Vivi will come back and have the same relationship with the crew that she had when she was with them before.
People might argue that doesn’t make her a “proper” Strawhat, but it’s a fact that the Strawhats will consider her one of their own.
Vivi has always been special because she is the only character who is a “.5” Strawhat. That was reflected pre and post skip in the cover pages.
Modern cover pages alternate between long-running cover stories and random characters playing with animals.
It never used to be random characters though. It used to always just be the Strawhats and Vivi (and Carue). It was only at the end of Marineford Oda started drawing other characters there.
But even when we went back after the timeskip. First eleven characters he did? Strawhats, Vivi, Carue. Then a cover story, then after that it’s turned into the totally random characters part.
Ya'll are coping with Vivi. She still has no dream, no role, no combat ability, and conflicting loyalties. Just because Alabasta is relevant again doesn't mean she's joining the crew. If skypeia was suddenly relevant to Imu and Wyper was coming back, would ya'll jump on board the wyper for nakama train? No, ya'll just want Vivi to join. It's no coincidence that everyone understood the X on the wrist scene for 20 years, and then the second Vivi appeared for 2 panels with no other nakama options, people retconned it into a Jinbei situation saying it was "obvious all along". If Vivi was joining the crew, it would have happened 20 years ago.
Pretty shit argument.
1) Vivi and Wyper are nothing alike, and were never anything alike. He was never part of the crew like she was, and there was never a hugely emotionfal farewell between the two where the Strawhats desperately wanted Wyper to keep travelling with them.
2) A hypothetical ”what if Skypiea was relevant“ question is pointless. Fact is, Vivi and Alabasta
is, very clearly, extremely relevant to the endgame of One Piece. (Skypiea will have a role in the future as well though)
3) Not recognising that there have been rather clear plot developments in recent years? Yes, for a long time we thought the promise was a nice capstone to Vivi’s story. Alabasta had been saved, the Strawhats would never really go back there, Vivi‘s story was pretty much finished, bar a nice little appearance in the epilogue. The Strawhat who never was. Gets her drawing’s in the cover and SBS questions but nothing more than that.
But now there have been some quite obvious changes. Starting with Dressrosa and the reveal that Vivi‘s family were Celestial Dragons. Then we get mysterious ruler of the World Government holding a picture of her. And now we are the in the position where her father has been assassinated, Vivi is on the run and her ancestor has played a vital role in the founding of the World Gov and all the major mysteries of One Piece.
So quite clearly, Vivi’s story is not anywhere near as finished as we thought it would be and is going to be hugely important to the endgame of One Piece. Meaning the Strawhat reunion with her is not just going to be a nice little epilogue moment but actually a vitally important part of the endgame. So the promise between them takes on a whole new dimesion and one very relevant to this discussion.