Crona

"So many people here. I don't know how to deal with that...kill them? That's great!! That door only opens inside. That thing we did last night was real fun, wasn't it? i don't remember what it is, though. Oh, and...my blood is black."

- Crona Crona is a major antagonist and a tragic villain in the Soul Eater series, the abused child of Medusa. Crona is presented with an ambiguous gender throughout the entire series.

They are voiced by Maaya Sakamoto in the original dub, and by Maxey Whitehead in the English dub.

Appearance
Crona has an androgynous appearance, with a thin body and tall stature. The pink hair is badly cut with straight cut bangs uniformly above the eyebrows with two longer pieces of hair extending from the bangs and hang low over Crona's face. Most of the time, Crona wears a long black tight fitting Purtian-like robe that ends at the mid-calf level with cuff-links at the ends of each sleeve and a tall white button-up collar at the neck. Black slipper-like shoes with a tall white cuff protruding out of the top are also worn.

For formal occasions, Crona wears a white suit: the suit is very plain, with long, un-detailed pants and a coat with long sleeves and a collar. The coat appears to fasten at the front and back.

As a child, Crona wore a girly black knee-high dress. The dress has a rugged cut-out at the bottom, laced with several white diamonds. Like the present-day clothing, the childhood design also has a white collar and cuffs. The shoes stay relatively the same, as well. Crona's hair is shorter and simpler in this stage, but overall the same design.

After being "re-shaped" by Medusa, Crona's attire changes to an all-black really girly robe covered by thick folds of fabric covering the feet (slightly similar to Arachne's dress). When absorbing the Black Clown, Crona's clothes gain several steel/cloth plates covering the shoulders and the waist.

Personality
""I hate, hate, hate everyone…but that's alright. I can use my screams to blow them all away. I bet dead people are a lot easier to get along with.""

- Crona, Episode 16

Crona was taught at an early age to kill and torture small animals by Medusa to get them used to killing people. Crona is Ragnarok's meister, and is initially under Medusa's orders (and control) to take any soul they find, be it evil or good. Crona is a very naive and submissive person who is constantly pestered by Ragnarok in the form of noogies and threats to eat Crona's share of food. Crona does not like to fight (often unable to overcome any obstacles presented) but Medusa normally introduces a spell into Crona's mind which increases Crona's aggression. Ragnarok also bullies them into fighting. While under Medusa's control, Crona becomes dangerously unstable, showing signs of insanity and aggression, spouting senseless comments and laughing at random moments. Crona is incredibly nervous and jumpy, and the slightest thing can make them frightened. Crona is also incredibly emotional and sensitive. After Crona becomes friends with Maka in the anime, however, Crona begins to become surer of themself, but still has difficulty making decisions. They soon begins to distinguish the difference between good and evil.

Crona is extremely negative, enough so that a poem Crona wrote was so abundantly depressing it made Black Star, Maka, Marie, Soul, and Sid sulk in a corner and wish they were never born (though in Sid's case, he wishes he was never revived) after reading it, with Crona shortly following the suite. Crona seems to want to adapt to interacting with people, but it seems hard for them to do, most likely because of Medusa's abusive treatment. However, Crona does show signs of slowly opening up to the people around them, and becomes touched with how the others care about them, up to the point they think they do not deserve that much attention. Crona seems more relaxed around Maka. Unless Maka comes and fetches them, Crona normally stays in a corner of any room, and will cower in it if frightened, calling the corner 'Mr. Corner'. Crona mostly interacts with others only when Maka is present, since Maka can easily tune in to Crona's Soul Wavelength to be understanding and calming when needed. Crona also expresses unusual determination when it comes to helping or protecting Maka. Due to Crona's lack of interaction with others (other than eating their souls), Crona has nearly no experience in interacting with other people, hence Crona's catchphrase, "I don't know how to deal with [???]..." Crona cannot adapt to new situations and can panic easily, and finds it difficult to make decisions.

Despite the fact that Crona was beginning to adapt to their new life, they were coerced back into working for Medusa and ran away from Shibusen after acting as a spy for Medusa. After returning to Medusa, Crona's personality reverts back to their original dark, insane state. Crona also seems to suffer from amnesia, not remembering Maka or their friends. However; they show signs of inner conflict as they attempt to remember their past life.

