@Soul_Bassist23:
Yeah it was Blackbeard and his crew. Not Blackbeard and his crew with an alliance with another major pirate and their crew. Blackbeard and his crew alone reaped the benefits.
Blackbeard /= Luffy.
Luffy needs to get stronger as the series goes on.
Since he was able to give Shanks his scars, Blackbeard has always been on a pretty high level.
He didn't need an alliance like Luffy does because of that simple fact.
@Soul_Bassist23:
After killing Whitebeard, it was painfully obvious Blackbeard was going to be the next Emperor, regardless of having an abundance of territories or not. You don't kill a Yonko, announce it's your era, and then sit back though, I concur; however he could have left the majority of the territories to the remnants of the Whitebeard pirates, and he'd still be the next Yonkou because no one in that crew could take him down. No one was his equal…except the other three Emperors, who do have a legit shot of killing him; no one else can challenge him. Taking the territories is just the next logical step after becoming an Emperor. Blackbeard killing Whitebeard was his coronation, he got the title and status and crown; it's his choice to rule over whatever he wants to doesn't want to. It wouldn't change anything. I argue that they are Emperors because of strength, not real estate.
Well, I argue that you don't really understand the Yonko whatsoever.
To be one of the 4 emperors, you need to have the territories to rule over like an emperor.
You have to be strong in the first place to rule those territories and hold them under your influence.
Take Mihawk for example, he's one of the strongest characters in the series, and few could match him, so technically he's a Yonko right?
No.
Kuzan is floating around the New World doing whatever, and few could match him in a fight, is he a Yonko?
No.
Even just look back at Jinbei's update on what's been happening during the timeskip, he says that during the two years since Marineford, BB conquered old WB territories and became a Yonko.
@Soul_Bassist23:
Luffy has lost against his main opponent time and time again throughout the series, until he comes back and defeats them. It won't be any different against an Emperor. He doesn't need an alliance to do that. Obviously you believe differently, but it's just a difference in opinion.
Like I said, I believe he'll face Big Mom first. She sounds less threatening than Kaido.
Big Mom eats her own subordinates and destroys islands on a whim because of a lack of candy.
…yeah, she's a real sweetheart.
@Soul_Bassist23:
And yet one of her ships is right off the coast, which I take as Big Mom entering the picture once again. We know more about her (given that we've actually seen her, have been disclosed the name of her location, and have seen her subordinates along with one of her ships…and her jolly roger) and we haven't seen jack shit of Kaido or his crew...X Drake was in a cover story, that doesn't count nearly as much.
If Luffy goes after Big Mom first, it will be an opportunity to officially have Jinbe join the crew in person and board the Sunny.
We've seen more of Big Mom but she's still not intricately linked in things immediately happening, as such.
We'll most likely finally see Kaido once everything is wrapped up on Dressrosa and we see Drake take Caribou to him.
Then we go onto Zou where the Heart Pirates are (in an alliance to take down Kaido) and where the samurais fled to (strongly hinted to be something to do with Kaido), before we go to Wano (where Kaido's influence also seems strong). We'll learn more about him as we go.
Also, as soon as word of Doffy's defeat and inability to further produce SMILEs is revealed, Kaido will be on the move.
Luffy won't have the luxury of time to go after Big Mom first.
@Soul_Bassist23:
They won't in my opinion, they're side characters, they were thought up in like three hours, right? I may be wrong about that though. They're going to be used to show the power of what it means to be an Emperor. I don't view Kid or Law as equals to Luffy at this point, they are just rivals. I don't even know about Law, he seems to be a pirate just to take down Doflamingo.
More alliances mean more of a clutter of characters and less screen time for the Strawhats, and I want to see development of the Strawhats and their adventures just like in Paradise. It's just more pleasing to me.
It's all good man, we just have different views on how the story will go down, but it will be enjoyable regardless.
Kid and Law were always planned, a lot of the other supernovas who were planned for further down the line were brought forward to saboady to make things "more interesting".
Kid and Law haven't been given a huge amount of exposure for no reason.
The SH's are the focal points of the series, it doesn't mean that there can't be other major characters.
A huge part of One Piece has been the changing of the eras, and Luffy will not enter the New Era alone.
We can still see plenty of SH development while other characters do things too.
If that wasn't the case then we could never have had the war at Marineford.