so maybe all this time doflamingo was just a head controlling someones body with strings coming out of his neck.

@RobZilla:

Luffy lost to Caesar, Zoro got captured by the NFM pirates.

We never saw an end to Sanji's fight with Vergo.

Doflamingo is an extremely powerful character and the major antagonist of the arc, no one is going to defeat him but Luffy.

Zoro has fought absolutely nobody of note, strength wise, post-timeskip.

You can't use what people expect to happen as a factor lol.

With all this in mind, and with the fact that Sanji and Zoro have always been portrayed as being as strong as each other for the entire series, I have to say to you sir…No. Just no.

Luffy lost to ceasar not because he was weaker but because of his df. Zoro got captured not because he was weaker but because he can't breathe underwater. Completely different from Vergo overpowering Sanji's leg without even using his bamboo, and again different from DD blocking Sanji's 2nd or 3rd best attack to date with just his arm and without budging and then proceeding to use a technique that would have killed him if not for Law.

No one said Sanji would beat DD, but for someone who told zoro to stay back and that he will be the one to save the crew, only to end up getting beat in 30 seconds and having to get saved instead, that doesn't make his 2 years of training look good at all.

Zoro at least managed to get out of Fujitora's hold on his own, while Sanji required Law's help in the same type of situation.

As for what people expect to happen, the reason people expect it is because of how bad Sanji has been performing in the New world.

It's true that Sanji and zoro have been portrayed equally for most of the series, and with wano coming up and zoro getting a power up, does it not make sense for Sanji to get one aswell in wano then? Rather than zoro get's stronger while Sanji gets nothing which would ruin the rivalry.

gear 2 is the super saiyan type power up for Luffy. It increases like every physical stat and from the looks of it post TS, it no longer has any side effects making it a free power up with no drawbacks. His complete reliance on it reminds me of how in dbz all the saiyans wouldn't fight with anything less than super saiyan starting from the android saga.

Luffy and Zoro are hardly struggling after the timeskip while Sanji was losing to Vergo, DD, and now people expect him to get owned by the Big Mom pirates. Even then, Zoro has wano arc to power up while Sanji (who needs a power up the most) has nothing. The mera mera will save Sanji's character rather than harm it.

I'm disappointed in the lack of use for COO compared to COA. Right now the 2 uses of COO are just locating stuff and dodging.

While COA has several uses so far like:
making barriers
invisible COA
black hardening COA including full body COA
applying COA to weapons and projectiles
adding elements(not sure about this one, depends on if those people adding fire or lightning to techniques was through COA)
and the biggest one is being able to bypass df defenses like logias which allowed non-df users to stand a chance at the top of the world

COO right now looks like the inferior haki to specialize in.

@Russbuspower:

SO by hinted you just mean that they said that they wanted it. By your logic, everyone who entered the Coliseum is equally likely to get it. Interesting to note that by your logic, Barto has not been hinted to obtain the fruit. Also somewhat funny to note how you quantize the hints, I laughed.

–- Update From New Post Merge ---

He already has the fire kicks, were those just foreshadowing? No. He won't get fruit. No one in crew will get MM. Also what do you mean by he is specialized in CoO our of the M3? Has that been stated anywhere? Scan?

--- Update From New Post Merge ---

Blackbeard is included in the worst generation because he rose at the same time as them, thus Cavendish would never join his crew. Sanji will not eat the fruit, he has already stated that he only ever wanted one fruit, and we all know that it's not the MM.

So because of what Sanji said in thriller bark, you think he wouldn't eat another fruit? So you're telling me that if Violets fruit appeared infront of him with a piece of paper attached saying "eat this df and you can peek on women from across the ocean", or Mr.2's df instead "Touch a woman and transform into them whenever you want", that he wouldn't eat those fruits if given the chance?

The only way rebecca is eating the fruit is if Oda plans to showcase Blackbeard's ability to suck the fruit out of her without the cape this time. Of course this probably means she will die.

So for now Hakuba will eat it. Then after Burgess is defeated by Sabo, Blackbeard might recruit Hakuba into his crew. He will be more famous as a yonkou commander than as the captain of a no name crew.

If that doesn't happen, then the only option left is Sanji eats the mera mera.

Hakuba or sanji will eat it. Hakuba is closer for now, so he will first knock out sugar and then head to the colosseum to steal the fruit.

Well this should mean that we will be seeing the 7th shichibukai not too long from now, and before the reverie.

Well before the supernovas were created, I'm assuming Oda intended for the strawhats to fight all the yonkou. So I would prefer it that way. Besides, it seems that the supernovas are playing a bigger role than they should have. And i certainly wouldn't want the strawhats missing out on a few volumes or whatever while others fight what should have been their opponents, especially since they were already out of the picture for 2 years(real time) and now half the strawhats might miss out on the war on dressrosa as well.