@Will:
When did you start reading the series weekly?
I'm not going to argue that the serious is extremely dense in plot because it is an all ages manga but there are a number of red herrings, twists and lies throughout the series.
A more recent one would be Sengoku pre-timeskip stating that he would recommend Aokiji to be Fleet Admiral and years later Akainu taking control.
One of my favorite scenes in the series is Blackbeard first being introduced as a man who tells Luffy to never let dreams die which I think is quite a 180 to how readers perceive him today.
Blackbeard was a bad guy, you could clearly tell from that arc alone since his nakama were not good people, and he even goes after Luffy before Luffy and Co. leave for Skypia. I guess that Aokiji reference is a valid point but that's really grasping for one.
What are all the red herrings because my memory isn't the best, I don't particularly remember any instance where I thought "Oda.. you tricked me!" .. The story gets considerably simplistic.
I say this because of a quote from Kojima that I just recently read, "I do think it's important to leave hints, but, in a sense, I think it's important to mislead people with hints because if something is too predictable it's no longer fun." This is basically how I feel about Oda's writing, though no longer fun wouldn't be how I would describe it. I have a blast reading/watching the series, but the story would be a lot better if the guy didn't a lot of his storyline on a silver platter for us.
@square:
Now you've made me curious :(
The hint is in the sentence you quote from me.