For New Viewers to my channel, I recommend checking out my video on the "Dawn of the World Explained," as it provides a more complete context for some of the ideas discussed in the last section of the video. For the sake of time, I didn't reiterate all those points in-depth in this video, and opted to give a condensed version instead before explaining how Blackbeard fits into it. Hope you all enjoy regardless =)
@@TheHecg Im not sure, I've thought about that and people have mentioned it to me before, but it feels like it mighttttt be a stretch? You could interpret it as that, but at the same time it could just be taking a simple choice Oda made and trying to fit it into another idea when he didn't necessarily have that connection in mind. Maybe he'll do something later down the line that does more strongly suggest the strawhat reflects the dawn in a way?
one of my favorite little historical nods in One Piece is that the crew member Blackbeard killed was named Thatch. Both Thatch and Teach are commonly theorized to be the real life names of Blackbeard. Thus Teach, denied himself/killed himself to become himself. If that makes any sense.
Justin Huyett And Whitebeards name “Edward Newgate”. Blackbeard’s real full name is Edward Thatch. Blackbeard kills both whitebeard and thatch to gain devil fruits
"what makes a villain a great foil to the hero is how much you can read into the contrast between the two. how much is the author saying through their differences that the hero alone could not communicate?" I feel like this could be framed
I like how you pointed out Luffy's Hard Work vs Blackbeard's Corner Cutting. It's something I've talked about before when responding to people who think Luffy is special and is just magically chosen by Fate to become Pirate King. I made a huge point about the significance of Oda repeatedly taking away Luffy's "specialness" and making him earn it again. Devil Fruits where special in East Blue but once he gets to the Grandline they're not special anymore. He's just one of many DF users. So what makes him so special? How does he stand out? Through his actions. Luffy defeats Crocodile one of the Shichibukai. Receiving a sizeable bounty for his efforts. But then he's still just another rookie on the Grandline. So how does he stand out? Luffy attacks Enies Lobby and defeats Rob Lucci.So he's blowing up now but he's still just one of nearly a dozen supernovas, amazing rookies just like him. Oda once again makes him stand out through his actions by making him the only one crazy enough to punch a Tenryuubito, and then be the only Supernova to participate in the War. The point was that Luffy always has to earn his worth and everything he has is a product of his own hard work and effort. Even something like being trained by the former right hand of the Pirate King sounds impressive until you realize that Rayleigh didn't actually do anything special for Luffy. He didn't teach Luffy any special technique, rare fighting style, or unique strategy. What he taught Luffy was the basics of Haki. Thats it. While he may have handed Luffy the tools he needed it was up to Luffy himself to make something worthwhile out of it. And after teaching Luffy the basics Rayleigh left, and Luffy refined his strength on his own. In fact every technique we see Luffy come up with is something entirely of his own design and NOT something that Rayleigh taught him. Even just looking at Luffy's Devil Fruit in general it's significantly more refined than just about anyone we've met in the story. Going to the One Piece wiki it's staggering to see the long list of moves Luffy has invented compared to any other character in the series. And that just goes to show how under advantaged Luffy was with the Gomu Gomu no Mi and how hard he's had to work to make it combat capable. He's had to invent dozens upon dozens of moves just to keep up with other Devil Fruit users. Most of which are extremely powerful on their own without having the mount of moves. It makes sense why Oda has to do this though. It's also the same reason I have no problem with Luffy being special as long as he always earns it. Thats because the thing he's aiming for the Pirate King which is something special among special. So Luffy is forced to climb his way through several levels of 'specialness' before he can earn this title.
So Blackbeard didn't work hard plotting clever plans to steal devil fruits, using the warlord title to get into impel down, and using ace to start a war? Even though his methods doesn't consider morality, it is in no way doesn't take effort. Heck, he wouldn't even be risking his life fighting Magellan and then whitebeard if he wasn't so determined to reach his goal.
One really cool detail is that when Luffy is talking to any other antagonist, he will joke around and be a little goofy but when it comes to Blackbeard, he’s ALWAYS dead serious.
