Edward Newgate

Personality
Edward Newgate was a cheerful and carefree person during his younger years, prior to commanding his own ship and becoming known as Whitebeard. Due to being an orphan who grew up in poverty, Newgate had a strong desire for a family, which he saw as the greatest treasure one could have. He was not ashamed of this wish, which was considered strange and humorous among his pirate peers.

His reign on the sea, reputation, and foreboding power made him seemingly overconfident and fearless. In initial appearances, he seemed unable to see any cause for alarm on any decision he made and refused all advice given to him, such as his nurse telling him not to drink heavily or Shanks warning him of Blackbeard. However, he was much more thoughtful than he initially appeared to be. Actions that initially seemed to be the result of thoughtless, headstrong bravado actually had strong reasons behind them; his loud declaration that Fish-Man Island belonged to him freed the island from all pirates and slavery, and his insistence that Blackbeard be punished was merely a cover for Ace, who had set out after him against Whitebeard's wishes.

I am only one man with one heart...Call me a demon, call me a monster...but I can't be the strongest forever...!!!

Though he may seemed to have an overgrown ego, Whitebeard knew deep down that he was nothing but a single man and was fully aware of his own mortality. He knew that the youth were the keys to the future, and that their lives were far more important than his own. Because of this, he was not afraid of sacrificing himself for the safety of those he considered his children. Like Gol D. Roger, Whitebeard believed that a child should not be responsible for their parents' sins. Yet another belief he held is that any path a man wished to follow in life was fine by him, as long as they did not regret it.

Despite his fierce reputation, Whitebeard was a compassionate man, having adopted countless people of different backgrounds into his crew as his foster children, such as Squard, whose life was devastated by Roger killing his crew, or Teach, who requested to join his crew due to being homeless. Marco stated that the main reason the Whitebeard Pirates held such strong loyalty to their captain was due to Newgate's paternal-like attitude, deeply caring for them like a father. Contrary to the tyrannical Kaidou and Charlotte Linlin, Whitebeard used his power and influence as one of the Four Emperors for humanitarian purposes. He liberated and protected Fish-Man Island from slavery, an act which touched the hearts of the normally human-distrusting citizens of Ryugu Kingdom, and invested the majority of his riches to support his homeland of Sphinx, an once poor, lawless island. Whitebeard was understanding and forgiving of his subordinates, going to great lengths to rescue any who were in great danger, no matter the cost. Whitebeard was naturally protective of his family and did not tolerate the idea of letting a crewmate join someone else's crew, especially a rival one. In fact, the notion of separating himself from just one of them and for a short time infuriated him. Even if he did accept doing so, it was reluctantly and while showing much annoyance.

Whitebeard was very careful about choosing a person to be included in his crew, depending on their personality and nature. This cautiousness mainly stemmed from his time as a member of the Rocks Pirates, as the violent and poor relationship among the members of that crew left a negative impact on Whitebeard. For this reason, Whitebeard was fully against letting someone like Kozuki Oden join his crew, since the Samurai was rebellious by nature. Still, Whitebeard showed enough open-mindedness to give Oden a chance to prove himself in a challenge and eventually allowed the Kuri daimyo to be part of his crew after the latter prioritized the life of an innocent woman over the challenge itself.

A distinguishing feature of Whitebeard's nature was his high moral standards: he never forgave the death of a crewmate by another, and believed that a man could not live without some form of honor code. When confronted by Blackbeard, he intended to avenge Thatch, despite being close to death at the time. However, he was willing to go against his personal code under certain circumstances, if he felt the risk would not be worth the safety of his crew.

Whitebeard seemed to enjoy talking about the past; when Shanks visited his ship, the first thing Newgate did was recollect his memories from the last twenty-two years, particularly those involving old rivals like Roger, Garp and Sengoku. People that were children at that time were still viewed as children in Whitebeard's eyes, no matter how powerful they had grew since. Despite fond memories of his time as a pirate captain, Whitebeard was not proud of his former association with the Rocks Pirates due to the lack of camaraderie among members, thus he rarely referred to those times unless in a negative tone.

Regardless of his poor health at the time, Whitebeard liked drinking, to the point that bringing and sharing a drink with him (preferably of high quality and very expensive) was viewed as enough of a respectful gesture to engage a conversation. This was seen in his encounters with Shanks, Gol D. Roger, and Shiki; still, this did not guarantee complete cooperation from him, judging from the nature of these conversations.

