few things in this world are as viciously satisfying as that scene in WCI when Sanji looks his abusive biological father in the eye, and tells him that the only reason he's even still alive is because "My father would be sad [...] that I had turned into such a small man that I would laugh off the death of my biological family. And I'll be damned if I lead a life where I can't stand tall and look him proudly in the eye."
children are not obligated to forgive their abusive parents, and not doing so doesn't make them a bad person.
but unfortunately, media so often ends up sending the opposite message, and there's just something so vindicating about oda saying that no. sanji does not forgive his bio family, and he never will. and there's nothing wrong with that.
the panel where sanji pulls judge to his knees in front of him and screams in his face that he is not his father is hands down one of my favourite panels in the entire series. there's just so much raw emotion in there, it always gives me chills
AND THEN!!!
And then Oda goes on to end this arc with this heartwarming spread paralleling Sanji with his true father, the man who raised him? God, I'm so fucking emotional. Zeff hasn't even been in the story for like eight hundred chapters (nearly 20 years of real world time!!!!) aside from occasional cover stories or short cameos reacting to the crew's bounties, but the fact that he's able to still evoke such emotion is amazing. he's just such a good fucking dad, and i love that for once, for once, we actually get a manga character who acknowledges in canon that his mentor figure is his father. my crops are watered my skin is cleared, thank you for coming to my ted talk
