So, it looks like we finally have an official wrap on Yamato as a potential SH. After two years, it's good to finally be able to say, "Told you so." I'm one of the few people who was never convinced that Yamato was anything more than a red herring and I said as much.

I'll admit that Oda did a great job of building up the character with just enough to get people thinking it was a done deal only to come back and say, "Nah fam." Since I was never onboard with the prospect, I have to say that seeing people disappointed in something that I always thought wouldn't happen anyway sure is odd.

July 5th 2020:
https://forums.arlongpark.net/post/3947651

"Until last chapter there weren't really any NN candidates to speak of, but I guess now people will glom onto Yamato (though that character is still a red herring imo)."

July 26, 2020
https://forums.arlongpark.net/post/3952556

"Or it's a conscious decision to allow people to get drawn in by the red herring known as Yamato instead. She/He's this arc's Paulie."

I've been fighting this battle for over two years now. I've dealt all kinds of slander because whenever I pointed things out that didn't add up, I got attacked or blocked. Well, today was a good day.

So what did I factor into my analysis that most people either didn't or chose to ignore? Well, here are the top 5 reasons why I was never convinced at Oda's obvious troll attempt. Some of them were based on practicality, one was based on Japanese folklore, and others were based on established in-universe "rules" that have existed in the series for years.

Practical Reasons

1. Lack of Foreshadowing - One of the most glaring red flags that stood out to me first about Yamato as a character was that he seemingly came out of nowhere. Be honest. If I told you the chapter before he was mentioned that Kaido had a son, you would've laughed and said if he did, we would've heard about it sooner. We arrived at Wano in chapter 910. Yamato wasn't mentioned for the first time until 70 chapters into Wano.

After he was introduced, it felt like Oda went into overdrive trying to establish him as an important character. There's a phrase out there that goes, "You're doing too much." That's one of the reasons why I was immediately skeptical. This new character that came out of nowhere had a connection to Ace on Wano, was somehow tied to Kozuki Oden, was apparently "waiting" for Luffy, and asked to join him on his ship all within the first 2-3 chapters. All of that was way too convenient and I just knew that Oda was cooking up come red herring.

Aug 2, 2020
https://forums.arlongpark.net/post/3954085

"A Nami-face, a design built on established characters, no foreshadowing, overlapping "Ace will take me to sea" story with Tama, and now a nickname from Luffy. Not sure what people are seeing that I'm not."

2. Character Design - So after all of the extremely convenient setup that we got, once Yamato took his mask off, I was 110% sure that this was definitely a red herring. Was we got was a rather derivative design. I mean, the original design with the mask was interesting, but the second he took it off, we got "Nami-face," which was an immediate disqualifier. SHs all have unique faces and Yamato sharing a design so similar to Nami's was all I need. I immediately got Rebecca vibes. Besides the face, his design was a basic mix of Oden and Kaido, which was pretty uninspiring. Throw in the DF that looks remarkably like a sulong mink and it should've been even clear that this character wasn't planned for the long term as a SH.

Aug 2, 2020
https://forums.arlongpark.net/post/3954085

"A Nami-face, a design built on established characters, no foreshadowing, overlapping "Ace will take me to sea" story with Tama, and now a nickname from Luffy. Not sure what people are seeing that I'm not."

In-Universe Reasons

3. Lack of a role - Every character with the exception of Robin demostrated or had their skills referenced with respect to their ultimate role on the crew within the first 30 chapters of debuting. Yamato never did, which was yet another huge red flag. People resorted to making up stuff like cabin boy, brewer, logkeeper, apprentice and things like that. When you get to the point where you're guessing and speculating about a character's specific role, then you should stop to ask yourself why.

Jan 23, 2021
https://forums.arlongpark.net/post/3988515

"Everyone who joins the SHs technically still has a role on the ship. Something unique to them. I see people mentioning things like "Apprentice" or "Boatswain" or whatever for Yamato, but looking at the rest of the crew, their roles were either shown explicitly by them or referenced by someone else within their first 20 chapters of debuting. Robin is the only exception that I can find."

4. Strength - There are two wings of the PK and Yamato broke than dynamic. The SHs were never going to have anyone join that was demonstratably stronger than both Zoro and Sanji. Jinbe was consciously held back from joining until it was clear that both Zoro and Sanji were stronger than him in order to prevent that appearance.

For some reason, a lot of people still clung to the belief that Oda would break his own self-imposed rule just to accomodate a new character. I saw all kinds of rationalization about how Zoro cut Kaido, which somehow made him on par to people saying the SHs needed a strong character to take on Blackbread. The moment that Yamato was able to go toe to toe with Kaido in his strongest form and leave essentially unscathed, people should've known that him joining would disrupt a decades old power dynamic on the crew. This was another big red flag.

