Future of the Whitebeard Pirates

[kkck]

So, what does everyone think will happen with the WB pirates now that WB is dead? Would they split? Would they choose a leader and continue as they are?

Before they had a established leadership and hierarchy but now that could not be furthest from the truth. As oda stated in the SBS, none of the WB commanders actually have authority over the other. In that sense, marco is not necessarily going to take control of them seeing as he has roughly the same authority as any other commander. Not to mention Jozu seems to be a reasonably good choice too and vista had it in him to compete with mihawk and even before the battle seemed to be acknowledge by him. I doubt he is actually inferior to either marco or jozu.

Somehow I have my doubts about them staying together. WB had strength above that of monsters and his very name caused fear. Now that WB is gone, how will each commander be kept in check? Its one thing when someone as powerful as WB keeps the commanders in check and an entirely different one when a commander not necessarily stronger than the others tries to keep them in check. Not to mention that without WB other pirates are more likely to get in skirmishes with them. A number of consecutive battles could truly wear out the WB pirates. I would think each commander is going to separate and start crews of their own with their own objectives. I'd be interesting to see marco actually joining shanks considering shanks did invite him to his crew. Perhaps there will be an alliance between the WB pirates and the redhair, that would calm down the NW to a great extent considering the vast increase in military power the redhair pirates would have.

 

[undertoe]

Marco will lead most of them, if not all of them. They are still a family of brothers and sisters, and Marco seemingly has the role of the eldest brother. I'm sure Whitebeard left them instructions on what to do, as he seemed to know he was traveling to his death.

 

[Aikidoka]

I read somewhere that WB named Marco the captain before he died, but I've been looking through the chapters and there's no mention of that.

Even so, agreed with undertoe that the WB Pirates are a family...they're not like usual pirate crews, they're more tight-knit than that. They'll likely stay together as a unit.

 

[kkck]

^Dunno about that... you can be close to your family but in the end at some point you leave your home. The pillar that kept the WB pirates together so far (basically an unimaginably powerful dude keeping together a monstrously powerful crew which included at some point 16 peoplen who have nothing to feat from even the strongest dudes around along with over 1000 crewmembers who could have any level of strength) is gone. In that sense, the only way for the WB pirates to remain together is for them to select a similar pillar, a new father or perhaps big bro. Marco didn't actually have more authority than the other commanders and clearly jozu or vista are at his level.

 

[Kaiser Will]

Hey good thread kkck!

Well, your points about them having no authority over the other is quite true, but I think Marco will take the lead. I mean, WB looked at his crew as its family, so everyone there is considered a brother, and I think Marco is kinda the big brother of the gang. He take care of the WB and Ace funeral with Shanks. I'm not saying that is certain that they will be together, but it's certain that they will try to maintain the integrity of the WB name and take care of the lands that is protect with his name!

 

[kkck]

I am not so sure about the brother thing.... I did think of something along the lines of that but we have never actually seen the WB referring to each other as brother or something of the sort. Also, in order to maintain the integrity of the WB name they do not need to remain as a single crew but rather simply maintain close ties to each other and not kill each other. As for the lands... I guess they might have some weight on the whole thing. The main issue I see with the WB pirates staying together is that they lack an authoritative figure to lead them. They lack a father, they lack someone to beat the shit out of them when they mibehave. IMO if the WB pirates were like a family with thousands of brothers and a single father, then the logical thing would be for the brothers to take their own paths as the father passes away.

 

[Kaiser Will]

Well you are certainly right about the father figure. It's only natural that when he dies the sons should move on, take their own path. Or trying to follow the path of his father, and in WB case stay as a family, you are right they could still remain together with close ties.
And the brother thing, I really thought that when you are a WB pirate you kinda embrace the idea of being the son of WB, and that all of his crew is kinda your family, be brothers or sisters.
I'm sure that was a chapter that Marco stated that he will take care of WB territory, which all the crew was present and agreed, but I can't find it anywhere, when I find, I will post here.

