Bartholomew Kuma is a former Warlord of the Sea, the former king of the Sorbet Kingdom, and a former officer of the Revolutionary Army with a bounty of Beli.png296,000,000.
Once feared as an extremely vicious pirate, earning himself the title “Tyrant”, he is now a human weapon called “Pacifista”, developed by the scientist Vegapunk.
Once Vegapunk finished his modifications on Kuma, the Warlord was converted into the first complete Pacifista cyborg, with the serial PX-0, and mentally died in the process.
After protecting the Thousand Sunny for 2 years, Kuma became a slave to rent for the World Nobles as punishment until his fellow revolutionaries freed him.
The Straw Hat Pirates had an unfortunate encounter with him during the Thriller Bark Arc and later during the Sabaody Archipelago Arc, where he was responsible for separating the crew.
He is also a major antagonist in the Marineford Arc where he took part in the Summit War of Marineford and sided with the Marines, along with most of the other Warlords.
Contents
All About Bartholomew Kuma
[schemas]- Japanese Name: バーソロミュー・くま
- Official English Name: Bartholomew Kuma
- Origin: South Blue (Sorbet Kingdom)
- Residence: Sorbet Kingdom (former) – Baltigo (former)
- Alias: PX-0 (PX-0, Pīekkusu Zero?)
- Epithet: “Tyrant” (暴君, Bōkun?)
- Status: Alive
- Age: 45 (debut)- 47 (after timeskip)
- Birthday: February 9th
- Height: 689 cm (22’7″) (debut, after timeskip)
- Blood Type: X
- Bounty: At least Beli 296,000,000
Bartholomew Kuma’s Appearance
Kuma is an enormous man, being 689 cm tall. He is the second tallest of the former Warlords (being three centimeters shorter than Gecko Moria) and is usually seen carrying a Bible.
His overall appearance resembles that of a bear, though there are a few key differences. His eyes are strangely covered by clear mirrored lenses; while initially, he will give the impression of wearing glasses, it seems that, based on the Pacifista that were destroyed, that his own eyes were actually replaced by cybernetic ones.
His hat features a pair of rounded ears, and, along with the dark blue fabric of his pants, is covered in brown spots. His jacket contains a large white design reminiscent of a target cross-hair or a coda sign.
There are also several white paw prints lining the bottom hem of his coat. He also has a long protruding chin. He bears the tattoo “PX-0” on the left side of the base of his throat, after the final touches were done on him becoming a complete cyborg before the Summit War of Marineford.
In the anime, Kuma’s hair and jacket are black, and his hat is gray with black paw-like prints. In the manga, Oda originally intended for Kuma to have a completely different color scheme.
Kuma’s hair was shown to be brown, his jacket bright orange, and his hat yellow with green spots. Later in the manga chapters, his coat was changed from orange to blue, though the rest of his design remained untouched.
Later still, on Volume 90, Kuma’s hair was changed to black, matching his depiction in the anime. In Unlimited Cruise, Kuma’s jacket is brown.
After the timeskip, Kuma’s cybernetic armor has become heavily damaged, with a few weapons jutting out of his body, fruit of his mission to protect the Thousand Sunny from attackers for two years.
Due to his subsequent enslaving at Mary Geoise, he now wears rags similar to the ones Jean Bart once wore when he was a slave, a collar and chain around his neck, has even more swords jutting out of his body as result of the World Nobles inflicting damage onto him for their own amusement, one of his cybernetic eyes is missing and he no longer holds his signature Bible.
It is unknown if he has the “Hoof of the Soaring Dragon” burnt onto him like all the other slaves the World Nobles have.
In SBS Volume 63, Oda drew the Seven Warlords as children. Kuma had short hair and was missing his bear ears hat, glasses, and cybernetic enhancements he receives later on.
He wore tattered clothing and wooden sandals carrying a heavy load of chopped firewood on his back while reading a book called “Ninokin”.
Bartholomew Kuma’s Personality
Despite his imposing figure and his past reputation, Bartholomew Kuma is a very calm and quiet person.
When talking, Kuma customarily uses the word target in his sentences. He also tends to ask a person where they would like to go on a holiday before he sends them away with his Devil Fruit ability, often honoring the recipient’s request, but will occasionally send them to a place of his own choosing regardless of whether or not he received a reply.
Although he obeys the commands of the World Government, Kuma disagrees with what his superiors deem “good” and “evil” in the world. Instead, Kuma strives to uphold his own ideals (described as Moral Justice) whenever possible.
He even goes so far as to speculate that Blackbeard’s acceptance into the Warlord ranks had been a very poor decision by the government, despite the fact that it filled the position left by Crocodile’s defeat.
