In One Piece fandom the last year we have been having debates and fights about BB vs Imu. I have been Team Imu since his/her introduction. But team WG as villains specifically for decades. On Reddit someone posted this. It summarizes my viewpoints:
Blackbeard is Direct competition for the Pirate King throne, but remember, Roger was Pirate King, and he still wasn’t able to overturn the government, it clearly shows that beating the WG is a bigger hurdle than Pirate King is, but more than that, it’s been something that’s been happening over and over in the story, Pirates will get into skirmishes but ultimately it’s the WG that’s ultimately above all of that.
Dadan tells Ace something along the lines, that his enemy is “The World” when talking about the WG and Celestial Dragons, when Spansam refers to Robin’s enemies, he speaks about “The World”
no Pirate Crew is ever spoken about in such a grandiose manner. Whitebeard spoke about the upheaval that would happen when that treasure “The One Piece” is discovered as well.
I understand why so many people think Blackbeard is the final villain, because of how much he’s a foil to Luffy but I really think that Luffy overcoming Blackbeard is just him essentially “surpassing himself” to finally be strong and powerful enough to face the WG.
It’s also in the presentation, while we’ve seen skirmishes with Blackbeard where he can take a bit of an L, Imu has never appeared less than calculating and powerful, the most recent being when Imu destroyed an island, and had so much control over everything that they can just rewrite it to “That island never existed”. Blackbeard has never been shown to be this villainous.
The only way BB becomes the final villain is if he beats Imu. One problem: he doesn't even know Imu exists. The entire thing with government is a giant mystery. We just found out the Elders' powers just weeks ago.
From the first page of this story the government has been set up as the villain who doesn't want others to find Rogers' treasure. If a fat ass who has no relation to the government or CDs is the main villain I'll eat my hat. He's just a foil for Luffy to topple in his journey to become the king of the pirates. Nothing more. Blackbeard is Luffy's nemesis but WG is Joy boy's and this story is about inherited will. For 800 years the government has supplanted and enslaved those that rebel and oppose them. Blackbeard makes me shrug. WG makes me boil. The sheer stakes against WG as final villains are huge. The government has Gods Knights, Five Elders, Imu, Pacafistas (who have had a serious upgrade), CP forces, and the Marines, and any allied countries in their corner. Blackbeard has a fucking raft. I can't think of a more rip off of a story to end it with having a dude that has made allies all over the world duel with a fat guy with a raft for a ship when there's an entire government with endless forces on the side. Oda would be spitting in his legacy's face. We should all be thankful that's not how this story is going.
Also Bebop you should look at Enies Lobby again. Notice the giant hole layout. I'm betting WG destroyed that island before and then put Enies Lobby on top. Compare the hole with the recently destroyed island.