But one thing I have to agree with you it's true that lack of the authority towards the others commanders, is a decisive factor whether they will be together or not.
So I counting that the sempai of the group, the oldest commander under WB crew will take the lead , and I believe it's Marco, but that's just a presumption of mine.

 

[bittman]

I think what we're most likely looking at here is a mix of both options. Marco will lead the remnants who hope to follow on with Whitebeard's will, whilst a good portion of the family go their own way in the hopes of making it big themselves.

Though I can definitely see a family not wanting to be broken apart, much like the Roger pirates there would be a lot of members in the 1600 strong crew who would now like to go make a name for themselves in the hopes of building their own Whitebeard-level legacy.

A lot of the pirates that leave for their own reasons will probably be those that weren't that heavily acknowledged in the story (I can't see Jozu, Vista or Marco leaving for example) so it would be more like:

"Oh hey it's the whitebeard pirates! Seems to be only about fifty of you though?!"

Wellll maybe not fifty, since that's a huge cut. Maybe just a couple of hundred.

Also a flat out possibility that each division commander takes his division as a pirate crew. Of course this means that we wouldnt see commanders like Jozu and Marco together again. Honestly a few possibilities. I like the idea of some sort of break up (1600 strong crew is a bit insane tbh for a non-Yonkou crew), but I still want to see some of those personalities together again.

 

[hdiuy]

I get a feeling that some of the WB pirates will want to avenge WB's death and will go hunt BB down. While there is this another group of WB pirates who puts 'defending WB's territory' as top priority and will only fight against BB should they come across BB.

 

[Aikidoka]

Good point, bittman. 1600 is a lot of people so there's bound to be factions who feel differently. I think you've convinced me that it'll be a mix of both.

 

[Kamen]

Peronally, I feel Marco would be the only viable choice as Whitebeards replacement. As someone mentioned earlier, it's doubtful that Whitbeard intended to return to the New World from Marineford, so he must have been grooming a replacement without the replacements explicit knowledge. Marco seems to be pretty strong all on his own, as the only person in the whole WBW to take on all of the admirals with a degree of success. He's also mentioned by the Gorousei as one of the few men with potential to stop Teach, so his strength is clearly world renowned.

Despite the claims of a few forum members, the WB pirates do not need an uber-powerful leader, they need an icon. Whitebeard's reputation is what kept the pirates in check, not his strength. Any rank-and-file commander, could get a cheap-shot on Whitebeard, he left his prime back in he days of Roger. It was the Whitebeard brand that kept the pirates in check, and from what we've seen and heard, Marco's current strength is enough to put the fear or (admiration) in most of the WB Pirates. Obviously, he'll lose WB's connections and most of the lands he claimed as his own, but the WB pirates will scrape through. Just about.

 

[DEATHBOTT]

i think the commanders will atleast stay togather, they werent held in place by fear. they were a family and they all respected and loved newgate. other than them i would say most of his 16000 crew will disband. they will probably just go after bb, since they don't have the man power to hold the territory. though i could be wrong since shanks seems to do fine with a relativly small crew. but then he may be that good or we just havnt seen how big his crew really is. i wonder if any of the supernova will move in on wb turf, you would think it would be smarter than what drake is doing. hawkins is in that area aparently. hopefully oda shows what they are up to soon.

 

[kkck]

Not sure on whether the WB don't have the manpower to keep their territory together. WB was old, he was even said to not have done much in a while. In that sense, the military power behind WB's territory has been mostly the commanders and other strong division members. At least for quite some time they were the ones doing most of the job. In turn, perhaps the reason there were not many disturbances in the territory was because of WB himself. People would not attack WB's territory out of fear of WB but now that WB is gone a lot of his territory is going to be in dispute due to it being attacked by many people at the same time. In that sense, perhaps the WB pirates and their allies perhaps do have the military might to deal with perhaps any NW crew but if they are attacked by multiple enemies in multiple places then they are not gonna manage very well.