In the Anime, Crona becomes more determined and courageous when they decide to go and defeat Medusa and rescue Stein alongside Marie and Maka. Although still nervous and unsettled by Medusa, Crona stands up to her and even risks their life for Maka. In the anime, Crona also seems to have a good sense of direction, being able to navigate both themself and Marie through Shibusen and Medusa's lair.

Gender Confusion
Throughout the series, Crona's gender is unknown due to Atsushi Okubo, the creator of Soul Eater, has stated himself that even he's unaware of Crona's gender, as he hasn't definitively given Crona one yet. Although various hints to different genders are given, Crona's gender has yet to be exactly stated. It is important to note in the japanese version that Crona uses the masculine pronoun "Boku" or "Watashi "for self reference. However, though originally used by males, those pronouns have become used by females as of late. Furthermore, Medusa always calls Crona as "my child", referring to Crona as an "it" and never referring something more specific as "son" or "daughter".

Abilities
Crona's blood has been entirely replaced with 'Black blood' which both protects Crona from physical harm and provides a degree of healing. Ragnarok, originally a normal weapon, was melted into the black blood before the transfusion, which causes their symbiotic nature with part of Ragnarok forming into the child's sword to use Scream Resonate and attacks that use the Black Blood like the Bloody Needle projectiles. After absorbing enough Souls, Crona can use the Black Dragon ability to create wings of black blood from a dragonized Ragnarok to take flight. The possession of Black Blood also allows Crona to assimilate those with the same blood, using in on the Black Clown to don two new appendages each armed with a Ragnarok-type sword.

Medusa later enhanced Crona to use a more potent version of the Black Blood called Mad Blood, trapping an opponent in an enlarging ball of blood to consume an entire city in utter madness. Though possibly able to use magic like Medusa due to being a witch's child, it has yet to be verified. After killing Medusa, Crona's powers increased to using shadows as weapons. After assimilating Asura, Crona became near-god-like in power to the point of damaging the moon during the epic battle that ensued there. In the anime, despite having no onscreen training, Crona successfully pulls off a Chain Resonance with Maka and Marie.

Relationships

 * Ragnarok
 * Crona's weapon, as well as part of their blood. When Crona was a child, Medusa melted down Ragnarok, at that time a regular weapon, and combined him with black blood. She then injected this mixture into Crona's own blood, creating an unwilling symbiosis and permanently fusing Crona with Ragnarok.


 * Ragnarok is a playful character, and acts like an annoying older brother to Crona. He often gives the meister noogies, steals their food, plays with their nose, and even lifted up Crona's robe at one point, almost exposing their underwear. Whenever Ragnarok is angry with his meister, he will not hesitate to pop out of them and begin attacking Crona in an annoying, playful, but slightly violent way. He also uses Crona as a human shield at times, notably only for non-lethal attacks, like Maka Chop.


 * However, despite his teasing, Ragnarok does seem to care about Crona. He heals Crona whenever needed (although always pestering for a "thank you very much" afterword) and provides constant vocal motivation during battle. Ragnarok realizes that if Crona dies, he will die too, ultimately driving him to protect his meister as much as possible.


 * Maka Albarn
 * Holdinghands.png's first friend, they share a similar soul wavelength. It was during the Underground Shibusen battle in which the Kishin was revived where Maka and Crona became friends: after seeing into Crona's soul and realizing the emptiness and sadness of their past, Maka came to understand Crona on a deep level. Not long after, Maka gave Crona presumably their first loving physical contact when she hugged them and gave them a handshake.


 * After the Underground Battle, Maka and Crona become formidable friends. It is with Maka's help that the meister learns how to fit into Shibusen, and at first Crona won't even leave a room without Maka. Although the strong relationship seems to be one-sided at times (as Maka has many friends and often does not spend time on-screen with Crona) ultimatly Maka's love for Crona is shown when she decides to help Crona defeat Medusa rather then help Shibusen bring down the Kishin at Baba Yaga Castle. This choice would ultimately save Crona's life for the time being.


