Fate's take on Blackbeard is genius.
I love Fate's take on Blackbeard. A lot of people say it's insulting, or ruins him, but those people don't get it. In life, Edward Teach was the most notorious pirate in the world, but it wasn't just because he was good at what he did, it was because he struck fear into the hearts of those who saw him. This dude tied shit into his beard and set it on fire before boarding an enemy vessel to demoralize the crew with all the pant-shitting his flaming beard was causing. He was a normal human, but he cultivated the image of a demon.
But in Fate/Grand Order, we have a literal demon in Mephistopheles, an amalgamation of orphaned children and aborted fetuses in Jack the Ripper, a literal Eldritch monstrosity in Nursery Rhyme, whatever the fuck Xiang Yu is, and lots more. Blackbeard isn't going to be able to top that.
So he changes the game. The fear tactics he relied on in life aren't effective in a world of actual monsters. But he can still strike fear and revulsion in the hearts of those around him. He simply has to adapt his strategy for the times. He's no longer Blackbeard, the fucking psychpath lighting his beard on fire. That's old hat, and no one cares. Now he's Blackbeard, the biggest neckbeard this Earth has ever had the displeasure of knowing.
No one wants to associate with this guy, let alone fight him. He's upgraded his strategy from simple fear mongering, to Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass. If you could stand to be around him, you'd realize he's incredibly cunning and way more dangerous than he at first appears. But you won't, because he's a fucking creep.
You're afraid of him, and his plan worked.
www . reddit . com/r/grandorder/comments/a90hwb/fates_take_on_blackbeard_is_genius/
Actually...cringe weeb blackbeard makes alotta sense when you consider WHY he did the flaming beard... It was for psychological reasons to terrify his opponents and make them be too scared resist, but that doesn't work when so many heroic spirits are so much worse him, so he took a different approach, he became as cringey as possible until no one would take him seriously, until it was too late , Hektor himself notes it in this singularity, that Blackbeard is far more cunning than he lets on.
It’s interesting how one of the people that noticed that was Hektor when he points out as much as Blackbeard seemed to be fooling around, he was alway on guard and never letting go of his gun, forcing Hektor to wait till we attacked so he could backstab Blackbeard.
At the same time, the reverse also applies: Blackbeard kept saying about how powerful Hektor was even though he was keeping up an “old man” persona and when backstabbed, he seemed to have been waiting for something like that to happen. Hektor on multiple times in Okeanus goes along with Jason’s plan or says he can’t do anything, but he also is quick to notice flaws in it or fitht against our entire team alone before escaping.
Takes one guy hiding his powerlevel to notice another guy hiding his.
