Many people have argued that the Citizens of Wano should’ve witnessed the fight between Luffy and Kaido. For some, the fact that they didn’t see the ongoing fight was even proof of Kaido getting back up for a final round in the Flower capital.
However, all of these people missed the whole point: the fight between Kaido and Luffy was SUPPOSED to be hidden and happen in secret. The citizens of Wano suffered for 20 years under the horrible rule of Kaido. On the night of the fire festival, a secret raid – notice the name – took place to take down Kaido. In this raid, 9 shadows participated. Several ninjas were even involved. It was a covert operation!
Oda has been going for this plot development from the very start: The goal was to surprise the downtrodden Wano residents by suddenly waking them up from their nightmare with the news of Kaido’s defeat. It was never meant to be this open, glorious battle for Wano in front of all the citizens. If someone missed it until this point, Law silencing Big Mom’s fall and the massive explosion was the most obvious hint.
So the citizens not witnessing Luffy vs Kaido was not an oversight, but actually planned from the very beginning. There’s also a philosophical message here: Whitebeard was an honorable Yonko who died a glorious death – Kaido aimed for the same thing, but he was a horrible tyrant and oppressor, so fittingly, he did not get what he so much desired. Instead, he was taken down in silence, without anyone really witnessing his defeat.