However, Kuma’s loyalty does not extend to the Marines. This can be seen when he declines to answer a direct question from Admiral Kizaru during the Sabaody Archipelago Arc.
Due to his refusal to assist the Marines without a direct order, Kuma did not hesitate to lie when it came to his victory over the Straw Hats at Sabaody Archipelago.
There are still several mysteries behind Kuma’s character. The details behind his transformation into a “Pacifista” and what exactly it entails are still unknown.
He also whispered a message to Silvers Rayleigh during the battle at the Sabaody Archipelago, which the old pirate believes puts the other man at risk. It was revealed much later.
Kuma was shown to be a brilliant agent of deception, managing to successfully manipulate the World Government from discovering his true affiliation towards the Revolutionary Army for several years, managing to be appointed to the position of Warlord of the Sea (though it does appear that they did eventually become suspicious enough of Kuma to compromise his identity as a double-agent and force him to accept a permanent lobotomy).
Despite being perceived as the most dutiful of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, Kuma still held enough of his convictions to adamantly refuse to directly address Marines as high-ranked as Admiral Kizaru.
He was generally calm and composed in any situation and is subtle in his attaining of goals (such as not revealing to the Straw Hats the exact reasons for testing their power twice and then separating them across the world for future preparation).
He also demonstrated great loyalty and honor to his cause in defending the “Thousand Sunny” from a continuous stream of assault over the course of two years, not moving to even recover from his injuries.
His combat abilities are also demonstrated with expert use, Kuma using it for offense, defense and travel and often in quick succession of the previous action.
According to Sabo, Kuma was a gentle man whose kindness earned him great respect from his fellow Revolutionaries. From his friendship with Luffy’s father, Kuma requested Vegapunk to aid Luffy and his crew one last time by protecting their ship for two years after being fully converted into a Pacifista.
However, at present, the modifications have been completed. In the finalization of the Pacifista project, Kuma (as the original model and the only one to have self awareness) eventually lost his free will, personality and memory to the modifications, in order to ensure his reliability and continuing services towards the World Government.
In this stage, Kuma shares the same mindless intelligence of his fellow Pacifista models, only recognizing individuals as either enemies or allies to the World Government.
Doflamingo refers to the original personality as being “dead”, though it was later revealed that Kuma and Dr. Vegapunk (the man responsible for his cybernetic implants) made a secret deal to allow for Kuma to have a temporary relapse by rendering his final “free thought” as defending the “Thousand Sunny”.
After the timeskip, Sentomaru noted that Kuma had been acting strange ever since he had lost free will. This was a result of his deal with Vegapunk to have his final form protect the Thousand Sunny until one of the Straw Hats arrived.
Bartholomew Kuma’s Relationships
Revolutionaries
Prior to receiving his final modifications, Kuma told Rayleigh that he was a member of the Revolutionary Army, as shown in a flashback when Dragon rescued the people of Trash Mountain in the Goa Kingdom.
This was further supported by his past membership of the organization and acquaintance with Dragon and Ivankov. Kuma is deeply respected by his fellow revolutionaries as Sabo, Morley, Karasu, and Lindbergh planed to liberate Kuma from his torturous slavery during their infiltration of Mary Geoise, which they successfully did and escaped with him.
Monkey D. Dragon
His relationship with Monkey D. Dragon is still a mystery. Though Kuma was working with the Revolutionary Army in secret as a Warlord, his final modification into a full Pacifista now places him fully under the World Government’s control.
Dragon is seemingly fully aware of Kuma’s deal with the Marines. Kuma also had knowledge of Luffy being Dragon’s son (something that even Ivankov was unaware of until he met the boy) and he subsequently spared the Straw Hats’ lives on two occasions, as well as guarding their ship for 2 years from the likes of pirates and Marines due to their common connection.
Emporio Ivankov
It was stated by Ivankov that he and Kuma knew each other, and that he is no longer the man he once was. Ivankov knows Kuma very well, one clue of this is Ivankov’s comment about how Kuma hated the World Government.
Straw Hat Pirates
Kuma knew a lot about Monkey D. Luffy, as he at least knew that Portgas D. Ace and Monkey D. Dragon are his adoptive brother and biological father, respectively.
Both relationships were not public matters, and as such, very few people actually know about them, until the then Fleet Admiral Sengoku made it public during the war.
He gave Luffy one final farewell before sending him to Amazon Lily and losing his free will to the Pacifista project’s finalization.
