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Media One Piece (spoilers!)
- Thread starter some hero
- Start date
Why can't they do it like Kimetsu no Yaiba anime with few fillers? One Piece's anime pacing has given it a bad reputation.
Yea I'm hoping the pace doesn't slow down. At least the art looks crisp.
the last few chapters blew my mind with filling up the massive world of one piece, so many details and so much info to keep reddit busy even in the 3 week break we will now have, and it feels like today's chapter was the finale and by god it hit hard. i feel like from next chapter on we'll see oden return to wano and orochi and kaido killing him off, toki sending the others to the future, and us maybe discovering that toki died cos using her power on others(and so many at that) is much more draining than using for herself.
i've heard the usopp-like disease name that buggy had was just translators putting in by themselves and it might have been an actual illness(crocus was there, and shanks stayed behind with buggy). would be weird if it's just buggy pretending, cos they've sailed for a long ass time and everyone knows each other and would call buggy's bluff, and idt buggy would grow cold feet here. so shanks and buggy made it almost all the way, but don't know what one piece really is. maybe buggy and luffy will go there together and buggy will have an emotional moment. also arctic vs antartic goes all the way back to chapter 19, cool callback shanks and buggy maybe never resolved this (tho in chapter 19 the crew seems so skeptical of devil fruits even being real so im confused)
i think almost everyone believes that what roger discovered made him laugh just cos he can't do anything with it, since he'll be dying very soon. maybe they just found the irony hilarious, that they made it to the place but with no further time left, and thus simply kickstarted the pirate golden age.
i read some comments on reddit pointing out that maybe they all laughed because of their interpretation of one piece, calling back to when rayleigh said to the strawhats that maybe they'll come to a different conclusion than roger's crew. will be very interesting to see the seemingly ambiguous nature of one piece, considering that nobody prolly knew much about the history of the world on roger's crew, while luffy has robin to help get a proper understanding
a few things for which im excited:
- does oden go to whitebeard first, and then to wano with whitebeard, or does roger drop him off at wano
- is kaido already at wano when oden arrives(maybe the answer is already in the timeline and i've forgotten if there's still some time before oden dies?)
- how do whitebeard's and roger's crew react when they find out about oden's death, if they do ever find out
- if they don't find out about kaido killing oden, whitebeard still would've thought of once again meeting oden, so he still would've somehow discovered, so im guessing he would've gone to kill kaido for sure - is this where big mom's debt comes in?
edit: also i wonder if oden choosing to go with roger instead of returning to wano will play a big role in the usurping, like why some of the population is happy under orochi's rule(they can't all be just corrupt/bad people, the general public in main towns seems to be content), and maybe if whoever the spy is among the revolutionaries, did they betray oden because of this
i've heard the usopp-like disease name that buggy had was just translators putting in by themselves and it might have been an actual illness(crocus was there, and shanks stayed behind with buggy). would be weird if it's just buggy pretending, cos they've sailed for a long ass time and everyone knows each other and would call buggy's bluff, and idt buggy would grow cold feet here. so shanks and buggy made it almost all the way, but don't know what one piece really is. maybe buggy and luffy will go there together and buggy will have an emotional moment. also arctic vs antartic goes all the way back to chapter 19, cool callback shanks and buggy maybe never resolved this (tho in chapter 19 the crew seems so skeptical of devil fruits even being real so im confused)
i think almost everyone believes that what roger discovered made him laugh just cos he can't do anything with it, since he'll be dying very soon. maybe they just found the irony hilarious, that they made it to the place but with no further time left, and thus simply kickstarted the pirate golden age.
i read some comments on reddit pointing out that maybe they all laughed because of their interpretation of one piece, calling back to when rayleigh said to the strawhats that maybe they'll come to a different conclusion than roger's crew. will be very interesting to see the seemingly ambiguous nature of one piece, considering that nobody prolly knew much about the history of the world on roger's crew, while luffy has robin to help get a proper understanding
a few things for which im excited:
- does oden go to whitebeard first, and then to wano with whitebeard, or does roger drop him off at wano
- is kaido already at wano when oden arrives(maybe the answer is already in the timeline and i've forgotten if there's still some time before oden dies?)
