The thing is, there were several hints/teases about Kaido's backstory, goals and personality scrambled around here and there in Wano. Only to be never explored in detailed. There were opportunities for the teases to culminate in an eventual character defining moment, but LOda rushed and couldn't bother.
Just to name a few:
- Kaido's personality was almost Luffy-esque when he first met King and formed beast pirates. In fact, Kaido/King meet is similar to Luffy/Zoro meet even.
Kaido went from this personality, to a depressed drunkard. Well, what happened? The tease was there, but never explored upon.
Kaido is implied to be a Luffy gone wrong. And King was a Zoro gone wrong ("Kaido is the man who will become PK", "I won't lose", a swordsman who uses dishonourable tactics)
Even in Oden's flashback, Kaido wasn't so depressed, looking for a way to die. He, while darker than when he met with King, was still having some of the spark he had before.
- Kaido said to Yamato "I am here
BECAUSE it is Wano". It is implied that he knew there was something special about Wano, and it obviously wasn't just because Wano offered great weapons manufacturing facilities.
- Kaido, at some point in his life, thought that he was Joyboy. Whatever story he heard about Joyboy from King, something in there suggested to him that he fit the bill.
But later, he came to believe that he was not Joyboy, but that his role was some kind of gatekeeper/harbinger of Joyboy. What made him think he was Joyboy and why he later thought he wasn't?
There are more as well, but for starters this is enough.
@MonsterKaido @Sasaki Kojirō thoughts?
:cheers:
On a serious note though. It's more of me appreciating great villains. But yes, there are parts of these characters I admire as well, especially in Doflamingo. With Enel, it's more of a power fantasy lmao.
Enel was already in the commander range back then, purely because of sheer attack power and observation haki. Oda back then said he would've had 500 million if he was a pirate, and this was before all the bounty inflation. For context, it's around the same bounty as Ace
If he ever returns, and learns armament haki and ups his haki considerably. Then he's for sure getting the "in betweeners". I mean, where Zoro, Law etc are currently .
As for Doflamingo. If that dude ever gets out of prison and be relevant again, he's going to be retconned to a superior level like how Crocodile was.
If he gains advanced conqueror's haki post prison, he instantly becomes a low top tier (i.e comparable to new admirals and old man trio). It doesn't even need to be sky splitter conqueror's haki, just need to learn advanced conqueror's and he's already low top tier.