jimbei on their mission to save Ace, he obtained a full change of clothes from the supplies of Newkama Land and thereafter wore a black shirt, a green scarf, dark grey slacks, and a black overcoat with tan fur trim. After the Battle of Navyford, he is seen in attire that greatly resembles the one from Alabasta, consisting of a vest over a plain shirt, a scarf around his neck, suit pants, elegant shoes, and a fur coat with longer fur trim draped around his shoulders.

Post-Timeskip

 * Hair Color: Black
 * Skin Color: Gray
 * Eye Color: Black
 * Age: 44 (debut), 46 (after timeskip)
 * Birthday: September 5th
 * Height: 253 cm. (8'3½")
 * Weight: Not Known

Personality
Crocodile is self-assured, confident in himself and in his abilities. His great power is shown when he defeats Luffy twice, almost killing him both times. He enjoys toying with weaker opponents, often grinning and laughing smugly during battle. However, due to his overconfidence, he seriously underestimated Luffy's willpower, and this eventually led to his defeat.

His willingness to kill shows his pitiless nature, and he does not think twice about sentencing another person to death. He is also very quick to get angry if someone insults or ridicules him in any way; Crocodile told Robin Nico that he had killed everyone who had ever insulted him. This irritability is first seen when Sanji sasses him over the Transponder Snail. It is more clearly shown during his first fight with Luffy: when Luffy called him stupid, he bit his cigar clean in half and then threatened to kill Robin for laughing. To be fair, by his own admission, he is not always rational.

Despite his low tolerance for receiving insults, he has a habit of insulting others and frequently used the word "worthless" to refer to the desperate struggles of his enemies, although he seems to have changed this habit slightly since fighting Luffy. Crocodile is known to insult others and generally imply that they are far inferior to him, whether he's fighting a rookie or a fellow Warlord (namely Doflamingo Don Quixote, who had a former bounty almost 300,000,000 berries higher than his own.) Crocodile's capacity for looking down on others is so high that he even told Mihawk to "watch himself".

If Crocodile is extremely angry or annoyed with his victim, he will rarely kill them outright, instead leaving them to suffer as they slowly die. This proved to be a bad habit and ultimately led to his defeat. In his first and second fight with Luffy, instead of killing him straight away, Crocodile left Luffy to suffer. This allowed Luffy to come back and finally defeat him. This habit, along with sheer luck, are the only reasons Luffy lived through any of his fights with Crocodile. This also allowed Mr. 3 to survive Crocodile's attempt to feed him to the Banana Gators.

Crocodile shows no emotional concern for any of his subordinates. He is fully willing to sacrifice them to achieve his ambitions; a prime example is Operation Utopia, wherein every Baroque Works member in Alubarna, including most of the Officer Agents, would have been killed by the resulting cannon blast. He also has no qualms about killing them if they insult or fail him, as shown with Mr. 3 and Robin Nico. He showed no true attachment, affection, or trust toward these people and viewed them only as pawns. Despite all this, Crocodile may not be entirely immune to the idea of respecting someone other than himself: currently, he seems to have a good relationship with Mr. 1, having gone out of his way to rescue his former subordinate from his cell.

Crocodile has been shown to almost completely lack any code of honor. One of the few vestiges of honor he ever displayed was in his third battle with Luffy, during which he stated that Luffy deserved an honorable death from his venomous hook. Due to the situation at the time of battle, this could be seen as more an act of cruelty than honor, but he did seem to regard the use of his rarely-seen poison hook as a tribute to Luffy's tenacity. As another example of his distorted sense of honor, after Whitebeard was injured by Akainu, Crocodile refused to fight him in that weakened state.

