Character Discussion How would you have handled Kaido and the Beast Pirates ?

#1
One of the greatest letdowns of Wano arc and the Yonko Saga were how Kaido and the Beast Pirates were handled and portrayed during Wano, with Kaido's motives and past being left unexplored, there being many inconsistencies to Kaido's characters, and the lack of interactions and dynamics between him and his crew, even with the Calamities, between the Calamities themselves, and the rest of the crew as well.

Also the crew's portrayal wasn't good with the plot being ridiculously stacked against them in the Alliance's favor with there not being any real feeling of danger or threat toward the Straw Hats and their allies from Kaido's crew, with the Beast Pirates actually feeling like the underdogs. Jack's treatment and portrayal that was very serious in Zou was also far more problematic in Wano.

How would you handled and portrayed Kaido and the Beast Pirates and the relations and dynamics between them ? What past and clear motives and goals would you have given to them ?
 
#2
Individuals:
1. Kaido - Get rid of Oden obsession. The oden Fetishism killed Kaidos character, instead focus more on Kaidos personal ideals of equality and freedom. That all are equal in the battlefield and that only those who prove themselves stronger than their opponent deserves freedom. It’s a very cool ideology that would’ve actually had a much more interesting dynamic with Luffys ideals. Finally his defeat was horribly lackluster and felt rushed, Oda should’ve reworked that bad instead of “bigger fist”

2. King - Oda needed to flesh this dude out wayyyy earlier in the arc. In the vivre card it was stated that king collected swords. A better way to flesh this dude out (imo) would’ve been by having him steal all the swords from Ringo and make it so that Zoro and the alliance had to steal the swords from his personal armory that he overlooks. This way it gives King a chance to use his wildfire on samurai fodder by showing a failed attempt on stealing kings swords earlier, and greater establishes Zoros and Kings relationship and their ideology on swords in general where King sees them as decoration, Zoro understands that wills have a blade. This then meshes much better with the Enmas will subplot of Zoro vs King and makes king way less of a background character.

3. Queen - For the most part was fine. His character was probably the second most important and fleshed out of the beast pirates throughout Wano, main change I would make would be his finisher. I get that the invisibility of stealth black was stated earlier in the arc to be the most fearsome of the Germa abilities, however, I believe there should’ve been a “black bug” type attack from Queen that he could generate by combining the multiple of Germa powers into one for Sanji to clash with in the final moments of the fight.

4. Jack - Oda should’ve fleshed out his abilities more. Offscreening his fight with sulong inu was a huge disservice to both characters when he should’ve been a Diamanté vs Kyros style fight with both characters having solid power showings and emotion in this fight due to their history.

Dynamics:
Prior to Onigashimas raid, Oda should’ve had a “Spiders Cafe” esque chapter where the 3 of them and Kaido sit down for a whole chapter and discuss their plans moving forward. This would’ve been a good time to introduce the existence of Yamato as Kaido would say he has plans for her, and it would also show all 3 actually interact with Kaido more.
 
#3
I’ve already wrote enough about how I’d rewrite the arc so I’ll just stick to Kaido’s backstory.

Instead of rewriting an entire backstory let’s just work with what we have. Kaido grew up in a warn torn country. He’s been a soldier since very young. Kaido gets accustomed to war, actually he loves it. Shows us kid Kaido destroying an entire platoon and having a blood thirsty smile. War ends and Kaido gets sold to the WG because they can’t really control him. Kaido doesn’t want to work for the WG because he sees them as peace loving idiots. He instead becomes a pirate, raiding and starting wars with kingdoms and other pirates. Instead of being recruited by WB with a simple talk were shown Kaido defeated by a silhouette of Rox, Rox then invites him into the crew promising to “turn the world upside down”.

We can skip the Rox stuff for now, we flashback to an adult Kaido. Keep the panel of Kaido complaining about the WG and their stupid hierarchies. Now there’s more context to this scene. Kaido doesn’t find joy in the structures of “peace” the WG pushes, instead he loves battles and war. He then declares the Beast Pirates are going to rule the world similar to Rox’ goal, and in his world only the strong will live. This is why he’s in Wano, as it gets him closer to the one piece.

You can also add in the King talk. King explains that in his culture Joyboy was an ancient warrior that took on the entire world. Kaido finds this admirable and wishes to become Joyboy and if not “Joyboy will be the man to defeat me”

As the years go by Kaido grows bored, he starts his suicide hobby because he yet doesn’t have the power to go to war with the WG. So he kills times by finding ways to kill himself. Kaido really doesn’t expect to die, but he finds doing this a lot more fun than sitting in Wano doing nothing.

So just show us why he has the “strong will live weak just die” philosophy and build upon that
 
#4
Getting rid of the goofy gifter designs and actually make them look somewhat intimidating not a funny circus house clown show

With oden the approach should’ve been taken at a more serious manner considering the stakes that were on the table.

Scabbards made the hype but then the flashbacks ruined it, nobody takes Oden seriously.

