I think Oda has made it clear at this point that quality of a fighting force is much more important than the quantity. Even during the Onigashima battle CP0 constantly pointed out the loss of all their forces (most of their soldiers, all the executives, and calamities had lost) was meaningless since as long as BM and Kaido stood numbers meant nothing. The very reason the Samurai forces did well despite the large numerical advantage is that they were a higher average fighting force.
At this point in the story most battles have been won by the side that had lower raw numbers but higher quality fighters. So in the case of WB even though his raw numbers are low they still were strong enough to take on 100k of the Marine's elite soldiers. That is far higher than anything Kaido or Big Mom could muster. There is no question in a 1v1 Yonko fight, the WB pirates would have mid-diffed either the Beast Pirates or BM Pirates.
Basically what I am saying. Quality > quantity.
Yes, quantity matters too, but at some point fodders stop making a difference.
Quite baffling to me that dudes don't get it.
Fodders are seconds away from being taken out in a sweep by commanders. Especially if you have AOE like like King, Ace, Katakuri etc, they are nothing. Ace took down several fodders and their ships in a second.
Jozu could lift up a mountain and throw, there goes half the fodder.
Fodders played a big role in Wano to begin with, only because the "good guys" were in a weaker position to begin with.
Kaido's commanders and executives were of higher quality, at least in the beginning. Like, Zoro/Sanji needed powerups to beat King/Queen.
Peak WBP had:
- 5 commanders (6 if you wanna count pre DF Blackbeard), while Kaido and BM had 3. And on top of numerical advantage WBP commanders were also stronger on overage
- 11 executive level fighters in commanders 6-16; while Kaido and BM had like 7. With a likely higher average power on top of numerical advantage
- more hyped subordinate captains
Peak WBP would mid diff Big Mom Pirates, and mid-high diff Beast Pirates
Your idea only works if you ignore the entirety of the plot and context of the story and then some. Sure, there are characters that can take down armies. But that doesn't mean the yonko's strength is solely their executives. it's a big chunk to be sure but most of the plot around the new world saga is literally built on yonko trying to beef up their militias. Punk hazard was making smiles for kaido and caesar "sold" giants to big mom. Doflamingo was an arms trader who also sold smiles to kaido in collaboration with caesar. Kaido's goal was to have a crew made out of entirely of devil fruit users. In this case basically have every waiter turn into a smile user. Aside from that, part of the reason he took over wano was to turn the country into a weapon factory. Weapons for whom? his 30k crew of course. The WCI arc was triggered by and revolved mostly around the vinsmoke's cloning technology. Because it would give big mom, go figure, a strong military. The vinsmoke siblings were outmatched and outnumbered by big mom's top exectuves without even considering the sweet commanders. And yet they managed to put up a fight against big mom and her armies and ultimately escaped pretty much because the vinsmokes had a competent military.
What I am saying is not that fodders are completely irrelevant.
What I am saying is that, they can play a crucial role only if there are high level fighters on their side, keeping the high level fighters on the opposite side occupied.
Look at Marineford.
While WB commanders obviously would've lost, they were powerful enough to hold their own against the admirals. If Marco/Jozu/Vista weren't there, admirals would've dogwalked the WBP, because the lower end commanders can't hold their own.
What happened there was, WB and top 3 commanders, mainly Marco and Jozu fought the admirals. The commanders 6-16 and allied captains fought the vice admirals. Fodders fought fodders.
You see the point?
Now let's look at say WBP vs BMP hypothetical.
- WB fights BM
- 3 top commanders of WB fight Kata/Smoothie/Cracker
- 6/7 amongst 11 lower commanders fight 6/7 executives of BMP
- allied captains fight each other
In all these scenarios, WBP has the advantage (since we both agree WB has the higher quality/average power level). ALONG WITH 2 more top commanders and 4-5 more lesser commanders left free to cause absolute destruction on the BMP fodders.
What you are suggesting is simply wrong, kaido's crew having 30k people and big mom's having her however many tens of thousands of people are literally what the new world saga is built on. it's literally what makes their monster crews distinct and enormously more powerful than what roger and WB had 30 years ago.
How am I wrong, when the manga itself called WBP the strongest pirate force in the world, multiple times?
When Big Mom herself wanks up Whitebeard with "I could've taken down Kaido, Shanks and
even Whitebeard" ?
WBP 30 years ago were a bunch of kids, with Oden who didn't reach his prime (didn't know advanced conqueror's haki) and maybe a few executive level characters. Of course they get packed up by BMP or BP.
Roger pirates on the other hand would pack up BMP, and also Beast Pirates but with more difficulty.
People don't remember how much of a threat Big Mom was to her crew, when she was going on a rampage without even her full mental faculty. It was implied that she alone may possibly be a match for the entire BMP. And this is Big Mom, who is amongst the lower end of top tiers.
Roger Pirates have Roger and Rayleigh. Roger is amongst the strongest characters ever; and given what we know of Rayleigh, he is a solid Yonko level fighter who is for sure stronger than Big Mom or at bare minimum is as strong as her. I have prime Rayleigh ~ Shanks.
Rayleigh alone may take on the rest of BMP, while Roger takes down Big Mom solo. And this isn't even considering others like Scopper and that fish guy. Scopper has special portrayal as Roger pirates 3rd strongest, he is an "in-betweener"/YC1+ at bare minimum. The fish guy is probably the Jinbe of Roger pirates, and likely a commander tier.
We know Luffy's crew is parallel to Roger's crew and Shanks' (main) crew. Small, but very reliable crewmates.
If that is the case, Roger's crew even apart from the 4 I mentioned, are likely many strong executive level characters at least.
Roger takes on Kaido/BM.
His crewmates take on the their crew and destroys them.
The only Yonko crew I can see being a match for Roger pirates would be WBP or RHP.