@@SaintEthanbaronNusjuroTbh Akainu is because of trauma involving Ace, Luffy is always serious about Blackbeard since their first meeting, almost like a spiritual clash between the two
One could say Rayleigh’s question to Luffy with regards to conquering the Grand Line was a test to see which Will he inherited, and that pretty much determined Rayleigh’s subsequent behavior towards Luffy. Ray must have known about the contrast between the D, most likely originating from Xebec’s contrast with Roger.
I think you're taking the idea of inherited will to metaphysically. It isn't necessarily a contrast between Ds as much as an inherent contrast between people who want to achieve their goals the "right way" and those who think the "right way" is achieving your goals in any way possible. We've seen ten D.s in a lot of different capacities. The only defining characteristic of the D.s in the story has been that they drastically re shape the world. Monkey D. Garp: Hero of the Marines, Monkey D. Dragon: the leader of the revolutionaries, Jaguar D. Saul: defected and saved the last Oharan, Rocks D. Xebac: almost conquered the world, Trafalgar D. Water Law: took out a warlord/celestial dragon, about to help Luffy take out 1 or 2 yonkos, Portgas D. Rouge: Stayed pregnant 18-24 months(i can't remember) to save Ace, Ace: Became a commander of Whitebeard and was the catalyst to Luffy truly getting on the path to becoming the Pirate King, Marshall D. Teach: the biggest rival and threat to the WG and the future pirate king, and finally Monkey D. Luffy: THE FUTURE PIRATE KING
I literally JUST read Impel Down yesterday in my reread, saw the moment of Blackbeard saying there is no moral answer, and I didn't even connect what that means about his contrast with Luffy. Fantastic analysis as usual. ...how did I never realize Luffy vs. Blackbeard is the Sun vs. a Black Hole. God.
lol dude i didnt realize it till i was at the end of doing all my notes for my Dawn vid. then i tried to shove the blackbeard stuff into that vid but decided to just hold off for his own vid later
@@MrMorj By the way, in my reread I noticed that during Ace's flashback during Marineford, Ace mentions that Blackbeard has been in Whitebeard's crew the longest. While I'm not sure if this meant he was WB's first crew member (in his new crew post-Rocks) or just the senior member in the 2nd Division, do you think that this means Blackbeard has any further ties to WB/Rocks beyond what we're guessing at right now?
@@potentialPizza8 "BlackBeard is the Son of Rocks . Maybe on Blood or Adopted. That's why Blackbeard stay quietly on Whitebeards Ship . Because just like Ace for being the Son of Roger , He will be Hunted . Do you think Whitebeard does not noticed Blackbeard is his former Captain Son .
I remember when Coby was screaming about needlessly throwing away lives to an uninterested Akainu, there was a specific manga panel that focused on Teach's reaction. It always made me think until I binged the Marineford arc in the Anime. He seemed taken aback, as if for a split-second he was actually trying to comprehend what Coby was saying. We never got to see any more action from BB after that moment thanks to Shanks but I really find myself wondering about that panel with regards to Teach's ideals as a villain.
Luffy isn’t a pacifist either though. He knocked guards into lava and will do anything to stop people. Oda just keeps characters alive, not Luffy. Luffy is more like BB than Coby
@@malalalalala2985 There's a very large gap between pacifist and willing to toss away human life for very little. Luffy's made peace with the fact that people die in conflicts; he says so as early as Alabasta but he's not gonna go around killing people on a whim even for personal benefit. Another point to this that I forgot is that when they get to Sabaody, for all the achievements Luffy's done, Kidd is the more notorious one with the higher bounty simply because he went around causing more destruction and Luffy didn't. Luffy likes having a high bounty and could have very easily taken the amoral approach of wreaking more havoc to get it higher but he doesn't.
@@nousername191 Luffy murdered thousands of Guards in Impel Down. Luffy kills all the time. Luffy cheats in every New World fight except Caesar. Luffy is like Blackbeard. Deal with it.
@@malalalalala2985 "Luffy cheats"...do I have to remind you that he's a pirate? There's no rules in fighting your opponent. At least Luffy faces his opponents head on, unlike BB backstabbing his. The video elaborates their differences and you're still saying Luffy is like BB. Make it make sense.
