Absalom

"Graveyard" Absalom (墓場のアブサロム) is the leader of the Zombie Soldiers and Zombie Generals of Thriller Bark. He is one of the main antagonists of the Thriller Bark arc. Absalom is also One of the Mysterious 4.

Appearance
Absalom, when not invisible, is a richly dressed man with a muzzle of a lion stitched to his face. Underneath his garments is a body stitched from various animal parts. Absalom's skin is that of an elephant and his muscles are a mixture of bear and gorilla. The combined weight of these transplants, along with his body, gives Absalom a total weight of 300 kilograms. These transplants on Absalom's body were all performed by Dr. Hogback.

Personality
Absalom is a major pervert, and everyone around him knows it. The Zombies in the graveyard particularly nickname him "Erosalom" due to his highly amorous nature despite him being their leader. He does not shy from the idea of sexual harassment and assault. It seems to be that he seeks women to be his bride amongst other things. He particularly likes weak women who can't fight back. He also considers himself to be beautiful. He spied on Nami while she was naked and taking a bath, then later kidnapped her when she, Usopp and Chopper were running away from Perona's animal zombies and forced her to become his bride. Nevertheless he is absolutely terrified of Lola because of her "love" for him.

Absalom speaks in a distinct style. He often refers himself in the plural tense (the royal we) such in lines such as, "You will be our bride." He also claims not to be a zombie, but in fact a human being despite looking otherwise.

Abilities and Powers
Dr Hogback has augmented Absalom's body with animal parts like the skin of an elephant and a gorilla's muscles. This gave him superhuman strength and durability. Absalom thinks that anyone who would kick him would have their foot destroyed due to his tough skin. However, according to Absalom, Sanji's kicks seem to be the only kick to not do that so far.

Devil Fruit
Absalom has eaten the Suke Suke no Mi, which gives him the ability to turn himself and other things invisible. He most notably uses its powers to peep on women. Absalom is also able to turn other people invisible by simply touching them.

History
Absalom first appeared as an invisible being of some sort that kept five of the Straw Hats, Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Robin, and Franky, from going ashore to the island. He licked Robin from bottom to top with his tongue. He later attacked Nami while she was bathing in the bathroom in Hogback's mansion. After being driven away by Usopp, Absalom met briefly with Hogback and one of Perona's ghosts. There he and his companions decided to commence the attack on the Straw Hats.

Night Attack
Absalom then went to the graveyard to round up the Zombies to commence the attack. As his troops began to dance the disco in celebration for the attack, Absalom proceeded to what appeared to be mausoleum of sorts. There he summoned the Zombie Generals in order to attack the stronger ones in the Straw Hat crew. As Absalom saw off his generals, he was greeted by one of his minions, Lola. The love-struck warthog bride unsuccessfully tried to marry him to her through trickery. Absalom, appalled by this attempt, explained to her why he couldn't marry her. He also continued to explain that he had found a suitable bride for himself, Nami. Lola, angered by this, decided to look for Nami and kill her. Absalom, not wanting his future bride to be killed by Lola, decided to chase after the warthog before anything could happen.

Upon following Lola to Perona's garden, Absalom spotted Nami. Seeing her, Absalom tried to carry her away only to receive an electric shock from her instead. Absalom, however, thought this was a gesture of love. Seeing the insolence of a Dog Penguin zombie happening in the garden, Absalom decided to take him out with some sort of invisible blast. After searching around the garden for awhile, Absalom is then suddenly chased by a determined Lola. After escaping from her, Absalom was summoned to witness Moria extracting Luffy's shadow. Together with Hogback, Cindry, and Perona, Absalom gathered before Moria to witness Luffy's shadow being extracted.

After the extraction, Absalom ordered some Spider Mice to take Luffy away. Absalom and his partners are however informed of the events that were caused by Brook, Franky, and Robin. After relaying some orders to the Spider Mice, Absalom accompanied Moria and others to the freezer where the 900th zombie, Oars, was kept. During Oars' awakening, Absalom and the others with him found out that Nami, Chopper, and Usopp were hiding in Kumashi. After being pointed in the right direction by Gyoro, Nin, and Bao, Absalom gave chase after his bride. Absalom was then able to catch up with Nami and blow her companions away with an invisible attack. He then escaped with Nami by turning both him and Nami invisible.

A Wedding and a Battle
After sending Nami to some zombie tailors to make her wedding dress, Absalom decided to hold the wedding ceremony between him and an unconscious Nami with all the zombie generals attending. However before Absalom could seal their marriage with a kiss, Oars interfered with the ceremony by pulling on the large chain of the island and causing the island to move out of control. Absalom, upon being prevented to kiss Nami with all the shaking, sent the Zombie Generals to stop Oars. However, they were instead crushed by Oars when they tried to attack him.

