@Pirate_King_Sage:
A time skip is very sensible. Previous posts have mentioned that the SH crew has gained power at amazing speeds, true…but that has come to an end. Luffy and crew can barely survive the lasting parts of the Grand Line...and now that we have seen such amazing powers and threats in the War...how is Oda gunna get the SH on par with the threat of the NW? Something has to happen and a time skip would suffice.
I am not talking alot of years here but some sort of skip would be necessary, aren't we already in a sort of time skip with the remaining crew members (kinda sorta maybe?). The time skip (and trust me, I don't like saying time skip) could include the time taken for the SH to reunite to also, as mentioned in a previous post, the time the log pose takes to change directions on Fishman island. Since Jimbei is now an ally of Luffy, it is not unreasonable to assume that the SH stay on fishman island would be somewhat peaceful and allow ample time in Haki/DF Training, as well as even a tiny growth spurt in characters.
During this time, the new era would have properly been placed, Blackbeard Crew would have established themselves as a crew to fear similar to how the WB crew is...which leads me to believe the destruction of the WB crew at this war, or maybe at least WB himself.
This is all speculation and wishes, things can go a totally different route as Oda has proven himself unpredictable most times but this speculation should not be debunked as never going to happen.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
I cry! I remove my bowels with a sharp instrument! I defenestrate my person from a height of 50+ stories! I throw myself in the zoo cage of many hungry sea lions!
I don't want a timeskip. The strawhats have grown in real-time from the extreme hardships that they face. They learn and better themselves by necessity, not by training. They must in order to survive.
I agree they need to get better. But they already are. Luffy is bound to pick up a couple of things from this war, and that should be enough for him to be able to pick fights with some of the low-tier captains in the New World. But his famous deeds will not come from his battle proficiency in the war. He will be dwarfed in battle, but will achieve something that will turn the tide, or at least foil the plans of the Marines in some measure, and earn considerable notoriety. Akainu has already correctly stated that based only on his gene pool he should be eliminated quickly, as he is bound for greatness like his other family members.
But if the change in looks comes it will be from Ivankov's hormones burning time, not due to some 3 month training period. That's my opinion.