@Deicide said in Next Straw Hat Crewmates (Vol. 10 - Egghead):
@electricmastro
During Wano, Yamato’s story was bothering me because his stated goals were not matched by where the plot was leading him to. While he wanted to sail with Luffy, the story was bonding him with Momo and revealing him to be “Wano’s guardian” and so on.
Usually when there’s this conflict between “want versus need”, a story reaches a point in which the character realizes that his wants are not the real path to fulfillment and accepts his needs instead. That’s why I expected Yamato to find a greater calling and realize his true happiness/purpose would be to stay.
This kinda happened but in an unsatisfying way. Yamato found a greater calling, but it was more of a burdening duty than the realization that it would fulfill him. He just postponed his goals, without discarding them.
That said, we don’t know what role Yamato will get in the future. His story is for now on hold, so there are no clues stacking for us to analyze and guess.
It could be that he joins the crew. Or it may be that Yamato finds another way to sail, like forming his own crew, since his main goal is mor about adventuring and traveling than specifically joining Luffy.
Also, this fulfillment can happen either during the story, because events will naturally lead to it, or in its epilogue, after Wano is no longer in danger.
For now, we can only wait for his story to be picked up again.
Maybe Oda’s intentions, however strange and unorthodox they may seem to us, are really that different from what we expected to see or wanted to see, and may have just had a method to the madness after all.
Thinking back, it seems that Yamato never had a sense of responsibility before Luffy ordered her to look after Momo. Before that, she casually demanded to have Luffy take her to sea just for being friend with Luffy’s brother, which comes off as selfish.
Harsh way to put it, but I can’t think of a better way to put it. Yamato was being selfish in being demanding like that, and then Momo comes along, changing up her whole world.
Then, maybe that’s where Yamato’s conflict would come in. Straw Hats like Sanji we’re conflicted between leaving Zeff at Baratie and leaving with Luffy, and Franky being conflicted between leaving the Franky Family at Water 7.
Straw Hats like Sanji and Franky had all that to deal with and go through, but compared to Yamato, she really had nothing like that. No one she cared enough to look after or conflict with her interest before Momo came along. So, taking that into consideration, I’ve come to the conclusion that Momo is meant to develop Yamato’s character, possibly towards being a Straw Hat.
And that reason I’ve been compelled to think and say that now is that depending on how far Yamato’s relationship with Momo goes, it may come to the situation where Yamato might try to come up with more excuses to stay in Wano. Excuses said out of fear/anxiety that more will be attacking it, regardless of how strong Momo gets, as if his efforts aren’t that relevant. And I imagine that would get Momo angrily fuming over that, that that would not only compel him to try harder to strengthen himself, but also practically feel obligated to give evidence to Yamato to the point he’d fight with her and make their bond more meaningful from there. And that that would make it all the more emotional of a send-off for when Momo is finally able to give Yamato that final push, going back to that idea of “responsibility vs. dreams”.
If people want to conclude that Oda has stopped caring or gone crazy, then I’ll leave that to them. But that idea of personal conflict I had of “responsibility vs. dreams”, after considering many things, is what makes the most sense to me.