Sanji, Pudding, and Luffy in One Piece's Whole Cake Island Arc: A Thematic Breakdown

 "I’ll never doubt a woman’s tears." A quote Sanji has carried with him to the Whole Cake Island arc. They are words he proves he still stands behind. Yet this time, the result of those words earn him anything but an ally. When he bought into those tears, he also bought into the prospect that grass could be just as green on the other side. Yet he gets to see through the window with his very own eyes how wilted that grass is. He was delusional. He had deluded himself into believing that he could find happiness away from his crewmates, his friends, and his dream. If Sanji buried his dream like he once did working at Baratie, perhaps he could find new happiness with Pudding. 

Yet, unlike the cooks encompassing the floating restaurant, everyone residing on this wonderland Island are nothing but enemies. It’s easy to say that this is simply a rehash of an already told character arc. Still, that opinion is only valid under the assumption that the arc had already concluded. Sanji did not leave Baratie having come to terms with his lack of self-worth. It was simply through a compromise that he even allowed himself to leave Zeff’s side in the first place. On his new journey, he proved time and time again just how much he valued everything else over his own life. He had always been fully committed to the thought of dying for those comrades that found him. 

To Sanji, he has only ever been a failure. Even when he succeeds, he deludes himself into believing it’s all negligible in the long run. His mindset is warped in this way because he never did face his past. He ran away from it long ago. But now that it’s caught back up with him, he chooses to run away from something else, his dream, because his dream is not as important as the lives of all those crewmates that he has come to care for deeply. But still, when Luffy personally comes to announce himself, why does Sanji still reject him? Is it because he doesn’t trust Luffy? But hasn’t he already proven time and time again that he trusts this man more than anyone? Well, it’s not that he doesn’t ultimately trust in Luffy’s success, it’s that Sanji doesn’t even view himself as worth the risk in the first place. And Sanji foolishly abides by this idea so absurdly that he would even strike his captain to cement his death as a straw hat. 

But, even still, through all those kicks, like Sanji once had when he said, “A man forgives a woman's lies." Luffy breaks through Sanji’s lies as well. And once the world collapsed on him after his delusions caught up, Luffy is the only one he can run to. After their bout, Luffy didn’t choose to find Sanji because he knows his kindness more than anyone else. The sound of a growling stomach is the only thing Sanji needs to disregard any circumstance. Luffy knew Sanji would come to fulfill his role no matter what because that’s who he is. Reiju had once freed Sanji, enabling him to run away from his past. And Luffy does the complete opposite. Instead of allowing Sanji to feel content with his reasoning as to why he can't return to the crew, effectively allowing him to run away from his position in the straw hats, Luffy disregards the semantics and aims straight for the origin of all of these lies. He says the words Sanji has needed to hear for his entire life. And Sanji, finally, puts himself in his sights. 

But Sanji, even after finally letting himself express a semblance of selfishness, confides that even after all the pain and trauma that his family has caused him, he still cannot live with himself if he allows them to die. And now it is clear, Sanji was never a failure. Sora had attempted to nurture a boy with a kind human heart in a kingdom of monsters, and after her death, it seemed maybe her dream would only be just that. But as Reiju points out, she didn’t fail because the man Sanji has become is someone their mother would surely be proud of. Sora sacrificed her health and even her own life to ensure that even just one of her son’s would grow up to be human. When Sanji tries once again to twist this story into a catastrophic event that he caused, like with Zeff on that isolated rock, Reiju snaps him back into reality. She informs him that before Sora died, she smiled because she had no regrets. Her kind soul would surely live on through Sanji. And that it has. 

Sanji speaks nothing but admiration for the third eye that Pudding has been scorned for her entire life when faced with the woman who crushed his entire world once before. And just like she once had for Sanji, Sanji returns the favor by crushing her entire world as well. And after both live through trauma, delusion, realization, denial, and acceptance, come together once more to accomplish a task larger than life. An effort that isn't deluded by a web of lies nor polluted by any plots to assassinate anyone. Because they are both first and foremost cooks, and that's what they will always be, no matter how much they try to be something else.