Pretty much if Wano was taken more seriously it would’ve been better even if Kaido doesn’t have a backstory the way Oda treated beast pirates is pretty sad because of how intimidating they were hyped to be since pre-TS/PH arc

Even the BMP looked menacing
 

Yoho

✌𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓢𝓲𝓶𝓹𝓵𝓲𝓬𝓲𝓽𝔂 𝓸𝓯 𝓛𝓲𝓯𝓮✌
#12
I thought they where handled well
 
#15
I would have made Kaido a more active threat and mastermind to his own crew, with Orochi clearly being a puppet ruler while Kaido is truly shown calling the shots and being the one to give orders to his subordinates to take care of the Supernovas and samurai resistance at the beggining of Wano arc. No need for Kaido to be overshadowed by other antagonists in the arc he's supposed to be the main antagonist of.

I'd would also show more and more meaningful interactions with his, both in flashback where we see Kaido's meetings with each of the Calamities and him founding the Beast Pirates, and in the present where he's shown giving orders to and talking to King, Queen and Jack about their plans and other various details. More details about his past as an oni, the violence of his youth and his meeting and relationship with Xebec who was a mentor and father figure to him, in a dark mirror of Roger and Shanks' relation.

I also agree with @Sir Yasheen, remove entirely Kaido's obsession with this overrated braindead fraud that is Oden, and giving him a true "Survival of the fittest", darwinist mindset about the world, believing that only the strong are worthy of living and them proving their worth in battle.

And of course far less stupid plot armor, and the Beast Pirates actually looking like a threat, with the Gifters showing their worth in battle against the Alliance and them not being brainwashed so easily and in such numbers by Tama while the Numbers also show their strength, if not against the Supernovas at least with other members of the alliance and the common ninjas and samurais and supernovas crewmates.
 
#16
1. Kaido- he should have been more than just a meat head. If he was a cold calculating individual that also had fighting ability that would have made his character a bigger threat as it wouldn't have been just his might but his brains you'd have to worry about. That would also why Rayleigh, wb, or none off oden friends ever decided to try to attack him as the losses wouldn't have been worth it and they might not have even killed him. That would also give credit to him actually being able to start a war that engulfed the world. His dream was just a pipe dream to the point he deluded himself into thinking he might be joyboy. At the rate he was going he'd never had been pk nor start a great war that engulfed the world.

2. Yamato - I would have actually had her be a part of the Beast Pirates. While I think she could have still had respect for oden I wouldn't have made her become obsessed and try to actually be oden. Outside of that I wouldn't have changed her character much but made her want to and try to make the living condition in wano better. That would explain after the fall of the beast Pirates her becoming a good guy for wano.

3. King - there wasn't any major flaws and he played the right hand to kaido well even doing stuff without kaido needing to order it.


4. Queen - he should have been able to show off more weapons he was developing. With the oni virus was good they been developing weapons for decades. Queen being able to shine in that aspect would have went farther for his character. He was still around as strong as he should have been.

6. Jack - would have actually gave him a fighting style. The guy just seemed to run into attacks until he won or lost. He had a great introduction but never lived up to the hype he made. He should have had a more predominant role in the war and been a bigger threat.


7. The flying 6- imo they were handled well enough and there isn't much to change.

8. The numbers - actually have the be a threat. They did nothing really and any half way decent fight can easily beat then. I would have made them on par with the flying 6 but they were berserker that attacked any and everything in a fight. The numbers could have been a serious threat if unleashed both allies and enemies had to worry about.

9. Fodder - instead of the goofy powers the the gifters should have been intimidating zoans. I would have had then be like pts Lucci as murder machines that didn't hesitate to take out anyone and used there abilities to physically dominate anyone they could. Having a army like that would be terrifying to face and would make Kaido's king of beasts title show even more. The actual fodder would be constantly training and trying to move up Kaido's power structure. They would have been stronger than the standard fodder by means of constantly fighting each other and trying toget stronger.

Imo these would have made kaido the scary yonko that wasn't a happy go lucky type. It would have gave the yonko title more credit having this crew in it by how crazy the crew would be.
 
#17
I would have made Kaido a Meruem-type character; undefeated but huge character development. He should have been the "I am the villain but I am right and you are wrong" type villain where he gets what he wants in the end.
 
#18
Kaido, less obsessed with King, showing his powers more against G5.
King, ryuo and him being a stronger and uses more his sword. The fight shouldn't have been as one sided as it was post 1033.
Queen, uses his plague against Sanji.
Yamato, scrap that fucking useless character.
 
#19
Also I would have made Kaido and all of the Calamities Awakened Zoans, and given Jack a better hybrid form and more to his fighting style and showed them use Haki more and clearly.
 
#20
not making them a major arc villain at all.
Kaido has such legendary backstory and characterization that even the biggest one piece defenders making fun of him.
And his crew is like big moms aka mostly a bloated villain gallery with couple interesting and fun characters. Anything that he provided we could get off big mom and her crew with less rewrites than fixing them.
Like what do we have:
Numbers and the rest - Fodder type zoan and inherently less intressting than the big mom childrens dfs.
Tobiroppo - actually good beside sasaki.
Jack- which is like arguably more of a meme than bobins while occuping crackers spot.
Queen - actually funny character altho wasted franky interaction but still infinitly better than Smoothie.
King - "..." character half of his panels unironicly that would need divine intervention to reach even 1/5th of a character like katakuri
Kaido - which blessed us with the little fella middle fella big fella meme

And i guess oden and yamato as auxilary characters tied to them - lol, good riddance

There is no idea in my mind, or that i read, that could salvage this into not a waste of time.

Should probally be defeated in a mini arc by some of the other forces as an interlude or something
 
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