- [Narrator] Now there's this unfortunately common idea
floating around out there
that Kaido just stopped and flung himself off the Sky Island
in order to see if he could end his own life.
I'm really sick of hearing this,
it is blatantly not true
and it is clearly shown in both the manga and the anime
that Kaido jumped off the Sky Island
in order to vary dramatically and quite literally smash
the subscribe button for the Grandline review.
Which has now resulted
in Kaido receiving regular One Piece content
uploaded straight into his YouTube feed.
Hello and welcome to the Grandline review,
your source for everything One Piece
and today I would like to attempt, perhaps poorly,
to peer into the not so distant future of the series
to discuss how the events of Wano
are almost certainly
going to radically reshape everything we know,
especially in regards to the Yonko, aka the four Emperor's,
aka the five Emperor's including Luffy.
But before we get started,
I just wanted to say that for you anime only watchers,
so long as you aren't caught up with the anime
there will be no spoilers in this video.
I will be addressing primarily vague concepts
with information that you already have.
And if something else comes up,
I will make sure to provide the appropriate spoiler warning.
However, what I will be primarily referring to
when using as a launching point
is the core piece of information we now have in the anime,
which is the presence of Big Mom in Wano.
Now, this was something that was heavily hinted at
during the events of the reverie
that this narratively
puts One Piece in a very interesting place.
Because as many of you may have picked up on by now,
or not, just about every single arc in the New World era
has been building towards the inevitable defeat
of Big Mom and Kaido.
It's been an awfully, awfully long journey,
but we are now at the stage where incredibly enough
the downfall of these two arguably
strongest living beings in the entire world
is within sight.
I don't know how they're going to be beaten,
and for the sake of this video,
that's not important.
I mean, that is Oda's problem to solve,
but what we do know
is that Wano looks like it is going to act as the climax
of the last decade of storytelling,
and one way or another I guarantee you
that this is where we wrap up Big Mom and Kaido.
In much the same way that Marineford
was the climax of the Pre Timeskip era,
which was also marked
by the defeat of an emperor being Whitebeard,
and we all know how the world radically changed
as a result of that.
But we are now in a situation
where the stakes are far far higher.
We are talking about the potential dismissal
of two Emperors,
which means that after Wano
the world is going to be completely unrecognizable.
Even without Timeskip
things are going to be very different,
and in fact, it even calls the integrity
of the entire Emperor system into question.
So take Luffy out of the equation for now
because I'm sick of having the debate about him
being an emperor and all that,
but setting him aside,
this is half of the four emperors
being removed from relevance.
Which not only destroys
the balance of power in the New World
but also the entire planet at large.
And this is because for the entire run of One Piece
as we have known it,
there has existed a great balance of power in this world,
which was a bit of a three-way affair.
You have the world government, the seven warlords,
and the four emperors.
And somehow these powers produced a perfect stalemate,
and it's weird to say it,
but a certain level of I guess peace
within the One Piece world.
However, with the capacity of the emperors halved,
this creates a supreme imbalance
because I highly doubt the Blackbeard and Shanks
would be able to rule
the entirety of the New World on their own.
So this very much would open the floodgates to the Marines
to expand into this territory
which has been flagged as the goal of fleet admiral Sakazuki
ever since he was promoted to top dog
from his former position of red dog.
Now Margaritas will know that this idea is not as simple
as I made it sound
because the situation has developed
regarding the Warlords as well.
However, I don't believe this changes the outcome
I'm proposing too much.
Because the way I see things
One Piece is a story in three parts.
Part One, the pre Timeskip stuff
had a meta focus on the old guard of the world.
The remnants of the Roger error of pirates, if you will,
and that's succinctly ended with the death of Whitebeard.
And that was for the post Timeskip so far,
this has focused on that middling generation,
the big moms, the Kaidos and even the Shanks of the world
who were all around in Rogers time
but they will either apprentice pirates
or just hadn't fully matured
into the positions they hold now.
