The One Piece Manga just revealed that Princess Vivi might rejoin with Luffy and the straw
hats very soon. It turns out that she managed to escape from the world government after her father,
the king of Alabasta, was assassinated during the meeting of the world’s most powerful kingdoms. And
she is now inside the flying ship of Big News Morgan, the mysterious man who controls the
media of the one piece world, which is flying over Egghead Island. Which leaves us with a
very important question: Who will actually join the straw hats at the end of this arc?
Because next to Dr. Vegapunk, there are now suddenly 3 possible female
candidates for the next straw hat member: Jewelry Bonney, Stussy and
now Vivi. And let’s be real, the crew could really use a 3rd female member next to Nami and Robin. So
while Oda has disappointed his fans quite a few times now, by teasing Rebecca,
Carrot or Yamato joining the crew, before ultimately nothing happening,
there is a lot of evidence, that this time things might be different. So let’s look at each of our
three candidates and why they might be the 10th member Luffy has wanted for his pirate crew.
Starting with Stussy. At first glance, Stussy seems to be the most unlikely choice for
becoming a straw hat. Up until a few chapters ago, we thought that she was an enemy agent,
who wanted to capture or even kill Luffy for the world government. Oda then stunned
his entire fanbase by revealing that Stussy was in reality a double agent,
who had been spying on the government for Dr. Vegapunk all along. She betrayed Lucci and Kaku,
much like they betrayed their ship wright comrades on Water 7 and she then started helping Vegapunk
and the straw hats to escape the island. And the biggest argument for why Stussy would not join
Luffy is of course the fact, that she barely has had any interaction with the straw hats so far.
She has no relationship to Luffy at all and we don’t know if she has a dream that would align
with Luffy becoming pirate king. However, you might be surprised how good of a straw
hat candidate she actually is. As you probably know, Stussy is actually the first successfully
cloned human being in one piece history. She was created by Vegapunk and his team of scientists
as a replica of Miss Buckinham Stussy. Not only was she a member of this crew of mad scientists,
but she also is the mother of Weevil and a former member of the Rocks pirate crew.
Now we don’t yet know much about clone Stussy’s past. But it is clear that she must have had
a tragic one. Dr Vegapunk tells us, that as a clone, he always saw her as human, while most
other people didn’t. So Stussy must have lived a life where people around her didn’t even see
her as a real person, but as a monster, similar to Chopper. She was then ordered by Vegapunk to spend
her entire life as a double agent. She had to go through the terrible training of the governments
secret agent program, kill countless people at their orders and take on even more fake identities
as a member of CP0. In other words, Stussy must be a person with the worst identity crisis in all
of One Piece. She doesn’t know if she is a real person, nor did she have any real relationships
her entire life. And even the one person she is loyal to, Vegapunk, had no problem using
her as a tool her entire life. So while Stussy looks very cool and composed on the surface,
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we saw a really dark and vulnerable side of her. This
would of course check one of the most important boxes any new straw hat needs: A tragic past.
And since Vegapunk is not the person who will give Stussy the sense of belonging she probably needs,
Oda could be setting up a moment where Luffy can save her from her darkness. After all, every last
straw hat was saved by Luffy in some way or form. Which is often both physically and mentally. Nami
from being a servant to Arlong and her loneliness and pain for lying to her village. Brook from the
florian triangle and from being lonely after losing his entire crew. Or Robin, from being
captured by the world government and from being lonely after a life of being hunted and betrayed.
In fact, Stussy’s story might be quite similar to Robin. Both of them worked for organizations they
didn’t like. Both have made an enemy of the world goverment. You could argue that Stussy
right now is quite similar to Robin joining the crew after Alabasta. No one saw it coming
and we didn’t know much about her until we got to water 7, where we also have the parallel to
Lucci and CP0. And Stussy has no other place to go right now, but to sail with the Straw hats.
So Stussy could join the crew in a casual looking way right now, until she gets her real arc later
on in the story. Her role in the crew would of course be that of a spy and I also think that in
terms of power she would make a great addition to the crew. She is a former Rocks member after all.
And similar to Robin, the straw hats could become the first real family she ever had,
with Luffy saving her from her own darkness, acknowledging her as her own unique person.
Which now brings me to our candidate Nr. 2: Vivi. For Vivi, many fans have long speculated
that she would reunite with the crew and become a full-blown straw hat. In fact,
some people will tell you that she has been a member of Luffy’s crew all this time,
similar to how Jinbei only joined up with the rest of the crew during Wano. So really there
are only 2 big arguments why Vivi wouldn’t join: First, you could make a fairly strong argument,
that Vivi’s arc is already over. Her dream was to free her country from the rule of Crocodile,
which Luffy helped her achive. And second, unless she had a secret Kobe-level training arc over the
time skip, there is simply no way that Vivi would be even close to the power level of the
crew right now. So her joining the crew would purely be based on her experience as a ruler
and diplomat and on her previous relationship with the crew. That being said though, I have
always believed that there is a really good chance that Vivi will in fact become the 10th member.
