Oars

Oars (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. He is the ancestor of Oars Jr.

Appearance
Oars 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. Oars' size is comparable to certain One Piece human characters, such as Whitebeard, who are uniquely larger than the human standard.

Oars 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 Oars' master, Moria, can sit and watch Oars battle or choose to attack the opponents from with his own powers or by exploiting Oars' shadow to attack.

Apart from the various bandages covering his limbs, Oars 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 Oars 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. Oars, in particular, was well feared. However, Oars 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, Oars inherited several of Luffy's character traits. This includes Luffy's desire to become the Pirate King. Like Luffy, Oars is also unable to tell that Usopp and Sogeking are actually one and the same. Also, like Luffy, Oars is able to connect the similarities between Sanji and his horrifically drawn bounty poster. He also retains Luffy's excitability, becoming shocked when he learned that the Straw Hats can't complete Pirate Docking Six, which Robin refused to take part in. He was distracted when he was told that there was a large pile of meat.

Originally, Oars was very defiant against Moria's will. However, like most of the other zombies, Oars slowly became obedient to Moria. Though he obeyed Moria, Oars however still preferred fighting his battles by himself. While Oars 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. Oars also seems to remember certain things. Oars found that it was weird that he did not stretch when using Gomu Gomu no Pistol and found stretching to feel familiar when Moria later helped him to stretch.

Abilities and Powers
Oars 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 Oars 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, Oars' 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, Oars 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):, Oars 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.

Since Oars is a Zombie, he is immune to pain. However, he still naturally flinches when he is attacked (until he realized his immunity to pain). Chopper also points out that since Oars can't feel pain, he won't know which parts of his body are damaged. If his bones and nerves are badly damaged or destroyed, Oars can't move.

Past
During his lifetime, he built his name by amassing countries and islands under his control and his band of villains. Five hundred years ago, Oars 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 Oars had sustained a serious injury to his right arm (which Hogback had repaired). Oars' name reminded Robin of the legends from some place still unknown called Kunihiki.

During his lifetime he had a family, as his descendant Oars Jr. is his grandson.

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

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

Despite Zoro, Sanji, Franky and Usopp being near him, Oars simply ignored them and picked a large piece of debris which he put on his head like a tricorne. He then continued exploring the island and found the giant chain that steered Thriller Bark. Curious on what it does, Oars 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 Oars' actions, Absalom sent the Zombie Generals after him. Oars merely jumped out of their way and pummeled them into oblivion.

Fighting the Behemoth
Oars 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, Oars then started attacking Luffy and began rampaging through the main mast tower, searching for his targets. Along the way, Oars seemingly crushed Hogback and Cindry under his feet. After going through the tower, Oars 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 Oars' stomach using his shadow powers, piloting Oars like a giant robot. By manipulating Oars' 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, Brook, 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 unconscious as a result, Moria quickly saves Oars by letting his own shadow throw out the bag of salt. But, before Usopp and Nami are destroyed by Oars, Luffy (in his Nightmare form) comes to the rescue. As Oars 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 Oars, destroying what is left of the courtyard. Then, after showing his massive powers, Luffy seemingly finishes off both Oars and Moria with a sideways Gomu Gomu no Storm. Oars, however, awoke, no longer under Moria's control yet itching to continue the fight. Without Moria' guidance, Oars 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 Oars' spine and paralyzing him.

As the Rolling Pirates celebrate Luffy's apparent victory, Oars 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 (or more accurately said taking back the life from) the special zombie.

Major Battles

 * Oars vs. Zombie Generals


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

Anime and Manga Differences
While it isn't specified happening in the manga, the anime expands on Oars' 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 Oars' corpse defrosting and reacting to the outside air.

While nothing noteworthy happened to Oars 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) are the same as 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, Óðr was generally not used in most early fan translations. The two most popularly used names that are used for the giant's name, prior the official romanzation, however were Oz and Odz. Though either can be used, both were however slightly inaccurate in varying degrees.

Though initially unknown, the official romanization of the giant's name was later revealed to be Oars as written on a sail of a gigantic ship commanded by Oars' descendant, Oars Jr.

Trivia

 * In a response to a fan who asked if Oars is a giant from Elbaf, Oda responded that Oars is a giant, but he is unusually large even by giant standards and not of Elbaf origin. Oda explained that Oars is like those people who are really huge, and that Oars came from one of the many islands around the One Piece world that have giants inhabiting them.
 * When Oars briefly believes he is a robot after finding his stomach is a cock pit, not only does he call himself Oars Bomber, but in the world of Chopperman, Luffy is called Luffy Bomber (this is referenced in the anime, when Chopper, donning his Chopperman cape, utters Oars Bomber in shock).
 * Oars is a boss in One Piece: Unlimited Cruise, but he is unplayable since his size prevents normal gameplay.
 * He is so far the only character in One Piece to fight the Straw Hat Pirates in several stages consecutively.