Woo....well it was a long 2 weeks...but I finally caught up! Pretty insane stuff, although, much like practically every other big fight Luffy's been in, the one with Lucci started to drag a little too long for me. Also, I couldn't bring myself to sympathize with the devastation of the buster call from Robin's flashback, and it wasn't until there were 9 battleships completely surrounding the bridge in Enies Lobby that I felt any sense of intimidation from it.

For a while it was a toss-up for me as to whether Paulie or Frankie will ultimately join the crew as Luffy's carpenter. Both have enough personality to allow for amusing recurring interactions with the rest of the crew, and both have unique fighting skills to contribute to the cause. Both are also very capable carpenters.

I'd have to say though, neither of them has yet expressed any particular dreams that they could accomplish by following Luffy, which also seems to be an important deciding factor in each of Luffy's nakama. In addition to that, there has to be a willingness to leave their home town, but both of them have strong bonds with others from Water 7...especially Frankie.

During the later half of the Enies Lobby arc though, Frankie played a much bigger role than Paulie did, and now he's responsible for the new ship. For these reasons I'm inclined to lean more towards him as being the new nakama.

HOWEVER....just like with the Arlong arc, this arc could have just been dedicated to the recovery (and formalized acceptance) of a previously acquired nakama, and maybe the ship will be badass enough that Luffy's crew won't need a carpenter with them at all.