In wano we had a lot of clashes and fights outside of the main battles. I’m guessing Elbaf will be similar.
These extra clashes often serve a very important purpose in the arc. The primary purpose of said clashes is to nerf certain characters.
For example, Shanks is Oda’s golden boy. He isn’t going to disrespect him, even if he is going to lose in the arc. Hence, it makes a lot of sense to me that Oda will give Kid some power up and have him rematch Shanks. This time Kid will be able to put up a fight and will do some damage before being defeated. Therefore when Shanks ultimately loses to Teach, Teach won’t be able to claim a fair victory.
Similarly, Oda loves to overpower his villains and subsequently nerf them so that Luffy can win his fight. I’m sure the same will happen for Teach, much as it did Kaido. Teach will get 3 DFs and an awakening(s). He will probably beat Luffy’s ass multiple times and someone will probably step in to fill his place. Therefore, imo there is a big chance Teach will go through a gauntlet of Shanks and Law before Luffy ultimately takes him out.
Lastly, by having the captains get rematches, they will probably steal some credit for the defeats of Shanks/Teach, much like they did in Wano with Kaido’s defeat(something they had very little to do with). This will allow Oda to give them comparable bounties to Luffy, furthering the fake rivalry.
These extra clashes often serve a very important purpose in the arc. The primary purpose of said clashes is to nerf certain characters.
For example, Shanks is Oda’s golden boy. He isn’t going to disrespect him, even if he is going to lose in the arc. Hence, it makes a lot of sense to me that Oda will give Kid some power up and have him rematch Shanks. This time Kid will be able to put up a fight and will do some damage before being defeated. Therefore when Shanks ultimately loses to Teach, Teach won’t be able to claim a fair victory.
Similarly, Oda loves to overpower his villains and subsequently nerf them so that Luffy can win his fight. I’m sure the same will happen for Teach, much as it did Kaido. Teach will get 3 DFs and an awakening(s). He will probably beat Luffy’s ass multiple times and someone will probably step in to fill his place. Therefore, imo there is a big chance Teach will go through a gauntlet of Shanks and Law before Luffy ultimately takes him out.
Lastly, by having the captains get rematches, they will probably steal some credit for the defeats of Shanks/Teach, much like they did in Wano with Kaido’s defeat(something they had very little to do with). This will allow Oda to give them comparable bounties to Luffy, furthering the fake rivalry.
