One thing that’s bothered me a lot since chapter 1044 is why Oda decided to change the Gomu Gomu into a mythical zoan. None of the abilities Luffy has shown in Gear 5 are things that would’ve been impossible by keeping his fruit a paramecia. The main function of Gear 5, in addition to making Luffy stronger and giving him a new appearance, is to turn his surroundings into rubber. Which is, you know, the exact thing that everyone expected his Awakening to be. Oda still could’ve done the whole special fruit thing by keeping it a paramecia.
After putting some thought into it, I think the most likely reason that the Gomu Gomu’s type was changed was to set up Blackbeard stealing it as his third and final Devil Fruit. I’ve had this theory at the back of my mind ever since the Nika reveal, but after chapter 1059 I’m pretty convinced about this. It’s always possible that I’m wrong, but there’s a lot of evidence in favor of it. I'm aware I'm not the first person to make this theory, but this is my personal spin on it. Feel free to disagree though.
Blackbeard getting three fruits
It’s generally agreed that Blackbeard is going to get three fruits. After all, his flag has three skulls and the “rule of three” is a fairly common trope in fiction. And given that there are three Devil Fruit types, it naturally follows that Blackbeard will get one Devil Fruit for each type. His logia fruit and his paramecia fruit are among the best Devil Fruits in their respective categories and are both regarded as “special” Devil Fruits by other characters in the story. The Yami Yami no mi is given the title of “the most dangerous” Devil Fruit while the Gura Gura no mi is stated to have the power to destroy the world.
So then it only makes sense for his zoan fruit to be very powerful and be regarded as special by other characters in the story. Which Devil Fruit fits that description?
A common rebuttal for this after 1044 was that Blackbeard had likely obtained his zoan fruit over the timeskip. This was however debunked by chapter 1059. Not once in the chapter does Blackbeard imply that he has any secret ability up his sleeve, so if he really did have a zoan you’d think that Oda would use this opportunity to hype it up. But he doesn’t. And even when a situation (Rayleigh) comes up where Blackbeard should be using his supposed zoan, he turns tail and runs away.
Blackbeard’s Current Strength
While we don’t know this for a fact, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that Blackbeard is currently the weakest Emperor other than Buggy. While he’s obviously far from weak, I don’t think he’s even on the same level as Marineford Whitebeard much less Kaido, Big Mom, or Luffy. Could you really see any of those three characters running away from Rayleigh like Blackbeard did? And yeah yeah Rayleigh said that Blackbeard would have won if they actually fought, but Oda isn’t exactly going out of his way to make this endgame villain seem like a major threat.
Powerlevel shit aside, one of Blackbeard’s main abilities (The Gura Gura) is hard countered by Luffy. He’s made of rubber—sending vibrations through him isn’t gonna do shit. And yeah I know Whitebeard managed to hurt Akainu despite the latter being a logia, but I still don’t think it could do anything against Gear 5. Think back to the East Blue to a second. In the second chapter, Luffy says that he’s immune to blunt damage cause he’s made of rubber. That whole aspect of Luffy’s DF faded away due to haki, but then in the Luffy vs Kaido fight, we see that Gear 5 allows Luffy to practically shrug off a CoC coated thunder bagua.
Luffy’s basically back to where he was in the East Blue. So no, I don’t think the Gura Gura could do anything against Luffy. The only way it could even hurt Luffy is if Blackbeard nullified Luffy’s Devil Fruit by grabbing on to him, but even then Blackbeard’s at a disadvantage cause Luffy could just punch him at such close range.
Now one thing that’s been pretty clear ever since Alabasta is that Oda likes to have Luffy lose to that arc’s big bad at least once before ultimately bouncing back. And considering how long he’s been built up, Blackbeard’s definitely getting the same treatment. However, in order for Blackbeard to pose any kind of threat against Luffy, not only does he need a power-up (most likely in the form of a very powerful zoan fruit), but Luffy needs a power-down in order for one of Blackbeard’s main abilities to not be completely useless.
How Blackbeard Takes Fruits
Short section, but a common counterargument to this theory is that Blackbeard can’t steal Luffy’s fruit, because in order for that to happen Luffy needs to die. The problem with this counterargument is that although this is a common assumption made by fans, it is has never once been stated that Blackbeard needs to kill people in order to take their Devil Fruit. Yes it’s possible that Blackbeard can only take Devil Fruits from deceased individuals as evidenced by him taking Whitebeard’s fruit, but it’s just as easily possible that he simply needs to have someone in a weakened/vulnerable state such as Whitebeard holding on to his last bit of life. I’m not saying that believing Blackbeard needs to kill opponents in order to take their devil fruit is an unreasonable assumption to make, but it is ultimately an assumption and shouldn’t be treated as hard proof. The mechanism that Blackbeard uses to take Devil Fruits is unknown.
