Dude, Shanks vs. Whitebeard! And Ace vs. Blackbeard! I really hope Ace does pull out, since Shanks heeded that terrible warning not to fight him. I want to see more Ace in action, though. Hopefully he doesn't sleep on the job.

This makes me wonder, does Shanks even know that Luffy has become so powerful (making his good arm sacrifice worth it)? And I think by now the ENTIRE WORLD knows that Dragon is the father of Luffy and Garp his grandfather. Does this make Ace's lineage the same? Wikipedia states it as still unknown, even bringing up possibility of half or step relations.

I think Franky will join, but what about Usopp? Will he "drop out" like he did before? I don't see a reason why he should, although in most fights he has proven to be a minor fighter.

About DF users, I agree that the last two devil fruit users, the giraffe and the soap making girl, were lame. But I think that was intentional from Oda (maybe comic) because those two just ate the fruit without thinking about consequences and dealt with those weird powers. I enjoyed the more interesting sounding DF users, especially those with elemental properties (like Aokiji and Ace).

I think the next arc has a lot of potential, especially with the big pirates duking it out. Are the big four, as Garp pointed out, Whitebeard, Shanks, Blackbeard, and Dragon?

Still not sure what Shanks is afraid of, though. Why does he not want Ace to fight Blackbeard? Is he afraid that Ace might die? But then, why would he care? Enlighten me!