So after lurking on these boards for years, I finally mustered the un-laziness to register! Woohoo!

So my theory about Pain (this is unrelated to the chapter sort of) is that he's got some sort of "machine god" properties about him. I first thought about that as a brief possibility in one slide from the manga that stuck out in my head.
http://www.onemanga.com/Naruto/327/16/
That statue just projects a really strong image in my head, especially because it has the Rinnegan (as far as we know it's just a statue, so that doesn't necessarily mean anything really). Then coupled with the fact that when they show Pain before the Jiraya fight, he's coming out of some like chambers and stuff. And now this chakra receiver thing too.

I'm just thinking of the possibility that Nagato is channeling his chakra through that idol/statue out to the different Pains.

And damn the past few chapters have been tense as hell! Kind of lame though how these other ninjas get 1-shotted by Pain's gravity. Damn fodder.