But the buildup between Luffy and Saturn is too significant to ignore. Literally the flashback did nika thing whenever Saturn was in focus.
Everything in Kuma's flashback is about Nika liberating the world with his smiles and drumbeat, it says nothing about Nika liberating Kuma or Bonney specifically from Saturn lol. We already know that this is meant to signify Imu. There is nothing that directly indicates that Saturn """"needs""" to go down this arc or lose by Luffy's hand specifically.
I mean, just this chapter, Bonney learns Luffy is Nika after punching KIZARU (and even then, we dont know if thats just VP telling her or something), it has nothing to do with Saturn from what we can tell because he's still trying to kill VP at the end.
Even then, you already got the payoff from Kuma's flashback, theres a reason Oda let Kuma do this and not Luffy unlike every single other arc where he punches the lights out of the antagonist
Im just saying, maybe you guys are overthinking Saturn's role this arc. Maybe he gets away with the Mother Flame. Maybe a revivied Kuma at the EOS fights Saturn or something. And even if he is meant to fall, it could be from the Robot, or a larger raid fight with everyone.
There are MANY possibilities of what can happen to Saturn in this arc. On the flipside, Luffy keeps putting all of his attn on Kizaru. I dont really know how else to say this, like they can fight but the story hasnt even alluded to this....