Oden VS Kaido VS Apathy [One Piece 970]

I’m gonna start with the positive, y’all: Oda’s very consistent with Oden’s behavior. And, that one-page spread with Oden cutting Kaido was great too. Hm, what else? Oh! The art was nice, no problems there. Let’s see… Umm, yep, that’s all I got for the positive.

Now, for the negative: Kokuki Oden is a consistent dumbass. Not a funny dumbass, a sad dumbass. The type of dumbass who may start as funny and cute, but after a while, you get tired of his crap and just want him to grow up or go away. He’s not an awful character, just a stupid one the author is desperately trying to mold into a hardcore badass. Welp, you got the ass part right, Oda. But, bad? Nah, dude. He’s a dumbass through and through.

Why? Why, Oden, would you believe the words of a man who most likely killed your father and tricked his way to the throne? Orochi is a consistent liar. LIAR! He lied about needing money, about you thinking of him as a brother, about your dead father wanting him to take the throne in your absence. He lied about everything! And, you’re just gonna believe him and his equally shitty business partner will uphold a bargain? *sigh* I’m so tired of you, Oden. So very very tired. I will give points to Oda for trying to make you a well-rounded character with flaws, but I… Just. Don’t. Care.

Shinobu was a total afterthought. The token-ist of a token female character. “Oh, hey! Let me help. Oh, no. We lost? Well, I’m out.” She was so unnecessary to the fight and clearly exists as exposition fodder for telling everyone exactly why Odan first submitted to Orochi. She’s the one I’m sad about, not Lord Loincloth.

So, is there a traitor among Oden’s vassals? I doubt it. Look, It’d be awesome if there was, at least from a storytelling perspective, but I don’t have faith Oda has the guts to do it. If there’s a traitor, it’s probably someone we don’t give a rat-rat fruit’s ass about or it’s a straight-up red herring and Kaido/Orochi had someone on the payroll spying on the good guys this whole time.

This was a…

I don’t know. I really don’t care enough to think about it. Bad, I guess? But, Oden is consistent so… But, then there’s Shinobu… You know what? I’ll just use a random word generator.

This was a…fluffy chapter. Very fluffy. I’m sure all the swords were soft and the bullets in all the guns were made out of consistent cotton. Yep, fluffy.

Ugh! I need an aspirin.