Bartolomeo (jap. 人食いのバルトロメオ, Hitokui no Barutoromeo) is the captain of his own pirate gang. He was referred to as a rookie a year ago. Meanwhile, he is also one of the captains who sail together under the sail of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet.
Contents
Appearance
The “cannibal” wears a purple coat with feathers on the collar that reaches down to his thighs. On each sleeve there is a white stripe and on the back there is a skull with crossed bones, apparently the sign of his pirate gang. Bartolomeo always wears his coat open and nothing else on his torso, revealing his dark blue tattoo on his chest.
His yellow-red checked trousers are held by a Hatchan, to which a knife and a white chain are also attached. Furthermore he owns high black boots, which are decorated with white frills. His long, green hair is upturned and there are two tattoo stripes on his right eye. Characteristic for his appearance are his nose ring as well as his teeth, two of which are very pointed and long like a vampire. All in all, his appearance makes a rather diabolical impression.
Personality
Bartolomeo is a rather ruthless and extremely brutal pirate who does not hesitate to kill civilians. So he also insulted the spectators of the tournament and further provoked them by throwing a ball into the crowd, which the spectators thought was a bomb. When the civilians fled in panic and discovered it was just a ball, the pirate said he detested them and noted to Dagama that he did not want to be liked by people either. That he is very confident of his strength was evident in the Battle Royale of the B Block at the Corrida Colosseum. He did not participate in the fighting, but simply laid on the edge of the ring and watched the other participants. Shortly after, he even turned his back to the other participants and freely urinated in the water around the ring. At the same time he provoked the spectators of the coliseum.
Likewise, Bartolomeo is extremely thuggish against those who mock his great idol, Luffy. For example, he nearly crushed a defeated gladiator who made fun of the Straw Hat’s failure to save his brother, after which he cut off his tongue, greatly underlining his brutal character. Bartolomeo is an extreme fan of the Straw Hat Pirates, which is why he eagerly reads every newspaper article and always collects the profiles of all the members. He would be willing to do anything for his idols, even die if he had to. Besides, he firmly believes that the rubber man will become king of the pirates. However, when it comes to talking to Luffy, the cannibal is so shy that he can’t get a word out and doesn’t even dare come near him. His almost fanatical worship of the Straw Hats is also clearly evident in his ship, which he built after Luffy and the Going Merry, while he has placed a shrine in his cabin with the Straw Hat Pirates’s wanted posters and autographs.
Bartolomeo sees people he has fought as comrades or old friends, which is why he could not allow Dellinger to kill Bellamy. Bartolomeo himself stated that he could not stand idly by while someone attacked a friend of his.
Skills & Strength
Bartolomeo looks to be an extremely strong fighter. He made a name for himself a year ago as a rookie. He also didn’t seem to have much trouble taking out Vice Admiral Maynard. Moreover, he possesses an ability to protect himself through invisible-seeming barriers. As he later explained, he possesses the power of the Barrier Fruit, which allows him to create barely visible barriers that can protect him from attack. These barriers seem to be exceedingly strong, as they withstood the attacks of Bellamy and Hack as well as the King Punch of Elizabello. However, he can only create a limited number of barriers at a time.
Bartolomeo the Cannibal is a supernovae from a year ago. He possesses the powers of the Barrier Fruit and is the captain of his own band of pirates. He can perform the following attacks:
- Barrier crash
- Barrierbility: Stairs
- Barrierbility: Racket
- Barrierbility: Big Hand
- Barrier Bulls
- Barrier Ball
- Bari Bari no Pistol
Past
Bartolomeo was a former slum boss and was present in Loguetown two years ago when Luffy was about to be beheaded on the scaffold by Buggy, and watched as the execution failed and the Straw Hat captain was saved by lightning. The cannibal believed he had witnessed a miracle, and had been an avid fan of Luffy and his gang ever since. He followed all their exploits from Loguetown to Arabasta, Enies Lobby, the Impel Down, and at the Battle of Marine Ford with glee and considered them his idols. These deeds drove Bartolomeo to become a pirate himself. A year after the Battle of Marine Ford and one before the return of the Straw Hat Pirates, Bartolomeo made a name for himself as a rookie.
Present
Fight in block B
Together with his gang, Bartolomeo traveled to Dress Rosa so that he could participate in the tournament for the Fire Fruit in the Corrida Colosseum. He was drawn into Block B in the 1st round. After Vice Admiral Maynard, disguised as a Capman, took out his staff officer Gambia early, Bartolomeo retaliated and defeated him as well before the Block B match was to begin. As soon as he entered the arena, he insulted the crowd and intimidated them by throwing a ball into the crowd, which they mistook for a bomb. After his block’s Battle Royale began, Dagama, Elizabello, Tank Lepanto, and another warrior rotated together to take down the strong contenders, Bellamy leading the way. Bartolomeo then remarked that it could hardly be called a Battle Royale now.
