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First introduced in One Piece Chapter 498, aptly titled “The Eleven Supernovas”, Eustass Kid instantly grabs our attention by being the only Supernova to have a bounty even larger than Luffy (at 315,000,000 berries), a feat which was impossibly hard to do considering Luffy and his crew had just destroyed Enies Lobby.
Kid , Law and Luffy received a special showcase of their abilities in the next few chapters against the Marines who had come to the Celestial Dragon’s rescue.
From then on not much was known about Kid and his activities. All we heard was that he had already picked a fight with two of the Emperors, safely escaping Big Mom’s territory with a copy of a road poneglyph but losing an arm to the Red Hair Pirates.
All of this was before he made an alliance with Scratchmen Apoo and Basil Hawkins, which led to his defeat and capture by Kaido.
However, Kid was one of the main focus of the Wano arc, as his character got good development and it culminated in him taking down Big Mom along with fellow supernova Law. It seemed like Kid was on road to redemption, before he once again decided to take a wild gamble and venture into the lion’s den without thinking it through.
Stupid, stupid move if you ask me (in retrospect obviously).
Table of Contents
Getting k.o.’d by Shanks:
After all the good work in Wano, Kid goes to Elbaf to take on Shanks again only for us to learn that the last time he didn’t even reach Shanks before losing his arm. Well this time he is prepared for whatever may come.
Atleast that is what he thinks before Shanks uses “Divine Departure” , of Roger’s techniques that knocks out both Kid and Killer. This is followed by Dorry and Broggy who use “Hakoku Sovereignty” and destroy their ship, Victoria Punk.
But it wasn’t before they gave a rousing speech.
“If you’re gonna point your cannon at someone’s home you should be ready for when they fire back.”
Dorry and Broggy, One Piece chapter 1079
Wait a minute…. Isn’t that dialogue familiar to that of Shanks’ from chapter 1 (it goes something like – “You’re putting your life on the line by pointing that at me. I’m saying it’s not safe to point guns”).
Shanks’s principles have always been the same. Talk first and if it gets serious then fight. The same was reflected in Kid’s fight with Shanks.
The Red Haired Pirate (the emperor) first sent a message asking if Kid and his crew actually wanted to fight? They were even given a fair chance to surrender their poneglyphs and leave if they came to understand the folly in their ways. However, Kid wouldn’t budge, and prepares goes for the first kill.
This prompts Shanks to take serious action, as he uses his advanced observation haki to see the serious damage that Kid does by indiscriminately shooting his “Damned Punk”. Maybe the fight would’ve been very different if it were someone else like Law, who’s more passive and rational.
In the end, Kid was knocked out and then dealt with a fata blow by Broggy and Dory. Their ships were sunk, and the Kid Pirates were said to be obliterated. However, does that mean Kid is dead in One Piece?
Is Kid dead in One Piece?
Well, most of the members in Kid’s crew, including Kid himself and Killer have eaten devil fruits. Meaning, once their ships are gone, they are doomed.
To add to this, the narrator clearly mentioned that it was the end of the line for the pirates. So what does that mean. Well, if we go by whatever we saw in the chapter then yes, Kid is really dead. Shanks wasn’t fooling around with his attack, neither were the giants. Maybe Oda just wants one red-haired pirate to be alive at the end!
Kid knew what he was getting into, and he decided to go ahead with it anyways. So, he can’t really complain. The death was a surprise, yes, but maybe it just points to the fact that how cruel the world of pirates can be. It also gives us a definite power scaling on yonkos, but more on that later.
That said, does it really make sense for Kid to die at this point narratively? Let’s consider some factors:
Kid’s Growth During Wano
Wano was particularly important for Kid, as we get to seem him after a very long time. The arc was massive for him in terms of his growth both as a character and in terms of powers (but mainly the latter).