And as for the third part,
well, that would be the most recent generation,
Luffy's generation to be precise,
which does of course consist about fun supernovas
as well as Blackbeard and Marines like Coby and Smoker,
and how they will inevitably clash
to determine the future of the world
and of course have Luffy become the Pirate King.
So with this in mind,
we have two main options that I would like to explore
following the fall of the middle generation.
One of which is that the Emperor System does continue
albeit with new members
and the other is that the Emperor System
is dissolved completely.
Starting with the former though,
taking down Big Mom and Kaido
does create the largest power vacuum
that we would have ever seen in the series,
but I suppose it is not impossible for that to be filled
and establish a new sense of balance.
For example, Luffy would emerge
to be a natural candidate as a co-emperor
rather than being referred to as the fifth emperor,
and in fact, whether he likes it or not
Luffy's actions on Wano
are going to earn him quite possibly more notoriety
than any other single character in the series
par Gol D. Roger himself.
Because I mean, how many people can say
that they were instrumental
in defeating two emperors at the same time.
And regardless of how that plays out,
we know how the media will portray these events.
Once again, the mastermind Monkey D. Luffy
has pulled off an impossibly clever plot
and done the unthinkable,
this time making subordinates of Eustass Kidd,
Basil, Hawkins, Diez, Drake, and all that kind of stuff,
the same sort of fluff
that happened after Whole Cake Island.
And no of that is not a spoiler,
it's just pure speculation at this stage
that Hawkins and Drake will join the fun.
But for anyone who argues that this sort of media portrayal
will not happen because Wano is isolated,
do not forget the CP-0 has a presence on Wano,
as do the Marines actually for some spoiler related reasons.
So the events of Wano are not going to go unnoticed,
and if any of this does get back to Big News Morgans,
and it will,
then he is going to publish
the most sensationalist article about Luffy imaginable
and he will solidify his position in this world
as everyone else's is thrown into pure chaos.
But even adding Luffy properly into the mix
only makes three.
So for this whole rebalancing thing to work,
we probably do need another emperor.
And the very natural choice for that role
might be the aforementioned Eustass Kid.
Of all of the Worst Generation members
he is the one most similar to Luffy,
or at least in my opinion anyway,
and in fact, he was the most notorious of the bunch
when this group is first and formally formed
way back on Sabaody.
Although that is primarily because of his sheer brutality,
but hey, commanding fear is what has sustained
Big Mom and Kaido,
so why not give Mr. Kid a shot.
And in theory, he would also be credited
with assisting in the defeat of two former Emperor's,
so it would not surprise me at all
if he developed quite the following as well.
And the reason why I single out Kid
is almost purely because of narrative reasoning.
There are plenty of Worst Generation members present,
I just don't feel like any of them
are better technically positioned
to take on such a mountain.
Like say Law for example,
he's an officially reported ally of Luffy,
so anyone who wanted to flock to Law
would naturally see Luffy as their leader as well.
So there's no real point in splitting that faction.
Then there are characters like Hawkins who are dangerous
but have been established
as lacking that same level of ambition
as the Kid-Luffy class.
No matter how I look at it,
Kid is the natural choice in this pool of characters,
but that doesn't mean that someone else can spring up.
And another example here might be say, Katakuri.
He is a logical natural choice for me
because in the event the Big Mom is defeated,
he is very much next in line
to lead the entirety of her forces
and they would fall behind him rather rapidly
because of all of the people in that massive crew,
he commands the utmost respect,
despite what Perospero would like to believe.
So the emperor-related infrastructure
is already that the Katakuri
to more or less inherit that role,
assuming Big Mom's forces aren't completely destroyed.
But I do think they have a much better chance
of enduring say the Beast Pirates too
because their home base is Wano
and that is going to be taken from them.
Meanwhile, Totto Land is a set of colonies
settled by the Big Mom pirates,
so they don't have to worry about
losing their home territory unless someone like Blackbeard
uses this opportunity to invade it
and perhaps even cease say [Indistinct] Poignee Griffe,
it's definitely not out of the question.
