DIRECTION OF THE NEXT ARC – UNDERWORLD BROKERS AND SANJI’S TIME TO SHINE

A lot of buzz about Sanji is being built up, including from the main man himself. 2016 will be the YEAR OF SANJI, according to Oda. So all things seem to be going well.

So a lot of theories about Sanji have been popping up in various places. He’s the son of one of the Gorosei, he’s a super secret alien being, he’s the weapon Uranus, he’s a Celestial Dragon, he married Big Mom, etc. Everything under the sun has been talked about for death, and most likely Oda is going to blow our socks off even if it falls into our expectations of him being royalty or something similar. But I have a different proposition, one that hasn’t been discussed, but is something I’ve wanted to address for a long time.

For the longest time, I’ve had a hard time figuring out how the Underworld Brokers will fall into the story. In Punk Hazard, they were introduced in oddly specific silhouettes, suggesting they’ll be a future villain group in the series that the Strawhats will potentially face at some point. However something about their place in the series isn’t right. The Strawhats really have no reason to go after the Underworld Brokers themselves, especially since Franky is already connected to them in some way historically and he doesn’t seem to be on bad terms with them as far as we know.

I think the next arc will feature Sanji as the main character, and it’ll focus on him dealing with these Underworld Brokers.

That’s basically the gist of this theory, but I’ll explain….

So as we know from Sabaody Island, the Underworld and the Celestial Dragons are the bread and butter of corruption in the One Piece world. We’re introduced to this in a very clear and easy to understand manner, but a lot of the subtle implications I think were missed here. For one, it establishes the source of slavery comes directly through the Underworld via the broker Disco and in turn is orchestrated by Joker aka Doflamingo. As we see in Dressrosa later on, Doflamingo also supplies SMILE and weapons to various people as well, causing chaos and destruction everywhere as we’ve seen.

Let’s also look at a prominent place in this arc. Flevance. Hometown of Law, and one of the biggest tragedies in the series yet. The World Government allows Flevance to rot, just for Amber Lead And while it’s not specifically stated by any means, it establishes the priorities of the Celestial Dragons above human life itself. Also, I think it’s obvious if something as precious as Amber Lead is involved somehow that involves potentially illegal means of neglectance, that the Underworld as well is intertwined with the tragedy of Flevance.

In fact, North Blue seems to be a hot spot for tragedy. Noland, Doflamingo’s childhood, X-Drake’s childhood, potentially Sanji’s childhood tragedy. I do not think this is a coincidence, nor do I think one of the leading men of the Underworld (Doflamingo) being from North Blue is a coincidence either.

North Blue is controlled by the Underworld Brokers.

While the Underworld Brokers are scattered across the world, I think their secret lies primarily in North Blue. While North Blue is still in control by the World Government, I think the Underworld Brokers have cut a deal with the World Government sometime in the past to maintain peace between the two factions, by allocating the bulk of their resources in the North Blue. I also think this is how Doflamingo become a leading provider in the Underworld, with his Celestial Dragon past he’s practically inherited the role.
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So let’s get back to Sanji. Sanji, as we know, was born in North Blue. North Blue as we’ve already seen in a place of deep tragedy and corruption, and it’s very likely the story Oda will tell about Sanji will be seeped with both as well. First off, I will say I subscribe to the theory that Sanji IS a Celestial Dragon or the son of someone high up in the World Government. It’s pretty obvious if you think about it, because the only two ways Sanji could’ve entered East Blue from North Blue as a child is through Reverse Mountain, or Mariejois. And if you re-read the Reverse Mountain part, everyone on the crew is shocked and surprised by the EXISTENCE of Reverse Mountain, including Sanji. This suggests the only possible way for him to travel to East Blue from North Blue is through Marijeois (climbing the Red Line is possible, but he’s a kid so give him break, lol).

Specifically, I think Sanji represents Satan, the Prince of Darkness himself…

PRINCE is the key word here. Sanji is also known as Mr. Prince, and Prince of Dumbass Kingdom according to Zoro. Sanji IS the Prince of Darkness, because his father is none other than…

 

While we don’t know who he is exactly, I think if one was to tie the knot of everything I’m discussing together, it would be establishing Sanji as both being a prince of royalty and a prince of the underground.

King is the LEADER of the Underworld Brokers. He’s like a mafia boss of sorts, while someone like Doflamingo is more of a wildcard despite being one of the leading people of the Underworld, King is the one that brings order to the whole operation and provides structure to the chaos. With joker’s defeat, the Underworld is going to be abuzz, and what better way to address it with something like a Sanji side-arc?

Now don’t get me wrong, this is a pretty huge jump, but if you think about the placement of all of these story elements, it only makes sense for Oda to resolve the Underworld Brokers thing BEFORE Luffy takes down someone like Kaidou or Big Mom.

What if Big Mom’s crew recognized Sanji’s place as King’s son? Basically their encounter on Zou could’ve ended up with them telling Sanji that his father put out a WANTED ALIVE poster for him, and to cut a deal with Big Mom he gave up Ceasar to appease them away from Zou and Sanji. Then, Sanji went on a personal journey to infiltrate the Underworld Brokers to confront, and potentially defeat, his father.

Tamago AND Pekoms as well are both Underworld Brokers, and it’s possible Capone with his mafia theme is one as well. To me, this is a sure-fire sign that we’re going to deal with Underworld Brokers in a big way in the near future, and I highly doubt it’ll be a situation that gets resolved on Whole Cake Island or Wano. It fits near perfectly for Sanji to infiltrate the Underworld in secrecy, just like how he infiltrated Baroque Works which was also a secret group of people.

Only this time, for Sanji, it would be personal, since he’d be confronting his father: KING.
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I know this is a bit fanfictiony, but I think this is a distinct possibility that Oda might be going for with the Underworld in One Piece. So what do you think?

*Theory by Big One