Gekko Moriah
(ゲッコー･モリア Gekkō Moria?) was a member of the
Shichibukai who resided on the largest ship in the world,
Thriller Bark. His former bounty was
320,000,000. He was also the main antagonist of the
Thriller Bark arc.
Appearance
Moriah is a gargantuan person with very distinct devil-like features. Standing at 22' 7''
in height, he was the tallest among the
Shichibukai before his position was revoked. His animal theme is a gecko, based off his general appearance, the claw like endings of his gloves, and his collar resembling a lizard frill. His overall design resembles a giant
leek.
[2][3][4]Moriah's hair is red (purple in the anime) and sticks straight up, splitting in two and slightly curving down near the top. He has two horns protruding from the sides of his forehead and stitches running down vertically from the top of his face and down his neck,which is rather long and thick in comparison to his body. His ears and teeth are both pointed, while his lower body is relatively fat and stubby in comparison. His skin is an almost-white pale blue and his lips are a darker shade.
His armbands and the edges of his gloves are pale blue. His coat and gloves are black whilst his pants are bright orange with pale window shapes imprinted on them. He wears a fishnet shirt. He also wears a cravat, necklace and a blue crucifix-like ornament with claw-like appendages sprouting out from three of the cross' points. During the meeting of the Shichibukai at the
Marine Headquarters, Moriah added a blue cape laced with beige fur to his attire.
[5]Twenty-four years before the current storyline, Moriah looked much thinner and had a pointed chin.
In SBS Volume 63, Oda drew the Shichibukai as children. Moriah is shown to be gleefully pulling off the leg of a hapless ghost doll. His horns and hair were shorter and he was missing the cross stitches running down the middle of his face. He wore a baggy long-sleeved white shirt with suspenders and dark knee high pants. He also wore his usual long black gloves with cowboy boots with spurs and a jewel-encrusted dagger on his belt. He was also much thinner, had a chin and longer legs.
Moriah is almost always seen grinning maniacally and only seems to change expression when something bad happens to him. Like other characters in One Piece, he has a
distinct laughter (Kishishishi) that he often cackles. He maintains a relaxed and laid-back stance at all times, seemingly appearing to believe he cannot lose.
[6] In general, he prefers to avoid fighting altogether, or at least fighting his enemy indirectly, either making his shadow fight or ordering one of his zombies to do so.
He maintains a relaxed and laid back stance at all times, seemingly appearing to believe he cannot lose for he believes that a true pirate should fear nothing, even death. He
apparently wanted to be the new
Pirate King and believed that if he has strong underlings, he could achieve his goal. Though he once claimed that he would rely on his own powers to achieve his goals, he is incredibly lazy; his motto is "relying upon others for one's own objective"
(他力本願 tarikihongan?) and his favorite phrase is "You do it!!"
(お前がやれ Omae ga yare?).
[7]This also expands to fighting style, as he prefers to lay back and let his own shadow Doppelman battle with the powers of the
Kage Kage no Mi.
He also appears to have a great knowledge about the New World and he knows well how terrifying this area is. At Thriller Bark, he told Luffy that with his current strength, he would lose his crew. Not long after that, the Straw Hats did indeed suffer a crushing defeat and separation at the Sabaody Archipelago, thus beginning a training period of two years to prepare themselves for the New World.
Moriah has a lot of experience, having fought many opponents in the past, including a Yonko. He is a good battle tactician, being able to outsmart even Nico Robin. However, his overconfidence and laziness made him underestimate his opponents and caused his final defeat at the hands of the Straw Hat Pirates. Jinbe noted that Moriah must train more.
Like Luffy, he had many good friends in the past, considering them valuable comrades and considered himself too overconfident.
[8] The loss of his crew to
Kaido changed his outlook on life substantially, making him believe that subordinates are better off as zombies, as, due to their undead status, they cannot be harmed by any physical damage. They can only be "purified" by the sea or elements of the sea. Even if they were purified, he could easily find other shadows to reanimate them.
Relationships
Crews
Moriah's old crew
Moriah appears to care deeply for his old crew, and still seems to mourn their loss within. This was what apparently gave him the change of heart to turn to zombies for a crew. He even reacts quite heavily when thinking about them.
