@Darth:
Ah, vindication.
Anyways, as I suspected. You will excuse me for disliking this chapter, right?
Because I really, really, dislike this chapter.
Not only will I excuse you, but for once you and I agree (somewhat at least. I have different reasons to an extent for why I disliked the chapter). I know the argument has been going for all these pages, but I want to put my 2 cents in.
So Oda knows how to make an interesting, overarching story. It's why the series is still good/great after so long (opinions on that may vary, but it's retained its popularity this long compared to others). Oda's ability to make a character interesting is a hit or miss. For the little bit that happened last chapter, I could go on for a while about how in that one chapter, Senor Pink is probably one of the deepest characters of this series (If anyone really wants that, I'll try finding a place to post my reasons on this forum). Unfortunately, Rebecca falls flat. It could've worked to an extent, but with how things played out, it really didn't work. I do understand Kyros's reasoning for his speech, but that's not my problem.
One of the problems is that this is a Shonen Manga. Through it's story, lots of it has been about fights. There are stories centralized around these fights that eventually happen, but every arc ends with fighting. When you introduce a character who's been fighting in an arena for so long, despite not wanting to hurt people, that creates a bit of a problem. If she wasn't a fighter at all, then fewer eyes would've batted at this chapter. The problem comes when she is introduced in the arena, and is showed to be competent in speed and self-defense (different from being a fighter). Even in a fighting Manga, someone who just uses self-defense can still show off. They won't beat someone, but they can still accomplish the task of protecting themselves. In the arena, we see how she protects herself, but after that it's all thrown out the window. Yes, she's not in the arena during this fight, but she should still show competence after all those years, and should've learned to compose herself.
So now we get to Kyros not wanting to get blood on her hands. Fine, I can go with that. He lead a life of murder, her mother was a pacifist, Kyros idealized the pacifist way. Here's the big problem, she spent all those years not hurting anybody, she could still help out and not shed blood. Even if she didn't fight, show that she can dodge and block like the other times. Here's something better, you could go with the theme that a child is a mix of their parents. She has a pacifist nature, but she has a warrior inside her from Kyros. During the fight, she comes to learn a way to have those two come together. Kyros tries to do the finishing blow, Kyros can't get up in time, before he swings too far, Rebecca does her famous move, block and throws her opponent. Diamante gets pissed at being interrupted, but thinks Rebecca is going to go violent. She surprises him by not harming him, or showing her killing intent. She blocks and keeps Diamante at bay. Kyros realizes that one can fight and not harm people. He musters up strength that when Rebecca throws him, he does the finishing blow. To show that he has come to the realization, he uses the broad side of the sword to knock him unconscious.
In that scenario, Rebecca stays clean while showing off her abilities, and Kyros realizes he still needs to learn about the nature of fighting. You could end with them hugging, as Kyros realizes Rebecca has found her own way, and that she is even more beautiful that way. He see's that Rebecca is truly his and Scarlett's daughter. Rebecca doing nothing and being defenseless the whole time weakens her, and throws away some established stuff about her. It's fine that she was troubled at first, but seeing her stepping up would've been a whole different level of character growth.
Come on Oda. I wasn't gonna like this chapter as much because it was following the Franky fight, but this is just lazy. I know you can do better, and I believe you could've easily done the scenario I just made. Might not be the best scenario, but it's miles better. Even if you want to finish this arc up sooner for various reasons, dumping on established characters is not something you should do. Once you start something, you need to go through with it.