@Deicide:
I think behind every nakama candidate there's potential fans see in them. Someone thinks Smoker is going to join? He probably has imagined lots of stories and scenes that would make that meaningful and importante.
But sometimes this potential is not what the author envisioned. Which is a pity.
As for Carrot, I feel Oda did dirty with her. I never thought she was going to join, but I did expect her to have a shining moment for herself, a fitting conclusion to her participation in WCI. Instead, Nekomamushi took over and resolved everything almost off-screen, and all that was left of Carrot was one tiny panel celebrating Perospero's defeat alongside Neko and Wanda. Oda usually does secondary characters justice, but this time it really feels like he failed.
Back to potential, I imagine you still have some hopes left, as it's hard to let go. So, just to have a nice conversation, how do you imagine the situation may be redeemed?
(P.S. 1: I'm not gonna touch Yamato for now because people get very upset when I talk Yamato.)
(P.S. 2: While the forum was offline, I decided it was finally time, since Wano seens to be near its end and we will get to its epilogue within this year, to talk my theory for Hancock in its entirety, so I posted it in Reddit. I doubt anyone cares, but here it is for anyone curious. Public reception was actually better than I expected.)
I hope I don't seem optimistic beyond reason here. Carrot hasn't had a great showing for a while, which is harder to excuse year after year, and the last scene she has was being seemingly fulfilled after Neko beat Peros. The door is closing, despite Zunesha's shakeup. But there is still time. Pedro died, and in doing so passed his will specifically on to Carrot. I simply refuse to believe his death only amounted to a failed shot at revenge. Whether it leads to joining or not, Carrot will do right by Pedro. That's how she'll redeem herself.
@electricmastro:
I pretty much feel the same way, even if I can’t exactly explain why I don’t feel that Carrot will join despite having the tragedy with Pedro as well as the Dawn plot thread mentioned by him.
I guess it has to do with what I focus on what’s happening right now. If Carrot was intended to join, then I honestly feel there would be more scenes focusing on her in a way that reinforces her relevance alongside Luffy in the story somehow. Some people may want to say things like “Carrot will do more later. Carrot will have more justification to going to Laugh Tale later. Carrot will become very important to the story later.”
It’s like some people would rather base outcomes more on what hasn’t happened rather than what has happened, which can be harder to navigate through in conversations since that basically ends up having imagination, like you touched on, rather than on in-story examples which fit to that narrative more.
Yamato missing interactions with the crew is being used to argue that he's bound to have interactions with the crew. How is that not basing outcomes more on what hasn’t happened rather than what has?
Now I did answer your earlier question, but I'm feeling from your talk of justifying Carrot like it wasn't that you actually wanted to hear my opinion, rather wanted me to somehow prove something I clearly can't prove to your satisfaction. I was not critical about Yamato not meeting the crew yet. I was trying to relate. It probably will happen at some point, and hopefully in a satisfactory manner. I just want to be understood, too. You have things you expect Yamato to do, I have things I expect Carrot to do. I don't think our points of view are that different in that respect.