I'm starting to think Luffy and Blackbeard are going to end up friends by the end of this with Luffy saving Blackbeard as a person. It's littered throughout the series now

>Blackbeard's tragic childhood
>The Davy clan being D's
>Davy being the previous ruler of the world
>Roger and Garp being uneasy and even possibly crying over Rocks
>Garp being shown to regret the events of God Valley, having new context now that we know he didn't seem happy about having to kill Rocks. It wasn't actually about having to fight alongside Roger
>Roger and Rocks rivalry in the bar mirroring Luffy and Blackbeard's meeting in Mocktown
>Blackbeard telling Luffy not to give up on his dreams in Mocktown
>Luffy being told about Akainu rising to Fleet admin by Jinbei and seething
>Luffy being told about Blackbeard rising to yonkou by Jinbei and not paying attention or caring
>this implies Luffy blames Akainu and not Blackbeard for Ace's death
>Whitebeard ultimately showing pity to Blackbeard in the final moments and not killing him, showing he still sees him as a tragic character or even redeemable
>Blackbeard and Rocks wanting "The world" in the new context that Imu is "The world" and an evil devil
>Blackbeard being a threat to Imu repeatedly, even having his poster next to Luffy's in Imu's garden with a knife through it

I think the setting up of Blackbeard as a tragic character from a tragic bloodline that even the other D's (Garp and Roger) took pity on having to kill, puts all the stuff that happened in a new light