@wolfwood I think Wano sucked the air out of the Nakama debate. lol

Bonney would need something deeper than "Defeating the Celestial Dragons" to join the SHs. If that is her only goal then she can join the Revolutionaries like her father did.

I'm still waiting to see what Oda does with Bonney, but right now I'm not convinced.

You bring up some good points and I'm no way saying Law won't be relevant for the rest of the story. I think Law will be back next arc and will be sticking around for a while. However, just because him and his crew were defeated that doesn't mean their story is over. The crew isn't dead and a ship can be replaced. Law's crew is important to him just like Luffy's crew is important to Luffy. I agree there will be some things for the Heart Pirates to figure out but ultimately I think they will be amongst the fleet (or an ally) as oppose to Law joining the crew. I think that will all go down in Elbaf, along with the Kidd Pirates.

Law is very interested in the Will of D, prior to being defeated by BB, and it's not written anywhere that you have to be a SH to pursue that mystery. If those answers are in Laughtale, I don't think there is anything stopping the Heart Pirates traveling with the SHs to find those answers. Same thing applies to Vivi. Both characters don't have to be SHs, though Vivi is technically one already, to have a huge role in the story. Vivi's is being laid out in front of her and Law's path will be address during the next couple of arcs.

@Shin10-Bukuro

An Apprentice is about lack of experience and Bonney has been a captain since her debut. Bonney having that role doesn't make any sense to me, especially after the last arc when we had three popular choices who had zero experience.

As far as the Nika stuff, I don't see it being any different than "The Dawn" from the last few years. We have nine crew members and none of them joined because they believe Luffy will be the savior of the world. Luffy won them over. They believe Luffy will become King of the Pirates and traveling with him is the best way for them to achieve their own dreams. That last part is key. Currently, Bonney doesn't have a dream other than saving Kuma and Vegapunk is the only one that has the ability to do that. Maybe this changes by the end of the arc but not having a SH-like dream is just another reason why Bonney wasn't created to join the crew.

I'm trying to give her the benefit of the doubt, but no matter what angle I look, Bonney feels very underdeveloped as a crew member and there's simply no excuse at this stage of the game.

@Shiebs

You go down with that ship. Make those dreams come true. lol

Yeah, I'm not understanding where this "Oda keeps us guessing" and "Red Herrings" when it comes to nakama is coming from. Robin is the only one I would consider a surprise out of the nine and I don't subscribe to the idea that Oda is placing characters in arcs to fuel nakama discussion. Most of the time characters in a story are just characters in a story. Yamato is the only one where Oda truly tried to fool the reader, as it stands now, though technically he did join.

As far as Yamato not having a character arc, both Nami and Robin joined without getting a character arc until later. Robin joined without anything checked off. Certain events needed to happen before Oda could tell that story and who's to say that's not the case for Yamato. Sorry, Oda doesn't work on your timetable and he's not sitting at home thinking, "Welp, I didn't do a thing in Wano so I have to scrap Yamato and come up with a new character to be the last SH." Now I have no idea if Yamato is joining or not and I'm not the type of person to put all his money on one character and ride it to the end. As long as there is an ancient weapon sitting under Wano, I don't think it's a stretch for people to think there is a chance.

It's certainly isn't more of stretch than Viva abandoning Alabasta, Kuma leaving Bonney, Smoker quitting the Marines, or Boa leaving Amazon Lily to join the crew. I get we hope/think certain characters will join but at the end of the day only one character was possibly created to be the last crew member and the rest never really had a chance.

Hey, everyone, long time lurker. Now we are in the final saga, I felt it was time to dive into all the different discussions going on.

Looking forward to talking to everyone.

Hey, I'm new to the forum so I figured I would jump right into the deep end. lol

I'm not backing any character yet. I do feel like we will get one more SH and I think they will have to join while the SHs are in this area of the sea (Wano/Sphinx/Hachinosu/Elbaf). I feel like after that it will be all end game story beats and fights. I'm leaning towards a character we already know because the idea of Oda speed running a new character sounds terrible to me. I'm hoping this character joins before Elbaf as I feel it will be last non end game arc. Having Elbaf be last would solve any "spend time with the crew" issues a lot of candidates would have.

Right now I'm waiting for certain things to happen to narrow my pick down.

Well I definitely have thoughts and theories about the different candidates so I’m down to talk about whoever. I just feel it’s too early jump all in on anyone yet since Oda can have character x show up at Sphinx, hand in their last SH forms, and it’s a done deal.

The past decade has made me a cautious person. lol

I really don’t want Yamato to be the best Oden she can be. I want Yamato to be the best Oni Princess she can be. That’s what I want to see when it comes to her character arc. Otherwise she hasn’t really changed just doubled down.

