One think that I have clear is that Oda will make sure to build up absolutely all of the Strawhats vs Blacbeards fights. That beeing said, I am only 100% sure about 3 battles that are almost a given: Luffy vs Blackbeard, Zoro vs Shilliew, Usopp vs Van Auger. Those match-ups are so fiting that there is no way they don't happen. I also think that Chopper will be fighting Doc Q&Stronger, but maybe Oda surprises us with this (I am like 90% sure about this fight xD).

As for the rest of the fights, we have to learn more about the Blacbeard guys: As of now, the match-ups could go any way. However, talking about Laffite, I have the feeling he will be fighting Brook because I have one theory: I think that Laffite was born in the same island as Brook (Both are from west blue, and the island could be Toroa), that he learnt Brook's fighting style when beeing in the guard/police of the kingdom (Yes, I think he has a cane sword and that he knows Hanauta Sanchou Yahazu Giri and other techniques Brook invented) and that he used this style Brook is proud of in some horrible ways, making Brook unable to forgive him. They both use hypnosis techniques, and also there is the English/French theme. If my theory is true, they will be fighting for sure, but you never know with Oda…

@Jabberwok:

This would be great way to add useful screentime for some of the characters there, except that Fujitora is still there with them and could easily crush any of those guys.

Yeah, I forgot about him… Time for him to go elsewere, as he has done during all the arc hahaha

I personally would like for the named gladiators that hasnt appeared yet (With the excepetion of Burguess) to go to the Platteau to capture 5-Star Usopp, Riku, Viola and Kinemon. Since we had gladiators that decided to fight against Doflamingo, I would also like to see that some gladiators (Important ones) sided with him in order to capture the stars, like the Funk Brothers. For what we were shown about Jean Ango and Rolling Logan, I can see them going for the stars. We know nothing about Mummy's, Damask's or Meadows's personallities, so them siding with Dofla isnt farfetched. Agio is just a lion, so it's not a problem if he doesnt appear again xDD. The only dissapeared gladiator totally not fiting is Acilia, but maybe the other 5 guys appear at the Plateau with her defeated body (Since she tried to stop them).

Them appearing at the Plateau would be great in my opinion, since it's a way to give Kinemon and Kanjuro some fighting (Kinemon cuting Damask's fire anyone?). Maybe we can even have some good moments for Lepanto, Riku, Viola or Hack. And this short fighting can be done quickly, all in 1-2 chapters at most. Would you like something like this happening, or do you think it would be too much dragging?

Dudes, Law didnt escape because Oda wanted Doflamingo to cut him an arm, that's all. He had a lot of time to shamble away before Dofla grabbed both his hands, he didnt because of plot reasons. It's the same as Doflamingo suddenly going easy on Luffy and simply tying his hands, when he could have perfectly cut them off.

Since Dofla is into cuting limbs, and as we think Law is always to solve amputations with his DF ability, I want Dofla to cut also Luffy's arm or leg with his strings. I also want him to use the technique he used to stop Jozu and Sanji against Luffy (This won't work with Law, since he can shamble away). Parasite would be nice too, but I suppose with stronge ones it wont work unless you catch them offguard

@Jabra:

That would involve dropping his sword, though? Or do you mean the right hand that was grabbed by Dofla?
That's why I said earlier, it does seem like he tried to teleport with his left hand when Doflamingo readied the stringsaw (because his sword is suddenly gone in the panel after).

He should have dropped his sword and tried Shambles with his left hand if indeed shambles is linked to hand gestures (Which may not be, since he was able to do it while carrying both Caesar and Sanji). He had pelnty of time during the conversation to at least try it, and dropping the sword is not an issue since, as we saw in Punk Hazard when they escaped the cage, he can insta-recover it in his room.

I don't mind the result of Dofla cuting Law an arm, but it should have been better handled, since it seems like Law forgot the usage of one of his most basic abilities.

