@Count:
Quality over quantity. Plenty of the islands early on in the Grand Line (mainly in the Alabasta saga) are largely unmemorable and only served to build-up future plot threads. This stage of the game in the second act of the series is a lot more intense with all of these plot threads finally starting to converge, and thus need bigger arcs without as much open-ended freedom in possibility. I might be a bit disappointing, but it's also exciting to finally focus on islands that have been teased for so long since pre-timeskip like Wano Country and Elbaf.
And like Strooger said, I doubt that we're JUST going to have Wano, Elbaf, and Raftel to encompass the rest of the New World. I don't expect many more islands, but at least a couple more besides them. Mainly some sort of Vegapunk-centric arc, and we might possibly see the island all the way at the end of the New World even though it is no longer essential for finding Raftel (you have to admit that after years of thinking that was where Raftel was, it would be a bit cheap to not at least see what would have been there. Especially since it is supposed to reveal the existence of the Poneglyphs). Also, we have to return to Fishman Island at some point due to Shirley's prophecy, although that might be in the Final War or after Raftel (but when Raftel will take place in relation to the Final War is up for much debate in general).
I definitely hope that we get another arc that feels a bit more standalone while still somewhat connected to the main narrative like Skypiea was, like you already mentioned. Elbaf might fill in that quota, especially since it doesn't seem to be affiliated with any of the Yonko (but if it is, I bet it would be Shanks). It would be pretty awesome if that was a Skypiea-esque arc and all eleven Straw Hats were fully formed by that point to allow for a memorable solo pirate adventure that gives the whole cast signature moments and bonding time before the finale. Although we can't even have a Zou-length arc that is COMPLETELY displaced from the main One Piece narrative at this point, especially after Luffy defeats Kaido (which will probably have HUGE consequences across the world). And we still don't know where the fourth Road Poneglyph is. We're most likely going to have somewhere around 1200-1500 chapters for One Piece's overall manga length, so we should have more faith in Oda.
These are legitimate counterarguments to my points, as are the ones others have made as a response to my post.
You're right that the New World has another narrative structure as Paradise. Being in the second half of the series, this is pretty much a necessity, because we're now in a phase where the payoffs begin.
Still, I think it's also a necessity to not wholly loose the adventure aspect of the series. But yeah, Elbaf could present an opportunity to do something like this after Wano and before Raftel. I always imagine the Giant's Island to resemble Iceland.
I think you're REALLY pushing how big a flashback like this would be. It is inevitable, and it will be the biggest flashback in the series. But it's not going to be forty-fifty chapters lol. You underestimate Oda's flashback pacing. And he is never going to have Luffy out of the story for anywhere near that long. Dressrosa had a bunch of flashbacks all over the place, and they didn't take even half that long in total. The most we've ever seen Luffy be left out of the manga is less than twenty chapters in-between his defeat by Crocodile at Alabasta (where we still saw a glimpse of Robin saving him) and however long he was swallowed by the Skypiea snake. I wouldn't expect a Void Century flashback to last much longer than Zou, which was over twenty chapters. That's already a HUGE amount of time for a flashback compared to what we're used to.
The True History flashback is not just another generic island story, but the whole point where the story will have led to in probably over 25 years and the point where the eponymous One Piece will be revealed. If there's any point in the story where Oda is allowed to deviate from his usual narrative patterns, it would be this.
Also, I think you're underestimating what has to be covered in this flashback:
http://onepiecepodcast.com/2015/07/22/the-one-piece-connection/
Yes the pacing in flashbacks is faster than usual, but this thing will be when it comes to its importance to the story something on a completely different level than anything so far or in the next few years. Wouldn't it be a fitting moment to do something momentous and not just give us a longer flashback, but a flashback which is like a larger story in itself?
This is the solution to the puzzle, where clues have been laid out not just in one arc but over the entire story. 20/25 chapters sounds much too short for this…
Raftel in present time can't really be all that long since it's unlikely for anybody to still be living there (although we never know). It will probably just be the Straw Hats and maybe the Blackbeard Pirates. One Piece arcs are so ridiculously long compared to other shonen manga because of the huge island casts that Oda has to juggle. He won't have to deal with that in Raftel besides the Void Century flashback. As a series, One Piece is typically moreso about how island casts react to the Straw Hats rather than the adventure rotating around their character development in most arcs. At most, it will probably be around Punk Hazard-length in total, which is forty-fifty chapters (not counting its beginning or ending focusing on other simultaneous scenes across the world).
I disagree. Raftel - or another place during Raftel - has always struck me as the point in the story, where the Blackbeard Pirates vs. Red Hair Pirates fight would go down. I really think that Oda has planned something very special for this. For example that the discovery of One Piece conincides with the death of Shanks, the one who incites the adventure in chapter 1. That would add some more chapters to the overall count, not to mention immense dramatic weight.
The face of a Straw Hat.
