Moria Gecko
Moria Gecko (モリア･ゲッコー, Moria Gekkō) was a member of the Seven Warlords of the Sea who resided on the largest ship in the world, Thriller Bark. He was also the main antagonist of the Thriller Bark Arc who stole Brook's and various other beings' shadows with the use of the Shadow-Shadow Fruit. He took part in the Whitebeard War and sided with the Navy like all the other Warlords. Upon the war's end, he was stripped of his title and was to be eliminated by Doflamingo Don Quixote, but managed to escape before he was killed, leaving Moria's overall status unknown. His former bounty is 320,000,000 berries.
Appearance[]
- Voice Actor: Chris Guerrero (English), Katsuhisa Hōki (Japanese)
Moria is a gargantuan person with very distinct devil-like features. Standing at 689 cm. (22'6") in height, he was the second tallest among the Warlords before his position was revoked.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.
Moria's hair is purple 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.
The Young Past Days[]
When Moria was younger, he was 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.
Twenty-four years before the current storyline, Moriah looked much thinner and had a pointed chin.
Before the Timeskip[]
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 Warlords at the Navy Headquarters, Moria added a blue cape laced with beige fur to his attire.
After the Timeskip[]
His post-timeskip age is 41.
Gallery[]
Personality[]
He maintains a relaxed and laid-back stance at all times, seemingly appearing to believe he cannot lose. He also believes that a true pirate should fear nothing, not even death.
Moria 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.
In general, he prefers to avoid fighting altogether, or at least fighting his enemy directly, either making his shadow fight or ordering one of his zombies to do so. His proclivity to delegate tasks to his minions is also a weakness in and of itself. Jimbei noted that Moria had grown weak from his lack of training.
At one time he apparently wanted to be the new King of the Pirates and believed that if he had strong underlings, the goal was possible to achieve. 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). This also expands to fighting style, as he prefers to lay back and let his own shadow Doppelman battle with the powers of the Shadow-Shadow Fruit.
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 and Natsu that with his current strength, he would lose their friends. His prediction came true before the Straw Hats and Team Natsu went to the New World, at the Sabaody Archipelago.
Moria has a lot of experience, having fought many opponents in the past, including a Four Emperor. He is a good battle tactician, being able to outsmart even Robin Nico. However, his overconfidence and laziness made him underestimate his opponents and caused his final defeat at the hands of the Straw Hat Pirates and Team Natsu.
Moria Gecko, in the past, was known to share a largely similar personality to Luffy D. Monkey, and the same aspirations of becoming the "King of the Pirates". Also like him, he had many good friends in the past, considering them valuable comrades and considered himself too overconfident.
He also deeply cared for his crewmates, which was a point of tragedy when his last scuffle with the "Four Emperors" known as Kaido ended with Moria being the sole survivor of his crew. Shell-shocked and traumatized by the horrific event, Moria immediately departed from the "New World" (having yet to return since), and decided that the only way he would not have to face such pain ever again, would be to make his comrades not to suffer: to turn them into mindless zombies, that serve only Moria’s desires. 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[]
Friends/Allies[]
- Moria's old crew
- Thriller Bark
- Mysterious Four
Family[]
Neutral[]
Rivals[]
Enemies[]
Abilities and Powers[]
Moria Gecko 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, including Blackbeard's Cursed Fruit power and what its capable of; something that most people are not even aware of, and generally dismisses the sudden threats and possibilities of facing the Dark-Dark Fruit.
Moria is a former Warlord, 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 Four Emperors. In Navyford, 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 Jimbei (a fellow Warlord). He also managed to fell Oz Jr. in one move, though others had already injured the mighty giant beforehand.
At his prime, he was referred to as being a "rival" to the Four Emperor Kaido (though eventually he lost his entire crew to the man).
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, Moria would run away from an adversary if he deems the battle as "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. Jimbei claimed that Moria's dependence on absorbing other people's shadow does not actually make himself stronger.
By the time the Battle of Navyford ended, Doflamingo claims that the government has deemed Moria too weak to continue to bear the title of Warlord, and is better off eliminated, although it should be noted that it still took Doflamingo and a group of Pacifistas to corner him, and he still managed to escape.
Physical Abilities[]
Physically, he was capable of getting up immediately after a Gum-Gum Blast and a Gum-Gum Storm by Nightmare Luffy that toppled Oz over.
He also did not take any damage when Nami's thunder-attack struck Oz. Moria also seems to have a strong will, as he was not rattled by Luffy's Conqurer's Haki.
He also managed to sustain 1000 shadows within his body, though it did exert him greatly. In this form, Moria is several times stronger due to the combined strengths of the shadows within him. He is so strong that he is able to split "Thriller Bark" in half in one hit. However, while he is incredibly strong in this form, the strain of controlling a thousand shadows has its toll on Moria.
Also, even though he was crushed under the main tower of Thriller Bark, he only received a small injury to his head, as evidenced by his appearance at Navyford.
Cursed Fruit[]
- Main article: Shadow-Shadow Fruit
Moria ate the Shadow-Shadow Fruit, a Paramythia type Cursed 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. 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. 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. Moria 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 Oz Jr. in the chest.
Moria is able to steal a person's shadow with the Shadow-Shadow Fruit. 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). Moria 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 a coma for two days. A shadowless person has no reflection, and does not appear in mirrors. If they die, the zombie with their shadow loses the shadow.
Moria 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 consist of taking every shadow from every zombie on Thriller Bark (around 1000 shadows) and absorb 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"), Moria was able to maintain 1000 shadows in his own body with the superior control his Shadow-Shadow Fruit 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 Zolo noted it as more of a desperate move than a trump card.
Weapons[]
Moria wields a giant pair of scissors, which he uses in conjuncture with his Shadow-Shadow Fruit, 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 Moria. With shadows of capable swordsmen implanted into himself, Moria can become a swordsman with dual swords.
Gallery[]
History[]
Past[]
Early Years[]
Moria was present at the execution of Gol D. Roger and witnessed his famous speech. This probably contributed to Moria's old dream of becoming the new King of the Pirates. 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[]
Moria became a pirate whose powers could rival that of Kaido, one of the Four Emperors, and also became a Warlord. While in the New World, his entire crew was apparently killed. Their deaths affected his entire outlook about subordinates. After the loss of his crew, Moria set about trying to gain enough power to beat Kaido.
Ten years before the current storyline, Moria, along with Absalom and Perona, sought out a man named Dr. Hogback. Upon meeting the doctor, Moria offered him a way to bring his deceased love, Cindry Victoria, back to life. Through the use of his Devil Fruit powers, Moria implanted a stolen shadow into the corpse and gained the doctor's allegiance in return.
Together with the doctor and Moria'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. Moria then started making zombie minions with shadows stolen from his victims and creations supplied by Hogback.
Five years ago, a skeleton named Brook came to Thriller Bark in hopes of fixing the rudder to his ship. He was captured and Moria implanted his shadow into the corpse of Ryuma. The skeleton then returned to Thriller Bark and purified several of Moria's zombie minions in an attempt to retrieve his shadow. Though the skeleton was defeated by Ryuma, Moria was forced to rebuild his army from the mess he left behind.