Luffy vs Kaido
Kid and Law vs Big Mom
Zoro vs King
Sanji vs Queen
and so on…
Chapter 975: Kin'emon's Clever Trick
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Why are people so pessimistic about all the straw hats getting fights. The Straw hats have always gotten fights during the climax of every multi-arc saga, regardless of what they do in other arcs. I know that the New World has kinda made us doubtful but if you reread the pre-Sabaody arcs, you will notice that there were times where some members not only didnt have a fight but were almost non-existent. Oda has always found ways to nerf and/or completely remove certain straw hats out of the action for whatever reasons, this is not something exclusive to post-TS.
Enies Lobby was pretty fast paced; it was the arc where you first start noticing Oda's panels getting smaller and smaller. And yet, the majority of the volumes were mostly action. The final fights for the straw hats spanned almost three whole volumes (not to mention the Sea Train-pre Robin Flashback section). I dont see why Onigashima wont go the same route. If Oda wants to preserve pacing he will find other ways to do it. I can confidently say that all straw hats will have a final fight. Some fights may be 2v1s or 2v2s but everyone is gonna have a good amount of focus. The thing that im not sure about is how much Oda will focus on the action of the side characters. Enies Lobby had a lot of focus on the side characters but none of them had specific enemies they wanted to face. Some Wano characters do however. Raizo, Shinobu and Fukurokuju. Inu, Neko and Jack. Orochi will definitely get defeated by a side character. I think we're underestimating how much action there is going to be in Onigashima as well as how much action Oda can fit in every chapter -
Why are people so pessimistic about all the straw hats getting fights.
Well, in the last years we haven't seen Sanji or Zorro or anyother SH fight for their lives, except ofc Luffy. So we kinda want a Zorro vs Mr.1 style of fight to happen a little bit more often.
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Well, in the last years we haven't seen Sanji or Zorro or anyother SH fight for their lives, except ofc Luffy. So we kinda want a Zorro vs Mr.1 style of fight to happen a little bit more often.
Like i said in my post, if you look at the context of the story, there's no reason to be pessimistic
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Heyyy the whole crew's back together! I expected this to be more of a moment, probably something revealed at the end of a chapter with a colour spread, but maybe Oda's saving that for when they have Jinbe in tow. The new outfits look spectacular as well, with the choice to dress up Zeus as well being a highlight. We're at the start of a new volume with this chapter (nice that it came out alongside the reveal of the previous volume's finished cover), so it wouldn't shock me to see a straw hats cover with all these new outfits on show. I could see it as a parallel to volume 64's cover maybe.
And speaking of being back together, the big trio of Luffy, Law and Kidd are fight side by side and trying to show off and outdo each other yet again, and I love it. Luffy and Law side by side was great fun on Dressrosa, and throwing the even more volatile and competitive Kid in the mix can only make things better. I'm keen to see more of old Jaggy as the battles in Wano build to their conclusion. Also nice to see that Kidd as Heat and Wire by his side again. Aside from Law and Bege, the crews of the Supernovas often seem to slip into non-existence before the overwhelming charisma of their captains, so it's good to see a couple of them acknowledged.
There's a lot going on in the back half of the chapter to resolve the series of shocking cliffhangers set up before the flashback. Some of it works, some of it feels a little contrived but one amazing piece of trademark Oda humour brings it all together. The weakest part is the explanation of the Sunny's survival. Like, it's not a plot hole or any kind of contradiction, but "oh the Sunny was never really in danger to begin with" is underwhelming. Especially considering a destroyed Sunny fakeout has been done better fairly recently.
The rest works a bit better. Spare ships? Well Oda made a big point of having Franky say he was building extras just in case, so that works. Bridge attacks timed wrong? Orochi being sheltered isn't the best explanation, but if you look back to chapter 959, you can see the samurai looking back at the bridge as it's destroyed, not toward it. That's some neat foreshadowing! Did anyone catch it at the time? I would have liked a hint of the ships being hidden in the spread of the Shogun's procession as well, but you can't win them all. Probably would have been too obvious anyway.