As someone who’s a Hunter x hunter and onepiece fan your videos make me realize that their is a lack of thematic analysis in Onepiece fandom like there is Hunter x Hunter. I think there’s a little too much theorizing though I think the onepiece theories have died off a bit since Oda has made a point of zigging when we think zag. That being said the thematic videos also age far more gracefully since they aren’t tied to a theory that could easily be disproven next chapter. In other words I hope your videos make the community start to think more deeply about the series beyond just power levels and theories. Thank you Mr. Morj
Looks like I have to go back and read Impel Down now. Jesus Christ, Marineford is one of the best anime arcs ever written and you can't change my mind.
I can't believe how many classic videos Mr Morj drops, I found his channel about 10 months ago, and I keep coming back to his channel to rewatch old videos all the time as well as watch the new ones, If you read this Mr Morj you are a true gift to the One Piece community and the man we needed. Other people drop entertaining/fun videos, but you really articulate so eloquently what makes one piece special, and make me appreciate it in more ways with each passing analysis. Morj is bringing the dawn of great analysis content for one piece, the community has been in a great darkness with annoying power scaling, baseless opinions, and crappy theories with little to no facts backing them, taking over all one piece content. then comes Mr Morj, the man not afraid to talk about the series past, what makes One Piece amazing on a deeper level, analyzing the themes communicated by Oda and communicating them to us with evidence from the story backing it up. Mr Morj is not just riding the hype wave and uploading a lot of poor quality videos for views to take advantage of the youtube algorithm or whatever. Instead, he is taking no shortcuts working hard so that we too can understand the series on a deeper level. Thank you so much for doing what you are doing because you deserve all the praise you get for continuously making this level of content.
@@mariambalgreen8077I've watched all his vids as well, he is great! love his character videos. craftsdwarf is great too and brago is not bad but imo morj is the best when it comes to this stuff.
Powerscaling is part of the story. If an author cannot maintain the power hierarchy he/she established, it should be considered as a failure of storytelling. Character abilities, their position in power hierarchy, how they use their abilities, the nature of those abilities etc are all part of the story. Disregarding that and blaming other one piece fans is illogical. Different fans value different things in a fictional storyblike one piece. If a set of fans enjoy powerscaling discussions, there is nothing wrong with it. Honestly I find videos like this far more pretentious than powerscaling ones.
Stunning video really. Something that you seems have missed when you talked about how Blackbeard just ate Devil fruits to become stronger while Luffy earned his victories, is what Blackbeard said to Ace when he revealed his power of darkness : "Paramecia, Zoan Logia, those who have Devil fruits power becomes cocky and lazy and think that's all they have to do to be strong, but it's no more the case with my devil fruit" (basically that's what he said). It seems to me that it's pretty clearly a foreshadowing of Blackbeard predicting his own defeat here, he has alredy 2 Devil Fruits, according to many theories he could add a Zoan one and so he would have one devil fruit of each type, will become completely cocky and thinks he is invincible, and will lose because of that. In fact Whitebeard said it to him in Marineford when he slashed him and pinned him down after seeing that his devil fruit was ineffective, he said that one of the weakness of Blackbeard was is too much confidence in himself.
He already has a logia tho,u mean zoan i suppose...about that there is an old theory that he actually already have 3, the cerberus zoan devil fruit (3 heads...maybe 3 hearts/stomach) thats why he can eat more than one df or something like that...imo its posible
I think Blackbead knows a whole lot more about the world than any other character in the series. Oda mentioned in an SBS that Blackbeard's interest is history which makes me think that he's gonna be the one who reveals the Void Century to the world when he has gained enough power.
talking about contradictory, Luffy is going on a natural adventure letting fate guiding him where as it seems lile Blackbeard has his path PLANNED out, knowing which islands to go to from Jaya, impel down, marine ford and now Beehive island...none of it has been by coincidence
Haroon P Depending on how long Blackbeard was on WhiteBeard ship, he may have already seen all those islands. So it would make sense for him to know which Island he should stop by and what they hold.
You say that.. but there are always moments where Blackbeard's crew mention (most of the time Van Augur) that everything that happens, even the stuff they planned out was fate for them.
