Updated on March 16th, 2024 by Louis Kemner: This feature about why Kuzan/Aokiji joins Blackbeard has been updated with new information and adheres to CBR’s current publication standards.

Why Did Former Admiral Aokiji Join Blackbeard?

A lot of fans were distrustful of Admiral Kuzan/Aokiji’s intentions after he joined Captain Blackbeard’s unusual pirate crew. The Marines have shown their true colors time and again throughout One Piece‘s story, provoking extreme caution and distrust among the pirates. In that same vein, the Marines crave power just as much as pirates do. When Aokiji and Akainu went head-to-head for the title of Fleet Admiral, Aokiji realized that in order to achieve the power he craved, he would need to throw the rule book into the sea. While the Navy and the World Government both claimed to be bastions of true justice and honor in the world, characters like Admiral Aokiji/Kuzan and certainly Admiral Akainu proved otherwise. The Navy was filled with selfish, flawed people who would betray or abandon anyone to further their own interests, Aokiji included.

One Piece Chapter 1081, for a recent reference, featured a flashback to just after Akainu defeated Aokiji on Punk Hazard. Aokiji stumbled upon the Blackbeard Pirates on a certain island called Fullalead and froze a good number of them as they attempted to take his powerful Logia-type Devil Fruit. Blackbeard sought him out, wanting to ask the former Admiral to undo his Devil Fruit powers. Having spent years as a Marine pursuing pirates, Aokiji was reluctant at first, but he somehow hits it off with the pirates. After sharing a few drinks and unfreezing the pirates, Aokiji explained what had happened during the fight with Akainu.

After hearing Aokiji’s words, the Blackbeard Pirates shared some of their own intel. They told Aokiji/Kuzan about the location of another Road Poneglyph, giving a few details about the man with a burn scar. However, one of Blackbeard’s men, Lafitte, had other ideas. He planned to steal Aokiji’s Devil Fruit power, almost resulting in a full-scale battle between the two forces. Blackbeard managed to calm the situation, and as a gesture of goodwill, Blackbeard boldly offered Aokiji a place on his ship, not just as a crew member, but as the 10th Titanic Captain of the Blackbeard Pirates. Blackbeard explained that pirates need to work together to further their own interests, do what they want, and seek their own sense of justice.

Since the notion appealed to Kuzan, he accepted Blackbeard’s offer and became a pirate. The Blackbeard Pirates are also associated with themes of luck and destiny, so perhaps Aokiji, as the newest Blackbeard pirate, saw that crew as the route to his new, better future, far away from the brutal Admiral Akainu.

One Piece’s Kuzan Hasn’t Gone Bad – But He Still Could

As recent One Piece manga chapters showed in the ongoing Final Saga, former Admiral Kuzan is not following Blackbeard out of loyalty, but rather because the Emperor offered him freedom. By relying on Blackbeard’s backing, Kuzan will be able to enforce justice as he sees fit without much Marine interference. After all, One Piece has shown that even the Marines cannot attack an Emperor freely, given the incredible power of each individual Emperor.

However, just because Kuzan hasn’t gone totally bad yet doesn’t mean he won’t in the future. The Blackbeard Pirates are ruthless. They lack the moral compass that guides some of One Piece‘s more fun-loving pirates, so Kuzan’s association with them may eventually lead him down a darker path. It’s also worth noting that Kuzan’s choice to join the Blackbeard Pirates still does not reveal his true intentions. It could be an undercover operation, or something even more twisted.

It’s possible that Aokiji/Kuzan might turn against Captain Blackbeard at a critical moment when protagonist Monkey D. Luffy and Blackbeard inevitably face off later in the Final Saga to decide the fate of the world. Other anime heroes turned villains have redeemed them in similar plotlines, after all, such as Obito Uchiha in Naruto and Uryu Ishida in Bleach. Each of them seemingly went dark, only to support the heroes and fight the real villains at the 11th hour.

Kuzan has always had a powerful sense of justice, which makes his embracing of the pirate life difficult for fans to process. Having been beaten by his mentor, perhaps his view or even his perception of how to obtain justice has changed. Skewed by a hunger for power and vengeance, he will get the answers he’s been searching for, no matter the method or the cost. If that’s the case, he is already more of a pirate than anyone could have imagined, and it won’t be long before he’s completely corrupt.

On the other hand, he could surprise fans entirely. Until author Eiichiro Oda reveals more, Kuzan remains a mystery — potentially a great ally or a highly dangerous enemy during One Piece‘s final war.

Why Does Admiral Aokiji/Kuzan Fit In With The Blackbeard Pirates?

At a glance, it may seem bizarre for a powerful Navy officer like Admiral Aokiji/Kuzan to join one of the most notorious and chaotic pirate crews on the high seas, but there are a few factors that made this odd alliance make more sense, at least on the face of it. For one thing, One Piece fans believe that Captain Blackbeard is making a conscious effort to recruit powerful Devil Fruit users to his crew and make his fleet even stronger, and Admiral Kuzan has one of the strongest Logia-type fruits of them all, aside from Akainu’s and Kizaru’s.

Kuzan’s sheer firepower alone would make him an appealing recruit for Captain Blackbeard, and it’s little wonder Kuzan was appointed the Titanic Captain of Blackbeard’s 10th ship. Strength is often equated with respect and authority among shonen villains, and the Blackbeard Pirates are no different. That’s evidently why Blackbeard recruited the likes of Shiryu of the Rain and Pizarro from Impel Down.

Another major factor is the strange overlap between the pirate world and the Navy, which has been in place since One Piece‘s earliest days. Even if the Navy and various pirate crews are always at odds, they sometimes see each other as assets to be used in twisted ways. The main example was the Seven Warlords of the Sea system, where powerful pirates had their bounties cleared in exchange for acting on the Navy’s behalf when asked. Dracule Mihawk was the first known example, blurring the line between hero and villain as he fought on the Navy’s behalf. The Navy higher-ups viewed the Warlords in a negative light but still saw their value until Fujitora proposed the disbandment of the Warlord system off-screen during the Wano arc. One Piece thus already had a precedent for fluidity between the pirates and Navy, and now, the Final Saga is doing the same thing in the opposite direction.

In light of all that, it makes a weird kind of sense for a Navy Admiral, of all people, to join a powerful pirate crew as the world becomes ever more chaotic and unstable. The various Warlords and now Aokiji have switched sides for practical and personal reasons, from self-preservation to finding one’s own destiny with newfound authority and freedom. Now the system has come full circle, from pirates becoming Navy warriors to Navy officers becoming pirates, further blurring the line as the world prepares itself for the final struggle. Pirates like Blackbeard are always misfits in a world run by the World Government, and Aokiji/Kuzan eventually felt like he didn’t belong in the Navy during his clashes with Akainu, so naturally, he joined a gang of fellow misfits to find his own fate, Blackbeard style.