The Japanese linguistics, symbolism and everything else behind the port/warf switcheroo are all stupidly overcomplicated in a really fun way. From what I've seen, even in the original Japanese it's a train of thought that can only barely be followed. It's almost a send-up of the crazy "I know you know I know" plays and counterplays of something like Death Note, and it's perfectly topped off by the fact that Kinemon did it all completely by accident. Oda excels at writing moronic characters who fail upward. He doesn't just make them funny, he makes their blunders important to the plot without the upward momentum that comes from them feeling cheap. It's one of those little things that One Piece does really well that you rarely even see attempted anywhere else.
Oh, and even though it's very talky (and how are they all hearing each other from so far apart on the sea in a storm?), I'm glad Oda managed to resolve all the cliffhangers and betrayals without going back into flashbacks. The story is at a point where it needs forward momentum, and this keeps it going just fine.
Finally, there is some spectacular art in this chapter. The way Wano's seas are drawn is always a treat, but we also have two whole fleets of really detailed ships (the narrow middle panel of page 15 with the ships mostly silhouetted, shown from behind is striking but easily lost in all the stuff going on around it. The three captains look great as they fly into action. There's a ton of different Beasts Pirates who're all distinct and expressive, and the amount of detail in that final spread with all the samurai and yakuza ships speaks for itself. Not to mention the detail in Kin's expression in the final panel. This one was a real treat.
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Kaido's reign in Wano will end thanks to Kinemon being too dumb to understand Yasuie's message
Leaves a bad taste, but then again Kinemon was never portrayed as too much of a thinker.
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I think i'll remember this chapter for a while, because it's an emblematic one. It has the best that One Piece ever had and some of the worst it came to have:
the best, because the Kinemon solution was extremely clever, simple, goofy but believable, it was forshdowed and in charachter, and also funny.
The worst, because when we have the Strawhat full reunion after god knows how many years… it's not even acknowledged. Center of the action has to be the Cool Edgy Pirates massive wanking. Because Kid and Law, the two charachters i'd swear were pulled right out of some bad fanfiction are of course much more interesting than an Usopp or a Robin.
Fortunately, i can ignore the worst, it's somehow inevitable, i get it. I can appreciate the best and the kind of writing that drew me in one piece in the first place, which is now sadly only a spark every once in a while, still enough to make me want to keep following it.
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It will be fun if both Kaido and Bigmom decided to take out Luffy at the same time and neither of them is willing to let the other attack first/at the same time..etc and t ends up a 3 way battle in which the two emperors end up damaging/obstructing each other.
Would be totally out of character for Kaidou. Why should he want to fight Luffy, when he had already proven himself to be not a worthy opponent?
The most obvious outcome for me Is the alliance destroying whatever the food is on Onigashima, making Big Mom to enter her food rage and make that a 3 sided battle.
We already had the food rage as a central theme in the last arc, it would be repetitive if it would be again a major plotpoint. Yes, it might factor in in some way, but hopefully rather during the ending point
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Orochi vs Zoro will happen, or else zoro's entire story in wano makes no sense.
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There are alot of loose ends about Zorro that Wano should answer.
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@uniaka:
Orochi vs Zoro will happen, or else zoro's entire story in wano makes no sense.
Doubt it happens if we consider the interaction between them both is almost cero. Considering Wano is about Kurosumi vs Kosuki, the most logical rival of Orochi would be little Momo. Since Orochi has been really evil with kids (Momo and Toko, and indirectly Tama) I fantasize with a battle kids vs Orochi. Maybe I'm lucky and Oda goes that way.
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Would it even really be a fight? Orochi flinches at the slightest bit of danger. He has no combat instincts.
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Kaido's reign in Wano will end thanks to Kinemon being too dumb to understand Yasuie's message
Leaves a bad taste, but then again Kinemon was never portrayed as too much of a thinker.
