@kouch_lee:

Bleach will reach the 500 chapter mark in 1 year or so.

And Naruto is 520 something chapters. And we've basically seen the village of the sand, the village of the leave, and the cloud village. Oh, and the Iron country. And NON of them looked exciting, well build, or anything. Pretty generic stuff if you ask me.

You forgot the Samurai's that came out of right field. I pop into that manga every now and then and god is it bad.

@Speed:

As of 2011 the US has troops stationed in 172 countries arround the world, we are now under the control of an organization the size and scale of of the WG.

Military presence doesn't always equate political control. Some of these countries are stable because of US presence. For others it's more of an annoyance. However if the US wasn't stationed in most of these countries another larger boarder country may potentially invade. I.e. Iran into Iraq. Though I'm completely against the way our military and goverment conduct themselves and the general US public's power of either has become (or always has been) a mirage. Though this whole argument is off topic and better suited for the Wiki thread.

One Piece.

Complex, Yes.

Deep, Selectively.

TL ; DR
OP has depth as well as complexity but nothing the scholars will throw a fit over in the centuries to come.

Deep isn't so much that the author is touching on Unique topics. Because in the flow of time all things are no longer original. There has always been someone to do it before. The best one can hope for is to be Fresh. Which I'm sure most agree Oda is.

Norland Flash back on the surface was a great arc. But under the surface it was amazing – despite my own personal opinions of finding sections of Skypiea boring. These natives with a extensive culture and beliefs system based around their snake gods and ancestors meet a man who cherishes science and medicine who eventually brings them to his ideals by showing them the true path for their peoples salvation. These same people are shot into "heaven" with their new beliefs and are attacked by "God and God's Army" who seek to claim what the "Land Dwellers" have. A struggle of peoples with an underline implication of the struggle with religious faith over fact based science.

Oda also seems to push existentialist ideals through the use of perceived evils versus individual examples.

• SH's being Do-gooder Pirates which further expands the sentiments that "SH's are good thus Pirating is good" even though on a grander scale Pirates are perceived as horrible people and individuals like Kidd, Caribou, Arlong, Fluffy, Early Appearance Buggy, Alvida, ect. reinforce the notion of Pirates are "bad people"
• Dadan FOILing the mountain bandits from Romance Dawn,
• The varying beliefs of "Justice" within the Marines – even though "Justice" is suppose to be a solid common mantra that all marines are suppose to share
• Existence based on situational perception. I.E. Vivi, Robin, Mr. 3, Croc, Franky, Buggy, all initially "bad guys" and eventually become allies through the revelation of information or raw situation. (I think this one is more blatant with how Luffy accepts someone as good or bad. A persons worth is based on their most recent actions. Buggy, Croc, and the misunderstanding with Zoro at Cactus Island. The exception of this maybe when Nami stole their boat in Baratie arc.)

In a number of situations paneling and character placements can often reveal more than what may be seen on the surface. Instead of taking this point further I'll just cite a previous argument I've made that is related.

http://apforums.net/showpost.php?p=1822010&postcount=280

To dig for all examples would be time consuming so I hope this single citing is sufficient for my point. Paneling is potentially an indicator in Oda's work.

There are other things that can be pointed out as well but I'll leave my argument here.

Brook + Boned
Pappug licking Camie's Clam (lol)
Luffy pushing a Mermaid Woman's head down in a suggestive angle.

Oda's humor is following the trend of Frobin and the Cucumber. Also seem like over the break Oda decided to avoid drawing out unnecessary plot transitions. Things will feel rushed but it's better than feeling slow.

@MLG:

We still don't know what One Piece is of course, but to me, Rayleigh seems to be talking about those historical things to Robin but not saying that they don't know what to do with One Piece? That's just my thoughts, because in Rayleigh's quote, It isn't really a direct message of telling us that they don't know what to do with One Piece. So, I was pretty shock when you say it confirmatively that they didn't know what to do with One Piece. It may confuse some people.. right?

If you point it out as a suggestion, I would actually consider it ,because it actually sounds like a good point on what Rayleigh's talking about, but anyway I'm not really into guessing, I'd like to wait to see what happens next =p(I definetly does not want to die before One piece ends!!!!)

Rayleigh didn't talk about One Piece at all. And if Oda's drawing style is anything close to real humans natural responses – Ray's reaction to the question and Luffy's answer points more towards that OP doesn't exist.

@Gekko135:

-Start from the damn beginning.

-How to read that shit will come pretty naturally unless you're really dumb.

-lots of manga sites to find the series on. Not that hard to find em'.

-Chapters generally come once a week (excluding breaks, and Jump-less weeks)

Gekko speaks truth.

Some of the older scans were mirrored/flipped to be read from Left to Right. Just use good judgement. If the dialogue doesn't seem to make sense read it the other way around.

Roger never said it was on Raftel. I think of it as his little inside joke. There most likely is something magnificent, if not many magnificent things, at Raftel. Is it the thing Roger was referring to… Probably not.

From what we know Roger probably considered Rogue more valuable than treasure and adventures if he choose to spend his last dying days with her. And Oda has already used themes of placing sentimental values higher than material possessions for a good portion of his characters. So I think he would pull a "One Piece is Rogers Wife and Son". Though I bet One Piece will always be an ambiguous treasure that Oda won't ever define.

In the 2007 summary what is the sign that greg raised?

@choperman:

did anyone else think zoro will have the same blood as sanji, and he'll make some joke about not wanting to give blood to weaker people or something….. I hope it's not just me

chopper would know what Zoro's blood type is. Seeing how he's been close to death a few times.

@looking_at_you:

if you go to the mangastream website you would know that its no chapter this week also they get their spoilers from here

Well it all originates on 2chn. It's just the kind Sirs/Madams of AP provide English Translations for the general public.

Anyone else getting the idea that Cariboo is going to become a crew member this arc and FOIL the rest of the Straw-hats?

Some of the bosses in FF Tactics sucked hard. If you hadn't done a lot of grinding before the string of missions that lead to the boss encounter or have an appropriate class set you'll get rolled hard. Had to restrat from scratch on a few occasions cause I got to a boss fight I couldn't back out of/prep for and couldn't beat no matter how hard I tried.