The One Piece manga continues its development despite having more breaks recently than ever. The manga is currently featuring an epic battle with Imu, the King of the World, who intends to bring Elbaph to its knees and is currently engaged in a battle against the warriors of Elbaph, with Luffy also joining the fight. However, Imu consistently overwhelms everyone, and recent chapters have also seen Imu nearly defeat Luffy. Had it not been for Gaban’s intervention, Luffy would have met his defeat and possibly died as well. However, it seems that Gaban might be the one who will actually die protecting Elbaph and Luffy.
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However, the latest chapter, 1191, seems to have refrained from that possibility and is instead setting up the arc to end soon in a situation similar to what fans have already seen in the series. As Hajrudinn also joins the fight in the latest chapter, Gaban instructs Luffy to take his crew and get out of Elbaph. Even Hajrudinn gets overwhelmed, prompting Gaban to make it a priority for Luffy and his crew to leave the island, as he doesn’t see anyone getting out of this fight alive. Gaban’s insistence that Luffy and the Straw Hats leave the island could mean that the Elbaph arc will end with the Straw Hats leaving soon, as the warriors sacrifice themselves for Luffy to reach his potential and face Imu in the final battle of One Piece.
One Piece Might Enter a Time Skip as the Elbaph Arc Nears Its End
The recent chapters have made it very clear that despite Luffy’s overpowered Gear 5 transformation, he is still no match for the King of the World, the supposed final villain of the series. Luffy has to emerge as strong as Joyboy, and as Imu states, Luffy is nowhere near that level. This means that the captain of the Straw Hats will still need a lot more time before he can become as strong as Joyboy and actually challenge Imu. Therefore, Scopper Gaban’s insistence on Luffy and the Straw Hats leaving the island might become the priority, with Loki, Hajrudin, and Gaban paving the way.
This might become even clearer after seeing the outcome of Zoro and Sanji’s fights against their current opponents, Sommers and Killingham. Gaban has only now laid out the instructions for how they can actually land hits on these seemingly invincible villains, and with Sanji not even having Conqueror’s Haki, it seems impossible for them to actually defeat these villains without precise execution. All of this hints that, at their current capabilities, the Straw Hats are not strong enough to take on these new villains and will require training to emerge stronger.
This could indeed lead to the Straw Hats prioritizing leaving Elbaph and then training these new techniques, which could be featured in a time skip as well, given that it isn’t something the Straw Hats could master overnight. This would make perfect sense as a way for the Straw Hats to receive the boost they need to emerge stronger, and nothing could justify it more than a time skip, which could feature Imu gaining even more power in the meantime and ultimately propelling the final One Piece battle foretold by the Harley prophecy, with Luffy emerging as the true Joyboy with the Haki that Imu fears. In any case, One Piece is heading into its final stage, and since Elbaph isn’t the arc to feature the final battle, it means that this arc will subdue this conflict soon after the final villain showcases his power, giving the heroes the final boost they need to emerge stronger for the final war of One Piece.
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