Laffitte

Lafitte (ラフィット, Rafitto) is the navigator of the Blackbeard pirates.

Appearance
Lafitte is incredibly pale and sickly looking, and tap dances while he walks because of his shoes (though his black tap dancing shoes don't seem to affect his stealthiness). He is also very tall, as much so as the majority of his crewmates, and slim. He wears an off-white collared longsleeve shirt patterned with yellow crosses and blue-black jumper pants. His most distinguishing accessories are his classic black tophat and wooden cane, besides which he also wears a pair of gold hoop earrings. His lips are an abnormally dark red - it is unknown if he artificially colors them. His overall appearance resembles that of a Mime.

Personality
During his tenure as a policeman, Lafitte was excessively cruel and violent, to the point of being exiled from West Blue.

In contradiction to his past, Lafitte now seems to be a calm and quiet individual. He has yet to show the cruelty of his past, and he apparently did not attempt to assist in fighting alongside his crew when Portgas D. Ace attacked, whistling as he ran away with the rest of the crew to a safe watching distance. Lafitte is a heavy believer of luck, fate, and dreams.

Abilities and Powers
As a former policeman, Lafitte had authority and power over citizens. However, due to his cruelty, he lost this authority when he was exiled.

As a navigator, Lafitte guides the rest of the Blackbeard pirates through the open seas. His level of navigational skills are as of yet unknown, though it is expected he is a reasonably good navigator to navigate through the Grand Line and the Calm Belt. Interestingly, despite his occupation, he is not seen wearing a Log Pose, which is essential in navigating in the Grand Line.

He infiltrated Mariejois and bypassed detection of several high ranking Marines and Shichibukai while wearing tap shoes, until he intentionally made his presence noticed. In the Anime, he is shown being able to travel incredible speed, rivaling CP9's Soru technique.

Later he is revealed to (apparently) possess some sort of Devil Fruit that allows him to transform his arms into wings and fly. At this point, it's unknown whether this is a Paramecia or Zoan type fruit.

At Marineford, it is revealed that he also has the ability to hypnotize. This ability could possibly have some relationship to his fruit powers, but this is unconfirmed

He also possesses a Shikomizue (literally, prepared cane; he has a sword hidden in a cane, which he is often holding), he had only been seen using once; during the Blackbeard Pirates collective attack on WhiteBeard.

Past
He used to be a policeman/peace keeper in West Blue, but he became a pirate after being exiled from the police force and banned from the West Blue for being excessively violent and unnecessarily cruel.

Jaya Arc
He first appears when he makes his presence known in the middle of a meeting between the Shichibukai and high-ranking Marine officials at Mariejois, after having successfully made his way unnoticed and uninvited to a high-story window (made even more impressive by the fact that he was wearing tap shoes). He politely requests to take part in the meeting, which is being held to determine a new Shichibukai to fill the position that was previously Crocodile's, in order to nominate his captain, Marshall D. Teach, otherwise known as Blackbeard.

Post-Enies Lobby Arc
He is next seen looting a town his crew had just ransacked on Banaro Island, where Ace finally catches up to Blackbeard, three days before the Straw Hats' new bounties are released following the Enies Lobby incident. Mainly, he acts as a bystander, doing nothing to try to hinder Ace as the Whitebeard Second Division Commander attacks, unlike his fellow crewmates Van Auger and Jesus Burgess.

Impel Down Arc
While Luffy is rioting on Level 4, on his way back out of Impel Down to continue to pursue Ace to Marineford, Lafitte arrives at Impel Down alongside his captain and crew. They force their way into the great prison with obvious hostility - while their objective in doing so during such a chaotic time is initially unknown, recent developments reveal that Blackbeard manages to recruit several impressive new crewmen from Level 6: Eternal Hell. Inside Impel Down, the Blackbeard Pirates appear in front of Luffy and the other rioters on Level 4.

After exchanging words with Impel Down's mass breakout army, Lafitte and the rest of the crew are poisoned by Magellan's Hydra technique. Later, the whole crew is saved by an antidote from former Chief Guard Shiryuu, who accepts Blackbeard's offer and joins their crew.

Whitebeard War
Lafitte is spotted along with the other members of the Blackbeard Pirates, new and old, on the execution platform where they arrived to watch the events unfold on the battlefield. Blackbeard, who apparently brought his crew back to Marineford so that he could witness Whitebeard's death, exclaims that he is happy to have arrived in time to do so. He revealed to Sengoku that before the Blackbeard Pirates left for Impel Down, he hypnotized the Marines in the control room to open the Gates of Justice for any ship that approaches, which helped Luffy and his fellow Impel Down escapees arrive to Marineford in the first place. He then joins his crew in striking down Whitebeard, attacking him with an unseen weapon, most likely a pistol.

After Whitebeard dies, Lafitte, seen holding a pistol, assists his crewmates in covering Whitebeard with a black cloth and guards Blackbeard as he starts to demonstrate his powers. He warns the marines that there is no entry.

Lafitte and the other Blackbeard Pirates are later attacked by a shockwave created by Sengoku in his Buddha form. Moments after Blackbeard fought against Sengoku and Monkey D. Garp, Red-Haired Shanks arrives on the battlefield. He along with the other Blackbeard pirates leave, instead of fighting the Red Haired Pirates.

Translation and Dub Issues
In the edited for TV FUNimation dub, his name is pronounced with an "R" as "Raffit", presumably as a hold-over from the set of terms FUNimation were forced to use to keep consistency with 4kids.

On the uncut DVDs however, his name is pronounced properly with an "L" and is spelled "Lafitte" in the subs"

Trivia

 * His name may have been inspired by Jean Lafitte, a famous real-life pirate.


 * He and Shiryuu are both former World Government affiliates who were stripped of their positions and punished for abuse of privileges (excessively violent policeman exiled and murderous Impel Down Chief Guard given death sentence, respectively).
 * He and Stronger are the only members of the Blackbeard Pirates without an epithet.
 * His appearance resembles a female Japanese singer called Iwatani Tokiko (岩谷時子). When singing her band (Pinky and the Killers)'s most famous song, Koi no Kisetsu (恋の季節), she used to dress up like a man, which may explain his somewhat-feminine appearance.