@Dranza:
I'll give you some good reasons, some of them rehashed from times gone past but hey at least they will add to your very light list of good things going for her:
I already read through them and it did not really change it.
If my boy Pedro be dead, the will has been passed on to help the strawhats usher in this new dawn.
On the contrary, Pedro being dead would just push Carrot to pursue his goal and mission in a literal sense. I think we can agree that Pekoms should not stay with the Big Mom pirates. Some think that Germa will take him, I think that the Nox pirates that Pekoms took to Tottoland (which are in Cacao island) could save him still. Either way. Pekoms must go.
If Pedro is dead and Pekoms and Carrot are together, they will share with each other Pedro's last moments, and that might push them both of them to follow that path. On the other hand, if Pedro is alive, then both Pekoms and Pedro can continue where they left off long ago, and Carrot is free to join them or go somewhere else.
Also helping the Straw Hats does not mean, joining them. Pedro's idea of helping the new dawn was collecting Poneglyphs.
Some minks joined Oden and boarded the pirate king's ship and sailed with him very late in his adventures, if there were to be some parallels I'd say Carrot joining would be fitting.
So why stop there? Two Minks joined and a samurai. We cannot say parallels and just barely adhering to them. Or are we pretending that Chopper and Zoro are the missing two besides Carrot?
She's the only mink candidate worthy of being brought up, Pekoms has seen less spotlight than her so no point even mentioning him (plus I think his eyes have been poked out but that would be too graphic so let's say only one has been so far, so he can look like his boy Pedro)
I do not deal with candidates, I don't have a candidate from each race I think should/would join the crew. It didn't happen for any of the previous Straw Hats, not even Jimbe which would be the easiest one to have that idea.
The lookout thing that keeps getting brought up, fine it overlaps and Ussop can get up the crow's nest just fine but doesn't mean it's as effortless as a single bunny hop. Let's face it the girl can jump and she certainly likes being up there doing some scouting, if it wasn't drawn as such so often and forced down our necks I wouldn't even bother bringing this up either.
And in terms of doing the lookout job on the ship, I already mentioned several times that jumping is but an afterthought. Carrot is not going to be continuously jumping to gain a better height advantage to see further away when they travel on ship. At best what she will do is: Be on the crow's nest, using some binoculars, see something from afar, jump and then have even less recognition of what she saw, but I guess she can look behind it.
The one good trait is not her jumping, but how she is not affected by the cycles of day and night, which allows everyone to be rested.
She wants to adventure and see the world and now she's got a reason to do so (if Pedro be dead)
And this can only be attained by joining the Straw Hats?, or would she not actually explore more of the world by going on her own adventure to try and find the hidden stones of time scattered across the world? Joining the Straw Hats might help her "explore" the world in the poetic sense of the void century, but in terms of islands and seeing different cultures the Straw Hats are already 4-5 islands away, while there are around 30 poneglyphs, in other words, 30 different locations for her to explore.
Whether she joins the crew or not she will be at Wano. That will be 3 arcs with her without break and there's every chance she will be developed further.
3 arcs in the future or you mean Zou, WCI and Wano. The reason why people think she is somewhat empty is because after Zou and WCI we barely got anything from, and the most important part was in relation to another character (Pedro), while the other Straw Hats carried themselves without needing someone else to die to finally give them meaning and purpose. Yes, a lot of their mentors died, but Nami wanted to draw a map before that, Robin learned a forbidden language to be with the people that did care for her, Franky wanted to build the best ship until Tom was killed for it and closed himself to that dream.
You could make an exception from Chopper as his dream was directly influenced by his mentor, but at the same time, Chopper was an outcast reindeer that managed to become a human and was still stoned, you can make an argument that the Quack doctor taught him also about curing "the hearts of people" which goes well with Chopper as he was rejected as a monster for such a long time.
