Oars

Oz (オーズ, Ōzu) is the 900th Zombie creation of Hogback. He was a gigantic beast that used to roam and wreak havoc around the the world. He is the Zombie that Gecko Moria used to house the stolen shadow of Luffy in the Thriller Bark arc.

Appearance
Oz is an extremely large, red, skull faced zombie of an above average sized giant. His sheer size has been commented by several people to be larger than at least two full grown giants. It is so great that his body was mistaken to be a large wall by Zoro and Franky. It's vastness is similar to certain One Piece human characters, such as Whitebeard, whose heights are so huge that they appear to have giagantism.

Oz has long yellow hair that flows from his head to his back. His upper jaw consists mostly of straight edged molars while his lower jaw consists of several sharp fangs and two large tusks. Only his left eye socket contains an eye. He has two large arms. The left arm has "SZ-900" tattooed on it. "SZ" stands for "Special Zombie" and the "900" is his zombie number. Like other zombies, he is completely stitched up. In the middle of his stomach in particular is a blue cloth stitched across it. This is actually a curtain that opens up and leads to a compartment located where his digestive system should be. This is a cockpit where Oz's master, Moria, can sit and watch Oz battle.

Apart from the various bandages covering his limbs, Oz wears almost nothing but a large black loin cloth. It consists of three gigantic skulls strapped on to a rope holding it up and a large cross pattern in front.

Personality
It's not exactly known what Oz was exactly like in life however it is suggested that he was a ferocious beast. He generally was from a clan of giants who were practically evil and Oz in particular was well feared. However, Oz apparently was so incredibly stupid that he killed himself by going out half naked in a frozen environment with only his loincloth. Since being fused with Luffy's shadow, Oz inherited several of Luffy's character traits. This includes Luffy's desire to become the Pirate King. Like Luffy, Oz is also unable to tell that Usopp and Sogeking are actually one and the same person (though he was able to connect the similarities between Sanji and his horrificly drawn bounty poster).

Originally, Oz was very defiant against Moria's will. However like most of the other zombies, Oz slowly became loyal to Moria. Though he became loyal to Moria, Oz however still preferred fighting his battles by himself. Thus while Oz allowed Moria to aid him in the execution of his stretching techniques, he is against his master interrupting his battles or fighting them for him.

Abilities and Powers
Oz is an extremely strong beast by himself. With Luffy's shadow animating him, he becomes even more powerful. While he is capable of performing Luffy's signature moves, he alone however cannot stretch his limbs like Luffy does with the aid of his Devil Fruit powers. Though Oz can make up for his inability to stretch by the sheer size of his limbs, he is able to stretch with the aid of Gecko Moria. While he is able to stretch to a point that can be more versatile than rubber with Moria's help, Oz's body however overall still doesn't match the full attributes of Luffy's Devil Fruit powered body. Basically, he can stretch with Moria's help but his body is still susceptible to attacks that a Gomu Gomu human can normally withstand, such as physical blows and lightning.

While most of his attacks are based on Luffy's, Oz surprisingly however has personally created a move of his own. Called Gomu Gomu no Shirimochi (ゴムゴムの尻モチ (しりモチ), Rubber Rubber Butt Stomp):, Oz uses his large buttocks to stomp on his opponents by jumping upon them. This move doesn't exist in Luffy's inventory of Devil Fruit based moves.

History
During his lifetime, he built his name by amassing countries and islands under his control and his band of villains. Five hundred years ago in 1022 AOS, Oz died in a frozen land in the Northern Continent. Chopper later theorized that the cause of death was exposure or frostbite as after examining him he found the giant had been unprepared (he was wearing just a loincloth) for the frozen climate. On top of this Oz had sustained a serious injury to his right arm (which Hogback had repaired). After this explanation Zoro and Sanji refused to lose to someone who suffered such a humiliating death. Oz's name reminded Robin of the legends from some place still unknown called Kunihuki.

Gecko Moria then found his corpse and with the help of Hogback's surgical skills stitched his body back up. Oz was then kept in a giant freezer until a suitable shadow was found. With Luffy's shadow, Moria awakens the behemoth. Upon awakening, Oz grumbles and then screams "meat" and asks for Sanji, following by Oz himself asking who Sanji is.

To appease his appetite, a large quantity of food was brought to Oz by Moria's zombies. The amount nearly depleted all of Thriller Bark's reserves. After a brief conversation with Moria, Oz then punched a way out of the freezer. He then climbed up the main mast and scouted out the entire island of Thriller Bark. He then jumped down and accidentally destroyed the large stairway leading to the main mast. He then fell down to the area below.

