WMG / One Piece Warlords And Emperors

One Piece WMG Main Index | Open Theories, Part One | Open Theories, Part Two | Open Theories, Part Three | Confirmed Theories, Part One | Confirmed Theories, Part Two | Jossed Theories, Part One | Jossed Theories, Part Two | Jossed Theories, Part Three | Straw Hat Crew | Friends And Allies | Warlords And Emperors | Marines And World Government | Other Characters | Plot, History and Lore | Meta | Silly And Just For Fun Theories

Shanks and crew

Shanks will eventually be Killed Off for Real

As much as he's a cool character, Shanks is in a very dangerous job in a Shounen series: He's the hero's mentor if not father-figure and even worse for him, he's one in a position of power. Also, there's been some Foreshadowing of him versus Blackbeard, the likely Big Bad for the Pirates like Akainu for the Marines, the guy who killed Ace. The scars long ago and Blackbeard's words of "Not ready to fight you yet" is a dark clue. Third, think how much of a Tear Jerker if Luffy's long-awaited meeting with him was in his last final moments after his crew rescued him and fled, unable to heal his wound properly?

Shanks will die before Luffy can meet him again.

Blackbeard will get to Shanks before Luffy can and kill him, and it'll give a powerful motivation for Luffy against Blackbeard.

Shanks still cares about Buggy, and will save him when it all goes to Hell

Because Nakama-love dies hard, and it's already strongly hinted that Shanks was always fond of Buggy as a friend despite the other's... obvious flaws.

• This is likely right on the money, as it would be completely in character for someone like Shanks, as long as Buggy doesn't do anything really evil, in which case Shanks will kill him. He'll probably give him a punch or two for fighting Luffy.
  • Buggy was Shank's friend though. Shank possibly will say that he's pal with both of them, and let them settle their difference on their own, but he'll step in if things go too far.
• Partially confirmed. It's revealed at the end of the battle of Marineford that Shanks still views Buggy as a friend (despite Buggy's exclamations to the contrary) though isn't above manipulating him. He seems to pretty much regard Buggy with disinterest, though was willing to help him escape Marineford.

The Gomu Gomu no mi used to belong to someone close to Shanks

Inspired by The Mera-Mera WMG. Before Luffy ate it the Gomu Gomu no mi was eaten by someone close to Shanks. When they died Shanks took the regrown fruit like Luffy is currently trying to do.

• Jossed — chapter 1 of the series states that they took it from an enemy ship. Further discussed in chapter 1017 and 1018, which reveals it was stolen from a Government ship.

Shanks will fight Zoro

Shanks used to fight Mihawk before he lost his hand. He will be the last challenge for Zoro before fighting Mihawk.

Shanks will be revealed to have lost more devil fruits over time

I can't help but suspect that Shanks is just really bad at keeping an eye on the devil fruits he finds. He lost the Chop-Chop fruit to Buggy, and Luffy as a kid ate the Gum-Gum fruit, I'm guessing that his inability to hold onto a devil fruit will continue to be a recurring thing for him.

Shanks will be one of Luffy's final fights

If not his final fight.

• He and Luffy will decide who becomes Pirate King in none other than a DAVY BACK FIGHT!

Shanks is secretly an enforcer for the 5 Elder Stars.

Obviously he's allowed to waltz right in a talk to them when he pleases, but some other events seem to make more sense with this in mind.

We never really see Shanks doing much of anything important. He just seems to drift around and party. Yet he's feared as much as Whitebeard, despite not blatantly having the rap sheet or personality to fit.

This also makes sense of his timely presence in the Paramount War. If you're the warden of a jail, and the guards and inmates are full out brawling beyond your control, what would be a swift conclusive option for you? Pay off the biggest guy in the room to threaten to kick everyone's ass. He just arrived when he did because he was instructed to wait until Ace was executed. This would also explain why he didn't kill Akainu for murdering the son of his former captain.

It could also explain his sudden explosive increase in strength (compared to the other Emperors, who have had longer careers to build on), being enhancements given to him by Vegapunk secret to all but the highest order (being the 5 Elder Stars).

If Shanks turns out to be a secret enforcer of the 5 Elder Stars, only Yasopp, Benn Beckman, and Lucky Roo know the truth of out the Red Hair Pirates.

• Shanks would only trust such vital information to the people he trusts the most.
• This will cause a split in Shank's crew when the truth gets out.

Shanks maybe is both a Carrier of D ''and'' a Celestial Dragon

• This is implied (but not confirmed yet) to be this case as it is confirmed Roger did found baby Shanks inside a chest brought from God Valley after the war against the Rocks Pirates

Shanks is the son of Rocks D. Xebec

• Shanks is currently 39 years old. The God Valley Incident happened 38 years prior to current events. During the Oden flashback, Roger and Rayleigh make a comment about how it's been a while since they held a baby and it reminds them of "the old days". Could Roger have taken in baby Shanks and raised him?
• This could also go hand in hand with the WMG of Shank being both a Carrier of D and a Celestial Dragon above.

Shanks is the son of Saint Figarland Garling

• With the introduction of the leader of the Holy Knights (as they are pretty much the personal enforcers of the 5 Elders who executes not just regular people but also Celestial Dragons themselves for disobedience), Shanks being the son of Garling is entirely possible, especially after we see thr latter's appearance when he was younger (his face looks alot like Shanks himself), and the fact that he can enter Mary Geoise and talk to the 5 Elders without so much of getting a scratch.

Shanks' arm was already borderline gone before he saved Luffy.

• Hence why he wasn't so bothered about losing it. It may have looked healthy before, but it's entirely possible it was wastinaway from some poison/disease, and he was taking some kind of medicine that could temporarily pump it up. (Additionally, recall that on the day he saved Luffy, he and his crew had been out voyaging for untold days/weeks; it could very well have been an injury he received just the day before.)
  • doubt it, as Shanks is heavily implied by Mihawk to be left-handed . Him losing his good sword arm without a very, very good reason would be pretty strange, and his conversation with Mihawk after the latter showed Luffy's bounty poster suggests that he didn't get any other injuries before losing the arm.

Shanks earned his position by defeating an existing Emperor.

• The World Government seems intent on there being "Four Emperors" at all times, since the defeat of one Emperor always marks the public announcement of another person becoming an Emperor in their place — Whitebeard was slain by Blackbeard, who took over most of his territories and became Emperor in his place, and when Big Mom and Kaido were defeated, Luffy and Buggy were promptly named as Emperors in their place. This implies a trend that probably dates back to the founding of the group, meaning that Shanks had to have defeated an existing Emperor (maybe another of the Rocks Pirates?) to have earned the title.

Shanks is fighting to prevent a Bad Future from happening

It's been established that there are characters capable of seeing very far into the future (Joy Boy's return was predicted 800 years in advance). Somehow, Shanks discovered some kind of Bad Future either by forseeing it himself or by having someone tell him about it, and since then, he's been working to prevent it. Shanks has sevral times mentioned the "New Era" and has intervened on multiple occaisions to protect the Worst Generation (and especially Luffy) from harm, he says that he lost his arm "betting on the future," and has displayed incredily powerful Foresight abilities with his Haki. Shanks probably sees Luffy as the key to preventing it and so he's been protecting Luffy and the Worst Generation from powerful forces to allow them to become strong enough to oppose whatever's coming.

Shanks is using Luffy to get to the One Piece.

Perhaps, at the start of the story, he knew of the true nature of the Gum-Gum Fruit and him giving Luffy the straw hat that we now know once used to belong the Gold D. Roger, was him hedging his bets on Luffy finding the treasure with the power the fruit truly offers. Given all the clues currently going on about that the straw hat possibly being important, perhaps it is connected to the One Piece. He did mention in his brief visit to Whitebeard that his lost arm was an "investment", signifying that he might know more about the full scope of everything than he is letting on.

Crocodile

Crocodile suffered a painful betrayal of his trust

During the Alabasta arc, he said that trust is the most overrated thing in the world. Cry for help much? Back when he was a younger, more innocent person like Luffy, he was suddenly betrayed by one of his true companions (possibly his best friend) which made him suffer grievously somehow. (also might be how he got the big scar across his face)

• Kind of averted in my view, since he seems to trust Daz Bones (Mr. 1) enough to let him stick around.

Crocodile will fight Aokiji

Just as Crocodile's Devil Fruit's weakness was water, Aokiji's Devil Fruit's weakness will be lack of moisture as making anything freeze requires moisture.

• Aokiji is a Logia user and an Ice Man not a Freeze Man, the standard Logia power set includes generating their element in seemingly boundless amounts. Which he has shown to do, so Aokiji can just make more ice if needed. Croc's water-vac could presumably be an effective counter, but give logia fights probably no more so then the next. Croc could just smash through ice and lay a hand on Aokiji... but going by Fishman Karate precedent he could probably do that to any Logia user anyways.

Crocodile was once a cute, petite woman who wanted to be a man to become stronger; when Iva turns him/her back for the lulz, she will become Mihawk's love interest

• Dude, this theory can't be true. Watch the OVA, or read the manga. There's no way he's a petite woman there.
• (Shudder) It'll be funny, but say WTF?!
  • It's a guess, it's wild. Totally fits Wild Mass Guessing.
  • C'mon, the idea of Crocodile being shrunken down to a darling little woman and aggressively pursued romantically by one of the least emotional characters so far is friggin' hilarious! That's probably way more humiliating than anything Impel Down could dish out!
  • It actually doesn't seem all THAT far-fetched, considering that Ivankov convinced Crocodile to help by effectively blackmailing him with a certain "secret" that Iva seems to know about him...

Crocodile is actually Dragon's embittered younger brother.

It would be a bit of a twist if the cold and calculating Crocodile turned out to be Luffy's Evil Uncle, but whose tenure as Big Bad ended before The Reveal.

• The secret that Iva knows about? His full name, of course: Monkey D. Crocodile.
• Heck, this could maybe even explain Crocodile's appearent personality shift, especially towards Luffy, after he's been sent to impel down: he didn't realize who's kid he was until then. While he may or may not care about the blood relation in itself, he probably wouldn't want Dragon after him for killing Luffy/letting Luffy be killed.
• And Garp wouldn't have said anything about this. . .why? If he let Luffy know that the most wanted man in the world is his papa then having an ex-Shichibukai for an uncle isn't all that terrible in comparison.
  • It just never came up.
  • I'm pretty sure he wouldn't take that idiotic excuse unless they really just wanted to mess around with us. In that case, I say that Ace is not actually related to Dragon, but is instead Luffy from the future who has lost his memory after timetraveling with Dr. Who. He's got fire because rubber can cause a ton of frictions, and time travel integrated friction genes into his body. Canon.
• I'm liking this theory tbh. If you look at the two, they do look like they could pass for brothers, so it's not out of the question. Also Crocodile is confirmed to be in his mid 40s, and Dragon looks like he's about that age as well. No doubt that this would be something Ivankov can find out about.

Crocodile was once a (quite ugly) WOMAN

Apparently Iva-chan knows an embarrassing secret about Crocodile and helped him out once. Unless this is a red herring, the implications are quite obvious...

• I am surprised I wasn't the first to think of that, but then again, it was a pretty obvious heading. And for being obvious the chances that Croc's secret isn't anything close to that is pretty big. Remember kids, this is One Piece, the king of "Didn't see that one coming".
• Nah, I'm thinking he wasn't originally a chick, but was turned into one by Ivankov, and Ivankov knows how to turn him back, but won't for no reason, because of his own issues with gender. I think the whole strength issue isn't what going on, that he looked like this: http://clickmon.deviantart.com/art/Crocodile-145023112, and maybe that the weakness is that it's some word or something that when it's said does the trick, like "cacophonic-rapid-swimmingly-aquafarmers-schizophrenics" or something. Come on, that's probably the most realistic this is going to get, but chances are the One Piece gang is just trolling us, or is going to have it be something like a weakness to incredibly fluffy bunnies. There's no way he'll end up permanently a woman or was originally a woman, as that too drastically changes his character. And this certainly isn't a deep emotional thing with him having trust issues in his past and being emotionally scarred. I mean, look at the guy.
  • Or maybe seeing incredibly fluffy bunnies turns him into a woman.
    • No. How and why would they do this to this guy ever in their right minds? Not as a woman, maybe he thinks they're really cute as a man, or he turns into a woman with the same personality, but not that he gets a personality change and turns into a woman. Really, how would you picture that?
    • Easily.
    • His image and popularity would almost certainly tank if they flipped his personality around this badly. I agree with "nah" brah, I pray to Jesus that it's either we never find out or that picture and he wasn't originally a woman.
• What if instead, he was a really cute, short woman who asked Ivy-chan to make her a man to get stronger? It'd be awesome and hilarious if the big Crocodile was really a tiny Pettanko. (Bonus if he gets changed back by the end of the arc.)
  • This one doesn't check out, see above.
• Wow, I cannot believe someone else thought of this too...I personally believe that Crocodile's real name is Portgas Crocodile, and his vengeance on Whitebeard is for what he got Ace into. Yep, Croco's Ace's mom. Possibly Luffy's.
• Nah, her real name is totally something punny like Croquet D Elles. Also I'm gonna bet she was a noble of some country that the WG destroyed or let be destroyed(like Drum Island), possibly from betrayal within, hence the trust issues. That's her Freudian Excuse. Essentially she's Vivi if Crocodile hadn't been stopped.
• Notice that in the manga tie-in for the 10th movie, during Gol D. Roger's execution, several -important- individuals are shown contemplating it, such as Moriah and Shanks. Notice that a younger Crocodile is among them, and he's the only one not to have his face shown. Now take a few seconds to contemplate this.
  • I figured that was 1) to hide wether or not he had the scar yet and/or 2) to hide what the expression on his face was, and thus hide how he reacted to Roger's execution.
  • The scene of Roger's execution appeared in the live action adaptation as well. The shot-from-behind of the younger Crocodile was not there, although the camera did linger on a completely unknown and unidentified woman. The showrunners even confirmed that Crocodile was present in the scene, which they then treated as a spoiler that they shouldn't have mentioned. And keeping in mind that Oda collaborates directly with the showrunners...

Crocodile was once a Revolutionary

To go with the above. This may seem a little obvious, but Crocodile obviously had something to base his attempted takeover of Alabasta upon. The entire plot of attempting to find the secret behind the Ancient Weapons also indicates the fact that he seems to know a lot about the World Government that most pirates wouldn't. Perhaps his plans to tear apart and rebuild Alabasta under his leadership and turn it into a Utopia was an honest Utopia Justifies the Means attempt based upon Dragon's own plans.

The entire Arabasta Arc went EXACTLY AS PLANNED by Crocodile

In other words, the entire threat of Baroque Works was all a sham. Crocodile simply wanted to find the Poneglyph, as he could already read the writing, but brought Nico Robin along on the off chance that the World Government finds out he can read the runes and executes him. So, he already knows where Pluton is, but realizes that one man alone, even with Pluton, cannot conquer the world. Ergo, he rejected the chance to escape prison and went to Impel Down willingly to recruit new, stronger men for his coup against the World Government.

• .....THIS THEORY IS SO AWESOME
• Now because of this I suddenly came to the conclusion that Pluton is hidden in general area of the Marine Headquaters, and that's why he seemed so willing to get there, even with that Whitebeard excuse.
  • ...what a Magnificent Bastard.
  • Except that Crocodile made it clear that he has no more interest in Alabasta after landing in Impel Down, nor does he make any effort to recruit more people while he's there(outside of reclaiming Daz Bones). After Marineford, Crocodile decides to head straight to the New World, not even making a passing mention of going back for the Pluton.

