#monetposting

Crew of 10

The biggest argument since shortly before Jinbe's recruitment was how many Straw Hats there would be at all. Many people said that Jinbe wouldn't join for various reasons, but the most common that I saw was that the crew was already too crowded and Oda wouldn't be able to juggle any more members

Others believed Jinbe would join as the final member of the crew, as that would mean there were ten Straw Hats after Luffy said in chapter 1 that he intended to recruit a crew of "about ten." Once he officially joined, the argument that the crew was too crowded became even more popular, especially since even now Jinbe has barely had any opportunity to have any character development or one-on-one interactions with the rest of the crew

If Loki is to be recruited, at the very least it means that Luffy wasn't counting himself in the original plan for ten, but more than likely also means that Oda isn't concerned about "overcrowding" just yet. In other words, Loki's recruitment in and of itself means that the gates are open for all remaining candidates

Powerset Overlap

We don't know much about Loki's abilities as of yet, but the one thing we've seen is that he can summon lightning. In terms of combat ability, this makes his powerset strongly overlap with Nami, who uses lightning as her most potent finishing moves, while also lacking all of Nami's weaknesses (her overall weaker build and the need to set up her attacks)

This was an argument against Carrot back in the day, and is still an argument against Monet for her overlap with Brook's ice, so unless Loki somehow loses the lightning ability, that means Oda has no issue with any given two members having similar abilities

That said...having two characters with overlapping abilities looks a lot different than having three, so while Loki's presence may strengthen the argument for Monet, it seems like it may actually weaken the argument for Carrot. For the sake of argument though, I'm only going to give a point to Monet and not take one away from Carrot, as that may seem arbitrary or hypocritical

Alphabet Theory

But that isn't Loki's only point of overlap, though: there's also his name

One of the more popular theories over the years has been the Alphabet Theory, where each pair of letters in the Latin alphabet is ascribed to one of the Straw Hats (AB=Brook, CD=Chopper, etc.). This has been a recurring argument against Carrot, Yamato (YZ=Zoro), Monet (MN=Nami), and many others, while also serving as evidence for Pudding or Pedro (OP still being unclaimed)

Loki, though, clearly overlaps with Luffy, so unless Loki changes his name mid-arc, the Alphabet Theory has more or less been debunked

There is still the possibility that my Epithet Theory will be proven true, and that the remaining letter pairs of GH, OP and WX will be applied to the titles that the remaining Straw Hats are given (ex: "Harpy" Monet, "World Ender" Loki, etc.), but the point remains that the actual names of future recruits are no longer in question. That doesn't hurt the likes of Pudding, but it does help everyone who wasn't already covered by those letter pairs

Signature Color

Loki isn't just debunking theories left and right, though; there are some he's staying in line with, or at least he seems to be for now

On the cover of volume 111, we see that Loki has light purple hair and a deep purple fur cape

My immediate instinct when I saw this was that his signature color overlapped with Robin's purple, but looking closer, while his cape certainly does resemble the shade that is typically associated with Robin, his hair is actually much closer to the red end of the purple spectrum than the blue end that Robin's tends to be

(Apologies to colorblind and fully blind folks who can't see the difference, please trust me that their color schemes are distinct)

Therefore, I think the intention here is that Loki's color is magenta, slotting him right between Robin's purple and Chopper's pink without issue

Unfortunately for Pudding, this means that her case has gotten a bit weaker, as it was widely believed that her signature color would be magenta thanks to recurring colors in her outfits. She could still have brown thanks to her hair, which would make her distinct from Jinbe's ochre, but I'm not exactly feeling confident about it

That said, before Jinbe joined, the theory was that the Straw Hats colors would reflect the RGB color wheel, with Jinbe representing azure and the remaining recruits representing magenta, chartreuse and spring green/viridian, but with Jinbe being ochre, that was soundly debunked, so it's harder to use this new evidence to predict what colors may still be to come

I've proposed in the past that Jinbe's exact shade, odoiro or yellow ochre (note the background of Jinbe's Film Red poster below), is meant to pair with Usopp's yellow, and suggests that all of the Straw Hats' colors will come in pairs, so with that framework we might be able to make a solid prediction

Magenta can easily be taken as either a purple or a pink, but given that Loki also wears a purple cape, I think it's safe to say that he's meant to pair with Robin rather than Chopper. This would make our current pairs:

Luffy and Chopper (red and pink)

Usopp and Jinbe (yellow and ochre)

Sanji and Franky (blue and cyan)

