- [Narrator] It's really fascinating to think about
what the Straw Hats could have been.
I mean, in Oda's original designs,
he included a smoking moose,
the unholy love child of Usopp and Blackbeard,
also known as Usobeard,
as well as the subscribe button for the Grand Line Review,
which would have given the Straw Hats
regular One Piece content
uploaded straight into their YouTube feeds.
But even though that character was unfortunately cut,
Oda's loss is your game.
Show this button some love by pushing it.
Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review,
your source for everything One Piece,
and today we have a mildly important discussion
surrounding the current events of the manga
and a particular character
who may or may not be named Yamato.
And if somehow you've stumbled onto this video
without being caught up
and have no real desire to be spoiled,
then I highly recommend coming back to this video
at a later date.
Because if you have not even heard the name Yamato,
then that's an indicator
that we're going to be talking about
some pretty huge things here.
I'll give you just a second to select
another wonderful Grand Line Review video to watch.
And by now I'm assuming everyone left is all good. Great.
So this video is more or less going to be examining
the very real possibility
that Yamato is going to join the crew after Wano.
And there are a fair few arguments both for and against
but I want to emphasize that I almost,
almost never make videos like this.
I mean, yes, I've done one before,
looking at the potential of Carrot becoming a Straw Hat
because I think there's a lot to be said there as well.
But generally I don't like getting caught up in the hype.
Because anytime a prominent new character
makes their way into the series,
it is without fail met with a chorus of
"that character for nakama".
Among certain segments of the online One Piece community,
you all know who you are,
and more often times it is done as a bit of a meme,
there are far too many occasions
where it is met with very serious discussion
by people absolutely desperate to be the first
to call the next Straw Hat.
But this whole Yamato situation is,
well, it's quite different to say the least.
And first and foremost, it is because Yamato
has expressed a direct desire to set sail
with the Straw Hats specifically.
But not only that, Yamato was also sighted,
the reasoning for this being
the desire to mimic the journey of Kozuki Oden,
who famously sailed with the Roger Pirates
all the way to the legendary island of Laugh Tale.
And that alone puts Yamato
in some pretty serious contention,
because thinking back on the series,
this kind of initiative does tend to work wonders.
We first experienced it when Robin magically appeared
aboard the Going Merry,
claiming that Luffy had to let her join the crew
in order to take responsibility
for saving her life against her will.
A funky situation, which having said it like that,
does sound a bit odd.
But hey, it made sense in the context of the situation.
Although I suppose that's kind of it
for that brand of situation.
I mean, any other time a Straw Hat joins, apart from Brook,
it usually takes a fair bit of convincing
to get them on board.
However, this one situation we have
with someone approaching Luffy directly
with the request to join the crew
does seem to have a 100% success rate as of right now,
which I know is a bit of a joke,
but there is great precedent for this kind of situation
very much working out in the favor of the one
who boldly propositions Luffy,
which we can see in many other examples
of non Straw Hats as well.
Going all the way back to Alabasta,
Luffy accepted Vivi and Igaram's request
to have her board the ship.
In more recent times, we've also been faring Kin'emon
and the other samurai due to them asking.
And in more recent, recent times,
we've also had the aforementioned Carrot
who snuck aboard the Thousand Sunny,
begged Luffy for an adventure and then just never left.
Whereas I can't think of many examples
where a character has asked Luffy
to join the crew or board the ship
which he has refused.
I mean, I suppose there is the Grand Fleet
but that was a very different scenario.
So it doesn't automatically point to Yamato for Straw Hat
but being this forward is a bold and proven strategy,
at the very least to get aboard Luffy's ship.
But that alone is not enough
to take Yamato's candidacy seriously at all actually.
And we do need to look a layer deeper now
at the general concept of inherited will,
which is the driving force
of almost everything in the story.
One Piece has a very strong motif
of passing on the desires of the fallen
directly to those still living
with the most obvious and important, in this case parallel,
being that of Luffy
and the former Pirate King, Gol D. Roger.
These two never met in the story,
however Luffy is undoubtedly the inheritor of Roger's will,
and this is shown to us in a wide variety of ways,
such as his own physical journey mimicking that Roger,
the two of them having worn the famed straw hat,
and the idea that each former member
of the Roger Pirates we come across
seems to see something particularly special,
if not inherently familiar, in Mr Luffy.
