APPLICATION
Everything you should know about Usopp is right here, broken into handy sections!
PERSONALITY: Usopp has shown himself time and time again to be extremely sentimental. He’s easily moved to tears when something affects him deeply, quick to lose his temper when he perceives that he’s been wronged and makes bonds with others very easily. He suffers from extended bouts of anxiety, uncertainty, fear, pessimism and insecurity. Needless to say, he’s not exactly the most confident of the Straw Hats, but often uses lies to cover his flaws up-he cares quite a bit about what others think of him and is constantly reaching out for affirmation of his usefulness. He’s prone to hiding his stresses and fears with bravado and jokes, only to have them explode at an inopportune moment.
On the flip side of his numerous flaws, he’s also an extremely cheerful young man, if not a bit on the immature side. He loves telling stories, playing all sorts of games, drawing, painting and tinkering. He’s always one to keep his hands and mouth busy and adores being in the limelight. He’s very lively and inquisitive, always carefully exploring the world around him. He’s also easily impressed, going so far as to admire his enemies’ weapons or techniques, even when they’re in battle against both him and his crew. Despite being left to fend on his own at a young age, he’s been able to stay young at heart, showing every sign of deep pleasure in activities that he likely had few friends to share with back home, such as making sand castles or snowmen.
Usopp is very gentle at heart and harbours no ill will towards anybody unless they cross what he perceives as a moral boundary. He’s generally well disposed to most people he meets, and has a lot of room in his heart for many people-his crew, his village, and the people he’s met along the way all remain a big part of him. Above everything, he believes in dreams, most likely because if he doesn’t there wouldn’t be anything else to fight for. He maintains a deep affection for those younger than him such as Chopper or the kids he took care of back home.
Ultimately he’s able to work past all his fears and defenses when things get dangerous, and this is when his loyalty shines through. He will never abandon his crewmates, and will fight to the end for things he thinks are important such as the Going Merry. Above all else, Usopp has plastered himself to the ideals that he holds true: try to be proud, honorable and loyal in the face of danger, stand by what you believe in and become somebody that his father would be proud of.
Then, there’s Sogeking, whose personality I’ll slip in here too. Sogeking is a figment of Usopp’s imagination, a split personality that arises whenever he dons his mask. Sogeking is, essentially, everything that Usopp wishes to be. When the mask is on, he slips into this role of the King of Sniper Island, lowering his voice and showing no fears. While he originally made this personality to be able to shamelessly fight alongside his crew in Water 7, he picks it up once again at Thriller Bark without any reason to besides his own personal well-being. It’s still unclear to what extent Sogeking is a separate personality, but he has gone as far as to argue with this alternate personality in his head.
Sogeking is always honourable, always kind, always confident, always calm… see a pattern yet? It’s in this guise that Usopp tries to be all that he wants to. Even with the mask on, however, sometimes his true personality slips out in particularly trying times.
BACKGROUND: Usopp is one of the first characters to be introduced in this series, which happens to be over 500 chapters long. Because of this, I’ll attempt to make this as brief as possible for you mod-types, and I apologize for the probable length of this before I begin.
Usopp was born in a small village by the name of Syrup Village in East Blue to a pirate of a father and an ill mother. His father had left both Usopp and his mother behind as he went off to the Grand Line to chase his lucrative career as a pirate. Instead of despising his father, however, Usopp absolutely idolized him and wished sorely for the chance to become a pirate. His beginnings as a well-known liar began when he was young-as his mother lay in bed dying of Mysterious Anime Disease, he told her that pirates were coming and that his father was coming to take them with him in an effort to get her to recover quicker. The day after his mother died, leaving him without relatives. From that point on, he spent the bulk of his childhood doing three things: running through the village exclaiming that pirates were coming, waiting at the coast for his father to return and running around with three kids nine years his junior, creatively nicknamed, “The Usopp Pirates”. He soon became well known for being a more creative liar than a namer (his most common being that he was a pirate captain with eight-thousand men and that pirates were coming).
One particular relationship held dear to his heart was the one between him and a wealthy orphaned girl also suffering from illness by the name of Kaya. Nearly every day, he sat outside her window to entertain her with fanciful tales crafted to brighten up days spent in bed. This happiness was soon broken in the form of a pirate by the name of Captain Kuro masking himself as Kaya’s caretaker for three years. Kuro had an evil plot, as pirates so often do, to have Kaya include him in her will once he had the trust of the village and to kill the girl. Luckily for Usopp, this happened just as the current crew (consisting of Luffy, Nami and Zoro) of the Straw Hat crew people came into the village. The rest of it plays out quite typically. The Straw Hats befriend Usopp! They help Usopp! Usopp helps save his happy little village and the girl is happy, the Straw Hats get a ship and the village is none the wiser to the conflict on the coast! Hurrah! Flag waving is had!
And, of course, this lovely little story would not be complete with an adventure. This is where Usopp officially joined the Straw Hat pirates, holding onto the dream of becoming a great warrior of the sea, just like his father. Although this is a dream that would have been laughed at normally, the Straw Hats are no normal crew, and he finds himself within an extremely accepting atmosphere accompanying extremely powerful people. He’s not one of the stronger members of the crew. On the contrary, he’s considered the weakest, and therefore, little of the big arcs focus on him, so here’s where I’m going to start summarizing the bits where his presence doesn’t exactly mean a whole lot.
One battle that deserves particular note would be the one soon after the arc in Usopp’s own hometown-the battle against the evil fishmen who enslave an entire island. At first, afraid of danger, Usopp ran away from his opponent and cleverly played dead before realizing that if he wants to be the True Warrior of the Sea that he aspires to be, he’s going to have to show a little more courage. He then ran after his opponent, poured gasoline on him, lit him on fire and bashed his head in with a hammer. Repeatedly. This didn’t save the day - that’s always the captain’s job - but he certainly saved his own hide and pride, learning the extent of what he was able to do. This is the first hint we see of how far Usopp will go with his brains and trickery to get ahead.
The next island that the Straw Hats went to was Little Garden, a place inhabited only by two giant warriors, who had been fighting for a hundred years without remembering the cause of their battle. Although one member of the crew rightly described the fight as foolishness, Usopp clung to the idea of the giants' hometown of Elbaf and their ideals of holding pride and their warrior spirit close to his heart--it was at this point that Usopp realized what he wished to become. Amongst the Straw Hats’ ranks was Vivi, a princess of a desert island being hunted by a criminal organization called Baroque Works. Members of this organization chased the Straw Hats to Little Garden, they interfered in the giants’ fight by felling one of the giants through the use of explosive rum. With one of the giants severely injured and the other trapped in a wax prison, these criminals then went after the Straw Hats. Incensed by this attack on his ideals, Usopp teamed up with Luffy and Carue (Vivi’s awesome giant pet duck) and lit the wax that the criminals were fighting with on fire, thus nullifying their abilities. After resolving the incident, the Straw Hats sailed away without a second thought save for Usopp, who hopes to visit Elbaf one day and holds a burning admiration for giants from that point on.
Skipping a period in which the Straw Hats increase their number by one (namely their doctor), we come to the desert land of Arabasta. In Arabasta, there was a long and arduous civil war going on surrounding power struggles and a lack of water. The perpetrator behind this is Crocodile, none other than the man behind Baroque Works and a well-received and honorable figure of power in Arabasta, only second to the King. Yhe Straw Hats seek to bring peace back to the island not for the island’s sake, but for Vivi’s. They decide to split up and take on members of Baroque Works before confronting the real problem. Usopp and Chopper are put up against Mr. 4 and Ms. Merry Christmas (code names, of course), and have a difficult time of it; Miss Merry Christmas ate what can only be translated as the Mole-Mole Fruit and was able to build several tunnels whereas Mr. 4 possessed a gun that ate a dog-dog fruit (don’t ask how, because I don’t know. Rule of funny!). After being thoroughly beaten, Usopp lost all hope until his enemies claimed that Luffy had died and that his dream of being the Pirate King was a joke. Bad idea. He withstood a few devastating blows from a 4-ton bat to the face and remained standing long enough to attack his enemies underneath the haze of one of his smoke bombs, then sent an explosive through the tunnels, thus defeating his enemies. Unfortunately, this rendered him useless for the rest of the arc as he spent most of the time recovering from extensive injuries. To make a long story short, Crocodile was defeated, the rebels and the royal guard make amends, the Baroque workers were defeated, and it’s a victory for the Straw Hats. Vivi decided to stay behind to help mend her shattered country, and the Straw Hats were forced to escape as the Marines pursued them. They lost one member, but gained another-a member of the Baroque Works, Miss All-Sunday, aka Nico Robin, simply because she decided to hop aboard their ship and most of the crew found themselves won over, including Usopp.
Next up? Sky Island! That’s right, the Straw Hats found themselves with the new destination of an island. In the sky. Once they arrived, it seemed like a little paradise, but that was quickly disproven. To get into the island, they must first pay a fee… and they didn’t bother, labeling themselves as criminals. When confronted by law enforcement, they still refused to pay, thus raising themselves to level 2 criminal status after promptly beating up the policemen. This meant that bigger guns were to be unleashed-the priests of Enel, the man that those in Skypiea called God and the man who had absolute power over the entire island. With this in mind, the Straw Hats decide to flee with Luffy, Sanji and Usopp gathering supplies and the rest watching the ship. While they were away, their ship was carried away by Enel’s forces and the three of them were forced to borrow a ship from Conis, an ally they had made when they initially landed. With that, they travel to the place where criminals - aka, their crew - were kept: an isolated, sacred area by the name of Upper Yard. This was the only area in the whole of Sky Island that had greenery and land as opposed to simply tangible clouds. Usopp’s group traveled to go rescue them and find themselves confronted with a choice of four ordeals: swamp, string, iron and balls. Underneath the rationale that balls are fun, Usopp’s brilliant captain chooses the ordeal of balls without a second thought. True to form, they found themselves floating down a river surrounded by big balls floating about them (not, not that kind). When touched, they expelled different attacks at random, from snakes to explosions. The three of them are then confronted by a priest. The priest of balls. Who ate the ball-ball fruit, which would be one of the weirder powers I’d have to describe in this app if I hadn’t mentioned the dog-gun earlier.
Anyhow, this was one of many battles in which Usopp served no real purpose, save for get pummeled a few times and watch the real powerhouses take care of things. Once the priest was taken care of, they continued sailing until they were ambushed by the enemies of Enel, who did nothing but warn them that if they got in their way, they were toast. They’ll come back in play later. Anyway, once the crew was reunited, they hatched a plan: one group was to go find hidden gold and the other was to bring their ship to a convenient meeting point. Usopp was in the latter. This group discovered that Enel’s goal was to destroy all of Sky Island and that the people that had earlier ambushed them were natives of Upper Yard, pushed out by Enel’s forces. Once again, a civil war was shaking the nation, on one side God and the fearful inhabitants of Skypeia and the previous inhabitants of Upper Yard called Shandians, led by Wiper. Once this explanation was over, Usopp and Sanji were decisively knocked out by a couple priests but the ship was defended by Nami. Nonetheless, they were out for the count for a while, leaving Robin, Chopper Zoro and the Shandians to be defeated by Enel and for Nami to be taken with Enel on his flying ship that he meant to fly to a land mass called Vearth. Once they woke up, Sanji and Usopp went after Nami. Using one of Usopp’s gadgets, they latched onto the ship and climbed aboard to Nami’s rescue. Usopp served as a distraction on deck, allowing Sanji to halt the path of the ship and was easily beaten once again. Despite his failure to be anything but a distraction, this allowed them enough time to jump off of the ship using a transportation device. In his rage, Enel showered thunder bolts upon the land of Skypeia, but was defeated by Luffy. Once again, the Straw Hats saved the day - with little help from Usopp - and achieved gold in the meantime. It is here that Usopp received the basis of his weapons. Machines called Dials absorb things such as flame, power and air, and he stored several of these on his person to be used in later battles. End of arc, and back to more fighting and adventure and whatnot!
