 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything one piece and today it's time to get into one of the age-old debates within the fandom, the ever delightful topic that is Zorro vs Sanji. Now I should say right at the beginning that this is going to be a strictly hypothetical combative scenario. It has nothing to do with character preference, although to put my own personal bias out there right now, Zorro is my favorite character in the series, but I do also love Sanji, so we're going to try and make this as fair a fight as possible. And in this effort I've decided the way we're going to do this is by examining seven broad categories, being strength, speed, durability, harky, individual fighting style, intelligence, and miscellaneous weaknesses in the hopes of maybe coming to a conclusion that exactly half of the internet will not necessarily despise me for. And as for the other half, well there are lost cause. But first up, to introduce our two combatants here today, Zorro is the swordsman of the Straw Hat Pirates, who harbors the ultimate dream of becoming the world's greatest swordsman. He sports green hair, three swords, one of which is used exclusively in his mouth, which is weird and I think we've all gotten very desensitized to exactly how strange this is, but it is effective in his self-taught martial art of Santoriu. And going up against the Marimo, we have Vinsmoke Sanji, chef of the Straw Hat Pirates and a former prince of the German Kingdom, whose goal in the series is to find the legendary All Blue, a patch of water in which fish from all over the world flow into. So Sanji's priorities have far more to do with his pride as a chef than they do with combat, and as a result he makes the active choice to exclusively use his legs in battle, which is done in order to preserve his hands for cooking. And finally to clarify, we will be examining these two at the height of their power in the series thus far, in the post-timeskip era, or at the very least, what we know of the height of their power. So without further ado, let's begin this hypothetical battle for the ages. Starting with the strength category, the immediate natural thought is that Zorro would come out on top with a significant advantage because he spends almost all of his time aboard the ship doing essentially one of two things, either training through weightlifting or sleeping. So in the real world Zorro would probably trump Sanji quite easily, but this is one piece and it's not quite that simple, because for example Luffy, who never trains ever, has consistently maintained strength greater than that of Zorro, so we will be forced to look at their feats in the series instead. With Sanji, his legs are an incredibly formidable force, as even in the pre-timeskip era, he was capable of nearly breaking through an invocation of Takai from Blueno. But even more astonishingly, during the events of Alabaster, he was able to kick a banana oney up into the air, and if you want to take this as anything, Oda has even stated in an SPS that Sanji's kicking power equates to a total of 21 bats, as in the power to break 21 wooden bats in a single kick, although rather notably that was way back in volume 8 of the series, so things have only gotten more insane from there. Meanwhile in the post-timeskip era, Sanji's strength has been recognized by powerhouse figures such as Virgo and Dolph Lamingo, and in one of the initial displays of his power, Sanji was even able to break the neck of a pacifista with a trademark singular kick. Moving back to Zorro though, he's a bit of a beast himself, with inconceivable pre-timeskip power, you know, the sort that casually allows you to lift an entire building and toss it at an opponent, as well as deflect a punch from Oz, one of the largest and most physically powerful creatures to have ever existed. Furthermore, if Zorro ever requires more strength, then he has the ability to significantly juice up his arms with a shot of pure muscle. And with all of that in mind, I think that in terms of strength alone, Zorro does take this category. It is a tough fight and I don't think that Zorro comes out on top by much, but with everything we've seen, I would say that he has the general edge in raw power. Next up is speed and this one is a bit more cut and dry because Oda has actually ranked all of the straw hats in terms of who would win a 50 meter race, which frankly enough resulted in Brooke coming in at first place, with Sanji right behind him in second, and Zorro ranking fifth behind Chopper. Now it should be noted that Zorro's ranking here is a bit of a joke, because Oda said that he would have been ranked higher if he didn't get lost along the track. So I think we could say that he safely beats Chopper, however I do believe that Sanji has been consistently portrayed as faster than Zorro overall. And one of the crowning examples of this in my mind comes from recent events in Whole Cake Island, where Sanji was fast enough to dodge a shot from Karakuri, an opponent who despite being able to see briefly into the future was shocked by Sanji's capabilities in terms of sheer speed. And Zorro certainly isn't to be underestimated in this area though, as pre-timeskip he was able to keep up with the sort of users of CP9 without being able to perform the technique himself. But then again so was Sanji, and in the post timeskip era, after two years straight of running as fast as he can from the Okama of the Kanbaka Kingdom, Sanji's speed is second only to a perverted skeleton. Rather notably though on Fishman Island it was stated that Zorro could move underwater faster than even a fisherman could. So that's another pretty damn incredible feat, but speaking of feat, Sanji can use his to do exactly the same in fact better by using Blue Walk. So I don't think there's any situation in which Sanji does not come out on top in terms of speed alone. Going on to category three we have Durability and I think this is another simple one because Zorro is quite possibly the biggest glutton for punishment in the entirety of the series. In fact one of the most iconic moments in One Piece was when Zorro accepted all of Luffy's pain and fatigue at the tail end of Thriller Bark and despite taking that overwhelming damage not only did Zorro survive but he remained both conscious and still standing. Barely but he was. I cannot imagine any other straw hat other than maybe Luffy taking on this sort of endurance and even then I'm not so sure about being able to tank pain on that specific level. Sanji does also have an impressive durability streak though which he had to learn from an early age taking continuous beatings from his brothers as well as various kicks from Redlegs Zeph during his time on the Baratier. However I don't think there's any evidence that soundly shows that Sanji's endurance is anywhere near the level of that of Zorro which is very important in this context because if Zorro versus Sanji does become a battle of attrition then victory would more than likely fall to the green head sword boy. Now for something a bit more balanced we move to the realm of Haki. So Haki in the post-times skip era is of the utmost importance in combat