Schneider

Aged and dark-skinned, Schneider sports a prominent forehead and a broad nose. Though bald across the top, he grows long gray hair that tumbles from the back to his shoulders, set off by a clipped mustache and beard. His large belly stands in stark contrast to his spindly limbs, and a red tattoo on his chest sits mostly out of sight beneath his shirt.

His palette leans heavily into purple. A worn captain's coat in pale purple, fraying and full of holes at its hem and cuffs with gold trim and a double row of buttons, drapes over his shoulders and betrays long use. A royal-purple vest sits underneath, cinched by a blue sash at the waist that holds an ornate flintlock whose handle is set with a green gem. Orange and tan stripes run down his trousers, each leg roped just under the knee, and his purple shoes match the vest. A twisted old wooden cane supports him.

At a glance Schneider seems a grumpy, stubborn old-timer craving nothing but to be left in peace, shooing off even Buzz, his lone friend. That prickly exterior masks the truth that he is gravely ill and fading fast; he drives the dog away so his death will spare Buzz any grief. The moment he understands his own request put Buzz in peril, he throws himself into saving him, even taking the helm of a ship he knows nothing about, and on reaching him he breaks down in tearful, guilt-stricken apologies. He also eats with abandon, going so far as to swallow the fork that made him ill while working through a plate of pasta.

As a young man Schneider crewed a pirate ship alongside Buzz, but the Schneider Pirates fell apart over time, leaving him with the dog alone. Pressing on in old age with only Buzz, he swallowed a fork at dinner and started enduring stomach pain and bringing up blood. Chalking it up to growing old, he packed Buzz off with a challenge to grab Luffy's straw hat, intending to die without his companion watching.

The Straw Hats came across him passed out aboard his ship, and Chopper attempted to treat him without identifying the cause. When he came to, Schneider heard about Buzz's bid for the hat and the chaos that ensued; once the two were reunited, Chopper revealed the coughed-up fork had been behind his suffering, and Schneider hurried to the wheel to chase fresh adventures. He and Buzz turn up again among the attendees of the Pirates Festival in One Piece: Stampede, where he briefly eats at a table while stroking the dog.