What really drives me crazy about Brook's Shuri flashback is that there are still gaps in Brook's life. Two gaps, enough space for TWO MORE flashbacks!
Before Reuven met him, regarding his homeless family.
After Shuri stabbed him, when he met Yorki.
As far as the latter one goes, it wasn't lost on me that Brook still had friends and soldiers around him when he woke up. And none of them looked like members of the Rumbar Pirates we've seen before. Meaning it's possible there's another story there, and that Brook lost everyone he knew and loved SIX TIMES!
His family when he was homeless.
The royal family in the poison fog and subsequent war.
The survivors of the war, ending with him becoming a pirate.
Yorki and half the Rumbar Pirates to disease.
The rest of the Rumbar Pirates to poisoned arrows.
The Straw Hats at Sabaody to Kuma.
When Brook starts a story about his life, 90% of the time it'll end with "and then they all died, and I survived".
Just more evidence for the theory that Brook's current state is effective immortality, and when all the other Straw Hats are dead of old age in the far future, he'll be the last one remaining. Just like he always is. Man is cursed.
i literally refuse to believe Brook's fruit makes him immortal. not for lack of any evidence. but just to give the poor bastard a break
i do sort of assume some of those soldiers must've become the rumbar pirates. maybe not all the soldiers and maybe not all the pirates, but some amount forming some amount of the crew... the music-loving soldiers become a music-loving pirates. that would mean Brook held onto the soldiers who followed and cared for him and, possibly, grew up and trained alongside him, for just a bit longer. i don't know if that's better or worse, but the idea is interesting to think about. especially with the fact Brook was the convoy captain and not the pirate captain.... yorki as a solider who saw the despair his fellow countrymen had fallen into and starting a crew to give them direction.... inviting Brook, a trusted captain who always wanted to take to the sea, to be his first mate........ trying to lift their spirits and give them something new to hope for and someone new to follow after all was lost............ can you guys see my vision
