Well, after an awesome chapter like this and having now a 2 weeks break, all that's left for us is speculate. So, here goes some ideas:

I guess we all got the "fairy tale" feeling coming from Big Mom and her crew, right?! (it has been said several times in this thread already). At first, Alice in Wonderland grew very strong in me. The whole Tea Party, a bossy crazy ruler just like the Queen of Hearts, some subordinates Mosquetear-like, a tea-drinking subordinate… So, my guess this was indeed an influence to Oda.

But after a while, some other tale felt more like it. It's Hansel and Gretel. Well, we already have our "wicked wich" living in a house (island) made of cake and gingerbread. And this same "witch" shares the main feature of the one in the tale: cannibalism! In some versions of the tale, the witch just cocked her victims; in others, she turned them into sweets and ate them (another match = the love for sweets). What we know for sure until now about Big Mom is that she does loves sweets and that she ate someone (normal people? people turned into sweets? sweets made living?).
And we may already have our Gretel... In the story, Gretel was made a slave by the witch to help her cooking because she was already becoming blind. Our dear three-eyed girl does not seen really happy in being there. As a matter of fact, she looks ratter bored (or even nauseated); and notice how Bobbin does not greet or even looks at her. She might be there as a slave (or being threatened by LinLin) in order to protec her "Hansel".
Well, I'm not saying Big Mom is blind. But sure "Gretel" can see better than her... :ninja: (3 eyes? got it? got it?... ok, I'll stop).
The last thing is that the witch lived in a forest. That may seem a little off, but not if we look at BM's Jolly Roger. There's a tree there. Maybe that correspond to her powers; but it may be a reference to her oficial base/head quarters that may be in a forest-like location...

It's all very far from any confirmation, but it's a start (and I got to keep myself busy these weeks without chapters in order to not go crazy).

That was a really awesome chapter. Great new character's design, creppy Big Mum, badass Luffy… and some big hype for the New World.

I'm usually too lazy to comment anything and just read the threads around here, but this time one thing really bugged me: the great amount of people saying Luffy is just too weak to face Bib Mum by now.
I honestly believe he is enough strong to beat the crap out her on the stage he is. Come on... He trained for two whole years with the Dark King himself. He did not only learn haki this time, he toughed-up a lot for sure. Ops, my bad: It was not for two years, it was for only 1 and a half year, because Luffy manage to learn all Reylegh planned to teach way faster than he thought (that's Oda telling us: "Luffy's stronger than Reyleigh would even have imagined").
I'm not saying he'll fight her in 15 chapts or so. It's most likely that we'll have a long arc (Alabasta-like), with them facing several Bib Mum's crew and allys and maybe some unrelated forces (supernovas, or ex-level 6 prisioners) until they actually meet LinLin herself. But that does not mean he'll be stronger by then. What will be "stronger" is the New World and Big Mum´s influences build-ups.
And thinking in retrospect, it's pretty similar to the the whole Crocs thing. Luffy had just entered the Grand Line and already made enemies with a Shichibukai. We might have thought he was just too green to make it, but it wasn't. As matter of fact, all he's previous enemies were the ones too weak for him (Kuro, Buggy, Krieg and even Arlong - none of them posed a threat to Luffy). Luffy's first real match was Croc (and then he lost twice and won once... but won). And only later we found out why that was actually possible and not "just because of plot": he spent 10 fucking years trainnig everyday with Sabo and Ace in a hellish jungle/dump! Of course Luffy felt confident since the beggining. He knew his strengh (well... until the world beat the crap out of him in Saboady/ID/Marineford).
The same thing is happenig now: he knows his current strengh (we are the ones who have no idea yet). The difference is that now he's got a lot more experience, fought with the world's best, and trainned with the world's best...

Well... what I'm saying - if i'm saying anything at all - is that it's not too soon for them to face a Younkou. We just need to have a well build up arc (luckily, we have Oda to do so).
And as someone already pointed that the problem would not be Luffy beat a Younkou, but the afterwards. I beg to differ. There are a bunch of high level oponents (2 other younkou; all the supernovas - who does not fear the younkou as we seen with Drake and Kidd; old and new Shichibukais; level 6 prisioners; new world pirates; all Marine forces - with somewhat misterious new powerups as said by Jimbe; World Goverment itself; yet-to-be-known oponents...). Sorry to be the one who say this, but One Piece has to end some day...

Affh... sorry for the long post.
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