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Carrot4Nakama has really grown from the ole days. Back in the day you'd have claimed how your vast superior knowledge of story telling is what makes you understand where the story is going at least now you're open to being wrong.
Still used to make me laugh when you'd quote your own written essays on Twitter as canon evidence for why Carrot will become a Straw Hat.
Regarding your post. I think it is your bias probably making you read more into the story that there is.
No doubt Carrot will reappear but it'll be as leader of the minks and she'll do off screen improvements on herself which maybe addressed in a small flashback or god forbid an SBS.
Still used to make me laugh when you'd quote your own written essays on Twitter as canon evidence for why Carrot will become a Straw Hat.
Regarding your post. I think it is your bias probably making you read more into the story that there is.
No doubt Carrot will reappear but it'll be as leader of the minks and she'll do off screen improvements on herself which maybe addressed in a small flashback or god forbid an SBS.
I was probably doing that because it was just easier to quote it directly that copying everything lol
But you know.. I still stand to everything I said back then. It just happens that I was wrong about the conclusion. Carrot was indeed constructed like a strawhat and she was indeed portrayed in a more shining light than many other side character outside of Yamato eventually..
I only touched on one of the reason why I can't completely back off about her potential as a character right now.. but there are a lot more.. and it's really strange when you add everything.
I don't think she will be a strawhat anymore, but she has the potential to be a major player. (at least there is all the basis work necessary for that)
I sometimes even wonder if she is not directly linked to the Joyboy's lineage. That's how far this Rabbit theory goes.
But you know.. I still stand to everything I said back then. It just happens that I was wrong about the conclusion. Carrot was indeed constructed like a strawhat and she was indeed portrayed in a more shining light than many other side character outside of Yamato eventually..
I only touched on one of the reason why I can't completely back off about her potential as a character right now.. but there are a lot more.. and it's really strange when you add everything.
I don't think she will be a strawhat anymore, but she has the potential to be a major player. (at least there is all the basis work necessary for that)
I sometimes even wonder if she is not directly linked to the Joyboy's lineage. That's how far this Rabbit theory goes.
Yeah. I actually kind of agree. The way that Oda kind of forcibly sidelined Carrot in Wano is weird. It felt so forced, making her the ruler of Zou. It is odd, I'll admit that.
I think it may have been for a couple of reasons.
For one, Oda does have a overarching plan, and he's probably trying to stick to it. I think in his head, he has a VERY specific final number of Strawhats he wants on the crew. And Carrot just didn't fit into those plans. It does make sense to not overload the cast with "main" characters. Oda's already having problems giving everyone something to do every arc. Adding more characters that you bring with you from island to island would just make that problem worse.
Plus, Carrot never found a firm "role" in the crew. Everyone on the Strawhats has a "job" that they do. Something they add, outside of just being a fighter. And Carrot, while a pretty solid fighter, never really found a firm niche within the Strawhats to fill. I do think she could have, though. She would make sense as Chopper's "nurse" to assist him. Or maybe play up the cuddling and make her the crew "masseuse" in order to help them relieve stress? (Look, if a musician" can be a key role on a pirate crew, a "activities director" or something could fit just as well. Even if she might make the Sunny feel more like a cruise ship than a pirate ship.) Or maybe just as a generic "cabin boy" (cabin bunny?) or gopher doing odd jobs around the ship. I feel like Oda COULD have found a role for Carrot to fill, if he really wanted to. But, part of him was probably hesitating to add another Strawhat to the crew permanently, anyway.
But, then there's the biggest reason. Because I do think Oda left Carrot behind in order to serve as part of a much larger plan he has.
Because Carrot is not the only strong Strawhat candidate that he's left behind. In fact, this is actually a pretty consistent pattern that Oda's set up, at least since the timeskip.