Crocodile's scars are self inflicted

Several signs in the series hint that Crocodile was at some point very similar to Luffy, complete with the dream to become King of the Pirates (Don't punch me, I like King of the Pirates because it's more dramatic), so, logically, he would have pulled the exact same stunt as Luffy, and scarred his own face, but, it might have been a little more... extreme.

The secret thing about Crocodile Ivankov knew was that his real name is Croco D. Ile

Ivankovs keeps calling him "Croco-boy", and it's been repeatedly mentioned that Crocodile used to be a lot like Luffy.

Crocodile is Whitebeard's real son

The reason he hates the old guy so much is that he's basically a "Well Done, Son" Guy gone wrong in his lust for power. Whitebeard realized this and essentially disowned him. Crocodile's hatred stems from being replaced by Whitebeard's crew and explains his fury when Whitebeard allowed himself to get fatally stabbed by one of his own men.

Crocodile is STILL a member of the Revolutionary army, the entire thing with Alabasta and the World Government was part of his mission

Exactly what it says, Crocodile never left the Revolutionaries to create his own country, he took on the dangerous role of a spy for Dragon. Taking over Alabasta was Dragons idea because it's been proven that the man does not care if a country is good or bad, he just hates the World Government. Iva somehow knows who Crocodile is and in Chapter 566 he says the most important thing is not letting the World Government get there way, even greater than his desire to kill Whitebeard.

• Then why did he nearly kill Luffy two times in Alabasta?

On top of this the 'bomb' in Alabasta was a fake, a simple flash bang with compressed air which is why Pell was never burned, Croc was HOPING that Robin would tell him where Pluton is, then he would induct her into the Revolutionaries along side him, along with rallying the country to split from the WG. HOWEVER when she tried to kill him he struck back injuring her and kept up his act, notice how he told Luffy that he no long cares about Alabasta? or how Robin despite being stabbed in the apparent gut survived with no proper medical treatment (that we know of), or hell even his deep hatred of Doflamingo a man who stands for a world without dreams.

Crocodile is a revolutionary... but he isn't working with Dragon.

They had a falling out, the secret Iva knows is that Crocodile is a rebel, if that information got out Crocodile's plans would be shot to hell. He knew that Luffy was Dragon's son and tried killing him to spite his father, but later learned that Luffy is not the same as his old man, and deserves some respect. Oh, and he's acting nicer because he's realized The Power of Friendship, which is better then a huge [bottom] boat.

Crocodile was working against Alabasta under orders.

It's already pretty clear that this isn't something they would shy away from as being too evil. We also know they're after the superweapons. Perhaps Crocodile was given the order to go into Alabasta and retrieve Pluton. The WG didn't really care how he did it nor what tools were available to him, so he used Baroque Works, which they didn't know he ran. If this is true, it would mean he only went to prison since the event couldn't be covered up. And it also gives a good reason for him refusing to work with Doflamingo: The WG already betrayed him once.

Whitebeard was the one who gave Crocodile his facial scar and/or chopped off his hand.

We know that Crocodile was beat by Whitebeard at some point, as he himself admitted. Hopefully we'll get a flashback detailing the fight.

Crocodile's third weakness is intense heat

I'm talking about REALLY INTENSE. Everyone knows that sand can turn to glass when sufficiently heated, such as in many science fiction stories, where orbital bombardment can glass the planet. Not only would this be dangerous to Crocodile, but severely painful and crippling.

• The body of Logia users are made of the respective element, which means that heat turns Crocodile in a literal Glass Cannon.
  • Sand turning into glass in intense heat is true, but how would Ivankov hang that over him as blackmail? Unless he has some bizarre hormone for the job that can past Crocodile's Logia defense as well, that is.
• Ummm... he attacked Akainu with no ill effects. Well, that certainly doesn't count as intense heat or anything.
  • Sand turns to glass at around 1723C to 2204C. Magma is at only 700C to 1600C. You are going to need a heluva lot more than just magma to glass the Croc man. At the very least you would need an adiabatic gas fire to glass him (Methane fire is the weakest at 1950C)

Crocodile's final weakness is lightning/electricity

Crocodile turns into sand. Lightning+sand=glass.

Luffy and Crocodile will have another Enemy Mine run in

This time it will be on more amicable terms as Crocodile's secret that Ivankov threatened to reveal will come out in a traumatic way, prompting Crocodile to have a Don't You Dare Pity Me! moment. This will then have Crocodile and Luffy become Friendly Enemies, or cement Crocodile as one of Luffy's Worthy Opponents for the title of Pirate King.

• I sure hope so; for me Crocodile's Heel–Face Turn has been the biggest Moment of Awesome of the series so far.

Luffy and Sir Crocodile's relationship is based on the Buddhist tale of Mr Monkey and Sir Crocodile

In this Buddhist childrens' fable, the crocodile attempts to eat the monkey's heart, but the monkey manages to trick his way out of the situation. Rather than bemoan his defeat, the crocodile congratulates the monkey and praises him, having found respect for him (the moral of the story is that a good loser is a true gentleman).

• You know, based on Croc's appearent lack of a grudge against Luffy, this is actually pretty plausible

Crocodile was once a slave

Just throwing this in here. Crocodile's hatred of the World Government appears to trump all else, and that has to stem from somewhere. His scars could also be a result of abuse taken as a slave. I'll admit this is a little far-fetched, since Oda is unlikely to use the same backstory for two Shichibukai, but it's Wild Mass Guessing!

• Additional WMG: If he was a slave, Crocodile's slave brand is or used to be on his left hand. He is either hiding the branded hand inside his hook, or chopped it off (either to rid himself of the brand or because he was chained or otherwise caught in something by his hand).

Vaguely related to above: Crocodile's facial scar is from torture

Look at the thing. It's one continuous, thin, perfectly symmetrical line that stretches from ear to ear. There's no way that's a battlescar or in any way accidental injury. A wound like that must have been inflicted intentionaly and with a steady hand.

Crocodile was once related to a royal family in West Blue, but was ultimately betrayed by them due to an incident concerning an ancient weapon which they claimed it's for the greater good.

So far only guardians (usually royal families) and people who can read Poneglyphs know about the ancient weapons. Also Crocodile seemed to hate Cobra on an oddly personal level, going so far as to call him a hypocrite.

Crocodile's relationship with Ivankov is connected to him being curbstomped by Whitebeard

When Croc was originally a rookie, he thought he could gain notoriety by challenging one of the Emperors and so, he challenged Whitebeard to a fight. To say it was a Curb-Stomp Battle on par with his battle with Luffy would be an understatement.

Feeling sorry for the guy, Newgate left him on an island so that he can give him a proper funeral later. That island happened to be where the Revolutionaries were, specifically Ivankov who found Crocodile and used his Healing Hormone to patch up his wounds but sadly he couldn't bring back his hand which is where the hook came from.

Crocodile is Luffy's mother

Simillarly to other theories about Crocodile being a woman above, this one goes that Crocodile was once a woman, and had a child with Monkey D. Dragon,that being Monkey D. Luffy, and she was then turned into a man by Emporio Ivankov.

• Honestly, when all the evidence for this theory is collated and assessed together, it seems scarily plausible...

Crocodile was born as Whitebeard's daughter

Combining two previous theories: She was abandoned similarly to Usopp or Ace. After one day catching wind of how Whitebeard calls his men "sons"^note possibly over feeling guilty about leaving his real family behind, she thought that he left her behind because he Wanted a Son Instead, and sought out Ivankov for a sex change.

Blackbeard and crew

Blackbeard Pirates would take Noah as their ship

San Juan Wolf, among them, is a giant among giants, but we can directly see that Noah is about half as big as the Fishman Island itself. For the purpose of convenience, I believe they'll take the ship for themselves (maybe at the later part of the story) just so they would fit SJW in.

• Why would he need a ship? He's so big he can swim between the islands on his own, and in the shallower parts of the sea, even WADE.
  • He is captain of their seventh ship now...

Blackbeard and Doflamingo are secretly working together

Sure, it sounds odd what with BB being a dreamer and Doflamingo being not, but notice how they were paling around during the feast at Mariejoa, and how ecstatic Doflamingo got when Blackbeard came to Marineford. The overall goal of the Villain Team-Up is to usher in the New Age in the vein of the strong survive (Judging from the ID recruitment process, it's not too hard to say Blackbeard is a Darwinist like Doflamingo is), both of which have wanted to do so. Of course, once they do usher in it, it's just a matter of who stabs who in the back first. Also explains why Doflamingo is/was so persistent in his recruitment of Crocodile.

Blackbeard killed Thatch after the latter ate the Dark-Dark Fruit

It's been confirmed that Blackbeard's ability to steal Devil Fruit powers off of corpses is not apparently related to the Dark-Dark Fruit itself. Marco said that they already knew something was odd about his body. It's perfectly within the realm of possibility that Blackbeard killed Thatch only after he'd eaten the Devil Fruit. It may in fact be how the Whitebeards even knew something was strange about him.

Blackbeard's swordsman will beat Mihawk

Thus giving Zoro a very good reason to participate to the battle with Blackbeard.

Blackbeard will be Luffy's final opponent.

From being a virtual unknown to his ascent to the Shichibukai, Marshall D. Teach "Blackbeard" could well be Luffy's Evil Counterpart in their attempt to gain fame and acquire One Piece. Both men seem to be determined to become Pirate King and, given their interaction at Mock Town, seemed to be sprinkled with enough fuel for a decent "Not So Different" Remark between the two when they finally meet. The Real Life Blackbeard is also Oda's favorite historical pirate, and so Teach should play a big role in the future.

• This is possible. However, when Luffy was little, Shanks gave him his straw hat and told him to return it once he became the Pirate King. It's also possible that Luffy's last opponent will be Shanks; when Luffy defeats him and gets the "ultimate treasure" of One Piece, he'll return "his" treasure (his hat) to Shanks.
  • Heads up — Luffy and Blackbeard have just encountered each other in Impel Down, and Luffy knows he was the one who captured Ace. Naturally, they're gonna fight, and who knows how it'll end, because Oda loves blasting expectations out of the water.
  • It's quite possible that Blackbeard will be Luffy's final opponent. After all, Blackbeard currently has a total of 10 crew members (including himself) and the power of two Devil Fruits to invoke terror into the whole world; meanwhile, Luffy is making a serious name for himself with currently the highest known bounty in the series — all he needs now is one final crew member to round off the number of Straw Hats (he did say at the beginning that he wanted to get a total of 10 crew members before entering the Grand Line) and then it'll be a case of each Blackbeard Pirate being an Evil Counterpart of sorts to each Straw Hat.
    • um, captain +10 crew = 11, not 10. but the rest of the story is spot on, especially since blackbeard may now be the most dangerous pirate in the world.

Morgan Will Join Blackbeard

If Blackbeard's crew is meant to be the Evil Counterpart to the Straw Hats, they have some catching up to do in terms of numbers. Captain Morgan was last seen sailing towards the Grand Line on a raft. He's large enough in stature to fit in with the Blackbeard crew, and his metal parts make a good counterpart to Franky. Also, his name is based on that of a real pirate, like most of Blackbeard's crew. He'd need to take a few levels in Badass first; but if Helmeppo can do it, so can he.

Like Luffy, Blackbeard is actually quite a ladies man.

• However, unlike the Chaste Hero that is our beloved Luffy, Blackbeard is very aware of his appeal, and takes full advantage of it.
  • Actually, given how Blackbeard is an evil counterpart to Luffy, and the Real Life Blackbeard had several wives, I would shocked if this didn't turn out to be true.
  • Jewelry Bonney didn't seem to have much interest in him.
  • Maybe Blackbeard loves the ladies but they can't stand him (the opposite of how Chick Magnet Luffy doesn't care about romance)

Lafitte is more than just Brook's Evil Twin...

...he's his grandson! Both of them are from an unknown kingdom in the West Blue. It's not a leap to say that they're both from the same unknown kingdom in the West Blue. Both are extremely tall and skinny, exceptionally fast, fight using a cane, and like to dance. Lafitte was a policeman, exiled for excessive cruelty. Brook was a caravan guard, who left to join the pirates. The similarities are really too much to pass up.

Another theory about Lafitte's family: He is related to Jango.

He hypnotized the Marines, seems to have a penchant for snappy clothing, are both rail-thin and a smidgen on the creeper side.

On how Blackbeard stole Whitebeard's power...

My first reaction to seeing Blackbeard using the power of earthquakes was that he pulled something like Sylar, but that's probably not true since his devil fruit does not work that way. However why did they have to cover him and Whitebeard with a sheet? The most obvious answer would be just to hide what he was doing for dramatic effect, but it also keeps the reader from knowing exactly what happened. Thinking of the Jossed theory from Heroes, perhaps he had to suck the power out of Whitebeard through his brain or something. His head was open at the time, after all. On a related note, he can only do such a thing to somebody who has died because in all other situations all he can do is negate powers.

Blackbeard is now more vulnerable to water than ever.

He has two fruit powers now, so that means the curse might be even stronger. How can it be stronger? I mean entering the water immobilizes most fruit users on the spot. Maybe he won't be able to even enter a tub anymore, not that he ever bathes...

Blackbeard's "peculiar" body trait which let him have two Devil Fruit powers at once

is that he has two stomachsAfter all, since Devil Fruits are ingested, the Phlebotinum Overload could easily be a super-horrible case of indigestion so if he gave eat fruit its own stomach there would be any "conflict" which would kill him. Plus it would explain why he's such a Big Eater.

Or, better yet, those with the Will of D are capable of eating more than one fruit

.Their great willpower allows them to do so.

• Another theory: Blackbeard is a Cyborg. His human parts control the Yami Yami Fruit, while his cyborg parts control the Gura Gura fruit.
• I am personally betting that Blackbeard is actually two midgets wearing a fat suit. (Btw, I can't believe there's not a trope for that.)

Blackbeard's plan includes the breaching and/or sealing of the Red Line.

I'm not sure what it would do, but Blackbeard has acquired the perfect power set to remove a section of the Red Line and allow free travel between the four seas and/or the new world.

• Thus in some fashion launching Sanji's All Blue subplot. On a related note, if Blackbeard were to do this at/after Raftel, blowing a hole through Reverse Mountain specifically, the crew does have an extremely large ally on the other side...were Laboon's decades of attempting to go through the mountain foreshadowing? You decide!

• Now that I think about it, it might be more likely that he will use his power to CLOSE the entrances to the new world behind him, and figure he can open them up again once he's the Pirate King.

After mastering his new powers, Blackbeard will devastate the New World and establish himself as Pirate King before Luffy.

It'll be up to Luffy to free the world from Blackbeard's reign and steal One Piece back.

• no, Luffy wouldn't let that happen!

Blackbeard has a case of Fetus in fetu

And that is why he can have more than one Devil Fruit power.

Blackbeard did not eat the Gura Gura No Mi

Rather, he has sucked it into him via the Black Hole and sucks the power out of it because he pushed the DF out of Whitebeard's body, and Whitebeard's soul is trapped within it, causing it to stay active, and can use it without eating it.

• poor whitebeard!

Lafitte has a Seagull Zoan Devil Fruit

Lafitte has been spotted with wings, and his first appearance involves him sneaking into a Government meeting while wearing tap-shoes.Now, this is a bit of a guess, but considering the One Piece world is almost completely sea, barring islands and the Red Line, seagulls are probably very common. If Lafitte traveled around as a seagull, who would suspect him?

• Well, it'd be a bigass seagull
  • Does it have to be? I always assumed full transformations would include size changes.
  • We've already seen giant seagulls. Remember the one Luffy jumped at before fighting Buggy for the first time?

Blackbeard not only takes nearly twice the pain of being hurt, but recovers from it nearly twice as much, too.

Well, it seems it makes sense, how he keeps taking being burned, Assualted by a very angry Luffy, Poisoned, head quaked that one-shotted a Giant Vice Admiral and messed up Admiral Akainu and Haki waved by Sengoku, and recover like nothing ever happens once he gets up.

