SanPu

SanPu is the het ship between Vinsmoke Sanji and Charlotte Pudding from the One Piece fandom.

Canon
Sanji and Pudding are friends that met through a forced marriage between them by their respective families. Whilst Pudding was secretly conniving with her mother, Big Mom, to have Sanji and his family killed, she ultimately was won over by his sincere kindness towards her and aided him and his crew's escape. Sanji is very fond of Pudding, and remained so even after discovering her true motives. Once she had a change of heart he quickly forgave her and the two worked together. The two are deeply fond of each other, but are separated as a result of their respective crews being irredeemable enemies.

Due to Sanji’s insatiable lust for women, he was immediately infatuated with Pudding as soon as he saw a photo of her. However, despite a genuine desire to marry her, he ultimately did not want to do so as he wished to return to his crew. Pudding initially appeared to reciprocate these feelings, finding Sanji just as likeable, and acted more shyly and timid around him. When talking to Luffy and co, who had arrived to take Sanji back, she spoke of Sanji in a flustered and embarrassed way. The two were able to bond over their love for cooking as well. When Pudding came across Luffy and the others, she acted as an intermediator between them and Sanji, helping to create a plan for his escape. When talking to Sanji, she was more than willing to take the blame and face her mother’s fury when their plan succeeds. Sanji was touched by this, but explained he could not escape due to exploding wristlets put on him by his family, the Vinsmoke Family, and further divulged the horrific abuse he received as a child from them. He openly told Pudding that she was the only light in the distressing situation he was in after she expressed guilt over Sanji’s predicament.

However, in reality Pudding was stringing Sanji along and was able to dupe him very easily into her mother’s plans to ultimately kill him and the Vinsmoke Family and take over their kingdom. The truth of the matter was that she believed Sanji to be pathetic and reveled in her success at tricking him. She cruelly mocked and ridiculed him, questioning how he is worthy of being a prince. Sanji overheard all this, however, causing him to cry as his heart silently broke. It was ultimately this revelation that allowed Sanji to mend the ties he had initially severed with his crew and formulate a plan for his escape. From here, Sanji was a lot more uncomfortable around Pudding, never quite sure if she is acting genuine or deceitful. Nonetheless, he still found himself fawning over from time to time due to his perverted nature. With the plan being to crash the wedding, he agreed to continue being Pudding’s fiancée up until the day of the wedding.

Their relationship changed for the better when Sanji unwittingly tapped into Pudding’s deep insecurities. Behind Pudding’s bangs lies a third-eye that she has been viciously ridiculed for her entire life, even by her own mother. As such, part of Big Mom’s plan was to expose Pudding’s third eye to Sanji with the expectation that he would recoil in disgust. However, to Pudding’s utter shock, Sanji instead called her third-eye beautiful, this being the first sincere compliment she had ever heard about her appearance, and caused her to break down in tears. Once the chaos at the wedding ensued, Pudding noted how Sanji caught his crewmate, Nami, in a bridal carry which seemingly upset her. Despite the fact that Pudding is now his enemy, he ultimately saved her when they both fell off the wedding cake they were on. He once again saved her after her own brother, Charlotte Daifuku, attacked her as well, this even after her attempts to shoot him.

Once given a bit of time, following the ruined wedding, to contemplate on what Sanji said to her about her eye and questioning if she is being true to herself, she develops a deep romantic interest in Sanji. It appears from here that she suffers from a split personality disorder, where one side of her is deeply in love with Sanji and the other wishes to kill him. However, the latter seems to be more of Pudding trying to lie to herself, as oppose to the former where she’s being more truthful. As a result, she becomes an active ally for Sanji and his crew and helps them escape Whole Cake Island. Pudding becomes more comical of her adoration for Sanji, blushing wildly and being unable to talk to him. On the other hand, Sanji, whilst still infatuated with Pudding, is unusually level-headed and oblivious to her obvious newfound feelings for him. Instead, he works with her under the strict impression that they are just temporary allies. In order to stop Big Mom’s pursuit, they work together to create a whole new wedding cake for her to eat. Together they are shown to be very effective in their cooking, with Pudding happily following Sanji’s order in the baking process. She exhibits more of her love for him and becomes amazed at his skills as a chef. When he protected her sister, Chiffon, from Oven, she becomes even more amazed by him.

After the job is done, she decides to take Sanji back to the Thousand Sunny to see his crew before then taking him to the meeting point with Luffy on Cacao Island. The pair shared their last moments together, with Pudding being flustered and worried they would be mistaken for a married couple. Once alone, Sanji thanked Pudding for all her help whilst she was wrestling with her guilt for having deceived him in the first place. When Sanji expressed how happy he was that she was his fiancée she becomes moved by his words. She asks Sanji to close his eyes and he obliges her, she removes his cigarette and gives him a kiss. Sadly, immediately after, she uses her Devil Fruit powers to remove this memory from him and quickly runs away, as she wants him to return to his crew where he belongs. Whilst Sanji accepts she has gone Pudding hides in an alleyway, in tears at losing the only person who accepted her despite her appearance.

Fanon
SanPu is a popular ship in the One Piece fanbase. Whilst shipping itself is a divisive subject, SanPu has shown itself to be mostly accepted. This is likely because it is the only pairing in One Piece to have genuine romance between the two characters, a rare feature in the series.

Nonetheless, many fans still gravely disapprove of Pudding for what she initially did to Sanji and her immense cruelty in the beginning. Other fans have come to see her as redeemed and is now a better person suitable to be with Sanji. Fans enjoy the fact that they both have a great love and talent for cooking, which deepens the justification for them to be together in the future.

There is intense rivalry from SaNa shippers, who believes the pairing is mostly irrelevant as Sanji has seemingly forgotten about Pudding, and the two have no real plans to reunite. As such, Pudding is only relevant for the Whole Cake Island Arc, and, perhaps, helped further Sanji and Nami’s relationship, according to SaNa shippers.

Fandom
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Trivia

 * SaPu is the first ship for one of the Straw Hats with confirmed mutual romantic interest.
 * Both of them have had similar experiences. They are both accomplished cooks, children of royalty, members of famous crews and suffered cruel indiginities by their own families.
 * Pudding is the fourth antagonist that Sanji has successfully turned into an ally, the others being Gin, G-5 Unit, and Viola.
 * Sanji is the first of the Straw Hats to receive a genuine kiss.