Oh I didn't know. I stopped reading it immediately

! .

I know that constant criticism of this story can become toxic and I understand it's not welcome here. For some reason, I find that I comment mostly when I feel the story is becoming inconsistent. Sometimes I'm wrong and I'm happy when Oda confounds me with his brilliance. I always try to keep my comments civil and I do not bash anyone. I'd like to say that I mean no harm and I'm only just stating my view.

I found it interesting that someone here asked Joyboy: if he had so much of a critical view of One Piece, why doesn't he stop reading it? If I may, I'd like to answer that based on my own experience. I loved Naruto but I left it when the resurrections started. I liked bleach until after Aizen when I couldn't make any sense of it anymore. I liked Demon Slayer until

! . So if One Piece becomes incongruous, I'll have to stop reading it. I guess it's the dread of that happening that makes me critique any inconveniences I see. It is my prayer and biggest wish that Oda keeps writing this epic and amazing story well so that I have something to look forward to every other week. It is one of my greatest joys to read a fulfilling chapter of One Piece. But I will stop reading it if it stops making sense. So far, nothing close to that has happened and I trust Oda can carry his story till the end successful.

What people have seemingly ignored is, based on all indications, Kaido is the strongest person or creature in One Piece. He has the highest bounty presently, he is termed the strongest creature, he's purportedly building an army that will fight the greatest war ever seen, and he one shorted Luffy who has the highest bounty outside of the Yonko's.

That said, I can't remember ever reading a manga where the strongest character seems as easy to land attacks on as this. It's just plain weird. That last hit on the spot of his old wound should cause considerable damage. How will Oda portray his turn around convincingly as his attackers are still full of vitality and willing to keep attacking without distraction.

Even if there is a turn around by Kaido, the real problem is that the sense of tension, fear and suspense when he fights Luffy will be lost. All the hype around Kaido has now been truly dampened.

On a side note, something that has been at the back of my mind is the fact that Kaido could land a knockout blow on Luffy who has future sight. This means Kaido is so fast Luffy's future sight couldn't see or couldn't counter the hit. If Luffy with future sight and bound man armament Haki could be battered so utterly, why are the Scabbards still standing? Seems so inconsistent.

I'll like to add that for three of the Scabbards, it's been only a few months since Oda died. What has changed so much that they couldn't take Kaido down then? Oden had gotten in a powerful hit, before he was taken down. Could they have swarmed Kaido and finished him off then?

Lastly, if Admirals of the world government are so wary of Wano's samurais, how did Kaido manage take hold of the place this whole time. Shouldn't there have been many other samurai as strong or even stronger than Oden's retainers? Why didn't they help Oden fight an invader and a false ruler like Kaido and Orochi?

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So far Kaido has been one of the most flawed villain I've ever come across. He's a muscle head drunk who doesn't seem to think too far ahead. His crew are drawn to him based on his revered power and they fight each other to get ahead. He's also suicidal for no reason explained reason except that he cannot die. He's hoping that he can die in the biggest conflagration by starting the biggest war. He doesn't seem to even care about the one piece except that it enables him in his quest to die. Maybe a back story will help flesh out this weird character.

--- Update From New Post Merge ---

I'd like to add that his killing of Orochi, after 20 years or more working together, over a very flimsy argument, is simply crazy. What type of character beheads an ally who's proven true all these years just like that? It doesn't make any sense. Kaido is truly weird.

Presumably, Kinemon and his crew had to tell the Strawhats that Kaido sought them for information on Laugh Tale, to avoid telling them, at the time, their truly mind buggling story of time travel.

–- Update From New Post Merge ---

@Cockycent:

Well, we have at least 4 of their members (Bakkin, Kaido, WB and Linlin) still active after their crew were done in. I don't believe they have to continue as a pirate to achieve their goal.

Perfect example is Shanks and Rayleigh. Imagine if their goal or dream is for someone to top what their crew. Haven't they planted the see or at least nurtured Luffy? Rayleigh would have done this without going the Rocks remnants route.

Brook wants to reunite with Laboon. It's a very meaningful goal. Would a Roger Pirate have to continue as this big pirate to achieve this goal after the split?

My thoughts are, we, all human, dream of changing the world for better in a significant way. Most pirates dream of becoming the pirate King and ruling the seas or the world. Some have other mundane dreams but join up as crew mates mostly for the specific reason of adventuring to the end of the world. That said, I only opined that after achieving the dream of Laugh Tale, from what info I have, the Roger Pirates mostly retired.

