Sandbox / One Piece: Whitebeard

Edward Newgate — "Whitebeard"

Voiced by: Kinryū Arimoto (JP), Ryūzaburō Ōtomo (JP, Episode 962+), R. Bruce Elliott (EN), Juan Carlos Tinoco (Netflix Dub LatAm)

Age: 72

Debut: Chapter 234 (Manga), Episode 151 (Anime)

Devil Fruit: Tremor-Tremor Fruit

"I'm just one man with one heart. They call me a fiend and a monster, but I can't remain the strongest forever! If I can help one young pirate achieve his destiny, my life will be complete. Isn't that enough?!"

—Chapter 563

Edward Newgate, better known as Whitebeard, was the captain of the Whitebeard Pirates and considered to be the most powerful of the Four Emperors ruling over the New World (the second half of the Grand Line), and the only person to have ever battled the Pirate King to a draw. With Roger's death he became the "Strongest Man in the World", and this reputation made him the most feared and respected person in the world. However, 22 years had passed since the Pirate King's death and, although Whitebeard was still greatly feared, he was getting old and the world was slowly changing and new and ambitious individuals were looking to rise to the top and take his place. He has eaten the Tremor-Tremor Fruit (Gura Gura no Mi), which allows to generate massive, destructive vibrations and trigger tsunamis and earthquakes.

Despite his stubborn and prideful attitude and fearsome reputation, Whitebeard has a strong sense of morality and honor and believes that all pirates should follow a moral code. He regards every member of his crew and of his 43 allied crews as a son or daughter; in turn, he is regarded as a father figure by all of them as well. As such, there is a strong sense of camaraderie and kinship amongst his crew, and Whitebeard is willing to go to great lengths to protect his "sons".

Prior to his passing, Newgate held the second highest bounty in recorded history at 5,046,000,000 Berries.

