What Kroenen did to his body 

Why does Karl Ruprecht Kroenen need a clockwork mechanism in his chest? What can his movements tell us? What is this strange way to express emotions? What exactly has he done to his body, and why, after all? I’ll answer these questions about our old buddy Kroenen and more in this video. Yes, this is a real body horror.

He understood the “weakness of his flesh” only the machine is immortal

This dude was always one of the few characters that scared me as a child. He has such a cool design, and I love the fight with Hellboy. When Hellboy beats him down and crushed him, that was my favorite part in the movie.

'He removed some of his ribs' Uh oh 💀

One of the coolest villain designs ever. Love that hes basically just a golem assassin and the clockwork mechanisms and masks are just purely for theatrics and to look cool. 😂

Still looks and moves exceptionally well for 120 years old.

I always figured that since Kroenen's love for music is so apparent in the movie that music helps him concentrate and that wind up mechanism is basically letting him hear a heartbeat inside him.. Or more accurately, a metronome so he can tune his concentration.

Kroenen: "From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me. I craved the strength and certainty of steel"

Ok but his hugo boss style outfit is pretty lit ngl.

As a diehard fan of Mignola's work, literally any of it, and of the Hellboy comic saga, I had a lot to say about Del Toro's adaptation, i like the movie, I like it a lot even, but there's also a lot in it that clashes with Hellboy's original phylosophy that could have been avoided. I understand he wanted to present the movie to a wide audience, but I believe he should have been more daring in respect of the source material, producing an R rated film. I'm sure it would have been amazing. Anyhow, what Del Toro did to Kronen is actually pretty good, he turned a secondary character with not much weight, into a scary, heavy weight baddie that is actually unforgettable. Not all changes are bad ☠️

One of the most terrifying villains in movie history

“From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh…”

Kroenen is something you would see as a boss in COD zombies

Finally!!! this underrated villain earned a good analysis.

“What exactly has he done to his booty?” 🧐

If I had a dollar for every time one of Hellboy’s enemies gave him insight of his destiny to bring on the apocalypse I’d be able to buy a vast supply of Babyruth’s 😂

I never read the comics, I only saw the movies. Thanks for providing this excellent context.

He’d be the winner of every blink contest.

One of the most heavy metal villans out there.

Titanicpissflapexcellerator.

Definitely one of the most badass henchmen in film history

I always assume the need to wind himself up is because since becoming an undead, there are limits to his natural base movements, like he isn't burden by life but burdened by undeath of sort, like yea he is resilient to everything and everything but with a great cost, so the wind up is needed to give him additional movement. Edit: Ok I made this comment when I was surrounded by distractions, what I mean by undeath simply like, yea he can still move, he can walk in all, he wont feel pain, or have the limits of pain but he can't move very fast, he isn't as agile or very acrobatic.

It’s been 20 years, I wonder if he is still in that spike pit that hellboy threw him into 😂

The algorithm blessed me with this gem

Kroenen vs. Nuada, now THAT would be a fight !!

One problem is that earlier in the video you said he cranks his heart key to increase his motor functions, but then later on say it is for nothing but aesthetics.

Definitely a better live action version than his comic counterpart that’s just a mad scientist

Dude is a former krieg soldier that believed in the omnissaia and went to the Adeptus Mechanicus because the flesh is weak...at least in my 40k related head canon

He always reminded me of Voldo from the Soul Calibur games. Ya know, if he wore proper clothes, and joined the Nazi Party...

He always reminded me of Voldo from soul caliber

I feel like this is what spurred my love of steampunk, honestly.

Always an interesting character, & a badass design & fashion sense 😂

This guy must have been the inspiration for Samurai Sword from Chainsaw Man. Fujimoto often said that he takes much inspiration from Movies so it would defenitly make sense that he took some from here too.

Karl ruprecht kroenen has be one off the most badass antagonist we've seen in 21 century motion pictures the introduction to his character at the beginning was perfect standing in the rain with that outfit we can't see his facial expressions so he uses theatrical movements to express his emotions making him uniquely identifiable as the freak in the gas mask 🎭

He is the coolest looking villain. Smooth, stylish nazi uniform, mask and skill! 👍🏻

He’s one of my fav villains thank you so much for this video it was awesome!

that uniform is freakin good

Ah, my favorite character in all of Hellboy ever since I was 5. Truly a magnificent character.

Never knew his eyes were CGI

God Bless Karl Ruprecht Kroenen.

Karl Ruprecht Kroenen is one of the most well-defined assassins of any series or universe. This character could have been adapted for many movies or series. It would have been nice to see him more.

This character fascinated me when i first saw the movie.

I love your analytical perception of these villians

Weirdest but dedicated soldier

Kroenen was a more interesting character than the main cast 😂

Dang dude! What a callback i haven't thought about hellboy movies in a minute! Ive always wondered about this guy!

I really wish that they would have made a world war 2 episode of this series. But then that would be original and we can't have that. 😅😂

2:11 - "I repeatedly went under the knife and surgically dehumanized myself, costing me half of my face, much of my body, and most of my soul, all for the sake of power and immortality... but seriously. Don't take up smoking. It's bad for your health."

I would love to see this character tangle with Deadpool. That would be breathtaking!

Kroenen Always Scared The Hell Out Of Me As A Kid.

I always thought that Kronen winds up his heart mechanism to vibrate the sand in his body to get it flowing like water, so that he can move around freely. But why would a corpse filled with sand need to be vibrated to move you might be wondering? Well that's a good question, the answer is simple: if he's been undead for so long, doesn't that mean his bones muscles and internal organs are all too weak for him to use? Other then the black magic that's clearly keeping him alive, I'd say his body being filled with sand is extremely helpful, and plays a major role in helping him move his body, because without it, he'd just be a spaghetti noodle. So basically, what I'm trying to say is, it's both theatrical and functional.

