Rayleigh hasn't touched a sword in decades but it doesn't mean his Haki is suddenly decreased by 70% or whatever people are making it out to be.
Don't forget, swordsmanship isn't Kizaru's primary fighting style, yet he was easily matching Rayleigh in his dominated fighting style. What Kizaru exceels at is his crazy durability and speed. He can accelerate his speed and effortlessly blitzed FS Snake Man. What makes you think Rayleigh would easily handle that attack?
But okay, you can say, Rayleigh was old and rusty - this obviously doesn't count for the navy hero who is STILL on duty and doesn't just laze around all day and doing nothing.
This SBS answers the true powerlevels of the old legends. So in fact, it is their "weak performance" which is a contradiction to Oda's statement, not the other way around. Especially since Oda made sure to show that their "prime selfs" are not leagues above their old versions. They arguably look worse compared to their prime.
Rayleigh hasn't touched a sword in decades but it doesn't mean his Haki is suddenly decreased by 70% or whatever people are making it out to be.
The point here isn’t to debate what did or didn’t decline in the old legends, but rather to follow your interpretation of Oda’s statement. Because that’s something that can mislead uninformed people into believing that the old legends retained the same power they had in their prime — which can be summed up as: Prime legends = Old legends. And that’s not an accurate statement, since every time one of these old legends appears, they themselves make it clear that they’re no longer the same.
Don't forget, swordsmanship isn't Kizaru's primary fighting style, yet he was easily matching Rayleigh in his dominated fighting style.
It’s hilarious that the issue we’re debating is the SBS, yet now it’s about the retired, old Rayleigh — who hadn’t even held a sword in decades — versus prime Kizaru. No matter how Kizaru chose to fight Rayleigh, Rayleigh made it clear that in his younger version he could do far more than just stop Kizaru. That actually makes things a thousand times worse, because even in his old age he was already able to stop Kizaru regardless of what Kizaru used against him. In his prime, Rayleigh stated he could both fight Kizaru and help the Straw Hats. So who’s to say that Kizaru dropping swordsmanship would perform any better against Rayleigh, when the only time he’s recently relied on his sword was when he couldn’t do anything in Gear 5 and when he was being serious about killing people?
What Kizaru exceels at is his crazy durability and speed. He can accelerate his speed and effortlessly blitzed FS Snake Man. What makes you think Rayleigh would easily handle that attack?
The fact that Rayleigh said he could do more than just stop Kizaru at 78 years old and completely rusty — and the fact that Kizaru was trying so actively and seriously to defeat Rayleigh that, after failing to do so against a 78-year-old man, he had to vent his frustrations on random pirates — only reinforces the idea that prime Rayleigh could have simply ignored him mid-battle to help others, and Kizaru still wouldn’t have stood a chance against him.
After all, can you tell me where Rayleigh and Kizaru ever agreed that they could only use swords? Of course, you made that up. Kizaru chose whatever was best for him — his goal was never to beat Rayleigh in a sword duel; that was never highlighted. His goal was to get past Rayleigh and complete his mission, and for that, he had to defeat him — and he failed.
The funny part here, for those who don’t get it, is that Rayleigh said in his prime he could do more than just fight Kizaru, which embarrassed Kizaru. The fact that he couldn’t even beat old Rayleigh made things even worse for him — hence all his rage afterward.
This SBS answers the true powerlevels of the old legends. So in fact, it is their "weak performance" which is a contradiction to Oda's statement, not the other way around. Especially since Oda made sure to show that their "prime selfs" are not leagues above their old versions. They arguably look worse compared to their prime.
Actually, no — what I take from this SBS is that even old, they’re still strong, not that they maintain the same strength they had in their prime. Every old character has told us themselves that they’re weaker now, and this simple fact is enough to contradict both that statement and your interpretation of it. Why would Whitebeard tell his subordinates not to be intimidated by Garp because “he’s just an old man now” if this Garp was somehow equal to his prime? Why would Garp himself say that his throws had lost half their speed and strength, and that his attacks were weaker, if he were in any way equal to his prime? It’s the purest, clearest contradiction to the SBS you could possibly have, man.
![[No Name]](https://worstgen.alwaysdata.net/forum/data/avatars/o/8/8045.jpg?1622550034){kind=avatar}