Lol again the Fujitora is doing nothing argument…There is obviously an explanation, we just need to wait until the end of this arc, but here are my 2 cents:

List of facts

-Fujitora was pretty much doing his job and satisfying everyone until Doflamingo shot Law and they both went to the palace to talk.
-They had a talk in the palace we haven't seen yet (This is important). The marines are sent to stop the Strawhats and Fujitora, while telling Dofla that he will come for his ass later becuase he wants the abollition of Shichibukais, tells Dofla that he will play blind about anything he does and help him stop the Strawhats for now.
-After the toys come back, while all the marines want to stop Dofla he insist on going afer the Strawhats. They get confronted by Sabo after some chasing. He fights Sabo while the marines are ordered to stop the people controled by Dofla andto try to stop the Chaos.
-He fights Sabo, but as Sabo says, he is going easy on him. They stop fighting, and Fujitora pretends to use his fight with Sabo as some kind of excuse for something. He appears later at the platteau and announce to King Riku that he is like them betting on Luffy to stop the fighting.

My theory

I think that, in that talk Dofffy and Fujitora had, someone with power from the WG (Maybe CP-0, some WG commander or even the Grousei) ordered Fuji not to attack Doffy and to assist him because of Doffy's influence over the WG and the tenryuubitos. This explains the other marines not understanding his deccision (Since they weren't part of that conversation) and Fujitora's comment about WG thinking themselves as gods. Of course, Fujitora wants to arrest Doffy, even more after discovering all the toys shit…But he has to save face from the WG high-ups. SO he makes looks like he is still going after the strawhats until he meets with Sabo, who confronts him while he order the other marines to stop Torikago chaos and help the civilians (This is fitting with his character of helping civilians and populations). However, he just fights Sabo to use it as an excuse in front of the high-ups, an excuse to explain why he couldnt go after Luffy. The other marines can tell that this figth happened, and the other strong ones were defeated (I even think that Fuji was playing naive and used the meteor over the birdcage to knock-out Bastille...).
So now, with his men stoping the chaos arround the city and controlling the civilians and the excuse of his fight against Sabo, he bets on Luffy defeating Doflamingo for him so he gets what he gets without geting fired or other serious problems for him or his objective.

Thats my pesonal shot about the situation, but there are other possible explanations to his behaviour. You could even think that, since his men are already controlling the civilian casualties and the ones fighting against each other are all pirates and thughs (Screw Elizabello, Rebeca and Kyros xD) he is just waiting for one of the parties to win so he finishes off the other, while thinking "I bet that the ones who win and I have to destroy after this fighting are strawhat and his buddies LOL".

@King:

Law's motives aren't weak, but they're restricted to a single person. He has no interest in Dressrosa and the other people there that Doula wronged, so it doesn't make sense storywise for Dressrosa to be saved by this guy.

Kyros, Rebecca, Viola, Riku, Bellamy, Dwarves and the former toys were all wronged and deserve to be "avenged" too, but Law has nothing to do with those guys. He's not fighting for them.

Like I said before countless times, Doula is more than Rosinante's murderer.

He is not figthing for them, but he will avenge them and help them anyways. Luffy doesnt care for the gladiators and even wanted them to stay away and not to interfer in his fight with Dofla, he didn't even care their main motive was one of his nakamas saved them.

Anyways, I didnt say that Law alone will be defeating Doflamingo, that can't happen, as I told i see a 2vs1 fight as the most interesting option, satisfying almost everyone. Would that be wrong with you?

@Cyan:

Blackbeard's going to kill Shanks so if you're going for the revenge story there it is.

Quoted for truth. You people say Law's motives are weak, when Bkackbeard killing Shanks will probably the icing on the cake for the Strawhats vs Blackbeards. Those fights will have a great revenge fealing…It will then be ok for Luffy to have this revenge feelings?

And Law motivation became pretty clear this chapter, and we saw it's not all about revenge, it's more an inherited will: He wants to fullfill Corazon's wish of stoping Doflamingo's madness. And that includes saving Dressrosa. Luffy defeating Enel and ringing the bell was not for the Shandias, but for Cricket and the Saruyama alliance. Heck, they got into the conflict because they wanted to steal the gold, and Luffy only fought Enel because he attacked the,, he got in their way. Dont forget they are all pirates: Luffy is fighting for Rebeca and some of the Dressrosa people he likes, but he doesnt care that much about the general population.

