So, where the Egghead arc may go after Ch 1090?
The way the Egghead arc was cut off in Ch 1079, to cover other stuff for 10 chapters, was very unusual. When we left, stakes and action seemed to be ramping up. 2 Vegapunks were dead, one other and 2 Straw Hats were petrified. The strongest crewmates were able to fight the Seraphim, but were struggiling to damage them.
The villain had just been unveiled, and she had cunning, trickery and prep time on her side. In theory, she could lock everyone's boots, use holograms, or had bubbles against DF users.
If you say: "But York was a lame villain", I'll reply that she had JUST been unveiled and had no chance yet to show how cunning or interesting she could have been. She could be a great villain if Oda wanted it.
So, the arc was cut off just as it was getting interesting. I expected Oda to build on that momentum the arc was building up. Why waste the ongoing action? If done was I imagined, we would return to Egghead some time later, with the crew in an even direr situation. The crew would be in a very perilous position when the marines arrive...
Obviously, that's not what happened. The crew was mostly fine, York was exposed and captured, the Seraphim was neutralized, the petrification victims were fine. Instead of tension skyrocketing with the marines arrival, we find things in favor of the Straw Hats' escape.
So... I find it very strange that Oda chose to defuse the entire situation, discard all speed the arc had achieved, and resume it from scratch. Momentum now needs to be built up all over again.
This leaves a question: where in the arc's structure are we now? For all we know, the arc could be in one of three stages:
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1- Reset: The arc has been restarted. Everything prior was just a prologue to the real story.
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2- Final act: We are near the arc's climax. This is the final conflict, the big challenge the heroes face to achieve victory.
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3- Conclusion: The arc is actually over. We covered everything Egghead had to cover and all that is left to do is the heroes to escape. There's no major battle ahead, just the challenge of avoiding one. Any dangling plot hooks were left to be resolved on future arcs.
Currently, I have no idea which option is the correct one. I can see merits and flaws in all three, so I'll discuss each possibility.
Let's cover them from last to first, shall we?
Conclusion?
So, if we are near the Conclusion: A change in setting may be good for the story. Many readers are already more interested in Elbaf than Egghead, for instance. This arc's weird structure and uneven pace made it uninteresting for them.
In this case, there will be just a minor clash with the marines. The escape plan goes well, and the crew moves forward to their next destination. THe marines will probably keep in pursuit, so this battle's setup is not wasted, only bound to change location.
Personally, I find this option frustrating. It's a waste to squander all of Egghead's possibilities in favor of just going on ahead. Plus, this conclusion just goes against all the "Egghead incident" hype. Something big that "shocks the world" should happen in Egghead.
Final Act?
So, maybe we are at the start of the Final Act?
The big battle that caps the arc is about to begin. The final bosses are here, we have to deal with them. In this case, we have a few dozen chapters before the conclusion, and we will get real fights and stakes.
In this case, the Straw Hats' escape attempt will suffer setbacks. They will need to first deal with whatever obstacles in their path, and that leads to conflict. Once the challenges are over, the crew leaves the island in victory. Something shocking shakes the world.
The problem with us nearing the climax now is that... the arc so far feels barely connected. In the arc's starting act the incoming marine fleet was just a looming threat. Saturn and Kizaru were hyped but no presence. Then the arc's middle act covered a lot of unrelated stuff.
While everything up to this point gave us explanation on why and how things came to this, this marine force we are fighting had no chance to be developed.
- Do you care about those vice-admirals?
- Is Kizaru that much of a threat against an Emperor?
- How powerful is Saturn?
Don't you want to get a glimpse of the vice-admirals' personalities and powers BEFORE we reach the point to defeat them?
Don't you want to see Kizaru actually show how fearsome he is, instead of he being defeated in his first clash with Emperor of the Sea Luffy? If we are rushing to the climax, I fear the battle may have a lot of hype and very little substance. Yay, we get some match-ups against guys we have barely seen! Yay, the Straw Hats win! Victory!
As such, maybe the last option could be the right one.
Reset?
In this case, the arc may have indeed been reset.
If that's right, the Straw Hat's escape plan won't just fail, but fail catastrophically. Maybe the first thing Kizaru does upon arriving on Labophase is destroy the Vegaforce robot and push the Sunny to Fabriophase bellow.
This would mean we'd have not just the final clash with the marines, but the first of many. The crew gets escattered and must not only survive in an island being taken over by the enemy forces but also regroup before they can even make another escape plan...
Now THAT would be a desperate situation. Now we'd could see the Vice-admirals in action before any match-ups against them. Now we can further explore the Vegapunks and Bonney's story before we leave Egghead. Now we have need for allies and time for their arrival.
The problem with this, of course, is that would mean we still have 3 or 4 dozen chapters left in Egghead. Like said before, there's some fatigue over this arc due to how it was structured, so to many the prospect of spending another whole year here may not be that alluring.
Like I said, I can't pinpoint which option Oda is taking. We may need anywhere between one and three chapters before we may be sure of what path lies ahead.
So, which route do you feel is the best one?