But Aokiji and Akainu are not equal. Akainu won the fight lol
Watch, I guarantee you all this powerscaling talk is arbitrary. Its always based on story progression:
- BM herself is relative to Kaido, but has Weakest Commanders by virtue of their bounties (yeah yeah, something something bounties arent a determining factor, yet we all use it and dont when we want to)
- Kaido is relative to BM, but slightly stronger commanders by virtue of bounties and later plot relevancy
- Kizaru is probably relative to Kaido and BM, by virtue of being likely this arcs villain dor Luffy. He's not "YC" level when scaling to BM and Kaido's YCs. If he's relative Aokiji, then by virtue this means Blackbeard obviously is stronger than what is coming before (BM, Kaido, Kizaru)
- Blackbeard and Shanks are probably "more" relative to each other with stronger commanders than their counterparts (BM/Kaido) and are higher than BM/Kaido because hey hey, this is a shonen and thats how progression works. They probably WILL scale higher than shown Admirals (Aokiji, Kizaru, Fuji, Ryo), and Shiryu and Beckman in the least are relative to them, perhaps at bit stronger because of endgame scaling.
- Akainu probably also is relative to BB and Shanks. He defeated Aokiji and hes not "just" an Admiral. Depending on "when" Akainu is fought, and "if" Zoro and Sanji fight Fuji and Ryo, then these 2 may or may not be stronger than Shiryu and Beckman at least.
This is just frankly how the scaling will work in the end. If Luffy faces Kizaru, you know how the argument will go. If BB is after that and Zoro faces Shiryu while someone else fights Aokiji, then this becomes even more obvious. If then they fight Akainu, Fuji and Ryo after that, same deal. Wherever Shanks falls within this mess (whether or not its by Luffy or Blackbeard) will scale him properly.
The definition of YC is not the same for Blackbeard/Shanks as it is for BM and Kaido. The line between Admiral and Yonko is absolutely blurred. Some are weaker. Some are stronger, and it will depend where and when they are used.
This isnt even getting into the whole Kong/Gorosei/Im conversation, because we dont even know if they are powerful yet or as broken as people potentially think they are.
Guaranteed the whole concept of titles and known powerscaling is going in the garbage after Egghead. Watch.