Thriller Bark
The Thriller Bark crew was very loyal and very respectful to Moriah, and always seemed to care about his well being. However, their loyalties towards Moriah seemed to be due to a myriad of reasons. For the zombies, their servitude was mainly fueled by Moriah's hold on their very being, granted to him by his
Kage Kage no Mi powers. As for the humans in his crew, they continued to serve him due to the deals that Moriah seemed to have made with them in the past. That, or their goals appeared to be coincidental at the time (i.e. Perona's desire to be granted servants of her own, Doctor Hogback's eagerness to breathe life into corpses, and Absalom's want to rule over and be the king of all graveyards).
Hogback and Absalom showed their loyalty by escaping Thriller Bark with an unconscious Moriah after he was defeated, although Perona was somewhat questionable, not only attempting to flee when she feels her life is endangered, but taking all rations and treasure with her and claiming to not being involved with Moriah in any way when questioned by Kuma. However, after receiving news of Moriah's supposed death, she appeared to be distraught, and lamented his demise. Moriah on the other hand, cared very little about the zombies of Thriller Bark (save perhaps towards his more powerful ones, like the
General Zombies and Oars, for reason of their strength if nothing else), as seen when Absalom informs that Brook has returned and is slaying zombies, Moriah simply put him down and turned toward another objective with no apparent concern. Though he viewed his human crew in a slightly higher standard, he didn't seem to display too much dismay if they were defeated.
Shichibukai
Bartholomew Kuma
Moriah's interactions with Bartholomew Kuma have been brief but shown a understanding. He chastises Kuma for being so loyal to the World Government and not having his own agenda. Kuma showed much patience around Moriah, offering assistance to help him against the Straw Hats despite his disrespect towards him. Moriah was gravely insulted at his offer and showed no qualms about attacking him, despite Kuma not being affected by his intimidation tactics.
Jinbe
He also seemed to have had a hostile encounter with Jinbe, since the latter knew the weakness of Moriah's zombie soldiers. The two engage in combat at Marine Headquarters, with Moriah claiming that he will steal Jinbe's shadow; however, the fishman lands a powerful hit on him before he can do so.
Donquixote Doflamingo
Moriah was also quite negative with regards to Donquixote Doflamingo, as Doflamingo damaged Little Oars Jr., despite Moriah wanting the giant intact. After the war he got into a fight with Doflamingo, when Doflamingo was ordered to kill him. He was seen on the ground bleeding while Doflamingo laughs at him and says he's too weak to be a Shichibukai and it would be better for it to look like he died honorably in the war. When Moriah asked if Sengoku ordered his death, Doflamingo mockingly sneered and said that it was someone higher than that.
Enemies
Monkey D. Luffy
Moriah is an enemy of Monkey D. Luffy, who played a huge role in destroying his army of zombies. That feeling is mutual, and they also seem to see each other as rivals, as they both aim to become the Pirate King. Moriah had also gained an interest in stealing Luffy's shadow (twice) to empower both Oars and Little Oars Jr., both in Thriller Bark and Marineford. Moriah was also the only Shichibukai to be shocked at the revelation of Revolutionary Dragon being Luffy's father.
Marines
Moriah seems to view the Marines to be no different to the people from whom he extract shadows from. He had no qualms forcibly taking the shadows of nearby Marines to empower himself against Jinbe. When Doflamingo informs him that he has received orders for his (Moria's) eradication, Moriah's reaction implied that it was Sengoku whom he suspected.
Kaido
However, Moriah's apparent biggest enemy is Kaido, who was seemingly responsible for the death of his old crew. Moriah spent ten years creating his zombie army to get his revenge against Kaido.
World Government
After the War at Marineford ended, Moriah found himself to be targeted by Doflamingo and the World Government. Moriah was deemed to be unworthy of keeping his status as Shichibukai and Doflamingo was given orders to get exterminate Moriah and make it seem like he died during the war.
Other
Before Luffy, Moriah had already made countless enemies in his search to find powerful underlings, scouring the world for corpses of powerful fighters and shadows to reanimate them, making Moriah an enemy of every victim whose shadow he extracted. Ironically, Moriah seemed to care slightly more with the well-being of his victims than his zombies, mainly because the shadows of the victims he stole them from are used to maintain the "lives" of his zombies and as such, if those people were to die then his zombies would also share their demise. Nevertheless, in his quest to acquire powerful warriors to support him in his cause, Moriah would either steal their shadows, or kill them, but preserve their bodies enough to be converted into another suitable zombie warrior.