We left Shirahoshi behind on Fishman Island, we left Rebecca behind on Dressrossa, we left Carrot behind on Zou, we left Pudding behind on Whole Cake, and we left Hiyori behind on Wano. (Gunko or Ripley seems to be our girl for Elbaph. Bonney almost HAD to come with us for a bit on Egghead. And maybe you could make a case for leaving Monet behind on Punk Hazard, if she's still secretly alive, somehow, just to complete things, even if it's a stretch.)
On almost every island, we're leaving behind a fairly strong female character that's allied with the Strawhats. I think Oda's doing this on purpose, for some reason. I'm not sure exactly for what. But, it's conspicuous for it to keep happening over and over again.
Mind, it's not like those characters are the ONLY potential Strawhats. I think you could have made a decent case for the possibility of say, Kyros, Sabo, Momo, Yamato, and other characters also coming onboard as Strawhats. But, the girls feel conspicuous, if only because they usually do get a lot of focus, and a lot of them do want to go on adventures.
So, I think this could be Oda setting something up. We know that Joyboy's plans likely involves Fishman Island being destroyed and the walls of Wano coming down. (And I think it's pretty likely that Yggdrasil WILL have to burn, at the right time, on Elbaph.) So, maybe Oda is having all these female characters stay behind so that this whole huge plan can happen at the right time. All these dominoes have to fall in JUST the right way. And these characters are staying behind to make sure everything goes to plan. And to help their people escape the destruction that's coming.
Or maybe it's something else? As far as I remember, we haven't seen Imu use Domi Reversi on any female characters yet. Maybe female characters are getting left behind on these islands, because female characters are specifically immune to Imu's attack? For whatever reason? Maybe Rebecca, Carrot, and the others will be the only ones who are able to resist and fight back against Imu's worldwide mind control, if that ends up being a future plot point?
Or maybe I'm completely off base. Maybe he's just leaving these characters behind, just so that we have someone to care about on each of these islands, as we flash around the world for reaction scenes. It's hard to say.
But, I do think Carrot's absence will have some sort of payoff. I don't know if she'll get a lot of focus in the future. But, chances are, she'll have some sort of role to play in the Final Saga. Whether that ends up being a minor or major role, it's hard to say.
I think it may have been for a couple of reasons.
For one, Oda does have a overarching plan, and he's probably trying to stick to it. I think in his head, he has a VERY specific final number of Strawhats he wants on the crew. And Carrot just didn't fit into those plans. It does make sense to not overload the cast with "main" characters. Oda's already having problems giving everyone something to do every arc. Adding more characters that you bring with you from island to island would just make that problem worse.
Plus, Carrot never found a firm "role" in the crew. Everyone on the Strawhats has a "job" that they do. Something they add, outside of just being a fighter. And Carrot, while a pretty solid fighter, never really found a firm niche within the Strawhats to fill. I do think she could have, though. She would make sense as Chopper's "nurse" to assist him. Or maybe play up the cuddling and make her the crew "masseuse" in order to help them relieve stress? (Look, if a musician" can be a key role on a pirate crew, a "activities director" or something could fit just as well. Even if she might make the Sunny feel more like a cruise ship than a pirate ship.) Or maybe just as a generic "cabin boy" (cabin bunny?) or gopher doing odd jobs around the ship. I feel like Oda COULD have found a role for Carrot to fill, if he really wanted to. But, part of him was probably hesitating to add another Strawhat to the crew permanently, anyway.
But, then there's the biggest reason. Because I do think Oda left Carrot behind in order to serve as part of a much larger plan he has.
Because Carrot is not the only strong Strawhat candidate that he's left behind. In fact, this is actually a pretty consistent pattern that Oda's set up, at least since the timeskip.
We left Shirahoshi behind on Fishman Island, we left Rebecca behind on Dressrossa, we left Carrot behind on Zou, we left Pudding behind on Whole Cake, and we left Hiyori behind on Wano. (Gunko or Ripley seems to be our girl for Elbaph. Bonney almost HAD to come with us for a bit on Egghead. And maybe you could make a case for leaving Monet behind on Punk Hazard, if she's still secretly alive, somehow, just to complete things, even if it's a stretch.)
