Theory Black Beard Moria and Zombie Rocks

[WILDCARD 1 7]

Just a little theory I came up with but I think Blackbeard is an opportunist may use Moria to dig up Rocks's body and us it in some way given how much Blackbeard seems to consciously emulate him. This would be a good way for Rocks to enter the story in the present and that's why Oda had Moria meet Blackbeard.
Or I'm totally wrong but it would make good use of Moria.

 

[Nie Li]

Just a little theory I came up with but I think Blackbeard is an opportunist may use Moria to dig up Rocks's body and us it in some way given how much Blackbeard seems to consuly emulate him. This would be a good way for Rocks to enter the story in the present that's why Oda had Moria meet Blackbeard.

I don't think that would work. The zombies have the shadow's mind, not the body's. Although they may have some residual mindset from the body and its physical strength, they're mostly just the shadow.

Oars acted like Luffy and tried to use Luffy's techniques, Ryuuma used Brook's techniques, etc. "Rocks" would just be someone else in this scenario.

 

[McNuss]

Moria is there for Blackbeard to gain an army.

All the Yonko are about gaining an army, Big Mom, Kaido, Crocodile... Blackbeard is no exception.

The theme of his crew is clearly pirates. Pirates and zombies are commonly matched in fiction, Pirates of the Caribbean were far from the first people to do this.

So yeah, army of zombie pirates. I don't think we will see Xebec or anyone special.

 

[kkck]

The main issue here is that zombies made by moria are substantially weaker than their living counterparts. Consider what we know about ryuma... He is the only person that we know for a fact turned a blade permanently black. This has been framed a something which not even oden, a nigh yonko level fighter, achieved. If this framing is correct then ryuma being as strong or stronger than oden is by no means as stretch. And yet his zombie inhabited by brook's shadow didn't even manage to defeat part 1 zoro. It's fair to note ryuma's corpse was hundreds of years old though. It also does not appear the zombies have the capacity to use haki. Which makes sense since haki has been said to be something which every living being has. I suppose a younger corpse could be stronger but building a relevant army of corpses sounds pretty improbable.

What would be interesting though.. Is BB using loyal soldiers to empower an army if he gets moria on his side. Send in the zombie army, let it get nuked, then the shadows return to their hidden owners who resume the battle.

 

[DeadlyBeast]

What would be interesting though.. Is BB using loyal soldiers to empower an army if he gets moria on his side. Send in the zombie army, let it get nuked, then the shadows return to their hidden owners who resume the battle.

I don't think they need to have his own crew do this. The shadow of fodder is not rare. However, your point about weak zombies essentially being the perfect "suicide bomber* does have me intrigued. They could arm zombies with explosives and send them into enemy area or they could use zombies to spread poison etc. Honestly, thinking back Moriah really underutilized the best properties of his zombies, the fact that they are disposable.

 

[Nie Li]

I don't think they need to have his own crew do this. The shadow of fodder is not rare. However, your point about weak zombies essentially being the perfect "suicide bomber* does have me intrigued. They could arm zombies with explosives and send them into enemy area or they could use zombies to spread poison etc. Honestly, thinking back Moriah really underutilized the best properties of his zombies, the fact that they are disposable.

Were they, though? In Blackbeard hands, they might be, but in Moria's? If they die, the shadow goes back to the owner, not to Moria. He would have to collect them all over again.

Honestly, considering how much of a pain just building the zombie army is, his fruit is still my most disliked paramecia. If Moria had ever left the Florian Triangle Lola and her friends would have been bathed in sunlight and their zombies would have died, too.

 

[DeadlyBeast]

Were they, though? In Blackbeard hands, they might be, but in Moria's? If they die, the shadow goes back to the owner, not to Moria. He would have to collect them all over again.

Honestly, considering how much of a pain just building the zombie army is, his fruit is still my most disliked paramecia. If Moria had ever left the Florian Triangle Lola and her friends would have been bathed in sunlight and their zombies would have died, too.

I think that's where Moriah's mistake with the zombies was apparent. He spent his time collecting very good bodies & having Hogback modify them so they could be restored to as close to their living glory. Additionally, Moriah spent time seeking out powerful people to steal shadows from. He could have focused instead on getting easy corpses & shadows.

We saw during Marineford that he can make uses of fresh corpses & shadows to make zombies quickly (he did this with fallen marines & pirates in broad daylight) so I don't think making fodder zombie with any shadow would be a problem. And we also know animal corpses can be used too so he might have the ability to use animal shadows as well.

In my mind, Moriah instead of building a zombie army for combat could have instead worked to rebuild his crew with living people and created zombies purely as tools to be used for battle as things like - spies (small animals), suicide bombers, bio weapon spreaders etc. The zombies to me are meant to be disposable yet the way Moriah originally used them was to be his main soldiers.

