- In case anybody missed it, the G5 King Kong Gun was more of a G5 Red Roc. Luffy started the battle in 1000 with a flaming punch, ends up overpowering Kaido with another flaming punch. Just like Ace melted Kaido's statue and also destroyed the left horn. This little fire lizard challenged the Sun God and got burned. The 5th Wisdom King Fudo Myoo Luffy (as likened by Hyogoro) delivers hell and Kaido's body is sent steaming all the way down the abyss.
- Higurashi escaping Wano and surviving Rocks. Controlling Orochi, luring Kaido to Wano and helping defeat Oden. Definite MVP of the anti-Wano forces. She has Semimamru so I'm not entertaining any sick Yamato's mom theories.
All these parallels between Big Mom and Kaido are cute.
- Both are powerful natural born monsters.
- Both are ready to be sold to the WG by their care takers.
- Both had severe hunger problems as children: Kaido gave up his freedom to eat, Big Mom rampaged.
- Big Mom created Tottoland, land of plenty. Kaido created modern Wano, land of starvation.
- Both had their twisted visions of changing the world and creating equality based on their childhood experiences. Dark mirrors of Joy Boy produced by the corrupt and unjust political environment of the world.
- Both condemned to a humiliating defeat down a hole.
Would love to know why Kaido gave up on his Big Sis and went his own way.
Luffy expressing the grand ambition to change the world around him. He is finally ready to inherit Joy Boy's almighty will. What a great development to follow Gear 5. You just know Kaido popped this question checking to see if Luffy was the man he was waiting for, and boy was he shocked to hear a powerful response he as a child who faced hunger issues could personally relate to.
It is unbelievable how deep the rabbit hole goes. The promise Luffy made with Tama, and by extension Ace who first came to Wano to feed her 4 years ago. Luffy sees something special in Zoro as he eats Rika's ruined rice balls of the dirt. Sanji feeds his enemies Gin and Big Mom, and yet Luffy says he couldn't be Pirate King without him. Yamato crying hearing Luffy's secret dream when her flashback was being tied in a cave left famished as the three Daimyo share their rice. Momo who ate his dragon DF because he was dying of hunger. Luffy saving Dressrosa because Rebecca fed him. Big Mom who turned against the Beast Pirates to repay Tama for the Oshiruko. Luffy throwing the first punch of Onigashima because food was being wasted, etc.
There is no doubt in my mind this idea has been with Luffy his entire life, since back when ASL were stealing meals in Goa Kingdom. It's not something he came up with in Wano but much more and certainly connected to his and Roger's secret.
I just want to say what a beautiful (potential) end this is for Kaido. The man who challenged the Yonko and Navy and planned the greatest war ever to achieve a glorious death like Roger, Whitebeard and Oden gets no death and only infamy. He goes down like a tree in the woods that no one is around to hear. The civilians in the Fire Festival continue partying. The armies in Onigashima don't know what's happening outside the skull. Momo and Yamato are focused on their own problems. Yamato has three reactions this chapter and all have to do with Momo and the flame clouds, not a single thought spared for her father/her oppressor.
CP0 has given up before Kaido goes down and they won't be looking behind. The incredible disrespect.
Kaido is defeated not to a roaring crowd or a stunned populace, but in complete solitude. If no one is there to watch it, no one is there to care, no one will remember Yonko Kaido's final moments. They won't even see his defeated body as proof for Kaido has been banished into a bottomless abyss. Kaido has become a mere afterthought for the people of Wano. He joins his compatriot Big Mom, the loudest woman in the world, who met her end in a silent nuking and his former Captain Rocks, whose death is a mystery, details of his final stand and who did the deed largely forgotten, and his legend erased from the history books. Kaido's end is pure and utter humiliation.