@Wagomu:

In Doflamingo's first appearance, he made two WG agents fight each other right at Mariejoa in front of Sengoku and got away with a slight scolding. The WG expect the shichibukai to act the way they do and are okay with it, so long as they are still worth a a lot to the government. It's not betrayal so much as incomplete loyalty that everyone is aware of. And even if Hancock went a bit over the usual pushing of buttons, the marines still won the war, so they're probably willing to overlook relatively minor insubordination.

You mean the same World Government that sent a hit out on Moria after the end of the war just because "he was useless" and they wanted to off him in a dignified way where he lost in battle rather then government assasination? Marines and Shichibukai are pawns for the World Government. Sengoku puts up with the Shichibukai because they are considered integral to the WG and he can only file complaints. The WG is now starting to see some of them as useless (not the marines, they may have already thought they were too much of a hassle). All bets are off on their future especially after the debacles that certain other shichibukai did during the war before defecting (blackbeard and Jinbei). This completely ignores anything else about Hancock and what she did to help Luffy in Impel Down and during the war. She didn't help, she showed up because she was forced to, Moria did more in the war to help then she did and he still got the axe.

@nexusil:

I don't think there's going to be a buster call / attack on Amazon island simply because it wouldn't fit with the flow of the manga. One Piece is more of an exploration manga, and Oda doesn't like to revisit old islands (AL) or events (buster call). I imagine he has a new island planned for Luffy.

Also, unlike Whitebeard, Luffy can't be holding and defending territory. That's not how you become the "most free person of the sea". Any Amazon Lily conflict with the World government can only end in a few ways, all of which flows poorly:

1. Luffy defends Amazon Lily and then goes on with his adventure
   problem: Amazon Lily now loses any defense against the world government, it will be unresolved, or possibly gets annihilated later (which happens often in other Manga but One Piece is not that dark)

2. Luffy defends Amazon Lily and "defends" it with his reputation or get some promise from the government to not attack again.
   problems: Luffy can't be holding territory or going around avenging any transgressions like White beard. He doesn't have the numbers nor the inclination to hold territories. The government will also not make any promises to Luffy, he's not emperor level yet.

3. Luffy defends Amazon Lily with the revolutionary army who then holds it
   problem: it's too early in the story to have a heads on revolutionary army / world government confrontation. Luffy still needs to gather his crews and become more powerful before being on the summit again

4. Luffy fails to defend Amazon Lily and the amazons abandons the island
   problem: after multiple failures, the flow of manga indicates a rebound. Any additional losses is pointless since the climax (losing Ace) is already over

Or how about option 5) Amazon Lily decides on its own after an attack (or shortly before one) that they need to leave the island and enter the real world when they realize it will NEVER be safe anymore. Hancock dies… there goes the contract it needs protecting... Luffy leaves with Hancock... it needs protecting... World Government doesn't feeling like holding to its contract... it needs protecting. There is only a temporary reprieve that keeps it around, in the end, like with Water 7, they will all need to decide for themselves how to keep each other alive. They can't keep depending on one person to upset a balance because once said person is gone or the circumstances change, they are gone. The whole situation in Amazon Lily is a ticking time bomb and its only a matter of when it goes off and what its citizens choose before that happens.

Or option 6 - Oda will introduce something or introduce a new plotline that will keep them safe that doesn't depend on anyone that are currently in the line of fire.

Furthermore people are not talking about an attack on Amazon Lily (or at least I'm not) I'm talking about an assault with the intent to take out the empress/shichibukai. You take out one person, you don't need to bring Amazon Lily to smoldering ashes (you can enslave them after that if you want!). The story dictates that there is turmoil between the shichibukai and the world government, if that doesn't indicate SOMETHING happening in the near future for Hancock I don't know what. And since we have all tied her contract with the safety of Amazon Lily then I guess that plot needs to be settled sometime in the future then if not now? I'd certainly rather have it done while on Amazon Lily though because the likelyhood of us going back 'again' is already near zero.

