The One Piece Manga Has Finally revealed most of the Blackbeard Pirates’ completely overpowered
Devil Fruits, that Teach and his crew have been collecting since the war at marineford.
And so for the first time in One Piece history we have a pretty good idea about the true
powers of each of the 10 Titanic Captains, what their position in the emperor’s crew
is, and what straw hat they will most likely match up with once the inevitable battle between
the two crews takes place on Laugh Tale. And at the end I will of course also discuss Blackbeard
himself and all the new information we got about the main and most anticipated antagonist
in the entire story.
And coming in at number 11, we of course have to talk about Kuzan, formerly known as admiral
Aokiji, who has now finally been confirmed as an active member of Blackbeard’s crew,
something that has been hinted by one of the Gorosei after Aokiji lost the battle for the
fleet admiral position against Akainu.
Kuzan wields the powerful hie hie no mi, a Logia fruit, that turns its user into true
coldness. Aokiji can cool down anything around him, including the ocean itself turning it
to ice, making him the only known devil fruit user, who would be immune to falling into
the ocean. This, as well as his former admiral status, most likely make him the most powerful
subordinate Blackbeard has in his crew at this moment, with ridiculously overpowered
devil fruit and haki abilities.
Kuzan’s cahracter is inspired by the actor Yasuka Matsuda, especially in his role of
Detective Shunsaku Kudo, that is just an in real life version of Aokiji. His epithet literally
means blue pheasant, which is inspired by both his ice powers as well as the story of
Momotaro, who was accompanied by a Dog, a monkey and a pheasant, which also gets you
the red dog akainu and the yellow monkey Kizaru.
As for Aokiji’s role in the crew, it’s really hard to say, what his actual position
is, as we just found out that he is an official member. However out of the 10 Titanic Captains
in Blackbeard’s crew, we only know 9 of them, so it wouldn’t be too far fetched
i think to assume that Kuzan might be the titanic captain of the 10th ship.
But why on earth did a former marine admiral join one of the most evil pirate groups on
the planet in the first place?
I think it’s pretty fair to say that Kuzan is the odd one out in a crew of fairly odd
pirates. While he was Luffy’s antagonist during the long ring island arc and later
at Marineford, Eiichiro Oda, the author of one piece, has made it pretty clear to us,
that Kuzan was more of an ally to the crew. He was the one who spared Robin’s life after
the events on Ohara and was cheering for her to find a place where she belongs. Aokiji’s
entire arc during the Water seven Enies Lobby arc was literally a test for the straw hats,
to see if they could be entrusted with Robin’s life, as he explains himself. He sees his
idol Garp, Luffy’s grandfather in the straw hat captain and starts to cheer for him, always
finding an excuse to spare them. He freezes Robin and Luffy, but then just leaves. He
has a heartwarming chat with Robin after the crew saved her from Enies Lobby and makes
sure that everyone who helped Luffy infiltrate the island is categorizes as an innocent bystander.
He just lies down in his sun bed, as garp lets his grandson escape and smiles at the
crew’s new ship. And even at Marine ford, he saves Luffy’s life twice, first jumping
in to attack luffy with a basic stab attack when Akainu is getting ready to take Luffy
out and later letting Law’s submarine escape as they treat the heavily wounded Luffy. So
overall, Kuzan is presented to us as one of the most powerful Marine fighters, that sympathizes
with Luffy’s journey, because Luffy’s and his sense of justice overlap.
And yet, after all that, after losing the battle with Akainu he joins none other than
Blackbeard, Luffy’s polar opposite and a man with no sense of morale and justice what
so ever. The 3 most likely explanations here are that, one, he has truly changed his ways
and is looking for revenge on the Marines, two, he is an undercover agent FOR the marines
and his fight with Akainu was staged to get him into the crew, or 3, Kuzan is now actually
working with or for someone else, for example the Revolutionaries, to keep an eye on Blackbeard
and assure he doesn’t succeed with his mission to rule the world.
