The question isn't whether he needed it or not but, even if he did need it, why
1) didn't Whitebeard team up with Rayleigh and Gaban to avenge Oden and save Wano?
2) why did Oden treat it as an internal matter instead of calling his buddies Whitebeard, Rayleigh and Gaban for aid?
I mean, you can make a case for Kaido > Whitebeard (just as the vice versa case can be made), but Oden's statement isn't the defining factor by virtue of Oden being allies with both WB and the Roger pirates and it's not like WB and the Roger pirates were incapable of teaming up.
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The question isn't whether he needed it or not but, even if he did need it, why
1) didn't Whitebeard team up with Rayleigh and Gaban to avenge Oden and save Wano?
Well, the issue isn’t about us dying in hypotheticals or assumptions regarding why Whitebeard didn’t go crying and rushing to team up with Rayleigh and Gaban to solve a problem that was his own — since Oden was a member of his second division. Perhaps pride spoke louder.
However, the real point lies in the fact that, with the resources Whitebeard had, a war against Kaidou would have caused massive casualties, and even then, their victory was never assured at any point. Consequently, fearing a war with Kaidou, they avoided Wano for two whole decades and never set foot there again because of the potential conflict with him.
2) why did Oden treat it as an internal matter instead of calling his buddies Whitebeard, Rayleigh and Gaban for aid?
Well, I don’t know. Wano was self-sufficient in terms of military power. After all, as Kaidou himself said, if Oden had joined forces with Hyogoro and united all the samurai of the country, Kaidou would have had to fight against the entire nation — and according to him, it would have been a tough battle.
So, Oden
did have the manpower and resources necessary to face Kaidou. However, those resources were taken from him — with Hyogoro’s defiance and Kaidou killing part of his family and imprisoning him in Udon after defeating him in battle.
I mean, you can make a case for Kaido > Whitebeard (just as the vice versa case can be made), but Oden's statement isn't the defining factor by virtue of Oden being allies with both WB and the Roger pirates and it's not like WB and the Roger pirates were incapable of teaming up
Oden’s statement is a decisive factor when it comes to individual strength. After all, according to him, if
he failed to do it, that would mean there was no one in the entire world capable of doing it either. I believe that when characters say things like that, they aren’t considering possible alliances between X and Y — they’re referring to the power that exists
at that specific moment.
Yes, indeed. For the same reason, Kaido wanted to avoid Big Mom and her commanders entering Wano, because according to him, that would be a full scale war - even though later on, he fought Big Mom in Onigashima. So top tiers ducking conflict isn't necessarily admitting they are inferior, but that they are so close in power that a battle would drag for days and with a lot of causalites involved. That's why Kaido tried to go to Marineford but retreated as soon as Shanks interfered. Not because Shanks is stronger, but because he is strong enough.
Yes, indeed. For the same reason, Kaido wanted to avoid Big Mom and her commanders entering Wano, because according to him, that would be a full scale war
Well, I think you’re completely mistaken here. It was good that you corrected your first comment, which basically suggested that no one would have shown interest in going to Wano for two decades — pointing to Gaban and Green Bull — and that Kaidou’s presence was the main narrative reason preventing it. That argument gets completely undermined because it’s clear there
was interest from others.
To respond to you: the reason Kaidou didn’t launch a full-scale war against Big Mom — and the reason for his so-called “desperation” — wasn’t because of casualties, but because he wasn’t remotely prepared to face her.
Whitebeard’s case is more complicated because he avoided fighting Kaidou due to the damage a war against him would bring. But there are no wars without casualties, so in my view, that’s just an excuse. The fact that casualties are used to justify Whitebeard avoiding Kaidou only gives
more points to Kaidou — it just demonstrates how difficult it would be to take him down and how costly it would be for Whitebeard, eliminating any notion that Whitebeard and his crew were several levels above Kaidou.
So top tiers ducking conflict isn't necessarily admitting they are inferior, but that they are so close in power that a battle would drag for days and with a lot of causalites involved.
All of that would be reasonable
if the narrative — and Kaidou himself, together with Oden — weren’t explicitly saying that others were incapable. We could go along with your argument and agree with it if there were no such declarations.
But there
are statements like: “They are the only ones capable of taking down Kaidou,” “If I can’t defeat Kaidou, then no one else can,” and even Kaidou himself saying that he would only be defeated in the future by Joy Boy, and that no one in the world is able to beat him. So, I could agree with you if none of these existed — but they do exist, and that clearly counts as points in Kaidou’s favor.
That's why Kaido tried to go to Marineford but retreated as soon as Shanks interfered. Not because Shanks is stronger, but because he is strong enough.
Exactly — that’s why Kaidou challenged Shanks, fought him, and concluded that even he wouldn’t be able to defeat him. Whether Shanks likes it or not, in that brief skirmish with Kaidou, he proved he couldn’t win, even though the signs suggest he had the advantage in numbers.
All of this not only reinforces Kaidou’s superior image compared to everyone else, but the World Government itself also showed hesitation in invading Wano and feared Kaidou. There are simply
too many people afraid of Kaidou to reduce everything to the idea that the only reason no one confronted him was because of potential casualties among crews and organizations in a hypothetical battle.