Like other characters in One Piece, he had a unique laugh, which was "Gu ra ra ra ra". Like Perona, his laugh is similar to the name of his Devil Fruit, the Gura Gura no Mi. However in the anime (before the Marineford Arc) and Gigant Battle, his laugh was changed to a regular "Ha ha ha ha ha". In the American Shonen Jump, his laugh is changed to "Gu ha ha ha ha".

Crew
It'd be a shame if you died here, kid. If you still want to wreak havoc on this sea, bear my name on your back and go wild as much as you like! Become my son!



Whitebeard considered every single member of his crew, as well as his subordinate crews, his "sons". His strong love for his crew and subordinate crews 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.

Any crewmember from Whitebeard's crew who killed another crewmember were to be hunted down by the commander of that former crew member's division. Whitebeard's strong stand against crewmate killing was based on his fatherly stance over every member of his crew; as a result of this treatment, the whole crew affectionately referred to him as "Pops" or "Old Man" (オヤジ). However, Whitebeard did not force commanders to hunt down wayward crew members if he had an uneasy feeling about the situation; in the case of Blackbeard, Whitebeard tried to make an exception and stop Ace from hunting him down, but Ace did so anyway for the sake of Whitebeard's honor.

This was not blind loyalty, as Whitebeard was willing to go to war with the World Government to save Ace. In addition, Whitebeard took full responsibility for the actions of his crew and kept a stern outward appearance for non-crew members, falsely claiming to outsiders that he ordered Ace to hunt down Blackbeard. Whitebeard also treated all of his "sons" and "daughters" equally, and claimed to Squard that Ace was no different than any other, despite being Roger's son. In battle, while this unshakable bond between him and his crew stood, Whitebeard's subordinates knew better than to get in the way of their captain.

Marco
Out of everybody within his crew, Marco was perhaps the closest person Whitebeard had to a right-hand man. During the initial stages of the Marineford War, Marco stood right by Whitebeard's side, informing him of battlefield intel, protecting him from long-range assaults, listening to his comments and orders, and was also the only one to rush to Whitebeard's aid after the latter got stabbed by Squard, showing little tolerance to the perpetrator for harming his captain. Later, Marco attempted to assist his captain in fighting Blackbeard, but was ultimately ordered to stand down. After Whitebeard's death, Marco was moved to tears, much like the rest of his crewmates, and made sure to carry out his captain's final order to escort Luffy to safety. Marco was also the one who instigated the Payback War against Blackbeard, gathering the remnants of the Whitebeard Pirates to hunt down the crew's traitor and main responsible for Whitebeard and Ace's deaths, but failed to accomplish his revenge.

As a testament to Whitebeard and Marco's closeness, the latter was aware of the former's childhood circumstances as an orphan of Sphinx, which led to Whitebeard's career of piracy. Since his old captain had spent much of his fortune aiding his struggling homeland, Marco found himself with the duty of protecting the one thing that still remained from Whitebeard's past, becoming a local doctor who took care of the health of the locals. Marco teared up when he told Nekomamushi about Whitebeard's love for the land he had been born into, knowing that it was the reason his captain was so stingy with money.

Portgas D. Ace
Whitebeard first became aware of Portgas D. Ace while the latter was still a rookie, being curious and impressed by the rapid growth and progress of the youngster's career as a pirate captain.



After easily defeating him, Whitebeard eventually revealed himself to be a magnanimous man to Ace and his crew, giving him the chance to join his family as his son. Initially, Ace refused this offer and attempted to kill Whitebeard nearly a hundred times, only to fail at each one. As he further bonded with Whitebeard's crewmates, who already treated him as family, Ace eventually grew to respect Whitebeard so much that he viewed him as a proper father figure, due to his hatred of his actual father, Gol D. Roger. Ace claimed to Sengoku that he believed Whitebeard would become Pirate King.

As Ace's respect for Whitebeard grew, so did his honor as one of the Whitebeard Pirates. Because of this, he was one of the most outraged members regarding Thatch's murder, viewing such a thing as an unforgivable offense to Whitebeard's ideals. Although Whitebeard advised him not to venture into the hunt for Teach, Ace left without permission and, in the end, Whitebeard took responsibility for Ace's mistakes without hesitation by going to Marineford to save him from execution. After Ace was freed from the gallows, Whitebeard asked him if he had been a good father to him, and felt satisfied once Ace stated that he was a good father. Ace's death was enough to make Whitebeard stop holding back the full destructiveness of his Devil Fruit, with him targeting Ace's killer, Akainu, almost immediately after.

