[Blackbeard D. Kuma]

Originally Posted by Thursaz

But, the final villian may not be a villian at all. The villian might be the second-last battle, followed by a battle against Cody and Helmeppo. This is entirely possible because the both of them are enduring the same training that Luffy went through, and they are being trained by the same person.

This is definitely possible. In the "General Discussion on the Marines/Navy [Manga]" thread, one of the possibilities I predicted was that Coby is going to be the one to catch Luffy at the very end of the story. Coby is most definitely going to play a major role later on.

Originally Posted by Thursaz

Or, Aokiji may be the last person they fight. Either way, it's not definite that the last fight will be with Blackbeard, Shanks or any pirate for than matter. It may even be Smoker. I'm quite sure all of the Shichibukai will have been defeated by Raftel, though.

I really don't see either Aokiji or Smoker being the final boss for the strawhats. Aokiji and Smoker have their own moral sense of justice and by the end of the story, when the whole truth about the void history is unveiled, they may realize just how corrupt the world government is and refuse to do any more of their bidding. There are already a lot of policies that Aokiji and Smoker don't approve of from the World Government, so just imagine how reluctant they will be to act on behalf of them when they find out the real truth.

Originally Posted by Thursaz

The again, it certainly could be Blackbeard, since he's forming his crew much the same way as Luffy is. Not sure how Luffy'd fight his Darkness abilities, though!

Blackbeard and his crew are like the anit-strawhats. This is one of the reasons why it would be quite convincing for them to be the final villains.

Originally Posted by Thursaz

Jimbei might not be defeated. Two Shichibukai defeated in such a close range is relatively unlikely. It might go as the 'battle' with Kuma- Jimbei letting them through for some reason. For instance, Caimie might be his- Jimbei's- daughter... Or something relatively similar. xD

A lot of people say that defeating the shichibukai within short time intervals or in a consecutive manner is not likely. What people have to remember is that at this point, the story calls for it. The strawhats, especially Luffy, have shown that they are now able to contend with opponents of shichibukai caliber. Having said this, it is appropriate for them to start fighting the remaining shichibukai members onward throughout the story. Also, One Piece is presumably half way done, or at least that is what Oda likes to think of his progress so far. This means that there are still six warlords left to fight. I think that Oda is trying to make it clear that from now on, the strawhats are going to have one hell of a time trying to get by all of these top-dog adversaries. I feel that Oda is saying it is now time for the big hitters to come into play.