Throw the Pudding Out

I’ll be the first to say it; I hate Pudding Charlotte. I love Big Mom as a villain, I love some of her siblings like Lola, Chiffon, Katakuri or Smoothie… But I despise Pudding with all the darkness in my heart. As someone who’s been watching the anime and reading the manga, I have to say I’m surprised by the feedback people give her. Plenty of people feel she’s a good fit for Sanji, and I’ll be real with you, I’m not here for it.

Disclaimer: Yes, Pudding and Sanji are not my ship. He’s my favorite character in the series for a number of reasons and perhaps the only character I actively ship. If you’re wondering, I’m a filthy SaNami shipper. So perhaps my opinion is biased, but for the sake of this arguement I’m going to try to put aside my personal preferences to show why I dislike Pudding in particular. I’d be happy if Sanji ended up with anyone, but please not this woman.

With the end of the Whole Cake Arc now meeting it’s end, we’ve left the Big Mom crew, and a horrible past, behind. I loved this arc, it is now one of my absolute favorites next to Thriller Bark. For once, we really dug into Sanji’s past and got to see the kind of things that really motivates him; who his family was, the losses he had to deal with… All great stuff. As you can guess, the one thing I did not like was Pudding.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! 

We know that Sanji’s family was manipulating him into the marriage so that Baratie and the Straw Hat Crew would be safe from Gemma 66, but we later find out that Pudding also has some alternative motives of her own. The original plan: shoot Sanji by distracting him with her “hideous” third eye and wipe out Gemma in order to steal their clone army. Great plan.

What Pudding didn’t count on was the fact that Sanji, like the gentleman he is, would never find a woman ugly; well, so long as they’re his type, but we’ll get to that issue later. He finds her beautiful and she finds herself unable to kill him. In the end, we find her and Sanji working together in order to help Big Mom stop her hunger pains and effectively save his crew and her home. Her change of heart comes with true feelings for the Straw Hat cook, leaving people to feel like this sick ship is going to sail. Whether or not it does isn’t up to me, obviously, but there’s several reasons why I’m hoping this doesn’t.

Why I Don’t Like Pudding: 

We know that Pudding has a harsh past and that being one of Big Mom’s children comes with issues of it’s own. Big Mom doesn’t seem to really love her kids the way they love her and we’ve seen the kind of abuse she puts them through. While each of them has a different and unique experience, Pudding’s has always been that she’s a “doll” and that she should grow her bangs out because her third eye disturbed her mother. Essentially, she believed that she was an empty shell for her mother’s demands.

Sad and traumatic, sure. Do I feel any sympathy for her? Not really.

I see this narrative a lot, and I really don’t fancy it. There are several of Big Mom’s kids who’ve suffered from abuse and not turned out to be horrible people in the first place. Namely, Lola and Chiffon who’ve both found their own ways of leaving and creating a life of their own. This narrative is something that happens in real life; people who’ve been abused or suffered trauma might take either road. I’ve seen both. You can either use the abuse as a reason to be cruel to others or you can continue to grow into a good person regardless. Regardless of how horrific Pudding’s life has been, it can’t excuse her behavior.

Granted, she was obviously still living with her mother and siblings, feeling like she may not have another choice. Perhaps, you could argue that she knew no other way to live. On that, I’m going to call bullshit. Pudding had sisters like Chiffon and Lola in her life, she did know that there was a world bigger than the one her mother laid out for her. She also knew kindness. Yet, we see her, even when she’s in private, reveling in the destruction of people.

Her helping the Straw Hats is certainly a turning point in her life. I think, as a character, she may be able to have her own personal redemption arc down the road. But that is going to take time, and a lot of it, before she can really grow out of the mold her mother’s put her in. In the meantime, I don’t trust her nor do I specifically like her. Out of the other Big Mom children, I feel like her whole development is now dependent on a crush for someone she was going to kill and, frankly, that’s a little lame. Despite the significance, it just doesn’t sit well.

Edit: Also, now that I’ve seen her weird tsundere thing, what the actual hell is going on? It’s not even like a normal tsundere it’s just… Weird… No guys, no. 

Why I Don’t Like The Ship: 

I’ll remind you that I may be biased in this regard, but I still find issues with the ship between the two. Some point out that the two have parallels in their life that make them a good couple. Sanji’s abuse with his dad and Pudding’s abuse with her mom means they can relate over shared trauma.

