Marshall D. Teach

**Marshall D. Teach**,[12] also known as **Blackbeard[2]** is Main Antagonist of One Piece Franchise.

He is the admiral of the Blackbeard Pirates[1] and the newest member of the Yonko.[2] He is also the only person in history known to have the powers of two Devil Fruits.

He started out his pirate career as a member of the Whitebeard Pirates' 2nd division,[5] until he murdered Thatch, the 4th division commander, for the Yami Yagmi no Mi and defected.[6] Prior to the two-year timeskip, he briefly held the position of Shichibukai after handing Ace over to the Marines,[3] before resigning upon returning from Impel Down with Level Six prisoners.[4] After the timeskip, of all Yonko, Teach becomes part of the Worst Generation.[13]

Due to his actions, he can be considered the tertiary antagonist of the Impel Down Arc, and one of the main antagonists of the Marineford Arc, the Summit War Saga, and the remainder of the One Piece anime and manga overall.

## Appearance

Blackbeard is an extremely tall man with a massive build, as his body is round with relatively thin limbs. He has a big mouth with several broken or missing teeth (though sometimes he does have a full set, which is an inconsistency error made by Oda), a pronounced crooked nose and a very large and hairy chest and torso. Long, thick, woolly black hair falls down the back of his neck, underneath a black bandana, and a small scruffy black beard (hence his epithet) grows around his jawline. As the series progresses, his beard becomes longer and scruffier. He is extremely tall, being exactly twice Luffy's (pre-timeskip) height.

At his first appearance in Mock Town, Teach wore an open buttoned white shirt with rolled up sleeves, green trousers with black line patterns, a yellow sash around his waist and classic black swashbuckler boots complete with large bronze buckles.

During his raid on Banaro Island, he had added a large black and gold captain's coat over his attire, along with white beads on each wrist as bracelets and rings with gemstones on all of the fingers of both his hands (similar to his predecessor, Crocodile).[14]

At the Shichibukai meeting at the Marine Headquarters, he added a pair of necklaces of red as well as golden-yellow and blue beads to his dark orange sash and a traditional black tricorne hat over his grey bandana, as well as switching to a red shirt, while wearing his captain's coat like a cape.[15] He also has three flintlocks and a flask tied to his sash around his waist.[16]

In SBS Volume 63, Oda drew the Shichibukai as children. Teach is shown wearing a baseball cap with a rolled up long sleeve shirt and green shorts. He is also wearing black curled tip shoes, and unlike his usual cheerful expression, is crying for an unknown reason.[17]

After the time skip, Teach has grown a long beard that he has split into multiple sections, very much like his real life basis.[18] He also wears a new hat with his Jolly Roger embroidered on it.[19]

## Personality

Blackbeard's personality seems to be a strange mix of courage and cowardice, high intellectual capacity and stupidity. While at times his character looks strong and fearsome, in others he will seem weak and ridiculous. He is apparently very deceptive, joining the Shichibukai in an elaborate and convoluted fashion for the sole reason of gaining access to Impel Down in order to find new crewmates and later resigning from it in front of the fleet admiral himself saying that he does not need it anymore.[4] He is also exceedingly power-hungry and greedy, aiming to become the next Pirate King.

His hunger for power lead him to fashion a very cruel way of recruiting only the best prisoners in Impel Down as comrades: he ordered them to murder each other, and would only take the strongest ones who survive.[20]Though he betrayed the Whitebeard Pirates, Teach takes comradeship with the crew he formed to a high level, made evident when he was willing to make a trade with the Marines for a battleship big enough to hold all of them comfortably for the sake of one crew member, Sanjuan Wolf. Despite his obvious malevolent nature, he is also genuinely compassionate, caring, sympathetic and empathetic towards his crew's well-being and is willing to take assaults intended for his crew. He also has an extreme thirst for adventure, regularly traveling from place to place. However, he tends to play it by ear.