I think the joke is too forced to take it seriously (even as a joke). Consider everybody has access to Yasui's message, that includes Kanjuro and the very same Orochi, iirc. So not only Kin but also all the other scabbars and Orochi and Janjuro and Kaido and his minions, all of them misunderstood the message and only the 5200 decifered right? Not a chance.
Meanwhile, Kin's face is really funny, and the battle is going to take place as it should be: it'd have been very dissapoinment if the alliance is annhilated with out a chance to fight.
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@Johnny:
Would it even really be a fight? Orochi flinches at the slightest bit of danger. He has no combat instincts.
Basically a coward; so he'd get even more despicable if he tries to kill momo on his own based on the presumption the kid is weaker.
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I might think that it has to do with some gramatical rule that came in during the 20 years span. since Kinemon skipped it, it would make sense why he's the only one who got it wrong.
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@Johnny:
Would it even really be a fight? Orochi flinches at the slightest bit of danger. He has no combat instincts.
It's not like it needs to be a proper fight. Either way the setup is there for a proper confrontation.
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Doubt it happens if we consider the interaction between them both is almost cero. Considering Wano is about Kurosumi vs Kosuki, the most logical rival of Orochi would be little Momo. Since Orochi has been really evil with kids (Momo and Toko, and indirectly Tama) I fantasize with a battle kids vs Orochi. Maybe I'm lucky and Oda goes that way.
Kaidou killing oden, kaidou himself going after momonosuke to kill him but underestimate him, kinda settles it that momo is going after kaidou himself.
And orochi and zoro interacted once and zoro went for the kill, they have way more going on then king and zoro. Zoro saved hyiori and toko from orochi's assasin, zoro bonded with yasu that orochi killed, orochi wants hyiori that zoro got instead, he bonded with hyiori that wants to kill orochi herself but can't since she even gave her own sword to zoro. When was zoro so decided to kill someone? Even in terms of matches he got in previous arcs.
It's very similar to the orochi story, with susanoo saving the princess from orochi that wants to eat her and marries her.
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@uniaka:
Kaidou killing oden, kaidou himself going after momonosuke to kill him but underestimate him, kinda settles it that momo is going after kaidou himself.
And orochi and zoro interacted once and zoro went for the kill, they have way more going on then king and zoro. Zoro saved hyiori and toko from orochi's assasin, zoro bonded with yasu that orochi killed, orochi wants hyiori that zoro got instead, he bonded with hyiori that wants to kill orochi herself but can't since she even gave her own sword to zoro. When was zoro so decided to kill someone? Even in terms of matches he got in previous arcs.
It's very similar to the orochi story, with susanoo saving the princess from orochi that wants to eat her and marries her.
Kaido is not a Kurosumi, however. Nor Zoro a Kosuki.
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What if Zoro handles King and Orochi?
Though I wonder how Oda is going to handle Orochi fighting at all. It seems like he can't do much but a devil fruit like that just seems like it would be fairly dangerous even in a personality like Orochi. Maybe he really is a scaredy cat but when push comes to shove he can be a fairly dangerous opponent.
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I enjoyed the chapter, Luffy-Kidd-Law combo was pretty good, just like in SA arc. :)
And poor Kinemon got confused a bit, but Denjiro saved the day. -
will we have another defeat to close act 3 or do you think act 3 will end at the beginning of the battle and that is going to be the only battle?
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I personally think this is going to be a first scrimmage, when the information leaks the SH fleet, the marines and others will come to help and that's going to be act 4
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What if Zoro handles King and Orochi?
Though I wonder how Oda is going to handle Orochi fighting at all. It seems like he can't do much but a devil fruit like that just seems like it would be fairly dangerous even in a personality like Orochi. Maybe he really is a scaredy cat but when push comes to shove he can be a fairly dangerous opponent.
Spandams tend to be good damage sponges.
Personally i hope he goes through a conga line of abuse.
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Is there any chance the numbers figth some sea kings, thanks to Shirahoshi's help?
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Is there any chance the numbers figth some sea kings, thanks to Shirahoshi's help?
