"Pirate Empress" Boa Hancock is the only female member of the Shichibukai. She is also the "Snake Princess" of Amazon Lily and rules over the Kuja tribe with her two younger Gorgon sisters, Boa Sandersonia and Boa Marigold. She is the main antagonist of the Amazon Lily Arc.
History[]
Hancock was one of the many seen twenty four years before the main story commenting on Gold Roger's death (or more specifically on the Great Age of Pirates).
When Hancock was twelve years old, she and her sisters were included into the Kuja Pirates crew and were sailing on their ship, when suddenly, they were captured by slavers and sold to the World Nobles. During her time as a slave, Hancock was fed the Mero Mero no Mi to entertain her captors. The three suffered the greatest horrors imaginable. Four years later, Fisher Tiger appeared in Mary Geoise and freed as many slaves as he could without discrimination, even though his goal was simply the liberation of the fish-man slaves.
Left with nowhere to go, the sisters were eventually rescued by Elder Nyon, Silvers Rayleigh, and Shakuyaku and brought home, but the Hoof of the Celestial Dragon, the symbol of the World Nobles, was burned deep into their flesh. Hancock chose to hide the mark and her Devil Fruit powers, and disseminated to the fellow Kuja that it was punishment for slaying a gorgon, for if the truth were revealed, the three sisters would have nowhere to go. She, Marigold, and Sandersonia collectively gained the nickname: the Gorgon Sisters.
Unfortunately, despite being freed, the experiences that Hancock went through corrupted her innocence, and she would later grow up to distrust everyone (with the exception of her sisters), men especially. She also especially hates the World Government, in particular the World Nobles. Over the years, despite Elder Nyon's love and mercy, Hancock became cold, burying any warm feelings, kindness, and sensitivity deep within her, and although she would later become the Empress of the Kuja, she was selfish and uncaring towards her people.
When Hancock was eighteen, she became the empress of the Kuja and quickly gained a notorious reputation despite her young age, catching the attention of the Marines and even the World Government, who were frightened of her potential, as she had earned a large bounty after only one campaign. Hancock later opted to join the Seven Warlords of the Sea in order to protect her fellow Kuja, by forming a treaty to protect their homeland from the government, preventing them from entering there.
Personality[]
Hancock is a very complex woman. At first glance, she appears to be selfish, pompous, spoiled, and used to having her own way. She can also act arrogant and cruel, usually justifying her less-than-admirable actions with her unmatched beauty, causing her to think that she can get away with anything because the world will forgive her (and save for the handful able to resist she is largely successful in this approach, with gleeful suitors of both genders happily forgiving her every transgression). She also made it seem that she did not think much of the Kuja tribe either as she commented to Elder Nyon that she did not care if the island was destroyed or not, since everyone would forgive her anyway because she is beautiful.
Because of her beauty and strength, she is used to seeing men and women, young and old alike, fall instantly in love with her. As a result of this, people forgive her when she acts cutely apologetic or reminds them of her beauty. However, when Luffy came along and displayed a complete immunity to her charms, she initially felt that she could not bear the existence of someone completely invulnerable to her powers, and would collapse dramatically whenever insulted.
This feeling has eroded away, though, as she deeply loves Luffy in spite of his immunity to her. Even after the two year timeskip, Hancock continues to be in love with Luffy as much as before despite that the latter openly rejected a wedding proposal from her. Even though Luffy repeatedly turns down her marriage proposals, Hancock is not discouraged by this and with every rejection she seemingly becomes more determined to marry him.
It was revealed the reason for Hancock's lies and attitude towards life was that because of her horrible past, she did not want to ever show weakness again to anyone. She harbored a great fear of getting close to anyone, other than her own sisters, and would even go as far to deceive all of the other Kuja. This caused her surrogate mother, Elder Nyon, to fear that Hancock had truly turned as cold as ice. It wasn't until Hancock confessed everything to Luffy that she finally showed emotion, breaking down in tears after reliving her painful memories.