- how do whitebeard's and roger's crew react when they find out about oden's death, if they do ever find out
- if they don't find out about kaido killing oden, whitebeard still would've thought of once again meeting oden, so he still would've somehow discovered, so im guessing he would've gone to kill kaido for sure - is this where big mom's debt comes in?
edit: also i wonder if oden choosing to go with roger instead of returning to wano will play a big role in the usurping, like why some of the population is happy under orochi's rule(they can't all be just corrupt/bad people, the general public in main towns seems to be content), and maybe if whoever the spy is among the revolutionaries, did they betray oden because of this
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1) We saw the Roger pirates offering their help to him on the journey to Wano so I assume he didn't return to Whitebeard.
2) We are not told yet when Kaido set foot in Wano.
3) Since Wano is not affiliated with the WG, I guess they didn't find out until it's too late.
a) Roger surrendered to the Marines not long after while the rest already lived their own lives (Corcus with Laboon, Rayleigh with Shakky, Buggy and Shanks with their crew).
b) Whitebeard doesn't seem like the type to meddle in other country's political affairs. Attacking Wano will endanger members of his crew while leaving his territory unguarded.
4) Probably. I'm still thinking of 3b. With Ace, Whitebeard wanted Ace to succeed him so he attacked the Marines to rescue him. While he was fond of Oden,it doesn't make sense for him to risk his crew to go to Wano since there wasn't anyone to be rescued.
"Laugh Tale."
I... don't even know what to do with this.
From what I can gather, it means whatever's on that island is a repository of incredible information. Why Roger and crew is laughing about it though, I'm not sure. Maybe it is literally a funny story. Which Joy Boy left around in One Piece. I mean, that'd be a ridiculous buildup to a punchline, but it'd be worth it because of the journey.
Is One Piece actually already this meta?
I... don't even know what to do with this.
From what I can gather, it means whatever's on that island is a repository of incredible information. Why Roger and crew is laughing about it though, I'm not sure. Maybe it is literally a funny story. Which Joy Boy left around in One Piece. I mean, that'd be a ridiculous buildup to a punchline, but it'd be worth it because of the journey.
Is One Piece actually already this meta?
Apparently, there were a lot of mistakes in the early scanlations of chapter 967. I'll just link the correct translations here.
A theory if that the last Rio Poneglyph is there and thus the full "true history" but the reason why they were laughing is beause they couldn't do anything about it. They may have found out the history of the world and the key to all of the ancient weapons, but couldn't access them. Hints to this in the chapter are Shirahoshi's birth being after Roger's death. When the SHs met Rayleigh, he specifically mentioned being too early, and also that the SHs may meet a different conclusion - maybe the info is a bit ambiguous? But depending on the history, it could foreshadow the great earth-shaking war (unless that's Wano!!!)
Safe to say that Orochi is now one of the fandom's most hated characters from One Piece. Quite impressive to be in the company of people like St. Carlos, Spandam, Doflamingo, Blackbeard and Akainu.
Kanjuro being introduced in chapter 700, 274 chapters later, crazy
If we really think about it, there seems to be a lot of similarities between Kanjuro and Sosuke Aizen from Bleach.
1) Both of them used the phrase , "The X that you know never existed."
2) We hardly know things about them except having an interest in arts.
3) Both of them betrayed a giant dog and a double-agent who has been biding his time.
2) We hardly know things about them except having an interest in arts.
3) Both of them betrayed a giant dog and a double-agent who has been biding his time.
Kinda seems like the worst twist in One Piece history. Even though the "traitor theory" was well documented, it could have been literally anyone if you just say "such an actor they would have died for their cause".
im sure there's lots more to kanjuro being the traitor than being a kurozumi and a method actor. what we learnt was just from orochi, and he isn't the brightest of lads out there, or the most perceiving of other people - he just found a man that he thought he can use, and understands only rudimentary reasons for kanjuro accepting to do the job i.e. kurozumi family and actor. he did say that it's creepy, and that's cos orochi himself doesn't fully understand why kanjuro agreed to do such a job
im interested to know when exactly kanjuro got his devil fruit. he used to sell brushes, so i imagine he was an artist and half-decent at drawing too, but inu said they didn't think kanjuro could draw. and a weird thing about this is that kinemon would at least know kanjuro is right handed, so why did he not question it when kanjuro drew everything with his left. or did he only start drawing after he got his devil fruit, cos i would assume orochi only met kanjuro after oden, and everyone was ok cos this artist drew with his left and did everything else with his right o.o
Chapter 975 is pretty good imo.
