 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 Usubeard, 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 gain. 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 yet 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 character 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 any time a prominent new character makes their way into the series, it is without fail, met with a chorus of that character, Finakuma. Among certain segments of the online One Piece community, you all know who you are, and while oftentimes 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 Hat specifically, but not only that, Yamato was also cited 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 Brooke, it usually takes a fair bit of convincing to get them on board. However, this one situation we have of 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 El Abaster, Luffy accepted Vivi and Igaram's request to have her board the ship. In more recent times, we've also been ferrying Kinamon and the other samurai, due to them asking, and in more recent, recent times, we've also had the aforementioned Carrot who snuck aboard 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 this 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 Goldie 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 of 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 Frankie, whose mental 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 Goldie 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 muano 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 Brooke 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 Luffy 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 Ponoglyphs. But that's slightly awkward, because we already have Robin who does exactly that. In fact, at this point in one piece, Ponoglyphs 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 road Ponoglyph. According to Oden's flashback, the Roger Pirates founded on Fishman 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 a 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 learnt 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 Kinemon, Momenosuke and Kanjiro. Good old Kanjiro. 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 se, 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 Warner, because this very much ties into the inherited will aspect, because we should ask ourselves what was Odin's dying wish. Because these desires are often the ones that catalyse our modern day characters, like Chopper taking on board Hirluk's desire to cure the hearts of the civilians of Drum 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 Nami's dream to map the world, having very very little to do with Balmer's desires, but in this case Odin did have one final wish, which was to open the borders of Guano and integrate with global society. So if anything it could be argued that if Yamato really is on the path of literally becoming Odin, then he should pick up where Odin left off, open Guano 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 a sort of thing that would require Yamato to come to the realization that this is Odin'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 Hiori? 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 Karat, 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 Karat demonstrated to perfection during the whole cake island arc, and is one of the very few basic ship positions left to be filled. Plus Karat currently has a bond with the crew that very few characters ever achieve, and from whole cake island till 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 Jinbei in the mix we have 9 not including Luffy, and if we take that very early statement as another fated inevitability, then we simply do not have room for both Karat 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 Karat has a role, and even a degree of inherited will from Pedro, there is one thing in Yamato's favour here, which is that ever since the beginning of Wano, Karat 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 heard that now while saying it. But in all of my speculation regarding Karat, 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 where 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 centre. Except for Zoro I guess, he hasn't really been at the centre 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 favour 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. And if you'd like to see more videos like this then please do go and check out some of my other content or even subscribe to the channel for more glorious One Piece business uploaded straight into your YouTube feeds. But for now this has been the Grand Line Review and I'll see you next time.