@EvoWarrior5:
I never watched Game of Thrones so that reference was lost on me, unfortunately. The quote still felt familiar, though, for some reason. Probably a popular one?
It's a long story but basically it's the same as you said, that Luffy wouldn't want to be part of the system and that he'd rather took it down, just like Dany wants to take down the system in Westeros.
You're right, though. My thing is, it took Blackbeard a year to be proper considered a Yonkou. And we all know that Luffy achieves things much faster than other people; he does things in days which takes others years (prime example: Grand Fleet). Blackbeard never head-on fought and killed a Yonkou, so that obviously might make a difference. Luffy will have more of a hand in beating Kaidou than Blackbeard did in killing Whitebeard. So that's the period of time when people might start to consider him a contender. But then he moves on, kicks more ass, and the system of the Yonkou will have dwindled down to such an extent that the Government cannot just "repair" it by coercing/tricking someone into becoming a Yonkou. (I've been imagining a situation in my head where after Kaidou's downfall, the Government will try to play Kidd or maybe someone else into taking up the open spot. The pirate, not realising that he's being given space by the Government, just pillages and fights to his heart's content and then when he is powerful and laughing, he suddenly notices that he's now in a bad position to make a move. Welcome to the world of Yonkou, brother.)
About FI, I'll admit that I didn't mention that because I'm not sure what to do with it. I've always expected Luffy to take more territories. At first, when the FI moment happened, I thought it was his first build-up toward becoming a Yonkou. Now I don't think he will become a Yonkou, but I'm not sure how to fit FI (and the other territories I see coming up) into my story. I guess he just… takes them for protection? Not to be a Yonkou? Smiley face? I don't really have anything better. He does need to increase his influence, whether he will become a Yonkou or not. Waving your flag around does kinda help with that I guess.
I totally agree that it would be out of character for him to want to become Yonko, but I don't think he has much control over it if it's the others who see him like that, mainly the WG.And if it gets known to them that his goal is to take down Kaido, and he succeeds to the WG it will look like Luffy is aiming at becoming a Yonko himself. And yes it's not easy to be considered one, I find it odd that BB was only considered one after he beat Marco and the rest of the WB pirates, not right after he killed WB. So maybe what it really takes to be a Yonko is taking down another one with his crew, and it just so happens that this is what is going to happen on Wano.
Then of course there's the territories, I see FI becoming Luffy's territory, and that pretty much excludes him forming an alliance with BM.Unless she decides out of her kind heart to betow it to him, which would be rather weird tbh. Then we have potentially Zou which could decide to come under the SHs protection, maybe because of the debt they have towards the SHs but more importantly they might be in danger because of the Road Poneglyph that is there.Imagine BB finding out about it and coming to Zou. That could be a strong reason for Luffy to declare Zou his territory after he beat Kaido of course. But in general Luffy's strength is that he's able to make allies, and he has helped or is helping 4 kingdoms ever since they entered the NW, some of which like Fishman Island's really need protection from pirates. Luffy will make a name for himself after defeating a Yonko, which will make him feared, so that could dissuade anyone who tries to mess with his "turf".
I'm just trying to think of another scenario other than the obvious one. Oda can be rather unpredictable, as seen lately. So even though I also believe that Luffy has no intention of becoming Yonko, I can see it fitting rather well into the story. Because who would take Kaido's spot? And I don't think the WG has a say in it, and Luffy is prolly the prominent figure of the SH alliance, he's the one who will end up beating a Yonko one way or another(with help). So it wouldn't be weird if he could end up being regarded as one, so unless he declares to the whole world that he's not one, I don't think he has much control over it.
And it's possible that after this there will be no more Yonko, so there would be no need for Luffy or someone else to be seen as one, and as seen with BB it takes more time than we might think. So I guess it's up in the air, whether he becomes one or not.