Oda writes Kizaru in such a strange way, bro.
He can't decide whether Kiz is conflicted or not, whether he's sentimental or a heartless guy.
It's weird.
Its really been bothering me too, Kizaru kinda feels OOC here and Oda seems more in turmoil than Kizaru even is lol.
At this point, Kizaru should have just been written as a chaotic sociopath, playful and yet savage like a monkey can be and having a a heart that is extremely dark, despite how "bright" he is ironically. A human "lacking a soul". Ive enjoyed the flashback stuff of him with Sentomaru, Kuma and Vegapunk but Oda is handling the "conflict" of Kizaru terribly if we can even call it that at this point.
But this is the same Oda who had Lucci and co return to the WG and join CP0 when by all means, they never should have returned after the WG did to them. Oda didnt even want Blueno and Kalifa to return at least in CP0, only Lucci, Kaku and Spandam but apparently Toei insisted he bring them back for Film Red and thus Oda has had to canonise it with that scene of them in the Reverie flashback with Vivi.
Since Oda made the other Admirals (aside from Akainu ofc) so moral, having a truly neutral and sociopathic Admiral would be interesting and a great contrast, Kizaru the true neutral as he was meant to be. Green Bull could be that, but Oda has been implying that he has a tragic backstory like Fujitora seems to have and both of them were said by Oda to originally to rebel against the WG potentially in a SBS before.
Kizaru did have a great look of sadness on his face lately, maybe even a couple of times, similarly to Kuzans great expression of sadness with Garp but we should get some inner monologue of his or something, something a bit more obvious that hes conflict but I think Oda might be trying to keep it vague so he can surprise us with a shock twist of him "going turncoat" or disobeying orders at some point?
Maybe when Saturn is out of the way, he'll finally relent and back down?
Kizaru at Sabaody and Marineford was the best, also in Film Z. We've waited over 12 years for Kizaru at least, 9 months for him to arrive at Egghead and this writing is not living up to the hype I had for him and the sheer amount of expectations and hopes I had for him. Still no actual monkey themed attack for him either yet for some reason.
Wheres the Kizaru who was bouncing off walls and taking people out at light speed with no mercy? Egghead is full of glass and thus shiny surfaces for Kizaru to reflect himself off and given the whole science theme of this arc and him being closely linked to Vegapunk for decades, surely he should be going more all out and being more creative? Even if hes reluctant to do his job, but he evidently isnt either as he keeps trying to kill Vegapunk, Kuma and Bonney, and thus be willing to actually fucking murder a child directly too, then even he feels conflicted and not so loyal to his duty and cause, hes gonna need a HELL of a good fucking reason to justify his actions now.
To me, Kizaru just feels very messily written and confusing but Oda dropped the ball hard on Green Bull, Kaido, Big Mom, Kidd etc, so Im not even surprised either, even Vegapunk has been a huge mess for the most part except a few great moments. Fujitora has been awol for like 8 years now, Smoker for even longer, at least 10 years I think now!? And Drake has joined them now too, great.
As someone said here earlier, just bring on the Orange Admiral at this point, let them be the sociopath.
Kizaru being a sociopath could have been a perfect parallel to Sanji and his dads experimentation on him and his siblings, maybe Kizaru could have been actually modified to be sociopathic by the WG on Saturns orders to make the most perfectly loyal, dutiful Admiral and soldier and has no free will, so this arc would be about "saving Kizaru", freeing his mind, giving him free will and thus being a perfect follow up to Sanjis similar storyline from the past couple of arcs? Kizaru could represent what Sanji could have become in enough time, decades later then, a glimpse of the "future" in a future and science themed arc too then and Judge could have gotten the idea to modify his children in the same way from Saturn doing the same to Kizaru then.