I have always advocated that the WG is the enemy of this saga, they are the ones being built up as the enemies instead of the highly anticipated battle with the BBPs we will be getting the WG as the enemies of the SHPs. And based on this I expected Elbaf to not be a big arc like DR or Wano.
Quick recap, SHPs leave Wano and get to EH where they face off against the Navy and WG. The Gorosei are revealed in their full form for the first time. SHPs escape and head to Elbaf. We get an update of events around the world like CG doing stuff, BB defeating Law and Shanks beating Kid and then setting off from Elbaf before SHPs arrive. We are introduced to the HKs during this time and in Elbaf the HKs are shown as the initial main antagonists.
But then we get a very lengthy flashback which covers more than the tellers perspective (Lokis). And then the problems are resolved too quickly which is confirmed by inverse comments from characters.
So the expectation was that this fight will be delayed or we will get another arc like Enies Lobby for defeating the WG with the HKs and the Gorosei being taken down. But here we have Imu himself coming down to Elbaf and this completely changes things. When has the main villain of an arc get involved this early and by himself. People are right in assuming we get a Kaido type introduction with Luffy suffering a defeat. But this wont be the first time either, Croc also got involved early and defeated Luffy. So going by that pattern should we assume that Luffy again will be defeated here and Imu will go back and then much later Luffy will defeat Imu in the same arc? The difference though is that Kaido and Croc were already the rulers of the countries whereas Imu is not the ruler of Elbaf and he has declared war on Elbaf.
This confirms one thing though and that is Imu being the main saga villain and being defeated at the end. The only other way I see Imu being the FV is that Imu has to retreat after a false victory or some time limitation thing. And SHPs are forced to get OP first for which they fight the BBPs and then come back to defeat the WG.
These are the possible scenarios imo:
1. Imu and WG are defeated and the scramble for OP decides who becomes the new king of the world (Luffy vs BB as final fight)
2. Imu and WG get false victory and SHPs survive and get OP (Luffy vs BB) and then come back to fight WG (Luffy vs Imu as final fight)
If its the latter case then this will be a very long saga cause Laugh Tale wont be short at all. SHPs vs BBPs will take quite a lot of chapters imo.
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