Character Discussion Black Leg Sanji & Marco The Phoenix

#1
I've noticed that when you really look at the history of the Whitebeard Pirates, Marco is not really Whitebeard's "right-hand" or "first mate" or "partner" or basically his equivalent to a Silvers Rayleigh or Zoro or Killer. That's, at the risk of stating the obvious, Oden:



The only guy Whitebeard refers to as his "brother" and who, so far unlike Marco, shows Conqueror's Haki like Rayleigh and was clearly the strongest person to have ever come out of the WB Pirates besides WB himself. The above volume cover is very telling too. We get Roger and Whitebeard, their apprentice crew members (Shanks, Buggy, Marco, Teach and Jozu) and essentially their right-hand men; Rayleigh and Oden.

So Marco is essentially just the top among WB's apprentice crewmembers (aside from Teach) who eventually rose to be the strongest crew member aside from the old man himself once Oden was gone but is still very much just another "son" to WB rather than a "brother" / basically an "equal" the way Whitebeard perceived Oden.



Okay, so what? As in, how does that connect Marco to Sanji at all? Well, I admit I'm definitely going to be reaching here but I think there's enough there for it to not be totally ridiculous... I think Marco is supposed to be the WB Pirates' equivalent to Scopper Gaban and Sanji. The overall 3rd strongest crew member of the WB Pirates. Things only being a little unique in that prime Oden and prime Marco were never contemporaries unlike prime Rayleigh and prime Gaban.



But overall he seems to be the 3rd strongest person to have ever been in his crew, he seems to lack Conqueror's Haki, he has a kick-based fighting style and fire-based abilities. That basically sums up how Sanji is likely going to end up by the end of the story too. The third strongest fighter, a real monster but lacking Conqueror's Haki unlike Zoro whom I have a feeling is going to develop it, a kick-based fighter and a fire-ability user. It's also worth nothing that Oda has already somewhat connected the Straw Hats to the WB Pirates by letting Zoro inherit Oden's sword (Enma). He's already connected Zoro to WB's right-hand and the Rayleigh parallels with the Roger Pirates are quite apparent.

We still don't know how Sanji relates to Scopper in terms of parallels but I'm sure if we see more of Scopper there will be quite a few apparent. One I've seen people note is that Scopper is at least once depicted as more in the background and lowkey unlike Rayleigh which sort of fits Sanji's nature as the crew's "hidden ace" who comes through at clutch moments. A bit loose but in this manner he is also similar to Marco. Marco isn't really a "hidden ace" but he does tend to come through at clutch moments or is generally very helpful and supportive; swooping in and saving Luffy from the Admirals (Aokiji and Akainu), stopping the BM Pirates from backing up the Beast Pirates during the start of the raid, holding back Big Mom for a time, holding back two Yonko commanders for a time, getting Zoro past the Yonko commanders, being indispensable when it came to keeping the ice demon virus at bay... The man is a life-saver.



And another similarity seems to be that unlike Oden who appears to strictly serve as a tough fighter during his time on Whitebeard's ship, Marco actually serves a role outside of being a fighter (Ship's Doctor) the same way Sanji does as a Cook rather than being a battle focused character like Zoro.

I think this all also fits with how Sanji is probably going to end up by the end of the story. A renowned and respected pirate who can probably defeat all of the Yonko Commanders in a good fight but can at best just give a Yonko level fighter a difficult fight but lose in the end or at least just not attain the sort of infamy and bounty of Yonko level characters. And he will likely never develop Conqueror's Haki despite his royal lineage whereas Zoro's destiny is to defeat Mihawk, a man Oda speaks of in the same breath as Whitebeard and Shanks:

D: Hey, Oda! In all of these fight scenes, why doesn't anybody go for the men's groins? Doesn't that seem like the quickest path to victory? P.N. Eldest of the Asada Siblings.
O: True, that is a vital area. Just imagine legends among men--Whitebeard, Shanks, Mihawk--staring each other down, bearing their weighty ideals...and trying to whack each other in the balls! IS THAT THE KIND OF MANGA YOU WANT TO READ?!

And Zoro's apparent parallel among the WB Pirates (Oden) is clearly someone who may have very well been able to beat a Yonko (Kaido) so Zoro is very much going to rise to the top and be just an inch short of the King himself (Luffy) who is obviously going to have to rise above men like Roger and Whitebeard by the end of the story who themselves seem just a cut above characters like Big Mom, Kaido and Shanks in terms of both their bounties and their feats as their clash seems like nothing we've ever seen before unlike with BM clashing with Kaido when compared to WB clashing with Shanks.
So,

End-game Zoro = Rayleigh, Oden and Mihawk
End-game Luffy = Roger, Whitebeard and Garp
End-game Sanji = Scopper, Marco and (Kizaru?)

Nothing concrete, I know. But I hope it was an interesting read. Hope you all have a lovely day!
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(Yes, I'm crazy but I've always had this feeling that Kizaru is a sort of end-game or at least high feat victory character for Sanji. It's thin but he's a kick-based fighter, the seemingly third strongest of the original Admirals and if Marco really is a loose parallel to Sanji it says a lot that Oda pit him against Kizaru during the Summit War)
 
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