The spread of the three captains is a nice callback to SA many years ago. Luffy using Boundman seemed to hint at him being more proficient in Gear 4 now.
Just in case you forgot what happened about the "Meeting Place", I'll recap them here.
1) Originally, they were supposed to meet at Port Habu (Habu Minato in Japanese). Habu is a type of snake in Japanese.
2) Since Orochi found out about it, Yasuie added two lines to the snake drawing.
3) Kinemon explained that adding two lines to a snake means adding two pairs of legs making it a lizard. This means they have to gather at Port Tokage (Tokage Minato). This is because Tokage means lizard in Japanese.
4) Every other samurai in Wano however, interpreted it differently. They thought that adding two lines to a snake means you cut out its belly. This means that you "cut out the middle". Therefore, Habu Minato has been changed to Hato.
5) Hato means wharf in Japanese. Therefore, everyone else except Red Scabbards and SHs gathered at the wharf of Port Habu.
6) Denjirou praised Kinemon for misleading Orochi and his traitor.
7) Look at Kinemon's face at the end. It's hilarious.
Just in case you forgot what happened about the "Meeting Place", I'll recap them here.
1) Originally, they were supposed to meet at Port Habu (Habu Minato in Japanese). Habu is a type of snake in Japanese.
2) Since Orochi found out about it, Yasuie added two lines to the snake drawing.
3) Kinemon explained that adding two lines to a snake means adding two pairs of legs making it a lizard. This means they have to gather at Port Tokage (Tokage Minato). This is because Tokage means lizard in Japanese.
4) Every other samurai in Wano however, interpreted it differently. They thought that adding two lines to a snake means you cut out its belly. This means that you "cut out the middle". Therefore, Habu Minato has been changed to Hato.
5) Hato means wharf in Japanese. Therefore, everyone else except Red Scabbards and SHs gathered at the wharf of Port Habu.
6) Denjirou praised Kinemon for misleading Orochi and his traitor.
7) Look at Kinemon's face at the end. It's hilarious.
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Seems Kidd has his own boundman-esque form too, I’m just so effing keen for this fight to begin now.
Also Luffy wearing a coat finally is hype af
Meanwhile, Law uses the same technique since SA
The Helmsman is back! Right in the middle of a crazy battle!
Yass.
Yass.
So Kanjuro is not just a traitor but also a racist. Their talking actually cost them as Kanjuro is able to draw a bird and uses some Cloud Ink Needle attack.
I hope Jinbei's monologue turns into a quality copypasta in the future.
I hope Jinbei's monologue turns into a quality copypasta in the future.
Kanjuro has
Here's a crazy theory I've discussed with an irl friend, but remember the globe in Ohara before it was destroyed? That might not necessarily be a geocentric system that we would know of on Earth, but rather that the island planet that One Piece takes place on is surrounded by multiple moons, and Laugh Tale is only one of them. That final "island" in question is stated to be hidden and can only be accessed by finding all four Road Poneglyphs, but Lodestar is supposedly the final island guided by a Log Pose. There is also a moon called Fairy Vearth that Enel mentioned in Skypiea, but that might be a different moon, unless it is just a Skypiean name.
Teal;deer: I'm thinking that Laugh Tale is on a moon.
Teal;deer: I'm thinking that Laugh Tale is on a moon.
Diophantine
Banned deucer.
Hey, I haven't posted here before for some reason but I guess I should. One Piece is one of, if not, my favourite anime series. I started it when I was 8 when I watched the English dub on Toonami until the Alabasta arc when I started reading the manga. My favourite arc is the Enies Lobby/Water 7 arc and my favourite non-Luffy character (because saying Luffy is a cop out!) is Nico Robin. She had a great first impression, her personality adds a different dimension to the comedy and interactions in the crew, she has a great character design, had an incredibly compelling backstory, her big arc completely changed One Piece, and she is essential to the lore of the series. My favourite fight is probably Luffy vs Rob Lucci.
Lately I've been thinking a lot about Zoro, his involvement in Wano, and his future. WARNING HEAVY SPOILERS!!! Don't read unless you've at least finished the Oden flashback.
Superrrr excited to see how this arc plays out!
