Official Wano Thread

[Deicide]

If I were to rework Dressrosa to fix the pacing while trying to keep everything as much the same as possible, I'd simply divide it into three arcs:

• The Corrida Coliseum
• Green Bit
• Dressrosa

Essentially, I'd move some of the locations from Dressrosa to a nearby island that is known as a "hive of scum and villainy" where Doflamingo does his shady business. That's where the Coliseum is now located.

First Arc: Corrida Coliseum
Law's plan is a bit different. He gives Doflamingo one more day to decide to take the deal and quit being a Warlord. While waiting for Doflamingo's decision, the Straw Hats + Law first visit this new island to seek info about the Smile Factory's location, since they must be ready to strike it as soon as they reach Dressrosa. Luffy, Kin'emon, Robin and Franky go on this mission and are expected to take a ferry to Dressrosa before next day.

Meanwhile, the Sunny with the other Straw Hats and Law head to Green Bit so they can be sure they can scout it and prepare for the next stage ahead of time.

So, the Coliseum arc contains:

• Introduces the competition and the Mera Mera No Mi prize.
• Rebecca introduction.
• Goes basicly the same with the Chinjao stuff, introducing Sai, Barto, Cavendish, Burgess
• Foreshadows the toys by the disappearing competitors
• Foreshadows Trebol and Sugar
• Foreshadows Viola keeping an watch on everything
• Revolutionary stuff goes here, as they act behind the scenes. Sabo and Luffy reunion, Sabo asks to replace Luffy to recover the Mera Mera no Mi.
• Bellamy actually fights Luffy to assassinate him rather than being taken down off-panel by Dellinger. Bellamy hesitates and gives up, showing he truly changed.
• Koala getting the secrets behind the weapons trade. Robin, Franky and Kin'emon help her. They find some unclear info that foreshadows the mystery of disappearing people but can't fully understand it.
• Bellamy is almost killed by Dellinger as punishment, but ends up saved by Barto.
• In the end, Sabo and Luffy fight off Burgess together away from the coliseum, after Sabo has eaten the Mera Mera no Mi. Burgess is seemly defeated.
• Sabo and Koala stay in the island to continue their operation to steal the weapons, while Rebecca and Barto join with the Straw Hat group as they move to Dressrosa.

Second Arc: Green Bit

• Short arc featuring Law as the "replacement main character".
• Doflamingo resigns from the Warlords
• Usopp and Zoro go into the island with Law and Caesar.
• Because of the fighting fish, Sanji, Nami, Momonosuke, Brook and Chopper remain in the Sunny waiting off-shore to retrieve the others.
• Zoro's sword is taken. Zoro leads to Usopp also getting lost. Dwarf reveal stuff. (No dwarf-in-Robin's-cleavage scene because she's not here in this version)
• Fujitora is introduced here, appearing out of nowhere and being shown as a mysterious Admiral with unclear perspective on justice. Seems to be on Doflamingo's side.
• Essentially the 3-way fight between Fujitora, Doflamingo and Law stays the same. Doflamingo targetting the Sunny. Sanji vs. Doflamingo. Caesar back on the ship. Law resumes fight with Doflamingo.
• Big Mom Pirates appear after Caesar. Slightly more action before Luffy gives them permission to leave for Zou. (Luffy is on route to Dressrosa when they talk via snailphone)
• Law is defeated and captured.
• Fujitora's character further fleshed out, has his conversation with Doflamingo about the abolition of the Warlords.
• Norland connection with dwarves reveZoro and Usopp ally with the dwarves with the "Usolanders" lie.
• Luffy's group arrives in Dressrosa

Third Arc: Dressrosa

• Introduction of the toys and the toy soldier.
• Dressrosa revealed as full of marines.
• Doflamingo family fully revealed. Bellamy revealed to have been punished for his failure.
• SOAP operation starts. The nature of Sugar's powers are kept mysterious a bit longer (only explained way later, just before they attack her). Also, we don't know what happened to the coliseum fighters, as they just seemly disappeared completely in the Coliseum arc)
• Viola changes sides on her own, joins SOAP Operation.
• Viola leads Soldier, Luffy, Zoro and Kin'emon to the palace to save Riku and Law.
• Franky acting as distraction as in the original story.
• Robin, Usopp and the Tontatta infiltrate the factory.
• Essentially, the rest goes as original story: Sugar reveal, Usopp saves the day (I'd make Usopp vs Trebol a bit more fleshed out), the Coliseum fighters revealed to have been turned into toys all along, Kyros revealed to be Rebecca's father, Doflamingo's game, Kin finds Kanjuro, the Sabo and Koala appear to help with the marines… Essentially, everything stays the almost the same.
• One of the few key differences is that there's no Burgess in the final act (Burgess is revealed in Baltigo later as in the original, but that's it), which helps make the Luffy recovery and Birdcage shrinking plots feel a bit faster. Sabo just gets occupied with Fujitora longer.
• Another great change is that we need no Mainard to tarnish the reputation of the Vice-Admirals.