One Piece's Doflamingo, Rosianante, and Law: A Thematic Breakdown (Part 2)

 

How can one judge a human to be, from the start, an evil presence? How can one assume a whole individual's existence is evil without examining their past experiences? It is not odd that Doflamingo is so cruel. What's strange is that Rosinante can still keep such a warm-hearted thought process despite going through the same tragedy. Corazon is, in actuality, the oddity in this scenario. He even joins the marines, a branch associated with the same organization that caused his life to turn into a nightmare. 

Rosianante spares empathy for Law and his demeanor because he knows the origin. Yet he doesn’t spare that same thought and care for his flesh and blood older brother. Doflamingo commits injustice. But it is evident in his actions that his persona is not entirely black. He cares for the things he treasures. And even Cora himself is one of those treasures he values. We even see through Doff's his nightmares that his past still haunts him. 

This man isn’t some demon from hell, but a product of the system that is the world, just like Law once was. And if the heavenly demon is actually human, he can still be saved no matter how hard it may be. Yet, Corazon chooses to look away from the truth. So it’s only poetic that Cora’s betrayal would lead to his death at the hands of the person he refused to look at directly. An aversion of the eyes that probably started when Doflamingo pulled that trigger. It was not only his father, but Corazon’s as well that kneeled at the other end of that gun. When someone takes away something precious from you, it can easily blind the whole perception you have of that individual. 

Rosinante initiated a cycle with his quest to stop Doflamingo, a process that he inadvertently passed down to Law. Cora could not stop Doflamingo because his bitterness towards him muddled his sense of justice, ultimately leading to his downfall. And just like Cora once had, Law witnessed Doflamingo take away something precious from him. And with this memory came a resolution that was synonymous with his saviors—but corrupted with that half-hearted justice all the same. If Law is justified for seeking revenge, then surely Doflamingo is justified for punishing the one that pushed him further into the hell he had already known. Nothing about laws quest is noble. Nothing about his goal is necessarily good for the world. He targets the heavenly demon because he killed someone he cared for. The context of that action doesn’t matter in Law's eyes. And this feeble-minded goal is the reason why Law ultimately fails in his quest. 

Cora sacrificed his life. He wanted Law to live a life worth living in return. Yet Law has only been repaying that debt with useless baggage, an obsession that has controlled his entire life’s choices. And like Corazon once betrayed Doflamingo, Law betrays the straw hats by only using them as a means to an end. These betrayals ultimately fail both characters. Rosinante failed to stop his brother from taking over dressrosa, and Law fails at taking down Doflamingo.

One Piece's Doflamingo, Rosianante, and Law: A Thematic Breakdown (Part 1)

Trauma, especially childhood trauma, is common in One Piece flashbacks. Each traumatic experience oda portrays saying something slightly different with each backstory. Law's flashback, however, is a bit unique. Unique because his flashback is not meant to stand on its own. There is important context that needs to be added to the whole. And this comes in the form of another flashback of a different character. Both stories are traumatic. Both are still scarred by the events that changed their lives for the worse. Law witnessed his family and even his entire homeland be destroyed. The ones who were responsible represented the world. The world took from Law what he loved most. And as if to wrench the last amount of hope out of him, gave him an incurable disease to boot. But rather than lie down and take the beating until his inevitable death, Law chose to instead go out with a more worthwhile bang. 

It doesn’t take Doflamingo long to accept Law into his ranks. It was as simple as looking into the young boy's eyes to understand that their world views were almost identical. Doflamingo went through something very similar in his childhood. The same system that robbed Law of his homeland robbed Doflamingo of his lifestyle and the status that came with it. It made his family a target of the resentment of humanity that had been bottled up for so long. He lost so much. He lost even more with his own hands. The child could only pull that trigger because he had experienced both heaven and hell. And then he, just like now with Law, concluded that the disgusting world is one not worth being righteous in. If one wants to viably survive in darkness, they must shroud themselves in darkness as well or be destroyed by it. But then why is Law the only one who gets saved from this mentality? 