Kroenen is the OG Deadpool

I never put a lot of thought into it but I guess I imagined that the clockwork throughout his body and armor were magically endowed with power. Maybe he needs those masks from time to time to keep his eyeballs moist.

This assassin is the first member of the adeptus mechanicus from 40k

alright now give us the surgery guide, I've got some self improvement to do

Beautiful vid summing up this fascinating character!

Kroenen is the most evil vibes that gives off hut duel hand swords with that black gun goes hard with an edit

This comic book character feels like a true story. I know there was a scientist in the Nazi army who tried to make super soldiers by drugging them up and leaving them in a room and seeing how long they stayed up. Those people turned into monsters and scratched their own skin off their bodies. He did create people who never sleep but they were so messed up they didn't survive the experiment. The next batch went insane and attacked their own men, and they had to kill them

GERMAN TECHNOLOGY IS THE BEST IN THE WORLD

My headcanon is that Pandora actor from Overlord definitely got inspired by this guy.

Or he did a lot of those movements with the glove or walking down the stairs BECAUSE THE GUY CAN'T SEE RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM. I have that mask you have to angle your head or move things into your field view or you will have a huge blind spot right between the eyes.

it's kind of scary to think that he might still be alive in that spike pit

Kroenen had awesome clothes in the beginning of the Movie

I like to believe the body in the movies is like an hourglass since he is filled with sand. Plus he has a workshop with multiple masks which means he has multiple suits and multiple bases. When one suit empties with sand another’s activated.

He was a human automaton i believe which later wasn't any human left inside it! Reminds really good voldo from soul calibur franchise! 😅

@4:30 when you don't have eyelids, you tend to always look surprised.

Excellent job my friend.

"What exactly has he does to his booty"

A most strange, bizarre and unnatural perversion of the human body….

My thoughts on the matter: He understands the need for other human beings to make sense of the insensible. He knows that when someone confronts him without prior knowledge of his methods and nature, they expect a human being inside some sort of steampunk gimp suit. All the theatrics of his present form--the ticking, the moving gears, the sand, the mask, etc.--are his way of deliberately using the person's fear of the unknown and of the uncanny valley to unsettle, disturb, or distract them. Yes, his visuals may be directly influenced by an internal psychological motivation, but it has the practical effect of psychological warfare, which works greatly to his advantage.

Wow, never thought he was really so thought out, i always just thought he was cool

That was a great recomendation, Ive loved it

i love his appeareance at the start of the film. very nice uniform, long black leather coat and the cool mask. just beautiful. as expected from our uniforms :)

“As soon as I realized the weakness of my flesh, I was disgusted by it”

He reminds me of Dr Steinman from the Bioshock 1 game. Dr Steinman was a cosmetic surgeon who went insane. The good Doctor leaves some tape recorded messages around. One in particular still makes me laugh when the Doctor goes on a diatribe about Picasso's cubist period. Something the Dr attempted to replicate on his patients.

This man was a living cadaver.

I love the fact you used SINISTER by Anno Domini Beats as the main background soundtrack 😊🎉🎉🎉🎉❤❤❤❤

I personally think that while he is kept alive by dark magic, all the mechanisms in his chest and body that make him such a danger are run or regulated by the clockwork. And that's why winding/switching settings puts him in battle mode. And why he seems to die as the long spike of metal at the start pierces him because it blocks his mechanism and messes up the magic force keeping him animate for a while. Plus, as the narrator said, he's a bit of a drama queen and like to put on a show. F.i. He could have killed the agents in the sewer without ever letting them get a shot off, but he just had to have his dramatic appearance. The "unwinding" bit was probably needed to stop everything ticking so he would truly be assumed dead.

I feel like he would be incredibly easy to tease

He upgrade himself, make him become invulnerable, the power of evolutionary

"Lady fingers...they taste just like lady fingers..."

I wonder if he removed his heart while alive and the winding is a habit from when he used to have to wind it up, back when he still had blood to pump, as a way to manually give himself an adrenaline-like state.

even as an adult this guy still scares me which says a lot cause not much scares me 😭

I think he looks surprised mostly because he doesn't have eye lids lol

I believe the Character is based on the Nazi Zombie super soldiers from the 1977 movie "Shock Waves".

I read the title as “What Korean did to his body” 😅😅

“What exactly has he done to his BOOTIE and why after all.” 🤨

It is 4 am on a Tuesday why did I click on this I don’t know anymore

I was playing Soul Calibur 2 a lot as a kid and when I first saw him, he gave me some big Voldo vibes.

Came here for the pronunciation of "body". Stayed for the content

Praise be to the Omnissiah I'm glad to see my fellow Warhammer 40k enthusiasts took the time to visit the comments section.

What did he do to his body? EVERYTHING.

He simply understood the weakness of his mortal flrsh and replaced it with stronger mechanical ones as the maxhine g9d intended.

I may need to roll a Kroenen homage in dark souls. I forgot just how badass he was

Thanks for that.... For real...

I foolishly thought the sand in his body was somehow related to a sand based time keeping device, a sand clock. And his blood spilling out ... his sand spilling out meant his time was spilling ---> running out?

He always made me think of that creepy fugger from soul caliber. voldo?

Kroenen is what we call 🤙 a showman. 😊

I like this Villains look and Outfit. Perfect for the film

From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh...I was disgusted...