We were talking about when certain members joined the crew and all the stuff I listed happened when Franky joined, at the end of the CP9 saga.
Oh, and I almost forgot about the battle between Blackbeard and Ace, the resolution of Ace's hunt for Teach, another major storyline.
Yeah, like I said, it's the end of sagas that make for these massive chunks of world building.
Fishmen weren't introduced at the end of a saga though. And you could consider CP9's saga to be more of Robin's saga than Franky's becasue even though he joined, Robin re-joined and there was a lot more emphasis on her rather than him.
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
I'm clearly in the minority here, but I don't think Jimbei will join the crew. None of these are decisive arguments, but rather inductive evidence that Jimbei may not join the crew.
First, there is already the parallel between Jimbei/Ace and Jimbei/Luffy due to the fight on FI. Jimbei was an ally to Ace, but never joined his crew.
Second, Jimbei has been in the New World too long - he's too experienced. This is a problem for two reasons:
(1) Luffy didn't want Rayleigh to spoil the adventure for him, when he refused to be told about the one piece. He loves new experience, and adventure - Jimbei having knowledge of the New World would be a spoiler for him, and diminish his fun. Of course, how much does Jimbei REALLY know about NW? I don't know, but I suspect he knows more than the strawhats
(2) It would be bad from a story telling perspective, for us fans. Having someone who often knows what is up ahead and who either briefs the crew or at least is always prepared personally would remove dramatic tension from the story.Third, we haven't really seen the strawhats just hanging out post time-skip yet. There is a lot of relationship to develop between the current crew members. Adding another crew member would likely be bad form before we get what we really want - the strawhats and their personalities cashed out in full. This is more so an argument against ANY crew mate in the near future.
Fourth, the new world parallels the old one. This isn't really an argument, but more so a point for consideration. Does this mean we'll have as many new crew mates as we had during the first half? I don't think so; that seems like it would be way too simple. The new world seems to be, at least in terms a villains, a successfuller old world. Hody Jones was acting on his racism fueled dreams, while Arlong was still in preparatory stages. Doffy successfully took over the Kingdom of Dressrosa, while Crocodile did not (arguably, that was not Croc's aim, but still). I think we can expect something similar in terms of allies, and I think we've already seen some of that. We have Barto and Cavendish who are not just pirates but pirate captain; we have the Happo Navy and Orlumbus. I think that the allies the strawhats find in the NW won't be crewmates, but instead ally crews.
Really, I think the crew is pretty much settled. I also think it's indisputable that Jimbei, Bartolomeo, Cavendish, Happo Navy, and Orlumbus will AT LEAST ally their crews to the strawhats; whether any of them will join the strawhats personally, well I suppose that's the question.
Teh Jibez will join becuz his cool guy with powerz
Honestly though he's as empty as some of these female character that have been shown. And like Bart he has a crew and no dream,so…. And no bring that fan fiction dream nonsense in here, it doesn't exist. Also to make a world where humans and fishman can live together is horrible dream, because who's going to side with the idealistic notions of a criminal and a traitor to the world government? Fishmen might sure but human are the problem here, and there's not going to listen to a a blow heart criminal monster blubber about his worries. Especially if you consider that the common man in east blue probably doesn't have a good image of fishmen considering all the news about them, paints them as trouble making monsters.
Also why would you put the most powerful water manipulator in the series as a main character in a series where being submerged in water is a big weakness for the majority of the cast. From a literary stand point its weak, along with his entire character, his back story wasn't even about him, it was more about Otohime and Fisher tiger.