Character Discussion Sanji Is the number 3 of the Strawhats.

[Sir Yasheen]

Yes

Okay

Indeed

When it comes to batting he indeed is but Oda called romance trio trio the cores/trigers of the crew in color walk 1. When there's a serious conflict in the crew like with Usopp it's mostly boil down to Zoro/Nami arguing their position while Sanji just agrees with whatever Zoro says. When Luffy met his archnemesis and his crew (which is much more important than any antagonist faced yet), Zoro and Nami were the ones with him.
That says I'm of good faith and I see that Sanji has been more involved/central than anyone bar Luffy and Zoro in the crew since Dressrosa/Zou so I don't really have much to argue about

I’m not saying Nami isn’t important. She’s a major character and a member of the east blue 5, but she’s never been portrayed as Luffys left hand. She’s the navigator of the crew giving them direction to the crews chosen path, but she doesn’t choose the path.

You mentioned the Usopp thing and remember who was the one who brought usopp back to his senses and reminded him of his worth. Sanji in the pretimeskip has always acted like a shadow leader hidden in the back then arriving when he’s needed. Alabasta/Skyepia/Enies Lobby showed this.

Post automatically merged: Nov 25, 2021

i mean not the role in the crew or potrayal or whatever, but its specifically on the storywise. i think Nami has a big role in it more than Sanji.

Can you explain where in the story nami has had a bigger role? Plot wise Sanji has always been more relevant. Pre and post timeskip.

 

[Doggo]

I think people should stop trying to seperate the EB5. There’s a reason
1. The East Blue Saga ended at Loguetown “The town of beginnings” showing that the east blue was just the prologue of the story
2. The East Blue 5 are the straw hats Oda designed that go along with the initial theme of the “Monkey King.” Where the monkey king challenges Buddha the east blue 5 are each examples of disobeying Buddha’s 5 precepts.
3. The straw hat pirates didn’t exist until post Arlong Park when Nezumi created Luffys bounty.
4. Throughout the arcs these five always get special roles and are the main characters.

There might be a communication problem here.
Are you telling us to not separate the EB5 because they aren't more special than the others, or that we shouldn't break the EB5 into "m3", or "romance dawn trio", etc?

 

[WesMidnight]

Queen was looking at the bounties there, and Sanji's was higher than Zoro's.
From Queen's perspective he thought Sanji was number 2 in that speech.

 

[Kurozumi Wiwi]

Can you explain where in the story nami has had a bigger role? Plot wise Sanji has always been more relevant. Pre and post timeskip.

Disagree, it was balanced overall. Like Sanji was more relevant in Alabasta's plot with Mr Prince stuff but then she was more relevant to Jaya and Skypea plot. Then you have stuff like Sanji following the train taking Robin away in W7/EL which was great but you also have Nami being the one finding Luffy, remotivating him to go rescue Robin with a speech.

 

[Sir Yasheen]

There might be a communication problem here.
Are you telling us to not separate the EB5 because they aren't more special than the others, or that we shouldn't break the EB5 into "m3", or "romance dawn trio", etc?

I mean breaking Usopp and Sanji from the romance Dawn trio doesn’t quite work because people call the romance Dawn trio “the original straw hats”

 

[mugiwalaw]

Can you explain where in the story nami has had a bigger role? Plot wise Sanji has always been more relevant. Pre and post timeskip.

i'm not saying like now, but might be in the future or as a whole of the story, since her background also remain unclear.

Sanji surely has a big role but i think Nami would be bigger than that in the future, and thats only my opinion.

 

[Mackiss]

The M3 are Oda's favorites, there's no debate in such obvious portrayal, Nami was just introduced earlier for plot purposes.

 

[Doggo]

I mean breaking Usopp and Sanji from the romance Dawn trio doesn’t quite work because people call the romance Dawn trio “the original straw hats”

But Oda indeed said that those 3 were the initial characters he thought of.
And it doesn't surprise me.
The dynamic of "2guys+1girl" main trio is such a common trope in fiction.
Harry, Ron, Hermione.
Luke, Han, Leia.
Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura,
etc, etc, etc.
I'm just saying that, it's quite obvious that these 3 have a special place in Oda's hearts. What I am also saying is that Usopp and Sanji don't stay behind, because each of them have their own niche approaches. Sanji was the "solo mission" kind of guy, Usopp has a whole theme of trying to represent the spectator inside the story, etc.

 

[Reborn]

In terms of power, These three are top 3 but this dynamic can change if yamato joins unless Sanji show something extraordinary.


However, in terms of role - Luffy, Zoro and Nami are 3 central figures. First to join for a reason. Zoro will become WSS and is RHM of Luffy whereas Nami is the navigator who is crucial to take them to Laugh Tale.

 

[Doggo]

In terms of power, These three are top 3 but this dynamic can change if yamato joins unless Sanji show something extraordinary.


However, in terms of role - Luffy, Zoro and Nami are 3 central figures. First to join for a reason. Zoro will become WSS and is RHM of Luffy whereas Nami is the navigator who is crucial to take them to Laugh Tale.

Dude had the gold chance to break this dynamic by introducing a fucking beast of a character like Jinbe.
But the character that appeared 1000+ chapters into the story is FINALLY GONNA BE THE ONE.
THIS TIME, it will FINALLY happen!

 

[Kurozumi Wiwi]

Dude had the gold chance to break this dynamic by introducing a fucking beast of a character like Jinbe.
But the character that appeared 1000+ chapters into the story is FINALLY GONNA BE THE ONE.
THIS TIME, it will FINALLY happen!

