Teach D. Marshall

Teach D. Marshall (ティーチ・D・マーシャル, Tīchi D. Māsharu), known as "Blackbeard" (黒ひげ, Kurohige), is both a fictional character and antagonist from the Fairy One Piece Tail series created by Hiro Mashima and Eiichiro Oda.

He is the admiral and captain of the Blackbeard Pirates and a member of the Four Emperors. He is also the only known person in history to wield the power of two Devil Fruits. He first started out as a member of Roger later Whitebeard's 2nd division for a fruit he seeks.

He briefly became a Warlord after defeating Ace, to expand his crew with prisoners from Impel Down. After slaying Whitebeard in battle, he somehow manages to be considered a part of the Worst Generation along with the Eleven Supernovas.

"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, hismessage to the world..

Appearance & Biography

 * Voice Actor: Chris Rager (English), Akio Ōtsuka (Japanese), Not Known (Arabic), Not Known (Basque), Not Known (Brazilian), Not Known (Catalan), Not Known (Chinese), Not Known (Dutch), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (French), Not Known (German), Not Known (Greek), Not Known (Hebrew), Not Known (Hungarian), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (Norwegian), Not Known (Polish), Not Known (Portuguese), Not Known (Romanian), Not Known (Russian), Not Known (Serbian), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (Thai), Not Known (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (Castilian Spanish), Not Known (European Spanish), Not Known (European Portuguese), Not Known (Latin American Spanish), Not Known (Latin Spanish)

Biography
Captain of the Blackbeard Pirates. Also known as "Blackbeard". Once in the Seven Warlords of the Sea.

He is now one of the Four Emperors.

With the power of the Logia Devil Fruit, "Dark-Dark Fruit", he can create, control, manipulate, and change his body to darkness. He can also use gravity to pull everything to him and into his dark control. He gave Shanks the 3 scars he carries on his left eye and Rex the scar on his chest.

Appearance
Blackbeard is an extremely tall man, 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 bandana, and a small scruffy black beard (hence his epithet) grows around his jawline. As the series progresses, his beard becomes longer and scruffier.

The Young Past Days
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.

Pre-Timeskip
At his first appearance in Mock Town and during the raid on Banaro Island, Teach wore a large captain's coat over 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. It also came 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 Warlord 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 black and gold captain's coat like a cape. He also has three flintlocks and a flask tied to his sash around his waist.

Post-Timeskip
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.

His appearance on Hachinosu has Teach wear flamboyant pants, a belt instead of a sash, a new coat along with a feather cape, and new hat with feathers and his Jolly Roger.


 * Hair Color: Black
 * Skin Color: Brown
 * Eye Color: Black
 * Age: 38 (debut), 40 (after timeskip)
 * Birthday: August 3rd
 * Height: 344 cm (11'3½")
 * Weight: Not Known
 * Bounty: 2,247,600,000 Berries

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! Zehahahahahahahaha! THE DREAMS OF PIRATES... WILL NEVER END!!! AM I RIGHT?!"
 * —Blackbeard, his opinion on the "New Era" that Bellamy and Sarquiss boast about.

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 Roger, then Whitebeard Pirates, to find the Dark-Dark Fruit and killing a fellow crewmate despite two decades aboard the ship. He also deceived the Marines by joining the Seven Warlords 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 King of the Pirates.

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 survived. Though he betrayed two pirate crews, 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, Wolf San Juan. 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 Spirit 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 King of the Pirates. 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.

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 both ships 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 Dark-Dark Fruit 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 Ace D. Portgas to the World Government and finally killed one of his captains: 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.

He also does not seem to hold grudges as he did not bear ill will towards Ace, Natsu, or Luffy for attacking him nor did he express any desire of revenge against Magellan after the warden poisoned and nearly killed him. 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 and Natsu 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, while 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 jailors 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 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 both Shanks and Rex. 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 Fairy One Piece Tail'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 however.

