All avid fans of the One Piece franchise understand that the creator of the series, Eiichiro Oda, is a massive fan of parallels that exist throughout the story. Whether it’s the fate of a kingdom that’s paralleled by another which has come before or how the journeys of some characters mirror those of others, One Piece is filled to the brim with stories and events that influence many different parts of the story.

One of the biggest parallels in all of One Piece has to do with the main character, Luffy, and one of the central antagonists, Blackbeard. While they are polar opposites in terms of their personalities, their journeys are remarkably similar, as is the inevitable end goal they both want to achieve. So, in this article, let’s go over the journeys of Luffy and Blackbeard and see how they parallel each other!

The Same Journey

The race to become the King of the Pirates

Ever since One Piece started, fans have been hearing Luffy go on about his dream of becoming the King of the Pirates. This goal is perhaps the most iconic and famous in the entire anime industry and is likely what awaits at the end of this decades-spanning tale. However, this ambition is also shared by Blackbeard, as the villain seeks to gain the most power in the entire world by becoming the Pirate King.

Though the reason for achieving this goal couldn’t be further apart for these characters, the ultimate end remains the same, making them 2 sides of the same coin. With Luffy being revealed as the second coming of the great liberator, Sun God Nika, he seeks to achieve his dream through camaraderie and friendship, relying on his crew and friends to help him along the way while maintaining that he wants the world to be free and happy, which is seen by how he considers them all to be like his family.

I wanna live in a world where all my friends can eat all the meat they want!

Blackbeard is the polar opposite, since he is shown to kill members of his crew to get what he wants, as seen with how he acquired his Devil Fruit. His method of realizing his ambitions stands in direct opposition to how Luffy does it. Instead of saving and inspiring people to join him in helping him realize his dream, Blackbeard’s entire crew runs on a power hierarchy and is filled with the most detestable villains in the whole One Piece world. Their entire goal is to get stronger through the acquisition of overpowered Devil Fruits and the suppression of others.

In his meeting with Aokiji, Blackbeard explains that his crew isn’t one that sticks together due to something as arbitrary as friendship, rather, it’s to become the most powerful entity in the world so they can do whatever they want. This is something that contrasts with what Luffy wants but also mirrors it brilliantly, as Luffy wants to become the King of the Pirates because that’s who he believes is the freest person on the planet, who can essentially do anything he wants!

We’re not a group of good friends. We all profit from having our own agendas. That’s what makes us pirates!

Remnants Of The D. Clan

Luffy and Blackbeard are inheritors of the Will of D.

For many years now, fans have been hearing about a mysterious aspect of the story called ‘The Will of D’. While there are countless theories about what this could mean, nothing concrete is known about it yet, but the general discourse seems to be that this Will is unique to all the members of the mysterious D. Clan, and how it pertains to their journey.

So far, almost every single character bearing this initial in their names has left a massive mark on the world, whether their deeds are known about or not. Seeing as how both Monkey D. Luffy and Marshall D. Teach (Blackbeard) belong to this mysterious group, it can be inferred that the Will of D. has to do with changing the course of history, whether for good or bad.

This would work quite well with the many theories surrounding who the D. Clan might have been all those centuries ago, since the most popular ones state that they were either residents of the Ancient Kingdom or were the original members of Joyboy’s crew. Due to the World Government’s tireless efforts to erase every mention of these people, it’s essentially confirmed that this clan holds the key to taking them down.

To many, Luffy essentially exists as a reincarnation of Gol D. Roger, which is heavily alluded to in the story as well. Similarly, Blackbeard can be seen as the second coming of the notorious Rocks D. Xebec; a terrifying and villainous member of the D. Clan who served as Roger’s greatest enemy, complete with an overwhelmingly powerful crew of characters who were never really friends and was someone who had the ambition to become the King of the World for his own selfish reasons.

He (Rocks) was Roger’s first foe, and perhaps his greatest!

This is contrasted with Luffy, who wants to become the King of the Pirates for the same reason that Shanks stated Roger did. With Luffy and Blackbeard taking on the roles of Roger and Rocks respectively, they have essentially brought the same conflict to the latest generation.

Luffy and Blackbeard are fated to clash for the eventual title of the King of the Pirates. Many believe that even after the defeat of the Great Imu, the battle between these surviving vestiges of the D. Clan is where the series will finally come to a close!