They sailed across part of Grand Line when they made it to Water 7, an island filled with shipwrights. Here, Luffy found out that the Going Merry (the very same ship that Kaya bestowed upon the crew, all the way back in Syrup Village) was broke and no amount of money could fix it. Unfortunately, Usopp was absent while Luffy is processing this piece of information, because he was with the trunks with the Straw Hats’ life savings in cash, the same cash that he thought would fix his beloved ship. Usopp turned out to be the worst person to entrust this money to, however, not out of untrustworthiness-he simply wasn’t any match against a family of criminals called the Franky family. The money was stolen, and Usopp ran after them to try and recover it by himself. Later, he was found by the Straw Hats severely injured outside of the Franky House, completely without money. Sanji, Zoro and Luffy rained merry revenge upon the Franky Family for the defeat of their Sniper, yet by that time, the money was spent. This fixed nothing and Usopp immediately began to berate himself for being too weak to protect the most important funds he had ever carried. Upon his return back to the ship, Luffy broke the news that the Going Merry was completely unfixable-they’d have to get a new ship. Assuming that the reason behind that was their lack of money, Usopp became a veritable fountain of emotions: sorrow for his ship, anger at himself for losing the money and an enduring battle to attempt to retain his pride. In this flurry of emotion, Usopp confronted Luffy, asserting that he was only proposing to kill the equivalent of a precious crewmate. Eventually, it dissolved into one major duel-if Luffy won, they would get a new boat and if Usopp won, Usopp and Usopp alone would stay in possession of the Going Merry.
On a normal day, Usopp couldn’t dream of holding his own against Luffy, but keeping in mind how injured he was, it was only sheer determination and stubbornness that spurred him on to actually go through with the fight. He did manage to stay put for a good while and put Luffy in much discomfort using all the tricks he knew, but Luffy managed to knock Usopp out with only one well aimed punch. Then, walking away, Luffy told Usopp that he could still have the Going Merry, adding insult onto injury. At that moment, Usopp made the decision to leave the crew for good, not even allowing Chopper to treat his injuries. The reasons behind this weren’t as shallow as attachment to his ship. It merely acted as a catalyst for his suspicions he had harbored for a long time: he was not nearly as strong as the rest of the crew, and he too would be cast aside one day. Their trials prior to the fight had become so extreme that it seemed an insurmountable mountain to climb-indeed, one only has to look at his failures on Skypeia to see where it stemmed.
Angered at the attack on his family, Franky decided to kidnap the weakest member of the crew alongside the ship to lure Luffy out of hiding. Except for, well, the weakest member of the crew happened to be the one who just left the crew. Luckily for Usopp, when he explained the entire story to Franky and his family, who were moved by his story and with a drastic change of heart, decided to assist him. Usopp continued attempting to fix the Going Merry when Franky broke it to him that the ship wouldn’t even last to the next island to which Usopp replied that he already knew that, but couldn’t bear to leave it behind. Nonetheless, Franky argued that it was best to dismantle the ship, but the argument was interrupted by government agents and were captured and put onto a train. Unbeknownst to them, Robin was also being kept there, and Robin was being pursued by the Straw Hats. By this twist of fate, Usopp and Franky were freed by Sanji. Franky decided to assist in Robin’s rescue, but Usopp refused, stating that he was no longer a part of the crew…
…and came back a scant few minutes later donning a cape and a mask, calling himself Sogeking, King of the Snipers, hailing from Sniper Island, winning the award of redundancy for the day! Complete with a theme song! This disguise was horribly transparent, but the others simply went along with it for the sake of ease-besides Luffy and Chopper, who were totally fooled. The Franky Family and the Straw Hats (plus Sogeking King of the Snipers) teamed up in order to battle the World government and to save Robin. Once both sides left the train, they found themselves at the site of the World Government: Enies Lobby. When they arrived at the Tower of Justice and made clear to Robin that they weren’t leaving without her, Robin admitted to wanting to stay with the crew. With that clear, Luffy ordered “Sogeking” to burn to World Government’s flag down, a direct declaration of war. With the mask and cape on and with his confidence bolstered, Usopp followed this ludicrous command without any sign of hesitation, showing both his impeccable aim and the power of his new weapon. They are then told that to retrieve Robin, they need the right key, and each of the CP9 agents has one.
So, they split up. By some twist of fate, however, one fight turned into a two-on-two: Zoro and Usopp, versus Jyabura and Kaku. Once each had taken on an opponent, it became clear that even with his new weapon, Usopp was no match for Jyabura, so Sanji took over, telling him to do what he could. Determined not to be useless, the injured Usopp ran up to a high vantage point looking down upon the bridge where the leader of CP9 currently had Robin. This vantage point was a place so high that none of the marines could reach him and none could see him without the use of binoculars. Nonetheless, his aim was good enough to fling a fireball to Spandam’s face. With their enemy down, Robin’s handcuffs were unlocked, and each of the Straw Hats managed to defeat their designated enemy. Time for escape? Not quite. Luffy was still in battle with Lucci, his opponent, while the rest of the Straw Hats fitfully waited on their escape ship, knowing that more Marines were coming to kill them. Usopp ran to where Luffy was fighting and discovered his captain upon the ground, ready to give up and unable to see another option, challenged Lucci to a fight. This spurred Luffy to get up again, knowing that Usopp would most likely be killed in 10.5 seconds, and he finally defeated Lucci. Now cornered, the Straw Hats raced to the bridge and jumped off into the water where the Going Merry was waiting for them, mysteriously unmanned. Astonishingly, as it turned out, the ship was loved so much that it came to life-kind of like Pinnochio, except sturdier. The Going Merry carried them as far as it could before breaking down, and instead of simply using its timber for their new ship, they gave it a Viking funeral at sea once they were safely back at Water 7, something that a weeping Usopp seemed to find deeply traumatic.