Friends/Allies

 * Blackbeard Pirates
 * Laffitte
 * Augur Van
 * Burgess Jesus
 * Doc Q
 * Stronger

Neutral

 * Seven Warlords of the Sea
 * Kuma Bartholomew
 * Crocodile
 * Moria Gecko

Enemies

 * Roger Pirates
 * Whitebeard Pirates
 * Whitebeard
 * Marco
 * Ace D. Portgas
 * Jozu
 * Thatch
 * Vista
 * Red-Hair Pirates
 * Shanks
 * Bliking Pirates
 * Wapol
 * Straw Hat Pirates
 * Luffy D. Monkey
 * Jimbei
 * Fairy Tail
 * Natsu Dragneel
 * World Government
 * Marines
 * Sengoku
 * Akainu
 * Issho/Fujitora
 * Garp D. Monkey
 * Sentomaru
 * Impel Down
 * Magellan
 * Bonney Pirates
 * Bonney Jewelry

Abilities and Powers
As a member of the Four Emperors that rule over the New World, Blackbeard is recognized as one of the four strongest pirates in the world. During the timeskip, he has gained mass notoriety with his bounty being 2,247,600,000 berry bounty, showing how dangerous he has become. However it should be noted that out of the all the Four Emperors, his bounty is the lowest.

Even before becoming an Emperor, Teach was an immensely powerful pirate even for a former member of the Roger Pirates, Whitebeard Pirates, and Seven Warlords of the Sea. At some point in his life, Teach once fought Rex Shanks and gave them the scars on the left eye (Shanks) and chest (Rex), with them admitting that the injury did not occur because of carelessness. Their battle led them to cautiously recognize Teach as an extremely dangerous menace. After the Battle of Marineford, Blackbeard proved to the Five Elders that he had a one-step lead to usurp the empty Emperor position that Whitebeard once held, which eventually came to fruition.

The most prominent feats of Teach's power was defeating three commanders of the Whitebeard Pirates: Ace D. Portgas, Thatch, and later during the Grudge War, Marco. 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, thereby proving that his strength was equivalent with any of the other commanders, which is extremely notable, as he had not yet eaten a Devil Fruit.

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 decades aboard two ships with two pirate crews and even integrated with the crew dynamic, solely to increase his opportunities of obtaining the Dark-Dark Fruit (he also recruited future members of his personal crew during this time, indicating great charisma and leadership skills even as a regular crewmate).

He also went for the capture of Luffy D. Monkey 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 Tremor-Tremor Fruit, 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, Kuzan, 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 Tremor-Tremor Fruit, 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 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, Natsu, 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, 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. 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 Bonney Jewelry. 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 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 Black Vortex technique.

Marco later commented that 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 30 years prior, when Buggy stated that Teach didn't need to sleep like other people.

Devil Fruit
Blackbeard has become the first and, so far, only known person to wield the powers of two Devil Fruits at the same time. Through unknown means, he acquired the extremely destructive powers of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit from the dead body of Whitebeard and is now able to create earthquakes like one of his old captains. 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. Teach also appears to be knowledgeable enough to know how to use the Tremor-Tremor Fruit powers straight away after extracting it.

With the power of darkness (Dark-Dark Fruit), which "reduces anything to nothingness", and the power of quakes (Tremor-Tremor Fruit), 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.

Dark-Dark Fruit

 * Main article: Dark-Dark Fruit

The Dark-Dark Fruit (ヤミヤミの実, Yami Yami no Mi; literally meaning "Fruit of the Darkness-Darkness") the Logia-class Devil Fruit, which was stolen and eaten by Teach, allows him to create, control, become the element of darkness and manipulate gravity, shown as an ebbing shroud of darkness, shown to possess a strong gravitational pull, thus making him a Darkness Human (闇人間, Yami Ningen). 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 Dark-Dark Fruit's gravitational ability, Blackbeard, does have a certain but strong disadvantage; while using his "absorb" or gravitational abilities, he becomes temporarily unable to 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 Dark-Dark Fruit 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 "Black Vortex", 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.

Techniques
The named techniques that are used by Blackbeard that involve this Devil Fruit are as follows:
 * Black Hole (ブラック･ホール, Burakku Hōru): Blackbeard spreads his darkness over a large area and, much like an actual black hole, swallows up anything he chooses. When swallowed, the person or object is subjected to a large amount of gravity and crushed, such as an entire village on the island of Banaro. This technique was first seen as it was demonstrated in front of Ace. When the kanji of this technique is read as "Anketsudō", it refers to a road taken by a Chinese ajari buddhist monk when he incurred the wrath of emperor Genso (685-762).


 * Liberation (リベレイション, Ribereishon): Used following Black Hole, Blackbeard expels all of the destroyed remains of what his darkness had swallowed up at once. This is especially good at demonstrating his power. This was first seen being demonstrated before Ace. In the anime, Teach foreshadowed that this attack can possibly be used to launch cannon balls and swords like projectiles.