Blackbeard, like others who carry the Will of the D., has a strong belief in fate and the dreams of men, but unlike the others, is the only one who truly seems to take it to heart. He shares several attributes with Luffy, including having a voracious appetite, carefree attitude, competitive and reckless nature, persevering even if there may be grave consequences, and huge ambitions to follow his dream of finding One Piece and become the new Pirate King. Despite that, there is also a great contrast between him and Luffy: primarily, Blackbeard fears death whereas other D. carriers embrace it if it comes, and was willing to betray his own friends for power. Just before his death, Whitebeard noted that Teach was not the one Roger had been waiting for and dismissed Teach as being incapable of continuing Roger's legacy.[21]

Perhaps because of his strong belief in fate, Blackbeard is highly amoral. He believes that there is no inherent "good" nor "evil" in the world, jeeringly mocking anyone who expresses such belief. He is also patient and conniving, having spent decades on Whitebeard's ship just to get his hands on the Devil Fruit he wanted, before killing Thatch and leaving the crew. His nihilistic tendencies are in line with the power of the Yami Yami no Mi he possesses, which is said to reduce everything to "nothingness".[22] During his raid on Impel Down, he stated that his plans have not gone exactly as expected, but is willing to take these surprises in stride. He handed Portgas D. Ace to the World Government and finally killed his captain Whitebeard. Despite this, he still displayed respect for his superiors during the events, referring to Ace as his commander, and said that he aspired to be like Whitebeard. He showed his ruthlessness when he killed Thatch, and with his crew's help finished off his former captain, Whitebeard.

Blackbeard is often very calm, composed, relaxed, easygoing, cheerful, and free-spirited, but he can be surprised and startled, such as when Coby told everybody present to stop the war, or when Whitebeard had held him by the throat. He is very politely sarcastic and mocking towards those around him, such as when he taunted Luffy, about Ace's inevitable execution, or when he mocked Whitebeard for his age.

He is also overconfident, and while very powerful, tends to converse and/or taunt his opponents in the middle of battle. He has done this in every battle he has been shown in, and as a result, he always suffers a heavy, painful attack while his guard is down. Such as when he taunted Whitebeard about not being able to use his powers, and nearly got cleaved in half with Whitebeard's bisento or when he boasted in front of Magellan and was nearly drowned by the Hydra attack, only surviving because Shiliew gave him and his crew the antidote. His overconfidence also made him believe that he could do a trade with the Marines despite having betrayed them already, which once again proved a mistake. Since having acquired two Devil Fruit powers, he has developed a severe superiority complex, believing himself to be truly invincible and the strongest of them all, while revealing his goal of world domination. Despite his arrogance, Blackbeard does show a sense of caution, as he refused to fight Shanks and his crew,[23] as well as Admiral Akainu when he was aboard the Marine battleship that they wanted.[24]

Blackbeard is a very patient and careful pirate, as stated by Shanks. Unlike other powerful pirates, he never gained renown and remained concealed, and only makes his moves when he sees an opportunity for power.

Many of One Piece's characters are given a distinct laugh. Blackbeard follows this tradition by starting his laughs with "Ze" (i.e. Zehahahahahaha!). This laugh is not present in the English Dub until the Banaro Incident.

## Abilities and Powers

Teach is an immensely powerful pirate even for a (former) member of the Whitebeard Pirates and Shichibukai. At some point in his life, after Roger's death, Teach once fought Shanks and gave him the scars on his left eye,[25] with Shanks admitting that the injury did not occur because of carelessness. Their battle lead Shanks to cautiously recognize Teach as an extremely dangerous menace. After the Battle of Marineford, Blackbeard proved to the Gorosei that he had a one-step lead to usurp the empty Yonko position that Whitebeard once held, which eventually came to fruition.[2]

The most prominent feats of Teach's power was defeating three commanders of the Whitebeard Pirates: Portgas D. Ace, Thatch, and later during the Payback War, Marco, the new Captain of the Whitebeard Pirates.[26] After the time-skip, he and his crew fought against the Revolutionary Army and destroyed their base. It is also stated that they briefly fought against CP-0. Ace once stated that Blackbeard could have been a commander when he was recommended for the position, proven that his strength was equivalent with any of the other commanders, which is extremely notable, as he had not yet eaten a Devil Fruit.[27]

### Tactical Skills

Blackbeard has shown himself to be an expert planner and a master at orchestrating manipulative schemes provided he has a sufficiently advanced period of time to prepare: he waited two decades aboard the "Moby Dick" with the Whitebeard Pirates and even integrated with the crew dynamic, solely to increase his opportunities of obtaining the Yami Yami no Mi (he also recruited future members of his personal crew during this timeline, indicating great charisma and leadership skills even as a regular crewmate).[6] He also went for the capture of Monkey D. Luffy in order to guarantee an offer for the vacant position of the Shichibukai by the World Government, which in turn was simply sought for the free access across the Gates of Justice into the notoriously impenetrable Impel Down to recruit extremely powerful "Level Six" prisoners to strengthen his crew. This scheme completely deceived both Sengoku and Tsuru the two strategic masterminds of the Marines with Sengoku realizing Teach's true intentions only after the Blackbeard Pirates appeared in Marineford.[4] He also already made plans to steal the Gura Gura no Mi. Instead of taking Whitebeard head on to steal his Devil Fruit, Teach effectively manipulated Whitebeard and the entire military force of the Marines including the Admirals Sakazuki and Borsalino into fighting each other during the former's attempt to rescue Ace. Eventually, Whitebeard became fatally injured and weakened enough for Teach and his crew to brutally overpower and ultimately killed Whitebeard to steal the Gura Gura no Mi, becoming the first person to wield two Devil Fruit powers. When confronted by Shanks and his crew, Blackbeard instead had his crew retreat as he deemed that it was not the right time to fight them, which showed a great sense of caution.