And very briefly though,
I suppose it is also theoretically possible
to have one of our Warlord figures
ascend into the position of Emperor.
Made if Mihawk so desired it,
all he'd have to do is gather a crew and bam, it's his.
He's a bit of a loner though, as is it with Weevil,
so actually to be completely honest,
I'd say the most likely of the Warlords
to become a future Emperor is Buggy.
And I want to emphasize that is not a joke.
Like I said, it isn't going to be Mihauwk or Weevil,
and certainly isn't going to be Kuma,
and let's be real, it's probably not gonna be Boa Hancock.
Whereas Buggy could hilariously enough
potentially develop a following large enough
that he follows that Luffy path to power,
just without the individual power of his own.
But all of that is making the grand assumption
that the emperor system actually survives past Wano
which I'm not at all certain it will.
The idea of emperor is such a standard feature
of the One Piece world
that you know it almost doesn't necessarily fit in
with the idea of a new age.
I mean, how can one truly revolutionize the world
by using the tools of the old guard.
And so given everything else
that is currently happening with the series,
I don't see why the Emperor System
won't just collapse in on itself
and the New World could become a free for all battleground.
Yeah Shanks and Blackbeard are still around,
but the Marines are now here in full force
and there is very little left to crush
the Worst Generation members,
each of whom could be causing
their own individual threads of anarchy.
But just on Shanks and Blackbeard briefly,
we really only one emperor's defeat away
from unquestionably removing the system.
And that emperor if it were to come down to it,
let's face it, would be Shanks.
My personal belief the last decade or so
has always been that Shanks
is going to be killed by Blackbeard,
I just feel it in my whole One Piece soul
that they have been continuously set up to be major players
in each other's stories.
Whether it's the scar Blackbeard gave Shanks
or the warning Shanks attempted to give Whitebeard
about pursuing Blackbeard or even the ever ominous statement
made by Blackbeard on Marineford
that it was not yet time to find the Red Hair Pirates,
yet being the operative word.
So who knows maybe we will come out of Wano
to find ourselves in a state
where while Luffy was dealing with Big Mom and Kaido,
Blackbeard has managed to deal with Shanks.
And you see that would be a proper removal of the old guard
and it would give rise to an idea that greatly excites me,
which is that with nobody else left to claim power,
the members of the Worst Generation inherit the New World,
which of course includes Blackbeard.
But instead of the four emperors
this palette is carved up between them.
With each competing faction aiming directly for the goal
of becoming the next Pirate King.
And that would be the story
of how Luffy's generation rose up
all the way from rookie level
to becoming genuine pains in the ass
and then finally,
to the most notorious figures alive.
Once they could also be given a new collective name,
kind of like how they were the supernovas pre Timeskip
and then became the Worst Generation post Timeskip.
As a patent of gradually getting more respect
of the world in play,
so with nobody else to oppose them,
they could just be called the world's Most fearsome
or the world's most powerful
or something much better than that.
Look, there is very good reason why I don't write One Piece
and coming up with names is one of them.
But I do very much feel like
this is the natural trajectory of the series.
One Piece is a very generational focus story,
and the only thing we really have left to do after Wano
is focus on the Worst Generation members
properly stepping into power
and becoming the figures revered by the next few generations
in the exact same way that Roger rose from nothing
to become the Pirate King
along with his contemporaries
like Whitebeard.
And the end of Wano
is going to be the perfect transition into this.
So as much as we still have
quite a long way to go
to when the Saki [Indistinct] in the Manga,
I could not be more excited
for what the future holds with One Piece
as we inch within a tantalizing grasp
of Luffy finally becoming the Pirate King.
What do you guys think?
Please do leave your thoughts in the comments below
or even join my Discord server.
And if you'd like to see more videos like this
please do go and check out some my other content
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into your YouTube feed.
But for now, this has been the Groundline review
and I'll see you next time.