Blackbeard will try Mega Manning a zoan user

He already has what he considers to be the most powerful logia, and has taken the world's most dangerous paramacia, if he is able to consume two devil fruits, why not try for three?, and logic dictates that he will go after a powerful zoan.

• I read a theory somewhere on here that Monkey D. Dragon has eaten the dragon fruit, which acording to japanese folklore at least would grant him control over the weather, perhaps Luffy will have a confrontation with Teach while trying to protect his father if this is the case?
  • Marco's in more danger if this is the case, his Zoan would grant the immunity Blackbeard's Logia doesn't
• While I thought that at first, I believe if he was after Marco for the phoenix healing powers, surely he would have gone after him at Marineford? And if Teach is going after a Zoan, I reckon it will be someone more important to the One Piece world. As badass as Marco is, Teach attempting to kill him wouldnt create that much drama.
• As mentioned elsewhere, the people Blackbeard killed for his powers both had names connecting him to the real-life Blackbeard(He stole the Yami-Yami no Mi from Thatch, which was an alias Blackbeard used, and he took Whitebeard's power from his corpse, when Edward was the real-life Blackbeard's real name). Considering how Oda has gone on record saying that Blackbeard is his favorite real-life pirate, I believe the power-stealing is probably not so much a matter of getting one of every class of fruits so much as it is gathering up the powers of everyone else connected to Blackbeard so that he becomes the only living representative of Blackbeard in the story.
  • During the 2 year time skip Blackbeard did fight and beat the Whitebeard Pirates including Marco but Neko thinks he's still alive, and was later proven right.

Lafitte has an owl-based Devil Fruit

He moves silently, has wide open eyes, and has already shown wings. This seems too obvious, really.

• In many cultures owls are considered omens of bad luck and death so this could tie in nicely with Blackbeard's crew, due to fate and evil, etc.

Blackbeard cannot use Haki

For whatever reason, Blackbeard is completely incapable of using Haki. His unique ability to possess multiple devil fruits may either be a means to compensate, or a mutation which had the side effect of preventing normal Haki use. Regardless, it explains why he went to such lengths to find the Devil Fruit he did. The Dark-Dark Fruit gives Blackbeard abilities very similar to the "Armament" Haki, nullifying the defenses of Devil Fruit users.

• Well, he can indeed sense Haki, anyways. It would be ironic though if his natural specialty was the Color of Observation, which is now useless as he can't dodge anything even if he saw it coming.
  • Jossed by Vivre Card — One Piece Visual Dictionary (Card #0274), which confirms he has Armament and Observation Haki. And he was shown using Armament in chapter 1059, hardening his arm to defend against S-Hawk's sword slash.

Blackbeard is the only one who can defeat Kizaru

If you don't count Haki.

Blackbeard isn't cheating by taking Whitebeard's fruit powers

Blackbeard described his powers as when he gets a hold of someone, he sucks their power into himself. Now, since the fruit power still belongs to them, when he lets go their power returns. But, if someone dies with their power, they can no longer hold onto it. After death, the power would eventually drift and the fruit regrows. But, the fruit can't grant its true power until eaten. Blackbeard is only absorbing the power from the corpse, so the power can't return to the owner since they're dead. Until the new fruit is eaten, Blackbeard controls the power, and since most of the power is still in Blackbeard, it takes even longer for the fruit to regrow.

Blackbeard is a modified human like Franky and Kuma.

Marco made a comment about his body structure being special. By eating the darkness fruit, he empowered his human side with its ability and it has been shown that objects can be given abilities thanks to Vegapunk's work. I believe that when he was hidden underneath the black sheet with Whitebeard, he was "feeding" the ability to his cyborg parts, allowing him to have two abilities without destroying himself. How he took the power I'm not sure but it was probably his darkness abilities drawing it out of Whitebeard.

Lafitte has eaten a Mythical Zoan Fruit

Specifically, the Siren Fruit. This could explain the wings and his ability to hypnotize.

The Blackbeard Pirates gaining multiple Devil Fruit powers

will not increase their strength as much as it could

• You have to train with a devil fruit and learn all that you can do with it to bring out the real potential. The Blackbeard Pirates just keep grabbing new abilities, and never learning to use each ability fully. As a resualt when the Strawhats fight them, the Blackbeard Pirates will keep pulling out powerful abilities, but not doing as well with them as they should.

Black Beard's Ultimate plan is to rid everyone of their powers of devil fruits

His original devil fruit, the Darkness Darkness fruit, can nullify Devil Fruit powers. Now that he has obtained the Quake Quake Fruit, who else think that his ultimate plan is to combine both of these fruits together to make a world spanning tremor that causes destruction throughout the land, as well as rids the entire world of Devil Fruit Powers. This would ultimately make him the strongest candidate for Pirate King, as so many people's fighting prowess are based off the utilization of their devil fruit.

Blackbeard is a test tube baby engineered by Vegapunk

Reasoning being that Vegapunk knows the deeper mechanics behind the Devil Fruits and Blackbeard has some kind of anomalous body type that allows him to steal others' Devil Fruit powers. I personally believe Vegapunk will be a deeply conflicted good guy, so I'm guessing this little screw-up came during one of his worse For Science! phases and hearing of Blackbeard's deeds will leave him muttering My God, What Have I Done?.

• Or related to this theory, Vegapunk and his team found someone (or something...) frozen in ice from the time of the Void Century, and their attempts to rebuild it resulted in Blackbeard.

Blackbeard is able to steal Devil Fruit by having the fruit regenerate

It's all up there. The fruit regenerates when the user dies and Blackbeard eats the fruit. It's possible that he has some fruit nearby as observed in chapter 676 (Where when Smiley "died" its Devil Fruit regenerated into a nearby apple) How he's able to eat it without exploding or whatever happens when a Devil Fruit user eats another devil fruit is still a mystery though.

Burgess' pouch

• As mentioned above, we know that Devil Fruits regenerate into nearby fruits when the user dies. In Dressrosa, Burgess wears a pouch around his neck which suspiciously has the DF pattern on it. The theory is that the pouch is full of ordinary fruit so that when he kills a user, the DF regenerates in his pouch.

Blackbeard has no Haki.

• He has never been shown using some in the series, and his uncharacteristically cowardly (for a D) nature in the face of certain death likewise displays that he might not have the willpower to ever obtain some. Likewise, he would not have needed any to harm Shanks: just be reasonably skilled and perhaps use the other powers that have been theorized on him having. He does not let his lack of Haki bother him, either way, because with the power of his Fruit there is little to nothing it could further offer: he doesn't realize that the fact that he does not have it probably means he won't have what it takes to become the new Pirate King.
  • You're basing most of that theory on him "not having the willpower" to obtain Haki, but, cowardice aside, he has tons of willpower. For one, he has the Will of D. Willpower and bravery are very different things. Spending 20 years in Whitebeard's crew just to obtain the Devil's Fruit that he wanted is something that takes willpower.
    • He doesn't have the Will, at least, not according to Whitebeard. And willpower and patience are very different things too.
  • Jossed by Vivre Card — One Piece Visual Dictionary (Card #0274). He has Armament and Observation Haki, and chapter 1059 shows him using Armament.

Blackbeard's middle name isn't really D.

Blackbeard either learned the truth of the Will of D or has a good idea what it means. Knowing this, he called himself Marshall D. Teach to make others think he had it too, thus making people think that on the inside, he's as strong as the likes of Garp, Luffy or Roger. This explains why unlike others who possessed the Will of D, Blackbeard panics when faced with even the possibility of death.

How Marshall D. Teach is able to take people's Devil Fruits

...We know from Ace that when a Devil Fruit user dies, whatever fruit is nearest becomes that person's Devil Fruit. So, now imagine that Whitebeard survived Akainu's attack. He was still alive... until Blackbeard killed him. Therefore, Whitebeard's Devil Fruit would go to the nearest fruit... which would be the Devil Fruit that Blackbeard already ate! Therefore, it doesn't break any establshed rules. Instead of "eating two Devil Fruits and somehow surviving" it is now one Devil Fruit has two powers. Does that make sense?

• ...Then what about Akainu and Ace?
  • Well, it's possible that since the Marines were outright there to execute Ace, they could have prepared for that. Ace did not die immediately after Akainu killed him. Therefore, Akainu had time to gain distance. Considering Doflamingo has Ace's Devil Fruit and he was at the Battle of Marineford, it seems pretty likely that he deliberately put extra fruits all over the place to make sure that he, and he alone, knew where it was regenerated to. It makes some sense and establishes Doflamingo as a major Chess Master.
• So if any devil fruit user killed another, they'd gain the other's power? And since when has it been confirmed that fruits are always reborn in the nearest possible fruit?

Blackbeard's original devil fruit was the Fruit Fruit Fruit

Blackbeard is two people in one

It has been discussed for quite some time what makes Blackbeard's "unique" body so unique. Due to how he is actually quite muscular but has a enormous gut, the idea that he has a case of Fetus in fetu or a parasitic twin and the like has been brought up before, but I believe it may be a bit more sinister then that. For example, there has been quite a few times when Blackbeard has subtle changes in personality. There is times where is brave then cowardly, stupid then cunning, polite then sadistic, overconfident then cautious, so on and so forth. It really does seem odd how he ping-pongs between two extremes so much in general personality. My guess is he does indeed have a absorbed twin in his stomach, but it is actually a Fetus Terrible that is somehow still alive, and shares a mind with his brother. This is why his personality fluctuates because it's when one of the two is more in control.

And it also the reason why he can have two Devil's Fruits as his brother is still alive within him and has his own soul. And also why Blackbeard did not show him getting the power of the Gura Gura no Mi as it somehow was eaten by his twin and probably would want to hide such a fact.

• Doesn't Wapol have an ability that allows such a thing to happen? I wonder if he had anything to do with it.

The reason Blackbeard needed the Yami Yami no Mi is because he is unable to use any type of Haki

I always wondered exactly why Blackbeard was so desperate to take that Devil Fruit, even going as far as murder and possibly pissing off the World's Strongest Man, but then it occurred to me; what if, unlike those who simply haven't achieved it, Blackbeard is incapable of it completely. It would certainly explain why such an ambitious person would stay relatively unnoticed as a part of Whitebeard's crew. The Yami Yami no Mi was the only thing he could use to nullify Logia-class invulnerability, and wouldn't have made it far in the New World as a captain without it. If I had to guess why, I'd say that his ability to steal Devil Fruit powers and what caused him to have that ability is what prevents him from learning Haki.

• Jossed. Vivre Card — One Piece Visual Dictionary (Card #0274) says he has Armament and Observation Haki, and chapter 1059 shows him using Armament.

Teach would have the worst past amongst the Shichibukai

We're already seen Dofla, and it's seems every shichibukai have a hard past. However, Teach is the only one crying and looked totally miserable in his childhood.

Shiryu will eat Jozu's Devil Fruit

Or, of course, he already ate it; if Jozu was killed in the Payback War, and Shiryu quickly got his power into a fruit and ate it. This gives Zoro some diamond to cut.

• Jossed; he has Absalom's Devil Fruit.

Blackbeard got buff after the Timeskip

Much like Hody Jones, his increase in strength will be signified by a transformed body. I expect him to have proportions similar to Admiral Orlumbus now.

• Jossed, his figure is like how it was before the timeskip.

Pizarro is a former member of Kaido's Crew

His horns look very similar to Jack's. It's possible that he was part of Kaido's crew and was captured during one of Kaido's execution attempts, or he broke away from the Beast Pirates and went on his own before being captured.

One of the Blackbeard Pirates' Ten Titanic Captains will be a former Shichibukai

If Blackbeard's pre-timeskip crew were all made into captains, that would make nine captains, if we discount Stronger for being an animal. Crocodile headed for the New World after the war and hasn't been captured yet, and Moria is apparently "in hiding" after escaping from the Pacifista squad and Doflamingo.

• Jossed — the tenth captain is Kuzan/Aokiji, a former Admiral.

Blackbeard's Devil Fruit Targets

The characters that have been or will be target by the Blackbeard Pirates.

• Trafalgar Law — somewhere after the Kaido or Reverie arc Doc Q will kill Law (but not before he monologues one of his "fate" speeches) and take his Ope Ope no Mi, using its advance medical properties to cure his (and his horse) illness, and alter his crewmates' bodies so they can contain more than one devil fruit.
  • Somewhat jossed? Doc Q ends up with the Sick-Sick Fruit, and although he does participate a bit in Blackbeard's battle against Law after the Wano Country Arc, he ends up sidelined out of the way.
• Mansherry and Viola — When the Blackbeard Pirates invade the Reverie meeting. During the chaos, Van Augur assassinates Queen Viola and Princess Mansherry from afar, with their devil fruits transferring into one of Doc Q’s apples.
  • Now that the Reverie is over, this theory is seemingly jossed.
• Ivankov — While Ivankov and his Okamas were on their way to the Revolutionary Army Meeting, they were attack by Doc Q and his Crew while the rest of the BB pirates attack the RA’s base. Ivankov and Doc Q duke it for hours until Doc sense that Cipher Pol were coming, so he scythes off Ivan’s head and flees along with the BB crew. With the Okama King slain in battle, the Horu Horu no Mi no resides in one of Doc Q’s red apples.
• Big Mom — When The Straw Hats and the Tank Pirates defeats Linlin and her crew, Capone when make an attempt to claim her head. Only to be beaten by Catarina, who beheads Big Mom and claims her Soru Soru no Mi. Devon then proceeds to do the same the rest of the Charlotte Family.
  • Jossed. Big Mom ends up defeated by Law and Kidd in the Wano Country Arc, though her fate remains unstated.
• Boa Hancock — Devon and her crew raids Amazon Lily causing a massive war between the Amazons and the Yonko crew, with Devon battling the Snake Empress, Boa Hancock. During the intense fight, Hancock tries to petrify Devon with her Love Love Beam, only to be ineffective. Catarina decapitates Hancock, shows the empress’s head for all of Amazon Lilly to see, then toss it over the balcony, symbolizing the Pirates victory over the Amazons.
  • While Devon does end up invading Amazon Lily alongside Vasco Shot and Blackbeard, she and Shot are petrified immediately by Hancock. Although the question as to whether or not Hancock will be killed by the Blackbeard Pirates remains in the air, I would like to call this jossed for now.
• Kaido (assuming he has one) — After the Ninja-Mink-Pirate-Samurai Alliance have defeated Kaido and the Beast Pirates, Pizzaro came out of nowhere and kills Kaido and takes his devil fruit. After witnessing Pizzaro taking out Kaido, the remaining Beast Pirates decides to follow the "Corrupt King" and be recruited into the BB pirates.
  • Jossed. Pizarro ends up with the Isle-Isle Fruit.
• Baby 5 — While Baby 5 and Sai saying there vows at their wedding, Pizzaro drops by the ceremony with his pirate army with the intent of making Kano Country into one of the BB Pirates' territories. Boo, Chinjao, and the newly wed couple battle Pizzaro with all their might only to be overpowered. Avalo kills Baby 5 and takes her Buki Buki abilities.
  • Jossed. Pizarro ends up with the Isle-Isle Fruit.
• Jozu — During the Payback War the remaining Whitebeard Pirates battle Blackbeard Pirates, in which Jozu fought Shiryu. Sadly, Shiryu manages to slay Jozu in the battlefield’s life, claim his head as a trophy, and the diamond diamond fruit devil fruit.
  • Jossed. Shiryu ends up with the Clear-Clear Fruit.
• Aokiji/Kuzan — at one point in the story Kuzan will attempt to leak information to the Marines on Blackbeard’s whereabouts only to be caught by Laffite and Shiryu. The former admiral will make an attempt to escape, and freeze the two pirates only to be slice in half.
  • Jossed? Kuzan ends up joining the Blackbeard Pirates as the tenth Titanic Captain.
• Vanden Decken XIII — The BB Pirates will go to Fishman Island restock their supplies, in which Augur visits the prison that holds Decken, as well as the Hody Crew. The Sniper headshots the lovesick fishmen and claim the powers of the Mark-Mark Fruit.
  • Seemingly jossed, seeing how Augur ends up with the Warp-Warp Fruit.
• Roscinate — During the timeskip the BB crew visits the a winter island in which Laffite discovers the Nagi Nagi fruit buried in snow. He devours the fruit and gains its abilities.
  • Wasn't Lafitte already shown to have a Devil Fruit?
• Marco — Weeks after Kaido's defeat, Marco decides to visit Whitebeard and Ace’s gravesite, thinking about the adventures he had with his father and brother. Suddenly an unknown force pulls him in which reveals to be Blackbeard, who states his wishes to take the Phoenix Fruit as replacement for the Mera Mera no Mi that they failed to obtain thanks to Sabo .Teach then kills his former crewmate, which his Mythical Zoan fruit now in Burgess's hands.
• Kizaru and Akainu — During the Yonko War, Luffy, Sabo, Dragon, Jinbei, Weevil, Inurashi, Shanks and Garp battle Sakazuki, while Sanji (with his Super-Soldier genes awakened), Bartholomew, Koala, Hack, Benn Beckman, Nekomurashi, and Rayleigh take on Borsalino. After half a day of ongoing fights, Garp, Shanks, Dragon and the other veterans are down for the count, but manage to weaken Akainu enough for Luffy and Sabo to send the government dog a powerful Haki-infused blow to the chest, sending him flying toward G-1 Headquarters. Borsalino manage to curb-stomp everyone until Bartholomew traps Kizaru by using Barrier Ball, which causes the admiral to ricochet inside the sphere. Bartholomew tries out do to hours of battle causing the barrier ball to vanish. In a rage, Kizaru then proceeds to deliver a kick toward to pirate until Sanji speed blitzes toward Borsalino, delving him the hellish Diable Jambe; Flaming Shot, in which it send him flying toward G-1 Headquarters along with Akainu, causing the entire building to collapse. After our heroes leave the battlefield, Blackbeard and Burgess appears before the two fallen admirals, kills them and takes their Logia Fruits. Teach takes Akainu’s magma fruit while Burgess takes Kizaru’s light fruit.
• Caribou — When Caribou was held prisoner in one of Kaido’s vessels, captained by X.Drake, they were suddenly attacked by Vasco Shot, one of the Ten Titanic Captains of the Yonko, Blackbeard. X.Drake, Scotch and the others escape, but left Caribou behind. Vasco discovers Caribou, kills him, and steals his Logia powers. With the Numa Numa fruit’s abilities, Vasco can stow many sakes as he wants with his body.
• Bartholomew Kuma — When the Revolution Army manage to escape from the BB Pirates, Kuma was capture by Teach and had his DF taken. With the powers of the Paw-Paw Fruit, Teach now can shoot Quack Bubbles from the palm of his hands to destroy islands from across the seas.
• Brook — The Straw Hats will fight with everything and then some to keep Blackbeard away, but he is not going to pass up on a get out of death free card in the form of the Revive-Revive fruit.