I personally find it really hard to believe that Kuzan is not a good guy, who will actually
come to help Luffy and his crew and turn on Blackbeard sooner or later. He might even
be the person who reveals the decive detail of how to bring Teach down in the end. So
once the Straw hats cross paths with the Blackbeard pirates, I don’t expect Kuzan to fight anyone
at all, but if anything, switch sides.
At number 10 we have Jesus Burgess.
Burges is one of the devil fruits that have just been revealed in the Manga. Some time
after the events at Dressrosa, he has eaten the RIki Riki no mi, a paramecia, that grants
superhuman strength. This comes in especially handy, because it multiplies Burgess’ already
superhuman base strength to a level where he’s able to easily lift an entire mountain
and casually throw it. This makes him the physically strongest member in the crew.
Jesus Burgess is inspired by the classic mexican wrestler, including the mask and all. Thus
when his face is shown as unmasked for the first time, we actually don’t really see
it fully, because similar to the mandalorian, it is shameful in Luchador culture to be unmasked
and having ones true identity revealed. The name Burgess is most likely inspired by the
real life pirates Samuel and Josiah Burgess. Jesus is both a traditional spanish name,
but funnily enough, Oda also gave Burgess christmas day as his actual birthday in reference
to actual Jesus.
There is pretty much nothing we know yet about Burgess’ background. He was one of the original
members of the crew and joined Blackbeard due to his passion for fighting strong opponents.
He is the helmsman of the crew and captain of the first ship, suggesting that he might
have been Teach’s first member.
While some people have thrown Sanji in as a potential opponent for him, I like to think
that as Helmsman of the crew, Burgess will fight Jinbei, the helmsman of the straw hats.
Both of them having the stature of a wrestler and practicing martial arts.
Number 9 is Shiryu of the rain, probably my personal favorite in the crew.
Shiriyu has eaten the Suke Suke no mi, a paramecia devil fruit that renders its user invisible.
This fruit was taken from its previous user Absalom in the crew’s hunt for powerful
devil fruits. Its stealth abilities are beyond convenient and give Shiriyu a strong tactical
advantage over his opponents. Together with his superb swordsman skills, Oda has revealed
that Shiriyu has become Teach’s right hand man and the second strongest member of the
crew after his captain. Since Aokiji was not revealed at this point and because he most
likely isn’t an actual member anyways, we don’t have to break our heads figuring out
who of the two is actually more powerful right now.
Shiriyu doesn’t seem to have any obvious inspiration at first glance. However his Japanese
name and katana as well as his epithet ‘of the rain’ strongly hint at Shiryu being
a former citizen of Wano. That would of course perfectly explain his excellent sword fighting
skills, that make him the swordsman and captain of the second ship of the blackbeard pirates.
Before Magelan, Shiriyu used to be the head jailor of Impel Down, the government’s terrifying
prison of death and torture, where each of its 6 levels is modeled after Dante’s inferno,
in other words literally hell. And yet somehow, Shiriyu was deemed to be too brutal and cruel
for a place, that already seems to be the most brual and violent place in One PIece:
As a result for his methods, he was sentenced to death and thrown into level 6, the secret
deepest level, where those were being kept who’s crimes were to terrible or embarrassing
for the government to be made public. During Luffy’s breakout, Magelan reluctantly chose
to release Shiryu temporarily to have him help quench the uprising. Instead, once Shiriyu
got his hands on his sword, he immediately killed his guards and cut off all communication
to the outside of the prison, fearing that Magelan might come down. After Blackbeard
and his men were dying from Magellan’s poison, Shiriyu brought them the antidote and accepted
Blackbeard’s second invite to join his crew. He then helped them reach level 6 to pick
the strongest inmates for the crew.
Shiriyuu is clearly in for his insane bloodlust and manice. Since the government deprived
him of it, he now joined Blackbeard that gives him new opportunities to live out his worst
instincts.
It seems pretty straight forward than, that as a samurai and the second Strongest in the
crew, Shiryu will face Zoro and possibly be his biggest challenge in the story together
with Mihawk.
