User blog comment:Fliu/My thoughts on the Mink Tribe, Beasts Pirates, and possible upcoming events/@comment-24850639-20160201202501/@comment-24850639-20160202220401

Thats what I mean though. Sure Luffy SAYING that he's going to kick someone's ass means that he definitely will eventually, but that doesn't tell you WHY. The why has to be something personal for Luffy, but also bigger than Luffy alone. In other words, Luffy vs. Kaido or Luffy vs. Big Mom needs to have a very important specific context when it finally happens, and all I'm saying is that specific context has yet to be fleshed out. These fights are set to happen now simply out generic necessity, which is not Luffy's style or Oda's style.

In other words, Luffy taking down Big Mom or Kaido is a necessity regardless of any personal transgressions against Luffy. As a pirate entering the New World with plans for One Piece, the Yonko are your greatest obstacles, point blank period. You have to get past them in order to become the Pirate King, so they will be adversaries purely by default. We're now moving into the part of the series where fights of this magnitude are no longer a far off threat (as Zoro said) so its time for the plots to start unfolding themselves. Whatever specific context these fights will entail when they happen, one thing has to remain constant: the plot must unfold in a way where Luffy is a HERO for taking them down, and not just a pirate chasing his ambition or a personal vendetta. He would have never have built the rapport with powerful countries or friend base he has if that was all there was to him. The stakes have to be extremely high, which in One Piece is shown to really only mean 1 of 2 things, some cases both:

1) The fate of an entire country rests on Luffy's victory

2) The fate of a person important to Luffy/Straw Hats hinges on his success

The story hasn't been painted yet where Kaido/Big Mom are these extremely diabolical villains that must be taken down. We've seen their associates do some messed up things, but that isn't the same as them doing it themselves. Even if Kaido commissioned Jack to search for Raizo on Zou, his choice to raze the country to the ground and endlessly torture people that clearly didn't have what he sought seemed to be HIS prerogative. If Big Mom had actually ordered Bobbin to destroy whatever island that was that didn't have the sweets, then he wouldn't have to tell her that he did that BECAUSE they didn't have the sweets....So even though we know they're bad people, we still need to actually get their story before we draw inferences. We knew Doflamingo was a messed up guy that Luffy would probably fight the instant we saw him at Mariejois and Jaya, but he didn't become this monstrously evil villain until Dressrosa where we actually got his story.