@Tom:
In a similar fashion it's in the reader's head that Luffy will face Big Mom no matter what Pudding does. From Pudding's inside-the-story point-of-view, the Strawhats want to get Sanji and sneak out without causing a scene. They wouldn't control the Strawhats' movements had Pudding just let them go freely. Now they get the Strawhats exactly where they want them. As to why she lied about meeting Sanji, perhaps it's more believable to help the Strawhats for no reason if she has some sort of connection to Sanji. Otherwise she would be helping complete strangers to do something that goes against her mother's will which probably isn't the gut instinct for her since she's remained loyal to her for this long.
it's not about luffy facing big mom or not,it's about them going on whole cake island anyway..if they already know they are coming and set up a trap,that means that they are already tracking them (especially counting how surveilled is big mom territory in general), thus tracking them all the way to whole cake,no mtter what route they take,should be incredibly easy and thus setting the trap only for that doesn't make much sense IMHO
as per the part about helping sanji,her motivation "not wanting to merry someone who would regret the marriage" still stands even without her having met sanji,she just need to say that she wants to be certain first that sanji wants to stayy with her,and so she will help them meet sanji first so that he can give them his answer.
The thing is that I find Pudding's behavior so suspicious, that I'm willing to believe that it plays a role later on no matter what her intentions are. That's why I can look past the lack of evidence or reasoning for said behavior, especially since that's something that can be introduced later on in the story. Her actions can't be undone, so there's no reason for me to believe it wouldn't be relevant later on.
fair enough,i'm not denying that her behaviour is suspicious,but at the same time i prefer to make assumptions based on what we know as of now..if new elements will emerge,i will change idea without problems,but as i said,making assumptions only based on what we find suspicious,is what made meadows become kaidou for 2 whole weeks,people found suspicious that he wasn't on the panels of people on the ground and made speculations only based on that,despite the theory by itself not standing to scrutiny given what we knew at that moment.
All of this would be much easier if we knew what Mom's plans are for Luffy. There's still so much we don't know that it's quite easy for either of us to be proven wrong in the upcoming chapters. Maybe I'm reading this whole Sanji situation wrong and she did in fact meet him, but is the kind of gullible idiot who wouldn't understand simple things like the black leg -nickname or the heart-eye. It just doesn't make sense to me that the exhange was made so suspicious if she's being honest. If the only purpose was to inform the readers that she met Sanji and that Sanji is loyal to the crew, the weird mentions about heart-eye and black leg could've been omitted. She didn't have to say any of those things for story-telling purposes if she's being honest about it.
once again,fair enough,trust me i understand the suspect,and if the "trap" made any sense in my eyes,i would be one of the guys saying she is a liar, but i can't just ignore the fact that her betrayal would serve no purpose in the story,other than being a "oh snap!" moment from the readers IMHO