Abilities and Powers
Gekko Moriah is shown to be smart and strategic, demonstrating keen planning on multiple occasions. He often plans ahead with his zombies, placing certain shadows in certain bodies, and altering the bodies to suit whatever his purpose would be under the circumstances. He apparently knows of the mechanics behind Kuma's ability to transport people elsewhere instantly; something that most people are not even aware of, and generally dismisses the sudden vanishing into thin air that Kuma does to his victims as an instant annihilation.
Moriah is a former
Shichibukai, as well as one of the most experienced pirates in the entire
Grand Line. He was said to equal the power of Kaido, one of the
Yonkou. In Marineford, he was strong enough to defeat a large amount of New World pirates with no effort or injuries, aside from the strike he suffered from Jinbe. He also managed to fell Oars Jr. in one move, though others had already injured the mighty giant beforehand.
Physically, he was capable of getting up immediately after a Gomu Gomu no Pistol and a Gomu Gomu no Storm by Nightmare Luffy that toppled Oars over. He also didn't take any damage when
Nami's thunder-attack struck Oars or when he took a fully powered attack from Jinbe, a fellow Shichubukai. Moriah also seems to have a strong will, as he was not rattled by Luffy's Haoshoku Haki. He also managed to sustain 1000 shadows with in his body, though it did exert him greatly. Also, even though he was crushed under the main tower of Thriller Bark, he only recieved a small injury to his head, as evidence of his appearance at Marineford.
Unfortunately, his tendency to heavily rely on underlings (or his own shadow) to fight for him in the battlefield may have contributed to his diminished prowess in single combat. Often, Moriah would leave a battle if he found it "pointless", as seen when he dismissed Luffy's challenge during the
Thriller Bark Arc, since he has already extracted the Straw Hat's shadow from him. Jinbe claimed that Moriah's dependence on absorbing other people's shadow does not actually make himself stronger. By the time the Battle of Marineford ended, Doflamingo claims that the government has deemed Moriah too weak to continue to bear the title of Shichibukai, and is better off to be eliminated, although it should be noted that it still took Domflamingo and a group of Pacifistas to corner him, and he still managed to escape.
Devil Fruit
Further information: Kage Kage no Mi
Moriah ate the Kage Kage no Mi, a
Paramecia-type
Devil Fruit that allows him to manifest and control shadows as physical beings. It is this fruit that allowed him to build his zombie army, by depriving living beings of their shadows and implanting them in dead bodies. His own shadow can fight for him, while he does nothing but watch. The shadow is mostly solid, and can easily change its form into things like tiny bats. The shadow cannot be destroyed and will continue to reform. Moriah is able to switch his location with his shadow's location, which can also be used to dodge attacks.
Even if he has no zombies to do his fighting for him or shadows to increase his own strength, he is an ample enough fighter with just his own shadow, as seen when he used it to impale
Little Oars Jr. in the chest.
Moriah is able to steal a person's shadow with the Kage Kage no Mi. The loss of that person's shadow causes them to be vaporized if they come in contact with direct sunlight (Brook for example can survive through the thick fog). Moriah is also able to create various zombies by implanting a stolen shadow into a lifeless corpse. People who have their shadow stolen are left in comas for two days. A shadowless person has no reflection, and doesn't appear in photos. If they die, the zombie with their shadow loses the shadow.
Moriah can place someone's shadow inside of someone's living body, increasing both physical strength and possibly gaining a fighting technique (for example using the shadow of a swordsman). Usually he can pick up a bunch of shadows to insert in his own body. At the end of the Thriller Bark arc he used the desperate attack "Shadow Asgard", which consists of taking every shadow from every zombie on Thriller Bark (around 1000 shadows) and absorbing them. This form increases his mass to the size of a giant, as well as giving him a monstrous boost in physical strength, enough to cut the Thriller Bark ship in half with one punch.
- While Luffy could barely withstand 100 shadows (which was known as "Nightmare Luffy"), Moriah was able to maintain 1000 shadows in his own body with the superior control his Kage Kage no Mi granted him, although this was still over his limit as strikes from Luffy's Gear Second caused him to gradually throw up the absorbed shadows, and Zoro noted it as more of a desperate move than a trump card.
