@ImmaIvanoM:
Really though, does anyone have any reason to not want Carrot in the crew? Like evidence of her actually joining aside. Just give a biased opinion entirely. Like if you don’t like blondes or you don’t like animal people or whatever. I for one I’m tired of these long drawn out what’s Oda thinking or Foreshadowed or Cover whatever. I wanna hear pure bias. You might think the crew would be too big for your liking. You might just want to maintain your nostalgia of a recognizable crew. You might even just not like women. It’s fine.
So I’m calling out for these sorts of replies. No fancy shmancy analyses. Let me start. I will give a biased reason why I would like Carrot to join. She’s a gender bent Luffy. I’m a big, ugh, fan of gender bent characters so I very much enjoyed Tashigi and Smoker’s switcharoo at Punk Hazard. And I think Carrot is the closest Oda will ever get to gender bending Luffy. I mean I like Robin’s aloofness and Nami’s nagging as much as the next guy but I mean you’d think they’d emulate their captain a bit more by now. But Oda isn’t up for changing Characters that much so I like the idea of him making a new female character who could be as Luffy-like as possible on the crew. And yes my desire for this could have fetish implications and it does but Women can be fun go lucky people too. Besides I’ve owned up to this being a completely biased thing so there.
I want Carrot for the simple reason I think it is important to have a female main character in One Piece that doesn't agree with Oda constantly saying "this is how a woman reacts/should react". Having every male character reacting with excitement to flashy things and the girls with glaring lack of interest is a running gag that is funny per se, but when you think about One Piece monstrous popularity it becomes a point for worry that it might end up dictating to its younger readers what a male and a female "role" should be, even if Oda is not actively trying to do that, and Carrot would fit the bill perfectly.
That said, I am afraid she may end up fading into the background once she joins, but that's really not something that would be exclusive to her. Franky and Brook are pretty much background characters whenever the whole crew is together and are only able to show their personality when they are on their own or in small groups, I think this is something that every SH from now on will have to bear - they are additions to a group that had its core completed decades ago.
When I think about the chapter Carrot was revealed to be on the Sunny, she was a character that I instantly loved. On that chapter she is so over the top, her personality traits are so exaggerated (probably to cause an impression on the reader since it technically was her introductory chapter as "part of the Sunny team"), that chapter shows her as a character that is on what we seem to consider a SH-level of… flashiness. However, starting immediately from the next chapter she is heavily toned down. With Totto Land being the multi-racial paradise, it was the perfect chance to show Carrot's complete lack of knowledge about the world, but it seems Oda completely forgot about it after the chapter I mentioned before... all we got for the rest of the arc was Carrot showing interest on the existence of giants.
It seems now he decided to restore some of her "excitement for the unknown world" by having her going sparky eyes with the Wano dangers while the rest of the crew was scared by it, so maybe her portrayal may improve a bit and get closer to what it seemed it would be at first.
Also, even at the "tamest" point of her portrayal, I still think Carrot got a more remarkable personality than any woman that interacted with the SH enough to be a viable member of the crew - with personalities that usually amount to "good caring girls". Camie is probably the only one I can think of that seemed funnier than her.
Design wise, I think she is as plain as Oda could go with a "rabbit girl", though. The lack of rabbit teeth is criminal... simply by giving her those and making her less cute by making her similar to Serra from Dragon Age would turn her design into pure gold. But, really, I doubt Oda would ever make a female SH be too crazy looking, so I doubt we could get any better... Oda can go crazy with female looks, but is usually when he is not trying to make the character be a "fan favorite", when he tries he always go for the same places and Carrot seems like the best we can get out of it.