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A-K

• Affectionate Nickname: Since he literally adopts his mates, Whitebeard is called "Pops" or "Old Man" (Oyaji, an informal variation of "father") by his crew.
• All for Nothing: Whitebeard mobilizes his crew and all his allies together to rescue Ace from the Marines and all their forces and is prepared to die to save Ace. In the end, he loses all his ships, thousands of his allies and crew members die in the process and Ace himself stops running and confronts Akainu, ending up killed, leading everything Whitebeard did to save him in utter vain. Whitebeard doesn't land a killing blow on Akainu to avenge Ace. Worse is that Blackbeard, the man who's responsible for the war in the first place, shows up afterwards and kills Whitebeard and steals his powers for himself. Whitebeard himself even acknowledges this in his final moments apologizing to his sons for being responsible for Blackbeard's current position.
• Always Second Best: Discussed. When Ace is running from Marineford, Akainu purposefully mocks Whitebeard to provoke Ace, saying Whitebeard will always be remembered as the number 2 compared to Roger. Whitebeard never denies that, but he personally doesn't care about the title Pirate King, while his rivalry with Roger was on mostly friendly terms.
• Anime Hair: In spite of all his badassery, under his bandana his hair is half moon shaped just like his moustache.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: In his first few appearances in the series, Whitebeard comes off as seeming to think that any decision he makes is the correct one regardless of potential consequences, even brushing off warnings from fellow Emperor Shanks. However, this later turns out to be a facade, as Whitebeard demonstrates that he isn't nearly as full of himself as he would like you to believe. Most likely he wanted to make sure he had a reputation for being fearsome and unreasonable to help keep the islands under his protection safe.
• Awesome, but Impractical: While it is true that the Tremor-Tremor Fruit has incredibly fearsome power, it only adds to Whitebeard's awesomeness that he could use its power so effectively. To say it simply, this fruit transforms you into a walking natural disaster. Were it in anyone else's hands, the fruit's overall effectiveness diminishes greatly as you basically become the epicenter of a disaster so you would need great strength and competence just to make sure that the fruit won't end up killing yourself in its own shockwaves.
• Badass Boast: "I. AM. WHITEBEARD!" Let's face it, it's all he needs.
• Benevolent Boss: Whitebeard considers every single member of his crew, as well as his allies, his "sons". His strong love for his crew and allies traced all the way back to before he even had a crew, when he stated that the one thing he wanted more than anything was a family.
• Big Good: While there isn't an alliance of "good" directly opposing the World Government (aside of the Revolutionary Army, which plays a minimal role in the first half of the story), Whitebeard, known as "The World's Strongest Man" for being the only one that fought on par with the Pirate King Roger, is the biggest threat to the World government aside of Dragon. Unlike the latter, he doesn't directly antagonize it, but his moral foundation, which is wholly on the side of good and altruism, counters and conflicts with the World Government's ruthless control. Even Shanks, the other contender for the title, and the Closest Thing We Got after Whitebeard's death, is shown to have dealings with the Five Elders of the World Government, implied to be for beneficial ends, but ultimately still presented in a shady context. Whitebeard is the only emperor ever shown who is firmly against all aspects of the World government, even though he never needlessly antagonised them, and when he did so, he had a damn good reason.
• Brought Down to Badass: Blackbeard attacks Newgate with his darkness power, gloating about how it will nullify his earthquake ability... quite forgetting that he is facing the 18 foot tall World's Strongest Man with an even longer bisento. Even with all his injuries and advanced age, Whitebeard still kicks his ass handily and Blackbeard is ultimately forced to have his crew attack his almost-dead opponent all together to finish him off before Whitebeard ends him in turn. Before Blackbeard and his crew decides to gun him down, just before Whitebeard attempts to lay a blow, his skin went reddish and steamy, in a very similar way to Luffy's Gear Second.
  • Whitebeard himself is this, compared to when he was in his prime. In his clash with Roger, their Haki clash alone was enough to shake an entire island, something not seen before or since in One Piece.
• Call-Back: A Devil Fruit with the power to make tsunamis was first mentioned by Morgan in the very first explanation of Devil Fruits we ever got in-series, that is, in the earliest anime episodes.
• Captain Colorbeard: Edward Newgate is known as Whitebeard. Ironically, he has no beard but has a white moon-shaped moustache. This is because in the original Japanese he's known as shirohige and "hige" means any kind of facial hair, in this case referring to his moustache.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: He blocked a two-handed downward swing from John Giant with only one hand on his bisento. He threw Vice Admiral Ronse, another Giant, into the air like he weighted nothing. He extinguished the flames of one of Akainu's molten rocks with just a single breath. He prevented a massive paddle ship (captained by Squard) from further advancing using only one hand. When they say strongest man, this is what they mean. Note that he does most of this after being stabbed right through the chest. Probably the only reason Blackbeard didn't get cut in two when Whitebeard slashed his shoulder with his Bisento was due to Whitebeard's fading strength from his accumulated injuries and Teach's own abnormally high resilience.
• Coat Cape: Whitebeard wears nothing on the upper side of his body except the coat on his shoulders, which, with his golden and red colors (similar to a king's cape), indicates his authority and status as one of the most influencial pirates of the world. It falls off when he dies, revealing his scarless back, a symbol of how he never turned and ran from a fight.
• Cooldown Hug: After his ally, Squard, stabbed him and accused him of selling out his allies thanks to the Marines leaking false information to him, Whitebeard reassures him with an an hug and tells him he would never abandon a single one of them, then charges into the fray to kick major ass.