 * Black Vortex (くろうず, Kurōzu; literally meaning "Dark Water"; phonetically read as "Black Spiral"): Extending one arm towards his opponent, Blackbeard activates the gravity power of his darkness to pull them into his grasp. Blackbeard can then attack them with his massive strength. This move is particularly useful when used in conjunction with the fruit's power-nullifying abilities, since the target could easily avoid it by fighting at a distance from Blackbeard, as Ace attempted. This was first seen being used on Ace in order to grab him. However, this technique has also proven to be a great weakness, as most opponents he draws near him have attacked him while at close range, such as Ace launching two fiery spears into Blackbeard's chest, or Whitebeard slamming his bisento into Blackbeard's shoulder. The name of the attack is also a pun on the English word "close", and it can also mean "black vinegar", a vinegar commonly used in Chinese cooking.


 * Black World (ブラック･ワールド, Burakku Wārudo): Blackbeard covers the area surrounding his opponent in darkness, blocking their vision. This attack was shown and named in Fairy One Piece Tail: Wizard Pirate Warriors.


 * Black Opening (闇開, Yamiagari; literally meaning "Dark Opening"): Similar to a unique combination of Black Hole and Liberation, Blackbeard draws surrounding enemies into a pool of darkness in front of him before ejecting them, causing heavy damage in the process. The attack first appeared in Fairy One Piece Tail: Wizard Pirate Warriors 2, and is also in Fairy One Piece Tail: Wizard Pirate Warriors 3.


 * Dark Matter (ダーク・マター, Dāku Matā): Blackbeard creates a big ball of darkness and throws it at his opponent. This attack was shown and named in One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2, and is also in Fairy One Piece Tail: Wizard Pirate Warriors 3. This attack is very similar to the unnamed one Teach used against Ace's Flame Emperor at the end of their battle.


 * Dark End (闇に死ね Yami ni shine, literally meaning "Die in the dark"): This attack is similar to Dark Matter in that Blackbeard throws a big ball of darkness at the opponent. This attack appeared in Jump Force.

Tremor-Tremor Fruit

 * Main article: Tremor-Tremor Fruit

The Tremor-Tremor Fruit (グラグラの実, Gura Gura no Mi; literally meaning "Fruit of the Quake-Quake") the Paramecia-class Devil Fruit, which was stolen by Teach somehow, allows him to create vibrations, or "quakes", thus making him a Tremor Human (震動人間, Shindō Ningen). He stole it after wrapping a black tarp over himself and the deceased Whitebeard, though the method of how he got it is still unknown.

With the newly acquired powers of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, which is said to be the strongest Paramecia-type Devil Fruit, Blackbeard can create shock waves by shattering the air itself, creating devastating earthquakes that can even destroy the gargantuan Marineford main building. He can also focus his quake powers into a "quake bubble" on his fist, greatly increasing the damage in a single punch.

Upon initially obtaining the power, he did not have great control over it. This was 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. 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.

An example of this is when 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. After the timeskip, he seems to have more control of the power as he casually created an earthquake with no effort.

Techniques
The named techniques that are used by Blackbeard that involve this Devil Fruit are as follows:
 * Seaquake (海震, Kaishin; literally meaning "Seaquake"): Blackbeard "cracks" the air with a punch and sends devastating shock waves through the air in the direction it is facing. These shock waves can pass through and damage almost any substance, tearing it apart. If the shock waves are directed into the ground, the result is a devastating earthquake capable of generating huge tsunamis.


 * Oscillating Throw (兜割, Kabutowari; literally meaning "Helmet Break"): Blackbeard focuses his great power into a small, spherical area, otherwise known as a hypocenter, to perform a concentrated, explosion-like attack with his fist.


 * The Man Who Shakes the World (島揺らし, Shima Yurashi; literally meaning "Island Shaking"): Blackbeard "grabs" an entire area, by grabbing and pulling on the air around him as if it were tangible, and rapidly shifts it.

Haki

 * Main article: Haki

Blackbeard possesses the ability to use Armament and Observation Haki.

Weapons
When the Roger Pirates were fighting Shiki and his massive fleet and the Whitebeard Pirates started protecting Fish-Man Island, he is seen with metal claws on his left hand.

He was seen using 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.

Early Life
Before meeting Roger, Teach lived together with Rex as an orphan.

The Apprentice Years
28 years ago at age 12, he was seen among the Roger Pirates with fellow apprentice Rex. In truth, Blackbeard aspired to become the King of the Pirates. In order to do this, he wanted the Dark-Dark Fruit and he first joined the Roger Pirates to search for it, thinking that he would have the best chance of obtaining the fruit that way. This was when he and Rex met Shanks for the first time.