Corazon is a character mostly seen through rose-colored lenses. He is the younger brother of Doflamingo. And the opposing force that represents the good still left in the don Quixote family after Homing's passing. Doflamingo values family. A faint glimmer of light behind a malevolent smile. A faint trace of humanity. Even though Cora had already dropped breadcrumbs of betrayal in plain sight, Doffy allowed himself to ignore the evidence so that he could preserve his last remaining flesh and blood bond. He showed mercy on Corazon because he didn’t want to pull that trigger again. He didn’t want to admit that his brother was that much different than himself. But Corazon, despite being portrayed as one of the more kind-hearted souls in one piece, never reciprocates that mercy. Law struck a knife into Rosinante. Yet despite this, he forgives Law, because he wanted to help him. But why did he want to support this boy he didn’t even know? Well, as Corazon says, because he felt sorry for him. He felt sad that he had become a product of the corruption in this world. He wanted to show Law, to prove to him that there is something worth living for. He wanted to show him love. And he did. And this changes Law for the better. "There is still good in this world." "I still have hope for survival." He gave Law both of these phrases. 

But his rescuing of Law from the darkness ultimately came at the expense of allowing his older brother to seep further into it. He had betrayed Doflamingo, and just like his father, died by the hands of the one he betrayed. It all becomes apparent on the surface. Doflamingo had killed the man law viewed as his savior. So Law would devote his life to making sure that Doflamingo, at the very least, rots in a solitary cell.What Law is doing is surely not wrong. Even the kind-hearted Rosinante had said Doflamingo is inherently a crazed manifestation of evil. If Law executes Doffy, he would only be eliminating more needless darkness from this world. But the actual truth is something that Law could’ve never imagined. The truth that Corazon is wrong. 

Monogatari's Gaen Toea: A Thematic Breakdown

 

Araragi created Oshino Ougi as a way to reconcile with himself. An attempt to try and correct past mistakes. But Araragi Koyomi can only ever see what’s right in front of him. So much so that he never even asked himself if all those decisions he made, regardless of going against the natural boundaries of existence, really mistakes? Was becoming weaker because of it all a mistake? Sure, the darkness might have deemed it as such, the closest thing to an almighty god we’ve seen in Monogatari. Still, through perseverance, through attempting his romanticized outcome in novel ways with the help of others, he was able to conclude his adolescence by defeating that god, himself. 

Perhaps this is what Gaen Toea had to do to defeat her own quasi darkness. Perhaps it was through this experience that her catchphrase, “If you can’t be medicine, then become poison. Otherwise you’re just plain old water,” was abandoned. After all, in Koyomi Water, Araragi hears the story of how Gaen's husband relates her to water. It is also in the water of that same place where Araragi and Gaen are finally able to come face to face. 

Sure, water might not be as profound or impactful as medicine or poison in a general sense. Humanity typically relates water with mundane reality. Something we must have to live. Something essential to life. One that maintains a story, not beginning or ending it. Yet still, even in a practical sense, water is just as essential to a good story as medicine or poison. The beginning and ending might be the most important aspects of a new story, but only from a certain perspective. What lies in the middle, the water that maintains the continuity from medicine to poison, if abandoned, well, that wouldn’t be much of a story now, would it? The middle part of a story has the most potential to transform a tale into something novel. Water comes in many forms. Lakes, rivers, rapids, tsunamis. It can be the calmest of waters or the roughest of tides. Water may have no flavor, but it’s potential shapes are limitless. 

Just like how after the conclusion of his adolescence, Araragi abandoned the phrase “I don’t need friends, because if I make them, my strength as a human decreases.” Perhaps after Gaen faced her own imperfect adolescence, she realized all of this and abandoned her phrase of, “If you can’t be medicine, then become poison. Otherwise you’re just plain old water." As Gaen says, those words were probably directed at herself moreso than anyone else. It could be that when she faced herself, and cut off that darkness, she abandoned trying to be something she wasn’t. Gaen even goes as far as to relate the part of her that is the rainy devil as neither poison nor medicine, but a corpse. Maybe a roundabout way of saying that if the corpse were still alive, if it were still her, it would be just plain old water after all. 

The Monogatari Series: A Thematic Breakdown

 

"Is it worshipped because it’s an oddity, or did it become an oddity because it was worshipped?" A question Oshino poses to Araragi when concerning a most peculiar enshrined stone. To Araragi, these distinctions seem somewhat irrelevant to the root issue at hand. And perhaps he’s right, because whether it’s a god, monster, spirit, or something else, these things will continue to exist regardless of the answer. But that’s only in a holistic sense of the world, or Monogatari's world. Because when we look solely at the individual, we can find many oddities manifest with these distinctions in mind. And these distinctions always point to the ladder answer.

