Crona

Crona is a character in Soul Eater and a friend of Maka Albarn. Before that he/she is a recurring antagonist but later redeems him/herself and becomes an ally before being persuaded by his/her abusive mother Medusa to join back but still has memories of Maka and the others.

He/She is voiced by Maaya Sakamoto in the Japanese version of the anime and Maxey Whitehead in the English version.

Background
Crona is Medusa's child, though the father is unknown (however, it is possible that she created him rather than giving birth to him). Sometime in (presumably) the infant or toddler stage, Crona's natural blood is replaced by the melted-down Ragnarok's Black Blood. Crona is instructed by Medusa to kill small animals, trying to build a base of madness for the potential Kishin. For years, Medusa tempts the madness within Crona to slaughter for the sake of consuming souls. Since Crona had never heard of Shibusen until confronted by Maka in the church, Medusa must have only given Crona the most basic of educations.

Appearance
Crona has an androgynous appearance, with a thin body, monotone expression, pink hair, black eyes, and tall stature. His/Her hair is quite short, with several long, large clumps sticking out in several places. The bangs are straight-cut and end above the eyebrows, but do not stay very uniform. Two long pieces of hair extend from the bangs and hang low over Crona's face. Most of the time, Crona wears a long black old-style robe that is tight-fitting and ends at the mid-calf level on their legs. The robe is completed with large white cuff-links at the ends of each sleeve and a tall white button-up collar at the neck. Black slipper-like shoes with a tall white cuff protruding out of the top are also worn. For formal occasions, Crona wears a white suit: the suit is very plain, with long un-detailed pants and a coat with long sleeves and a collar. The coat appears to fasten at the front and back.

Most of the time, Crona wears a long black old-style robe that is tight-fitting and ends at the mid-calf level on their legs. The robe is completed with large white cuff-links at the ends of each sleeve and a tall white button-up collar at the neck. Black slipper-like shoes with a tall white cuff protruding out of the top are also worn. For formal occasions, Crona wears a white suit: the suit is very plain, with long un-detailed pants and a coat with long sleeves and a collar. The coat appears to fasten at the front and back. As a child, Crona wore a black knee-high dress. The dress has a rugged cut-out at the bottom, laced with several white diamonds. Like the present-day clothing, the childhood design also has a white collar and cuffs. The shoes stay relatively the same, as well. Crona's hair is shorter and simpler in this stage, but overall the same design. Also theur pupils were for some reason rather large at the time.

After being "re-shaped" by Medusa and fused completely with the Black Clown, their clothes have been covered by several steel/cloth plates on their shoulders coming from their neck and more plates around the waist, though it now manifests without the aid of the other two arms, becoming part of some kind of permanent attire.

When not fused with the Black Clown, Crona still wears a black dress, but without the white cuffs and collar. The dress is now covered by thick folds of fabric covering the feet (slightly similar to Arachne's dress).

Also, as Crona edges closer to utter insanity, their features become noticeably sharper, with a thin and long body, long and bony fingers, and sharper, colder eyes.

Gender
Crona is presented throughout the series as having an ambiguous sex, and although hints are given to identify the gender, nothing has ever stated it exactly. It is important to note that Crona refers to himself/herself with the masculine pronoun boku (僕)— Japanese for "I", which is used mainly by, but not exclusively, males. However, the term is becoming more popular with females and is not unheard of to be used by a girl, especially tomboys. This is seen in other anime such as Souseiseki in Rozen Maiden for example. Also, Medusa always calls Crona "my child", never referring something more specific as "son" or "daughter". Maka refers to Crona over and over as 'he' and Stein calls Crona 'your son' in the battle with Medusa, though Crona's gender is still unknown.

Personality
"Maka: This makes me wish I'd never been born. Marie: It's so sad."

- Maka and Marie after reading Crona's poem Crona was taught at an early age to kill and torture small animals by Medusa to get him/her used to killing people. Crona is Ragnarok's meister, and is initially under Medusa's orders (and control) to take any soul they find, be it evil or good. Crona is a very naive and submissive person who is constantly pestered by Ragnarok in the form of noogies and threats to eat Crona's share of food. Crona does not like to fight (often unable to overcome any obstacles presented) but Medusa normally introduces a spell into Crona's mind which increases Crona's aggression. Ragnarok also bullies them into fighting. While under Medusa's control, Crona becomes dangerously unstable, showing signs of insanity and aggression, spouting senseless comments and laughing at random moments. Crona is incredibly nervous and jumpy, and the slightest thing can make him/her frightened. Crona is also incredibly emotional and sensitive. After Crona becomes friends with Maka in the anime, however, Crona begins to become surer of herself/himself, but still has difficulty making decisions. They soon begins to distinguish the difference between good and evil.

Crona is extremely negative, enough so that a poem Crona wrote was so abundantly depressing it made Black Star, Maka, Marie, Soul, and Sid sulk in a corner and wish they had never been born (though in Sid's case, he wishes he was never revived) after reading it, with Crona shortly following the suite. Crona seems to want to adapt to interacting with people, but it seems hard for them to do, most likely because of Medusa's abusive treatment. However, Crona does show signs of slowly opening up to the people around them, and becomes touched with how the others care about them, up to the point they think they do not deserve that much attention. Crona seems more relaxed around Maka. Unless Maka comes and fetches them, Crona normally stays in a corner of any room, and will cower in it if frightened, calling the corner 'Mr. Corner'. Crona mostly interacts with others only when Maka is present, since Maka can easily tune in to Crona's Soul Wavelength to be understanding and calming when needed. Crona also expresses unusual determination when it comes to helping or protecting Maka. Due to Crona's lack of interaction with others (other than eating their souls), Crona has nearly no experience in interacting with other people, hence Crona's catchphrase, "I don't know how to deal with [???]..." Crona cannot adapt to new situations and can panic easily, and finds it difficult to make decisions.