The Straw Hats then received a new ship and obtained Franky as their new crewmate, but there was still the issue of Usopp leaving the crew that they had to address. Usopp assumed that they would ask him to come back, but that wasn’t the case-in fact, pursued by more marines, they began to leave without him. At first he yelled jokes and lies at them in an attempt to save face but was eventually forced to swallow his already battered pride to apologize. Just like that, Luffy stretched his hand back out to Usopp, and he was accepted back onto the ship with renewed vigor and a bounty upon the head of ‘Sogeking’ for 30,000,000 beli.
After some time, the Strawhats came across the island Thriller Bark, full of zombies, ghosts, and a skeleton named Brooke. Needless to say, Usopp who remained a coward even after the events of Water 7, was astutely terrified, but Luffy insisted that they go onto the island. He set out with Nami and Chopper and ran into trouble in the form of zombies until they met up with a man who served the man who would soon become their enemy: Dr. Hogback, a famed doctor. Once they entered his home, it became quickly apparent that this was not a safe place to be, and that the home itself was filled with zombies. The essence of his plan was to take others’ shadows away and put them in zombies, leaving those without their shadows to hide from the light of day lest they burn in the sunshine. They ran away, but soon became lost and happened upon Perona, a young girl who could somehow control ‘negative ghosts’, effectively destroying everybody’s self confidence. She became Usopp’s enemy, for the sole reason that nobody could actually make Usopp more negative than he already was. Ah, the Power of Pessimism! Leaving the powerhouses behind, Usopp pursued Perona and won in his own fashion, using his wit and tricks to make ends meet. The only thing out of the ordinary was the fact that when he got into a jam, he donned his Sogeking mask once more. Once on, it gave him more confidence. The strange thing was, was that Usopp and Sogeking had small arguments in his head, showing the extent to which Usopp may believe in Sogeking. After Perona’s timely defeat, Usopp returned to the crew (and Brooke, who had joined them), who were currently battling against a giant with Luffy’s shadow (therefore Luffy’s power and spirit) inside of him, operating under the orders of Dr. Hogback. They defeated the giant and defeated Moria, letting loose the shadows and returning light to his victims’ lives! Hurrah! Unfortunately for them, they were then joined by Kuma, an excessively powerful marine who injured them all horribly before deciding to spare their lives. After they were sufficiently recovered, the Straw Hats picked Brooke up as another new crewmate, then continued on.
Now’s the home stretch, and the last arc I’ll be talking about. The Straw Hats’ next destination was the Saobody Archipelago, a place where slave trade was rampant and all were forced to follow the Nobles of the area, the ones who owned the slaves. Also present were the Supernovas, rookie pirates with the highest bounties, two of the Strawhats in their midst. Eventually, one of the friends that the crew had made got kidnapped as a slave, so they went to save her. As they attempted to save her, her friend who they had brought along got shot by one of the nobles. This proved to be the last straw and Luffy decided to do what appeared to be the logical thing to do: punch the noble out! Wide spread panic ensued and marines surrounded the auction house, which happened to be housing Gol D. Roger’s (the pirate king) first mate and four Supernovas. The marines were easily defeated by the Supernovas and the Straw Hats escaped while they waited for their ship to be coated in the material that would allow them to delve underwater, to their next destination. As fate would have it, nothing was so easy. The big guns rolled in, meaning the Straw Hats were once again against somebody with the power of Kuma-a Kuma clone. All their strength was sapped defeating it, but at least they won. Right? Wrong! Two Shichibukai (very powerful marines) and two more Kumas arrived on the scene, and that meant big trouble. Possibly for the first time, Luffy ordered everybody to concentrate on running. They split into three groups, and Usopp was forced to carry a drastically injured Zoro on his back while fleeing from a superpowered cyborg creature with an arsenal of doom. Chaos ensued, and long story short, the Straw Hats were absolutely destroyed. The real Kuma used his paw-powers to teleport each of the Straw Hats, first Zoro, then Brooke, then Usopp. Eventually all of the Straw Hats were teleported and separated, but the only ones Usopp got to see with his own eyes were Zoro and Brook.
Usopp then flew through the sky for three days and three nights until he landed nestled in a little coccoon in a place called Edensphere.
ABILITIES:
Stamina: After being fatally injured, Usopp is able to get up and keep on fighting/running. This goes to such an extent that after using what’s called an Impact Dial that broke his arm, he was still able to continue fighting against his opponent, drawing back the string on his weapon with the same arm. He’s a regular punching bag.
Running (which is very important when one chooses flight over fight most of the time): When it comes to speed, he’s faster than your typical human and is able to outrun most people, but where he really shines is his endurance-he can run for miles without showing many outward signs of slowing.
Gadgetry: Usopp is a genius with inventing different weapons and creatively using household objects to his advantage. The shining examples of the former are the ClimaTact, a weapon that he made for a crewmate that has the ability to manipulate the weather and the Kabuto, his own weapon that is designed for maximum power and accuracy despite simply being a very large slingshot. The examples of the latter are the ammunition that he usually uses, from smoke bombs, to Tabasco shots (which he aims into others’ mouths) to deadly explosives powered by gunpowder.
Marksmanship: When he does decide to fight, his sniping skills surprise even himself-he’s able to shoot small objects and very long range and his accuracy is deadly. Even with the wind blowing against him and armed only with a slingshot, he’s able to shoot things at a great distance from him. In the Water 7 arc, he was actually labeled as a, "WHAT IS HE?", meaning that he certainly has the potential to become one of the sniping greats.
PERSONALITY: Usopp has shown himself time and time again to be extremely sentimental. He’s easily moved to tears when something affects him deeply, quick to lose his temper when he perceives that he’s been wronged and makes bonds with others very easily. He suffers from extended bouts of anxiety, uncertainty, fear, pessimism and insecurity. Needless to say, he’s not exactly the most confident of the Straw Hats, but often uses lies to cover his flaws up-he cares quite a bit about what others think of him and is constantly reaching out for affirmation of his usefulness. He’s prone to hiding his stresses and fears with bravado and jokes, only to have them explode at an inopportune moment.
On the flip side of his numerous flaws, he’s also an extremely cheerful young man, if not a bit on the immature side. He loves telling stories, playing all sorts of games, drawing, painting and tinkering. He’s always one to keep his hands and mouth busy and adores being in the limelight. He’s very lively and inquisitive, always carefully exploring the world around him. He’s also easily impressed, going so far as to admire his enemies’ weapons or techniques, even when they’re in battle against both him and his crew. Despite being left to fend on his own at a young age, he’s been able to stay young at heart, showing every sign of deep pleasure in activities that he likely had few friends to share with back home, such as making sand castles or snowmen.
Usopp is very gentle at heart and harbours no ill will towards anybody unless they cross what he perceives as a moral boundary. He’s generally well disposed to most people he meets, and has a lot of room in his heart for many people-his crew, his village, and the people he’s met along the way all remain a big part of him. Above everything, he believes in dreams, most likely because if he doesn’t there wouldn’t be anything else to fight for. He maintains a deep affection for those younger than him such as Chopper or the kids he took care of back home.
Ultimately he’s able to work past all his fears and defenses when things get dangerous, and this is when his loyalty shines through. He will never abandon his crewmates, and will fight to the end for things he thinks are important such as the Going Merry. Above all else, Usopp has plastered himself to the ideals that he holds true: try to be proud, honorable and loyal in the face of danger, stand by what you believe in and become somebody that his father would be proud of.
Then, there’s Sogeking, whose personality I’ll slip in here too. Sogeking is a figment of Usopp’s imagination, a split personality that arises whenever he dons his mask. Sogeking is, essentially, everything that Usopp wishes to be. When the mask is on, he slips into this role of the King of Sniper Island, lowering his voice and showing no fears. While he originally made this personality to be able to shamelessly fight alongside his crew in Water 7, he picks it up once again at Thriller Bark without any reason to besides his own personal well-being. It’s still unclear to what extent Sogeking is a separate personality, but he has gone as far as to argue with this alternate personality in his head.
Sogeking is always honourable, always kind, always confident, always calm… see a pattern yet? It’s in this guise that Usopp tries to be all that he wants to. Even with the mask on, however, sometimes his true personality slips out in particularly trying times.
BACKGROUND: Usopp is one of the first characters to be introduced in this series, which happens to be over 500 chapters long. Because of this, I’ll attempt to make this as brief as possible for you mod-types, and I apologize for the probable length of this before I begin.
Usopp was born in a small village by the name of Syrup Village in East Blue to a pirate of a father and an ill mother. His father had left both Usopp and his mother behind as he went off to the Grand Line to chase his lucrative career as a pirate. Instead of despising his father, however, Usopp absolutely idolized him and wished sorely for the chance to become a pirate. His beginnings as a well-known liar began when he was young-as his mother lay in bed dying of Mysterious Anime Disease, he told her that pirates were coming and that his father was coming to take them with him in an effort to get her to recover quicker. The day after his mother died, leaving him without relatives. From that point on, he spent the bulk of his childhood doing three things: running through the village exclaiming that pirates were coming, waiting at the coast for his father to return and running around with three kids nine years his junior, creatively nicknamed, “The Usopp Pirates”. He soon became well known for being a more creative liar than a namer (his most common being that he was a pirate captain with eight-thousand men and that pirates were coming).
One particular relationship held dear to his heart was the one between him and a wealthy orphaned girl also suffering from illness by the name of Kaya. Nearly every day, he sat outside her window to entertain her with fanciful tales crafted to brighten up days spent in bed. This happiness was soon broken in the form of a pirate by the name of Captain Kuro masking himself as Kaya’s caretaker for three years. Kuro had an evil plot, as pirates so often do, to have Kaya include him in her will once he had the trust of the village and to kill the girl. Luckily for Usopp, this happened just as the current crew (consisting of Luffy, Nami and Zoro) of the Straw Hat crew people came into the village. The rest of it plays out quite typically. The Straw Hats befriend Usopp! They help Usopp! Usopp helps save his happy little village and the girl is happy, the Straw Hats get a ship and the village is none the wiser to the conflict on the coast! Hurrah! Flag waving is had!
And, of course, this lovely little story would not be complete with an adventure. This is where Usopp officially joined the Straw Hat pirates, holding onto the dream of becoming a great warrior of the sea, just like his father. Although this is a dream that would have been laughed at normally, the Straw Hats are no normal crew, and he finds himself within an extremely accepting atmosphere accompanying extremely powerful people. He’s not one of the stronger members of the crew. On the contrary, he’s considered the weakest, and therefore, little of the big arcs focus on him, so here’s where I’m going to start summarizing the bits where his presence doesn’t exactly mean a whole lot.
One battle that deserves particular note would be the one soon after the arc in Usopp’s own hometown-the battle against the evil fishmen who enslave an entire island. At first, afraid of danger, Usopp ran away from his opponent and cleverly played dead before realizing that if he wants to be the True Warrior of the Sea that he aspires to be, he’s going to have to show a little more courage. He then ran after his opponent, poured gasoline on him, lit him on fire and bashed his head in with a hammer. Repeatedly. This didn’t save the day - that’s always the captain’s job - but he certainly saved his own hide and pride, learning the extent of what he was able to do. This is the first hint we see of how far Usopp will go with his brains and trickery to get ahead.
