Why Kaidou > Whitebeard (sorry wb fans 😭)
(In terms of fighting strength, not total power they have at their command/disposal)
First of all, let's start off by giving my definition of Whitebeard’s title (World Strongest Man/Pirate), and Kaidou’s Title (World Strongest Creature).
World Strongest Man - I believe this title is attained when you have the most powerful pirate crew in the show, and not because of your strength and power in a 1v1 combat (this is not to say whitebeard is weak in a 1v1), Whitebeard when he was old and sick still had the title, which makes no sense if it was based of his strength and power alone because there characters at that time who were clearly stronger than him (shanks, kaidou, big mom, etc.), but if the title included the power he also commanded like his pirate crew, and alliances, then the title would still be fitting for him to have, because we do not know of a pirate who had more power than him at that time. This take on whitebeard’s title is also backed by this scan from a SBS (i believe)
World Strongest Creature - This is certainly the hardest to define out of the two, but here is what I think it means. Most people assume that since kaidou is the WSC and humans are creatures, it must means Kaidou > Whitebeard, This however is a fallacy that exists in the community. When law revealed Kaidou’s title to the strawhats, nami asked ‘So, he isn’t even human?’ which implies that the title doesn’t include humans.
But now you may be asking: Then how is kaidou stronger than whitebeard? Because of narrator statements, During the ace novel, oda dabbles into what it means to be the strongest, Whitebeard is called the strongest by the way he lived and kaidou was the strongest in a 1 on 1 fight, which backs both my takes on both titles.
This statement is also backed by his introduction in which the narrator says: in a 1v1 always bet on kaidou.
You might be saying to yourself, but it says he was the strongest creature alive, and whitebeard was dead at the time. That is true, whitebeard was dead at the time, but whitebeard was never considered a creature to begin with, Also this scan backs up kaidou as the world strongest creature EVER.
Another very important statement I want to consider is the following:
This was during the wano arc, and I am going to give my take on what it means. The whitebeard pirates disbanded after they lost to blackbeard during their revenge war, meaning it no longer exists. Kaidou at that time was trying to build the strongest pirate crew to challenge the world government in hopes of creating the grand war he always wanted. No other crew that we know of was building a crew that powerful at the time of that statement, it wouldn’t be far fetched to say kaidou was the strongest fighter, and the most powerful person at the time because of his command over the beast pirates/
FAQ:
Q: But whitebeard was the only person that could go toe-to-toe with the pirate king, so how is it possible for kaidou to be stronger than whitebeard?
A: What is to imply that roger was stronger than kaidou? The kaidou during roger’s time was a young kaidou who was around the same level as oden, and he has grown much stronger after roger’s death. Also, being called the pirate king has no correlation with power, the pirate king is the man/woman that reaches the last island.
Q: What about Primebeard?
A: Primebeard has no statement that put him above kaidou in a 1 on 1, yes while he was stronger than marineford Whitebeard, nothing at the moment says he was stronger than the kaidou we saw during wano.