Even in the conclusion of the koyomi Stone story, we see the housing around the stone was nothing more than a failed project, and the stone itself wasn’t even a stone, but concrete. Useless when by themselves, but when combined, the structure mimics divinity. Offerings are made to it because it resembles something worthy of being appreciated. As soon as that first offering was made to the combined pieces, they ceased to be just ordinary background filler. To Naoetsu High School, this structure is something to be appreciated, yet to Araragi, it’s an embarrassment that should be thrown away. But which side is true, which side is real? Sure, the wood was a lopsided miniature house. The stone encased in it was a bundle of hardened concrete, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that people acknowledged its existence as something more. Who’s to say that when Araragi threw that statue away, someone wouldn’t look at that flower bed the next day and be unnerved because something vital is missing. 

Value can only be determined by the individual. Gods can only be worshipped by the individual. Spiritual blights can only be brought upon and resolved by the individual. What came first, the mover or the moved? Well, what does that question even matter if the mover has nothing to be moved in the first place? The mover only has a presence as a mover because the moved acknowledges its existence. So who exactly really is in control of this story? Monogatari seems to take the stance that it is ultimately the individual, or more precisely, the individual’s perspective. 

One Piece Chapter 1031: A Thematic Breakdown

 

Chapter 1005 of One Piece was the best chapter of Onigashima thus far, until chapter 1031. Both of these chapters encompass fantastic character development for Sanji. Sanji was never meant to go against his absurd chivalrous nature when pitted against a female in 1005. The pathetic situation he got himself into was never a setup for him to change his ways a kick a woman, but to display his changed perception of himself. The previous arc of Whole Cake Island saw Sanji refusing to rely on his comrades to help him in his situation. This wasn't because he didn't trust in Luffy and the crew's success, but because he didn't believe he was worth the risk. Sanji lacked self-worth because of his traumatic past. Running away from it as a child only scarred him. Whole Cake Island was all about Sanji facing his past and confronting his lack of self-worth. Luffy showed him his value, and in chapter 1005 Sanji finally demonstrates that he finally sees value in himself as well. He asks Robin for help even knowing the risk it could pose to her. This response to his life in peril is the exact opposite of what it has been all throughout the story.

This character development is continued in chapter 1031. Sanji kicked a woman not of his own volition. He kicked an innocent and defenseless woman. The science Sanji has been using out of a concession to help his friends turns against him. It awakened the same traits his brothers have, the brothers he despises. Sanji thought he could swallow his pride and borrow their power if it meant becoming strong enough to become a hero, but after standing above a bleeding and horrified woman, he only looks like a villain that's lost his way.

Sanji decides to never make a concession again for the sake of power. While there is more risk for his comrades in discarding useful abilities, what good are those abilities if Sanji eventually becomes almost unrecognizable to them as a friend? Sanji doesn't need his family. He doesn't need their depraved weapons. He only needs his legs for kicking and the fiery passion behind them.

Naruto's Pain Invasion Arc: A Thematic Breakdown

Jiraiya, Kakashi, then Hinata. The sequential line of suffering Naruto encounters is sudden. No time to mourn Jiraiya, no time to lament not being there for Kakashi, and no time to fight against wrath when a fallen comrade lies damaged in front of him. Such is pain. A swift whimper, and then eternal silence. Something precious can dissipate in seconds, as if all those memories shared amount to merely that against the cruel fate of timeless violence. A fate Nagato witnessed twice too many, and a fate Naruto is now coming to know. A man can never be impervious to this pain, but a god, surely a god can. 

If pain can scar even the best of men, then it isn't absurd to say the very concept of pain can be considered divine. To take pain as a namesake, thus diagnosing divinity. The prescription to ascend pain is to experience it. Nagato believes pain to have cured his mortal immaturity. So by spreading his prescription universally, then perhaps the entire world would come to mature as well. But Nagato could never become pain. He could never truly become a god. He feigns apathy for Yahiko's memory against Jiraya, yet reveals his true human emotions against Naruto. "I will never forget Yahiko's pain." This is not an utterance from the lips of the divine. This is not the phrase of a god immune to pain. 

