u/Choice_Till_5524

I think people missed a lot of major things in the fight.

1. Gaban starts things off attacking Imu and acting having him on the defensive for a little. Thought you can argue Imu was just trying to talk to Gaban due to his earlier comments.

2. When Gaban mentions Joyboy IMU pulls out bone breaker and immediately goes on the offensive. At this point he actually cuts Gaban almost immediately. You can see the effect Gaban wincing and where the damage was done on gabans rights shoulder

3. Imu turns his attention to Luffy and tries to take him out using stigma but Gaban gets ready to attack Imu. Imu still tries to go through with the attack on Luffy but gets cut short mid attack name because he needed to put omen up in order to block divine gate.

4. We see that attack still did damage through omen because Imu is seen bleeding directly after from the head as well as the mouth.

5. At the same time when Gaban lets off yachi takeru imu uses the bone breaker sword to slice off Gabans arm. A lot of people missed this part. We see the omen from bone breaker on gabans left arm as well as the slicing sound.

6. Imu still manages to block yachi takeru even though he gets sent down to the underwire by the ground he’s standing on being removed from under him.

7. I think Gaban actually lands still in the sun world. We see he lands on a piece of tree. It’s possible it’s a chunk that he cut down but Luffy can still see him clearly and presumably can’t see Imu. Ussop also says the person who did the attack ( given context I’m assuming he’s talking about Gaban and not Imu) is someone else “up” there which makes me feel like it’s not in the underworld.

All were presumably capable of fighting at the same time but ended up staggering and running a gauntlet. If they jumped Imu their chances would have been a lot better right?

What zeff is referencing here is exactly what Gaban is referencing in the newest chapter. stubbornness and self will are all cornerstones of Sanji’s character. He was introduced highlighting the same phycotic unrelenting and unreasonable willpower that Luffy and zoro show. We watched him actively get beaten halfway to death and stand up with a smile just to keep the restaurant up for as long as possible. We see him get up after taking hits from gin that shattered pearls cannon proof armor broken ribs and all. He clearly has the quality of somebody that refuses to bend to the world around him.

This to me clearly seems like the foundation of a conqueror. The main difference is that Sanji does not act any of this will for his own sake due to his self sacrificial nature and damaged self worth. He’s chewing down his own “spear of grit” zeff still remembers the little boy that took a hit that would knock out hardened adults and clawed his immobile body over to bite his leg while declaring his dream with conviction. That boy is still there but Sanji threw a lot of that away once zeff came into his life. All that conviction was put towards zeff’s dream instead because Sanji genunliy loved zeff and was incapable of loving himself due to the abuse he suffered as a child.

He was taught he was worthless at a developmental age. It was beaten into him emotionally and physically. The trauma he has from his childhood experiences are extreme and cause him PTSD till today. The irony is that everything judge did to his children was to reclaim his family’s status as conquerors of the north blue. Everything he hates about Sanji is exactly what makes Sanji a true conqueror.