Let alone two?
Are the Sanji vs King and Queen people serious? Is this some elaborate shitpost I'm missing out on? Is this coping because Sanji hasn't defeated a significant combatant solo in the New World?
I'm pretty flabbergasted. Luffy defeating Linlin in WCI seemed to have more going for it than Sanji taking down both Calamities.
Disclaimer
I don't actually hate Sanji and I'm annoyed at Sanji bashing. This is me being (perhaps brutally) honest.
As usual, I tag a lot of people for my posts. If you want to be removed from my tag lists, let me know. Likewise, if you want to be added.
Introduction
Leaving aside Sanji taking down both Calamities, I'm not confident that Sanji will defeat any Calamity solo. I have been expecting Sanji to do this for a while, but I think it's time I reevaluate. There are three broad reasons I'm losing confidence in Sanji soloing a calamity:
Increased Scepticism of the Meta Narrative
Powerscaling Might Actually Matter?
Viability of a Solo Matchup
Conclusions
At this point, I do not foresee the story following developments that would permit Sanji to defeat Queen solo.
Summary
To summarise what I've said above:
Are the Sanji vs King and Queen people serious? Is this some elaborate shitpost I'm missing out on? Is this coping because Sanji hasn't defeated a significant combatant solo in the New World?
I'm pretty flabbergasted. Luffy defeating Linlin in WCI seemed to have more going for it than Sanji taking down both Calamities.
Disclaimer
I don't actually hate Sanji and I'm annoyed at Sanji bashing. This is me being (perhaps brutally) honest.
As usual, I tag a lot of people for my posts. If you want to be removed from my tag lists, let me know. Likewise, if you want to be added.
Introduction
Leaving aside Sanji taking down both Calamities, I'm not confident that Sanji will defeat any Calamity solo. I have been expecting Sanji to do this for a while, but I think it's time I reevaluate. There are three broad reasons I'm losing confidence in Sanji soloing a calamity:
- Increased scepticism of the meta-narrative
- Powerscaling might actually matter?
- Viability of a solo matchup given the events of the Live Floor
Increased Scepticism of the Meta Narrative
There's the traditional argument that Sanji will solo a Calamity (presumably Queen) because Queen feels the template of Sanji's traditional opponent:
I agree that Queen is Sanji's presumptive opponent. However, recent events have undermined my confidence in Sanji defeating Queen solo.
Particularly:
Meta/pattern-based arguments are looking less credible to me seeing as Oda appears to have consistently defied such patterns.
Nami vs Ulti in particular is very stark:
Nami had far more buildup with Ulti as her opponent than Sanji does with either of the Calamities:
If Oda is willing to prevent Nami from taking down Ulti by herself despite the extensive build-up for Nami vs Ulti, then I don't think the superficial setup for Sanji vs Queen/King is sufficient to grant Sanji a solo victory.
The same argument that predicts Sanji soloing Queen also predicted:
- He's a bit goofy.
- Both love women (particularly Komurasaki)
- He has a rivalry with Zoro's presumptive opponent (King).
- He knows Sanji's father and addressed Sanji as "Judge's Son".
- He mentioned the need to take down the Strawhats' strongest combatants.
- He's the one that sent the Tobi Roppo after Sanji.
I agree that Queen is Sanji's presumptive opponent. However, recent events have undermined my confidence in Sanji defeating Queen solo.
Particularly:
- Oda had Linlin defeat Usopp's presumptive opponent (Pay Pay).
- Oda had Linlin defeat Nami's presumptive opponent (Ulti).
- Oda had Carrot lose to her presumptive opponent (Perospero) and seems to have entirely discarded the opportunity for her to get vindicated in a rematch, instead of setting up someone else (Nekomamushi) to defeat them.
Meta/pattern-based arguments are looking less credible to me seeing as Oda appears to have consistently defied such patterns.
Nami vs Ulti in particular is very stark:
Nami had far more buildup with Ulti as her opponent than Sanji does with either of the Calamities:
- Ulti defeated her already.
- While Ulti was threatening her she declared that Luffy will not stop until he becomes Pirate King.
- Ulti spent a while chasing her.
- She struck down Ulti with her lightning (twice).
- Ulti hurt Tama
- She vowed that she will defeat Ulti.
- She resolved herself to stop running and challenged Ulti head on.
If Oda is willing to prevent Nami from taking down Ulti by herself despite the extensive build-up for Nami vs Ulti, then I don't think the superficial setup for Sanji vs Queen/King is sufficient to grant Sanji a solo victory.
The same argument that predicts Sanji soloing Queen also predicted:
- Usopp soloing Page One
- Nami soloing Ulti
- Carrot defeating Perospero
- Zoro never fighting Kaido
- Zoro soloing King
- In fairness, this might still happen.
Powerscaling Might Actually Matter?
Here I take my L. I've long been an advocate that narrative trumps powerscaling, and characters will become as strong as Oda needs them to be for the narrative. Well, I took a big fat L here:
By his current showings, Sanji is not strong enough to defeat Queen even when wearing the Raid Suit.
Sanji's best showings with the Raid Suit is failing to even damage a Tobi Roppo:
And being able to withstand an attack from one:
Sanji has nothing suggesting he's actually strong enough to defeat Queen. Before I didn't think that matters because I thought the narrative trumps powerscaling, but now I think powerscaling matters.
As far as powerscaling goes, Sanji has an absolutely horrendous track record in the New World:
Sanji's last solo victory against a significant opponent of note was pretimeskip. His combat ability presentation today has not been good. If powerscaling actually matters β if the narrative does not trump it β then I have no reason to believe that Sanji is strong enough to defeat Queen.
- Carrot was not strong enough to defeat Perospero and so she lost.
