Something Iāve realized about Crocodile that maybe is obvious to other people but Iāve never paid enough attention too is how much value he places in competence.Ā
For example, when he shanks Robin, one of the things Crocodile complements her for is the fact that she was a good partner and employee. Crocodile doesnāt trust people, and he doesnāt value loyalty. After all, Mr. 3 knows that heās a wanted man within the company and is risking his life to make sure Crocodile knows that the Straw Hats and Vivi are still alive, and Crocodile does his damnedest to kill him for his efforts.Ā
So if Crocodile want personal loyalty from his minions, what does he want? Nothing more than a job well done. Thereās no questioning that Mr. 3 completely botched his mission at Little Garden, and when he lays out the depth of his failure Croc flips his shit.Ā
But the failure isnāt just Mr. 3ā²s, is it? Crocodile was the one who didnāt recognize that Mr. 3 wasnāt the person who was talking with him over the phone, and itās Crocodile who didnāt pay enough attention to the mysterious disappearance of the Unluckies. Itās Crocodileās own punishment-driven policies that prevented Mr. 3 from reporting the truth until itās almost too late, and his paranoid secrecy that resulted in Mr. 2 not recognizing Vivi and the Straw Hats as enemies of Baroque Works.Ā
There are many ways where Crocodile foils both Vivi and Luffy, but as weāll see later on in this chapter when those two have their big fight, one of the things that separates them is that both Vivi and Luffy cop up to their mistakes and they make the changes needed to become better leaders, whereas Crocodile can never be wrong. Heās like Kuro in that way--always believing himself to be the smartest man in the room, someone who canāt fail because heās planned for every contingency.Ā
But you canāt plan for the Straw Hats, and judging by how Crocodile acts when Sanji pulls his Mr. Prince gambit later on, he canāt stand that, and it results in his undoing.Ā Ā