Lately I've been thinking a lot about Zoro, his involvement in Wano, and his future. WARNING HEAVY SPOILERS!!! Don't read unless you've at least finished the Oden flashback.
Set-up for Zoro's arc in Wano:
I believe that Oda is giving all of the East Blue Straw Hats their own arcs. Now yes, the Straw Hats are all the main characters of One Piece, but I think that Oda puts a larger emphasis on the original 5 East Blue members (perhaps you could make an argument for Robin given her importance to the plot and the fact that she already had an entire arc centred around her, but I think it's a loose one). These 5 usually play bigger roles in storylines, and feel like the main core of the crew. Luffy's main traits are represented by the other four characters. His willpower is represented by Zoro, his lack of common sense is compensated by Nami, his adventurers' spirit is represented by Usopp and his dreamer's personality is represented by Sanji (go back and watch Sanji and Luffy discuss All Blue in the Baratie arc).
Sanji already had Whole Cake Island; Usopp is heavily foreshadowed to have Elbaf as his main arc given his interactions with the giants at Little Garden and Enies Lobby; I believe Nami, while this is a weaker case, will have Raftel as her main island arc - Skypeia had a lot of foreshadowing by showing Nami's importance to Luffy as a navigator, where she repeatedly gets him to where he needs to be in near-death situations such as getting him to Skypeia and assisting him in his fight against Enel.
Zoro's arrival on Wano has been foreshadowed in the Thriller Bark arc as he defeated Ryuma and earned his sword Shusui, the national treasure of Wano. Wano is also known as the country of the greatest swordsmen of history. Furthermore, Zoro's prized possession, the Wado Ichimonji which he inherited from his late rival Kuina, has been revealed to have been created in Wano. Zoro has had the most screen-time out of any character in the Wano arc excluding Luffy. He has a personal vendetta against Orochi, unlike any of the other main cast who are fighting him because they need to, and even has a love interest. Everything is shaping up for Wano to be Zoro's arc. Very small point but one I figured I'd mention, Wano is the "Ancient Japan" island much like Dressrosa is the "Spain" island and Alabasta is the "Arabic" island (get it? ARABasta!). In an interview, Oda revealed the hypothetical nationalities of the Strawhats if they were from the real world. Luffy was Brazilian, Nami was Swedish, Chopper Canadian, Franky American, Usopp South African, Sanji French, Robin Russian, Brook Austrian and, you guessed it, Zoro was Japanese.
Superficial similarities between Zoro and Oden:
Zoro and Oden were the only people ever to be able to use the sword Enma without fainting. Zoro and Oden both use multiple swords to fight. Zoro is part of the future Pirate King's crew, while Oden was part of the previous Pirate King's crew. Oden was bad at navigating and Zoro is perhaps even worse. Zoro slayed the dragon on Punk Hazard in a near identical fashion as Oden slaying the giant boar in the flashback. Zoro has set a goal of taking down Oden's worst enemy. Zoro hunted pirates, Oden fought the Yakuza. There are probably more that I can't think of off the top of my head, but there are many similarities there.
Character similarities between Zoro and Oden:
Oden and Zoro are both great leaders. Oden inspired the Scabbards who pledged their unyielding debt to him. While Zoro doesn't often show leadership - as Luffy is the captain of the crew - he does show these qualities. The Usopp incident in Water 7 is perhaps the greatest example of this. Oden holding up the Scabbards in the boiling pot to prevent their execution is pretty much the same situation when Zoro risked his life to stop Kuma from capturing Luffy. They are both willing to sacrifice their lives and dreams for their loved ones. Oden willingly gave up on his trial to join the Whitebeard Pirates when he heard Amatsuki Toki calling out for help, choosing to save her even if it meant he could not join their crew. Even smaller similarities like how Oden was initially annoyed by Kinemon and Denjiro, while Zoro is annoyed by Sanji, Luffy and Usopp.
