The point of Kizaru is to set the power levels of those to come. There’s zero reason for Kizaru to survive this arc after oda has shown that everything here is so heavily connected to his own character it’s the only arc for Kizaru to be defeated.
There’s not going to be a new admiral, just Sakazuki Fujitora and Ryokugyu. And I’m not comparing Kizaru to pirate bounties, I’m saying if Oda wanted to show Kizaru as the strongest, he wouldn’t have given him the same bounty as Fuji and Ryo despite Kizaru having years of accolades from his past that the others don’t.
Basically Kizarus defeat does a few main things that oda needs to do:
1. Set the minimum power needed to defeat an admiral (yonko luffy)
2. Set the precedent that Luffy still isn’t ready to defeat Sakazuki and will need to grow more (adds more stakes to this fight)
3. Gives Kizarus character a fitting end in an arc that he gets to be the focus on.
There’s not going to be a new admiral, just Sakazuki Fujitora and Ryokugyu. And I’m not comparing Kizaru to pirate bounties, I’m saying if Oda wanted to show Kizaru as the strongest, he wouldn’t have given him the same bounty as Fuji and Ryo despite Kizaru having years of accolades from his past that the others don’t.
Basically Kizarus defeat does a few main things that oda needs to do:
1. Set the minimum power needed to defeat an admiral (yonko luffy)
2. Set the precedent that Luffy still isn’t ready to defeat Sakazuki and will need to grow more (adds more stakes to this fight)
3. Gives Kizarus character a fitting end in an arc that he gets to be the focus on.