@MagneticMonkey:

I also think that you're heading in the wrong direction by using random mysteries that can mean anything only to fit in your speculation.

I fullheartly hope so I'm just scared, that's all.

Damn it, I'm afraid that something will be a main part of the OP story which I certainly wouldnt like

Evidence piles up that every D. lives at least two lives of some sort/in some way (probably by being reborn without them knowing about it until something happens).

Evidence/hints:

1. Ace: "You have lived twice the life/two lifes" to blackbeard
2. Ds Smile when they die (subconciously they know they wont really die/will come again)
3. Aces line "No matter what, I wont die." And his really sub-par death scene compared with whitebeards epicness.
3.1. Last sentence in the chapter about ace was not something like "Ace, the son of Gol D. Roger, is dead!" in a narrator box, but "Gol D. Ace, the name of our child". Suggesting that he may come back using that name someday/soon.
4. Laws line in this chapter ("D" will cause a storm again, that's for sure). Maybe referring to Gol D. Rogers "rebirth" in luffy. Which would explain his sudden interest in him.
5. Luffy saying "Exactly the same thing as Roger" according to shanks.

I hope it is only metaphysical and not confirmd like "Roger lives in Luffy again and needs to be reactivated or some crap". Maybe only the ideas life on. Hopefully. But especially Ace's death scene scares me in that aspect. (since it felt so out of place and 'un-epic')

And about the Newspaper, we might not see what chopper meant. Kinda the same with the Doflamingo and Moria battle.

@Bucephalus:

I was expecting Sengoku to fence in the pirates better. If he could have built that huge wall on the battlefield, why couldn't he've built one behind the pirates, ensuring they couldn't escape. Not to mention, putting all the fodder marines in front of the strong pirate was really retarded too.

This is what I had pictured the battlefield to look like prior to the war:
http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/9674/warop.png

gray lines = steel walls

even though that is a very nice drawing, it would not work well at all. To quote aka inu "If we are all out there, who is left to defend this place!?".

The problem with wars in one piece IMHO in general is the absolutely unpredictable nature of the devil fruits and probably haki as well. Marco for example is basically unstopable if he is in mid air as a phoenix (case and point kizaru shooting lasers at him, which didnt stop him). If garp hadnt been at the execution stand, Marco might have saved ace on his own.

Another example was the whitebeard all out 'destroying marinford' attack, which destroyed all of the town and was about to destroy the execution stand itself, but was stopped by all the admirals probably using some sort of haki.
if those three hadnt been there at that point, whitebeard could have easily freed Ace on his own.

Another very important point is that the Admirals might cancle each other out if they fought so close to each other. Ao Kiji and Aka Inus devil fruits dont seem to work well together. (like fire and ice, so to speak)

And lastly, the most important point of all, only fodder between Shichibukai and Ace!?!!?
The shichibukai clearly cant be trusted and using them in such an important tactical position is just bogus.

What I'm trying to say is, if the Marines used this plan, they would have been defeated. they weren't defeated with the plan they used.

No…
It is more or less just common sense. People do die, I do not think anyone needs a reminder of that.

best part about the chapter?

http://static3.mangastream.com/manga/5/72772619/01.png

The Marines Mc-Donald

@Cyan:

Gorousei = Ruling body of the government composed of Ghandi, Peter Tosh, Dumbledore, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Duane Allman.

Ghandi holding a sword?
Shame on you, oda!

But actually, even though I didn't make this for this thread, I think it is well known who the Elder Stars really are…
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/3078/fiveelderstars.jpg

! From left to right:
Roosevelt, Hirohito (Emperor of Japan during World War II), Stalin, Churchill, Hitler

the subs I watched subbed "OKAMA WAAAY!!!"
with "OH COME MY WAY!!!" …

Sabo will be captured by the Tenryuubuto and be brought to Mary Joa. Ace's sole target in live was to get to Mary Joa and free sabo, however he failed all the time misreably.
He wanted to meet whitebeard because he wanted to see the strength neccessary to 'change the world'.

With ace dead, Luffy will have to go after Sabo, attacking mary joa itself.

@1000sunny:

I always wondered why people couldnt just "cut" right into the end of the New World through the Calm Belt and find Raftel that way. Obviously the OP world has advanced enough technology to use something other than the wind to power ships and that technology is not just exclusive to the Marines, I mean look at Law's submarine ship or the Sunny. Also if a rookie crew like the SHs can handle numerous Sea Kings without too much sweat shouldn't NW pirates do the same?

People like Luffy would never use the shortcut because that would be "cheating" and "think of all the adventures they would miss" (totally agree it would ruin the series) but their are a lot of powerful pirates who have a Buggy-like mentality to do whatever it takes to win so why has no one tried and succeed yet? And for that matter, why has no one ever gotten that far except Roger when all you have to do is follow your Log. What have people like Whitebeard been doing for 50 years, just floating?

Still I trust Oda will provide a good answer once we get to the NW (if we ever get there)…

Well:
"Why does noone 'Cheat# to raftle?"
Because there is some kind of trick to get to raftle, which is written on the Porneglyphs most likely (Roger offered Whitebeard to tell him how to get to Raftle -> something makes it far more complicated then just following the log)

"Why does noone enter the New World through the calm belt?"
I think several organisations, including the marines probably, do that now and then. But you'd have to have a logport/ethernal port/something to navigate to an island in the new world, and they don't give those out for free.

interesting, but fairly obvious.

A+ for the effort, though!