can i just say i really reject the take that i've seen come up every now and then that the revolutionary army is raising child soldiers?
firstly, the revolutionary army did not recruit sabo. dragon rescued sabo from certain death, and then when they voiced the idea of returning him to his parents, sabo cried and begged them to not send him back. he explicitly (per SBS 80) chose to join the rev army because he agreed with their ideals, not because they "recruited" him.
the scene where sabo is training with other children? that's not canon. that's anime filler. oda wrote some notes on the script, but we don't really know which exact bits he suggested and which he didn't. sabo and koala are the only characters we see taken in by the revolutionary army as children in canon. we do know that sabo and koala learned to fight at a young age, but frankly i don't believe that "choosing to learn karate in a controlled environment" is tantamount to being raised as a child soldier (or else i guess i was raised as a child soldier too). and there is no canonical scene that shows a child taking part in missions outside of the rev army base.
in general, not everyone who is a part of the revolutionary army is expected/made to be a soldier anyway. they are also an intelligence-gathering organization. just because they sometimes rescue enslaved people and those enslaved people sometimes include orphans and children doesn't mean those people are automatically being made to fight. the revolutionary army is all about empowering people to make their own choices for themselves. that's their entire thing.
the revolutionary army was also in some ways founded by children. dragon, kuma, ivankov and ginny were all under 18 when they first recognized the wrongs around them and wanted to fight back. i think it'd be hypocritical of them to turn away all young people who want to be a part of their organization. i do think they have a duty to those children, but it's also important to remember that one piece isn't set on earth, it's set in a post-apocalyptic authoritarian dystopia. the government is a very real threat to these people and they need to be able to defend themselves, regardless of age.
many members of the revolutionary army were previously enslaved, oppressed, and/or physically harmed by the world government. they can't just forget that, whether they're children or not. if they want to fight back and protect themselves and the revolutionary army provides them a safe environment to learn how to do so....i think that's good, actually?
the rev army isn't indoctrinating anyone. they rescue people (or empower them to rescue themselves), they tell them the truth about the world, and then allow them to choose what to do with that information. sometimes, those people may be children and they may choose to learn to fight for their shared cause.
that is NOTHING like the world government brainwashing trafficked children to serve as marines or cypher pol agents, and there is no evidence that the RA is intentionally or systematically seeking to create child soldiers.
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