Sweet, this is going to be fun.
There are two reasons why this is anything but a fact at this point. Since that chapter will be covered in the next anime episode this will be cleared up soon perhaps. But for now, bear with me.
You're losing major points with this one. The anime means nothing, and they screw things up all the time.
1- The panel in which margaret is hanging inches from the ground does not give any indication that she is travelling at a significant speed. If anything, it would seem that she is being held closer to the ground for a menacing effect. The sound effect (at least in one manga) hyuu means a lonely wind, or so I've looked up, so that means that neither the onomatopoeia nor the art in the panel shows that margaret is travelling at a speed that, if dropped, would destroy her. This is, unless I'm mistaken, you connecting the dots.
Good argument. The sound effect "hyuu" is used for wind blowing, and from my understanding is used for emotion and not to represent speed. However, Stephen translates this word as "Zip!" which seems to imply speed. I'll happily take Stephen's translation over anyone else's. For the record, the next reference of the word "Zip!" he uses as a sound effect happens here http://www.onemanga.com/One_Piece/520/04/ on the bottom right panel which is clearly meant to represent speed.
Additionally, the number 1 being called out by Marigold (or was it sandersonia?) would not be shown in the same panel if Margaret was about to hit the ground, as it is chronologically confusing. You wouldn't show Margaret about to be destroyed while one of the sisters yells one because that would imply that she is not waiting that final second but instead intends to smash her on the "one" and not the "zero".
However, this last point is very debatable. This is not the core of my rebuttal anyway.
Zero would be the moment that she hits the ground, so zero would be unreasonable. I'm not totally sure what more you want from an author to denote suspence. Since it isn't the main point of your argument, I wont touch on it further, either.
2- Even if we assume that Margaret was travelling at a speed in which, if dropped, she would be destroyed, and therefore Marigold would have to stop her downward tail motion in order for her to be saved, you still cannot attribute her stopping to solely be because the command "stop" from Luffy overwhelmed her senses. She could have just as well stopped because she was startled by Luffy having that kind of haki, and not because she was obeying the command. This is the main flaw in your logic. You cannot be completely sure that she did not stop her downwards motion simply because she was surprised. Hell, she could even have been momentarily scared and frozen in place, a way more likely explanation than the haoshoku having forced her to obey.
Except that other than some weaker people fainting, there is nothing else to back up your theory. Look at the lines that follow the course of events (I cut out lines that didn't apply to either argument, as translated by Stephen).
Luffy: Oh… you listened to me?
Great, thanks for understanding! Nahahaha.
Marigold: He has the quality of a king, meant to stand on the shoulders of other men!!
Both of these lines imply to me that Sonia was resigned to doing what Luffy commanded. There is no hint that "Oh, I was shocked and forgot what I was doing."
I'm not saying that your theory has no place. It could very well be, considering how easily people obey Boa. But this could also be due to her beauty. And while I do believe that Haoshoku has influence on people, your logic as to why it must be so based on the sole example that hardly holds enough evidence is, unless I'm missing something, flawed.
There's very little in this thread that's 100% certainty. We don't have a lot to go on, so we have to just go with the most likely cases from the information available.
EDIT:
@Vanessa:
No no no no no.
Hancock making people do whatever she wants is because she's pretty in addition to the Mero Fruit. Ambition has nothing to do with that.
Didn't think I'd have to tell you Urouge but…please stop trying to tie Ambition to every little thing. :sad:
Yeah I'm not totally sure what all the Mero Fruit entails. I find a lot of evidence to support the idea that Haoushoku Haki is command driven, though.
I'm not trying to tie it to everything, but is that one idea so unreasonable? He is a confirmed haki user, after all.