@Fire Fist:
2. Well, in general, Alvida's crew was weak. Luffy One-punched her easily, so that's hardly a good comparison.
3. By loss, I mean actually losing in a fair battle. Crocodile Round 1 and 2 and Aokiji were hardly fair fights.
Go read the end of Yuyu Hakusho. That's more what I'm talking about. Yomi vs. Yusuke was a fair fight and Yusuke still lost.
The point is that Luffy still won at the conclusion of the arc, but I wouldn't go so far to say that the main char only loses (strength-wise) unfair fights. All the shonen battles are about the main char fighting a Boss that is absolutely stronger at the beginning of their encounter, and having the char rise to the occasion and become even stronger than the Boss. Aokiji and Smoker aren't really "Nemesis-class opponents," that is, they're not Boss characters for a specific arc - not yet. They are like little treats or cookies that Oda likes to put in earlier stages of the story. Call it foreshadowing if you will, but it's all part of Oda's awesome storytelling style.
Again I'm in agreement with what FFA says. I don't know why people think OP is some (literally) extraordinary manga that doesn't adhere to Shonen norms. Imo Oda is the only reason we think that. His masterful story telling and his incomparable character crafting skill is enough to make any mangaka bow down at his feet…. I really think that.
However, like FFA was saying, OP has all the shonen ingredients, but none of the dullness shown in shonen mangas. If Oda decides to put a time skip, better yet a MINI time skip, EVERY TRUE ONE PIECE FAN WILL LEARN TO ACCEPT IT, and most probably won't mind because Oda would have crafted the circumstances necessary to achieve that.
If a HUGE discovery is made about the dreams of our characters, about the end of the GL, about obtaining the One Piece, then it easily conceivable to me that Luffy's crew will leave the GL before the end. That's all I'm saying really. I may not like the fact that Oda would be affirming a Shonen cliche, but in the 5 years that I've been reading One Piece manga I haven't really minded.