This video helps recontextualize 957 even more. A ragtag group who come sail under a powerful man who are only in it to use eachother, to ride eachother coattails as hard as possible vs the one who has the spirit of a Pirate King. Who was I talking about? Rocks vs Roger? Or BB vs Luffy. Oda is always trying to reinforce his ideas about exploring the answers to what "freedom" is just like he promised in Logue Town. "Inherited will, the destiny of the age, peoples dreams. These are things that cannot be stopped, as long as people continue to search for the answers to 'Freedom' these things will never cease to be!" Oda wants you the reader to constantly question what freedom is, what the limits of freedom is, how justifiable somones quest for their dreams are. As times change what is socially aceptable changes, ethics and moral standards shift and buckle under "Order" that has been held up as "correct". As humans who can only live for a meager ~100 years so we can only experience a finite amount of this struggle. So we pass on our torch, our wills are inherited by someone else, to challenge unjust authority, to stop chaotic lawlessness. But as long as people keep fighting for those truths people will probably keep being able to go out there and chase their dreams.
Luffy didn't even want the fruit because he was a pretty good swimmer, and had no idea of what Devil Fruits were. Teach spent years of his life laying low to get an op Devil Fruit, even breaking the one rule on Whitebeard's ship to get it. That's a pretty big difference between them.
But on a less poetic note, this video has to be the penultimate of your work so far! It has truly guided me to reflect on my life and some decisions I've made. I'm a diehard One Piece fan through and through, and I find it beyond easy to agree with your views about the core ideas present within this epic story. You sir bring something no other RU-vidr brings into the mix, and I warmly look forwad to seeing your future work!
Now I see how hard this video was to create. Essentially half of it is abridged version of Luffy analysis because of the way Blackbeard is essentially written as Luffy's mirror. Also, every video has at least a couple of instances of you noticing tiny tiny details, in this one it was the fate of Drum Kingdom, incredible observation that I doubt many people would notice. I do not want to be greedy but.... do you plan to continue pumping out the good content in October? :D
Thanks, I do plan on putting out a lot of stuff throughout October, though probably only one big analysis vid like this one. I'm glad you noticed how much of a pain this video was to make specifically cuz I had to talk so much about Luffy, and partway through writing it I realized I'd fucked up and should have just done a Luffy analysis first. The first draft of this was wayyyy longer and mostly off topic about Luffy so I had to figure out how to chop it down a bunch which made me not want to work on it, and was one of many factors that made me take a hiatus. I was really busy with real life stuff in general, and then when I felt like doing channel stuff I would remember I had to trim down the mess that was the Blackbeard vid, so I'd just put it off till later.
Something i found strange in hindsight is Teach bragging about the Yami Yami fruit ability to nullify devil fruit abilities, and using it to counter a logia type devil fruit against Ace. But now in the story nearly everyone has Haki, and it feels to me that this is Blackbeard shortcut to not having to put effort in to learn Haki.
Haki doesn't nullify devil fruit abilities, it just makes you able to touch logias, on the other hand if you use the yami yami's ability on a logia user, he will stop being his element and become a regular human, same for paramecias and probably zoans, if he touches luffy he stops being rubber and will take more damage.
It’s moreso that the fruit makes it so he doesn’t need to use armament haki as often since his fruit negates devil fruit powers when he makes physical contact with them and unlike haki that runs out devil fruit powers don’t with some exceptions
I've always wondered about this with Blackbeard. Overly relying on his devil fruit is a weakness all on it's own. Now his haki is underdeveloped. If an opponent manages to get sea stone shackles on him, he could easily be beaten by anyone with decent haki.
@@akin242002 he would also have a bit of trouble against someone strong with large range since he wouldn't be able to negate their powers and his gravity schtick can be fight around
We all known Luffy is the one who inherited Rogers will Subsequently Oda is setting up blackbeard to be the one who inherited Rocks will. The implications of this foreshadowing just blows my mind with hype...
Thanks for a great analysis as always! I´m a teacher in litterature (Swedish) and really enjoy your talks, they are very insightful and give me a new view on the manga. Keep up the great work! :)
This series spanning fight fully embodies the Peace Mains and Morganeer duality set up in Romance Dawn, and I think Oda wouldnt have imagined OP progressing any other way. The idea he set out first wasn't nearly as fleshed out as it needed to be to support spanning 20+ years of publication, but by removing the names and blurring the two sides into a spectrum, OP undoubtably benefited from it. With Luffy as the Peace Main and Teech as the Morganeer, I really hope the series ends just as it started: the will of Roger vs the will of Rocks, unambiguous good vs unabmiguous evil, dawn vs dusk. Lovely video! I'd love to chat about the series at some point, Mr Morj!
