Nelson

Commodore Nelson Royale (ネルソン提督 Neruson Royale Teitoku) is an anime only Marine from East Blue, commanding the 8th Marine Division. He appears in the Warship Island Arc.

Appearance
Nelson is extremely obese, to the point where he is unable to walk and must be carried everyone on a humongous chair, carried by six marines. It also prevents him from wearing his marine coat, which he has only on his arms and back. On his huge stomach, he also has a very big tattoo of the Marines emblem in blue.



He, aside from his extreme obesity, has some other peculiar marks. He has a long, thin, curved moustache, spiral marks on his huge cheeks and he also seems to have no eye brows, having two dark spots in their place instead.

On his head, he wears a tall blue marine hat which is also unique in that no similar marine cap was ever seen before or after.

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

He at first manages to have the Apis, the one 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 doesn't respond and therefore decides to interfere himself.



His battleships encircle the Strawhats and "chain them in". When the attack proves fruitless, he orders the deployment of the "special canon"-a gigantic canon, 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 Strawhats 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 strawhats almost get through an opening, when their ship is almost hit by a wind strike of Eric. Eric takes over the raft on which the dragon is located, much to Nelson pleasure. However, Eric reveals he only used Nelson to find the dragon and that he wishes to use the ryukotsu elixir to become invincible. Nelson is so angered 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 Ryuji, Nelson orders a harpoon shot into Ryuji 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 ryukotsu" 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 arrives at Warship Island. Nelson is at first very pleased how much "ryukotsu" 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 marines cannons.

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

When, however, the "Dragons 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, however, and strikes him with one of his wind attacks, seemingly killing him.

The 8th Branch


The 8th Branch of the Marine, that Nelson is head of, is active in East Blue. It appears Nelson has a fleet of at least 10 smaller battleships, plus his main ship, at his disposal. The only seen technique, which this branch uses to capture pirates, is the "akuyoku" formation-which consists of surrounding an enemy with a fleet of battleships and then blocking all escape routes by connecting each battleships with several large chains.



The only higher ranking official seen, though unnamed, is the official, who is sent after Apis, along with Erik. He takes the ship into the "mirror zone" and back, loosing Eric for a while, to a seeming pleasure of the commander, who does not trust Erik. After Erik re-appears, he is about to call off the operation, when Erik requests a two rowers and a small boat. The commander gives them to Erik, who then betrays Nelson.

He is addressed by the title of "Shōsa" by his subordinates, which translates as "Lieutenant Commander".

Translations and Dub Issues
His rank is roughly equivalent to "Commodore" (准将 Junshō), yet the rank he holds (提督 teitoku) does not exist within the Marine's rank system, according to the author. This is probably an oversight by the writing staff of the TV show, since Nelson does not appear in the manga, outside the adaption 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 Kriegs nickname is worded by Lieutenant Commander Brandnew as "Kaizoku Kantai Teitoku Krieg". Nelson's rank is often translated by fansubs and even in official dubs (for example the German dub) as "Admiral".

Trivia

 * Nelson seeks the Thousand Year Dragon to make an elixir of life from its bones (called the "ryukotsu").
 * Nelson is the commander of the 8th branch of the Marines, as seen on his main ship.