@Keane:
Okay Oda, didn't know that, my apologise…
Kishi, actually. Sad, but true.
@Thousand:
How about being the one to physically save Ace when all the strong guys have their hands full?
Saving Ace isn't the same as having any affect on the war. Its saving Ace, which is Luffy's only goal, and so its fine if he does that and only that, buts it the same thing that say, Absalom with his invisibility fruit could do if he had his mind set to it. Saving Ace doesn't end the fight or immediatley grant victory to Whitebeard. It just saves Ace.
Freeing ace from seastone handcuffs could be much more important in shifting things, since Ace is in that upper tier.
But Just saving ace is meaningless in the scale of world balance being played out here. Ace could have been executed 3 hours ago and this would now be the same situation.
At best Luffy'll take out a midtier fighter, and turn around a couple shichi against the marines, which changes the playing field some. But he himself, physically, is an ant compared to the big boys.
Oda has been VERY good about keeping the upper teir… well, upper. Luffy shouldn't be able to make any difference in the biggest battles. If he gets within 20 feet of Aokij or Kuma or Kizaru, they should still be able to wipe him out in half a second just like they did before.
Smaller, personal battles, Luffy can win, sure. Influence with his personality and friendships, he can do. (Boa, Kuma, Mihawk?, Ace, Garp?) And he's singlehandedly brought Croc, Jimbei, Buggy, Mr. 1 and 3 and ivankov, and all of those can affect little things. (And Buggy can get credit for some huge thing he didn't actually do.)
But having an outcome on any major fighter? No. He can't make a difference there.
And were you serious about that Crocodile remark?I mean Luffy beat Crocodile.
When Croc wasn't using any of his powers while trying to prove a mano-e-mano point and when Luffy was using his weakness against him, there was poison, Lufyf lost 2 times first, blah blah blah, it s been discussed a million times before and its open to interpretation, but that was a mental and determination based victory more than a physical one. Croc has a better power and mindset for causing mass damage to others than Luffy does, and barring the water weakness, he IS a logia.