Maybe if you looked beyond the surface?
He really cares about his crew, especially Killer. He's ride or die, genuine, not two faced, not a manipulator, sincere, blunt/brutally honest, what you see is what you get. I also love my edgy, anarchist characters too and underdogs. Also his DF, his design etc.
Hes also an absolute underdog when the odds are completely stacked against him, its absolutely disgusting how Oda treats him vs his precious Authors Pet with the God Zoan, Joyboy resurrection/Nika whatever he is too. Luffy stole all of Kidds good luck I guess lol, like Barracats DF or something. I know Kidd is based on William Kidd IRL and thus meant to be extremely unlucky but it still fucking sucks.
I am so fucking tired of Kidd slander, its like Sanji slander, the lowest hanging fruit, the easiest and laziest to go for.
Kidd haters just look at the surface and judge immediately, ignoring the nuance and potential of his character, what Oda is trying to show with him. Hes the Vegeta and Endeavour to Luffy. I hated both Vegeta and Endeavour in the past but over time they grew on me, I grew to understand and respect them, I don't love them, I don't admire/adore them entirely, but I do really like them now. There are some things both have done that are unforgivable, well especially on Endeavours part too at least but both even and Kidd has done some heinous shit too ofc but I love rough, unorthodox, flawed, imperfect etc type characters like him too.
Kidd and his crew laughed along with Killer to make him feel less like an outcast, a freak of nature, a curse or whatever, they didn't want him to suffer alone and feel like such a weirdo. It's like how Joaquin's Joker had the same issue with uncontrollable laughing outbursts but unfortuantely he didn't have his own version of Kidd and his crew to support him either, which makes what Kidd and co do for Killer, all the more poignant:
Killer vs Hawkins was such a raw and awesome fight in hindsight too, rawesome even lol. It really showed how much of a true brothers to the end relationship Killer and Kidd have had since childhood, like Zoro and Luffy, Shanks and Beckmann, Kaido and King Roger and Rayleigh, Whitebeard and Marco/Oden etc too.
I really love this fight in hindsight, its perfect thematically for Kidd, Killer and Hawkins in hindsight, with their relationships to one another, certain themes, their characters, scarecrow/strawman vs scythes, a fearless man and his captain vs a cowardly/self preservation focused/everyone else is expendable to save my life kind of man etc.
Finally, the newly revealed backstory of Kidd and Killer in the SBS that Oda did, talking about why Kidd named his ship the Victoria Punk was peak fiction unironically and made love and respect his character even more. I knew there was gonna be reasons for his attitude/personality, why he is the way he is, I knew there was gonna be some major tragedy and loss and in his past and I'm glad Oda confirmed it, I just wish we had gotten to see it in the manga instead but alas! At least we're not in the dark anymore though.
Kidd is a very realistic, earnest, true to himself/his heart/others kind of guy, he's no nonsense, relentless, endearing and never gives up/ never falters despite how overwhelmingly unfair or impossible the odds are. I find that extremely admirable.
I've had friends like him IRL and they were ALWAYS there for me and the ones who I am in still in touch with, always are there for me, whenever I need them the most and have done in the past, they are my pillars and keep me going during my most difficult times, so that makes me like characters like Kidd even more too naturally. They are absolutely diamonds in the rough.
I wouldn't have donated SO MUCH money (at once specfically) to here if I wasn't such a huge fan of Kidd myself too ofc, that would be complete insanity and not in a fun/good way either! If I thought any less of him, I'd never would have requested that theme be made here and honestly, I'm really glad Bogard allowed it to happen and that Worst made it and made such a spectacular job of it, based on my suggestions and thus our combined ideas too! Seeing people like Rottkins love the theme and use it too, made me very happy too!
But yeah I know its a huge rant, but this is way too much of a personal topic for me to not rant about it lmfao.
Yeah for real, 100%. I always found some of the most terrifying and best villains are the ones you least expect, the most dangerous ones. I like goofy villains too so that helps anyway but they need to be competent and even threatening too somehow.
I've actually been wondering if Wapol is BB's 10th captain, since BB went to Drum Island and I think thats why Wapol fled from there before due to that? IIRC? Might be wrong though lol. But now Wapol has a new kingdom called Black Drum Kingdom specificially, coincidence or not?
Yeah the Celestial Dragons are just typically scummy elites, with no redeeming qualities, no nuance to them. They are almost cariactures even. They are based characters from that one Adventures of Baron Munchasen film, like Van Auger, Kizaru riding on cannonballs and other stuff are too but I absolutely detest/loathe them and as you said they are pointless and just deserve to be wiped out. They're so exaggerated, so abhorrent, so one-dimensional, I cannot stand them at all. At least with Doffy being an ex-CD and technically Rocinante ofc and their family, they showed CDs can be far more interesting, complex, dangerous, competent etc even though they are the exceptions and theres only one other CD I like now, that Msjogard guy or w/e his name is, the one who saved Shirahoshi from Charloss? Very nice redemption and character development for him.
There are hints from Film Red that Shanks is an ex-Celestial Dragon or something I guess, from some VERY important family at least, I wouldn't be surpried if he turned out to be a "disgraced" Celestial too though.