Conclusion
The ten Pillars are the BEST way to approach the potential for a new candidate. At least I didn't find another way hehe.. You can't just say "this character is interesting, they will surely join" or "this character gives lore dump, I hope they will join" or "this character has a dream and a backstory , so they are perfect", its too unprecise. A character joining the crew in One Piece will always check a large number of those pillars.
So, if you think that those parameters are coming in the story, you might be on the verge of discovering the next strawhat.
A little remark Let me just give you a little remarks about what I didn't add to this result, because I can already here some voice screaming in the night:
- Panel time/Plot revelance: I consider that the panel time is not a relevant parameter to analysis the future of a potential candidate to the crew. Indeed, there are reasons to think that Oda could willingly hide a character just to surprise us on his importance later. So that paramater can't be taken into account.
From 1 to 10, why this order ?
Each pillar will get the number of point corresponding to its number. The 10th Pillar will get 10 points etc. But why this order and not another one ? Well, like I said, there are pillar that are more important than others. The fighting skill is far less important than a strong character arc for example.
Let's recap the PILLARS and their pourcentage:
The Antagonistic introduction. 3%
The Multi layered characterization. 5%
The Symbolic reach. 8%
A Strong character arc. 9%
Hint of the 2 driving forces. 10%
The Rescue. 11%
A Tragedy. 12%
The Double Nakama link. 13%
The Post. 14%
The Shining Nakama Action. 15%
Antagonistic Introduction - The antagonistic introduction is interesting but it is very common
Multi layered characterization - This is the basic of characterization so it will be before all the big narrative pillars
Symbolic reach (4 layers) - We are starting to see something that is quite uncommon in term of narration and symbolism. I therefore put this pillar above the multi layered characterization
Strong character arc - Now we are entering narrative principle. The strong character arc is something just a few character have. So its place is above the symbolic reach
Hints of two driving forces (Needs / Dream or Desire) - At last we are entering nakama territory with something only very few characters and the strawhats have.
The Rescue - This link the character to Luffy and the strawhats.
A tragedy - This is something that happens only to a few people in the story.
The Double Nakama link - We are in the hidden part of the nakama iceberg. The part related to Luffy. It will be above the rescue as the double Nakama link as far as now has only been expressed by a few people
The Post - We are leaving the narrative territory to focus on the Sunny. Only 11 characters has depicted an ability for a post as of now. So this pillar is above almost everything
Shining nakama action - This is the icing. Its related to the post, so it absolutely needs to be on top of it. This is the parameter that transforms the character into a real shonen protagonist.