TLDR: The Straw Hats are too outnumbered to be able to escape on their own, and need some help. Egghead and Vegapunk are both beloved to the world, and are valuable to the Marines in the fight against piracy, due to Vegapunk's creation of the Seraphim, Pacifistas, etc.
Fujitora and Smoker will arrive to aid the Straw Hats, forming a new faction of Marines designed to fight evil pirates and the evil World Government by working with good pirates. Going off of Aegis Zero, and SWORD, this group will be named SPEAR (remember that Sun God Nika is shown holding a sword and spear). This goes back to what Oda originally envisioned: evil pirates, the Morganeers, good pirates, the Peacemains, and the Navy/Marines existing as three powers.
SWORD, with Koby and Drake both being friendly with Luffy/having worked with him, has been foreshadowing the Marines working with Pirates.
Just when the Straw Hats look dead in the water, SPEAR will arrive to save them, and fight back against the attempted assassination of Vegapunk. Smoker will finally choose true justice over the Marines, and save the Straw Hats, and Fujitora will finally go full traitor.
Fujitora and Smoker will arrive to aid the Straw Hats, forming a new faction of Marines designed to fight evil pirates and the evil World Government by working with good pirates. Going off of Aegis Zero, and SWORD, this group will be named SPEAR (remember that Sun God Nika is shown holding a sword and spear). This goes back to what Oda originally envisioned: evil pirates, the Morganeers, good pirates, the Peacemains, and the Navy/Marines existing as three powers.
SWORD, with Koby and Drake both being friendly with Luffy/having worked with him, has been foreshadowing the Marines working with Pirates.
Just when the Straw Hats look dead in the water, SPEAR will arrive to save them, and fight back against the attempted assassination of Vegapunk. Smoker will finally choose true justice over the Marines, and save the Straw Hats, and Fujitora will finally go full traitor.
The Egghead Incident: Marine Civil War and the Schism of SPEAR
Zeff: "Even a man bristling with powerful weapons, can be skewered by the spear of blind grit."
Let's talk about the Buster Call to begin. One of the most feared things in the One Piece universe, a Buster call sends 10 huge Navy Battle ships, and 5 Vice Admirals to destroy an island.
A Buster Call is said to have more power than an entire nation's military, and barely anyone has survived/escaped from a Buster Call, with Ohara and Enies Lobby being totally destroyed through the process.
Now, let's look at what is showing up in Egghead:
50 Pacifista Mark III's, which can neutralize Devil Fruit users
100+ ships, 20 of which are Buster Call grade large battleships (so, double what a Buster Call would normally have in 10)
30,000 Marines
9 Vice Admirals (nearly double the amount in a Buster Call)
1 Navy Admiral, Kizaru
And possibly the Seraphim (who are currently seemingly invincible) and Saturn, depending on how things go.
I don't think people realize how fucking outmatched the Straw Hats are. THEY CANNOT BEAT THAT ON THEIR OWN. The Straw Hats are about to fight a force that is arguably 3 times or more stronger than a normal Buster Call. This is a Navy fleet capable of invading Wano or Totto Land.
Now the question becomes, who will aid the Straw Hats? The Grand Fleet is an interesting option, but too hard to gather on such short notice.
So, which large group of people who the Straw Hats are allied with, could possibly show up? Who could match this incredibly military might, that makes Buster Calls look weak?
The answer is obvious: the Marines themselves.
Smoker, Tashigi, Koby, Helmeppo, X-Drake Garp, Sengoku, Fujitora, Aokiji: so many Marines have helped the Straw Hats/let them escape in the past.
SWORD was formed to fight pirates in ways normal Marines couldn't, through having Marines act as agents where they "resign" from the Marines, but still work for them. SPEAR will be the same, but, rather than go after just pirates, SPEAR will fight against all injustice, including that of the WG.
We know that the Marines who have allied with the Straw Hats stand for what Luffy stands for, not what Imu, the Gorosei, and the World Government stands for.
Luffy will take on a Yonkou to feed a single child. Imu and the Gorosei view humanity as replacable insects.
Luffy embodies justice more than any Marine in the series, which is why he drives people like Smoker and Garp crazy: knowing some goofy kid made of rubber is going around and doing what they can't, BECAUSE of the Marine power structure stopping them from having freedom to enact actual justice, just drives Smoker and Garp nuts. Hell, even Akainu has reached the point where he is losing his mind over being unable to act freely to enact justice.
The Marines' growing anger and discord over the world's current justice is palpable. Garp and Fujitora openly resent the Celestial Dragons, to the extent Fuji helped the Revs free their slaves, Akainu is sick of the Gorosei's shit and just straight up ignores the CDs in the latest chapter, Koby clearly hates injustice in the Marines as we know due to his origin arc with him being sickened by Morgan abusing his power.
Aokiji literally left the organization, he gave up hope, Green Bull just does what he wants, and Kizaru views himself as, what? A Corporate Slave? Kizaru is fucking steaming that some kid he failed to kill twice is now defending the man he doesn't want to, but is ordered to, kill.
