Doctor Hogback

A rounded torso perched on spindly limbs gives Hogback an odd silhouette. His nose juts out long and blade-like, his ears taper to points, and elongated canines crowd a mouth fixed in a broad grin, the whole framed by black hair combed straight back. A curved scar arcs above his eyes and runs down to meet both corners of his lips, while a dark mark sits on the left of his neck. His wardrobe leans theatrical: a fishnet vest, purple leather trousers, a thick black tie, purple gloves drawn over claw-like fingers, a surgical mask pushed down beneath his chin, tiny gold-rimmed shades, a violet feathered cape lined in black, and purple high-heeled boots. His laughter comes out as Fosfosfosfos.

Towering vanity defines the surgeon, who takes enormous pride in his genius reputation. For all the lives his skill saved, Hogback regarded his patients as an irritating burden tolerated only for the wealth and fame they brought, and he dismissed less talented physicians as fools. That outlook sets him squarely against Tony Tony Chopper, who holds that a true doctor must save everyone, a clash that turned bitter between them; Hogback even mocked Chopper for admiring abilities he himself resented.

Convinced that Moria's power to reanimate corpses has let him conquer death, he ignores the plain truth that his zombies bear nothing of their former selves and answer only to Moria's will. He feels no respect for his own creations and no concern for the people whose shadows were stolen to make them, going so far as to kick the reanimated Victoria Cindry to the floor and order her to lick it just to make a point. He is often the butt of Cindry's antics, yet he can turn serious and even plan ahead, as when he borrowed two zombies as bodyguards, though his gullibility showed when Robin tricked him into sending them leaping out a window.

Hogback once ranked among the finest surgeons alive, showered with honors as patients flocked to him from across the world, though he operated only for money rather than charity. For years he doted on the famous actress Victoria Cindry, but she turned down his proposal because she was already engaged, and when she died in a stage accident the heartbroken surgeon abandoned his profession entirely. Gecko Moria soon found him and promised to bring Cindry back in exchange for his help building an undead army. Hogback dug up her body, Moria slipped a shadow into it, and the reanimated Cindry emerged with a wholly different personality, which suited him fine since he had only ever wanted her beauty.

Possessing neither a Devil Fruit nor any real fighting skill, Hogback leaves combat to the zombies he creates, commanding the likes of Cindry, Jigoro, and Inuppe only when Moria allows it, though he proved tough enough to survive being trodden on by the giant Oars. His true value lay in his surgical genius: he stitched together Moria's army, strengthened Absalom and Cindry, fitted Oars with an internal cockpit, fashioned the Spider Mice's durable webbing, and kept hundreds of corpses pristine for years. When the Straw Hats reached his mansion, he claimed his research aimed to mend the broken hearts of the bereaved, winning Chopper's admiration before his true cruelty came to light. In the battle that followed he set his zombies on Chopper and Nico Robin, only for Robin to dupe him into ordering his guards out a window and for Cindry's old will to resurface and refuse to save him. Crushed underfoot by Oars and later bandaged, he fled Thriller Bark by boat with Absalom and the defeated Moria, and after the Marineford war the pair rescued Moria once more when Donquixote Doflamingo was sent to kill him.