Sure she isn’t anything but a terror at first, but Iron Mace Alvida has one of the best villain glow-ups of One Piece. Captain of the Alvida Pirates, she’s one of the baddest in the East Blue, and is a crucial point of One Piece’s first saga. So, who is the infamous Iron Mace Alvida, and what are her ridiculous powers?
This article contains spoilers for One Piece through chapter 1098. Catch up on MangaPlus or Viz before continuing to avoid spoilers!
Who is Iron Mace Alvida?
A terror of the East Blue, Iron Mace Alvida is one of the first villainous captains Luffy meets in his journey. When she first appears, Alvida is a massive figure, towering over most others with an iron mace almost as big as she is. She’ll return later slimmer and much more curvy, but her attitude stays the same no matter what she looks like.
Alvida is a narcissist to the core. She believes that she’s beautiful, no matter what, but not in the positive self-love way. Instead, she likes to call herself beautiful and beat anyone who disagrees to death. This happens a lot more often than not, and it only starts to take a dip in frequency when she teams up with Buggy. Otherwise, Alvida is the typical greedy, power-hungry pirate who wants nothing but terror and treasure.
Koby’s Captor
When Alvida first appears in the series, she’s the captain with a major anger problem that kidnaps Koby. The poor little wimp is being held as her cabin boy/prisoner, taking the brunt of her anger in the process. It’s honestly up in the air who’s worse to their slaves, the Celestial Dragons or Alvida, but it’s a damn close race. Even the live-action series made sure to accentuate how incredibly brutal she is, introducing her by showing a man’s head being caved in by her mace.
Alvida captures Koby from a ship that she raids, making him work for her every need. Meanwhile, he’s absolutely terrified of her, believing that she’ll kill him at the slightest infraction. He’s not wrong either, because Alvida won’t hesitate to pull out the iron mace she gets her name from.
Alvida Pirates
Her crew is just as scared of Alvida as Koby is, though much more expendable. Alvida is seriously bloodthirsty when it comes to killing, and she doesn’t care who it is. Everything for her is bloodlust, and eventually, her crew becomes a moot point as she eventually integrates into the Buggy Pirates.
Romance Dawn Arc
One Piece’s first arc is also Alvida’s debut, where she comes into the story as the terrifying captain whose ship Luffy ends up on. There he meets Koby, learning all about how awful the Iron Mace Alvida is, and earning a friend in the process. Luffy ends up going out to take Alvida on. The massive iron mace finally comes out, and Alvida is far too overjoyed for what’s about to blow up in her face. Alvida brings down her weapon on the Straw Hat Boy, flattening him in one blow.
Until he bounces back up, totally unfazed. It’s one of the first real shows of what Luffy’s Gum-Gum Fruit powers are capable of, and he gives her a taste of her own medicine. Alvida gets a Gum-Gum Pistol straight to the face, and she is knocked into the next week as Luffy and Koby take off. This seems to be the end of Alvida, but of course, she’s never really gone.
Return in Loguetown
Alvida re-enters the story in the Loguetown arc alongside Buggy the Clown. Although Luffy is the only one who knows who Alvida is, when she and Buggy lock him up on the execution stand, he has no idea who she is. This of course is because she’s now suddenly much thinner in places she wasn’t before, while other places got…. bigger. It’s the first of a few different drastic makeovers that will come from the story of One Piece, and it’s the butt of a joke that uses her new Devil Fruit.
Of course, Alvida ends up being outrun by the Straw Hats in Loguetown despite her new powers. She, Buggy, Smoker, and Tashigi all give chase after she and Buggy fail to kill Luffy, Alvida slides through the town using her Devil Fruit powers. After this, she isn’t seen again until Buggy is arrested, but Alvida manages to escape and keep the Buggy Pirates together until he breaks out of Impel Down.
Slip-Slip Fruit
Probably one of the first Devil Fruit abilities to solely be used for the joke potential, it’s also one of the strongest. The Slip-Slip Fruit of course has the easily apparent effect of all Alvida’s previous weight just ‘slipping right off’. Then she has the bonus of every hit that comes her way just slipping right off her skin, This makes her basically impervious to attacks, and really proves to be a problem for the Straw Hats when they see her in Loguetown.
This same ability still makes her a threat in later scenes, and she helps Buggy out of some tight spots with it. How Alvida came into possession of the Slip-Slip Fruit isn’t quite known, but it had to be not long after the Straw Hat Captain beat her senseless. If she manages to Awaken it, likely making everything around her slippery, it could be one of the most chaotic Devil Fruit abilities around.
Alliances
Alvida considers herself a right hand to Buggy the Clown. She joins up with him not long after his defeat in Orange Town, helping him to get his missing limbs back. They both realize they’ve been done wrong by the young Straw Hat, and decide to form an alliance based on killing Luffy. It’s one that turns into a long, fruitful relationship as they stay together long after the Loguetown Incident, and Alvida even becomes part of Buggy’s Delivery Service.
Currently, she’s allied with Cross Guild along with Buggy, Sir Crocodile, and Dracule ‘Hawkeye’ Mihawk. While she’s loyal to Buggy exclusively, the other two don’t really bother with her. They do consider her to be a competent fighter with a decent Devil Fruit, but they also have a healthy disrespect thanks to her choice in leadership. Anyone who chooses willingly to follow orders can’t be one hundred percent developed mentally, as a rule.
Enemies
Right off the bat, Alvida’s worst enemy is Straw Hat Luffy. She’s never going to forget what he did to her, humiliating her in front of her crew. That said, she also has a strange infatuation with him. It’s really weird. She teams up with Buggy entirely based on taking down Luffy, and it nearly comes true at Loguetown, though she’s still chasing him to this day.
Otherwise, Alvida has the typical set of enemies for pirates. The Marines and World Government have been after her, ever since she was a pirate in the East Blue.
Where is Alvida Now?
Considering Alvida’s notoriety at this point in the story, being the subordinate of an Emperor and former Warlord, she’s low profile. Her bounty still hovers around the original five million Berries, despite even taking over as Acting Captain of the Buggy Pirates for some time. Currently, she’s serving under the Emperor Buggy the Clown, carrying out bounties for Cross Guild. She’s one of the main ones behind putting bounties out on Marines, and it’s becoming a lucrative business.
Alvida isn’t done in the story of One Piece yet either. She’s going to show up again any time Buggy does, whether it be in the background or in an actual speaking role. It would be nice for her to get some action in the Final Saga though, and One Piece could bring the story around full circle that way. Iron Mace Alvida will probably crush a few more heads in the story of One Piece, if she doesn’t slip by unnoticed.