What do you think?
It's essentially the same thing, but less plots at the same time, and readers get the feeling of the story going faster. Also allows for a bit of fleshing out of some small scenes.

[DollarScholar]

Why didn't Kaido just make himself Shogun of Wano at some point? He has shown that he doesn't need Orochi anyways

[Captain M]

He presumably didn't want to micromanage the mines and factories and be personally responsible for keeping the numbers up at those facilities. It's one kind of despotism to simply subdue people through raw might, but it's another kind entirely to forcibly keep a country functional and able profitable on its black market economy. Orochi keeps the weapons in production and stamps out rebellions while Kaido gets to go do pirate shit and/or get drunk all day without sweating the small stuff.

[Riccardo]

Isn't it more about the fact that Kaido is an outsider (a pirate even) and Orochi is a Wano-ese? That way the local people dont feel like they are surpressed by an outside force, while still resulting in Kaido being in control

[Coookie]

@Riccardo:

Isn't it more about the fact that Kaido is an outsider (a pirate even) and Orochi is a Wano-ese? That way the local people dont feel like they are surpressed by an outside force, while still resulting in Kaido being in control

Putting his outsider son in charge doesn't make it any better though

[Chams]

The Beast Pirates are one of the weakest elements in the arc. I still don't see them as a unity. I don't see them as other pirate crews, in the sense of imagining Kaidou sailing with Black Maria and ex cp9 Who's-Who in the same ship. I get that the Beast Pirates are a mix of defeated crews, but that doesn't make them feel like they are working together. From their words the Tobbi Roppo barely hang out with their captain. Do they just hang out around Wano or go on little expeditions?

I'm saying that because the relationship between Kaidou and Wano was simply not shown. Does he regularly hang out there? Talk to wanoese? Adopted any of their customs or habits in the 20 years he lived there? How has he in turn influenced Wano? His Onigashima moving plans represent a desire to be closer to it (like when he looked after the fruit of a wano guardian spirit) or does it mean he is over with the country and people?

[Zik]

@Riccardo:

Isn't it more about the fact that Kaido is an outsider (a pirate even) and Orochi is a Wano-ese? That way the local people dont feel like they are surpressed by an outside force, while still resulting in Kaido being in control

@Coookie:

Putting his outsider son in charge doesn't make it any better though

If thats more of the issue that may hint to Yamato being half Wanoese.

[Tensub]

@astagadragon:

I think the main problem of OP post-TS (beside pacing) is that the arcs have too many things going on at once.

If OP is an RPG, there is a main story quest and side quests every arcs. OP nowadays has too many side quests going on at once the main story quest is dragged out.

Personally I think this is a good thing about Dressrosa and puts it above Arabasta for me. Arabasta went by too quickly without getting attached to the situation of the country or the rebels but the immense detail of Dressrosa helped me form an emotional attachment to its citizens.

[Riccardo]

@Coookie:

Putting his outsider son in charge doesn't make it any better though

Well, according to todays chapter he had his reasons for picking Yamato for future shogun.

[rawrfizzz]

@King:

Crocodile and Moria are neither less unapologetically evil than the likes of Doflamingo. Big Mom or even Orochi.

That's not what I meant. They're obviously evil bastards. But they also have other, positive traits, like Moria braving Blackbeard's lair to get Absalom back, or Crocodile being damaged because he lost his crew. They both care/cared enough about other people to BE affected when they lost them. Can you really see Kaido giving a damn if, say, Jack died? He'd grumble about having to replace him but he wouldn't give a damn emotionally. That's what I mean. Or Doffy, who supposedly cares so much about his family but felt free to order his subordinates to die to save his SAD factory. Villains who have good points versus villains who are just complete dicks with no redeeming qualities.

[Blissed]

@rawrfizzz:

Can you really see Kaido giving a damn if, say, Jack died?