Jun 9, 2021
https://forums.arlongpark.net/post/4010893

"Secondly, if he is to "sail with Luffy," then it really disrupts the power dynamic of the SHs. It would essentially make him the second strongest in the crew."

Folklore Reasons

5. Guardian Deity of Wano Country Devil Fruit - This was biggest in-universe red flag and tons of people just flat out ingnored it because it wasn't convenient to what they wanted. Oda gave Yamato a devil fruit that specifically tied him to Wano for a reason.

People still went on and on about how he would still leave, but why in the hell would the person who ate the Guardian Diety of Wano DF not want anything to do with Wano? Chaka and Pell have DFs that are also considered guardian diety DFs and we know how they turned out. We were also told that zoan DFs have a will of their own, which again points to Yamato's DF choosing him.

Beyond that, his DF wasn't created out of thin air. It was based on Japanese folklore. In this case, from the story of Yamato Takeru. Yamato Takeru was the son of an emperor. In ancient times, a white wolf (Ooguchi no Magami) appeared to him. Yamato commanded the white wolf to stay behind to protect the land.

Aug 1, 2021
https://ralphhaussler.weebly.com/wolf-mythologie-japan.html

"The wolf as god is above all worshipped under the name of Ooguchi no Magami, the "Large-Mouthed Pure God." Ancient historic accounts from Japan report this mythical story how the wolf deity, a white wolf, in times of need suddenly appeared to Yamato Takeru, son of Emperor Keikko. Takaru got lost on a road near Mitakesan when a local demon shapeshifted into a white deer and obstructed the road. The white wolf showed him the way and led his army on the right path and Takeru commanded the white wolf to stay in Mitakesan as a true god, in order to slay any local demons."

Aug 1, 2021
https://forums.arlongpark.net/post/4020821

"As such, it would be really unusual to see the "Spirit Guardian" of a country ditching the country asap to go off and do their own thing."

So that's it. There was more obviously, but these five made my job much easier. I've been in countless back and forth conversations with people over the past two years trying to tell people why they should be skeptical, but more and more people chose to ignore every point that I brought up that went against the concept of Yamato joining. It's funny looking back now and seeing how many people actually took the bait...

@Kishido said in Next Straw Hat Crewmates (Vol. 9 - Yamato vs. The World):

Yamato will join. Her role will be being the destroyer of fanfic M3 and wings… The dream a lot of people had since Robin will finally be archived

@Alfiere said in Next Straw Hat Crewmates (Vol. 9 - Yamato vs. The World):

I think this as a good time as any to (re)state that i (and i believe many others as well) don't think Yamato will join because he's a particularly likeable (i like him fine though) or in any way well handled charachter, but rather because if he doesn't anything about him till now would have been an enormous, meaningless waste of time.
After having him state hel'll join at every occasion, share meaningful moments with Luffy, being the only truly proactive actor on the alliance side in the entire raid, being on the cover of the 100th volume… how would any other outcome make sense or be even remotely satisfying?

@electricmastro said in Next Straw Hat Crewmates (Vol. 9 - Yamato vs. The World):

Luffy is going to get even cooler with the new Commander Trio he'll receive after Wano.

@Dorob333Neko said in Next Straw Hat Crewmates (Vol. 9 - Yamato vs. The World):

See the thing about Yamato is that Oda designed and wrote a new main character to be a new main character.

If he was just a Wano character, he would have been designed with that in mind instead. But that's not what happened. Oda just made a new main character and is not the asshole you want him to be with red herrings. Because that would be a huge waste of our time and insulting.

This is truly like fighting that Chopper would not be joining after reading all of Drum Island but have yet to see him get on the boat.

The sadder thing is people will still be doubting Yamato after his cheers with the crew on the boat.

@Zhenja said in Next Straw Hat Crewmates (Vol. 9 - Yamato vs. The World):

@Deicide:

So, you are dismissing what's being told us in the story because you don't like it.
Nice way to analyze anything.

Says the guy who ignores Yamato stating she wants to sail with Luffy on every possible occasion…

Great fucking analytic skills...

@Zik said in Next Straw Hat Crewmates (Vol. 9 - Yamato vs. The World):

LOL @ Yamato being like Vivi.

Have we gotten to the point where fan fiction is being used to support arguments now?

There's plain as day evidence in the manga of Yamamoto saying he wants to leave, saying he will leave, proclaiming he'll leave with Luffy. Where is there any implication he wants to stay in Wano? That any part of his dreams require him to be like Vivi when it was time for the strawhats to leave?

