Very few One Piece characters are as mysterious as Bartholomew Kuma, but everything about him has finally been revealed. Over the past few months, the Egghead Island arc of One Piece has shifted focus into a flashback of Kuma’s history, all of which fully explained Kuma’s place in the world, how he became the man he is, and even added extra context to what little was already known about him.

The flashback, as a whole, has featured some of One Piece‘s best writing in years, and it’s served to make Kuma both one of the story’s best-developed characters and one of the most tragic.

Bartholomew Kuma’s Tragic Life Started With A Tragic Beginning

One Piece Chapter 1095

47 years before the Egghead Island arc, Bartholomew Kuma was born in the Sorbet Kingdom of the South Blue as a descendant of the buccaneers, a near-extinct race of people with a genetic connection to giants. Because of an unknown crime they committed against the world, buccaneers are considered criminals just for existing, so when the World Government discovered Kuma’s heritage, he and his family were made into slaves of the Celestial Dragons. Kuma’s father tried to keep his spirits up with stories of how Nika would save them, but as Kuma’s abuse continued and his parents were killed, that became impossible to do.

Bartholomew Kuma’s Role In The God Valley Incident

One Piece Chapter 1096

Things only got worse for Kuma when he was nine years old – 38 years before the Egghead Island arc – and was among the slaves being forced to participate in the triennial Native Hunting Competition in God Valley. There, Kuma met two other slaves, Ginny and Emporio Ivankov, who were rallying the slaves together to find a way to escape. To do so, Ginny leaked to the world that the Celestial Dragons were gathered at God Valley with two legendary Devil Fruits, hoping to draw in enough pirates to send God Valley into a state of chaos and use that as a chance to steal the Devil Fruits and escape.

Sure enough, the Rocks Pirates and Roger Pirates both showed up for the Devil Fruits and various other reasons, and their fighting with each other and the Marines would later be known as the God Valley Incident. While that was happening, Kuma managed to eat one of the Devil Fruits in God Valley, the Paw-Paw Fruit, and after an intense encounter with Saint Saturn, Kuma used his new powers to save 500 people before sending Ginny, Ivankov, and himself to Sorbet. Ivankov left to see the world, and Ginny decided to stay with Kuma – all three of them basking in freedom for the first time in their lives.

Bartholomew Kuma Becomes A Hero & A Revolutionary

One Piece Chapter 1097

Over the years, Kuma became a priest who was popular with the elderly people of southern Sorbet for using his Paw-Paw Fruit powers to relieve their pain, although he could only do so by taking it himself. Additionally, Kuma and Ginny’s relationship had also developed to the point of Ginny wanting to marry Kuma, but Kuma couldn’t agree because he didn’t want her to suffer for being involved with a buccaneer. Their relationship never officially advanced past friendship, and Kuma avoided the issue by talking about how he admired Dragon of the Freedom Fighters and wanted to save people just like him.

For a while, things in Kuma’s life seemed to be good, but trouble arose when he was 25, 22 years before the Egghead Island arc. The king of Sorbet, King Bekori, decided to kill everyone in the southern part of the kingdom to reduce the heavenly tribute, and Kuma, Ginny, and several of their friends were arrested for fighting back against his soldiers. As Kuma steeled his resolve to help people in need, Kuma and Ginny were rescued by Dragon, Ivankov, and the Freedom Fighters as they freed Sorbet from King Bekori, and Kuma and Ginny joined them as founding members of the Revolutionary Army.

Bartholomew Kuma Suffers His Greatest Tragedy & Receives His Greatest Gift

One Piece Chapters 1097-1098

For the next several years, Kuma and Ginny would dedicate their lives to the Revolutionary Army, but tragedy struck once again when Kuma was 33 – 14 years before the Egghead Island arc – and Ginny was kidnapped by the Celestial Dragons to be one of their brides. Two years later, Ginny, infected with a disease that covered her body in sapphire-like scales and having conceived a daughter unwillingly by a Celestial Dragon, returned to the surface and died in Kuma’s church. As Kuma mourned Ginny’s death, he swore to raise her daughter, who would grow up to become the pirate Jewelry Bonney, as if she were his own.

Over the next several years, Kuma split his time between raising Bonney and working with the Revolutionaries, the former especially complicated by Bonney developing the same disease Ginny had that worsened whenever she was exposed to light. When she was five, Bonney’s disease was finally identified as sapphire scales, an incredibly rare and fatal disease with no known cure that would ensure that Bonney wouldn’t live past her 10th birthday. Kuma never told Bonney the truth about her disease, and with Bonney misinterpreting things as her disease only lasting until she turned 10, Kuma was left unsure of what to do.

How Bartholomew Kuma Became A Warlord Of The Sea

One Piece Chapters 1099-1100

A year later, six years before the Egghead Island arc, Kuma was crowned king of Sorbet after stopping Bekori’s return to power, but the incident was framed to make Kuma look like a tyrant. In order to keep Sorbet safe, Kuma abdicated the throne and left Bonney with the new king, King Bulldog, while he went to find a cure for her disease. Kuma went all around the world trying and failing to find help, and in an interesting bit of continuity, many of the islands Kuma visited were the places Kuma would eventually send the Straw Hat Pirates to in the Sabaody Archipelago arc.

Two years later, four years before the Egghead Island arc, Kuma reunited with Dragon, who told him that an associate of his, Dr. Vegapunk, might be able to cure Bonney. Sure enough, Vegapunk said that he might be able to help Bonney in exchange for Kuma donating his blood to create clone soldiers for the government, which would eventually become the Pacifistas. Admiral Kizaru and Saint Saturn found out about the deal, however, and Saturn forced Kuma to take on three more stipulations: Kuma would become a Warlord, he would become a cyborg, and he would eventually be stripped of his free will, all of which Kuma happily agreed to.

Bartholomew Kuma’s Time With The Government & Bonney’s Pirate Career

One Piece Chapters 1100-1102

Kuma and Bonney spent half a year on Egghead Island for their respective treatments, during which they developed a deep friendship with Vegapunk, Sentomaru, and Kizaru. After Bonney’s treatments were finished, Kuma left her on Sorbet to be a hostage without her knowledge as he began his Warlord duties in earnest. Kuma still assisted the Revolutionary Army during that time, although he would speak with his allies less and less as he got closer to losing his free will, and at one point, Kuma even went to Dawn Island to observe Luffy after figuring out that Luffy was Dragon’s son.

Meanwhile, Bonney grew increasingly frustrated that she wasn’t allowed to go outside, and that Kuma wasn’t writing to her, although the truth of the latter was that the government agents who were keeping Bonney hostage were destroying Kuma’s letters before she could get to them. Once it became clear that Bonney was being held hostage, Bonney used her Age-Age Fruit powers to escape Sorbet alongside some of Kuma’s friends. From there, she would use the Age-Age Fruit to disguise herself as an adult and become a pirate, eventually becoming one of the 11 Supernovas, in the hopes of finding Kuma one day.

The Story Of One Piece, From Kuma’s Perspective

Jaya, Thriller Bark, & Sabaody Archipelago

At the same time that Bonney became a pirate, two years before the Egghead Island arc, Luffy’s journey in One Piece had just started, and sure enough, Kuma’s flashback retold those events from his perspective. Kuma had been keeping a close eye on Luffy because of how much Luffy reminded him of Nika, and at Sabaody Archipelago, he was amazed that Luffy would be bold enough to attack a Celestial Dragon. Thanks to that, Kuma came to believe that Luffy would become a hero like Nika and save the world, and his separating the Straw Hat Pirates was so they could become strong enough to make that happen.

Bartholomew Kuma Loses His Free Will

One Piece chapter 1102

Following the Sabaody Archipelago arc and shortly before the fight with the Whitebeard Pirates in the Paramount War arc, Kuma returned to Egghead Island so Vegapunk could enact the final procedure to fully rob Kuma of his free will. Before that happened, however, Vegapunk installed a program to allow Kuma to guard the Thousand Sunny until one of the Straw Hats returned, and Kuma used the Paw-Paw Fruit to create a copy of his memories for Vegapunk’s research. With that, Vegapunk tearfully stated that Kuma was a hero to everyone who had ever known him and completely erased what remained of his free will.

What Happened To Bartholomew Kuma After Losing His Free Will?

One Piece Chapters 1067-1092

Everything that happened to Kuma following the loss of his free will is essentially everything that was previously shown in One Piece. After fighting against the Whitebeard Pirates in the Paramount War. Kuma went to Sabaody Archipelago to protect the Thousand Sunny until one of the Straw Hat Pirates returned, the first one to do so being Franky. Afterward, Kuma was made into a slave by the Celestial Dragons and continually forced to give them rides, but when the Revolutionary Army attacked Marijoa during the Reverie, they managed to liberate Kuma and take him back to their base in the Kamabakka Kingdom.

During the Egghead Island arc, Kuma, previously unresponsive, suddenly ran away from the Revolutionary Army, teleported to the Red Line, and climbed up to the top toward Pangea Castle, eventually being stopped by soldiers and Fleet Admiral Sakazuki. Sakazuki dealt heavy damage to Kuma before he teleported away again, with that being the last time Kuma appeared at the time of writing. When Kuma will appear again and what he’s trying to accomplish are both unknown, but with how One Piece’s Egghead Island arc has been progressing so far, that question is bound to be answered sooner, rather than later.