@Dranza:
Jinbei, other than being a strong mofo, doesn't have that special quirk that makes him stand out. He seems too ordinary, too level-headed, to fit in with the crew. He needs to show something that when we see it we think "yes, he'd fit right in". Maybe he could be that wise one that's been through a lot and is the voice of reason for Luffy, even that seems boring as hell.
This makes me sound like a Jinbei hater, I like him, or rather, I want to like him even more. Hopefully he shows why he deserves a spot in Luffy's crew and why panel time should be spent on him. Otherwise, he can stay in the cover story world. I can already see someone saying "he's going to be the crew's helmsman, and they need a fishman to represent bla bla" fuck that, I'd rather have Hachi who oozes more personality.
After looking at my old posts and some of the latest posts in the crewmate thread, I have to admit that I do think my only hesitance with Jinbe is the fact that I find him boring. Cool design, interesting powers…every man. The thing about bringing up Hachi is that Oda did stuff with Hachi's cover story that Jinbe's unfortunately didn't have, character. Yes, there's a Poneglyph in Jinbe's cover story, but it really needed something distinctive for Jinbe or allow him to have his own flair and it just...didn't deliver (best scene was the human children just playing on him while explaining the situation, which was cute. But...it's personally feels like a visual example of telling but not showing if that makes sense. Kids like him, but it'd be nice to see why).
And yes, we will find out more in the future, and he has yet to really interact with the crew on an equal footing now that he was forgiven for Arlong's actions (though people can probably easily argue some interactions between Jinbe and the crew, like how Robin found him handsome after requesting the slaves to be free)...but he's been on screen for so long and I don't have a lot to grasp on him that really makes him stand out. Then again, I bet others could say the same about other Straw Hats too, but I think there could be a back and forth and I could argue in favor for the other characters. For Jinbe, I feel like the counter arguments are always a "wait and see" approach, or a "you don't see it" approach, where the former shouldn't be a thing after years of screentime and the latter there has yet to be a truly compelling one defending Jinbe I've read/remembered, though my memory's rather hazy and recent details about the series and posts here have been slipping from me. There's a large fandom out there for Jinbe for a reason.
And I think enough has been seen of Jinbe that he's shown he'll fit in just fine on the ship. Look at the way he scolded Luffy and got depressed once he realized the type of captain Luffy really is. That's something every member of Luffy's crew understands/feels. He's had a bunch of moments/scenes that could easily define him like pondering the name of the Fishman Island attack plan, or the fact that Hack mentioned that he's a good example of trying to better human/fishman relations. And he did save the slaves enslaved by Hody, which is a pretty important scene given his history with slaves, slavery, and humans. And I still think his violent temper in the past still has yet to be really explored in depth, and that could be very interesting. I want to say he doesn't need to be quirky like the crew, and having another gallant, mature member like Robin could be a nice change of pace, but then it goes back to the idea that Jinbe can face fault and react to his actions like his crew does like mentioned in the first sentence of this block of rambling text.
--- Update From New Post Merge ---
I'm not even sure if what I wrote is very coherent. Very tired.