Blackbeard might be the smartest Character in One Piece. Yes, I know, just like Luffy
he often does very impulsive and foolish things, like for example almost being wiped out by
Maggelan in Impel down. But when you really think about it, Marshal D. Teach had a plan
that was over 20 years in the making and he executed it perfectly, basically playing the
entire world, which I have to respect. He joined Whitebeard as a teenager already with
the intention to get his hands on the most powerful logia devil fruit, the yami yami
no mi. He then waited patiently on board of the yonko's ship, keeping his head low and
biding his time. All that, despite being ridiculously powerful all the while. Remember, he was able
to hurt Shanks, one of the strongest people out there. [Shanks saying he was not careless]
So instead of showing of his powers, he kept a low profile, already recruiting people for
his future crew until finally, one of his crew mates actually got his hands on the devil
fruit he was hunting for. Then he took his chance, killed his comrade of over 20 years,
ate the fruit and left the crew. I'm already impressed with the patience this man had.
Just like Luffy, he always trusts in fate to find a way for him, and it has always worked
out so far. But the next phase of his plan is even more impressive, and I can't believe
I never put 1 and 1 together in my head. Because Blackbeard basically orchestrated most of
the major events in the story. Maybe that was obvious to you, but to me that actually
blew my mind. Think about it: Blackbeard goal after finally consuming his ultimate fruit
was going for the one piece right away. For that he needed to join the Yonko and become
a force to compete with the likes of Kaido and Big Mom. So what does he do? He decides
to get the strongest crew possible. And if you don't have the patience or charisma of
Luffy, or are as romantically active as Big Mom, Blackbeard figured that he'd grab himself
the strongest people available to him. But how to get into the most secure place on the
entire planet except for maybe marijoe? Easiest answer: Ally yourself with the world government,
so they basically invite you in. So now Blackbeards first step is becoming a warloard. He think
about hunting down Luffy to get on the good side with the marines, but fails. Luffy after
all, just like him is special, something Blackbeard knows very well. And so fate offers him a
different solution. I'm of course talking about Ace, who was hunting after Blackbeard
to bring him to justice. At first Teach tries to recruit him into his ranks. He knows how
strong and capable his former commander is. But once he realizes that Ace is intent on
bringing him back to Whitebeard, a new opportunity opens up. He realizes, that not only can he
use Ace as a bargaining chip to become a warlord, but he can even orchestrate everything, so
the Marines will take on his former captain. After all, Teach also had his eyes on the
strongest paramecia, Whitebeards Gura Gura no mi. He would have to get past the man at
some point anyways and get his devil fruit and now he had all the cards he needed to
play his big round. He delivers Ace to the government, receiving
the status of a warlord. He then enters impel down, gathers all the powerful people he wants
into his crew and then leaves directly for Marineford, where the Marines and the whitebeard
army had already starkly weakened each other. Arriving with a fresh force of legendary pirates,
he takes advantage of the situation, kills whitebeard and takes his devil fruit, only
fleeing when Shanks arrives. Finally he has become a Yonko and is now able to seriously
go after the One Piece, being at least on eye level with even the most powerful people
in the one piece world. All of that based on a plan he had as a 16 year old. I mean,
if that doesn't make him one of the most genius characters in the story, I don't know what
to tell you. Actually I do: If you want weekly One Piece content, Subscribe right now! Done?
Nice. I even a new Blackbeard theory for you in this video as well.
Now, Blackbeard is still a bit of a mystery. There is just so little we know about him.
And even though I do love myself some tease and mystery, I'm a very simple man, but I
still want to try and figure out as much about Marshall D. Teach as possible.
Did you for example know that Blackbeard's favorite food is cherry Pie? Now you might
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You probably already know that Blackbeard is written as a foil to Luffy. That means
that both characters share a lot of similarities, but are the exact opposite in other aspects.
Teach is probably Luffy's biggest rival when it comes to becoming pirate king. He's the
only antagonist in the story where I'm really concerned for Luffy and the other straw hats
when the battle between the two undoubtedly will happen. Because Blackbeard shares two
of Luffy's most important traits: Believing in his dream and trusting in fate to guide
him. The only thing Blackbeard doesn't have, is Luffy's compassion for others. He is cunning,
meticulous, patient, manipulative, and cheats his way to what he wants while Luffy is oblivious,
reckless, impulsive, selfless, and often takes the burden upon himself in order to accomplish
what he wants. Oda basically smashes these similarities into our faces during their first
meeting on Jaya. There is so much symbolism there, that I made an entire video about it,
that I encourage you to watch after this one. Both of their journeys are the exact opposite
of each other. But what I found the most interesting herehowever, is that both Luffy and Blackbeard
wouldn't be where they are today without the other. Think about it.
