@Squilly:
I'm interested to see what new characters would join the crew, but I really think they need to fill a role. Almost all of the crewmembers joined after the crew said, 'We need a ___'. Then they'd have to convince the person they conveniently found next to join, because they needed that role to be filled. If someone joined with no immediate purpose, they soon show they have the skills to perform a certain role. Zoro's special, 'cause he's the first mate, but Usopp joins just 'cause he and the rest of the crew were close now. Soon after that, he's officially named the sharpshooter after he shows skills in that area. Robin asked to join the crew and said she was an archaeologist and soon after proved she was a reliable source of information. Brook was asked to join just 'cause Luffy thought he was interesting, but then showed he was a musician, whom Luffy had wanted since day one, which makes him determined to get him to join.
What I'm trying to say is mostly crewmembers join when the rest of the crew specifically say that they need a role to be filled. If they don't hold that 'meeting' beforehand, then the crewmember that joined shows some sort of skill so they are assigned a role. I'm trying to think up possible roles to fill if Jinbei or Hancock or whoever joined the crew, but I'm drawing up a blank. We don't even need a specific helmsman anymore because Franky or someone else just use the wheel. This may be a bad example, but Vivi was looking like she would join the crew but stayed behind for her country. (Kinda a relief for me, but anyway…) I sat down and thought about it. If Vivi had joined, how would she be useful? She has no specific skills except for maybe public speaking.... which would not be useful at all. She isn't very good at fighting either. Whenever she had to fight, she would always come off as pathetic, so that's a no-go. She would just be baggage. Now I know, the crew is close to her and they would love to have her on the chip even if she was useless, but they're current mindset would be 'Can we really afford that if we're gonna be going to the New World?' Especially with that huge Wham Episode we just went through, I'm thinking we're gonna need a useful person that can take care of themselves. And since there are no current roles to be filled, I doubt someone's gonna join any time soon.
Warning Long post - The people throwing insults around to other members can head to the bottom of my post though.
This isn't really the case though. Brooke, Robin, and Ussop both ended up joining when they didn't "need" any crew member profession. One happened to be a childish dream of Luffy's periodically throughout the story and the other two just ended up coming along for storyline reasons and just "happened" to have a profession after they joined that worked for the entire crews ultimate goal (Sniper was an obvious position, but they didn't "need" any such member, hell they still probably still don't lol, but it just works from an internal storyline perspective, everyone needs a position, and it could be anything that goes well with pirating mythos and the open sea past).
If someone has the will to stay with the not just Luffy, but the entire crew through the end to see Luffy be the Pirate King, they have a chance of joining. End of discussion. Profession/crew positions can come far after they seem almost 100% for joining. Vivi couldn't join because her dream could only be achieved if she stayed behind and left the crew. She is still their friends, but she is living out her dream just like the rest of them, but not as a crew member. They have to have the will to stay with the crew, to the point they would sacrifice their past relations to achieve a new goal, the minute a "candidate" has a dream that conflicts with crew, they should be considering an immediate withdrawl for candidate till proven differently otherwise.
Both Jimbei and Hancock are wildcards because we #1 don't know a thing about Jimbei past and or both their dreams unlike we had with Vivi. #2 we don't know what circumstances the world will end up in after this struggle is over. They both could be in a situation where they have no where else to go but be with the strawhat pirates. Half the members joined because they had no other place to go, and it was only after those circumstances we found out both their dreams and their will to stay on the crew.
What im saying is don't say someone can't join just because something like "crew position" isn't clear when they show up. Robin is testament alone to this rule as there would be no way anyone could ever even think about her joining till after she ended up joining otherwise. What you should be looking for instead is how easily a person could end up wanting to stay with the crew of the ship, how loyal they could be to the captain, and just what kind of original personality and traits they would bring to the crew at this point in the story. A tragic past is also a big flashing signal as well to keep an eye on a character. Doesn't mean they will join, but any unresolved pasts mean they will be a big character in the arc the crew is in, or the arcs to come. I have yet to see a character that didn't have a satisfying conclusion to a tragic past, and I doubt it will change with Hancock for instance.
As for the position Hancock would be if she joined, it would be something simple like Pirate Queen probably. It's part of Pirate Mythos (Amazon that falls in love with the pirate/privateer captain and joins him on his journey) and it would be a simple title befitting the rest of the crew members, no matter how corny it sounds. Afterall there is no dedicated "Sniper" in historical circumstances for crew members, nor is there a musician, but they are both open sea mythos that happened to put many occupational properties into one thematic position for the crew, to keep the member count down.
As for Jimbei (And I don't personally think he has a chance of joining till we actually get to meet him, he is a wildcard because we know next to nothing about him compared to Hancock) he could easily be a helmsman of the crew. Its the only noted position left that hasn't been filled even if it hasn't been stated by the crew or Luffy that they needed one. One of the two known helmsman is already a fishman, Hachi. And in order for one to be the best they would need to know how every ebe and flow of the sea works against the ship to get the right graceful turn. Or else if they run into another tight spot like Reverse Mountain they may crash their ship again :P Thus why I think a fishman would be appropriate for that position.
In terms of this thread my prediction is obvious if people have been following my opinion.
Despite how rude some of the people have become in this thread I still stand steady on my opinion and prediction that by the end of this arc Hancock will join the crew. And I don't say this because I want her to, I just don't see how she won't end up joining given all the foreshadowing she has for her character in relation to a clearly unfinished past and her infatuation with the captain, all she needs now imo is for her to learn to get along with the crew and she becomes 100% strawhat. Again crew position can come later, hell even a dream can too. There is at least 2 crew members that had their dreams revealed AFTER they seemingly joined the crew. Both of which were females I might add.
Also this thread will go down hill quickly if people continue to insult other members predictions (Not talking about the person im quoting by the way, you are giving a respectful arguement to my opinion and others like me for my prediction, this is for several other people in this thread). I have only argued someones opinion a couple of times and a try not to insult the people who believe differently, I would ask the insulters to give me and everyone else the same respect in this thread, if you have something nasty to say about other peoples opinions, keep it to yourself. The animosity for people of certain crew members joining is getting rediculous. If you don't like their prediction IGNORE IT, and state your own opinion on the topic and move on. If someone argues your opinion, either state your case in an intelligent and respectful way, or move on and just ignore it. DONT resort to insulting the other member just for something they think differently than you. Have something actually constructive to say. Its just plain childish. We are all fans of this series.
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