I have seen people say Carrot is an outcast of sorts because she does not use a sword? Many minks use her style of gloves, and the idea that EVERYONE has to use a sword is stupid. Everyone has their own strengths, and adhering to some sort of tradition like that would only detriment the progress of the mink's training.
Half if not most of these things might be people on here (myself included) classified as "reaching", sure, but listing just two things?
Yes, because when I see the merits of why a character should join or not, it isn't because she got a nod from Luffy, or she did something cool. I see the story implications and development. I see the interaction of her with the story, not what she did.
So within those parameters these:
She a female.
She has some memorable quirks contrary to what Robby claims, those funky, effeminate, drawings she showed those mirrors in mirror world were unique and hilarious.
She has the chewing quirk that a lot of minks have but no point talking about other minks because no other mink is exactly in contention to join the crew so in the context of the actual crew she will stand out with this quirk and it is quite funny.
The simplicity of her looks should not detract from her chances of joining especially knowing her Sulong form is so badass looking it makes sense to have a basic look or the wow factor of her transformation wouldn't really be there.
Are subjective reasons, that why is Carrot cool, and interesting. It does not talk about how her race could be tied to the secrets of the world that it might be necessary for a Mink to be present, the benefits of being on the crow's nest as a lookout due to her previous role as a ruler's aide.
She will bring electro to the table. So what Nami has it, Luffy has fire same as Sanji.
Luffy also uses electricity.
She will bring some character growth to the table because she's young and naive and she has different goals (yet to be explored) from Chopper who wants to be best doctor.
I find that we already got plenty of that type of character growth, we lived with Chopper and Usopp, on a much better setting for that type of character progression during East Blue and Paradise.
She already has an undeniable chemistry with most the strawhats.
But you can also say that about Kinemon's butt, Luffy even wore it. I am not sure why chemistry is a factor, they are friends? Is anyone expecting Carrot to be treated like Caesar? Why wouldn't they be concerned for her well being? Luffy started caring about Pound just because he ran in front of him several times which pushed Luffy to save Pound from Cracker. If Luffy would do that, for Pound, why would he not care about Carrot? Why would he treat her badly?
There's that Sun and Moon thing that was brought up earlier in the thread, would be interesting to see Sun Pirate captain who wants to see his race see day among the rest of the world on land. Currently mostly stuck under the sea.
And for moon lady to help see out this much awaited new dawn and have her people come out from the top of that poor Elephant who could really use some rest now.
That is a nice poetic thing to have. Sure I'll give you this one. So we are at 3?
If they were to join around the same time that would be interesting indeed they have some far reaching goals lying ahead of them, it's not like Jinbei is planning to prove he is the world's best helmsman. These new characters aren't joining to fulfil a dream that focuses on purely themselves.
Jimbe is not planning to prove that, but he already did by surfing a living tsunami and by the fact that none of the Big Mom's fleet has been able to catch up to the Sunny. This, exactly, THIS is what I was talking about when differentiating between a specialized helmsman and someone filling in the job. Compare what Jimbe is doing with the ship on one trip, in comparison to the Straw Hats travel, where the Merry was constantly destroyed, when things get ugly the Sunny uses Coup de Burst. We might be finally seeing a time where Coup de Burst is used rarely which gives them the opportunity to use the Gaon Cannon as both use the cola reserve.
But we can agree that all of them are becoming the best on their respective fields: Zoro as a swordsman, Nami as a navigator, Usopp as sniper, Sanji as a cook, Chopper as a doctor, Franky as a builder/shipwright, Brooke as a soul musician, Jimbe just look above.
My question isn't even about Carrot, it is about how does the lookout position become enticing and we can see development from whomever is doing the job that will not overlap with Usopp's qualities? If Carrot was a three eyed person, I think that could work very well thematically and for usefulness as the three eyed tribe can supposedly see things that help on the journey, Raftel, etc So a three eyed tribe member could potentially help them locate the last Road Poneglyph. It all depends on how their eyes work.