Blackbeard (One Piece)

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*Marshall D. Teach*
Marshall D. Teach, from the anime and manga series One Piece
Name in Japanese	マーシャル・D・ティーチ
Name in Romaji (Hepburn)	Māsharu D. Tīchi
English Name	Marshall D. Teach
Epithet	Kurohige
Age	{{{age}}}
Birthday	{{{birth}}}
Height	{{{height}}}
Voice Actor (4Kids)	Unknown (heard in Pirates Carnival)
Japanese Seiyu	Akio Otsuka
Appears In	Original Manga
First Appearance	Manga Chapter #223
Species	Human
Bounty
One Piece Characters

Blackbeard is a fictional character in the anime and manga series One Piece. He is captain of the "Blackbeard pirates". Along with Van Auger (a sniper), Jesus Burgess (a fighter, and Helmsman), Doc Q aka "Grim Reaper" (a doctor), and Lafitte (a former policeman from West Blue).

Every member of his crew believes heavily on the ideas of fate and destiny. From handing out exploding apples to other pirates to see who among them is fated to live, and shooting seagulls to find out which one will be destined to die a painful or quick death.

1 Known history
2 Current storyline events
3 Manga/Anime influences
4 Trivia
5 References
6 See also

[edit] Known history

Blackbeard was formerly a member of the Whitebeard Pirates second division led by Portgas D. Ace, but he apparently killed some of the other members and struck out on his own. While this act is considered a horrible crime on board a pirate ship, this indicates that Blackbeard has a considerable amount of power, because Whitebeard is currently the strongest pirate in the Grand Line. Shanks also warned Whitebeard that Blackbeard was becoming stronger than him. Blackbeard was actually the one who gave Shanks the scars around his eye, a long time ago. Shanks also tells Whitebeard to call back Ace on his hunt for Blackbeard, as he was concerned for the health of Ace. Ace is quite a strong pirate himself, so this statement is saying something. After leaving Whitebeard's crew, his pirate crew pillaged the Drum Kingdom, leaving its king, Wapol, to flee.

[edit] Current storyline events

After Luffy defeated Crocodile in Alabasta, Lafitte tried to nominate Blackbeard to become one of the Shichibukai to take Crocodile's place, but in order to be accepted, Blackbeard must first build up a fearsome reputation.

Blackbeard happened to be in Jaya, at the same time Luffy was. Both Luffy and Blackbeard seem to strike up a rivalry when they nearly got into a fight over how they like or dislike one of the island tavern's food.^[1] However, not long after that he'd given Luffy a friendly speech about how pirates will never stop dreaming^[2]. Despite their similarities (and comical contrasts), it was revealed in the Jaya arc that Blackbeard was looking to take out a strong pirate to make a name for himself - and he chose Luffy after learning of his 100 million Beri bounty at the time. He however failed to catch them as they were blasted aside by the knock-up stream which took the Strawhats to Skypiea.

After the events at Enies Lobby were publicized and the bounties of the Straw Hat Pirates raised, Blackbeard and his crew have decided to once again actively pursue the Straw Hats. However, Portgas D. Ace caught up to Blackbeard just as he was about to set sail.

The Letter D Blackbeard's true name is Marshall D. Teach, indicating a possible connection to the other "D." characters (Monkey D. Luffy, Portgas D. Ace, Gol D. Roger, Jaguar D. Saulo, Monkey D. Garp, Monkey D. Dragon), as well as a connection to the cryptic "Will of D". Due to his large size, he could possibly be related to Jaguar D. Saulo.

[edit] Manga/Anime influences

Historically, Blackbeard was as fearsome a pirate as he is portrayed by Eiichiro Oda in One Piece. Blackbeard's pirate ship was discovered in South Carolina in 1996, and possibly influenced Oda when he began One Piece in 1997, evidenced by Oda's statements that Blackbeard was his favorite historical pirate.

Marshall D. Teach's name is partially taken from the real Blackbeard's supposed name, Edward Teach.

[edit] Trivia

Many of One Piece's villains are given distinct laughs. Blackbeard follows this tradition by starting his laughs with a "Zeh" sound (i.e Zeh ha ha ha ha!)

In the English version of the PS2 and Gamecube game One Piece Pirates' Carnival, he has been named Marshall D. Teech, a very minor change (the "a" in "Teach" has been changed to an "e").

[edit] References

^ One Piece - Episode 146 and One Piece manga - Vol. 24 - Chapter 223, Blackbeard and Luffy meet
^ One Piece - Episode 147 and One Piece manga - Vol. 24 - Chapter 225, Blackbeard gives Luffy a speech on Dreams