Next Straw Hat Crewmates (Vol. 8 - Onigashima)

[.access timeco.]

Carrot is there because there's a dangling plot for her that needs resolution, it's simple.

Sticking with Nami until they got to the dome could be justified by that - since it would be required for her to end up inside the dome instead of up there with the other minks, so she could meet Perospero (assuming that's the "dangling plot" mentioned).
Now that she is in the dome, there was no need for her to stick with the SH anymore if only for the reason you mentioned. Particularly not after Oda managed to isolate the SH from her last chapter (so perfectly in fit with the intent of 989). And specially not in this specific chapter.

[theackwardstation]

Onigashima Carrot is really uninspired. In one of the panels from last chapter it even looks like she's photobombing the composition, lol.

I think it's really important to point out the drastic difference from her portrayal here and in WCI. Now she's merely Nami's sidekick and background noise, but in WCI she had more prominence than Chopper, who looked more like Carrot's sidekick than the other way around.

All that said, I'll wait for the pay off since she's still there with the Strawhats. There are a lot of characters in this raid, so it's normal that characters will be overshadowed when it's not their time to shine... but she needs to step up.

[Deicide]

Sticking with Nami until they got to the dome could be justified by that - since it would be required for her to end up inside the dome instead of up there with the other minks, so she could meet Perospero (assuming that's the "dangling plot" mentioned).
Now that she is in the dome, there was no need for her to stick with the SH anymore if only for the reason you mentioned. Particularly not after Oda managed to isolate the SH from her last chapter (so perfectly in fit with the intent of 989). And specially not in this specific chapter.

She's near the Straw Hats because her plot thread requires her to be near them when it's picked up again. It doesn't need to have any more meaning than that.

[.access timeco.]

Yes, we are all under the assumption she is where she needs to be. If we assumed Oda just drew her by accident, we wouldn't be putting any value in anything.

"She is there because she needs to be there" is the premise we are all working with already, it doesn't answer the question when the question is "why she needs to be there?".

[Deicide]

Yes, we are all under the assumption she is where she needs to be. If we assumed Oda just drew her by accident, we wouldn't be putting any value in anything.

"She is there because she needs to be there" is the premise we are all working with already, it doesn't answer the question when the question is "why she needs to be there?".

She will help the heroes, like many secondary characters do.
And the heroes will help her, like they do for many secondary characters.

I will change my expectations when the story starts actually focusing on her.

[TheGarc]

I heavily agree that Odas (mis)management of Carrot has been really confusing in Onigashima so far. Like what's the deal Oda?

She doesn't get any solo panels or dialog but he continues to draw her just to remind us "don't worry I haven't forgotten about her". Instead of drawing nameless samurai or Kaido pirates he could have shown a panel with her reacting to Frankys transformations, something that would surely excite her from what we know of her personality. He even drew her really small running to the Black Rhino motorcycle in the beginning of the chapter. I know that the focus of the chapter was on the existing Straw Hats especially in the group panel at the end but Carrot is literally right next to them. Did she just disappear into thin air? Is she waiting on the side until the group has finished posing? This is also not the first time that this has happened with her. Just before the ships arrived at Onigashima Oda drew her with the rest of the group on the Sunny but as soon as the Staw Hats landed on the island and took out some guards she completely disappeared.

My best bet is that Oda doesn't want to show her as part of the Straw Hats yet. On one hand to keep up the suspense and don't make it obvious if she does end up joining and on the other hand we haven't had Straw Hat moments with the full crew for so many years so now that they are all together again he wants to showcase the existing members some more before immediately throwing in one or two (Yamato) new members. But Oda please just give her a few solo panels and dialog.

We all know the big deciding moment for her will be when she meets Perosperos again, but I think it is also important to see what happens next to the Straw Hats. If she fights alongside them to get Luffy to the top than this is a huge win for her chances especially if she manages to showcase her skills and Sulong form again.