Weapons
Moriah wields a pair of giant scissors, which he uses in conjuncture with his Kage Kage no Mi, to sever people's shadows. He carries these with him all the time, so he can steal shadows even during battle, as shown when he took Robin's shadow.
The scissors are also shown to be able to disconnect at the joint, becoming two inverted swords for Moriah.
[9] With shadows of capable swordsmen implanted into himself, Moriah can become a swordsman with dual swords.
History
Past
Early Years
Moriah was present at the execution of
Gol D. Roger and witnessed his famous speech. This probably contributed to Moriah's old dream of becoming the new Pirate King. After the execution he, like many others, raised his flag and started to make a name for himself in the New World.
Life as a Pirate
Moriah became a pirate whose powers could rival that of Kaido, one of the Yonkou, and also became a Shichibukai. While in the New World, his entire crew was apparently killed. Their deaths affected his entire outlook about subordinates.[10] After the loss of his crew, Moriah set about trying to gain enough power to beat Kaido.
Ten years before the current storyline, Moriah, along with
Absalom and
Perona, sought out a man named
Hogback. Upon meeting the doctor, Moriah offered him a way to bring his deceased love,
Victoria Cindry, back to life. Through the use of his Devil Fruit powers, Moriah implanted a stolen shadow into the corpse and gained the doctor's allegiance in return.
Together with the doctor and Moriah's two associates, they set up the ship "
Thriller Bark" and traveled to the
Florian Triangle. There they began to ambush anyone who entered, looking for those with strong shadows, such as pirates with high bounties. Moriah then started making zombie minions with shadows stolen from his victims and creations supplied by Hogback.
[11]Five years ago, a skeleton named
Brook came to Thriller Bark in hopes of fixing the rudder to his ship. He was captured and Moriah implanted his shadow into the corpse of
Ryuma. The skeleton then returned to Thriller Bark and purified several of Moriah's zombie minions in an attempt to retrieve his shadow. Though the skeleton was defeated by Ryuma, Moriah was forced to rebuild his army from the mess he left behind.
Whitebeard War Saga
Nightmare at Thriller Bark
Walking through the graveyard, the Straw Hats are attacked by zombies but using a team attack the crew defeats them with ease. Leaving the graveyard, they encounter an old man who like Brook is missing his shadow. The man then tells them the shadow thief is a man named Gekko Moriah was is also the master of this island. After four days of sleep and some nightmares, Moriah is awoken by his servants and told of the night attack to be commenced on the Straw Hat Pirates,[12] which he then prepares for.
As the attack commences, Moriah takes
Sanji's and
Zoro's shadows as they are brought before him, implanting them in the zombies,
Inuppe and
Jigoro respectively. Later, Luffy was brought to Moriah. Moriah reveals his desire to be pirate king. Luffy, who is tied up in a cage yells he will be Pirate King. Moriah and his chief officer converse on they're aims when the three solider guarding him yelled out he ate the steel cage and is escaping. Perona lets loose a few ghosts who subdue him with there negative attack. With that Gekko Moriah begins to remove Luffy's shadow while Nami, Usopp, and Chopper watch in horror from Kumashi.
With his shadow removed, Luffy loses consciousness. With this shadow, he decided to place it in the giant 900th zombie, named
Oars. A zombie he stated would be the most powerful in history, and strong enough to beat Kaido. Moriah then orders the Spider Mice to take Luffy back to his ship. Before they leave, the Spider Mice inform him of Talleran's defeat.
The Spider Mice trap Luffy and rush off down the stairs taking him to Moriah. Absalom is concerned about Brook but Perona doesn't know about him. Moriah, not bothered by this development, orders his three personal zombies to open the door to the Freezer where zombie 900 is stored. In the tunnel of the freezer, all the leaders of Thriller Bark are excited about their plans for the future. They enter the chamber, where this enormous giant twenty times Moriah's size rests. Moriah declares it was once the great conqueror known as Oars. Moriah walks on one of the chains supporting Oars and inserts Luffy's shadow. The monster becomes awake and roars for food. Moriah has his zombies bring Oars tons of food to eat. The zombies watch in shock as Oars consumes vast amounts of Thriller Bark's stores and still wants more food. Moriah tells Oars who he is and that he is now his minion but Oars declares he will be pirate king and proceeds to break out of the freezer much to the astonishment of the zombies.
