So remember when Shanks and Kaido supposedly clashed in the New World before the start of Marineford War because Kaido wanted to intercept Whitebeard?
There’s been tons of theories created about what happened during that encounter because it’s a rather significant encounter that was offscreen by Oda with no explanation to us as to why.
Here’s my theory for what could have turned Kaido off on going after Whitebeard.
I think the way Shanks intercepted Kaido was by reminding him that going after Whitebeard would allow Shanks to go to Wano.
- Why would Shanks want to go to Wano?
Well, why wouldn’t he? We already know the connection Kozuki Oden had with all of Roger Pirates crew and Shanks must know that Kaido has been camping there for a period of time. What better opportunity is there for Shanks to finally go see the birthplace of his friend Kozuki Oden than when Kaido decides to leave the place to fight Whitebeard? Of course he would take that chance. And that alone must’ve deterred Kaido from leaving/going after Whitebeard.
- Why would Shanks going to Wano be a problem for Kaido tho?
We already know Kaido took over Wano long before Shanks was a Yonko, and has probably been keeping it as his home base for his crew for a very long time. He obviously would have left the place a couple of times himself, considering what we know about his suicidal story and also with him being the Yonko with the highest bounty currently living. I don’t think he acquired that kind of bounty before he took over Wano and hasn’t seen his bounty increase since then…
Anyhow, according to last page of chapter 1016, Kaido clearly sees Wano as a special place and according to him, he didn’t choose it out of nowhere. Kaido clearly knows something about Wano that we (the readers) don’t (hopefully not for long).
Even Sengoku asked the question; why would all these big name pirates be involved with Wano?
I believe Wano is too special for Kaido to just leave for Shanks to take while he is off struggling against Whitebeard, since we all know he wouldn’t be able to take back Wano from Shanks after a battle like that. At the off-chance he manages to survive the beating that him and his crew would get from the Whitebeard Pirates and their allied crews, he wouldn’t stand a chance against Shanks (or Big Mom for that matter, if she was interested in putting him out of his misery).
It makes sense and would finally give us an explanation as to what happened during that encounter. I refuse to believe they fought and (or even worse, they just had a chat and drank booze together after) and ended it there. There had to be something bigger at play that can’t be revealed to us just yet or else Oda would have told us what happened by now.
*by soyakii
