Sir Crocodile, One Piece’s unflappable protagonist, has one flaw, and Ivankov is well aware of it. What do they share, and why is Oda withholding information?
Sir Crocodile from One Piece is one of the most unflappable and cruel antagonists in all of anime and manga. The calm and composed leader of Baroque Works is not readily roused, with only Monkey D. Luffy’s ludicrous antics seeming to do so. Crocodile, on the other hand, remains a relatively stoic figure in One Piece’s chaotic environment.
This is why fans have paid close attention to the one instance in which a non-Luffy character successfully provokes the former Shichibukai. Crocodile displays an interest in joining Luffy’s coalition of prison escapees during the Impel Down arc. When the Straw Hat captain appears hesitant, Revolutionary Commander Ivankov intervenes, suggesting that he can hold Crocodile in check because he is aware of his “weakness” and that if Crocodile does anything, he can “fix him,” to which the hook-handed felon reacts angrily.
While the idea that Crocodile and Ivankov share a history sparked the minds of One Piece fans, the interaction could have signified anything. The relationship was not made explicit until 2019, with the release of Volume 5 of the Vivre Card Databook. Crocodile’s character page indicates that he has a “weakness” from his past that he prefers to keep hidden and that he owes Ivankov for something the Revolutionary Commander handed him.
It’s clear that Eiichiro Oda has something major in store for these two characters. By far the most popular and widely accepted idea is that Crocodile was born female and Ivankov used the Horm-Horm Fruit’s powers to transform Crocodile’s sex. Ivankov’s hormone powers are one of the character’s most defining characteristics, and if Ivankov has any influence over Crocodile, it makes perfect sense that it would be related to his abilities.
The basis of this allegation is not limited to Ivankov’s involvement; Oda has gone to great lengths to conceal details about Crocodile’s look as a child. To begin, his depiction of the Seven Warlords of the Sea as youngsters includes an extremely androgynous Crocodile. It’s striking how different young Crocodile looks from his square-jawed, rough adult persona – all the more so given Oda’s customary technique to depicting characters’ adolescent variants: shrinking their features to toddler size.
Additionally, “Chapter 0,” a promotional chapter tied to the events of One Piece Film: Strong World, depicts the execution of Gol D. Roger 24 years before the events of the main series. Numerous contemporary faces are represented, including Crocodile, who is the only character that has his face concealed and is only visible from the rear. Given that his Shichibukai counterparts received youthful redesigns for the occasion, Oda’s omission of Crocodile appears deliberate — as if there is a motive to conceal the 22-year-old Crocodile’s appearance.
This notion is expanded upon when the Shichibukai of One Piece is compared to the wicked Seven Heroes of the classic SquareSoft JRPG Romancing SaGa 2. According to a blog post on The One Piece Underworld, the seven One Piece characters bear a strong resemblance to the game’s antagonists. Lord Wagnas is Crocodile’s counterpart since he seeks an ancient weapon in order to enslave the game’s Eastern Kingdom – akin to Crocodile’s ambition to utilise Pluton and conquer Alabasta.
One distinguishing aspect of Wagnas that Crocodile lacks is its intersex nature, with male-presenting Wagnas also exhibiting female sexual features. Given the obvious parallels between the rest of the Shichibukai and the Seven Heroes, this is a crucial aspect of Wagnas’ character development that Oda has yet to replicate in his own work. While being transgender and being intersex are not synonymous, if Crocodile is shown to be a trans guy, as some theorists believe, then gender variation is another quality the two characters share.
If this fan hypothesis is correct, it would not be the first time that One Piece has featured a notable trans character, with the Wano arc providing fan favourites such as O-Kiku and Yamato. Given the centrality of Crocodile and Ivankov in the tale, it’s quite likely that both characters will reappear at some point – and that fans will uncover the secret in the process. If Crocodile is revealed to be transgender, here’s hope One Piece continues its trend of treating the subject with the same deference and tact as the Wano arc.
