2. Why Wano?
This is more or less an extension to the above point but no less important.
Now that you’ve read everything there is about Kaido’s association with Joy Boy, it comes to no surprise his dialogues highlighting Wano’s importance make it appear more special than the reasons we already know of – natural fortress, difficult to reach, strong samurai etc…
This notion also falls in line with the few instances where Oden has thought of opening Wano’s borders to welcome Joy Boy
Now it’d be fascinating to see how and why Kaido made an informed decision of taking hold of Wano for himself. Well there’s obviously the mouthwatering prospect of using it as an impenetrable fortress for his supposed “final war” (more on that later), but there “are no simple answers to simple questions!!!” according to the man himself.
There are still things of paramount importance pertaining to Wano’s relevance in the story like it being a part of the Ancient Kingdom, having stone-smiths who crafted the Poneglyphs in the form of Kozuki clan, the source of sea stone etc…
It’s also no surprise that Sengoku was being coy while highlighting Wano as a unique destination in Chapter 957:
Suffices to say that Wano also wants to tell us a tale (or give us a glimpse) of its magnificent past (800 years ago) which perhaps involved a lot of important players and other extremely important story elements (which are going to be relevant in the final saga)through its own lens.
Now WHAT made Kaido go there is perhaps something that’ll kickstart this story waiting to be told (partially or in its entirety) either through him or later, from Zunisha.
Again this would not expose everything there is to know about the Void Century, but just give us a POV only through Wano’s lens and Kaido seems pivotal in that aspect.
3. Concept of death and betrayal/trust ideation
Now one might argue that these character traits needn’t be cultivated through first hand experiences and are just an inherent part of Kaido’s character. I agree, BUT you have to remember that Wano is the culmination of Kaido’s character arc and Oda lays bare everything there is to show for that character in those instances, especially his ideals on pirates betraying each other.
There have been many instances of Kaido expressing his ideals on trust betrayals and looking at the above panels, you cannot convince me that this isn’t classic Oda constantly nudging us to prepare ourselves a sob story (of sorts).
All of this should have happened before the entire Kaido vs Oden saga, Kaido kept mocking Oden for being a gullible fool who was now going to pay for his mistakes. Hmmm Kaido are you sure you aren’t projecting some of your first hand experiences here?
Difficult to pinpoint where all of this started – the God Valley incident? Some bitter experience with Yamato’s mom? A dark episode with HUMANS in general? Only time will tell.
Again Kaido’s infatuation with dying could just be the much speculated point that he intends to leave his own mark in history similar to the likes of Roger, Whitebeard and Oden. There could be no more to this.
But his character introduction is perhaps one of the most compelling one in the entire series (perhaps besides Blackbeard) and makes you think if the concept of “death” in the series would be a more nuanced theme like the one’s set up with dreams and free will through Blackbeard’s introduction and the entirety of Jaya and Skypiea.
It also feels like Kaido has a very philosophical stance on all of this given the way he spoke about it in Chapter 994. So I wouldn’t be surprised if this ideation stems from a key moment in his life too.
