Boa Hancock

Boa Hancock is the only female member of the Shichibukai. She is also the "Snake Princess" of Amazon Lily and rules over the Kuja tribe with her two younger Gorgon sisters, Boa Sandersonia and Boa Marigold. She is the main antagonist of the Amazon Lily Arc.

She was first mentioned by the Risky Brothers at the end of the Thriller Bark Arc when comparing her legendary beauty to the beauty of mermaids. She is considered by many to be the most beautiful woman in the world. While she currently remains employed within the Shichibukai, her love for Monkey D. Luffy has caused her to turn against the World Government on a number of occasions, thus putting her status as a Shichibukai in jeopardy.

Horrific Past
Hancock was one of the many seen twenty-four years before the main story commenting on Gold Roger's death (or more specifically on the Great Age of Pirates).

Left with nowhere to go, the sisters were eventually rescued by Elder Nyon,Silvers Rayleigh and Shakuyaku, and brought home, but the Hoof of the Celestial Dragon, the symbol of the Tenryubito was burned deep into their flesh. Hancock chose to hide the mark and her Devil Fruit powers, and disseminated to the fellow Kuja that it was punishment for slaying a gorgon, with her,Marigold and Sandersonia collectively gaining the nickname: the Gorgon sisters, for if the truth is revealed, the three sisters would have nowhere to go.When Hancock was twelve years old, she and her sisters were included into the Kuja pirate crew and were sailing on their ship, when suddenly, they were captured by slavers and sold to the Tenryubito. During her time as a slave, Hancock was fed the Mero Mero no Mi to entertain her captors. The three suffered the greatest horrors imaginable, until four years later, a man by the name of Fisher Tiger appeared and while his goal was simply the liberation of the fishman slaves, he freed as many as he could without discrimination.

Unfortunately, despite being freed, the experiences that Hancock went through corrupted her innocence, and she would later grow up to distrust everyone (with the exception of her sisters), men especially. She also especially hates the World Government, in particular the Tenryubito. Over the years, despite Elder Nyon's love and mercy, Hancock became cold, burying any warm feelings, kindness and sensitivity deep within her, and although she would later become the Empress of the Kuja, she was selfish, and uncaring towards her people.

When Hancock was eighteen, she became the empress of the Kuja and quickly gained a notorious reputation despite her young age, catching the attention of the Marines and even the World Government, who were frightened of her potential, as she had earned a large bounty after only one campaign. Hancock later opted to join the Shichibukai in order to protect her fellow Kuja, by forming a treaty to protect their homeland from the government, preventing them from entering there.

Appearance
Compared to the abnormal and huge appearance of her sisters, Hancock has a well proportioned figure. She is a very tall, slender woman with long black hair past her waist with locks of hair that frame her face down to her chin, large breasts, a high forehead, and light brown (dark blue in the anime) eyes that have long, voluminous lashes.

Her 3 measurements are (according to Sanji  and series creator Oda in supplemental material): B111-W61-H91 (B 43.7" - W 24.02" - H 35.83"), making her breasts a J-cup in Japan, and bigger than Nami's  or Robin's  breast.

Her attire changes frequently. When first introduced, she wore a revealing red blouse that showed much of her chest and a loose sarong that exposed her long, slender legs with the green symbol of the Kuja adorned on it, along with a white cape sporting epaulettes more commonly found on the jackets of high-ranking Marines, and red high heel pumps. She then wore a qipao with a hooded cloak which she used it to cover Luffy until they arrived at Impel Down and then took it off during the battle against Whitebeard. During the Whitebeard War, she wore a purple dress with Kuja designs on it and purple high heel pumps. Upon her return to Amazon Lily, she reverted to her original outfit (with the exception of her cape). In all her outfits, she has worn a pair of golden earrings that resemble snakes and high-heeled shoes; her attire is also adorned with the emblem of the Kuja, with an exception of when Hancock fell ill due to her Love Sickness, during which she wore a red blouse. After the timeskip, her attire looks the same as when she was first introduced, except it is colored blue.