Kozuki Oden
From their first meeting and their brief fight, Whitebeard understood how crazy and strong Oden was. He initially disagreed on taking Oden into the crew as he saw him as a dangerous type and not capable of submitting to anyone, but eventually after Oden passed a hard test of endurance, Whitebeard decided to take him on board his ship as his brother and promised him the adventure of a lifetime.

He got very angry when Roger asked him to borrow Oden and then got annoyed when Oden himself asked him, hating just the idea that he could leave his crew, even if only for a short time. He let Oden go without saying goodbye, but still ordered his crew to leave some supplies for him and his family.

Whitebeard was well aware of Oden's strength and entrusted him with the command of the second division. He left the command vacant for a long time also after his departure, since he had not received any news of his death until several years after it happened.

Izou
Initially, Izou had a hostile relationship with Whitebeard, which stemmed from the painful and humiliating treatment Izou's master, Oden, was receiving as part of the challenge Whitebeard had given the daimyo in order to join his crew. Izou stated that he would make Whitebeard pay for putting his master through so much trouble. This hostility dissipated a bit when Oden was formally inducted into the Whitebeard Pirates, with Izou sticking around for Oden's sake.

Izou eventually grew fond of his new group and became a full-fledged member, preferring to stay with the Whitebeard Pirates when Oden decided to join the Roger Pirates. He was eventually promoted to commander of the sixteenth division of the crew, showing that he had earned Whitebeard's respect as a leader and fighter.

Subordinate Crews
Aside from their own 1600 member crew, the Whitebeard Pirates had many subordinate crews working in the New World. Each one of the pirate captains was an infamous pirate who had made a name for him or herself in the New World. There seemed to be at least 43 crews underneath Whitebeard. Whitebeard treated all of his long-time subordinate crews just like his own crew, as though they were his own sons, though some of them were originally from the main crew before becoming captains of their own crews. They all seemed to know Ace, at least, and were willing to help Whitebeard's cause when Ace was about to be executed at Marineford; however, they were not aware that Ace was Roger's son until around the time Ace died. These New World subordinate crews included "Bohemian Knight" Doma, "Thunder Lord" McGuy, the Decalvan Brothers, "Great Whirlpool Spider" Squard, Little Oars Jr., and the "Ice Witch" Whitey Bay.

Squard


After losing his entire crew to Roger, Squard was taken in by Whitebeard, who treated him like a son and saved him from the loneliness of losing all of his comrades. Squard, in return, thought of Whitebeard as a father figure, but felt betrayed when he thought that Whitebeard was planning to sacrifice all of his subordinate crews to save Ace, leading him to stab the Emperor in a surprise attack. When Whitebeard proved otherwise, Squard broke down in tears at his mistake. He later attempted to redeem himself at the cost of his own life by charging head-first into battle, but Whitebeard himself stopped and reprimanded him.

Jinbe
Because of his role as a protector of Fish-Man Island, Whitebeard was considered a hero by many Fish-Men, in particular Jinbe of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. Jinbe had expressed many times that he owed a great deal of gratitude to the Emperor and refused to participate in the war against Whitebeard, even if it meant losing his Warlord of the Sea title and being imprisoned in Impel Down. When Jinbe arrived at Marineford with the other escapees from Impel Down, the first thing he did was announce his formal resignation from the Warlords to Sengoku.

Over the years, Jinbe's respect for Whitebeard had grown to the point where he was ready to declare himself as an adversary to anyone or anything with ill intent upon the Emperor's life, which is why he immediately engaged in battle against Ace on their first encounter, since Ace was out to assassinate Whitebeard at that time.

Monkey D. Luffy


Whitebeard seemed to have some form of respect for Luffy after hearing about him from both Ace and Shanks; Ace had shown excitement that Luffy was on the Grand Line, and Shanks had stated that he had given up his arm on a "bet on the New Age", referring to Luffy. After showing his fierce tenacity, Luffy had managed to gain Whitebeard's respect. Whitebeard went as far as assigning his top commander, Marco, to act as Luffy's bodyguard during the war and "would not have forgiven him" if Luffy had died.