Crocodile has displayed an extremely cynical and patronizing attitude, showing complete disregard to the romantic pirate lifestyle and stating that all the values that the status of King of Pirates had once symbolized were now worthless to him. He valued military power above popularity, renown, and treasure. Crocodile believed that only ignorant fools declare their grandiose dreams. He refers to trust and faith in others as idiotic several times during the Alabasta arc. He claims to have done away with countless people rather than trust them and goes so far as to deride those who fight for others, making their defeats all the more harsh.

After losing to Luffy and being stripped of his Warlord title, Crocodile apparently lost interest in the outside world. He refused to escape with the rest of his subordinates during the breakout detailed in the eighth Mini-Series. His only apparent motivation to leave Impel Down was the chance to eradicate Whitebeard.

He has shown a complete lack of fear and doubt, although this trait broken down a bit by his third battle with Luffy. He usually appears to be very composed, even when facing fearsome opponents like Whitebeard, Mihawk Dracule, and Akainu. Upon his capture, he disregarded the notion of escaping simply because he did not feel like it, perhaps assuming that escape would come easily to him if he changed his mind. Similarly, he smiled at the news that he would be sent to Impel Down and seemed apathetic during his imprisonment. Crocodile was the only Impel Down inmate who appeared to be enjoying himself; he is initially seen smiling and mocking his fellow prisoners. He claimed that he was only in Impel Down because he chose to stay, an assertion well in line with his overly condescending demeanor.

Crocodile seems to have mellowed out since his defeat in Alabasta, at least to some degree. He seems more willing to assist others, having offered to help Luffy escape from Impel Down, and he nonchalantly accepted help from others as well. Recent revelations imply that he may not be as heartless as he lets on. During the war, he went beyond his personal agenda several times to save his allies' lives. He saved Ace's life and protected Mr. 1 and Luffy from Mihawk. He even prevented Akainu from cornering Luffy and Jimbei as they desperately tried to escape the scene of the battle. Nevertheless, he claimed that he only saved them because if he hadn't, the Marines would feel victorious, and that prospect irritated him. Following the war, Crocodile appears adventurous and fearless, preparing to journey to the New World with Mr. 1.

Crocodile has a distinct laugh that starts with "Ku" (i.e. Kuhahahaha!). In the anime, he tends to laugh at a much slower pace than one might expect, his "hahaha"s lapsing into "ah-ah-ah"s on occasion.

Friends/Allies

 * Daz Bonez

Neutral

 * Baroque Works
 * Straw Hat Pirates
 * Luffy D. Monkey
 * Robin Nico
 * Team Natsu
 * Natsu Dragneel
 * Gray Fullbuster
 * Erza Scarlet
 * Lucy Heartfilia
 * Ace D. Portgaz
 * Jimbei
 * Hancock Boa

Rivals

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

Enemies

 * Whitebeard Pirates
 * Ward Newgate
 * Vivi Nefeltari
 * Nebra Nefeltari
 * Chaka
 * World Government
 * Navy
 * Blackbeard Pirates
 * Teech D. Marshall
 * Ivankov Emporio

Abilities and Powers
Crocodile is extremely intelligent and cunning, which is apparent from his ability to lead Baroque Works while keeping the World Government completely in the dark about what he was doing and making himself out to be a hero in the eyes of the people. He is also skilled at crafting near-flawless plans and noticing things that most other people would not.

He is known to deduce a correct conclusion based on very little information; for example, after seeing the white wrappings on the Straw Hats' arms, he almost instantly figured out that it was a safeguard against Mr. 2's infiltration. He managed to sabotage the king's reputation among the citizens by secretly importing rain-producing dust into the capital during a period of major regional drought, then having it "accidentally" discovered en route, inciting the threat of civil war and thereby drawing attention away from his own shady machinations.

The entire Alabasta Saga is a testament to Crocodile's strategy and manipulative skills: he managed to successfully maintain control over all operations within "Baroque Works" over a period of years while keeping his true identity as a Warlord hidden from everyone except Robin Nico. Simultaneously, he strove to attain a high level of respect and prestige among the citizens of Alabasta as their "savior" by brutally dispatching any would-be invaders or pirates.

