
Originally Posted by
.access timeco.
You know, it's funny how we are constantly making up reasons to decide ourselves why a character definitely can't join (too boring, too young, too nami clone, too blonde), all subjective, while completely overlooking the fact Jinbe has been around for 10 years, been a major character in 4 arcs, and we still don't know the most basic thing about him as a SH: what his dream is.
Among all the made up criteria we come up with, there is only one thing that is, beyond a doubt, a box every SH must check at some point (having their unique dream that is their drive force). And Jinbe never really checked that one.
I mean, we suppose his dream is the peaceful coexistence of fishmen/merfolk with humans because that was Fisher Tiger's dream and that was Otohime's dream and pretty much every fishman wants that now so that must be his dream as well... right!? It is worth of note the only reason why we think that's his dream is because his background lacks any other possible one, not because he has shown a strong desire to see this one coming true. In fact, Otohime kids are portrayed as the real ones trying to make that dream come true, not him (after all, how exactly being on the Pirate King crew would work in that sense?).
Jinbe must have his own dream we'll find out at some point, but at this moment, after so many years, he still seems to lack any kind of strong motivation rather than "showing gratitude to whomever". We already had two arcs to present and develop him, one arc on his homeland with a huge flashback, another arc with him cutting his last ties... and we are still on the dark here. If we held him by the same standards we do the other characters, we would be saying "if Oda wanted him to have a strong dream, he would have done it by now".
I am not saying Jinbe is not joining, obviously. Nobody in their right mind would be doing that at this point, just pointing out how the double standard is heavy here. With him, we can understand Oda is not necessarily bound by a certain way of doing things and may take his time to get somewhere if he wants to go there, but if we are not already 100% certain of the fact he is going there, suddenly we throw away any semblance of understanding.