The two most common theories about Yamato is that she’ll either join the Straw Hats or stay behind in Wano to protect it. I’ll discuss why I think the latter option is incredibly unlikely.
Point 1: Emotional investment
It’s already been established that Yamato’s dream is to go out on the sea and have freedom and adventures. She has never been portrayed as wrong or foolish for wanting this (unlike her obsession with becoming Oden), and it’s pretty clear this is what Oda wants us to be emotionally invested in. We want Yamato to succeed in winning freedom from her father and going out to sea. Having her just stay behind in Wano would essentially rob the emotional catharsis of that event.
Point 2: It isn’t just an Oden thing
I’ve seen several people assume that Yamato only wants to become a pirate because Oden was one. Because it seems her character arc will be learning to stop imitating Oden and be her own person, I’ve seen several people assume that her dreams of adventure on the seas are a part of this and she should drop them. I think this is a fundamental misunderstanding of Yamato’s desire to be Oden. Yamato doesn’t want to have adventures because that’s what Oden did, she wants to be Oden because he had adventures. Oden represents to Yamato the ideals of freedom and honour she values. In the Ace flashback her excitement over learning about the Worst Generation and her admiration of Luffy for having the same dream as Gol D. Roger also shows she has a general interest in pirate adventures beyond just Oden’s.
She chose to latch onto Oden specifically because she witnessed his death and read his journal. If Yamato somehow was in Loguetown at the time of Roger’s execution and somehow found his diary, I could easily see that timelines version of Yamato deciding she should become Roger instead.
Point 3: Wano doesn’t need a guardian
This is the big one. Okay, so here’s a good example. Fishman Island. That place was so weak it was nearly conquered by freaking Hordy Jones of all people. The only real super-strong person there to defend it was Jinbe. When Jinbe was asked to join the Straw Hats at the end, nobody said “but Fishman Island needs its strongest warrior to protect it”. Now Wano has a lot more powerful fighters than Fishman Island. Fishman Island was threatened by Hordy Jones, who was ultimately a weakling in the grand scheme of things. Wano was conquered by Kaido, literally the World’s Strongest Creature, and even he had to be underhanded about it by having Orochi invite him in and tricking Oden into wasting his time dancing while the Beast Pirates grew in strength.
In addition to all the strong fighters who are already native to Wano, we have to keep in mind that Wano will probably become Luffy’s territory and be under his protection, just like he said he would do with Fishman Island. So if Yamato wants to protect Wano, she could just do it as part of the Straw Hat Pirates.
Am I saying Yamato for Straw Hat confirmed? No. Even though that’s where I think the story is headed (and I would like to remind everyone who thinks that “its too obvious” and the hints are just red herrings that for 80% of the crewmates we knew really quickly that they’d be joining the crew by the end of the arc), I fully acknowledge there are a variety of possible situations where Yamato ends up leaving Wano without joining the Straw Hats.
*by Dreadnautilus
