[quote name='Rah']Isn't Jinbei an overly obvious choice? I want some unpredictability. I'd go with Crocodile or that slippery guy, who was locked in the barrel. That would be more interesting than having someone who we already know all too well. Jinbei is a cool guy, he'd probably follow Luffy's orders by the letter and all, but... well, I don't see what would he have to contribute to the team.
Wait, let's think about this. Luffy had a plan. He needed a navigator, chef, carpenter, overlook, musician, etc...
What's next on the list? The crazy drunk? I honestly want to see another ability user joining them, or somebody with some sneaky agenda, but that's loyal nonetheless... or is a total goofball.. ahaha... as if we don't have enough of those already.
Hrmmm, but come to think of it, didn't that slippery guy already do something bad? Hrmm, IDK if people with *bad* criminal records can join in the group. But wait, Jinbei has killed his fair share of humans as well, right?
...Ah, we'll see...
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It may be overly obvious but that in itself can be an unpredictability because up till now we have seen nothing but unpredictability from Oda.
As for uses, i think Jimbei being one of the strongest people ever underwater (he's 10x more powerful underwater) is a huge advantage to the strawhats especially when nearly half the crew is DF users.
Look, jimbei pretty much meets all the requirements
-former captain
-strong
-fishman/merman
-has good fighting abilities underwater
plus in those anime fillers where it showed the other nakama's situation, JIMBEI not anyone else was the one shown talking to Luffy just before it cuts to the scene of the first nakama. Also during this time, the endings after the war to all the others on board were shown except for Jimbei, leaving some ambiguity as to where he's gonna go/ stay.
And if you take a look at this
http://www.wretch.cc/album/show.php?i=dddlbbb&b=2&f=1731221699&p=7
http://www.wretch.cc/album/show.php?i=dddlbbb&b=2&f=1731221700&p=8
note how only the strawhats are in gold? Hint perhaps?