Marshall D. Teach

Marshall D. Teach, most commonly referred to by his epithet Blackbeard, is the captain-turned-admiral of the Blackbeard Pirates, currently one of the Four Emperors. He is also the only known person in history to wield the powers of two Devil Fruits.

He started out his pirate career as an apprentice of the Whitebeard Pirates, then later became a member of the crew's 2nd division. However, he defected after murdering Thatch, the 4th division commander, in order to steal the Yami Yami no Mi. Prior to the two-year timeskip, he briefly held a position among the Seven Warlords of the Sea after defeating and handing Ace over to the Marines, before resigning upon returning from Impel Down with Level Six prisoners to strengthen his crew. His actions resulted in him being considered a part of the Worst Generation along with the Eleven Supernovas. His murder of Whitebeard during the Summit War of Marineford and stealing of his Gura Gura no Mi power, as well as defeating the Whitebeard Pirates during the timeskip and taking the majority of Whitebeard's territories result in him becoming one of the Four Emperors, with the island of Hachinosu acting as his base of operations.

Due to his actions, he can be considered a minor antagonist during the Jaya and Post-Enies Lobby Arcs, 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 series. 

Appearance

Blackbeard is an extremely tall man with dark skin, being exactly twice Luffy's (pre-timeskip) height. He has 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 bandanna, and a small scruffy black beard (hence his epithet) grows around his jawline. As the series progresses, his beard becomes longer and scruffier.

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 Seven Warlords 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 (dark yellow in the anime) 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. He also has three flintlocks and a flask tied to his sash around his waist.

In SBS Volume 63, Oda drew the Seven Warlords of the Sea 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 timeskip, Teach has grown a long beard that he has split into multiple sections, very much like his real-life basis. He also wears golden hoop earrings and the same black tricorne with a yellow bandana with red polka dots. He switches to a light purple shirt with a black captain’s coat with red linings. He has a red and white feather with a purple flower on the side of his tricorne. He has an orange plume alongside with his coat. He now wears dark blue pants with light blue floral designs on them. He also now dons a pair of sunglasses.

Personality

Blackbeard's personality seems to be a strange mix of courage and cowardice, as well as high intellectual capacity and stupidity. While at times his character looks strong and fearsome, in others he will seem weak and ridiculous. He is very deceptive, joining the Whitebeard Pirates to find the Yami Yami no Mi and killing a fellow crewmate despite having spent two decades aboard the ship. He also deceived the Marines by joining the Seven Warlords of the Sea 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. He is also exceedingly power-hungry and greedy, aiming to become the next Pirate King.

His hunger for power led 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 survived. Though he betrayed the Whitebeard Pirates, Teach takes comradeship with the crew he formed to a high level, which is 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 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, as well as a competitive and reckless nature to the point of 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. Furthermore, when backed into a corner, Blackbeard has shown himself to be a coward: when being held at chokepoint by Whitebeard, he pathetically begged for mercy, calling him "Pops" and reminding Whitebeard that he was his "son" and that he wouldn't kill one of his own "family". 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.

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". 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.

He also does not seem to hold grudges as he did not bear ill will towards Ace or Luffy for attacking him nor did he express any desire of revenge against Magellan after the warden poisoned and nearly killed him and his entire crew. When Ace went after Teach after the latter killed Thatch and left Whitebeard's ship, Teach brushed off the issue of Thatch's death and even offered Ace to join his crew.

Blackbeard is often very calm, composed, relaxed, easygoing, cheerful, and free-spirited, but he can be surprised and startled, such as when Koby 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 as, while 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, 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 Shiryu 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 to be 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.

Another sign of his overconfidence is the fact that he chose to recruit the worst criminals in Impel Down into his crew despite the high risks of them not being loyal to him such as Shiryu, who did not hesitate to betray and kill his fellow jailers of Impel Down and stated that he only joined the Blackbeard Pirates out of opportunism.

Blackbeard is also an ungrateful man by nature as described by Marco. Despite the fact that Whitebeard took him in and treated him as a son like the rest of the crew for more than 20 years, Blackbeard did not hesitate to betray his father figure to acquire the Devil Fruit Thatch found. He then later went on to further show he never had an ounce of respect or care for the Whitebeard Pirates as a whole other than for his own selfish agenda by killing his former captain and claiming all his territories as his own.

Blackbeard is a very patient and careful pirate, as stated by Shanks. Unlike other powerful pirates, he never gained renown and remained concealed, up to the point that he 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 Duel on Banaro Island.