And I take the time to point this out
because without that idea in play,
Yamato's chances of becoming a Straw Hat
due to inherited will
would be significantly diminished
if not snuffed out entirely.
But Luffy has a tendency to mirror the Roger Pirates
in terms of the makeup of his crew as well.
A great example would be Franky, whose mentor figure Tom
built the Oro Jackson for the Roger Pirates,
or by recruiting Chopper from Drum Island,
who trained under Dr Kureha,
a woman who clearly knew Roger well,
given that she knew his name was Gol D. Roger.
And now we have Yamato, who rather intriguingly
quite literally identifies as Kozuki Oden,
who as stated before was a key figure
in the final journey of the Roger Pirates
and was even with them to discover Laugh Tale.
So for someone who so strongly resembles,
or at least desires to resemble Oden,
hopping on board with the future Pirate King
just as Oden did
makes all the sense in the world really.
And then of course,
we need to consider Yamato's personality,
which also strongly mimics that of Oden himself,
you know, a man trapped in Wano
and desperate to venture into the outside world
even though their individual circumstances
are slightly different.
At this point, it's hard to see a situation
where the Wano Arc ends
and Yamato does not go out into the world
one way or another.
Although I do have at least one potential scenario for that,
which I'll get to in a bit.
But first, this is what we have to work with.
And even though we've only known Yamato
for, what, two and a half chapters
at the time of this recording anyway,
it is a hell of a lot to contend with
and something to sit up and take very seriously
in the same way that Brook
was practically a confirmed crew member
in the very same chapter that he was introduced.
With that said, I do need to point out
the difference in his situation,
which is obviously that Luffy asked him.
And having said that, there's also a difference
in the Robin situation
because Loofy accepted Robin's request immediately,
whereas no such thing has yet occurred with Yamato.
But with that we should probably get into some things
that don't quite add up with Yamato's candidacy,
the first of which being
what role on the ship he would take up.
This is quite a tricky one
because for all intents and purposes,
if we are to go with the Roger Pirate parallels,
then Yamato should mimic Oden's position
as a gateway into reading the poneglyphs.
But that's slightly awkward
because we already have Robin who does exactly that.
In fact at this point in One Piece,
poneglyphs are almost Robin's sole purpose aboard the ship,
so it's unlikely that we're going to be
taking that away from her.
Plus, I suppose there's no guarantee
that Yamato could even read the ancient language anyway,
unless Oden detailed that knowledge in his journal,
but that also seems unlikely.
Given what we know, he was much more excited
to be writing about the things he was seeing
rather than the things he already knew.
However there is one purpose
I could maybe see for Yamato right now,
which would be locating the final rogue poneglyph.
According to Oden's flashback,
the Roger Pirates found it on Fish-Man Island
but we do not know what became of it
and where it currently resides.
So perhaps Oden detailed what became of it in his journal
but this is a pretty big stretch to make, I will admit.
And even if he did,
that doesn't give Yamato a role on the crew,
nor does it stop Yamato
from simply giving that information to Luffy
rather than needing to accompany them.
Then again, it is very early days with Yamato
and he may have a hidden talent or passion
that has not yet been revealed to us.
When it comes to what the Straw Hats
are lacking as a pirate crew though,
the only thing I could really think of
would be a writer or a lookout,
the latter of which is role
that Carrot kind of naturally slips into perhaps?
We'll talk about that.
But as for a writer, the logic here is
that they would have someone
to log the journey of the Straw Hats
in the same way that Oden's journal
kind of chronicled his time
with both the Whitebeard and the Roger Pirates.
And then, who knows?
Maybe Yamato will turn out to be the narrator of One Piece,
telling us, the readers, of Luffy's extensive journey
after having learned everything
there is to know about this world.
That is an even bigger stretch though,
quite possibly my biggest.
The biggest I will be making in this video.
But at this stage, I should also bring up
that there's every chance
that Yamato will travel with the crew
but not become an official Straw Hat,
which is kind of what Carrot is doing currently,
as well as the roles of Kin'emon, Momonosuke and Kanjuro,
good old Kanjuro.
I have a feeling he's probably not very welcome
aboard the ship anymore though.
But the point is, it's not out of the question.
In fact, maybe Yamato doesn't even want
to become a Straw Hat per say
but, you know, just hitch a ride.
I mean, there really are
a lot of grand assumptions being made everywhere
about a character that we've barely met,
which I'm of course contributing to greatly
with the existence of this very video.
