This can only go two ways :
1. She does not join, in which case she can be and remain stronger than Sanji.
2. She joins, and sooner or later it becomes obvious that Sanji remains the third strongest.
Maybe the above is true, but I'm not convinced by it.
Like I believe Yamato is considerably stronger than Sanji right now and would be considerably stronger than EOS Sanji.
If you want to dissuade me of the above belief, you need to argue against it.
You can't argue: "Yamato will join the crew therefore she'll remain under Sanji". If Yamato's feats and portrayal are better than Zoro/Luffy, I will place her above them. "But captain!, but Monster Trio!" would not persuade me otherwise.
That is how little credibility I grant to those kinds of arguments.
Fandom perceptions of crew dynamics are just not how I evaluate combat ability.
There are points in the past where I have placed Zoro above Luffy. Most recently:
- Post timeskip up until WCI
- In Act 3 up until Chapter 1010
Like you need to understand that "M3 power hierarchy" is something that I've never believed in during my 6 - 8 years of reading One Piece (as evidenced by the times I placed Zoro above Luffy). It just isn't something I believe in.
I place Sanji above Jimbe because Jimbe is struggling with Who's Who, whereas I expect Sanji to solo Queen.
I do not place Sanji above Jimbe because "M3 power hierarchy".
If Yamato joins the crew, Sanji will have to unequivocally demonstrate that he's above Yamato for me to accept it.
"M3 power hierarchy" is just an argument I never believed in.
Robin had bounty higher than Luffy in Alabasta, feats against the M3 and a broken DF
Franky had an equal fight with Luffy where neither managed to get the upper hand
Jinbe had Shichibukai status that he got hyped for, higher bounty than Zoro and Sanji, as well as feats that many used to argue he's even Yonko FM level at various points
It doesn't matter how many you add to this list, if the join the crew the outcome will always be the same
I could explain why Yamato is very different for them. I could explain the many caveats to the above examples. I could explain why it's not analogous to Yamato, but like I shouldn't.
Explaining all of that wouldn't actually do anything. This is just not an argument I believe in. So like debating: "is Yamato truly analogous to Jimbe" serves no purpose.
Convincing me that Yamato is analogous to Jimbe wouldn't suddenly convince me of the "M3 power hierarchy" argument.
And I think that if I convinced you that Yamato is not analogous to any of your examples, it wouldn't dissuade you from this argument.
As I understand you, you believe that Sanji will be above Yamato because Sanji will always remain the 3rd strongest, so whether Yamato is an analogue to previous examples or not doesn't matter.
Honestly, this is very frustrating to debate.
I want to discuss the characters themselves.
Let me discuss Yamato's standing:
- Ace said she was too strong to not be the captain.
- She is a very likely conqueror (like Ace).
- She may be able to enhance her attacks with Haoshoku.
- This is an ability that "only a handful of the very strongest" possess.
- She is the only child of a Top Tier (like Ace).
- Her father has very high ambitions for her (again like Ace).
- Kaido wants to make Yamato Shogun.
- Whitebeard wants to make Ace Pirate King.
- She stalemated Ace when they fought.
- Damn, Oda is really driving home the parallels of Yamato as an Ace analogue.
- She was trained by her father to be a mighty warrior.
- Kaido taught her his techniques.
- Kaido only respects strength.
Or Yamato's feats:
- Oneshot a Tobi Roppo
- Something that Linlin used a high tier technique to achieve
- Oneshot a Number
- Something that Luffy needed G4 to achieve
- "Won" against G2/G3 Luffy
- This was while not fighting back at all
It's fucking frustrating that your response to the above is: "lol, no. M3 power hierarchy".
That's not a conversation at all.