Blackbeard's stomach was turned into a black hole by the Dark-Dark Fruit

Hence why he survived eating Whitebeard's Devil Fruit.

Blackbeard's ability to take other people's Devil Fruits

really is a Dark-Dark Fruit ability.

• How is Burgess seemingly able to do it as well? The answer is simple. Blackbeard has awakened his Devil Fruit and was able to pass on this ability to his crew members.

Sanjuan Wolf will be a Token Good Teammate to the Blackbeard Pirates

• The only reason he was in Impel Down is because he was too big to be anywhere else.

Shiryu is a former swordsman of Wano Country

• He has a Japanese-sounding name, his epithet "Shiryu of the Rain" is undeniably similar to "Raizo of the Mist", after cutting down the Impel Down guards who freed him he references "Kiri-sute gomen" which as we see is in full effect in Wano, and the ear-flaps on his officer's hat resembles those on Japanese World War II uniforms to a degree (if I'm not wrong he was the only one among the Impel Down staff who wore them).

Blackbeard will be the True Final Boss of the series

• The first major climax of One Piece will be a battle against the World Government, likely Fleet Admiral Akainu on behalf of the Five Elder Stars to completely bring down their oppression and free the world for a new era. But the time it took the Straw Hats to deal with that mess would give Teach enough time to reach the One Piece first, so the series would end by having Luffy and Blackbeard battle one-on-one for the crown.

Blackbeard will get Gekko Moriah to reanimate the corpses of Ace and Whitebeard

To spite Luffy but it will backfire when Zombie Ace and possibly Zombie Whitebeard turn on them when Luffy talks to them during their fight

Rocks is Blackbeard's father

He's about the right age to have been sired shortly before the fatal God Valley incident, and would also explain the name of his ship, Saber of Xebec. Also, it would be extremely thematically appropriate for Luffy's likely Final Boss to be so connected to Gold Roger's greatest foe.

By the time Luffy's crew faces him, all Ten Titanic Captains will have Devil Fruits.

If they don't already. Three (Shiryu, Catarina Devon and San Juan Wolf) are already known to have them; Lafitte likely has a bird-based Zoan. But who would have what:

• Burgess: Human Human Fruit Model Jesus.
  • Jossed in favor of the Strong-Strong Fruit.
• Van Augur: Bird-Bird Fruit: Model Hawk.
  • Jossed in favor of the Warp-Warp Fruit.
• Pizarro: Cat-Cat Fruit, Model: Lion.
  • The Nemelian Lion to be exact.
    • Jossed in favor of the Isle-Isle Fruit.
• Vasco Shot: Plasma Plasma Fruit.
  • Jossed in favor of the Glug-Glug Fruit.
• Doc Q: The Disease Disease Fruit.
  • Confirmed, albeit called the Sick-Sick Fruit.

Vasco Shot was a serial killer who had a day job as a restaurant/bar owner who used the remains of his own victims as ingredients.

His modus operandi could've been that he went around in the poorer and impoverished parts of whatever island he lived on and kidnapped the homeless and the poor, and then chopped them up and preserved them. I also like to imagine that he ironically got caught because of him killing a health inspector investigating complaints coming from customers who went to his restaurant. This theory is based off of how his favorite food is canonically stated to be Shaoxing wine, which is used in cooking.

Blackbeard's Devil Fruit isn't a Logia at all.

Blackbeard, much like how Luffy's Gum-Gum Fruit is actually the Human-Human Fruit for Nika, possesses a special Mythical Zoan fruit that parallels Nika. This would probably explain not only why the Darkness Darkness Fruit doesn't actually grant intangibility like any other Logias, but would also explain the Story-Breaker Power it seemingly grants which allows the user to use the powers of more than one Devil Fruit, much like how Luffy's awakened state gives him Toon Physics. This would also explain why Blackbeard says in Chapter 440 that his "powers chose him", as Devil Fruits have a will of their own, as evidenced by Luffy's fruit evading capture from the World Government for years.

• Alternatively, the Dark-Dark fruit isn't any of the three types of Devil Fruit, and in fact has no type. It's true power is not darkness, it is nothingness. Is the hypothetical zero of the Devil Fruit abilities, turning the user into a literal power void. (Which is exactly how it seems to function with Blackbeard). This paradox ether occurred naturally and is related to the fruits true nature, or was the result of Vegapunk's work.

Van Auger is a storyteller and/or con-artist.

It's well known that Van Auger was based on Adolphus from The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, but if we look at that movie we can see the parallels between him and Usopp go much deeper. The Central Theme is the power of storytelling and how fiction can move and influence the real world. With Usopp being a character whose lies accidentally become truth, it would be fitting for his ultimate opponent to be someone whose lies intentionally become truths. It could be through fiction or through pretending to be someone he isn't, but the similarities remain.

Blackbeard will either reach Laughtale first or start the war with the World Government.

Blackbeard is fated to do something extremely signifigant, even if Luffy is the true Chosen One. His entire character arc has been him achieving the impossible all because Fate wills it. He wants to be Pirate King, and to become Pirate King one must reach Laughtale. Unlike Luffy though, he really does want to rule the world, which would mean coming into conflict with the Gorosei and World Nobles. I think it would be strangely fitting if Teach, as the villain, is the one who opens the doors to the final conflcit of the series.

Blackbeard is three people in one.

Several WMGs here have posited the idea of Blackbeard somehow being two people in one. I want to take that one step further and posit the idea that Blackbeard is actually three people in one. Blackbeard is heavily associated with he number three. There are three skulls in his Jolly Roger, three pistols tucked into his belt, three braids in his beard, and even his bounty is currently 3,996,000,000 Berries. All of the non-zero numbers are multiples of 3. And, on top of that, since Oda is fond of using Goroawase Numbers in bounties, it just turns out that Blackbeards Bounty is also one. 3-9-9-6 can be read as "San Kokoro," which means "Three Hearts" in japanese. It could also explain how Blackbeard never sleeps. The three people in his body operate in "shifts," and rotate out every so often to allow the other personalities to "sleep" so to speak.

Blackbeard will complete the Devil Fruit Trio with a Mythical Zoan-type Devil Fruit... and it will be the Fish-Fish Fruit, Model: Kraken

A popular theory is that Blackbeard will gain a third Devil Fruit power, and that the final fruit will be a Mythical Zoan-type Devil Fruit. The reason I suggest the Kraken is that as much as Blackbeared is associated with the number 3 (as detailed by the above WMG), he is also associated with the number 8, albeit to a lesser extent. His Jolly Roger has 8 bones sticking out behind it, and his birthday is August 3rd, a date that contains an 8 and a 3. Krakens are often depicted as massive octopi, which have 8 legs. On top of that, Octopi have three hearts, and Blackbeard's bounty is a Goroawase Number that literally means "three hearts."

Vasco Shot was a court jester for King Bulldog and he was a major influence on King Bekori when he was younger.

A bit of a crack theory, but it could have some credibility considering how there are some uncanny similarities between Vasco Shot and Bekori (The long noses with red blush on the ends of them, them being somewhat portly, they're both wicked monsters putting on a guise of goofiness, and their tendency to use fire to kill people to get what they want). Plus, kingdoms do often have a Court Jester.

Mihawk

Mihawk will end up going blind.

With a name like 'Hawk-Eyes', it's practically inevitable.

• A variation: The training that made Zoro one-eyed will make Zoro unable to ever beat Mihawk because of his superior sight. But Zoro doesn't care — he's now strong enough to protect his true companions, and it's becoming the most important thing for him. In a way, Zoro will have succeeded with what Mihawk seems to have failed with — having a family and a happy life.

As a child, Mihawk was forced to have literal Training from Hell

Hence why he never smiles friendly and happy-like; something like that would seriously scar anyone for life.

• Considering he's the Shichibukai's resident Badass Normal, it's possible.

Mihawk is way, way more evil (or just not as sane) than he appears.

So far, he's been portrayed as neutral, but it will later be revealed he's utterly $%# @ed in the head due to years of caring about fighting and strength at the expense of his human relationships and personal happiness. In other words, what Zoro might be in danger of becoming.

• Still possible, but his most recent appearance alongside Zoro makes this guess seem pretty unlikely.

Mihawk isn't actually the world's strongest swordsman

Smoker once remarked that there are people ranked higher that are weaker than himself. Wouldn't it be interesting if it turned out Mihawk's title as world's strongest swordsman was just that? At one point, Mihawk will reveal that there are swordsmen much stronger than himself in the New World, even if he acknowledges Zoro as a rival.

• I especially support this theory. Vista, despite not being a Yonkou (Since Mihawk was able to rival Shanks) was able to fight Mihawk to a stalemate and showed no fear of him in sword combat. This shows that despite Mihawk's strength, he's not freakishly above everyone else. Also, since Mihawk trained Zoro over the time-skip, it wouldn't be too satisfying to simply have Zoro defeat him as it would only seem logical(YMMV on this point). Most likely, someone will surpass Mihawk and serve as Zoro's new goal, or Mihawk will step down.
• Mihawk doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would act as arrogant as he does unless he knew for sure that he could actually back it up. Considering Mihawk showed no real signs of either concern or exertion throughout the War of Marineford and walked out without a scratch on him, I'm under the impression that he just wasn't trying all that hard(except probably during that first attack against Whitebeard; it was blocked, but considering it took diamond to stop a ranged attack from him, I think that shouldn't be considered a strike against Mihawk's abilities even if that was at full force). It needs to be pointed out that he's only there on behalf of the World Government, and based on his reputation of not bothering with the requests they made of him up until this point, he's probably not too keen on putting much effort into helping them.
• I think that Mihawk is in the Shichibukai because he was forced into it by the true "Worlds greatest swordsman". Maybe that swordsman in the Gorosei curb stomped Mihawk, and told him to join them or die. Too add even more maybe he trained Zoro for the sole purpose of being strong enough to fight that Gorosei, maybe even in a team up battle.

• It's probably more like 'The world's strongest (known) (active) swordsman'
  • Agreed, the existence of guys like Oden and Roger who were both master swordsmen prove that Mihawk's title is very conditional.

Mihawk agreed to train Zoro so he himself could become even stronger.

After all, Zoro still needs his "defeat Mihawk" dream, and Mihawk doesn't have Shanks to spar with anymore. He's clearly bored and has nothing better to do anyway.

• Or, he's been, really, really ronery ever since he became the world's greatest swordsman, and decided to keep Zoro and Perona around because it's the first time in years he's really had people in his life. Given the story's themes about friendship, and the general pattern with some of the more seemingly unfriendly characters, this seems more likely.
• On a more serious note, just like Whitebeard ment for Ace to become the King of Pirates, Mihawk is realizing that he's too old for this [poo] and starts raising his most talented challenger to take his place. The old guys are preparing for something — whatever it is, it will probably be an EPIC WAR.

Dracule Mihawk will die, but not by Zoro's hand

Perhaps it may be too typical for the student to have to avenge his sensei's death, but it would remove the moral dilemma of Zoro killing the man who gave him his most recent Shonen Upgrade. I nominate Shiryu of the Rain.

• It would remove the moral dilemma, and the potential emotional one: it's not unlikely Zoro and Mihawk bonded during those two years training together. The story seems to imply Mihawk has a had a rather lonely life for a long, long time, and given how OP tends to handle relationships, it seems pretty likely Zoro (and Perona) helped fill a void in his life. Having Mihawk grow to care for Zoro would really, really round out his character, and Zoro having to deal with the death of a sensei/father figure who he originally wanted to kill himself yet could not help but grow to love would really be a breakthrough for his character development-wise. (especially if Mihawk dies protecting him.)

Mihawk hasn't been a Warlord for as long as most people believed.

It was stated that two years prior to the Time Skip Ace had been offered a chance at becoming one of the Seven Warlords (which he refused), meaning that a spot was open at that time. Crocodile had been working on Baroque Works in Alabasta for around four years, hinting that he had been a Warlord for at least that long; Moriah had been sailing in the Florian Triangle for something like a decade, a good indication of the minimal timespan he had the Warlord title; and it had been confirmed that both Hancock and Jinbe had been Warlords for at least ten years.

Of the three remaining Warlords: Doflamingo and Kuma seemed really familiar with each other, fellow Warlords, and also many high ranking Marines. So it wasn't much stretch to guess that they had been Warlords for quite some time (if not the longest time).

That left Mihawk, who was both portrayed as the most secluded and the least reliable Warlord to the Marines.