We discovered that he too had Conqueror’s Haki and also managed to awaken his devil fruit to pull off impossible feats in Wano. At the end of the Wano Arc, all the 3 captains of the new generation had an equal bounty of 3 billion, which spoke volumes about their strength.
We learnt more about his fighting techniques and his strategies, while also seeing how he coordinated with some of the other Supernovas to take down 2 of the strongest and longest reigning Emperors of the Sea, throwing the whole world into chaos.
However, it doesn’t end there. We also a get a better hold on Kid’s personality, his relationship with his crew members especially from Killer, and also his goals. It was easy to see his parallels with Luffy when it came to being the Pirate King, however, he was more of a lone wolf than a team player.
While that might have changed, reluctantly, towards the end of the arc, his abrupt and sudden demise would just take it all away. I feel that there is still a lot that Kid can offer to the story, and taking him off the picture now would be akin to heavily underutilizing a piece with high potential.
How did Kid lose so easily?
Let’s talk about the power scaling aspect now. Does it make sense for Kid to lose that easily?? Is Shanks so strong that even a person who fought against and defeated two other Emperors got knocked out in one attack?
If you think about how this scene went; you’ll realize that it’s exactly like the first time Luffy and Kaido fought, which Kaido one-shotting Luffy with a “Thunder Bagua”.
Does this imply Kid will come back again like Luffy to conquer the emperor? Will we see another Wano like growth arc for Kid where he finally learns how to use his Conqueror’s Haki properly? There are so many questions and so few answers.
Let’s start over from the beginning again. Did Kid really lose in a single attack? I would say yeah.
For the longest time Shanks’s abilities were unknown with us getting the tiniest of glimpse of it in Wano, when he scared away Ryokugyu from miles away.
In fact this is probably the first time we’re even seeing him fight properly in the whole series. As Roger’s successor he was able to use Divine Departure and is also established to be a pure haki monster like Roger and Garp. The encounter with Kid puts him on a pedestal, and according to some, might even put the debate of Shanks vs Mihawk to rest.
Another reason for Kid to lose could be due because he never expected Shanks going all out in that attack. More than power scaling, this involves the element of surprise, which we cannot rule out based on Kid’s expression just before they clashed.
One thing is for sure, while our 3 “rookie” captains surely did take down two of the strongest Yonkos together, they definitely aren’t ready for a one on one.
Final thoughts on Kid’s death:
As for Kid’s death, I personally believe it is unlikely. His crew might have been decimated, but I believe Kid has not died from the encounter with Shanks. He might come out of it alive.
As mentioned above after years of putting him in the backseat, Kid finally got his moment to shine in Wano and from then on we all expected Kid to climb even higher.
From a normal man’s perspective why would you kill off someone you spent a whole arc powering up, showing that the New Generation has come to overthrow the old one. His death would just put all of that “under the water” (hehe. get it? like Kid is now underwater. Too bad? ok!).
This is why I believe that just like Luffy was saved when he fell into the sea, something might happen here too. It just feels to early to kill off a character like Kid, who has immense potential.
But then what about the narrator’s statements?
We usually get the result of major fights from the narrator. And in this particular case, the narrator states that – the pirate crew led by Eustass Kid was completely eradicated. While the narrator is reliable in most cases, the important factor to consider here is that he is shown to have wrongly reported some incidents.
As recently as Wano, in Chapter 1043, the narrator prematurely declares Kaido as the winner of the rooftop battle, which was then later changed.
But nothing can be said for sure.
It is a pirates world and from day one Oda has showed us that the world is very ruthless. Be a normal citizen , a marine or a pirate, bad things can happen to you even if you did nothing wrong. And as it is Oda’s work maybe Kid can die? Or maybe not.
We can’t tell anything for sure. So frustrating!!!
What are your thoughts on Kid’s status right now? Do you think he is dead? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
We don’t even get to know kid’$ backstory yet so I believe he will comeback that’s for sure
Obviously, Kidd is not dead. He Will comeback stronger than ever.