Hogback

Dr. Hogback is a world-renowned surgeon who entered the employment of Gekko Moriah, assisting him in creating his undead army. He was one of the major antagonists of the Thriller Bark Arc, and one of the Mysterious Four.

Appearance
Hogback has a round body shape which contrasts sharply with his extremely thin limbs. Hogback's nose resembles that of a beak, his sharp pointed teeth and ears also augment his slightly monstrous visage. His mouth is usually etched in a permanent grin, along with a scar that starts from one corner of the smile, goes above his eyes and ends at the other side of his mouth. On the left side of his neck is a black tattoo consisting of two slashes that goes down to two swirls found side-by-side on his shoulder. His black hair is slicked black. Its style has changed over the years.

Ten years prior to his debut, it had a small swirl sticking out from his front. Five years after that, it was tied in a knot in the back.

He wears a fishnet vest, purple leather pants, a large dark tie, and a pair of purple gloves, which cover his long claw-like fingers. He also wears a white doctors mask under his chin, to highlight his status. Hogback also wears a pair of very small black gold-rimmed sunglasses, a violet feathery cape that is black on the inside. and a pair of purple high-heeled boots. Though at other times, Hogback is seen wearing more appropriate attire when conducting surgery. While having a button sewn back onto his coat by Cindry, Hogback was wearing a white double-breasted suit with an indigo shirt underneath, gray pants, and a dark blond feathery cape; when reminiscing the annoyance of his patients, he also wore a golden bangle and pearl-beads bracelet on his right wrist, a silver bangle and ruby-chain bracelet on the left, and rings with large jewels on each index finger and left thumb, while the other fingers having gold rings.

As child Hogback had a bowlcut with the hair framing his face on both sides of the face. He had round eyes with big eyerings and a notably small nose, especially compared to how long his nose is today. His lips were quite thin too. Hogback wore a simple, white sweater with two Japanese signs on them. On his hands he wore black gloves. On his legs he wore plain black pants and black shoes. Hogback is depicted as holding a scalpel in one hand and a medical book in the other one, next to a dead rat, indicating that he is about to dissect it. It shows that he was already studying medicine in his early childhood.

Personality
Hogback's overall personality is comparable to that of the Mad Scientist archetype commonly found in other works of fiction. Like many of the One Piece Characters, he has a distinct laughter. His is "Fosfosfosfos".

Hogback is immensely arrogant and is extremely proud of his reputation as a genius. However, despite curing numerous people with his abilities, Hogback considers his patients a necessary nuisance in order to acquire greater wealth and power, while looking down at any other doctors who could not perform what he could. His personality contrasts sharply with that of Chopper's, who believes that a true doctor must save any and every patient regardless of rewards, which leads to eventual conflicts between the two; Hogback even ridiculed Chopper for admiring him, believing the young doctor was looking up to skills that brought annoyance in the form of unending lineup of patients.

Hogback also believes that through the use of Moriah's power he has finally managed to overcome death, restoring corpses to life as his zombified slaves. Hogback dismisses the fact that the personality of the zombie is vastly different from the way they acted in life, and that their wills are bound to Moriah. He cares little for the fate of his undead creations or the people whose shadows were stolen to create them. Despite insisting they are alive, Hogback has no respect for his creations, viciously demeaning the re-animated Victoria Cindry during his fight with Chopper and Robin.

Despite being one of the more comedic villains revealed so far, Hogback can be serious at times and has been known to think several steps ahead, as seen when he requested from Moria control of some of the zombies that were normally not under his (Hogback's) control, choosing Jigoro and Inuppe, as his personal bodyguards in case he encounters the Straw Hats, and was able to use them to great effect against both Chopper and Robin; this was downplayed when Hogback was easily outsmarted by Robin to accidentally order the two zombies to jump out of the window.

A running gag in the anime is that every time he starts a dramatic speech or conducts a theory, Cindry would walk in front of him and block him from the viewers, causing him to panic slightly. Also, only noticeable in the anime, Hogback has a habit of changing the pitch of his voice while talking, especially while holding larger monologues.