Robin and Loki (purple and magenta)

Brook (solo because he represents both black and white, but arguably can be paired with Vivi whose color is white gold)

This would leave Nami's orange and Zoro's green to be paired

Carrot could easily be slotted into either, as her outfits frequently incorporate spring green and carrot orange, but Carrot herself is still heavily debatable for a litany of narrative reasons, so I would say Loki merely doesn't affect her here rather than aiding her at all

For other oranges, I think we're looking at a shade of brown (ex: Pudding, Kuma, Marguerite), amber (yellow-orange, ex: Rebecca) or vermilion (red-orange, ex: Kinemon). Of those examples, I don't think any of them aside from Pudding have any strong narrative reason to believe in them currently, so it's possible that it'll be someone we haven't met yet. I've said before that I believe a Space Pirate will join, so I'm choosing to believe that their fur will be given a bit more of an orange hue when we see them colored by Oda himself

I've also seen it suggested that Yamato could be vermilion thanks to his horns or as a reference to Oden, but I'm not inclined to believe that myself. I once suggested he could pair with Robin's purple thanks to his rope belt modeled after Oden's, but obviously that's out now, so that just leaves the blue-green tips of his otherwise white hair to pair with Zoro

Obviously my preferred green recruit would be Monet, but there are other characters associated with green like Pedro, Tama or even Bonney with her spring green hat, though she seems to have dropped it from her design as of Egghead

All of this is assuming that there are any rules about the colors aside from being distinct, though. Oda may well not care about the number of overlapping shades, and it's even possible that Loki's color won't even be magenta! Like I said, nobody thought Jinbe's color would be a shade of brown, so the "obvious" answer isn't necessarily the correct one

Either way, though, since Oda himself is the one deciding and publicizing the signature colors, we can confidently say that it is an intentional choice on his part, so if Loki's color is in fact magenta as it appears to be, then we know the remaining members won't be

Devil Fruit Number

Speaking of theories that Oda has acknowledged, one fan pointed out in an SBS a long time ago that all of the Straw Hats' Devil Fruits use names that correspond to the pronunciation of numbers (ex: Gum-Gum/Gomu-Gomu->Go=5, Mu=6->56), and when added together, they seem to create 325 (read: San-ni-go -> Sunny-Go, another name for the Thousand Sunny)

The only number left to reach 325 would be 29, and 2 and 9 were the only digits not yet present, so many people concluded that Kuma and/or his Nikyu-Nikyu Fruit would be a shoo-in to join. However, that would inherently preclude the addition of any other Devil Fruit users, and yet we now have Loki and his yet-unnamed Fruit

This leaves us with a few possibilities:

Loki's Devil Fruit will be named in a way that evokes 29

Loki's Devil Fruit will be named in a way that evokes 0, thus not interfering with the rest of the math in any way and leaving room for another 29

Loki's Devil Fruit will be named in a way that evokes 20 or 9, leaving room for another Fruit to evoke whichever his doesn't

Loki's Devil Fruit will not evoke any number at all, thus disproving the theory entirely

In Scenario 1, there's the chance that there will still be one more recruit with a 0 Devil Fruit, but it does not suggest that there has to be

Scenarios 2 and 3 both strongly suggest that there will be one more recruit, either a 29 or 9 respectively

And Scenario 4 proves that the numbers were a coincidence (or at least an abandoned design choice) and have no bearing on future recruits

Obviously Scenario 4 would be the most advantageous for any given Straw Hat hopeful, but it would also be the least useful for narrowing down candidates. Scenarios 1-3, meanwhile, are all very useful for eliminating possibilities:

Pudding's Memo-Memo and Tama's Kibi-Kibi don't seem to correspond to any numbers

Yamato's Inu-Inu Fruit, Model: Okuchi no Makami might imply 09 with O and Ku, but that would only leave 2, which wouldn't add up to 325

Bonney's Toshi-Toshi corresponds to 10 and 4, but Chopper's Hito-Hito already covers 1 and 10, and Brook's Yomi-Yomi already covers 4 and 3

Kuma's Nikyu-Nikyu and Kinemon's Fuku-Fuku would both still be viable in Scenario 2, but no other scenario

Monet's Yuki-Yuki can be taken as "kyu" in reverse, as 9 is made up of both the kana "ki" and "yu", slotting into Scenario 3 perfectly

Like I said, this will be up in the air until we learn the name, so I'll revisit this topic when the time comes, but my point is that, no matter what, the name of the Fruit will be a complete game-changer to one of the longest-standing recruitment theories

