Yep, something tells me this entire time he's been feigning his injury from Luffy so he doesnt have to kill his friends. Now i think he still will try and complete his mission with the mother flame, so hes not a complete turncoat yet but we'll see.
The issue with Kizaru is that if he's faking his injury right now to stay down and not get involved, he will out himself eventually and need to become a threat again if he's going to stay an Admiral.
I still think he and Luffy will continue to fight, but only after VP, Sentoumaru and Bonney are safe and escape. At that point he can go all out.
Kizaru is the biggest wildcard this arc, because we dont really know what his endgame will be if he doesnt focus on VP.
Interestingly enough, I am actually enjoying the uncertainty of where things will go next. Usually it’s not too difficult to predict the broad strokes of an arc or how a character will act, but this situation with Kizaru could indeed go a number of ways.
- Him just fighting Luffy again would be pretty standard, but I don’t see a drawn out fight here although I know your initial prediction was a full defeat for Kizaru.
- Kizaru turning on the WG is another option…but the
how is the big question.
I still feel attacking Saturn is a step too far and just overkill. Letting the Strawhats escape through feigned negligence is another option.
Using the ancient robot as a distraction if it goes after Saturn was my first option.
The only outcome I don’t see happening at all is “Kizaru for nakama” and going with the Strawhats to parallel Kuzan with BB
At this point, the one thing I would like to see for sure is logia awakening instead of it being crammed into the final war.
I also think that it’s likely that Atlas will interact with Kizaru’s power at some point with the light-touching gloves…but could just be an abandoned device by Oda.