Uh, yes? It wasn't that long ago (Ch. 991) that he went out of his way to protect Jack from getting killed by Sulong Inu and Neko, as well as even refraining from belittling him for losing.

[rawrfizzz]

Well, maybe. I just don't see him getting all despondent and changing his life philosophy over it like with Croc and Moria. I think he'd be bummed but then he'd get drunk and forget about it.

[DollarScholar]

I reread Wano act 1 and have to say it's really fantastic. I don't think I got this invested in a setting before in One Piece since probably Arlong Park.
I think Hiyori might be one of the best female characters Oda has ever done, and Toko might be my favorite adolescent character in the series!

[Chams]

I just noticed that, with Perospero gone, the one leading the Big Mum pirates is Smoothie! That's why they aren't doing anything right now! And even if they manage to climb the waterfall, they will go straight to where Onigashima was located, not knowing the island is already far away.

[Deicide]

@Chams:

I just noticed that, with Perospero gone, the one leading the Big Mum pirates is Smoothie! That's why they aren't doing anything right now! And even if they manage to climb the waterfall, they will go straight to where Onigashima was located, not knowing the island is already far away.

IMO, they are just waiting Perospero to summon them. Either they are in a book with him, and he just needs to open it, or Mont-D'or's powers allow him to portal them between books. Either way, Perospero and a book are the keys for their big comeback. And I think it will happen when Perospero feels he might lose to Neko.

Cue Smoothie, Mont-D'or, Galette and Daifuku coming through, plus some minor ones to act as background noise.

Who will fight them eventually? Jinbe, Usopp, Nami and Chopper, I guess.

[Cockycent]

Out of the 4 fights, Nami and Franky look healthier and more fit to battle than Jinbe and especially Robin. Franky took damage from within the Shogun and Jinbe was taking it head on. I can see them helping out w/ BM, but I think the point is to stall her, while showing how formidable Law and Kid are.

I'm waiting on the next CP0 update. Nice addition to this war.

[Deicide]

@Cockycent:

Out of the 4 fights, Nami and Franky look healthier and more fit to battle than Jinbe and especially Robin. Franky took damage from within the Shogun and Jinbe was taking it head on. I can see them helping out w/ BM, but I think the point is to stall her, while showing how formidable Law and Kid are.

I'm waiting on the next CP0 update. Nice addition to this war.

Nami didn't really have a fight.
Jinbe seems totally fine. A little bleeding here on there, but mostly caused by fodder. He didn't seem weakened at all at the end of his fight. On the contrary, he tanked Who's Who strongest attacks head on and didn't get fazed at all.

[rayleigh92]

Jinbe could just begin another fight against a hidden Tobi Roppo and that wouldn't amaze me at all. That fricking tank has basically rolled Who's-Who without blinking. On the other hand Franky is equally fine, as all the damages has been got by the Shogun, but how much can base Franky endure against the gifters is something we don't know. He seems in the "let's deal with fodders zone" now by the way.

[Sengokusgoat]

I mean, look at the shape Zoro was in and he's gonna come back and probably have a fight. And he's far from the only example we've seen of that in Onigashima. If Oda wants a fight to happen, it's gonna happen.

On an unrelated note, even after all this, I'm still of the opinion there's gonna be 5 acts. But if the content of Volume 101 goes by and Act 3 hasn't ended yet, I'll have to admit defeat. That should be 1026 tops, but I'm gonna make an absolutely baseless prediction and say it ends at 1024, just to make it exactly 100 chapters after the end of Act 1.

[Cockycent]

@Deicide:

Nami didn't really have a fight.
Jinbe seems totally fine. A little bleeding here on there, but mostly caused by fodder. He didn't seem weakened at all at the end of his fight. On the contrary, he tanked Who's Who strongest attacks head on and didn't get fazed at all.

Franky and Nami are in better shape due to receiving less damage. Last time I saw Jinbe, he was standing tall, so he can clearly go again.

Between Sanji's comment about Queen's tech going to Franky and Cipher Pol going after Who's Who (whenever that happens), there is room for BM and others to be an obstacle for Straw Hats who have fought already.

[Zar]

@Sengokusgoat:

I mean, look at the shape Zoro was in and he's gonna come back and probably have a fight. And he's far from the only example we've seen of that in Onigashima. If Oda wants a fight to happen, it's gonna happen.

