THIS IS NOT A TROLL POST
I know my reputation here as of late is mostly as a hornet's nest kicker, but this thread is not going to be one of those. I have legitimate thoughts about this fruit that I want to express. I'm also too lazy to post pictures to this thread, we've all read the same manga.
So first, I want to explain what I mean by disappointing:
Disappointing =/= Weak
By disappointing, I mean I had high expectations, but those expectations were not lived up to.
Giolla's fruit for example...I wasn't really disappointed in that fruit because I expected virtually nothing to begin with. It's a relatively weak fruit, but it's not really a disappointing fruit for me.
Okay, so now that we've clarified that, let's do this:
Part I: Expectation/Status Among Peers
So Kaido is an Emperor, the Emperors and the Admirals have historically had the strongest Devil Fruits in this manga.
Whitebeard's Devil Fruit was called the strongest Paramecia, and Sengoku stated that the fruit could destroy the world. Additionally, the level of destruction that Whitebeard showed at Marineford is to this day unrivaled among any Paramecia fruit that we've seen. His own men had to take cover every time he used his Devil Fruit power because the fruit was so destructive that they knew that they weren't safe from their own captain.
The Logia Trio of Admirals at Marineford also have some of the strongest Devil Fruits in the verse, even Admiral haters will agree to this. Oda even stated in an SBS that the Logia Trio of Admirals' fruits were on par with Whitebeard's fruit:
Then we have Blackbeard, the newest Emperor but even before he became an Emperor, he had already claimed what he described as the strongest Devil Fruit in the world, and while this fruit seems a bit disappointing at the moment, we basically know nothing about it and feats have inflated so massively that this fruit is sure to deliver in the future.
Now we look at Kaido. From the moment he was hyped as "the strongest creature in the world", speculation was rampant that he possessed the strongest Zoan Fruit. This would put Kaido's fruit in a unique class, one of the three strongest fruits of their respective classes. But so far as we know, Kaido's fruit is not the strongest Zoan. Or at least, it's never been stated to be. My expectations personally were sky high for this fruit. That brings us to point number 2:
Part II: Lack of Hype
The only outright statement we have about Kaido's fruit, the only one, is that he got his Devil Fruit from Big Mom. Which is not a hype statement so much as it is just a statement of fact. No one in the verse has referred to Kaido as having the strongest Zoan, in fact Kaido's fruit has been undermined in terms of hype multiple times over the course of Wano.
First, the CP-0 goon brought up the Akuma Zoan out of absolutely nowhere (literally nothing in the plot was relevant to this fruit) but the CP-0 guy brings up this fruit to mention he is glad no one has it. Out of literally nowhere.
Later, Luffy's fruit is retconned into a Zoan in an instance of bullshit ex machina, and Luffy is now warping reality itself as Oda pulls Nika's powers out of his ass hole to justify whatever he thinks the plot needs/whatever would make a cool or funny panel.
So that's two Zoan fruits that have had more narrative weight behind them than Kaido's Zoan fruit. Was it the fandom's fault for assuming Kaido's Zoan would be the strongest Zoan? This should be the natural assumption for someone like Kaido right?
Now to be clear, I guess it could be revealed that Kaido has the strongest Zoan, but to me this would be a massive instance of narrative dissonance because:
Part III: Lack of Impact on the Plot
Kaido's fruit has pretty much given him absolutely no advantages over the course of this arc. Kaido has resorted to his pure dragon form multiple time in fights and has performed so poorly in that form that "just wait until Kaido reverts back to his base form" actually became a meme among One Piece fans.
Hey Oda: If you ever create a Devil Fruit that your fandom actually perceives as a nerf for that character, you fucked up.
To make matters worse, Kaido's hybrid form seems to net him approximately zero advantages in combat. As soon as Kaido went into his hybrid form...Nothing changed. He showed virtually zero new attacks, the new attacks he did show didn't seem to be any stronger than the attacks he's already shown, and the second Luffy learned AdCoC, Kaido may as well not have even have had a Devil Fruit any more as Luffy was blocking blows from him in base repeatedly even as Kaido was using his own AdCoC in addition to his Devil Fruit.
Luffy didn't even need gears, but was clashing equally with Hybrid Kaido on multiple occasions. What was the point of giving Kaido a hybrid form if it meant nothing/changed nothing over the course of his battle with Luffy? At least Gear 2, 3, 4, and now 5, actually changed how Luffy has to approach his fights as each of those forms have rules associated with them (well maybe not the trash Nika form), but Kaido's hybrid form may as well be an aesthetic choice only as his fruit has made zero difference in combat and seems to be almost the exact same as his base form in terms of combat.
And now, Kaido is even stated that he prefers Haki to Devil Fruit powers. I don't even know why Oda gave Kaido a Devil Fruit to begin with at this point lol.
Conclusion
I don't know why Oda chose to make Kaido's Devil Fruit have such little impact on the plot. From a fruit that fans were almost unanimously expecting to be the strongest Devil Fruit of its class, it has had its hype overshadowed by other Zoan fruits twice during Kaido's own arc, and Kaido's Devil Fruit has mostly been portrayed as a nerf for him at times, and has netted him zero benefits.
Wano has been by far and away the most disappointing arc in One Piece and the single worst manga arc I've ever read imo, and Kaido is a huge part of that, but if you'd have told me in 2018 that Kaido's Devil Fruit would seem this irrelevant, I would have had a hard time believing you.
@Owl Ki @Den_Den_Mushi @Light D Lamperouge @Beerbottle @ZenZu @Mr. Anderson @HA001 @scoobie3 @MonsterKaido @The White Crane @MarineHQ62 @comrade @Van @LuthonTheDragDown @Gol D. Roger @TheKnightOfTheSea @God Buggy @Seth @Topi Jerami etc...