As the match got into full swing, the cannibal showed his disrespect by lying on the arena floor watching the action without lifting a finger. and increased this to the groundless as he urinated from the ring into the water belt around it with his pants down. The crowd made it clear they didn’t like this and wanted Bartolomeo to show more seriousness. The fish-man Hack then also immediately wanted to confront the pirate, but he bounced his fist off an invisible-looking barrier that surrounded Bartolomeo. After kicking Hack away, Bellamy was his next opponent, but he suffered the same fate as Hack. After Elizabello II used his King Punch to defeat all the other competitors, only he and Bartolomeo were left in the ring at the end, as the latter used his devil powers to protect himself from the punch or shockwave of the punch. After Bartolomeo declared that he had eaten the barrier fruit and thus Elizabello’s attack did not affect him, he defeated the King of Prodense with only one attack, after which Bartolomeo was declared the winner of Block B.
After the battle royal, the cannibal was present when the wounded were brought from the arena to the infirmary and was able to overhear the conversation between Luffy and Bellamy to the extent that he overheard Bellamy addressing the straw-hatted captain disguised as Lucy, which visibly surprised Bartolomeo as beads of sweat spread across his face. While Block C was in full swing, the pirate came up to Cavendish with a chained-up suitcase containing various stickers with warning labels, congratulating him on his victory and talking about having problems with Lucy, aka Luffy. The captain of the Beautiful pirate gang clarified that Luffy was his prey, to which Bartolomeo replied that Cavendish would not kill Luffy, since his own past regarding the Straw Hat was much more profound.
Meeting with Luffy
As it turned out, however, Bartolomeo didn’t hold a grudge against Luffy like Cavendish did, but saw the Straw Hat captain as his absolute role model and idol. He even cut out a gladiator’s tongue to prevent him from continuing to speak ill of the rubber man. When Cavendish fought Luffy, the cannibal couldn’t even shout for them to stop because he couldn’t get a word out due to excitement. Then, when Luffy fled from Don Chinjao, Bartolomeo was overjoyed to see his idol run so close to him.
Later, Bartolomeo saw Zoro at the entrance of the Coliseum, who was looking for a way to talk to Luffy. Bartolomeo mustered up his courage and promised to bring Luffy to him if he could get his autograph in return. However, Bartolomeo couldn’t stay near his idol for that long and left as a result. However, when he saw Bellamy being attacked by Dellinger, Bartolomeo protected him with a barrier until Dellinger was assigned a new task. As Bartolomeo was about to take Bellamy to the infirmary, they encountered Luffy, who was looking for a way out of the Coliseum, as his crew needed him.
What worried him, however, was that Ace’s Devil Fruit could possibly fall into the hands of Jesus Burgess, at which point Bartolomeo promised to win the fruit for Luffy and deliver it to him, as he was going to do so either way. Suddenly, however, another person appeared who promised to win the fruit.
Final Battle Royale
The final Battle Royale of the Fire Fruit tournament was about to begin. It was between Diamante, Jesus Burgess, Rebecca, Lucy and Bartolomeo. The latter entered the ring with Lucy, the fact that he had shed previous behavior showing that this was someone else under the mask. During the match, Lucy instructed Bartolomeo to protect Rebecca with his barriers after she was previously knocked down by Diamante. While the cannibal was able to physically protect the gladiator, he was unable to do anything against Diamante’s words that he had killed her mother.
Soon Lucy had enough and wanted to end the fight. He blew up the entire ring and saved Rebecca, who was previously clinging to Bartolomeo. Lucy was then declared the winner of the tournament, as he was the one who ate the fire fruit. The entire battle ring now crashed into the underground harbor below the Coliseum, but Bartolomeo was able to save himself with the help of his barriers.
The birdcage
Arriving at the underground port, Bartolomeo met Usopp and Robin to his delight and immediately wanted an autograph from both of them. However, shortly after, they heard via a video Den-den Mushi what Doflamingo had done outside. To get revenge for the chaos on the island, Doflamingo locked the population in his “bird cage” and used his devil powers to control one half of the population to fight the other. There were only two ways to end the terror and free the population. Either someone succeed in defeating Doflamingo himself, or someone instead kill twelve people who were his greatest adversaries on the island and the main culprits for the failure of his plans.
