 Luffy vs Kaido will be the best fight in One Piece to date. Warning, this video will contain spoilers up to chapter 1044. You've been warned! Hello Manaka Mataji, this is Joygirl, and I want to talk about the brilliance of Luffy vs Kaido. But before we do so, please subscribe to my channel because doing so will make me feel brilliant. And that's a nice thing to do for somebody, so I'll think that you're brilliant. Plus, you'll also get regular One Piece discussions, so really, there's nothing to lose. Okay, anyways, the brilliance of Luffy vs Kaido. So after another knockout at the hands of Kaido, this last time which seemed to have momentarily killed Luffy, allowing him to awaken the true nature of his devil fruit powers, Luffy is now back up, and we are now witnessing the fight between the Yonko and the Young Challenger once again. And I have to say, this came as somewhat of a surprise to me. I would have expected the time between us seeing Luffy go down to when we witnessed his triumphant return to be a little bit longer. In fact, under normal circumstances, that's probably what we would have gotten. I'm probably not the only one who is expecting Luffy's defeat to be dragged on a little longer, at least a couple chapters to really see Kaido rampaging through Onigashima. You know, really drawing out the tension and upping the stakes to really hype up Luffy's return. But something that's become quite apparent, especially at this point in the raid, is that Oda seems to be moving a lot faster now. He's really progressing with his story, which is understandable and I'm not complaining. The amount of hype that we're currently witnessing certainly makes up for the speed at which we're progressing. And though complaints could and have been made by some people that Oda isn't paying enough time or attention to some moments, Wano has been an arc that has gone on for almost four years, and we are now finally at the climax. And now in some ways, with the amount of lore and mysteries we're seeing revealed, it also feels like we're inching closer and closer to the climax of the entire series. We are currently experiencing reveals that will really bring us to the end game of the series. But before we get there, we still have what seemed to be the insurmountable task of defeating Kaido. And this is the brilliance of this battle, the brilliance of Luffy versus Kaido. For me, the beauty of One Piece fights is that the combat action, while no less extremely enjoyable and exciting to watch, in a great way, the physical fighting can still be viewed as being secondary to the conflicting ideologies that are being battled by the opponents. And the most prominent example, the most obvious ideology, is that of Luffy and his fight for total freedom. Luffy's dream is to be the freest man in the world. And it just so happens that this is what he thinks being Pirate King means. His goal of becoming the Pirate King, which we were introduced to all the way back in chapter one, isn't motivated by the status or the fame or title of being the Pirate King. It's because this is how he sees he will achieve complete freedom. Luffy's love for freedom and his desire to experience it is so great that when freedom is being challenged in front of him, even when it doesn't concern his own, he will stop at nothing to make sure that he is able to extend that freedom to others as well. And this has been a central element in every arc against every major antagonist. This is how Luffy's battles are always framed. Luffy versus Arlong was the battle to free Nami and the Kokoyashi village. Luffy versus Crocodile had been a battle to end Alabaster's drought, which had enslaved everyone under a false sense of insecurity. Luffy versus Anel was the free Skypeer from the shackles of a false god. Luffy versus Luchi was a battle to free Robin from her past and her demons. Whereas Luffy versus Dothlamingo was to free the citizens of Dressrosa from quite the literal, but also the metaphorical, string of lies. And Luffy infiltrated Holkek Island so that he could take Sanji back to the place where he knew Sanji wanted most to be at and where he could be the most free. The recurring theme in essentially every one piece arc is an antagonistic, powerful force who holds someone or multiple someone's hostage, and Luffy's quest in that arc is to liberate those who are oppressed. And because of the repetition of this theme, time and time again, is the reason why I think that Luffy versus Kaido will be the best battle to date. The very interesting thing about Luffy versus Kaido is that this battle will be too pronged when looked at through the eyes of freedom. Luffy's eventual ultimate victory over Kaido will not only mean freeing Wano, Luffy will also be freeing Kaido from his search for Joy Boy. But what does that even mean and why is that important? Something that's become progressively