Blackbeard, Akainu, Shanks, Mihawk, Dragon, Imu. All of it.
I have no idea what's in store directly for Elbaf, but I have this extremely large feeling that ALL of it is coming to head very soon. When you put together character relationships, you can generally guess arcs and the characters involved, primarily in post-timeskip. This is one of the main reasons I believed in a Vegapunk arc long before it happened, because VP, Sentoumaru, Kizaru, Bonney and Kuma all had ties to that particular plotline
But in hindsight, you can do this with older arcs in Post TS:
- Law inherently had ties to Doflamingo, where both ended up being main characters at Punk Hazard and subsequently, Dressrosa
- The eventual clash with Big Mom was already a foreshadow at Fishman Island and Dressrosa
- We spent 10 years with Kinemon and Mononosuke as our allies, eventually leading us to Wano
- Finally, the character relationship of Big Mom and Kaido (i.e. Rocks) was ultimately established prior to Wano have them both together AT Wano.
Now at Egghead, we start the same idea again, except the concept is 10 times bigger and more like a complex web of relationships:
- Shanks plans on meeting Luffy "very soon" (this is prior to Wano but I digress), but also is looking to go after One Piece now and Luffy's fleet.
- Ryokugyuu states it's not yet "time" to fight the RHP (implying the Marines will fight the Yonko)
- Akainu seems to be preparing for world wide conflict. "Some" of his Marines (Kizaru, 9 VAs) have mobilized to take out Vegapunk
- Blackbeard kidnaps Koby, which leads to Garps defeat by Kuzan and others.
- Blackbeard and Shanks move forward and take the RPs from Kid and Law. Blackbeard and Shanks dislike each other and there is evidently an encounter planned
- The Revolutionaries are preparing to mobilize and attack the World Government.
- The World Government has interest in Vegapunk's tech, and is destroying entire islands already
- Cross Guild....also now seems to want One Piece but I think we need a bit more on them (i.e. more recruits and motive). BUT they are directly responsible for the Marine hunting going on that even Blackbeard and his island are taking advantage of.
- The Burned Man/4th Poneglyph essentially ties all 4 Yonko togehter.
- Vegapunk is tied to Kizaru, who is tied Akainu as his subordinate
- VP is also tied to Kuma, who is a former Revolutionary, who is also doing something at Marijoa
- VP is ALSO tied to Dragon, the RA Leader, who is intending on starting a war with the WG
- Kuzan is tied to both Blackbeard AND Akainu with his own motivations.
- Mihawk separately has history with Shanks (and Zoro)
- Sengoku and Tsuru obviously will be concerned about Garp
- Luffy has heavy disdain for both Blackbeard and Akainu for the same reasons. Luffy wants to meet Shanks again
And much more. How do you effectively tie all of this together if NOT all at once or close to being all at once?
I think we'll start to see that post Egghead (and/or post-Elbaf):
- Kizaru's defeat causes Akainu to finally make his move
- The 4th Poneglyph's location becomes known, and the Yonko start to move towards it
- The Marines (headed by Akainu) begin their counterattack on Piracy, aiming to eliminate the Yonko for good (and thus, anyone close to Pirate King)
- The Revolutionaries attack the WG and begin their war against them
- ....But the WG will also begin making their move towards the end of GL for Imu's own gain as well (evidently destroying his enemies, the D. Clan in Luffy, Dragon, and Blackbeard)
I don't think ANY particular faction will wait any longer post-Egghead. Oda has repeatedly stated that he wants to create something that makes everything else look small by comparison. And in that way if you are going to top Marineford with the Marines and 1 Yonko group, why not the Marines, 4 Yonko, Revolutionaries AND the Gorosei? And yes, this includes the Strawhat Fleet, as with all other Fleets and military.
Keep an eye out for the word "Historic":
Also referenced with the Supernova and Marineford:
And yes, of course there is a concern about people getting dedicated fights (or the lack thereof), but I think this is genuinely what Oda is going for here. It's not about the consistent escalation of fights anymore. Its about the "the big conflict". Marine vs. Pirate. Pirate vs. Government. Government vs. Revolutionary. What this potentially leads to (across multiple locations), is the culmination of something personal at the endgame, whether this is Akainu, Shanks, Blackbeard or Imu.
But to look at this page again, and to see who is left (barring Imu/Gorosei), and what is being addressed, is VERY fascinating:
tldr: You can tie every faction to another faction easily. They are all, in the end, tied to someone important and to each other. The reason there are still so many lingering threads and factions left in One Piece is because Oda is gearing towards creating a large scale war involving everyone from beginning to end across multiple locations.
