Buggy the Clown

A former member of the Roger Pirates who ate the Chop-Chop Fruit and became one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. To understand the genius behind Buggy the Clown, one must look past the makeup and the red nose. He is not merely comic relief; Buggy is the true "Joker" of the *One Piece* world—a man who has "failed upwards" so many times that he has ended up becoming one of the most feared and influential figures on the seas. The pinnacle of Buggy's career occurred recently. Following the collapse of the Warlord (Shichibukai) system, the Navy attempted to capture him. Meanwhile, Sir Crocodile and Dracule Mihawk decided to form an organization called the Cross Guild, with the revolutionary goal of placing bounties on the heads of Marines—effectively flipping the world's established order on its head. Since Crocodile needed to collect an old debt from Buggy, he traveled to the clown's island. Buggy's subordinates, in their blind fanaticism, interpreted Crocodile's arrival as the former Warlord bowing down to their "captain." To make matters worse (or better), Buggy's graphic-design-savvy henchmen created flyers featuring the Clown prominently in the center, with Mihawk and Crocodile in the background, appearing as his subordinates. The flyer spread across the globe, and the World Government bought the lie, naming Buggy one of the Four Emperors of the Sea (Yonkou). Today, he serves as the organization's public figurehead—secretly taking beatings from Mihawk and Crocodile behind the scenes while maintaining the persona of supreme leader to the outside world. Although he avoids combat at all costs, Buggy is not entirely defenseless. His *Bara Bara no Mi* (Chop-Chop Fruit) makes him a swordsman's worst nightmare; even attacks from the world's greatest swordsman, Mihawk, pass through him harmlessly, as his body splits apart with pinpoint precision an instant before the blade strikes. He can levitate all parts of his body, provided his feet remain on the ground. Furthermore, he possesses a brilliant mind for weapons engineering, having created the Buggy Balls and Muggy Balls—compact cannonballs with destructive power capable of devastating entire villages. Despite his cowardice, Buggy harbors one of the most ambitious minds in the series. Recently, tired of being merely a puppet driven by the fear of death, he experienced a surge of genuine courage. He recalled his childhood with Shanks and the dream they both shared aboard Roger's ship. In an impassioned speech broadcast to the entire Cross Guild, Buggy declared that they would not simply hunt the Marines; he ordered the organization to go after the One Piece. For the first time in decades, the clown is officially in the race for the throne of the Pirate King.