After Kuma witnessed Luffy defeating Gecko Moria, he reported it to the World Government, and they ordered Kuma to kill all witnesses on Thriller Bark including the Straw Hat Pirates.
During the confrontation, Kuma injured Franky and Sanji hurt his leg while trying to attack Kuma. After a fight with Zoro, Kuma offered to spare everyone else if they allowed him to take Luffy.
They refused and Kuma attacked them with an Ursus Shock, knocking out most of the Straw Hats except for Zoro and Sanji. Seeing no other way, Zoro offered to trade his life for Luffy’s.
Kuma agreed to Zoro’s terms and subjugated him into experiencing the pain Luffy endured throughout his fight against Moria. Acknowledging Zoro’s loyalty, Kuma even mused about Dragon having a good son with a loyal crew.
After Thriller Bark, he spared them again on the Sabaody Archipelago, where he helped them escape Admiral Kizaru and Sentomaru, his last known act under his own free will.
While Kuma helped the entire Straw Hat Pirates crew, he showed a certain respect for Zoro, specifically after he found the swordsman alive following the events at Thriller Bark. Zoro, too, recognized and respected Kuma’s strength, admitting that he was only alive because of the other’s mercy.
Kuma’s intentions during the incident with the World Nobles on the Sabaody Archipelago were to save the Straw Hat Pirates. He also made a deal with Vegapunk to program him to protect the Thousand Sunny until a Straw Hat member returned.
Franky told the other Straw Hats that they owe a debt to Kuma, although he noted the next time they would meet, Kuma would be a heartless, human weapon.
World Government and Marines
Prior to his final modifications, Kuma publicly claimed to follow the World Government. However, he refused to cooperate with the Marines unless given direct orders by the World Government to do so.
Currently, due to his Pacifista upgrades, he has seemingly become a slave to both the World Government and Marines alike, doing whatever he is commanded. Kuma was also seen joking to Vice Admiral Garp and Fleet Admiral Sengoku about Luffy’s crew slipping through his hands.
Sentomaru, who was always distrustful of Kuma, addressed him as “Kuma-kou” (くま公 Kuma-kō?), an honorific meant as a sarcastic and insulting way of addressing someone.
Moria stated that because of Kuma’s allegiance to the World Government, he worried him more than any other Warlord.
The reason for his pretense as a loyal tool of the World Government has not been revealed yet, nor has the reason why he agreed to have his personality and memories removed or why he had even agreed to become a participant in the Pacifista project in the first place.
He has shown to have command over the Pacifista units during his visit to Sabaody Archipelago, also showing he had no qualms sending one away during the battle along with the rest of the Straw Hats.
Due to his current emotionless and inhuman state, he became a slave to rent for the World Nobles, as a punishment for him aiding the Straw Hat Pirates.
Seeing him unable to cry or scream regardless of injuries, the Celestial Dragons heavily abuse him for their own pleasure, referring him as a top-class slave.
Kuma is said to have hated the World Government before his conversion into a Pacifista.
Dr. Vegapunk
Kuma seems to have a good enough relationship with Vegapunk. Vegapunk was able to grant him his final wish as a human being, which was to program Kuma to protect the Straw Hats’ ship until their return.
It is very likely that Vegapunk highly respects Kuma’s strength, as he modified Kuma to be the prototype Pacifista, and let him do things that go against the World Government.
Bartholomew Kuma’s Abilities and Powers
Prior to his final Pacifista modifications, Kuma was an officer in the Revolutionary Army. As a result, he had control over its lower ranking members.
However, he lost this power when he became a complete slave of the World Government. As the former king of the Sorbet Kingdom, he once held political power.
Kuma was shown to be brilliant at deception, managing to successfully trick the World Government about his true affiliation with the Revolutionary Army for several years, as well as being elected to the position of one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea.
Kuma is one of the few people to have completely defeated the Straw Hat Pirates and is also the only character introduced so far that has defeated the crew single-handedly, twice.
However, the crew was extremely weak both times and they were in no shape to fight another battle, much less a Warlord (in the first encounter, the crew had just finished battling another Warlord of the Sea, Gecko Moria, as well as an island full of zombies and a giant zombie named Oars in the second encounter, they had just battled against a Pacifista while fending off a second, Kizaru and Sentomaru).
He did not want the crew dead, however, since he allowed them to escape, indicating he might have held back.
He is extremely fast, enough to seem as though he has disappeared in the eyes of the Straw Hats, as well everyone on Thriller Bark. This is, however, unclear if it has something to do with the modifications from Dr. Vegapunk, or if it is part of his Devil Fruit powers, or simply his raw speed.
