Oda needing some rest is okay in my book or maybe sometimes after his hero died .
Either way rest up well Oda.

Oda needing some rest is okay in my book or maybe sometimes after his hero died .
Either way rest up well Oda.

Very nice chapter also that negative list BS .
If you not seeing any SW or MCU near top you know that list wrong .

@astagadragon:

Glad the fight is FINALLY over. Kinda weird that in the end I only want for it to end no matter what the process is… and well, it was very meh. For a god fruit with an imagination-based power the finisher is very lacking in creativity imo. Literally the same finisher as Doffy, but only BIGGER. Also the coreography is just... not there.

As for the flashback, it was VERY lacking imo. Big Mom had that 2 awesome yet disturbing flashback, and Kaido is... again, just there. Very disjointed all over, interceded by yet FILLER pages and people running around. I think Oda is forced to insert Kaido's flashback but he had so little pages to plan... which is easily avoided IF ONLY he cut unnecessary filler pages.

At least it's over, so thank every deity above for it.

Luffy don't have imagination based powers his awakening is still tie to only rubber but yeah ending move was lacking creativity.

@FatDogForMidTerms:

Kinemon is an unpopular character? I took a looooong break after Fishman Island and picked the series back up prob. when it was in a middle of Wano. I had no idea he was not liked by the community.

I won't say he unpopular more like he just there .

@Razh:

If we're talking black hole, sure. If we're talking big fist can't hurt Blackbeard because his touch cancels out devil fruits, no.

The fight could be interesting, but not if it's treated like this one was.

While i like certain aspect of the fight , the tanking and Kaido human fighting parts were on repeat sometimes .
Will likely be better in the anime but i don't watch it any more lol .

@Razh:

BB can't cancel kinetic force and weight. Plus it's debatable whether he'd even be able to while being pounced, considering Luffy's Haki force field.

Just wanted to say that.

True but then again this OP . ( BB did suck all the force out a quake attack)
Oda could simple make the whole attack disappear along with the kinetic force and weight since it DF base or any other debatable stuff.
Like him using quake DF to counter or haki levels etc etc
Which is why the fight should be interesting .

@zeltrax225:

The bar feels like it's constantly being lowered. First, it doesn't matter if Kaido is beaten since despite being framed constantly as the biggest threat , One piece somehow became a type advantage series like Pokémon which it never was. If power scales were not a thing, Mihawk won't curbstomp Zoro back then and the power structure/ceiling that we all know and loved won't exist.
I don't understand why people still defend the fact that Luffy is now probably crazily close to the strongest being in the series and that further opponents will somehow still be difficult because "creative powers are a threat" despite Luffy being stated time and time again being the guy with the most creativity packed in his usage of his fruit or "Blackbeard will have more fruits hence more powerful!" despite a) his raw strength is nowhere near Kaido b) when he used quake quake fruit it was shit compared to wb c) it has been repeatedly emphasized and shown that "powerful" fruits does not make a user, how they use it does.
So guess what if Blackbeard actually becomes an actual menacing threat with his abilities? It will not only shit on Kaido but also the very fact that devil fruits requires years of mastery. You can quote CP9 and I'll reply that their fruits are physical related which what they've trained for since toddler age.

Kaido IS a greater threat than Blackbeard no matter what bs powers he develop in the endgame (yes, even if he did have 10 devil fruits), because just the fruit alone is pointless even if it is strong. That's how badly this fight screwed up established structures. There's no more, none, zlich, opponents that is believably more a threat down the road than Kaido. Except maybe the ancient weapons but even that is debatable because they will probably be written as a tickling time bomb or some narrative tool.
Sure, there's Imu and Gorosei who might potentially have some bullshit power devil fruit but there's also the fact that they have been sitting on their asses for years and is not written to be battle monsters that are walking natural disasters to the equivalent of Kaido and Big Mom. Sure they could be written as that at the end but we can all see how that's kind of flat and feel like a last minute attempt to build tension.

This is the equivalent of Naruto offing Madara before the final arc (which he kind of did with Pain and guess what, the power scale of the enemies imploded afterwards..do we really want a one piece like that?).
I get that this arc was supposed to be about Kaido's fall. But it doesn't necessarily have to be Kaidou's fall to Luffy but Kaidou's fall to the fleet, alliance of samurai and supernovas.
Not to a singular, but a combination of forces to take him down. This was nowhere close to what was portrayed in Luffy's fight against Kaido.

I honestly felt that Big Mom's introduction, while a lot of fun and chaotic, actually harmed the story more than it did good. Once Law and Kid took down BM, it was quite clear how Kaido's fight was going to turn out.
Luffy can't beat Kaido with the "combination of everyone else or his crew mates" because it's no longer a solo and he has to be stronger than the other two supernovas who did it without any significant assistance from other characters.
It would make Luffy appear weak if it's a combined effort. This is not a "but there's variables ab or c" take, it's a 2 supernova took down 1 yonkou so the 1 stronger supernova which is the MC will have to take down 1 yonkou, shounen math logic.

If Big Mom was not in this arc and every hero character, supporting or main, did a desperate Oz like beat down while Luffy continue fall and raise and eventually beat Kaido, it would make so much more sense and would actually be a desperate fight and Kaido's herculean power would make so much sense without sacrificing the threat of the endgame villains since Luffy didn't take him down alone but played the role of the greatest contributor.

