everyone seems to be trashing on kid underperforming these days. i'm here to tell you that i am not jumping onto that bandwagon just because he's gone a few handfuls of chapters without any impressive showings. no, i was already on that bandwagon since all the way back in sabaody. i've always held luffy on an extremely high pedestal of a paragon of drive to the point of insanity and an unparalleled ability to accomplish the impossible. i never believed in this notion that any of his "rivals" in sabaody would ever be able to match his ability to single-handedly change the world and make an unbelievable splash, especially compared to someone like
blackbeard who was far more of a threat and interesting themetic contrast. kid, by comparison, was just some dude who managed to rack up a higher bounty because he brutalized civilians while luffy didn't. to me, if there was ever a purpose to kid's character, it was not that he was being set up to be another future emperor of the new generation alongside our big protagonsit, but just another character to showcase how short everyone else would inevitably fall compared to luffy's ability to singlehandedly change the world. kid recognizing luffy's insanity and willingness to do things that even he would never consider by punching a celestial dragon certainly helped to reinforce this expectation in my mind.
and despite that, i think it's obvious that there are still unplayed cards left in oda's hand for him. his prevalence in the arc is clearly no accident, he's clearly going to do
something that will showcase him as a notable threat and a worthwhile part of the arc's story. something big from him is definitely coming, even if i have my doubts about him being able to reach emperor-level notoriety by the end of this whole story as opposed to just being another footnote on history like capone bege did, ultimately important to the story's plot but still deeply overshadowed by luffy's greatness in the eyes of the world.
honestly i don't think he stands a chance against big mom and i really don't hope that this ends up being the final matchup for him. luffy defeating kaido and kid defeating big mom just feels like such an inelegant solution to this whole idea of "wow we have two emperors who need to fall and this kid guy really hasn't done much even though he feels like he should be important". there has been absolutely no build-up of a significant relationship or grudge between them, the fight holds no emotional weight, and seeing kid suddenly prove himself to be emperor level in combat after the story taking so little time to actually try and build him up to actually reaching and earning that point would just feel incredibly forced and anti-climactic. luffy has still called his shot against big mom and claimed he would be the one to defeat her all the way back in whole cake island, and after everything he went through with all of the insane struggles of that intense story, it would be a shame to see it essentially amount to nothing just to give kid something to do for basically just powerscaling reasons.
overall i had absolutely no idea how kid could ever be built up in the story as a notable and worthwhile threat in a way that would be satisfying and not just a drop-in-the-mud "oh he beat big mom that's cool i guess". then
mr. morj posted his theory video about the future of kid's character arc and i thought what the hell, i can subscribe to this idea. it's definitely pretty crazy but i think it would ultimately set up his character as a luffy-tier threat to the world in a way that feels genuinely natural and definitely feels like it'd allow him to live up to the hype that the story has been building for him rather than just my idea that his purpose is ultimately just to be another rookie set to fall short compared to luffy's accomplishments. it's hard to expect that this will definitively happen, but if it did i think it'd be extremely happy with his character arc coming from a guy who thought that any purpose he could have in the story compared to crashing and burning would be ultimately disappointing.