• It even makes relative sense with the timeline considering that once Shanks lost his arm, Mihawk would've lost his sparring partner, which probably led to his wandering the seas and slashing up random crews in search of a true challenge.

Mihawk was trained in Wano Kuni

Mihawk being trained by samurai, who are more powerful than the Marines would explain how he became the World's Greatest Swordsman.

Mihawk has Observation Haki that can let him see the future.

He can anticipate attacks just like Katakuri and that is partly why he is hailed as the world's greatest swordsman.

Mihawk will join forces with Shanks.

The two will form their own Pirate Alliance. Their goal: to be the final obstacle in Luffy's quest for Raftel.

Mihawk is deathly afraid of cockroaches.

The boat that he uses to get around is always covered in green fumes. What gives off green fumes? Boric acid, a well known roach killer, which happens to be a fairly toxic substance if inhaled or ingested in high quantities by a human. Causing among things kidney failure. The only reason Mihawk would such a risk is if he had very, very severe katsaridaphobia.

Mihawk will survive the series

Zoro will still beat him, and it'll be a total gore fest between the two. But like how Zoro has cheated death countless times, Mihawk will barely survive their final duel.With the tile of World's Greatest Swordsman now off his shoulders, he'll finally have some peace of mind now that he's free of the burden it carries, and he can retire and live in peace like what we see while he's living in his mansion on Gloom Island.

Hancock

Boa Hancock will be the one that ends up with Luffy

It's become quite a popular theory in the fandom.

• Yeah, and the idea that she was his mom was popular for a while too.
  • Although that is true, it was when the managled translation for the "King's Haki" came out; where it said only one person could have the King's Haki. Natrually fans thought they had to be related to share it. Also Oda put so much fluff in her character that leads people to think they'll get together ass well, from her astrological sign and Luffy's being 'perfect' for each other, to their blood types, to even her name. Why so much hate for the Hancock?
• This would require serious Character Derailment for Luffy. He's not socially naive enough like Goku to accidentally agree to marry her; his brief interactions with Lola show this clearly. Oda also took great pains to blatantly indicate that he's not attracted to her at all, and we have no good reason to think he ever will be.
  • He only knew not to say yes to Lola thanks to Usopp, since is a 'bad influnece on him'. If Hancock spent enough time with him...or Ussop was in the room (oh god that thought is scary)
• Boa Hancock's NAME reveals her to be a love interest to Luffy. She is named after Thomas Hancock after all, the man who started the rubber industry in England. While I agree that it is HIGHLEY unlikely they will get together or for Luffy even to realize Hancock likes him, she is the only one to have shown feelings to him, unlike Nami, Robin, ect. The only person more likely to be his love interest is in fact...
  • The idea of Luffy/Hancock is insanely cute, but unfortunately everything about it's development so far screams "Giant Deep-Sea Red Herring" to the writer in me too. It's almost to the middle of the story, and we're supposed to buy the hero's canonical love interest appearing now? With all the too good to be true hints like fitting astrological signs and blood types? I'd really like to ship this, but my reader's instinct keeps screaming "IT'S A TRAP!!! DO YOU WANT TO GET EMOTIONALLY INVESTED IN THE SHIP ONLY TO BE DISAPPOINTED?!"

Boa Hancock will be the one that ends up with Luffy, but neither of them will ever get it on

What was the dirtiest fantasy Hancock ever had of Luffy? Feeding him? Sounds to me like they might end up together purely because Boa Hancock thinks Luffy's being kind to her because he loves her, and that's all she wants. Luffy will end up with her because Sea King meat tastes good, thinks their just friends, and will need someplace to crash after he'd done with the whole "becoming the king of the pirates thingie."

• That actually sounds plausible. It's hard to imagine Luffy settling in one place permanently though.

Boa Hancock will give up Luffy

And, as every fangirl that has a Bishounen phase in their fan lives, she'll show interest for... Sanji! Too bad he'll come from Okama Island as, well, an Okama. Poor thing. (Although she might consider shipping Sanji with Zoro, if she gets over it.)

• Or, Boa Hancock will give up Luffy and have her affections gradually drift towards Blackbeard, who will eagerly reciprocate. His personality is incredibly similar to Luffy's and he can't truly just be a heartless bastard like the series has been showing so far for the most part and Hancock could bring that out.
  • It also helps that he's an adult and doesn't hit the shota-squick factor.

• He''s 17, that's not really Shota...also Blackbeard while afable, is too selfish and ruthless (evil is fine with her though). While he would be anything for his crewmates, why would he ever take a blow for anyone other than them? When he asked Ace to join him, he never held back or tried to find away to recruit him after all. He cared too much about his own dreams...and only Luffy could live up the "Pure and innocent" standards Hancock set up for herself.
  • Never question the magic of Character Development.
  • This will most definetly not happen as Blackbeard is now irrefutably a sociopathic. And Hancock's a broken bird. She won't fall for an ass like Blackbeard.
  • If anything, it's a fun plot bunny for those of us who like dark stories. I personally think Blackbeard's utter insanity and sociopathy and Hancock's broken-bird-ness would make it awesomely twisted and creepy. Plus, Hancock's desperation to feel loved can easily take her to bad places, especially if she ever gets sick of Luffy not paying attention to her. Believe in the Dark Fic. Believe in corrupting innocent stories and characters. Join us. Don't be afraid. Come play in our wonderful schadenfreude festival. We have warm, gooey home baked cookies.

Hancock has a kid who's still a slave back in Mariejois

It's heavily implied she suffered terrible sexual abuse while enslaved; it's possible that the poor thing didn't know what was going on and passed out after giving birth as a teenager, and never found out what happened. The kid is still alive, possibly in his/her early to mid teens.

• Possible but improbable. While her being sexually abused does not fall outside the realm of possibility when considering the Tenryuubito they obviously had access to much more attractive women than budding teenagers. Plus they may have been disgusted by the idea of having intercourse with a Devil's Fruit User.
• Not a chance. Yeah, Japanese cartoons are more mature than Western ones for sure, but there's no way they'd let explicitly stated rape and teenage childbirth be part of a children's show.
• It could be possible, but Oda would have been clear about it from the outset if that were in fact the case.

Oda specifically designed Hancock to be an over-the-top parody of the typical OP Relationship Sue and shipping Fan Dumb desires and beliefs who was never meant to be taken seriously

Hancock's basically sympathetic, but pretty much everything about her characterization and character trivia supports this.

• Ummm... no duh?
• Not only that, she's another indicator of Luffy's status as The Chosen One: Hancock is the most beautiful, most curvaceous, and strongest woman in the world (sans Big Mom and maybe 2 others), she's desired and adored by the entire world and the only man in existence that she's head over heels for doesn't care about any of that. That's how chosen he is, he can resist an irresitable woman. Hancock herself is a walking deconstruction of the concept of Relationship Sue and it works super well.

Boa Hancock's power is not turning people into stone...

Rather, turning into stone is a natural power of all humans in One Piece if they are lustful enough. Hancock's powers allow her to spread this to other things, and make people lustful enough to happen. The reason we haven't seen this happening is that this takes such an awesome amount of lust, only the combined powers of Sanji's pervertedness and the Mermaid princess' beauty can cause it naturally.

• Also note that the fruit is called the Mero Mero no Mi (Love Love Fruit), not having anything to do with petrification.

Buggy

Buggy is due for a huge power-up.

Buggy was always weak because his goal was a vendetta and not a "dream" or a "man's romance". Now that he has a worthwhile goal set in mind, his heart will strengthen, he will grow more clever with the use of his powers (maybe fractal buggy?), and he will gather a stronger crew. Makes sense given the setting.

Buggy will turn out to be competent...

...and when he can work himself up to fighting, he'll do a good job. He has yet to realize that he can break himself into extremely tiny, barely visible pieces. He just has a confidence problem since getting beaten by Luffy and kicked around by Smoker, and so he hasn't put much into fighting anything since.

• Buggy has survived for as long as Luffy has in the Grand Line, which is infamous for chewing up even relatively strong pirate crews and spitting them out. Part of it is no doubt luck, with Buggy facing much less formidable enemies than Luffy, but a true weakling would surely have either died or ran away long ago. Buggy's not incompetent at fighting, he's just way out of his league now that he's in the company of supermen like Crocodile and Jinbe.
• Adding on to this theory and the idea of awakenings. It's very likely that if Buggy ever trained himself to the point his fruit awakened he could tear apart and reform his own and potentially other matter at a cellular level allowing him to turn a mountain into a pile of deadly poison or even fire. Heck his fruit could even let him Hulk Out if he ever though to tear and then rebuild his muscle's with his fruit. Oda was not kidding when he said that if Buggy trained himself he would be one of the strongest in the world. His fruit is actually a Potentially Story-Breaker Power compared to Luffy's just plain Heart Is an Awesome Power fruit.
  • Beyond that there's an even more powerful ability that would be possible from an awakened Bara Bara no Mi. Awakening would allow him to to split things other than his own body, so what if Buggy could split atoms?

Buggy got stung on the nose by a bee.

He was allergic.That's why he really doesn't like to talk about it. It's a visible sign of his weakness, which he likes to cover up with bravado.

Buggy will get a power-up.

Basically Shanks and Buggy will "fight" as the WG will think it, when its really just Shanks training Buggy. Thing is, BUGGY won't realise its training because Shanks will just keep taunting him into fighting and keep drawing it out, using it to teach Buggy to be stronger. Moments after realising he's gotten a lot stronger (by downing a pirate or marine) he'll work out what Shanks did. And Hilarity Ensures when none of the Strawhats believe him when he says so.

Buggy Took a Level in Badass over the time skip.

Specifically, he's gotten good enough at using his Chop-Chop powers to turn his body into what is essentially smog, and therefore damn near impossible to harm using conventional means (Haki-powered Luffy will still kick his ass though). While Fake Ultimate Hero Buggy is awesome, subverting it via Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass would be even more awesome. Besides, two years is a long time to retain a reputation like Buggy's on the Grand Line without any actual power to back it up.

• I don't know, Buggy actually becoming stronger kind of goes against his character of a extremly lucky weakling who relies on others to do his duty. Now, if the ID Inmates and the other crewmates took the Level, that sounds a bit more likely.
  • He'll probably take a level in badass as opposed to the several that everyone else took.

Buggy's ability...

Just wondering since I never read the cover arc with Buggy searching for his parts...if more than half his body is submerged would that make his parts as if they were actually chopped up? That seems unlikely as it's pretty gruesome!

• Buggy's crewmates got his parts back. In any case, Buggy's powers are likely of the same class as Luffy's—that is, they're not negated underwater. Rather, Buggy feels sapped of energy and can't move.

Buggy will be a genuine threat when he next appears

King of tying with the WMGs that Buggy is a warlord: After all, he'd have to get stronger otherwise he'd be screwed. Besides that, even if he isn't a warlord, it's probably common knowledge that he was on Roger's crew, so chances are both Marines and bounty hunters would be chasing him. And with such an "infamous" pirate, they'd have to be pretty strong.

• The other altenative is that he is either dead, or back in prison.
  • Another alternative is that he hasnt gotten particularly stronger personally, due to his now massive crew of loyal Impel Down prisoners he hasnt needed to. It will be because of his crew that he is considered a threat.
  • He may be Joker, the mastermind behind some recent New World events.
  • Latter is Jossed: Joker was the codename of Doflamingo. As for his reappearance right after the Dressrosa Arc, he effectively looks more badass and seems to have set up quite well-run operation along with Mr. 3, but it's unknown if he has bettered his skills.

Buggy (and his crew) will become allies to the Straw Hats.

Maybe Shanks' death at the hands of Blackbeard will cause them to team up

Buggy will eventually be depowered by Blackbeard (or... someone) and his newly-returned swimming skills will prove vital to the ongoing plot.

This could be any Ability user, of course (and it wouldn't even have to be Blackbeard doing the depowering), but if I remember right, Buggy is the only user confirmed to have been a great swimmer beforehand. Sure, he might be a couple decades out of practice, but it probably wouldn't be hard to put him in a group where he's still got the most experience.

(For extra points, have his powers return RIGHT when he realizes "Hey! I can finally get that treasure on the seafloor!")

Buggy's full name is Con D Buggy

Buggy being a D because yes, also in addition to the Meme Acknowledgement, Con works due to his themes as a trickster and pretending to be stronger than he is, as well as it being combined with D makes "conned", reflecting his nature as a Butt-Monkey.

Buggy will be crowned as the Pirate King

For the entire story he's been failing upwards, and if one looks a little deeper a pattern can be found: he picks up a new position precisely when said position has become, from plot standpoint, completely meaningless. He became a Warlord well after Luffy had beaten or allied with several of their number, and the story was moving on to tackling the Emperors; and then he became an Emperor just as Kaido and Big Mom were beaten and we were entering the final arc. And we all knew from the start that Luffy never wanted to become the Pirate King for the the world to acknowledge it, for the fame of it - and recently it's been established that the whole goal of his is only another stepping stone for his true dream.

So it will be that Luffy is going to make it to the Laugh Tale, fulfill every requirement for the kinghood, and basically win whatever global war there's going on. And then he will move on to his actual dream, and Buggy will somehow stumble on to the scene and manages to hog the glory and get himself the wealth, fame, and power that it brings to him. The people as a whole will fear and respect him, but those few fully in the know, the Straw Hats among them, could not care less because by this time they know how little it really means.

Law

Law will become a Yonkou

Luffy and Law will defeat Kaido and claim his territory, but Luffy won't want to be tied down with running it, he'd rather be off having adventures. So he gives the territory to Law, effectively making Law the new Yonkou. This also cements the alliance/friendship they have.

• Shanks wouldn't want to be tied down either, yet he is recognized as one of the four. It's clear from his example that just wandering around partying and having adventures does not stop one from also being a Yonkou.
• Jossed. Luffy and Buggy of all people become Emperors, and Wano stays isolated.

Gecko Moriah

Gecko Moriah will return and use Ace as a zombie.

A truly wild guess, I know, but with Moriah last being seen on the wrong end of a cliff-hanger, perhaps his story is not done yet; and Oda is obviously still keeping Ace a relevant part of the story postmortem by having this Dressrosa arc include Luffy going after Ace's old Devil fruit. Now, Moriah is always looking for strong corpses; maybe sometime faaaaaaar down the line in this second half of the manga, Moriah will find the grave-site of Ace in the New World and he'll use Ace's body in order to piss off Luffy- and attract the Straw-Hats attention again, too.

• And if he'd use Ace's corpse, what stops him from using Whitebeard's too?
  • OH CRAP!!!
• Or, for that matter, Monet's corpse, or Belle-mere's, Kuina's, Tom's, Noland, Calgara, the Oharans, the Runbars, Sabo, Otohime, Fisher Tiger, Hiriluk, characters currently unknown... Hell, Gol D. Roger has a corpse! The possiblities are endless!
• Not Sabo though.

Gekko Moriah will have a Villainous Rescue moment against none other than Kaidou.

Given Kaidou's past actions and the news that he was planning to stab Whitebeard in the back, it's not too out of the ordinary to assume that he will assume an antagonistic role. Maybe we'll get a tragic flashback to the day Moriah's crew died, right before the Straw Hats (or Straw Hat) escape(s) from the fight.

• Effectivly jossed. Kaido's been defeated, and Moria never came to Wano.

Gekko Moriah will return, but not as we know

After his savage beatdown via Doflamingo & the Pacifistas, Moriah, ravaged from that and years of ennui, has somehow ditched his body and transfered his essence into his shadow (Literally making him a Living Shadow) where he either A. is directly able to possess people, B. now inhabits a super-zombie body made by Hogback, C. now fights solely in his shadow form or D. Some sort of combination.

• Jossed — we've seen him, and he's still his old self.

