Marco vs Blackbeard – The Grudge War

Today’s post is centered around a much awaited clash that happened recently in the One Piece lore, Marco vs Blackbeard. A year after the War of the Best that happened at Marineford, Marco led the remnants of the Whitebeard Pirates against Blackbeard and his crew. What came to be known as the Grudge War or the Payback War led to some interesting developments.

How did it happen?

The remnants of the Whitebeard Pirates gathered all their forces and led my First Commander Marco the Phoenix, sought revenge against the hated Blackbeard Pirates about the events at the War of Marineford. Of course, the Blackbeards retaliated and attacked in full force. The defeat of the remnants of the Whitebeards was overwhelming and probably signaled the end of their era once and for all.

The day after

This defeat led to the Commanders of the Whitebeards dissappearing. Specifically, we know nothing about the whereabouts of Marco the Phoenix. The only hint is that Nekomamushi stated that he knows where he may be, assuming of course he survived.

Blackbeard the Yonkou

The Blackbeards’s overwhelming victory over the remnants of the Whitebeards led to the worldwide recognition and rise of Marshall D Teach as a Yonkou. That along with his knowledge of the turfs of the Whitebeards(he was one of them as we all know), resulted in the Blackbeards gaining control of the late Whitebeard’s territories and gave their captain the status of Yonkou.

Luffy’s reaction

Straw Hat was training as we all know during those years(The Grudge War happened during the two year timeskip) in Rusukaina with Silvers Rayleigh. Thus, he never heard the news of the Whitebeard remnants getting defeated until Zou. That’s when his crew members told him, and that sparked his hatred
against Marshall D Teach once more.

Is it logical that they lost that badly?

Well, we have all the Whitebeard Commanders: Marco, Diamond Jozu, Vista to mention just the toughest ones. Not counting Ace and Thatch, there are 11 more Commanders that went to get revenge against Blackbeard. Is it logical that they supposedly lost that easy and were so overwhelmed? What if something else happened?

A betrayal?

Is it possible that one of the Whitebeard Commanders was in fact a villain? Could it be that someone was a double agent for Blackbeard? I believe that if something like that happened, then Vista is the traitor. That could explain the easy defeat of the Whitebeards, since they were backstabbed essentially and also lost one of their Commanders. That led to a drop in their moral and to the overwhelming defeat they suffered.

Why Vista?

First of all that’s all pure speculation so take it with a grain of salt. After all this is One Piece Theories and not the official manga guys :P.

Vista seems firstly a character quite possible to be a villain due to his appearance. He just seems more like an evil guy to me at least. One more hint could be Diamond Jozu’s fruit. When Zoro was fighting with Mr 1, it was foreshadowed that he will be the man to cut Diamond later on. As well as that, Vista is another swordsman who wants to become the greatest in the world.

So, what if Vista backstabbbed Jozu and stole his Diamond-Diamond fruit with the help of the Blackbeards? After all, that’s what they do. Now, he has become the swordsman that can’t be cut. He will be one of the ultimate challenges for Zoro, and guess what, he will cut him of course! That’s how badass Zoro is :D.

The counter argument

Someone more logical could say something else though. Lets not make theories and just face the fact that the Whitebeards stagnated, when on the other hand the Blackbeards got stronger than ever. Their leader possesses maybe the two more powerful devil fruits in the world of One Piece. Also, the criminals he recruited from Impel Down must be overwhelmingly powerful. After all, their acts were removed from the pages of history as it has been said. Add the old Blackbeards to the mix, and we can all see a pattern. The Blackbeards are just overwhelmingly strong at the moment.

How was Marco harmed?

We all know that Marco possesses the mythical Zoan devil fruit Phoenix. This one, lets him regenerate his physical wounds and if that wasn’t enough he can also fly and is immune to non haki attacks. So, assuming he was defeated, the question arises. How could he be harmed?

General Speculations

First of all, the sea prism stone handcuffs probably make him lose his abilities up to an extent. Why didn’t he ask for his hands to be cut off when he was handcuffed you ask? Well, probably it may be impossible for him to regenerate limbs. Or, because he didn’t have his devil fruit powers when handcuffed, he wasn’t able to regenerate them quickly enough so he would lose them.

One more interesting idea is that if someone manages to cut off his head, then he won’t be able to use his devil fruit ability to the rest of his body, thus defeating him. The other idea comes from Usopp’s victory against Sugar. What if Marco when knocked unconcious also lost his abilities, like Sugar did? Lastly, it could be that there is a certain degree of damage that his fruit can regenerate. Overwhelm that amount of damage and see Marco getting wounded.

What happened at the Grudge War?

With all that being said, i believe that Marco was defeated at the Grudge War due to one simple reason. Blackbeard used his devil fruit of darkness to rid Marco of his abilities. That way he became vulnerable and was utterly defeated. I don’t think he is dead though, but rather either escaped or is being kept captive by the Blackbeard Pirates.

So, that was it about today’s post regarding an interesting matchup, Marco vs Blackbeard that happened in the Grudge War. Why do you think the remnants of the Whitebeards lost? Did a betrayal take place or where they just simply weaker? Share in the comments below and don’t forget to check out our latest review on One Piece Pirate Warriors 3. Cheers!

 

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Thanks, minna and I’ll see you next time!