So over the years, there's been a lot of speculation over who Luffy's counterpart to whitebeard should be. Law, Kid, and Blackbeard have all been common speculations. But I don't think any of these are really convincing. Whitebeard was an equal to Roger.
Law isn't even a contender, while Law has been an ally since marineford and it was downright confirmed back in punk hazard that Luffy is stronger, something Luffy showed in his fight against doflamingo.
While Kid has better portrayal as a rival and could be close to Luffy in strength, the plot dictates that Kid cannot ever be Luffy's equal. Kid wants One piece, so does Luffy. In order for Luffy to pirate King, he has to be stronger than Kid. I do consider Kid to be Luffy's rival but he can never truly fill whiteboard's role and hence is more suitable as a counterpart to Shiki than Whitebeard.
then there is blackbeard. Blackbeard is luffy's rival, Blackbeard's name seems to pay homage to Whitebeard, and he even has Whitebeard's DF. But whitebeard still poses the same problem that Kid does. He cannot be Luffy's equal because he wants to be pirate king and hence Luffy must be stronger than him. But what's more is that whitebeard and Roger were friends. Luffy and Blackbeard however, will never have such a relationship. Blackbeard was directly responsible for Ace's death. In addition, the fact that BB is a D and pays so much homage to Xebec indicates to me that he is probably Luffy's counterpart to Rocks. Rocks was Roger's most formidable rival, according to sengoku. Rocks also wanted to be pirate King and so far he is the only other D apart from blackbeard who has been portrayed as evil.
So who else could be left? I personally think that the most likely candidate for Luffy's whitebeard counterpart would have to be katakuri. Luffy has had many fights throughout the series, but there has never been one like katakuri.
while Luffy won the fight on paper, is it really fair to say that Luffy won this fight when Luffy was shown to have been KO'd before katakuri? I think this is the only fight where Luffy and his opponent have both been knocked out in the same page. Out of all the one piece fights so far, even more so than Rob Lucci, Katakuri is the only one who pushed Luffy this far. At least by WCI's end, he was in fact Luffy's equal.
Now we don't know where they stand know. One would assume that Luffy far surpassed him with his CoA training and Katakuri has been left in the dust, but I'm not too sure about that. It was hinted that the would eventually become captain of the big mom pirates when BM has been killed. The fact that he has CoC also backs this up. It is very possible that Oda has big plans for him and he's not just going to fade into the background like every other former enemy. In fact, since he has a duty to protect his family and since BM has shown that she can be very unreliable at doing this, I think that katakuri has more than enough motive to train and become stronger. So that when the day comes that BM has finally been defeated, he can take his mother's place and protect totland and his family.
His whole motive of protecting his family also bares a similarity to whitebeard. Whose goal was to have a family. I could even see Katakuri kinda becoming like BM in the future and having many children to support totland, making him a father just like whitebeard. Like WB, Kata's motive also allows Oda to make katakuri extremely powerful while at the same time, preventing him from getting in Luffy's way. Katakuri can be Luffy's equal in strength and this wouldn't hinder Luffy's goal because katakuri doesn't want to be pirate king, he just wants to protect his family.
lastly, I know this is kinda stupid but its at least worth noting that both katakuri and whitebeard have some aesthetic similarities I that they both are extraordinarily tall, even by one piece standards, and both carry a polearm, the bisento for WB and mogura for katakuri.
anyways leave your thoughts in the comments below
Law isn't even a contender, while Law has been an ally since marineford and it was downright confirmed back in punk hazard that Luffy is stronger, something Luffy showed in his fight against doflamingo.
While Kid has better portrayal as a rival and could be close to Luffy in strength, the plot dictates that Kid cannot ever be Luffy's equal. Kid wants One piece, so does Luffy. In order for Luffy to pirate King, he has to be stronger than Kid. I do consider Kid to be Luffy's rival but he can never truly fill whiteboard's role and hence is more suitable as a counterpart to Shiki than Whitebeard.
then there is blackbeard. Blackbeard is luffy's rival, Blackbeard's name seems to pay homage to Whitebeard, and he even has Whitebeard's DF. But whitebeard still poses the same problem that Kid does. He cannot be Luffy's equal because he wants to be pirate king and hence Luffy must be stronger than him. But what's more is that whitebeard and Roger were friends. Luffy and Blackbeard however, will never have such a relationship. Blackbeard was directly responsible for Ace's death. In addition, the fact that BB is a D and pays so much homage to Xebec indicates to me that he is probably Luffy's counterpart to Rocks. Rocks was Roger's most formidable rival, according to sengoku. Rocks also wanted to be pirate King and so far he is the only other D apart from blackbeard who has been portrayed as evil.
So who else could be left? I personally think that the most likely candidate for Luffy's whitebeard counterpart would have to be katakuri. Luffy has had many fights throughout the series, but there has never been one like katakuri.
while Luffy won the fight on paper, is it really fair to say that Luffy won this fight when Luffy was shown to have been KO'd before katakuri? I think this is the only fight where Luffy and his opponent have both been knocked out in the same page. Out of all the one piece fights so far, even more so than Rob Lucci, Katakuri is the only one who pushed Luffy this far. At least by WCI's end, he was in fact Luffy's equal.
Now we don't know where they stand know. One would assume that Luffy far surpassed him with his CoA training and Katakuri has been left in the dust, but I'm not too sure about that. It was hinted that the would eventually become captain of the big mom pirates when BM has been killed. The fact that he has CoC also backs this up. It is very possible that Oda has big plans for him and he's not just going to fade into the background like every other former enemy. In fact, since he has a duty to protect his family and since BM has shown that she can be very unreliable at doing this, I think that katakuri has more than enough motive to train and become stronger. So that when the day comes that BM has finally been defeated, he can take his mother's place and protect totland and his family.
His whole motive of protecting his family also bares a similarity to whitebeard. Whose goal was to have a family. I could even see Katakuri kinda becoming like BM in the future and having many children to support totland, making him a father just like whitebeard. Like WB, Kata's motive also allows Oda to make katakuri extremely powerful while at the same time, preventing him from getting in Luffy's way. Katakuri can be Luffy's equal in strength and this wouldn't hinder Luffy's goal because katakuri doesn't want to be pirate king, he just wants to protect his family.
lastly, I know this is kinda stupid but its at least worth noting that both katakuri and whitebeard have some aesthetic similarities I that they both are extraordinarily tall, even by one piece standards, and both carry a polearm, the bisento for WB and mogura for katakuri.
anyways leave your thoughts in the comments below
