@Robby:
Yeah. It's a forum. Things get discussed. Ideas get tossed around. Lots of people bring lots of evidence and ideas forward and the strong stuff stands out and holds up over time. Not everything has to be noticed immediately or found by one person.
You're acting like I'm claiming Brennen and Urogue's initial observations were mine, or that its unfair to use a bonus decade of hindsight to analyze the past in order to better see the future. Hey, before I ever posted to the forum I supported Paulie once upon a time before Franky ever came on camera, is that to be held against me too?
Multiple carrot supporters have been adamantly grasping onto every single panel of Carrot for over two years, doing basically anything no matter how minor, to call it evidence. So the idea of having missed details on her end isn't there. No one was nearly as fanatic about highlighting every single moment with Jinbe because he didn't need to go to that level of minutia, the dozens of things, the spotlight he was constantly given, his history, and how the narrative was handling him all stood out. The only convincing people needed was based on his "boring" personality and "ugly" design, because they wanted a sexy lady like Hancock or Perona or Marguriette instead, and that was the biggest argument against him for years, people just didn't like him. (And raw strength but the timeskip cleared that up when it became clear one was coming.)
You've provided everything you can possible think of to prove the point. And it's just not convincing. The Jinbe theories were convincing almost immediately.
I’m not trying to convince you personally about Carrot’s chances. What I care about pointing out is how you seem to be glossing over the struggle that we went through with Jinbe for years and years. Whatever we thought was “obvious” was not considered that way for a majority of people arguing against us. Does that make them blind or idiotic to what should have been “obvious”? Were all the doubters simply blinded by beautiful women candidates? I don’t think so. Plenty had their views of what made a Straw Hat, thought that Jinbe was not comical enough, too strong, too infamous. Those points were fair, and we tried to show them why Jinbe was a proper choice despite their preconceptions.
As I tried to illustrate with the helmsmanship quotes, it just wasn’t a point you, I, Urouge or brennen fought particularly hard for, if at all. But some people did put it out there, though I still think the door thing is a bit of a stretch, and yet I salute them for putting that out there. It's what makes me want to be braver about taking a stand one way or another.
I will agree with you that the evidence for Carrot is not as strong or plentiful. I don’t even especially like her as a character, to be honest. But I still see something there. Pedro died for a purpose, to push her forward, and I don’t think that purpose has been fulfilled simply with her going Sulong one time. I think Luffy, in a moment brief as it was, treated her the same as the rest of his crew, and that spoke to me.
So when I argue for her or step in with an interjection, it’s not to convince you. It’s to say that I did my best to explain my thoughts, to say that didn’t hold anything back, even if it turns out to be futile. There are still those fighting for her harder than I am, some well, some not so much. But I want to stand by them to the end, and when I see something that I can support them on, I’ll do it. I'll use quotes too if I feel like it's relevant. I'll listen if you think something's not fair, but I don't feel like holding back.