Gekko Moriah
When the then-Shichibukai Gekko Moriah came to Hogback requesting his assistance in creating an army of the undead to conquer the New World, Hogback agreed on the condition that he would have his late love, Victoria Cindry, resurrected. Ever since then, Hogback saw Moriah as his master, and helped him to create the said army and improve Moriah's subordinate Absalom's physical strength. Hogback certainly seemed to enjoy his position as a pirate's scientist committing blasphemous experiments over being a world-famous surgeon saving people's lives.

Victoria Cindry


Hogback was an obsessive fan of the famous celebrity, Victoria Cindry. She was a patient to him when she was still alive, and the two seemed to share an amicable relationship, as she helped sew a button back onto his shirt. After acquiring all the wealth and fame he could as a doctor, Hogback came to propose to her, only to be rejected as she already has a fiance, breaking the doctor's heart. Upon hearing that Cindry died in an accident, Hogback became so depressed that gave up his medical career.

After allying himself with Moriah, Hogback dug up her corpse and reanimated it using the shadow of another woman. However, when her revived corpse was given a different personality from when she was alive, Hogback revealed that he shallowly cared only for her physical beauty, and that he had no use of the personality that rejected him. Despite the zombie Cindry becoming Hogback's personal servant since then, the two have a comedic relationship at casual times, with the latter being the dominant one due to her new personality's plate-hating and nihilistic outlooks, usually by serving the doctor food directly onto the table without china or making negative comments about his love life.

However, at more serious times, Hogback still retains secondary command over her, right under Moriah's, and she obeys to his every whim, as long as Moriah orders her to. Despite his "love" for her, Hogback was not above abusing her, and brutally treats her like a slave, such as kicking her down and making her lick the floor simply to prove a point. He also ordered her to sacrifice herself to buy the doctor time to escape, and that he can simply replace a shadow for her afterwards. It was only when Chopper's words got through finally that her former will returned to her, and she defied Hogback's order to rescue him.

Other Zombies
Hogback saw the zombies he created alongside Moriah's ability as a breakthrough of medical science, that they are truly a successful product of resurrection. Despite this, he has no respect for them, disregarding their vastly different personalities from when being truly alive, their lack of free will, and goes to treat them as slaves and dispensable pawns. Relatively, he has no heed to sacrificing the people whose shadows are taken for the sake of the zombies.

Medical Community
Despite being a world-famous surgeon and highly respected figure in the medical community, Hogback saw his patients as nothing more than a nuisance that he has to put up with in order to earn money and fame; he did not enjoy saving their lives for their sakes, especially when a seemingly unending lineup of patients keep coming to him, going as far as to sarcastically and mockingly mimic their pleas when reliving his past to Chopper. He saw the other doctors who did not possess the talent to save the lives that he can as incompetent, and held them with equal contempt. Ignorant of Hogback's reasons and misanthropic outlook on medical science, Hogback has been given all kinds of awards and statuses available to doctors, and when he disappeared, the medical community arose in a major uproar, and his name became a legend.

Tony Tony Chopper
Amongst the many doctors in the world, Tony Tony Chopper once admired Hogback based on his legend of saving as many people as there are stars in the sky. Chopper even defended his idol against the suspicions cast by Nami and Usopp, and believed that Hogback's study on zombies are for healing broken hearts of those who lost their loved ones, despite barely knowing the man outside of reputation. However, after finding out that Hogback was using his own expertise for his selfish ends and has utterly no respect for the living or dead whatsoever, along with Hogback ridiculing Chopper's ideologies of a true doctor, Chopper lost all respect for the genius surgeon, refusing to accept him as a doctor altogether, and even tried to smash his head in.

Abilities and Powers
Of the Mysterious Four, he is the only one to not have a Devil Fruit ability. He is also the only one who has no abilities that give him an advantage during a fight and relies on the zombies he created to fight for him. However, he does not have absolute command over them. Gekko Moriah is their true master, so Hogback only has command over them if Moriah allows it.