On almost every island, we're leaving behind a fairly strong female character that's allied with the Strawhats. I think Oda's doing this on purpose, for some reason. I'm not sure exactly for what. But, it's conspicuous for it to keep happening over and over again.
Mind, it's not like those characters are the ONLY potential Strawhats. I think you could have made a decent case for the possibility of say, Kyros, Sabo, Momo, Yamato, and other characters also coming onboard as Strawhats. But, the girls feel conspicuous, if only because they usually do get a lot of focus, and a lot of them do want to go on adventures.
So, I think this could be Oda setting something up. We know that Joyboy's plans likely involves Fishman Island being destroyed and the walls of Wano coming down. (And I think it's pretty likely that Yggdrasil WILL have to burn, at the right time, on Elbaph.) So, maybe Oda is having all these female characters stay behind so that this whole huge plan can happen at the right time. All these dominoes have to fall in JUST the right way. And these characters are staying behind to make sure everything goes to plan. And to help their people escape the destruction that's coming.
Or maybe it's something else? As far as I remember, we haven't seen Imu use Domi Reversi on any female characters yet. Maybe female characters are getting left behind on these islands, because female characters are specifically immune to Imu's attack? For whatever reason? Maybe Rebecca, Carrot, and the others will be the only ones who are able to resist and fight back against Imu's worldwide mind control, if that ends up being a future plot point?
Or maybe I'm completely off base. Maybe he's just leaving these characters behind, just so that we have someone to care about on each of these islands, as we flash around the world for reaction scenes. It's hard to say.
But, I do think Carrot's absence will have some sort of payoff. I don't know if she'll get a lot of focus in the future. But, chances are, she'll have some sort of role to play in the Final Saga. Whether that ends up being a minor or major role, it's hard to say.
Hi
I don't really believe Carrot will become strawhat anymore, even if I still think she has all the narrative qualities to become one.
BUT
Something is still bothering me massively with her story. I feel like there is a bug in the matrix around her character and Oda keeps pokin me with it.
YES, I acknowledge the fact that all of what I'm saying here could the result of a bias created by analyzing her story too much, but...
It's time
---------------------------------------------
Carrot lost against Perospero and was HUMILIATED. (it's important)
I want you to understand why I'm focusing so much on this: In basic stories Characters have desires (their visible goals) and in good stories, they also have needs (hidden goals that need to surface for the character to evolve).
- Desire (what they fight for)
- Needs (what they need to change) - that is often related to a weakness of the character.
Usually, those needs are revealed through hardship and revelations, sometimes even by the ennemy itself for exemple:
- In One Piece, Momo needs to find the courage to face his fears to overcome the danger and grow. Etc.
And during the entire arc of whole cake and Wano, Oda made it seems like he was also building a need and a weakness for Carrot (something related to her relationship with danger, the sea and her naivity and relaionthip with her own journey and the will of Pedro).
Perospero made her face EXACTLY that
Here, what Peropero is saying is that Carrot is TOO NAIVE to go to the sea. She talks about revenge but do not really take the danger of the sea into account. She is being childlish with her own path.
If Luffy was here, he would say "People die, don't go to the sea if you think you can't lose people"
Perospero (and Oda) are targetting the direct weakness of Carrot here, something Oda build up since day one on Zou. Carrot was indeed being childlish and was taking her adventure as a simple picnic, a little roadtrip, a mear sleepover on the sea.
SHE WAS NOT TAKING IT SERIOUSLY
And this is why she lost.
Perospero was right here. If Carrot takes the sea so unseriously, she needs to stay home because the sea is too dangerous to be sailed without this understanding even for Luffy.
And that when author usually make their characters grow (and that why I was pleased with that development and waiting for more)
Because while being right to point Carrot's weakness, Perospero is wrong to believe that she is just that : Carrot has depicted the potential for this understanding already (in whole cake) she knows that she needs to step up her game, to follow what her mentor taught her. She knows that Pedro's will is not an unserious business..