Blackbeard’s Character
Theories always carry the risk of confirmation bias. You have a theory that you believe in, and you end up selectively picking and choosing evidence that supports your agenda. So instead of explaining why it would make sense for Blackbeard’s character if he stole Luffy’s fruit, I’m going to explain why it wouldn’t make sense for Blackbeard’s character if he didn’t steal Luffy’s fruit.
Blackbeard, at his core, is a coward. Whenever faced with a threat he doesn’t believe he can overcome, he pisses himself in fear.
Unlike Luffy, the confidence we see from Teach throughout the story does not come from any kind of determination to defy overwhelming odds, but rather from his own belief that he’s destined to win.
A key part of Blackbeard's character is his belief in fate. He justifies all the actions he has committed with the mindset that he can’t be held accountable because it was fated to happen.
After the events of Wano, Luffy is someone who:
A. is incredibly strong, having bested the “World’s Strongest Creature” in physical combat
B. is seemingly favored by some kind of prophecy, having been dubbed Joyboy by Zunesha
In other words, current Luffy is the exact kind of person Teach would never want to fight. Given that this is a shonen, Luffy and Blackbeard are obviously going to fight at some point. But in order for that to make sense a couple things clearly need to change:
1. Luffy cannot outclass Blackbeard in combat
2. Blackbeard needs to be the one favored by fate
Unless both of these requirements are met, it would not make sense for Blackbeard’s character if he were to fight Luffy. And in my opinion, the most obvious way to meet these conditions is if Blackbeard were to steal Luffy’s powers and his destiny for himself.
Now a possible rebuttal to this is that Blackbeard simply doesn’t know about Joyboy. In response to this, I would point out that Blackbeard has repeatedly been characterized as someone who knows a lot more than he lets on. To list off:
1. Blackbeard’s ship is named the “Sabre of Xebec” so he clearly knows what went down in God’s Valley
2. Oda stated in an SBS that Blackbeard enjoys studying history, which indicates that Blackbeard might know about what went down in the Void Century
3. It was heavily implied in chapter 1059 that Teach knows about the Lunarians, as he panicked when registering the Mihawk Seraphim's appearance.
So while it is possible that Blackbeard doesn’t know about Joyboy, I think it’s unlikely because it would be at odds with how Oda’s written him so far.
Joyboy
We don’t know exactly why Luffy is considered Joyboy, but I think a likely explanation is that Joyboy is a title given to whoever manages to awaken the Nika. The Nika (Literally translates to “smile” by the way) is a fruit that puts smiles on other’s faces. Or in other words, you could say that anyone who awakens the Nika could be described as a boy who brings joy: quite literally a Joy Boy (And yeah they could be a girl but HappyPerson just doesn’t have the same ring). Another possibility, and a very likely one in my opinion, is that Joyboy and Nika were the same person. The description we receive for Nika lines up very well with what we know about Joyboy.
So Luffy awakening a fruit made in Joyboy’s image is him literally, physically becoming Joyboy.
I’ve seen a number of people say that Luffy is most likely some kind of reincarnation, but this is sort of debunked by Zunesha’s dialogue in chapter 1045 as he specifically refers to Joyboy as someone other than Luffy.
Something I think is interesting about Blackbeard’s character is that he represents a distortion of Luffy’s ideals. He’s the dark side of freedom. So wouldn’t it make sense for Blackbeard to take an inherently positive and joyful ability and twist it into something cruel and selfish?
Now I’ll admit that I’m making a lot of assumptions in this section. It is always possible that Luffy was simply chosen at birth to become Joyboy, but I really do think that being “Joyboy” is a direct result of awakening the Nika. Chapters 1043 and chapters 1044 heavily implied a link between Joyboy and the Nika. It wasn’t until Luffy managed to awaken the Nika that Zunesha ever referred to him as Joyboy. If Luffy really was chosen at birth to become Joyboy, I think Zunesha not saying anything during the Zou arc is a bit of a plot hole. It’s possible, but in my opinion it isn’t as likely.
Conclusion
So to go through all the points if you skipped to the end:
A. Blackbeard is most likely going to get a third Devil Fruit
B. In order for Blackbeard to pose a threat to Luffy in the future, not does Blackbeard need to get stronger but Luffy needs to get weaker
C. It has never been confirmed that Blackbeard needs to kill a person to take their fruit
D. Unless Blackbeard becomes stronger than Luffy AND becomes the “fated” victor, it would go against Blackbeard’s character for them to fight
E. It would make perfect thematic sense for Blackbeard to become “Joyboy” by stealing the Nika, as he represents a distortion of Luffy’s ideals.