so much so that if a character has a mastery of Haki and is up against another character who beats them in every other physical area I would honestly say that the Haki user is more likely to win as sad as that is. Now in regards to Zorro versus Sanji we have a very interesting situation as they are both competent users of armament and observation Haki. However they both specialize in one of those fields in particular so in Zorro's case he is a far stronger user of armament Haki although he primarily uses it to imbue his swords rather than any other aspect of his body and as for Sanji he is more of a specialist in observation Haki being able to use it in depth to sense the presence, strength and even emotions of others although very importantly to point out he is not a user of future sight. So to be perfectly honest Haki ends up providing us with a bit of a stalemate. You can argue that Sanji might have the edge due to more advanced observation but that's all pretty meaningless if his armament Haki can't prove superior to Zorro's because sadly that's just how Haki is whoever has the stronger Haki will almost certainly win and given that both Zorro and Sanji have the edge in one area and neither have access to the third brand of Haki there can be no clear winner when looking at this category alone. So in this case we're going to label them both as winners or both as losers whichever way you prefer to think about it. Now moving to individual fighting styles of each combatant and we have another intriguing scenario developing here because I'll say it right here and now if we were talking exclusively pre-timeskip then Zorro would be the undisputed winner simply because he uses sharp objects to fight and Sanji wields his fleshy vulnerable legs. However Haki went on to completely change all of that and now it's a moot point. Now there is actually some potential disadvantages for Zorro in terms of Santoria vs Blackleg style in that Sanji does not rely on weapons meaning that if there was some way to disarm Zorro then Sanji would probably comfortably go on to take victory but that is much easier said than done though. I'll also say that Blackleg style does grant Sanji superior maneuverability compared to Zorro because Sanji is capable of fighting in any arena thanks to techniques like blue walk and skywalk. Now however this is aptly countered by the fact that Sanji doesn't have access to any ranged attacks whereas Zorro could comfortably send an infinity of air slashes out in Sanji's general direction. So it's a really tricksy blending of styles because Zorro is comfortable fighting in both close quarters and at range whilst Blackleg style only allows Sanji to fight in close quarters. So oddly enough it makes Zorro far more versatile in theory because Sanji can dance around up and about all he wants but that doesn't stop Zorro from attacking and at that point it becomes a bit of a battle of attrition which we've already established that Zorro would more than likely win but in regards to close quarters combat Santoria goes on to have a mathematical advantage over Blackleg style because Zorro can attack with three swords while Sanji can only ever use two legs and that's one reason why I would say that Luffy has such an advantage over Zorro in combat because he will use everything legs arms and even his head while Sanji has an incredibly difficult self-imposed restriction to overcome. So in terms of direct fighting style comparisons I would say that this is yet another Zorro advantage. Now getting into more of a non-physical aspect here I would like to briefly examine intelligence because that is the thing that determines physical application after all and I think that Zorro and Sanji fall into two very very different areas here with Zorro being more of an intuitive in the moment man with a brilliant instinct for battle whereas Sanji is far more textbook intelligent and capable of coming up with all sorts of crazy plans and strategies to win in next to no time. However what I don't know is how well that kind of intelligence plays out against a demonic like being who has a natural affinity for combat and has a heightened sense for any given situation. Like Sanji could implement a brilliantly crafted plan and Zorro may not be able to figure out exactly what that is but that doesn't mean he would be taken aback by it if he is just able to intuitively sense his way through the minefield of Sanji plots. So at best I think this category is also a tie. I mean if it were any situation that wasn't combat focused I would obviously say that Sanji is more intelligent but in this scenario combat intelligence is literally the only intelligence that Zorro excels at so it doesn't amount to much more than giving Sanji a fair chance in the fight. And to finish things off let's look at some other miscellaneous things to consider in this battle. The first of which is that Zorro has a natural weakness in regards to his sense of direction which while primarily a comical feature could come into play if the battlefield were particularly large. Like you could see Sanji attempting to take advantage of that in some way maybe. Similarly Sanji has a huge kryptonite in regards to women and while I don't think Zorro would ever ever do this let's not count out the hilarious idea that he may decide to disappear and then reappear and drag you know Bugs Bunny style captivating Sanji's senses and forcing him into a powerless state. But in all seriousness the one thing I have neglected to mention here is Sanji's raid suit. Now we haven't seen much from it in the series as of yet but it is guaranteed to provide Sanji with a general speed and strength boost. The former of which isn't hugely important because Sanji was always faster but the propulsion aspect of the suit may equalize him in terms of power which is pretty huge but very difficult to quantify right now. There's also his special ability is Stealth Black which I won't spoil for non-Margaritas but it's not insignificant although I don't think it would be enough to overcome the superior senses of Zorro. So let's conclude. Look this was never going to be an easy discussion to have because throughout the series Zorro and Sanji have always been portrayed as rivals and rivals need to be primarily equal while that narrative aspect simply doesn't work. With that said after going through all of the categories Zorro has emerged with five wonderful point things after being victorious in strength, durability and fighting style as well as tying in regards to intelligence and haki. Meanwhile the only area I could see Sanji being 100% superior in was that of speed which is incredibly important and he is certainly capable of drawing in the areas of haki and intelligence for a total of three points. Now even if I was to grant that the raid suit would put Sanji in a position to tie with Zorro in regards to strength Zorro would still come out on top with a 5-4 margin and there you have it. It was a close one but I firmly believe that Zorro is all around the stronger combatant. And that pretty much does it for this hypothetical discussion of Zorro vs Sanji. 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