The Dawn, I think we all agree, represents a new beginning, new day, a changeover from night and darkness. You don’t need an advance degree in symbolism to work that out.
Wano and Zou are associated with night, especially through the moon. The names of the Wano clans all having “moon” in them- barring the Kurozumi, which is interesting if not relevant to what I‘m saying here- Raizo’s crescent moon scar, the moon tattoo on the ankles, the Minks using Su Long in the full moon, Pedro’s Nox Pirates. We have Toki’s prophecy of “the moon not knowing the Dawn and the twenty year long night”, yadda yadda.
It’s interesting that Pedro says much the same thing about Inuarashi and Nekomamushi as he did the Strawhats on WCI. We have the dramatic double spread of their crucified bodies where Pedro says “the world awaits them! They must be saved! They must not die under any circumstances!”
But can we really say, now that we know their stories, that Inu and Neko are going to change the wider world? Is there any hint that they are anything special beyond being retainers of Oden? I don’t see it. As far as I can tell, Pedro wanted them saved for this moment in time, the fight to liberate Wano. That’s always why he blew himself up on WCI. As Carrot said last chapter, ”Pedro’s death brought us to this battle that’s happening right now.” This is the moment the world has been waiting for, defeating Kaido, avenging Oden, borders back open for Wano.
The Dawn is the end of night for Wano. Night has been the centuries of isolation that Kozuki themselves put Wano into. Oden was aware, by the end that the time was not right for him to open the borders yet, because Joy Boy wasn’t back yet. They’ve had to wait now, for Luffy. Luffy and Momo will bring the Dawn, Joy Boy and a Kozuki ending night. Dawn is the new beginning, night (isolation) is over, Joy Boy returned and ready to take on the world.
There‘s nothing that suggests the Dawn plot line is extending beyond Wano. All it’s constituent parts revolve around the overarching Wano plot- of which the Minks are a mere subplot. It’s not something that Whitebeard at his death, or Roger at any point, or Shanks or Blackbeard or any of the EoS characters have talked about. No other country or people are associated with night the way Wano and Zou is. We haven’t had the RA talking about it, or the Gorosei, or the scholars of Ohara. It is a Wano plotline, that has been talked about by the Wano characters.
The Dawn is the beginning of the end, not the end itself. Wano’s long centuries (night) of isolation will be over. Given that this arc is happening at night, that’ll probably happen literally at dawn. Joy Boy is officially back (as a reincarnation or just inherited will, who knows). As readers, we know that One Piece is then hitting its end- Luffy will be meeting Shanks again, Oda’s telling us it’s the final stretch with his five year quotes.
Sadly I’m back into another period of isolation myself after today, for a month or so, so I won’t be able to talk much more about this any time soon.