The next island that the Straw Hats went to was Little Garden, a place inhabited only by two giant warriors, who had been fighting for a hundred years without remembering the cause of their battle. Although one member of the crew rightly described the fight as foolishness, Usopp clung to the idea of the giants' hometown of Elbaf and their ideals of holding pride and their warrior spirit close to his heart--it was at this point that Usopp realized what he wished to become. Amongst the Straw Hats’ ranks was Vivi, a princess of a desert island being hunted by a criminal organization called Baroque Works. Members of this organization chased the Straw Hats to Little Garden, they interfered in the giants’ fight by felling one of the giants through the use of explosive rum. With one of the giants severely injured and the other trapped in a wax prison, these criminals then went after the Straw Hats. Incensed by this attack on his ideals, Usopp teamed up with Luffy and Carue (Vivi’s awesome giant pet duck) and lit the wax that the criminals were fighting with on fire, thus nullifying their abilities. After resolving the incident, the Straw Hats sailed away without a second thought save for Usopp, who hopes to visit Elbaf one day and holds a burning admiration for giants from that point on.
Skipping a period in which the Straw Hats increase their number by one (namely their doctor), we come to the desert land of Arabasta. In Arabasta, there was a long and arduous civil war going on surrounding power struggles and a lack of water. The perpetrator behind this is Crocodile, none other than the man behind Baroque Works and a well-received and honorable figure of power in Arabasta, only second to the King. Yhe Straw Hats seek to bring peace back to the island not for the island’s sake, but for Vivi’s. They decide to split up and take on members of Baroque Works before confronting the real problem. Usopp and Chopper are put up against Mr. 4 and Ms. Merry Christmas (code names, of course), and have a difficult time of it; Miss Merry Christmas ate what can only be translated as the Mole-Mole Fruit and was able to build several tunnels whereas Mr. 4 possessed a gun that ate a dog-dog fruit (don’t ask how, because I don’t know. Rule of funny!). After being thoroughly beaten, Usopp lost all hope until his enemies claimed that Luffy had died and that his dream of being the Pirate King was a joke. Bad idea. He withstood a few devastating blows from a 4-ton bat to the face and remained standing long enough to attack his enemies underneath the haze of one of his smoke bombs, then sent an explosive through the tunnels, thus defeating his enemies. Unfortunately, this rendered him useless for the rest of the arc as he spent most of the time recovering from extensive injuries. To make a long story short, Crocodile was defeated, the rebels and the royal guard make amends, the Baroque workers were defeated, and it’s a victory for the Straw Hats. Vivi decided to stay behind to help mend her shattered country, and the Straw Hats were forced to escape as the Marines pursued them. They lost one member, but gained another-a member of the Baroque Works, Miss All-Sunday, aka Nico Robin, simply because she decided to hop aboard their ship and most of the crew found themselves won over, including Usopp.
Next up? Sky Island! That’s right, the Straw Hats found themselves with the new destination of an island. In the sky. Once they arrived, it seemed like a little paradise, but that was quickly disproven. To get into the island, they must first pay a fee… and they didn’t bother, labeling themselves as criminals. When confronted by law enforcement, they still refused to pay, thus raising themselves to level 2 criminal status after promptly beating up the policemen. This meant that bigger guns were to be unleashed-the priests of Enel, the man that those in Skypiea called God and the man who had absolute power over the entire island. With this in mind, the Straw Hats decide to flee with Luffy, Sanji and Usopp gathering supplies and the rest watching the ship. While they were away, their ship was carried away by Enel’s forces and the three of them were forced to borrow a ship from Conis, an ally they had made when they initially landed. With that, they travel to the place where criminals - aka, their crew - were kept: an isolated, sacred area by the name of Upper Yard. This was the only area in the whole of Sky Island that had greenery and land as opposed to simply tangible clouds. Usopp’s group traveled to go rescue them and find themselves confronted with a choice of four ordeals: swamp, string, iron and balls. Underneath the rationale that balls are fun, Usopp’s brilliant captain chooses the ordeal of balls without a second thought. True to form, they found themselves floating down a river surrounded by big balls floating about them (not, not that kind). When touched, they expelled different attacks at random, from snakes to explosions. The three of them are then confronted by a priest. The priest of balls. Who ate the ball-ball fruit, which would be one of the weirder powers I’d have to describe in this app if I hadn’t mentioned the dog-gun earlier.
Anyhow, this was one of many battles in which Usopp served no real purpose, save for get pummeled a few times and watch the real powerhouses take care of things. Once the priest was taken care of, they continued sailing until they were ambushed by the enemies of Enel, who did nothing but warn them that if they got in their way, they were toast. They’ll come back in play later. Anyway, once the crew was reunited, they hatched a plan: one group was to go find hidden gold and the other was to bring their ship to a convenient meeting point. Usopp was in the latter. This group discovered that Enel’s goal was to destroy all of Sky Island and that the people that had earlier ambushed them were natives of Upper Yard, pushed out by Enel’s forces. Once again, a civil war was shaking the nation, on one side God and the fearful inhabitants of Skypeia and the previous inhabitants of Upper Yard called Shandians, led by Wiper. Once this explanation was over, Usopp and Sanji were decisively knocked out by a couple priests but the ship was defended by Nami. Nonetheless, they were out for the count for a while, leaving Robin, Chopper Zoro and the Shandians to be defeated by Enel and for Nami to be taken with Enel on his flying ship that he meant to fly to a land mass called Vearth. Once they woke up, Sanji and Usopp went after Nami. Using one of Usopp’s gadgets, they latched onto the ship and climbed aboard to Nami’s rescue. Usopp served as a distraction on deck, allowing Sanji to halt the path of the ship and was easily beaten once again. Despite his failure to be anything but a distraction, this allowed them enough time to jump off of the ship using a transportation device. In his rage, Enel showered thunder bolts upon the land of Skypeia, but was defeated by Luffy. Once again, the Straw Hats saved the day - with little help from Usopp - and achieved gold in the meantime. It is here that Usopp received the basis of his weapons. Machines called Dials absorb things such as flame, power and air, and he stored several of these on his person to be used in later battles. End of arc, and back to more fighting and adventure and whatnot!