Coming it at 8 is Van Augur. Another member who’s devil fruit has been
freshly revealed. He has eaten the Wapu Wapu no mi, a paramecia fruit that literally allows
teleportation both of himself and others. This is of course a perfect fit with his sniping
abilities. Van augur has incredible precision and is able to take out moving targets from
miles away, which he demonstrates on Jaya as he takes out sea gulls flying off the coast
of the island. These sea gulls have done nothing wrong. Why would you. Anyways, the fruit also
allows the Blackbeard pirates to quickly change locations or bring a target of theirs close
to them. This allows van augur to teleport his victim where-ever he wants and then simply
shoot them.
Both his outfit and design as well as his sniping powers are inspired by the character
Adolphus from Terry Gilliam's film, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Adolphus is one of the
Baron's henchmen, with perfect eyesight and flawless shooting skills, able to detach an
apple from a tree about nine hundred miles away. His name is inspired by the both, the
real life pirate, John Auger, as well as the augurs, who were roman priests that would
read the future by interpreting the flight patterns of birds, which fits pretty well
with his introduction.
He is both the crew’s sniper and captain of the third ship.
We don’t actually know anything about Van Augur’s past yet, apart from him being the
only member from the east blue, a sea that seems to produce a lot of high quality snipers
somehow.
of course the only suitable opponent for him is going to be the straw Hat’s sniper Usopp.
Next we have number 7, the corrupt king: Alvaro Pizzaro.
There is pretty much nothing that we know about Pizzaro’s powers except that as one
of the level 6 impel down prisoners he must be extremely powerful. He was even confident
enough to try and take command from Blackbeard at some point. He looks a lot like some of
the beast pirates, including the horns, which could suggest a zoan type fruit, but there
is no way of saying.
Pizzaro is inspired by Francisco Pizzaro, the spanish conquistador that conquered peru
and destroyed the inca kingdom. Which is very fitting as Alavaro Pizzaro used to be king
of a country in the north blue, that overthrew him for his cruel way of ruling. In the end
he actually got his wish granted of becoming a captain, as he now commands the fourth ship
of the blackbeard pirates.
SInce we know nothing about his powers and fighting style, the most likely match up I
have for him is Sanji, as he seems to be quite powerful in the hirachy of the crew. He also
used to be a cruel ruler, which as we know, should create some real PTSD for Sanji and
growing up under his terrible father judge.
Number 5 is the Demon Sheriff: Lafitte.
Lafitte doesn’t have an official devil fruit yet, but we have seen him flying with giant
white angel like wings. This could of course mean that he is part of one of the winged
races or alternatively that he has eaten some sort of winged devil fruit. Maybe that of
an angel, which would be nice and ironic with his devil slash demon epithet. Lafitte looks
quite fragile, but seems to be quite powerful, he is capable of hypnotizing people, which
might make Jango relevant again at some point in the story* and he was also able to invade
Marijois completely undetected until he made himself be known during the warlord conference.
Lafitte is inspired by the real pirate brothers Jean and Pierre Lafitte.
He used to be a police officer in the west blue, until he was exiled for his repeated
police violence and cruelty.
Lafitte is also the original navigator of the blackbeard pirates, which seems to put
him up against Nami, which i find an incredibly interesting matchup, especially since nami
also uses illusions to fight her opponents.
Coming in at number 6 is the crecent moon hunter: Catarina Devon, the only woman in
the top echelon of Blackbeard’s crew.
Devon has eaten the mythical Dog Dog Fruit model Nine Tailed Fox. As a Kitsune, she is
able to shapeshift into other people, arguably making her an advanced version of Bon kurei’s
fruit. Interestingly enough, Devon was once the worst female criminal within the Golden
Age of Piracy before she got send to impel down, which is fascinating, because Big Mom
was a thing then too.
Her name might be inspired by the spanish conquistador Catallina De Erauso. In early
concepts released in an sbs, Oda planned her to be a cute fox girl as a member of the original
Blackbeard pirates. However, in the end he wanted the crew to look more authentic, rough
and vulgar and changed her design, turnign the cute fox furry theme into a devil fruit.
