Quote Originally Posted by DarthEnder View Post
Except Oda MAKES it about them when he keeps having those same characters interfere with Luffy over and over again. If they didn't matter, then they wouldn't keep showing up. But Oda keeps going out of his way to go "HEY! DON'T FORGET ALL THESE GUYS ARE HERE TOO!!" "HEY! CROCODILE FANS! I'M GONNA HAVE HIM SAVE ACE NOW EVEN THOUGH HE WAS FIGHTING LIKE 5 OTHER PEOPLE!! NO I DON'T KNOW WHERE THOSE OTHER 5 PEOPLE WENT!!"

It's like having a character in an exploding building, and then having him show up later fine and never bothering to explain how he survived the explosion.
They "matter" when they show up, because the vast majority of the time them showing up means they are interacting with Luffy in some way. Do you really want the story to constantly follow every single supporting character on the battlefield? This arc could easily be 3 times as long if it did so.