Fuck Vista | Cavendish Is Right In Front Of You

People don't actually care about "swordsmanship," It's just a vehicle for Mihawk and Zoro discourse (this post is not Mihawk detraction; I do not cosign) and haki measuring.

Therefore this "character," meaning the meme known as Vista (not the character himself who actually seems cool, gets brought up excessively, while Cavendish, someone whose EOS FLOOR is Vista, gets kibble from this portion of the fandom.

Let's go over all the reasons that's a disservice to The Pirate Prince himself.

1) It's very similar in ornamentation to the blades around the empty throne on Volume 90's cover; we should also note that Cavendish's former kingdom has the same etymology as Mary Geoise (he has multiple connections to it/Imu but that's not the point of this comment), and that ties to Durandal being a legendary French blade, basically second to and in some myths surpassing or being the same as Excalibur (Interestingly, one of Cavendish's attacks is "Round Table" and that's the whole conceit of the Empty Throne's existence.

(Image 2)

2) He had five named attacks, each with a distinct technique and an interesting fantasy/play based naming convention (Bartolomeo has the most named attacks out of the fleet due to barrier manipulation being vast, but it's simple; Sai has three- the generic happo navy haki waves, a unique heel move, and then drill dragon heel, Leo had two- one being the generic Tontatta moveset), what does Vista have comparatively?

If it's rose petals, Cavendish eats those.

3) He parried a Chinjao stronger than the one Sai bent the head of and was complimented by him, grappled with Luffy after Block C (an anti-feat depending on how you take Luffy's tiredness and Cavendish being matched, but throughout the arc and looking at his body, you can see he's superhuman in strength) and kept his balance when Chinjao broke the floor (small panel but Oda always emphasizes Cavendish's gracefulness/take's care with him).

\-He casually carved a path up the plateau on horseback with a flying slash.

\-He was able to surprise Gladius with his speed/was unphased by his explosions (Bartolomeo obstructed the fight) and then with Hakuba, scaled a mountainside/escaped a mountain sized explosion with the momentum to maintain flight, whilst having the reaction time to catch his own blade from slicing Robin's neck; keeping in mind that Hakuba dealt oneshot's all arc and that cut was Cavendish's sole injury all arc.

He was as clean as his skincare/coat after the birdcage was down.

\-Biken: Blue Bird based on it's two uses is a fencing like move, straight and stiff/backed by force; it held Chinjao midair and was intended to dispatch Gladius/probably work past his bombs or be swift enough to stick him even if exploded.

The meaning of the play is similar to what I've since realized connects Cavendish to The Little Prince as linked below; in that both conclude with the protagonist(s) seeing beyond artifice/petty emotions like vanity and jealousy, as well as what's unseen by adults.

See, what's linked below the third move which details how Cabbage's Dressrosa arc concludes.

\-Biken: Swan Lake is an acrobatic maneuver, good for crowd control/probably a pivot from mid-air of combat leads him there; perfect for a ballet based move.

Cavendish, similarly to the protagonist is a prince; the protagonist has never loved/lacks interest despite having suitors within the play, yet he comes to love the titular swan/princess.

Cabbage's comedic or cover backstory (as it's clearly not his entire past and each fleet members story sans Leo and Sai's that setup for Reverie, and Hajrudin's which has paid off in introducing what was always going to be the most significant crew of the fleet individual characters beyond the captain) has him causing a celibacy crisis in his kingdom.

That sheer beauty leads to his eventual exile and Cavendish craves adulation but he likely had no interest in pursuing anyone at all.

(Hmmmmm, Cavendish was so beautiful it caused political issues/actual impact? That seems similar to the impact of Shakky's beauty and Candelle's; could Cavendish have caught the eye of a elestial dragon? And that aside, maybe he's a Celestial whelp, similarly to Princess Shuri)

\-Biken: Zant-Exupéry is the slash used to carve a path up the plateau; named after the author of The Little Prince; in combat there's no connection but in the mythology of Durandal, just as Cavendish parried continent splitting Chinjao, it's notable that he carved stone to such a notable degree with it (Durandal being famed for that and stuck in a cliffside supposedly, and since stolen irl; amongst myths).

[My analysis of Cabbage as he's connected to The Little Prince](https://www.tumblr.com/wingsofsong/754750246262849536/so-kyrossoldier-san-is-the-steadfast-tin-soldier?source=share)

\- Biken: Round Table, notable as described; and as a move it was used for a swift beheading, maybe it's aimed for large targets/his bodies maneuver is essentially round.

\- Precious Metal Axe: a sideways, full body thrust/positioning of Durandal, seems to be a whole body maneuver/defensive and is reminiscent in a way, to the side of an axe/the associated strength/motion.

