How would you become the King of Hell?
By becoming the strongest Demon in Hell. By beating every other Demon. I think Zoro trained with Ryuma and Oden in the timeskip, and kicked a bunch of demon ass to get stronger CoC.
I completely understand people being scared of the underworld gaining too much prominence in this series. But, as you've stated, it's definitely a big element of One Piece.
You had the devil summoners with Brook.
The Enma references.
Brooks already died, and is still alive, bless his heart... except he doesn't have a heart, YOHOHOHO
Then you have the spirit trees in Skypeia/Jaya. Tell me, what do you think about the parallels here? Noland destroyed the trees in Jaya, Big Mom destroyed the Spirit Tree in Onigashima. Coincidence?
The spirit trees of Jaya
The spirit tree of Onigashima/Wano
Artur's analysis of Chapter 990
I think Oden and friends are going to come back, somehow. Either for inspiration, or as some ghost army, Lord of the Rings Return of the King shit. Either way, Oda's doing something with these trees.
Hahaha, I love that you mentioned Cindry: her regaining consciousness is a bit part of my Zombie Kaido theory. Watching Kaido be forced to attack and attempt to kill Luffy/Joy Boy the man he was waiting for for decades, while still conscious as a Zombie would be so fucked up, perfect Blackbeard/Moria behavior.
It's so funny, I HATED MORIA during Thriller Bark, and now he's the character I'm most hyped for
:cheers: