@Sirxxx:
You forgot the theory of this being a manifestation of Luffy's future sight. It would certainly give more satisfactory payoff to the sheer amount of time the arc spent on Luffy developing it (because it didn't honestly seem to make much of a difference in his fight with Katakuri).
I think this was directed at me. My post was getting rather long and I forgot! My critics on Luffy's future sight are similar to Nami's mirage, they lacked the foreshadowing. We could say that Luffy pointing out could be the setup, the main issue is: future sight as a power. If this were how it went, then I fear that future events will use this cheap device to create fake tension.
Next chapter could be Luffy warning the crew that they are about to tank extensive damage, and that might give them a chance to mount a defense. That's one of the few ways this can play out without feeling quite as cheap, since the last probable fakeout we saw (of Luffy taking that spear attack) turned out not to be a fakeout at all.
I hope that future sight has a distinct panel tone to it. I never thought that Luffy's injury was a fake. Usually, I am all for looking for details, clues, but this just made me feel the same as the Luffy injury. It happened, it was bad. The question would be: was it fatal? (no).
@Seafarer33:
It wouldn't be the first time Oda shows a very warped fragment of a larger truth for the sake of suspense, only to reveal what really happened several chapters later. Law's "death" in Dressrosa comes to mind, for example (or Brook and "the corpse of your comrade" in Zou, as someone else mentioned).
But both of these were resolved the next chapter, I think Law's was two chapters after (but he started speaking at the end of the chapter in between). So, if so, next chapter would have our answers. But I have seen many thinking that we are jumping to the next arc.
And both those scenarios we did not see how it happened, just people talking/implying it happened.
Here in chapter 900 the only certitude, I would say, is we saw the Sunny facing the Chanter in one panel. Followed in a later panel by a ship fully engulfed in an explosion as the Chanter fires again. Followed some panels later by a ship (possibly a different one) sinking in a sea of flames. Given how those panels are drawn and how Oda handled similar situations in the past, I'm even reluctant to call that conclusive evidence that the Sunny took any hit at all.
As my first post was mentioning, I have no idea how they will escape from it. Which I love because, even while advocating for the scenario where they run away. I had never stopped to think about the different details leading up to its conclusion. This seems like the last obstacle to overcome from the Big Mom Pirates.
So for now, I merely say: it got severely damaged. It is functional, and will get repairs, upgrades. We will not have a new ship.
.
Croc or Enel would never.