• Covered with Scars: Whitebeard is covered with scars on every part of his body. Except his back: He never showed it to an enemy once. Indeed the only wounds present on it upon his death were from the recent battle...where he'd had several swords stabbed into him from the front and sticking out his back. He didn't even react to them.
• Death by Irony: All he wanted was a family, and one of his "sons" kills him. Admittedly he had already basically disowned the guy, but the point still stands.
• Declaration of Protection: Fish-Man Island used to be a Crapsack World, preyed on by pirates left and right, and the populace living in constant fear. All it takes is for him to declare the Island as his territory, and all the preying stopped there and then. This gets Deconstructed upon his passing: since the only defences several islands had from pirate raiders was the universal fear of his retribution if he or those under his protection were crossed, when he died said protection was nullified and several peaceful communities were almost immediately attacked by pirates looking to prosper in 'free' territories to claim.
• Dented Iron: Even being the World's Strongest Man doesn't stop Newgate from getting his fair share of injuries— in fact, he takes several attacks in the battle of Marineford that he would have otherwise avoided simply because he's too old and suffering from old wounds to adequately evade them. He makes up for this by powering through them with almost sheer force of willpower at times— noticeably, losing half his head, which was almost guaranteed to kill him in the end, but he went down to further injuries sustained after that because at that point he was almost literally too pissed off to die. His years of pirating shows on his chest, which is almost literally more scar-tissue than skin. But not his back.
• Determinator: Here's the best example. Half his face burned off? Doesn't matter. Akainu must die.
• Died Standing Up: After enduring for the entire Summit War and facing off against some of the strongest fighters of the world, Edward Newgate is assaulted by the Blackbeard Pirates, who attack him until his death. However, his body remains still and prideful, refusing to falling back.
• The Dreaded: Pretty much a given. Whitebeard, until his death, truly is the World's Strongest Man — all while being an old, half-dead, sickly shadow of his former self. Angering him is something that no one, not even the World Government, wants to do. However, Blackbeard forces their hand, and they have to pool in all their resources, including the Admirals and the Seven Warlords of the Sea, just to ensure that they would compete in a war against him.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: His final action, after spending the previous several chapters being stabbed, shot, bombarded, and having half his face melted off by lava, is to fight Blackbeard one-on-one and own him so thoroughly that the entire Blackbeard Pirates crew has to jump in before he stomps their captain like a bug. And even though all of that finally kills him... it still isn't enough to make him fall. He even gets one last moment of awesome in his last moments. Even though he cannot move and is seconds from death, the very last thing he says, broadcast to the entire Sabaody Archipelago, is that the One Piece is real. This one phrase has the exact opposite effect that killing him was supposed to have.
  "THE ONE PIECE!!!!
  (...)
  THE ONE PIECE IS REAL!!!!!!"
• End of an Age: As the pirate who stood at the top of the Golden Age of Piracy, Whitebeard himself states that there is no ship to carry him to the next era. His death specifically marks the end of the Golden Age of Pirates.
• Enhanced Punch: His powers allow Whitebeard to give literal earthquake punches. He can even crack the air when he hits it.
• Evil Power Vacuum: While he isn't evil at all, his death disrupted the Balance of Power in the world, causing a newer and much more vicious generation of pirates to hoist their jolly rogers. The man who benefited the most out of the vacuum? Blackbeard.
• Face Death with Dignity: Double Subverted. Before going to Marineford, Whitebeard has gotten rid of all of his medical equipment, because he was aware that he wouldn't survive the Summit War. After Ace is rescued, Whitebeard remains behind to allow his men to flee, without any regret. Then Ace falls for Akainu's taunts and is killed, but Whitebeard uses his remaining forces to get revenge on the Admiral and is finally killed by the coordinated efforts of the Blackbeard Pirates, against which he dies without flinching, while his body refuses to fall.
• Facepalm Of Doom: A variety. Whitebeard can grab his opponent's face with his hand and unleash his Face Quake Attack, hitting the opponent with an earthquake directly to the face. He uses this move on multiple characters, including strong ones like Blackbeard and Akainu, but no-one comes even close to fully enduring it.
