@Daz:
But the thing about scenarios like that is that in those cases…the fight continued. The Villain recovered of his own accord, or dodged or whatever, and the fight continued. Enel got right back up and kicked Wipers ass. In this case, the fight very decidedly did NOT continue. "Yes, Because Oda cut it short! To save time" You say - but that still ultimately leaves us with what we have in this chapter. We're left with the method with which Oda chose to cut this confrontation short, and how this method frames the nature of the confrontation.
A battered Oden charges an unharmed Kaidou head-on.
Oden wounds Kaidou badly in a cool double spread. Kaidou is clearly shown to be in distress.
Kaidou goes down, and his subordinates scream in horror on his behalf.
Oden makes a dramatic declaration, and moves in to attack the downed Kaidou again. There is no indication that Kaidou is about to tank or dodge the attack.
Oden is distracted with underhanded trickery courtsy of the established Underhanded Trickery minion.
A visibly panting and bleeding Kaidou -after suffering one attack- sucker punches a distracted, battered Oden in a small non-spread panel,a fter Oden has taken on his entire army.
Thats the framing of the encounter. Thats what is in the chapter. You can make all sorts of rationalizations for why Oda resolved it this way, but in the end he DID resolve it this way, with the big spread for Oden and the smaller panel for Kaidou and the Old Hag distracting Oden at a critical moment. And that way paints a picture designed more to make Oden look good than Kaidou. You say that "we can't be sure what would've happened if she wasn't there!"while you refuse to accept that in this chapter, things really did not look good for Kaidou prior to her distracting Oden. Because Oda wrote it to be that way. Because the drama of the scene is "Oh no honorable Oden got distracted at a crucial moment, too bad!" and not "Oh the fight got cut short I guess we'll never know what would've happened in a fair fight, maybe Oden would've lost anyway, who can tell, I'm sure Kaidou would've done something yeah surely"
The thing about Kaidou being capable of fighting back is that Oda had an outside force spare him the brunt any sort of followup attack from Oden, and allow him time to recover.
What exactly am I ignoring. I am basing my arguments 100% on the storytelling Oda is doing within this chapter. I'm not the one trying to parse the intended framing of the events in the chapter through speculation, inference and meta-awareness.
I didn't said "save time", but "save face". Introduce the old lady in the fight was the device used to avoid a proper fight unfolding, in which case he would need to make either Oden or Kaido be properly overpowered.
Kaido hit on a dramatic double spread, shown in clear distress, going down, subordinates screaming, a following dramatic declaration, moving to attack again… you are right, all those things were shown in this chapter. But you know when else? In chapter 922 and 923. That's pretty much an exact summary of how Luffy's fight against Kaido went (with the difference Luffy actually did more, dodging Kaido direct attacks with ease). Except in Luffy's case Oda allowed the fight to develop further with Kaido in his human form. And we saw how that went. We don't know if things would go the same way with Oden, but that's the whole point of not allowing the fight to unfold.
As for what you are ignoring from this chapter is that, as you said, you are acting like the old lady interference gave Kaido "time to recover". Like the "kidnapper" kept Oden distracted long enough for Kaido to recover. But that was not the case, in the very moment Oden turned his head to fake!Momo Kaido took him down. The interference didn't allow Kaido to recover, it allowed Oden to be taken down right there.
And as for what is not in the chapter is your conclusion on how the events would unboubtedly unfold. That's your headcanon regardless of how much basis you think it has.
@Daz:
But I guess since we're at "You just hate everything!" -style counterarguments now theres little reason to continue.
Because that's actually a thing hurting your discernment of this arc and pretending it is not there is not proper discussion either. In previous posts I already lauded your reasoning, eloquence and general thought process. I do think you are one of the most intelligent users around if not the most, as far as what posts reveal go. But as far as your ability to judge this arc goes, it has long become clear your conclusions are not being drawn from your good logic, but rather your logic is at service of a conclusion you already decided months ago.
You can treat that as me just being dismissive of your opinion, but I am sure I am not the only person to notice it.
