 I fled because I feared for my life. I am the last survivor from my ship, so I must escape these demonic waters and fulfill the pact I made with a friend. That is why I ran to save my life, and that is why I will not run away this time. Hello and welcome to One Piece 101, the series that breaks down everyone and everything in the One Piece world. Today we'll be taking a closer look at the skeletonic musician of the straw hat pirates, Brooke. Brooke is an eccentric undead master of music who first appeared in the series during the thriller bark arc. He claims to be a gentleman despite his fairly off-color nature, and he harbors a dream of one day reuniting with his whale comrade Laboon who was waiting at Reverse Mountain. And the story of how this dream came about is pretty damn tragic actually, I warn you now. But to tell it, we need to return to a simpler time around 52 years prior to the current timeline when Brooke was actually a flesh and blood human. During this time, Brooke was a member of the rhombar pirates led by Captain Calico Yorkie, based in West Blue, and it was a particularly unique crew as all of its members were musicians. One day the rhombar pirates discovered that their ship was being followed by a baby whale who had become separated from his pod. In order to cheer the whale up, Brooke suggested that they do what musicians do best and play him a jaunty tune. However, as a result of this, the whale continued to follow the rhombar pirates everywhere and became part of their adventures, eventually being named to Laboon by the crew. However, when it came time for the rhombar pirates to enter the Grand Line, they knew that they needed to part ways with Laboon, as the stretch of water was far too dangerous for the baby whale. With that said, all efforts to convince Laboon to stay in West Blue failed, and he followed the rhombar pirates over Reverse Mountain and into the Grand Line. After spending three months fixing their vessel from the damage accumulated by sailing over Reverse Mountain, Brooke and the rest of the rhombar pirates were able to leave Laboon in the care of Crocus, and they promised Laboon that they would come back for him once they had sailed around the world. And so the rhombar pirates took on the challenging Grand Line directly, playing music everywhere they went, until one day it was discovered that Calico Yorkey as well as many other crew members had contracted an incurable disease whilst disembarking from a forest. In an effort to prevent the disease from spreading to the rest of the crew, Yorkey made the decision to isolate the infected on one of the rhombar pirate ships and attempt to escape the Grand Line by sailing through the calm belt, which would also more than likely have resulted in death due to the sea kings that inhabited it. Brooke then became the captain of the remaining crew, and they continued their adventure through the Grand Line, with Brooke even managing to acquire a bounty of 33 million berries for his efforts. However one day tragedy would strike yet again, as the rhombar pirates made their way into the Florian Triangle, only to be attacked by enemy pirates. The rhombar pirates were decimated, however Brooke and several other members survived the assault, but were destined to die regardless as the enemies had coated their weapons in poison. At this point I should bring up that at some stage in his life Brooke had eaten a devil fruit by the name of the yomi yomi no mi. This is a paramecia type fruit that enhances its user's soul to the point where it becomes able to resurrect after death. Just one death though. So it essentially grants the user a second chance at life. Brooke having known the devil fruit he had consumed made a suggestion to the remaining rhombar pirates that they play one last song recorded on a tone dial and have Brooke deliver it to Laboon once he was resurrected. And so the rhombar pirates began their final concert, dying one by one until only Brooke remained before eventually succumbing to death himself. Shortly after Brooke's soul was able to find its way back to the mortal realm but unfortunately due to the incredibly thick fog of the Florian Triangle he was unable to find his body for a whole year, meaning that by the time he did it had all but withered away. Well all but a very firmly rooted afro that is, regardless Brooke reclaimed his former vessel and began life as a skeleton. However as the rudder of the ship had been broken during their battle Brooke had no choice but to drift aboard the ship alone for 45 years. After those harsh decades his ship finally drifted towards Thriller Bark and anxious to fix the rudder Brooke disembarked and continued his trend of bad luck by encountering Gekko Moria who was able to use his devil fruit powers to steal Brooke's shadow and insert it into a zombie named Ryuma. Brooke then decided to face Ryuma in order to reclaim his shadow making use of his unique fighting style that revolves around wielding a Shikomizue which is a sword concealed within a cane. Brooke's exact style of swordsmanship very strongly