@Deicide:
A lot of people point Brook's loss to Ryuuma, but I need to point out that the Ryuuma fight was far from the only thing Brook had going for him at that point. He saved Franky and Robin, revealed how Moria's power worked and his connection to Laboon was already revealed. Also, later he would help with the Oars fight, thus making the crew "complete" at that point. Also, Brook was mostly an independent agent during that arc, I feel like Zoro taking his fight and returning his shadow was a way to make Brook feel grateful and provide a deeper link with the crew for him.
I mean:
- Carrot experienced said personal tragedy in real time, outside of a flashback (compare that to Brook's tragedy)
- She used Sulong to save the entire crew (compare that to Brook saving Franky/Robin)
- She may or may not have a personal grudge/connection to Perospero (compare that to Ryuuma)
But really, I'm not sure why we are trying to make Brook look better here. I only compared a simple battle to which Brook didn't win. I wasn't arguing that the first 10 strawhats a level of narrative depth that Carrot doesn't have. Thats my entire point. She needs focus where it counts. She doesn't need a focused arc where she is the central figure.
I mean we all act like its "unfair" to compare complexity and depth to Zoro or Usopp because they are "early" strawhats and designs, but who's to say Oda has to maintain multi-arc levels of complexity like Jinbe or devote entire arcs to characters joining? Who's to say he can't introduce a character that is "simplistic" in nature, character and emotion, and ALSO be a strawhat? Who's to say that said character can't just join without the baggage of having a focused arc about them? While Jinbe is very complex, not one arc pre or post-timeskip really was about him. In the OP world, he is extremely important due to his title and power. Carrot is a lowly 15 year old mink girl who likes adventuring.
I'm not sure why people don't see the difference. In fact her simplicity feels like Oda's return to more simple characters and allies back in East Blue.
I never understood the argument that future strawhats had to be mega central to an arc or really complex in nature. Every previous strawhat before Jinbe (I'll even say Zoro did) had an arc centralized around them. Oda already broke that trend with Jinbe, because he had not 1, but 4 arcs NOT centralized around him that he was included in before officially joining in the 5th arc. Carrot is a much simpler character, and is not centralized in any of the 3 arcs she's been in, but had significant focus at WCI. That's why I'm telling people to wait for a possible moment again in Wano, because many people didn't think that moment with Pedro would happen at WCI. Perhaps it happens again with Perospero.
We just don't know.