I joke about how Luffy was literally willing to starve to death to get Sanji back and the âplatonically married for 20 yearsâ vibe they have but I think the thing is, Luffy wouldâve responded like that for any of his crew post-Marineford. IMO the only real difference between Usopp at Water 7 and Sanji at WCI is purely Luffy having experienced grievous and irreperable loss - the understanding, born of the worst possible circumstances, that sometimes when something is gone, itâs gone forever, so youâd better damn well hold onto the things that really matter to you. In that sense, it wasnât so much that Luffy is bonded with Sanji above and beyond the rest of his crew, but that Sanji was his first real taste of loss since Ace died, and Luffy responded the only way he knew how: by trying to stop the entire world.
What makes it significant, for me, is that of everyone in the crew, Sanji is the only one who really needed this. Usoppâs had his moment of doubt and grown up since; Robin went through the same self-sacrificial âtheyâd be better off without meâ moment of growth two years prior. Nami, Zoro and Franky have never really doubted their belonging since making the decision to join up; Chopper and Brook are just happy to be there. Sanji, on the other hand, has been actively trying to scramble for redemption-by-suicide since approximately Drum Island and is on attempt 478439 by now; Iâve spoken before about Sanjiâs insane self-sacrifice problem and it was gratifying to get to WCI and understand why he is Like This (not just the fatal inferiority complex but like. All of it.)
Anyway. The point Iâm making is, Luffyâs intelligence (especially post-TS) imo manifests in his ability to know exactly what people need from him. Itâs why people are drawn to him, why he wins allies so easily; he can see what people need, and he finds ways to give it to them. So the thing with Luffy and Sanji on WCI is that is IS rooted in Luffyâs love for Sanji - not because Luffy loves Sanji best, necessarily, but because he understood the nature of Sanjiâs wounding, and recognised implicitly what Sanji needs: to be needed. So when Luffy tells Sanji heâll sit there and starve if he doesnât come back, it absolutely means âI love youâ, but it also means Luffy sees Sanji in all his woundedness and trauma and perceived, crushing worthlessness, and he says hey, I donât need you to throw yourself away for me; I donât need you to stand in the way of a lightning bolt, or throw yourself into an avalanche, or stand between Zoro and death; I need you alive. I need you here, with me. With us.
âI canât become the King of the Pirates without youâ applies to everyone on Luffyâs crew; itâs just that Sanji is the only one who really, desperately needed to hear it, and to believe it.
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