1027 chapter title: "Because of Oden"
- The chapter begins with Orochi, he’s taking a certain blue pill
- Orochi: "Jack is down, I’m gonna fuck him now... the same way Oda did it."
- Luffy vs Kaido
- Kaido is surprised about the splitting clouds and asks Luffy how he got so strong in such a short time
- Luffy: "Because Oden !"
- Kaido: "Oh noooo it was Oden’s Haki, his spirit is inside you.... fuck this shit "
- Momo farts a big flame could
"It’s time to stop Onigashima."

No break next week
seems legit
 
if oda wants to really shock people he's going to have kaido kill luffy. but then because its one piece hell then show everyone still have faith in him and keep fighting and then marco will cry and remember whitebeard and his family and sacrifice his life to resurrect luffy
I've had a similar thought, I think the exchanges between Kaido and Luffy are great, and feels like tease to some theme of their fight as well as Kaido's own character and personal outlook.
 
i had a theory written out on reddit but i think they deleted it lol. but i think the kanjuro thing is very possible still. kanjuro is above all else obsessed with his role and the idea of completing his role with a dramatic death. its almost a microcosm of kaido. and where kaido beheaded orochi for getting in the way of his own plans, in the "two side of the same coin" thing oda likes doing, orochi got kanjuro "beheaded" by getting in the way of his plans.

kanjuro has some dialogue in these scenes that give me the impression he resents orochi for not holding up his end of the deal. remember, kanjuro was meant to die alongside the scabbards, and never reveal his identity. this twist of kanjuro being the traitor was supposed to be his secret he took to the grave, because his "perfect" role was playing the scabbards' friends. His role's perfection, in his mind, depended on dying together with the scabbards, with none of them ever finding out what the real story was. But Orochi ruined that for his own selfish reasons, and sacrificed the story because he wanted to see Momonosuke die in person.


"I could have kept [...] true to my role to the very end, but lord orochi stopped me"

Kanjuro is careful to say that he doesn't actually hate the scabbards. He "Shared joys and sorrows" with them, "hating none of them", and "meaning them no harm." He is just fulfilling his role for his director. Maybe his real emotions break through here. He really didnt want to reveal this. For a single panel, Kanjuro is crying as he reveals he's the traitor, but quickly clears his face up to take the villain role.

then in 982 he brings Momo to Orochi, expecting some kind of climactic ending, but only gets this. Orochi barely treats him with any significance, and just waves him off. There's no payoff, no curtain call, he's just some guy, at this point it's clear his ending is ruined and his decades of acting have been for nothing. Kanjuro fades into the background as everyone starts to ignore him and focus on other things.


After the fight at the rear entrance of Onigashima, Kin'emon lays his straw hat on Kanjuro's body, and he reminisces about the good times together. Rather than splitting the Scabbards apart or stopping them, Kanjuro's loss brought them closer than ever, and more dedicated to their goals than before. And we know now that was a fakeout. Kanjuro survived, and Kiku blamed herself, but what if it really is just ink armor and he wasn't cut deep enough?

The ink blob kanjuro, too, is significantly smaller than the "real" kanjuro. Kanjuro is like the size of Franky. He's a huge dude, one of the larger Azakaya members. But here he's smaller than Orochi, almost the side of a normal person like Semimaru and Higurashi.


So, I think it's impossible to know his real motivations right now. Kanjuro with the Oden thing is clearly flailing around trying to find more and more dramatic twists and turns because his actual role's ending was so unsatisfying. If he's still alive even after the bomb, I'm sure he will keep trying new things. Healing the scabbards makes sense because he can't let them die without him, they have to die "together". he was trying to do that as Oden I think but it was seen through
also, oda changing a character design that much between the weekly and volume release is odd to me. especially with how fully kanjuro's design fits his theme as a kabuki actor, like, he's the only one literally dressed as a kabuki stage performer and the old silhouette was just some guy with a ponytail and side lock. but then the "someone is there!" panel is literally that same design of a silhouette with a side lock.


both toki and hiyori have one of those hanging down on each side, but this person only has it on one. just like this
 
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