 * Medusa
 * Crona's blood mother, and the one who fused the black blood (containing Ragnarok) into Crona's blood. Medusa seems to act towards her child as if they were a servant and is overall less of a mother and more of an enemy. She, as of yet, has not displayed any definitive affection for Crona.


 * Medusa trained Crona in the hopes that they would one day rise to become the next Demon God. However, as it grows more and more apparent that Crona does not have the will to fulfill this task, Medusa speaks often of "throwing out" her unneeded child. Once Crona attends Shibusen, however, she forces Crona to be a spy and complete tasks for her.


 * In the anime, Medusa ultimately has no problem seemingly mortally wounding Crona, enticing Maka's fury. However, in the manga, she claims that Crona has been captured and that no parent wants their child to be sacrificed (though this turns out to be a ruse in order to manipulate Maka further).

History
As a toddler, Crona was subjected to Medusa's experiment involving a blood transfusion of a madness inducing liquid called Black Blood. As a result, Crona entered a forced symbiosis with a weapon that was melted into the Black Blood, the Demon Sword Ragnarok. From there, from killing small animals to suffering various forms of torture through Raganrok's bullying and a merciless mother's methods of punishment, Crona is raised for Medusa's purpose to destroy the world by consuming enough souls to become a Kishin and then merge with the original Kishin Asura.

Eventually, while having Ragnarok devour the souls of a gang in Italy's Santa Maria Novella Basilica on Medusa's command, Crona is confronted by Maka Albarn and her Weapon partner Soul Eater Evans. The two meisters quickly engage in battle with the fight ending in Crona's favor as Soul is mortally wounded with some the Black Blood making Ragnarok entering the Weapon's bloodstream. Luckily, Maka's father Spirit and his former Meister Franken Stein arrive and defeat Crona as his Soul Resonance with Ragnarok is failing to the point of internal damage. Luckily, Medusa made her presence known and takes her child to safety.

Crona's next confrontation with the DWMA was on the Nidhogg, confronted by Death the Kid as he was investigating the ghost ship. After having Ragnarok devour the souls that the Nidhogg's captain was intending to offer to Asura, Crona states his intention to become a Kishin to no longer be afraid. Eventually, due to the strain of dealing with both Kid and the Nidhogg's captain, Crona splits the ship in half and flies off in Ragnarok's Black Dragon form.

When Medusa enacts her plan to revive Asura, Crona is set up as a guard for a portion of the hallway leading to the Kishin's resting place to keep the DWMA from interfering. Though Black Star was to fight Crona, Maka engages in battle instead for her previous encounter. But like before, Crona had the upper hand until the Black Blood inside Soul is activated with Maka getting a boost despite slowly descending into madness herself. This causes the fight to be a stalemate until Maka sees into Crona's soul and learns of the horror the child had suffered at Medusa's hand. This causes Maka to break free from her madness to purify Crona by offering the child her friendship.

Despite being welcomed by the DWMA and accepted as a student, Crona is placed in a tough situation when Medusa returns and drafts the child to serve as her spy and carry out her dirty work like bugging Marie with one of her snakes to intensify Stien's madness. Guilt ridden, and learning that Maka overheard the child's earlier discussion with Eruka, Crona leaves the DWMA without saying goodbye. Medusa uses that to her advantage by lying that Arachnophobia kidnapped Crona to serve as a sacrificial offering to trick the DWMA into helping her take Arachne's body. Once the deed is done, Medusa reveals that truth while telling an enraged Maka that she will never hand over Crona, whose memory of being in the DWMA is erased.

From there, Medusa begins to improve Crona's ability by clearing the Black Clown that would be compatible with Ragnarok and testing the child's new powers on Black Star yet is overpowered due to the youth causing Crona to remember Maka. When Justin Law appears with one of Asura's Clowns, Medusa has Mizune and Eruka retrieve Crona who is more confused than before. Given a new mission to kill off all Death Scythes, with his Black Blood evolved into Madness Blood, Crona takes the souls of Moscow's resident Death Scythe and Meister. Once home, Crona's confusion worsens when Medusa acts out of character and treats her child with love and affection. This, combined with both regained memories the realization that the child will never be stable, causes Crona to go insane as the child disembodies Medusa in blend of rage and confusion. It was only before dealing the deathblow that Crona learns that Medusa staged this event so the child can kill her and reach the potential that she envisioned.

