@slippy:

still not too sure how i feel about whitebeard being hurt and ultimately killed by this squardo guy, just assumed it'd be someone bigger.

No matter who did the physical stab, in the end the injury was from Sengoku and the world government as a whole. I'd say that was big enough.

@Power:

I am finding it extremely disgusting that, strictly speaking, the pirates in general tend to care for their own more than the Marines do.

We have seen countless marines who have absolutely no hesitation at shooting, slashing and killing their own men, not to mention civilians, either as collateral or 'for the greater good'. These include and are not limited to:
Captain Morgan
Spandam
Lucci
Akainu - both in Buster Call and recently in this saga
Some VA in the recent Buster Call
Kizaru
Sentoumaru
the PX's (yes yes they are being ordered)
Sengoku doesn't seem to be particularly worried about his troops dying either.

So far the pirates, albeit being evil and whatnot have displayed more comradeship than any of the 'good guys'.
Luffy would go to the ends of the earth for his friends.
Shanks's speech in the first episode shows the same thing.
Whitebeard brought along half of the New World to rescue one measly person.
Buggy's crew is constantly looking for him.
Everyone seems to be looking out for each other. Sure, there are casualties, but we haven't seen a pirate directly fire on one of his own men to prove a point.
Exceptions seem to be Kuro, Croc (he did try to kill Mr. 3) and of course Squardo in this chapter.

Edit: In fact, I dare you all to find 3 instances of where a marine, ANY marine or Government official, has done something admirable. I can only think of one instance myself, which is Aokiji freezing the ocean for Tonjit to cross to the other island, although he did it after letting a group of well known pirates go.

Edit: And don't go telling me Smoker gave the kid money to buy another ice cream, that's hardly anything special…

Why is this surprising when the basic underlying theme of the government and the marines is that they are corrupt.

Not to mention the Navy is a career, whereas pirates are basically just friends, although often they will have other motives. like comparing your workplace to your group of friends.

@Thousand:

some fodder out of no where.

Just because Whitebeard is strong doesn't mean other people aren't, how is this guy fodder.

@Thousand:

The strongest man in the world just got stabbed. That alone merits the inverted panels. Not like it did shit to him.

And exactly why would it do nothing to him. that would just be so unbelievably anticlimactic that this arc would sink lower than Bleach.

@Fire Fist:

This is probably way off, but did anyone notice?

http://www.onemanga.com/One_Piece/432/07/

The fourth Yonkou has a mark on his forehead you can't quite make out. It actually looks sort of similar to Squardo's spider mark:

http://www.onemanga.com/One_Piece/562/15/

Coincidence?

Not going to rule it off completely but

1. That symbol doesn;t really look like the spider

2. why would Whitebeard let a guy onto his crew as a commander with the logo of an opposing Yonkou on his head?

So very, very unlikely.

@choperman:

not really when you think of oh i don't know

garp slashed with axe and didn't even notice
zoro vs mr. 1
giant bird man at center of explosion that should have killed millions lives
zoro in pool of blood after encounter with kuma

Don't even try to go into the details of the injury, the fact that Oda devoted a double page spread at the end of a chapter, as well as using those several dramatic inverted reaction shots, pretty much confirms this isn't going to be something he can just shrug off.

I hope all the people trying to say that Whitebeard is going to get away from this with some tiny wound die painfully, the premise is utterly insane.

@Conspiracynut:

People, people, people. Kuma is obviously Wrath. His animal is the biggest carnivourous mammal still alive; he was once nick-named "Tyrant", and he has become a willless freaking killing machine.

Do you even know what wrath means.

@Refii:

He is the only one with the balls to become PK even if he is an ant, which is why he deserves it.

You mean like every other nobody wannabes in One piece?

@Zik:

I'm more than sure we'll be more and specifically different world nobles. I feel the three we meant were just for the slave auction angle.

Wouldn't be surprised to see a couple badass ones, good ones, and ones who are actually evil.

How are the ones we saw at the slave auction not evil.