I guess it’s pretty clear that Oda didn’t give Kaido and Mom awakening because they would never lose. It still sucks and it’s bad writing. Lucci of all people having it is a slap to the emperors

Kaido is one of my favorite characters but to me Oda did him dirty. I mean the flashback does explain stuff but it still feels like Oda in the end just wanted to finish things. Every time we thought that we could get a bit more Oda was completely shafting it to get to another point. When he spoke about how a death completes a person I was awed. Never an antagonist character in the series spoke so openly about defeat. When we got the Joy Boy stuff and him wanting to change the world I was even more intrigued. Oda does explain those things but in the end they come out to us readers as poor exposition. Kaido wants a grant death to be remembered but we don’t see what made him like that. We can only assume that he was jealous of 3 guys. That bright smile all of emotion when he says that he wants to change the world is just explained as him wanting to cause war and make everybody equal through battle which doesn’t make sense to me. No in depth relation with Yamato. He’s supposed to be an Oni and Oda neglects that also. Why did he speak of humans like that ?

As for his strength I think we’ll never see anything like him again in the story so props to Oda for that. Still in the end I feel that he had to nerf him because it doesn’t make sense for someone like him to not showcase awakening.

Such massive potential yet Oda simply failed to deliver. That’s Kaido

I guess it’s pretty clear that Oda didn’t give Kaido and Mom awakening because they would never lose. It still sucks and it’s bad writing. Lucci of all people having it is a slap to the emperors

Pretty sure Greg that some editor talked about Wano having a surprising ending

@Greg:

I would disagree on that. I was going to make a list of the threads the fb tied together but then someone went and totally did exactly that in the sp thread.
The fb was spot on on laden with all sorts of aspects/mysteries we've been presented with over the years.

I really enjoyed that.

The significance of the matsuri being uninterrupted.

And Luffy's words.

The drama is all there.

But Oda failed to tie the drama and action together like he almost always does.

It actually felt like reading another series.

To me the flashback didn’t tie anything. Kaido seemed like a special creature but was presented to be from a normal kingdom. At least Mom was supposed to be a freak of nature. What about Kaido going to Wano because it’s special ? How does he go from a guy who aspires to change the world to a guy that wants to destroy it ? Many loose ends. As for the fight itself, it sucks. Luffy is just a god, nothing more. It’s not interesting.

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

@Monquito:

Oda made a very clear point that distractions end up giving them unstatisfactory victories.

I ruled out MomOden appearing in front of Kaido since then.

Luffy is the same guy who used Brûlée to escape and had others distract Doflamingo so that he could recharge. Momoden could easily happen but as I said Luffy is a golden boy now a literal god that has to be above all

I still think that Kaido getting distracted because of Momo looking like Oden would be the best way to beat him. But Oda has to have Luffy being the golden boy he is. Oda has really fallen as writer and this arc is a prime example for many reasons. Whenever we got a glimpse of tension, Oda was sure to make it disappear right away

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@ARTEMlS:

Apparently it's indeed pure coincidence that Kaido is so obviously an Oni and in Wano there's an island called Onigashima.

Yet, as it turns out, none of that matters as the sole reason Kaido got to Wano is cause some random woman just invited him.

What about Kaido mentioning betrayal, exposing Big Moms goal and yet making that plot point disappear for god Luffy to appear ? Seriously the more I think about it, the more problems this arc has

@black-leg:

The thing about Luffy beating Kaidou and how that affects the power balance of the world is that Luffy didn't just solo Kaidou. Kaidou fought 9 Samurai, some of whom on the level of his own commanders, 5 of the worst generation who are way stronger and can do internally damaging attacks, his own son whose not as strong but knows how his father fights so isn't simple to take down, Momo in his dragon form briefly and 1v1'd Luffy three times - with him getting stronger each time and getting a break inbetween 2 of those fights.

I think the idea is that Kaidou only went down through attrition, the problem is that Oda didn't show it that way in this chapter. He just had Luffy beat him. It would've been better had it been a collective effort in this specific fight (even if Luffy is the one who got the finishing blow).

The thing is Luffy did things Kaido was supposed to do. Luffy took an insane amount of damage and got up. Luffy was the first mythical zoan with awakening, Kaido didn’t even show it.

@KageKageKing:

We still don't know what an Oni is supossed to be in the world of One Piece.

Disclaimer: I know what an Oni is according to japanese mythology, do not try to explain to me.

Pretty sure Oda retconned that since Kaido comes from a human kingdom. Ugh the travesties of this arc..

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@andy:

Let me ask you a question , luffy beating any Yonko would have put him into top tier no matter what .
So if the yonkos , admirals suppose to be close to each other you would end up with the same problem of luffy is match for anyone .
How can you be near the end of the series and not run into that aspect ?

Ehh Luffy didn’t simply beat an emperor. He beat the strongest one. Heck Katakuris defeat was more ambiguous than this. Here Luffy straight up overpowered Kaido. No ifs or buts. Oda went back on his word, he did exactly what he said his fans would find wrong

@Tyki_Mikk:

What @Greg wrote, I totally agree with him.
Kaido is and was the strongest one, like legit Oda and his stuff hyped this guy everytime when they had the chance to do it.
Kaido was portrayal as the strongest, Luffy actually beat that threat, he took that position via beating his strongest move(if Kaido is really down)!!
And that makes it what Greg wrote, Luffy is the strongest being in the world right now. And even if argue that he only beat Kaido because of Kaido facing so many opponents, in the end we all can agree that Luffy is close to close to Kaido, beat Kaido strongest move.

And that makes Luffy currently the strongest one next to Kaido and here start the problem, when we ever had something like this in OP? The strawhats already made a Yonkou crew this arc, looking like the underdog, how it keep going? How matches like Kid vs Luffy,Weevil encounter and other fights even happen at this point if Luffy stand as the number one at the top?
And even if we say BB and Shanks been stronger, do you think the gap between them and Kaido are huge?
It will be like Kaido(100), Shanks and BB at best 1-2points above 100, otherwise and here Greg point start, the gap between Kaido and Luffy upcoming opponents became ridiculous.

And there the unrealistic events start and kinda open up the question, how big will be Luffy grow at that point?
"There's no threat. No danger. No latitude. No need to grow. No need to explore. No need to struggle."
This kinda desribes the problem who await us in the next arcs, with Luffy the man who beat the strongest creature.
No one in OP world(except Imu probably) going to surpass Kaido far exceed, the other opponents at best surpass that very slighty at best with a small gap.

Can you quote Greg’s post in this thread since I’m banned from the spoiler section ? Would appreciate it