Mr. Krabs

Mr. Krabs is short, red, and portly with tall eyestalks, a crinkled red-brown nose, large claws, and short, pointy legs. Spikes on his shell are also visible on the back of his neck. He wears a light blue shirt and purple pants with a black belt. A sailor or pirate ship often correlates with Mr. Krabs. Many times when he appears on-screen, sea-shanty sailor music is playing.

Mr. Krabs is extremely greedy, irrationally cheap, and sometimes hypocritical. He is sometimes portrayed as being even just as bad, if not worse, than Plankton. His main interest is to have money, and his greed is often shown to be so bad that it causes him to make stupid decisions, mistakes and/or immoral actions, and put money above his customers, his employees and his family, their lives, or even his own life. He treats money as if it's royalty in some aspects. He frequently associates his customers and products with money, with lines such as "That's me money walking out the door!" or "The money is always right." Also, whenever SpongeBob or anyone else does something he doesn't like, he often says "This is coming out of your paycheck." It should be noted that, while Mr. Krabs' portrayal shows him as being obsessed with money and wealth to the point of anthropomorphizing it from the beginning, it was usually done for the sake of humor, but he became more miserly, cheap, and immoral as the series progressed, up to the ninth season. When SpongeBob uses the term "obsession" to describe his relationship with money and wealth during "Plankton's Good Eye," he denies it and claims it to be a strong word. He then puts his money to bed.

Mr. Krabs is very protective of the secret formula, as he is always going to great lengths to make sure it is safe from Plankton. However, he is so used to Plankton making attempts to steal it that if Plankton doesn't make any attempts for a certain length of time, he begins to lose his sanity. As shown in Plankton Paranoia, Mr. Krabs is willing to leave the formula in plain sight, make new laws about all Krabby Patties having to be eaten on Krusty Krab premises, and even ban his customers and his employees just to get Plankton to reveal himself, and he often ends up hallucinating that Plankton is everywhere.

Despite his cruel and money-grubbing behavior, Mr. Krabs is not completely heartless. He has apologized and shown regret for his actions on occasion, and he does care for Pearl, going to great lengths to acquire food for her in "Growth Spout" and in "Bossy Boots," he makes Pearl manager and gets heartbroken having to fire her, asking SpongeBob to do it in his place. In "Pearl Wants to Be a Star," he dances to Pearl's song and congratulates her after the performance. Despite his somewhat abusive treatment of SpongeBob and Squidward, he does care for and appreciate them, as the two help keep his restaurant afloat. He has also stated that he wouldn't stoop so low as to physically abuse them, as shown in "Selling Out." In "Krusty Love," Krabs finds his second love after money: Mrs. Puff, and they are still dating to this day. Also, in "Best Day Ever," when SpongeBob is sad, he actually uses his money to try to cheer him up. Additionally, in "Born Again Krabs" he struck a deal with the Flying Dutchman for a second chance at life in exchange for being a non-cheap, generous crab, something that he did very well until he discovered that he had no money in the cash register. As seen in "Little Yellow Book," Mr. Krabs is upset at Squidward for reading SpongeBob's secret diary, and as he didn't laugh at all, it also means that he was not an hypocrite. In "Welcome to the Chum Bucket" Mr. Krabs is heartbroken over losing SpongeBob and even says he will give it all away to have him back. He also shows some sort of fatherly concern towards SpongeBob and Patrick, making them promise never to go near the hooks in "Hooky" and forbidding them from using vulgar words in "Sailor Mouth," as well as warning them of getting the face freeze for doing face in "Face Freeze!," and in "Yours, Mine and Mine," he reprimands them for fighting over a toy of little importance, as it's a stupid reason to do so. He also apologizes for selling SpongeBob for 62 cents in "Born Again Krabs," even going as far as throwing the coins to the ground in disgust and saying "I don't want this foul money! I want SpongeBob back!". In "Mr. Krabs Takes a Vacation," he also stops two bank robbers from robbing the money factory with SpongeBob's help. In "No Nose Knows," he recruits Squidward and Sandy to destroy Patrick's nose, which is a sign of friendship toward at least 2 other characters. This shows that Mr. Krabs is technically a good crab overall and defining him as evil is an overstatement.