@loledinmypants:

I'm saying that the tension doesn't even have to involve the SHs. Oda can set stuff up and worldbuild while bringing them back together and training Luffy. Then we can move ahead to SA part 2 and FI where there will definitely be some fecal matter hitting bladed cooling/circulation devices. Right now the flow of the story is going toward a resolution to Luffy realizing his weakness and moving on via improving with Rayleigh. That indicates we don't need a climatic struggle around Luffy right now. That can happen after the training and reuniting. FI will be perfect to show us what Luffy's and the others have gained.

There already is plenty of world tension, but that tension doesn't affect the readers because we are so focused on getting the crew back together. Something needs to take our attention away from that or at least heightens risk of getting the crew back, the journey needs to have some stumbling blocks, or a completely different event needs to happen where the question of even seeing the crew any time soon is implemented so when it speeds up, it feels 'glorious'. World Tension is not an issue, we the readers need something to really chew on rather then anything. You don't have it, the chapters become a chore of repetition waiting to see an inevitable end rather the unpredictable.

@loledinmypants:

The war was the shit hitting the fan folks. Luffy failed, realized what we noticed since SA: that he's weak. Now he's moving on from that and will get stronger. The excitement Oda will use to keep us interested during the training is updates on the SHs returning to SA. I don't understand why you people think we need more drama and action than the war and Ace dying. The showing of the results of the training has to come after. We know who he's training to beat, and Luffy does too: the people like Sentoumaru/Kizaru/Kumabots that will be the norm more or less in the New World. Oda doesn't need to throw us fodder character #50 in some contrived plot meant to stir up excess drama just to show Luffy's progress with training.

We don't need to see that, but there is NO tension in the story currently, and this series thrives off tension to move big events. We have a destination and place, what you think Oda is just going to let the story linger about till all prevailing plot points just finish themselves off? After 2+ years of no strawhats the last thing he should be doing is for them to just meet unceremoniously and it is completely unlike Oda. Something is going to change the flow of the story where when the strawhats meet it will be a glorious event for both the characters and the readers (and not just "Yay it finally happened, lets move on with the story" like it was a burden rather then an event). That tension/lead event has not appeared yet. You are thinking too narrowly about what we are talking about. It doesn't have to happen on Amazon Lily, but there are signs that it 'may' happen there from other events in recent past chapters. It doesn't have anything to do with whether Hancock or anyone joins for that matter.

@onemoment:

Now, accidentally getting "defeated" by Luffy is something that the WG might kill for, considering what's up Moria. Yeah, I think the WG cares more about their rep then the feelings of a few of their people.

As for the newspaper, I think a lot of people are predicting this is a bounty raise because other people are doing it. Now I think it's also likely that Luffy is getting framed for something that's happened recently. Maybe Moria's death? Or how about the destruction of Impel Down? Either route would be a lot of fun.

See this is the type of thinking I have with the 'newspaper' article. Its going to be either something we are anticipating about Luffy (bounties) or the marines are going to declare something about Luffy that isn't public knowledge that happened recently with him or lie about something they are trying to shoe horn on to him to cover up incompetance. Impel Down is one of the things that hadn't been notified officially to the press during the war so that could easily come as a surprise to Chopper. There are plenty of other things but I seriously doubt they are going to announce an attack on Hancock, they killed off Moria secretly enough; "I'm going to make you look like you died in the war", why would they simply announce anything about intentions for Hancock and why the hell would Chopper care about it >.>. It's something else easily.

@loledinmypants:

Well it doesn't relate to your AL being attacked and Hancock getting recruited in the aftermath theory you were trying to shoehorn into this thread. Read what Jerk Disease said: AL was just stated to be a safe haven where Rayleigh can help Luffy improve himself. Shit ain't gonna go to chaos. There'll be maybe a chapter's worthn (possibly more since mixing in the other events will hold back people from screaming "training sux") of haki training or whatever Rayleigh has in mind amidst other events such as the SHs regrouping (this kind of thing can span a few chapters)

The strawhats simply regrouping without issue and Luffy training without showing a convincing result (testing it on a foe) gives no tension to the story. Shit is going to go down the question is where and how. Rayleigh doesn't know that the Marines are hunting certain Shichibukai, Rayleigh has had little chance to see a newspaper, the people at Amazon Lily cannot get a newspaper unless they get one from a place the news coo go or they get it from someone else who already has it. All the details that they believe to be fact don't mesh with some of the recent chapters. Decides theories are flawed, but they all stem from the simple fact that the storyline dictates some tension to be introduced especially after the incident with Moria foreshadowed issues between the shichibukai and the world government.

