Yeah.
From the sound of it Celestial Dragons were exploiting him. And whatever the purpose was it's something that was going to kill him on the long run.
Since he didn't have the Pad-Pad at the time, and since Bonney can probably serve the same purpose (seen Sakazuki preoccupation), we can say for sure that it's something related to their blood/race.
I can already tell Kuma story is going to be one of the most tragic of the whole serie. I hope next chapters focus on the flashback before Saturn, Borsalino & co pull up on the island.
As for what he's trying to do now, he seems to mirror what the Iron Giant was trying to do 200 years ago... maybe some kind of programmation he agreed with Vegapunk (?)
This is actually something I theorized with
@Bounty , that since Vegapunk couldnt power the robot since he didnt have the energy source, Kuma took it upon himself to materialize the robotic memories (Oda logic lol) and replace his own with that. Its a really solid theory at this rate since its also relevent.
My assumption on the Kuma timeline:
- Slave for special reasons (his Race)
- Stole the paw fruit and escaped with it
- Married into Royalty (Bonnies mother)
- Became King, country was targeted by the WG. Queen was killed.
- Becomes Pirate, is violent and cruel. Secretly joins the RA after convincing from Dragon.
- Meets Vegapunk, tells him about his special lineage (whatever it is)
- Gets captured and agrees to be Shichibukai, but on the condition his lineage is used as a precursor for Pacifista
- Vegapunk learns of his powers to take out memories. Learns what we will learn.
- Kuma volunteers to replace his memories with the Robot, as a means for vengeance for his Queen and to also see where the programming leads him.
Maybe something like this lol