So is Blackbeard evil or what?

[ZenoArmani]

Can any of you explain why would famous and dangerous pirate captains like that settle for being just crew members?

Because, like for the similarly powerful Shiryuu, it's their way out of lifetime imprisonment, which has taught them a painful lesson in that one "silver medallist" pirate (to Whitebeard's level, as Crocodile put it) won't quite cut it as a Yonkou, much less Pirate King, but 5 of them put together in a partnership (and mostly staying out of each other's way othervise)?! Now we're really talking business...

Beyond this, it's simply a really cool idea to boost Blackbeard into a very serious threat, and as for "obvious" mentions. A story needs foreshadowing to pique some interest, rather than pull things out of the blue (Remember how Oda was surprised that anyone even noticed Dragon's future significance when asked about it in the volume Q&A's before Garp's revelation?), or not ever get the chance to do anything with seemingly important mentions/plot thread starters, and even so I doubt that most readers pick up on the possibility until/if we're told that Blackbeard has recruited them.

Still, I suppose that you could be right in that Blackbeard either recruited some other level 6 prisoners to his crew, while those 3 mentioned legends went off on their own or similar, but that wouldn't be as thematically satisfying to me. However, I do like your idea that he was after even more than extremely heavy recruits, such as a powerful battleship, or dangerous information, and that he may have got even more than 4 level 6 prisoners.

 

[zagorka]

As people have stated before, to define BB as an evil person is hard to argue when we have the World Government, the most "just" organization commit horrendous atrocities. We just had the WG sacrifice many marines to defeat a large amount of pirates in this war. So BB's evil compared to what?

Blackbeard became apart of WB's crew, but this was only a facade. It's highly likely he never regarded any of the crew on Whitebeard's ship as his nakama. So killing someone over a devil-fruit (a very powerful one at that) was probably his last resort to taking it. Sure he's done pretty bad things, but he's a traditional pirate who wants to conquer. Yes, he killed Marines to get out of his way into Impel Down, and yes, he has a crew full of ruthless people who don't think twice about killing people.

While we know Blackbeard will go to any extent to conquer the seas and become the Pirate King, we haven't seen him do anything compared to what the World Government did to Ohara.

All we know is that his will and dream conflicts directly with Luffy's.

 

[ZenoArmani]

So just because the WG is doing horrible things, anyone else who has no ethical standards and is willing to murder anyone can't be evil? That doesn't make any sense. Different sides can contain absolute bastards and perfectly decent people. And for that matter, even though the Gorousei are genocidal scum, the Marines contain several decent members as well, such as Smoker, Coby, and Tashigi.

 

[Jiggy-Ninja]

Yeah, good luck with that...

Oda mentioning 3 names among many lv 6 prisoners and Blackbeard coming to get exactly those 3 would be lame, in my opinion. And it's not how Oda does things.

Blackbeard recruiting those three along with several other as yet unnamed Level 6-ers would make the most sense, IMO.

I don't think that Oda would hint at their huge reputations like that and not bring them out later in the story. That would just be kinda lame.

I have a hard time imagined the Blackbeard pirate crew following anything resembling normal logic, given how he talked after being poisoned by Magellan. ("Lining and dying, it's all up to the heavens! Even the best men will fall sometimes." Somewhat paraphrased from memory.) They might not have invaded Impel Down in order to get anything specific, but just been hoping to get as many of the Level 6-ers to join their crew as possible.

 

[Razh]

I have a hard time imagined the Blackbeard pirate crew following anything resembling normal logic, given how he talked after being poisoned by Magellan. ("Lining and dying, it's all up to the heavens! Even the best men will fall sometimes." Somewhat paraphrased from memory.) They might not have invaded Impel Down in order to get anything specific, but just been hoping to get as many of the Level 6-ers to join their crew as possible.

Blackbeard did plan through everything, as he says. He wouldn't become a Shichibukai then turn into a traitor that puts WG into shame just to go ti ID and see if anyone wants to join his crew.
Also, Blackbeard seems to take specific type of men into his crew, otherwise, I imagine he would have a larger crew by now. Inviting bunch of super strong pirates into his crew would be too risky. What if their views are different? What if they want to kill him and take command. We're talking about the big shots here. It isn't excluded that some of them could be stronger than him.
Perhaps he will free them, to create even bigger chaos in ID, but I don't think he would want anyone to join his crew or that all or any of them would want to join.