 

[Vanshrimp]

this is not new because we've already seen captain john's zombie who happened to be in rocks crew. i am just curious to see Moria's fruit awakened and its effects, may be an army of zombies with the awakened DF is stronger...

 

[kkck]

I don't think they need to have his own crew do this. The shadow of fodder is not rare. However, your point about weak zombies essentially being the perfect "suicide bomber* does have me intrigued. They could arm zombies with explosives and send them into enemy area or they could use zombies to spread poison etc. Honestly, thinking back Moriah really underutilized the best properties of his zombies, the fact that they are disposable.

The scenario I considered was not exactly a possibility for moria. Since the plan here would depend entirely on having loyal fighters to provide shadows. In the case of moria's crew his zombies were not exactly disposable. He didn't have backups for any of them, if a zombie was defeated it was almost certainly gone. And moria had to personally make each one.

 

[hokageji]

Just a little theory I came up with but I think Blackbeard is an opportunist may use Moria to dig up Rocks's body and us it in some way given how much Blackbeard seems to consciously emulate him. This would be a good way for Rocks to enter the story in the present and that's why Oda had Moria meet Blackbeard.
Or I'm totally wrong but it would make good use of Moria.

Rocks corpse would do no good, unless Rocks was a special humanoid species or something. Rocks shadow could be more interesting but that'll only mean rocks is alive.

I dont think Moria and rocks goes well, moria's fruit by itself bring an interesting storyline. I'm curious about his fate, and how BB uses him.

 

[Aki1991]

Hopefully no Edo Tensei BS. This destroyed Naruto for me...

 

[DeadlyBeast]

The scenario I considered was not exactly a possibility for moria. Since the plan here would depend entirely on having loyal fighters to provide shadows. In the case of moria's crew his zombies were not exactly disposable. He didn't have backups for any of them, if a zombie was defeated it was almost certainly gone. And moria had to personally make each one.

I was imagining in a battle field context like Marineford or Onigashima. During Marineford Moriah was able to create zombies out of the corpses of the battle itself and he just stole peoples shadows there too.

Spoiler: Moriah makes zombies from corpses on the battlefield

So I assume he can do the same in future situations but instead of having the zombies try fighting melee style I think they'd be better used as bombers etc.

 

[McNuss]

I was imagining in a battle field context like Marineford or Onigashima. During Marineford Moriah was able to create zombies out of the corpses of the battle itself and he just stole peoples shadows there too.

Spoiler: Moriah makes zombies from corpses on the battlefield

So I assume he can do the same in future situations but instead of having the zombies try fighting melee style I think they'd be better used as bombers etc.

They all have stitches, the trademark of Hogback's work. One of them even is a centaur! Since Absalom was in Marineford, Hogback was likely there, too and they murdered the Marines in advance and prepared the bodies for Moria to rise them.

Imagine you are a bear and you get to join the Marines and then this happens to you

 

[Zmsp]

I read the last couple of chapters again, and decided to give this thread another go.

How are the Blackbeard/Moriah alliance perspectives holding up? I feel like Moriah is not really in chains, and he's already working on building an army, or bound to change his mind eventually. The reason I actually wanted elaborate on this topic is the fact that Garp is now there, and something's bound to happen to him. If you add the potential scenario of Vegapunk/Yorke joining them as well, that's one scary crew.

I thought he'd be captured and used as a bargaining chip by Blackbeard, and that could make for a reverse Marineford, but I forgot Moriah's on the island, and now that I think about it, using Garp's zombie to get revenge on Luffy might just be the motivation he needs to accept the deal. There's also the fact that Luffy beat Kaido, so a change of heart by Moriah over the memory of his avenged companions seems to be on the cards as well.

I know the thread mentions Xebec, and I'm not sure what to think of him yet, but if his body is retrievable, we just found the shadow to match it.

 

[kkck]

TBH at this point I think that Blackbeard is keeping moria alive simply to preserve his powerful fruit until a suitable new user comes about. As we saw recently all of BB's titanic captains are confirmed devil fruit users. But odds are they still value powerful devil fruits, even if only to stop them from being used against them. Aokiji just might not be a long term crewmate for BB so his eventual replacement could end up with moria's fruit. No idea of who that could eventually be though.

 

[Zmsp]

I think that Blackbeard is keeping moria alive simply to preserve his powerful fruit until a suitable new user comes about.

Well, sure, that's an option, but remember Burgess back in Dressrosa? He ran around with a bag filled with apples so he could snatch Devil Fruits.
Punk Hazard showed us that when a fruit user dies, the power gets transfered to an "empty" fruit, at least if it's in close proximity.

Blackbeard knows about these properties, going by what Burgess was doing, so why keep him alive if all he wants is the fruit?