User blog comment:Plainblack/Trouble In Paradise? The Strawhats Are Too Weak!/@comment-5640399-20121119193625

I don't think Luffy would ever just recruit people without knowing them, but it's not like he has an interviewing process!! He just asks, then insists, then get one brand-spanking new nakama!! That's the trend! I think he'll just step it up a notch and these new nakama will just happen to be captains with whole crews behind them. I think that, if he is going to start claiming islands, and I think that would be totally in character for him, then he needs a large group of allies to defend his territory! The New World spans HALF THE WORLD!! The Sunny can't just pop round them all every now and then to make sure no ones invaded, and Luffy's name doesn't have the clout to scare of enemies, especially not people like Kidd and Drake, who would see it as a challenge! I do sort of think, or perhaps hope is the right word, that Oda introduced the Supernovas early on to forshadow the emergence of a new Yonkou, a crew possessing some of these faces, and their crews. With that kind of back up I can see Luffy going up against a Yonkou, and I think with the emergence of this Kidd/Apoo/Hawkins alliance, there's evidence that the Supernovas have realised they can't just wing it on their own here, so they may decide to deal and fight it out later to see who is the true Capitano!!

I also don't want the Strawhats facing crews of lesser warriors, I want opponents like the CP-9, where they nearly dying fighting all out, maybe even forcing some of the weaker members to grow stronger, like Luffy and Marineford. I don't want the New World to be easy, we've waited so long, and these are the best in the world, I want action!!

Finally, I think that Shank's flagship was, just that, a flagship. He must have pirates under him, or he too would be unable to protect the territory we can assume he has. I realise these are assumptions on my part, but I feel they're sensible.