Nelson Royale

Commodore Nelson Royale is an anime-only Marine from East Blue, commanding the 8th Marine Division. He appears in the Warship Island Arc as the secondary antagonist.

Appearance
Nelson is extremely obese, to the point where he is unable to walk and must be carried on a humongous chair by at least six men. This also prevents him from being able to wear a fitted marine coat, which can only cover his arms and back. On his huge stomach, he also has a large tattoo of the Marine emblem in blue. He, aside from his extreme obesity, has some other peculiar marks. He has a long, thin, curved mustache; spiral marks on his huge cheeks and he also seems to have no eyebrows, having two dark spots in their place instead. He also wears a rather expensive looking gold necklace with a red gemstone embedded in it. On his head, he wears a tall blue marine hat which is also unique in that no similar marine hat was ever seen before or after.

Personality
Nelson is a selfish, gluttonous person, who only cares about his own needs. When someone opposes him, he is unable to see their point of view.

He also shows very little concern for the lives of his men (which is the exact opposite of the views of one of his commanders - note however that in the anime, Nelson never actually interacts with the commander). When his men are being defeated by Luffy, Zoro and Sanji, he is alarmed only because the Thousand Year Dragon which he was pursuing was getting away; when he realized Eric betrayed him, he ordered all his warships to open fire on the rowboat he is in, disregarding two of his own men who were also on the boat.



He is prone to scream at his soldiers and when he is in his normal "residence" he is waited on hand and foot. A group of soldiers are always standing alertly and nearby, sweaty and afraid of the Commodore. Along with his spoiled attitude, he is also very gluttonous, as he is seen constantly eating, even if the portions he takes are so big he chokes himself. He has shown very poor manners, as he was not the least troubled or embarrassed at spitting out his food all over Eric's face.

He constantly fans his forehead with a handy paper fan with the Marine emblem on it, due perhaps to excessive sweating, caused by his rigorous obesity.

Though he has had the Marine seagull emblem seemingly tattooed on his huge stomach, and though the Marine symbol adorns nearly everything around him (his top hat, his fan, the back of the chair he is carried in), he has shown no scruples and no heed of Justice, rather using his power to follow his own personal goal (reminiscent of Nezumi, who oversaw Arlong's tyranny over humans just to gain bribes), to the point of kidnapping a little girl, having her transported by a whole Marine ship.

Nelson has a habit of ending his sentences with as "de o-jaru", "jaru" being an old form of "da".

Abilities and Powers
As a marine officer and leader of the 8th division, he can use all of its resources as he pleases, including the special cannon; he abused this privilege for his own self-serving purposes.

Battle Capabilities
He has some strategic aptitude in naval warfare, as during the battle against the Straw Hats, he ordered his ships to use the "Kakuyoku no Jin" (鶴翼の陣), which consisted of trapping the Going Merry in a half-circle of marine ships, chained together. However, due to his morbid obesity, he cannot so much as move without his soldiers carrying him, making him incapable of entering a physical combat personally.

History
Nelson seeks the Thousand Year Dragon, Ryu, for his own selfish purposes. To that end, he hires a man named Eric to do his dirty work.

He at first manages to capture Apis, the only person who knows where the dragon is, in his power, but she flees during a storm. Nelson is very outraged and summons Eric to accompany a battleship and retrieve her.

However, Nelson becomes suspicious when Eric does not respond and therefore decides to interfere.



His battleships encircle the Straw Hats and "chain them in". When the attack proves fruitless, he orders the deployment of the "special cannon" - a gigantic cannon, however just as he gives the order to shoot, Usopp fires a cannonball into it, making it explode and knocking Nelson to the ground.

His soldiers prove unable to stop the Straw Hats from invading their ships and cutting their steel chains (the plot-hole this arc is most famous for). Nelson is extremely frustrated with this and threatens to exile all of his soldiers if they fail, but the Straw Hats almost get through an opening, when their ship is almost hit by a wind strike of Eric's. Eric takes over the raft on which the dragon is located, much to Nelson's pleasure. However, Eric reveals he only used Nelson to find the dragon and that he wishes to use the Dragon Bone elixir to become invincible. Nelson is so angered that he orders his ships to open fire on Eric.

When the dragon walks up and begins to fly towards his ship, he panics and orders it shot down. When Luffy comes to aid the dragon Grandpa Ryu, Nelson orders a harpoon shot into Ryu to "pull him in". It is, however, caught by Luffy, who asks what he is doing. Nelson begins laughing at him for seeing a friend in a "sack of Dragon Bone" and begins bragging how he will gain eternal youth.

Luffy, enraged, throws the harpoon and narrowly misses Nelson. He demands that Luffy be killed as well. However, before they can fire, a swarm of millennium dragons arrive at Warship Island. Nelson is at first very pleased how much "Dragon Bone" he has to his disposal, but he is soon knocked down by the huge dragons, which fly so high they cannot be targeted by the marine cannons.

As this happens, however, Ryu dies. When Nelson sees this, he becomes extremely happy and starts laughing mockingly at Luffy. This angers him so much that he uses his ability to reach a high flying Thousand Year Dragon and from there, deliver such a powerful kick to Nelson's ship that it breaks in half.

However, when the "Dragon's Nest" rises from the ocean, Nelson is seen still alive. He is confronted by Eric, who tells him to "move", while Nelson begins fast talking him into making another deal, seeing how many dragons there are to claim. Eric has no patience for Nelson and strikes him with one of his wind attacks, seemingly killing him.

Translations and Dub Issues
His rank is roughly equivalent to "Commodore" (准将), yet the rank he holds (提督 teitoku, "admiral" or "fleet commander") does not exist within the Marine's rank system, according to the author. This is probably an oversight by the writing staff of the anime, since Nelson does not appear in the manga, outside the adaptation into the form of a manga novel not drawn by Oda. However, the top brass of the Marines must know its meaning, because in chapter 96 (and episode 45), Don Krieg's nickname is worded by Lieutenant Commander Brannew as "Kaizoku Kantai Teitoku Krieg". Nelson's rank is often translated by fansubs and even in official dubs as "Admiral".

Trivia

 * He is most likely named after Horatio Nelson, a British admiral, best known for his leadership in the Battle of Trafalgar (and is sometimes referred to as "Commodore Nelson").