Gekko Moria

will return as an ally of the Straw HatsMaybe not an ally, per say, but similar to Crocodile in Impel Down (enemy of my enemy, etc.). When, you ask? Simple. The Straw Hats are going to meet (and potentially fight) Kaidou eventually. Knowing his past encounter with Moria, and Moria's missing status, it's a perfect arc set up.

• Jossed as far as the Kaido and Wano part. No telling if he'll ally with them later or not though.

Gekko will make a Heel–Face Turn to help the Straw Hats against Kaido

Maybe being cast out of the Warlords and left for dead has given him some perspective.

• This troper agrees. Moria was the first one in the story to mention Kaidou, and he obviously holds a huge grudge against the Yonkou for slaughtering his beloved crew. It'd make sense that he'd be brought in to aid the Straw Hats. (Also, Moria seems to be an odd "reflection" of Luffy; he's what the Straw Hat captain would have become if he had permanently lost his crew, so it doesn't seem like too much of a stretch to have them see eye to eye, even if it's just against Kaidou.)
  • Effectivly jossed. Kaido's been defeated, and Moria never came to Wano.

Gekko will wind up being a Big Bad candidate who forces the Straw Hats to ally with Kaido

Then again, maybe not.

• Doubtful. Between his army being gone, the Marines being back on his ass, and a generally far less forgiving playing field this time around (not to mention the fact that he's far weaker than he used to be without having any of Buggy's craftiness or skill at manipulation), he's probably out for the count unless he somehow got his ass into gear without being unceremoniously killed by Akainu.
  • Jossed. Kaido's been defeated, and Moria never came to Wano.

The zombies on thriller bark is Moriah's former crew

When they were killed by Kaido, he had a whole lot of corpses just laying around. He made zombies of them :)Some of them are exceptions naturally, like Ryuma and Oz, but those corpses were specifically excravated because they were strong. However, he has 1000(minus animals) zombies! That's way too many to dig up one by one.Besides, Thriller Bark is huge, it would have had to have a huge crew.

Oz lived during the void century

Hogback says that he lived 500 years ago. However, it could also mean that it was when he died. We know that giants only live for 300 years, which means that he would only have been a baby, and that only if we assume he was approching the end of his lifespan when he froze to death. However... Since Oz is an especially BIG giant... Maybe his lifespand was also longer.

• I wished this WMG came true. Judging Oda, it's really possible that he appeared as a cameo (as a child) during the void century flashback, assumed we're going to see one.

Moria will aid the Straw Hats against Blackbeard.

Moria now holds a grudge against Blackbeard for killing Absalom and taking Moria himself prisoner. While he still hates Luffy and will never see him as a friend, Luffy's coming to take down Blackbeard, as well as earlier defeating Kaido and (albeit not deliberately) avenging Moria's original crew in doing so, will lead Moria to pull an Enemy Mine with him against Blackbeard.

Kuma

Kuma is partly a Government agent, and partly an experiment with Devil Fruits and their properties

To be specific, an experiment on when does a Devil Fruit consider its owner dead, and thus depart into an actual fruit again. Doctor Vegapunk may have been ordered to make Kuma subservient, but he didn't quite have to completely turn him into a robot. And yet, he did. Under many definitions, Kuma, as in the actual man, is dead, and yet his Devil Fruit hasn't left him. Vegapunk must be, in some way, aware of this fact, and under the basis of this WMG, was actually trying to see if this would happen, or if his Devil Fruit would leave him mid-surgery when the brain was removed. Methods aside, this must have been a valuable research point in the area of Devil Fruit studies.

Kuma is Dead. Long live Kuma.

Related to earlier WMGs and the fact that Oda never seems to waste any detail, the Bartholomew Kuma that we know and are completely confused by is dead. However, somehow Kuma's loyalty programming will be disabled — he'll push it out of his own head, he whispered a disable code to Silvers Rayleigh on Sabody, Luffy kicks him in just the right spot.

His eye lenses will fall out. He'll take off his hat. What we will have is a fully cybernetic, incredibly pissed off Kuma.

The return of "The Tyrant."

Kuma has the most game-breaking power in the series

Exactly what it says. It's already been proven that Kuma can push abstract concepts like pain and fatigue from one person to another, well, it's not too much of a stretch to think that he could push other things like strength, agility, endurance, pain tolerance, reflexes and even knowledge from one person to another. Let's say that he gets his paw against Mihawk, pushes all the above things out of him, then pushes it into somebody else or even himself. Bam, Kuma, or whoever else he chose to push it into, is instantly the world's greatest swordsman. Kuma could mega-man on an epic level, and he could spread the wealth to his allies. Theoretically, he could even push Devil's Fruits powers out of his enemies and into his allies, or even try to pull a Blackbeard and push them into himself. Also on the subject of pushing, he can push at any speed, and an object traveling at 90% of the speed of light does damage equal to its own weight in anti-matter, he could carry around a supply of metal balls the size of golf balls as his own personal nuclear arsenal, to say nothing of what he can find in the environment around him.

Now, I realize that a lot of the above hasn't actually been shown, but if even half of it is possible, it suddenly makes sense that Oda cyberized his brain so he can't think of the more devastating uses for his powers.

• Perhaps, but like the Mihawk example, he'd at least have to work for it as you know Mihawk would not just just let him do it, as it does take a while for it to push out. At least with the Devil's Fruit thing, he might not have the (apparently) weird body structure Blackbeard has and might not be able to do so.

Kuma's Bible will turn out to be a Chekhov's Gun

Since he carries it around with him so much, it must have some very special value to him for some reason. Either (A) it will hold some, if not all, of the secrets of the "ancient kingdom" that the Oharans were researching; (B) it will hold the secret of the "Will of D"; (C) it will have a record of the World Government's secret atrocities; (D) it will be a keepsake from some tragic event in his past.(E) It is like the tatoos in Memento, it shows who he is, what he does, and what he still has to accomplish

Kuma is a Born Again Christian

Kuma was once a tyrant but is now a peaceful man who now carries around a bible. It make sense that somewhere along the line he found god.

• Or maybe because he knew from the beginning when he would die from the modifications. A set date of death tends to make people more religous, and this would certainly add another layer of depth to the man.
• Dude, he carries around a bible and has a giant cross on his jacket.
  • Jossed. Flashbacks reveal that Kuma's parents managed a church before they and he were enslaved, and he's been religious since he was a child.

The reason that Bartholomew Kuma agreed to become a Pacifista was to reliably sneak information to Dragon and the Revolutionaries, allowing them to eventually produce their own super-soldier cyborgs.

It's clear that the Pacifista program was HIGHLY top-secret until their reveal at Sabaody, and getting moles into Vegapunk's laboratory to sneak information out would have been extremely risky and nigh-impossible due to how important his work is to the World Government. By volunteering to undergo the process (which was shown to be step-by-step) and as a Shichibukai to begin with, Kuma would naturally have the freedom to come and go as he pleased between operations. This allowed him to pass on direct knowledge of the transformation process to Dragon, allowing him to gain the ability to eventually create his own version of Pacifistas while knowing the weaknesses that plague the World Government's versions. It also has the added possibility of potentially bringing Kuma's personality and consciousness back — if the Revolutionaries have a chance they might be able to override Vegapunk's programming and bring Kuma back at some point.

Kuma pushed his consciousness out of his own body to something else when he was fully converted

I highly doubt that someone that powerful would just be a spy that looses their sense of self.

Kuma became a cyborg because he took in Bonney's sickness

In chapter 1098 it is revealed that Bonney suffered from an incurable disease, the same disease her mother Ginney died from. Not being able to cure it via conventional means Kuma decided to push the disease out of her, but as was revealed previously what was pushed out by Kuma's power has to go somewhere or else it returns to the original source. So he took in the disease into himself. Only now of course he was dying from said disease, leading him to be turned into a cyborg by Vegapunk so he wouldn't die.

• Jossed. Vegapunk cured her, and Kuma agreed to become a cyborg in return for his doing so.

Weevil

Edward Weevil is Big Mom's son.

His physique shape, full lips, and large nose supports this. While the color is off, his hair style closer resembles hers than Whitebeards even in his youth. Whether or not she would even know he's her son would be debatable given the sheer amount of children she's had over the years, but I think even Kaido has a better chance of being Ed's father and it's doubtful Oda is going to have a character running around with two Yonko lineages.

• Jossed. We know all 85 of Big Mom's children now, and he's not one of them.

Edward Weevil will wind up changing his mind about Luffy.

They have a common goal: defeating Blackbeard. Though their reasons for doing so are different (Weevil wants revenge for his supposed father's death; Luffy hates Blackbeard for causing the death of Ace and attacking the Revolutionaries, including Sabo and Dragon), they might well wind up joining forces to take down the Shichibukai-turned-Yonko. Besides, Weevil's not exactly the brightest bulb in the box — Luffy may be able to turn him to his side just by talking.

Edward Weevil's possible origin.

Miss Bakkin was Whitebeard's admirer/stalker who took a piece/several pieces of his moustache some time ago, after Whitebeard's death, the World Government decided to make the ultimate Shichibukai (hence Weevils face/neck scars) the DNA from Miss Bakkin's "collection" boosted his power

Weevil is the victim of Brainwashing brain surgery.

Considering his disorder and the heavy scaring around his head, which may be surgical scars, this troper believes Miss Bakkin had her son (if he really is her son) conditioned through brain surgery to obey him in all things to have one of the most powerful people she could find under her thumb.

General or Multiple Warlords

Trafalgar Law and Buggy the Clown will fight.

And unlike most of Buggy's fights, this one will be a serious one. Buggy's powers give him total immunity not only to Law's sword, but to his Shambles ability to split things apart and rearrange them. Well, Buggy's not quite immune, but he can quickly and easily revert any changes Law could try on him directly. Thus, it would force Law to get more creative and try damaging him via indirect use of his powers, just as Enel did against Luffy. It would also culminate in Law disassembling his crewmates and making some sort of Eldritch Abomination using them, and Buggy would stop Law once and for all by defeating the amalgamation.

• This would very likely make Buggy a Lethal Joke Character and his Devil Fruit ability more useful than it looks.
  • Buggy is very much like that. Imagine if he got more creative and tried turning into a fine powder instead of chunks. He'd have Logia-like defenses, and since he's simply moving out of the way and not turning into something else, Haki-infused attacks can't prevent it. I'd go on to say that Buggy has one of the MOST potent among Devil Fruit powers. He's just too dumb to use them properly.
    • I'm pretty sure Oda said that he can't control more than like...50 pieces. Plus it would go kind of against his fruit name, Bara-Bara(chopping, not "dusting"). Otherwise, yeah, he doesn't seem to take much advantage of his power, I'm sure there's more useful ways of using it.
    • He might not be able to turn into dust, but perhaps he could turn into...cubes? 50 at the most, but yeah, still cubes.
    • Oh, is it only 50? Where was this stated? Nevertheless, Buggy doesn't need more than that to take out Law.
    • Law has Haki, dude, and a plethora of techniques besides Shambles to curbstomp Buggy. Countershock is electricity based. Injection Shot is basically a gunshot after stabbing the foe. Lastly, Gamma knife destroys the organs and I even made a WMG that Doffy will die from that attack at the arcs end.
    • A). According to the one piece wiki, no limit has ever been applied to how many piece he can control. B.) The whole point is moot, as even inuniverse, Buggy was chopped into angel hair spaghetti by Mihawk and was able to pull himself together, so the idea is complete nonsense.
  • Not exactly Jossed, but looking likely at this point. While Buggy's power does have a natural counter to part of Law's power, it is only that, part of law's Ope-Ope fruit powers. Does Buggy have a defense against half of his body getting teleported elsewhere, being electrocuted, or having large rocks dropped on his head? Besides, he seems mostly over pursuing his vendetta against Luffy at this point, and Law is very much on Luffy's side these days.

One of the Shichibukai won't survive the series.

Given what happened in Marineford with Moria's near-death, it can be assumed that Anyone Can Die among the Shichibukai at this part. Here are the Shichibukai who I think won't survive the series.

Blackbeard — He's the closest thing we got to the series' antagonist Luffy and/or the Whitebeard Pirates will probably defeat him over his implications in the Whitebeard War.

Hancock — Her fatal flaw is that her crush on Luffy borders on obsessive at times. This may cost Hancock her life, most likely in a Heroic Sacrifice to make sure Luffy's dreams come true.

Law — He's already pissed off many people, including Casesar Clown Law is seriously Tempting Fate at this point, and I wouldn't be surprised that he dies during the current arc.

• He didn't.

Doflamingo — He suffered a staggering amount of injuries throughout the fight with Luffy and Law which consist of the following

• Red Hawk to the gut
• Gamma Knife tearing his organs up (sewn back together)
• Point blank Counter Shock
• Several Gear Second attacks
• Being the test subject for Gear Fourth Boundman.

If he gets beaten, he will likely die from the Gamma knife attack with the strings unraveling, or Luffy's final attack. He got beat, but he didn't die. He got chained up and sent to Impel Down.

Law has ties to Gecko Moria, be it directly or indirectly.

Both have plans to defeat Kaido. Perhaps Law is secretly allied with Moria, or is a son or other relative of one of Moria's deceased crew, which is why he seeks to dethrone the Yonko.

• As of the Dressrossa arc and Law's backstory being revealed, likely jossed.

Buggy will be revealed as Donflamingo's "natural enemy".

Donflamingo's powers appear to be related to creating or controlling strings which he uses to control his opponents or cut them to ribbons. Buggy's allow him to split apart rendering him immune to being cut.

Buggy: "Yer' flashy strings can't do a thing to me!!

Donflamingo: * Enel-face*

• More like Trafalgar Law's natural enemy.
• Pretty sure if Doffy found that out, he could simply use haki to Deck him in the schnoz.

The Shichibukai will eventually become True Companions

Hancock needs to learn about The Power of Friendship. It would add depth to the involved parties, and the idea of all these scary, hardened, and uber-powerful people becoming BFFs is awesome. (and True Companions Love Redeems.)

• I believe Jimbei will become this for certain, what with him having renounced his Shichibukai status. Also, Mihawk could maybe be a Stealth Mentor, as he's always keeping close track of both Luffy and Zoro's progress and trained Zoro during the time-skip.

All the Shichibukai have absolutely woobirific back stories.

• Crocodile used to be an idealist who wanted to become the Pirate King. Hancock was forced into slavery. Considering that characters tend to have tragic backstories in One Piece, this could be the case.
  • Even MIHAWK?
    • Actually, the fact he's The Stoic makes it even more likely. I wouldn't be surprised if his back story is especially crushing.
  • So far, we have seen backstories for Crocodile, Moriah, Hancock, and Jinbe and those can all be considered "woobirific." Kuma had just gone through one over the course of the series, and we're strongly hinted that Doflamingo has not always been the scumbag that he is now. We'll see how this pans out, plus Mihawk's backstory, the only one we haven't heard a peep from yet. (This only covers the original seven—otherwise, with Law, Buggy, and Blackbeard having joined the ranks, this WMG would fly right out the window.)
    • Well, actually Law got very "woobirific" backstory in manga, and Doflamingo's one may count for this as well. It is possible that Blackbeard had one and nothing says that Buggy didn't have one. I am pretty sure that is was hard for him to know that his beloved captain was executed, he even cried at his execution. And we don't know a past of Shanks and Buggy, and how they were recruited.
  • We can add Doflamingo to the list of bad backstories.
    • Though it must be reiterated that Dofy is at the absolute kindest definition a Jerkass Woobie and even then he's still very much a Jerkass.

The Supernovas will become reluctant allies in an epic Battle Royale against the World Government!

