@BobLoblaw:
You're putting way too much weight on that phrase. It's Luffy's inarticulate way of saying an island full of talking animals. It was a throwaway line that had no long-term relevance on the story.
Diagetically, sure. But it ensures that Oda himself knows that Chopper is similar to the Minks. Perhaps to the point that creating Chopper inspired Oda to create the Minks rather than the two concepts coincidentally coming together on separate streams of thought. So I don't think it's a stretch to say that Oda wants to tie them in together, like having Chopper learn a new move or form from Carrot. We even see Chopper want to use Monster Point in this chapter (nobody else offered to fight) only for Carrot to steal the stage. Chopper being surprised can go somewhere.
Their entire focus was on training. It wasn't like they spent two years intending to fish and somehow learned haki. That's the equivalent of what your and others are suggesting. Chopper and Carrot have been together doing everything but training or talking about training. Yet somehow, he's supposed to magically learn how to use electro despite being a different species and expressing zero interest in learning anything other than how to be a better doctor.
So because Chopper and Carrot have only been talking and adventuring thus far, it means that they must only talk and adventure until Wano Country? They can easily train together in-between arcs or whatever period of time off-panel Oda wants to use. Or Chopper gets inspired and cooks up a new Rumble Ball off-panel.
Chopper can express interest in learning after clearly being in awe of Carrot's transformation and skills at the end of this chapter.
You're insisting on something that hasn't proven to be true. Oda has not expressly stated how electro is generated. Your entire premise is based on a creature having fur, but that has not been confirmed. It's just a guess at this point. We don't know officially know how they do it, so we should not speculate that anyone other than a mink can do it, especially since we have no evidence that says it can be done by non-minks at this point. It's been stated that everyone can learn haki. It has never been stated that everyone can learn electro. Ergo, those two cannot be compared.
It's a guess, but's an easy intuitive one. It's very clear that Oda was inspired by how fur in real life can build up static electricity. We know that Chopper has fur. He even has a form where he is literally a big ball of fur. It's easy to sync these ideas up. We don't need to wait until official details are confirmed to mention a really simple theory like this. The fact that Oda has yet to go into details about how Electro is generated only opens this up as an actual possibility (not confirmed, but still possible).
Haki in Skypiea was established seemingly along the lines of only being usable by Skypieans and being genetic (Aisa learning Observation at birth instinctually). But it was never outright confirmed that Haki was either of those things, we just assumed that because Haki was this weird new power that barely got elaborated on until much later on. If Oda can expand upon a concept as abstract and random as Haki like that, then why not something as simple as fur conducting electricity? It is not that hard or inconceivable.
I don't underestimate it. I just question the premise in this situation because there have been absolutely no hints that it's even possible. Here's what we know. Minks are born with the ability to use electro. No other race has been shown to use electro at this point. It has been stated that only minks can use electro. Chopper is not a mink. Those are the facts. Is it possible that Oda will add additional background info on how electro works? Sure. Until then, any assumption that a non-mink can use it is inherently flawed and not based on the facts presented thus far.
But Oda himself knows that Chopper is similar to the Minks. Chopper was attracted to Milky, which was just a gag, but still cements how similar he is to the Minks. Chopper has been paired with Carrot throughout this arc.
You keep pushing for us to only adhere to clearly defined objective facts specified in the manga as if we can't ever interpret visual possibilities at play no matter how obvious they might be. Especially when Oda likes to build up his concepts and plotlines ahead of time before fully elaborating on them, even though it's possible for many fans to predict some of what he's planning ahead of time.
Here is what we also know. Minks are furry animals. They are distinct from other animal species like crocodiles, which they ride like horses, because they are specifically based on furry animals. Oda was inspired by how fur conducts static electricity when giving the Minks Electro on a conceptual level. Chopper is very similar to the Minks' gimmick of being talking furry animals to distinguish themselves from other One Piece races, he only differs on how his existence is executed (furry animal eats Zoan human Devil Fruit). Minks can transform under the Full Moon. Chopper has a bunch of transformations, including ones he has gained through scientific experimentation.