Vivi was basically guaranteed to join the crew until the final twist at the end of Alabasta,
where she chose her country over her personal dream to sail with Luffy. With the murder of
her father however, things have changed. We know that Imu, the secret ruler of the world,
seems to be targeting the Royal family of Albasta. So it’s very likely that Vivi only
survived the meeting of the Kings, because she was able to escape with
Morgans. So while she couldn’t join the crew before, because of her duty to her country,
she now has nowhere to go. Not only is she really close to Luffy right now,
but Luffy is also her best chance to save her country from the governments anger. So
her dream is once again aligned with Luffy’s. We already know that she vibes extremely well
with everyone in the crew, she has been to Marijois before and she would represent
Alabasta joining sides with Joy Boy once again, just how it happened during the void century.
But despite the really strong cases we have for both Vivi and Stussy joining the crew,
the by far most likely candidate for the next straw hat, is in fact our candidate nr 3:
Bonney. As my dear friend mr morj explained in one of his videos recently, there might
not have been a better straw hat candidate than Bonney in One Piece since Luffy invited Jinbei
back on Fishman Island. And even if she didn’t join the crew officially, it seems pretty much
guaranteed at this point that she will travel with the Straw hats for at least the next arc
or two. There is really only one good reason why she wouldn’t be able to join the crew right now,
and that’s the fact that Bonney has her own pirate ship and crew, because she is a member of
the worst generation. However even that argument doesn’t seem to quite hold up anymore. Because
every time we have seen Bonney since the time skip, there has been no trace of either her crew
or her ship. In fact, it seems very likely that they might have been killed. One time,
Bonney gets captured by Blackbeard after the war at marineford, so he might have defeated her crew
there. Or it might have happened right before she was fished out of the water by the straw hats,
when they reached Egghead Island. That would explain why she was drifting in the icy ocean.
Bonney has been built up to be one of the most important characters in the story for the endgame.
Not only is she inspired by Anne Bonney, THE most famous real female pirate in history,
but as Morj rightfully noticed, Bonney has been the only character with a strong emotional story
line for the entire egghead island arc. The straw hats are basically just passing though
and Vegapunk only got an introduction so far as a character that needs a lift. Bonney is the only
character that we actually see suffer here. While we still don’t know much about her past, it’s
clear from the little pieces that we have gotten, that Bonney easily ticks the mark for tragic back
story. She has had bad encounters with both of Luffy’s arc nemesis, Blackbeard and Akainu and she
is even connected to Luffy’s father Dragon through her own father Kuma. Kuma and in extension Bonney
has been one of the most tragic and most intensely developed characters throughout the entire story.
We know that her dream is to take down the world government and the celestial dragons
for what they did to her and her father. And this of course aligns perfectly with Luffy’s journey.
It’s easy to see that bonney is in a really dark place right now, and that
Luffy is probably gonna be the one to save her, just like he did with the other straw hats. He
already saved Bonney physically from drowning, but I think that Luffy will also be the one to
save Bonney from her Darkness and pain, very similar to how he did with Nami and Robin.
And I think Bonney also would make a fantastic addition to the crew. As we’ve seen over the
course of the story, she is basically a female version of Luffy, cheerful, strong willed,
a strong sense of justice and of course a major glutton. On top of that, she formed a real bond
with both Chopper and Jinbei extremely quickly and she also kept Zoro from cutting down a
celestial dragon back on Sabaody, though she was clearly impressed by Luffy and Zoro being willing
to attack the world nobles. Similarly to Robin, Bonney belongs with the straw hats, because they
are the only ones willing to declare war on the government that has chased them their entire life.
As the daughter of a king, not only would Bonney finally fill the empty princess
slot in the straw hat crew, but as a member of the worst generation, she would also be strong
enough to fight with the rest of the crew. That plus her incredibly powerful devil fruit powers.
It’s really hard to say who of these three women will join Luffy. It could be that once again Oda
denies us a new member as he’s done so often before. Or it could also be that all 3 join
at once. Who knows. Bonney and Stussy would make perfect additions to the crew and Vivi
as a quasi straw hat is about to reunite with the crew thanks to Big News Morgans.
And by the way, don’t you find it odd how interested Morgan seems to be in Luffy. That
was even the case all the way back during whole cake island. And Morgans also knows Stussy. You
mgiht not know that Morgans isn’t a mink or an animal that can talk. Instead he is a man
that has eaten the Albatros devil fruit and is constantly in his hybrid form to disguise his
true identity. Who could this man really be? Well what if I told you that Big News Morgans
might actually be a former member of the Roger Pirates and maybe even Nami’s long lost father.
If you want to find out more, you can watch that entire theory right here. Shanks for watching.