As the war went on, his respect for Luffy increased after witnessing Luffy's true potential, and Whitebeard decided to command all his forces to fully support Luffy with all their might, a decision which even surprised his own men. This also marks the first time that Whitebeard called him by his name, Straw Hat Luffy, instead of "brat", proving that Whitebeard came to acknowledge him and his strength through the course of the war. Luffy respected Whitebeard as well, believing that anyone whom Ace admires cannot be a bad person, and was willing to intercept an attack from Crocodile aimed at Whitebeard's life before he even met him in person.

Neptune
Whitebeard was an old friend of King Neptune. Their friendship stemmed from when they first drank together, and Whitebeard protected Fish-Man Island from slavery due to this friendship. Though it is unknown how they became friends, it is known that they had been friends for quite some time, as Neptune helped Whitebeard out a lot during his younger days.

Protectorates
Before his demise, Whitebeard had a number of locations under his protection. Most of them seemed to be within the brink of pirate raids, and it was only by being "owned" under his name that they were kept stable and safe, thereby earning the Emperor the gratitude of the citizens; consequentially, these territories immediately became vulnerable after his death. At least one other Emperor, Big Mom, placed Fish-Man Island under her protection while Foodvalten fell to Brownbeard. The status of Whitebeard's other former territories is currently unknown, but Blackbeard appears to have taken over most of them during his ascent to Four Emperors status, as he has over two decades of experience with the Whitebeard Pirates and thus knows which islands they were protecting.

Among Whitebeard's known territories, his own homeland of Sphinx was the most important to him. Due to the high costs of the World Nobles' heavenly tribute being impossible for a poverty-stricken place like Sphinx to afford, the island suffered from constant pirate and slaver attacks without government protection. A young, orphaned Newgate had to grow under those oppressive conditions, leading to his life as pirate, although he never valued treasure as much as the idea of family. As such, Whitebeard dedicated a majority of his riches for humanitarian aid towards Sphinx, having built a peaceful village for the locals to live in.

Enemies
Roger... Garp... Sengoku... there aren't very many people who know about the sea back then.

Gol D. Roger
Despite having been rivals with Gol D. Roger, Whitebeard held great respect for him. They seemingly had multiple duels upon their lives, with one instance in particular leading to a friendly gift exchange between their crewmembers after three days of endless battling. During this occasion, Whitebeard and Roger held a casual conversation with Kozuki Oden joining in, showing both captains were comfortable with each other's presence. However, Whitebeard did not like Roger's attempt to "borrow" Oden as a crewmate for the Roger Pirates, and was further angered when Oden did show interest in switching crews.

Not long before his death, Roger met with Whitebeard on an island to have what seemed to be an entirely cordial drinking session, with Roger even offering to give the location of Laugh Tale to Whitebeard, and when Whitebeard asked Roger about the Will of D., Roger willingly told him about it. Upon learning that Ace was his rival's son, Whitebeard did not see his bloodline as an inconvenience, and even tried to inspire Ace to respect Roger as his father.

Impel Down Convicts
Whitebeard made many enemies over the years besides the other Emperors and the World Government. Many prisoners in the lower levels of Impel Down wished to kill him because of personal grudges.

Crocodile


At some point in the past, right after attaining the position of one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, Crocodile suffered a humiliating defeat against Whitebeard in the New World, enough to shatter his ambitions of becoming Pirate King for a while. Knowing he could not obtain the title of Pirate King without military might to challenge the likes of Whitebeard, Crocodile fled back to Paradise, where he settled in Arabasta in order to found Baroque Works and eventually conquer the kingdom, so he could search it for one of the Ancient Weapons, Pluton.

Crocodile was one of the many Impel Down convicts who sought revenge against Whitebeard. While he did attempt to take Whitebeard's life at Marineford, he was stopped from doing so by Luffy. From then on, Crocodile took a neutral role in the war, fighting both Marines and Whitebeard's men, with Whitebeard himself showing some annoyance towards Crocodile's attacks on his crew.

Crocodile seemed disappointed about Whitebeard's power weakening with age, claiming that the Emperor barely resembled the man who had utterly defeated him years ago. Still, by the end of the war, Crocodile started fighting for Whitebeard's side, as he preferred the Marines to not have a complete win.

Marines
Whitebeard respected both Monkey D. Garp and Sengoku, a respect which was mutual. He considered them among the few people that knew the seas from Roger's era who are still alive in the present. On the other hand, he considered other younger Marines to be "brats" and refused to give any of them, including the powerful admirals, much respect. However, Sakazuki earned Whitebeard's wrath for killing Ace, and Whitebeard brutally injured him.