• Facial Horror: The left side of his face is destroyed by one of Admiral Akainu's magma attacks, but the details are never shown and always kept in shadow.
• Family of Choice: With him as the "father" and his crew as the "children." Oden's flashback arc shows that Whitebeard regarded him as a younger brother, despite again there being no blood relation at all. As a dying Whitebeard's life flashed right before his very eyes, he expresses that in the end, this is all he ever wanted.
• The Farmer and the Viper: Whitebeard took in a young Teach when he was an orphan and gave him a home like the rest of his crew. However, Teach was just using him to gain knowledge and power while hiding under Whitebeards name and once he got his hands on the Dark-Dark Fruit, he kills Thatch and runs away forming the Blackbeard Pirates, defeats Ace and during the Paramount War takes Whitebeard's life at the climax of the war, steals his Devil Fruit power and takes his place as one of the Four Emperors.
• A Father to His Men: Every pirate in his crew is considered his son, and they consider each other brothers. And since this habit extends to his allies as well, there are definitely "daughters" like White Bay.
• Feeling Their Age: Whitebeard was renowned as the World's Strongest Man prior to his death. He is an extremely powerful man with ridiculously powerful earthquake based Devil Fruit powers who has proved more than enough that he is worthy of his title in the Marineford arc. However, the moment he starts coughing up blood in the middle of battle, it's made clear that the man is no longer in his prime and that old age hasn't been kind to him. Based on his remaining strength though, it's less that he's significantly weaker, and more like that the monstrously strong old man was even more of a monster in the past. He even once stated "I may be a monster... but I'm not gonna be the strongest forever!" His first appearance on-panel showcases both his monstrous strength (he's a huge muscular giant of a man) and his declining health (he's hooked up to life support while being monitored by nurses).
• Foe-Tossing Charge: The Marines learn the hard way that Zerg Rushing him doesn't work, as he wades through anyone not on the level of admirals.
• Foil: To fellow Emperor Big Mom:
  • Whereas Whitebeard was an orphan who became a pirate to bring together money he would send back to his poor home, Big Mom was cast out by her birth parents and took to piracy solely for her own interests.
  • Whitebeard was considered the strongest of the original emperors, inducting men into his crew by adopting them as his sons. He is the first known pirate to claim Fish-Man Island as his territory. Big Mom struggled to compete with the other Emperors by arranging marriages to pump out children to serve as her army. She only laid claim to Fish-Man Island after Whitebeard had died.
  • Whitebeard and his crew aren't biologically related, but consider themselves a family and would lay down their lives for each other. Big Mom's crew is itself a heavily dysfunctional biological family, with half-brothers and half-sisters that have little love for each other, and fear Big Mom more than they love her.
  • Whitebeard's Devil Fruit gives him the physical might of an earthquake, which he only uses in combat. Big Mom's Devil Fruit gives her the power to manipulate souls, and she uses this to her advantage for the ruling of her domain.
  • Whitebeard's physique stays incredible even as his health appears to deteriorate with his age. After her physique improved when she reached adulthood, Big Mom seems to have let herself go as she approached her golden years while she appears to be in good health, chronic eating frenzies notwithstanding.
• Formerly Fat: An SBS reveals that he was chubby — but muscular — as a child. As an adult, however, he was nothing but pure muscle.
• Friendly Pirate: Despite his infamy and scary reputation, he’s actually a nice man who loves his crewmates like a family. He’s also very honorable, unlike most of the other Emperors.
• Friendly Rivalry: With Roger. Plenty of dialogue throughout the series implies they had plenty of encounters in the past, and Ace was worried that Whitebeard would be angry once he discovered he was Roger's son. Yet we discover that Whitebeard not only shared a drink with Roger at least once, Roger actually offered to tell him how to find Laugh Tale (Whitebeard rejected it) and told him the meaning of "Will of D." In the flashback to Oden's past, Whitebeard and Roger's last battle was basically a friendly (if very intense and highly destructive) spar; the only time he actually got angry was when Roger wanted to take Oden along for his final voyage.
• From Bad to Worse: For the Marines. This line after Ace's death from one of his crew should be a clue: "Oh man, Pops is pissed! EVERYONE GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!!!"