A lot of struggle for the Yamato wont join side.

In order to avoid getting duped like this in the future, my advice would be to remain objective and don't just listen to the words a character says. Look at everything and be more like me. :)

@King-Cannon
Doubt. There's just a lot of unresolved stuff. Oda usually wraps things up with a nice bow for allies who've been around in a single arc, much less multiple.

We have Pedro's will (he's been mentioned by Luffy and the minks in the past 13-14 chapters) and her understanding of it.

We have her losing to Perospero and then him telling her to go back home where it's safe.

We have Dog and Cat randomly asking her to lead the minks even though she never asked for it and arguably doesn't have the skills to do it. She never accepted as far as we can tell.

We have the SHs parting ways without any kind of goodbye with her and we always get a goodbye for people who sail on their ship.

If Oda did just say, f*** it then this last saga is gonna be bad. Filled with off-paneling and half-assing character arcs.

@Monquito said in Next Straw Hat Crewmates (Vol. 9 - Yamato vs. The World):

Whatever Oda wanted to accomplish by fooling us all with Yamato.

Speak for yourself. Lol He never fooled me.

@King-Cannon said in Next Straw Hat Crewmates (Vol. 9 - Yamato vs. The World):

@Deicide But here's the thing, there's no good reason Oda would offscreen the development of a character who was supposed to become a main one. Like, why would you do that? Shouldn't a main character's background and development be a priority, especially a new, recent one?

Even Jinbe didn't get this treatment when his joining was delayed. He got multiple arcs where he was at the forefront and even a cover story to make up for his absence. Result: by the time we got to Wano, he already had over 1000 panels in terms of appearance count, and thus was part of a select group.

Curiously though, he's still behind Vivi. She truly is a screentime juggernaut. I wouldn't be surprised if Oda is just deciding to keep the SH at 10 for now in order to give Jinbe more breathing room.

If he did, then he would've had his reasons, obviously. Coming out of WCI, like 80-90% of the community just assumed she would join given her panel time and bonding with the crew.

Since she wasn't a pivotal character in Wano, he could've intentionally just put her in the background for use later while still given her a little development (see convenient appearance of Perospero on the Onigashima) all the while distracting people with the other shiny object.

Not sure how it would be dumb. It's a real life position. No, it hasn't been specifically mentioned in the story, but the look out position would make sense in a story about pirate crews/ships, especially compared to the wild stuff that people were coming up with Yamato.

@King-Cannon
Usopp is a sniper, not a lookout. People were making the same argument when I was saying that Jinbe would be the helmsman. Everyone was like, "They don't need one. Someone else can do it."

@electricmastro said in Next Straw Hat Crewmates (Vol. 9 - Yamato vs. The World):

@Ivotas said in Next Straw Hat Crewmates (Vol. 9 - Yamato vs. The World):

@Shiebs said in Next Straw Hat Crewmates (Vol. 9 - Yamato vs. The World):

I was never sold on Yamato until he literally told the crew he would travel with them then I completely fell for it

That was actually the part where I actually started getting doubts again after I was sold on the "at least a team up" aspect. Unlike any other Strawhat, Yamato has been forcing herself on the crew completely. One might argue that Robin also invited herself but she at least was polite enough to ask Luffy and then explain the reasoning that she has nowhere else to go.

Yamato on the other hand has declared across several occations, like when confronting Kaido that she will join Luffy. No Strawhat Pirate was that adamant about joining before they actually became a member of the crew. Heck, almost everybody refused it in one way or the other. Even Brook who said "yes" at first paddled back on that because of the issue with his shadow.

Also my memory is a bit iffy on that matter. But Luffy actually ever invite her to literally become a part of her crew? I'm sure that he told her to go out and see the world when this entire "you're free" thing came up. But I don't remember if he invited her or not.

Yamato actually fits with the sort of pattern of the women of the crew approaching Luffy instead of the other way around, Nami suggesting she team up with Nami in Orange Town and Robin inviting herself onto the ship with the demand that Luffy take responsibility for saving her even though she was fine with dying in the tomb.

Her refusal also goes along with previous people refusing Luffy in some way, or opposing him in some way in regards to the crew, amusingly.

Actually, I expect that Carrot will do the same if she is in that barrel.

@Monquito said in Next Straw Hat Crewmates (Vol. 9 - Yamato vs. The World):

Whatever Oda wanted to accomplish by fooling us all with Yamato.

Speak for yourself. Lol He never fooled me.