He seems to have a better understanding of Curséd Fruits than most people, as evidenced by his mastery of his Logia-type powers. He also revealed that the Jailer Beasts were actually "Awakened" Zoan fruit users at a time when no one around him had even realized that they were even Curséd Fruit users.

He defeated Luffy no less before his eventual defeat. In fact, if not for his good luck and the help he received from several people, Luffy would have been killed in two battles: he was impaled (and then rescued by Robin Nico), and poisoned (and then received the antidote from Robin.) Moreover, if Luffy's blood 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 battle would have effectively favored Crocodile as well.

As a former Warlord, Crocodile is powerful enough to be recognized by the World Government. He was the Warlord with the lowest bounty at the time (80,000,000 Berries), with Hancock having the second lowest, although he held the title for so long that such a low bounty would now be outdated. Indeed, when Crocodile was stripped of his Warlord status and transferred to Impel Down, he was placed in Level 6, where the world's absolute worst criminals are kept.

Physical Abilities
Despite his powers being of the Logia-type, allowing him to turn into sand to avoid injuries, he has an enormous amount of physical stamina, durability, pain tolerance, speed, resilience and endurance as well. He was able to take a serious beating from Luffy in their third battle while countering with attacks of his own, and he later managed to take a direct strike from diamond-form Jozu with only a single burst blood vessel.

Crocodile also possesses great physical strength, first demonstrated when he carried off the dead bodies of an entire pirate crew (namely Puppu's) after dehydrating them with his Curséd Fruit powers. While Luffy was unable to retaliate against Mihawk and was forced to only avoid his attacks, Crocodile intercepted and stopped Mihawk's two-handed slash with just his hook; he didn't seem to be worried at all about facing such a strong opponent and even talked down to him. He seemed to be able to fight Doflamingo as an equal, their clash creating a shock wave strong enough to push nearby Navy away, and was uninjured after confronting both Warlords despite the fact both opponents possess and have complete mastery of their Haki. Crocodile was even able to battle Admiral Akainu and appear completely unharmed afterward.

He was also one of the few people known to tolerate getting "baptized" in boiling water in Impel Down without flinching, which is considered an impressive feat. Crocodile could effortlessly withstand the extreme temperatures of Levels 3 (where the heat is sufficient to roast a bird alive), 4 (which is several times hotter than Level 3) and 5 (a room operating at sub-zero temperatures) of Impel Down. This resistance to temperature may be why he was able to comfortably wear two shirts, a scarf, and a dark fur coat while living in a desert country.

Curséd Fruit

 * Main article: Sand-Sand Fruit

Crocodile ate the Logia Curséd Fruit, Sand-Sand Fruit, allowing him to become, generate, and manipulate sand. He has mastered his ability to the point of perfection and can turn into sand reflexively if attacked; this became especially obvious after 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 sandstorms, make multiple bladed weapons out of sand, and create quicksand (given the presence of a nearby underground waterway.)

He can also suck all the moisture out of any object, living or non-living, by touching it with his right hand. This ability allows him to utterly destroy his surroundings, killing and macerating any biological substances via dehydration.

Techniques

 * Desert Spada (デザート・スパーダ, Dezāto Supāda): Crocodile forms his right hand into a loose blade of fast-moving sand and then stabs it into the ground, extending it along the ground like a torpedo, splitting anything in its path, including the very ground itself, through extreme and focused erosion created by the sand blade, which is strong enough to slice a man in half. When he used this on top of King Nebra's palace, the attack also generated a static surge that ran with the blade, nearly hitting Luffy in the process. "Spada" is the Italian word for "sword". Similarly, "Espada" is Spanish and Portuguese for sword.