Marshall D. Teach


Marshall D. Teach, also known as Blackbeard, was one of Whitebeard's oldest crewmates, having joined the crew at twelve years old. When Teach claimed to be an orphan with nowhere else to go, Whitebeard quickly allowed him to join out of sympathy.

Teach ultimately became Whitebeard's greatest enemy for killing Thatch and enabling Ace's capture and execution. Claiming that Blackbeard alone was the only one whom he refused to consider his son, Whitebeard attempted to take Blackbeard's life prior to his death, calling him an arrogant fool that was never worthy of being a part of his crew. Just before dying, Whitebeard openly declared that Blackbeard was not worthy of being Roger's successor. His last thought being his regret for allowing Teach to hurt his foster family. After Whitebeard's death, Blackbeard stole his Devil Fruit powers, conquered his territories, and usurped his post as one of the Four Emperors.

Shanks


Since none of the Four Emperors work together, any other Emperor is a threat to him and his crew. In his first appearance, Whitebeard received a letter from Shanks delivered by Shanks's newest crewmate, Rockstar. However, before even reading the letter, Whitebeard threw it away, claiming that Shanks should come in person with some expensive sake if he wanted to talk. Most of all, he refused to accept Shanks as anything more than the kid he was 22 years ago and believed he was 100 years too young to tell him what to do.

Despite being enemies, Shanks held great respect for Whitebeard, which made him willing to lend his aid to Whitebeard by preventing the Emperor Kaidou from reaching Whitebeard, allowing him to reach Marineford without any hindrance. After Whitebeard's death, Shanks saved Whitebeard's crew and their other subordinate crews and gave Whitebeard and Ace a proper burial.

Kaidou
In the past, they used to be part of the Rocks Pirates. After the incident at God Valley, they went their separate ways to form their own crews and became Emperors. Kaidou does not think highly of Whitebeard, stating that he was too soft despite being powerful. Still, he acknowledges that the once strongest man in the world had died in glory.

Under normal circumstances, they did not provoke each other. However, Kaidou saw an opportunity to eliminate his adversary prior to the impending Summit War of Marineford and did not hesitate to attempt to do so. Two years later, Kaidou cursed Whitebeard for being able to die while he remained alive.

Whitebeard considered Kaidou a powerful and fearsome pirate and for this, he chose not to march into Wano Country to wage war against his crew just to avenge Oden's death, knowing that it would cause many casualties.

Shiki


In the past, they used to be part of the Rocks Pirates. After the incident at God Valley, they went their separate ways to form their own respective crews.

Shiki did seemingly not have a bad relationship with Whitebeard, he thought of him as a strong man, able to take over Roger's dominion of the sea, as he said when they were drinking together on the Moby Dick and speaking about old times. Whitebeard was apparently knowledgeable about Shiki's penchant for planning.

Edward Weevil
Edward Weevil claims to be Edward Newgate's biological son. However, many doubt this claim, and it is unconfirmed whether he actually is Whitebeard's biological son or not. Weevil and his mother seek to obtain Whitebeard's fortune due to their belief that they are his rightful heirs, and to this end they have been hunting down Whitebeard's surviving allies and their subordinate crews in order to claim it. Weevil also wishes to avenge Whitebeard's death by killing the Emperor Marshall D. Teach, indicating that, at the very least, he truly believes himself to be Whitebeard's son.

Bakkin
Bakkin is the self-proclaimed lover of Whitebeard and mother of Edward Weevil. She claims and/or believes herself to have been Whitebeard's lover, and that he is the father of her son, which she believes makes her and Weevil the rightful heirs to Whitebeard's fortune. It is currently unknown if any of her claims concerning her and Weevil's relationship to Whitebeard are true or not. However, Bakkin was a fellow crewmember with Whitebeard around 40 years ago.

Rocks Pirates
Whitebeard was a brief member of the Rocks Pirates for a certain period of his life, specifically until the God Valley Incident, when the crew met its downfall.

Whitebeard did not seem to hold his old crew in high regard, rarely talking about his time as a member. He used the Rocks Pirates as a reason for dismissing Oden joining the Whitebeard Pirates, citing the daimyo's wild, rebellious nature being difficult to control and equating it to the other members of Rocks.