The Shocking Alliance Of Cross Guild And Blackbeard Pirates, Explained 

This article contains spoilers from One Piece’s Elbaf Arc.

Key Takeaways

• Former Warlords form Cross Guild after Shichibukai system dissolution.
• Cross Guild puts bounties on Marines, leading to alliance with Blackbeard Pirates.
• Potential full-scale war between Blackbeard Pirates, Cross Guild, and Marines.

One Piece’sFinal Saga has established quite a few important players in the great game, and Oda has greatly narrowed down on the characters who he deems to be incredibly essential in the quest for the One Piece and, at the same time, the upcoming major war. Naturally, the Yonko are at the center of things, and this was backed up by Vegapunk stating that the pirate who goes on to claim the One Piece will have the fate of the entire world in their hands.

Naturally, the pirates closest to the One Piece are the Four Emperors, which attaches a certain level of importance to them. Two of the Four Emperors, in fact, have a very special role laid ahead of them by Oda, and they are Buggy of the Cross Guild, and Teach of the Blackbeard Pirates. Although the fans might not have realized it just yet, these two characters could go on to collaborate in the future, despite not having any friendship whatsoever.

The Establishment Of The Cross Guild In One Piece

• The Shichibukai Were Cut Loose By The Government Recently
• Some Former Warlords Have Finally Allied Together

The establishment of the Cross Guild was a major event in One Piece that took place at some point during the events of the Wano Country arc. The basis for the establishment of the Cross Guild was the abolition of the Shichibukai system. As fans know, the Warlords were powerful pirates who worked together with the World Government to cull the influence of other pirates on the seas and deter them from even setting sail. Of course, in theory, this idea was great, but it was certainly not practical. Most of the time, the pirates who attained the status of Warlord did it just for their own safety and security. Above all, since they were not deemed criminals, they were given a certain level of freedom, and they committed acts with impunity, not being checked by any power in the world. In many ways, the Seven Warlords of the Sea enjoyed the most freedom on the seas, making them a very dangerous bunch, especially to the innocent masses.

I want to talk to you about a certain pirate. – Shanks

This is depicted through the Dressrosa and the Arabasta arcs of One Piece, where two Warlords lay ruin to countries for many years. Naturally, there was a strong basis for the system to be completely discarded and for it to be replaced with something new. Thankfully, Vegapunk completed his latest project, called the Seraphim project, around the time, which allowed for the Shichibukai system to be dissolved and for a new power to replace it.

With the Shichibukai being expelled, fans knew that the balance of power in the seas would change dramatically, and that is precisely what ended up happening. As was seen in the Wano Country arc, the Shichibukai were attacked by the Marines and hunted down, just like any other pirate, but this only led to them joining hands. Crocodile, one of the former Warlords, was the mastermind behind the idea of creating the Cross Guild, as he reached out to Mihawk and asked him for a partnership. Mihawk agreed to the alliance, and, later down the line, when Crocodile went to settle the score with Buggy, another former Warlord, one thing led to another and the world perceived Buggy to be his leader. In the eyes of the world, both Mihawk and Crocodile had now started working for Buggy, which essentially led to Buggy being termed as one of the new Four Emperors of the Sea, given that Big Mom had fallen around the same time.

With that, Buggy’s bounty was raised to 3.189 billion berries, while Mihawk gained a bounty of 3.596 billion berries, and Crocodile received a bounty of 1.956 billion berries. These three formed the Cross Guild, whose main motivation seemed to be rather shocking. It was revealed that the Cross Guild had started their own bounty system and put rewards on the heads of the Marines, the military face of the World Government, which essentially made them direct enemies of this naval organization. This idea itself marks the basis of a collaboration with the Blackbeard Pirates.

What Links The Cross Guild To The Blackbeard Pirates?

A Common Enemy In The Form Of The Marines Could See Them Fight Together

Of course, at this point, a link between the Blackbeard Pirates and the Cross Guild might not be clear to the fans, but, focusing on the Egghead Island arc and the events that took place there rather recently, one can easily see where this link comes from. In the Egghead Island arc, fans saw that Blackbeard had captured Captain Koby. The idea behind this capture was for Blackbeard to trade Koby for country status for the Pirate Island and for him to be officially declared the King. According to Kuzan, this strategy was flawed, because Koby was a part of SWORD and certainly not someone that the World Government would agree to a trade for.

The issue of the Cross Guild needs to be addressed quickly! – Sengoku

Essentially, being linked to the SWORD simply meant that Koby would be cut off from the Marines without a second thought. While Blackbeard’s strategy essentially failed here, fate played right into his hands when Garp attacked the Pirate Island and rescued him, along with many other people. Instead, Garp was captured, and now he is bound in Blackbeard’s hands. Although it affected Blackbeard’s strategy here by taking Way Koby, it offered him Garp, the Marine known as the Hero. Now, he intends to exchange Garp for country status for the Pirates Island and to be declared its King.

This is something that Teach believes that the World Government will consider. Little does he know that the World Government will certainly not bend to the rules established by a pirate and that they would much rather launch an all-out attack on the Pirate island.

Clearly, this means that the Blackbeard Pirates will be facing the Marines shortly due to the capture of the Marine of Legends, Garp, and at the same time, Cross Guild will be facing the Navy as well. This is because they have started putting bounties on the heads of all Marines and caused a lot of unrest, leading to the death of many Marines, including a Vice Admiral, T-Bone.

Will There Be A Major Cross Guild And Blackbeard Pirates Alliance?

A Collaboration Of Yonko On The Pirate Island Could Take Place

The Marines will have their hands full with many operations in the Final Saga, and their two biggest targets are going to be Blackbeard, due to the capture of Garp, and Buggy, due to the bounty hunting system of the Cross Guild. Naturally, the logical thing here to do is for Buggy to join hands with Blackbeard and fight the threat of the Navy together. This threat could potentially be fought on the Pirates Island, which is where fans could see the strength of Buggy, Crocodile, Mihawk, and the entirety of the Blackbeard Pirates against the Navy. This full-scale war will mirror the Paramount War, and could happen very soon in One Piece.

Of course, this does not mean that Buggy and Blackbeard will be friends. It would simply be an alliance for the sake of business, because they have a common enemy. How exactly the war will go remains to be seen, but, with such might, the pirates will claim victory against the Marines if this war were to ever happen.

One Piece is available to read via Viz Media. The series can be read by the fans officially and for free on the Shonen Jump and the Manga Plus apps. The release date for the next chapter of One Piece, One Piece 1132, is set to be December 1, 2024.