• From Nobody to Nightmare: A benevolent version in-story. He was once an abandoned orphan child who lived in a nation too poor to even be a member nation of the World Government and grew up to be one of the most powerful pirates in history and one of the only men who could combat the late Pirate King and live to tell about it.
• Genius Bruiser: Turns out Whitebeard's no slouch on chess playing. He sees half of Sengoku's moves during the Marineford Arc coming; had he not, the Whitebeard Pirates and allies would have been finished far earlier than expected. It could also be said that both Sengoku and Whitebeard consider the other their Worthy Opponent in strategy.
• Good Is Not Soft: Whitebeard may be a pirate with one of the strongest codes of honor, but he can be stern when the situation calls for it. Oden constantly pestered him to take him along for the voyage, but Whitebeard refused because he was unsure Oden would be willing to show subservience to anyone (and Wano might misinterpret his leaving with pirates as a kidnapping). He had his crew quietly slip away while the retainers kept their master distracted, and when Oden still went after them by hooking a chain around the Moby Dick's mast, Whitebeard forbade anyone from pulling the future daimyo up, saying they would solve this like pirates now: If Oden could hold onto the chain in the water for three days, then he could be a member of the Whitebeard Pirates. If not, tough luck. To be fair, though, he helped and welcomed Oden in the crew despite him letting go prematurely to aid Toki.
• Greater-Scope Paragon: We don't fully appreciate how massive his influence was until after he dies, but it quickly becomes clear that he was the only thing preventing the dominance of either the World Government or much, much worse pirates.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Whitebeard's final command is to order his allies to fall back, while he buys time fighting the entire Marine force by himself.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: More of a "tough man facade", but he put this up after Ace went to search Blackbeard by himself. Whitebeard actually didn't want Ace to, but as he's already gone, he had to cover it by claiming that his family code reinforced what Ace did.
• Homage: His moustache, which is near-identical to the one sported by◊ the ∀ Gundam. The fact that they're both the strongest in their respective categories is probably another one.
• Honor Before Reason:
  • Goes to great lengths to avenge murdered crew members that would be downright insane were it not for the fact that he's, you know, Whitebeard.
  • Before going to Marineford, he refused to continue wearing his heart support because he believed everyone there would pity him. His heart problems become an impediment on several occasions during the war.
• Humble Goal: Despite having the strength to take anything he wanted from the world, all Whitebeard ever wanted was his own family. He was once offered by Roger to become the next Pirate King but he declined since he already had everything he wanted in the Whitebeard Pirates.
• I Have No Son!: When Blackbeard shows up at Marineford, Newgate makes it abundantly clear that Blackbeard is no longer a part of his "family" for his treachery.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: As he put it himself in his younger days, he didn't care too much for treasure; instead, he wanted a family.
• Incurable Cough of Death: Due to his advanced age, and presumably from all of the injures he's taken over the course of a particularly long lifetime of piracy.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Whitebeard can be very brusque to people outside of his main crew and/or his close allies. Despite this, he's a very good man with good intentions (that is, having a family and generally staying out of trouble), and he is fiercely (if not murderously) protective of his crew and allies.
• The Juggernaut: Even as a dying old man, he shrugs off everything the Marines throw at him, including a god-damn hole in his chest, and can still strike with enough force to level all of Marineford.
• Ki Manipulation: A confirmed user of all three types of Haki.
  • With his Observation Haki, he was able to predict Ace's attacks in his sleep. And, he was able to sneak up on and strike Akainu, who himself was able to avoid Armament Haki-infused strikes by Marco and Vista, something replicated only by Katakuri against Luffy and Aokiji against Whitebeard. This shows that he probably had Future Sight not unlike Katakuri.
  • In his prime, Whitebeard's Armament Haki was so powerful that coupled with his Conqueror's Haki, a clash of blades (though technically the weapons weren't even touching each other) with his arch-rival, Roger, could unleash island-wide shockwaves. And Whitebeard didn't use his Devil Fruit ability.

