While little to do with Elbaf itself, Blackbeard is inherently tied to a myriad of factions that need their narratives tidied up with him:
– Shanks and their clear disdain for each other.
– Luffy for similar, endgame reasons.
– Akainu by virtue of Kuzan existing with Blackbeard. Kuzan leaving is evidently tied to his conflict with Sakazuki.
– Capturing Garp will evidently lead to retaliation by SWORD and Marines like Sengoku/Tsuru, also Luffy.
– Capturing Pudding absolutely implies the Big Mom Pirates will end up trying to get her back.
– He seems to be benefitting from Cross Guild‘s bounty payments.
– There is a direct connection the Rocks pirate Ochoku, in an incident that benefitted from his confrontation with Koby and Law, characters he has already had additional confrontations with in recent chapters.
– He is the 2nd person to discuss the Burned Scar Man, the first being Kid (and Law by his reaction).
As you can see, Blackbeard is just dipping his hands in everything. So much so that if you follow the logic of character relationships to narration, it almost feels like all of these parties will need to present when plot focuses on him.
There is also the question of what some of his crewmates are/were doing in Egghead, which may propel the conflcit between him and the crew even further.
4. Cross Guild
This one is has more to do with Buggy’s very important chapter in 1082 over anything else. By his declaration, he wants One Piece, which means he needs to be present in the longstanding conflict for the 4 Road Poneglyphs in order to get to Laugh Tale. He claims it doesn’t have to be a direct fight, but they do have to be present nonetheless to steal Rod Poneglyphs copies from one of the other Yonko or the Burned Scar Man
But on direct character relationships:
– Both Buggy and Mihawk have direct relationships with Shanks, meaning both groups should encounter each other narratively as there are things we still dont know.
– Crocodile is a harder sell. We dont really know what his true purpose is. He clearly has ties to Whitebeard and Ivankov, but we dont know more than this. Maybe Kuma’s FB gives something else to work with.
– Finally you just have their “potential”. Its very clear Cross Guild is immensely bare on the “important character” scale. However, their potential for connections to other former Shichibukai (Moria, Weevil, Hancock, and Doflamingo) and the Underworld Emperors (based on dialogue, seems to be the source Cross Guild Marine Hunting) is decently high.
5. Akainu and his Marines, plus SWORD
Like Blackbeard, Akainu’s group seems to have so much connective tissue to other Yonko factions currently:
– As mentioned, to Kuzan and thus, Blackbeard.
– Via Ryokugyuu, who’s eventual intent is to face Shanks and the Red Haired Pirates. He also captured Weevil separately, which is bound to have a payoff soon.
– Via Kizaru, who is currently la key character in Egghead against Luffy. He will likely lose/die after Egghead, which will just further escalate tension between Luffy and Akainu.
-Via Fujitora, who’s current state is unknown but may be pursuing Straw Hat Fleet members or Cross Guild.
– Sengoku, Tsuru and SWORD who obviously need to be present for Garp’s fate.
– Smoker, while MIA, also has direct ties to Kuzan, so he could be present
6. Elbaf Inhabitants
Pretty straight forward. Dorry, Broggy, Oimo, Kaashi, Loki, Saul and more will be focal points, all with ties to different characters.
The one I do want to highlight though is Loki, who inherently has ties to the Big Mom Pirates and Bege/Lola now, both of which I discuss more below. Not much else to on here outside of their ties to Robin, Usopp and Shanks’ group.
7. Big Mom Pirates
I stress here that I do not believe Linlin will be present in this arc, nor Kaido. Rather, the legacy Linlin had on Elbaf (their hatred for her) may be recognized via Katakuri and his remaining crew. Now i put them here not only because of their mother’s relationship to Elbaf, but because, as mentioned above, their obvious disdain for the Blackbeard pirates due to Pudding.
IF Blackbeard is a focal point in Elbaf, it seems very clear to me then that she should also be present to try and get their sister back.
8. Supernovas
