One Piece: Sanji’s Power Of Love, Explained

Sanji’s powers are heavily connected to his emotions in One Piece.

HIGHLIGHTS

 Sanji’s power stems from his emotions, making him a unique and strong fighter in the series.

Sanji is an incredibly powerful individual, and the cook of the Straw Hat Pirates, at the same time. Fans know him to be exceptionally skilled as a fighter, now more than ever before. Although Sanji didn’t start off as one of the strongest in the story, he has developed his skills tremendously over the years, and right now, he can’t be considered to be one of the strongest fighters in the entire story.

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A glimpse of that was given to the fans in the previous chapter of the series, where Sanji was able to match up to Kizaru in a fight as he entered his power of love transformation, and burst his light by kicking it so hard that it completely scattered. Clearly, Sanji has amazing strength up his sleeve, and much of that is down to the power of love, which he so dearly believes is the source of all his abilities.

Sanji’s Power – Emotions

To understand Sanji’s powers, one needs to go to his roots and understand the circumstances surrounding his birth. Sanji was born as a child of Judge and Sora, and these two individuals had completely different plans for their children. Sora wanted to be a loving mother to her children, while Judge wanted them to be warmongers and his plan was to inject them with powerful abilities that would help him take over the North Blue once again and fulfill his destiny. Sora vehemently argued against this as she wanted her children to be normal humans, and more importantly, she wanted them to have their own emotions as well as freedom. Judge wanted to erase that, as, according to him, a warrior having any emotions is one who showcases weakness.

Judge tried his best to erase their emotions, and turn them into cold-blooded warmongers. To counter this, Sora took a powerful medicine that weakened her body tremendously, and at the same time, countered the experimentation done by Judge as well. Unfortunately, this did not work on every single child that was inside Sora at the time. Out of the four, Sanji was the only one who was saved by this medication, and, as a result, he was bestowed with emotions.

The other brothers lost their emotions and became programmed in such a manner that they were made to listen to Judge and obey his orders, no matter what. They lacked emotions, and above all, empathy. As they continued to progress over the years, it became clear for everyone around them to see that these brothers were special. They were incredibly powerful, despite being mere children, and could be used to devastating effect in combat. Sanji, on the other hand, was a weakling and this was largely attributed to the fact that he possessed emotions.

Sanji’s Burning Soul And Connection To Science

Judge had no plans to Keep Sanji as a part of his family. In fact, he locked him away and pretended that he was dead so that he could remove the stain from his legacy. Eventually, it was Reiju who helped him escape and, when she did that, Sanji finally managed to get to a ship in the East Blue, which later ended up being raided by Zeff. One thing led to another and Zeff and Sanji ended up opening a restaurant called Baratie together. Zeff himself was a very powerful pirate, and under his tutelage, Sanji learned quite a lot.

Most importantly, Zeff taught Sanji with love, as his real father never did, and these two formed a very strong bond with each other. Sanji developed greatly under him, and by this point, his genetic augmentation powers were starting to awaken. This was hinted at first through Sanji’s curious resistance to fire, and as the series continued, this resistance to fire grew even more.

In Enies Lobby, this resistance manifested itself as Diable Jambe, which was a technique that Sanji could use to set his feet on fire. This should not have been possible for normal humans to pull off, however, for Sanji, it was somehow possible and he attributed it to the power of love. According to Sanji, his need to save Robin allowed him to push deep into his heart and manifest this power of burning flames. Oda himself mentioned in an SBS that Sanji doesn’t get burned by his flames because his soul burns even hotter.

As the series progressed, Sanji’s power of love progressed as well. In Wano, Sanji mentioned that his soul burns bright and that is why he can manifest flames on his legs when he was fighting against Queen. As the fight progressed, Sanji realized that he had awakened the same powers as his brothers, and this was down to the fact that he put on the Raid Suit that was given to him by his siblings. Thanks to that, he awakened an exoskeleton, and gained other abilities, similar to his siblings as well. Because of everything that he gained, Sanji essentially became a warrior of science, and a killing machine, just like his siblings.

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However, curiously, Sanji did not lose his emotions. In fact, if anything, it appears that Sanji’s powers are actually boosted by his emotions and this is key to why Sanji is much stronger than his siblings. Whereas his brothers lack the ability to showcase emotion properly, Sanji has it in him and that is what strengthened his powers even further. That is precisely why Sanji calls his abilities to be powered by love, and while that might be far-fetched in some ways, it is actually true in many others.

How Love Strengthens Sanji

Sanji’s power of love is actually a real ability and it appears that the trigger for his lineage factor manipulation to kick in is his burning soul, and of course, love for those he wants to protect. That is how his powers have manifested before, and now, things are the same. In Enies Lobby, Sanji’s powers manifested because of his desire to protect Robin. In Wano, Sanji’s power is manifested once again for similar reasons as he wanted to not only protect Wano, but of course, in the particular moment, protect every innocent civilian around him, and of course, uphold Luffy’s special dream of becoming the King of the Pirates after defeating Kaido.

When Nami was in trouble in the Egghead Island arc, Sanji was seen undergoing this transformation once again, and it was clear that it was triggered because Nami was in danger. And now, when Bonney’s life was in danger, once again, Sanji’s transformation was triggered. Clearly, this is a transformation that stems from his emotions and is one that is strengthened by it. The more his loved ones are in trouble, the stronger he will get. Sanji is a warrior of science, however, unlike any other that has been seen before. He is a warrior who is strengthened by emotions, and the deeper his love gets, the brighter his passion burns and the stronger he gets.

As mentioned by Sanji himself previously, his love burns brighter than anything, and, even light does not hold a candle to it. Sanji attributes the power of love to be such an ability that it surpasses even logic and defies physics itself. This is the true essence of his ability. Sanji possesses powers that go beyond science and any understanding. This simply means that Sanji is a person with no limits as to how strong he can get. Not only can he surpass and defeat Kizaru with the power of love, but he can become even stronger and hit unprecedented levels in terms of power as the story continues.