Marshall D. Teach

"Got your attention now. This is a wake up call to all the boring peace lovers, the half ass pirates, the fat-headed fools, and world government. The ignorant masses. We all must answer to the hand of fate. Zehahahahahaha! And fate has chosen me TO CONQUER THIS WORLD!!!"

- Blackbeard's message to the world. "The age where pirates dream is over!? Eh!? Oi! Zehahahaha! PEOPLE'S DREAMS... DON'T EVER END!"

- Blackbeard's most memorable quote

Marshall D. Teach (more commonly known as Blackbeard) is one of the central antagonists of the anime and manga series, One Piece, alongside Akainu. He is the cause of the Summit War and has become so powerful that he is now one of the Four Emperors. Blackbeard is the villainous captain, later admiral, of the Blackbeard Pirates, former member of the Whitebeard Pirates' second division and a former member of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. He is the archenemy of Monkey D. Luffy and is considered the evil counterpart of Whitebeard.

He is voiced by Akio Ōtsuka in the Japanese version, and the late Cole Brown in the English dubbed version.

Personality
"This "New Era" they keep rambling on and on about is a load of crap! The era where pirates dream of treasure will come to an end!? Yeah Right! THE DREAMS OF PIRATES WILL NEVER END!!! AM I RIGHT!?"

- Blackbeard's opinion on the "New Era" that Bellamy and Sarkies boast about.

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. 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 cunning, deceptive and treacherous, joining the Shichibukai in an elaborate and convoluted fashion for the sole reason of gaining access to Impel Down in order to find new crew mates and later resigning from it in front of the fleet admiral himself saying that he does not need it anymore. He is also power-hungry and greedy, aiming to become the next Pirate King. His hunger for power lead him to fashion a very cruel and vituperative 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.

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 merciful 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 and effervescent 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 that Roger had been waiting for and dismissed Teach as being incapable of continuing Roger's legacy.

Perhaps because of his strong belief in fate, Blackbeard is highly amoral, unethical, and unscrupulous. He believes that there is no inherent "good" nor "evil" in the world, jeeringly mocking anyone who expresses such belief. He is also very patient, conniving, manipulative, and intelligent, 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". 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 authoritative 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, free-spirited, easygoing, relaxed, and cheerful, 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 contemptuous, sarcastic, mocking, and derisive 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 extremely overconfident and egotistical, and while he is very powerful, he 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 and painful attack while his guard is down. Such as when he taunted Whitebeard about being unable 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, as well as Admiral Akainu when he was aboard the Marine battleship that they wanted.

Blackbeard is also a very benevolent 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.

Appearance
Blackbeard is a 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).

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 gray bandanna, as well as switching to a red shirt, while wearing his captain's coat like a cape. He also has three flintlocks and a flask tied to his sash around his waist.

In the Volume 63 SBS, 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.

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

Physical Abilities
Teach is shown many times to have immense superhuman endurance. As seen when he took Ace's and Whitebeard's attacks. Also taking Luffy's Gum Gum Jet Pistol to the gut then crashing into a stone wall. These are noteworthy as his powers increase the damage he takes and could of have been considered fatal.

Teach is also shown to have superhuman strength as well. Shown when he seriously injured Luffy and Ace when they were at the mercy of his darkness. He's also able to knock back Whitebeard with a few punches.

Devil Fruits
Blackbeard is the first and, so far, only person to wield two Devil Fruit powers at the same time. Through the power of his darkness he managed to extract Whitebeard's devil fruit powers from his deceased body.

The two Devil Fruit powers Blackbeard currently has are:


 * Dark Dark Fruit - A logia class Devil Fruit that is said to be the most evil power of them all. It grants the user to control the power of darkness. It can also give the user the ability to nullify any other Devil Fruit power. Teach has shown complete mastery over this power and gained it by murdering a fellow crew mate on Whitebeard's ship. He searched decades for this fruit and joined Whitebeard's crew because of it since he correctly believed he'd have a better chance to find it.
 * Tremor Tremor Fruit - A paramecia class Devil Fruit that is considered the strongest in it's class. It grants the user the ability to create earthquakes. It was originally eaten by Whitebeard but after his death, Blackbeard managed to use his Darkness powers to steal it from Whitebeards's deceased body.