On an unrelated note, even after all this, I'm still of the opinion there's gonna be 5 acts. But if the content of Volume 101 goes by and Act 3 hasn't ended yet, I'll have to admit defeat. That should be 1026 tops, but I'm gonna make an absolutely baseless prediction and say it ends at 1024, just to make it exactly 100 chapters after the end of Act 1.

There's a post on tumblr I really like that discussed the act structure and why it may have stopped before act 3 could conclude. There's no hard evidence for it in the story but it's been my head-canon since I read it, with hopefully one last intermission to put a close to the arc. Regardless of how the acts have been handled I really enjoyed those little snippets with the lady playing and the curtains closing and opening, it's given the arc a storybook flavour.

https://kaizokuou-ni-naru.tumblr.com/post/640091285629370368/hi-in-your-last-response-you-said-that-the-kabuki

[black-leg jex]

This is just a thought I had for folks who have been reading weekly since Water 7, when did it become apparent that Enies Lobby and Water 7 were there own story arcs? Was this a thing fans decided and it stuck or did Oda/Shueshia state it to be so? I've just been wondering if Wano and Onigashima could count as seperate arcs in the same way, given their length and the obvious divide of when they happen.

[Chams]

Lenght, yes. So far, in the Grand Line, we never had any arc as big as the both combined.
But also a change of place and cast. The Galley-La company was pretty unimportant in EL, Iceburg remained behind.
Onigashima has more or less the same cast as Wano and also the whole island is moving itself back to the original place. So I wouldn't consider them to be separate arcs. This is just the new lenght of arcs for the New World.

(Funny, the whole Act 1 of Wano had it's own cast, villain, location, and was kind of self contained. I would even consider Holdem as the big baddy. But I wouldn't consider a separate arc)

[King Cannon]

@Chams:

Lenght, yes. So far, in the Grand Line, we never had any arc as big as the both combined.
But also a change of place and cast. The Galley-La company was pretty unimportant in EL, Iceburg remained behind.
Onigashima has more or less the same cast as Wano and also the whole island is moving itself back to the original place. So I wouldn't consider them to be separate arcs. This is just the new lenght of arcs for the New World.

(Funny, the whole Act 1 of Wano had it's own cast, villain, location, and was kind of self contained. I would even consider Holdem as the big baddy. But I wouldn't consider a separate arc)

Enies Lobby doesn't really change the cast. Iceburg is literally the only relevant character left behind.

Everybody else of note goes to EL (Paulie, Kokoro Frankie Family, CP9).

It makes no sense to separate W7 and EL when the latter pretty much continues and concludes every W7 plot point. Water 7 by itself resolves nothing.

[Sengokusgoat]

We also had a 'wano arc act 3' introduction with curtains and everything so it'd be pretty ridiculous to consider it a separate arc.

[DollarScholar]

Its pretty amazing how underdeveloped Eustass Kid is. We know next to nothing about his background, his motives and general character and basically everything we do know such as his sadistic trait we learned before Wano, in fact one might say that in a way we know LESS about Kid now than we did before this arc started. Same goes for Hawkins who is a complete non-entity.

[Cockycent]

I don't think this is Kid's arc to get his purpose and history like Law with Dressrosa or Bege in WCI.

[Zik]

@DollarScholar:

Its pretty amazing how underdeveloped Eustass Kid is. We know next to nothing about his background, his motives and general character and basically everything we do know such as his sadistic trait we learned before Wano, in fact one might say that in a way we know LESS about Kid now than we did before this arc started. Same goes for Hawkins who is a complete non-entity.

No different than 90% of the supernovas.

It really just seems like Law was such a fan favorite Oda reworked things and heavily involved him in the story.

Clearly, none of the others will get that level of focus. Something on a smaller scale if anything. I just hope Bonney and Urouge get their due.

But Apoo, Drake, Killer, and Hawkins? At best Drake gets touched on when Oda reveals more about SWORD. Kid might get more focus when he takes his big L and realizes he'll never be pirate king but that is a long shot. So much more to focus on

[Nidhoeggr]

I feel like Bege got more than enough focus in the story and am pretty sure Bonney will get her time to shine soon with all the story hints dropped so far. However, I feel like it is somewhat realistic that not everyone will be special, after all there are plenty of 100-400 million guys on the Grandline that end up just being normal fighters or members in Yonkou crews. Still, maybe a small spinoff series for some of them might be cool.

[DollarScholar]

@Cockycent:

I don't think this is Kid's arc to get his purpose and history like Law with Dressrosa or Bege in WCI.