 * Desert Girasole (デザート・ジラソーレ, Dezāto Jirasōre): Crocodile creates another loose sand blade from his right hand with Desert Spada. Like Desert Spada, he stabs it into the ground causing the area in front of him to collapse. However, a giant pit of quicksand will be formed instead, with the sand being takien away by underground rivers (which he can detect). Anything caught in the pit will be sucked in and buried alive. This attack can only be done while in a desert terrain. "Girasole" is the Italian word for "Sunflower".


 * Barján/Barchan (バルハン, Baruhan): Crocodile swings his right arm forward while leaving a crescent shaped trail of sand behind it. Anything hit by that trail is instantly robbed of all moisture because of Crocodile's dehydration ability. "Barján" is Spanish for "Barchan", a crescent-shaped sand dune.


 * Sables (サーブルス, Sāburusu): Crocodile summons a massive tornado of sand and sends it on a rampage. Once this sandstorm grows large enough, not even he can stop it. A variation of it is seen when Crocodile makes his first appearance in the Alabasta arc. He makes a sandstorm that can suck the water out of living things and is apparently able to crack steel. Another usage is to send people flying with this technique, as he did with many pirates who interfered with his attempts to kill Whitebeard, as well as sending Jimbei and Luffy D. Monkey out of Admiral Akainu's range. "Sable" is French for "Sand", so the term "Sables" can mean "Sands", but it can also refer to a "Sandstorm". "Sable" is also Spanish for "Saber".


 * Ground Secco (グラウンド・セッコ, Guraundo Sekko): Crocodile places his hand on the ground and uses his dehydration ability to dry out a huge area around him, turning it into a desert wasteland. When he does this, it also can cause the area around him to crumble and cave in, causing unfortunate foes to fall to their deaths. "Secco" is Italian for "Dry", while "Seco" is Spanish and Portuguese.


 * Ground Death (グラウンド・デス, Guraundo Desu): An extremely strong version of Ground Secco. Crocodile not only dries up the ground, but anything and everything on it including people and even buildings, all of which is transformed into sand if it has steady contact with the ground. The speed at which things dry also seemingly increases.


 * Desert Encierro (デザート・エンシエロ, Dezāto Enshiero): Crocodile grabs someone with his right hand, then slowly or quickly drains the moisture from their body with his dehydration ability. This leaves them in a withered and seemingly fleshless state. "Encierro" is the Spanish word for "Imprisoning".


 * Sables: Pesado (サーブルス ぺサード, Sāburusu: Pesādo): Crocodile gathers a swirling mass of extremely dense sand in his hand, then hurls it at his opponent, causing a massive shock wave upon impact. "Sables" is French for "Sands" and "Pesado" is Spanish and Portuguese for "Heavy".


 * Desert la Spada (デザート・ラスパーダ, Dezāto Rasupāda): An altered version of Desert Spada. Crocodile now forms several solid blades with fan-shaped edges instead of one large blade made from sand. This is the only time Crocodile has formed solid objects out of sand, although a sufficiently powerful blow will shatter it back into sand. In the eighth movie, rather than being four solid blades, this move is more like two buzz-saw like blades that are less solid.


 * Desert Grande Espada (デザート・グランデ・エスパーダ, Dezāto Gurande Esupāda): An altered and enhanced version of Desert Spada. While Desert Spada forms a long underground blade sand that slices everything its path, Desert Grande Spada slices the enemy with a rising sand blade that erupts from the ground with greater speed, as not even Akainu was able to dodge it. It seems that this technique does not travel through the ground like Desert Spada, but comes from an specific point of it, as he used on Aokiji's ice field (Crocodile's sand powers become useless when in contact with any form of water). "Grande" is Italian, Spanish, French and Portuguese for "large", "great" or "big". It was first seen used to slice Akainu in half to protect Jimbei and Luffy. This move was not named when Crocodile first used it, but it was named in the game One Piece: Gigant Battle.