Oda totally going to destroy his 1000 chapters long dynamic for a new character!

 

[Doggo]

Oda totally going to destroy his 1000 chapters long dynamic for a new character!

And that RIGHT AFTER he draws that "Wings" thing.
It was a fluke.
Oda master baiter.

 

[Kurozumi Wiwi]

And that RIGHT AFTER he draws that "Wings" thing.
It was a fluke.
Oda master baiter.

What's funny is that I myself I sometimes troll Sanji and don't believe he and Zoro are EQUAL in strenght.
Yet I have no doubt that in Oda's mind they will always be two strongest of the crew after Luffy.

 

[Reborn]

Dude had the gold chance to break this dynamic by introducing a fucking beast of a character like Jinbe.
But the character that appeared 1000+ chapters into the story is FINALLY GONNA BE THE ONE.
THIS TIME, it will FINALLY happen!

Like it or not but there is good chance that someone else will also join along with jinbei which could most likely be yamato.

And, the reason I am not putting jinbei up is because he is old gun. I don't see him climbing high in powers in comparisons to Monster trio


But yamato already shown that she is above sanji. So if she joins then ya sanji won't be in top 3 unless he shows great PU against queen

 

[Mackiss]

I dare say that even usopp is more important than Nami for Oda, the whole eastblue plot was to bring all Oda's favorites (Luffy, Zoro, Sanji and Usopp) together to save her in arlong park.

 

[Doggo]

Like it or not but there is good chance that someone else will also join along with jinbei which could most likely be yamato.

And, the reason I am not putting jinbei up is because he is old gun. I don't see him climbing high in powers in comparisons to Monster trio


But yamato already shown that she is above sanji. So if she joins then ya sanji won't be in top 3 unless he shows great PU against queen

I want Yamato to join.
I legit like her.
But her power level is dictated directly by the fact if she joins or not.
If she doesn't, she will stay above Sanji.
If she joins, either Sanji surpasses her by the end of this arc, or at least equates to her power level and surpasses it on the next one, OR my least favorite route, which is she gets the "Robin treatment" and gets nerfed into oblivion.

 

[Blother Fertitta]

Honest opinion here.
Despite the fact that, there is indeed a "romance dawn trio" perpetuated by Oda inside the story, Sanji was still one of the earliest members of the crew. Considering that Oda initially planned for "gather the crew before entering the Grand Line, then enter GL and beat the Yonkos", it's safe to assume that the ones that actually managed to appear BEFORE entering the Grand Line, hold a certain amount of weight different from the rest of the crew.
Basically Sanji's early gunslinger design got split into Sanji and Usopp. These two character have more niche places in the story.
Now.
Having said that, I genuinely believe Sanji getting the popularity that he got was NOT a part of Oda's original plan. I REALLY think that, somewhere along the way, Oda decided to bring Sanji closer to some of core aspects of the One Piece story. His family having ties with Vegapunk, arguably one of the most hyped characters so far in the story, having a new Admiral that, by the initial interaction he had with Fujitora, seems to be tailor made for Sanji to fight, etc.
Let's not forget that Sanji post TS had a severe backlash. WCI is, at the very least, a highly divisive arc for the character. I find extremely hard to meet people that have a "neutral" opinion about the events surrounding Sanji on that arc. The Black Maria moment is ANOTHER problematic moment, etc. Despite that, the character managed to stay at 4th place most popular character worldwide (and the vote was during the beginning of the raid, up until Black Maria's moment, so while Sanji's only contribution was saving Momo, and then do nothing for who knows how many chapters, lots of other events were going on hyping characters left and right).
Despite the fact that there are A LOT of narrative decisions that I personally would have made different, I'm quite satisfied overall.
The problem is that these last arcs are EXTREMELY LONG. So, it took WAY more time for Sanji's character arc to finally reach this point. Something that would normally take half the chapters, actually took double the time to happen.
That's rough.
But everything is fine now.

Sanji has a loyal fan base

 

[Doggo]

I dare say that even usopp is more important than Nami for Oda, the whole eastblue plot was to bring all Oda's favorites (Luffy, Zoro, Sanji and Usopp) together to save her in arlong park.

Naaaaaah...I don't think so.
Nami is the firs one we see (not the first to join). Arlong Park is the most important arc in East Blue. The fact that people have to save her is because she's a woman and Oda is Oda. Unfortunately. I would totally dig a "Auto-mail" Nami branding a giant axe.

 

[Reborn]

I want Yamato to join.
I legit like her.
But her power level is dictated directly by the fact if she joins or not.
If she doesn't, she will stay above Sanji.
If she joins, either Sanji surpasses her by the end of this arc, or at least equates to her power level and surpasses it on the next one, OR my least favorite route, which is she gets the "Robin treatment" and gets nerfed into oblivion.

I expect Sanji to surpass her eventually (wano or may be next arc) and tbh it will be good if yamato stays strong because that would imply that sanji would have to get stronger than what yamato is thus pushing the original M3 at new levels

 

[Kurozumi Wiwi]

Naaaaaah...I don't think so.
Nami is the firs one we see (not the first to join). Arlong Park is the most important arc in East Blue. The fact that people have to save her is because she's a woman and Oda is Oda. Unfortunately. I would totally dig a "Auto-mail" Nami branding a giant axe.

There's even a chapter 1 prototype were Nami was the first to meet Luffy, before Zoro :

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1434659153062948864