Loki could still be the big bad of the arc (Chapter 1153 spoilers)

I feel like the sheer storytelling juice that would come out of Loki being domi reversi-ed is bonkers. Luffy already made up his mind on recruiting Loki, and so far, from the flashback and contextually, Loki is not malicious—or maybe even morally grey in the sense that he’s misguided to believe that he is Nika, the god of destruction. Everything we know about Loki is a superstitio-fueled narrative stemming from the dying words of a mad woman. Loki’s life is shaped by the rumour that he is a curse to Elbaf. Everything bad that happened to Elbaf since Loki was born was attributed to him, and as more chapters go by, the likelihood that Loki embraced the curse and all blame—to hide whatever happened on that day his father died, for the sake of Elbaf, almost Batman-esque at the end of Dark Knight—becomes greater.

And his entire fixation on him being the Sun God, the destroyer of the world, could just be an endorsement from him to dissuade the interpretation from Harley texts that Sun God is the destroyer of the world (because he is painted as the villain of Elbaf, so anything he endorses will be frowned upon too) and stop Elbafian culture from romanticising that interpretation of Nika. Because that was indeed what Harold learns from Ida in the latest chapter—“destruction of anything in this world is a waste.” If we’re going down the route that Loki chose to be a sacrificial lamb because he understood his father’s vision and wanted it to come true… then Loki is definitely someone who is putting up a front. A complete illusion, a performance to both the characters inside the story and to the audience, to ensure his father’s vision of a peaceful, culturally open Elbaf remains in the works.

But here’s the deal… Loki is too strong a character—both power-scaling-wise and in terms of sheer narrative and thematic weight—to just be an ally in the arc, or become co-captains with Hajrudin for the New Giant Pirates, or for him to even join the Straw Hats. I don’t think there has been any character in One Piece thus far that has this otherworldly presence and portrayal (which is tenfolded by the recent chapter when he climbs the underworld hours after coming out of his mother’s womb).

Loki’s origin and portrayal seem mythological in a way no One Piece character thus far resembles—the only exception could be Kaido, because he is very much a prototype Loki, in the sense that he is an ancient giant caught in the narrative of Joy Boy, pondering on what it actually means to be Joy Boy (which is him reflecting on King’s claim that he is Joy Boy, even though he doesn’t agree with King) and in the end becomes the ultimate enabler of Joy Boy’s return. Treading down that thematic line, the next logical villain post-Wano would be someone, unlike Kaido, who truly embraces the persona of Sun God and challenges Luffy on an ideological level, because Luffy is Nika, even if he doesn’t care.

If Kaido was meant to herald the return of Nika, then the next villain being someone who tests Nika’s role as the ultimate liberator would be a strong and apt choice thematically—and I still don’t think there’s a better character who can embody that role at this point in the story better than Loki. But like I detailed in the first half of this theory, Loki seems to genuinely be a good bloke… except the possibility of Loki being domi reversi-ed and Loki turning into the character he always portrayed himself to be, the god of destruction, would not only be ironically tragic as fuck but actually gives Luffy an opportunity to not only challenge the notion of Sun God being the destroyer of the world, but also to liberate a man from the clutches of evil (Imu) and from the burden of carrying the sins of Elbaf for a better change his father envisioned.

Loki, regardless of whether he is Domi Reversi-ed, is stuck in a role he needs to play for the sake of Elbaf and he needs to be liberated.

So my theory is a confusing mess I just jotted down because I find the idea of Loki being any less important than the main villain of this arc really jarring. And if Loki turns evil because of Imko, then it would make the potential Luffy vs. Loki clash the most personal fight we’ve had in this series since Luffy vs. Katakuri. Luffy would have to fight someone he wants to make a Straw Hat and liberate him from the clutches of Imu and the weight of playing the villain of Elbaf to herald the change his father Harald envisioned for Elbaf (see what I did there?)

And it also kind of is really poetic if Imu’s control of Loki comes in the form of a twisted liberation—of Loki no longer acting as the villain of Elbaf, but instead being that villain. The very villain he needs to be to oppose Elbaf’s romanticisation of destruction and Nika as the god of destruction.