So Oda shoud have given us something here, just after that defeat. Something visual, something to make us understand that Carrot grew. But instead, he doubled down. Not only did he not show that Carrot grew, but he imposed on her a place that she is absolutely not ready for.
This is a MASSIVE narrative anomaly in my book.
It contradicts Carrot's development and it even contradict this loss. It's like Oda is saying to us. "Yup, Perospero was right, this character is immature let's make her stay home" . But this is so unlike Oda to do that, it's literally anti-One Piece. One Piece is about freedom, it's also about carelessness in front of danger, it's about taking risk.. and you want to make me believe that he suddenly decided to switch on this specific character out of lazyness (while showing himself that she was not really fit to do it) and make us believe that somehow, this creep was right?
Something is not right here. It's like Oda is defeating her a second time and punishing her again.
Either Oda hates this character... and I don't believe it for one second.
Either the guy is trying to trick us in a way he never did before.
As I explained. For Carrot's character to be over, she would need to become more assertive on her path, and even take, by herself, the choice of going out to the sea. Oda has prepared times and times again ALL the necessary ingredients for Carrot to do just that:
- Carrot has capacities she can use on the sea and help the group
- Carrot has skills to learn and grow
- Carrot LOVES the sea. And when I say love, this is an understatement, she is even more in love with adventure that Oden and LUFFY COMBINED.
Oda could've simply done a basic thing and give her that characteritic traits just after Zou.. as she was discovering stuff..
BUT
He never stopped and continued after Wholecake, even after Carrot lost PEDRO
This is not a normal character reaction just to be fun. Usually character are scared or warry or even impassible.. but only Luffy is smiling in front of the danger. Here, Carrot is not only smiling, but she is in a trance. She is STILL taking the sea like a ride. Unseriously. It's perfectly in character as I explained earlier. But it's unique.
This is why her loss and humiliation and the fact that Oda took the side of the creep is so strange. Her arc ending should be completely different, OPPOSED in fact to what she had. She shouldn't stay back on zou, she should seek a way to grow, to go back to the sea and prove Perospero wrong and her mentor right.
Late me clarify : This .. is not... normal. HER character arc is UNFINISHED.
Oda can be lazy sometimes, but when it comes to characterization, he is on point everytime. He knows his characters to the millimeters. Here, he can only know that Carrot's end must feel weird to people. Uneasy. That it feels like she is imposed something she is not mature enough to hold..
------
Perhaps.. Oda didn't have a choice.. Perhaps, he chose to end her story on a high note knowing that he would not be able to finish it. Perhaps.... Perhaps he completely missed what he created also... perhaps it's just an unfortunate turn of strange choices that aligned perfectly to create Carrot as she was and he didn't care to control her end better... perhaps...
But if One Piece has proved to me something.. it's not not take it for granted and not underestimate Oda.
Carrot will come back and Oda will finish her story. This is now my hypothesis.
In fact, I believe he was prepared to finish her story on Elbaf since the beginning.
This little panel can mean anything, or it can be the missing link. Don't underestimate the hat!
-----
Take into account the fact that I only talked about THE BIG anomaly, and invisibilized the entire bundle of evidence that leads us to believe that Carrot is the best potential for a crewmate's position (see the old Nakama thread for that)
There is so much weird stuff around her character and that's maybe why her path was so interesting to me. There are weird choices of characterization, paneling, focus, unfocus, situation, skills, traits... It's like Oda was always playing with a thin line of "She is important, but don't look at her too much, don't worry, it's nothing, but she is important". It's weird.
I can't shake off the feeling that something is up and I think it will stay until the end of the story.
Do not underestimate the Sunny rabbit or Oda.
I don't really believe Carrot will become strawhat anymore, even if I still think she has all the narrative qualities to become one.
BUT
Something is still bothering me massively with her story. I feel like there is a bug in the matrix around her character and Oda keeps pokin me with it.
YES, I acknowledge the fact that all of what I'm saying here could the result of a bias created by analyzing her story too much, but...
