There are certain subtleties and archetypes of story telling that are ever present in almost all fiction and even mythology which perhaps a lot of you would consider fiction regardless and these subtleties and archetypes mean more than the preconceived notions about power scaling and agendas. Revenge of the Hero against an evil Tyrant is one of the such ever present archetypes, and that is to an even greater degree emphasized in One Piece.
Luffy always takes revenge, revenge for people who in theory shouldn't be so dear to him, so close to him, people who he just met but he happened to saw agony, despair and mystery of such people caused by such an evil Tyrant. If you happened to be Luffy's friend, then Luffy taking revenge for you from your tyrant almost becomes a certainty even if you being Luffy's friend is not a necessity such as people of Bakura Town.
It all started as early as Arlong Park where Luffy took revenge on the Tyrant Arlong for causing agony to his friend Nami. Remember Nami wasn't someone who has gone through ups and downs with Luffy at this point, hasn't gone through journey of life and death and has built an unbreakable bond but by simply being Luffy's friend alone, Luffy took it upon himself to whoop Arlong's ass and free Cocoyashi Village of the Tyranni caused by the boss of Arlong Park and his band of cronies.. It all started which this iconic moment
This was Luffy's revenge of the Hero for the agony and distressed caused to his friend Nami.
This troupe continued in the next major arc of One Piece Alabasta where Luffy took revenge from an even bigger tyrant, terrorizing an even bigger country of Alabasta for another one of his Friend. Once again Vivi isn't someone that Luffy has spent his entire life with, grew up idolizing and loving her, going to ups and downs throughout Luffy. Vivi is an individual who happened to have spent a matter of weeks to months with Luffy, meeting him in the organs of an oh so gigantic whale. Foundation of Vivi's friendship was certainly Vivi being source of providing meat to Luffy in Whiskey Peak. Then they build some connection and created a bond and we got Straw hats taking charge against Crocodile and his Cronies freeing Alabasta of the tyranni of the Tyrant Crocodile.
It all began with this iconic scene
This idea of Luffy taking revenge on an the tyrant certainly didn't go away in Skypea where story just like Alabasta was repeated but people there had even lighter bond with Luffy. Of course Nico Robin had spend a lot more time with Luffy by the time Enies Lobby happened and an arc such as Enies Lobby requires its own thread but Luffy did take revenge for his friend Nico Robin, granted the tyrant wasn't necessarily Lucci, rather spandam and Nico Robin cracked his ass.
But Ace, Ace is someone Luffy has spent humongous chunk of his life with. He is someone Luffy grew up with, spent his childhood with and exchanged the cup of Sake, promising towards their adventurous future
Now unlike Nico Robin Ace isn't alive to punch a hole in Akainu's body and take revenge for what Akainu did to him..I mean that was the point right? But you would naturally say well that's where Sabo comes in, and to that I will say think again. I will especially say think again to those showing extraordinary amount of contempt towards the notion of Zoro being granted an opportunity to behead Kaido and fulfil his destiny as the Next Sword God after seeing the suffering of Yasui, Hiyori, having the blade of Kozuki Oden, presenting essentially same symbolism as Sabo having Ace's fruit, time he spent in Ringo (I believe it was Ringo) seeing its denizens being forcefully fed defective smile.
In all fairness there was all the more narrative build up for Zoro to behead Kaido than Sabo to punch a hole in Akainu's belly and I will get to that later. But the reason most of the critics of the idea of Zoro beheading Kaido presented is that Zoro can't do that because
Luffy is the main character and he has to take..say with me..Hero's Revenge and Save Wano from Tyranni of Kaido.
Well unless I am reading a different story, Sabo doesn't seem to be the main character of the show either, he seems to have significantly inferior presence in the show even compared to Zoro who has been around since the second chapter of the manga and has been present and played at least noticeable if not significant role in every arc.
But it is Luffy, the main character of the show who takes down the ultimate tyrant after he sees suffering of his friends at the hand of the tyrant. But it goes even deeper, and back to the point where Zoro had more narrative build up than Sabo, Luffy has significantly greater narrative buildup than Sabo.
Luffy was present given or taken 6 feet away from the sight at which Akainu punched a hole inside Ace's Body.
This caused a deep trauma in Luffy. A trauma so deep, Luffy momentarily lost functionality and has contemplating quitting his journey as a pirate. He saw death of his brother in front of his very eyes. A tyrant punch a hole in the belly of the man Luffy has loved, admired, idolized since he was a very young child. This was the catalyst to two year time skip where Luffy trained and trained and trained with Silver's Rayleigh so he is strong enough to prevent a situation like this happening in the future
Now moving away from the archetype of Hero's Revenge and the trauma caused to Luffy by Akainu, we have a troupe recurring often in the story telling formula of One Piece and that is
significance of scars.
The biggest scar on Zoro's body was caused by Hawk Eyes Mihawk and that is a constant reminder of the failure Zoro suffered as a frog in his tiny well. That scar will remind him to train and train, become stronger, know the world so he can face someone who (lets be real now) Strongest man in the world right now
Scar that stings Shanks the most of caused by Blackbeard and that will certainly play a factor in the story
And the most recent usage of recurring troupe of a major scar on the body playing a huge factor in the story happened with Kaido. For the longest of time the largest and seemingly only scar on Kaido's undestructible body was caused by Kozuki Oden..
As a self fulfilling prophecy, Zoro picked up Kozuki Oden's Blade and used it to cause another major scar on Kaido's body
By far the biggest and most significant scar on Luffy's body is caused by Akainu and to make things even more interesting and impeccably connected (Something that is very scarce in today's One Piece) that scar on Luffy's body was caused by Akainu after he has done punching a hole in Ace's body.
This amount of narrative build up, Luffy's revenge, his trauma, death of his brother in front of his own eyes, significance of his scar on his chest, will not all be tossed out of the window because a certain section of great One Piece fans (Yonkotards) believe Akainu's combat prowess isn't up the standards of someone who will be Luffy's opponent as such a later part of the story. If the requirement for well presented narrative is that Akainu will be Luffy's final marine opponent than that is what will happen, and him being a Luffy's opponent after an emperor of the sea will not stop that. After all nothing is really stopping from the original Admirals to turn out to be stronger than majority if not all of the emperors.
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