Although Denjiro's physical transformation is polarizing, what is truly unbelievable is the space where he now exists. He rose from the extremes of a tortured life to live a life of opulence under his torturer - serving at his will and protecting him. If his goal (as some have opined) is to find out who the traitor is while waiting for the return of the time travellers isn't absurd, I don't know what is. Not only has he protected Orochi from death, he has presumably killed for him - even going as far as injuring the child of his liege Lord to keep up appearances. He could have let Zoro kill Orochi and would have come out blameless yet he didn't. He could have even killed Orochi and fled, after all, he could live three different lives (as Denjiro, as Kyoshiro, and as the Witching Hour Boy) without incidence. This would have made Kaido's hold on Wano nebulous and would have removed a nasty ruler from Wano. He hasn't done any of these nor has he been able to stop the traitor from passing info to Orochi as far as we know. He does have a lot of explaining to do to the Scabbards and Wanoese people.

@Cockycent:

Crocus goal was to find Brook's crew and he failed. We don't know what Rayleigh's goal was outside of being a Roger Pirate and if he achieved it in all of the years that we don't know of. Oden's dream is being carried out now by his Scabbards. Buggy and Shanks are applicable, but what about the rest of the crew? You said "none" if i'm not mistaken. How do we know that Rayleigh nor the others accomplished what their goals were outside of reaching Raftel?

All I'm saying is after achieving a goal like reaching the end of the world like they did, nothing seemed to matter much anymore. Perhaps some mundane goals still remained but it paled against what they had already achieved.

Whatever they saw or met at Laugh Tale convinced them once and for all that they were not the ones fated to achieve the most important thing of all that would truly change the world. They were the precursors that set the stage for that all important goal to come.

Unlike Rock D. Xebec's crew, Oden's crew seemingly just retired. Only Shanks and Buggy remained active from what we know. And those two, acolytes at the time, didn't reach Laugh Tale.

I think, in the end, the prophecy that they were not the chosen ones flattened the Roger Pirates will to go on and achieve greater. They set their sight out for the future generations. This, to some extent, explains Shanks and Raleigh's attachment to Luffy. They believe very much that he is the one.

@Cockycent:

Where was this part confirmed?

The three Roger pirates we've seen or read about that reached Laugh Tale are Raleigh, Crocus, and Oden. Crocus we meet as a hermit living with a whale, Raleigh is gambler and a drink living day by day as the wind blows, and we just saw what happened to Oden. Shanks and Buggy didn't reach Laugh Tale so they're excluded.

Now that the flashback is over, these are a few things I observed:

1. Making to the end of the world or achieving your dreams can make life blase. This can be seen in how none of the Gol D. Roger pirates made anything meaningful of themselves after Laugh Tale. They just gave up on everything and set their sight on the prophecy.

2. Oden seemed to have a premonition of his death and in the 5 years of dancing didn't do enough to plan for Orochi's deception.

3. Kaido is a conflicted individual who's trying to bury his pains in drink and war. His will to live is almost lost and this is probably because of all the evil he has done in the past.

4. The concept of the barrier barrier fruit is troubling. The wielder of such a power seems completely untouchable. That makes no sense to me in a world where powers are honed and harnessed over a spectrum.

5. If Kaido likes to use his club to pummel enemies so much, why does he bother fighting in Dragon for
6. Oda needs to tighten his story telling as his readers are now older and demand more from his writing.

As we move to the present there's a lot of puzzles that I look forward to Oda addressing not least the traitor puzzle. Oda writes the most irresolvable puzzles till he unravels them. My biggest puzzles remain the following: Luffy, after gaining the powers of foresight from his observation haki, was unable to evade Kaido's club. How will a fortnight of training his COA without training for COO help him in this fight? And, isn't a few days of training a little too late? Another puzzle is how can these crew of upstarts hope to beat two emperors?

A standard rule of writing is: "don't piss your readers off". The more I read the last chapter, the more I see it is a slap in the face. The writing moved forward an inch from the last chapter which was just hype and nothing more. We can't do anything with bounties of dead Emperor's and living one's we know are stupid strong. Don't do suspense for the sake of it especially when you have to make us wait listlessly for two weeks. I've read the Neapolitan novels, all four of em, in the past week just for waitings sake and I'm pained. I'm searching now for lost time. Anyway, it should be here anytime soon and the wait will be over. But damn! This test has been more burdensome than a toothache.