Let it be known that I love Zeff, genuinely, so much. He's a great character. He's brave, he's wise, he's idealistic, he's generous, and he loves Sanji so much, which is what Sanji really needed more than anything else. Zeff is GREAT and I love their relationship.
He's nooooooot a perfect parent. He's really not.
Sanji got his particular brand of chauvinistic toxic masculinity from somewhere and it's not just from Judge.
Zeff is sexist. We know this about him. He's also physically violent with the people around him, even the ones he cares about (especially the ones he cares about) because he doesn't know how to be soft with people and emotional intimacy terrifies him (because Masculinity). Zeff prides himself on fulfilling his own definition of what makes a Man and that definition has very little room for frou frou shit like hugs and expressing your feelings.
Zeff is the kind of guy who will not hire women in his kitchen because he refuses to kick them in the head which is the only way he knows how to interact with his crew. He then proceeds to kick a child in the head for daring to suggest he might just, like, not treat women differently to men.
Like if we're all being really honest with ourselves canon Zeff is the aging relative who we do love but don't talk about our queer friends around. Not because they'd be actively hateful, but because we don't want to spend the next hour and a half attempting to explain what being nonbinary is to them only to have them throw their hands up and say they're too old for all this weird newfangled kid stuff.
Like.... If Sanji returned home some flavor of trans and/or with a man on his arm..... it would take Zeff a minute.
(And it would not be a graceful minute)
And I'm not saying this because I necessarily dislike all the fan versions of Zeff who are openly affectionate with Sanji and accepting of any flavor of gender and sexuality shenanigans he's getting himself into. I think those are great and like, I'm the last person in the world who's gonna get up in arms about canon characterizations. Sincerely, do what makes you happiest.
But sometimes... I wish in works that are actually attempting to tackle Sanji's flawed relationship to manhood and gender, the hand that Zeff played in all that was acknowledged more often, rather than pinning it all on Judge. Because that's interesting, there's meat there.
Like how are you even supposed to feel when the person who had such a massively positive impact on your life to the point that they basically saved it, also severely damaged your ability to understand and interact with yourself and others? How do you process that?
I love Zeff. I LOVE Zeff. I think he's a fascinatingly complicated character and his relationship with Sanji gets me right in the heart. Sanji is, in every way that matters, Zeff's son, and it's beautiful. It's just... a little ugly too.
That's not a bad thing.
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