So how will Blackbeard will take Luffy’s fruit if Blackbeard is significantly weaker than him? Well, Blackbeard is a character who fights dirty so he’d most likely just take one of Luffy’s friends hostage and force him to give up. It could be Koby, as Blackbeard already kidnapped him, or it could be one of the weaker Strawhats. It would serve as a nice contrast to the scene at the start of the series when Luffy kept fighting even after Koby was taken hostage, showing the impact Luffy’s journey had on him.
Again it is completely possible that I’m wrong, but I will say that this is the most confident I’ve been about a One Piece theory in a long time.
After putting some thought into it, I think the most likely reason that the Gomu Gomu’s type was changed was to set up Blackbeard stealing it as his third and final Devil Fruit. I’ve had this theory at the back of my mind ever since the Nika reveal, but after chapter 1059 I’m pretty convinced about this. It’s always possible that I’m wrong, but there’s a lot of evidence in favor of it. I'm aware I'm not the first person to make this theory, but this is my personal spin on it. Feel free to disagree though.
Blackbeard getting three fruits
It’s generally agreed that Blackbeard is going to get three fruits. After all, his flag has three skulls and the “rule of three” is a fairly common trope in fiction. And given that there are three Devil Fruit types, it naturally follows that Blackbeard will get one Devil Fruit for each type. His logia fruit and his paramecia fruit are among the best Devil Fruits in their respective categories and are both regarded as “special” Devil Fruits by other characters in the story. The Yami Yami no mi is given the title of “the most dangerous” Devil Fruit while the Gura Gura no mi is stated to have the power to destroy the world.
A common rebuttal for this after 1044 was that Blackbeard had likely obtained his zoan fruit over the timeskip. This was however debunked by chapter 1059. Not once in the chapter does Blackbeard imply that he has any secret ability up his sleeve, so if he really did have a zoan you’d think that Oda would use this opportunity to hype it up. But he doesn’t. And even when a situation (Rayleigh) comes up where Blackbeard should be using his supposed zoan, he turns tail and runs away.
Blackbeard’s Current Strength
While we don’t know this for a fact, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that Blackbeard is currently the weakest Emperor other than Buggy. While he’s obviously far from weak, I don’t think he’s even on the same level as Marineford Whitebeard much less Kaido, Big Mom, or Luffy. Could you really see any of those three characters running away from Rayleigh like Blackbeard did? And yeah yeah Rayleigh said that Blackbeard would have won if they actually fought, but Oda isn’t exactly going out of his way to make this endgame villain seem like a major threat.
Powerlevel shit aside, one of Blackbeard’s main abilities (The Gura Gura) is hard countered by Luffy. He’s made of rubber—sending vibrations through him isn’t gonna do shit. And yeah I know Whitebeard managed to hurt Akainu despite the latter being a logia, but I still don’t think it could do anything against Gear 5. Think back to the East Blue to a second. In the second chapter, Luffy says that he’s immune to blunt damage cause he’s made of rubber. That whole aspect of Luffy’s DF faded away due to haki, but then in the Luffy vs Kaido fight, we see that Gear 5 allows Luffy to practically shrug off a CoC coated thunder bagua.
Now one thing that’s been pretty clear ever since Alabasta is that Oda likes to have Luffy lose to that arc’s big bad at least once before ultimately bouncing back. And considering how long he’s been built up, Blackbeard’s definitely getting the same treatment. However, in order for Blackbeard to pose any kind of threat against Luffy, not only does he need a power-up (most likely in the form of a very powerful zoan fruit), but Luffy needs a power-down in order for one of Blackbeard’s main abilities to not be completely useless.
How Blackbeard Takes Fruits
Short section, but a common counterargument to this theory is that Blackbeard can’t steal Luffy’s fruit, because in order for that to happen Luffy needs to die. The problem with this counterargument is that although this is a common assumption made by fans, it is has never once been stated that Blackbeard needs to kill people in order to take their Devil Fruit. Yes it’s possible that Blackbeard can only take Devil Fruits from deceased individuals as evidenced by him taking Whitebeard’s fruit, but it’s just as easily possible that he simply needs to have someone in a weakened/vulnerable state such as Whitebeard holding on to his last bit of life. I’m not saying that believing Blackbeard needs to kill opponents in order to take their devil fruit is an unreasonable assumption to make, but it is ultimately an assumption and shouldn’t be treated as hard proof. The mechanism that Blackbeard uses to take Devil Fruits is unknown.
Blackbeard’s Character
Theories always carry the risk of confirmation bias. You have a theory that you believe in, and you end up selectively picking and choosing evidence that supports your agenda. So instead of explaining why it would make sense for Blackbeard’s character if he stole Luffy’s fruit, I’m going to explain why it wouldn’t make sense for Blackbeard’s character if he didn’t steal Luffy’s fruit.