Going into hiding at Santa Maria Novella Basilica, Crona is found by Maka who attempts to convince her friend to come back with her. However, Crona reveals to have killed Medusa and to no intention of returning out fearing of killing every other. After evading Black Star, Crona arrives to the moon and succeeds in assimilating Asura with the intention to fulfill the destiny Medusa prepare the child for: Destroying the world with madness.

However, while everyone else was teleported out of harm's way, only Maka, Black Star and Spirit on the moon. Despite claiming to be beyond redemption, Maka vows to get the Crona she knows back as she and Black engage the Kishin who eventually uses the Rose Thorn Storm attack to negate the Meister's Soul Resonance before taking and Tsubaki to have a higher advantage. However, when Spirit joins Maka, the Rose Thorn Storm is unable to affect them due to their familiar ties. Being told that causes Crona to suffer a mental breakdown which enables Asura to make his presence within the child known. From there, Asura absorbs Crona from the inside with the child now within the Kishin's body. Within a sea inside Asura's body, though their presence is faint, Crona thinks on every past action and believes that the only thing left now is to die, though one part of the child wishes to see Maka one final time. Crona ends up seeing that wish when Maka appears alongside Soul due to the girl's faith in them. Though Maka attempts to take the child with her, Crona tells Maka that they first need to atone for the wrongs they committed as a way of thanking her. Crona then asks for the Book of Eibon that Maka brought with her. After revealing the intent to use Brew to seal both Asura and the Mad Blood, not caring for what will become of them, Crona tells Maka that she needs to make Asura bleed from the outside. As Maka leaves, she yells that she'll return for them someday, to which Crona merely smiles and calmly responds "I believe in you." Once Maka succeeds at her end, Crona activates Brew to power up the Mad Blood to its full potential to consume the entire moon in a dome of Mad Blood, speaking the words "Let's meet again Maka" as the task is completed.

Anime
In the anime adaptation of Soul Eater, Crona receives a much more happier ending than their fate in the manga.

Following the defeat on Lost Island (from episode #37), Crona is eating lunch with their friends (and the other Shibusen students) talking about the failed mission. Crona is glad everyone returned safely back to the academy, but then Maka then talks about Professor Stein's mental breakdown. Realizing that his breakdown was caused by the snake that they put into Marie's coffee, Crona starts to get nervous. The other's dismiss their odd behavior as normal for Crona, but Soul beings to realize something is up with Crona. Later on Crona ask Eruka Frog if Professor Stein is alright. Eruka praises Crona for helping to prevent Shibusen from getting Brew and reminds him to continue spying for Medusa.

When Eruka informs Medusa when Crona asked about Stein's condition. Hearing that, Medusa thinks that Crona might not be of any use soon.

Eruka informs Crona to return to Medusa. Crona doesn't want to leave, but Ragnarok tells Crona that they have no choice since Maka and everyone at Shibusen won't forgive them once they found out Crona betrayed the academy and caused Professor Stein's madness. Later on Crona is having a picnic with their friends when Crona leaves when they discovered that Marie made the food and Maka and the others are planning on visiting Professor Stein, Crona finally decides they cannot stay at the academy. Maka later catches up with Crona and they talk about Maka's Mother and about how much Maka loves her mother despite the fact she doesn't get to she her. After this conversation, Crona leaves Death City but decides not to return to Medusa. After falling into a pit, Maka and Soul soon locate them. Crona cries in fear of losing Maka's friendship because they betrayed the academy and cause Professor Stein to become insane. Maka hugs Crona, reassuring them that she will always be their friend. She is not upset with Crona at all when Crona confesses to betraying the academy, knowing Crona was pressured into it by Medusa. However Death is not very forgiving, he orders Crona to be expelled for their betrayal despite Maka's objection.

Later on Crona is imprisoned in the dungeon after Medusa's brief imprisonment, but after speaking with Death, he allows Crona to rescue Professor Stein along with Marie (who recently quit her job at Shibusen). Marie clearly has lost her trust in Crona, but she can only regain her trust in them if Crona can save Stein. When the two reach Medusa's lair, a battle is quickly started. As Medusa and Crona fight, the witch sends soul waves into Crona, disconnecting the link between Crona and Ragnarok which renders Crona's black blood useless until the soul waves wear off. Right before Medusa deals a final blow to her child; Maka comes and blocks the Vector Blade from slicing them.