They sailed across part of Grand Line when they made it to Water 7, an island filled with shipwrights. Here, Luffy found out that the Going Merry (the very same ship that Kaya bestowed upon the crew, all the way back in Syrup Village) was broke and no amount of money could fix it. Unfortunately, Usopp was absent while Luffy is processing this piece of information, because he was with the trunks with the Straw Hats’ life savings in cash, the same cash that he thought would fix his beloved ship. Usopp turned out to be the worst person to entrust this money to, however, not out of untrustworthiness-he simply wasn’t any match against a family of criminals called the Franky family. The money was stolen, and Usopp ran after them to try and recover it by himself. Later, he was found by the Straw Hats severely injured outside of the Franky House, completely without money. Sanji, Zoro and Luffy rained merry revenge upon the Franky Family for the defeat of their Sniper, yet by that time, the money was spent. This fixed nothing and Usopp immediately began to berate himself for being too weak to protect the most important funds he had ever carried. Upon his return back to the ship, Luffy broke the news that the Going Merry was completely unfixable-they’d have to get a new ship. Assuming that the reason behind that was their lack of money, Usopp became a veritable fountain of emotions: sorrow for his ship, anger at himself for losing the money and an enduring battle to attempt to retain his pride. In this flurry of emotion, Usopp confronted Luffy, asserting that he was only proposing to kill the equivalent of a precious crewmate. Eventually, it dissolved into one major duel-if Luffy won, they would get a new boat and if Usopp won, Usopp and Usopp alone would stay in possession of the Going Merry.
On a normal day, Usopp couldn’t dream of holding his own against Luffy, but keeping in mind how injured he was, it was only sheer determination and stubbornness that spurred him on to actually go through with the fight. He did manage to stay put for a good while and put Luffy in much discomfort using all the tricks he knew, but Luffy managed to knock Usopp out with only one well aimed punch. Then, walking away, Luffy told Usopp that he could still have the Going Merry, adding insult onto injury. At that moment, Usopp made the decision to leave the crew for good, not even allowing Chopper to treat his injuries. The reasons behind this weren’t as shallow as attachment to his ship. It merely acted as a catalyst for his suspicions he had harbored for a long time: he was not nearly as strong as the rest of the crew, and he too would be cast aside one day. Their trials prior to the fight had become so extreme that it seemed an insurmountable mountain to climb-indeed, one only has to look at his failures on Skypeia to see where it stemmed.
Angered at the attack on his family, Franky decided to kidnap the weakest member of the crew alongside the ship to lure Luffy out of hiding. Except for, well, the weakest member of the crew happened to be the one who just left the crew. Luckily for Usopp, when he explained the entire story to Franky and his family, who were moved by his story and with a drastic change of heart, decided to assist him. Usopp continued attempting to fix the Going Merry when Franky broke it to him that the ship wouldn’t even last to the next island to which Usopp replied that he already knew that, but couldn’t bear to leave it behind. Nonetheless, Franky argued that it was best to dismantle the ship, but the argument was interrupted by government agents and were captured and put onto a train. Unbeknownst to them, Robin was also being kept there, and Robin was being pursued by the Straw Hats. By this twist of fate, Usopp and Franky were freed by Sanji. Franky decided to assist in Robin’s rescue, but Usopp refused, stating that he was no longer a part of the crew…
…and came back a scant few minutes later donning a cape and a mask, calling himself Sogeking, King of the Snipers, hailing from Sniper Island, winning the award of redundancy for the day! Complete with a theme song! This disguise was horribly transparent, but the others simply went along with it for the sake of ease-besides Luffy and Chopper, who were totally fooled. The Franky Family and the Straw Hats (plus Sogeking King of the Snipers) teamed up in order to battle the World government and to save Robin. Once both sides left the train, they found themselves at the site of the World Government: Enies Lobby. When they arrived at the Tower of Justice and made clear to Robin that they weren’t leaving without her, Robin admitted to wanting to stay with the crew. With that clear, Luffy ordered “Sogeking” to burn to World Government’s flag down, a direct declaration of war. With the mask and cape on and with his confidence bolstered, Usopp followed this ludicrous command without any sign of hesitation, showing both his impeccable aim and the power of his new weapon. They are then told that to retrieve Robin, they need the right key, and each of the CP9 agents has one.
So, they split up. By some twist of fate, however, one fight turned into a two-on-two: Zoro and Usopp, versus Jyabura and Kaku. Once each had taken on an opponent, it became clear that even with his new weapon, Usopp was no match for Jyabura, so Sanji took over, telling him to do what he could. Determined not to be useless, the injured Usopp ran up to a high vantage point looking down upon the bridge where the leader of CP9 currently had Robin. This vantage point was a place so high that none of the marines could reach him and none could see him without the use of binoculars. Nonetheless, his aim was good enough to fling a fireball to Spandam’s face. With their enemy down, Robin’s handcuffs were unlocked, and each of the Straw Hats managed to defeat their designated enemy. Time for escape? Not quite. Luffy was still in battle with Lucci, his opponent, while the rest of the Straw Hats fitfully waited on their escape ship, knowing that more Marines were coming to kill them. Usopp ran to where Luffy was fighting and discovered his captain upon the ground, ready to give up and unable to see another option, challenged Lucci to a fight. This spurred Luffy to get up again, knowing that Usopp would most likely be killed in 10.5 seconds, and he finally defeated Lucci. Now cornered, the Straw Hats raced to the bridge and jumped off into the water where the Going Merry was waiting for them, mysteriously unmanned. Astonishingly, as it turned out, the ship was loved so much that it came to life-kind of like Pinnochio, except sturdier. The Going Merry carried them as far as it could before breaking down, and instead of simply using its timber for their new ship, they gave it a Viking funeral at sea once they were safely back at Water 7, something that a weeping Usopp seemed to find deeply traumatic.
