User blog comment:Blackendedsoul/Gap/@comment-95.105.212.107-20130417211004/@comment-3425840-20130419091736

First about the chair, according to Vergo, Doflamingo is STILL holding the chair for Law, so it implies that Law once had the chair and then he left (most likely betrayed, could be the time when Vergo humiliated him) however Doflamingo was ready to give hi one more chance, meaning Law already had the potential to be a chair person (literally) his recent growth is beside the point. Although it could be said that it is because of his recent growth that Doflamingo wanted to give him a second chance.

I agree that the three seats are probably the strongest subordinates of Doflamingo but I think Vergo also was about their level if not higher.

According to my knowledge and the authentic infro sources out there, Oda never said that Shanks was stronger than Whitebeard at any point. In fact Shanks' strength was directly compared to only Mihawk and Blackbeard (passively).

Whitebeard sure as hell did not take down Akainu like a rag doll. Actually until their final clash, it was Akainu who was having the upper hand (when he stomped on Whitebeard's bisento, when he punched the Old man in the chest the first time; their clash of fruit power was also about even, yes Whitebeard was old, sick and injured so I am not denying that he was stronger than Akainu, only that the difference was not that high. In fact Akainu almost managed to deal a fatal blow and finish him off until Whitebeard overcame it and sent the former Admiral down for the count. Still it should be noted, while he was damaged by Whitebeard Akainu still had more than enough stamina left to fight against prominent figures and overpower some of them quite easily).

I was actually kind of disappointed at Whitebeard because after all that hype he only was marginally stronger than the Admirals, while it is certainly good plot element, I thought that just like Admirals can take (or at least dare to) multiple strong figures without flinching, Whitebeard could possibly fight multiple Admirals but it is certain that he would have not fared evenly against even two.

I do think that plot wise it should be the case that Yonko are stronger than Admirals however not far stronger as it was clear because Whitebeard himself was not far above them. Also like I said, while it is likely, it is not necessarily the case. Why does the navy not send buster call + Admiral to take down the Yonko has little to do with the individual strength of a Yonko. According to that logic any free roaming notorious pirate is above Admiral because else why does the navy not send an Admiral to hunt them down?

Also we do know that Doflamingo is scared of Kaido but just that does not mean that he is only half as strong, he could be close to Kaido with just say 15% weaker, even that would be enough make him scared if Kaido's crew is badass (not saying that he is that strong, just that how weak Doflamingo is compared to Kaido is just speculation). Luffy's level compared to Shanks is also speculation at this point.