Gender

However, possibly the longest-standing, or at least most popular theory that Loki is positioned to disprove is the Gender Theory, AKA the MFMM Pattern

In short, in both East Blue and the Grand Line, Luffy recruited a male, a female, then two males, in that order, with specific shared characteristics between counterparts

A man referred to as a monster, introduced in bindings (Zoro "the Demon" bound to a cross, Chopper "the Abnominable Snowman" bound to a sleigh)

A scholarly woman, introduced as a villain (Nami, navigator of the Arlong Pirates, and Robin, archaeologist of Baroque Works)

An outcast and leader of men, introduced with the need of a new ship (Usopp the Liar, leader of the Usopp Pirates who helped procure the Going Merry, and Franky the Dismantler, leader of the Franky Family who built the Thousand Sunny)

A gentleman pervert, introduced upon a ship (Sanji, waiter of the Baratie, and Brook, musician of the Rumbar Pirates)

The issue here should be pretty obvious: Loki isn't a scholarly woman! He's a brutish man who decries the need for education in favor of combat training! If he's recruited immediately after Jinbe, then the entire pattern as it stands falls apart!

Even if he delays his recruitment like Jinbe did at Fishman Island and a woman does get recruited in between, that introduces another issue - Loki's parallels to the other 3rd slot recruits

Loki is an outcast, sure, and he does have followers, but all of his notable followers are animals, and they don't really seem all that relevant to his story as of yet

No, I think that Loki is actually a better fit as a parallel to Zoro than he is to Usopp: the Cursed Child, bound to the World Tree

In that regard, Jinbe is actually a better parallel to the 3rd recruit, being the "Boss" of the Sun Pirates, despite his introduction as a prisoner in Impel Down

Loki's recruitment would necessitate a new ship, as the Sunny isn't big enough to carry him, buuut Jinbe was invited to join the crew when we were introduced to the Ark Noah, which Luffy has been foreshadowed to use to fulfill Joyboy's promise to bring the Fishmen to the surface, so...who knows!

What this tells me is that we're still getting the four parallels (Bound Monster, Scholarly Villainess, Leader of Men and Gentleman Pervert), just out of order. If Jinbe would normally have been third and Loki first, then the final order will most likely be 3142, giving us the Gentleman Pervert next and the Scholarly Villainess last

Orrr it's all wrong and none of that matters. Maybe Loki's recruitment is completely debunking the parallels, and we can get one or even two more women at any time, their personalities and interests be damned!

Maybe all of the New World recruits will be introduced in chains; Luffy did break Yamato's handcuffs at Onigashima, and then extended an explicit invitation on his way out of Wano, so perhaps Yamato's AFAB status will allow him to count as the female regardless of when he joins?

Again, we won't know for sure until the end of Elbaf: if Loki joins immediately, we know the pattern no longer directly applies; if he promises to join later, we can be confident that the Scholarly Villainess is incoming

So...where does that leave all of our recruits?

Final Tally

This won't be a comprehensive list by any means, but with all of this new evidence in mind, combined with how the story has progressed since I previously reviewed all of the major candidates, this is how I view the current standings:

Pudding - could be the Brown Straw Hat, definitely not the Magenta; Devil Fruit doesn't add up to 325; former villainess (though "acting" isn't quite scholarly), foreshadowed to join the crew by Luffy; currently Blackbeard's hostage, positioning her to be saved by the Straw Hats. Verdict - likely by narrative, though less so by patterns, and could easily be rescued after all of the major battles conclude

Carrot - could be a second Orange or Green Straw Hat; would be a third lightning user, possibly redundant; not a villainess or a scholar; despite traveling with the crew for a long time, didn't get a satisfying character arc in Wano and was forced to become the leader of Zou. Verdict - unlikely to join the crew proper by narrative and most patterns, but definitely set to be a returning ally in some form

Yamato - could be Orange or Green, but doesn't seem likely; Devil Fruit doesn't add up; affiliated with a villain but never actually one himself, heavily debatable if he qualifies for the female slot (I insist he does not, but that's up to Oda, not the fans); definitely not a scholar; currently journeying through Wano and inadvertently recruited Ulti and Page One and seeming to start his own crew. Verdict - unlikely to join the crew proper, but likely to become a Fleet Captain

Tama - could be Green, definitely not Purple; Devil Fruit doesn't add up; not a Scholarly Villainess; strong relationship with Luffy, showed how she would fit in at Onigashima; dream left unresolved as of the end of Wano, but implied to be forthcoming. Verdict - viable but unlikely, most likely to join Yamato's burgeoning crew

Monet - would be Green; would only slightly overlap with Brook's ice but has enough to make her distinct; scholarly interest in astronomy; Devil Fruit may add up; may not need to be the second New World recruit anymore; still absent from story - needs to be reintroduced properly, but has enough hints to suggest her return and role. Verdict - extremely likely by patterns and fit...buuut not by the current narrative...

