I totally agree with you that marineford worked better without the strawhats!! If they were there I also think the whole timeskip and the reasoning behind it just...wouldn't have worked nor been very powerful. The timeskip was a result of not only losing Ace but Luffy failing to save his friends as well and that ultimately crushed him that he had no choice. He still would have been upset about Ace if they were there but yeah :// they probably would have gone to the nw and got their asses kicked
Exactly! Marineford (and Sabaody) showed how unprepared Luffy (and the crew) where for the new world. While Luffy was instrumental part of the summit he was also close to actually dying at so many moments. If hadn’t been for the combined efforts of Jinbe and Iva he would probably have died. Luffy the strongest member of the crew almost died like three times imagine what would have happened if some of the less fighting oriented members of the crew would have been there.
I also feel like the impact of would have been a bit dampened. He has been defeated and separated from his firends yet he manages gain the respect of characters like Jinbe, Whitebeard and Mihawk. Marineford showed us exactly why Luffy was capable of even at his lowest. He may not be strong enough to defeat everyone and while he didn’t succeed in saving Ace (😞) he was able to gain the allies that he needed to be able to fight on the same battlefield as people like Boa Hancock and Kuzan and survive.
Luffys strongest asset isn’t his fighting capabilities it’s his ability to make allies no matter where he is.
(idk how to end this :/ and this got a bit rambly but yeah neither Marineford nor the aftermath of it would have worked as well as it did if the rest of the straw-hats would have been there.)
+ We wouldn’t have had as much time to develop Jinbe and the ensuing relationship that he forms with Luffy during the course of both Impel Down, Marineford and the aftermath of it.