So a quickly, pretty straight forward and unbiased dissertation for this color spread
That was made on Chapter 1031, called "Warrior of Science", a chapter almost entirely dedicated to Sanji's character. Then you ask youself: What is a color spread that seems to be about Zoro doing there? But yes, even this color spread has everything to do with Sanji's character in this specific chapter.
First, lets look at Oda's explanation for that
Q: Hello Odacchi, judging from the color spread of chapter 1031, Bepo is the No.2 of Heart Pirates?! I was surprised since I thought him, Penguin, and Shachi are all No.2s. So is Bepo (sulong form?) the strongest out of them?
Oda: talking about that color spread huh. Same goes for Zoro, not everyone on there holds the position of vice captain. They are just the No.2s that I picked out. Penguin and Shachi are more reliable in normal circumstances, but those two have seen Bepo's sulong transformation, so they acknowledge that "combat wise Bepo is superior!
As obvious as it was, Zoro is not the Vice Captain, although he is the First Mate, the very first person Luffy recruited, and that definitely has a special meaning for Zoro's character.
But what we actually have is the "wings" portrayal being a thing for the most part of the story, something that Oda build up for quite a long time and so far is one of the proeminent dynamics in the manga.
To the point that this is something that Oda is trying to mimic with Zoro and Sanji's opponents from the same factions the more as the manga progresses.
Very superficially speaking, these are their roles in the crew.
But the crucial thing here is that at a certain portion of the chapter, Sanji calls Zoro through a Den Den Mushi after destroying the Raid Suit and having to make a choice for the sake of Luffy and his dream, even recognizing his potential mistakes as a person (something characters barely do in the manga) due to his personality and values, which is what makes these characters be who they are and potentially develop.
He explains they are 100% going to beat the Beast Pirates without a doubt and asks Zoro a shocking and apparently unreasonable thing.
Notice that even with all of their bickering, Oda doesn't cease to show us how much important the cooperation between them is for the crew. It's a pretty special dynamic among all the other crews. And keep in mind that Zoro has no clue about everything that happened with Sanji since WCI and definitely didn't had any idea of what was actually happening with Sanji above.
Basically, Sanji acknowledges Zoro's "superiority", not in a way of "wow you're definitely better than me bruh, you can beat me in a 1vs1 100%" but in a sense that, if Sanji wants something to be done, doesn't matter how hard it may be, he acknowledges that there are things that he can only rely on Zoro to actually have the chances of doing, even the bare minimum chances.
In the end, Zoro couldn't even go look out for Sanji as Sanji asked, he didn't even thought about it after his fight was over, which shows even more how much that isn't about who is stronger, but about reliability and trust in circumstances that are too far from normal, which Zoro shows for Sanji through several moments as well (that i will leave to another thread), even tho this one is in a whole other level due to Sanji's mental breakdown.
Zoro also tries to act tough and keep their rivalry going on, even at such moment, acting like he will easily beat King and then just go to search for Sanji to potentially kill him because thats more "interesting" than fighting King
"At least now i have something to look forward after this!!"
After that Sanji also had already accepted his destiny, to the point he acted like he started unleashing more of his strength solely by changing his mindset.
Oda wanted to keep us aware that Sanji was holding himself back with uncertainties during a considerable portion of the fight.
So thats it: Sanji put down his rivalry and bickering for a second and asked Zoro to kill him aiming a greater good, which is: Not potentially put the crew in danger, in many potential different ways, and not living as what Judge created him to be. Straight up acknowledging Zoro's strength and capability of doing it, something that they never do, and when they do it's not in front of each other, which also shows the amount of trust they need to have on each other in a way or another
Even if it ended like this (although this could come back in the future, somehow)
That was made on Chapter 1031, called "Warrior of Science", a chapter almost entirely dedicated to Sanji's character. Then you ask youself: What is a color spread that seems to be about Zoro doing there? But yes, even this color spread has everything to do with Sanji's character in this specific chapter.
First, lets look at Oda's explanation for that
Q: Hello Odacchi, judging from the color spread of chapter 1031, Bepo is the No.2 of Heart Pirates?! I was surprised since I thought him, Penguin, and Shachi are all No.2s. So is Bepo (sulong form?) the strongest out of them?
Oda: talking about that color spread huh. Same goes for Zoro, not everyone on there holds the position of vice captain. They are just the No.2s that I picked out. Penguin and Shachi are more reliable in normal circumstances, but those two have seen Bepo's sulong transformation, so they acknowledge that "combat wise Bepo is superior!
As obvious as it was, Zoro is not the Vice Captain, although he is the First Mate, the very first person Luffy recruited, and that definitely has a special meaning for Zoro's character.
But what we actually have is the "wings" portrayal being a thing for the most part of the story, something that Oda build up for quite a long time and so far is one of the proeminent dynamics in the manga.
To the point that this is something that Oda is trying to mimic with Zoro and Sanji's opponents from the same factions the more as the manga progresses.
Very superficially speaking, these are their roles in the crew.
But the crucial thing here is that at a certain portion of the chapter, Sanji calls Zoro through a Den Den Mushi after destroying the Raid Suit and having to make a choice for the sake of Luffy and his dream, even recognizing his potential mistakes as a person (something characters barely do in the manga) due to his personality and values, which is what makes these characters be who they are and potentially develop.
He explains they are 100% going to beat the Beast Pirates without a doubt and asks Zoro a shocking and apparently unreasonable thing.
Notice that even with all of their bickering, Oda doesn't cease to show us how much important the cooperation between them is for the crew. It's a pretty special dynamic among all the other crews. And keep in mind that Zoro has no clue about everything that happened with Sanji since WCI and definitely didn't had any idea of what was actually happening with Sanji above.
Basically, Sanji acknowledges Zoro's "superiority", not in a way of "wow you're definitely better than me bruh, you can beat me in a 1vs1 100%" but in a sense that, if Sanji wants something to be done, doesn't matter how hard it may be, he acknowledges that there are things that he can only rely on Zoro to actually have the chances of doing, even the bare minimum chances.
In the end, Zoro couldn't even go look out for Sanji as Sanji asked, he didn't even thought about it after his fight was over, which shows even more how much that isn't about who is stronger, but about reliability and trust in circumstances that are too far from normal, which Zoro shows for Sanji through several moments as well (that i will leave to another thread), even tho this one is in a whole other level due to Sanji's mental breakdown.
Zoro also tries to act tough and keep their rivalry going on, even at such moment, acting like he will easily beat King and then just go to search for Sanji to potentially kill him because thats more "interesting" than fighting King
"At least now i have something to look forward after this!!"
After that Sanji also had already accepted his destiny, to the point he acted like he started unleashing more of his strength solely by changing his mindset.
Oda wanted to keep us aware that Sanji was holding himself back with uncertainties during a considerable portion of the fight.
So thats it: Sanji put down his rivalry and bickering for a second and asked Zoro to kill him aiming a greater good, which is: Not potentially put the crew in danger, in many potential different ways, and not living as what Judge created him to be. Straight up acknowledging Zoro's strength and capability of doing it, something that they never do, and when they do it's not in front of each other, which also shows the amount of trust they need to have on each other in a way or another
Even if it ended like this (although this could come back in the future, somehow)
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