Present time Shirahoshi seems to be safe back at Fishman Island. Don't see that happening
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Orochi is gonna get spandam'd
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This post is deleted!
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Remember way back when people used to speculate that Orochi would turn out to be the ultimate samurai? Good times.
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Orochi is the best character introduced in this arc
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I'm looking forward to Luffy's fire form (from Ace's will) that was foreshadowed by the ninja color spread, the secret note from the 9 scabbards, and his Fire Hawk ability.
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Orochi is the best character introduced in this arc
Seconded.
Spandam had it easy, he could abuse a character we cared a lot about. Orochi however is abusing people we have little connection to and they are largely massive assholes themselves - and yet most readers still want his face punched in. Quite the achievement if you ask me.
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I'm kinda rooting for Orochi and Kanjuro. They got done dirty by a whole country for no good reason.
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I just realized the person saying “ahh… is this ship fixed already?” Was probably Carrot or some other Mink. Though it hasn’t been clear who has been at the helm all this time. I know there is zero chance for Jimbo now but a man can hope!
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Wasn't it Zoro? Since someone was saying 'how could you sleep at a time like this!?'
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The Orochi and Hody Jones of this story are better than Linlin, Kata and Croc. Just full on bad guys. Petty, spiteful and unwavering in their iniquity
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I'm kinda rooting for Orochi and Kanjuro. They got done dirty by a whole country for no good reason.
Then again, seeing on what Orochi has done, maybe there was a good reason to want them gone.
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What pisses me off the most is that we are past mid arc if we go by acts which should be 5 in total. We have long passed the time of presentation of the various forces in play there, still, no clue about what REALLY IS this "infamous" Beast Pirates crew.
During every arc we have had plenty of notions regardind the whole enemy crews/groups, thus the usual match ups.
These match ups were possible also because we had time to develop "negative" emotional bonds with each villain and grow kinda empathic with whoever had to face said villain.No matter how hard we try, we cannot say the same for Wano kuni, the very arc that Oda himself hyped so much.
Don't get me wrong, the arc itself is top notch by writing standards, and I guess it'll be even more if re-read as a whole, but, we are at the door of the final battle, and we still have no clue about the identities of about 80% of the named villains which should pose a significant threat.It's not about just simple match ups, we are off the usual scheme since Dressrosa, where we had total nobodys or non- Mugiwara, defeat the top dogs, and we will have the same pattern here, despite what people believe. Half of the Mugiwara won't shine battling the top dogs, like pre timeskip, Oda clearly has changed his battle pattern, growing the scale of them, splitting the crew in half, with the monsters capable of facing the actual villains, which are at least in the 500+ million berry to over 1 billion, if we go by bounty, and the other half, with more of a support role.
And it would piss me off if a Nami, phisically weak, with no actual fighting skill, and with a bounty of 16 ml, raised to 66 just because EVERYONE got a 50 ml bonus after Dressrosa, should pose a significant threat on a 500+ ml experienced fighter.That's because we will have more off mugiwara character getting the best fights, like Law, Inu, Neku, etc.
And that's why we need so desperately Jinbe to actively be on panel with the rest of the crew, and possibly another great warrior like a mink perhaps.Anyway, we are next to get our beloved match ups, and we know just the top 3 commanders (which is good at least).
One (PageOne) of five top hadliners, as we know Drake is in disguise and exposed already himself to Law, probably because he knows this is the right occasion to beat Kaido.
Hawkins, which we don't know if will switch side before the great clash; Apoo, flyin six? Regular headliner?
No need to count the headliners as they are just trash for lesser fights, and a disappointment as they are a league below their counterpart in the Big Mom crew but also the Donquixote family, whose middle members, like : Lao G, Machvise, Dellinger, Gladius and Monet were a lot scarier and competent.We have Orochi side, with the elite ninjas which were single handedly crushed by Zoro off panel, then the elite Samurai, that will probably be a bit more competent, and the most fascinating of that side, Kyoshiro, which turned out to be one of the top Akazaya, so a top alliance fighter, bringing also his men with him.
