Well color me shocked.....I was simply gonna ignore this post like the rest thinking you were continually trying to instigate or even worse, troll, but it's surprisingly serious....
Tama has connections with Ace and Big Mom and her teapot was made using vegapunk technology.
Many characters have connections to others. Tama having that too doesn't single her out as special.
Vegapunk's tech is in many places including East Blue, so being one of them doesn't single her out as special.
I already explained how thematically Tama fits in perfectly. She's an orphan from a hat making village that makes hats for a living.
And she was an outcast who specifically suffered? Tama's problem was equally shared with the rest of Wano's people, being that they were starving to death. She had no struggle that stood out from the rest. All she had was a short flashback with Ace.
Thematically a perfect apprentice for the strawhat crew. The final member having the role of pirate apprentice (like Shanks and Buggy did) would help establishing the strawhats as a veteran crew, one experienced enough have one.
You speak as if the SHs NEEDS an apprentice before the final saga concludes? Do we even have an offical single lookout? Shanks and Buggy were never shown fighting until they were teenagers. You're still saying that Tama is just going to be there.
She already has a strong bond with the crew and a child character would complete the crew family dynamic, just look at the age diversity between post-East Blue members. A literal child would also add in that child-like wonder of discovery some were saying we were missing much more naturally than the ones for whom this argument was made.
Many characters bonded with Luffy and the SHs so why is Tama special? Chopper is the child of the SHs and is treated as such by Robin. Oda even called Luffy child-like and he embodies the sense of wonder, and Chopper was called the child of the crew.
Why were they special cases? Anyway, there are other cases. The most recent one was Dive, part of Kidd's crew. We saw her fighting at onigashima and at the post raid party.
Dive is a small woman. She even has fish-net stockings. Momo and Hiyori were born on WB's ship and was kept away from battle. We have no clue how Shanks and Buggu ended up with Rogee but they were always kept away from fights until they were teenagers.
Only Luffy was refused for being a kid. Pedro was left behind because Roger knew he would die soon and Tama was accepted as nakama,
Many characters were accepted as nakama so why is Tama special? Her dream is to be a bewitching Kunochi. She promised it to Ace, said it to Luffy and mentioned it again with Nami. Kunoichi have to be bewitching and Nami showed this, with Shinobi being as gag about it. How is Tama gonna achieve that as an 8 year old?
I must remember you that every single sad flashback happened to a kid?
To flesh out teenage to adult characters. Tama didn't even have a sad flashback.
Tama saved Nami's life. She turned the tides of the raid by enacting her own plan and going to Onigashima by herself.
I see nothing wrong Holdem and Ulti getting what was coming for them.
Many characters saved the SHs and assisted them in battle so why is Tama special? Reminds of the people pushing Carrot stopping Daifuku as a big deal. Tama was literally kept outta harms way until she was used as a plot device to take down Ulti.
The first time already happened when Tama showed up in Onigashima at the end of 995.
The second time was Dive fighting the beast pirates in chapter 1024.
Once again, Dive is an adult. Oda literally had Tama be protected, only relieve a slap and further used as a plot device, which is less than what the PH kids went through and they didn't join despite bonding with Nami and Chopper.
The third and fourth time just happened with the seraphim Hancock vs the Kuja Pirates and seraphim Mihawk vs the BlackBeard pierates.
Those are literally genetically enhanced cyborgs.
Since when do you need to add something to the overarching plot to be a strawhat? Tama was a very important character to her own arc, like all strawhats. For what she adds to the themes, please refer back to the start of this post.
Many characters were important in their own arc so why is Tama special? With Luffy's own words, Tama wasn't the only person he was fighting for.
This entire post is like many other candidate posts in which they single out their candidate was special among many with the same resume.
