Imo Shanks powerlevel will be decided once its clear whether Luffy's gonna fight him as an arc boss or not lol, if Shanks is an arc boss for Luffy then he will be Kaidou's near-equal at minimum imo, but if he's gonna be toppled by someone else then i strangely think that he will be (clearly) weaker than Kaidou.
...CoC able to affect Akainu was crazy portrayal tho...
my personal headcanon is after luffy gets the plaudits for taking down kaido
BB is on the move
oda is on about shanks making his as well
BB needs a huge victory to cement himself just as luffy will this arc.
and honestly dragon , shanks
either of those two guys , whoever it ends up being needs to be strong enough to make his feat not just comparable to luffy's but better. For everyone to recognize that, whoever it ends up being needs to be given an appropriate amount of hype and honestly I am leaning to shanks.
if the audience realizes someone that strong couldnt take down blackbeard, then he enters the fold as the strongest thing around.
I know
@Paperchampion23 disagrees with me