@Deicide:
But at the same time, the way it was presented feels a little off… I mean, it makes sense that he went hybrid to fight dad, but it happening off-screen
It was first teased and built up months ago.
And the readers still got a slow multi-page, multi-panel reveal of it.
The spoilers didn't, but in the actual chapter it was a gradual reveal.
and revealed in a chapter unrelated to that fight is strange for a would-be main character.
it was also revealed that it was unusual and special and we don't know how or why yet, or what powers it has, what situation Yamato was in to be hungry enough to eat it, the fruit isn't even named. it'll likely get more focus when we actually do.
There might be a REASON we skipped seeing the transition, because of whatever those weird properties are.
@Deicide:
It's all been told rather than shown. And that's not a good sign.
That's been the case with literally every member of the crew.
Zoro we knew he had a childhood promise, Nami hated pirates and was stealing money for some reason (and we got hints of Arlong way in advance), Usopp always told lies for some reason and his father was a pirate .. .
the stories were much shorter and faster with the early crew (those three all joined by chapter 40) so I'm not going to go too much into them… but its certainly the case with the later crew and their longer flashbacka.
Sanji was the first time Oda started really slowing down and doing long form flashbacks, which involved clue dropping prior to that.
Sanji owed everything to Zeff, had been with him for years, would always feed a starving person no matter what, refused to let food go to waste, and had a "good reason" for not leaving to travel with Luffy.,.. details we knew before the flashback.
Chopper we knew a TON about him before we got the actual flashback. We knew about three of his forms, his doctor training, we knew of Hiriluk who liked pirates, that Chopper wanted to travel with pirates, we knew about how his reindeer family rejected him and how humans in the past were scared of him, (in two little mini flashbacks!) that he knew and hated/feared Wapol..., and his flashback started only TWO CHAPTERS after we learned he could speak!
With Robin we knew she was credited with destroying a bunch of ships at age 8, knew the lost language, survivor of Ohara, fear of the buster call, had been on the run for decades, lots of things that had no context till later and it took YEARS to get her proper backstory.
With Franky we knew he had a past on the island under a different name, that he had training as a shipright, and lots of history with Kokoro and Iceburg, and we had hints of Tom, and the weapons and a bunch of things.
Brook we knew all about LABOOOOON well before the end of the arc... (and we STILL know nothing about his royal soldier fencing days!) but we didn't know how the sad rendition of Bink's Sake would go.
Jinbe was accurately guessed to be the next crewmate based on what we knew about Fisher Tiger... and we knew that from an offhand one panel mention in Hancock's flashback! We also knew that he let Arlong loose on the East Blue years before he showed up but we didn't know the circumstances around it or that he beat the shit out of Arlong before doing so.
Law we knew all about him and Vergo and how he'd been working with Doflamingo for years as far back as Punk Hazard but didn't get the details till Dresserossa.
Plus you get the SKypeia mystery, knowing the ending about the famous Liar and what happened to the island was the entire inciting incident of the adventure, but we had no idea of the amazing story in it.
We knew most of Oden's story and most of Roger's before their flashback and yet...
See also all the details about Shirahoshi and Rebecca before their flashbacks got shown in full. (ESPECIALLY Rebecca's given the memory wipe) Sometimes Oda drops a ton of pieces, but then you see the final puzzle all together in context and with something important that was missing filled in and it gives things a new context and understanding, which then lets you go back and appreciate those early clues in a different light.
Oda drops these trails and pieces all the time before showing the full thing to give full context. Oda consistently tells you first, dropping breadcrumbs, then shows in full the actual details later.
@Shiebs:
Has this changed your opinion on whether he'll join or not?
Not at this point. There's still EVERYTHING else about Yamato that has me fully convinced, and we don't actually know what the fruit IS yet. We've known for months that'd it be some sort of animal thing, Until its out and out declared "mythical deer" I'm fine with it. People are joking about it being basically a "sulong" fruit… and as noted there's some oddities in how it was presented.
I'm not convinced it's a Kirin since those are sometimes portrayed with fire, but they also tend to have beards and scales and antlers, so while it could certainly be stylized for One Piece, it doesn't feel like a Kirin to me... especially since we actually saw one at the start of Wano.
(EDIT: It has been pointed out to me that thing is actually a "Komashika", NOT a Kirin, though many identified it as such at the time. So, not really relevant for comparisons now.)
Plus, other mystic zoans like Kaidou, Sengoku, and Katarina doesn't get firey trail stuff… just the actual fire things, like Ace or Marco.
Also, is it missing the usual face divider zoans get that always creeps me out? It's kind of hard to tell, it might just be because cute girl version, I can't think of too many other female zoans beside Merry Christmas..
But basically I'm not convinced its a kirin zoan at this point. It absolutely could be, but I'm not sold on it yet.