@BattleFranky69:
Sorry to single you out for your quote but you're the most recent one to express this embarrassing (on your part) misunderstanding.
Is English everybody's second language on here? I don't get you guys.
How much do I need to dumb this down? It's very, very simple. How does Luffy go from not being able to put a single scratch on Big Mom, a lesser Yonkou than Kaido by all indications, and having to run away and not look back, to making Kaido his bitch? I'm waiting for an answer that makes an ounce of sense.
The same way that Luffy went from not being able to put a single scratch on CP9 during Water 7 to making Blueno and Lucci his bitches during Enies Lobby during the timespan of a train ride in-between because he got vaguely inspired by seeing Soru. Why can't the same thing happen here between the time Luffy is fighting Katakuri now and Luffy fights Kaido in Wano Country (after he probably gets his ass kicked once or twice like against Crocodile in Alabasta and being defeated by the Enraged Army in this arc). The only answer is Oda's pattern of Luffy's growth. This is Luffy's second fight against somebody with Awakening along with his opponent having superior versions of his attacks. Luffy is definitely going to come out of this fight having learned something that he can excitingly implement into his future battles otherwise there is no way he is getting out of this battle alive.
Urouge messed with a Sweet Commander and paid for it. Big Mom's superior numbers clearly brought him down. Yes, the Straw Hats are separated from half the crew but even with a full crew would be vastly outnumbered and outgunned. Kaido's crew is supposedly swollen with Zoan DF bruisers, a veritable army. Not to mention other underworld bigwigs like the ones who showed up at the wedding and who would likely have some involvement in facilitating the deals for SMILEs and such.
And Luffy will have his whole crew with Jimbei in tow, the Heart Pirates, the Minks, the Samurai (and they may recruit even more to their side in Wano Country since Zoro bragged about rallying up the samurai the last time we saw him), the Whitebeard Remnants, ma potential alliance with Kid and maybe Drake/Apoo if they defect from Kaido, some or all of the Grand Fleet might show up, and maybe even Zunisha can get in some action if it walks all the way to Wano Country.
Kaido has the Beast Pirates, the Shogun's support, and a couple Supernova allies that might end up betraying him. A Yonko crew is no joke, but the only big names Kaido has are himself, his three Calamities, and the Shogun (assuming that he isn't a cowardly Spandam figure).
Being outnumbered doesn't matter at all when Luffy has enough support to start his own miniature Marineford-scale war and how most of those Zoan Devil Fruit bruisers are most likely fodder on the level of mid/weak trio at best, assuming that they're not the Yonko equivalent of Hody's weak background Fishmen army. Huge numbers almost never matter in shonen, they are always used as tools to hype up big powerful characters.
If Wano is under occupation then Kaido need not be present unless there's something he actively wants or needs and I feel like we would have heard that from one of the four Wano natives we've met so far but (and forgive me if I only manage to read each chapter once most of the time, so my memory isn't always the most reliable for details like that) nothing akin to Crocodile's search for Pluton in Alabasta leaps readily to mind. So while his presence in Wano may consist solely of his subordinates, unless stated otherwise, he's got other places he fancies more like his cyborg ice island where X Drake first got his attention. He may show up if he hears some stuff is going down there but I doubt he's sitting right there when they show up. It's not like Big Mom only owns one island in her territory that they could have landed, they had to work their way up to the actual location where she was at (and didn't even get there, they were captured).
I don't know, Kaido seems to be awfully fixated on finding info about Raftel and commanding all of his mooks to search all over the place for Momo and the samurai on other islands.
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Sorry for practically posting a whole One Piece chapter in spoiler tags, but we already got a bunch of focus on how Kaido is residing in Wano Country and the lengths he has gone to claim information about Raftel years before Wano Country has even started. Downplaying that in comparison to Crocodile wanting Pluton would be a mistake.
And as for putting a 'dent' in her forces, that's all Luffy, the strongest Straw Hat. Having the rest of the crew is only of minimal significance to his ability to come out on top (namely Nami's soaking Cracker's biscuit soldiers). Numbers aren't exactly a deciding factor here and they've done ass-all to hurt Big Mom herself. I'm having a hard time figuring out what makes anyone think that that is going to make a significant difference against a Yonkou with even greater defensive capacity.