It's time
---------------------------------------------
Carrot lost against Perospero and was HUMILIATED. (it's important)
I want you to understand why I'm focusing so much on this: In basic stories Characters have desires (their visible goals) and in good stories, they also have needs (hidden goals that need to surface for the character to evolve).
- Desire (what they fight for)
- Needs (what they need to change) - that is often related to a weakness of the character.
Usually, those needs are revealed through hardship and revelations, sometimes even by the ennemy itself for exemple:
James Gunn's Superman understand that it's his actions are what define who he is, not the words of his parents, it allows him to stop doubting himself, find his strenght back and fight with confidence for others.
And during the entire arc of whole cake and Wano, Oda made it seems like he was also building a need and a weakness for Carrot (something related to her relationship with danger, the sea and her naivity and relaionthip with her own journey and the will of Pedro).
Perospero made her face EXACTLY that
Here, what Peropero is saying is that Carrot is TOO NAIVE to go to the sea. She talks about revenge but do not really take the danger of the sea into account. She is being childlish with her own path.
If Luffy was here, he would say "People die, don't go to the sea if you think you can't lose people"
Perospero (and Oda) are targetting the direct weakness of Carrot here, something Oda build up since day one on Zou. Carrot was indeed being childlish and was taking her adventure as a simple picnic, a little roadtrip, a mear sleepover on the sea.
SHE WAS NOT TAKING IT SERIOUSLY
And this is why she lost.
Perospero was right here. If Carrot takes the sea so unseriously, she needs to stay home because the sea is too dangerous to be sailed without this understanding even for Luffy.
And that when author usually make their characters grow (and that why I was pleased with that development and waiting for more)
Because while being right to point Carrot's weakness, Perospero is wrong to believe that she is just that : Carrot has depicted the potential for this understanding already (in whole cake) she knows that she needs to step up her game, to follow what her mentor taught her. She knows that Pedro's will is not an unserious business..
So Oda shoud have given us something here, just after that defeat. Something visual, something to make us understand that Carrot grew. But instead, he doubled down. Not only did he not show that Carrot grew, but he imposed on her a place that she is absolutely not ready for.
This is a MASSIVE narrative anomaly in my book.
It contradicts Carrot's development and it even contradict this loss. It's like Oda is saying to us. "Yup, Perospero was right, this character is immature let's make her stay home" . But this is so unlike Oda to do that, it's literally anti-One Piece. One Piece is about freedom, it's also about carelessness in front of danger, it's about taking risk.. and you want to make me believe that he suddenly decided to switch on this specific character out of lazyness (while showing himself that she was not really fit to do it) and make us believe that somehow, this creep was right?
Something is not right here. It's like Oda is defeating her a second time and punishing her again.
Either Oda hates this character... and I don't believe it for one second.
Either the guy is trying to trick us in a way he never did before.
As I explained. For Carrot's character to be over, she would need to become more assertive on her path, and even take, by herself, the choice of going out to the sea. Oda has prepared times and times again ALL the necessary ingredients for Carrot to do just that:
- Carrot has capacities she can use on the sea and help the group
- Carrot has skills to learn and grow
- Carrot LOVES the sea. And when I say love, this is an understatement, she is even more in love with adventure that Oden and LUFFY COMBINED.
Oda could've simply done a basic thing and give her that characteritic traits just after Zou.. as she was discovering stuff..
BUT
He never stopped and continued after Wholecake, even after Carrot lost PEDRO
This is not a normal character reaction just to be fun. Usually character are scared or warry or even impassible.. but only Luffy is smiling in front of the danger. Here, Carrot is not only smiling, but she is in a trance. She is STILL taking the sea like a ride. Unseriously. It's perfectly in character as I explained earlier. But it's unique.
This is why her loss and humiliation and the fact that Oda took the side of the creep is so strange. Her arc ending should be completely different, OPPOSED in fact to what she had. She shouldn't stay back on zou, she should seek a way to grow, to go back to the sea and prove Perospero wrong and her mentor right.