I love Eiichiro Oda's work so much! It's brought me to tears so much more than anything else in my life. I love his characters, his world. But the wisdom and nuance he shows in One Piece is amazing, truly it is a story that so many can learn from he is a genius. It really is a show future generations should watch and learn from.
Im honestly very grateful for your Videos. They have really helped me to not only see one piece, but also other lyrical stories, in a different and more complete View.
00:00:00 ⟾ Set-up - simple metaphor, major themes, final conflict 00:00:30 ⟾ THE NECESSITY OF BLACKBEARD - Luffy parallels: beliefs and actions 00:01:09 ⟾ Fairness: way of acting 00:04:18 ⟾ Earning vs. Shortcuts 00:06:24 ⟾ Oda showing through Contrast/Foil 00:06:58 ⟾ Assembling Crews 00:07:47 ⟾ Ships 00:08:20 ⟾ Using Others: means to an end vs. friend 00:09:59 ⟾ Pursuit of Dream: journey vs. destination 00:12:02 ⟾ Freedom: moral code vs. anything goes 00:14:19 ⟾ Oda’s Vision: romantic ideal and dangerous misinterpretation 00:15:11 ⟾ The Destiny of Blackbeard - significance/role in narrative 00:15:35 ⟾ THE DESTINY OF BLACKBEARD - Luffy’s Role: Sun, Dawn, Light 00:16:54 ⟾ World after Dawn: balance, order and freedom 00:17:35 ⟾ Luffy’s Role: reset, D. storm, summary 00:19:02 ⟾ Set-up: Blackbeard, destruction and darkness, Drum Kingdom 00:21:46 ⟾ Bigger Picture: New Era, Luffy (Dawn) or Blackbeard (Darkness) 00:22:53 ⟾ [Promo] [Credits]
They're even dressed similar. Open red shirt, Yellow sash, Black coat/cape (Luffy wears one in Wano) except for the blue shorts and green pants. Blue is the calming colour of innocence, trust and loyalty and Green is the growth colour of greed and mysticism.
This video is superb, basically flawless. But, there is one thing I wished you would have commented on, and that is when Blackbeard confronts Luffy just before the Knock-up stream. Here is the first time Blackbeard wants to fight Luffy, but in the end the 'stream of fate' as it were carries Luffy and his crew up (important to note how to survive the knock-up stream a crew needs unity: either all survive or all die), while it also destroys Blackbeard's ship and scatters them in defeat. Though, if that moment has any significance, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it (as it is probably better than mine) It will be really interesting to see if Blackbeard has indeed inherited Rocks' will, and Luffy Roger's just how that plays out in their future conflict.
It reminds me of the Edd War between Roger and Golden Lion Shiki where it was the Oro Jackson against an entire armada but when a sudden storm hit the ships the Oro Jackson survived while half of Shiki's armada fell apart immediatly.
4 года назад
This is a very high-quality analysis, as always, bravo! Not only that, you are adding so much to my reading experience I enjoy One Piece even more. Thank you.
This made me emotional. I didn’t realize how much of an impact One Piece has had on me and my thought process growing up. This breakdown / analysis just assured me of how great this series is. Thank you sir!
11:56 minor point but your video helped me notice how even Luffy and Blackbeard's Impel Down outfits contrast each other with the red gold and black, love that panel even more now lol
Again. Thank you for these quality video essays. I can't imagine how much time and work this takes to finish one of these. As always you're on point so God bless and have a good one
There's a little moment before Teach finishes off Ace that always stuck with me because it made his characterization pretty complex. When Ace refuses Teach's offer to become his nakama because he'd rather live as a true man with no regrets Teach responds: ''how long can you keep living like that in this world... it's a shame''. From this I interpret that Teach used to be romantic idealist just like Luffy but when he realized how the world truly worked from reading into history (that little drawing we saw of him as a child sobbing) he became cynical of it all and instead embraced darkness as the pirate Blackbeard in order to rule and be above the world, but that's not the way to becoming a free person, hence why he's not the man Roger's looking for. This begs the question about the ''will of D.'' though. If the current people with D initials differ so much from eachother, does that mean there was a moment in the Void Century where D members where intermingling with other clans that weren't necessarily sharing the same will as the original members, which caused their downfall?