- Someone that's actually strong enough (Nekomamushi) is facing Perospero instead.
- Usopp was not strong enough to defeat Pay Pay and so Linlin defeated (or at least significantly nerfed) him.
- Nami was not strong enough to defeat Ulti and so Linlin defeated (or at least significantly nerfed) her.
By his current showings, Sanji is not strong enough to defeat Queen even when wearing the Raid Suit.
Sanji's best showings with the Raid Suit is failing to even damage a Tobi Roppo:
And being able to withstand an attack from one:
Sanji has nothing suggesting he's actually strong enough to defeat Queen. Before I didn't think that matters because I thought the narrative trumps powerscaling, but now I think powerscaling matters.
As far as powerscaling goes, Sanji has an absolutely horrendous track record in the New World:
- He teamed up with Jimbe to take down Wadatsumi
- He was treated by fodder like Law at Punk Hazard
- He was on the back foot against a Vergo that was massively holding back
- He wasn't using his Bamboo (his main weapon)
- He wasn't using hardening
- He didn't appear to be using Rokushiki techniques (bar possibly Tekkai)
- He was fodderised by Doflamingo
- He defeats Sheepshead together with Brook
- Even then, Sheepshead is a fodder headliner
- He failed to defeat Judge
- Or even be depicted as stronger than him
- He was never demonstrated to be above all his siblings
- At the end of WCI, Niji still had to save him and mocked him for being way too slow.
- He did not defeat any of the Charlotte siblings in WCI
- He failed to defeat Page One even with his Raid Suit power-up
- Page One has been portrayed as the weakest of the Tobi Roppo
Sanji's last solo victory against a significant opponent of note was pretimeskip. His combat ability presentation today has not been good. If powerscaling actually matters β if the narrative does not trump it β then I have no reason to believe that Sanji is strong enough to defeat Queen.
Viability of a Solo Matchup
Leaving aside the narrative and powerscaling counterarguments, I'm not sure the story actually allows Sanji to have a solo battle against any of the Calamities.
On the Alliance's side, we'll have:
On the Beast Pirates side, we'll have:
I'll try and present the best-case scenario for Sanji:
This still leaves at least Sanji and Kawamatsu to take on Queen.
And honestly speaking, I don't expect this to be how it shakes out. For entirely separate reasons, I doubt Zoro β even a brutally injured Zoro β would tag-team a swordsman with another one. FIghting despite injuries that would cripple anyone else is his entire shtick.
Exhibit A:
Exhibit B:
Exhibit C:
There may be others, but this isn't supposed to be a Zoro thread, so I'll stop here for now.
I also don't think Drake will fight Apoo. Queen backstabbing and discarding Apoo was really highlighted, and I got the impression that Apoo was reconsidering his entire allegiance to the Beast Pirates:
So I'm actually expecting Sanji to face Queen alongside some combination of (Drake, Kawamatsu and Izo).
Perhaps I'm wrong on Zoro and he'll face King with backup from Izo, and I'm wrong on Apoo and he'll face Drake, but that still leaves Kawamatsu unaccounted for. Ultimately, I don't think there's a viable configuration of matchups on the Live Floor that permits Sanji to defeat Queen solo.
I expect Sanji to land the last hit, and maybe his support would be defeated along the way and the match would end in a 1 vs 1. I can see a Doflamingo vs Luffy and Law situation being plausible. That still isn't a solo match though.
On the Alliance's side, we'll have:
- Zoro
- Marco
- Sanji
- Nekomamushi
- Drake
- Hyougoro
- Kawamatsu
- Izo
- Chopper
- The Yakuza Bosses
On the Beast Pirates side, we'll have:
- King
- Queen
- Perospero
- Apoo
- He might defect or even go solo
I'll try and present the best-case scenario for Sanji:
- Hyougoro and the Yakuza bosses deal with fodder or recover.
- They don't fight anyone of note.
- Nekomamushi fights Perospero
- Chopper treats Zoro
- Drake fights Apoo
- Marco (or Zoro + Izo) deal with King
This still leaves at least Sanji and Kawamatsu to take on Queen.
And honestly speaking, I don't expect this to be how it shakes out. For entirely separate reasons, I doubt Zoro β even a brutally injured Zoro β would tag-team a swordsman with another one. FIghting despite injuries that would cripple anyone else is his entire shtick.
Exhibit A:
Exhibit B:
Exhibit C:
There may be others, but this isn't supposed to be a Zoro thread, so I'll stop here for now.
I also don't think Drake will fight Apoo. Queen backstabbing and discarding Apoo was really highlighted, and I got the impression that Apoo was reconsidering his entire allegiance to the Beast Pirates:
So I'm actually expecting Sanji to face Queen alongside some combination of (Drake, Kawamatsu and Izo).
Perhaps I'm wrong on Zoro and he'll face King with backup from Izo, and I'm wrong on Apoo and he'll face Drake, but that still leaves Kawamatsu unaccounted for. Ultimately, I don't think there's a viable configuration of matchups on the Live Floor that permits Sanji to defeat Queen solo.
I expect Sanji to land the last hit, and maybe his support would be defeated along the way and the match would end in a 1 vs 1. I can see a Doflamingo vs Luffy and Law situation being plausible. That still isn't a solo match though.
Conclusions
At this point, I do not foresee the story following developments that would permit Sanji to defeat Queen solo.
Summary
To summarise what I've said above:
- The sort of narrative arguments that predict Sanji soloing a Calamity have a terrible track record
- Oda seems to actually give a damn about powerscaling
- Sanji's powerscaling portrayal does not suggest that he can handle a Calamity
- I don't think there's a viable configuration of matchups on the Live Floor that would permit Sanji a solo battle vs a Calamity.
Last edited:
