@Ubiq:
Which, strictly speaking, works against him as Tom built Roger's ship without accompanying him. Otherwise, he'd have been charged with being a member of his crew rather than simply being an accessory to Roger's crime by providing him with a ship.
That's a technicality. What I meant is Franky is a direct heir to Tom who was related to the Pirate King, while Paulie is the disciple of Tom's disciple. The way I see it, and it has already been said earlier in this thread, Paulie's loyalty goes to Iceburg, and it seems to me that Paulie would be great as the leader of the Galley La shipwrights and successor of Iceburg. And Water Seven would definitly need him to help rebuild the company. Who needs Franky in W7, except a bunch of outlaw dismantlers who I'm sure would be happy to know that their Big Bro is safe sailing on his dream ship with some crazy pirates strong enough to declare war against the government?
@Ubiq:
Considering that Paulie's completely disappeared after Puffing Tom leaped across to the Justice Tower, we may well see him again seeing as how we checked in with the other two shipwrights.
But that's just speculation. Franky is fighting against a CP9, one on one, since the beginning. Paulie may show up but I honestly don't see him come and save the day.
@Ubiq:
Paulie just beat the hell out an elite Houbantai unit, helped hold off a bunch of Marines and CP Agents, and directly attacked three Judges. I somehow doubt that the World Government is going to turn a blind eye to his continued presence in Water 7.
You can say the same for all those who helped attacking Enies Lobby. So the World Government wouldn't turn a blind eye to Lulu and Tailston. But noone think they'd be the next Mugiwara shipwright. I'm not sure I see the logics here, and how it contradicts my argument that Paulie is more important to W7 than Franky.
@Ubiq:
As far as the sketch goes, you could make a fair argument that Paulie fits that image as well as Franky does. His flared shirtsleeves are a good approximation of the arms, he has slicked-back hair, wears goggles, and his shirt is a better approximation of Luffy's drawing than Franky's is.
Sorry mate, but I think you're grasping at straws here. The spiky hair, black sunglasses, chin and huge forearms simply have nothing to do with Paulie's design.
@Ubiq:
1. He helps balance out the crew between idiots and non-idiots, Franky doesn't. He's much more level headed than Luffy, he's fairly knowledgeable about the sea itself, he's a direct counterweight to Sanji's idiocy around women, but he still a major character flaw to exploit for comedy.
But who said the crew needed to be balanced? As I see it, the male members of the crew are all idiots. It's part of the Mugiwaras spirit, as Vivi said when she first travelled with them, they give Nami a lot of troubles since she's the only "normal" character out there. Now with Robin we have a second serious female character, IMO to fit in the new male member must be an idiot. Franky is.
@Ubiq:
2. He's a medium strength character; he's strong but not freakishly so and doesn't require a deus ex machina for him to be taken out of a fight like Franky.
As I said, they need all the strongest fighters they can now that they're about to enter a very hard part of their adventures. They'll prolly have one of the 3 Admirals after them, there's no need for "medium strenght characters".
@Ubiq:
3. We know next to nothing about Paulie except that he was a little kid who was wonderstruck by the Sea Train when it was built. There's a helluvalot more room for character development for him that there is Franky. Paulie's even quite a bit younger than Franky, so he still more room to grow as a person.
I'm not sure I understand this "character development" thing. The new Mugiwara will become a secondary character Oda won't focus on. He'll just be here to repair the ship, fool around with the rest of the crew during mini arcs and fight against minor villains. Not all Mugiwaras can be like Nico Robin.
@Ubiq:
4. He's saved the lives of several of the Straw Hats already and there is a reasonable argument to be made that he actually cares about them as people. He could have easily been killed by the Aqua Laguna on that bridge but went out there anyway.
Sure. No different from all the other supporting characters we met before.
@Ubiq:
5. By all appearances, Luffy is on pretty good terms with Paulie, but he doesn't like Franky.
It's just a misunderstanding and we all know Luffy never holds a grudge against non evil characters. He didn't like Nico Robin first but then when he saw her true personnality he accepted her right away in his crew. And at the time Robin "crimes" against the Mugiwaras looked far worse than what Franky did.
Holy shit, that was a long post.