The Straw Hats then received a new ship and obtained Franky as their new crewmate, but there was still the issue of Usopp leaving the crew that they had to address. Usopp assumed that they would ask him to come back, but that wasn’t the case-in fact, pursued by more marines, they began to leave without him. At first he yelled jokes and lies at them in an attempt to save face but was eventually forced to swallow his already battered pride to apologize. Just like that, Luffy stretched his hand back out to Usopp, and he was accepted back onto the ship with renewed vigor and a bounty upon the head of ‘Sogeking’ for 30,000,000 beli.
After some time, the Strawhats came across the island Thriller Bark, full of zombies, ghosts, and a skeleton named Brooke. Needless to say, Usopp who remained a coward even after the events of Water 7, was astutely terrified, but Luffy insisted that they go onto the island. He set out with Nami and Chopper and ran into trouble in the form of zombies until they met up with a man who served the man who would soon become their enemy: Dr. Hogback, a famed doctor. Once they entered his home, it became quickly apparent that this was not a safe place to be, and that the home itself was filled with zombies. The essence of his plan was to take others’ shadows away and put them in zombies, leaving those without their shadows to hide from the light of day lest they burn in the sunshine. They ran away, but soon became lost and happened upon Perona, a young girl who could somehow control ‘negative ghosts’, effectively destroying everybody’s self confidence. She became Usopp’s enemy, for the sole reason that nobody could actually make Usopp more negative than he already was. Ah, the Power of Pessimism! Leaving the powerhouses behind, Usopp pursued Perona and won in his own fashion, using his wit and tricks to make ends meet. The only thing out of the ordinary was the fact that when he got into a jam, he donned his Sogeking mask once more. Once on, it gave him more confidence. The strange thing was, was that Usopp and Sogeking had small arguments in his head, showing the extent to which Usopp may believe in Sogeking. After Perona’s timely defeat, Usopp returned to the crew (and Brooke, who had joined them), who were currently battling against a giant with Luffy’s shadow (therefore Luffy’s power and spirit) inside of him, operating under the orders of Dr. Hogback. They defeated the giant and defeated Moria, letting loose the shadows and returning light to his victims’ lives! Hurrah! Unfortunately for them, they were then joined by Kuma, an excessively powerful marine who injured them all horribly before deciding to spare their lives. After they were sufficiently recovered, the Straw Hats picked Brooke up as another new crewmate, then continued on.
Now’s the home stretch, and the last arc I’ll be talking about. The Straw Hats’ next destination was the Saobody Archipelago, a place where slave trade was rampant and all were forced to follow the Nobles of the area, the ones who owned the slaves. Also present were the Supernovas, rookie pirates with the highest bounties, two of the Strawhats in their midst. Eventually, one of the friends that the crew had made got kidnapped as a slave, so they went to save her. As they attempted to save her, her friend who they had brought along got shot by one of the nobles. This proved to be the last straw and Luffy decided to do what appeared to be the logical thing to do: punch the noble out! Wide spread panic ensued and marines surrounded the auction house, which happened to be housing Gol D. Roger’s (the pirate king) first mate and four Supernovas. The marines were easily defeated by the Supernovas and the Straw Hats escaped while they waited for their ship to be coated in the material that would allow them to delve underwater, to their next destination. As fate would have it, nothing was so easy. The big guns rolled in, meaning the Straw Hats were once again against somebody with the power of Kuma-a Kuma clone. All their strength was sapped defeating it, but at least they won. Right? Wrong! Two Shichibukai (very powerful marines) and two more Kumas arrived on the scene, and that meant big trouble. Possibly for the first time, Luffy ordered everybody to concentrate on running. They split into three groups, and Usopp was forced to carry a drastically injured Zoro on his back while fleeing from a superpowered cyborg creature with an arsenal of doom. Chaos ensued, and long story short, the Straw Hats were absolutely destroyed. The real Kuma used his paw-powers to teleport each of the Straw Hats, first Zoro, then Brooke, then Usopp. Eventually all of the Straw Hats were teleported and separated, but the only ones Usopp got to see with his own eyes were Zoro and Brook.
Usopp then flew through the sky for three days and three nights until he landed nestled in a little coccoon in a place called Edensphere.
ABILITIES:
Stamina: After being fatally injured, Usopp is able to get up and keep on fighting/running. This goes to such an extent that after using what’s called an Impact Dial that broke his arm, he was still able to continue fighting against his opponent, drawing back the string on his weapon with the same arm. He’s a regular punching bag.
Running (which is very important when one chooses flight over fight most of the time): When it comes to speed, he’s faster than your typical human and is able to outrun most people, but where he really shines is his endurance-he can run for miles without showing many outward signs of slowing.
Gadgetry: Usopp is a genius with inventing different weapons and creatively using household objects to his advantage. The shining examples of the former are the ClimaTact, a weapon that he made for a crewmate that has the ability to manipulate the weather and the Kabuto, his own weapon that is designed for maximum power and accuracy despite simply being a very large slingshot. The examples of the latter are the ammunition that he usually uses, from smoke bombs, to Tabasco shots (which he aims into others’ mouths) to deadly explosives powered by gunpowder.
Marksmanship: When he does decide to fight, his sniping skills surprise even himself-he’s able to shoot small objects and very long range and his accuracy is deadly. Even with the wind blowing against him and armed only with a slingshot, he’s able to shoot things at a great distance from him. In the Water 7 arc, he was actually labeled as a, "WHAT IS HE?", meaning that he certainly has the potential to become one of the sniping greats.