I cried pretty hard for Sanji this episode. What affected me wasn't the cruelty that Sanji suffered but rather how, in retrospect, everything about him makes so much sense. Sanji knew what it was like to be treated instrumentally as a child, to be treated abusively and told by his father to never mention his name. Coming from that background, seeing that Sanji is willing to put his life on the line for anybody that he considers his own, anyone that he respects and cares for, it only makes sense. Seeing how he treats Chopper, Chimney, and Momonosuke so kindly, it only makes sense. He knows what it is like to have nobody, he knows what it is like to have so few people fight for you, he knows what it is like to be unloved and unsupported. He is those things for other people. He is the things he desperately needed for anybody he considers a friend. Akin to Luffy’s backstory, it grounded his outstanding behavior in sadness, while also producing a feeling of triumph, a feeling of duty being fulfilled. That is what affected me so much. I was able to see Sanji on a level that felt more human than ever.
There's some bitter irony in the fact that Sanji is strong enough to beat his brother's asses now. When he was treated horribly, instrumentally, and conditionally, he did not fight for those around him. But when he had a family that cared for him, he became strong enough to oppose Germa 66. If only Judge actually cared for him, if only then Sanji could have become as strong as he is now but out of respect and gratefulness and compassion for his father, yet he lacked all of those things so he didn’t. This is the flaw in Judge’s parenting even from his perspective and his goal.
But, there was a lot of sadness and warmth around them all. Reiju is a pressing example. I got a strong sense of inferiority emerging from her. She knows that her mother, Sora, died for Sanji. And Reiju appears to be willing to die for Sanji as well, so that the grace of Sora and her self-sacrifice lives on. That grace being Sanji’s compassion and humanity. But her seeming self-sacrifice, willing to die with the rest of her family because she was never able to oppose them, makes me think she feels as though she failed. As though she did not live up to her mother's wishes, that only Sanji did. As if her and her brothers are all monsters who cannot feel, but we have seen countless times that Reiju can feel in small and big ways, we've seen kindness through her, she subdues it but it is there. Given the right push, I feel she could be as strong and compassionate as Sanji is. But, I don't think she realizes that. “Parting memories are suspect. Don't think that you are indebted to me for helping you once.” It is also notable that Sora was the same name of the marine in the comics who opposed Germa 66 if I recall correctly, exactly what she did too.
I even felt this feeling of sadness towards Judge of all people, which may be a more controversial take. But I felt inklings of sympathy towards him. This is because Sora is a strong and compassionate and loving person, whereas Judge is cruel and cold, and it makes me feel as though he couldn’t have always been this way, it evokes questions of why they were together if he had been. In the past there was a time I speculated that Judge was this way because he had lost her, it would paint the perfect picture, a man loses his wife and all he has left is status and glory days! Yet this was not the case, he was this way towards her while she was alive and at her grave. Still, he did go to her grave, as did he keep Sanji alive while feeding him good food. This creates a sense of connection between the two of them even after her death, even if it is diluted with cruelty and selfishness. I may be giving him far too much credit just as I may have with Pudding, but for these reasons, the marriage between near opposites, and the slight tinge of obligation or respect he had for her, I feel he has not always been this way. As if, at some point he became a husk, living in the past, with nothing else to live for but to re-achieve the grandeur of his glory days and the power that came with it. I want to know why he became this way, why Sora married him, and if this sadness I feel buried within him has truth to it or if I'm extrapolating far too much.
I suppose if I’m going all out, the way it was expressed was that the brothers were also brainwashed, through genetic modification and through their childhood to be unfeeling creatures which despise weakness and only value strength. One thought that I had was that because Reiju was the first child perhaps the experimentation was flawed and reserved some of her humanity, and if so there's a possibility that there is no blame to be put on the evil brothers, and possibly a chance for them to get some emotional breakthroughs and remind them of some deeply entrenched sense of humanity that could never leave them. This is also a good time to mention what everyone probably noticed a long time ago, in that every subordinate to Judge is incredibly instrumental to him. He named his children numbers, his entire army are clones which are loyal to death. His rule lacks any form of respect for anyone below him, his clones serve as meat shields, if his children could not live up to expectation he would dispose of them. His wife seemed to be instrumentally used for the sake of children and then those children were ripped away from her. This is the culture that surrounds the family. It's a bleak picture despite the goofy appearances and squeaky shoes. |