Her beauty is noted by many throughout the world: to one of the Risky Brothers, her beauty is second only to that of the mermaids,while others like Marguerite and Hannyabal claim she is the most beautiful woman in the world. She is also almost always seen with Salome, her large Snake Weapon, which, despite the skull it wears, is usually smiling.

Despite Hancock normally looking either calmly beautiful or cute (in an attempt to "apologize" for her actions), when she is angered, she looks very intimidating, with her eyes bulging madly and her teeth bared, as seen when Smoker nearly killed Luffy.

Before Hancock fell in love with Luffy, and when she is not around Luffy, her eyes tend to look emotionless, but when she is around Luffy, her eyes show much more emotion, making her look like a girl in love.

Along with her sisters, on her back is the slave mark of the Tenryubito, something that she was so intent on keeping secret and was willing to petrify anyone (other than her sisters and Elder Nyon) who saw it. In order to make sure it was never seen, she and her sisters concocted a lie that what was really on the sisters' backs were pairs of Gorgon eyes which would petrify anyone who sets eyes on them. Hancock uses this "curse" as an excuse for her and her sisters' Devil Fruit abilities.

Personality
Hancock is a very complex woman. At first glance, she appears to be selfish, pompous, spoiled, and used to having her own way. She can also act arrogant and cruel, usually justifying her less-than-admirable actions with her apparently unmatched beauty, causing her to think that she can get away with anything because the world will forgive her (and save for the handful able to resist she is largely successful in this approach, with gleeful suitors of both genders happily forgiving her every transgression).She also made it seem that she did not think much of the Kuja tribe either as she commented to Elder Nyon that she did not care if the island was destroyed or not, since everyone would forgive her anyway because she is beautiful.

Because of her beauty and strength, she is used to seeing men and women, young and old alike, fall instantly in love with her. As a result, people forgive her when she acts cutely apologetic or reminds them of her beauty. However, when Luffy came along and displayed a complete immunity to her charms, she initially felt that she could not bear the existence of someone completely invulnerable to her powers, and would collapse dramatically whenever insulted.

This feeling has eroded away, though, as she loves Luffy despite his immunity to her. Even after the two year timeskip, Hancock continues to be in love with Luffy as much as before despite that the latter openly rejected a wedding proposal from her.

It was revealed the reason for Hancock's lies and attitude towards life was that because of her horrible past, she did not want to ever show weakness again to anyone. She harbored a great fear of getting close to anyone, other than her own sisters, and would even go as far to deceive all of the other Kuja.This caused her surrogate mother, Elder Nyon, to fear that Hancock had truly turned as cold as ice. It wasn't until Hancock confessed everything to Luffy that she finally showed emotion, breaking down in tears after reliving her painful memories.

Deep down, Hancock is a rather-sensitive and vulnerable woman who is afraid and concerned about how other people (especially the other Kuja) might react to the truth of the shameful past that she and her sisters share. She is also much more soft and compassionate towards others when she opens up. That part of her was only first shown for the first time in several years in front of Monkey D. Luffy and she has since then befriended (even fallen in love with) Luffy, even agreeing to venture to the land of her suffering, from her days of a slave, at his request for his brother.

Hancock has also shown to be very sly and crafty when the situation demands it. This was particularly evident when she aided Monkey D. Luffy into discreetly breaking through Impel Down's outer defenses, as well as manipulating the great prison warden, Magellan, to her whims before relaying a secret message to Luffy's brother Ace, whom Luffy was trying to rescue. She has also proven to be a very skilled liar who is excellent at fabricating stories, and her confidence leads her to never consider the consequences of her actions. An example of this is when she takes advantage of her beauty in Impel Down floor 6 to drive the prisoners mad, making them disrespect Magellan and causing enough trouble to speak to Ace freely without anyone noticing.

Kuja Tribe
Hancock has a complex relationship with her Kuja subjects, protecting them from the World Government, but refusing to continue protecting them by working with the latter. She also destroyed a clay statue of her, made by several little girls, simply because it was made from dirt, mud and clay, and petrified three Kuja warriors (Marguerite, Sweet Pea and Aphelandra) for allowing a man (Monkey D. Luffy) to enter the island and defending his crime. However, there has been no Kuja who does not love and admire Hancock, and agrees with every decision she makes (apart from Elder Nyon, to an extent).

