What Comes After Imu? I Think One Piece Has Already Given Us the Answer

Long theory, but please stick with it. I hope it makes sense. 😊

I think there is a recurring power-scaling pattern in One Piece that becomes much more interesting when you look at the entire story rather than individual arcs.

My theory is that Oda has repeatedly introduced a powerful ally around the beginning or middle of a major arc who is roughly relative to Luffy at that stage of the story, and that strong ally is then scaled up alongside the main villain of that conflict.

In Skypiea, Wyper is one of the strongest fighters involved in the conflict. He isn't simply a background ally; he is roughly comparable to Luffy at that point in the story, especially in the conflict against Enel.

In Water 7/Enies Lobby, Franky enters the story as another extremely powerful independent fighter for that stage of the story. He is also relative to Luffy around the beginning of the arc.

Then we get Rayleigh at Sabaody, where the scale takes a massive jump. The villain is literally an Admiral, and the powerful ally is the former right-hand man of the Pirate King. This is obviously an exception in terms of scale, but the basic idea is still there.

Then we have:

\- Jinbe in Fish-Man Island

\- Law in Punk Hazard/Dressrosa, before Luffy reveals Gear 4

\- Yamato in Wano

\- And now Loki in Elbaph

And if you look closely, this powerful-ally archetype is usually stronger than the previous arc's main villain.

Law in Dressrosa was stronger than Vergo and Caesar Clown.

Yamato in Wano was stronger than Katakuri.

And now Loki in Elbaph is stronger than Kaido. Kaido glazers, please read the story. 😂

Right now, in Elbaph, we have the highest level of conflict we've seen so far. A literal Yonko (Luffy) and his crew, alongside a world-ending ancient giant (Loki), are the underdogs of the arc. And the main villain is Imu, the King of the World himself.

We also have a secondary support character in old Gaban, who is literally the left-hand man of the Pirate King and has already put on a great performance against Imu.

And if we observe the arc bosses who are established to be fought by Luffy in that particular arc (not counting Big Mom and the Gorosei), they keep getting stronger:

Hordy Jones → Caesar Clown → Doflamingo → Katakuri → Kaido → Imu

Oda could have chosen Shamrock as the main villain of Elbaph, but he deliberately increased the stakes and put literally Imu as the villain of Elbaph.

Now, keeping all of this in mind, and assuming One Piece is not ending soon enough for this to be the final cycle of the final boss and the strong ally, who is going to be the next possible strong-ally archetype and the next possible big bad boss that Luffy has to fight after Imu?

Because it looks like Imu is the final villain at this point. I mean, what could possibly be worse than the King of the World himself?

But I've never really believed Imu is the final villain. I mean, it should be clear to readers at this point that it's most likely Blackbeard who will be the final villain.

This is where the theory gets completely insane and hard to believe.

I think the Serpent of Hellfire could be the post-Imu escalation.

Blackbeard will unleash the Serpent of Hellfire from the Red Line with the Gura Gura no Mi, possibly by awakening the Gura Gura no Mi and mirroring the destruction of the First World mentioned in the text.

There is also the theory that the Gura Gura no Mi was the fruit that the Earth God had, or possibly that the awakened Gura Gura no Mi could actually be a Mythical Zoan, Model: Earth God. It has abilities involving earthquakes and tilting the seas, which could fit an Earth God. Again, this is just a theory.

The Serpent of Hellfire is an ancient, 3,000-year-old entity that was supposedly dormant during the Second World. Considering the power escalation of the series, it could potentially be far stronger than Imu.

And now, who could be the next powerful-ally archetype after Loki?

Monkey D. Dragon.

Hear me out.

Imu is portrayed as not being completely invincible in Elbaph. An old and injured Gaban was able to stall him and draw blood from him, while Luffy recently punched him in the abdomen and seriously affected him. Imu was also stalled by an extremely injured base Loki, who wasn't even in his hybrid form.

If all of them can do that to Imu, then what happens when you introduce Monkey D. Dragon in his prime, potentially possessing Conqueror's Haki superior to his father's, a supposed Rain God Devil Fruit, and whatever else Oda has planned for him?

Dragon could be a fully realized, fully awakened God Fruit user who has reached his prime strength, with Pirate King-level Haki or possibly even above.

He could absolutely fight Imu confidently one-on-one and, if the story takes things in this direction, potentially defeat him.

The leader of the Revolutionary Army, the Rain God who is the greatest threat to the Celestial Dragons, fighting the leader of the Celestial Dragons and coming out on top seems incredibly poetic and would fit the narrative.

And the Revolutionaries are already causing havoc in Mariejois at this point.

So what happens when Dragon defeats Imu?