Inherited will:
I don't think that Zoro is the "reincarnation" of Oden in the traditional sense like how Naruto deals with reincarnation. Zoro and Oden, while very similar, have enough character traits to separate each other. However, One Piece has a recurring theme of inherited will. Among Roger's last words were "There are three things that cannot be stopped: the dream of men, the flow of time and inherited will. As long as people continue to seek the true meaning of freedom, they will never ceased to be!". Luffy inheriting Roger's hat symbolises the inherited will. Luffy's greatest motivator is freedom. He seeks freedom for himself and others. This drives his goal of being Pirate King, and forms his moral compass, as he judges people entirely based on his own experiences with them. Zoro inheriting Oden's Enma can be seen similarly. Oda places a lot of meaning behind Zoro's swords, how he acquires them, and what they mean for him. Kuina's sword represents his dream, and the "cursed" sword from Loguetown represents his attitude to seemingly dangerous and impossible feats. Enma has not yet had any personal meaning for Zoro yet, so it's not too farfetched to assume that it represents Oden's will.
Zoro's future:
With so many things going on in Wano right now, it seems like there's not enough time to really make this a "Zoro" arc. It's not like Whole Cake Island, where Sanji was the centre-piece of it. However, Zoro is most likely going to be the person to liberate Wano due to his promise to Hiyori to take down Orochi, coupled with the inherited will from Oden. How he does that, I don't know. It will most likely involve him taking down someone powerful in a Luffy vs Katakuri type battle, or it may be Zoro literally taking down Orochi himself. Many can see the alliance failing to take down Kaido, and perhaps this can give Zoro an opportunity to turn the tide in the second battle. I can see Zoro taking lead of the Scabbards and settling down in Wano once he achieves both his and Luffy's goal.
I believe that Oda is giving all of the East Blue Straw Hats their own arcs. Now yes, the Straw Hats are all the main characters of One Piece, but I think that Oda puts a larger emphasis on the original 5 East Blue members (perhaps you could make an argument for Robin given her importance to the plot and the fact that she already had an entire arc centred around her, but I think it's a loose one). These 5 usually play bigger roles in storylines, and feel like the main core of the crew. Luffy's main traits are represented by the other four characters. His willpower is represented by Zoro, his lack of common sense is compensated by Nami, his adventurers' spirit is represented by Usopp and his dreamer's personality is represented by Sanji (go back and watch Sanji and Luffy discuss All Blue in the Baratie arc).
Sanji already had Whole Cake Island; Usopp is heavily foreshadowed to have Elbaf as his main arc given his interactions with the giants at Little Garden and Enies Lobby; I believe Nami, while this is a weaker case, will have Raftel as her main island arc - Skypeia had a lot of foreshadowing by showing Nami's importance to Luffy as a navigator, where she repeatedly gets him to where he needs to be in near-death situations such as getting him to Skypeia and assisting him in his fight against Enel.
Zoro's arrival on Wano has been foreshadowed in the Thriller Bark arc as he defeated Ryuma and earned his sword Shusui, the national treasure of Wano. Wano is also known as the country of the greatest swordsmen of history. Furthermore, Zoro's prized possession, the Wado Ichimonji which he inherited from his late rival Kuina, has been revealed to have been created in Wano. Zoro has had the most screen-time out of any character in the Wano arc excluding Luffy. He has a personal vendetta against Orochi, unlike any of the other main cast who are fighting him because they need to, and even has a love interest. Everything is shaping up for Wano to be Zoro's arc. Very small point but one I figured I'd mention, Wano is the "Ancient Japan" island much like Dressrosa is the "Spain" island and Alabasta is the "Arabic" island (get it? ARABasta!). In an interview, Oda revealed the hypothetical nationalities of the Strawhats if they were from the real world. Luffy was Brazilian, Nami was Swedish, Chopper Canadian, Franky American, Usopp South African, Sanji French, Robin Russian, Brook Austrian and, you guessed it, Zoro was Japanese.
Superficial similarities between Zoro and Oden:
Zoro and Oden were the only people ever to be able to use the sword Enma without fainting. Zoro and Oden both use multiple swords to fight. Zoro is part of the future Pirate King's crew, while Oden was part of the previous Pirate King's crew. Oden was bad at navigating and Zoro is perhaps even worse. Zoro slayed the dragon on Punk Hazard in a near identical fashion as Oden slaying the giant boar in the flashback. Zoro has set a goal of taking down Oden's worst enemy. Zoro hunted pirates, Oden fought the Yakuza. There are probably more that I can't think of off the top of my head, but there are many similarities there.
