[ri0]

Originally Posted by Blackbeard D. Kuma

The vice admirals vary in strength. So the two that he took out (Ronse and John Giant) may have been among the weaker ones. Bypassing an admiral? He had to get help to get through the admirals. Marco intervened when Kizaru directed his Yasakani no Magatama at Whitebeard; Jozu stepped in to deal with Aokiji when Whitebeard was in trouble; and against Akainu, that's when he was on his own and really struggled.

The vice admirals may be the two weakest, you are right. But on the other hand they could also be the two strongest
I'm not a WB fanboy (my favs are Ace and Zoro) but in my eyes it was a little bit different.
The quarrel with Aokiji was leading nowhere and ended with one ineffective attack from each side. Jozu's interference was not because Whitebeard was in trouble, he just wanted to stall Aokiji so Whitebeard could move on to the platform.
Same with Akainu. Until Whitebeards heart attack they didn't do anything. Remember that at this point WB was 72 years old, had a mortal illness and was stabbed next to the heart.
After the heart attack, Akainu's attack and the engagement of numerous marines he just crushed them.
The fight against Borsalino was not really interesting. Despite the wounds he suffered while the admiral was still in good health he had time to watch Ace's rescue, afterwards stop the paddle ship one-handed and even nearly destroying marineford with one hit - let alone the fact that after he was half dead he split the island in two.

To say that Whitebeard wasn't even fighting seriously is silly. The severity of the situation (saving Ace) certainly didn't warrant Whitebeard to mess around. It was a matter of life and death, and we know how seriously Whitebeard takes the well-being of his sons.

Of course it was matter of life and death. But the first time Whitebeard was agitated was the moment when his illness stopped him from using haoshoku. Before, he was sure that he could prolong the execution till he gets to the platform. It's obvious when you compare his first and second fight with Akainu. In the second fight he just sent him to the ground with two hits (I'm sure getting half his face blown off could have been avoided but he knew he was gonna die anyway. We can't prove that so I won't use it as an argument) after which Akainu collapsed and was falling off the platform until Whitebeard was killed by the Blackbeards. He could have easily killed Akainu but he had other worries which were more pressing.

And it's funny how the Whitebeard advocates (I'm not necessarily saying that you are one) ignore the fact that Whitebeard had to get a cheap-shot in on Akainu in order to put him down just temporarily.

Cheap shot? In this war people were attacked when being distracted all the time and nearly no one was taken by surprise. Especially Akainu who was hearing the approach of the Moby Dick although he was far away at the platform wouldn't be hit like this if it wasn't a really stealthy attack from Whitebeard. In my eyes this contributs even more to his strength.

Was Whitebeard the strongest pre-skip? Until proven otherwise, yes, he was. However, to say that he was considerably stronger than the other top tiers is flat-out erroneous, as demonstrated by the war.

I was merely saying that the answer is obvious and that he truly deserved the title...

Well, I read through a couple of your statements and I don't think there will be any consensus. To me those battles were just awesome and I share Sengoku's opinion that Whitebeard back then was the strongest man alive.