Blackbeard for me, Im the second choice. I see no opportunity for Sakazuki being the final villain, he’s irrelevant to the main mysteries of One Piece- the Will of D, Laugh Tale and the One Piece, the Void Century, Im, Joyboy, and the Ancient Weapons.
I’ve always thought it would be Blackbeard- the reveal of Rocks just confirmed that. You have a guy- a D nonetheless- that was so dangerous, that Roger and Garp had to team up to defeat, defending the Celestial Dragons in the process? This means Rocks was someone who made the Celestial Dragons look like the lesser evil? And Blackbeard has taken his island, named his ship after him and tried to do what he did by gathering a bunch of famous pirates under his name? How can people not see what is happening here? I wouldn’t be surprised if Rock’s had the darkness fruit originally, given Blackbeard’s obsession with him. Blackbeard looks very much to have inherited his will, and that means, like i posted yesterday, him aiming to place his fat ass on the Empty Throne.
Also as an aside, not only is Blackbeard the next coming of Rocks, he’s also an evil version of Whitebeard. Father and “son”, the person who killed WB, stole his DF and his Yonko place. His crew is set up in the same ways as having “divisions”. I think that Whiebeard’s old WSM title will be resurrected for him. Even their epithet’s are mirror images of each other- White and Black Beard.
One Piece is the story of Luffy and Blackbeard’s rise. Two D’s who are tearing down the Balance of Power and the established order, freedom vs anarchy. Look at the story as a whole. East Blue, a long prologue of sorts (hence Loguetown being the last island there) introducing us to our hero. Then comes Part One, Paradise, where Luffy and Blackbeard’s parallel rise is entwined with each other. Just look at the story.
-Blackbeard murders Thatch, setting Ace into the New World and panicking Shanks
-Blackbeard wrecks Drum, which leads to Luffy going there and saving it, getting a crewmate
-Luffy meets up with Ace who is hunting Blackbeard, and Luffy defeats Warlord Crocodile. This puts Luffy, Blackbeard and Ace on a collision course and has massive repercussions for the rest of the series. As an aside, Shanks plans to meet Blackbeard
-Jaya, Luffy and Blackbeard first meet, have an instinctive recognition that something is special about the other. Man’s dreams never end. Blackbeard applies for the role in the Warlords that is open because of Luffy, and decides that he’ll capture him. We see Blackbeard’s crew mirrors Luffy’s in many ways
-Ennies Lobby. Luffy and Blackbeard announce themselves to the world. Luffy defeats CP9, Blackbeard captures Ace and becomes a Warlord. Shanks meets Blackbeard solely to talk about how worried he is about Blackbeard, revealing that he was the one who scarred him.
-Thriller Bark and Saobody, it’s revealed that Blackbeard’s capture of Ace has resulted in him being in line to be executed, with a war between Whitebeard and the Warlords planned
-Impel Down, Luffy and Blackbeard’s first fight, where the two fight fairly evenly. Blackbeard meets his own powerful swordsman. There’s mention of some infamous, powerful pirates who’s very existence the World Gov has hidden.
-Marineford, Luffy‘s attempt to free Ace, breakout of ID, relationship to Dragon and CoC reveal all make him stand out. Blackbeard reveals his new, full crew, that he’s the only person in the world with two DF powers and kills Whitebeard.
Absolutely no other villain has any build up even slightly comparing to that. That’s a story that has been built up carefully throughout the entiroety of Paradise, intwined with Luffy. Now, Blackbeard’s had to take a but of a lesser role in the New World while Kaido and Big Mom get dealt with, but that’s just because the best is being saved for last. Look at the tidbits we’ve had about him since, it’s all leading up to great things. There’s the already mentioned Rocks parallels, but in addition to that we have
-the Worst Gen. That is literally only a thing to put Luffy and Blackbeard in the same generation. Nobody in-series refers to the Supernova anymore, it’s all Worst Gen.
-going into the New World, Blackbeard’s rise (and the fact he’s hunting DFs) being one of the two big changes
-Chinjao says he’s the only one with potential
-Aokiji has joined Blackbeard
-Blackbeard destroys Baltigo
-Blackbeard won the Payback War
-Im seems to consider Blackbeard and Luffy equal threats
-the little tidbit in Oden’s flashback about Blackbeard never sleeping
-Blackbeard is off to do some mischief after what happened in Reverie, he’s ready to hit the limelight again.
And Shanks’ warning about a ”certain pirate” to the Gorosei, even if its not about Blackbeard directly, almost certainly ties into him in some way since the two are always linked.
And in addition to Blackbeard himself, just a smaller mention- no other organistion has a crew that is so perfectly matched to the Strawhats as a whole. The Marines don’t, the Gorosei are by design a homogenous blob of soulless bureaucratic stagnation. In the Ten Titanic Captains you’ve got the perfect evil mirrors of the Strawhats lined up- that’s why they were the only other crew where each members position was revealed initially. They’ll hunt down DFs that perfectly oppose the crew. Every one of them is real, nasty, evil piece of shit, with a great, unique design.
There’s this arguemnt that persists that somehow Blackbeard is some sort of gatekeeper villain to be dealt with before the final war and it honestly just baffles me. Why would Oda be casting this unique, longrunning villaim aside before the endgame? The final war is meant to be the one that makes Marineford look small (not Wano, which i see people saying a lot), why exactly would Blackbeard not be involved in that? Because Whitebeard said he wasn’t Joyboy, basically? Yeah, that’s no surprise, was anyone reading One Piece and thinking “I bet Roger was actually waiting for Blackbeard instead of Luffy.” Because Luffy needs to “challenge the world to a fight?” Sorry, is Blackbeard some sort of alien that doesn’t count as a part of the world (actually maybe, depending on the people from the moon), but anyway, Blackbeard on the Empty Throne as King of the World like Rocks wanted would fulfil that regardless.
Im, I see the argument, I don’t think it would be as good (that doesn’t mean it’s bad, but Im would have a hell of a lot to do in a short time to catchup with Blackbeard) and I don’t think it’s were the story is going. Mostly because of the glory of Blackbeard, but also because I’m 99% certain Im is a woman- Oda does not have powerful men relaxing with butterflies in a room called the flower garden, and that really looks like a dress with a train that Im is wearing. Im being the Final One Piece Princess, wouldn’t surprise me at all.
That was a lot longer than I thought it would be
