Z

Z cuts an imposing figure, a tan, heavily muscled giant who stands roughly twice the height of an ordinary man like Luffy. His hair is a short crop of purple, shaded by a pair of triangular sunglasses. The most striking feature is the enormous mechanical right arm, the Battle Smasher, rigged to his left hip with converted ship masts. Hidden beneath it lies a slimmer pitch-black prosthetic. He favors a Marine-style coat stamped with his own Jolly Roger, baggy trousers tucked into boots, and his advancing age forces him to rely on an inhaler.

Earlier eras showed him differently. As an admiral he draped a coat with blue epaulettes cape-style over a purple suit, pink shirt, and polka-dot tie. In his younger G-5 days he was leaner, wearing the plain low-rank uniform with a neckerchief and cap, a rifle slung on his back. As a child he played the hero of his own invention, decked in a red helmet bearing the letter Z, big glasses, and a wooden sword and arm.

From boyhood onward Z burned with conviction about justice and heroism, the very reasons he enlisted, and Garp called him the strongest believer in justice he ever knew. A once-joyful and beloved officer, he built a loving family, only for a pirate to murder his wife and son, and later for another to slaughter nearly all his cadets and sever his arm. That pirate's eventual invitation into the Seven Warlords shattered him, breeding a hatred so deep he resolved to annihilate every pirate alive, even at the cost of innocent lives and open war with the government.

His extremism convinced him pirates deserved death on sight rather than mere imprisonment, and he dismissed the Four Emperors as fools holding no true power. Yet he kept a fierce sense of honor and respect, even toward foes. He believed wholeheartedly in dreams, and his ultimate ambition, the Grand Reboot, sought to end the Great Pirate Era by detonating the New World's geographic Endpoints. Knowing he would not survive to see it through, he told Luffy he was simply glad his dream had carried so far. He feared nothing, faced Kizaru's platoon without flinching, and adored his favorite drink, Jerez.

Sixty-six years before the film, an eight-year-old Zephyr acted out the part of a self-made hero named Z. He entered the Marine Academy at fourteen, mastered the Six Powers by twenty-eight, and earned the Black Arm epithet after mastering Armament Haki at thirty-four. Promotion to admiral came at thirty-eight during Roger and Whitebeard's golden age, placing him among the strongest fighters the government had, able to stand against even those two legends. After his wife and son were killed, grief nearly ended his career until he was persuaded to stay on as an instructor, training cadets like Sakazuki, Kizaru, Kuzan, Smoker, Hina, and many others who rose to high office.

Years later an unknown Devil Fruit pirate cut off his arm and wiped out his division, sparing only Ain and Binz. Government scientists fitted him with the Seastone-laced Battle Smasher, which houses a cannon and machine gun and weakens Devil Fruit users on contact. When that same pirate was offered a Warlord seat, Zephyr abandoned the Marines for good, founded the Neo Marines, took the alias Z, and stole the island-leveling Dyna Stones to fuel his plan.

In One Piece Film: Z he storms Firs Island and seizes the Dyna Stones, clashing with Kizaru before hurling an exploding stone that obliterates the island. Cast adrift, he is rescued by the Straw Hats, whose kindness curdles to fury once he learns they are pirates. He overpowers Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji, but spares Luffy on recognizing him as Garp's grandson. Across further battles on Secon Island and Piriodo, and a tense reunion with Kuzan, Z fights Luffy to a standstill in a final Haki-charged duel. Spent and aware his body has failed him, he turns aside Luffy's offers and marches alone against Kizaru's army to buy his subordinates time to flee, dying in the onslaught. His Battle Smasher later forms part of the cross on his grave.