Why substandard? BB can always have a 3rd DF. Even Kaido's after his death.
My point is, any fight after Kaido doesn't have to suggest Kaido is weaker. Look at Skypeia, then Water 7. Enel would have easily beaten Lucci, but circumstances allowed Luffy to win.
You guys have to think a little out of the box and more horizontally with villain progression. I'll give examples:
- Kizaru: i.e. probably the fast person in the series. Probably requires mastered FS to defeat. Luffy does not have this yet. I.e. Kizaru can easily defeat Luffy if he cannot keep up. Kizaru is not tankier than Kaido, nor is he withstanding attacks from 20 different people over 70 chapters.
- Akainu: take the same idea above and apply it to his AP instead of speed. One wrong move from Akainu can kill you instantly. He's still the only person to scar Luffy and kill someone close to him. This can't be ignored.
- Blackbeard: exactly what you said.
- Shanks: at this point, we don't even know if there is another level to Haki yet. Before 1010, CoC imbuement didn't even exist as an idea, so who knows.
- Im: Who knows, could be another Orochi/Spandam. Could be the most broken character in the series via devil fruit.
You can see how with any of these people, Kaido's title is maintained. Overall, he's the strongest creature, because he can probably outlast any of them in a battle.
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Not really since Yamato was there.
And she was going to lose anyway. We know this, she said it herself