Here we come to who I think is actually posing as Oden in the end of chapter 1007. It is no one other than Yamato. Let’s see why I think like that.
First we know that Yamato read Oden’s diary and she was so inspired by it that she decided to become Oden himself and even refers to herself as Oden, and this is also one of the reasons why Yamato hates her father, besides his harsh treatment and beatings. But why did Yamato read Oden’s diary in the first place and was it really what inspired her to “become” Oden? Well she read it because she was there at Oden’s execution and she saw a man’s death and she was so moved and inspired by it that when she found his diary it was the best thing she could’ve found.
So she was already a big fan of Oden after his execution and this was only deepened when she got to know him better through his diary. But the real point here is that she was there at the execution of Oden, and who else was there? The Scabbards. When was the execution? 20 years ago. Did she ever see scabbards after execution? No, she didn’t.
So, after answering these questions, let’s see what “Oden” said to the Scabbards in the last panel of chapter 1007:
“I was hoping our paths would cross again!!! You’ve all aged quite a bit”
So let me use this as my main argument that it’s Yamato. She saw them at the execution 20 years ago, she read about Oden and Scabbards in Oden’s diary, falls in love with them(not romantic one), is inspired by them, tries to become Oden, and now once the samurai are fighting her father, she runs to Scabbards and says that she was waiting for 20 years and hoping that one day their paths will cross again, just like they crossed that time 20 years ago during Oden’s execution, and that they’ve all aged quiet a bit then she remembers them. Those words can be said only by Yamato and Oden himself. But we already ruled out real Oden as the one actually being in this panel. So it leaves us only with one choice, and that’s Yamato.
But now arguments can be made that this theory sucks and it’s just not true, I mean look at the swords, Oden’s face, body, hair, clothes, it just can’t be Yamato. Yes, that’s true, on this pic Oden has two swords and Yamato doesn’t use swords but she uses a club. But let’s see a panel before this one:
We see that the Scabbards are in a darker room than the one from which Oden comes. So at first they see just a silhouette and their eyes need some adjustment to actually see the face and other parts of body. So when they look at this silhouette what do they see? They see a person that clearly resembles Oden (has those things on her back which are the main feature in my opinion), and after seeing this silhouette, the silhouette says “I was hoping our paths would cross again!!! You’ve all aged quiet a bit”, so in their heads they’re probably shocked and they see Oden, since it’s the person this silhouette most resembles and they are shocked.
But how can this be Yamato? Because she wears a similar clothes and she says a sentence that real Oden would say to them. And according to my theory here, the next panel of them seeing Oden, will actually reveal that it’s Yamato as their eyes would be used to the difference in light in the two rooms. Plus Yamato tries to be Oden with all her being so it’s not impossible that they could also feel his energy in her, and that all of this creates a short illusion of them seeing a real Oden. Same as how Kaido feels aura of Oden coming from Enma, we have this silhouette which perfectly resembles Oden plus his aura or feeling of Haki is coming from it as well, so it’s not impossible for their eyes to trick them into seeing their beloved Oden.
If this is all true, soon the swords will turn into a club, and Oden’s face will appear as Yamato’s face as well, and they’d see it’s not Oden but someone that looked like him for a brief moment, and then Momonosuke will jump out (another reference to real Oden, as Momonosuke would come with Oden) plus Shinobu. What will happen next is out of bounds for this theory but I’m certain that at one point Yamato would actually say “but oooh I’m a real Oden” and Scabbards will get confused again xD
*Theory by setu21