A lot of people think that Blackbeard wanted to collect some tough pirates, then go to Marineford and kill Whitebeard.
But you have to realize that this battle at Marineford was never a part of Blackbeard's original plan. He planned to hunt down Luffy and turn him in, and that was before he knew Ace was his brother. If Luffy was the one who was caught, it wouldn't be big news, ID wouldn't be heavily guarded and Whitebeard probably wouldn't go to war. And I think Blackbeard would still go to ID because it's too much of a deal to be just an add-on to his grand scheme.
That's why I think he went to ID for someone specific, with a certain knowledge of a devil fruit that helps his plans. Or maybe there's a tunnel leading to Red Line.

Even you guys who believe that his plan is to gather all those from level 6 have to admit that it's hardly something that will shake the foundations of the world to the core.
-OMFG Blackbeard gathered a large crew!!!

 

[modoki]

Well he is short of a few crew members after all.

Perhaps one of those 3 in prison or all 3 knows the new world quite well.
Maybe he is getting those 3 and returning back to the level where Magellan is. Shiryuu or one of those three will probably end up finishing off Magellan.

Then again there is one person of our interest that is still in ID

 

[Jiggy-Ninja]

Blackbeard did plan through everything, as he says. He wouldn't become a Shichibukai then turn into a traitor that puts WG into shame just to go ti ID and see if anyone wants to join his crew.
Also, Blackbeard seems to take specific type of men into his crew, otherwise, I imagine he would have a larger crew by now. Inviting bunch of super strong pirates into his crew would be too risky. What if their views are different? What if they want to kill him and take command. We're talking about the big shots here. It isn't excluded that some of them could be stronger than him.
Perhaps he will free them, to create even bigger chaos in ID, but I don't think he would want anyone to join his crew or that all or any of them would want to join.

A lot of people think that Blackbeard wanted to collect some tough pirates, then go to Marineford and kill Whitebeard.
But you have to realize that this battle at Marineford was never a part of Blackbeard's original plan. He planned to hunt down Luffy and turn him in, and that was before he knew Ace was his brother. If Luffy was the one who was caught, it wouldn't be big news, ID wouldn't be heavily guarded and Whitebeard probably wouldn't go to war. And I think Blackbeard would still go to ID because it's too much of a deal to be just an add-on to his grand scheme.
That's why I think he went to ID for someone specific, with a certain knowledge of a devil fruit that helps his plans. Or maybe there's a tunnel leading to Red Line.

Even you guys who believe that his plan is to gather all those from level 6 have to admit that it's hardly something that will shake the foundations of the world to the core.
-OMFG Blackbeard gathered a large crew!!!

Good points. I'd almost forgotten myself that Blackbeard planned to go after Luffy first, and Ace was just a target of opportunity. Perhaps this war is what he meant when he said his plan hadn't gone entirely smoothly.

I do think that if Luffy had been caught, ace would come to save him, and Whitebeard might have gone with him. But since Blackbeard didn't know about that connection, that couldn't have been part of his plan either.

Releasing all the prisoners from Level 6 would most certainly be a huge thing. Remember, Iva said that they were people who committed deeds so atrocious that they were suppressed from appearing in the newspapers, and that the mere mention of their names could instill fear in those that heard them. If Blackbeard got a significant number of them to join his crew, and persuaded the rest to at least go do something big like totally wreck all of Impel Down and sink it into the sea, that would certainly be a world shaking event.

I don't think that he's just after prisoners though. Ever since he penetrated the prison, it seemed that he had a particular interest in Magellan. He wants Magellan for something, for what I don't know yet.

 

[chess4]

Good points. I'd almost forgotten myself that Blackbeard planned to go after Luffy first, and Ace was just a target of opportunity. Perhaps this war is what he meant when he said his plan hadn't gone entirely smoothly.

I do think that if Luffy had been caught, ace would come to save him, and Whitebeard might have gone with him. But since Blackbeard didn't know about that connection, that couldn't have been part of his plan either.

Releasing all the prisoners from Level 6 would most certainly be a huge thing. Remember, Iva said that they were people who committed deeds so atrocious that they were suppressed from appearing in the newspapers, and that the mere mention of their names could instill fear in those that heard them. If Blackbeard got a significant number of them to join his crew, and persuaded the rest to at least go do something big like totally wreck all of Impel Down and sink it into the sea, that would certainly be a world shaking event.

I don't think that he's just after prisoners though. Ever since he penetrated the prison, it seemed that he had a particular interest in Magellan. He wants Magellan for something, for what I don't know yet.

i dont think BB will have a large crew. if he gets those 3 pirates invankov was talking about on level 6 then i think that will be it for them. we all know the strawhats and BB miiror each other and will continue to do so.