It’s not misdirection, it was just a poorly written finale to the fight.
Kanjuro, Ulti, Page One- enemies are starting to get beaten. All the other fights are (with the exception of Luffy and Zoro, the two heroes to make a dramatic comeback at the final hour) set-up. There’s really nothing to do now but get the fights over and done with.
1. Usopp and Page One. Again, poorly written end to the fight. But there was never the personal animosity between Usopp and Page One that existed between Nami and Ulti. Less time was spent on the fight. While Oda was giving double-spreads of Nami attacking Ulti, joint attacks with Franky, Nami bowing to defeat Ulti for beating up kids, Page One and Usopp was getting none of that. He might get up only to be immediately one-shot by Usopp, but it’s not especially necessary.
2. Agreed, it was shit. But it’s over. Look at how it flowed.
Nami- ”I need stronger lightning”
Nami- ”I will beat her”
Big Mom heavily weakens Ulti
Zeus- ”One more hit will finish her off”
Then Nami uses her one more hit of stronger lightning to beat her. That’s it, fight over. Bringing Ulti back now is just pointless
3. Ulti’s was Ulti Mortar, Page One is blatantly a punching bag that Oda doesn’t care about
4. It’s been made very clear that King and Queen are the strongest Beast Pirates. They might well go on to get some more hype, but that doesn’t mean that the Flying Six fights have to stagnate even further. Ulti being defeated is pretty irrelevant to this.
5. The deep Wano lore will either come from a Kaido flashback, in the fight with Kaido or as an exposition drop at the end of the arc. Again, no reason to delay the fights. The less important stuff can just be dealt with whenever necessary.
6. No they don’t. If they were going to play a significant role, they would actually have been significant in the arc so far. Only Big Mom and Perosepero will be relevant, that’s why they got to Onigashima and have actually had screentime.
7. The Marines aren’t coming to Wano, Oda’s kept telling us this. They are too wary of the strength of the samurai, Wano is not in the World Gov’s jurisdiction and the abolition of the Warlords plus whatever has happened with Sabo/Vivi is taking up all their manpower.
8. Probably. But that won’t delay the other fights. If anything Luffy’s next defeat can only happen once the other fights are done, so there’s someone else to hold off Kaido while Luffy recovers.