He has such a fierce reputation that even other powerful and famous pirates are unnerved by him, as seen when the captain of the Kid Pirates, Eustass Kid, seemed heavily disturbed when he witnessed the arrival of a Pacifista (mistaking it for the real Kuma) on the Sabaody Archipelago, despite the fact that his bounty was higher than Kuma’s former one.
Geographical Knowledge
Through his actions, he appears to have great knowledge in geography, as with his powers he knows exactly where he is sending someone seemingly no matter where in the world he is.
His degree of knowledge is high enough to perfectly locate even a moving sky island, although his cyborg modifications may have enhanced this ability. This is also shown when he asks people where they would like to go before he “pushes” them.
Devil Fruit
Kuma ate the Nikyu Nikyu no Mi, a Paramecia type Devil Fruit that gave him paw pads on the palms of his hands; these paw pads have the power to repel anything they come into contact with.
His paw pads grant him an absolute defense that allows him to protect himself from all physical attacks, even swords. This ability, coupled with his vast reaction speed, allows him to repel attacks from extremely quick opponents, such as Luffy in Gear 2.
He can also use his paws to attack by repelling his target at great speed. By Kuma’s own admission, his paw pads repel things at the speed of light.
His palm strikes are able to deal significant damage to his enemies, due his repelling power subjecting his target to a severe level of force.
Additionally, his power to repel is is not just strong, it is also focused into a cannon-like blast, enough to create a deep hole through thick stone. His paw strikes can also travel beyond the target, dealing identical damage to anything behind them as well.
Kuma can repel the air itself, attacking his opponent with a cannon like shockwave. He can also compress an immense amount of air between his hands into a single small bubble, and then release the air bubble, which explodes as a super-massive shockwave that can decimate an entire island.
Interestingly, he can repel all the pain, injury, and exhaustion out of a person’s body, allowing him to completely heal people in an instant, even if they have suffered an incredibly severe level of damage.
Once the pain is expelled from the person’s body, it takes the form of a paw shaped bubble, the greater damage that was removed, the larger the bubble will be. The damage can be transferred into another person’s body, causing them a great deal of suffering all at once.
Possibly the most impressive application of this fruit is that Kuma can send someone flying over vast distances, even across the world and traveling over the course of several days.
The victim of this ability is encased in a paw bubble that protects them from and breaks through any obstacles that are in the way of the destination of Kuma’s choosing. To an outside observer, the victim appears to vanish.
Pacifista Modifications
Kuma is now a cyborg modified by Vegapunk. He is, however, very different from other cyborgs, and displays strength and agility that are on a different scale.
As with the other Pacifista models, Kuma has a built-in electronic recognition device within his pupils, which enables him to accurately identify certain individuals (presumably anybody that is listed within the World Government’s bounty system) and their bounty count from across a distance of several dozen meters.
Kuma’s massive build along with his cybernetic enhancements grants him tremendous durability and strength comparable if not superior to other Pacifista, the average Pacifista model is capable of withstanding a combination assault from the pre-timeskip Monster Trio.
At Thriller Bark, he effortlessly lifted a large slab of rubble with a single hand and his body was resilient enough to withstand most physical attacks, including Sanji’s “Concasser” (in fact, Sanji injured his leg after delivering the blow, despite it being strong enough to stun a user of Tekkai) and even Zoro’s “Shishi Sonson”, a technique that was able to cut through steel, which only left a scratch on Kuma despite it being a surprise attack.
Emporio Ivankov’s “Galaxy Wink” appeared to inflict no substantial damage upon Kuma, despite the barrage of attacks being powerful enough to knock him off his feet.
Even after two years of accumulated damage, lack of repair, and lack of sustenance intake, Kuma was still operational. While the modifications gave Kuma great strength, their full completion over a long time period apparently robbed Kuma of his free will.
Due to technically having his mind removed, Kuma does not feel any pain. While being enslaved by the World Nobles, Kuma was constantly and brutally abused by the World Nobles without feeling any discomfort, not even reacting as Rosward struck his head hard with a hammer and stabbed him with a sword.
He has multiple swords stabbed inside his body and continues to function without succumbing to the accumulated damage.
As a Pacifista, Kuma has the ability to shoot laser beams, which not only causes massive explosions upon detonation, but can also melt steel.
This laser is apparently a replication of Kizaru’s Pika Pika no Mi powers and for Kuma, this launcher is only installed in his mouth. In the other Pacifista, the launcher is installed on their palms as well.
Kuma has his paw pads instead of the laser holes on his hands it is this aspect, along with the bible that only he holds, even after losing his free will, that distinguishes him from the other Pacifista, and makes him superior to them.
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