Imo, Blackbeard, Shanks and Akainu all have their big merits, which make people argue cases up and down for them on who will outsmart or defeat who.
- Blackbeard IS the Anti-Luffy. Has 2 DFs. Has a pension to be underestimated by the reader, ofc.
- Shanks is the "perfect" measure of a character. Roger's protoge. Peak portrayal of Haki and events in the series. Hard to root against him, ofc.
- Akainu has the ability to literally vaporaize you in one hit. No other character can do this onscreen. Im not talking about one shots like Shanks. Im talking about erasing your body permanently.
I think these monsters stand at the precipice of the story for One Piece. We will get a grand climax with these people involved. Only one will stand against Luffy by the end, but we'll see all of them and their subordinates fight appropriately.
BUUUUUT, i have this weird feeling that even beyond this, Oda is preparing to have WG's protrayal at a significantly higher paradigm because thats normally how stories like this work. Theres normally some engimatic figure beyond all basic conflicts. I argue that the WG is this entity, because its effectively what the story is building to.