After this chapter, I feel strangely convinced that Doflamingo is going to be Sanji's endgame opponent. Here's why (quoted for ease of viewing):
- If there's one thing that sets Sanji off, it's nastiness and cruelty to women. Tashigi crying (lol) was enough to send him flying towards Vergo - imagine what'll happen when he finds out that Doflamingo would lay a hand on Monet?
1a) Speaking of which, Sanji has yet to see Monet. A trend of Oda is to save special interactions with a new character later or last in a series of similar interactions. I'll give some examples:
***In Jaya, you had the crew meet or interact with all of the four BB crew members, but Teach himself (i.e., the person whose interaction had the most impact) was met last.
***More similar to what I'm suggesting, you had the SHs meet the admirals one-by-one. Although every single interaction was hugely significant to the main plot, we can all agree that Luffy's interaction with Akainu was by far the most special and significant of them. In other words, his interaction was saved for last.
For that reason, I see Sanji's eventual meeting with Monet to be really interesting (and significant).
- Now that we have a motive for Sanji to go bananas on Dofla, let's look at what makes the two characters opposite of one-another.
I) Again, one would never abuse a lady; the other couldn't care less
II) One's subordinate because he cares for his crew and friends; the other is subordinate because he feels like it.
III) One is very much based on concepts of efficiency, order, and class; the other is inefficient, chaotic, and "trashy" (in a rock star sense)
3)…And what makes them similar, too:
I) Both are tactical masterminds with pseudonyms (Mr. Prince and Joker)
II) Both have had interactions with Ivankov and Kuma. How does this have anything to do with a "final fight" theory? Simple: it doesn't, but Oda still puts value in characters clashing with the same people. If you look at Luffy and BB, they've clashed with nearly identical people over and over again: BB/Luffy vs. Sarquiss/Bellamy; BB/Luffy vs Ace (albeit in different contexts); BB/Luffy vs Hannyabal; and BB/Luffy vs top-ranking marines (namely Garp and Sengoku). In all of those contexts, NONE of Luffy's fights had the same motives as BB's...But they were "fated" to follow similar paths.
Oda's giving us a hint here, and he's doing the same with Dofla/Sanji (vs. Ivankov, Kuma only scratches the surface of what we might see in the future)
III) Both blonde. Blondness in OP men is exceedingly rare, which is interesting since there's supposed to be so much English/European/Caribbean influence on the series.
This is also circumstantial, and it's something that's been suggested many times before, but there's a Sanji illustration by Oda wherein he's dressed up with a nearly identical outfit to Doflamingo's.
I'll concede outright that some points are much stronger (Oda trends and character motivations) than others (blonde hair lol). I'll also concede that there may be some necessary/sufficiency issues (in other words, people could say, "If you apply the Kuma/Ivankov logic to Sanji, why no apply it to Luffy?"). In spite of that, though, there very well may be something to a Sanji vs. Doflamingo showdown. This could be Oda's attempt to give Sanji's character a renaissance, or was maybe intended from the beginning!