One Piece Confirms That Yamato’s Story Was Changed Last Minute

One of the biggest controversies in One Piece‘s recent history revolves around Yamato and her decision to not join the Straw Hat Pirates after the series teased the opposite for a very long time. However, chapter #1059 of the manga strongly suggests that the inconsistencies in this story are due to last-minute changes.

Yamato is the child of Kaido, the main antagonist of the Wano Arc, who betrayed his cruel father and took Luffy’s side during the raid on Onigashima, contributing to the liberation of Wano from its oppressors. After the battle, Yamato expresses her long-held desire to explore the world and seemed already set to join Luffy’s crew as the final Straw Hat, but this turned out to not be the case. When it was time to set sail, readers expected Yamato to be on the Thousand Sunny, but she preferred to stay in Wano, to explore the country and help the new Shogun Momonosuke protect it. This took readers by surprise, as shortly before Momonosuke had given Yamato her blessing to leave, but it was justified using her desire to explore the country to follow the footsteps of Oden, Momonosuke’s father who is Yamato’s idol and inspiration.

The decision and its motivation seemed rather odd, and some perceived it as a betrayal of One Piece fans’ expectations. However, chapter #1059 hints that the author Eiichiro Oda possibly changed his mind at the last minute. The chapter contains a weird and out-of-place sequence where Marco, the former commander of the Whitebeard Pirates who helped the Straw Hats in defeating Kaido, remembers how he said goodbye to Luffy before leaving Wano. In the short flashback, the Straw Hat captain is seen talking to Yamato, who is explaining to him that she decided to not join the crew because she is worried that, now that Kaido is gone, powerful enemies can set their sights on Wano, as proved by an earlier attack from Marine Admiral Ryokugyu. Yamato thus decides to stay back to protect Momonosuke and the country.

This looks like a “retcon,” used to explain Yamato’s weird decision in chapter #1057 and her even weirder motivation for it. Yamato explains that, in order to avoid hurting Momonosuke’s pride as the Shogun, she will find another reason for staying, hence the odd “I want to explore the country” bit. However, chapter #1059 has nothing to do with the Straw Hats, Wano, or Yamato, and instead focuses on the events happening on Amazon Lily, involving Boa Hancock, Blackbeard, Coby, and Silvers Rayleigh. To have Marco (who also does absolutely nothing in this chapter) have a flashback seems like a forced way to explain Yamato’s motivations.

The reason why this sequence looks so out of place is probably that it was never intended to be here. The whole “Yamato as the new Straw Hat” part of the story was possibly messed up due to a last-minute change of heart by Eiichiro Oda, who then felt the need to clarify things and close the matter once and for all in chapter #1059. Of course, this is speculation, even if Marco’s flashback remains absolutely out of place in the chapter. Only time will tell the truth about this story, but One Piece fans still have reasons to hope that Yamato will actually join the Straw Hat Pirates in the future.

One Piece #1059 is available on Viz!