Look at things from Sengoku's perspective: Marineford was supposed to defeat piracy. What happened? Blackbeard rose to power, and the world was thrown into chaos, with pirates looting Whitebeard's territories in mass. Marineford was a total failure in terms of stopping piracy. It enabled pirates, and led to a Yonkou much, much worse and more uncontrollable than Whitebeard gaining power. Hell, same thing with Roger's execution: every time the Marines try to "end the pirate era" they fail fucking spectacularly.
The entire Marine organization at this point know they're the puppets of evil, psychopathic fools. Aokiji vs Akainu was a teaser to the real war coming, and foreshadows the Marine civil war: Aokiji working with Sword to watch Blackbeard and keep him from the One Piece, Akainu working with the WG to destroy the Straw Hats, and Fujitora working with the Straw Hats to create true justice.
The Significance of the Marines Killing Vegapunk
Vegapunk is not a unknown name in the world. In terms of fighting for humanity, and the Marines, there have been few people this dedicated and motivated. The Marines who wish for peace heavily respect Vegapunk, because he both works to fight for humanity by creating technology that can aid people, makes weaponry that can stop warfare, like Hibari's flower rifle, and has made the Marines much stronger through the Pacifista units allowing the Marines to fight strong pirates without risking Marine lives, and through the Seastone coated Battleships allowing Marines to enter the Calm Belt, and go after Pirates like Boa located there, which was once more or less impossible.
Vegapunk got an audience with the Gorosei when he was still fairly young, and has been working with the WG for over 30 years. Hell, he's been with them for so long he started working with them 10 years before Ohara was blown to pieces via Buster Call.
This is like if Elon Musk was actually the person he pretended he was, and the entire US military wanted to murder him for proving they're genocidal assholes and researching their warm crimes behind their backs.
That is how popular Vegapunk is. He is a beloved figure, who Fujitora and Smoker both respect and admire, especially when it comes to the children Tashigi and Smoker helped save from Punk Hazard.
Tashigi has always been shown as the emotional core of Smoker, her kindness melting through his... uh... smoke, I guess. Tashigi knows Vegapunk is needed to save those children. If Tashigi is presented with the choice of choosing to betray Marine HQ, or let those children die, she'll choose the kids.
Next is the real mastermind: Fujitora.
Fuji managed to get the Warlord system disbanded, AND is now in prime position to swipe the Seraphim out from under them as well. Losing both the Warlords and their replacement back to back would be cripping for the Marines, when they already can't deal with all the insurrection in the first place.
This is why Fujitora supported the Seraphim in the first place, he never wanted them to work for the WG, he wanted them to work with SPEAR to destroy the World Government.
Fujitora already chose Luffy over the Marines in Dressrosa, and this is the payoff moment.
This is what makes Luffy, as Mihawk said in Marineford, so strong: his ability to connect with people, and liberate them. Luffy frees people from the things in their lives keeping them from chasing their dreams. This entire time, LUFFY HAS NEVER VIEWED THE MARINES AS HIS ENEMY. That is how they view him. Luffy loves Garp and Koby, he doesn't hate Marines; he hates assholes.
The greatest force that Luffy has befriended through the series, IS THE MARINES THEMSELVES. The only force that can match the Marine Fleet invading Egghead IS THE MARINES THEMSELVES.
Luffy already has his SWORD, now, he needs Nika's SPEAR.
In Ohara, Aokiji chose to rescue Robin, but refused to fight for the people of Ohara. (This part is total speculation) I believe that Fujitora witnessed the destruction of Ohara, and blinded himself afterwards, leaving the Marines, only to rejoin years later to make such a tragedy never occur again. This explains his close ties to Vegapunk, and his actions in Dressrosa; Fujitora is also carrying the Will of Ohara.
Ohara was a moment the Marines could have chosen people and justice over the World Government's lies and tyranny. In the end, they failed to uphold justice, and the people of Ohara were murdered in a violent state sponsored terrorist attack.
The Marines now have the same choice: to either protect history, and the future (Hence Future Island/the Island of the Future), or to continue down the same path of mindless subservitude, as Akainu, Green Bull, and Kizaru have chosen.
Egghead Island is Ohara all over again. This time, though, SPEAR will make the right choice.
Fujitora's Gravity Fruit allows him to easily lift and scuttle the Marine ships, and Gravity is able to bend light, meaning Fuji is a natural counter to Kizaru (though I think Kizaru is a lot stronger).
HOWEVER, I do believe Aokiji shows up here, too, after his recent plotline heated up, and since Egghead is so heavily connected to Ohara, the incident that changed how he viewed Justice. Aokiji once had "Burning Justice" and now has "Laid Back Justice".
While acting as a member of the Blackbeard Pirates while secretly working for SWORD, Aokiji will protect Egghead with his giant ice walls, giving the Straw Hats and Punks a chance to escape.
I still fear most of the island will be destroyed, but Punk Records will live on, because our favorite dying cyborg is about to come to Egghead, to teleport everyone back to Wano for fucking Act 4, let's goooooooooooooooooooooo, baby, IT'S ALL ABOUT WANO ACT 4, BABY, LOVE ACT 4.
ONLY YOU CAN SAVE THE DAY, AND MY SANITY, KUMA-SAN!!!
When Kuma dies, I'll actually be really sad, he's such a cool character.
Thoughts?