Then, at a certain point, Oda introduced to us the Numbers, the missing link between the scary powerful All Stars and the pitiful fodderish headliners, which apparently only 6-7 of them are reliable.
The Numbers, this giant ogre-like figures, which we have only seen in the flashback as shadows, picking up Neko and Inu like babies but still not telling us a thing about them skills.
We don't know a single name, if they are beasts, zoan users, if they are intelligent or just dumb juggernauts. Nothing.And they should be along the lines of Perospero, Oven, Daifuku, Compote etc., thus pretty important named characters.
Still not a single clue about WHO the heck the alliance is gonna fight in the upcoming weeks.
And why we should care about this fights.Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk
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@Johnny:
Then again, seeing on what Orochi has done, maybe there was a good reason to want them gone.
I mean that's kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy considering he did out of revenge for his persecution.
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I think the fact that we don’t really know how strong the enemy is what makes this raid so special. We know their troop count but their power levels are unknown. I mean we can make take a guess by their bounty level and what not but that’s it really. There are too many factions involved in this war. It will definitely be bigger than Marineford with the sheer number of fighters involved. I think there will be multiple tag teams happening and this war is bound to last for few days at the very least where the initially defeated fighters will come back in the end.
Opponents will change throughout the war as we find out more about their abilities/weaknesses etc. I am so excited about the possible fights. Looking forward to see all the non SH characters fight especially the minks/heart pirates. I wonder if zoro & Denjiro will team up to fight Orochi & King. 2v2 would be fun to read/watch.
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We just haven't gotten to the Jabra & Co. introduction chapter of the arc yet is all.
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Well, in the last years we haven't seen Sanji or Zorro or anyother SH fight for their lives, except ofc Luffy. So we kinda want a Zorro vs Mr.1 style of fight to happen a little bit more often.
thank you for your signature! I shall read them at work tomorrow
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I'm kinda rooting for Orochi and Kanjuro. They got done dirty by a whole country for no good reason.
You know, I get what you're saying and I like that Oda gave both of them pretty sympathetic backstories but I think both have gone way, way beyond justified revenge. Wano has been suffering under Orochi for decades now. If you look at how much completely innocent kids like Tama and O-Toki had to go through because of Orochi or how the Minks suffered because Kanjuro gave up Raizo's location on Zou, it becomes pretty clear that what they are doing and have been doing is in no way justifiable anymore. Orochi is doing the exact same thing that was done to him, only on a much wider, much more extreme scale. Orochi had to suffer as a kid because someone in his family did bad and the whole family was punished for it. Now the whole country has to suffer because some of its people/leaders did bad things in the past. Two wrongs don't make a right in this case, especially considering the despicable methods Orochi uses to accomplish his goals.
@Drakul:
It's not about just simple match ups, we are off the usual scheme since Dressrosa, where we had total nobodys or non- Mugiwara, defeat the top dogs, and we will have the same pattern here, despite what people believe. Half of the Mugiwara won't shine battling the top dogs, like pre timeskip, Oda clearly has changed his battle pattern, growing the scale of them, splitting the crew in half, with the monsters capable of facing the actual villains, which are at least in the 500+ million berry to over 1 billion, if we go by bounty, and the other half, with more of a support role.
The fights of the Strawhats present in Dressrosa still got the most focus out of all the fights though. Sugar was a key figure and a true menace for Luffy, defeating Senor Pink was necessary in order to destroy the Smile factory (which was the intended goal of the alliance from the get go), and Pica was easily the strongest fighter aside from Doffy himself. While Trebol had a more important role as his right hand man, he never seemed as intimidating as Pica, plus while Law was the one to defeat him, they barely had a real fight beforehand. And I think in retrospect, it makes total sense to give the main members of the Grand Fleet some shining, important moments during the fight against Doflamingo or else they truly would have seemed like completely unimportant and random characters at the end of the arc when they were forming the Grand Strawhat Fleet. It was necessary to establish them as well-rounded, important characters and to show off what those guys were made of. I do think Robin should have gotten a real fight though.
