Future Events Oda wrote himself into a corner for the ending of Elbaf

[Donquixote Shivercalero]

Imo, fight is just gonna get dragged until Zoro and sanji beats sommers and killin.
Imu suffers when Holyknights are killed and will force him to go back or the time limit also forces him to do so.

This will end Imu and the WG forever as a villainous faction and destroy all tension and stakes for the rest of the story

 

[Cruxroux]

This will end Imu and the WG forever as a villainous faction and destroy all tension and stakes for the rest of the story

It's upto you what you prefer.
Imo, Killing/Beating HK/Gorosei chipping away Imu strength little by little is far better than asspulls oda gonna create to beat an all rounder Imu.

Imu as a character built to be undefeated in that form. Nerfing him is the only way out.

 

[Donquixote Shivercalero]

It's upto you what you prefer.
Imo, Killing/Beating HK/Gorosei chipping away Imu strength little by little is far better than asspulls oda gonna create to beat an all rounder Imu.

Imu as a character built to be undefeated in that form. Nerfing him is the only way out.

It’s completely unheard of for a final villain to appear, say he is going all out and taking all precautions, just to fail to accomplishment even a single objective. Asspulls are way better than completely taking wind out of the FV.

It also makes Imu coming down to Elbaf, useless filler. Luffy learns nothing from this defeat, it changes nothing. Elbaf could have ended in 1178.

all this not mentioning Zoro and Sanji don’t kill

 

[Cruxroux]

Asspulls are way better than completely taking wind out of the FV.

not to mention Zoro and Sanji don’t kill.

Neither did Luffy, yet what happened to Kaidou?

 

[Donquixote Shivercalero]

Neither did Luffy, yet what happened to Kaidou?

Gear 2 is better than Luffy kicking Lucci’s ass in Water Seven

 

[Cruxroux]

Gear 2 is better than Luffy kicking Lucci’s ass in Water Seven

Gear 2 lost lol.
Luffy still getting up was what you call asspull.

Spoiler

Luffy getting up EoS because of power of friendship is the worst possible outcome lol

 

[Sanjiwillbeaking]

Nah, I am sure Oda has some type of story he wants to show on Elbaph

 

[Fn Lucci]

He didn’t say it’s based on time. He just said his body can’t handle the outside world.

It looks like the Japanese would be saying that it's unnatural for Imu. Stephen would know better than me, but I don't think he was trying to be literal or specifically imply that one interpretation. The scans didn't take it that way.

But even if Imu explodes after 24 hours outside, for all we know it's been 3 hours; we have no frame of reference. There's certainly a chance of a time limit because he's not losing in combat here but I don't see how it's a problem he can't work around yet

 

[Vanlax]

Yes. Imu will fail at Elbaf.

Imu will need the BBP after this.
BBP is already applying to be part of WG anyways.
WG will be forced to accept BBP as they would need an additional army after failing to conquer the Giants.

Also Luffy will recover.
Gunko will remove the swords.
G5 will do its thing.

Luffy hasn't done anything yet.
Oda could never.
This is One Piece.

 

[Fn Lucci]

Yes. Imu will fail at Elbaf.

Imu will need the BBP after this.
BBP is already applying to be part of WG anyways.
WG will be forced to accept BBP as they would need an additional army after failing to conquer the Giants.

Also Luffy will recover.
Gunko will remove the swords.
G5 will do its thing.

Luffy hasn't done anything yet.
Oda could never.
This is One Piece.

It's rare that I feel the need to credit Morj but I did like his point about how Oda used each of the three admirals pre time skip to give Luffy resonant defeats. We haven't had such a thing since but now we have the final boss of the world government.

We also have Gaban for a final lesson and all of the history available between Roger's crew, Vegapunk, Ohara, and Elbaf. I have a hard time believing that Oda will fail his own setup like this.

 

[Johnny B. Decent]

I keep saying it, but literally, all they have to do is destroy the summoning Pentagram at August Castle and Imu will be forced back to Mariejois.

 

[Monster Zoro's Tesla Supplier]

I keep saying it, but literally, all they have to do is destroy the summoning Pentagram at August Castle and Imu will be forced back to Mariejois.

Actually kind of crazy they just left that pentagram there for so long

 

[Johnny B. Decent]

Actually kind of crazy they just left that pentagram there for so long

Not necessarily. Jarul knows it's tied to whatever happened to Harald, so for a person from a backwards, superstitious nation to be wary of a strange rune is pretty logical.

 

[Monster Zoro's Tesla Supplier]

He can stall. He should still be stronger than Luffy currently so he can at least do a bit

I doubt any old legend is above Luffy,but Gaban does have an advantage in that he doesn't have a time limit like G5 and fights more seriously than G5 Luffy

 

[Sir Yasheen]

I doubt any old legend is above Luffy,but Gaban does have an advantage in that he doesn't have a time limit like G5 and fights more seriously than G5 Luffy

Eh Ray did notably better against Kizaru than Luffy, and we don’t need to talk about G5 vs Kizaru faired compared to Garp vs BBP and WB vs Marines so I think Luffys still an arc away at least

 

[Monster Zoro's Tesla Supplier]

Eh Ray did notably better against Kizaru than Luffy, and we don’t need to talk about G5 vs Kizaru faired compared to Garp vs BBP and WB vs Marines so I think Luffys still an arc away at least

Well Kizaru didn't use things like an orbital kick or light clones on Rayleigh, did he?

 

[Johnny B. Decent]

It does make you wonder though, what's left to power up? Luffy has unlocked Advanced powers of all three forms of Haki *and* Awakened his DF. By all accounts, there's really nothing else to get a power-up for.

 

[Sir Yasheen]

Well Kizaru didn't use things like an orbital kick or light clones on Rayleigh, did he?

Offscreened. But we know Kizaru couldn’t get passed Ray despite Kizaru actively trying and canonically enraged he couldn’t

more than we can see for gear 5

 

[Monster Zoro's Tesla Supplier]

Offscreened. But we know Kizaru couldn’t get passed Ray despite Kizaru actively trying and canonically enraged he couldn’t

more than we can see for gear 5

Yeah but I don't think he actually went all out. The thing is he had faith in Sentomaru and Kuma to take down the Straw Hats, so he initially just took it lightly and thought it was a game. He got pissed when he realized Kuma is a traitor and Sentomaru.. I forgot what Sentomaru did tbh he was kind of just there

 

[Sanjiwillbeaking]

It does make you wonder though, what's left to power up? Luffy has unlocked Advanced powers of all three forms of Haki *and* Awakened his DF. By all accounts, there's really nothing else to get a power-up for.

Good question...