The Difference Between Supreme Grade Blades and Black Blades, Explained

In the One Piece world, there are many different classifications of weapons, since the mastery of them is one of the greatest ways for characters to reach the upper echelons of strength. Weapons in general are crucial to the world of this franchise, with some of the strongest and most important characters in the history of this series having used powerful armaments that are almost as legendary as they are.

As such, these powerful weapons typically scale along with the strength of their users, which essentially means that the strongest characters typically use the strongest weapons, as can be seen with the ones typically used by the Emperors of the Sea and even the Pirate King. However, Black Blades are a relatively new concept that are also incredibly powerful and iconic, so let’s go over the difference between the two categories in One Piece.

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The Difference Between Supreme Grade And Black Blades

The Comparative Strengths Of Both Weapon Types

The true difference between these two weapon types is a tricky one to pin down. As for the Supreme Grade Blades, these are the most powerful weapons in the entire world at first glance; exceptional weapons made of the finest materials by the greatest blacksmiths in history. Though pretty much all of them are steeped in mystery in terms of their backstories, it can be seen that the current trend of these weapons is that each of them is a different kind of armament, despite all being classified as blades.

Due to this legendary power and exceptional quality, they’re also the rarest in the world, only belonging to characters who exist at the highest level of power in the world. Legendary figures such as the world’s strongest man, Whitebeard, and the Pirate King Roger himself, have wielded Supreme Grade Weapons, and even most of the other Yonko and notable characters in the story, such as Kaido, Big Mom, and Loki, have also wielded powerful armaments whose true level remains unknown.

This is where the topic of Black Blades comes in and where the entire topic gets a bit tricky to grasp. Essentially, Black Blades are swords that have been permanently scarred black due to them being imbued with Haki for an extended period of time and have undergone extensive battles over the years. Currently, only two of these weapons have been revealed, Yoru and Shusui.

Yoru is widely regarded as the strongest sword in the entire setting due to it being the only one that’s simultaneously a Supreme Grade, which reflects its make and quality, and a Black Blade, which reflects its strength and durability. It is a known fact within One Piece that the grade of a weapon can be increased the more that it’s used, so many fans are left confused as to why this hasn’t happened to Shusui, which was the weapon of the strongest swordsman in history and a Black Blade on top of that.

So, it just seems that the major difference between these two categories is the fact that Supreme Grade swords are likely classified as such due to their quality and the strength of how they’re made as well as who made them, while Black Blades are a metric of how strong the weapon is. These weapons are permanently imbued with Haki that remains on them even when they’re not being wielded by anyone.

So this raises the question: will there soon be another Black Blade? Many fans believe that it’s only a matter of time before a new weapon is made into a Black Blade, perhaps even one of Zoro’s swords. However, many think Shusui should be considered a Supreme Grade Blade at this point due to the strength of Ryuma and the fact that all weapons can be upgraded to a greater grade if they’re used enough. Also, some fans believe that all Black Blades should be Supreme Grades by default.

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The Likely Future Black Blades

What Other Weapons Could Fall Into This Category?

At the current moment, fans are convinced that one, or even all, of Zoro’s famous swords will eventually be upgraded to the level of Black Blade due to their frequent use as well as the fact that this would give him the greatest possible upgrade for the Final War. Most believe that this will either be the Wado Ichimonji, since it’s his oldest and most used weapon, while others think it to be Enma, since it’s already very powerful.

However, Zoro’s Sandai Kitetsu may be the unsung hero here, since this weapon has been Zoro’s companion from the early days of the series and has also seen its fair share of battles. Since it’s in his hands, it has been infused with Haki as well, making it a prime candidate to become another Black Blade. Whatever the case is, it’s confirmed that Zoro will need such a weapon in his eventual battle against Mihawk.

One Piece can be streamed on Crunchyroll.

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