@45°Dunc:

"Otherwise I wouldn't be able to move freely…"

mystery nefarious characters have bits of his vivre card and are keeping tabs on him/ wouldn't like to see him making unusual moves?

or just doesn't want to be interrupted by Strawhats?

Either the former or he doesn't want to throw the strawhats journey off by having them find a moving target. I doubt it has anything to do with 'interruptions'.

Also on another note; I mentioned it in the spoiler thread but we now know that Hancocks story will now go beyond her island unless something new happens (like another helpful person shows up). Rayleighs boat is sunk and now Law has left, that means the only reliable way to get off the island is to use the Kuja ship. So either someone comes to help, a marine ship shows up to take on Amazon Lily and by consequence the group takes it over, or the Kuja Pirates are going to be transporter of Luffy, Rayleigh and Jinbei off the island and probably to Saboady.

I'm 'expecting' the marines to come to Amazon Lily myself, and not because of Luffy, but because they seem to be on a witchhunt for 'useless' Shichibukai now. Them finding Luffy will just be a coincidence. In other words I am in agreement with some of the others that say "The marines can't possibily be coming here for Luffy, its very safe" to be just another foreshadowing that something bad is coming. Having said that though… I seriously doubt that has ANYTHING to do with what Chopper saw >.> It could be something new that Marines have declared on Luffy, or its a bounty upgrade. It probably won't have anything to do with Hancock, the shichibukai, or anything else that Chopper wouldn't know 'something' about like some have said in this thread.

@5_Of_Spades:

True. And Ace and Shanks were both won over by Luffy when he was a child. They didn't take one look at Luffy and immediately adore him. And even with a foot in the door, Luffy would still have to prove his own worth for the whole door to open to him.

On one hand he has earned all those people's trust… on the other hand the fact that he was even allowed to earn that many high players trust seems a bit wonky (from a storytelling point of view). But eh that's shonen for you, as long as it doesn't lead the storyline where he is constantly being saved by his new friends and he stops finishing stuff on his own. As long as that doesn't come to pass I couldn't care less how many friends he has. Up until this war, the amount of friends he ended up having didn't really mean much in the grand scheme of things and I doubt it will matter in the harsher new world.

@Halfmetal-lich:

That face she gave when she cried Luffy was priceless. I never expected her to give that look.

I'm not into the fancock reactions (or at least not as much as you :P) but I absolutely loved the dirty look she gave Jinbei when she heard his stomach growl. That is certainly something new for her personality, and then she changes her mind quickly soon after it lol.

@Thousand:

This chapter was so awesome>
I just love how this chapter perfectly exemplified the way Oda is masterfully connecting a bunch of story threads and weaving them together into one tapestry of brilliance.

The only bad thing about this chapter was it ending>< Gah!!! 20 pages a week just aren't enough!!!>< I wanna see Luffy's new bounty and war aftermath and the rest of the Straw Hat reactions and a bunch of other stuff!!! Sometimes I wish I could just go off One Piece for a month so I could have like 4 chapters to read in a go but I just don't have the will power and self-control D:

I'm more surprised we had 20 pages to begin with lol. It's so good to be out of the war, those double page spreads really killed the page amount for each chapter.

Predictions: Next chapter we will get to see all the rest of the members and their situation. If it's a bounty increase that Chopper saw, we will see it next chapter, if we don't see it next chapter, its probably not a bounty increase. We will also find out next chapter what Rayleigh is proposing and maybe have a couple unknown things discussed with the world at large like: more past characters responding to the war including, but not limited to the world government. That's my thoughts on what will be in the next chapter, its a pretty safe bet though XD.

All together I really enjoyed this chapter and loved Hancocks 'entranced' reactions. Just shows that if she joins she will be both predictable and has room for lots of unique reactions (whether you want those reactions or think they are amusing is another story).