Along the lines of the Court of the Brethren in Pirates of the Caribbean, the Supernovas will be pushed into a corner and convinced, perhaps by Luffy, to unite against the World Government in one Final Battle to bet everything on one last chance for glory. If Luffy isn't already Pirate King by then, it could show that he's worthy of the title.

• The Supernovas are already forming alliances. It wouldn't be too far-fetched if they all joined together at some point.

The Seven Warlords of the Sea will disband

As of Impel Down, none of the Shichbukai seem to care about... Whatever it is the Seven Warlords of the Sea are supposed to care about. Now that Jinbe quit, Blackbeard has confronted Whitebeard and the rest of Maineford with his new crew full of Impel down prisoners, and Boa Hancock's title is in question, that leaves only 4. And all of them have reasons they could be fired as well. Kuma: He sent the Straw Hats away so that they could become stonger and possibly take down the World Government. Mihawk: Never really seemed to care to begin with. Moriah: Already defeated by Luffy, but wants to become the Pirate King. Doflamingo: Encouraged Sengoku to let Luffy and Ace escape because it would make it more fun, and responded simalarly when Blackbeard showed up at Maineford with his new crew.

• This implies there were banded to begin with. The only thing they have in common is their agreement with the government, and the battle a Marineford was probably the first time they were all at the same place.
• Seems more plausible now, given Fujitora's agenda
  • Confirmed — the Shichibukai system was abolished at the Reverie.

Gekko Moriah and Kuma are Half Giants

We've seen that Fishmen and Giants can cross breed, Why not humans as well? Kuma would be a half human while I personally think Moriah is a half shark fishman.

• I don't think so. Oda's stated that some people are just really big, y'know? Like in real life, there's always someone who's just...huge. Kuma is most likely not any crossbreed, or, not anymore, he's a cyborg now. As for Moriah, his theme is "Gecko", not shark. He seems to be more of a Snakeneck, which were mentioned in Sabaody.
  • Definitely jossed in Kuma's case. He's half Buccaneer, a species that's taller than average humans but smaller than giants. However, buccaneers and giants may be related.

Of the new Shichibukai members, two of them will have suffered horrific defeats at the hands of Shanks and Big Mam in the past.

So far, we have two Shichibukai who've been confirmed to have gotten their asses kicked by a Yonkou at some point ( Moriah's by Kaidou, and Crocodile's by Whitebeard), so it follows suit that other members have fallen at the hands of Shanks and Big Mam. Of the current Shichibukai none of them seem to have hit the level of despair and weakness associated with these losses, so that leaves the future replacements as candidates.

• Who says that they haven't? Donquixote Doflamingo may have developed his pessimism from such a clobbering.

The Seven Warlords of the Sea all had their dreams crushed

let's see what we know: Kuma: resigned himself to the world government for some reason, doing anything they wanted. Hancock: serves the ones who enslaved her. Crocodile: lost a very important duel with Whitebeard. Mihawk: is constantly bored and wants more exciting battles constantly, so he is either trying to drown his sorrow or he is a Death Seeker. Moria: lost his crew (which is implied he loved) in the new world. Doflamingo: there's got to be a reason for his nihilism , which will be surely revealed via a very tragic flashback in due time. Jimbei: Same as Hancock, when the man he worshiped died. Blackbeard: only feigned becoming one to gain entrance to the most well guarded prison of the world, so he does not count. Mind you, I do not mean that they do not have some dream now, just that their dreams got crushed at one point before becoming Warlords.

• Crocodile did mention, late into the Alabasta arc, that, like Luffy, he wanted to be King of the Pirates but he reached the limits of what he could do as a person. He is after Pluton because he came to realize that he couldn't reach his dreams by himself. So in a way, he DID get his dream crushed and went off the slippery slope.
• Oh there's a reason for his nihilism, but Doflamingo's backstory isn't tragic in the slightest; he's just an arrogant prick, and that's being kind.

All current Shichibukai will become allies with Luffy in the end.

• Let's weigh out the possibilities, though. Boa Hancock: already an ally. Mihawk: an associate of Zoro and a mentor, but not entirely an ally, yet it's a good possibility he could become one. Buggy: More of a reluctant helper forced into assisting Luffy as he's swept up in the young pirate's shenanigans, and is no doubt pissed at him for causing the giants to defect from his delivery company. Kuma: So badly brainwashed that it may not be possible. Weevil: wants to kill Luffy.

Big Mom and her crew

Big Mam has a plant logia or paramecia

The last two characters in her name which mean Mam can be translated as mum or mom instead. Mum is one nickname for a flower called chrysanthemum. This flower is actually used as the symbol for the imperial seal of Japan as well as other things related to the emperor.(Though this could simply be a subtle pun on her status as a Yonkou) However, the major hint at her having plant powers is that her flag◊ itself has a tree in the bottom right corner.

• It could also be a Zoan, of the as-of-yet unseen plant category.
  • I don't know if Trees are classified as animals.
    • They aren't. Animals and plants are entirely different kingdoms of life.
    • Mythical Zoan model Dryad/Wood Nymph could work
• Jossed, she has the Soul Soul Fruit. It's unrelated to plants, though plants happen to be one of the things she can give life to.

Big Mom is Lola's mother.

Lola herself says that she was born in the New World which is where Big Mom is at. Lola's crew also points out that Lola's mom is an extremely powerful pirate.

• It should be noted that Lola's hair color also matches the hair on Big Mom's Jolly Roger.
  • Plus, a woman in the Firetank Pirates (Bege's crew that allied with Big Mom) looks insanely similar to Lola, to the point that even Sanji noted the difference (Though he didn't remember Lola right away). She may or may not be Big Mom's daughter as well, but it's not impossible.
  • Big Mom has many, many children, and one of them has gone off to seek a husband of her own.
• Confirmed. The woman who looks like Lola is Lola's twin sister, Chiffon.

Big Mom will have Hidden Depths

Because she seems like an anticlimatic reason to do everything for sweets.

• Not necessarily. While hidden depths would be interesting, it wouldn't be very anti-climatic to have simple, extremely hedonistic villain. Based on what we've seen, she actually makes a fairly good Evil Counterpart to Luffy and the rest of the Strawhats, the only difference being she cares nothing for her nakama.
  • Unless her hidden depths are Mama Bear tendencies. That would take her Red Baron to the next level: she doesn't give a shit about her henchmen, but she does at least love her daughters deeply enough to inflict hell upon whoever lays a finger on one of them.
  • I say we count this as Confirmed, since probably no one was expecting her to have the whole "utopia" goal. More specifically, she wants to become family with every race in the world and have a family dinner with them in harmony, allegedly.
  • She also has a genuinely tragic backstory and Freudian Excuse, and at one point she was a truly nice person, so definitely confirmed.

Big Mom's monstrous form is actually a manifest Logia form to hide her true form

• From what I've seen, her head is far too big to support the rest of her body, and even with the strange body shapes of the characters, they at least have a big enough body to not make the head seem oversized. I'm guessing she ate some sort of Acid Acid Fruit that allows her to drool acid
• Jossed, she has the Soul-Soul Fruit. And as far as we can tell, that's her real body.
  • It's actually a plot point that she was always gigantic and super strong, and no one knew how to deal with it.

Big Mom will will try to bite someone's head off during a fight

Well her name is Charlotte LinLin...

Big Mom is Oars Jr.'s mom

He's big and it's reasonable that so is his mom

• What about Otohime and Shirahoshi?
• Jossed — we know all 85 of her kids now, and he isn't one (and she doesn't have any giants in the family anyway).

Big Mom will temporarily ally with the Straw Hats

Assuming Big Mom is Lola's mom, if Big mom is on the ship, then Nami will figure it out and ask Big Mom for a favor with regard to Donflamingo and/or Kaido. After they team up and kick ass, they can have the fight about Fishman Island.

• Effectively Jossed. Big Mom is Lola's mother, but hates both she and the Straw Hats. She'd never ally with them.
  • Confirmed in Wano, where she's at least temporarily working with them, thanks to amnesia.

Big Mom's backstory...

Charlotte Lin Lin was an idealistic pretty girl who believed in the Power of Love (Some traits retained in her daughter Purin) and thus she went off to the great seas (or even eloped) in search of her True Love. Unfortunately, her partner/husband came to be a total Jerkass and either went off with another woman and left her alone with many children or did other bad things to her. This made poor Linlin turn into a woman we see today — a controlling mafia matron who won't accept any refusals without bloody revenge (it's not unheard of women from past violent relationships to turn controlling and domineering in order to mask their insecurities)

• Chapter 829 also shows that she's got an eating disorder — while obviously exaggerated here, it's something that sadly exists in reality, and some tragedy in Big Mom's past may have caused it.
• Jossed. For one thing, she was never attractive... maybe she was Ugly Cute in a way as a kid, but really, she's been an enormous behemoth since birth. And her Start of Darkness was actually in childhood, long before she ever took her first husband.
  • Well, partially confirmed. She was idealistic as a young child, and very beautiful as a young adult. However, she went off the deep end in her preteens, before she started taking husbands.

Big Mom used to be a beautiful woman/girl

Maybe not even far from Sanji's imagination. She became the current abomination due to her multiple pregnancies and her penchant for sweets (maybe she's even diabetic?). It is a known fact that pregnancy changes the body and being a mother to 85 children might have done just that. A woman in real life wouldn't be able to survive a 1/4 that number. Also, she may've become sweets obsessed (another plot point for Troubled Backstory Flashback) because she needed the energy to keep on going with so many pregnancies

• Bonus points if Big Mom, in her youth, looked and dressed much like Nami looks now, considering Big Mom's Vivre Card causes the Homies to defer to Nami as Big Mom.
• Zig-zagged. She was pretty big even as a child, but had actually slimmed down (in the face, at least, and did look more attractive) by age 28; she's grown bigger again since then though.

Big Mom (or one of her crew) will make Luffy destroy Fishman Island.

I cannot tell yet if it will be a Devil Fruit power or a well thought out plan... My most likely guess is that Luffys battle with Big Mom will be so big that it will cause so much damage to the island.

• Except that when Luffy eventually fights Big Mom, it won't even be on Fishman Island. Big Mom is nowhere near it at the moment.

Big Mom's Devil Fruit power is similar to Wapol's

With the big difference that it allows for the creation of living objects. By eating people along with lots and lots of food, Big Mom transforms them into other creatures. This would explain the presence of living doors, living flowers, and even the singing figurehead of her ship. Technically, it'd be the "direct superior" of Wapol's DF.

• Jossed, her powers don't work that way.

Big Mom's Devil Fruit power is time-related

She killed one of her sons in a blind rage by quite literally ripping a significant portion of his lifespan from him and eating it; the easiest conclusion is that it was related to his personal timeline and that she used her Devil Fruit to rip away a portion of said timeline, thereby cutting him off from causality and killing him because his timeline had ended. If that is the case, she probably has far greater time-manipulation abilities at her disposal than merely just stealing personal timelines.

• Jossed, the "time" is only a technical aspect of her power, as it has more to do with her controlling a piece of a person's soul rather than time itself.

Brook's fruit is the Kryptonite Factor to Big Mom's like Luffy's was to Enel's.

Brook's fruit seems to make him immortal after his first death. Big Mom seems to take life force from the target...but Brook is no longer alive in a traditional sense and in addition even if he has lifeforce, it seems age isn't a concern for him anymore. While Big Mom is probably physically more powerful, he could potentially be a perfect counter to her Devil Fruit powers and be a big asset against her.

• It turns out that Brook's Soul Power allows him to overwhelm Big Mom's Animate Inanimate Object minions with the sheer force of his soul alone. So he at least has some advantages over her.
• Hmm... this was really close but it should probably be counted as Jossed because, whereas Luffy was completely immune to Enel, Big Mom's Devil Fruit actually has its own advantages over Brook's fruit in addition to its weaknesses. So they're not really completely mirrored situations.

Luffy will eventually replace Big Mom as one of the Four Emperors.

Taking all of her territories as his own, asking the Sun Pirates to protect Fishman Island in his name, while Reiju will be named regent of Totto Land. Zou will also become his protectorate.

• Jossed, Luffy becomes an Emperor alongside Big Mom rather than replace her. Whether or not she will eventually be dethroned is still up in the air though.
  • And still jossed, since he effectively replaced Kaido instead.

Big moms first husband was Kaido

This is based primarily on the hair color of her first three children alone. Prospero look like he has his moms hair but that could just be a hat. The first daughter and second son and finale sweet commander Dogtooth have dark hair which is something every other sibling lacks. Oda doesn't do something Randomly so having a different hair color that contrast completely to their other sibling would indicate their different. Not too mention it would be a good way to show Kaido as a bigger threat than big mom since his genetics were dominant in their children. Prospero even has two horn looking protrusion from his head. While unlikely it's not impossible.

• Not likely. Perospero's hair isn't really visible; Compote's is bright green, and Katakuri's is reddish. None of them match Kaido.
  • They seem to have been members of the same crew, at least.

Big mom will eat another devil fruit

Considering the number of devil fruit users in the big mom pirates its not unreasonable one will die and the power will go to the nearest appropriate fruit, which considering the amount of food on the island is likely not going to be far off, she will then be tricked into eating it and we will finally see what happens to someone who eats two fruits.

Charlotte Compote's duties

As Minister of Fruit, she's in charge of finding new Devil Fruits to add to her family's powers, and maintaining the ones they already have by keeping stores of as many different fruits as possible so that if a Devil Fruit user (whether a member of the family, a visitor or an invader) dies within Totto Land, their power will regenerate into one of Compote's storerooms.

Big Mom has the same body type as Blackbeard

...and that either means she already had a devil fruit when she was five, or her quirks imply something about Blackbeard. It's not unusual for a character in One Piece to have quirks unrelated to any power (like Doflamingo being a naturally ten-foot-tall human), but Big Mom's most defining characteristic isn't her known devil fruit, it's her craving rampages and inability to remember what she did during them. These characteristics of hers predated her acquiring the devil fruit we know about and it was hammered in that they were extremely unusual (Mother Caramel thought she might be Admiral material). Blackbeard and Big Mom already show some similarities, such as an extreme level of durability (despite Blackbeard's original fruit making him more vulnerable), being Big Eaters (not that such a thing is rare in One Piece, to be fair), receiving devil fruits from a dead person, and having wounded a much more powerful character before acquiring their devil fruits (Big Mom killed a great giant warrior and Blackbeard scarred Shanks). With Blackbeard showing that having more than one fruit is possible for certain people, perhaps Big Mom's rampages are due to a devil fruit we don't know about. On the other hand, maybe the rampages are related to the body structure, and explain how Blackbeard was able to wound Shanks in the past, despite backing down from him two devil fruits later.

The cause of Big Mom's behavior...

From The Library of Ohara website: it's because she inherited Carmel's soul along with her powers. Carmel is the one really responsible for her increased cruelty (and Streusen's raising her didn't help) — she may have gone somewhat mad as a child from hunger, but she was never deliberately cruel, just ignorant and insensitive. Her recent amnesia is because Carmel's finally gone (thanks to her falling in the water), and she really doesn't remember anything of her time under the influence of Carmel's soul.

The identities of the other two children

In Chapter 845 and Episode 809, eight of the younger Charlotte children (daughters Wafers, Normande and Anana, and sons Charlotte Anglais, Uiro, De-Chat, Dolce and Dragée) were present in a room. Two other children (a playful, gluttonous short girl with fair skin, a large head, blonde hair tied up in a bow, buckteeth, a large mouth that she can open very wide and a curved smile, who wears a light blue and pink dress; and a tall boy with tan skin and half-closed eyes, who wears a green shirt, light purple jacket, a blue hat and bandages that cover his head and hands) were also present; they have yet to be named, but with the information given in the One Piece Magazine, we know they can't be Big Mom's children (since all 85 have been named). So why were they there?

