@Milquetoast:
So, here are some guesses about how everything will come together towards the end. I apologize if they have already been brought up; I'm a lazy bum and didn't go through the entire forum first.
The Theory: "One Piece" is one of the, if not the most powerful weapon the world has ever known. It was created by the Tenryuubito's ancestors back in the Void Century to beat the world into submission and allow them to take over as the World Government. It is possibly related to the existence of Devil Fruits.
The Tenryuubito are held up on a pedestal and allowed to do whatever they want because their bloodline is required to activate / operate the weapon(s) at One Piece. Since the World Government is still afraid of an uprising, they want to make sure they can get their hands on the ultimate weapon if needed, which is why they put up with the Tenryuubito's every whim.
Oh, and the 700-year-and-counting bridge on Tequila Wolf? I'm guessing it's supposed to lead to One Piece after some very major island hopping.
Thoughts? Comments?
ive read lots of stuff like this and ive come to think along the same lines. i think they created some sort of weapon which made the ds loose but now its on raftel and maybe the secret has been lost and only poneglyphs have the answer. gol.d roger found out and became pirate king but he was dying. he did say he 'left it all there' so does that the weapon? or just treasure?
i like your idea of the Tenryuubito's also having a blood line which causes them to activate it. after all, if the ds have it why not them?
Maybe devil fruits are the product from this 'weapon'. if so, this means, the weapon is all the devil fruits put together. a long shot, maybe but it must be more powerful than them anyway.
i wouldn't be surprised if some of your theory came to life, especially the goverment bit.
if the 'weapon' is on raftel (which is very likely) then i really hope luffy gets there first. imagine what would hapopen if bb got it. itd be a good plot twist, though…