Despite the fact that Crona was beginning to adapt to their new life, they were coerced back into working for Medusa and ran away from Shibusen after acting as a spy for Medusa. After returning to Medusa, Crona's personality reverts back to his/her original dark, insane state. Crona also seems to suffer from amnesia, not remembering Maka or their friends However; they show signs of inner conflict as they attempt to remember their past life.

In the anime, Crona becomes more determined and courageous when they decide to go and defeat Medusa and rescue Stein alongside Marie and Maka. Although still nervous and unsettled by Medusa, Crona stands up to her and even risks his/her life for Maka. In the anime, Crona also seems to have a good sense of direction, being able to navigate both himself/herself and Marie through DWA and Medusa's lair.

Black Blood
Crona's blood has been entirely replaced with 'Black Blood' which both protects Crona from physical harm and provides a degree of healing. Ragnarok, originally a normal weapon, was melted into the black blood before the transfusion, which causes their symbiotic nature. This also allows them to do attacks using the Black Blood exclusive to them. Since Medusa is Crona's mother, there may be potential for him/her to be able to use magic, but nothing has been observed as of yet. In the anime, despite having no onscreen training, Crona successfully pulls off a Chain Resonance with Maka and Marie. Later in the manga version Crona dons two new appendages each armed with a different blade.

It is interesting to note that, even if Ragnarok is fully part of Crona's body by being melted in his/her blood; they can separate, but only in the weapon/meister combination. The Bloody attacks put aside, it appears in Chapter 13 that Crona is able to throw the Demon Sword to an enemy (in this case, the Flying Dutchman). After killing Medusa (and possibly eating her soul), Crona gained the strange ability to manifest his/her shadow or generate black blood from his/her feet in the form of spiky vines fast enough to cut Maka's cheek without her even noticing it and resilient enough to completely block an attack from Black Star. His/Her black blood also allowed him/her to create wings for flying, which are strong enough to take him/her to the moon. After absorbing the Kishin Asura, Crona's power and control over Black Blood increased tremendously, as he was shown to be able to rip a tooth from Moon itself and overpower Black Star with sheer physical force during the Battle on the Moon.

Expert Combatant
Despite Crona's personality, he/she had been seen as a powerful fighter. Crona has been able to hold his/her own against Black*Star & Maka simultaneously and alone (though Black*Star would quickly gain the upperhand), Death the Kid, and Giriko while being held by the Oldest Golem.

Strong Soul Wavelength
Throughout the series, Crona's Wavelength expands due to his/her insanity increasing. While in the anime, It remains relatively the same, the power increased in the manga to the point She went from having trouble with both Maka and Black*Star in separate occasions to being able to fight them simultaneously together.

Techniques with Ragnarok
Screech Alpha: Same as the Screech Beta but launched at the enemy as a projectile with explosive results.

Screech Beta: A powerful slash in the form of a mouth.

Screech Gamma: A multi-slashing attack that releases sound waves in succession.

Screech Delta: Crona uses his/her three arms to fire numerous sound waves in all directions.

Black Dragon: A soul resonance where Ragnarok absorbs all human soul eggs and morph into a dragon-form. All of Crona's attacks are enhanced.

Bloody Needle: This attack can only be performed when Crona's blood has been spilled, transforming it into black needles that stab through the opponent if they get too close. After getting "re-shaped" by Medusa, Crona's bloody needles are almost whirlwind-like shaped and can change direction to follow the enemy even if they miss the first shot.

Bloody Slicer: Crona will cut his/her own wrist and then make a flinging motion with the arm, when this happens Ragnarok will change the blood into a blade for medium ranged attacks.

Bloody Lance: With his/her writs cut, they fling it in a circle and a huge black-blood thorn appears in their front launching itself like a dart towards the enemy. The effects were not seen as both Black Star and Russia's Death scythe, Tsar Pushka, managed to stop the attack.

Bloody Coat: With unseen ways Crona manifests black blood and creates a cloak-like shield with it (with the bottom collar shaped like arrows). It seems to be able to withstand substantial damage.

Mad Blood: Crona's lower half becomes bloated like a flower's bud with three kishin eyes on it. It’s unknown how, but when hit, the target becomes trapped in a huge black-blood ball that emanates madness. As of Chapter 87, Crona confirmed that when hit by the attack; the victim "swallows madness, melts into madness, and hardens with madness". This attack can grow powerful enough to swallow entire cities, as shown at the end of Chapter 84.

Rose Thorn Storm: This attack works the same way as Medusa's Vector Storm,with the addition of a few thorns sprouting blooming Roses made of black blood.

Thorn Defense : Crona's second defensive technique. Crona crosses his/her arms as multiple thorn arrows appear from beneath his/her robe and shoot upwards in front of Crona like a fence, allowing him/her to block multiple frontal attacks.