Late reply, but I think that was also hinted when Oda included Rocks D. Xebec into the story. Other than Teach, most of the D clan shares a similar type of mindset and thinking to Luffy. Now that we know Rocks was more similar to Teach, it's pretty clear that there was some sort of division between the Ds, probably dating back to the void century.
I really, really like your style of video. Using the Manga images to illustrate the theme, from all different eras of the series, gives it a much greater grounding and let’s the work itself illustrate the themes you’re discussing. I think the Pirate’s Island Beehive/Fullalead is definitely going to be a staging ground where all this comes to fruition. It’s just so symbolic that the two pirates who embody these two ideas of freedom would clash on the Pirate’s Paradise.
This will be my first ever youtube comment and I wholeheartedly feel that you deserve it. Your analysis of one piece is beyond insightful. This is the second video I've seen of yours and I've subscribed without a second thought. I look forward to any and all future content. "This is not a story about simply achieving your dreams. This is a story about earning your dreams." There are just some lines that resonate with the viewer and after hearing that 6 mins in the video, I knew I found some of the most insightful content on youtube. I wish you all the best. Hoping that more and more people take notice of the work you're putting out.
Man this is the first video of your channel that I watch, but is not gonna be the last! Your analisys is so deep, careful and enjoyable to leasening! Congratz for your work! I hope you grow up in RU-vid with your content! Sorry my bad english, I'm brazilian 😂
I don't see Black Beard as villain, he is a product of OP world (which is fucked up), he does not wants to kill and harm people just for the sake of harm or kill, he just wants to achieve his dream and would not let anything get in his way, sure he has done many immoral things and that makes him wrong, but for some reason I cannot see him as villian, the Celestial Dragons, the corrupted marines and those who blindly protect them are the villians
Morj, Thank you for making meta analysis like this. It really a nice and refreshing look on a series that I would of never noticed on the surface level. I just want you to know i greatly appreciate what you do and i hope you keep doing you, love it!
Seeing when this was posted and how the story evolved over the years with the reveal of sun god nika and gear 5 I can only bow my had and say that you truly understand the core story of one piece. No other OP tuber comes even close. Keep it going, mork!
From the few videos I have seen so far from Mr Morj, I can tell how much work goes in 'connecting these dots'. These videos are not run off the mill discussion whims they have some substance to them, well thought and organised!!!
That moment about the Dawn really sent chills down my spine. Fuck I’m subscribing. This is the kinda theories I love. Everything you said in this video HIT HOME. You really pulling me back in. I love how you brought it all back full circle as well. Bravo. Amazing video
I just thought. With the parallels between Whitebeard and Blackbeard, is it possible that Teach will die from a "cowards injury" I could imagine him trying to flee, when he lost. Or maybe there is another character who will die this way. I think it would be pretty interesting to see something like that. On the other hand One Piece and death... Well you know
7:07 Hey Mr Morj, I have one small point of contention about what you said about Luffy choosing his members based exclusively on feelings rather than utility. While Luffy's faith in Nami grew after she's done things like feeding him, fixing his hat and saving his life during the Buggy arc, his initial interest in her was directly tied to her self professed skills as a navigator.
@@ThatCringeCalledIggleboz You’re actually wrong. Luffy had already considered Nami a part of his crew by the end of Orange Town. He pursued her to join after learning she was a navigator in Orange Town.
Mr morj, just Continue uploading these amazing Videos. Scripts Logic Analysis throughout the Videos are just insanely good. You and tekking (mostly of his obvious Passion / Love for Anime in General and tbh he's fkn hilarious haha) are the only one piece youtubers i Watch. Greets from Germany. Keep up the Good Work.
Luffy vs Teach Zoro vs Shiryu Nami vs Laffitte Usopp vs Van Augur Sanji vs Avalo Pizzaro Chopper & Carrot vs Doc Q & Stronger Robin vs Catarina Devon Franky vs Sanjuan Wolf Brook vs Vasco Shot Jinbei vs Burgess
This whole analysis (which was nicely done btw) pretty much implies Blackbeard has some relation to Rocks or his Will. Both were Pirates who wanted to basically control and destroy the world.