@Thanos:
And risk loosing his young readers? I don't think so. Hopefully your right. I would love a more darker tone.
Showing Ace being punched through the chest or WB having half his face blown off didn't cost him is younger readers, so why would something far less graphic cost him those same readers?
Also, here is the definitive proof, in my mind, that Luffy's fist went through Hody. Behind even the explosion is the steam that has been characteristic to Gear 2 since it first appeared:
http://mangastream.com/read/one_piece/82338206/19
Whether or not this kills Hody I don't know, but he's most likely down for the count. No amount of ES will fix that hole.
In my opinion, it is now apparent that VDD is meant to be the final villain of this arc.
While the SHs dispatch of the NFP, Luffy will wake up VDD, learn his motives, and somehow beat him without destroying the ark.
The biggest problem I see now is that, unless VDD can just turn his ability off, the ark will follow Weakhoshi until it hits something.
This is making em think that Luffy is going to set everything back at Zero by allowing the ark to crash into FI, once everyone has been evacuated of course.