Luffy later reaches Moriah and demands the return everybody’s shadows and that he will kick Moriah's ass, prompting Moriah to ask how exactly Luffy will do that and even if Luffy beats him up or even kills him the shadows will not return unless he orders them to do so. Luffy rears up for a Gomu Gomu no pistol only to have it blocked by Moriah's shadow, his duplicate Doppelman. Moriah then tells Luffy that in the past he was too overconfident in his own ability and ambition and learned the importance of having strong subordinates so their power can make him pirate king without himself having to lift a finger.
Luffy retorts that he will be pirate king and Moriah reveals that a shadow’s master can sometimes leave a very strong will behind, but it’s still just a matter of time until that will fades and they become another obedient zombie. Moriah's shadow turns into several black bats to block Luffy's attacks and then starts to bite him making Moriah ask how this is "kicking my ass?". Luffy jumps down into the freezer causing Moriah to think Luffy is trying to escape only for Luffy to launch a Gomu Gomu no Stamp through the ledge Moriah is sitting on literally kicking his butt behind.
Moriah commanded him to rampage through Thriller Bark, assemble the Straw Hats, beat them and put them on their ship. Luffy then starts chasing after a smiling Moria. He leads Luffy deep within the forest of Thriller Bark and then switches with Doppelman the moment Luffy caught him.
[13] Doppleman then leaves Luffy in the middle of the forest and returns to Moriah's feet.
Moriah, on the other hand, had been hiding in his dance hall while his shadow lured Luffy away. He is then greeted by
Bartholomew Kuma just as his zombie minions, Gyoro, Nin, and Bao come in to report what was happening to Thriller Bark. Kuma then informes Moriah that
Crocodile's successor was found. He also informs him to be careful to be not defeated by the Straw Hats. Moriah, not believing this, tells Kuma to just sit back and watch him as he defeats the Straw Hats.
[14]Using his Doppelman switching technique, Moriah enters
Oars' stomach and aids the behemoth against the Straw Hats he isfighting with. With his Devil Fruit powers, Moriah aids Oars with his technique by making the behemoth's body stretched during the battle. Slowly, Moriah and Oars defeat each Straw Hat one after another. In the middle of the battle, Moriah ismomentarily held back by Robin's
Hana Hana no Mi powers however, he stops her by cutting off her shadow and continues aiding Oars in the behemoth's belly.
With Moriah aiding Oars both by allowing the Giant's body to stretch and protecting his mouth from swallowing salt, Moriah and Oars were about to defeat the last two Straw Hats, when they were suddenly saved by Luffy.
[15] With Luffy in the scene, Moriah was then suddenly shocked when the Luffy stopped a punch from Oars and threw the behemoth several yards away. To Moriah's surprise, Luffy had suddenly become extremely powerful and was now able to land massive hits on Oars.
As Moriah tumbled around within Oars' belly as the behemoth took hits, the Shichibukai decided to get out before anything could happen to him. Unfortunately, Moriah was just then punched in the face by Luffy. Moriah was then caught in middle of a barrage of punches sent by Luffy's Gomu Gomu no Storm against the Shichibukai and Oars.
[16] Moriah, however, would not be defeated so easily and managed to recover in the process finding out how Luffy was able to gain his power boost.
Angered at the loss of his ship, he uses a mass of tendrils emanating from his body, and sucked their shadows into himself. This gave him a massive power boost and transformed him into a large, lizard-like form.
[17]This form, while more powerful, was also quite unstable; filled to the brim with shadows, Moriah would occasionally overspill and burp them up. Luffy used this to his advantage during their battle, targeting Moriah's stomach to make him give up more shadows.
Though both combatants fought hard, Moriah - beginning to realize the futility of the situation that he recklessly flung himself into - was eventually hit by Thriller Bark's toppling mast, effectively pumping his stomach and making him give up all the shadows. Before passing out, he mockingly told Luffy that his time on Thriller Bark is nothing compared to what he'll experience in the New World.
