I've been thinking a lot about these matchups and what we potentially have. Big Mom only has truly 4 powerful executives on her ship atm (Compote, Snack, Daifuku and Smoothie), since Oven, Cracker and Katakuri are not here. Factor in Perospero, she technically has 5 executives here. Funny enough if you mirror her crew and Kaido's you are left with 8 executives each (F5 and 3 Calamities, 4 Veteran Executives and 4 Sweet Commanders).
So what's interesting right now is this is what is current:
- Luffy vs Kaido
- Kid vs Big Mom (assumed to continue due to BM looking for Kid specifically and vice versa)
- Jinbe vs WsW
- Franky vs Sasaki
- Brook/Robin vs Black Maria
- Nami/Usopp vs Ulti (allegedly if P1 is down or is being reserved for Chopper)
- Drake vs Apoo
- Killer vs Hawkins
Imo, I still don't expect Hawkins and Apoo to stay on the bad side. I believe something, on typical Oda fashion, will push them to the protagonist side eventually as they are important characters as WG pirates. Now, while this does at least keep 4 WG pirates distracted atm, you have to wonder where it's all leading to in the end. Apoo and Hawkins are not BP Executives and the fight below has always been about taking them out. But one thing that's always thrown me off after all this is Laws role. Every other WG pirate except Law and Zoro are distracted right now, but what if not for long?
What if Big Mom's executives actually DO arrive and some major event causes Hawkins and Apoo to switch sides? You see, Kid is distracted with Big Mom, but what if her 4 additional executives, plus Pero, all factor into the final fights? Obviously notwithstanding that it very likely won't happen, but 5 executives for the 5 Supernova outside of Zoro?
Then factor in the idea that Kaido's 3 Calamities are being reserved for Zoro, Sanji and Yamato (assuming Marco and Inu won't continue to fight them), its almost scary how the potential may work for these fights hypothetically:
Yonko:
- Luffy vs Kaido
- Kid vs Big Mom
YC's:
- Zoro vs King
- Sanji vs Queen
- Yamato vs Jack
- Law vs Smoothie
- Killer vs Snack
Veteran Executives:
- Jinbe vs Whos Who
- Franky vs Sasaki
- Drake vs Perospero
- Apoo vs Compote
- Hawkins vs Daifuku
- Brook/Robin vs Black Maria
- Usopp/Nami vs Ulti
- Chopper vs Page 1
With this, it's a very simple pirate vs pirate dynamic. It's also just pretty fucking clean in terms of the major players around and who's left. Numbers and Orochi's side are virtually fodder. Kanjuro and Fuku may have big moments but albeit separate from the Yonko battles now.
Again, I dont expect this to happen, just want it to. It's a nice way to fundamentally tie up both Yonko (even if BM plays a role at Elbaf) and provide a meaningful end to them. It also just gives everyone important something to do.
Idk, I'm still hoping that's Perospero's play, that he pulls Mont d'Or's book or something and the Canter appears out of nowhere, or the crew waiting at mainland Wano for the island to land.
If not, I STILL think the Beast Pirate executives are definitely Strawhat centric, but it does make it tougher to know what Law will do. Maybe he tags BM with Kid in that case, no idea.