Which, you know: Too bad.
As the only female titanic captain, it would be like oda to match her up with Robin. And
in a way their abilities do seem to be quite an interesting match up.
By the way, if I hit 700K subs by the end of November, I will make a video about Shank’s
crew and all the powers that Oda revealed with film red, so hit subscribe if you want
to see that.
Number 4 is another impel down escape, the colossal battleship: Sanjuan Wolf.
This character is fascinating in lot of ways. For one he is the largest character in the
entire story, barely fitting on an island and usually seen towering somewhere in the
background. I mean look at this thing. He also is the only known giant in the story
so far, that has eaten a devil fruit. And while we don’t excatly know what that devil
fruit is, it does seem to make him bigger. *
As giants tend to get very old, with 99 Years is is the oldest member of the crew. His name
could be based on the spanish warship, the San Juan Nepomuceno.
Somehow he is also one of the 10 titanic captains, though i don’t know how he fits on any ship.
Maybe he can also shrink himself after all. We know nothing about his powers, but he does
look quite powerful, even if, remember boys and girls: size isn’t everything. But it
sure leaves an impression, if you know what I’m saying.
My best match up for Wolf would be franky, a character that also has a gigantous robot
at his disposal and after leaving from vegapunks lab might very well have upgraded to something
even bigger and more impressive than shogun franky, that can keep up with San Juan Wolf’s
unfathomable size.
Number 3 is vasco shot. And out of a crew of people we know very little about, he is
by far the worst. The only two things we know about this character are that he drinks a
lot and that he has the longest nose of any other one piece character. Yeah that’s it.
I have high expectations that his powers must be something incredibly powerful and entertaining.
I’m a big fan of drunken fist and other unpredictable abilities of that sort. Just
like the other level 6 inmates that Blackbeard recruited, his name seems to be based on another
spanish conquistador, Vasco Nuñez de balboa and shot probably just refers to doing shots.
*
The only straw hat without a matchup here is Brook, so i’m just going to go with that.
Not chopper of course, because at number 2 we have the God of death: Doc Q.
Doc Q has eaten the shiku shiku no mi, literally the sick sick fruit, that allows him to infect
his opponents with disease, that apparently he can come up with himself, including apparently
something called ‘turning into a woman sickness’. Which makes me wonder if Usopp’s I can’t
go on that island sickness might not become relevant again at some point in the story.
A very fitting for a character that has been chronically sick his entire life, but also
sort of ironic, given that he’s the crew’s doctor.
His pale and sick horse that is fittingly named stronger, has eaten the mythical pegasus
zoan fruit, giving him the ability to fly.
As quirky as this pair is, we all know that they are quite powerful and despite their
pitiful appearance they love to torment people, as we saw with Doc Q giving out explosive
apples.
The inspiration for his character is two fold: Doc Q fits the description of death, the fourth
horseman from Revelation, also known as the apocalypse. Death" is described as a gaunt
figure who rides a sickly and pale horse spreading desease. Very fitting. And of course the snow
white posiened apple story as well.
but interestingly enough, Doc Q also shares a lot of similarities with Doctor Hiruluk,
chopper’s mentor. They have a very similar face and hair color, both first appeared on
drum island, both are criminals, a conman and a pirate and both have a love for chemicals.
While doc q infuses apples so that his victims explode, Hiruluk drank a chemical, that also
made his body explode.
As a result the only acceptable opponent for Doc Q and Stronger is of course chopper, who
will have to face a dark and twisted version of his mentor and fatherfigure.
Which brings us all the way to number one: The admiral of the Blackbeard pirates, the
man himself: Marshall D. Teach. As you know, blackbeaerd has eaten 2 devil
fruits at this point: the logia yami yami no mi, that gives him the power of darkness
and the gura gura no mi a paramecia fruit. This makes him possibly the most powerful
pirate alive at the moment. We also finally have confirmation that Blackbeard has haki,
something that wasn’t clear up until this point.
As for Blackbeard’s past, how he was able to eat 2 devil fruits and what his big plan
is: I explain all that in this video right here: