Well keep in mind it's a shounen. It's meant for teenagers. Look at all of those CW shows.
That makes sense when i think about it. To us long time readers 2 years doesnt make that much a difference so it is easy for me to say "just make her 18 damn it", but to the kids, the 13-16 year olds that read this that 2 years makes a huge difference. It takes the princess from being the sophomore girl in school they have a crush on, to being an actual adult with a job and car.
I see your point, makes sense.
True, but would you accept to see BM have underlings around Don Krieg's level of power - or around Perospero/Jack/Katakuri? It just wouldn't fit the story or fulfill the story-needs. The story demands obstacles for our heroes to clear - or it will fall flat - and these need to steadily increase in problem level, be it strength or tactical difficulty.
Exception to this rule would be characters with unique powers useful outside of combat, like Sugar.
That being said, I think it's a real problem that Brook, Nami and Chopper are held off Big Mom the way that they did - with regards to the comparison their future opponents will need to face. Brook had a tussle with BM twice and survived to tell the tale (first one was debatable, during the second he performed admirable feats like blitzing her and cutting Zeus in half). His next opponent now needs to be more of a threat then Big Mom in order to take him/her seriously or he/she will pale in comparison and the match-up will end up boring (because he already fared alright in the face of a yonkou so to speak).
No that would be weird, which is why we gave bobbin so much crap.
And normally we would just accept the strong crew members because the weak crew members get killed off. But in BM's family, except snacks, there isnt any evidence of weak crew members getting killed off. Sons 1-4 are present. So are most daughters.
Ya i agree bm getting held back the way she did was stupid. Oda kinda had himself in a corner but he should of thought of a way out of it aside from jimbe and brook fighting bm.
What oda should of done is had jimbe yell "everyone hold your breath" then pull the whole ship under water.
Unless oda honestly wanted to show how the nami brook jimbe and chopper team is emperor level.