Following his victory over the remnants of the Whitebeard Pirates, Teach used his previous knowledge of the latter's territory to conquer most of it, becoming one of the Yonko.

However, for all his combat prowess and intellect, Blackbeard has a ridiculous habit of concentrating too much on conversations with his opponents while fighting them, letting his guard down in the process, a weakness he has demonstrated in his battles against Whitebeard, Luffy, Ace, and Magellan. This usually results in him suffering some critical injuries. In fact, if not for Shiliew's help, Teach's entire crew would have died from Magellan's Poison Devil Fruit ability.[28]

### Physical Abilities

Teach has an immense amount of superhuman endurance, as demonstrated when he took a point-blank quake bubble attack from Whitebeard, and while being pinned to the ground by the former's feet on his hands, to his head and neck without losing consciousness, an incredible feat especially since his Devil Fruit makes him more vulnerable to receive even more damage. Prior to the above he took a hit from Whitebeard (albeit an indirect hit) and was more annoyed than actually injured anyway. He has also taken a direct slash from Whitebeard's bisento without suffering any lasting damage[21] and was able to shrug off a kick to his head from Supernova Jewelry Bonney.[29]

During his fight with Ace, he was pierced in the chest by two fire spears, but after putting out the flames, he was able to shake off the impact of the attack.[30] Another indication of his sheer endurance is that he took a point-blank Gear Second attack from an enraged Luffy,[31] and was hit by Sengoku in his Daibutsu form only to come out with minor injuries both times.[32]

Teach also possesses tremendous physical strength even for his comparable size, which is demonstrated when he seriously injures Luffy and Ace, both who are exceptionally strong and powerful in just one hit, sending them both crashing back with incredible force and distance. In the anime, he was shown to be able to knock back and injure Whitebeard with a few punches, a feat that shocked the other members of the Whitebeard Pirates. He was able to stop an enraged Whitebeard's quake attack with his own physical strength and with the help of his Kurouzu technique.[21].

### Devil Fruits

Blackbeard has become the first and, so far, only user to wield the powers of two Devil Fruits at the same time. Through unknown means, he acquired the extremely destructive powers of the Gura Gura no Mi from the dead body of Whitebeard and is now able to create earthquakes like his old captain. Marco speculated that this was possible due to an unstated peculiarity unique to Blackbeard himself, having to do with an "atypical body structure" of some sort. He also pointed out that the other Whitebeard Pirates should be aware of this fact.[22] Teach also appears to be knowledgeable enough to know how to use the Gura Gura no Mi powers straight away after extracting it.

With the power of darkness (Yami Yami no Mi), which "reduces anything to nothingness", and the power of quakes (Gura Gura no Mi), which "brings destruction to everything", Blackbeard claims himself to be truly invincible and the strongest of them all. During the two years, the Blackbeard Pirates went on to hunt down powerful Devil Fruit users to kill them and absorb their abilities, thus Teach (and possibly his comrades) has likely added more abilities to his arsenal.

#### Yami Yami no Mi

Blackbeard has eaten the Logia-type Devil Fruit Yami Yami no Mi. With it, he can create an ebbing shroud of darkness, shown to possess a strong gravitational pull. Teach demonstrates that the "darkness" is a void which devours anything, able to pull in (much in the manner of an actual black hole), and crush his surrounding environment into a pile of rubble. Due to the Yami Yami no Mi's gravitational ability, Blackbeard, unlike every other Logia user, cannot disperse to non-solid and let attacks simply pass through him, drawing the attacks faster towards himself, meaning he takes more damage than an average human would.

