@.access:
It is generally accepted here on Arlong Park that Jinbe's flashback "will happen later".
Which is very ironic now that I think about it…
He's got his backstory. He has his dream established and declared. The dream feels a little broad, but "I want to be free of responsibilities and travel with this man I admire to the end" isn't bad for the more personal bit..
But there's still a piece missing (the ten year gap where he picked up the samurai look and got his scar.) The same goes with Brook's swrodfighter days, there's a HUGE thing there we don't know about. Same with Franky's pirate father.
We don't NEED these things to finish fleshing them out and have them crew-ready, the same way we didn't need a flashback about Luffy's brothers or Sanji's original family.
But for those feeling that he's missing that extra nugget of personal detail, that probably is there waiting in the wings.
The difference is that's not a "what if Oda explores the character more" question that could apply to literally anyone. It's a "Why did Oda not give him that scar during the flashback?"
If the scar was just a generic battle scar like the one Smoker or Zoro got during the timeskip, Oda could have given it to him literally at any point during that flashback, or even during the final bit with the Queen assassinated or something. But Oda kept it off him. He purposely withheld something we can see plain as day that happened.
If it was meaningless, why hold it off? But if it has meaning, then… add in the change of demeanor and style of dress and there is factually a piece of his story missing. We're not speculating on future growth or potential, its an observation of what is actually there.
@Triceron:
I don't understand why it couldn't be any of those characters. From my perspective, most simply lack that 'rock solid argument'. I think aside from Kinemon, there is potential in the others Ive mentioned.
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On a different day at a different time I might go into this at length but I really don't feel like explaining this all again right now. Check earlier versions of the thread, I've gone over all this stuff a million times..
But its the whole package. Design which shows enough thought to indicate backstory details on sight, introduction, dialogue, how the author handles them in general, quantity of moments to shine in a unique way, interaction with Luffy, managing to somehow be unique even in the already diverse world and cast we have. We're not going to get another animal, robot, skeleton or fishman, and if we get another human they better have something really crazy going on.
It's a lot of things. All the characters you've mentioned have fine qualities as secondary or tertiary characters, and Oda is fantastic at making characters, but none of them have the strength of Oda going full force in showing off how great this new character is, of someone he spent literally years thinking about and waiting to show. They're almost all very basic stereotypes of exactly how you'd expect Oda to draw a traditional samurai or a traditional rabbit. (He always draws white rabbits.) Kinemon the joke was extra exposed once we saw ALL the Wano characters were going to be exagerations of old Japanese styles.
Unless he's pulling another Robin where he's playing hard with the red herrings and misdirection, (and even Robin had a unique design and intrigue and a weird place in the story when she was introduced) we will know it when we see it. It won't take years of speculating "that character could eventually potentially be as interesting as all the others were on sight."
Design and introduction will be a super strong clue from the start, and interaction should very quickly make it obvious. Also, it will most likely be a WEIRD design that a lot of people DON'T like for some reason. Speedo "too weird" Franky and fat "boring" Jinbe are obvious examples. Robin aside it has never been not obvious, and Robin was super early in the series before we'd seen as much of Oda's overall style and storytelling..
The only character that has any real chance currently in the story is bone spitter guy, who hasn't actually been introduced yet, because Oda has been hiding him in shadows so long, not even showing his silhouette and making major point of hiding him, he's presumably got something really interesting planned for his design and body shape if he can't even show an outline. But his starting point is so similar to Jinbe's and he hasn't interacted with Luffy at alland he has the same ties as the other members of Kine's group, I don't think he's actually got anything going on at the moment.
@.access:
Oh, boy, Robby's gonna have a field day
I think I'm gonna pass on this one. Just go back to the first post of Nakama thread 6 or whatever. I don't feel like explaining for the umpteenth time how Jinbe had IT before he even appeared on camera, and then constantly after he showed up. Or once again going through the list showing why every strawhat even in their first appearance was above and beyond any other character in terms of all the THINGS.
@RomanceDawn:
Brook is still a mystery but the fact that he had that scar on his forehead before becoming a pirate is probably telling enough that we will find out more about his time as a guard or what have you for that mysterious kingdom.
I used to be sure on that point too… but Greg pointed out that if you look at most of the skeletons in the series, they have similar cracks. That's just kind of Oda's ingrained version of how skulls should look.
So that may or may not be an actual backstory detail if we ever get his fencing days.