Luffy’s battle with Kaido is even mirroring him and Crocodile:
Round 1 – Luffy gets clapped and bit off more than he could chew.
Round 2 – Luffy figures out how to damage them (water to beat Logia, Advanced Conqueror’s Haki against Kaido) but ultimately comes short at the end. The battle ends with the Emperor/Warlord dropping them off of height as he is knocked out (further paralleled by him being drained of all water and dropped into a desert by Crocodile and him being drained of Haki and dropped into the water off of Onigashima against Kaido).
Round 3 – Luffy knows what it takes to win, recovers in typical Luffy fashion (Luffy takes a nap before going into the Mausoleum, Luffy gets fed meat by the Heart Pirates) and goes on to defeat him.
Not to mention Luffy is challenging Kaido as the “Fifth Emperor” similar to how he told Crocodile he was the “8th Warlord”.
Other small details in the raid as well:
- We see Usopp get his skull cracked X-Ray style by Ulti – just like we saw in Chapter 186 by Mr. 4.
- Onigashima announces Luffy’s “defeat” to lower morale – just as it happened in Alabasta. Both times Chopper was sad and Sanji told him not to belive that crap – just as he did in Alabsta when Miss Merry Christmas did the same.
