Imo the one piece might have some big connection to the great flood vegapunk is talking about
Both shanks and Blackbeard might know or at least have some kind of idea about how dangerous it is. With them likely having different reasons for going for it
Blackbeard going for it for the purpose of destroying the world even if it means through sinking it. He even had a fruit that helps him create tsunamis and destroy islands
Similar to orochi who Blackbeard weirdly has some parallels to he probably just wants to get his revenge on the world for how they treated him and his special bloodline. Also side theory him getting orochis fruit would be very fitting
Shanks might be trying to find it first to prevent others from being able to sink the world. As some type of guardian of the one piece
Him wanting to prevent the potential destruction might be why the world government respect him because of their common goal. Vegapunk even talks about how he doesn’t consider the people that killed him evil or think he can decide what’s right or wrong. So he might be understanding in a way of the world government not wanting the information known or even the actions of the 20 kingdoms
As for Luffy unlike them he’s probably the only one capable of doing both
- Blackbeard intending to destroy the world
- Shanks intending to protect the world
Luffy is the only one capable of destroying the world to make it better
- Blackbeard would just destroy it for the sake of destroying it and fucking over the world
- Shanks while protecting it would also keep the world in the current status quo with no real growth
Even tho I said shanks likely plans on stopping others like Blackbeard from getting the one piece in order to prevent the inevitable destruction it’ll cause there’s also more to it
While he probably doesn’t want the destruction of the world to happen he also likely believes luffy is the only one capable of doing it the “good” way. Which is why he’s waiting for luffy to hopefully surpass him and find the one piece instead
If luffy isn’t capable of surpassing him he’s likely going to just do things his way. As some sort of “if you can’t beat me you aren’t ready for the next step after” with that next step probably being imu