Riding with Whitebeard
Though details unclear at this point, his childhood seemed depressing as in a sketch depicting him as a child in an SBS, Blackbeard is shown crying in the dark under a crescent moon.

Blackbeard aspires to become the Pirate King. In order to do this, he wanted the Yami Yami no Mi. At no older than 16, he joined the Whitebeard Pirates to search for it, thinking that he would have the best chance of obtaining the fruit that way. He would then serve under Whitebeard for at least 20 years before his betrayal. 22 years ago, after Shiki escaped Impel Down, Blackbeard (at the age of 18) was present amongst Marco, Jozu, Vista, Blenheim, and Haruta while the Flying Pirate spoke to Whitebeard about his plan.

Blood and Betrayal
More than 2 years before the current storyline, Blackbeard and Shanks fought in a battle. During the battle, Blackbeard gave Shanks the three scars by his eyes and this made Shanks be wary of him. Blackbeard eventually became a member of the second division and encouraged Ace to seek the commander position, refusing it himself on the basis that he didn't "have that kind of ambition".

One day, Thatch, commander of the Whitebeard Pirates' fourth division, found a Devil Fruit. Recognizing it as the Yami Yami no Mi, the very reason he joined the Whitebeard Pirates for, Blackbeard killed Thatch to get the fruit and fled. For killing a crewmate and betraying his "father", Second Division Commander Portgas D. Ace went after Blackbeard to kill him, despite Whitebeard's reluctance to send Ace to his possible doom. The time Ace began to chase Blackbeard was around some time after Luffy left Arlong Park since in a flashback, Ace was showing Whitebeard Luffy's first bounty and being proud of it. By this point, however, Blackbeard had already gained a crew and began his own open acts of piracy.

Blackbeard then assembled the Blackbeard Pirates, composed of Laffitte, a former policeman from the West Blue and the crew's navigator, Van Augur the sniper, Jesus Burgess the helmsman, Doc Q the doctor, and Stronger, Doc Q's horse. Some time after, his pirate crew pillaged the Drum Kingdom, causing its king, Wapol, to flee and ironically liberating Drum Kingdom from Wapol's oppressive tyranny.

Drum Island Arc
The Blackbeard Pirates then invaded Drum Kingdom, Chopper's home town. This caused the kingdom's tyrannical ruler Wapol to cowardly run away.

Jaya Arc
Luffy meets Blackbeard in a bar and they both complain about the cherry pies and the taste of things at the bar. Blackbeard asks Luffy if he's a pirate and what his bounty is. He is shocked to learn about Luffy's bounty. They both prepare to start a fight but Terry gives Blackbeard his cherry pies before their fight can start. Blackbeard then leaves the bar.

After Luffy and Zoro's fight with Bellamy, Blackbeard tells Nami that Skypeia exists and then gives a about how peoples dreams never end and the new age is trash. Luffy hears this and, despite being injured, gets back up and faces Blackbeard. Blackbeard wishes Luffy good luck on his trip to Sky Island before leaving.

After seeing how high Luffy and Zoro's bounties raised, he planned to capture them. Blackbeard confronted the Straw Hat Pirates and showed Zoro and Luffy their new bounty. Before Blackbeard could capture them, his ship was destroyed by the Straw Hats knock-up steam.

Incident on Banaro Island
Blackbeard is next seen reading a newspaper about Enies Lobby and how Luffy's bounty will rise up. Blackbeards crew then decides that they would try to kill Luffy. Before they can go, Ace confronts Blackbeard and Blackbeard tells Ace what their going to do, and that he should join them. Ace refuses and tells them Luffy is his brother, to Blackbeard's shock. Then two of Blackbeard's men Augur and Burgess attack Ace.

Ace easily counters the attacks and Blackbeard is infuriated at his two members because he deemed that they were out of Ace's league, and that they should just back off. Ace then attacked Blackbeard and burned him but Blackbeard survived the attack. Blackbeared then told Ace why he joined Whitebeard and why he killed Thatch because the latter had a devil fruit, he had been searching for 20 years.

He then showed Ace the power of the Darkness-Darkness Fruit before he explained to Ace what his devil fruit powers do. Blackbeard then creates a giant blackholes and destroys the city they're fighting in. Ace then shot an explosion attack at Blackbeard which set him on fire and rolling in pain. Blackbeard got up and Ace's flames were absorbed by the darkness. Blackbeard then stated he can't disperse like Ace can and his fruit increases the damage but says that weakness can be overlooked with its ability. He sucked in Ace with his gravitation attack and punched Ace in the stomach, which sent him flying. Blackbeard explained he can draw in devil fruit powers which allows him to land a physical attack on the user after he touches them.

