One Piece Majorly Dropped the Ball With This Potential Straw Hat Pirate

One of the most entertaining parts of the One Piece anime is how protagonist Monkey D. Luffy slowly and surely built up his own pirate crew, with him making sure most major roles on a ship were filled. This helped define the narrative before One Piece's two-year timeskip, such as recruiting four new crewmates in the East Blue Saga alone and then recruiting Chopper, Nico Robin, Franky, and Brook afterward. Now the crew is at an even 10 members, but some One Piece fans want an eleventh member: Carrot the Mink.

The recruitment process for the Straw Hat crew noticeably slowed down a great deal in One Piece, with Jimbei's recruitment being the first addition to the crew in many episodes/chapters. It's true that the story of One Piece now has bigger things to think about than constant recruitment, but it's still a shame the story has been neglecting this part of the narrative, especially in relation to fun characters like Carrot. She could have filled many gaps in the Straw Hat crew if she hadn't become the new ruler of the Mokomo Dukedom, and fans would have loved to see more of her, too.

Luffy has more than combat strength in mind when he seeks out new crewmates for his various pirate ships, since it takes more than hitting power to keep a seagoing vessel functional. Even a buffoonish hero like Luffy knows that a ship needs various roles filled to keep things running smoothly, and that guided his recruitment efforts before One Piece's time skip.

Roronoa Zoro was hired mostly for the muscle, but after that, Luffy checked off roles such as navigator, chef, doctor, carpenter, and even musician. That was why Luffy was so keen on recruiting Nami and Sanji, for example, and Luffy warmly invited Franky to join the crew as a carpenter to keep the Thousand Sunny in good shape. For a time, it seemed all the major roles had been filled, but there is actually another to consider: lookout.

Bartholomew Kuma is one of the greatest heroes in One Piece, but he shares a surprising number of similarities with cinema's most iconic villain.

A lookout is just what it sounds like: a crewmate whose role is to use a high vantage point to watch out for any hazards such as icebergs or hostile ships. The lookout is a sort of scout for the ship, and it's why ships have a crow's nest high on a thick mast. The existing Straw Hats have sometimes filled this role themselves, such as scouting a new area with a telescope, but given the immense dangers of the Grand Line's islands and the New World, a dedicated lookout is a must.

Fans may note how Carrot is often awake while everyone else is asleep, making her ideal as a nighttime lookout for the Straw Hat crew while everyone else rests. Ideally, the crewmates aboard any ship will rotate through shifts for jobs like that, but Carrot's own schedule would simplify things. And fans may recall scenes of Carrot quickly leaping to or from the crow's nest to relay information to the Straw Hats during their adventures.

Another major factor in the recruitment of new Straw Hat crewmates is the backstories and motivations of these characters. Luffy himself set a good example by wishing to live up to Shanks' own good example while seeking glory and validation as the next pirate king. Other crewmate motivations cleared that bar, such as Nami wanting to draw a map of the world, Brook wanting new friends to ease his loneliness, and Sanji wishing to find the All-Blue.

These characters were often motivated to seek self-actualization and distance themselves from great acts of evil or suffering, which ensures these characters won't be tempted to go rogue. Nami, for example, could never become cruel or twisted after suffering at Arlong's hands, and Sanji is loyal and heroic after all he went through at Germa 66.

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Most of those backstories were explored through shonen-style flashbacks, such as Sanji's near-starvation and Franky enduring Tom's death, but the same is not true for Carrot. While the suffering of the other Straw Hat recruits happened years or even decades ago, Carrot's own suffering was depicted in the current events of One Piece. Fans actually got to see the torment of the Mink tribe firsthand as the Beasts pirates attacked them, making Carrot's motivation and backstory feel immediate and impactful.

If something like Ohara's Buster Call from years ago can motivate Nico Robin to join the Straw Hats, then surely the immediacy of Carrot's own experiences would drive her into Luffy's arms. At the very least, the vivid immediacy of Carrot's formative experiences would make her feel like she has to join the crew, or else the power of this narrative feels wasted. So far, it does feel half-wasted with Carrot failing to join the Straw Hat crew.

While sheer combat strength is not the only reason Luffy might invite someone to join his pirate crew, One Piece is still a battle shonen series, meaning the series' logic and narrative often skew toward he possibility of violence. No one aboard the Straw Hats is incapable of fighting, and Nami and Chopper reshaped their skills and abilities to fit that reality.

En route to Alabasta, Nami resolved to become a real fighter, which led to her getting the Weather Baton and defeating Miss Doublefinger with it. Similarly, Chopper's main role was that of a doctor, but not even he would just sit out the fights. He invented the Rumble Ball to make himself a capable warrior, and most recently, Chopper has refined his Monster Point so he can control himself in that beast-like form.

These One Piece characters have reputations that span the Grand Line.

What is more, the "monster trio" of Luffy, Sanji, and Zoro stand out for being not just the three coolest crewmates, but also the strongest, which means they are richly rewarded in many of One Piece's story arcs when they want another chance to shine. By contrast, fans dubbed Chopper, Usopp, and Nami as the "weak trio," no matter their useful roles aboard the ship. Clearly, combat strength matters a great deal aboard Luffy's various ships, and that is why Carrot deserved a spot. Luffy had met many powerful allies before, such as Mr. 2 and Kin'emon, but they had expressed little to no interest in joining the crew. They didn't feel like recruits in the making, but Carrot did, and she has far more combat strength than other potential recruits like Princesses Vivi and Rebecca.

As a rabbit mink, Carrot is highly agile as a martial artist, putting her in the same league as the kicker Sanji. She can also use Electro, a lightning-based ability inherent to the minks, giving her a special niche among the Straw Hat fighters. That alone is worth considering adding Carrot to the crew as an electrical martial artist of great skill, but then there's the Sulong form to round things out. Unlike most Straw Hats, Carrot can transform into a new mode, gaining immense power in her Sulong from to stay competitive with her various enemies in the New World. It's a fine counterpart for Chopper's Monster Point form and Luffy's Gear 5, and it's a shame One Piece fans didn't get more of a potential "transformation trio" among the crew.

Balancing the sexes aboard the Thousand Sunny may not be the first priority for the characters or author Eiichiro Oda, but it can still be a good look and add some variety amongst the crew. This is especially true since the "monster trio" members are all male, while Robin is in the middle of the pack and Nami is in the "weak trio." This means that after so many chapters and episodes, One Piece has more than a little room for a powerful new female fighter to rebalance things, and not just for the optics, either.

Carrot is the whole package, potentially adding a mink to the crew while also contributing her special abilities and giving the crew another agile martial artist to match Sanji. It would be a bit forced to add another female crewmate for the sake of it, but since Carrot has so much else to offer too, it feels like too strong an opportunity to pass up.

The power creep in One Piece means too many fights depend on sudden power ups and puts characters that can't use haki in a frustrating position.

Also, One Piece has gradually gotten better about adding more female powerhouses among the heroes and villains alike, and while Carrot did her part in the Whole Cake Island and Wano sagas, it feels like a shame to limit her to a circumstantial and temporary ally of the Straw Hats.

If One Piece is going to add some more women to its huge roster of strong fighters with a compelling character like Carrot, it might as well make that official and have her join the Straw Hats. She could have become a permanent example of a formidable female fighter on the heroes' side, giving Nami and Nico Robin a break from filling that role for so long while rubbing shoulders with eight male crewmates. Having just three combat-ready women in the crew certainly doesn't feel like too big an ask, not after all this time and after the Straw Hat crew has done so much and been to so many exotic places.

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