@Deicide:
But his actions can lead us to another arc. Caribou is there for a reason, and I don't think a 210 million pirate won't cause trouble. He may not be "the" main villain of an arc, but if he manages to escape with those mermaids, the SH's (and Jinbe) would pursue him.
Like it or not, they exist. Oda would not throw a few lines about them just to forget they ever existed. They'll have some role in the story, and if there's a slavery arc in the future, it would make sense for former slaves to be part of it.
I hope you don't misunderstand me. Of course they're important. They are NOT, however, so important as to set a whole new 20-50 chapter arc around them. A few chapters, sure, but those will fit fine right at the end with the rest of this arc's resolution.
But there's heavy hinting that it will be soon. Also, after the battle the Strawhats may still stay on FI for some time, like they did in Water 7, Alabasta, Thriller Bark… this little timeskip may be enough for Reverie to start.
Anyway, said slavery arc doesn't need Reverie to happen. It could create some incident that would impact Reverie later.
Soon, like maybe a month, which normally equals at least 100 chapters in real time. If it were any sooner, they would have said so, as in, "It's only in one week! We must prepare!" or something.
And hey, maybe instead of a whole new arc based around some problem Caribou MIGHT present, maybe they'll just take care of the last bit of business (Caribou, free his mermaids, etc.), have their party like always, and FINALLY head up to the New World.
I do think, since this arc has failed to touch upon Jinbe's personal dreams so far.
Also, there are even more hints towards more plot coming: Joy Boy, Noah's origins and Vander Decken's treasury (which required Shirahoshi's powers to get to) are so far unexplained and seem to have very little to do with the New Fishman Pirates arc.
Again, none of those things probably need more than a few chapters to expound upon. The most likely case is that the basics of things like Jinbe's dream have been laid out already between the lines, and we just need something concise to tie it all together. As I've pointed out, he's had flashbacks within his flashback to both Otohime concerning Tiger and to Tiger concerning Otohime. He's got most of the pieces, now we just need to see which are left and how he'll put them together. Everything else like Joy Boy and Noah will be explained by Neptune and the like.
The subject of slavery and the Celestial Dragons is sure to be touched upon further. But the point of this part of the story is to show how fishmen have to heal their own hearts too. The need for the next arc to be, "yes, there are evil humans we must battle" is not very strong to me because the point has been that there should not be a grudge against humans as a whole, just as there shouldn't be from humans towards fishmen. There should really be a bit more time to settle from this plot thread before jumping back in. Especially since Jinbe is most likely joining and since his dream will most likely have something to do with the rights of fishmen and humans, the story will most likely return to resolve it.