Blackbeard and Ace then began to battle while the townsfolk watch in horror. Ace fell onto the ground where Blackbeard offered him one more chance to join his crew. Ace denied and attacked Blackbeard once more. Blackbeard ended up countering this attack and defeating Ace.

Amazon Lily Arc
Blackbeard turned Ace into the World Government and doing so, became a Shichibukai. This act triggered a war in which Blackbeard said he would join.

Impel Down Arc
Before the war, Blackbeard and his crew stole a marine ship and headed to Impel Down.

The crew broke into Impel Down and arrived at Level 1 where they fight and defeat several guards. Blackbeard sees Shiliew and mistakes him for Magellan until realizing otherwise. It is unknown what occurred in their meeting but the Blackbeard Pirates got passed Shiliew and were seen making their way through the area.

Once he arrives at Level 4, him and his crew manage to take down both the Bazooka Unit and the Hannyabal. Jinbe sees Blackbeard and angrily asks him what he's doing in Impel Down. Luffy recognizes Blackbeard and calls him out. Blackbeard then begins to taunt Luffy about Ace's execution. Luffy is infuriated by this and attacks Blackbeard. The two began to battle but it was shortly stopped by Jinbe, who managed to calm Luffy down. Blackbeard admitted that he was impressed with Luffy's strength and when Magellan came, Blackbeard allowed Luffy to proceed. Crocodile then asks Blackbeard why he started a riot in Impel Down instead of being at Marineford, to which Blackbeard said that it was apart of his plan.

Blackbeard and his crew then encountered Magellan who quickly doused them with his poison Hydra attack and left them as they suffered in agony. Blackbeard and his crew would have died from the poison if not for Shiliew, who gave them the antidote. Blackbeard had apparently invited Shiliew to be apart of his crew before and repeated his offer, to which Shiliew accepted. Blackbeard and his crew made it down to level 6 where he told the prisoners that they could be free if they joined his crew.

However, in order to see who was the strongest out of the prisoners, Blackbeard had them all fight each other. As a result, several inmates were killed while Blackbeard got four prisoners to join his crew. Blackbeard and the rest of his crew then headed out for Marineford either not knowing or caring that some inmates survived and escaped the prison.

It is implied he and his crew were the ones who severely injured Magellan who was said to have beaten to near death.

Marineford Arc
Blackbeard and his crew made it to Marineford, to see Whitebeard die. Blackbeard then unveiled his newly strengthened crew to the world, which consisted of some of the deadly criminals. Teach revealed to Sengoku that he no longer needed his position as Shichibukai as he got what he wanted.

After that, he was confronted by Whitebeard and they engaged in a battle where Teach held his ground before Whitebeard managed to overpower Blackbeard. Just before he was going to finish him off, Blackbeard ordered his crew to finish Whitebeard off.

Doing so resulted in Whitebeard's dying breath, he denounced Blackbeard as capable of carrying on Roger's will before speaking his last words of revealing One Piece was real. Whitebeard then died standing, to Blackbeard's shock before he got over it and had his crew place a black tarp on his former dead Captain which he soon enters promising to give the marines a good show.

Blackbeard then emerged from the tarp where he revealed that through unknown means he has stole Whitebeard's devil fruit ability and has now managed to control two devil fruit abilities at once being the first person said to do so. He tested Whitebeard's former power out on some marines and was satisfied with his power proclaiming himself as the Strongest Man in the World. He then told everyone gathered that this was now his era.

After seeing the marines were too scared of him to fight back, Blackbeard then threaten to sink Marineford which resulted in Sengoku attacking him for stating such a reckless desire which got the marines back in their spirits. While the two clashed, Jesus Burgess tries to help Blackbeard, only to be stopped by Garp. Blackbeard then began taunting Garp and Sengoku saying he'll end their end age just like he did Whitebeard. However, Coby then shouted for both marines and pirates to stop and began to give his speech to Akainu and the marines calling their fighting at this point irrelevant, which even shocked Blackbeard.