Blackbeard, at his core, is a coward. Whenever faced with a threat he doesn’t believe he can overcome, he pisses himself in fear.
Unlike Luffy, the confidence we see from Teach throughout the story does not come from any kind of determination to defy overwhelming odds, but rather from his own belief that he’s destined to win.
A key part of Blackbeard's character is his belief in fate. He justifies all the actions he has committed with the mindset that he can’t be held accountable because it was fated to happen.
After the events of Wano, Luffy is someone who:
A. is incredibly strong, having bested the “World’s Strongest Creature” in physical combat
B. is seemingly favored by some kind of prophecy, having been dubbed Joyboy by Zunesha
In other words, current Luffy is the exact kind of person Teach would never want to fight. Given that this is a shonen, Luffy and Blackbeard are obviously going to fight at some point. But in order for that to make sense a couple things clearly need to change:
1. Luffy cannot outclass Blackbeard in combat
2. Blackbeard needs to be the one favored by fate
Unless both of these requirements are met, it would not make sense for Blackbeard’s character if he were to fight Luffy. And in my opinion, the most obvious way to meet these conditions is if Blackbeard were to steal Luffy’s powers and his destiny for himself.
Now a possible rebuttal to this is that Blackbeard simply doesn’t know about Joyboy. In response to this, I would point out that Blackbeard has repeatedly been characterized as someone who knows a lot more than he lets on. To list off:
1. Blackbeard’s ship is named the “Sabre of Xebec” so he clearly knows what went down in God’s Valley
2. Oda stated in an SBS that Blackbeard enjoys studying history, which indicates that Blackbeard might know about what went down in the Void Century
3. It was heavily implied in chapter 1059 that Teach knows about the Lunarians, as he panicked when registering the Mihawk Seraphim's appearance.
So while it is possible that Blackbeard doesn’t know about Joyboy, I think it’s unlikely because it would be at odds with how Oda’s written him so far.
Joyboy
We don’t know exactly why Luffy is considered Joyboy, but I think a likely explanation is that Joyboy is a title given to whoever manages to awaken the Nika. The Nika (Literally translates to “smile” by the way) is a fruit that puts smiles on other’s faces. Or in other words, you could say that anyone who awakens the Nika could be described as a boy who brings joy: quite literally a Joy Boy (And yeah they could be a girl but HappyPerson just doesn’t have the same ring). Another possibility, and a very likely one in my opinion, is that Joyboy and Nika were the same person. The description we receive for Nika lines up very well with what we know about Joyboy.
So Luffy awakening a fruit made in Joyboy’s image is him literally, physically becoming Joyboy.
I’ve seen a number of people say that Luffy is most likely some kind of reincarnation, but this is sort of debunked by Zunesha’s dialogue in chapter 1045 as he specifically refers to Joyboy as someone other than Luffy.
Something I think is interesting about Blackbeard’s character is that he represents a distortion of Luffy’s ideals. He’s the dark side of freedom. So wouldn’t it make sense for Blackbeard to take an inherently positive and joyful ability and twist it into something cruel and selfish?
Now I’ll admit that I’m making a lot of assumptions in this section. It is always possible that Luffy was simply chosen at birth to become Joyboy, but I really do think that being “Joyboy” is a direct result of awakening the Nika. Chapters 1043 and chapters 1044 heavily implied a link between Joyboy and the Nika. It wasn’t until Luffy managed to awaken the Nika that Zunesha ever referred to him as Joyboy. If Luffy really was chosen at birth to become Joyboy, I think Zunesha not saying anything during the Zou arc is a bit of a plot hole. It’s possible, but in my opinion it isn’t as likely.
Conclusion
So to go through all the points if you skipped to the end:
A. Blackbeard is most likely going to get a third Devil Fruit
B. In order for Blackbeard to pose a threat to Luffy in the future, not does Blackbeard need to get stronger but Luffy needs to get weaker
C. It has never been confirmed that Blackbeard needs to kill a person to take their fruit
D. Unless Blackbeard becomes stronger than Luffy AND becomes the “fated” victor, it would go against Blackbeard’s character for them to fight
E. It would make perfect thematic sense for Blackbeard to become “Joyboy” by stealing the Nika, as he represents a distortion of Luffy’s ideals.
So how will Blackbeard will take Luffy’s fruit if Blackbeard is significantly weaker than him? Well, Blackbeard is a character who fights dirty so he’d most likely just take one of Luffy’s friends hostage and force him to give up. It could be Koby, as Blackbeard already kidnapped him, or it could be one of the weaker Strawhats. It would serve as a nice contrast to the scene at the start of the series when Luffy kept fighting even after Koby was taken hostage, showing the impact Luffy’s journey had on him.
Again it is completely possible that I’m wrong, but I will say that this is the most confident I’ve been about a One Piece theory in a long time.
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