With Maka now in the fight, the three continue to try to defeat Medusa and Stein. However, Stein appears to be too strong, and easily blocks off all attacks. As Crona and the others rest, Medusa tries to use a Vector Arrow to kill Maka. Crona jumps in the way and takes the blow instead at the last second, getting gravely injured. Ragnarok appears to be dying as well from loss of blood. Maka begins to cry as she watches Crona slowly dying in front of her, but Crona tells her not to cry because they are final happy for the first time in their life. Soon after saying that, Crona is assumed to have died from the attack. Maka, horrified over the death of Crona, becomes berserk with rage and almost loses herself to madness like she did the night the Kishin was revived. However, Marie calms both Maka and Stein; she then saves Stein from madness using the Wavelength of Redemption. With Stein acting as Marie's meister, a Chain Resonance between the remaining parties occurs; before this occurs Stein informs Maka that he feels Crona's soul still in Medusa's layer and he can still save Crona and Ragnarok. While Stein distracts and leads Medusa, Maka unleashes her anti-demon wavelength's Majin Hunt, cutting off Medusa's soul from Rachel Boyd's body and slicing the soul in half, finally finishing off the witch for good.

Stein and Marie bring Rachel and Crona back to Shibusen, where Stein begins an operation on Crona.

Marie expresses guilt for pressuring Crona into rescuing Stein, but Stein believes Crona will forgive her. Then Crona awakes from their coma, determined to locate Maka.

Stein and Marie arrive with Crona in the Death Room where they find out that Maka is fighting Asura with her friends. Crona, Death, Sid, Spirit, and the others watch her battle from Death's chamber, hoping in her that she will still find a way to win. Crona states that the Kishin Hunt isn't what Maka needs to defeat Asura. Marie asks what they is talking about, Crona tells everyone that Maka's true strength comes from her heart and not a technique. What Crona was alluding to is bravery, which Maka uses to successfully defeating Asura once and for all.

After the events, Crona is allowed back into Shibusen and is seen living with Maka, Soul, and Blair and playing basketball with their friends.

Trivia

 * The katakana for Crona's name is actually the last 3 katakana for Ragnarok's name in reverse.
 * Crona is known for their catchphrase "I don't know how to deal with [???]..."
 * Crona's appearance and many of their abilities are likely based on the character "Emine" in Atsushi's earlier series, and in turn most likely inspired the Deadmen from Deadman Wonderland, which was released 3 years after Soul Eater.
 * Another one of Crona's catchphrases, when in their maddened state, is that of informing an opponent that their blood is black.
 * Crona's personality is set to mirror Asura's before he became a Kishin, being overly scared of everyone, not knowing how to cope with fear, and believing that the only way to escape fear is through the attainment of great power.
 * Black☆Star apparently assumes that Crona is a male. Asking Crona whether or not they had a "third sword" with uncertainty. However, although Ragnarok tries to reveal Crona's gender by pulling up their outfit, Crona prevents him from doing so, and the event is suddenly ignored.
 * Maka also thinks that Crona is, indeed, male.
 * In Crona's past, their first opponent was The Little One, a small bunny that they were forced to kill. In the anime, however, The Little One is censored into a small black dragon.
 * In Chapter 87, it's revealed that Crona's favorite dish is pasta, which Medusa makes for lunch after they return from their missions.
 * In the English dub of the anime, he/him pronouns are used to refer to Crona, but this does not mean Crona is male. Funimation admitted that they had to settle with this rule because they felt that "it" and "they" would have been insulting to Crona as a character. The same rule applies to the Yen Press translation of the manga
 * The creater of Soul Eater, Atsushi Okubo, has stated himself that even he's unaware of Crona's gender, and hasn't settled for their sex.
 * Crona's poems are shown to be overwhelmingly depressing, to the point that it renders most people who read them utterly despondent and wish they were never born. Though, it is never shown what the contents of the poems entail.
 * Crona's English voice artist Maxey Whitehead has stated that that her favorite character to voice so far in her career has been Crona.