Despite Zoro, Sanji, Franky and Usopp being near him, Oz simply ignored them and picked a large piece of debris which he put on his head like a tricone (a mockup of Luffy's strawhat). He then continued exploring the island. Oz then found the giant chain that steered Thriller Bark. Curious on what it does, Oz decided to pull on it. His actions for doing so caused the whole island to move and drift to a different sea current. Angered by Oz's actions, Absalom sent the Zombie Generals after him. Oz merely jumped out of their way and pummeled them into oblivion.

Oz was then later called by Gecko Moria. Now completely obedient, he received the order to rampage through Thriller Bark, capture the Straw Hats, beat them, and put them on their ship. With the Straw Hats' wanted posters posted on his arm, Oz then started attacking Luffy and began rampaging through the main mast tower, searching for his targets. Along the way, Oz seemingly crushed Hogback and Cindry under his feet. After going through the tower, Oz came out to a courtyard and cried out at the Straw Hats to "come out".

Finding the crew ready to face him, minus Nami and their Captain, he begins a massive battle. The Straw Hats' first attacks barely faze him, and he knocks them all down with a single attack. When they rejoin the battle, they score several significant hits on the monster, but the result is a stalemate. Gecko Moria, deciding to deal with the pirates quickly, then enters Oz's stomach using his shadow powers, piloting Oz like a giant robot. By manipulating Oz's shadow, Moria allows his giant servant to stretch like Luffy, and increase his strength. One by one the crew members are put out of action- Franky, Brooke, Robin, Sanji, Chopper- until only Zoro, Usopp and the newly arrived Nami remain.

As Zoro gives Usopp an opening to launch Brook's bag of salt at the monstrosity but is knocked unconcious as a result, Moria quickly saves Oz by letting his own shadow throw out the bag of salt. But, before Usopp and Nami are destroyed by Oz, Luffy (in his Nightmare form) comes to the rescue. As Oz tries to obliterate Luffy with a Gomu Gomu no Rifle, Luffy stops it with only one arm, stating that there can only be one Luffy. Then, Luffy proceeds to pummel Oz good, destroying what is left of the courtyard. Then, after showing his massive powers, Luffy seemingly finishes off both Oz and Moria with a sideways Gomu Gomu no Storm. Oz, however, awoke, no longer under Moria's control yet itching to continue the fight. Without Moria' guidance, Oz was significantly weaker and unable to stretch, so he was taken out by a combination move by the Straw Hats, ending with Luffy using Gomu Gomu no Gigant Bazooka, shattering Oz's spine and paralyzing him.

As the Rolling Pirates celebrate Luffy's apparent victory, Oz wonders why he can't move, despite that the blow didn't have any harming effect on him (as zombies cannot feel pain). However, Luffy's shadow is finally removed from him by a reawakened Moria, finally killing the special zombie.

Major Battles

 * Oz vs. Zombie Generals


 * Oz vs. Straw Hat Pirates. This has several stages:
 * Oz vs. Straw Hat Pirates (minus Luffy and Nami)
 * Oz and Moria vs. Straw Hat Pirates (minus Luffy) and Brook
 * Oz and Moria vs. Nightmare Luffy
 * Oz vs. Straw Hat Pirates and Brook

Anime and Manga Differences
While it isn't specified happening in the manga, the anime expands on Oz's color scheme by having it appear differently before and after he escapes the freezer. Within the freezer, he appears as a grayer version of himself similar to how he appears on the eighth anime opening, while outside the freezer, he appears as he does on  Vol.48 of the manga. The color change as shown in the anime, is because of Oz's corpse defrosting and reacting to the outside air.

While nothing noteworthy happened to Oz between after he defeated the General Zombies and when he returned to Moria originally in the manga, the anime expands this by adding a scene wherein he journeys to the edge of the island and takes a little dip in the moat between the island and the walls surrounding the island. This is rather interesting as he amazingly dove in without swallowing too much of the sea water, an act that would have accidentally purified himself.

Translation and Dub Issues
The japanese characters used for the giant zombie's name (オーズ) resemble those used for the japanese rendition of the Norse God, Óðr. However due to the inability to translate the name to an understandable english equivalent, and the fact that Oda has yet to give an official romanization of the name, Óðr is generally not used in most translations. The two most popularly used names that are used for the giant's name in light of this however are Oz and Odz. Though either can be used, both are however slightly inaccurate in varying degrees.

Trivia

 * In a response to a fan who asked if Oz is a giant from Elbaf, Oda responded that Oz is a giant, but he is unusually large even by giant standards and not of Elbaf origin. Oda explained that Oz is like those people who are really huge, and that Oz came from one of the many islands around the One Piece world that have giants inhabiting them.