Character similarities between Zoro and Oden:
Oden and Zoro are both great leaders. Oden inspired the Scabbards who pledged their unyielding debt to him. While Zoro doesn't often show leadership - as Luffy is the captain of the crew - he does show these qualities. The Usopp incident in Water 7 is perhaps the greatest example of this. Oden holding up the Scabbards in the boiling pot to prevent their execution is pretty much the same situation when Zoro risked his life to stop Kuma from capturing Luffy. They are both willing to sacrifice their lives and dreams for their loved ones. Oden willingly gave up on his trial to join the Whitebeard Pirates when he heard Amatsuki Toki calling out for help, choosing to save her even if it meant he could not join their crew. Even smaller similarities like how Oden was initially annoyed by Kinemon and Denjiro, while Zoro is annoyed by Sanji, Luffy and Usopp.
Inherited will:
I don't think that Zoro is the "reincarnation" of Oden in the traditional sense like how Naruto deals with reincarnation. Zoro and Oden, while very similar, have enough character traits to separate each other. However, One Piece has a recurring theme of inherited will. Among Roger's last words were "There are three things that cannot be stopped: the dream of men, the flow of time and inherited will. As long as people continue to seek the true meaning of freedom, they will never ceased to be!". Luffy inheriting Roger's hat symbolises the inherited will. Luffy's greatest motivator is freedom. He seeks freedom for himself and others. This drives his goal of being Pirate King, and forms his moral compass, as he judges people entirely based on his own experiences with them. Zoro inheriting Oden's Enma can be seen similarly. Oda places a lot of meaning behind Zoro's swords, how he acquires them, and what they mean for him. Kuina's sword represents his dream, and the "cursed" sword from Loguetown represents his attitude to seemingly dangerous and impossible feats. Enma has not yet had any personal meaning for Zoro yet, so it's not too farfetched to assume that it represents Oden's will.
Zoro's future:
With so many things going on in Wano right now, it seems like there's not enough time to really make this a "Zoro" arc. It's not like Whole Cake Island, where Sanji was the centre-piece of it. However, Zoro is most likely going to be the person to liberate Wano due to his promise to Hiyori to take down Orochi, coupled with the inherited will from Oden. How he does that, I don't know. It will most likely involve him taking down someone powerful in a Luffy vs Katakuri type battle, or it may be Zoro literally taking down Orochi himself. Many can see the alliance failing to take down Kaido, and perhaps this can give Zoro an opportunity to turn the tide in the second battle. I can see Zoro taking lead of the Scabbards and settling down in Wano once he achieves both his and Luffy's goal.
Superrrr excited to see how this arc plays out!
Just curious, are you a fan of the One Piece YouTuber Mr. Morj by any chance? He recently released a video on exactly this, and yeah it's some rock solid analysis and predictions. If you have then it's pretty awesome to see another fan of his out elsewhere in the internet, and if not then man I can't recommend his videos enough his understanding of the story's themes and style are insane and really makes it easy to appreciate it all on another level.
I'm honestly really surprised to see so many people all over the net talking about Elbaf.
I've got to be honest, I've 100% written it off.
We've got so many loose ends to tie up in the (ever rolling) 5 years of One Piece we have left. World Government, Akainu and the admirals, Im, Revolutionaries, the Reverie, Uranus, Shanks and Blackbeard, the Underground, Vegapunk, what did Doflamingo have over the Celestial Dragons, the destruction of Fish-Man Island and the purpose of the Ark, several Worst Generation pirates that have had fuck-all screentime, what's the deal with Edward Weevil, Zoro beating Mihawk, and then a whole host of other stuff that I can only assume will be dealt with on Laughtale (Void Century, Will of D, Joyboy, the One Piece, etc).
The time where we bounced from fantastic location to fantastic location is long behind us. We've been plot railroaded ever since Punk Hazard. Wano is the culmination of 8 years worth of plot and I cannot believe that we'll be going to Elbaf next just because it's a place Usopp said he'd like to visit 20 years ago. Locations in One Piece are much more heavily foreshadowed than that now and wherever we go next, we'll A. know it before Wano is over and B. I would bet anything will be World Government related. Mariejois would be especially apt as half the stuff I mentioned is there, but New Marineford wouldn't surprise me either. If the Road Poneglyph ended up on Mariejois, that would be geographically close to Fish-Man Island, meaning that it's a believable place for it to have ended up and we can deal with Fish-Man Island loose ends while dealing with World Government loose ends that are all conveniently in one spot right now.
