Final Acnologia vs. Ignia

[LadyVados]

Does it though?
Igneel fought Acno with both hands.

What if the fight started with Acno missing a hand?

Space Beyond Time Acno probably solos all the other dragons at the same time.

 

[Kurumi Tokisaki]

However, if we take Zeref's statement of Acno never being challenged (despite it being after his fight with Igneel), it could be assumed Acno was fucking around with Igneel. I'm not saying he was, I'm saying it could be argued as Zeref himself watched the fight and still mentioned that he wasn't ever challenged (also implying that Igneel didn't challenge him 400+ years ago either), but, by shown feats, Acno>=Igneel, by reliable statements in Zeref (who was watching) Acnologia>Igneel.

Why are taking Zeref statements. He is also one that said Larcade has potential to beat Acno. If you believe him then you will have to believe Larcade > Acno.

 

[grey matter]

Maybe it didn't nerf Igneel because Igneel was actually a Dragon whilst Acno was a Human turned Dragon.

That's just speculation really.
I've myself thought the same in the past, but logically why would dragons be immune from the nerf? They also literally use magic.

Agree here, without CIS, a one-handed Acno takes this with high-extreme diff against Ignia, likely extreme diffs Igneel. Acnologia certainly had the ability to take on Igneel in a mid-high diff if he kept his distance and relied more on spells than focusing more on physical combat.

Yeah.
Tho I wouldn't put it as CIS, it's just how Acno likes to fight. He loves physical combat, it fits in very well with his character/demeanor.

All his serious attacks intended for kill have been physical as well. So, we can presume that Acno's strongest attacks are also physical, similar to Natsu's. Both are direct combat types

He did say that he was going to, but how sure are we that he would have actually seeked out and confronted Acnologia when he already had ample chances to do so? I don't think Ignia had any plans on actually going after Acnologia or he would have done so already. It's easy to say that you'd confront someone and kill them when said person isn't alive for you to be forced to back it up. Plus, as we've seen with Selene, he needs to rely on cheap tactics to get an even fight to go in his favor, that trick wouldn't work on Acno even if he did get distracted.

Real explanation:
Cause Mashima pulled Ignia and the entire spinoff outta his ass lol

In-verse explanation:
We have to go by Ignia's reasoning that Acno died when Ignia finally thought he was ready/strong enough to face him. Let's look at it from an in-character perspective. Ignia is a cocky dude, so we can question his claim that he is stronger than Acno, he obviously is the type to overestimate himself. But a coward? Nah, that doesn't fit his character at all.

We have to take author intent into consideration as well.
Clearly the narrative of Ignia IMO, is Mashima's way for showing how strong Igneel is

Regarding the Ignia vs Selene.
Ignia was the clear dominant one in that engagement as well. Even before the "cheap shot".
Ignia was face tanking Selene's attacks, and taking turns to attack her. It's almost as if it's on purpose, he wanted a straight up brawl where he overpowers her. Selene needed to teleport herself to ocean for Ignia's flames, while Ignia kept tanking them.
We will soon see that Ignia is the undisputed strongest DG, when his arc comes. Unless Viernes has something to say about it, he has been mysterious for the entire spinoff, it might lead somewhere.

Space Beyond Time Acno probably solos all the other dragons at the same time.

We are clearly talking about base Acno here.

Buffed Acno solo's the entire verse, no point discussing him