Luffy begins his journey by obtaining a seemingly weak devil fruit through a father-like relationship
with a Yonko; Blackbeard begins his journey by stealing a strong devil fruit while breaking
his father-like relationship with a Yonko. Blackbeard banishes Wapol from Drum Kingdom
and leaves it as a nation without a king; Luffy banishes Wapol from Drum Kingdom and
leaves it as a brand new nation with a king. As a result Luffy can recruit chopper.
Luffy sails through the first half of the Grand Line taking down the Shichibukai; Blackbeard
sails through the first half of the Grand Line hoping to become a Shichibukai. But only
when Luffy takes out Crocodile, does Blackbeard get his chance.
Luffy declares war on the World Government; Blackbeard joins the World Government. Luffy
infiltrates Impel down in order to rescue Ace; Blackbeard is only successful in recruiting
the Level 6 pirates because of the rebellion Luffy starts in Impel Down; yet Luffy is only
able to enter and influence the war at Marineford before Blackbeard’s crew hypnotized the
staff who control the Gates of Justice. Luffy uses his astounding will to live to recover
from Magellan’s poison, Blackbeard cheats and relies on an antidote to do the same.
Luffy’s will is broken at Marineford while Blackbeard’s will is vindicated. The lowest
point of our hero is the highest of his antagonist. Even the way they become Yonko is opposed
- Blackbeard defeated a weakened Whitebeard and the scattered remnants of the Whitebeard
Pirates while Luffy will defeat a fully-powered Kaido and his entire army of Beast Pirates.
Also, while he will surely be the main antagonist on Laugh Tale, as we know, there is an even
bigger villain to defeat in the story. Imu, whom I made this massive theory here about
in case you haven't watched it yet. Blackbeard is a villain, yes, but he also lives with
exactly the same mentality that Luffy does; He wants his freedom and he believes in his dreams
of a new age. So Blackbeard embodies the same path as luffy, but he will ultimately lose.
Because Luffy is reaching the top of the world, the 'right way',
So what's the take-away here? It's that Blackbeard is one of the most influential characters
in the story. Someone instilled the idea of the Yami Yami no mi in his head as a kid and
just like Luffy he spent his whole life aiming to become pirate king. And so, of course this
wouldn't be a proper Blackbeard video, if we didn't theorize a little bit. Or actually
a lot. Hehe.
The big question is of course, where Blackbeard got his drive from. Who told him about the
Yami-yami no mi and why does he want to become pirate king? At this point I think it would
be pretty surprising if Blackbeard was NOT related to Rocks D Zebek in like any way.
Since Blackbeard and Luffy mirror each other, that means that Blackbeard also shares not
only the concept of dreams, but also that of inherited will with our protagonist. When
you consider how shanks inspired Luffy's journey, seeing in him the one who could inherit Roger's
will, it would make a lot of sense if Luffy's major competitor would inherit the will of
Roger's biggest threat. And Blackbeard has not only made Beehive island, Rocks' former
headquarter, the center of his operation, but he even named his main ship after the
man, who's name no-one is supposed to know, the Saber of Xebec. Most people today don't
even know Rocks existed, and those that do only remember him as Rocks, not his last name.
So Blackbeard clearly must have had a personal connection or at least deep fascination with
the man. I know what you're thinking now:
So is Blackbeard Rocks'n son? Time-line wise I think it would work out pretty well. Blackbeard
is 40 years old and grew up as an orphan. Rocks was killed 38 years ago. This would
mean that Blackbeard was 2 years old when Rocks died and should Rocks have been his
father, his death would leave the two-year-old Blackbeard on his own, which would be in line
with the depiction of a poor kid Blackbeard that Oda released previously. It's quite possible
that Blackbeard resented Whitebeard for leaving his father to die, while he, Kaido and Big
Mom lived.
A character that might give us some hints at Teache's backstory is actually Orochi.
Yes I know no-one wants to hear about Orochi. But listen to this. Orochi was born to the
persecuted Kurozumi clan, one of the six royal families of Wano. Interestingly enough, Kurozumi
is the only family whose name does not have the kanji for “moon” in it. Instead, it
translates into “Black Charcoal”. Through backstabbing and trickery, he has climbed
his way into a position that is not his. Not only that, he has killed and betrayed the
very people who took him under all in the name of revenge. Furthermore, he has demonstrated
himself to be a coward in the face of danger and/or death. This parallels Blackbeard pretty
nicely. Even though he is a member of the D. Clan, he doesn't share much of the classical
D. traits. Strongly willed, positive individuals with a stark sense of compassion and loyalty,
laughing in the face of death. [bb scared of death] Both Orochi and Blackbeard share
very similar introductions in chapters 925 and 929. Both Orochi and Blackbeard also executed
and ridiculed the person who took them in, broadcasting the event. We know that Blackbeard
doesn't sleep and neither did Orochi as a kid, claiming that he was too scared. Both
getting handed devil fruit powers to secure their power. Could Orochi's persecution and
quest for revenge be a hint at Blackbeard's childhood, for being the son of the most dangerous
man on the planet?