We just haven't gotten to the Jabra & Co. introduction chapter of the arc yet is all.
Very good point. Even Kaido himself has been mostly in the background for most of this arc so far. I also want to add that Katakuri made a very late appearance in the WCI arc, too, at a point when the apparent climax of the arc, the wedding, was already starting. Even in Dressrosa, some of the major villains only got significant face time after Sugar was knocked unconscious, pretty much the climax of the first half of the arc.
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Enies Lobby was an unusual arc, asit was the second part of the W7/EL arc, where much of the story was developed in the first part and the second was merely a fight arc.
Most of the story was about treachery, spies, underground gang and internal dilemma. It was a drama all the line, the end fights were there just because as a battle shonen it needed to be resolved with fights, but the core plot was an intense beautiful drama. Jabura and the rest of the CP9 which were at EL did not matter in the slightest story-wise. Lucci, Kaku , Khalifa and Blueno did.Wano has been anticipated as a huge battle arc, the kabuki style serves as a narrative expedient to make it through the final battle with the right pace and well placed cliffhangers.
The dramatic part, with which we have had connection thanks to Oden and his flashback, is due only to give a purpose for the war to happen and be happy with it, and hope the good will win, otherwise is just some bunch of people seekingto behead a Yonkou while trying to overthrow the current Shogun. An all out war and that's all. And you could even genuinely sympathize for the naive fearful Orochi and the bipolar drunken Kaido who just spends his time outside Wano.You can't just have a Jabura time, we should get as much as possible about the players before the royal rumble begins for the story to actually have a solid ground, otherwise everything will just be filler till Luffy vs Kaido 2.0.
Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk
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I also want to add that Katakuri made a very late appearance in the WCI arc, too, at a point when the apparent climax of the arc, the wedding, was already starting.
I remember having to point this out often early on in the arc. Back then, some genuinely thought that the SMILE users were all Kaido had outside of the Calamities, only to be surprised by the inclusion of the Flying Six and Numbers.
Likewise with now, it continues to be very intentional that the bulk of Kaido's crew is neatly tucked away on Onigashima.
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Im really excited to see what Oda decides to do with Kidds ability. We have seen what Luffy and Laws ability can do, but we haven't even scratched the surface of what Kidd can do. I mean he could easily disarm the entire island with a Pain like attraction technique. Create a giant orb of all the weapons/metal etc. And drop it on the island dealing huge damage plus taking away their weapons. I mean couldn't he technically just rip off all the metal from one of the Beast pirates ships and watch it sink. Hope Oda has some creative techniques for him besides a giant metal exoskeleton Bullet rip off…
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I, for one, am VERY curious as to the geography of Onigashima. Will it be that snowy island we saw before? How is Kaidou's fortress structured?
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I hope Big Mom or Smoothie slices off Kid's other arm. I think they still have a score to settle due to him sinking some of her ships?
It would be a fitting end for his New World journey after this
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Man that ending! Didn't expect that at all.
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Now that I think about it, is kinda funny that the ship just exploded by the combined attack of the Worst Gen Trio. It had like no reason to explode actually.
it reminded me of the ongoing gag in the SpongeBob series, where almost any violent scene would somehow end up with an explotion.
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The place that Drake went to was said to be Kaido's favorite Winter island. I don't think that's Onigashima
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I mean that's kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy considering he did out of revenge for his persecution.
But then those two old folks of the clan were plotting revenge, when Orochi was still just a boy. For something their lord brought onto himself. It's not too much of a stretch to say treachery runs in the Kurozumi bloodline.
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I hope Big Mom or Smoothie slices off Kid's other arm. I think they still have a score to settle due to him sinking some of her ships?
It would be a fitting end for his New World journey after this
Hee hee, the idea of Smoothie actually doing anything.
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I like how things are going in the way of the protagonist now, but Orochi might have Hiyori.