I have no idea what's in store directly for Elbaf, but I have this extremely large feeling that ALL of it is coming to head very soon. When you put together character relationships, you can generally guess arcs and the characters involved, primarily in post-timeskip. This is one of the main reasons I believed in a Vegapunk arc long before it happened, because VP, Sentoumaru, Kizaru, Bonney and Kuma all had ties to that particular plotline
But in hindsight, you can do this with older arcs in Post TS:
- Law inherently had ties to Doflamingo, where both ended up being main characters at Punk Hazard and subsequently, Dressrosa
- The eventual clash with Big Mom was already a foreshadow at Fishman Island and Dressrosa
- We spent 10 years with Kinemon and Mononosuke as our allies, eventually leading us to Wano
- Finally, the character relationship of Big Mom and Kaido (i.e. Rocks) was ultimately established prior to Wano have them both together AT Wano.
Now at Egghead, we start the same idea again, except the concept is 10 times bigger and more like a complex web of relationships:
- Shanks plans on meeting Luffy "very soon" (this is prior to Wano but I digress), but also is looking to go after One Piece now and Luffy's fleet.
- Ryokugyuu states it's not yet "time" to fight the RHP (implying the Marines will fight the Yonko)
- Akainu seems to be preparing for world wide conflict. "Some" of his Marines (Kizaru, 9 VAs) have mobilized to take out Vegapunk
- Blackbeard kidnaps Koby, which leads to Garps defeat by Kuzan and others.
- Blackbeard and Shanks move forward and take the RPs from Kid and Law. Blackbeard and Shanks dislike each other and there is evidently an encounter planned
- The Revolutionaries are preparing to mobilize and attack the World Government.
- The World Government has interest in Vegapunk's tech, and is destroying entire islands already
- Cross Guild....also now seems to want One Piece but I think we need a bit more on them (i.e. more recruits and motive). BUT they are directly responsible for the Marine hunting going on that even Blackbeard and his island are taking advantage of.
- The Burned Man/4th Poneglyph essentially ties all 4 Yonko togehter.
- Vegapunk is tied to Kizaru, who is tied Akainu as his subordinate
- VP is also tied to Kuma, who is a former Revolutionary, who is also doing something at Marijoa
- VP is ALSO tied to Dragon, the RA Leader, who is intending on starting a war with the WG
- Kuzan is tied to both Blackbeard AND Akainu with his own motivations.
- Mihawk separately has history with Shanks (and Zoro)
- Sengoku and Tsuru obviously will be concerned about Garp
- Luffy has heavy disdain for both Blackbeard and Akainu for the same reasons. Luffy wants to meet Shanks again
And much more. How do you effectively tie all of this together if NOT all at once or close to being all at once?
I think we'll start to see that post Egghead (and/or post-Elbaf):
- Kizaru's defeat causes Akainu to finally make his move
- The 4th Poneglyph's location becomes known, and the Yonko start to move towards it
- The Marines (headed by Akainu) begin their counterattack on Piracy, aiming to eliminate the Yonko for good (and thus, anyone close to Pirate King)
- The Revolutionaries attack the WG and begin their war against them
- ....But the WG will also begin making their move towards the end of GL for Imu's own gain as well (evidently destroying his enemies, the D. Clan in Luffy, Dragon, and Blackbeard)
I don't think ANY particular faction will wait any longer post-Egghead. Oda has repeatedly stated that he wants to create something that makes everything else look small by comparison. And in that way if you are going to top Marineford with the Marines and 1 Yonko group, why not the Marines, 4 Yonko, Revolutionaries AND the Gorosei? And yes, this includes the Strawhat Fleet, as with all other Fleets and military.
Keep an eye out for the word "Historic":
Also referenced with the Supernova and Marineford:
And yes, of course there is a concern about people getting dedicated fights (or the lack thereof), but I think this is genuinely what Oda is going for here. It's not about the consistent escalation of fights anymore. Its about the "the big conflict". Marine vs. Pirate. Pirate vs. Government. Government vs. Revolutionary. What this potentially leads to (across multiple locations), is the culmination of something personal at the endgame, whether this is Akainu, Shanks, Blackbeard or Imu.
But to look at this page again, and to see who is left (barring Imu/Gorosei), and what is being addressed, is VERY fascinating:
tldr: You can tie every faction to another faction easily. They are all, in the end, tied to someone important and to each other. The reason there are still so many lingering threads and factions left in One Piece is because Oda is gearing towards creating a large scale war involving everyone from beginning to end across multiple locations.
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