An annoyed Akainu tried to kill Coby, but was stopped by Shanks, who personally challenges an excited Blackbeard. Blackbeard briefly taunts Shanks about the scar he left on his face but turns down the offer to fight by saying that his crew was not ready for fighting Shanks yet.

With that he leaves with his crew, as he gloats at his achievements in the war.

Post-War Arc
Blackbeard captured Jewelry Bonney and her crew and mocked her for losing so easily, as his crew joined in this mocking.

He said she was too weak to join him but said he would let her go only if she became his woman. She angrily denied the offer and kicked Blackbeard in the face, as his crew laughed at his rejection. Blackbeard was called out to by Van Augur and he asked him if any marine ships were open for them to steal. His sniper saw one but thought it was a bad idea to try and steal that ship because Akainu was on it.

Once Blackbeard hears about this, he stated he couldn't deal with an admiral now before he and his crew ran off, leaving Jewelry Bonney and her crew behind to be arrested.

During the Time-skip
A year later, a group of Whitebeard pirates started up a crew lead by Marco which was built for the sole purpose of taking down Blackbeard and avenging his death. Blackbeard and his crew faced off against Marco and his crew in what is now known as the "Payback War".

Blackbeard ended up winning the war, with nobody else in his way Blackbeard used his knowledge of Whitebeard's territory was able to take it over. As such, the government officially declared him to be a Yonko and the new replacement for Whitebeard.

Blackbeard's crew's numbers and power have grown and expanded into fleets, with Blackbeard deeming himself as Admiral and promoting the rest of his crew to captains. According to rumors, they have been seeking out and killing Devil Fruit users for their powers which they took after death.

Dressrosa Arc
Luffy overheard Jesus Burgess on the snail phone, talking to Blackbeard about Kuzan. Once Burgess noticed Luffy, he told this to Blackbeard who was amused at this news and spoke to Luffy. Blackbeard aware of Luffy's reason for joining the competition started taunting Luffy about how Jesus would win the competition and how it would be like having Ace on their team as he previously turned down his offer. Luffy told Blackbeard that he's the last person he wants with Ace's power, to which Blackbeard responded by laughing in anticipation and the phone call ended.

Whole Cake Island Arc
Blackbeard and his crew then destroy Baltigo (The Revolutionary army's headquarters). Before Cipher Pol and the Marines arrived. When they did arrive, Blackbeard chased Cipher Pol before giving up and fleeing along with his crew.

Reverie Arc
Blackbeard reads the recent news of Luffy's actions at Totto Land and his new bounty. Blackbeard disregards Luffy as the fifth emperor, saying that it is too soon for Luffy to have that title yet.

Quotes
"Zehahahahahaha! Pretty as a picture aren't you Red Hair? Those scars are a nice touch."

- Blackbeard upon seeing Shanks at Marineford.

"Zehahahahahaha! Zehahahahahaha! You know what fine, I got what I came here for after all, and I'm not looking for a fight with you guys, well not yet at lest. Come on fellows let's pack it up! Zehahahahahaha! Zehahahahahaha!"

- Blackbeard to Shanks, deciding to stop fighting at Marineford.

Trivia

 * Blackbeard is the first One Piece character who managed to obtain another Devil Fruit ability from its late former user, and the first One Piece character who has safely controlled two Devil Fruit powers at the same time.
 * Due to his actions, Blackbeard is definitely the catalyst of the Summit War Saga and even the entire One Piece story prior to New World event. He caused Ace's arrest and is indirectly responsible for his death, also killing Whitebeard. Blackbeard is also the one who gained most profits after the end of Marineford Arc - including Whitebeard's Devil Fruit ability and some new crew members - which making him one of the Four Emperors as well as one of the central antagonists of the entire One Piece storyline.
 * Due to his ultimate ambition of becoming the Pirate King, Blackbeard is also both an archenemy and an evil counterpart to Luffy.
 * Despite having a letter "D." as his middle name, Blackbeard rarely has any feature of the "Will of the D." unlike other "D.". Unlike other selfless "D." heroes like Luffy, Ace, Garp, Dragon and Law, Blackbeard has a great fear of death and showed a little sense of honor.
 * So far, Blackbeard is also the only villainous "D"-bearer.
 * So far, Blackbeard is also the only "D"-bearer to show fear of death.
 * Marshal D. Teach is based on the historical pirate by the same name Blackbeard (Edward Teach).

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Marshall D. Teach