Zoro still hasn't gone all out and the Straw Hats can all get Enies Lobby-style power-ups. Even if that is not enough to take on the Calamities, Luffy has enough allies to lend for team-up battles. Which we know there will at least be one of with the likelihood of Inurashi and Nekomamushi tag-teaming Jack. Numbers can be a deciding factor when big name characters. Oda just likes to use his team-up fights VERY sparingly like with the Straw Hats versus Moria/Oars and PX-1 probably because he knows that he can never justify the threat levels of villains like Doflamingo if the Straw Hats all gang up on him and his cronies. And we still have no idea what the intricacies are behind Kaido's supposed "immortality" from his reported feats or surviving death so many times.
Call me a troll if you want, I've got plenty of experience with them on forums where religious discussions take place and I don't put up with that crap when I see it. If I have a pet theory it's of little significance and is more of a cosmetic easter egg sort of thing, hardly comparable to one revolving around where the direction of the entire plot is going. I was being respectful before people started getting catty with me so if we can all be civil I'm sure we'd all prefer it. Anyone want to respectfully agree? I sure would. It's no fun arguing with people if there's no mutual respect. I'd rather disagree out of genuine disbelief than out of spite.
Feel free to bring up whatever theories you like. Nobody should judge you for wanting to bring up possibilities that have popped up in your head if you honestly think there is merit in them. Chrior accusing you of being a troll was out of line as a rude presumption. But he only had the wellbeing of fellow forumers he respects in mind and is a cool guy that almost always provides great comments on here. I hope you aren't taking that personal since forums can often become hectic when it comes to dealing with frequent debates and arrogant naysayers.
But asking people to hear you on thoughts and theories also goes hand-in-hand with being receptive to constructive feedback and having calm respectful discourse. Which means that one shouldn't go around throwing accusations of being ganged up on and other people talking like they only understand alien languages when we are only giving our honest critical thoughts on the discussion at hand. This is what makes forums great. How you can find and support people you agree with while also learning from or giving information to others you initially disagree with.
I understand disagreeing with me about Blackbeard showing up in Wano Country because that relies on theories on top of theories that are almost non-existent. Feel free to discount that possibility if you don't see true evidence lining up for it.
But Kaido being the main antagonist of Wano Country is something that I and many others would consider to be very obvious at this point. I don't think there is anybody on this forum that would argue that not happening with everything we know about the story thus far aside from you. We have been pouring on plenty of info about how Kaido and Wano Country are similar in multi-arc buildup hype to Crocodile and Alabasta. There is little to actually argue about aside from the what if assumption about if Kaido's HQ is elsewhere from a mere territory like Wano Country, but he might travel around his territories to begin with like the band of barbarians his crew seems to be.
I am not asking you to believe me just because I happen to have an opinion that the majority of the forum community shares. Ad populum is a logical fallacy after all. But the pages I posted, as well as Kira's great response about the silhouette of Kaido's fortress matching a feudal Japan-esque structure, make this as clear cut as it can be aside from Oda literally saying "Kaido will be the main antagonist of Wano Country".
You don't get to play the victim in response to people's replies in this thread. But I do think that you are a level headed and reasonable person even if we disagree about the likelihoods of future events in a fictional story. I would appreciate it if we could keep this civil and maybe even agree to disagree if no more traction can be made in this debate for either side.
Oda has said there's going to be another conflict to dwarf the Marinford battle. If the Yonkou start dropping like flies, who exactly in the hell is going to be left standing to actually fight it before the series is over (which it would have to be by the time the protagonists get to that point)? You all just seem to be jumping the damn gun without regard to how Oda's dragging things out. What would be a bigger conflict than the Whitebeard Fleet and its allies vs. the Marines? Probably something resembling the Revolutionaries and their allies, the Marines, and some kind of pirate consortium that opposes both. Probably a good time to, if Oda's going through with it at all instead of teasing us, have the three Ancient Weapons surface. A three-way conflict with those kinds of arsenals would surely dwarf the Whitebeard War. If power the likes of the Yonkou are already surpassed, what's the point? Might as well skip all that and bugger off to Raftel.
