#you have no idea how deeply i resent sanji for making me write this much about him

[salteytakesonmanga]

This is Sanji’s greatest fear, and why Oda set up this ridiculously contrived scene to begin with.

I’ve often tried to make sense of these two different sides of Sanji - a callous, abrasive, and sarcastic man always ready with an insulting quip, and this bleeding heart martyr who is always quick to sacrifice himself for anyone who crosses his path. I kept thinking there wasn’t anything in his story that I could use to connect these contradictory traits.

But actually the key word is “contradictory.” Sanji’s birth family are literal supervillains who choose cruelty at every opportunity, who deny any form of kindness or compassion even to themselves, and who would sacrifice others for any and no reason. Sanji wants to contradict that so badly that he goes out of his way to do the opposite of anything the Vinsmokes would do or approve of.

And it’s DOESN’T make sense. Sanji is smarter than that and he expresses his disapproval of other people doing the same things he does. He often acts in ways that are extremely inconsistent with the rest of his character. Abuse, especially childhood abuse, creates exactly this type of fracturing and inconsistency in personalities. With the additional context of, “He knows this is stupid and dangerous and unhealthy and WRONG, but he would rather die than turn into his father. He probably doesn’t even realize that this is why he’s doing it,” suddenly it starts to make a lot more sense.

Sanji has his own unique and distinct personality that has nothing to do with anyone who raised him (Zeff or Judge or Sora,) but he’s also built into himself a facet of his personality to directly repudiate everything Judge represents out of fear that he might become Judge. Of course he probably can’t see that this is just another way of letting his abusive parent shape his character…

I don’t imagine Oda planned this. He may have not even fully envisioned Sanji’s backstory at this point. But I do think he’s incredibly observant and understanding of people, especially considering he wasn’t yet 25 years old when this chapter came out. It’s a credit to his writing abilities that even if he DIDN’T plan it like this from the beginning he was able to craft a backstory for Sanji that turned these inconsistencies into a cohesive character.

#one piece #op ch86 #saltey takes on one piece #sanji #ugh #you have no idea how deeply i resent sanji for making me write this much about him #stg this is my longest fucking post yet