I imagine it will be Oda touching base with all the major Wano characters through Yamato. I said this is the spoiler thread and I will repeat it here: I expect the cover story to end with the BB Pirates being outside of Wano. Oda will leave it on a cliffhanger and will give us all the details after the SHs find out what happened.

If there is any SH level character development to be had, it will be saved for that future chapter and not covered in the cover story. At that point it will be either retainer or final crew member for Yamato. If that is Oda's plans, hopefully it's addressed before Elbaf, or at least before we get too deep in that arc.

I can see it going either way for Kuma. Not really sure if he's living or dying anymore. When it comes to Bonney, Kuma isn't holding her back when it comes to being a SH. Everything else about her is what's holding Bonney back.

Caribou has big "I get knocked out by Luffy before the fights start" energy going right now. We'll see if things change going forward.

Seeing that Bonney is more than likely sticking around for a while, I'm wondering if she will create an Elbaf-inspired form during that arc. That would be something more interesting than "Nika at home."

@electricmastro

When I said, "big leap," that's not a slight against you personally. This is a discussion thread and I'm merely having a discussion with you. There is nothing more to it than that. I like reading your posts and talking nakama shop with you. Please don't view it anymore than that.

@electricmastro

If that's how you view Yamato, that's fine but that isn't the point I was making. The point is we have had characters in the story that make way more sense for the Apprentice role (3 in the last arc alone) and yet we are trying to justify that someone who was the captain of her own crew somehow makes more sense. It doesn't. I think it's pretty clear Oda has no intention of adding an Apprentice to the crew before the story ends. There is nothing to support the idea that Luffy will be taking a Rayleigh role with Bonney either. That's a big leap from one panel.

That's all I have to say on the subject. I've made plenty of posts at this point saying how Bonney was never designed to be a crew member. The fact that she was a last minute addition along with the rest of Worst Gen should be a red flag in itself and looking at characters like Law and Kidd, there's simply no excuse for how underdeveloped Bonney is on a SH level.

I mean, she can take any form thanks to the power of her DF and her imagination and yet she doesn't have a unique one, just Buccaneer and Nika. That says it all right there.

@electricmastro

Tama is training under Shinobu so if the time comes, Tama would still be a more realistic option. Carrot and Yamato were also more realistic options as being an Apprentice is about a lack of experience at the job, which is in this case would be traveling on the seas and working on a ship. We keep looking at Bonney's age and yet we are ignoring everything she has done up to this point. Bonney has years of experience of traveling on the seas and she was the captain of her own crew. I don't see her being an Apprentice as realistic.

Now if we're talking about Luffy taking up a Rayleigh-like role with Bonney, then no, I don't see that happening anytime soon. I also don't see any evidence that either one of them want to have that sort of relationship. That one panel doesn't give off that impression, at least not to me.

@electricmastro

I agree that Bonney will be sticking around for a minute, probably until there is a clear path back to the Revolutionaries with Kuma (possibly) and at least one of the Vegapunks.

Your second point, that sounds to me like an apprentice for Luffy specifically and not for the crew. If this was post story, I would be behind that idea 100%. As an apprentice for the crew? She is overqualified for that position as she has been a captain since before Sabaody.

I know there is overlap between crew members, but having Nika lite as the final one feels like a massive let down, to me at least. Oda likes his Nika so I won't rule out the possibility but based on what he has shown us so far, I'm still sitting on no. Give me a cool Elbaf character please. lol

Caribou/Blackbeard was one of the things I was waiting for, though I was under the assumption he was already a crew member. Him not being one and wanting to join I think is a better outcome for this discussion. I wouldn't go as far as saying it's a confirmation, but if the BB Pirates are still getting new members, I think it's a fair question to ask the same for the SHs. The downside I see is Caribou feels like someone Luffy would take down before the real fights begin factoring the story so far. York would be a bigger win as that feels like it could be a Robin opponent, after some powering up of course. Still time for that to happen.

Before this gains any traction, both Caribou and Bonney are overqualified to be apprentices. I don't see an apprentice happening until post story where Tama would be the perfect candidate. The one character that Luffy said they can join and has zero experience being a pirate.

I believe all the Egghead related characters will be heading to Elbaf, though they might be hitching a ride with the Giants now.

I'm still leaning towards no for Bonney. Oda still isn't moving her in that direction and right now Kuma has more boxes checked. It's not over yet so there is time to address certain things but her devil fruit and the fact that Kuma needs to die are big red flags for me.

If Kuma lives then none of this really matters because I don't see either one of them leaving the other behind. If anything these last few chapters have put me back on the side of Kuma will be saved. Big X-Men/Krakoa vibes happening right now.