Apologies for that.
But I also want to discuss the possibility
that despite having declared this desire so strongly
that Yamato maybe stays on Wana,
because this very much ties into the inherited will aspect,
because we should ask ourselves what was Oden's dying wish.
Because these desires are often the ones
that catalyze our modern day characters,
like Chopper taking on board Hiriluk's desire
to cure the hearts of the civilians of Trump Island
and deciding to take it one step further
by applying that to everyone.
Of course, this doesn't happen in every case,
such as Naomi's dream to map the world
having very, very little to do with Bellemere's desires.
But in this case, Oden did have one final wish,
which was to open the borders of Wano
and integrate with global society.
So if anything, it could be argued
that if Yamato really is on the path
of literally becoming Oden,
then he should pick up where Oden left off.
Open Wano and potentially even become a shogun
or caretaker shogun.
And yes, I know that idea seems like
it conflicts with the most recent chapter,
specifically being 985,
where Yamato is vehemently opposed to becoming the shogun.
But wouldn't that be a cool little ironic twist?
The fact that Kaido so desperately
wants Yamato to be Shogun
and the idea that eventually he would take on that mantle
but only after defeating Kaido.
It's the sort of thing that would require Yamato
to come to the realization
that this is Oden's ultimate will.
But hey, that sounds like a great character arc
to explore over the remainder of Wano
of which I'm sure there is much.
It does however conflict with
Momonosuke's ambition and inherited will,
which would point him in the general direction
of becoming shogun.
But you can easily argue
that even after Kaido is overthrown,
that Momonosuke simply is not ready.
He is still far too young to be ruling this nation
even with the Vassals at his side.
That isn't to say it won't happen regardless
but it is the truth.
So a strong commanding presence like Yamato
seems almost integral,
because who else are we going to rely on
to lead and protect this realm?
I mean, I guess we have Hiyori? Probably not though.
Plus it would be an interesting subversion
of the Robin precedent.
The idea that Yamato begins his time in the story
with a desire to join the crew
but ends up deciding to remain on the island.
And just briefly let's also examine Yamato's candidacy
in comparison to that of Carrot,
who regardless of your thoughts on her
has a fair bit going for her as well,
especially in that she would have a solid role
on the crew as a lookout,
which Carrot demonstrated to perfection
during the Whole Cake Island Arc
and is one of the very few basic ship positions
left to be filled.
Plus Carrot currently has a bond with the crew
that very few characters ever achieve.
And from Whole Cake Island til now,
she more or less is nakama.
And I only bring this up because of Luffy's OG statement
about wanting 10 crew members.
So currently with Jinbe in the mix,
we have nine, not including Luffy,
and if we take that very early statement
as another fated inevitability,
then we simply do not have room for both Carrot and Yamato,
not as official Straw Hats anyway.
So logically, if one was a better candidate,
then that would lead us to dismissing the other.
But it's not quite that simple
because while Carrot has a role
and even a degree of inherited will from Pedro,
there is one thing in Yamato's favor here,
which is that ever since the beginning of Wano,
Carrot has been more or less completely ignored,
which I'm not so sure we can afford to do
with someone poised to join the crew.
And no, I did not intend that to rhyme.
I just, I just heard that now whilst saying it. Huh.
But in all of my speculation regarding Carrot,
I've said that the deciding factor
would be a key role in Wano
that would lead her to becoming a Straw Hat
and well, we're three acts in now
and I don't think that's likely to happen.
On the other hand, Yamato has a core connection to this arc
and it would make a lot of sense to watch his story play out
and transition smoothly into joining the crew,
much like every other member really,
who all had their emotionally charged arcs
with them at the very center.
Except for Zoro, I guess.
He hasn't really been in the center of anything, like ever.
But when it comes down to it,
we are still in the very early days of this discussion.
We barely know Yamato
and Wano is a long, long way from being able
to be called over.
But I do think that this is
definitely something worth flagging
because there is an awful lot going in Yamato's favor here,
and just imagine the infamy that Luffy would acquire
by having the child of one of the four emperors
as part of his crew.
Sounds pretty damn hype to me.
But alas, we shall need to wait and see
how things ultimately play out.
But what do you guys think?
Please do leave your thoughts in the comments below
or even join my Discord server.
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But for now, this has been the Grand Line Review,
and I'll see you next time.