L-Z

• Lantern Jaw of Justice: Although a pirate, he's a good person and has a really prominent and manly chin.
• Large and in Charge: Whitebeard is literally three times larger than the average man, and unlike the other over-sized characters in One Piece he's properly proportioned. This means his crew look like children next to him.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Whitebeard spends most of his screentime up until Marineford in his bedside receiving medical care. When he finally stands up, you know the shit has hit the fan. When he starts walking towards you... RUN.
• Light Is Good: Edward Newgate is known as "Whitebeard" and is, along with Shanks, the most honorable of the Four Emperors. Additionally, his Devil Fruit powers manifest in his hands as light energy, contrasting with Blackbeard's darkness-based Yomi Yomi powers.
• Like a Son to Me: One of his defining character traits: any pirate under him or allied to him becomes his son or daughter, and he will outright kill thousands to save one of them. Even those who don't officially join him aren't immune, as he quickly takes a paternal shine to Luffy as well.
• Manly Tears: Whitebeard gets especially saddened when he realizes that Ace is really going to die.
• Meaningful Name: His death was the gate to a new era. Newgate is also the name of a pair of (both long defunct) prisons in the London and the US (the first state prison in the country). Real life pirate William "Captain" Kidd spent some time in the London one.
• Mighty Glacier: Due to his age and illness, he's rather slow on foot, and occasionally has to catch his breath after running. Marco implied that he was once a Lightning Bruiser in his youth, and the current Whitebeard can at least still sneak behind Akainu to attack him. Let's not forget him intercepting a man who can move at the speed of light as said man was charging straight at Luffy.
• Mook Horror Show: Causes one of these while he rampaged across Marineford. You can see it here, in which we get to look from a soldier's point of view while he flies in the atmosphere after being tossed by Whitebeard.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: The only way to describe what he does to Akainu after he killed Ace in the anime. It's almost enough to make you feel sorry for the poor bastard.
• Non-Indicative Name: Or nickname, in this case. Despite being named "Whitebeard", he has no beard. This is averted in the original language since, in Japanese, "beard" and "moustache" are spelled with the same word, so his name fits his moustache.
• No Place for Me There: Once Luffy has freed Ace and the brothers are moving to escape, Whitebeard orders his crew to follow suit. But he stays behind, both to singlehandedly cover their retreat, and because he believes the world is ready to move past him.
  Whitebeard: I'm a relic of a bygone era!! No ship can carry me into the New Age!!
• Not Afraid to Die: In an SBS, it is revealed that, before Marineford's war, he ripped off all the medical devices that had been keeping his health stable and left his medical team in a safe place, not allowing them to fight because, by this point, he's ready to die.
• Number of the Beast: It is revealed in an artbook that he stands at 666 cm tall.
• One-Man Army: True to his title, during the battle in Marineford, Newgate does more damage to the Marines than his entire crew and allies combined.
• Only a Flesh Wound: Refers to his stab wound by Squard, after the latter tries to pull a Redemption Equals Death, as "a little scratch", and having nearly half of his head burnt clean off by Akainu merely gets him to speak one sentence in Tranquil Fury mode: "I'm just getting started".
• Only Sane Man: During his time as a Rocks Pirate, Newgate was the only one to not constantly argue with his crewmates, and judging from what he said to Oden, it was not a position he enjoyed. When the crew first appeared at God Valley, Whitebeard's first concern (aside from grumbling about Rocks ordering him around) was to verify the presence of the prize Devil Fruits for the Celestial Dragons' hunting game.
• Papa Wolf: Never kill or threaten to kill a member of his crew; his wrath over hurting his men is infamous in-universe. Doing so will get you a war you have a high probability of losing... if you have the entire planet's military force backing you up. With anything less it's a guarantee.
  • Usually when a rival asks one of his crewmembers to join the rival's crew, he'll let it slide — as shown when Shanks asked Marco to join him. Probably because he knows it's a joke, and of the sheer devotion of his men. However, when Roger decided to recruit Kozuki Oden in the past, Whitebeard was so outraged he caused an island to shake!... but grudgingly allowed to loan him for a year once Oden himself begged him.
