Here’s why I don’t like Kid and Law beating Big Mom
1. I have no reason to care about this fight.
For a villain who has been in the series as long as Big Mom has, who has the importance that Big Mom has, you’d think her final fight where she is defeated once and for all would be a well-built up affair that takes all her previously established plotlines and ties them up nicely.
Instead she’s fighting two people she has had next to nothing to do with. Look at Big Mom’s story up until now, what’s important? She’s got her grudge with Luffy that was built up from Fishman Island. That’s why she’s even on Wano, to get him after what he did on WCI. She’s also got reason to hold various grudges against his crew- Nami stole Zeus, Sanji screwed the wedding, Jinbei betrayed her, Brook embarrassed her. And with Sanji, we also have that he cooked her amazing cake, a plot very few liked, but was important.
What else when you think of Big Mom? The Giants and Mother Carmel. Very important in making her what she is in the present day, doesn’t have anything to do with Kid or Law. Her family, Germa 66, Capone, Struesen, her desire to have all the species of the world in harmony the same. Her relationship with Kaido, that is important, but they’ve split up right now. Where do Kid and Law fit into this? Where’s the thematic relevance? It’s a bare minimum of “old vs new” with characters that never actually interacted.
Then you can turn it the other way and look at Kid and Law. What’s important to them?
Kid has far more buildup with Kaido. Kaido crushed his fledging alliance. Kid’s two “allies”, Apoo and Hawkins, ended up on Kaido’s side. Kaido beat up Kid and put him in prison. He gave Killer over to Orochi who forced him to eat a SMILE. The two of them got tortured by Kaido’s man, Queen. We have an actual reason, that we have seen on-screen, to expect Kid to want to fight and beat Kaido.
He’s also got a stronger grudge against Shanks. Less seen, but we know he was aiming his alliance to take him down, and that someone in Shanks’s crew , if not Shanks himself, crippled him.
What’s his relationship with Big Mom? A couple of sank ships and an encounter with a SC. That’s it. We can pretend that this is great setup for the two to fight, but be honest, it isn’t. It’s like three panels worth spread out over hundreds of chapters, three panels that were never especially focused on or important. I don’t think Kid even commented on her being in Udon. His focus on the leadup to the rooftop was all on Kaido. On the rooftop, the two never especially focused on each other. Kid and Big Mom’s grudge has been an extremely minor, background plotpoint.
As for Law, there’s just zero buildup. Plain and simple. His grudge was against Doffy, he’s was setup in the alliance to go after Kaido, there’s nothing linking him to Big Mom other than that. She’s just a strong opponent that has been papped in his way to finding out more about the true history.
I just don’t think you can read One Piece, chapters 650-1010, and think “ah, this is obvious setup for Kid and Law to beat Big Mom.” It just isn’t. It doesn’t have anything to do with Big Mom’s role as a villain throughout the series, it’s just popping three expendable characters to the side because the main fight is with Kaido. It’s another example of Oda’s terrible treatment of Big Mom. Just seems like he wants to get rid of her and he’s thought “Law and Kid are popular, I’ll give her to them and at least fans will like it.” Not this fan, at any rate.
2. It makes her look terrible compared to WB/Kaido.
Pretty simple. What it took to take down WB?
Old age. Sickness. A betrayal by Squard. Fighting all three Admirals. Attacked by a horde of Marines. A decision to give his life to allow his men to escape. Being ganged up by eight of the Blackbeard Pirates, the evil counterpart to the Strawhats. Hundreds of bullet wounds, cannonball, stabbings, etc, etc, but no cowards wounds.
What is it taking to take down Kaido?
A plot going back hundreds of chapters to cripple his business. An ambush when he least expecting it. PTSD from Oden. The Nine Red Scabbards. The five leaders of the Next Gen. A fight with his daughter. Being bitten by adult Dragon Momo. Another fight with Luffy. Who knows what next.
What is it taking to take down Big Mom?
Just Kid and Law. Two characters entirely divorced from WCI and FI, where she was built up, and who were just two of the sixteen characters that have taken on Kaido. And nobody try to tell me that Marco or Jinbei/Robin hurt her prior to this, they didn’t.
Now, fair enough. I will say one thing. Law‘s powers are a good fit for fighting Big Mom. That, at least, makes sense, he is bypassing her freakish hard skin.
But that is offset by the fact that Kid somehow gave her critical damage by hitting her with some fucking metal beams.
Metal. Beams.
What the actual fuck? How does this compute with the iron balloon woman, basically impervious to most attacks? Why is this a matchup that is hurting Big Mom? Seriously, someone explain that to me.
It’s just an all-round bad fight, because Oda’s doesn’t want to spend any more real time on Big Mom.