clearer through the raid is Kaido's deep knowledge of the lore and the mysteries of the world of One Piece, especially as it concerns Joy Boy. And I have discussed this topic in depth before, so make sure to check out all the details because they are still relevant. But put simply, based on the comments that he's made to Yamato about the Oni race and based on the flashback that we saw through King, it's likely that Kaido had a negative experience when it comes to different races or species and perhaps he and his Oni race were discriminated against because of it. We know that he at least knows of Joy Boy and it's even hinted that he's actually waiting for Joy Boy when you consider his comment to Luffy that you couldn't be Joy Boy either and that actually may be the purpose of him setting base at Wano because we do know that he's here for a specific reason. Because he's in search for something that he couldn't find within himself. The warrior to liberate all. Because going back to King's flashback, the glimpse that we got of the younger Kaido presents an extremely different individual. One who almost resembles Luffy in terms of bright eyes and wide grinning mouth. In terms of actions, he even played the role of a liberator freeing King. So seeing him in his current state now, it's almost as if we're witnessing the dark timeline Kaido that Oda likes to draw of his character so much. Except of course that this dark timeline Kaido is actually our current present Kaido and not just an alternate reality. So much of what we have so far really suggests that somewhere along the way Kaido became the failed Joy Boy and this has become even clearer to us as a result of the reveal of Luffy's true devil fruit name and its nature. The hito hito no mi model Nika where Nika can be translated to grin or smile and Luffy's now moniker as Joy Boy or Nika being the warrior of liberation there's almost a cruel juxtaposition to Kaido. Kaido who started off liberating those who were oppressed became the oppressor and not just those at Wano but also those who were his previous opponents that he defeated and annexed into part of his own crew and the icing on the cake his artificial smile devil fruits. The name that Oda chose for this man-made devil fruit seemed to be just an irony at first. I thought it was just to showcase the twisted cruelty of robbing people of their emotions and their expressions to cause uncontrollable laughing and smiling despite their true feelings. The fact that to the best of our knowledge this was just a side effect and although Kaido was the one to blame for having commissioned Caesar Clown to create them the one to really blame was Orochi because it was Orochi who knowingly fed the people of Wano these devil fruits subjecting them to this torture of a mere appearance of happiness regardless of their tragic reality. But now knowing Luffy's devil fruit its true name, its meaning, its nature its role in liberating people through happiness and witnessing Luffy's non-stop laughter it paints a much darker image of the smile devil fruits. Almost as if Kaido created these devil fruits with the intent of creating this fake smiling expression and this fake laughter and rather than liberating those who consume the fruits Kaido forcefully enslaved them to this torture. In a sense Kaido did what Joy Boy was meant to do bring laughter to the people just in his own very sadistic way and yet as dark and as evil as this is Kaido is obviously not just a one-dimensional character there is a deep backstory lurking there one that's going to explain his actions even if they don't justify them but one that will convey his tragic tale nonetheless and we can see the glimpses of his tragedy already his depression, his alcoholism his disappointment in having not found a Joy Boy yet his perpetual search for Joy Boy perhaps at not himself being Joy Boy but then the one that's going to complete Kaido's tale and liberate him from his tragedy will be Luffy. We have seen battles where Luffy liberates the oppressed from the oppressor with Katakuri we even saw a battle where Luffy liberates an individual from themselves but this this will be the first fight where we witness Luffy liberate both the oppressed and the oppressor all at once it will be the fight that will truly cement Luffy as being worthy of his devil fruit it'll be the battle where Luffy really steps into his title and his role as the warrior of liberation and the satisfying and hyperaction that will be the sweet sweet cherry on top but now that you've heard my thoughts let me know yours by leaving a comment below don't forget to like and share the video please do subscribe if you'd like more One Piece discussions you can also join our Joyfleet Discord server or even become a Patreon member and I want to thank all my patrons for help supporting the channel this is Joygirl and I'll see you again soon