• Parental Abandonment: Implied. Even though even as kid he was still amazingly strong◊, and could take anything he wanted, he eventually decided the greatest treasure he could own is a family, which could imply that he never had one.
• Person of Mass Destruction: The Tremor-Tremor Fruit grants him the power to create shockwaves powerful enough to "break the Earth apart". That means earthquakes on land, tsunamis at sea, and god help you if he wants to give your face a taste of that power.
• Plot-Triggering Death: His demise causes the birth of a new era of piracy.
• Rasputinian Death: Half his face melted off, he's slashed and stabbed 267 times, hit by more than 152 bullets and 46 cannon shots, and takes a fist of magma through his chest, all in one battle... but when the jacket comes off, there is not a single scar on his back, as he never showed it to the enemy.
• Red Baron: He's always referred as "Whitebeard", never as "Edward Newgate".
• Refusal of the Call: Whitebeard can easily be the next Pirate King if he really wants but is not interested in the title and is content with having a family. Before Gold Roger set off to get captured by the Marines, he offered Whitebeard the information on how to get to Laugh Tale, but Whitebeard refused, bluntly telling Roger that he's not interested in going there.
• Required Secondary Powers: The reason he's able to make such good use of the Tremor-Tremor fruit is because he was already strong and tough enough to survive being on ground zero for an earthquake every time he uses his abilities.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After Ace's death, Whitebeard beats the every loving crap out of Akainu and nearly sinks Marineford into the sea. He then nearly splits Blackbeard in half for having betrayed him, killed Thatch, and indirectly killing Ace by turning him in to the Marines.
• Sacrificial Lion: One of the few characters to die in One Piece outside of a flashback, and his death was a turning point in the pirate world.
• Shockwave Clap: Thanks to his Devil Fruit power, he can even create quakes in the air. He creates shockwaves by punching the air, causing it to crack. As Oden's flashback shows, Whitebeard could make these shockwaves with Haki alone while battling Gol D. Roger.
• Shout-Out: Whitebeard dies remaining on his feet, while his body has been wounded by multiple weapon, very smilarly to Musashibo Benkei's iconic one. To add more similarities, Whitebeard wields a bisento just like Benkei.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Teach tries to run his mouth when they meet at Marineford. Whitebeard responds with a spear to the shoulder.
• Signature Laugh: "Gurararara!"
• Sphere of Power: He can create a "Quake Bubble" around his fist or the blade of his bisento. It's like being punched by the force of an earthquake.
• Stay in the Kitchen: When Oda was asked in an SBS why there were no female members of the Whitebeard Pirates who fought at Marineford, he explained that the crew's only females were nurses because Whitebeard's set of morals led him not to allow women on his ship as fighters. However, in the past Whitey Bay appears as a member of the Moby Dick's crew before becoming the captain of her own crew. In essence, it's more likely that Whitebeard and crew didn't want women near the sheer damage they unleash on their enemies.
• Strong Empire, Shriveled Emperor: Zigzagged to hell and back. He's leader of one of the most powerful crew in the world who controls and protects a lot of territory, but we first see him hooked up to various life support equipment while being attended by nurses. During the Paramount War, he insists on taking all that stuff off so as to not engender pity and derision from the enemy and his subordinates note that this man is but a pale shadow of his former self. On the other hand, he's still a towering bulk of muscle and even at death's door he still deals more damage than his entire crew combined.
• Super Drowning Skills: As with all Devil Fruit users he would sink like a stone in water, but he's not stupid enough to allow himself to be put in such a situation.
• Superpower Lottery: The Tremor-Tremor Fruit is, put simply, the power to break things, and there is no meaningful upper limit on what it can break; the sky, the earth, the sea, a person's body... There's a reason it's got a reputation as one the world's most powerful and sought-after fruits — whoever can harness its might is quite literally destruction incarnate and, according to Sengoku, Whitebeard could destroy the world with this Devil Fruit. Blackbeard takes the first opportunity to kill Whitebeard for the specific reason to steal the Tremor Tremor Fruit power.
• Super-Toughness: Despite being old and sick, Whitebeard is still tough enough to shake off cannonballs and slashes like they were nothing. During the war, he takes a lot of hits, including a magma punch that destroys half of his face, but rarely flinches. One of the few times Whitebeard genuinely feels pain, is when Akainu punches him with a magma punch in his chest right after Whitebeard has been struck by his sickness.
