Completely missed that the chapter was out due to holiday shenanigans, so I'm catching up.
@Darth:
Bullshit. It is not consistent with his treating of Rebecca in the slightest.
Did he suddenly became immortal? Will he be forever young and strong? Are they not living on the most dangerous of the six seas?
Who is to say that the story can't repeat itself? Him?
He agreed that he was not going to be around forever. Now he acts as if he will. He acknowledged her right to make her own concieous decisions. Now he does not. If anything, his behavior is contradictory to what have been established earlier.
More importantly, it's not only about character being consistent, it's also about how they are painted in the context of the story. Hody Jones was a racist, but nothing about his racism was portrayed to be good or worthy of admiration.
Think back to what Dressrosa was before Doflamingo showed up: A symbol of peace. Never once in the 800 years of Riku rule did they go to war. Kyros taught Rebecca how to fight to survive while under Doflamingo's rule. He was a toy and had no idea how long he would last until he fell apart. He wanted her to survive but was crippled in his effort to protect her.
Now that they are fighting back and he has absolute faith that they will win, restoring Riku to the throne and with him that peace, there is no reason for Rebecca to need to fight anymore, in his eyes. He will do for her everything he could not. It's less about him not wanting her to fight and more about him wanting to atone for failing her for all those years.
Kyros is a father who for ten years could do nothing to protect Rebecca from any real danger and he failed to protect her or her mother from Doflamingo. This is his chance to rid himself of that past, and he's going to do it till his stubborn end.
That's his motivation and that's the reason behind his words.
Speaking of motivation:
@Darth:
That is the stance I personaly come from as well, especially that her never wanting to fight was such out of left field thing Oda did, with no earlier build up to it.
Really now, it's made worse by the fact that Kyros DID failed her before. He has no ground nor basis for such bold claims that his daughter will never have to swing sword again when they live on the sea commonly considered hell, where countries are slaughtered on a whim. Hell, he is not even winning right now.
That is not even taking into account that he is twenty years her senior.
And that's not even taking into account her portrayl through out the arc.
As you said, what the hell kind of character arc is that?
Rebecca, in her flashback, said that she did not want to fight when Kyros told her she needed to learn. Thus he taught her to defend herself. Did you forget what he fighting style is? It's completely based in the idea of defense. Her sword was dull and she never actually attacked anyone. She was taught to protect herself, not to fight.
Also, when Rebecca first ran into Diamante on the hill, she tried to flee saying she did not want to fight anymore. Then of course Kyros showed up and told her she didn't need to.
Rebecca was in the Colosseum because she was captured and forced to participate. And she only entered the tournament because Kyros decided to attack Doflamingo and she wanted to save him.
So, it's been drilled into Rebecca's character that she has never wanted to fight. So it wasn't out of left field, it was there from the start.
(This is why you should re-read the arcs as they're on-going. It's much easier to see the big picture that way.)