Don’t make me repeat myself: shared trauma is not a reason to forgive someone for abuse nor is it a reason to start a romantic relationship over.

I don’t like when people find that abuse or trauma survivors need to be “fixed” or can “fix each other”. In a lot of ways, this is extremely fetishistic and I’m not here for that argument. Sure, if they were both just friends it could be nice to hear each other out and to be there for each other, but we can’t drop the fact that Pudding just tried to shoot him in the face. She tried. To. Shoot him. In. The. Face.

Now, I’ll admit, I’m a little upset that Sanji forgave her. It wasn’t the forgiveness, per se, but rather why he forgave her. “Always forgive a woman for her lies” is… Just seeped in issues. We know that Sanji is a huge woman lover and that he’d never try to hurt one. While I love Sanji, I’ve never been a fan of this for a number of reasons, but for today we’ll only go over one.

We know that Sanji’s weakness is women. He’s willing to forgive one that tried to kill him. The biggest reason I dislike this particular reason is that it makes him a prime target for an abusive relationship. Who’s to say that Pudding won’t take advantage of that kindness in the future? You can argue that she’ll definitely change, but again, we’re missing the key factor that that’s going to take time if she’s even capable of it.

We’ve seen Nami jerk his chain a few times and call him her “servant”, but overall she’s never tried to hurt Sanji (save for when she slapped him for beating the crap out of Luffy). This isn’t to argue why SaNami is a good ship, but rather to recognize that she does take advantage of him at times for little things. Pudding is not a little thing. Pudding has some serious issues.

Not to mention they don’t know each other at all. The only reason they were going to get married was because their parents wanted them to. At the end of the day, Pudding liking Sanji because he’s the only one to ever call her beautiful is a really shallow reason for her to even feel romantically attracted to him. I know that held some significant weight for her, considering how she grew up and how people talked about her, but I still think this is such a lame reason for her to shift gears suddenly. Sanji always falls for women for shallow reasons; I’d honestly love to see him be with someone he actually builds with for once. Again, not to promote my personal tastes, but rather show why I dislike this one.

We know these two shared a kiss and then she deleted it from his memory. I… Really don’t know how to feel about that. Knowing Sanji, being kissed by a girl is perhaps the best thing that’s ever happened to him. But does that whole thing not seem just a little rapey? She deleted it from his memory… Like that’s also not okay?

Now I do have a theory on this particular moment. Some could argue that she deleted it because she was embarrassed about kissing him, but I don’t think it would be that obvious. One theory is that she deleted it because she knew, Sanji being how he is, that he might actually stay with her. Knowing that he belonged with his crew, she deleted the memory so that he would have to go. What do I think?

Anime in particular holds kissing in a very specific position. When we see a kiss, it means something to the characters. Sometimes, when a character kissing the person they like, they have a reaction to it; they realize it really is love or that the feelings aren’t mutual. Oda is the kind of writer to put a lot of thought into his work, so this kiss has to be significant. I theorize that Pudding kissed him with the intention of being with him, or perhaps just confessing, but realized after that it wouldn’t work. Pudding wouldn’t have changed to much in this time to suddenly be selfless and, honestly, kissing someone only to have them forget is really pointless don’t you think? If she wants to kiss him, she should just kiss him. If she wants him to forget anyways, why bother? Why not be even more selfless and prove a point that you’re changing and not kiss him so that he can freely leave the island? Again, I can’t prove this, it’s just a thought.

Edit: Okay again, I’ve seen more of her tsundere side now and it’s just bizarre, this should not be a ship. I don’t even need this essay to prove that anymore guys, Pudding needs to chill and find herself first. 

Oda will always be one of the people I admire because he’s such a wonderful story teller. Looking at the chapters, you know each panel he draws has a lot of significance to the story. It all means something. I’m hoping he won’t pin these two together, but again, it’s not my manga or my story.

Overall, I really don’t think this is a healthy or good ship. Out of all the villains turned good, romances and character arcs I’ve seen in the One Piece series, I’ve got to say that Pudding isn’t really on my radar. If anything, she’s just sort of dry. Take my word as you will, but I’d also like to hear your thoughts on this ship!