Nagato seeks liberation from the vicious cycle of violence through violence. He believes this avenue to be righteous because he deludes the reality of his position. Those who are above pain are different when they spread it because it is aligned with purpose, a purpose called peace. But Nagato's purpose is blighted on two fronts. His first blight: A perpetuation of the same cycle he had come to despise with his actions. He was hurt, and that hurt has lingered with him even now. He has never been above pain. This is not a method for world peace. It is a method for retribution against the world. And this idea is only solidified with his second blight, his compromise. 

Nagato had given up. Any peace he could acquire even with his godly means could only ever be temporary. After the dust settles and the destruction is hidden by something new built on top, the masses will eventually forget the perpetrator. The people will forget pain. No method will last. No peace can usurp the inevitability of conflict. Nagato is sound on step one of the equation. Conflict is an inevitable factor of human existence. It is the same reason why he, a human, is propagating so much conflict now. But Naruto shows him a different step two. After experiencing pain, enduring it, and even enduring his proceeding hatred, Naruto faces his sibling disciple with a different answer. This answer is not necessarily conveyed through his words, but his actions, or rather, his lack of action. Naruto was previously speechless when confronted with Nagato's solution. He had no answer because he, much like his enemy, had yet to confront his pain. "I'm going to kill you, then bring peace to the ninja world." That wasn't Naruto talking, but his hatred. Hatred for the one who killed his master and his sensei. If those were not Naruto's words, then would his hatred bring the peace he desires? No. It wouldn't. Naruto himself didn't believe this. Hatred merely clouded his words. He didn't hate Zabuza, didn't hate Gaara, didn't hate Sasuke, and didn't even hate Kakuzu, but Naruto is finally faced with a man he has every reason to despise at the climax of this conflict. His wrath would be justified, just as Nagato believes his wrath towards the world to be justified. However, Naruto does not strike when confronted with the face of pain because he had already struck down the true face of pain immediately before this meeting. 

Naruto's enemy was never Nagato, but pain. He conquered his, so he would help conquer Nagato's. Naruto didn't conquer his alone either. Naruto would've never had the chance if it weren't for Minato . And he might have already crushed the leaf long before Nagato ever could if it were not for Iruka. Naruto looks at his enemy, a path that was once lost, now finally retrieved. He doesn't just see a propagator of pain but a victim as well. To save Nagato, he would have to reveal the answer he couldn't muster back then. It's an answer that doesn't even have a solution, but what it does have, is a step that truly transcends pain. If the shinobi way is defined by conflict, it is only the first chapter of a much bigger story, for Naruto's second chapter is defined by endurance. A chapter inspired by the theme of his master's whole original story. The tale of a man who does not conform to the hypocrisy of shinobi. Those who aspire to be emotionless tools, when it is that very emotion that compels them to be emotionless in the first place, these human emotions fuel wars that necessitate tools in a ceaseless cycle. This man simply stands against a dreadful curse plaguing the world, but that alone makes it a novel story. And this hero who aspires to attack the parasite, not its host, is named Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto, turning fiction into reality amid his opposition. He confronts Nagato with the words he once inspired. It is all his cursed soul ever needed. Someone to not only look at him but to show him where his failings lurk. 

Naruto emerges as a proponent of endurance and demonstrates clearly where the merit in it lies. And so Nagato too is saved by another. He endures his hatred to muster one last action, not against the world, but for it. Naruto would have merely become the victor if he executed his nemesis in the name of vengeance. When finding resolution by reaching his opposition, though, he retrieves something much more valuable, both literally and metaphorically. Through Nagato, Naruto learned pain, and it is only through experiencing pain that endurance could be demonstrated at the resolution of this arc, thereby saving Nagato. Through this conflict and pain, maturity spawned. But it only matured with support. It only matured with endurance on both sides. And it is when all these threads connect that mutual understanding is found. 

Empathy alone was not enough to reach the lost in this conflict, Soon endurance on top of that would not be enough either. Naruto could rest easy on this growth for now, though. When he learned empathy, he was rewarded with the title shinobi, and after enduring hatred at the finale of this arc, he is rewarded with the title hero of the leaf.