Deep down, Hancock is a rather-sensitive and vulnerable woman who is afraid and concerned about how other people (especially the other Kuja) might react to the truth of the shameful past that she and her sisters share. She is also much more soft and compassionate towards others when she opens up. That part of her was only first shown for the first time in several years in front of Monkey D. Luffy and she has not only befriended but more importantly fallen deeply in love with Luffy, even agreeing to venture to the land of her suffering, from her days of a slave, at his request for his brother.
Hancock has also shown to be very sly and crafty when the situation demands it. This was particularly evident when she aided Monkey D. Luffy into discreetly breaking through Impel Down's outer defenses, as well as manipulating the great prison warden, Magellan, to her whims before relaying a secret message to Luffy's brother Ace, whom Luffy was trying to rescue. She has also proven to be a very skilled liar who is excellent at fabricating stories, and her confidence leads her to never consider the consequences of her actions. An example of this is when she takes advantage of her beauty in Impel Down floor 6 to drive the prisoners mad, making them disrespect Magellan and causing enough trouble to speak to Ace freely without anyone noticing. Despite this, Hancock can be somewhat ignorant as she frequently mistakes many of Luffy's actions as romantic.
All of her arrogance seems to vanish when Luffy is on her mind, though. Whenever he is in her presence, she is quick to turn shy, barely able to meet him in the eye and gleaming over every action he takes. Even when he is not nearby, merely thinking of him causes her to blush and truly smile in a way that the other Kuja have said is unusual of her.
Despite the conceit she shows to her enemies and the facade she puts on for her people, she does show genuine care for people close to her. This was seen when she flew into a fit of rage and kicked Smoker away from Luffy after he had tried to kill him. Ignoring the possible consequences of her actions, she openly and publicly declared Luffy to be her beloved, effectively choosing her love over her title (and her people's treaty). During her fury, she showed none of her usual calm arrogance. This is seen again, to a lesser extent, when she screams at Aokiji for stabbing Luffy with an Ice Saber. Her anger is enough to make even Jinbe to cower in fear, albeit slightly and in a comedic manner.
Due to her suffering as a slave and how the first man she ever saw painfully burned her back with her slave mark, Hancock is very discriminating and judgmental towards men. She refused to listen to Luffy's story about how he was sent to her island or give him any mercy even after Marguerite pleaded on his behalf. When she gave him the option to leave the island or help unpetrify Marguerite and her friends, Hancock believed he would act selfish to save himself and was speechless when he showed his selfless nature. After falling in love with Luffy, Hancock seems to have lessened her judgmental nature towards men as she allowed Law and his crew to dock at the edge of her island and chose to lift her country's law to some extent and permitted Jinbe to wander on the island without watch.
Because of the horrors she endured from the World Nobles, Hancock became a very bitter and cold woman, caring nothing for others (except her sisters) and usually maintains a tough and aloof demeanor. She maintain this attitude due to her belief she should be strong for her people and out of fear of being taking advantage of again. After falling in love with Luffy, she's become a lot more sympathetic and kinder. She now smiles more often and has started to treat her fellow Kuja's with much more kindness and respect and has even decided to do work with them such as helping them make food for Luffy rather than just order them around as usual.
While referring to herself, Hancock uses "warawa" (ワラワ?)—an antiquated pronoun that signifies nobility—instead of the more common "watashi" (私?).
In spite of her arrogant behavior, Hancock has several running gags. The first is that when she looks down on people, she leans backwards so she faces the ceiling (or the sky) above her, apparently looking down on people so much she's looking up.
Another is that she appears to dislike small animals, in which she angrily asks who left the animal in front of where she's walking before kicking it away, no matter how cute it is. A Kuja responsibly apologizes, while the offended animal snarls at her, and Hancock advises her to be more careful in the future.
She also tends to lose her temper whenever someone tries to keep her from spending time with Luffy, such as when she glared angrily at Jinbe for trying to eat some of the food she made for Luffy and when Rayleigh forbid her from seeing Luffy during his training, which prompted her to angrily pinch his nose.
Lastly, she often thinks about Luffy and mistakenly thinks that they are married or engaged and despite (or perhaps because of) repeatedly being told that they are not, Hancock is now very intent on becoming Luffy’s wife.
LOTM: Mageddon Trilogy[]
LOTM: Tales from the Ultra Despair Knight[]
LOTM: Darkmageddon[]
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