You think Momo reappearing is an if?
Then how come Oda invested so much panel time and focus in this character?
No, he will reappear most probably before the end, but the most likely is that he reappears in Wano and not in the place of the final war/climax.
Yamato has bigger chances to leave Wano independently since she is not the Royal heir that the whole country has been waiting for 20 years.
If Momo gets a lot stronger, if there is some kind of new weapon and if an army appears in Wano magically then yes, Yamato might wanna leave. I don't think it will happen in the time of the current story tho.
Yeah she has no such themes of guarding stuff
Indeed.
it's not like she bases her life on a man that also lived to protect wano and sacrificed himself for it
Then the theme is "reappropriation of legacy" and "inheritance of will", not "guarding stuff".
it's not like she can turn into a dog which is universally an animal associated with guarding.
A wolf actually.
it's not like she spent half the raid protecting Momo
Which was just a mission assignated on them by Luffy.
it's not like her devil fruit is literally the beast that's the "GUARDIAN deity of wano"
This one is indeed the only point that could help a potential theme of "guarding stuff", but its FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR from enough to create a consistancy and a real global thematic
and it's not like she literally stayed behind to guard and protect Wano.
Which they did because of reasons, not because of a personnal urge to protect stuff.
I forgot how allergic you are to facts you dont like.
No, I just know how a post is constructed in One Piece narratively, and "guarding stuff" isn't one. At least, not right now.
Let me tell you how Yamato becoming a ship guardian COULD be written in the context of One Piece to make you understand the difference between someone who just guarding stuff because they have to and someone who is guarding stuff because its their reason to live and how they are written:
- First you would need to create Yamato as a character very protective about any kind of stuff and people. This would be a character with potential deep trusting issues or completely over protective. But yet, you would make her overally adventurer in the same times.
- You would need to give her a treasure to protect, the best would be to be something alive, somone meaningfull and innocent
- Since she needs to have a link with Oden, you could linked her act of protection of her treasure with Oden in some way, your choice
- You would need to rewrite her entire story in a way were this treasure fits the relationship between her and Kaido.. hey ! Maybe you would make the treasure Yamato's young sister. Maybe its the sister who is fan of Oden in that story and Yamato is over protective of her and her dream. Maybe Yamato sister had a mother that Kaido massacred over time.
- You would also need to create a setup where there is a third child
- You would need to rewrite Yamato's flashback in order to make Yamato loses her sister in the very moment that she left her to seek for adventure and when she thought her sister was safe... maybe to the hands of Kaido.. You would therefore creates a character completely traumatized by the fact of not being able to protect her treasure even if it wasn't her fault.
- You would give her the dream to protect the entire world from bad people
- You would need to make Yamato eats a new kind of fruit during the present story, the "split split fruit" a mythical zoan fruit that allows Yamato to split herself character into two separate guardian entities that can transform (no just clones, but two entities with one that can dies while the other lives) and that can reform and therefore add their knowledge - the same way the clone of Naruto was were giving the added knowledge of all the clones. You would make one entities forever over protective and the other one completely thursty for adventure, thus exploring the two sides of Yamato's personnality.
- You would need to introduced a character, alien to the story that would come and protect Yamato and Momo
- At the same time, you would need to reintroduce the notion that the Sunny is inhabited by a "soul".
- During a moment of hardship - your choice - you would make the actual kauberterman literally SAVE Yamato by giving the Sunny the appearance of her late diseased sister.
- You would be of course ties Yamato story with a character arc for Franky as both love for the Sunny would become important
- Then, you would create an story arc (integrated in Wano) centered on the notion that must overcome her grief, stop blaming herself for her sister's passing and seek actual revenge on Kaido. You would of course make her fight to the death to Kaido and you would let Luffy watch until she actually ask for help in tears. Then, you would make Luffy defeat Kaido not only for Tama, Momo, Pedro and Kinemon, but also for Yamato.
- During the arc, you would make of course Kaido completely wreck the Sunny. Which would be devastating for Kaido and Yamato.
- In an emotional you would let Yamato have a final conversation with the klauberterman taking the shape of the sister of Yamato transforming this moment in a moment of grief overcoming where Yamato actually accept to let her sister go for who the klaubertman really is: the Sunny.
- This act of Kindness would forever change Yamato and pushes her not only to follow Luffy but also to forever protect the Sunny and the klauberterman, that would now randomly pop out because of her link with Yamato.
- You would need to reveal that the "alien" character is actually the third child, a sister/brother of Yamato and the late sister. That would stay behind while Yamato chooses to follow Luffy.
- Later, when Yamato is facing on multiple side an overpowerwing ennemy that can also duplicate his body and therefore attack the strawhats while they are also fighting other ennemies, as a final act of bravery, you would actually make Yamato awaken her power and make her multiply to infinity in order to protect everyone. This would act as the shining Nakama action
Then.. and only then would you have created a story where the notion of "protection" is at the center of Yamato's development.
You see, when you write a story like Oda is doing, the post of a character not simply something that "she can do", its a literal extention of who they are as a character. Its an extention of their entire journey as a character.
A post must be related to a real thematic and real characterization parameter of said character. It must be obvious from any point of view.