Bonney - could be Green, definitely not Pink or Purple; Devil Fruit doesn't add up; not a Scholarly Villainess; strong relationship with Luffy, showed how she would fit in at Egghead; still present at Elbaf, feasible to continue contributing, but might stay with Kuma. Verdict - likely by narrative, but not a guarantee

Bellamy - could have been the Magenta Straw Hat thanks to his tattoos, but definitely isn't now, and has no viable alternate colors as of yet; Devil Fruit doesn't add up; could have been the Leader of Men, but has near certainly lost it to Jinbe; foreshadowed to rejoin Luffy as a subordinate someday - dreams of making flags for Luffy. Verdict - very unlikely by patterns, but still at least somewhat viable by narrative, though more likely to join the Grand Fleet

Space Pirate - could be Orange, definitely not Magenta; little chance of overlap with other crewmates, though we don't know enough about any of them yet; probably won't have a Devil Fruit; would definitely be invited by virtue of novelty; would likely be met either aboard a spacecraft or on the moon, setting them up as the Gentleman Pervert. Verdict - viable, but we'd have to actually be formally introduced to a specific member first

In short...aside from the fact that Loki's inclusion has allowed me to keep harping on about this topic when I thought it was dead, very little has actually changed!!

Most of them were determined by their current role in the narrative rather than by how Loki affected the patterns, with only Bellamy's patterns being unilaterally dashed (though his Devil Fruit could be saved by Loki)

Of course, my main concern was whether he helped or hurt Monet, and as far as I'm concerned, he helped a ton! Overlap? Dead! Alphabet? Dead! Color? Alive! Gender? Alive, but less strict! Devil Fruit? Potentially a non-issue!

I'm in no way saying that this is proof that Monet is going to come back and join, but honestly, I'm just glad to know she's still in the running. So many of those patterns felt like a weight on my shoulders, hoops I had to jump through to prove that she still had even a sliver of a chance, but now they've just....vanished

I don't feel like I need to fulfill a thousand disparate and arbitrary conditions to justify having hope anymore, I just feel...free. Free to point out fun parallels and trivia without needing to account for every possible angle. And even if someone points out an angle I didn't account for, it doesn't feel like I need to fight against it with everything I have anymore. I can just breathe, safe in the knowledge that Oda will do whatever he wants with his story without being beholden to the observations fans always assumed were a meticulously laid out trail of breadcrumbs

But what do you think? Are you glad to see so many patterns be debunked, or did that hurt your faves' chances?

Todaybor Day is Monet-bor Day!!!

For the second time this year, I've forced myself to try my hand at drawing and actually been quite happy with the results!

I debated making her harpy feathers black instead of giving her wings on her back, but I just loved the idea of her having four wings. Plus, despite being confirmed mobile, it's still to be determined if they're actually functional, so I didn't want to risk making her flightless

Since Vegapunk can't replicate Logia abilities yet, I considered having S-Harpy's Green Blood carry the lineage factors of Pell's Bird-Bird Fruit, Model: Falcon (since the World Government would likely have access to his DNA as a member of an allied nation), but I decided it against it for two reasons:

That would mean S-Harpy definitely would only have two wings, as King's wings disappear when he's in his full and hybrid Zoan forms

If Hogback was able to graft a lion's mouth, elephant skin, etc. onto Absalom, Vegapunk can definitely give a Giant child functional wings. Frankly, I don't know why he hasn't already

Vegapunk's perfectionism also wouldn't allow him to completely preclude the opportunity to give her ice powers of some kind. While there's currently only one known Paramecia with cold- or ice-based abilities (a secondary power of the Revive-Revive Fruit), the sheer range of Fruits makes it very likely that there's at least one somewhere that would work

I would go with something to the effect of either a Freeze-Freeze Fruit (Kou-Kou no Mi) that robs targets of heat or a Flake-Flake Fruit (Chira-Chira Fruit) that produces snowflakes, though I do wonder how those would interact with her Lunarian flames

If anyone has their own take on this design, please let me know, I'd love to see them!