The following contains spoilers for One Piece Chapter 1063, “The Only Family I’ve Got”, by Eiichiro Oda, Stephen Paul and Vanessa Satone, available in English from Viz Media.
Blackbeard has proven to be one of the most dangerous and enigmatic people in all of One Piece. He’s feared among even the most powerful pirates in the world, a master schemer, and he’s one of the few people in the series that acts like a stereotypical pirate would. Blackbeard always has a plan on the go, always making progress to his ultimate goal: to be King of the Pirates.
After displaying his unique ability to steal devil fruits during the Summit War at Marineford, Blackbeard has been on a quest to find the most powerful devil fruits in the world for his crew, turning them into an unstoppable force. The latest chapter of One Piece revealed another one of Blackbeard’s schemes coming to a head, possibly at the expense of a fan favorite.
Blackbeard Can’t Reach Laugh Tale Without the Poneglyphs
In order to become King of the Pirates, one must reach the end of the Grand Line, step foot on the island of Laugh Tale, and claim the titular One Piece. Laugh Tale, however, is shrouded in mystery, with many believing it simply doesn’t exist. In order to reach the island, one must possess the Road Poneglyphs.
Poneglyphs are immense, indestructible cubes with information written on them, containing world history, the locations of the ancient weapons, or, directions to Laugh Tale. Only four Road Poneglyphs exist, and all of them are required to reach the destination. Three have known locations in the series, but one is still missing from the world.
Interestingly enough, Blackbeard doesn’t possess any of the Road Poneglyphs, instead focusing his efforts on making his crew stronger. With the developments of the latest cover story and the conclusion of the latest chapter, however, Blackbeard’s plan regarding the Poneglyphs has been made clear.
The Blackbeard Pirates are Insanely Powerful Now
By making his crew more powerful, Blackbeard is simply able to take whatever he wants, whenever he wants it. In this situation, that would be the rubbings made from the Poneglyphs that are possessed by Trafalgar Law. Law’s crew, minus its captain, is a shockingly weak one, and will most likely be decimated by the Blackbeard Pirates in their latest run-in.
On the cover page, it was revealed that the Blackbeard Pirates have infiltrated Whole Cake Island, the kingdom ruled by Big Mom, a former Yonko. One of Big Mom’s many, many children includes Pudding, a member of the Three-Eye Tribe, and she’s been kidnaped by the pirate crew. Members of the Three-Eye Tribe have the potential to awaken a critical ability: hearing the Voice of All Things.
Pudding Is the Key For the Blackbeard Pirates
Hearing the Voice of All Things allows someone to understand quite literally anything and everything in the world, even if they don’t speak the language, or if they have no language at all to speak. Gol D. Roger, Luffy, and Momonosuke have all been shown to possess this ability, but Pudding’s potential is the most interesting of all. By awakening the Voice of All Things, Pudding would be able to read the Road Poneglyphs for the Blackbeard Pirates.
It’s unknown if Pudding will even be able to awaken this power, but it’s more than likely that Blackbeard could resort to some grizzly methods to force her to. The future, final antagonist of the series grows stronger and more dangerous every time he appears in the series, but he will serve as a worthy final opponent for the Straw Hats.
