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a lot of the fuckery of sanji's character assassination makes sense when you realise Oda doesn't know, and has never known, what to do with him- narratively speaking
I feel like when you're writing an ensemble series, there's always one character you just... don't know what to do with. Either because they were introduced to fill a specific role and then afterwards they're just kind of... there, or because they never 'clicked' to start with
I think characters like Brook and to an extent Franky fill the former role, but I think Sanji is alone in the latter role, and that's why Franky and Brook are perhaps underdeveloped but allowed to just chill, while Sanji is like. constantly mutating into something worse lmao
because the fear with a character like this, as a writer, is always that you need to make them more interesting, even though most of the time the disconnect is solely on your end. like people love brook and franky even tho when all's said and done, they're fairly shallow charas.
but sanji is one of the east blue crew, he's one of the monster trio, he's like... one of the 'main' straw hats, but you can tell oda doesn't have as firm a grasp on who he is as a character, and he's worried Sanji's not 'enough' of a character compared to the rest of the crew.
which is why he's constantly tacking shit onto Sanji to make him 'enough'. it's why suddenly he could fly and THEN suddenly he could set himself on fire and THEN he was a super sentai hero- Oda is basically throwing anything at Sanji to see what sticks and will endear ppl.
I'm not including "and then he was secretly a disowned prince from an evil war nation" in that list because it works since I think Oda actually had something like that planned for him probably from the start, but for whatever reason, he still didn't feel like that was 'enough'.
And so that's why Sanji's character keeps getting shoved further and further down the toilet - because oda finally feels like he HAS struck something that resonates with/endears Sanji to a big chunk of his readership where he didn't before: him being a massive gross sex pest.
Especially since one piece/oda fall into the camp of "men who think they're writing for men and then realise they're also partially/majority writing for not-men and get pissy about it" and sanji's appeal is not the same as luffy's or zoro's.
which is weird, because, y'know, at first glance of sanji's pre-TS character, you'd think, isn't that the point? Isn't he SUPPOSED to appeal more to girls than boys? but I still feel like oda couldn't shake the feeling that he had to make sanji appeal to male readers more.
and sanji is regularly accused of being the 'weakest' of the monster trio (i cannot bring myself to give a shit enough to argue whether he is or not) which means a lot of the chest-thumping male OP readers immediately think he sucks compared to zoro or luffy-
-and so oda goes, oh no, I WANT them to like him just as much (again, you think he'd ask himself why, but I digress), what can I do?? And when throwing all these ridiculous power-ups at him fails to endear him to the male readership, he falls back on the pervert gag.
He's kind of like the class clown who keeps doing the same slapstick every day because it gets a laugh, but he makes it more and more absurd to get a stronger response. A not-insignificant portion of Oda's readership now relates to Sanji where they didn't before-
-because they are also gross little sex pests, and to Oda, who despite some of the themes in his work generally poses as "apolitical" (i.e. a pushover/shill), that doesn't matter; what matters to him is that more men like sanji now. Same reason for the extra transphobic jokes.
which is why he doesn't care if female fans start to like sanji less and less as he becomes more and more of a rampant sexual harrasser, even if his original character concept was a "ladies first" gentleman, because Oda feels like he's finally winning over more male fans.
and it sucks even harder because Sanji's original characterisation was SO GOOD. It wasn't without its own flaws, but it was generally charming and moreso refreshing, and set him apart from not only other male characters in OP but in shonen in general.
aaand now he's just another stock standard master roshi slap-on-the-wrist, wink-wink-nudge-nudge boys-will-be-boys pervert creep like every shonen series has had and still has. because oda didn't feel confident enough to just let Sanji's characterisation breathe. :/
uh this thread reached further than I expected so 1) I'm gonna mute it now, heads up and 2) this isn't about Sanji being a good or a bad character, he's my fav tied with Usopp; it's more about how I feel Oda's confidence in his own writing has been shaken over the years. Peace!