I know my reputation here as of late is mostly as a hornet's nest kicker, but this thread is not going to be one of those. I have legitimate thoughts about this fruit that I want to express. I'm also too lazy to post pictures to this thread, we've all read the same manga.
So first, I want to explain what I mean by disappointing:
Disappointing =/= Weak
By disappointing, I mean I had high expectations, but those expectations were not lived up to.
Giolla's fruit for example...I wasn't really disappointed in that fruit because I expected virtually nothing to begin with. It's a relatively weak fruit, but it's not really a disappointing fruit for me.
Okay, so now that we've clarified that, let's do this:
Part I: Expectation/Status Among Peers
So Kaido is an Emperor, the Emperors and the Admirals have historically had the strongest Devil Fruits in this manga.
Whitebeard's Devil Fruit was called the strongest Paramecia, and Sengoku stated that the fruit could destroy the world. Additionally, the level of destruction that Whitebeard showed at Marineford is to this day unrivaled among any Paramecia fruit that we've seen. His own men had to take cover every time he used his Devil Fruit power because the fruit was so destructive that they knew that they weren't safe from their own captain.
The Logia Trio of Admirals at Marineford also have some of the strongest Devil Fruits in the verse, even Admiral haters will agree to this. Oda even stated in an SBS that the Logia Trio of Admirals' fruits were on par with Whitebeard's fruit:
Then we have Blackbeard, the newest Emperor but even before he became an Emperor, he had already claimed what he described as the strongest Devil Fruit in the world, and while this fruit seems a bit disappointing at the moment, we basically know nothing about it and feats have inflated so massively that this fruit is sure to deliver in the future.
Now we look at Kaido. From the moment he was hyped as "the strongest creature in the world", speculation was rampant that he possessed the strongest Zoan Fruit. This would put Kaido's fruit in a unique class, one of the three strongest fruits of their respective classes. But so far as we know, Kaido's fruit is not the strongest Zoan. Or at least, it's never been stated to be. My expectations personally were sky high for this fruit. That brings us to point number 2:
Part II: Lack of Hype
The only outright statement we have about Kaido's fruit, the only one, is that he got his Devil Fruit from Big Mom. Which is not a hype statement so much as it is just a statement of fact. No one in the verse has referred to Kaido as having the strongest Zoan, in fact Kaido's fruit has been undermined in terms of hype multiple times over the course of Wano.
First, the CP-0 goon brought up the Akuma Zoan out of absolutely nowhere (literally nothing in the plot was relevant to this fruit) but the CP-0 guy brings up this fruit to mention he is glad no one has it. Out of literally nowhere.
Later, Luffy's fruit is retconned into a Zoan in an instance of bullshit ex machina, and Luffy is now warping reality itself as Oda pulls Nika's powers out of his ass hole to justify whatever he thinks the plot needs/whatever would make a cool or funny panel.
So that's two Zoan fruits that have had more narrative weight behind them than Kaido's Zoan fruit. Was it the fandom's fault for assuming Kaido's Zoan would be the strongest Zoan? This should be the natural assumption for someone like Kaido right?
Now to be clear, I guess it could be revealed that Kaido has the strongest Zoan, but to me this would be a massive instance of narrative dissonance because:
Part III: Lack of Impact on the Plot
Kaido's fruit has pretty much given him absolutely no advantages over the course of this arc. Kaido has resorted to his pure dragon form multiple time in fights and has performed so poorly in that form that "just wait until Kaido reverts back to his base form" actually became a meme among One Piece fans.
Hey Oda: If you ever create a Devil Fruit that your fandom actually perceives as a nerf for that character, you fucked up.
To make matters worse, Kaido's hybrid form seems to net him approximately zero advantages in combat. As soon as Kaido went into his hybrid form...Nothing changed. He showed virtually zero new attacks, the new attacks he did show didn't seem to be any stronger than the attacks he's already shown, and the second Luffy learned AdCoC, Kaido may as well not have even have had a Devil Fruit any more as Luffy was blocking blows from him in base repeatedly even as Kaido was using his own AdCoC in addition to his Devil Fruit.
Luffy didn't even need gears, but was clashing equally with Hybrid Kaido on multiple occasions. What was the point of giving Kaido a hybrid form if it meant nothing/changed nothing over the course of his battle with Luffy? At least Gear 2, 3, 4, and now 5, actually changed how Luffy has to approach his fights as each of those forms have rules associated with them (well maybe not the trash Nika form), but Kaido's hybrid form may as well be an aesthetic choice only as his fruit has made zero difference in combat and seems to be almost the exact same as his base form in terms of combat.
And now, Kaido is even stated that he prefers Haki to Devil Fruit powers. I don't even know why Oda gave Kaido a Devil Fruit to begin with at this point lol.
Conclusion
I don't know why Oda chose to make Kaido's Devil Fruit have such little impact on the plot. From a fruit that fans were almost unanimously expecting to be the strongest Devil Fruit of its class, it has had its hype overshadowed by other Zoan fruits twice during Kaido's own arc, and Kaido's Devil Fruit has mostly been portrayed as a nerf for him at times, and has netted him zero benefits.
Wano has been by far and away the most disappointing arc in One Piece and the single worst manga arc I've ever read imo, and Kaido is a huge part of that, but if you'd have told me in 2018 that Kaido's Devil Fruit would seem this irrelevant, I would have had a hard time believing you.
@Owl Ki @Den_Den_Mushi @Light D Lamperouge @Beerbottle @ZenZu @Mr. Anderson @HA001 @scoobie3 @MonsterKaido @The White Crane @MarineHQ62 @comrade @Van @LuthonTheDragDown @Gol D. Roger @TheKnightOfTheSea @God Buggy @Seth @Topi Jerami etc...
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