This year happens to mark the 20th anniversary of the popular anime adaptation of One Piece, as well as the 22nd anniversary of the manga as a whole, so I figured I might as well deliver a few rants/theories on how major plot events in the series might play out going forward. (SPOILER WARNING! The following rant talks about major plot events in the current arc that the anime has not covered yet. If you do not want to be spoiled, leave now.)
First off, with regards to how Kaido is going to be taken out, it's pretty obvious that Luffy will need the assistance of at least 2 characters of similar power level to himself to eek out a win here, considering that Kaido OHKO'd him from full health while he was in Fourth Gear. While Luffy did get noticeably stronger in the prison mines by doing hard labor while wearing sea prism stone shackles (which is basically kryptonite to Devil Fruit users), and is beginning to learn Advanced Armament Haki (which would theoretically allow him to bypass Kaido's tough scales), the problem is that even with that, the gap between the two would still be too large for Luffy to realistically have a one on one duel with Kaido and win. Now, there is a lot of debate as to who will assist Luffy in this fight, but from what I've seen seeing so far, Oda has been setting up a Luffy/Kidd/Law team-up against Kaido. I mean, a team-up between these three characters against a larger threat had been foreshadowed since their initial team-up against some Marine fodders on Sabaody before the timeskip, so it would make perfect sense for these three to team up against Kaido.
Now on to Zoro. With regards to his missing sword, there has been a lot of hints thrown around this arc that suggests that Zoro will leave Shusui behind in Wano and receive a new sword in its place. While Zoro did win Shusui in a duel with Ryuma, it is worth noting that what Zoro fought in Thriller Bark was not the real Ryuma, but rather a corpse infused with Brook's shadow, so Zoro cannot truly say that he legitimately won that sword considering that it along with Ryuma's corpse were stolen from Wano by Moria in the first place. Furthermore, the sword is regarded as a national treasure by the people of Wano, and even if Zoro were to tell the truth of how he obtained Shusui, the people of Wano would still be reluctant to let him leave with it. And lastly, the events in the latest chapter reveals that while Hiyori won't let him keep Shusui for the aforementioned reasons, she offers him her father's sword instead (said sword is revealed to have been used to injure Kaido in the past). Alternatively, Zoro could very well end up returning Enma to Momonosuke after the Wano war, and in gratitude for his actions during their liberation, the people of Wano allow him to keep Shusui.
Which brings us to another Zoro related plot point, this time involving Nidai Kitetsu. Earlier in the arc, we saw that Zoro had a keen interest in this sword, which highly suggests that he may acquire this sword later on. Which is plausible, considering that Nidai is a Great Grade sword while Sandai (the Kitetsu sword he currently owns) is merely a graded sword. It is probable that the Sandai breaks or is otherwise swapped for Nidai, or alternately he leaves with both Kitetsu swords (I do not find this to be terribly likely).
And now for obligatory shipping bullshit. There is nothing in the manga that suggests that Luffy will end up in a romantic relationship with Hancock. For starters, there is no real emotional connection between the two. This is because Hancock isn't so much in love with Luffy as she is infatuated with him. That is, she perceives him as something that will make her feel warm and fuzzy on the inside, much like a psychotropic drug. While it is true that she does care for him, she completely fails to understand him as a person. As an example, after Luffy regained consciousness following the events of Marineford, Hancock prioritized feeding him over giving him emotional support. On the other hand, Nami was thousands of miles away when Ace was killed, and upon hearing the news about the results of the Marineford war, she knew that Luffy needed a lot of emotional support to help him deal with the trauma that he was experiencing.
In fact, the relationship that Luffy and Nami have is pretty similar to the one that Natsu and Lucy have; that is, it is a fairly potent pairing based on faith and trust. And it is demonstrated at multiple points in the manga that Nami is quite reliant on Luffy as an emotional anchor. To illustrate my point, when Nami and Luffy first met, it was established that she hated pirates and that she was only trying to take advantage of him, but as they traveled together in the East Blue, he actively challenged her view of the world and the value system in which she grew up with. She witnessed how he would staunchly uphold his belief system on loyalty and companionship in contrast to her own, and in doing so, she started to open up to Luffy and his crew a little bit more. But she would not fully trust Luffy until she had reached her lowest point, when she saw the people that she grew up with go and take on Arlong, even knowing they were going to get killed doing so. It was only at this point that she realized that she needed outside help to deal with Arlong, and Luffy was the only person at the time she could rely upon. And when she finally opened up to him, what does he do? He takes his hat, his most prized possession, off his head, and put it on Nami's, before going to Arlong Park himself. After Arlong is deposed, she returns the gesture by silently placing the hat on Luffy's head. And you can find many more examples of this type of emotional bonding in many later arcs. (Skypiea and Whole Cake Island, to name a few. I'd explain in more detail, but I think this rant is getting long enough as it is.)
When compared the emotional development that LuNa had received, LuHan isn't anywhere near the same caliber. Not even close. There's a world of difference between a well-developed relationship and a mere infatuation or crush, and given how Oda wrote his story and characters, it is made crystal clear that they greatly value strong emotional connections over some fucking shallow perception of love. With LuNa, you have a very strong and deep companionship that is built on strong emotional development and mutual trust and faith, that form the bedrock in which a romantic pairing can be built. Many of the classic romance tropes in adventure novels can be applied to this pairing; the heroine reveals a painful secret (Nami's affiliation with the Arlong Pirates) that the hero resolves to release them from the burden, and even after this is resolved, the heroine still relies on the hero for emotional support (and vice versa). The heroine serves as a compliment to the hero, acting as a foil to their reckless nature, but can still guide them through their adventures. These are all things that will hold far more weight than an infatuation ever could.
In any case, I'm done ranting. I hope you enjoy this pic.
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One Piece is (c) 1997-2019 Eiichiro Oda.
All unit(s) are Lv18 and above.
This pic was made by GaggedDude 32. Go here and here to view his stuff.
Have a nice day.