And of course I also want to talk about Blackbeard's ability to have multiple devil fruits. And
I have theory, I bet you didn't hear yet. Now there are a few really popular ideas out
there. One is that it's a special feature of the Yami Yami no mi to absorb powers. However,
given how notorious the fruit is, it's very unlikely that the gorosei wouldn't know about
it. Same goes for the Cerberus fruit theory. Though I like that a bit more. A newer theory
I really enjoyed and that you might have heard about is that Blackbeard is actually a squid,
who have three heats and heigh arms, just like the three heads and eight crossbones
on his Jolly Roger.
However I have stumbled across another theory, I don't think I've seen discussed anywhere
before, even though I sadly don't know the author. Hear me out. Blackbeard might be inspired
by the Barbarossa brothers or red beard brothers. Here’s the story: there were 3 brothers
Arudj, Khizir and Isaak. Their mother was named Katarina (same as Blackbeard’s crewmate).
The older one, Arudj, was a pirate while his 2 brothers were working with their father.
After the father’s death, the two brothers joined Arudj and became pirates with him under
the Crescent Moon flag. You know what is Catarina Devon from Blackbeard Pirates nicknamed? The
Crescent Moon Hunter. The number 3 is closely connected to Blackbeard. He has 3 guns. His
Pirates flag features 3 skulls, and we all know that a pirate flag describes the captain.
And we have of course this notorious scene on Jaya. [] As I explain in detail in this
video, the Blackbeard that Luffy meets in the bar and the one he meets outside are clearly
different people. Luffy doesn't recognize the man he fought with about cherry pies,
and both him and Zoro clearly state that Blackbeard is multiple people.
Remember this moment from impel down? [Blackbeard tells luffy that his haki/will has improved]
Blackbeard says Luffy's haki has improved. But he would only know that if Luffy had used
it on Jaya. In other words, him and Zoro unconsciously used their observation haki here, all riled
up from the fight in the bar.
So here is the twist: Blackbeard has 2 other twin brothers. There are 3 Blackbeard's in
total. And so when he ate the yami yami fruit, that is explicitly shown as capable of absorbing
humans, he was joined by his 2 brothers, just as in the Barbarossa story. He hid his 2 brothers
inside him, which might explain why Blackbeard was still eating the pie when Luffy left the
bar, cause it was a different brother. Either that or he just eats like hell- which I admit
is also entirely possible. Having 3 different people would also explain the varying personalties
Teach displays. On marienford, he had to cover himself up to let his brother out and had
him eat Whitebeards fruit. And When you saw Blackbeard in Marineford with 2 different
powers in each hand, the hand that used Whitebeard’s ability wasn’t actually Teach’s hand.
It was his brother’s. Teach used Yami Yami no Mi to pull his hand inside him, and let
out his brother’s hand. If you think that he uses a different Devil Fruit with each
half of his body, I think you're wrong:
Teach has the Gura Gura power is his right hand. Yami Yami in his left hand. Now look
at this:
The Yami Yami is now in his right hand, and he uses Gura Gura with his left hand.Now look
at Blackbeard’s right hand:
And compare it to this one:
The rings in his right hand disappeared. Now this COULD of course be Oda being a bit sloppy
here with the drawing, but it what if it's not? Don't you also ever get the feeling that
Teach looks. DIFFERENT. Whenever we see him. Could that be the other brothers? The biggest
give-away however might be his teeth. No matter how many panels I compared, different versions
of blackbeard have different levels of dental hygiene I guess? One has a lot of gaps, one
just a few and this one here doesn't have any at all. It's only in the manga, but it's
definitley deliberately done. There is the cruel one with a complete set of teeth that
we see in impel down, the one with one middle tooth, that we meet in the bar on jaya, and
finally one with the two gaps on the top right, which is the most common version, and thus
I would guess the Teach that ate the Yami Yami no mi. Teach ate the strongest Logia.
His brother ate the strongest Paramecia by transferring the fruit as shown on punk hazard.
And now there’s the third brother left, and he’ll probably eat the strongest Mythical
Zoan.
If you want to fully understand how important Blackbeard is however, I strongly recommend
you check out my scene analysis with him and Luffy here. Thanks for watching.