I think it all comes back to the point of Oda probably deciding on two or three plot points that he wants to advance in a chapter and everything that has nothing to do with those plot points just gets ignored. Like Big Mom is incredible powerful and while I can accept Jinbei shoulder throwing her it is really strange that in the previous chapter Franky just rammed into her and she fell back when we saw her in WCI just walk through a high security vault door like it is nothing. Also she should be back in a few seconds on top of Zeus if Oda would let her use her powers like in WCI.
For this chapter his goals probably were to get Big Mom out of the area for now, showcase Straw Hat teamwork/interactions with existing members and introduce more numbers. Next chapter could be: "show how the Minks/Scabbards are doing against Kaido, Straw Hats begin their attack, end with Carrot transforming into Sulong to get Luffy to the top" for all we know.


On the Yamato side of things it is interesting that he is currently distancing himself from the Straw Hats and moving away from all the action. To me it seems like Yamato is nervous and embarrassed when talking to Momo in the same way somebody is embarrassed when they meet their favorite star/idol/etc.
My guess is that he will have a talk with Momo where Momo tells him that Yamato can't be Oden and to stop impersonating him. This will lead Yamato to a small personality crisis until he gets back his resolve and joins the main battle once again after Momo is safe.

[SeaOfHope]

I've been saying it for a while and I'll say it again: I think Oda is intentionally ignoring Carrot. There's no reason for a character that has been around for as long as she has, especially around the Straw Hats, to have such a lack of a narrative presence if he didn't have something planned for her. Won't lie, it's very frustrating that she keeps getting so little panel time with barely any dialog, but the fact he likes to draw her to at the very least remind us that she is still with the crew is still so jarring. The question keeps coming back: "Why is she here?"

I have hope that Carrot joins the crew's efforts to get Luffy to the top, primarily by using her natural rabbit abilities to jump to the top and help Luffy reach Kinemon and the other scabbards while she can check up on her tribe and maybe transform in the process. I almost have the scenario in my mind: Usopp uses his trampoline pop green to boost Carrot's leap forward while she carries Luffy up, Sanji helps clear the skies may lend a handing shooting Luffy towards the hole, Zoro takes care of some the nearby enemies as well, confront King/Queen alongside Sanji. Franky Shogun and Monster Point Chopper team up on some Numbers as well as Robin and her Gigantesco Mano, Jinbe solos one, Usopp snipes some of the flying Smile Fruit users with his pop greens clearing the way for his captain. And Nami just soloes everything with Zeus back in her possession lol.

[StuckWithInsomniac]

As I mentioned in the spoiler thread, I find weird that in a chapter that was entirely devoted to get the SH together in the same place and separate them from the other characters, Oda decided to start by making Carrot rejoin them. It's not like we got anything out of her in this chapter and Oda had already managed to separate her from Nami last chapter, so there was no reason to get her with them in the chapter that was about the SH getting together... and then not add her on the final shot (she could be there just like Shirahoshi was there on the shot back in FI).

I don't get what Oda is doing with Carrot, really. In a way, the treatment she is getting is terrible. She spent the first half of Wano completely absent then gets back only to become Nami's pet. Know how many panels Carrot got for herself in the 79 chapters she's been on Wano? Four.
But while she is reduced to Nami's background noise, at the same time Oda bothers to continually include her in everything since the raid started (and, no, Naito is not the reason. Carrot was nowhere to be seen while he was the manga editor, so why, now he is not anymore, he would be the reason for her appearances?). She became a background presence, but way too consistently for just a background character.
It's like Oda just keeps giving us enough to keep the hope alive, but too little for the hope to be reasonable.

It's not just a matter of quantity, though, the quality of her screentime is also horrid. Just look at how such a dull character she became. All her lines and reactions are very standard, completely void of any sort of characterization.
I mean, look at chapter 910. In that chapter, Carrot was basically just reacting in the background as well, but her reactions were really inspired, they really showed her traits as a character while the ones we are getting now feel like could belong to anyone.



I still want Carrot to join because I still think she can be can be fun character when Oda bothers to invest in her characterization (something that, sadly, only happened 3 or 4 times in nearly 200 chapters). The problem is that I need to go back 2 years worth of chapters to answer myself when I ask "why do I want her to join, again?". So, while I still hope she will join, it's pretty obvious it is a hope against all odds (despite her characterization, not because of it).

I feel the same. Sometimes I have the impression that oda had a bigger plan for her but he gave up in the middle of the way.

[Monquito]

Oda had already managed to separate her from Nami last chapter

That never happened.

[SeaOfHope]

That never happened.

He did. The beginning of the chapter shows Carrot running towards Nami after she ran away from Big Mom with Zeus in her possession.