resembles the art of fencing which coincides quite well with his gentlemanly nature. Sadly his skills were not enough to overcome Ryuma and Brooke retreated from Thriller Bark and spent five years training to defeat the zombie. However Brooke's very next encounter would mark a commencement in his changing fate as one day he came across the Thousand Sunny inhabited by the straw hat pirates. Luffy amazed by the concept of an afro clad skeleton immediately asked Brooke to join his crew and Brooke similarly immediately accepted his offer. Sadly things wouldn't be quite that simple though as Brooke's shadow was still held by the zombie Ryuma and Brooke needed to reclaim it before setting out to adventure and with the help of the straw hats he was able to achieve just that as well as taking on a large role in the defeat of Gekko Moria in the process. During the victory celebrations Luffy informed Brooke that he had encountered the boon and that he was alive and well leading Brooke to cry some very overdue tears of joy. Brooke then asked Luffy if he could join his crew and Luffy rather casually accepted. As part of the straw hats Brooke fitting quite nicely with the more strangely dynamic nature of the crew. Although he does rather frequently annoy Nami and Robin with one of his signature lines asking if he can see their panties. This side of Brooke has led him to develop quite a strong bond with Sanji and the two of them have become known as the pervert duo. But in general despite being dead Brooke provided a breath of life into the crew through his constant musical performances. Sadly he would not remain with them for very long though as during the very next arc the straw hats would be defeated and separated by Botholomucuma. Brooke would be sent to the Haraheturnia country on Namakura island. Landing rather conveniently in the center of a circle of a group of cultists performing a demon summoning ritual. For some time Brooke was worshiped as Satan by the cultists until he was captured by members of the long arm tribe at which point the cultists decided that they would try their luck with summoning another demon. Brooke was then taken to the Guna Kingdom at which point he let his musical skills become known to the long arm tribe and over the next two years Brooke with the help of the long arm tribe would rise to become a major rock superstar earning himself a new epithet of soul king Brooke. Brooke scheduled his final concert of his musical world tour to be on the island of Sabadyak Belago and took the opportunity to proclaim that straw hat Luffy was indeed alive and would one day become the pirate king before reuniting with his former crewmates. Brooke brought a slew of new abilities to the reform straw hat pirates including the power to remove his soul from his body at will as well as some degree of control of the element ice which is apparently exuded from his soul energy and called the chills of the underworld. In addition to that Brooke is even capable of exerting soul power over weaker soul beings which was demonstrated to perfection during whole cake island. From here Brooke continued sailing with the straw hats and has played an integral role in the escapades of the crew whilst working towards his dream of reuniting with the boon and delivering the final song of the rhombar pirates. Some more fun facts about Brooke. At the ripe old age of 90 Brooke is by far the oldest member of the straw hats more than doubling the age of Frankie. As of the conclusion of the dress Rosa arc, Brooke's bounty has increased to a much more substantial 83 million berries and just while we're on bounty's, Brooke's wanted poster is currently the only one in the series that does not fit the uniform style as the marines have instead decided to use one of his concert posters. Brooke's unique laugh style Yohohoho is taken directly from the classical pirate laughter style Yohoho which no pirates actually did and was instead introduced into the common vernacular by the book Treasure Island. Interestingly enough Oda has confirmed that Brooke is officially the fastest member of the straw hat pirates at least in a short distance race anyway which is owing entirely due to his lightweight nature. Despite being a skeleton Brooke does indeed eat food and he even has a favorite food which is curry. He also has a least favorite food which is lemons primarily because he is unable to make a sour face due to the fact that he does not possess cheeks. And finally a truly useless fact according to Oda if the straw hats were not pirates then Brooke would have become a detective which I think essentially results in the birth of skeleton detective Skull Duggery Pleasant. And that pretty much does it for Brooke if you enjoyed this video then feel free to like favorite or subscribe and if you are in any way inclined to help support this independent channel then please do check out my patreon discord server or twitter the links to which are in the handy description below. And finally please do comment with who what or where you'd like to see featured in the next One Piece 101.