At least more than a few months ago, he spent most of his time together with Rex, arguing over meaningless things, such as which pole was colder, the North or the South. Their constant bickering was met with annoyance by the crew's first mate, Rayleigh Silvers.

Before meeting Whitebeard, Blackbeard fought against Rex and Shanks fought in a battle. During the battle, Blackbeard gave both Shanks the three scars by his left eye and Rex the scar on his chest.

Riding with Whitebeard
Sometime after a brutal fight with Rex and Shanks, he encountered Whitebeard and his crew and asked to join them, a request that Whitebeard granted. However in secret, Blackbeard still wanted to continue on with his plans when he could not find the Dark-Dark Fruit when he was on Roger's crew.

Sometime later after Shiki escaped Impel Down, Blackbeard at age 18 was present amongst Marco, Jozu, Vista, Blenheim, and Haruta while the Flying Pirate spoke to Whitebeard about his plan.

Blood and Betrayal
Blackbeard eventually became a member of the second division and encouraged Ace D. Portgas to seek the commander position, refusing it himself on the basis that he didn't "have that kind of ambition".

One day, the commander of the Whitebeard Pirates' fourth division Thatch found a Devil Fruit, which Teach recognized as the Dark-Dark Fruit and the reason he had joined the crew. Sometime after Luffy D. Monkey was appointed his first bounty, Teach killed Thatch in order to eat the Devil Fruit and fled the crew. Upon the Whitebeard Pirates learning of the murder, Ace set out to find Teach for betraying their "father", despite Whitebeard's reluctance to send the commander to his possible doom.

Teach then adopted the name Blackbeard and soon formed the Blackbeard Pirates, which composed of Laffitte, a former policeman from the West Blue and the crew's navigator, Augur Van the sniper, Burgess Jesus the helmsman, Doc Q the doctor, and Stronger, Doc Q's horse. Shortly after, the crew pillaged the Drum Kingdom, causing its king, Wapol, to flee and ironically liberating Drum Kingdom from his tyranny.

Post-War Arc
Blackbeard made his move in the New World, defeating Bonney Jewelry in the process. At a burning island, the crew was seen bickering amongst each other. The Blackbeard Pirates' raft was brought close to the point of destruction due to Wolf's size, and they seemingly got in contact with the Marines to trade Bonney for a battleship. Teach said Bonney was too weak to survive in the New World. He offered her the chance to be his woman and let her stay, but she turned him down, kicking him in the head (due to only her hands being tied up). Van Augur alerted Teach that the battleship arrived, but not for trade because Akainu was on board. Knowing that the deal would not happen, the Blackbeard Pirates fled, leaving Bonney and her crew behind to be arrested.

During the Timeskip
One year after the war at Marineford, the Blackbeard Pirates fought against the remnants of the Whitebeard Pirates and ultimately won.

Blackbeard used his knowledge of Whitebeard's former territory to conquer it and become one of the Four Emperors. During this time, Teach also expanded the crew into a fleet, and with it the hierarchy of the crew was also changed - promoting all of his crewmates to "captains" of their own respective ships, while Teach himself ascended to the newly-formed position of "admiral", giving him command over all the captains and their ships. The Blackbeard Pirates are currently in the process of hunting down powerful Devil Fruit users in order to absorb their abilities.

Dressrosa Arc
During the tournament for the Flame-Flame Fruit at Dressrosa, Teach was heard discussing the possibility of recruiting Kuzan to join their crew with Burgess Jesus via Transponder Snail, to which Burgess asserted that the former admiral could not be trusted. When Burgess announced that Luffy had arrived, Blackbeard greeted the young pirate and voiced surprise that he was a combatant as well. Knowing why Luffy entered the tournament, Teach assured him that Burgess would be the combatant to obtain the devil fruit and that it would be the same as having Ace join his crew since the latter rejected his previous offer. Luffy then angrily stated that he would never allow him to steal Ace's power.

Zou Arc
The Blackbeard Pirates later attacked Baltigo, the Revolutionary Army's headquarters. Baltigo was destroyed by the time the Marines and Cipher Pol arrived but the revolutionary army was able to escape. However, Blackbeard and his crew fled after briefly clashing with Cipher Pol.

Levely Arc
As the news of Luffy's exploits at Totto Land spread across the world, Teach read the newspaper and laughed while commenting that it was too soon for Luffy to be called an Emperor.

Wano Country Arc
Moria Gecko was searching for Blackbeard and Absalom at Hachinosu when he was confronted by Shiryu and Devon Catarina. Teach called out to Moria through a loudspeaker, extending an offer for Moria to join his crew and remarking on current events in Wano and at Levely.