And let's assume that the Serpent of Hellfire has been unleashed.

Dragon would then aid Luffy in the fight against the Serpent of Hellfire.

The Serpent would be stronger than Luffy, Imu, and Dragon at that point.

And this also fits the pattern I've been talking about.

The next strong ally of the arc is stronger than the previous villain.

Dragon would therefore be stronger than Imu when he eventually aids Luffy against the Serpent of Hellfire.

But this creates another problem.

As I've said in the title, Loki will eventually take down the Serpent one-on-one at the end of the series.

Right now, Loki appears to be struggling against a much weaker opponent in Imu. So how does Loki go from being part of a team effort against Imu to eventually fighting the Serpent one-on-one?

I think the answer actually fits the logic I've already laid out.

In the mural, and now through the lore being revealed, it seems very clear that Luffy and Loki are being written as the Roger and Whitebeard of this era.

It is mentioned that the Sun God locked horns with the God of War. The Sun God and God of War were essentially like Roger and Whitebeard.

And who is the Sun God of the present era?

Luffy.

And who is the God of War of Elbaph?

Loki.

The two are genuinely portrayed as equals, and I think they will remain equals during the final war and by the end of the series.

Who is another character who has been narratively portrayed as being equal to Luffy?

Law.

From Punk Hazard through Dressrosa, Law is repeatedly portrayed as Luffy's equal/rival in that stage of the story.

If Loki is also being written as an equal to Luffy in the final war—which I believe he is—then he'll follow a similar trajectory to Law.

What happened to Law after Dressrosa?

He awakened his Devil Fruit and came back much, much stronger.

He went from struggling against Doflamingo in a team effort to directly fighting and heavily damaging a Yonko, eventually defeating Big Mom alongside Kid, and then later having a high-difficulty fight against Blackbeard.

The same thing could happen with Loki.

Loki could awaken his Mythical Zoan, Nidhogg, awaken Ragnir, potentially experience a Haki bloom, and return much stronger than he was previously.

A Nidhogg awakening almost feels necessary if he is eventually going to fight the Serpent.

I mean, this damn snake is supposedly longer than the planet, and even a monstrously large Nidhogg would currently be nowhere near that scale.

With an awakening, Nidhogg could potentially grow exponentially larger and become a genuinely formidable opponent for the Serpent.

And then there's the possibility of Ragnir awakening as well.

So Loki could go from struggling in a team effort against Imu to eventually fighting the Serpent one-on-one, mirroring what happened with Law between Dressrosa and Wano.

And the end-of-series conflict could potentially mirror the Wano conflict:

Blackbeard takes the role of Kaido, becoming an incredibly powerful final version of himself with whatever godly power-ups Oda gives him, and fights Luffy.

Meanwhile, the Serpent of Hellfire takes the role of Big Mom, becoming Loki's major opponent.

I think, the story from egghead to the final arc of the final saga might mirror the entire post timsekip. And is just a scaled up version of the post timsekip.

In the post timsekip, it began with caesar clown and virgo, two of the subordinates of doflamingo. In egghead, the enemies were the gorosei, the subordinates of imu

In the next arc of post timsekip the villain is doflamingo, in the next arc of the final saga, in elbpah the villain is imu, and there are shit tons of symbolic and narrative similarities of imu and doflamingo( even in that one pannel when doflamingos family is kneeling to him like the gorosei kneel to imu). It's the king of dressrossa and the king of the world. And there is law and Luffy fighting them, there is loki( scaled up law) and Luffy fighting imu.

And the crazy thing which is a bit far fetched but i just have to say it 😂 is that gear 4 Luffy who took down doflamingo looks like dragon, it does support my theory that dragon will take down imu.

Then in the post timsekip it was big mom after doflamingo, but Luffy dint fight her in whole cake, he was outclassed, instead he fought katakuri, now....the role of a scaled up big mom might go to the serpent of hellfire. And the role of katakuri who Luffy has to fight instead of the serpent of hellfire might....this is also a far fetched idea, go to the man marked by the flames, who could be a subordinate to serpent since the 1st world, not imu. And could...could...be stronger than imu as katakuri was stronger than doflamingo. The arc in which the serpent is the main villain might mirror whole cake island arc.

And then there is wano, kaido and big mom vs the alliance. It will be EOS blackbeard and the serpant vs Luffy and alliance. Loki will show up significantly more stronger mirroring law from wano( after dressrossa to wano) and take on the serpent 1 on 1.

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Again, all of these theories are just speculation. I just found the parallels really interesting, so I thought I'd share them. 😊😊

I might be completely wrong, but who knows?

That's the fun of making One Piece theories.

I still don't know where to put shanks in this.