Abilities and Powers

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 some future members of his personal crew during this time, indicating great charisma and leadership skills even as a regular crewmate).  He also went to capture Monkey D. Luffy in order to guarantee an offer for the vacant position of the Seven Warlords of the Sea 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 greatest strategic masterminds of the Marines, with Sengoku realizing Teach's true intentions only after the Blackbeard Pirates appeared in Marineford. Marco also suggested Teach already made plans to steal the Gura Gura no Mi, from being on the crew for so long. 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, Aokiji, 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 kill 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. This side of him was seen again when he chose to flee from the Marine Admiral Akainu.

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 Four Emperors.

However, for all his combat prowess and intellect, Blackbeard has a 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 Shiryu's help, Teach's entire crew would have died from Magellan's Poison Devil Fruit ability.

Physical Abilities

Teach has an immense amount of superhuman endurance and durability, 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. He has also taken a direct slash from Whitebeard's bisento without suffering any lasting damage and was able to shrug off a kick to his head from Supernova Jewelry Bonney. It is rumored that Teach has never slept once in his whole life, which shows off his tremendous stamina.

During his fight with Ace, he was engulfed in flames and pierced in the chest by two fire spears, but after putting out the flames, he was able to shake off the impact of the attacks. Another indication of his sheer endurance is that he took a point-blank Gear Second attack from an enraged Luffy, and was hit by Sengoku in his Daibutsu form only to come out with minor injuries both times. Teach also shows incredible tolerance to pain as despite his Devil Fruit causing him to be injured even worse and further increasing pain, this never stops him for long.

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 durable 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.

According to Marco, Teach has a unique body structure that is different from other normal humans, which could even explain how he was able to possess two Devil Fruits, when an individual would have normally ended up dying. This is further shown when Buggy stated that Teach did not need to sleep like other people.

Devil Fruits

Yami Yami no Mi

Blackbeard ate the Yami Yami no Mi, a unique Logia-type Devil Fruit which allows him to create and control the element of darkness. The darkness appears reminiscent of a fiery black smoke. Unlike a normal Logia user, Blackbeard cannot turn intangible; in fact, any damage he takes will actually hurt worse than normal. Blackbeard has an infinite amount of space inside of his body made of darkness.

The darkness has strong properties of gravity and absorption. The darkness has the power to pull things in, much like a black hole. Even light itself cannot escape. Furthermore, the gravity is so strong that it can completely crush anything in its path. Once something has been pulled in, it can be absorbed into the darkness, where it will be trapped until Blackbeard himself decides to release it. It is described as a void which devours everything and returns all to nothingness.

The most frightening power of the fruit is that it allows Blackbeard to absorb/nullify other people's Devil Fruit powers. So long as Blackbeard maintains physical contact with the other Devil Fruit user, it’s as if the victim never ate their Devil Fruit at all.

Gura Gura no Mi

Blackbeard, through currently unknown means, stole the power of the Gura Gura no Mi from the dead body of its previous user, Whitebeard. The Gura Gura no Mi is a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit that gives him the ability to cause earthquakes and generate powerful shockwaves. It is considered to be the strongest power of the Paramecia class.

He has the power to send incredibly powerful shockwaves through the air, creating cracks in the air itself in the process. His shockwaves carry a devastating offense. He can also use his shockwaves defensively, as their vast raw power can easily stop incoming attacks, even from the Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit power of the then Fleet Admiral, Sengoku. He can also use his power to shake, rupture, and tilt the landscape itself. By striking at the general area with his quake powers, he can cause large earthquakes. His quakes cause serious damage and alterations to the surrounding landscape and are capable of destroying buildings, even the gargantuan Marineford. He could even "grab" the surrounding area itself and literally tilt it.

Upon initially obtaining the power, he did not have great control over it. After the timeskip, he seems to have more control of the power, as he casually created an earthquake with no effort.

Haki

Kenbunshoku Haki

Blackbeard has shown the ability to use Kenbunshoku Haki, he sensed that Luffy's Haki had improved since meeting him in Jaya.

Busoshoku Haki

Blackbeard is a skilled user of Busoshoku Haki. By hardening his arm, he defended against a Seraphim's sword slashes, which cut Amazon Lily's large mountain in half.

Weapons

Teach has occasionally been shown using claw weapons, one of which he favored since his youth days. It is very likely that this was the weapon he used to give Shanks his facial scars. When the Whitebeard Pirates started protecting Fish-Man Island, he was seen with longer metal claws in one hand. He has yet to been seen wielding a claw weapon in the present day, however.

Teach used a flintlock pistol when dealing the deathblow to Whitebeard along with the other Blackbeard Pirates, and also has three pistols tied in his sash. 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 after he finished shooting.