 He's eaten a fruit even rarer than the ones that create logia types. His flames will keep regenerating no matter how many times he's attacked. That is the leader of the first division, Marco the Phoenix. Hello and welcome to One Piece 101, the series that breaks down everyone and everything in the One Piece world. Today we are going to be examining the right hand man of Whitebeard himself, Marco the Phoenix. Marco is a rather tall and lean man whose head resembles the vague shape of a pineapple. He presents himself as a calm and collected individual, often warm and playful. Although his persona can change instantaneously from this more lighthearted nature to a deadly serious one should a situation call for it. Unfortunately little is known about Marco's early life and by very little I mean absolutely nothing except for one sketch of him as a child showing him to be quite studious and fascinated by the world of cartography. Furthermore, the scruff marks on his head and the fact that he isn't wearing any shoes may imply that he came from quite a poor upbringing. However, at some stage during his early life he joined the Whitebeard pirates and Marco would come to spend at least two decades serving under his captain, Edward Newgate. Like most members of the Whitebeard pirates, Marco came to see his captain as a father figure and they developed an extraordinarily strong bond over time. So much so that Marco eventually rose to become commander of Whitebeard's first division, a position that was only outranked by that of the captain himself. Together Whitebeard and Marco formed a partnership comparable to that of legendary figures such as Roger and Ray Lee with the two placing absolute trust in the abilities of the other. Although Marco would also form powerful bonds with the rest of the crew as well, taking on the role of an older brother really, especially in the case of Port Gasty Ace, an individual who was brought onto the crew against his will after unsuccessfully challenging Whitebeard. Marco immediately went out of his way to befriend Ace and was actually the one whose words convinced Ace to stay with the Whitebeard pirates. The two of them went on to become exceptional friends and Ace would even come to tell Marco about his younger brother, Luffy. However, the Whitebeard pirates would soon be thrown into turmoil after the murder of the fourth division commander, Thatch by another crew member by the name of Marshall D. Teach. Despite Marco's own rage and desire for revenge, he remained a voice of reason in the ensuing chaos and attempted to convince Ace not to pursue Teach, although Ace refused to listen and went after him anyway, setting up the events that would lead to the eventual destruction of the Whitebeard pirates. And while Ace did eventually track down Teach, who was now known as Blackbeard, Ace would be defeated by him and handed over to the world government who scheduled him for execution. In order to save their comrade Marco and the entirety of the Whitebeard pirates as well as their extended allies, launched a full-scale invasion of Marineford. However, this was anticipated by the world government who had assembled their comprehensive army of Marines to counter them. And it would not take long before we were treated to a display of Marco's incredible power. Marco ate a devil fruit known as the Tori Tori No Mi model phoenix, a mythical Zoan type that allows him to transform into a blue phoenix which provides him with two immediate phenomenal benefits. The first of which is the nature of the blue flames themselves, which are referred to as the blue flames of resurrection. This is because while active, they regenerate any wounds that Marco receives, making him nigh on impossible to damage. Although it does need to be noted that the regeneration does take a certain amount of time, depending on the severity of the injury. And there is a limit to how much they can heal, although exactly what that limit is is not clearer this time. Furthermore, he can also use his flames to heal other beings, although not anywhere near the extent to which Marco can use them on his own body. Sadly, the healing nature of these flames means that Marco cannot use them offensively. Or I guess if he did, he'd probably just be healing his opponent, actually. But the second immediate benefit of natural flight, more than makes up for this, as Marco is nothing short of a phenomenal devil fruit user that makes the most of his variable maneuverability to launch aerial attacks and greatly increase the force of basic attacks such as kicks. But it should be noted that this for the most part is only possible because Marco's mastery of this zoan fruit is unlike anything we have seen in the series to this point. As he is able to transform select portions of his body into a phoenix rather than be subject to changing completely. I mean, look technically, yes, Chopper was capable of this, but only via augmenting his fruit with the rumble balls, whereas Marco seems to have just mastered it on his own. To top it off, Marco is capable of using both observation and armament haki and most prominently put all of the above skills to use in a stunning clash against Marine Admiral Kizaru, even successfully getting the better of him in that engagement, although Kizaru took no real damage due to his own incredible abilities. Shortly after Monkey D. Luffy arrived on the battlefield along with his jailbreak squad from Impel Down, dead set on saving his brother Ace. Both Marco and Whitebeard took an immediate liking to Luffy and Whitebeard even ordered Marco not to let him die in the ensuing battle. However, while the pirates fought valiantly, eventually the Marines would gain the upper hand and Ace would come to sacrifice himself to save Luffy. Not only that, but Blackbeard had also arrived on the battlefield and seized the advantage to deliver a killing blow to Whitebeard. Having lost both Ace and his captain, Marco did his utmost to protect Luffy and see that he escaped Marineford, although the battle was eventually brought to an abrupt halt by the Onko Shanks who proceeded to assist Marco with the burial of Whitebeard and Ace in the new world. Marco would then assume leadership of the remnants of the Whitebeard pirates and one year after the death of their captain, they confronted the now incredible forces of the Blackbeard pirates in an event known as the Payback War. However, Marco and his legion suffered an overwhelming defeat and what was left of the Whitebeard pirates was officially dissolved as the survivors all went into hiding. And here I'll throw up a bit of a spoiler warning just for anybody who has not yet begun the reverie arc. If you do not wish to be spoiled, then don't worry, just mute this video until the warning goes away as for the rest of us, the spoilers will begin in three, two, one. Following the Payback War, Marco took up residence on Whitebeard's home island becoming a doctor as well as a protector of the land against Edward Weevil. As a result, Marco declined Nekomamushi's invitation to join them to take down Kaido on Wano. However, Marco did ask him to pass on an as of yet unknown message to Luffy. Some more fun facts about Marco. As with many characters in the series, Marco has a particular speech quirk in this case being that he chooses to end his sentences in the suffix yoi and like many of these quirks, it has no real meaning. It's just a bit of verbal flavor. Marco's official introduction into the series actually occurred way back during the Jaya arc and in the anime, his presence here was deemed fairly unimportant as he was given the color scheme of a generic crew member. Marco is the first person in the series to display a confirmed mythical zoan fruit with his Phoenix powers introducing fans to the entire concept, which was a pretty mind-blowingly OP idea at the time. And finally, a truly useless fact. In addition to looking like one, Marco's favorite food is pineapple. And that pretty much does it for Marco. If you enjoyed this video and the content this channel produced in general, then please do consider donating to the Grand Line Review Patreon because the support of all of your amazing people is what continues to make this channel possible. Also do check out my Teespring store if you're interested in shirts, witties and other miscellaneous items with the proceeds going directly to support the channel as well. And if you'd like to join the fun at any time, then please do head over to my Discord server where a wide array of shenanigans takes place on a daily basis. And finally, please do comment with who, what or where you'd like to see featured in the next One Piece 101.