So what exactly is the point of going to Elbaf?
Usopp is the only Strawhat to have already achieved his original goal (become a great warrior). You don't see anyone chomping at the bit to find the All Blue or entertaining any notion that we're gonna map all the seas in the world, but we have to go to Elbaf to make Usopp a warrior when he already is a damn fine one?
Now everyone is saying that each East Blue Strawhat needs their own arc, which is a really good theory if it pans out for Zoro (though Wano sure is taking its sweet time on that end). Because not only did Sanji get an arc recently, Usopp already had a major arc where he became a deity. Hajrudin has already pledged the giants to serve God Usopp, so what could possibly happen on Elbaf but "Hi, nice country, oh you have the Fish-Man Island Road Poneglyph for some reason, that's cool, bye!"
To be frank, Island with big people is hardly even creative enough for One Piece anymore. Wanting to see a place just because it was name dropped a long time ago didn't work out so well for Fish-Man Island.
So while I'm sure that at one point in time there was a One Piece draft that involved a stop at Elbaf, I just don't see it unless One Piece drags on for 10 more years. I wouldn't eat my hat over it, but it just doesn't make nearly enough sense that everyone would be in agreement. If One Piece is really to end soonish, then I'd bet it's Mariejois->Laughtale. If he's full of shit and he might be, then I still wouldn't give Elbaf even a 50% chance as I think it's narratively dead.
I've got to be honest, I've 100% written it off.
We've got so many loose ends to tie up in the (ever rolling) 5 years of One Piece we have left. World Government, Akainu and the admirals, Im, Revolutionaries, the Reverie, Uranus, Shanks and Blackbeard, the Underground, Vegapunk, what did Doflamingo have over the Celestial Dragons, the destruction of Fish-Man Island and the purpose of the Ark, several Worst Generation pirates that have had fuck-all screentime, what's the deal with Edward Weevil, Zoro beating Mihawk, and then a whole host of other stuff that I can only assume will be dealt with on Laughtale (Void Century, Will of D, Joyboy, the One Piece, etc).
The time where we bounced from fantastic location to fantastic location is long behind us. We've been plot railroaded ever since Punk Hazard. Wano is the culmination of 8 years worth of plot and I cannot believe that we'll be going to Elbaf next just because it's a place Usopp said he'd like to visit 20 years ago. Locations in One Piece are much more heavily foreshadowed than that now and wherever we go next, we'll A. know it before Wano is over and B. I would bet anything will be World Government related. Mariejois would be especially apt as half the stuff I mentioned is there, but New Marineford wouldn't surprise me either. If the Road Poneglyph ended up on Mariejois, that would be geographically close to Fish-Man Island, meaning that it's a believable place for it to have ended up and we can deal with Fish-Man Island loose ends while dealing with World Government loose ends that are all conveniently in one spot right now.
So what exactly is the point of going to Elbaf?
Usopp is the only Strawhat to have already achieved his original goal (become a great warrior). You don't see anyone chomping at the bit to find the All Blue or entertaining any notion that we're gonna map all the seas in the world, but we have to go to Elbaf to make Usopp a warrior when he already is a damn fine one?
Now everyone is saying that each East Blue Strawhat needs their own arc, which is a really good theory if it pans out for Zoro (though Wano sure is taking its sweet time on that end). Because not only did Sanji get an arc recently, Usopp already had a major arc where he became a deity. Hajrudin has already pledged the giants to serve God Usopp, so what could possibly happen on Elbaf but "Hi, nice country, oh you have the Fish-Man Island Road Poneglyph for some reason, that's cool, bye!"
To be frank, Island with big people is hardly even creative enough for One Piece anymore. Wanting to see a place just because it was name dropped a long time ago didn't work out so well for Fish-Man Island.
So while I'm sure that at one point in time there was a One Piece draft that involved a stop at Elbaf, I just don't see it unless One Piece drags on for 10 more years. I wouldn't eat my hat over it, but it just doesn't make nearly enough sense that everyone would be in agreement. If One Piece is really to end soonish, then I'd bet it's Mariejois->Laughtale. If he's full of shit and he might be, then I still wouldn't give Elbaf even a 50% chance as I think it's narratively dead.