Honestly I really hope Elbaf is just straight up a Marine arc that resolves the Marine plot entirely. It ideally sounds like the perfect escalation from Egghead if you think about it.
- At the loss of either Saturn and/or Kizaru, the WG either forces Akainu to mobilize or he just decides to on his own.
- The Giants invading Egghead and destroying Marine ships is essentially a declaration of War that may escalate to Akainu sending the entire Marine force to Elbaf
- If Vegapunk and Kuma survive, then theres a decent chance that we at least get Dragon in some fashion in the arc (does not need to be the full RA army since they are reserved for the WG). Dragon, being the same age as Akainu and a former Marine, as well as Akainu only referring to Luffy as "Dragon's son", makes me entirely beleive they have unexplored history
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@nik87 actually made a pretty awesome point that Akainu being Surtur incarnate to Elbaf has....interesting implications.
- Blackbeard could be involved in the arc by virtue of Kuzan and Garp, who both have ties to Akainu/Dragon respectively.
- Luffy hypothetically defeating an Admiral now stands reason to believe that the next stage is to fight the Fleet Admiral while his subordinates take on Admirals, not unlike WCI to Wano with Yonko Commanders.
Im just feeling this one, otherwise we will go another 100+ chapters with something that may not entirely involve Marines/Yonko and that seems unlikely at this stage in the story (I dont think the Burned Scar Man, unless it is Rocks, is a villain at least)