Y@Robby:
First of all, 200 chapters is just 4 years into the series that is going to end up being 30 years long give or take.
@Robby:
Second, Ace first mentioned him 50 chapters before that.
That's completely irrelevant to the overall point.
Blackbeard, the guy named after one of the most famous pirates in history, started playing a role in the series in year 3. Then we meet him and he's Luffy's polar opposite. And he's been gathering a crew of obvious mirror strawhats for ages.
None of this changes the fact that the story at large is about Joy boy & the WG. Him being Luffy's polar opposite isn't true since they share some off the same beliefs. How is his crew an obvious mirror of the SH's and why would that make them the final villans?
Who is everyone going to fight in the World Government? The three admirals? And then the rest of the strawhats get what… Django and Coby?
Why does this boil down to SH match ups? This is far bigger than that. The WG consists of many powerful individuals so idk why Jango & Koby were the first to pop up in your mind.
Imu, for whatever his actual role of authority is, IS a random guy, with no face, that we just met last year that hasn't done anything yet.
You can't really call him random when he was being built up for ages. To say hasn't done anything yet isn't completely true. If he truly was the enemy of the ancient kingdom and the one who established the WG he's done more than enough already. There's also the "great cleansing" and the fact that he set his sights on Vivi (might haved acted on this already), Luffy, Shirahoshi & Blackbeard.
This is a shonen series first and foremost. Big one one one fights are the driving force of the narrative at the end of the day. However big and epic in scope the overall final war is, its still going to come down to everyone getting one on one battles.
Again, this is bigger than match ups. Since there will be a war, everyone will get a fight one way or another. Why does it have to end with BB's crew?
You bring up this being a shonen series at a point in your favor as the reason why BB is the final villan, but a lot off times in Shonen, the Final villan isn't someone who's been around the longest. Dragon ball, Naruto, Bleach, Hunter x Hunter, Black clover, Fairy Tail etc..
And while you could certainly name ten different marines none of them outside of Aikanu have been positioned as anything the Strawhats need to take out, and they're just a function of the WG anyway. Aikanu is an attack dog, Imu is an enigma… and Blackbeard is the guy shaking the world with two of the strongest powers at his personal disposal, an exact crew to counter the strawhats who have been growing in power alongsie the SH's,, who captured Ace and led to his death, declared that it is his era.
BB is considered the least threatening of the Yonko since his bounty is far lower than theirs. No one thinks that this Blackbeard's era besides him. Being the reason Ace was captured is not enough to build tension for the FV. He and Luffy have no dark history outside of that.
Why do you make it seem like the argument here is that the SH's won't face the BB pirates? They will, but they don't have to be the final villans for them to do that. As of right now, BB has no purpose to the greater story of One Piece.
Whitebeard basically straight up said that the WG will be the enemies in the final war. Why ignore that?