Why not? He has received at last as much panel space as Bege did in WCI no? So why not take the time to flesh him out a bit?

[Cockycent]

@DollarScholar:

Why not? He has received at last as much panel space as Bege did in WCI no? So why not take the time to flesh him out a bit?

Bege being a BM Pirate was addressed before WCI arc. In the Sabaody intro arc, he was not given that much importance compared to Law and Kid. So, it makes sense that his backstory gets fleshed out in the way it did. This telegraphs to me that whenever it's time to address Kid, he will hold as much weight as Law in Dressrosa.

No one outside of the crew was more important or received as much focus as Law in Dressrosa. We have Momo and Kin that outweigh all of the Kid Pirates in this arc.

[rayleigh92]

@Zik:

No different than 90% of the supernovas.

It really just seems like Law was such a fan favorite Oda reworked things and heavily involved him in the story.

Clearly, none of the others will get that level of focus. Something on a smaller scale if anything. I just hope Bonney and Urouge get their due.

But Apoo, Drake, Killer, and Hawkins? At best Drake gets touched on when Oda reveals more about SWORD. Kid might get more focus when he takes his big L and realizes he'll never be pirate king but that is a long shot. So much more to focus on

Drake also got that tiny bit of angle in Law's Flashback with his father.

This arc aside, I'd love to see more on Worst Generation' backstory as Magazine material. Law had plenty of it, but we're still waiting for some explanation about that Rocky Port incident which involved Koby too; Capone already has a main setting (the whole West Blue mafia families war) which actually doesn't leave any unresolved point; Drake we know his father and his latter involvement but there's space for more; Bonney's backstory seems to hide a plot-relevant point. But Kid and Killer? Hawkins? Apoo? Urouge? I was honestly interested when back at first half' ending we got that bunch of pages about each of them affording the New World and there's a lot to write down.

Back at Sabaody I often asked myself if Luffy got acknowledge only after Enies Lobby's fall, what about others? I think most of them need some Main Incident which put them in the Supernovas Firmament just to make them more believable in confront with a 2-Warlords+JusticeGates down boy like Luffy. What about dunno Apoo taking down some big recognized pirate captain? Or Kid and Killer actually assaulting and destroying a major city like San Faldo? Or Hawkins solely defeating a huge amount of bounty hunters which went down against him? Or Urouge defeating a big named Vice Admiral back in Paradise? Just little things which'd make each of them more fearsome.

[Deicide]

I think Kid will do something really impressive before the arc ends. This is his arc, I feel, his moment just hasn't come yet.

I mean, we know he has Conqueror. That small detail wasn't revealed for nothing. It's a Chekov's Gun waiting to be fired. I wouldn't be surprised if the moment he releases also enlightens us about his history, like having small flashback panels featuring his past and motivations.

[Zik]

Wano sure is a lot of different characters arcs.

[Cockycent]

Gotta update the top 10 again. Orochi hasn't been a factor really. He can easily get back into the top 5, but his dominance isn't the same anymore. Zeus-tact grew and Kaido is growing on me at a faster pace. Queen and Zoro are almost neck and neck. Chopper is not too far behind. Robin did well, but Tama is coming for her spot.

10 BM
9 Zeus-tact
8 Kaido
7 Orochi
6 Tama
5 Robin
4 Sanji
3 Chopper
2 Zoro
1 Queen

! 1st list
Spoiler:
10 Oden
9 Sanji
8 BM
7 Tama
6 Denjiro
5 Robin
4 Chopper
3 Zoro
2 Queen
1 Orochi
! 2nd list - April 6th
10 Perospero
9 Denjiro
8 Tama
7 BM
6 Sanji
5 Robin
4 Chopper
3 Zoro
2 Queen
1 Orochi

[Zik]

If Oda can do the deus ex machina/ass pull right, I think I can see Hiyori actually killing Kaido if that's what's going to be his end in the story.

She actually lived through despair not to mention embedded herself with her enemy posing as someone else. Motives are all there. Then there's the possible she's tue pheasant in the Momotaro quad.

[Ghidorah Guy]

@Deicide:

I think Kid will do something really impressive before the arc ends. This is his arc, I feel, his moment just hasn't come yet.

I mean, we know he has Conqueror. That small detail wasn't revealed for nothing. It's a Chekov's Gun waiting to be fired. I wouldn't be surprised if the moment he releases also enlightens us about his history, like having small flashback panels featuring his past and motivations.

