The God Valley flashback is doing what One Piece flashbacks do best: filling in holes and stirring up brand-new arguments. Case in point: a chunk of the fandom is now calling Kaido a fraud. Why? Because the guy who lectured everyone in Wano about Haki being the true top dog sure looked thrilled when he yoinked the Uo Uo no Mi, Model: Seiryu from Big Mom back in the day. Kinda undercuts the sermon, yeah?
Why fans are side-eyeing Kaido right now
During Wano, mid-beatdown with Luffy, Kaido laid down his philosophy: Devil Fruits are flashy, but Haki is what actually rules the seas. Then the God Valley flashback shows a younger Kaido snagging the Azure Dragon fruit from Big Mom and reacting like he just won the grand prize. The disconnect is obvious. Either he changed his mind later, or he never believed his own spiel to begin with.
"Haki is what conquers the seas."
To be fair, that line has aged pretty well in the story. Time and again, the manga frames Haki as the ceiling-breaker. Kaido may have loved his fruit when he got it, but somewhere between God Valley and his Emperor era, the lightbulb likely went on.
So what changed his mind?
After God Valley, Kaido strikes out on his own, builds a crew, and climbs until he’s an Emperor of the Sea. That path is nothing but brutal matchups: pirates, Marines, the best fighters out there. It tracks that the experiential takeaway would be simple and annoying if you love wild superpowers: Devil Fruits are great, but Haki wins the arms race. It can even flat-out negate fruit tricks. If you want to rule the ocean, you need overwhelming Haki, not just a broken fruit.
God Valley might have been the turning point
The flashback itself all but hand-delivers the argument. In Chapter 1162, Imu shows up in the mess at God Valley by taking control of Jaygarcia Saturn’s body and unloading a terrifying surge of Haki. It’s strong enough to rattle the heaviest hitters on the board — even Roger and Garp are stunned — and the battlefield includes names like Rocks D. Xebec, Whitebeard, and yes, Kaido. Imu shakes the entire island using nothing but Haki, and the sequence frames him as the current top Haki user in the series.
If you’re a young Kaido watching that go down, you don’t forget it. You recalibrate.
The story keeps picking the same winner
- Kaido vs. Luffy in Wano: their clashes underline that Haki decides the ceiling, not the fruit.
- Egghead’s Joy Boy reveal: the Haki blast there reinforces that nothing outruns conqueror-level Haki.
- God Valley’s Imu moment (Chapter 1162): island-shaking Haki that shocks Roger and Garp, with Xebec, Whitebeard, and Kaido in the mix.
Where the flashback seems headed
We’re not done at God Valley yet, and it’s shaping up to close one of the series’ most hyped mysteries while showing how it scarred every major player who walked away. If this arc is the tectonic plate shift that turned Kaido from fruit-drunk rookie into a Haki absolutist, it fits the larger trend. And now the fun part: does Oda roll out another event on that scale just to hammer the point home again?
One Piece is ongoing, and if you want to read the manga legally, it’s available on Viz Media.