The True Important Conflict of the Kaido Saga: Carrot vs Kaido

Hello again, everybody.

This post is about a realization that I had last night about not only Carrot's lack of screen time in the current raid and Kaido's lack of antagonist appeal. Note: this is not an essay about how the Wano arc is a well thought out story arc. This arc has many mistakes that I will elaborate on in the future. However, I noticed something about Kaido and Carrot as characters that they are characters that were driven by lack of fulfillment or flat out boredom which both have indirectly caused by each other. So, let's begin.

Carrot's life in Zou before the events of the story are being dripped to us so far instead of flat out told fully. I'm going to compile what we know from dialogue from other minks with Carrot, and some conversations she had with the Straw Hats. Wanda plays a mother/older sister surrogate for Carrot. The former's dialogue with the latter imply a similar relationship as Lilo and Nani from Lilo and Stitch. Carrot is well meaning but can be a ball of chaos. While Wanda cares for Carrot deeply, she tends keep the latter focused and under control. Pedro is the father/older brother surrogate and main mentor. Carrot brings up Pedro going adventuring off Zou (possibly Nox related) and her always wanted to go with him. Pedro sees Carrot's potential strength and ability to be an asset, but he still knows how childish and gun ho that she can be which can be a problem in a dangerous mission. We don't know how the Dogstorm and Cat Viper were when they ruled over the minks before Carrot was born. However, both of them act like mellowed out grandpas who let Carrot tag along because they used to be like her growing up. I especially got this vibe from Cat Viper during during the Perospero fight and Chapter 1043.

Moving to the Straw Hats, Chopper and Sanji act like older brothers which is a hard contrast to their relationships with most women in the series. Nami is the older sister type, but less by the book like Wanda. Brook is still Brook but tuned down enough that some of his panty antics with her are cut to ONE scene. Jimbei made enough of an impression on her that she joined the Straw Hats in a group hug during his return. Their skills overall helped the Thousand Sunny escape danger during Whole Cake Island. Luffy and Carrot are basically twins when it comes to personalities. He willing to share food with her (even if he didn't know that it was poisonous), paired up with her constantly in fillers since Zou, and on a name to name bases with her which even multi-arc companion Law is still nicknamed. Zoro and the other Dressrosa group haven't had stand out moments, but they show little to no problems with her. What I get from these interactions are that the Minks believe in her strength, but Carrot overall has to constantly show her worth to a culture of warriors. While with the Straw Hats, she has found some mutual friends that she can freely show off her abilities at the right time. Even with that, we need more info on her life before Pedro's tutelage and Jack's rampage to fill in some blanks.

Tama and Yamato also lived sheltered lives due to Kaido. However, they could have eventually took down Kaido in hindsight. In case of Yamato, she lives directly under Kaido. Her growing strength plus Kaido's aging would eventually lead her to defeating him with good timing. Tama has an ability that can literally cause Kaido's SMILE users to change sides. She could easily turn the tides in time as well. However, the minks (specifically Wanda and Pedro) seem to put Carrot on guard duty on Zou which oddly gave her a similar introduction to Usopp in the series. We aren't even sure that she was originally going to be part of the Kaido fight which goes into my next point.

Kaido is weird case when talking about his character. The bits that we get about his backstory imply some trauma which explains the drinking. Unfortunatly, his character seems to suffer from Jiren syndrome. Meaning, he is given droplets of actual character depth in the last minute while being a living wall in the way of story progression. Also, he's driven by plot instead of his own character which makes his mistakes unbelievable. Also, his relationships with King, Jack, Yamato, and Big Mom also interest me; however they only seem there to only help THEIR depth than Kaido himself. While wanting to be Joy Boy 2.0 brings Kaido depth too, this reincarnation stuff is leading the story to the path that hurted the other Big 3 Manga of the 2000s. Overall, Kaido's character is weakly written when he stands alone, and only here to improve other characters instead himself which goes to the main subject of my essay.

Ever since the raid started, I couldn't shake the feeling of why the Kaido and Carrot plot lines seem completely unrelated stories until Chapter 1043. Then, it hit me. Oda is purposely keeping these characters apart. Do I think this will lead to some crazy Carrot vs Kaido showdown? Maybe. Will Kaido win? Yes. Will Carrot go down while giving it her all? Yes. However, their fight isn't what I'm looking forward to, but their conversation. I brought up how Kaido indirectly caused to Carrot live the life of a 15 year old security guard up to current events. If Carrot didn't go with the Straw Hats to WCI, major players like Sanji and Jimbei most likely wouldn't be here as well as the others including Luffy. Again, we hardly know Carrot side of the Jack rampage on Zou however I can see this coming up if we get some argument between her and Kaido. These two could bring a lot to the table about strength and fullfilment that I am hopeful about. However, Oda's current missteps during this arc could make or break this potential. I'm sensing pure anti-thesis from these two characters that needs exploring and I hope gets touched on before Luffy's awakening.

I like to thank you all for reading this realization or theory of mine. I don't think this interaction will save this arc for reasons again that I will go over in the future. However, we have the potentially the most nuanced conflict in the One Piece franchise to date. And I for one can't wait to see it. Good evening and Peace.