There aren't many arcs left in the story before Raftel. After Whole Cake Island, we are heading straight to Wano Country. After that may likely come Elbaf and I wouldn't be surprised if the fourth Road Poneglyph was there. And then after that… honestly, there's just Raftel. There might be some very brief pit stops right before Raftel with some major worldbuilding in the background, but that is it aside from the big Final War that will ensue that will probably be double the size of Dressrosa or longer. The downfall of a single Yonko alone is going to turn the world's balance of powers topsy turvy. Once Big Mom and Kaido are dealt with, we can finally focus on all of the juicy endgame material with the World Government, Revolutionaries, Shanks, and Blackbeard coming into the main focus of the plot.
One Piece only looks to have a decade or so left in its system. One Piece has lasted twenty years and each arc nowadays typically lasts for at least a year. If you do the math and factor in how the timeskip happened right around Chapter 600, then One Piece should end when its length is around 1200-1400 chapters. We're going to each Chapter 900 in early 2018, and from there we can squeeze in a few hundred chapters more in the span of a decade.
I am betting on the Final War over One Piece and the Void Century that Whitebeard predicted to be a three way split like you said. I agree with Oda's thoughts on how it will dwarf Marineford. I expect the entire One Piece world to fall into chaos and for all of Luffy's allies on the various islands he's visited to at least show up in one panel cameos. But I envision it more as The Straw Hats and all of their allies (including the Revolutionaries) versus the Marines/World Government versus the Blackbeard Pirates and all of their allies (which may very likely include Caribou. Although Kuzan is totally betraying them).
Let him tell his story and show the kind of progression we're used to. Let Luffy get kicked while he's down a couple of times like when he first fought Crocodile or where he tested Aokiji and failed. Let him earn a victory against a Yonkou and be able to carry the bragging rights without having to share it with the other Supernovas. How is he going to be Pirate King otherwise?
But we are not arguing against Luffy getting kicked down and rising back up at all. If anything, Whole Cake Island as an arc is the initial "Luffy gets his ass kicked" phase while Wano Country, barring a potential first loss to Kaido in the middle of the arc before a rematch like with Crocodile and Lucci. That's likely why Oda pitted Luffy against, not one, but TWO Yonko Commanders in a single arc. This is the longest amount of time Oda has dedicated to pushing Luffy to grow without getting a random power-up or plot convenience off-panel. It will certainly amount to something. Especially when the fight against Kaido will likely be a team-up. He does not need to defeat a Yonko solo from start to finish yet, that can be saved for his fight Blackbeard and any of the Admirals along the way.
There is no need to be stubborn about Luffy having to fight Kaido on his own when there is more than one Yonko for him to defeat. In fact, it would be kind of boring for Luffy to defeat two Yonko on his own when we already know that the Yonko are very close to each other in strength. Sure, Luffy took down three Shichibukai, but the story has made it clear that all of them vastly differ from each other in how powerful. Meanwhile, the Yonko have been stuck in a stalemate for years with each one having to resort to tactics like getting cloning technology or an army of giants to finally turn the tides. If Luffy takes down Kaido on his own, then it becomes obvious that he is at least nearly ready to take down Blackbeard, the most likely candidate for his final opponent, as well as the Admirals. It teas the suspense away from how One Piece has always operated on Luffy looking like an underdog against big names in the pirate world.
I could ask that same question about "how will Luffy become the Pirate King" for things like working with his crew to defeat Oars and PX-1, failing to defeat Aokiji and Kizaru pre-timeskip, needing the Dressrosa citizens to stall for time while Luffy recharged his Haki, Luffy running away from Fujitora at the end of Dressrosa, Luffy reeling on Nami's rain to finally defeat Cracker, or Luffy having to escape from Magellan and Big Mom. He doesn't need to win all of the time to be worthy of the title. It is okay for him to occasionally retreat, lose, or get help on the way to becoming Pirate King. It is what makes the story less predictable and his growth all the more compelling. Luffy does not hit a ceiling of power if he defeats Kaido, especially if Oda is telling the truth about Kaido not being defeated by pure browns in that interview I have referenced to you several times, so long as he teams up with a few other characters for at least half of the fight.
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