Thinking about how Buggy would still lose in life even if Roger had lived.
Roger survives his illness and everyone is happy but that doesn’t exactly mean Buggy’s lackluster treatment as a second to Shanks would stop. Then Roger surviving means Rouge probably would have survived and they would have raised Ace together fully thrusting Buggy into a middle child position.
Without Roger dying Shanks and Buggy would also never have their separation in the rain so Buggy probably would have ended up as Shanks’s “Co-Captain” but everyone treats Buggy like a second in command regardless. So now Buggy’s just trapped in a position he doesn’t really care for and never achieves dreams of his own forever overshadowed by Shanks.
He really just starts to wither away in such an odd sense that he’s still there and still important for everything to function but he’s not really needed in a social sense. Slowly becoming someone who goes through the motions than anything and watches as his family grows around him with more kids full of promise than he ever was.
Be nice if a strong blond marine who found himself in a similar predicament recruited Buggy to help him take down his crazy ass brother lol 🤷