Additionally, he had placed a personal bounty on each of them. Both the Straw Hats and Rebecca’s family and Sabo were on this list, whereupon many pirates and residents set out to hunt them down. However, Bartolomeo kept them at bay with his barriers, allowing the Straw Hats and him to escape to the old King’s Square. Thanks to Robin and Bartolomeo, they were able to reach their destination, but learned that Luffy had already gone to defeat Doflamingo.
After Violet found the key to Law’s handcuffs, Rebecca decided to take it to Luffy and Law. Bartolomeo couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see his idol in action and accompanied them along with Robin, Leo, and Kabu. The dwarves explained that they will use certain insects to allow the three of them to jump or fly from roof to roof. Although very skeptical at first, the three then set off.
Excited to see the Straw Hats in action and in the middle of an adventure of theirs, however, Bartolomeo didn’t notice Gladius knocking him and Robin out of the sky with a few shots. Once there, they were met by Luffy, Law, Kyros, and Cavendish, who had to face both Gladius and massive nutcrackers. To continue supporting his idol, Bartolomeo created a staircase of barriers that Luffy, Kyros, and Law could use to get to level 4. He himself stayed behind with Cavendish and Robin to fight Gladius. Robin, however, was soon plagued by a guilty conscience regarding Rebecca, so she tried to get to level 4 as well. Bartolomeo protected her from Gladius’ attacks while Cavendish attacked him.
However, when Cavendish’s second personality Hakuba took control of his body and uncontrollably attacked everyone, he and Bartolomeo had to switch places. Before he could harm Robin, Cavendish quickly took her to the fourth level while Bartolomeo continued to fight Gladius alone. In the process, he was hit by several poisonous hairs, but he was willing to stake his life to show his idol Luffy that he could be relied upon. With an attack dedicated to Luffy, the cannibal ultimately knocked Gladius down, thus winning the battle.
After Mansherry healed the allies, such as Hajrudin, and as Doflamingo’s birdcage began to shrink, the former Coliseum fighters then helped the civilians get to the new King’s Plateau without being stopped by the Doflamingo gang’s minions. Later, Bartolomeo created barriers that Hajrudin & Co. pushed against, thus preventing the Birdcage from shrinking further or giving Luffy enough time to recover and defeat Doflamingo. Since Mansherry’s healing effect was only temporary in nature for major injuries, Hajrudin, Ideo, Blue Gilly, and others later fainted again. Still, they were able to stall enough for Luffy to win his battle.
Foundation of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet
While Luffy was recovering from his fight against Doflamingo, the former fighters of the Colosseum discussed how to proceed. They all decided to join the Straw Hat Pirates permanently as allies or splinter groups. After Luffy recovered and the navy – led by Fujitora – moved out to capture him, the pirates fled the navy on Orlumbus’ ship with the help of the civilian population. Once at sea, Cavendish, Bartolomeo, Sai, Hajrudin, Ideo, Leo, and Orlumbus communicated their decision to Luffy. The exchange of sake bowls was to seal the alliance.
Luffy, however, declined as he felt commanding a fleet of several pirate gangs was too uptight. He didn’t want to have supreme command over them, but to continue to allow them their freedom. However, should one of their own ever need assistance, he would rush to help and vice versa should he need their assistance again. The seven leaders were then only more convinced of their resolve, and declared that if they had freedom to do as they pleased, they would still become his allies, no matter what Luffy might say. Thereupon the Straw Hat Grand Fleet was formed.
Trip to Zou
Together with Luffy and the remaining members of the Straw Hat Pirates, the Barto Club headed to Zou to reunite with Sanji, Nami, Chopper, Brook, and Momonosuke, who had hurried ahead there. On the way, they got caught in a hailstorm, at which point Bartolomeo confessed that the gang usually sailed without a navigator. With strong help from the Straw Hat Pirates, they actually managed to reach Zou after a week. Once there, the entire Barto Club said goodbye to their idols and set off for the New World.
Under the sail of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet
They reached an unknown island where they announced a riot. There he defeated the leader of the local gang, before coming up with several souvenirs and anecdotes about the Straw Hat Pirates. When the locals showed him a flag of Shanks afterwards, Bartolomeo and Gambia burned the flag, which terrified the locals. Likewise, at another time he was interviewed by a journalist to whom he gleefully and proudly revealed details about the Straw Hat Grand Fleet.
Miscellaneous
- Just as with Ace, his name seems to have come from the real pirate Bartolomeu Português.
- His epithet cannibal has nothing to do with conventional Cannibalism. In Japan, the expression“eating a person“exists, meaning that someone likes to make fun of others. This is exactly what Bartolomeo does in Block B, when he throws a supposed bomb into the crowd or intentionally spreads panic when Hack is about to attack him while he is urinating, in order to make fun of his serious attitude afterwards.
- His favorite dish is dagashi.
