But about this part, i think youre overanalyzing a small anime only clash. Oden is definitely stronger than Gabban at the point he joined, and later even more so. I think if Yamato joins, she breaks the pattern, atleast for the near future. Later on we dont know how Oda will write her
I’ll be the first to admit I may be putting far too much weight on that Gaban & Oden anime only scene. But it just doesn’t make sense as to why Toei would have done it with no prompting from Oda. If they just did it to do it they missed a golden opportunity to put him with Rayleigh.
For now I disagree that Oden was definitely stronger than Gaban at the time he joined. We simply haven’t seen enough out of Gaban. Hell, the only real fighting from him we’ve seen IS the anime only Oden clash. Oden very well may be stronger than Gaban. Oden could even possibly be stronger than Rayleigh (though I do personally doubt that one as of now).
My main stance on the sanctity of the M3 comes from how strongly Oda has maintained it even when it appeared he was ready to shake it up. He went so far as to pit Jimbe against WW instead of Jack. So far we’ve seen Oda do this dance twice already. But because Yamato has her Oden parallel I don’t expect her to get the same treatment as Jimbe nor Franky. No matter if she turns out to be stronger than Sanji, equal to Sanji, or slightly below I believe we are going to witness the birth of the long awaited M4 if she joins and I welcome it. If she pushes him to 4 then the only harm done will be that Sanji’s name becomes ironic (since it means 3).
For now my working hypothesis that Luffy > Zoro > Sanji ~ Yamato is what I’m going to expect until Oda proves to me he’s willing to move Sanji to 4 for good. Either way it will all become clear eventually.
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Imo if someone wants yamato by franky and jinbe it's to keep the m3 alive. Thing with the m3 is it died when jinbe joined and if yamato joins it's gonna be the fab 5. I don't think oda is gonna have a massive gap between yamato and jinbe then sanji. Rn I think it's luffy > zoro > yamato > sanji > jinbe but sanji will over take yamato eventually. Even then jinbe the weakest 1 isn't gonna be far from sanji. I think the crew structure going forward is for a PK crew that is strongest of all time not just on par with rogers crew. I don't think luffy will accomplish what Roger couldn't if he's only just as good as Roger otherwise roger should have done it himself. The crew should be getting massively stronger and post wano they will be recognized as a yonko level crew.
The fact that Oda is apparently pitting Sanji against Kaido’s YC2 and Jimbe against his top veteran/YC4 tells me Oda hasn’t done away with the M3 just yet.
I do think Luffy’s crew will surpass Roger’s. I expect Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji to surpass Roger, Rayleigh, and Gaban and I think Luffy’s crew is going to have better depth than Roger’s. Roger had way more members but I think past the top guys Luffy is getting significantly more quality per member.