OP piece was always a XYZ you even had croc say it in the series it self. ( also luffy creative with his DF is not even a big point in the manga ).
Then you add Haki to it and it make it even more of a XYZ. ( the whole power structure/ceiling has always been top tiers are close )
Also the whole talk of it taking years to mastering your DF don't mean much , hell the same CP9 got there DF and were using it rather good in mins .
Luffy basically push his DF to the max in a year , Sabo got his DF and was using rather easy in a few mins .
Also i don't get how your saying DF is pointless even if they are strong .
BB would basically been able to cancel that attack that luffy hit kaido with because that why he got the DF for in the first place .( not to mention people could just dodge the luffy attack )
If yonko and Admirals are suppose to be close then BB or the admirals being a match for luffy after he beat Kaido would make sense .
Hell Shanks stop Kaido from showing up at war shows that all top tiers at a certain level.
Luffy beating any Yonko mean he would no longer being the super underdog and Oda would have change certain aspect of the story .
If you don't think Oda creative enough to have last few fights good ( the series is ending soon) that is okay but luffy beating Kaido won't be the reason for it .

@Vongola_Boss_XI:

. And ultimately, I just can't help but feel that in order for Kaido's will or desire to be broken, Luffy needs to win in a manner which emphasizes the qualities which in truth make him fit to be JoyBoy - not the qualities which Kaido believes are most important for JoyBoy's successor.

Things is that can't really happen because we don't know anything about joyboy.
So we have to get more info there and even then it's question does luffy even give damn about being joyboy successor .

@Joy:

The thing with Kaidos flashback is that is completely half assed. Like Oda just showed this stuff because he knew he HAD to do it. What about his defeats, what about the Oni race and how he views humans, his need to die, who betrayed him etc everything was simply half assed. Put that alongside his defeat and you get a bad chapter when you put it together with the entire narrative. And a single entity the chapter might look good but it completely ruins the narrative

Some of that can come later and some of that we might not get at all .
Still it' not like OP villains is have really long flashback ,BM was like 2 chapters but not spread out.
Most people even less other than don .

EDIT even then certain things we can piece to see the way how he is , his country betrayed him and he was with Rocks a Pirate crew for 6 years that use kill each other .
It simple and maybe Oda will give us more later or maybe he will not , but you can see how certain aspect form how he is today .

@Vongola_Boss_XI:

Kaido's dialogue to Luffy is dispassionate. Almost analytic. Analyzing whether or not Luffy's fit to be JoyBoy. Compare to his battle in chapter 1025 against Yamato - which was far more emotionally charged. That's the type of passion I would have expected to see in the final clash between Luffy and Kaido. Because it's not just about who's stronger. They're putting their dreams on the line, but Kaido only let his real emotions bubble to the surface while he was under the influence and when he fought against Yamato.

This aspect to me has been effect by how long the fight is with breaks and what type character kaido is .
Like Yamato is his son so we see differnt type of emotion there.
With everyone else Kaido just looks like he having fun beat them then he run his mouth .
Vs luffy he was not dispassionate just that he never though he would lose or always in control and his emotion and dialogue reflect that .
Like even when luffy get awakening to the last punch this chapter Kaido was looking down on him and fully expect to win .

@Dragon:

I gotta say I was leaning on thinking the arc is over after reading this chapter but after seeing Mr. Morj AND Greg say they think it can't be over my belief almost took a 180.

Nothing like the voices you respect say exactly what you want to hear.

You mean fight ?
The arc still has a while to go but some people 50\50 on the fight ending .

@Dragon:

I also agree not everything that logically needs to happen always ends up happening, but there are a couple things that together feel very weird not to happen, which I would expect Oda to at least have thought about so he wouldn't miss them:

1- Kaido/BM either having a hidden awakening, or at least mentioning that they don't (made weirder that Kaido actually stopped to talk about Luffy's awakening but said nothing about his)
2- The final attack accomplishing something the island or the protagonists need so it has a cathartic effect, other than just KO'ing the villain.
3- The strawhats leaving this "theres no way we can lose" state they have been in all arc and actually feeling despair for a while so their resolve can be tested.
4- Yamato getting an arc that changes her perspective about something, either leading her to join the strawhats or not to join them. Either way, that decision needs to be based on an arc.
5- Luffy having a moment where he reaches a new level of resolve and surpasses himself by sheer willpower in order to win, other than just getting a power up.
6- Usopp getting a moment of growth and test of his courage.

One one those things being missed is strange and makes the arc feels like an exception. All of them feels like something went really wrong. And that's before you add the little things like momotaro and 9 shadows which don't NEED to happen but it's weird if they were hinted to happen but don't.

We already had some of that and others don't happen.
Like name one arc where "theres no way we can lose" aspect happens to the SH aside from SB.
In fact the whole arc was to hammer home how much they and the others believe in luffy which why Sanji talk to chopper .
While some of the SH had some growth of there .

Side note people seem to think we had a lot more flash back of BM past than Kaido that really not the case problem with Kaido flash back is spread far apart .
I hope we get more but most like will get it in pieces like the rest .