The further we've gotten though Egghead, the further this seems to get clearer IMO. In typical escalation format, especially in post TS, Oda tends to tie larger story arcs together by means of having smaller arcs connect to them.
You had the entire Boroque Works plotline, culminating to Alabasta. You had Punk Hazard leading to Dressrosa. You had Zou and WCI leading Wano (and by virtue, everything from PH in its own way). The same thing is happening right now, where clear dictations in the story show us that the Final Saga comprises of multiple factions with 2 Yonko, the Marines and WG.
Egghead has effectively kicked off this ideology. Not only are we in an arc focusing on 1 Admiral (Marines) and Gorosei (WG) respectively, the Yonko have all made their moves during said arc, on top of revelations with the RA and WG. But in that fashion, Oda seems to be clearly setting up the next arc to escalate from this one. And how I see it now really comes down to how Egghead is seemingly ending, with Giants assaulting Marines and those same Marines losing on top quite possibly a Gorosei.
In that way, I am just starting to be convinced, that like a Vegapunk/Kizaru/Kuma arc before it (which is something I speculated for years), Akainu and his marines seem to be next. Below I will lay out as many of the reasons I see that being the case:
- Egghead arc itself seemingly will result in the loss of 1 Admiral and 1 Gorosei. This will be unprecedented for both the Marines and WG. While I can't see the WG itself mobilizing on their own entirely (yet), I can see either Akainu taking Kizaru's loss personally or being ordered by the WG to wage war on Elbaf.
- I always questioned why Oda needed to have the Giants at Egghead since it seemed like overkill once Bonney took over the Pacifista. But, if the Giants are blamed for the attack on Egghead failing, and taking in Luffy's group (which includss Vegapunk and Kuma), I can 100% see the Marines retaliating by attacking Elbaf.
- If you think about what characters would be at Elbaf, then things get very interesting. If Vegapunk and Kuma make it there alive, then it stands reason that Dragon himself might make an appearance, given his relationship with the two. But even more importantly is his speculated relationship with Akainu. Dragon was a former marine, and even is the same age as Sakazuki. This tells me they may end up having a deeper relationship than we think, possibly even ties to Garp or Luffy's mother somehow.
- On the flipside, Saul is alive on Elbaf. Barring Robin, Saul has ties to Kuzan, who has ties to Smoker and Akainu, both staple characters I would expect to be at Elbaf for this reason. Not only this, but Kuzan being present would imply Garp, Koby, and the rest of SWORD also are present somehow. Im not 100% sure how or why Kuzan would end up in Elbaf, but if we expect Blackbeard to remain a large presence in the story, having Kuzan there to reveal his motivations and resolve the Garp/SWORD plotline might do wonders for the story.
- Even the above with Kuzan has further implications with the Big Mom Pirates, he is responsible for taking Pudding. BMs crew is not only tied to Elbaf through BMs terrible deeds, but also Mother Caramel's deeds on kidnapping giant children for the WG to use (i.e. Giant Squad may have a role here).
- Finally, if you think about plot escalation in terms of pure battle matchups, it makes sense to see Luffy go from an Admiral to the Fleet Admiral, and his subordinates take on Admirals. Elbaf could be the perfect esclation for that before we dive into whatever conflict comes with Blackbeard/Shanks.
Thank you
@Kizaruber Eats for reminding me of some of these things, it really made things super clear here lol.
Anyway, thats pretty much it, just the same gut feeling I had about Vegapunk's arc before we knew it was called Egghead. Many things seem to be coming together in the same way where need all of these characters to exist in the same location. I full expect Akainu to mobilize the entire Marine Force and assault Elbaf or at least be very local to its events. It just feels like its time to resolve that plotline.
Edit: And if thats the case, one could also make the assumption that:
- Sabo also comes with Dragon, so there is legitimate cathartic payoff for Ace's death.
- The arc also involves some of the Whitebeard pirates for the same reason.