Seriously, I would like you guys to answer a simple question: Would a 2vs1 fight be that bad (Luffy&Law vs Doffy)? Because I personally see it as the best way to make the majority of people happy, and it would be coherent with storytelling. What's so wrong about it?

Wow, everybody seems to be thinking Law is going down soon…I personally think that it will end up beeing a 2 vs 1 (Luffy+Law vs Doffy) with Luffy dealing the finishing blow. This way Oda makes all Luffy's, Law's and Doffy's fans happy (Luffy's and Law's because both take part on it, and Doffy's because hey, 2 supernovas where needed to beat him!!).

I dont want Law to be down and for Luffy to take over and win because, unlike Wipper or other previous characters, Law is a future rival, a pirate that goes for the Pirateking tittle. He should be more or less equal to Luffy until their final fight, so we can have him lose here for Luffy to win afterwards.

Also, Dofla is one of the most overpowered guys in One Piece. Currently, he is:
-Having an islandsized birdcage active.
-Controling half of the popoulation making them kill each other.
-Figthing Luffy by controling Bellamy and using his string clone.
-Figthing against Law using most of his techniques.

And he is doing all of this simultaneously!! So I think geting hit once because of a little distraction is kind of understandable xD.

@Darth:

A) The fact they were not in fact made up on a fly was already brought up, and I acknowledged it. So yeah, you got ninja'd on that one.

B) I would really much like to see them making an impact on New World.

Yeah I saw I was ninjaed, saw it a few posts after replying yours xD, I only enter to the forum from time to time, so it was bound to happen…I wanted to clarify it just in case =P.

I would say you will be loving the sotry once Drake starts to get developed, since we are bound to have a flashback that will explain why he defected the marines...We will probably see him interacting with the Akainu, Sengoku, Garp, Kizaru, Aokiji, Smoker,Hina...That flashback will probably be all (Or almost all of it) about the marines. I would say that will be the closest to the Marines Arc you proposed on the other thread xD.

And well, Kid and Law will have the bigest impact (Aside from Luffy and Teach), but the other will be having importance...As I told, Drake's and Bonney's flashbacks are things I am already expecting.

--- Update From New Post Merge ---

@DARK_RITUAL:

Right from the first time Law got introduced I knew he was gonna be a friend of luffys, he won't be Luffy's enemy.

Then when Law, Kidd and Luffy came out to fight that scene sealed my speculation.
Law was talking to luffy with respect(probably respecting luffy for being a fellow "D") while at the same time he was telling Kidd he's gonna kill him. And yeah Kidd was arrogant to the two.

Right now, it's pretty difficult to picture it, since Law and Luffy allied in order to defeat a Yonkou. But unlike other of Luffy's allies, we know that Law is aiming for One Piece and PK. In fact, we have been reminded twice (One of this two times by Luffy himself) that "Ok, we are good from now until we defeat Kaidou, but after that we will part ways and we will be rivals again". I am pretty confident they will have a fight near the end of the manga.

I will agree that Luffy won't be figthing Torao out of anger, more like just because they are rivals aiming for the same objective, which by any ways means they wont be giving their best against each other. Shanks would be a similar case: He is Luffy's mentor/friend, but there is no doubt that Luffy is eager to fight him (Though I am afraid Teach will not be allowing this since he will probably be geting Shanks and Killing him before Luffy even meet him again…).

Kid will be exactly the same as Law in my opinion. In fact, I am pretty confident that him and his alliance will be appearing in Zou, and I see them (Kid, Appo and Hawkins) maybe allying with Luffy and Law in order to get the Yonkou's head (As far as we know, Kid alliance could be aiming Kaidou as well). Luffy will be liking him much to his annoyment, and in the end they will give it all. If I think that the 3 will have a fight at the same time it's because of their crewmates: Killer is a perfect matchup for Zoro, and Bepo for Sanji...Add Jean Bart, Shachi, Penguin, Heat and Wire and you already have matchups for all of the guys in the Strawhat Crew.