Kingbaum

Kingbaum is a tree homie, a member of the Big Mom Pirates and the master of the Seducing Woods on Whole Cake Island. However, he was forced to serve the Straw Hat Pirates due to them possessing Charlotte Linlin's Vivre Card.

Appearance
Kingbaum is an extremely large tree homie with a wide light gray trunk and a large amount of blueish gray foliage. He has small eyes, a very long and pointy nose, a very long handlebar mustache, a mouth full of sharp teeth, a large tongue, and two rather small arms that cannot even reach across his body.

During Luffy and Cracker's battle, the top of Kingbaum's head was cut off, removing most of his branches. When the Big Mom Pirates' army attacked the Straw Hats, Kingbaum was bisected vertically by Amande. However, he was later stitched back together. After being struck with Big Mom's "Ikoku" technique, Kingbaum lost the upper left corner of his body, just before reaching the eye but after reaching the left arm, down to the waist. After suffering a direct hit from Prometheus, Kingbaum was left burnt char black.

Personality
Kingbaum takes his duties very seriously and will ensure that all intruders in the Seducing Woods are killed. He carries some pride with his position, viewing outside assistance as unnecessary and being confident in the abilities of himself and his subordinates. He is the only homie so far to not fear Charlotte Cracker; like other homies, however, he fears the power of a Vivre Card containing Big Mom's soul.

He has a habit of adding the suffix -ju to the end of his sentences, which is a reading of one of the kanji for "tree" (樹). In the English dub, Kingbaum is given a faint German accent, while including flora-based puns into his speech.

Sanji Retrieval Team
When the Sanji Retrieval Team entered the Seducing Woods, Kingbaum helped lead the homies' attacks against them until his duties were taken over by Cracker. When Nami and Pound attempted to run away from Cracker's fight with Luffy, Kingbaum aided in the pursuit, but was suddenly stopped by Big Mom's Vivre Card that was in Nami's possession. Due to the Vivre Card's power, Kingbaum and the other homies became subservient to Nami, which led Cracker to label him as a traitor even though it was against his will. After Cracker was defeated, Kingbaum was forced to continue serving the Straw Hats, and took them out of the Seducing Woods. After the crew's escape from the Tea Party, Nami used the remaining half of the Vivre Card to force a resurrected Kingbaum to continue his servitude for her.

Charlotte Brûlée
Kingbaum often worked in conjunction with Brûlée to take out intruders in the Seducing Woods, and the two were often seen together.

Charlotte Cracker
Kingbaum was miffed when Cracker took over his group's job of taking out the Straw Hats, but Cracker did not care for what the homie had to say. When Kingbaum became subservient to the Straw Hats, Cracker was angered by the homie helping them, declaring him a traitor and vowing to bring him before Big Mom, though Cracker was defeated before he could take action against Kingbaum.

Amande
Amande was completely intolerant of Kingbaum's betrayal to Big Mom even though it was unwilling. Ignoring the homies' pleas, Amande exacted ruthless punishment against him. She even denied him a swift, painless death in favor of a torturous execution.

Prometheus
When Kingbaum betrayed Linlin for the sake of his fiancée, Prometheus called him a traitor and viciously incinerated the master of the Seducing Woods. Kingbaum looked up at Prometheus with tremendous fear at incurring the special homie's wrath.

Lady Tree
Lady Tree is Kingbaum's fiancé. She took care of Kingbaum after Amande bisected him and stitched him back together, bringing him back to life, shortly before the Sanji Retrieval Team use him to pass through the Seducing Woods during their escape from the Big Mom Pirates. Kingbaum was willing to betray Big Mom in the hopes of returning to Lady Tree alive.

Abilities and Powers
As master of the Seducing Woods, Kingbaum has authority over all the homies and other people stationed in it. Under his command, no intruder had managed to leave the Seducing Woods alive, with the exception of Urouge and the Straw Hat Pirates. He was able to survive even with the top part of his head cut off horizontally, with no apparent impediment on his viability; only when Amande fully sliced him vertically in half did he die—though even this was not final, as he was able to be resurrected once his two halves were stitched together. The scar did cause him pain, but he was able to continue running without any impediment. Jinbe noted that traveling on Kingbaum was faster than running themselves.

Past
At some point in the past, Kingbaum was given a human soul by Charlotte Linlin's Devil Fruit power, and he was put in charge of the Seducing Woods. Under his command, no known intruder left the Seducing Woods alive.

