Am I the last holdout who still thinks Jimbei was the final crew member?

Oh my. :wassat: …

@Kaptayn:

We both have no clue who Joy Boy really is and what his prophecy truly might be – but we can agree that there seem to be different possible candidates that could accomplish it. Kaido says that "Luffy couldn't be Joy Boy either". Becoming Joy Boy is therefore something that you do, not something that happens to you. Luffy could have given up along the way, in nearly every single volume of the manga. He wasn't handed "power"; what became his advantage early on in the story, his devil fruit, was initially something that held him back and almost crushed his dreams (see both Luffy flashbacks).
He got lucky at times; yet one could argue that he created his luck through his kind spirit/compassion that helped him recruit loyal and driven companions. The kind of kindness that made a boat repair itself and cross the sea to save him and his friends. That made an old enemy sacrifice himself for him not once, but twice. That gave the most ambitious character of the story the resolve to give up his life for him (Zoro). Etc.
We tend to forget that he got awfully unlucky too. One of his brothers happened to cross the path of a Celestial Dragon on the first day of his pirate career. The other one forgot to learn haki despite spending years in the New World. Etc.

None of this changes the fact that being born with a great destiny is the opposite of free will. And this story is about freedom.

I hated the Apoo/Drake stuff. This arc has gone on too long already and we don't need it. Same with CP0/the Marines. And I'm not even a little bit invested in whatever side plot Oda invented to give everyone something to do when their fights are over. Just stop, Oda.

I pretty much liked everything else though. Bringing back Kinemon's legs was genius. And as much as I love Big Mom, I'm ready for her to take some real damage. Yonko invulnerability makes Whitebeard look bad retroactively.

@Kaptayn:

Why are you avoiding the actual arguments that are relevant to the story?
ie the paragraph following the part you quoted

Because none of it is relevant at all unless one accepts your idea of what destiny is, and I hate long multi quote posts. I'm old, and I have no patience for that stuff.

@Kaptayn:

Destiny is the story you write moving backwards. It does not take away from the freedom in the choices you have made along the journey.

That is not what destiny means, although you're free to have whatever headcanon you want to, I suppose.

Perhaps Naruto is not your taste. Doesn't change the fact that it is a genre-defining manga and deserves respect.

Something doesn't deserve respect just because it made lots of money.

@Kaptayn:

How so?

Also, pay respects to Naruto

I thought I explained it pretty well in the part you highlighted. Being free and following a prearranged destiny are kind of polar opposites.

Also why would I respect Naruto when I clearly think it's bad? No.

Daaaaang, Sanji kicked the SHIT out of Queen on the last page there. I can almost never figure out wtf is going on in manga fights and even I winced at that one. Please, Oda, actually draw clear panels for this fight without a bunch of background scribbles making it impossible to parse. I haven't been this excited about a teamup fight since Zoro & Usopp v. Kaku & Jabra.

@Zik:

Well like I said you can do that for everything.

Make Joyboy and Rocks and Im and anybody else all the same person.

FTR, I disagree. We definitely do not have a billion names of mysterious characters. We barely have a dozen when it comes to the void century.

As far as when he chose to do it, seems to be an assumption that things need to be tying things up as if the series has 2 or even 5 years left when it does not.

I agree with you that assuming the story only has five years left is wishful thinking at best. And you make a good argument about Nika. It just annoys me. So I guess this is my emotional, knee-jerk response? I just don't like it. For the record, I don't mind Joyboy existing but if he ends up being Luffy or anything of the sort, I'll be really disappointed, since Luffy's whole journey is about being free and making him some kind of chosen one completely ruins that message. Kind of like Naruto, except fuck Naruto, it was awful from the beginning anyways.

@Zik:

What exactly is the complication?

As is, its just another myth out in the world.

Obviously Oda had it mentioned for a reason and it'll be important when revealed.

Right now, we know nothing about it or what else its connected to so how can you say the story didn't need it?

Might as well say other random stuff about what the story doesn't need.

I'm saying it's not needed for the story because we already have about eleventy billion names, legends, important characters and so forth and instead of adding yet another Oda could have easily given whatever he plans for Nika to another character like Joyboy or Rocks or Captain John or my mom, you know, something that already exists.

It's time to start tying things up and making existing connections known, not adding even more random crap.

Honestly, IDK why I feel so strongly about this one, but it just really annoyed me when it came up. I'm irked. And I don't like to feel irked when reading One Piece.