Good morning, everyone.
I'm bored with this break week so I decided to explain why Tama potential as Nakama is the highest among the candidates, including Vivi.
A)Connection with Ace.
Wano was first mentioned in Marineford (chapter 555). During the battle we learned that Ace visited wano and was taught how to create SH there. Old Oda being who he is, it was certain that we would met the people or group that taught Ace later on. There's a small symbolism there when we think about that but let's not mention it.
The first person we met in Wano is Tama. A girl that was waiting for Ace because he promised to take her along as Nakama. This was a actual promise that Ace was fully intended to fulfill (it was show later that he even fought with WB crew to go to wano because of this promise). Some people try to spin that the promise to travel was with Yamato (maybe because of fillers) but on panel the only one that has this promise is Tama. No one ever invited Yamato. If you have any doubt, you can actually read the chapter because Oda was even willing to have Tama mention the promise with Ace while talking with Nami.
And this is actually interesting because, while she could use the same arguments as Yamato to try to join and actually have a better case (after all, the promise Ace made was to her), she never did try or even mentioned it. She wants to be a SH but instead of trying to use this connection she wants to join based on her own merits.
B) Connection with Luffy and crew.
You may not like it but Tama has a great amount of panel time dedicated to her bonding with the crew. If you think of the crew as a family there's no doubt that, at this point in time, she is the daughter of the group. She connected so well with the group that, at the end of the battle of Onigashima, if she just went with the crew very few people would complain about the fact itself but about other things like ''she's too young'' or ''how could she help in the final battles?''.
I personally don't like Yamato but she can be used as a good counterpoint to show my point of view: if you pick Onigashima and ignore the ramblings of Yamato itself, the narrative actually connects her to Momo, Wano and the samurais a lot more than with the SH. If she hadn't claimed that she wanted to travel with Luffy (what I still assume was for marketing) her ending would not be so disputed.
Like, observe the reactions of both Tama and Yamato in chapter 999 when they talk about how Luffy is Ace's Brother. Tama is the first person to know and her reaction is to think about what Luffy felt, she never thought about using Ace promise to her as leverage to gain a advantage. Yamato reaction was about how it was fate for him to be there to take her out, basically thinking of him as a free ticket out of her hellhole.
To Tama, Luffy and the SH crew are Nakama, friends. She wants to travel with them and fulfil her dream, but she don't want to be a burden. She connected with the crew as friends and wants to help them.
C) Her dream and role.
One of the small things about the SH is that every one has a dream. Something that they want to accomplish and that will be finished at the end of the series. Tama's dream is ''turning into a bewitching kunoichi''. This dream was born because of a small joke that Ace did and is her motivation during parts of the arc.
Every SH also fits the pattern of a family. Tama' s role in this case is daughter.
Every SH also has a role to fulfill. Apprentice/kunoichi and beast tamer are all paths available to her and that she can fulfil with no issues.
Unlike some other fandons that have to create theories and try to find random panels to spin a narrative, everything about Tama is natural and fits the crew.
D) Her age and potential going forward.
One of the things about Tama was the fact that she could have been a pirate way earlier but was denied because of her age. As a young kid, she was too weak and frail to survive the new world. So, Ace did the next best thing and let her to starve alone in a shithole where she could be sold to be abused by pedophiles samurais
When Luffy met Tama she was about to be sold to the red district. He saved her and they started going on adventures, where she connected with him and other members of the crew. When they are planning the invasion of Onigashima she was sent away like Toko, because she was a non-combatant and for being too young.
But she was able to invade Onigashima alone, sneak around and save Nami and Usopp at the nick of the time. Using Mama she defeated page 1 and them used her slaving powers to turn the war around. Overall she is one of the few people that could be a contender for a MVP title apart from the captains. So, Oda, in a non-direct way was able to show that her age, by itself, was not a issue. She is able to help the crew and has the willpower to stand among the best.
But, even if her power is amazing, she is still too weak. That's why she start to train under shinobu to improve herself, getting the promise to join after getting stronger and learning ninjutsu.
But there's still naysayers that try to deny her, so let's go to the next topic:
E) Arguments against her:
Looking at posts in here and other forums the arguments against Tama aren't that varied and can be easily dismissed if someone thinks a little.
Her age is actually a non-issue and her power level was adressed by Oda when putting her under Shinobu. So most people say that she will not be strong enough to join the crew during this final hurdle of the series because of timing.
The counterpoint to this argument is, of course, the fact that Sabo exists. So, we have in canon someone that was even weaker than Tama (yes, Tama was able to kick the ass of a gifter when she first appeared) that was able to improve by leaps and bounds in a few months in universe. Not only that but Tama is learning ninjitsu. i.e: techniques that are not directly related to combat but most misdirection and tricks. So, a fighting style where her relative weakness because of age will not affect the plot.
While Oda says that he wants to finish the series soon, there's still some things that he must address before it. So, he either must do mini-arcs (relative to wano so more like pre-ts) or he would go over schedule. Either way, there's plenty of time for her to reappear.
And, most importantly, there is a small point that makes me sure that she will join later: how she was written.
If you think about it, there was no reason to let tama ask to be a nakama (note that she asked specifically for that). If Tama was something for 2 piece, like some people say, or not meant to join she could have been left behind so much earlier. Oda could have treated her like Toko and left her out of Onigashima. He could have decided to let her content with the horse-mommy. He could have her simply state that she would be a bewitching kunoichi to make Ace's proud, without mentioning joining at all. There was no reason for a promise to be a Nakama to be made, specially when they stated earlier that is the captain who decides who is the nakama and who isn't.
But, she and wano was written in a way (highlited by Yamato of all people) to make the idea of Luffy inheriting Ace's promise to her something natural and that had to be adressed in story. Otherwise it would felt incomplete. So, the decision to make her ask to join later will be solved in the manga later, so, no matter how you look at it, Tama is the Nakama that will fill the 10th slot. Possible the final Nakama.
I know that some people may disagree with me but I believe that Oda is a good writer. I recommend everyone to reread Onigashima and try to focus on the relationship between characters. It's actually amazing how much of a foil Tama is to Yamato and vice-versa, to the point that some chapters have they literally talk about the same issue but show different aspects of their characters, with one connecting with Momo while doing it and the other connecting with the crew.
To make things more clear let's compare her with the 2 characters that people claim still have a chance- vivi and caribou.
Caribou- introduced at the start of post-ts, he don't have a dream defined and is connected to a secret character that he will sell the secrets of the weapons. Overall he is not written to be a Nakama but a villain that is redeemed at the end, like bon clay and a plot to put the secret weapons in the foreground and maybe give way to the final war.
Vivi- She's the OG and a Nakama already. But even in the current story, where she is a target and possible enemy of the WG, nothing until now suggests that her objectives and dreams have changed from Alabasta. . So, while she is Nakama, she is not a permanent nakama but just the 5.5 that we know and love. In this way, while I can see her travelling with the crew like the good days, her time with the crew will be until the issues affecting her reign in Alabasta are over. To be honest, I think that her role will be more connected to the revs than the crew, but we will (with luck) know more next chapter.
F) Conclusion:
So, in conclusion, Tama is a character hinted since before the time skip, that connected with the crew and is getting stronger to join later. Most of the issues about her joining got solved in the wano arc and the only thing remaining is for her to get a bit stronger to stand alongside the crew in the last arc.
At the same time, Oda did a great job connecting her to the crew and giving her motivations and personality, to a point that she will not feel out of place alongside the others.
TL:DR: Tama-Nakama. Take the Tama pill