EDIT: Very petty and meaningless to add, but when the unofficial translations came out, I assumed the last line came from Franky since the original conversation was talking about being added to Big Mom's collection.



But with the official Viz translation, it seems like this line of dialog is actually coming from Carrot, who for some reason Oda keeps including her with the group even though presently he does nothing with her.



Carrot is such a narrative anomaly.

[Monquito]

He did. The beginning of the chapter shows Carrot running towards Nami after she ran away from Big Mom with Zeus in her possession.

But she's never been sent to do a different mission like Yamato, or support the Minks up in the Skull, that's really just more of the Nami pet narrative.

[SeaOfHope]

But she's never been sent to do a different mission like Yamato, or support the Minks up in the Skull, that's really just more of the Nami pet narrative.

It was more along the lines of just splitting her away from the main Straw Hats. Have an excuse to detour her from the main group that may set her up with the inevitable confrontation with Perospero. Because even now she's actually still present with the crew. Its just strange that he will conveniently omit her, but always remind the reader "don't worry, she is still here with the crew. You just can't see her in the panels shots."

[Monquito]

doesn't feel any different from the Robin+Rebecca dynamics, specially with Perospero/Diamante being here.

the 'why is she here' question's starting to become obvious.

[SeaOfHope]

doesn't feel any different from the Robin+Rebecca dynamics, specially with Perospero/Diamante being here.

the 'why is she here' question's starting to become obvious.

Nah, not really. Her only purpose in the story so far just can't be to avenge Pedro's death against the person who was responsible.

If she doesn't become aware of why the Dawn is so important the Straw Hats will bring that the world is waiting for, including the Mink Tribe and Kozuki Clan, then Pedro's words to her will go nowhere with her and it would waste the entire last page of Chapter 877.

[.access timeco.]

But she's never been sent to do a different mission like Yamato, or support the Minks up in the Skull, that's really just more of the Nami pet narrative.

She was not sent away, but she was not there with them in the same sense that Hyou and the samurai are fighting in the dome as well, but are not grouped with the SH. It is just a few meters of distance, but enough for them to not be in the SH inner circle. But Oda specifically had Carrot rejoin them in this chapter even though he could simply have hold that back for later.
It's not like we needed to have Carrot's current position addressed immediately, Oda is not updating us on any character on a weekly basis. He could simply have ignored her for now and have her rejoin Nami after the "SH meeting". But he made the conscious decision of having her rejoin the SH on the "SH reunion chapter". And then, he made the conscious decision to leave her out of the shot even though she was standing there with them one second before.

[Shift]

He did. The beginning of the chapter shows Carrot running towards Nami after she ran away from Big Mom with Zeus in her possession.

EDIT: Very petty and meaningless to add, but when the unofficial translations came out, I assumed the last line came from Franky since the original conversation was talking about being added to Big Mom's collection.

https://i.imgur.com/9XWQVF3.png

But with the official Viz translation, it seems like this line of dialog is actually coming from Carrot, who for some reason Oda keeps including her with the group even though presently he does nothing with her.

https://i.imgur.com/KJ73rvY.png

Carrot is such a narrative anomaly.

I double checked. Pretty sure it's Franky saying that, not Carrot.

[SeaOfHope]

I double checked. Pretty sure it's Franky saying that, not Carrot.

I'll take your word for it. The Viz translation overall was awkward this week.

--- Update From New Post Merge ---

Oh, I guess if anyone wants the cleaned version of the double spread, here it is.

[Shift]

I'll take your word for it. The Viz translation overall was awkward this week.

--- Update From New Post Merge ---

Oh, I guess if anyone wants the cleaned version of the double spread, here it is.

https://i.imgur.com/jATvo1p.png

Man, if me from 10 years ago could see that... :'}

[Monquito]

then Pedro's words to her will go nowhere with her and it would waste the entire last page of Chapter 877.

That's expected, especially since Carrot hasn't shown any interest on it.

[SeaOfHope]

That's expected, especially since Carrot hasn't shown any interest on it.

More like she just doesn't know. She wasn't aware of it prior to Pedro telling her.

That's more than likely why she is still around the crew right now and not with the Musketeers. If there was ever a conversation regarding it, we haven't seen it yet.