Absalom was then found by Sanji, who was incredibly angry about Absalom's perverted actions. Sanji then pummeled Absalom mercilessly after it was revealed that Absalom had destroyed one of his dreams when he consumed the Suke Suke no Mi because Sanji wanted to peek on girls too (Absalom responds by shouting "THERE IS A LIMIT TO BEING UNREASONABLE"). Absalom only got a few hits in as Sanji was trying to prevent Nami from being grabbed by Absalom, so he turned invisible and moved to another location. After revealing that Hogback had combined his body with body parts of other animals (including a lion's jaw and the strength of a bear and a gorilla), Absalom tried to attack Sanji, but Sanji, after claiming he could become a fine dish of meat, finished him off with a new attack, sending him flying into a wall while still invisible.

During the commotion caused by Oars rampaging through the main mast, Absalom was able to get up again and steal Nami from Sanji by making her invisible. . At the same it is revealed that he keeps her unconscious by giving her sleeping pills. He was about to marry Nami and seal it with a kiss. However she woke up and managed to escape him with the help of Lola and then took him out with one attack. While he remains unconscious in the remains of his now failed wedding, Lola attempts to marry him before he regains consciousness

After Moria's defeat
Dr. Hogback has woken him up and informed him that Gecko Moria has been beaten. He is seen again, holding an escapee ship invisible, as it passes through the Thriller Bark gate jaws with him, Dr. Hogback and the unconscious Gecko Moria. He notes that they could not find Perona, and that it was too late to help her. He then wonders what happened during the arrival of Bartholomew Kuma and is explained by Dr. Hogback, that he came to tell Moria about the new Shichibukai that is Marshall D. Teach Blackbeard and that he was told by the three zombies Gyoro, Nin, and Bao who witnessed the discussion between Moria and Kuma. Hogback then gives him a newspaper with an article telling that Ace is now in Impel Down. Absalom then notes that such actions might be a turning point in the "Pirate Era". He then sobs about not being able to marry his bride, and continues by scolding Hogback, when he offers to make him a zombie bride, saying, that he wants a human bride.

Major Battles

 * Absalom vs. Lola
 * Absalom vs. Sanji
 * Absalom vs. Nami and Lola

Anime and Manga Differences
Originally in the manga, when Absalom fought against Sanji in the chapel, he stabbed the chef in the back with a knife that became visible when it made contact. The resulting action caused Sanji to drop Nami for fear that the chef's blood would dirty her wedding dress. Unfortunately for doing this, Absalom's location was given away when he stepped into a pool of blood that bled out of the wound that he created on Sanji. In the broadcast version of the anime, this sequence was changed due to the resemblance with the still recent Akihabara massacre, in which a man fatally stabbed at least 12 people with a dagger. Instead of stabbing Sanji in the back, it was shown in the anime that Absalom landed a hit on Sanji so strong that it threw the chef off balance and drop Nami. Also instead of stepping in a pool of blood, it was merely shown that Absalom's location was given away when he stepped too near the chef. In the Japanese DVD however, this was left uncut.

Trivia

 * At one point, a lion with a human face was seen prior to Absalom's introduction. Oda later confirmed that the lion's face was indeed used on Absalom face by Hogback. However, the lion's human face was never Absalom's. Absalom's human face may be on another zombie elsewhere. While answering this question, Oda also noted that Absalom has very few Japanese fans and was reluctant to say more on the matter.
 * Some of Absalom's lines seem to have a double meaning. The first line was "Being mean to Kumashi must fill you with ecstasy. Ecsmasy?". He said this when he noted how cruel Perona was to Kumashi. The second line was "So cruel to Hogback. Cruelback.". He said this when he noted how cruel Cindry was to Hogback. A fan noticed these lines. He asked Oda in an SBS question if these lines meant that Absalom likes making bad jokes. Oda replied to the fan that this was so. Oda also said that it is ironic because Absalom's sense of humor is invisible.
 * In the anime, when Absalom meets up with the Soldier Zombies who were beat up by the Straw Hats, the classical and famous German music piece, Ode to Joy, is played as he is cheered on by the zombies under him. This is the fourth time a piece of classical music was played in the anime of One Piece (the same piece had earlier been played in Movie 7). The first was Hiriluk's death. The second was when Luffy defeated Crocodile. The third time was in Movie 7, when Usopp was opening the treasure chest.
 * Absalom appears to be based after the extremely lusty parish priest of The Miller's Tale. The priest was also named Absalom. The Miller's Tale was part of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.
 * Absalom points out whenever Cindry is cruel to Hogback and whenever Perona is cruel to Kumashi. Both of these times involve cruelty between master and subordinant. However, he is just as cruel to his subordinant Lola.
 * Absalom is seemingly Moria's most senior member. In Hogback's flashback where he met Moria, he was seen as an adult standing next to a child Perona.
 * Absaloms appearance and power seems to be inspired by the fiction of H. G. Wells. The invisibility has obvious ties to The Invisible Man, while his appearance as an animal altered by surgery is reminscient of The Island of Doctor Moreau and its film adaptation, The Island of Lost Souls.