• Sword Beam: He can infuse his bisento with the Tremor-Tremor Fruit's powers to send a massive shockwave towards anything he swings it at. You do not want to be in the way.
• Token Good Teammate: The Four Emperors don't work together, but Whitebeard is the most outwardly benevolent of the Four besides Shanks due to his philanthropic care of his homeland, his selfless protection of territories against malicious pirates like Fish-Man Island using his influence, and his overall considerate familial camaraderie among his crew members. He is also the only known former crewman of the Rocks pirates to not be a villain, and judging from flashbacks around that time, Whitebeard wasn't particularly malicious even then.
• Torso with a View: He gets two gaping holes put through him during the Paramount War but still manages to push through these injuries for a bit longer.
• Tranquil Fury: Goes into this state after Ace is killed by Akainu and then proceeds to return the favor.
• True Companions: For the World's Strongest Man, who could have had anything this world had to offer... this is all he ever wanted. He succeeded.
• Unstoppable Rage: When the twenty-three Marine ships watching him are instantly annihilated after the news that Ace is about to be executed, you know the World Government fucked up, right? And after Ace is killed, he proceeds to beat the shit out of Akainu and cut the entire damn island in half!
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His decision to adopt a young Teach would cause him to rise as Blackbeard many years later and become one of the Big Bad of the series and take Whitebeard's life later.
• Unwitting Pawn:
  • Akainu tries to make him one by turning his beloved sons against him. It backfires magnificently.
  • Played Straight with Blackbeard since him giving Ace to the Marines lured Whitebeard out and weakened him to the point that Blackbeard could kill him and take his power.
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Oda has said in an interview that Whitebeard's design draws inspiration from an elderly barkeep at a place he used to visit with his former editor. Said barkeep sadly passed away in 2007.
• Vibration Manipulation: Whitebeard's Devil Fruit power allows him to manipulate vibrations in a multitude of ways. Examples include causing a "hypocentrum" inside John Giant's body with a punch and imbuing his bisento with his power to increase its offensive capabilities tremendously, such that with one swing of it he can mow down dozens of Marine mooks at once.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: The unbuttoned-top kind.
• Worf Had the Flu:
  • Since the beginning of the war, Whitebeard was already a foot-and-a-half in the grave thanks to his illness. Reasons why he took his time to join the fight: his movements were extremely slow and measured, his dodging abilities non-existent as put by Marco; it should have been impossible for Squard to stab Whitebeard, and in several instances he had to stop to catch his breath, his heart barely working right. That rampage was done by a half-blind, half-deaf, arthritic 72-year-old shadow of its former self. World's Strongest Man, indeed. You may now shit yourself as you imagine what this guy would have looked like in his prime at full strength and pissed off, and it is all but stated that in his prime, the World Government wouldn't have even dreamed of looking at him funny.
  • It's stated that the only reason he didn't end Blackbeard then and there was because his body just couldn't go any further, forcing him to pause instead of landing the finishing blow before his target could recover. Had he been in a little better shape, Blackbeard would be dead.
• World's Strongest Man: Literally referred to as such, and he more than lives up to it. Even without his Devil Fruit, he's strong beyond even the most superhuman beings in the setting and can give even the World Government's strongest fighters a run for their money. Back when Roger was alive, the two were contenders for the title. Though it's noted that being the "Strongest Pirate" isn't exactly the same thing as being literally the most physically powerful.
• Worthy Opponent: To Sengoku. Also, the commander-in-chief of the Marines says he was the best of the pirates.
  • There was also definitely mutual respect between him and Roger. As for his fellow Emperors, Shanks shared his former captain's respect for Newgate (and Whitebeard in turn called him a "brat," but was aware of his strength), Big Mom at least implies that she wouldn't have considered fighting him without an alliance with the Giants, and Kaido sounds at least impressed with how he died.

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