Even Marguerite showed no hard feelings towards Hancock after she was unpetrified. Hancock likewise actually cares what they would think of her if they knew she was once a slave, even though she is now an Empress, and fears she will bring shame onto the tribe if they were aware of her past. So she's continuously lied to them to protect herself and her sisters. She even referred to them as her brethren, as opposed to her subjects.

Ever since Hancock fell in love with Luffy, she has started to treat the Kuja warriors very nicely. She sometimes goes as far as offering to help them prepare food for Luffy's recovery.

Monkey D. Luffy
Originally antagonistic towards him, Hancock saw Luffy as a man who, being immune to her charms despite seeing her naked, could not be allowed to exist. She refused to believe his story of being sent to the island by Bartholomew Kuma, and ordered his execution. She also thought he was just like all men in the world; selfish and arrogant, but was proven wrong and was even moved by his acts of selflessness. Luffy is actually possibly the only one (beside Rayleigh and Shakky), outside her family, that she truly considers a friend.

She quickly befriended him when he covered the back of her sister when he was fighting so as nobody could see the Tenryuubito's slave mark on her, when given a choice, chose to save Marguerite, Sweet Pea, and Aphelandra rather than benefit himself, and that he went as far as to strike one of the World Nobles, and harbored no hatred for Hancock for being a slave in the past. As such, due to Luffy's bravery, selflessness and kind heart, Hancock has fallen in love with Luffy, causing her to have "Love Sickness", which was the cause of death of nearly all of the previous Empresses. However, Elder Nyon says that all of the previous Empresses died because they tried to suppress their feelings by distancing themselves from their object of desire, whereas Hancock will survive by going with Luffy.

Due to her feelings, Hancock has a hard time looking Luffy in the eye and tends to blush in his presence (much like a young girl with a crush). She is also prone to daydreams involving Luffy. She requested that Luffy call her Hancock, as opposed to her title, and nearly fainted the first time he called her by her given name correctly, given the fact that he had said it wrong a few times before, calling her "Hammock". Moments later, she actually did faint after believing that Luffy said "I love you" (愛してる. aishiteru?) when he actually said "Thank you" (ありがとう arigatou?). She continues to tend to faint in joy whenever Luffy says her name right and apparently is keeping count of how many times he has said her name correctly. When Luffy hugged her during the Battle of Marineford, she thought of it as a proposal of marriage. Later though, Nyon told her that she wasn't married. As a result, Hancock is now set on the idea of marrying Luffy. Even though Luffy says that he is not going to marry Hancock, she still loves him very much and is not deterred in the slightest by this.

During the Battle of Marineford, Hancock states that all men, both Marine and pirate alike, are her enemies, Luffy standing as the lone exception.Even after finding out the truth about Luffy's heritage, she cast it aside and did not care even if he is the son of the devil. She is also extremely protective of Luffy, going so far as to attack Commodore Smoker for restraining Luffy, much to the shock of the Marines watching them. She even openly declared Luffy as her beloved.

In fact, ever since Luffy's arrival at Marineford, all Hancock could do was focus her attention on Luffy's well-being, bursting out in anger whenever he was attacked and shivering in fear whenever she could not tell if he was all right. Upon reaching Luffy after the war and receiving information about his critical condition from Trafalgar Law, Hancock expressed her desire to be the one to have taken all the suffering in Luffy's place. She cares so much for Luffy that she barely ate any food on her return to Amazon Lily until she was sure that Luffy was all right, and even then commanded that as much food as possible be given to him so that he may recover.

While Luffy does not have the same romantic feelings towards Hancock that she feels towards him, he has shown that he genuinely cares for and appreciates her. During his fight with Magellan, when the warden stated that he would have Luffy tell him how he managed to break into Impel Down, Luffy protected Hancock by declaring he would not tell Magellan even if it killed him. He later showed his gratitude by hugging her and remarking afterward that she had "saved his ass" twice, both in helping him break into Impel Down and giving him the key to Ace's seastone handcuffs.

