Blowfish, if you want I'll discuss your points tomorrow. I've got some things to take care of now and don't really have time to make too long of a post.
@Shift:
As I said, there are 9-10 years still unaccounted for. Why didn't he bother to look in on Arlong, exactly? Did he assume he was being a good little "rage of the Fishmen"? Whether it was his arm held behind his back or simple negligence, I don't see that span going unaddressed.
Almost all, if not all, of that time Arlong as at Cocoyasi Village and Nami was a part of his crew. Had Jinbe met up with Arlong we would already know about it.
Because where other Strawhats have had one major role model, Jinbe has two for a change.
You're missing the point. Being inspired or effected by someone in the same way the fishmen pirates or most of FI was does not put the focus on Jinbe. In fact it does the opposite.
And Otohime having her time in the spotlight in exactly the treatment Tiger recieved.
Exactly. This leaves how much time for Jinbe to get the limelight? None, as once Otohime is dead the flashback will end pretty quickly as there are no major events left to cover.
I'm not even sure what you're implying by Jinbe's presence in Tiger's death, because that was about all the people under him including Jinbe. Oda wouldn't have focused solely on Jinbe because that would not have been natural for the situation.
That is my point. It's not just about Jinbe.
But Jinbe is unique in that both Tiger's death and Otohime's can greatly impact him; only Aladdin can compare, as all others would side to one figure or the other.
What. Surely you can't be implying that only Jinbe and Aladdin were greatly impacted by those two deaths.
Being built as the result of a flashback? 9/10ths of the time, a SH that DOES make.
Again, my point is that most of the info we've gotten we already knew or wasn't all that groundbreaking. Yeah, hindsight 20/20 and all, but even so. I'm not going to make a list simply because I have other things to do now but I'll highlight a few key points.
We knew long ago that Jinbe's position as a Shichi was helping human-fishman relations. Figuring its relation to Otohime came as soon as we learned about what sort of ideals she had. We knew Jinbe would take over for Tiger. We knew he would get a bounty. We knew the crew would split. The Jinbe and Arlong fiasco was clear from the start. And so on.
The new stuff is really where he came from, the fishman district, and that he used to really not like humans or Otohime's ideals.
Precedent has shown a flashback of this magnitude usually is tied to a new member. The fact that it serves a double purpose with double figureheads is what potentially makes it unique.
Someone earlier in this thread made a great point about patterns only really being applicable if they further the story. Making this a crew member flashback would certainly do that, but this is a situation where the flashback can stand on its own two feet without that. Due to the scope of this flashback you can't just paste the crew member pattern onto it so easily.
Now Jeff, you've put up a staunch and magnificent fight. If there's no chance of either of us backing down, would you care to make things interesting and stake a little wager on the results? Nothing like a self ban or anything, but maybe a requisite avatar or sig change? >:D
Sig change. Done. Nothing gaudy though, let's keep it classy.