When the Straw Hats began their counterattack on Thriller Bark, Hogback showed a degree of strategic aptitude by asking Moriah for control over some of Absalom and Perona's zombies, namely Jigoro and Inuppe, using both to briefly overpower Robin and Chopper. However, he was easily duped by Robin, accidentally commanding the two zombies to jump out of the window.

Medical Expertise
Despite his disregard for human life, Hogback is a surgeon whose knowledge of the body and skills are astonishing, performing operations that are supposedly miraculous by nature; with this profession, he was able to treat and cure practically every patient who ever came to him, and his skills and disappearance would become powerful influences on the medical community.

It was stated by Chopper that the number of lives Hogback has saved amounts to how numerous the stars are at night. During his career, he cared for anyone who came to him, which brought him fame and fortune.

His incredible skills allowed him to create the many creatures on Thriller Bark and even merge some beasts, along with inanimate objects, together to strengthen them. He is also responsible for increasing Absalom's fighting potential as well as modifying Oars's body with a cockpit system for Moria to pilot in. His skills allowed him to preserve the hundreds of corpses for many years in their pristine state, as Cindry and the many others did not decompose despite being in Thriller Bark's servitude for about a decade.

The Genius Surgeon and the Tragic Actress
Hogback was once a genius surgeon renowned for saving thousand of lives with his miracle operations. He was also a big fan of Victoria Cindry, a famous actress, for many years. However, his love for her was unrequited as she refused to marry him when he proposed to her (she already had a fiance).

One day, ten years before the start of the series, Cindry died in an accident. Hogback was so deeply saddened by the incident that he left his profession.

It was around that time that he then met Gekko Moriah, who promised Hogback to help him bring Cindry back to life. Hogback then stole Cindry's corpse and together with Moriah's Kage Kage no Mi powers, produced a zombie created from Cindry's remains. Since then, Hogback decided to work for Gekko Moriah by stitching up more bodies to be created as zombies.

With the world ignorant to Hogback's reasons, his disappearance had sparked up many rumors, such as being kidnapped, and had the medical community in an uproar, while his name became legendary.

A Dead Man Comes to the Island of the Dead
Five years ago, Brook got captured by Thriller Bark's trap and Hogback used his shadow to revive the corpse of the Samurai Ryuma. Latterly, Brook came back and blackmails the doctor to fill the island of fishes, and then salt, to exorcise all the zombies.

Thriller Bark Arc
Usopp, Nami and Chopper enter Hogback's mansion. A woman emerges, welcomes them and immediately throws plates at them. The woman stops, allows Nami and Chopper entry, then continues throwing plates at Usopp. However, Hogback tells "Cindry" that they'll allow him in too before explaining the cause of her hatred. Chopper is immediately in awe but the others are forced to follow along to avoid any further zombies.

Inside Hogback's dining room, Nami tries to explain their predicament and about the zombies outside. The doctor claims that he vanished and came to Thriller Bark to study the zombies and to continue to understand the matters of life and death. Chopper remains starstruck meeting the famed doctor and asks to see Hogback's lab, but he states that it is off limits to all of them. Eating a serving of pudding together (without plates, naturally), Usopp further questions in seeing any living skeletons such as Brook. Hogback suspects something but refuses to state what.

Later,  Nami, Chopper and Usopp discover the truth about Cindry's identity and Dr. Hogback's experiments with Zombies. Hogback finds Nami, Usopp and Chopper and has Ryuma, a samurai zombie who acts a lot like Brook to stop them. He then meets Moriah. Moriah is oblivious about the Straw Hat Pirates, apart from Luffy and Zoro. Nami, Usopp and Chopper are shown to be hiding inside Kumashi. Hogback then questions about the three of them, but Perona says that they never arrived. Kumashi tries to tell her they are inside him but is silenced. Absalom then gets angry at Hogback as he realizes he must've harmed Nami (who he calls his bride). Cindry then answers that she will never come for him, which makes Hogback to try to silence her, but he says that the bride will never come for him either. Moriah then tells everyone to be quiet and tells them that they are bearing witness to the birth of an exceptionally strong zombie and cuts Luffy's shadow.

Hogback mentions that he has been working on "Number 900" for a few years and it will be the strongest zombie ever created. Before they start, they give a report to him saying that Captain Tararan has been beaten and his shadow has been extracted, causing Hogback to panic. Hogback explains that Brook had been causing trouble, purifying all the zombies. Absalom and Perona both do not know what he actually looks like and Absalom states that he will have no trouble passing through the surveillance. Moriah, however tells them to do something about it, heading into the freezer.

They resurrect the ultimate zombie, Oars. Moriah tells Hogback that he will have to create better bodies for the zombies, and he says to leave it up to him. Suddenly, Hildon flies in, saying that there is a problem. Hildon states that the three people who lost their shadows (Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji) have all woken up and are approaching. Hogback says that they should not be waking up this soon, but Hildon says that their fellows may have woken them. Hildon continues, saying that they seem to be connected to Brook and that they know how to purify zombies. Due to this, the zombies are afraid and running around. Hogback says that the surprise, wild, and soldier zombies could not match the Straw Hats even without salt, and that they need to get the general zombies to fight. Hogback asks what Absalom is doing, but Hildon says that most of the general zombies are attending his wedding ceremony. Furthermore, Hildon says that Absalom wants Hogback to dance at his reception in an hour, and although Hogback agrees at first, as it is a special occasion, then says that he has no time to dance. Hogback tells Hildon to go fetch Absalom, but Hildon says that he cannot in his current position. Hogback tells Moriah that everything is fine, and Moriah says it is boring, even though Hogback states that he would not have even done anything anyway.

Chopper and Robin confront Hogback and expresses at how disappointed he is of his former role model. Hogback, upon recognizing Chopper after the reindeer transformed into his Brain Point, decides to confront him as well with plans to make the reindeer a zombie. As the two doctors confronts each other, the two zombies that Hogback asked from Moriah, Inuppe and Jigoro, came forward to Hogback's aid.

Chopper and Robin are outmatched by Zoro's and Sanji's zombies, both of whom have almost completely lost the personalities they acquired from their shadows. Chopper tells Hogback that he had once respected him, but did not anymore after realizing the true nature of his experiments. Hogback, however, argues that the zombies are truly alive, and recalls that he had fallen in love with Cindry while she was alive, only to have her reject him in favor of her fiancé. Chopper becomes furious and attempts to attack and purify Cindry, but Cindry's strength, and Zoro's and Sanji's zombies, prevent him from doing so. Zoro's zombie and Sanji's zombie begin fighting each other, still unable to get along, and Robin tricks Hogback into telling them to jump out of the tower. Hogback orders Cindry to attack, but Cindry, having temporarily regained her original self, is unable to move.

Chopper and Robin watch as Cindry's body refuses to move, much to the dismay of Hogback. However, Cindry quickly recovers, and Hogback tells Cindry to buy as much time as possible, so he can escape. Robin quickly restrains Cindry though, and Chopper captures Hogback easily. Robin starts to lift Chopper and Hogback up, as Chopper is preparing to throw Hogback down to the ground from a dangerous height.



The fight is interrupted by Oars destroying the main mast. During the giant zombie's rampage, Hogback is pinned under a fallen piece of ceiling. Hogback pleads with Cindry to save him, but Cindry's memories of her former life have been rekindled by Chopper, and she simply stand and smiles as Oars' massive foot seemingly crushed both of them.

Hogback is later shown to be alive but bruised and is seen waking up Absalom and announcing to him that Gekko Moriah has been defeated. He is later seen escaping Thriller Bark with Absalom and an unconscious Moriah. They leave without Perona as they could not find her anywhere.

It is unknown what will become of him now that Moriah's title has been revoked and he has apparently been liquidated after the Battle of Marineford.

Major Battles

 * Hogback vs. Brook (flashback)
 * Hogback, Victoria Cindry, Inuppe, and Jigoro vs. Tony Tony Chopper and Nico Robin

Trivia

 * In the flashback of five years ago, Hogback is shown to have worn a "choinmage" hairstyle, which as Sanji explains is a typical coiffure of Wano Country.

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