Whole Cake Island Arc
When Charlotte Cracker arrived at the Seducing Woods in order to take over attacking the Sanji retrieval team, Kingbaum and Charlotte Brûlée grew offended, stating that they would have assuredly taken care of the team without Cracker's help. While Nami and Pound were fleeing the scene, Kingbaum, Brûlée, and the homies pursued them until Nami took out a Vivre Card. The homies halted their advance when they felt Big Mom's soul from the Vivre Card.

As Nami tried to tell Luffy to retreat, Kingbaum and Brûlée confronted her and Pound. With Pound's assistance, Nami managed to overpower Brûlée, shocking Kingbaum and the other homies. While the homies were afraid of getting involved in Cracker and Luffy's battle, Nami asked them whom they feared more: Cracker or Big Mom. They answered that Nami scared them more than either of the Charlottes.



Luffy and Cracker's battle lasted for eleven hours, and the top of Kingbaum's head was cut off sometime in the process. Kingbaum was forced to protect Nami from Cracker, allowing her to create rain that weakened Cracker's Biscuit Soldiers. Kingbaum grew increasingly concerned as Luffy and Cracker continued chipping at each other's stamina. Cracker told Kingbaum that he would report his unwillingness to attack Nami to Big Mom as insubordination. Kingbaum replied that he had no choice when facing Big Mom's Vivre Card, but Cracker did not accept his excuse.

Luffy managed to defeat Cracker, and Kingbaum reflected in shock that he assisted in Cracker's defeat, wondering in anger how Nami got Big Mom's Vivre Card. Luffy then ordered Kingbaum to take him and Nami to the Whole Cake Chateau. Kingbaum then carried Luffy and Nami on top of his head as they traveled to Big Mom's castle. After leaving the Seducing Woods, they caught up to a Germa Kingdom carriage that was transporting the Vinsmoke Family to Sweet City. Kingbaum watched as Sanji rejected Luffy and severely beat him.



After Sanji left with his family, Kingbaum panicked as a storm appeared and informed Nami that Big Mom was enraged. He later watched as an army marched towards Luffy and began to fight him. During the battle against the Enraged Army, Amande sliced Kingbaum as punishment for assisting Luffy and Nami despite the homies' pleas, killing him, while making sure to make it as slow and torturous as possible.. His halves lay on the battlefield, and several hours later, Luffy reunited with Sanji there. As the two interacted, Luffy slapped Sanji, sending him crashing into Kingbaum's remains.

The next day, Kingbaum was brought back to life when his two halves were stitched together, and he romanced with a female tree homie. However, the Sanji Retrieval Team immediately ran into him as they were trying to escape, and forced Kingbaum to carry them once again with Big Mom's Vivre Card as the Big Mom Pirates pursued them. Suddenly, a crazed Big Mom herself came flying in on Zeus, intent on getting cake from the Straw Hats.



As he ran away from the crazed Big Mom, the latter transformed Napoleon into a sword and used it to cut part of Kingbaum's body off. Kingbaum screamed in pain while pleading to Big Mom that his services to the Straw Hats were against his will. Nami then questioned him about the Lady Tree homie he was with and Kingbaum revealed that the tree homie was his fiancée, which Nami told him that should be his reason to live. Kingbaum acknowledged that she was right and fled from the Emperor. Reaching the Seducing Woods, the other homies made way for Kingbaum but as the Straw Hats expressed relief at almost escaping, Zeus appeared. Terrified to see Zeus, Kingbaum panicked and was given more reason to do so as Big Mom had ordered the tree homies to stop the Straw Hats. As the other homies started to impede the crew, Kingbaum noted that he himself is powerless against an order from him his master but remembered that he had to live for his fiancée. Kingbaum then charged through his subordinates, but Prometheus called out to him, noting that his actions were a direct betrayal before attacking Kingbaum and setting him alight as the Straw Hats evacuated. Linlin walked past Kingbaum's charred body as she continued her pursuit.

Major Battles

 * Kingbaum vs. Seducing Woods homies

Translation and Dub Issues
Instead of adding the "-ju" suffix to the end of his sentences, the VIZ manga and Funimation dub incorporated tree puns into Kingbaum's speech, like "exactree" and "Don't firget about me!".

Trivia

 * Baum is German for "tree".
 * Baum's name may come from L. Frank Baum, the author of the fantasy novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which featured talking Fighting Trees much like Kingbaum.
 * Kingbaum may have been inspired by the Old Man Tree from the 1932 Disney short Flowers and Trees: he is in love with Lady Tree (who was likely inspired by the female tree in the short), has a fatal attack where he is set on fire and his later appearance resembles the stump-like appearance of the character.
 * Kingbaum's favorite source of nourishment is water.

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