Makes me wonder tho Imu is like the final boss typa enemy what's left after him? Assuming ...

They wont defeat imu here. Knowing how one piece work, this is like their prelude battle.

Agreed. The good guys always lose out in the initial encounter. As to what’s left after Imu? Just Laughtale and the One Peace.

I still have my bets on Blackbeard

considering his backstory i think blackbeard will be going against imu with the strawhats in a way similar to how luffy teamed up with crocodile and other prisoners in marineford, meaning luffy will fight him before that in competition for laugh tale/one piece. that will place the final war after obtaining the one piece.
it's still confusing tho bc i didn't expect imu to fight against them personally this soon tbh. he seems like he's not at his best, so that's still up there.

Would Luffy be willing to team up with Blackbeard though? Knowing very well about his involvement in death of his brother + death of his brother's captain and many others supporting him during marineford? Also some of the things Blackbeard has done directly goes against Luffy's values.

Imu confronting Strawhats so early on makes me even more sure that Blackbeard might be playing a bigger role in hindering Luffy's dream. Blackbeard's character has been developing for a very long time- and Oda is still keeping his intentions mysterious.

Blackbeard might find a way to become a bigger threat than Imu- something that even Imu cannot expect.
Or he might team up with Imu in the final war (or end up betraying him, I am sure he is bitter about his father's death)

you're right, luffy might not be willing to team up with him, but since it looks like it'll be a large scale war, i don't think it'll be an outright stated team up, more like both of them having a common enemy they fight against without really acknowledging each other at best.

The point about blackbeard's intentions being mysterious is a good one. We have no idea where tf he's going with all this, let alone much about the davy clan.

Him becoming a "second" imu is the only way i can see him become a bigger threat. And on the chance he does team up with imu, no way is he not betraying him (also might end up with him being imu's puppet like his father, creating a repeat of the past, which would be an insane thing for oda to do).

But the only thing is, we haven't seen imu consider him as a threat to the throne. Might be that he doesn't know blackbeard's true identity, but it's also a point that his devil fruit was never known to be put under the radar like luffy's, so is it that powerful? Outside of his fruit, is there something blackbeard has that makes him so confident??
Bro is definitely plotting, but until we have more details, I'm going to be on the fence about whether he's the "final boss". It looks like it'll be either him or imu tho.

I have yet to catch up with recent 4-5 chapters but wasn't Teach already on Imu's radar? We've seen him asking about teach and also messing up his bounty paper along with Luffy's (lmao a bit childish, no?)

Sure right now, Imu is considering Luffy a bigger threat, especially after his awakening as joyboy but I am sure Imu is also bothered by Teach.

Also, Teach's devil fruit is not par with Luffy's BUT he also has this mysterious skill of consuming more than one devil fruit (maybe this skill is what got Imu's attention on him in the first place)

Well, at the end of the day, all I am hoping for is that his character gets a worthy conclusion. I love him as a villain, especially since he's being notoriously built for a very long time as Luffy's opposite!

Ohh, I don't remember imu having a reaction to him, should refresh my memories one of these days.

And same, I personally don't particularly like blackbeard, but he really is an interesting character, so as long as all this wraps up properly, I'll eat it up lmao