Yamato fought a 18-19 (?) year old Ace, 3-4 (?) years ago. Depending on how strong current Sanji is compared to that Ace, and how strong current Yamato is to that Yamato, i think that will ahow their levels. I think current Yamato is stronger than Sanji, but Sanji is 21 with more years to grow, and Yamato is 28 with higher potential. So who ends up stronger later is still up for debate
Character Discussion Why do People Compare Yamato to Jimbe or Franky?
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He’s fighting Queen right now, 3rd guy up on Kaido’s crew. That’s practically enough to showcase that Oda still cares even if he has been treating Sanji horribly for the vast majority of the New World. Some new character isn’t going to break an established dynamic like that when Jinbe didn’t. Yamato is a very questionable candidate already and if she proves she’s too strong vs Kaido that’s one thing that could kill her chances then and there.
I’ve made my case about Yamato’s place in the crew already in other threads but I’ll go ahead and bring it up here as well. I also apologize for the length.
The persuasiveness is going to be carried by two things: A.) how much you personally place on SH parallels to the Roger Pirates & B.) whether you think Toei has gone completely rogue or not.
I’ve always argued that the top members of the Roger Pirates are set up as nigh perfect parallels to the top members of the SHs. It’s why I always firmly believed Zoro would develop CoC. Because Rayleigh had it. It turned out to be accurate. Now, you can say I reached the right conclusion with the wrong formula but it’s fruition all the more looks like Rayleigh = Zoro. I don’t think many will argue that Luffy has been paralleled with Roger either. So Luffy = Roger.
Gaban is the top Roger Pirate we know the least about. But his naming pattern alone points to him being the #3 of his crew before we take Oden into account. Then Roger confirmed himself that Gaban was his second best guy in Oden’s flashback recently. If you will admit Luffy = Roger and Zoro = Rayleigh, I don’t understand why you would reject Sanji = Gaban unless it’s out of an agenda. And we very much seem to think that Yamato is going to be Luffy’s Oden if she’s going to be joining the strawhats. Yamato = Oden as her parallel if she is to be a SH.
Now we get into an anime. Everyone including me fully expected Rayleigh & Oden to be rivals as VC of their individual crews. But something very odd happened in the anime during that flashback. Oden fought Scopper. Why would Toei do that? It makes no sense to me for them to have gone rogue in such a way for no gain. It would have been more hype and more logical to see Rayleigh clash with Oden. And when in doubt Toei leans toward spectacle (even when it makes less sense). So why would they choose to go with a less spectacular route? I think it’s more likely that Toei only deviated from that because of something Oda said. And if you believe that incident had Oda’s approval then I think it’s fair to say Oden is closer to Gaban during that flashback than he is to Rayleigh.
It appears Oda has always loved the concept of the monster trio, he even named Sanji after the number 3. Oden vs Gaban appears, to me at least, to be Oda’s way of protecting the sanctity of Roger’s monster trio. The anime appears to suggest Gaban ~ Oden. If this is Oda’s will then it has been done so in order for Gaban to hold his standing with the addition of Oden. So it is my conclusion that if the anime team hasn’t lost their minds Sanji ~ Yamato is what we can expect going forward.
Yamato may be stronger right now. In fact I’ve argued that she is. But it looks like long term we are getting Luffy > Zoro > Sanji ~ Yamato just as Roger > Rayleigh > Gaban ~ Oden.
So unlike Jimbe & Franky who fell behind Sanji, I think Yamato is going to be every bit his match because of her parallel to Oden. I believe Yamato will finally be the addition to break the M3 into the M4. Just as Oden appears to be the catalyst in creating a M4 for Roger.
The persuasiveness is going to be carried by two things: A.) how much you personally place on SH parallels to the Roger Pirates & B.) whether you think Toei has gone completely rogue or not.
I’ve always argued that the top members of the Roger Pirates are set up as nigh perfect parallels to the top members of the SHs. It’s why I always firmly believed Zoro would develop CoC. Because Rayleigh had it. It turned out to be accurate. Now, you can say I reached the right conclusion with the wrong formula but it’s fruition all the more looks like Rayleigh = Zoro. I don’t think many will argue that Luffy has been paralleled with Roger either. So Luffy = Roger.
Gaban is the top Roger Pirate we know the least about. But his naming pattern alone points to him being the #3 of his crew before we take Oden into account. Then Roger confirmed himself that Gaban was his second best guy in Oden’s flashback recently. If you will admit Luffy = Roger and Zoro = Rayleigh, I don’t understand why you would reject Sanji = Gaban unless it’s out of an agenda. And we very much seem to think that Yamato is going to be Luffy’s Oden if she’s going to be joining the strawhats. Yamato = Oden as her parallel if she is to be a SH.
Now we get into an anime. Everyone including me fully expected Rayleigh & Oden to be rivals as VC of their individual crews. But something very odd happened in the anime during that flashback. Oden fought Scopper. Why would Toei do that? It makes no sense to me for them to have gone rogue in such a way for no gain. It would have been more hype and more logical to see Rayleigh clash with Oden. And when in doubt Toei leans toward spectacle (even when it makes less sense). So why would they choose to go with a less spectacular route? I think it’s more likely that Toei only deviated from that because of something Oda said. And if you believe that incident had Oda’s approval then I think it’s fair to say Oden is closer to Gaban during that flashback than he is to Rayleigh.
It appears Oda has always loved the concept of the monster trio, he even named Sanji after the number 3. Oden vs Gaban appears, to me at least, to be Oda’s way of protecting the sanctity of Roger’s monster trio. The anime appears to suggest Gaban ~ Oden. If this is Oda’s will then it has been done so in order for Gaban to hold his standing with the addition of Oden. So it is my conclusion that if the anime team hasn’t lost their minds Sanji ~ Yamato is what we can expect going forward.
Yamato may be stronger right now. In fact I’ve argued that she is. But it looks like long term we are getting Luffy > Zoro > Sanji ~ Yamato just as Roger > Rayleigh > Gaban ~ Oden.
So unlike Jimbe & Franky who fell behind Sanji, I think Yamato is going to be every bit his match because of her parallel to Oden. I believe Yamato will finally be the addition to break the M3 into the M4. Just as Oden appears to be the catalyst in creating a M4 for Roger.