User:Chritin/King

"Legends are legends, that is all...No, I seek nothing from you anymore. My life belongs to you. Just continue to be the strongest there is!! And I won't lose any fight, either, I'll make you king of the Pirates!!"

- Young King talking to Kaido in a flashback

King (キング) is a primary antagonist of One Piece. He is the right-hand man of Kaido, one of the three All-Stars of the Beasts Pirates, and the overall top commander of the Beasts Pirates.

He is a usually masked and quiet individual, but an extremely capable fighter, being second only to Kaido among his crew. He also possesses both Observation and Armament Haki, along with the powers of the Ryu Ryu No Mi, Model: Pteranodon.

Appearance
King is an extremely tall and muscular man. He has darker skin and long white hair with sections formed into a braid. He also has a tattoo around his left eye. However, his most prominent feature is a large pair of black wings on his back

King is usually seen wearing a full-body suit and mask. His mask covers his face completely and is adorned with a chin strap, goggles, and spikes. His full bodysuit consists of an undershirt with a ruffled collar, a double-breasted jacket and pants, a pair of gloves, and a pair of boots. He is often seen carrying his sword on his hip.

In his Zoan form, his head closely resembles a Pteranodon with a large crest. This Kings Zoan head possesses two beak formations, one with a curved down beak and one with a straight pointed beak. His arms gain connective tissue to form wings, and his leg grows out into talons. In his Hybrid form, King maintains his large crest and winged arms but otherwise remains relatively unchanged.

Personality
King is usually a quiet yet stern man who works as the level head of the Beasts Pirates. He makes decisions often for his crew, such as when he decided to personally deal with the Big Mom Pirates when they entered Wano and took it upon himself to summon the Tobiroppo to deal with Yamato. He is usually one to ridicule those who he sees as lesser or weaker such as the Tobiroppo and even his fellow All-Stars, really only having spoken respect for Kaido. Because of this though, he doesn't gain much respect, instead commanding them with fear and admiration for his strength. King even lied when summoning the Tobiroppo, pretending to be Kaido when summoning them as he believes the Tobiroppo wouldn't have come otherwise.

King has an extremely high aversion to showing his face and Lunarian identity as he constantly wears a mask to hide it. This is possibly out of fear of the World Government finding out he is the last of his race. When his mask was torn even a small amount by Zoro, King went into a ballistic rage against him, before moving his battle to a location where no one could see him. In his rage, he attacked indiscriminately, harming both his crew and even his fellow All-Stars, and even killing those who saw and recognized his Lunarian heritage. Despite him trying to hide it though, King seems to take pride in his race and sees beings such as humans as below him.

Abilities
As the top commander of the Beasts Pirates, King has proven to be one of the most powerful crew members and second only to Kaido in ability. King uses a wild form of combat, employing a blend of hand-to-hand combat in exchange for proper swordsmanship or fighting.

Phsyical Abilities
King has shown off his physical abilities very few times throughout the Wano arc, but what has been seen shows he is an extremely capable fighter. King was able to easily overpower characters such as Raid Suit Sanji in his base human form and was able to go toe to toe with Marco until he ran out of Stamina. King even proved himself capable of fighting Zoro (one of the few people who could harm Kaido) and was only later defeated by him when Zoro learned the secrets of his race and how his abilities work.


 * Strength: Kings has proven his strength a few times during Wano. He has blocked attacks from the likes of Raid Suit Sanji, Marco, and even was able to hold up against Zoro's three sword style for some time. He has sliced off Marco's Phoenix wings on occasion and has even overpowered Zoro numerous times with both his sword strikes and physical attacks. He has even been shown destroying large sections of Onigashima with his attacks.
 * Durability: Due to being a Lunarian, King has beyond natural levels of durability. He was described by Queen as a monster, capable of living in any environment, even without the use of his Zoan Devil Fruit. He has resisted many attacks without being fazed or even bleeding, such as Zoro's "Rengoku Oni Giri" and "One Sword Style lai: Shi Shishi Sonson", the latter of which hit him completely yet didn't draw blood. However, this durability can be sacrificed for the sake of increasing his speed.
 * Speed: While King's speed and agility are above average (especially due to his wings in both human and zoan form), his already average Speed can be greatly increased. By sacrificing his durability and letting the flames on his back snuff out, King can increase his levels of speed dramatically. This lets him travel faster than the average person can see, and even Zoro skinned his speed to a beam.

Pyrokinesis
Lunarians have the innate ability to "ignite" their bodies, allowing them to create and control fire. This ability can be used to set parts of his body on fire for more potent melee attacks, set objects he is holding ablaze, fire various projectiles, or indiscriminately set the battlefield on fire. This fire can even be dense enough to have the consistency of Magma. It is currently unknown if there are any severe drawbacks or stamina loss from using this ability, but it is shown that the flames on his back are linked to his overall durability and speed.

Devil Fruit
King possesses the powers of the Ryu Ryu No Mi, Model: Pteranodon (The Dragon Dragon Fruit, Model: Pteranodon), an ancient Zoan type devil fruit that allows the user to turn into a full Pteranodon or a Pteranodon-Human Hybrid at will. This gives the user all the traits of a Pteranodon such as a sharp beak, talons, and the ability to fly.

Haki
King posses both Observation and Armament Haki, although he relies on them very little throughout the story. King primarily uses Haki to coat his sword, but otherwise does not display any advanced abilities.

Background
King was born as "Alber" in the Grand Line approximately 47 years before the Wano Country arc. Alber was born a Lunarian, an ancient species of beings who lived on top of the Red Line before Mary Geoise. At some point, all of Alber's race were wiped out, leaving him the last remaining member of his species.

At some point, Alber was captured by the World Government and taken to the research institute on Punk Hazard. There he was subjected to various tests and tortures for the purpose of learning about his Lunarian abilities. Around the same time, Kaido who was also at the facility broke free. Kaido discovered Alber during his escape and offered to take him along to form his new pirate crew. Alber soon agreed and joined Kaido and during their escape, Kaido gives Alber the name "King", proclaiming that he will be his right hand man.

Around 28 years before the events of the Wano Country Arc, King is present with Kaido when the alliance between the the Beasts Pirates and Kurozumi Orochi is formed to gain control of the land of Wano. Around this time, King discusses with Kaido whether he is the legendary Joyboy. Kaido laughs at this statement, asking if King really believed in he was. King then tells Kaido that it didn't matter so long as Kaido continued to be the strongest, and vowing that he would never lose a fight until he is the King of the Pirates. Eventually, the Beasts Pirates arrive in Wano. Kaido soon after tells King that he heard his daughter Yamato mention Joy Boy and theorizes that if the Joy Boy Oden was waiting for is the same one that King is waiting for, then Joy Boy is whoever can defeat him. King jokingly replies that if that is the case, then Joy Boy will never come.

23 years before the events of the Wano Country Arc, King helped Kaido defeat the Gecko Pirates in the Ringo Province of Wano, crippling Gecko Moria's Crew and Status. One year later, King was present for the Beasts Pirate's violent overtake of Wano. In the conflict, King engaged Oden and the 9 Red Scabbards in Udon with the help of Queen and a regiment of 1,000 Beasts Pirate members. During the battle, King stabs Asura Doji in the back and - with the help of Kaido - ultimately defeats Oden and the Scabbards. Later, King is present for the burning of Oden Castle.

2 years before the events of the Wano Country Arc and right before the events of the war at Marineford, King accompanies Kaido alone to fight in the battle. Before they reach Marineford though, they are stopped by the Red Hair Pirates who were also travelling to the battle field. It is currently unknown is Kaido and Shanks came to an agreement, or whether Kaido and King were stopped with physical force.

Wano Country
WIP

The Raid on Onigashima
WIP

Creation and Development
In King's Vivre Card entry, two earlier designs for King are shown. One is extremely similar to his final design except for his wings which were tattered and bat-like. The second design is drastically different with King having a very pronounced hunchback, a cape in exchange for wings, and large horns

King's appearance bears a striking resemblance to the cover art of, the 2005 studio Album by English Heavy Metal band. His masked head also is extremely similar to the cover art of, the 1994 debut album of Japanese Metal Musician Hide.

King's name continues the card-based naming scheme of the beast Pirates, specifically with his fellow All-Stars Queen and Jack where their names represent the 3 name cards in a.

Trivia

 * In the opening OVER THE TOP, King's wings are colored White, despite all later interpretations of him having black wings
 * Despite his mouth covering his mask, it was confirmed by Oda that King can eat with his mask on by manifesting his Pteranodon beak from his mask
 * King currently has the highest bounty of any Pirate who is not the leader of a crew, and the highest bounty of all known Vice-Captains (beating out Katakuri's bounty of 1.057 billion, and Marco's bounty of 1.374 billion.)