The woodcutter in the associated fable, loses their axe and turns down a gold and silver axe as recovered from the lake by Hermes, who then recovers the original axe and gifts the man all three for his honesty/lack of greed.

Cabbage uses this attack in the chapter that has his most selfless act of staying by Law's side, so whilst not being the same in action, it's possible Oda partly chose the name/used it there, due to the woodcutter and Cabbage both having a display of characte; which is neat, as all of Cavendish's attacks names deal with some virtue/dispelling of the artificial.

And finally, just as Luffy was surprised when Cavendish stayed behind to avenge Farul rather than continue up to Mingo (re-read those pages, by that point Luffy 100% had enough of an idea of his strength and was comfortable enough with him to be comfortable with Cavendish continuing upwards), Luffy entrusts Robin and Law's life to him after Cabbage saves them/blitzes from sleep to intercept Doflamingo's string bullets.

That mention is especially for those that use Robin (in a very cool scene) grappling a Hakuba that sped up a vertical towards her from a distance, with the most warning of any character all arc, to scale him below her) and save their lives.

It should also be noted that Rebecca who was mini-maxed in observation haki was still hit by Hakuba in Block C, she just was hit by his trail off to sleep, which meant her (impressive) reaction and Hakuba's own ceasing, saved her in tandem.

4) We're talking about a Supernova whose bounty upon entering the New World was over 200 million beri and who remained independent, not joining a Yonko (something we're told is a death sentence) until three years past.

He had the gumption to seek out the Supernova for his revenge rather than just bitch about losing his popularity alone- and even then he was still popular as can be seen in his first appearance, he's just legitimately delusional, so the mild dip and his own underachieving, exaggerates his fall from grace.

Truly he's beyond underrated as a powerhouse and as a proud couch scaler, all I can say is- look at the chapter 750 color spread.

Can't be argued against, sorry; his EOS floor IS Vista.

5) And let's address his potential; Cavendish is canonically a genius swordsman (Hakuba aside) and it's his experience/belief that he became as great of a combatant as he is with no effort.

So either he trained and has such an aptitude that his effort felt trivial or he just took to thing's and got armament/observation haki as easily along the way.

I see people say insane shit sometimes and scale Sai as clearly above him, despite Sai having gone bar for bar with Ideo during Block C and Cavendish showing similar combat ability/casual strength and DC, and while I like Ideo, he's not "him," in ability yet- and Cavendish dealt with Gladius's explosions which are comparable.

They artificially rank most of the Worst Generations above him with no real justification.

Grand Line Review recently scaled Tashigi above him (I never watched him, made the mistake of clicking on his swordsman ranking video the other day) which is one of the worst takes I've ever seen.

I'm forever convinced that Cavendish was meant to fight Trebol and that simply didn't work out plotting wise, so Oda gave him two moments of triumph over self/a showing of his spirit, in saving Robin and in his three-peat chapter, saving her/law, staying by Law, and giving Robin his coat.

With all that in mind, what happens when a shallow man with meager goals, finds himself in service to a person/cause he cares about?

He gains actual motivation and the training that person would put in tandem with their innate aptitude, takes them beyond even the ability they foresaw; and it's confirmed by the narrator that Cavendish will grow in strength.

We're talking about, a genius swordman who by the EOS will have not only strengthened their body and skill/haki but may even master his alternate personality/what's essentially a demon, a demon who only dealt oneshot's all arc including to the demon fishman/one man demolition derby, Dellinger (In the anime it was death by a thousand cuts).

And I know that some people like to downplay the past but Hakuba's reveal remains one of the most visually distinct feats in One Piece, and his hype was to where Oda ended and began a year on his return/the cliffhanger for his reveal.

(Chapter 733 which has the Block D cliffhanger was the first of 2014 and 772 which has the Dellinger cut down was the first of the next.)

Which while probably not meaning anything at all besides Oda liking to rhyme is still a cool memory to me.

The only negative about Cabbage wank is we know that his ceiling is below Zoro's.

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Anyways! As someone who's been hyping the fleet since Dressrosa, I'm not going to say Cabbage is unpopular.

He has a sizeable fanbase, we fought very hard for him in the recent global poll and it doesn't seem to have been bot manipulated, especially given he went down from the first to the second by a place (I think Bartolomeo placed lower this time, due to Cavendish fan gumption and the fact that Cavendish fans are probably likelier to have him as their top choice compared to Bartolomeo fans, or some Bartolomeo and Cabbage enjoyers switched aliegance this time around).

He placed 13th during the Whole Cake poll and well in the poll prior.

4/10 new readers/reactors fall in love with him (Barto is usually the one they fall for, sometimes it's equal) so his fanbase isn't stagnant in growth.