Ultimately, the main thing the WB pirates lack is a strong name behind them. They need the strong name to stay together as a crew (a WB replacement) and also a strong name to keep problems away from their territory.

 

[RichardMNixon]

Ultimately, the main thing the WB pirates lack is a strong name behind them.

Err... How about "Marco the Phoenix?" He may not quite be a Yonkou but he's more than strong enough to cruise around the New World.

The Gorosei haven't ruled him out yet: http://mangastream.com/read/one_piece/73264755/3

 

[kkck]

Err... How about "Marco the Phoenix?" He may not quite be a Yonkou but he's more than strong enough to cruise around the New World.

The Gorosei haven't ruled him out yet: http://mangastream.com/read/one_piece/73264755/3

True, that'd be a nice well known name but do you think that alone would be enough to keep people from starting conflict in WB's territory? Clearly that is not the case. As it is, "Marco the Phoenix" is nothing in comparison to "Whitebeard". The truth is, Marco's name alone won't do crap here at least for a while. Marco needs more infamy for his name to be enough as was WB's.

 

[chess4]

The whitebeards pirates will stay together bottom line. Oda drops little hints here and there. 1st shanks told marco to pull back, that gives me the impression that marco has enough pull to get the rest of them to stop fighting. Also he Ordered vista tohelp luffy and vista seems like one of the more senior members of the crew. Also at WB's funeral marco was at the grave with all the rest of the WB pirates in line, and lastly the gorousei called stated that marcp the phoenix and the remnants of the WB crew couls stop teach.

So with all that, who better to lead the crew than marco. I'm sure the WB's have a lot of enimies, why break up.

The WB pirates are not a "yonkou level" crew anymore without there captain but they are still a significant force to the point they would still give any crew pure hell in the new world, but without WB himself they fall a couple of notches.

Personally I think we are about to get a timeskip and in that time BB will be recognized as the new yonkou.

Remember BB is a D. The same charism and love for his crew luffy has, teach also has BB is a pitbull and will stop at nothing. Whose territory better to strike than WB's
Territory. I think he will gain allies and it will be a hostile takeover of WBs territory. We will definitely see the wb's again, we didn't even get a formal introduction of most of the commanders.

 

[zerocooldx]

The WB pirates will probably try to protect WB's NW territories and build up their strength to take now BB one day.

 

[kkck]

The WB pirates will probably try to protect WB's NW territories and build up their strength to take now BB one day.

I actually think the WB pirates could currently take out the BB pirates. The 14 commanders remain and each of them could go up against any of the BB pirates for the most part. Seriously, there are just 9 BB pirates against the 14 commaders and the rest of the military force of the WB pirates. The BB pirates currently have no military force, there is just the 9 of them. The problem here is that the WB pirates have other issues to deal with. BB will attack from one side but countless others will attack from everywhere else.

 

[goldb]

The priority for them right now isn't Blackbeard but their territories. As the fear of the name "Whitebeard" is over, pirates and yonkou alike will try to move and acquire new ground. But of course the yonkou will move more carefully as they could get attacked by another yonko trying to take them out.

I think most of the commanders will spend a lot of time on islands they consider very important, and try to keep enemies away.

 

[zerocooldx]

I actually think the WB pirates could currently take out the BB pirates. The 14 commanders remain and each of them could go up against any of the BB pirates for the most part. Seriously, there are just 9 BB pirates against the 14 commaders and the rest of the military force of the WB pirates. The BB pirates currently have no military force, there is just the 9 of them. The problem here is that the WB pirates have other issues to deal with. BB will attack from one side but countless others will attack from everywhere else.

They probably could take on BB right now, but BB won't let that happen. I'm sure after BB has amassed even more support and popularity he may decide to take on the WB pirates. But hes not dumb enough to enter into a battle where he could end up loosing.