I wonder if when Big Mom sends one of her children that works as a minister of Tottland to a mission, like the ones that went to Wano with Big Mom, or absent for another reason, like Lola's case, some no-minister child do their work until the minister come back.
Good question, friend! ✨ Let's talk logistics 🤓
Indeed, Minister spots could be empty pretty often. Being both in charge of islands and in a Yonko crew, siblings could at times be forced to leave their work to someone else for a prolonged period of time. Since even a 15 year old (Flampe) was allowed to be a minister, the work itself probably isn't incredibly essential; rather,it mostly has to do with (a) delegating tasks to lower officials, (b) making sure that the island delivers its due foods and soul taxes to Whole Cake on time, and (c) proposing innovations/repairing damages where necessary.
With the job being dependent not just on one person's continuous activity but rather on a successful management of a network of employees, taking care of an island doesn't take a lot of time, especially if one only wishes to do the bare minimum. Still, it's certainly important to have a replacement authority for the time of a minister's absence! Even if they check in on the islands rarely, better this than nothing.
As we see it, the responsibility for appointing someone in their place, as a temporary replacement, is on each individual minister. Once Big Mom has already distributed islands to their original ministers, she herself doesn't care too much - as long as the job is done, as long as she gets the food and soul fragments from an island's population, literally anyone could be in charge of the island and she wouldn't even notice. On the flip side, if something goes wrong, the original minister will be blamed most often instead of their replacement!
Those that temporarily perform ministerial tasks, thus, must be well-chosen. In practice this means that
- many ministers ask other ministers to keep an eye on their island due to their experience;
- some ministers choose the siblings they trust most (their twins or favorite siblings, for instance) to replace them;
- only select few risk giving ministerial work to someone without minister experience.
For example, let's consider the potential subsitutes of some of the ministers on the Wano team!
Daifuku probably just asked Oven to be on a lookout. His brother is someone he trusts but also someone responsible, who knows exactly what being a minister entails. Smoothie asked her triplet sisters; they might lack the experience but her trust in them is absolute. Flampe, being Flampe, likely forgot to ask anyone; her poor advisors and officials have to manage themselves for the time being. Different yet, Perospero could have asked Brulee, not as someone who'd necessarily be a great leader, but as someone who'll definitely ask him about any serious decision plus a logical choice which lets him get live mirror reports from his island whenever.
On a sidenote, Pudding, now taking care of Cacao Island, probably was asked to do so by Lola too! When her sister was departing, she said goodbye to Pudding and likely offered her to take up her spot while she’s away: which would, of course, turn out to be forever.
Thank you for the ask! 💕 Hope you enjoyed this bunch of headcanons ✨