I don't see how Chopper learning Electro is an absurd possibility that has to immediately be dismissed as being "inherently flawed" when you yourself admit that "Od has not expressly admitted how Electro is generated".
None of those things have been show to be race or character-specific, though. Luffy's "gears" aren't unique and Usopp using dials aren't unique. Electro being specific to minks is unique and so far, that is what has been established.
But we haven't gotten the specifics as to why it's unique in how it is learned. We only know its an ability the Minks can use and that only the Minks have used it thus far because it is presumed that other beings lack necessary capabilities. Not that the Minks and the Minks alone will forever exclusively use Electro because of genetics even when a character as highly similar to their theme as Chopper pops up and bonds with one of their most prominent warriors.
Chopper may well create a new rumble ball, but it won't be able to change his species. Besides, given the fact that minks will be around this arc and the next, him having something like that would not make him unique. He would just be a poor person's version of what we already have.
And we don't yet know that Electro is strictly tied to either being due to Mink genes or being due to animal fur. It can go either way. Hence why this theory, no matter how much you dismiss it, still has at least some credibility.
And I agree that it wouldn't make Chopper unique. But who knows what kind of kooky stuff Oda can come up with to make Chopper's implementation of Electro stand out.
It would be too bad that he's just now considering learning given the fact that we're about to head to Wano. It's possible that he may be interested from a combat standpoint given most of his training thus far has been about becoming a great doctor (and mastering monster point), but, again, assuming he can learn something that's (so far) genetically locked to a specific race is a bridge too far for me.
Because its not like it might take a few days/weeks to travel from one island to another. Nope, they're going to make it there in a couple hours. Just like the short amount of time the Sanji Retrieval Team got from Zou to Whole Cake, right?
And it's also impossible for somebody to, gasp, want to train in more than one specific field simultaneously? How utterly inconceivable. I mean, look at Nami. She's only focused on making a world map. She certainly never took any interest in wanting to learn wacky weather powers or have Usopp give her weapons after getting sick of being weak. Nope, she's all about that cartography. It's also not like the Straw Hats were crying several chapters ago about, in Brook's own specific words, "being too weak" to save Pedro.
I'm sorry if I sound like a passive aggressive sarcastic jerk, but you're making this way more complex than it needs by really wanting to hammer in that conducting electricity with fur has to be a genetic-exclusive trait for no real reason other than only Minks doing that for a couple arcs. I mean, if Fishman Karate, a martial art based around BENDING WATER FROM THE OCEAN AND THE AIR that was only saw Fishmen use over a decade of the manga, can be surprisingly learned by a human like Koala (because, guess what, the details of how Fishman Karate can be learned were kept as vague as how Electro can be learned), then don't think that just maybe Chopper can be the new Koala for Electro?
That's absolutely true. I'm only basing my assumption off of what we've seen so far. If Oda decides to retcon the current logic or create some magical reason behind why a non-mink can learn electro, then that's certainly his right. Until he does so, however, it shouldn't be assumed that any character can do the same thing that any other character can do, especially when the story so far says this is not possible.
Oda would not have to retcon ANYTHING. All he has to do is have Carrot or Chopper say "the Minks seem to be able to use Electro because of fur", then Chopper says "I might want to learn that too!", and bam, done. It's only going into further specifics of introduced concepts. It doesn't make anything we know be contradicted because nobody has ever said "The only way to learn Electro is by being born a Mink and that's that". That's what you're assuming right now.
Seriously, why is "talking furry animal learns to conduct electricity like other talking furry animals because fur conducts static electricity in real life" such a complex idea to grasp?
I think it makes more sense than Sanji learning how to hop through the sky like secret agent assassins that spent years since childhood refining Rokushiki because he's really scared of trans people/people in drag. Or Zoro learning to cut steel because, I don't know, he gained some kind of higher Buddha-like awareness of cutting things that wasn't Haki.
There's no "magical reasoning" that has to be implemented for Chopper learning a Mink technique. It makes as much scientific sense as Luffy being impervious to Enel's lightning because he is made of rubber, and rubber is a commonly known insulator.