Hook
In addition to being one of the few characters shown to have some degree of 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, only resorting to his Curséd Fruit powers when he finally accepted that things weren't going in his favor. His hook is made mostly out of an extremely tough and resilient gold alloy, which makes it resistant to corrosion. Its durability was shown to be especially impressive when it took no visible damage from Mihawk's Black Sword Night as Crocodile defended Luffy from an attack.

The gold part of the hook is hollow and can be removed to expose a poisonous hook hidden inside. This porous secondary hook releases a powerful scorpion venom, which is strong enough to melt through rock and kill anyone with the effect of a single slash. In One Piece: Burning Blood, Crocodile's poison hook appears as his Awakened state under the name You're An Annoyance!.

In the unlikely event that the hook becomes damaged, there is a knife hidden underneath that can be ejected and used in its place. In a pinch, the very wide base of the hook can also serve as an improvised mace-like weapon, as shown when Crocodile used its blunt force to smash Luffy into a wall.

During his incarceration in both a regular prison and Impel Down, Crocodile was permitted to keep his formidable weapon of a hook, suggesting that the authorities assumed it was a prosthesis rather than a bizarre gauntlet.

Timer Bomb
For the pinnacle of Operation Utopia, Crocodile prepared a specialized bomb. It was designed to detonate across a maximum radius of five kilometers, large enough to completely obliterate the capital city of Alubarna. It was prepared about 30 minutes prior to the intended firing time, at which point it would be released from a bulky cannon, but in case that method backfired, Crocodile had a special timer installed onto the bomb itself. The timer was set for less than a minute after the planned time.

Past
Twenty-two years before the start of the storyline, Crocodile witnessed the execution of Roger D. Gol at Roguetown.

At one point in the past, Crocodile's dream was to become the King of the Pirates. He once went to the New World and grew adapted to its erratic environment. As time went by, though, he grew in power and experience and lost sight of the importance of dreams and trust in other people.

After becoming a Warlord in his mid twenties, he was defeated by Whitebeard. This left a lingering desire for vengeance in the young Crocodile's heart. He eventually let go of his dream of being the King of the Pirates and, after learning of a weapon called Pluton, decided to aim for that instead. He began to focus on Alabasta and became known as a hero who hunted down pirates. Sixteen years before the current storyline, at age 30, he was featured on the front page of a newspaper, having recently defeated some pirates.

During his time as a rookie, he had crossed paths with Ivankov Emporio, who ended up with the knowledge of Crocodile's precious weakness. The nature of their relationship and the aforementioned weakness are still unknown.

The Birth of Baroque Works
Crocodile secretly started a crime syndicate called Baroque Works. Being careful not to attract too much attention to himself, he gathered some of the best bounty hunters in the world and gave them code names based on power. His plan the whole time was to conquer Alabasta and use the Ponecliff there to find the ancient weapon Pluton, which would give him great military power.

It is known that he found Robin Nico when she was 24, at which point he made a deal with her. He would protect her and give her sanctuary from the authorities, and in return, she would be his business partner, decipher the Ponecliff, and find the location of Pluton.

Canon

 * Crocodile vs. Newgate Ward
 * Crocodile vs. Puppu
 * Crocodile vs. Luffy D. Monkey (Desert)
 * Crocodile vs. Elite Alabastian Royal Guards
 * Crocodile vs. Chaka
 * Crocodile vs. Natsu Dragneel, Gray Fullbuster, & Erza Scarlet
 * Crocodile vs. Robin Nico
 * Crocodile vs. Luffy D. Monkey (Tomb of the Kings Mausoleum)
 * Crocodile and Mr. 1 vs. Whitebeard Pirates
 * Crocodile vs. Doflamingo Don Quixote vs. Jozu
 * Crocodile vs. Doflamingo Don Quixote
 * Crocodile vs. Mihawk Dracule
 * Crocodile vs. Admiral Akainu
 * Crocodile, Andre, and Whitebeard Pirates Commanders (minus Ace, Jozu, and Thatch) vs. Admiral Akainu