[18] He was seen lying unconscious on a ship, being steered by Absalom and Hogback, and on its way away from Thriller Bark.
War at Marineford
After his defeat at Thriller Bark, he had come out of hiding to answer the call of the Shichibukai to battle Whitebeard and joined the war. He later was shown dining with the other Shichibukai, except for
Jinbe and
Boa Hancock, with bandages on his head from his fight at Thriller Bark. He was sporting a frilled blue trimmed cape looking quite vexed.
When the war started, upon discovering that
Little Oars Jr. is under the command of
Whitebeard, Moriah expressed an interest in taking the giant's corpse to recoup for his loss of Oars at Thriller Bark. For this reason, when Doflamingo cuts the right leg of the giant with his powers, Moriah gets angry with him, and decides to finish off Little Oars Jr., using a shadow blade to achieve this.
When Luffy and his fellow
Impel Down escapees fall from the sky and onto the battlefield, Moriah screamed Luffy's name in apparent rage. He then summons an army of zombies from fresh corpses of Marine soldiers and pirate alike. He attempts to have his zombies fight Luffy saying he wants to use Luffy's shadow to reanimate Oars. Jr, only to have
Jinbe splash them with saltwater and reduce them to lifeless bodies.
After learning that Luffy's father is Dragon, he appears speechless. He then gets into a fight with Jinbe, though Jinbe manages to strike Moriah. He is later seen provoking the Whitebeard Pirates' 10th squad captain
Curiel into a fight on the battlefield, stating that he would enjoy seeing Whitebeard die during the war.
When Whitebeard gets stabbed by
Squardo, Moriah was seen with a look of gleeful delight on his face. As the war stretched on in the plaza, Moriah fought the
Whitebeard Pirates and their allies until Whitebeard created a fissure to separate the pirates and the Marines. When Whitebeard met his end at the hands of the
Blackbeard Pirates, Moriah is seen smiling, being true to his earlier statement of enjoying to see Whitebeard die.
After
Shanks arrives with the purpose of bringing the war to an end, Moriah continues to smile, standing ontop a pile of dead bodies. When
Sengoku calls the war off, he stands down along with the rest of the Shichibukai and Marines.
Post-War Arc
After the war, Moriah is seen, in the backstreets of Marineford being brutally attacked by Doflamingo and a group of Pacifista because, according to the former, Moriah was deemed to be far too weak to continue serving as a Shichibukai, and that it would be better if he was eliminated here with the world believing him to have died in the war. When Moriah questions if the order was from Sengoku, Doflamingo sneers "higher than that" implying that either Commander-in-Chief
Kong or the
Gorosei were behind it.
Perona later claims that a newspaper article states that he died in the war, though
Mihawk questions the validity of this as he recalls that Moriah was alive at the end of the battle, being unaware of the fact that Doflamingo was ordered to kill him.
It is later revealed that Moriah disappeared before Doflamingo could deliver the killing blow. Doflamingo wonders if
Moriah's Devil Fruit could be the cause of his disappearance. However, Doflamingo said Moriah was critically injured and would die no matter what he did.
Major Battles
Early One Piece
One Piece Green: Secret Pieces revealed early concepts of Moriah. We can see how Moriah underwent many transformations before becoming his official appearance. One picture shows us an early concept of Moria that looks nothing like his current look, with him wearing a strange mask and a hood. The other shows how first, Moriah was supposed to be a pastor who had a split personality, and even after his appearance became closer to that of what he is now, his setting was a schemer that sets traps.
Translation and Dub Issues
In the characters description and summary of Volume 47 (page 5) Moriah is stated as 元七武海 "moto Shichibukai", which can be translated to "former Shichibukai" which is inaccurate. However this never appeared in the actual chapters.
Another common mistake is that his nickname is believed to be King of the Depths. In reality, the full name for the Shichibukai is "Below King Seven Armed Seas". It was the "Below King" part that caused confusion to many people, thus giving the impression that "Below King", or "King of the Depths", is his nickname.
His surname is not only based on the Japanese word for moonlight,
Gekkou, but the center of his name makes the word "koumori" which is Japanese for bat. Also, Mori is Latin for "to die". Example: Memento mori ("Remember you must die"). However saying "Moriah" is based on this word could be considered a case of
False etymology as Oda has never confirmed this.
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