I think we’ve reached the point in Kaido’s characterisation where we can piece together some of his prominent traits, both good and bad.
Kaido says he admires the Way of the Samurai and sees death as the completion of a man.
It’s assumed his admiration for the way of the samurai, Bushido, includes the death practices in it. Such as Seppuku or 1v1 honorable duels or death in grand battles immortalising a Samurai’s legacy.
Kaido is introduced trying to commit suicide so you could say it’s Seppuku. He’s applauded as the undisputed king of “1v1 battles”. And he’s obsessed with going out in a blaze of glory in a a great world war.
So Kaido is Japanophile weeb right? No. He’s wrong. Because of course he is. He’s the villain. He’s supposed to be wrong. Oden and the Vassals follow Bushido so their enemy can’t also be following Bushido or else we would have a way more complicated conflict.
Kaido romanticises the final part of Bushido, the dying, without caring about everything else. He doesn’t care about honor, or justice or self mastery or self discipline (I means he’s an alcoholic for god sake), or meditation and everything else that makes Bushido an entire life philosophy and NOT just a death code.
Kaido is the equivalent of the guy who reads about Musashi Miyamoto and his legendary duels and his fame thousands of years after his death and doesn’t recognise that Miyamoto had a whole life outside of just the legends and his immortality after death. And that whole life is also encompassed by Bushido. It’s an entire life philosophy and Kaido only sees the death part because it supposedly cements everlasting legacy.
So we see Kaido wanting a Roger like legacy without actually putting in the leg work to be like Roger. This latest chapter makes it even more clear, Kaido probably literally CANNOT do it.
Kaido was denied a big honorable 1v1 duel against Oden when Higarashi interfered and Kaido 20 years ago was too scared to try fighting Oden again so he executed him. Now though he’s entirely full of regret because he believes there cannot be a more worthy enemy to have died to than Oden (including the Emperors).
