@kagehisa:

You guys obviously don't get it. Coby and Helmeppo are like Garp and Sengoku.

Therefore Coby will never realize his dream of becoming admiral, being stuck at VA. and Helmeppo will become the Fleet Admiral

In my opinion the parallels exist but they aren't as clear cut as people think. If Coby resembles anyone I'd say that person is Kuzan rather than Garp. Just as Kuzan idolised Garp so too does Coby idolise Luffy. If you listen to the way they talk about their idols you'll hear the same fanboyish tone. Helmellpo doesn't have as strict a parallel but I'd say he lacks ambition and seems content to follow Coby which sounds somewhat like Bogart. When I say he lacks ambition I don't mean he has none, I mean his ambition to show up his father isn't great enough to elevate him to a position equal to or greater than Coby's.

Sengoku IMO has got no parallel among the rising stars because none of them seem particularly strategy oriented with the possible exception of Hina but even that's a stretch and is more appropriate for Tsuru.

Garp never wanted to be an Admiral whereas Coby does so him ending up like Garp wouldn't make sense since if he were offered the job he'd snap it up. Smoker more properly fills that aspect of Garp since he only wants to rise as high as necessary to facilitate his pursuit of Luffy meaning he doesn't have his eye set on Admiral and would refuse it if it limited his ability to chase Luffy.

Brook's role is to entertain the crew which he's got absolutely no difficulty fulfilling. The issue you have isn't with his role but his fighting abilities and you won't be answered until Brook gets a proper fight. As for his dream I don't see how a dream involving nothing more than travelling from point a to point b is bad since Nami's dream is simply a glorified version of the same thing

@piratemarimo:

IDK, ship battles seem like they'd be pretty boring to watch. The only benefit to that would be seeing the new weapons Franky installed into Sunny, but I have no doubt in my mind that we'll see it all eventually.

I disagree when Hina had the crew cornered in Alabasta I found myself wandering how they'd ever get away. There's special ship capabilities, as you mentioned, then there's all the ways the crew has to cleverly use their abilities to protect parts of the ship below the deck.

Seeing as Brook and Robin have already been mentioned I'd say the next most disappointing thing is the long stretches between significant clashes with the Marines. It doesn't spark me as to much to ask to have Luffy face some random Marines patrolling the area he happens to be sailing in.

After that there's the almost total absence of ship to ship battles

@No:

Her lack of importance .

And her admiting it herself :ninja:

She's as important as any Marine who Luffy isn't destined to surpass/beat [Admirals] or is actively hunting down Luffy and his crew [Smoker, Garp and now Sentoumaru].

She admitted she failed just like Sentoumaru admitted he was incapable of doing anything to stop Luffy. 2 years have passed and seing as wherever Smoker is she isn't far behind I expect she's spent some time battling New World level pirates. If she never reappears or gets fodderised again then I'll concede the point.

@No:

But most of his women fighters are either fodder or have a fruit .

And Hina is both .

Is this based entirely on Luffy evading her or are there additional reasons

@Caxxo:

Why can't Tsuru be the new FA?

If she were good enough to be FA she'd have been an Admiral seeing as she was around before all the current Admirals got promoted. Either she doesn't want to be promoted or those guys are just better.

I expect the new FA is Akainu because he's the sort of guy who'd do something as drastic as moving the HQ to the New World and Aokiji seems more like the sort of guy you'd want to lead the reformed Marines after Luffy has done whatever he's going to do with the WG

@Ivotas:

What 'ko said. He'd be known as Pink Chicken once he get's the rank of Admiral. You've heard it here first.

I expect he'll be called the pink panther

I'd say the Warden has much closer ties to the Marines than CP9 does hence why an impressive showing from him can act as hype for the Marines whilst an impressive showing from CP9 is less so

Indeed one expects Marines who have a more formalised training and are far more disciplined to act with far more strategy than they're doing. Pirates operate on the basis of the strong survive but Marines operate on the basis of giving their members the tools and knowledge necessary to survive.

Absolute justice fails because it loses the battle of hearts and minds. You can't expect the people to hand in pirates and ostracize then if you're willing to blow up an entire island for harbouring a single pirate. This is why the PK is revered and why WB can tell people that an area is undfer his protection and stop the fighting while the Marines face active and constant resistance from those they're protecting and those they're protecting against