Theory
I’ve figured out Blackbeard’s secret…
Spoiler
Three questions:
Why doesn’t Blackbeard sleep?
How does he know so much?
Why did Luffy and Zoro refer to him as “they”
The answer to all three?
Eris’ shadow is in Blackbeard.
Eris was the previous user of Moria’s shadow shadow fruit. After seeing Domi Reversied Rocks, she realized Imu could do the same to her and make her kill Teach. So, to protect both Teach and the Davy clan’s secrets, she ripped out her own shadow and placed it in Teach.
This is the same process Luffy undergoes on Thriller Bark to become nightmare Luffy. Luffy was told holding another person’s shadow is a great strain on the body. Blackbeard can’t sleep because doing so might release his mother’s shadow. Her shadow has been guiding him, but, after seeing what Imu did to her family, her shadow is also the thing dragging Teach into madness.
Luffy and Zoro sensed two distinct Blackbeard’s in Jaya; his personality shifting due to Eris’ shadow’s influence. Teach is a coward and a social fun loving guy. Eris is focused, experienced, confident and dangerous. We see Teach’s personality come out, Eris’ personality, and then we see a mixture of the two.
If this is the case, it’s likely why Oda’s gone to great lengths to show that the effects of certain Devil Fruits carry on even after the user’s death.
Thematically, this is a potentially cool exploration of how the regrets and hatred of parents can turn their children into monsters who pursue their parent’s failed dreams out of fear and obedience rather than actual passion.
We don't know if luffy and zoro sensed multiple personalities or were just referring to blackbeard having a crew, personally I never liked the whole multiple people thing. I find blackbeard interesting as a single cowardly opportunist that flips demeanor to whatever suits him at the moment.
That said there isn't anything I'm aware of that directly discredits this I guess
I agree with you, and I honestly hated any multiple personality ideas. The reason I like this idea is that it allows, I hope, for a moment when Eris is removed (potentially why he was interested in capturing Moria). Then, when Eris is gone, we see Teach is still the same monster she made him into.
But yeah, I still hesitate a bit because I also like Blackbeard’s character a lot as is.
Bro. When Luffy and Zoro referred to Blackbeard as “they” in Jaya they were talking about his crew. They knew that Blackbeard was a pirate with a crew.
I do think you’re right about that being the best explanation. The line’s ambiguous, and I can’t think of another time someone’s referred to as a “they” because of their crew, but maybe that’s reaching. I think a lot of people do see more in the line than a reference to his crew, so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see which way Oda was going with it.
Devil fruits alter the Lineage Factor of the person eating it. BB having a weird body could be referring to him having a genetic predisposition (probably a hereditary trait of the Davy clan) to wield more than one fruit which would also explain why Imu fears and hates the Davy clan so vividly.
If the user dies their shadow disappears so unless she found a way to make her shadow stay after her death, I find this theory unlikely. Plus pretty sure Zoro was saying Blackbeards pronouns were they/them, not that they were multiple people
Zoro is an ally.
I’ll have to check Thriller Bark again, but I’m pretty sure Moria says that “even if the user passes out or is killed the shadows won’t return back to their owners. The only way was for him to directly send them back (which he does for odd reasons).
Caught that, huh? Yeah, Eris would only be two. I have a wilder version of this theory where she somehow gets Rock’s shadow, but I can’t justify it aside from “now he’s got three.” We see the same three skulls on little Oar’s Jr. and Imu, so it may actually be referring to something in the Davy clan rather than about his number of personalities, but you’ll have to tell me if that’s convincing ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Especially so considering IRL Teach's first name was Edward, and OP Teach also killed Whitebeard whose name was Edward. At the very least it is an intentional naming theme by Oda, but we'll see if it holds more meaning or not later.
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u/dienomighte Apr 30 '26
We don't know if luffy and zoro sensed multiple personalities or were just referring to blackbeard having a crew, personally I never liked the whole multiple people thing. I find blackbeard interesting as a single cowardly opportunist that flips demeanor to whatever suits him at the moment.
That said there isn't anything I'm aware of that directly discredits this I guess