Take it for what it's worth, but I do see some very big things for Kidd ( and even Killer ). Here's a few things I could see happening, to varying degrees of confidence, admittedly.

• It's generally known that magnetic fields weaken under high temperature; I think there's a chance we'll see Kidd getting dropped by Big Mom upon her using Prometheus in a way that completely blankets the area in flame, nullifying his powers; that or the encroaching flames enveloping the castle will likewise have the same effect.

Just can't see Oda not playing on this.

This will push Kidd to resolve eliminating said weakness, essentially pushing back against accepted science itself by seeking to do the impossible ( major theme alert ). And by George, that's what he'll seemingly accomplish. There's exceptions to every rule afterall.

• I foresee Kaido taking an increasing personal interest in Luffy, keeping him around so as to allow Luffy the chance to challenge him again and again…training him, in a warped sense. Anyway, could be Kidd will join Luffy for the ride and also gain the benefits of said training. That, or he'll have to contend with some kind of fiery torture in Impel Down MK II, located beneath Wano.

Which the case, Kidd will unlock the means to rid himself of the hypothetical heat weakness.

• We've only just begun to skim the potential of CoC and haki in general. In Kidd's case, I think we'll be something like Kidd learning how to employ basic Ryuo to selectively repel heat...and in effect not only strengthening his magnetism, but possibly even gaining freezing abilities to boot. "Elemental" haki is fated to be a thing, but only a precursor to far more expansive potential applications of haki ( to be demonstrated fully by Shanks and his crew ).

Makes sense that to me that Oda would use Kidd's character to go in-depth into the nature and potential of haki, considering the similarities -- and what I suspect to be clear connections -- to electromagnetism in general. Plus, it's something sure to crop up in future arcs as well; that invisible "path" Apoo and friends were seen traversing? An invisible "leyline" of magnetic force...reaching Lodestar I mean Roadstar or beyond may require understanding or knowledge of magnetic fields to proceed...

• This one I'm all but certain is going to go down: Kidd stabbing Luffy in the back in the finale. Steals the credit for Kaido's downfall, claims Kaido's club, walks away with a chunk of his troops. Instant blood feud. And solidifies him as a true rival and antagonist to Luffy, setting him apart from the other Supernovas.

• Something else we might see prior to all this, just to give Kidd his big moment in the current battle, pre-Failure: using his powers to snatch Napolean and succeed in wounding Big Mom with her own sword, made possible because it contains a portion of her own soul. So something cool, but otherwise all THAT impressive in terms of powers n skills, but...again, just a start.

• In learning how to attune his Ryou to temperature control, Kidd learns how to manipulate both cold and heat at some point down the road, basically giving him the ability to both produce ice...and fire. And setting him up as the Red Boy demon to Luffy's Sun Wukong from Journey to the West.

There's more, but it might get me laughed out of the building right now haha.

[rayleigh92]

I just noticed I did write all of this in Next Member topic, but this is the right place, so:

I'll try to fanfic the rest of Wano Saga too. We're clearly in the one-but-last part of the battle, the one where the highest ranks of the enemy group are going to fall leaving Luffy and Kaido to fight alone. In this part we're going to see all villains be defeated and the eventual Nine Shadows formation happens in front of Kaido, just to get disrupted by the urge to stop Onigashima by falling. The scene will switch to Wano with Luffy following Kaido which will go for Wano's secret/Red PG.

Here's one of Oda's tropes: "let's obstacle the allies by joining Luffy's solo fight". I actually thought of this back when Apoo referred to Numbers usually creating havoc on cities. I think the sober Numbers will be spread along the whole Wano and the few allies which are still able to fight will go to stop them. Orochi will makes his move against Kaido, just to be stopped and finally defeated by Denjiro/Hiyori. Luffy vs Kaido happens. Kaido is eventually going to achieve his own honorable death (can't really see it happens by Luffy's hands, but I can effortly see this being the exception in the whole manga). The final fight will unveil some plot-relevant shit, like Red PG, Wano's secret, Kaido's FB, something about Rocks and who know what else which will lead to the post arc.

At some point we'll have Kid and Law having a hard time against BM but also BM having a hard time against them. If she'll eventually be rescued by her crew or defeated (can't really see the latter happens btw) depends on what Oda has in mind for her future and I can't really figure that far.