Late me clarify : This .. is not... normal. HER character arc is UNFINISHED.
Oda can be lazy sometimes, but when it comes to characterization, he is on point everytime. He knows his characters to the millimeters. Here, he can only know that Carrot's end must feel weird to people. Uneasy. That it feels like she is imposed something she is not mature enough to hold..
------
Perhaps.. Oda didn't have a choice.. Perhaps, he chose to end her story on a high note knowing that he would not be able to finish it. Perhaps.... Perhaps he completely missed what he created also... perhaps it's just an unfortunate turn of strange choices that aligned perfectly to create Carrot as she was and he didn't care to control her end better... perhaps...
But if One Piece has proved to me something.. it's not not take it for granted and not underestimate Oda.
Carrot will come back and Oda will finish her story. This is now my hypothesis.
In fact, I believe he was prepared to finish her story on Elbaf since the beginning.
This little panel can mean anything, or it can be the missing link. Don't underestimate the hat!
-----
Take into account the fact that I only talked about THE BIG anomaly, and invisibilized the entire bundle of evidence that leads us to believe that Carrot is the best potential for a crewmate's position (see the old Nakama thread for that)
There is so much weird stuff around her character and that's maybe why her path was so interesting to me. There are weird choices of characterization, paneling, focus, unfocus, situation, skills, traits... It's like Oda was always playing with a thin line of "She is important, but don't look at her too much, don't worry, it's nothing, but she is important". It's weird.
I can't shake off the feeling that something is up and I think it will stay until the end of the story.
Do not underestimate the Sunny rabbit or Oda.
What’s more pathetic, writing this thread or replying to it seriously @Topi Jerami @soupongo
I agree. I once believed she was going to join, but now I think the picture is a lot bigger. The choice to put her in the backburner while consistently reminding you of her existence for three years via spreads, covers, and official Birthday artworks; is leaning on keeping her in mind while absent from the current story. A lot of her placements in some of these are pretty peculiar notably Vol. 105 and the Worldwide Poll top characters where in both of these examples she's around yonko. I think all we have to do is wait, and I refuse to believe her being king isn't going to pay off with a grander storyline otherwise it doesn't make sense. I don't think her story is over.
The mod there neglected to mention Carrot is eating oden mirroring Luffy.
Are you trying to imply that rabbit's importance is as much as it's for Sengoku's goat? 
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Carrot despite the people at the time calling her too irrelevant to join the crew especially in wano might unironically be too important to join the main crew
We know zou is the original location of a road poneglyph alongside fishman island and wano kuni
Both nations also being the location of ancient weapons/those who can use the voice of all things
Leading up to while there might not be an ancient weapon there there might be another sovereign
We know that the whales like the sea kings were also waiting for the return of their sovereign, carrot is only a year younger than shirahoshi, and that there’s deadass a whale tree in zou
So all points to the other sovereign being a mink from zou
As for why we’ve never seen her use that power
- She’s never met a whale and can likely only communicate with them same as shirahoshi with sea kings or momonosuke with zunesha
- Luffy hasn’t been able to use it until post timeskip
Look next to the whale and guess what it’s a mink. So yeah carrot like momonosuke and Shirahoshi might just be too important to join the crew. For better or worse it might also apply to Loki but idk
There’s a not zero chance that for better or worse Luffy gets another separate journey from the crew like post Sabaody to gather and team up with the reincarnations of nika’s and joyboy’s crews
Kiza letting out his agendas
Fujitora and Kizaru bitched out Akainu for being a boot licking, pen pusher who is more concerned about saving face and being an obedient dog than actually upholding justice, striking back and not hiding behind a desk since he couldn't defeat kuzan in less than 10 days and got his ass beat by a terminally ill, dying 80 year old man.
Oda may as well have said ill draw Akainu with great disappointment and disrespect.
Even Wapol is ballsier and more competent than him.
But is derailing the thread too much ofc lol. Bakainu can only keep barking though like a mad dog behind a fence.