@electricmastro said in Next Straw Hat Crewmates (Vol. 9 - Yamato vs. The World):

@BobLoblaw said in Next Straw Hat Crewmates (Vol. 9 - Yamato vs. The World):

@electricmastro said in Next Straw Hat Crewmates (Vol. 9 - Yamato vs. The World):

@BobLoblaw said in Next Straw Hat Crewmates (Vol. 9 - Yamato vs. The World):

Yamato will sail with the crew as a pirate when Momo and Kinemon do, so pretty much never. You can't really even put Yamato in the same class as Vivi at this point or the whole "you better join us" kind of order that Jinbe got. He'll get a cover story and/or show up during the final war mostly likely, but it won't be as a SH. That ship has sailed (pun 100% intended).

Well I dunno about Kinemon and Momo, since they didn't seem interested in sailing out from Wano and the shogun business unless they see it as absolutely necessary, but Yamato following Oden's path might possibly be confirmation enough in her case.

While there's a greater than 0% chance of that happening, it's still a really low probability. We'll have a better idea of where things are going if/when Yamato gets a cover story.

I mean, Yamato has said she wanted to follow Oden's path, and Oden went to Laugh Tale with the future Pirate King. I don't have good reason to assume Yamato is lying or hiding anything either, so why shouldn't I actually consider that's where Yamato's story is heading towards?

He did, but Yamato won't be doing everything that Oden did. Will he sail on a yonkou's ship after being dragged for days only to join the PK's ship afterward? Will he meet a time traveling person and have kids with them? Does he want to be Shogun? Like I said, we should all wait to see if there are any cover stories. Right now, Yamato's in ally status along with Kinemon, Momo, Shirahoshi, Barto, and tons of others.

If we spent the next five chapters visiting the CG, Revolutionaries, WG, and SH grand fleet/allies, I'd be just fine with it. I love seeing Croco-boy and Mihawk back and I'd love to check in on several others.

@electricmastro said in Next Straw Hat Crewmates (Vol. 9 - Yamato vs. The World):

@BobLoblaw said in Next Straw Hat Crewmates (Vol. 9 - Yamato vs. The World):

Yamato will sail with the crew as a pirate when Momo and Kinemon do, so pretty much never. You can't really even put Yamato in the same class as Vivi at this point or the whole "you better join us" kind of order that Jinbe got. He'll get a cover story and/or show up during the final war mostly likely, but it won't be as a SH. That ship has sailed (pun 100% intended).

Well I dunno about Kinemon and Momo, since they didn't seem interested in sailing out from Wano and the shogun business unless they see it as absolutely necessary, but Yamato following Oden's path might possibly be confirmation enough in her case.

While there's a greater than 0% chance of that happening, it's still a really low probability. We'll have a better idea of where things are going if/when Yamato gets a cover story. At this point, I think it's safer to wait for more in the story first. Oda's already disappointed Yamato fans once. Might want to keep your hype in check. :)

Yamato will sail with the crew as a pirate when Momo and Kinemon do, so pretty much never. You can't really even put Yamato in the same class as Vivi at this point or the whole "you better join us" kind of order that Jinbe got. He'll get a cover story and/or show up during the final war mostly likely, but it won't be as a SH. That ship has sailed (pun 100% intended).

@King-Cannon
Usopp is a sniper, not a lookout. People were making the same argument when I was saying that Jinbe would be the helmsman. Everyone was like, "They don't need one. Someone else can do it."

Not sure how it would be dumb. It's a real life position. No, it hasn't been specifically mentioned in the story, but the look out position would make sense in a story about pirate crews/ships, especially compared to the wild stuff that people were coming up with Yamato.

@Monquito I'll never not be amazed at how many people fell for that one. We also saw Yamato on a bag with Luffy and people took that as some kind of clue, unaware of the fact that Oda also did one with Luffy/Law and Luffy/Kid. At least with Carrot, there's stuff in the story to pull from across hundreds of chapters.

@King-Cannon said in Next Straw Hat Crewmates (Vol. 9 - Yamato vs. The World):

@BobLoblaw said in Next Straw Hat Crewmates (Vol. 9 - Yamato vs. The World):

@King-Cannon
If Oda did just say, f*** it then this last saga is gonna be bad. Filled with off-paneling and half-assing character arcs.

Talking like Wano didn't end with tons of off-paneling and half-assed arcs.

It's very obvious Oda RUSHED a lot to fit everything in Volume 104. You would think Hyogoro, Hiyori, the Scabbards sans Kin'emon, etc, would've gotten proper farewells since some of the SH bonded with them, but nope!

Right. I'm gonna chalk that one up to the rush to get the arc finished before Film Red released. We're used to seeing better. Much better. Hell, we just had WCI, which is a top 3 arc.