The simple explanation is this: they're two of Big Mom's grandchildren, who were just in the room playing with some of their similar-aged aunts and uncles. It's uncertain at this time whom their biological parents are though.

Big Mom will yet undergo a Heel–Face Turn

Despite chasing the Straw Hats for several arcs and now finally being defeated, Big Mom's backstory has been left conspicuously unresolved. In a setting with well-established Power Sources, Big Mom's pre-Devil Fruit abilities have been acknowledged as unprecedented yet are still unexplored. At some point, it's likely that the truth of these powers will come to light. That doesn't mean it has to come out through Big Mom, but there's another factor at play.

The fact that she herself is more or less unaware of her true power was relevant to the greatest tragedy of her backstory, a moment that was left ambiguous even to the audience (the implication is that we weren't shown because of how dark it was, but it conveniently leaves open other possibilities), implying that there might be more to learn about her. More specifically, when it comes to a Heel–Face Turn, it seems notable that the only person who actually saw what happened found the apparent massacre amusing and has so far managed to get away with getting in her good graces while lying to her all these years without any of that coming back to bite him.

If, for instance, the Straw Hats uncovered the truth of her backstory, revealed Streusen's duplicity, and perhaps even found a cure for her involuntary rampages, she might be convinced to drop her grudge against them. We've seen from her brief stint of amnesia that she can still be a fairly nice person and even get along with Straw Hat crew members. The only thing missing is why the Straw Hats would become privvy to any of that, but since her unusual nature could easily relate to any number of outstanding mysteries (from the Ancient Weapons, to the secret of the Devil Fruits, to Blackbeard's own unusual nature) there are many simple possibilities.

two devil fruits later.

Katakuri will reform his family as a new pirate crew

With Big Mom presumed dead, Katakuri will decide to reform the Big Mom pirates, be it under the same or a different name, bringing together all of his siblings still sympathetic to him like Brûlée, Daifuku, Oven and so on. With Pudding kidnapped by Blackbeard, that gives this new crew a goal to head towards Laugh Tale. And with Katakuri's newfound respect for Luffy, they could prove to be vital allies towards the final arc.

Kaido and his crew

Kaidou has the mythical angel zoan

Well his name can mean church, chapel, temple, etc... It would certainly be fitting for a zoan as important as the angel one to belong to a Yonkou.

• Jossed, he seems to have a dragon Zoan.

Kaidou is the kind of pirate that will make every single one of Luffy's previous enemies look like an angel.

Considering the fact that he wiped out Moriah's crew to the point the latter turned mad and got obssessed with zombies, I would not be surprised if he wields a DF power horror-related but less kiddyish than Moriah's and probably more sinister, like a "Phobia" fruit, that brings true fear to the enemy. He may also employ several ruthless tactics, possibly psychological, like wiping out a whole crew but deliberately leaving one member intact. Not forgetting that he was the only Yonkou specified to have tried to stop Whitebeard.

• In relation to the last part of Linlin's idea, it would be rather similar to Phobos', God of Fear, domain and also like Whitebeard's Poseidon-eqsue Earthquake powers.
  • That would be a pretty big leap when you consider that the first two Post Time Skip Big Bads were given the Complete Monster label and Doflamingo is dangerously close to that label.
• Now that we've seen what he looks like, this is highly likely.

Kaido will be a total villain

Given what he did to Moriah, I'd say it's a safe bet.

• Judging by his intro, you're probably one more scene off from getting this moved to confirmed.
• Seeing as what his crew did to Zou was presumably with his permission, along with the foul characters of the people he employs, this is Confirmed.
  • Also hearing what he did to Oden Kozuki (they boiled him alive) and to the Wano Kingdom.

Kaido will be a Shapeshifter or a Changeling

He is Kaido of the "Hundred Beasts" after all.

• He's probably called that because he buys smile in bulk, not any shapeshifting ability.
• He is apparently a Zoan though.

Kaidou is Franky's father

I'm honestly surprised this wasn't here already. We know Franky's father was a pirate around the time of Roger who abandoned him in Water Seven. Also, when X Drake attacked an island supposedly part of Kaidou's territory, one of the people there had weapons built into him, almost cyborg-like. Now, assuming of course that Franky's father isn't some to-be-introduced character down the road, Kaidou makes a good choice. Franky has always been a builder, but his early works were less than stellar until he got proper tutelage from Tom. Franky's works were failures/destructive, Kaidou tossed him out, and here we are today. This leads to a second theory I came up with...

• Unlikely, as even by One Piece standards of genetics, they look nothing like each other and share no personality quirks. Also, Franky is 36 and Kaido is probably only in his mid to late 40s.
  • Addendum: age-wise, Kaido was 23 when Franky was born. But probably still unlikely.

Kaidou will try to recruit Franky

If Kaidou is mechanically inclined and likes cyborg type troops, Franky would be ideal. If the above theory is true, it adds extra spice to the idea as Kaidou, not knowing "Franky" is a nickname, would not be likely to catch on that it's Cutty Flam.

• Just because Kaido has a cyborg underling that doesn't mean that he's Cyborg themed. Big Mom has a Lion underling and a Longleg underling, but she's neither. (In fact, she wants members of every species in her family.)
  • Jossed.

Kaido has the Cat-Cat Fruit: Model Lion.

• There is no Devil Fruit more suited for the King of the Beasts.
• A recent chapter suggested that Kaido isn't actually human, but there's been no direct proof, yet.
• Jossed — he's a dragon.

Kaido has eaten a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit.

The model? Behemoth. There is no beast greater than the Behemoth, and given that the first thing people mention about Kaido is his strength, it's not entirely inconceivable that it would come from a Devil Fruit.

• In support of this, what's believed to be a snippet recently given of what he's like shows he's gigantic and has horns, both of which the Behemoth is often depicted as having.
• There's also the fact he's seemingly unkillable, at least by everything someone has tried. The Behemoth in mythology can only be killed by divine might.
• Looking close to confirmed — he can turn into a dragon.
• And confirmed — it's the Fish-Fish Fruit, Model: Azure Dragon.

Kaido is really seeking out the Smiles so he can eventually make a special Zoan so he can become an Ultimate Life Form

It would be lame if he just wanted an army of Zoan similar to Shiki who just wanted an army of animals to do his bidding, so he has to have an ulterior motive for wanting the Smiles

• Jossed.

Kaido uses the Hito-Hito no Mi: Model Satan.

What better power for Kaido of the Beasts to have than that of "The Beast" himself?

• Nope, he's an eastern dragon.

When Kaido and Luffy finally meet for the first time, Kaido will nearly kill him with a focused Haki burst.

This is a being whose very mention traumatizes Moriah and cows Doflamingo into surrendering his position as a Warlord of the Sea. Plus, it would be an interesting scale-up: Crocodile was the first to bring Luffy to the brink of death, Lucci was the first to do so by mere brute force, so what if Kaido managed it by sheer force of will?

• Doubt it, Luffy's Haki is pretty high tier as far as Conqueror's Haki goes.
• Well, they've met for the first time now, and while not a single use of Conqueror's Haki was used, Kaido effortlessly, laughably beat Luffy to near death in a single strike.

Kaido's Devil Fruit is a Mythological Zoan — Western Dragon model

• 1. Given the theme of his own crew (the Beasts Pirates), it is likely that Kaido himself is a Zoan user (in Chapter 824 he even states that he wishes for an entire crew of Devil Fruit users, so he as Captain probably already is one).
• 2. In Punk Hazard, upon defeating the smaller dragon in Chapter 682, Brook asks to Kinemon why he is taking a clash with a dragon so personally. Kinemon's answer compare the matter to a revenge for a parent's death.
• 3. In Chapter 818, some of the background of Kinemon and Momonosuke is unveiled. Indeed, they both lose the same important person: Kozuki Oden, who was Momonosuke's true father and Kinemon's feudal lord. Kaido was one of the two responsible for the murder, fitting with Kinemon's answer to Brook.
  • On the top of this, the story is shaping a personal conflict between Momonosuke and Kaido. While Momonosuke has eaten an (artificial) Eastern Dragon Zoan Fruit, it would enlight the contrast to have Kaido show as the bearer of a Western Dragon Zoan Fruit.
  • Jossed — he's an Eastern Dragon.

Kaido will be killed from the inside out.

The Marines have tried to kill him with blades and hanging, but nothing can penetrate his skin. So why not have him die from something forced down his throat instead?

Kaido is related to Oars.

Between his size and his being referred to as the "strongest creature in the world" (which may imply he's not fully human); plus their similar horns, it's a possibility. This would also be part of why he viewed Whitebeard as an enemy: he's ticked that another relative of Oars, Little Oars Jr., allied with Whitebeard instead of himself.

Kaido hasn't eaten a Devil Fruit at all.

The man tries to kill himself out of fun. If he had eaten a fruit, he could just up and drown himself. Plus, it'd be a bit of a surprise for the captain of such a Devil Fruit obsessed crew to actually go without.

• Alternatively, Kaido has eaten a Devil Fruit, but hasn't tried drowning himself because he already knows what's going to happen. He might find no point in discovering if a very well-known hazard is truly that dangerous and might want to see if anything else can kill him.
  • Looking unlikely — he's been shown turning into an eastern dragon. (And it's since been confirmed to be the Fish-Fish Fruit, Model: Azure Dragon, so jossed.)

Kaido hasn't eaten a mythical Zoan devil fruit.

From the earliest mentions of Kaido, he's always been referred to as "that monster," that "thing," the strongest "creature," etc. and never once been referred to as a man. With the most recent chapter, we see him as an absolutely enormous Eastern style dragon and everyone's instant assumption is that he is a giant (or giant of a man) who ate the dragon mythic zoan fruit. But what if it's the total opposite? Kaido is a natural born dragon who ate some model of the human fruit. He could even be related to the dragon killed by the samurai Ryuuma in Oda's one shot "Monsters", which is why he has such beef with Wano in general and has installed his rulership over it.

• Jossed - his Devil Fruit is given as the Fish-Fish Fruit, Model: Azure Dragon.

King, one of Kaido's Three Calamities, is also the best swordsman in Wano.

Going by the title Ryuuma once held (without him knowing it), "King" is what's said to be the best warrior in the country. This matches perfectly with his current name — as well as with him being the Emperor's second-in-command, which would bring him to a clash with Zoro...

Kaido's Calamities are themed around the Behemoth, Leviathan, and Ziz

One of the animals commonly used as a base for the Behemoth is an Elephant, which fits Jack's Mammoth theme quite well. King's Pteranodon form also fits nicely as a giant flyer that conjures disasters like the Ziz. All we need now is for Queen to round it out by turning into some manner of ancient aquatic beast and we'll have a full set. As for why an aquatic creature would be a Zoan option when no Devil Fruit user can swim aquatic animals are just as likely to have amazing abilities that would be useful even on land. That or Queen's Zoan could be the one exception to the rule in the same way that Katakuri's Mochi Mochi no Mi is a "special" Paramecia.

• Well, Queen's Zoan is a brachiosaurus... not necessarily aquatic, though it used to be associated with water.

Kaido's Zoan form a koi.

Big Mom's revelation in chapter 999 that it's a mythical version of the Fish-Fish Fruit makes it obvious. The Chinese legend of a single golden koi swimming up a waterfall and being transformed by the gods into a dragon as a reward for perseverance is pretty well-known (for example, it's the basis of Magikarp and Gyarados), and there's not any other fish that that's associated with turning into an eastern dragon.

Whitebeard or multiple Emperors and their crews

One of the Four Emperors is secretly or will become in league with The World Government

Either Kaidou or Big Mum (obviously not Shanks or Whitebeard). Given how much their Government Conspiracy is part of the Myth Arc, it's unlikely that they will suddenly cease to be major antagonists with all of the New World left to be traversed just because the Marines aren't there and may be overthrown/severely weakened by Whitebeard's attack. Thus, one of the Emperors will form an alliance with the World Government in hopes that they don't get screwed by the inevitable shift in the balance of power that is upcoming.

• Big Mom's backstory has been revealed, so it probably isn't her.
• Shanks is able to meet with The Gorosei and is from a noble family, he is probably related to the Celestial Dragons in some way and thus the most likely candidate for something like this

Jozu is the (physically) strongest character in the series

His Devil Fruit turns his body into diamond, which is of course extremely dense. Now, a normal human body has limiters that prevent full exertion of the muscles, to keep them from either tearing apart or outright liquefying due to the immense strain. With his muscles literally being as dense as diamonds, this is a complete non-issue for Jozu and he can use the full power of his muscles at all times. He's already displayed what is arguably the greatest feat of raw strength in the series so far, when he hefted a slab of ice the size of an ICEBERG at the Marines.

• Diamond is just crystallized Carbon which has a density of 3,500, fairly middle of the road density (Osmium and Iridium are the most dense). Diamond is the HARDEST substance, but it is not the TOUGHEST (a regular hammer can smash Diamond.) Also, it melts at 4200K (meaning a Cyanogen fire can melt it) and is a good conductor. Basically, a character with Fire powers or lightning powers can screw him up.
• Jossed by the narration's own declaration that Kaido is actually the strongest creature alive. Besides, I think a giant or any other really strong character would have been able to lift that iceberg. I mean, this is One Piece and science only goes so far to explain the things in the series- if the muscles of mid-tier characters like the pre-timeskip CP9 in this universe can be tightened to be stronger than steel, there's no reason to assume that the top tiers would have any troubles with muscle durability. I mean, do any of us REALLY believe that Kaido wouldn't be able to lift that iceberg?
  • Different kind of "Strength". Kaido is the overall strongest one, as in the most powerful, formidable, etc., while Jozu can still be the one that can lift the most.

The remaining Emperors (Kaidou and Big Mom) will have black hair and blue hair.

We've already got Red-Haired Shanks and Whitebeard. The significance of those colours? They're the Four Emperors.

• Like Blackbeard?
  • Since Blackbeard already has one of the orignal colors of the Gods, I guess Momma with be Bluebrows & Kaidou will be Yellow Sideburns then if it's both color and hair motif.
• Confirmed for Kaido having black hair, we have yet to see Big Mom's.
• Jossed, a volume cover reveals that Big Mom has pink hair.

Laffite and Marco are Awakened Zoans.

The ability to transform only part of the users body is a trait to the Awakened Zoan Users; the Demon Guards just chose to stay in full transformed mode for the strength it gave them.

Marco is Whitebeard's biological son.

They both look a little similar, and Marco might be old enough, since he looked the same before rogers execution.

• Maybe Whitebeard sought out such an epic fruit for Marco to prove that he still thought of him as special, despite calling his entire crew his sons.

Whitebeard was poisoned

• As someone else noticed, a smiley, similar to DDs is seen on one of Whitebeards medications (Chapter 234/page12).

What easier way to take out one of the yonkou than with poison? It would be an alternate explanation for him getting weaker.There are ways to poison someone slowly enough, so that a few tests wouldn`t have shown anything and WB didn't seem like someone who would have tested his medication on someone else anyway.

Kaido and Big Mom were once a part of the same crew

• In chapter 907, Garp and some other Marines reminisce of the past, and of the reason he was known as the hero of the Marines. And Hina says something extraordinarily cryptic in regards of the two Emperors: "Even if they've lost their captain..." Does this not imply that they both once served under the same man?
  • That quote referred to Rocks and their potential return, not Big Mom and Kaido. The possibility of them having been part of the same crew in their younger days isn't impossible, but this quote has nothing to do with it.
  • But in the context of the same discussion, Kaido and Big Mom were made to sound like as if they were a part of Rocks.
  • Confirmed — they were part of the Rocks Pirates back in the day. And Big Mom still thinks Kaido owes her a favor from those days. (Addendum: The favor being that she gave him his Devil Fruit.)