I have a feeling that Sanji and Zoro’s death pact will be properly resolved in Elbaf, as it certainly doesn’t feel like we’re done with it. And while Elbaf is gearing up to be very Usopp-centric (and I can not overstate how hyped I am to see him take the spotlight again, finally), let’s not forget that this all ties back to Little Garden, the arc that properly introduced Zoro and Sanji’s rivalry by paralleling them with two rival giants who fought each other every day for over a century, but who also lost themselves in their grief when one thought the other death. The parallel isn’t even subtle, Little Garden’s biggest landmarks are the remnants of Dorry and Brogy’s dinosaur hunting competition. You know. The very same competition Zoro and Sanji posed to each other at the start of the arc?
But here’s the thing. I’m a little worried about how it’s going to be resolved. Because. Despite how readily Zoro agreed to kill Sanji if need be, he must have known that the crew would never forgive him. Zoro is Luffy’s specialest guy but Luffy would not accept any excuse as to why Sanji had to die. Nor anyone else in the crew. But. Does Sanji realize that?
Does he know that killing him would literally be the hardest thing Zoro would ever do, because it would mean literally betraying his Captain and crew? Luffy said he can’t become Pirate King without Sanji, and Zoro and Luffy swore they’d commit fucking ritualistic suicide if they got in the way of each other’s dreams, so does Sanji know where that would leave the swordsman in this case? With no Captain, no crew, and yet another dead rival and best friend (who, mind you, began to live in fear of his own biology betraying him right before dying. but the parallels between Kuina and Sanji and how they relate to Zoro could be a long ass post for another day).
I think he doesn’t know. But he can’t find out how Zoro would mourn him unless the pact actually follows through. But still, I don’t think Oda would kill Sanji, cause that’s no way to resolve this issue. So here’s my speculation about how I think it could potentially play out, following that initial line of thinking of the death pact’s resolution being set in Elbaf, specifically because of Sanji and Zoro’s parallels to Dorry and Brogy.
Like Brogy, Zoro would have to believe that he killed Sanji. That he won their final duel. He’d have to believe that Sanji has fallen and, also like Brogy, have to face that grief and hurt all alone. But in the end, like Dorry, Sanji would survive, having never actually been hurt. Because their edges have dulled after fighting for so long, no longer as capable of landing killing blows as they thought. “Not even the blades of Elbaf could endure two giants fighting for 100 years”? Something of the sort. And maybe this line of speculation is simplistic or optimistic, but the chances of it playing out like this aren’t zero, so just in case, I would want to be able to say that I called it.
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The thing about jc and wwx is that i do not take any other characters interpretations on their relationship seriously, tbh only jyl would have a chance to understand those two and she’s dead by the end of the story so we don’t get her side (regretfully). But no other character in the story (not even chengxian themselves rlly) can understand their relationship without putting some of their own biases in it. Like lwj from his perspective sees jc as a selfish abusive brother but he’s not privy to all the experiences jc and wwx have had, he met them when they were 15ish and was in and out of wwxs life (without jc) until his death. Wn (no offense to him) is clearly only aware of what wwx did for jc, not the other way around. The thing that irks me about the story is that jc doesn’t have riders and shooters like wwx does for many reasons (he’s a bitch) and any person that can vouch for jc is literally gone (see: dead family) or a child (see: Jin ling) so we as the readers are the only ones who get to see their relationship fully since we are not being deceived by anyone and can see the way outside influences as well as internal ones culminate in the relationship between them.
What I’m trying to say is that it’s obv jc’s story ceases to be important in the eyes of the narrative bc mdzs is a romance novel at the end of the day, so for people who enjoyed the back and forth between chengxian (romantic or platonic) were left with an unfulfilling ending where jc also sacrificed something before wwx did so technically there’s nothing left to say. I do enjoy the fact that they ping pong sacrifice back and forth for each other but I can also see that ending their story there just plays into the narrative that their relationship is transactional, that is if you don’t read much into it, which is what most people who read mdzs do. Cuz most people only show up for wangxian which is perfectly fine and what youre supposed to do, I mean that’s what the story is about. But I can definitely see how the opinions that other characters have on chengxian and their whole mess (affectionately) of a story can lead to readers misunderstanding jc or wwx and woobifying one to make the other the innocent party. It’s also very frustrating and we’re allowed to complain about it lol.
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Have I mentioned lately that creating AUs is the most fun thing ever? You get to take a story you love and then mash it against another type of story you love and fit all their pieces together like they're a jigsaw puzzle. You get to find all the unexpected points of similarity where the stories fit together really well, and see the places where their differences change and make commentary on the original stories/genres in really interesting ways.
And then once you fit the pieces together, you get to look at the new world you've made and see how these characters in this specific world have different conflicts and explore new themes, and you get to play with another level of puzzles as you figure out what this means for this story.
It's the most fun ever. It's my favorite game.
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