After the Levely, Teach ordered his crew to set sail as he was planning to acquire someone or something before they could be taken by the Marines.

Canon

 * Roger Pirates vs. Golden Lion Pirates (Edd War)
 * Roger Pirates vs. Squard's first pirate crew (unseen)
 * Teach D. Marshall vs. Rex D. Monkey and Shanks (details unknown, yet left Rex and Shanks with their scars)
 * Teach D. Marshall vs. Thatch (past unseen)
 * Blackbeard Pirates vs. Drum Kingdom
 * Teach D. Marshall vs. Ace D. Portgas
 * Blackbeard Pirates vs. Impel Down Guards (Level 1)
 * Teach D. Marshall vs. Hannyabal and Bazooka Unit
 * Teach D. Marshall vs. Luffy D. Monkey and Natsu Dragneel (interrupted by Jimbei)
 * Teach D. Marshall vs. Newgate Edward (Lost)
 * Blackbeard Pirates vs. Newgate Edward (Won)
 * Blackbeard Pirates vs. Fleet Admiral Sengoku (inconclusive)
 * Blackbeard Pirates vs. Bonney Pirates
 * Blackbeard Pirates vs. Whitebeard Pirates (under Marco) (unseen, during timeskip)
 * Blackbeard Pirates vs. Revolutionary Army (unseen)
 * Blackbeard Pirates vs. Cipher Pol (unseen)

Non-Canon

 * Roger Pirates vs. Naguri Pirates

Early Versions
Fairy One Piece Tail Green: Secret Pieces revealed an early concept of Blackbeard. He was supposedly originally named Teach D. Everything (ティーチ・D・エブリシング, Tīchi D. Eburishingu). It also seems that Blackbeard's original name, Teach D. Everything, 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.

Anime and Manga Differences

 * In the manga, it has not been explained how exactly Teach killed Thatch, but in the anime, it is shown that Teach literally stabbed him in the back.


 * In the anime, the fight between Blackbeard and Whitebeard is slightly extended, as Blackbeard punched Whitebeard several times while having the latter in his grip. He also shot Whitebeard in the heart with his flintlock and fired several more times before ordering his crew to join in; in the manga, he simply ordered them to attack right after surviving one of Whitebeard's quake bubbles. Also, the wound he received from the Whitebeard's bisento was not as brutal as it was in the original manga. In the manga, the Dark-Dark Fruit was in Blackbeard's left hand and the Gura Gura no Mi was in his right. In the anime, they are reversed.


 * In the anime, the fight between Teach and Sengoku is also extended, with the former's quake punch and the latter's shockwaves tearing apart Marineford. Sengoku knocked Teach back with another shockwave, but he retaliated by tilting the island just as Whitebeard had done. Burgess Jesus jumped into the fight to assist, but was knocked back by the intervention of Garp.


 * When Blackbeard shifted the seas, the tsunami saved the Heart Pirates from a naval bombardment and a longer scene of people escaping Sabaody Archipelago is shown.

Translation and Dub Issues

 * His first name is spelled "Teech" in the English dub, going with a more phonic spelling. It should be noted that though it is spelled differently, it is still pronounced the exact same.


 * Also, it should be noted that though his epithet, "Kurohige" is translated universally as "Blackbeard", a more accurate translation would be "Black Facial Hair" as the Japanese language uses the word "Hige" to refer to all facial hair, regardless of whether it is a full beard or just a mustache.

Notes & Trivia

 * Oda once stated that Blackbeard was his favorite historical pirate.
 * 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's favorite food is cherry pie, as well as kebab.
 * Curiously, in One Piece Blue: Grand Data File, that covers from the Macao Arc to the middle of the Jaya Arc, Teach is not revealed as Teach D. Marshall 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 Warlord and later an Emperor.
 * In the 6th fan poll, Teach ranked 49th.
 * Blackbeard had the lowest former bounty among the Seven Warlords of the Sea (being none at all) and currently has the lowest bounty among the Four Emperors.

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 one of the character's former captains Newgate Edward and his crewmate and victim Thatch, as Edward Teach was also referred to as Edward Thatch.
 * Teach's birthday, August 3, comes from his Devil Fruit's name since 8-3 can be derived from ya-mi.
 * If One Piece was set in the real world, then Teach would be from Somalia.
 * If Teach was not a pirate, then he would be an archaeologist.
 * Teach's hobbies are gambling and researching history.
 * Teach's flower resemblance is a Red spider lily.
 * Teach's animal resemblance is a hippopotamus.