I didn't expect the community to be divided right down the middle when I made the poll. How can anyone read this fight and not say it isn't some kind of asspull? Call a spade a spade.
It doesn't matter how weakened Kaido may or may not be though. If Kaido was severely weakened, Oda would have made that clear. After Ashura, he was still on his feet. Luffy gets KO'ed by Ragnarok, then immediately gets up and all of a sudden has a new power up right that moment? It's shonen bullshit. Roronoa went down after he got clapped up. I hate miraculous recoveries. If it was Roronoa miraculously reviving after Thunder Bagua I would have called that an asspull too. There's no reason at this point of the story for Luffy to be in base form going toe to toe with a Yonko in his 2nd form.
What training? A couple of panels in Udon? That's all it takes? Instead of dedicating so much time to these side characters, he should have given Luffy real training so that the reader can objectively look at the fight and not immediately think asspull. He throws a couple of punches in Udon and now all of sudden he's Yonko level in base form? He observed Kaido's abilities in his first fight and thats all it takes to power up to his level? He wasn't ready and shouldn't be ready to 1v1 him, especially in Hybrid. The entire roof fight should have been a group effort that they all eventually lose. Zoro and Law going down should have been the end of it. Then you do an actual training arc in the next Act and have another group battle for the 3rd fight. Luffy shouldn't be at the level of going 1 on 1 with a Yonko until after Wano ends.
Oda has set the expectations and the power levels of Yonko way too high to just do that. I understand he wants to end the manga soon but if that's the case then dedicate panel time to what matters. Nico Robin for example should be pivotal in Wano and to the story in general due to the poneglyphs but she has gotten nothing in Wano so far. Instead we're reading panels about Dibi Dangos, horrible Smile designs, and shitty Oden samurai.
Was this physical strength nullification explained anywhere though? Would it not be better to have Luffy train his time limits when in Gear mode after the roof battle is over and wrap that in Conquerors instead?
No single Supernova should be strong enough to go toe to toe with a Yonko right now. Even if we're just talking COC clashes, how is Kaido's COC not stronger than Luffy's? Luffy just learned it on the spot and it's enough to clash with Kaido's club multiple times in base form? Lol I love One Piece but this is garbage.
That's how it should have been. I understand that the eventual Kaido vs Luffy 1v1 has to come but not this early. Kaido vs Luffy in an equal battle is something you save for the final act or for post Wano. And yeah I know that Luffy will probably still be overwhelmed by Kaido eventually, but imagine if Kaido has to power up past hybrid to put down base Luffy. It would be so bad.
Kaido is having a good time atm, but if he has to struggle to defeat Luffy or power up past Hybrid then that's trash tier writing and completely kills all Yonko hype for the rest of the series.
Exactly. You can't hype Yonkos to this level and pull this kind of stuff. Like I said earlier, if he was in Snakeman form using COC I would be more accepting of this, but base form just cheapens everything, especially after taking Ragnarok in base. He shouldn't be able to get up from that. I know its shonen but come on. There are still lines you don't cross.
How?
The 1st club to the face was a Thunder Bagua. The 2nd club to the face was Ragnarok in Hybrid form. If he almost died from the first club, then how is it that he can miraculously recover from a stronger club? This isn't about setting expectations too high and imagining ideal scenarios as to how we want things to play out. It's about remaining consistent and not pulling shit out of your ass because you're in a rush to end the story. I am looking at this holistically and I'm looking at the big picture, and the way the fight is playing out doesn't make a lick of sense.
It’s an asspull from Kaido for simple reasons:
It was established that you cannot train your Conquerors Haki. And that you only get stronger with it and more effecient with it through your personal growth in the other area (ie... your armament and observation)...
We can clearly see that Luffy applied the same concept of flow from his Ryuu training in order to open the door for Conquerors haki.
Him accessing that area was facilitated by his mastery over Ryuu
and his observation haki is already among the top... meaning Luffy currently already having advanced version of all 3 haki types
thus it’s no surprise for him to imbue his attacks with conquerors haki, cause his growth in haki is through the roof...
kaido on the other hand, showed ZERO signs of observation Haki
Showed Zero sign that he knows Ryuu, in fact he was surprised that Scabbards could hurt him and didn’t know how their haki can do it...
he’s clueless about usage of flow/Ryuu
yet somehow the haki which cannot be trained or elevated unless you elevate the other two, he’s somehow asspulling his way to use Conquerors haki in advanced version
at least Luffy’s power ups are logical and follows the story logic, while Kaido’s powers are just everywhere in every place, when Oda wants him to have an ability, be it regeneration, hard skin, king’s haki or whatever, he just grants it with no consequences.... it’s the embodiment of BULLSHIT... same as Blackbeard breaking rules of One Piece by eating 2 DF just cause it’s hype, with no logic
So yeah, it’s asspull for Kaido not Luffy... and the only reason he gets a pass is because he’s not the MC and because he’s got title of Yonko which is the most wanked title by fans