About the post-arc I have more wild fanfictionary theories which I'll share here for sake of. Trope: the usual "post-arc a new force join the stage". I can see Marines waiting near Wano for Drake's green light and with Kaido's fall they will actually use Beasts Pirates' rear entrance to show up. Among them we could finally see the Scientific Division, with Sentomaru (which used Ryuo back then, so being from Wano would be totally not a surprise) and Vegapunk going to deal with the whole mess he actually did and set for the arc (Numbers, SMILEs, Momonosuke, Queen and who know what else again). This could be the chance to have Vegapunk on the stage without having a whole arc dedicated to him (as Wano is already like totally tied to him). We'll get infos about Kuma, Bonney, Sabo, Warlords and several set-up for next one (or few) arcs. Yamato joins the crew and Caribou will actually lead to Blackbeard saga.

Totally totally totally fan-point: when they'll get to party for the new nakama, Carrot will show up having sneaked in just like back to Zou and will be part (officially or unofficially) of the next adventures.

[Sengokusgoat]

@Sengokusgoat:

On an unrelated note, even after all this, I'm still of the opinion there's gonna be 5 acts. But if the content of Volume 101 goes by and Act 3 hasn't ended yet, I'll have to admit defeat. That should be 1026 tops, but I'm gonna make an absolutely baseless prediction and say it ends at 1024, just to make it exactly 100 chapters after the end of Act 1.

I've somehow talked myself out of this. To be honest the only reason I was thinking that was that it seems too long to have another act afterwards at that point. But, frankly, that isn't even a real argument. Length should be irrelevant to the structure of the story. I'll look at what actually happens in the next few chapters instead. For now, I'm with Deicide.

I did call Yamato being a dog, so I'm gonna go with my gut on this one, too.

I just keep having flashbacks to the tea party.

[juiceduphody3315]

On the topic of Kidd, I was really hoping to see him use the giant katana in the entrance of the island against Kaidou. Would be quite epic, Oda cant just let the katana sit there without any use. The disappointing route would be momo using his dragon form to grab and use the blade.

[Riccardo]

A thing I didn’t think of untill now; we (probably) wil never see young Momo’s hybrid Zoan form.

[Captain M]

It's not clear Momo even has a hybrid form. Might be one of the reasons Vegapunk considered the fruit a failure.

Either way, asking what it would have looked like could be good SBS fodder.

[andre]

I bet Momo has one he can use. Remember, he's been terrified to really use the fruit and has only done so in emotional moments. My understanding about the fruit being a failure is that its color is the only factor.

edit: I can't find that reasoning for it being a failure anywhere. Maybe I made it up?

[mr.french]

Chapter 685, pg. 11 states from Ceaser's men that the fruit was a failure. Chapter 1007 confirmed what Vegapunk reported to the WG that the fruit was according to him, deemed a failure.

We are meant to understand or at least suspect Vegapunk lied to the WG.

If anything this could be the catalyst for Vegapunk escaping arrest if and when the WG finds out the fruit was indeed a success. Then falling into contact with the Strawhats in the near future for an explanation of devil fruits and the awakening aspect.

[rayleigh92]

I always thought the failure was the fact Momo has barely control over the transformation. He used to turn into dragon only when scared as heck as it was just some adrenalin induced reaction.

[Johnny B. Decent]

Then again, it could be viewed as a failure to Vegapunk just because the color of the dragon is pink instead of blue.

[Zik]

That would be ridiculous on Vegapunk's part lol.

[Ghidorah Guy]

@Johnny:

Then again, it could be viewed as a failure to Vegapunk just because the color of the dragon is pink instead of blue.

I could see that actually being a thing haha. Maybe Vegapunk's cheeky way of justifying whatever lie he fed his handlers ( assuming he did ), if pressed on the matter; not quite the truth, but not entirely a lie either.

Sounds goofy on paper, but would mesh rather well with plot threads and ideas currently at play, e.g. Yamato's attempt to be Oden, and an examination of whatever criteria that entails.

Or to put it greater perspective: by what scale or parameters does one measure X's equality or success/failure to match Y?

To wit: what does it mean to be Joyboy, human….among other things.

[Johnny B. Decent]

@Zik:

That would be ridiculous on Vegapunk's part lol.

Perhaps so, but there's also no way Vegapunk isn't massively eccentric.

[DollarScholar]

Is it me or does Wano act 1 feel incredible distant at this point? not just in terms of time past, i mean alot of the themes and characters from act 1 have literally no relation or impact on act 3