I wanted to speak about my favorite character of One Piece which is Crocodile. I always thought that he is one of the most important characters in the world of One Piece and since I never found anyone really speaking about that I wanted to make a post about it, so here are the reasons of why I think he is really important.
-First off we have his unknown past, and we know that at some point he was linked to Ivankov who is a Revolutionary, he was also one of the Shichibukai, and since there is a chance that this group was created after Roger’s execution and that he entered in it in his twenties and now he was 44 when that title was removed, then we can assume that he might have been one of the first Shichibukai. Only with those information we can link him to two of the Three Great Powers which are the Shichibukai and the World Government, and he is also probably connected to another big group which is the Revolutionaries.
-We also know that he is now in the Cross Guild which is “led” by a Yonko, Buggy, but knowing the informations we got, Crocodile should have been the one to get the title of Yonko and not Buggy. And for those who might say that it would have been Mihawk instead, remember that Mihawk’s bounty is higher than Buggy’s bounty, and he was still not considered a Yonko. Which means that if Crocodile was showed as the leader of the Cross Guild, then he would have been the Yonko. Anyway, with that we also get a connection to the last of the Three Great Powers.
-Now as far as I remember Crocodile is the only character of all One Piece that was related to those Four Powers at some point (World Government, Shichibukai, Yonko, Revolutionaries) which makes him already unique compared to the others who were linked to those titles.
-He was also one of the two reasons of the abolishment of the Shichibukai System along with Doflamingo.
Now let’s see how much he is connected to Luffy and the Straw Hats.
-First, we have to remember that the very beginning of the series, when the Straw Hats could chose one of the seven paths, their choice was influenced by Mr. 9 and Miss Wednesday, which are connected to Crocodile. That already makes a huge influence, because the Straw Hats got the adventure we know because he created Baroque Works.
-Second, after his defeat, he was the reason why the World Government started to take a look into who Luffy was. We also have to remember that Robin joined the Straw Hats AFTER she finished her business with Crocodile and Baroque Works, which means that if they didn’t get to Alabasta because of Baroque Works, they would have never been able to understand where the One Piece is because they can’t understand the Poneglyphs.
-Another thing that happened because of his defeat is Blackbeard’s rising. Of course, there would have been a point where Blackbeard would have the status he has now, but the whole reason of why he became an Emperor at that point of the story is because he killed Whitebeard in Marineford, which happened because he captured Ace, which happened because he wanted to be a Shichibukai to enter in Impel Down, which happened because Crocodile was stripped off his title.
-Another big point that happened in Marineford and Impel Down is that Crocodile saved Luffy a lot of times by (opening the ceiling in level 6, getting a ship at Impel Down, saving Luffy from Mihawk and saving Luffy from Akainu) Luffy would have not survived the Summit War Saga if he didn’t defeat Crocodile and send him to Impel Down.
-Finally, Crocodile created the Cross Guild which created a new Yonko, and will get Mihawk back in the story for Zoro. That makes Crocodile the indirect creator of Three Yonkos (Luffy, Buggy and Blackbeard)
So I finished what I had to say, and I will add that I can’t remember a few other side characters that made that much thing happen in the world of One Piece. I know we got some characters like Roger, Whitebeard and others, but that’s the reason why I say he is ONE of the most important, and not THE most important. If you can remember any other SIDE character that had a big impact on the One Piece WORLD, and not only the Straw Hats, could you tell me who and why?
*by N0x_the_xelor