However, Blackbeard states that the deficiency this presents is well worth the advantages the fruit bestows upon him, such as the ability to "absorb" certain projectiles and then hurl them back at his foes using moves like "Liberation". The second, and the most frightening power of the fruit is to nullify other Devil Fruit abilities through physical contact, allowing Teach to physically hit Ace, whose body was composed of intangible flames, and injure Luffy, whose body was made of rubber. Teach states that this is because the Yami Yami no Mi truly holds the power of the devil. As such, Blackbeard's style revolves around getting close to his enemy and grabbing them, canceling out any defensive abilities they have, forcing their own natural resilience to take Blackbeard's massive strength.

Blackbeard must, however, physically touch his enemy to cancel out their powers. This puts him at a huge disadvantage against enemies he cannot reach out and grab, even more so when the enemy can hurt him at a distance. However, this weakness can be rectified somewhat by his signature technique "Kurouzu", which utilizes his suction powers to drag his opponents towards him. This technique opens up another weakness since right after he uses it he is left open for an attack at close range.

#### Gura Gura no Mi

With the newly acquired powers of the Gura Gura no Mi, which is said to be the strongest Paramecia-type Devil Fruit,[33] Blackbeard can create shock waves by shattering the air itself, creating devastating earthquakes that can destroy the Marineford main building itself. He can also focus his quake powers into a "quake bubble" on his fist, greatly increasing the damage in a single punch. He acquired this fruit after wrapping a black tarp over himself and Whitebeard. The process of how he got it is still unknown.

The nature of Devil Fruits is to pass into a nearby fruit and become edible once again when the user dies, but this process is still not fully explored, and somehow he was able to stop this from happening. Being able to contain two powers at once is entirely unexplained.

Teach acknowledged that he still does not have full control of his new destructive power though, so he does not have as much skill as Whitebeard with the abilities involved.[34] This was, perhaps, first demonstrated when he chose not to directly confront Akainu, despite having two Devil Fruit powers at his disposal, whereas Whitebeard himself confronted the admiral directly. This strongly insinuates a difference between the skills of both Blackbeard and Whitebeard at wielding the fruit's powers initially.

However, it should be mentioned that Blackbeard, who has a much more careless and vicious personality than Whitebeard, can be considered as a far greater threat to the world than Whitebeard himself. A perfect example of this is when Marshall D. Teach was creating random earthquakes to test his acquired power in Marineford. He also sent a giant tsunami towards Sabaody Archipelago without even realizing it.[34]

### Weapons

When the Whitebeard Pirates started protecting Fishman Island, he is seen with metal claws on his left hand.[35]

He was seen using a flintlock pistol when dealing the deathblow to Whitebeard along with the other Blackbeard Pirates,[21] and also has three pistols tied in his sash.[16] His accuracy with them is not completely shown, as he was only seen emptying his ammunition into Whitebeard at point-blank range yet Whitebeard was still briefly alive.[21]

## TMNT X Pokemon

Marshall D. Teach is one of the many villains you will face throughout the game. He is one of the most powerful and most difficult on the difficulty scale.

## Trivia

* Oda once stated that Blackbeard was his favorite historical pirate.[45]
* In Chapter 581, when addressing the prisoners of Level 6 of Impel Down, he is shown with a full mouth of teeth. This was likely a mistake on Oda's part.
* Teach is the first Shichibukai without an animal motif.
* Teach's favorite food is cherry pie.
* Curiously, in One Piece Blue: Grand Data File, that covers from the East Blue Saga to the middle of the Jaya Arc, Teach is not revealed as Marshall D. Teach or Blackbeard, but as "Cherry Pie Man", a regular customer of the Mock Town Pub.
* Teach is the only known person to serve as both a Shichibukai and later a Yonko.
* Teach is the only known Yonko to once serve under another Yonko's crew.
* In the 6th fan poll, Teach ranked 49th.
* Blackbeard's original name, Everything D. Teach, may come from 17th-century English pirate Henry Every, famous for becoming the richest pirate in the world at the time and getting the highest bounty in history placed on his head.
* Teach is the only Yonko who is in the Worst Generation.

### SBS-Based Trivia

* Blackbeard's epithet and first name comes from the infamous **Edward Teach**, the real-life Blackbeard. Edward Teach is not only the namesake of Blackbeard, but also of the character's former captain Edward Newgate and his crewmate and victim Thatch, as Edward Teach was also referred to as Edward Thatch.[46]
* Teach's birthday, August 3rd, comes from his Devil Fruit's name since 8-3 can be derived from ya-mi.[9]
* If One Piece was set in the real world, then Teach would be from Somalia.[47]
* If Teach was not a pirate, then he would be an archaeologist.[47]
* Teach's hobbies are gambling and researching history.[48]