Abilities and Powers
Hancock is widely considered to be extremely powerful by friend and foe alike. Ruling beside her sisters, Hancock has power over Amazon Lily and the rest of the Kuja tribe. As the empress and captain of the tribe, she is most likely the strongest Kuja warrior. The Kuja believe that "strength is beauty", and since all members of the tribe state that she is the most beautiful in the world, they believe she is very powerful, and the strongest among the entire tribe. It is to be noted that only the strongest Kuja warriors are allowed in the country's pirate crew, Hancock and her sisters were strong enough to be there when they were small children, although it is possible they were just apprentices like Shanks and Buggy.

Her strength is so great that it has even been acknowledged by the Fleet Admiral of the time, Sengoku of the Marines. Even former Admiral Kuzan commented on her skills, stating she's not to be underestimated. Further testament to her strength is how she was one of the three Shichibukai who managed to leave the war without sustaining any injuries. The fact that she can earn a 80,000,000 bounty after her first campaign as a pirate further supports her capabilities.

This is shown when she had managed to destroy several Pacifistas single handedly (by petrifying beforehand the incredibly tough alloy of which they are composed of) without showing signs of exhaustion or injury, where it took the whole Straw Hat crew (before their two-year training) to take down just one, which left them severely worn out. While it is true that the Pacifistas were programmed not to attack their allies, to destroy so many of them is a difficult task regardless.

Hancock is quite skilled in the arts of subterfuge and deception, managing to disguise Monkey D. Luffy inside her coat without eliciting much suspicion across an entire boat voyage and inside Impel Down, as well as being the sister to propose spreading the tale of the "Gorgon curse" to prevent her subordinates from discovering the humiliating brand of enslavement on their backs over a period of decades. Hancock is also very intelligent, sly, and crafty when the situation demands it, being able to buy Luffy time, using her charms, after overhearing Magellan's plan to halt his infiltration and managed to manipulate events on Level Six of Impel Down by creating a commotion between the residing prisoners and a "protective" Magellan to speak to Portgas D. Ace in private and not attract any attention, as well as stealing the key to Ace's handcuffs for Luffy prior to his arrival, knowing it would be useful.

She has been shown to be very adept in hand-to-hand combat, often in tandem with her Devil Fruit abilities. She was able to fight through many of the New World pirates effortlessly. Similar to Sanji's fighting style, Hancock seems to prefer kicking-based attacks, whether from kicking in-the-way cute animals or her enemies. Though she's stronger in short-range combat, Hancock is also adept in long-range and is capable of using her Devil Fruit powers to strike her enemies from a long distance.

Physical Abilities
Her raw strength is immense, obviously showing signs of super-human strength as she can easily break stone (in the form of petrified opponents) with a single kick, capable of breaking several Pacifistas without breaking a sweat (while Sanji nearly broke his leg attempting the same task, though she used her Mero Mero no Mi powers to turn them into stone first) and being able to kick Smoker in his smoke state with her Haki; although with all those examples, she could have been using Busoshoku Haki to strengthen her kicks.

Devil Fruit
Hancock ate the Mero Mero no Mi a Paramecia-class Devil Fruit by force by the World Nobles who enslaved her, as a form of sick entertainment.

Those who fall in love with Hancock by seduction are susceptible to a range of techniques used by the Devil Fruit which turn people into stone, from short to long-range attacks. Anyone with "dirty thoughts" will be turned into stone as long as they do not have a means to block it out either emotionally like with fear or pain, or simply out of ignorance. Other than that, she has the same standard weaknesses as all Devil Fruit users.

As part of the secret to keep the shame on her back secret, Hancock made the Kuja tribe believe that the power to turn people to stone was a curse given to her by killing a Gorgon monster.

Haki
Hancock demonstrated two types of Haki: Busoshoku Haki, one of the more common types of Haki used in the series, and Haoshoku Haki, an ability that only one in a million people can use.

She is shown using her Busoshoku Haki to kick Smoker and damage him when he had Luffy pinned to the ground.

As she possesses Haoshoku Haki, it can be assumed that she can knock out a large number of individuals (with the exception of strong-willed people) with a massive burst. Her exact level of mastery has yet to be demonstrated.