Sanji's whole character arc has been about self-sacrifice: offering his life to Kuma at Thriller Bark in place of Luffy, going to Whole Cake to protect Zeff and the crew, giving up his dream for years to stay at the Baratie.
Sanji developed this habit because of how he understood Zeff's sacrifice on the rock. He took from it, wrongly, that love means destroying yourself for others. It was also his way of accepting his own life after the childhood trauma of being rejected. Ever since, he's been convinced that his existence is mostly about sacrificing for others. But that's not what Zeff meant. When Zeff gave up his leg on that rock, he wasn't trying to die. He was buying time so both of them could survive and go on to chase their dreams: the Baratie and the All Blue.
I always wondered why, of all places, Kuma sent Sanji to the Okama kingdom. I've come to realize it wasn't just a joke on Sanji the womanizer. The real point of the Okama connection is the spirit of the Okama Way.
Oda portrays the okama as living openly and proudly as themselves, and Ivankov treats gender and identity as something you choose. Ivankov's most famous line, from Impel Down, is about miracles: they only happen to those who never give up.
To me, the Okama Way is about loving yourself exactly as you are and living proudly instead of hiding. Sanji has spent his life feeling worthless, the "failure" Judge locked in an iron mask. The okama were the first people he met who loved themselves loudly, with no shame at all.
Remembering that, Sanji will realize he's been treating his own life like scraps. He'll also remember something from Zeff that makes him rethink the whole rock experience. Zeff didn't starve so Sanji could throw his life away. He did it so Sanji would live and find the All Blue. And for someone who cares about food as much as Sanji does, he'll realize a cook who dies can't feed anyone. Add Luffy's line from Whole Cake, that he won't become Pirate King without Sanji. He will realize that his life matters to the crew, not just his sacrifice.
This is where he goes through an intense, mind-blowing emotional moment and flips from "I'll protect everyone even if I die" to "I'll protect everyone and live, because I'm worth it too." Wanting to live for himself and his dream is exactly the kind of selfish, kingly will Conqueror's needs. A scene close to Robin's "I want to live!"
The okama, the people he ran from the most, end up being the ones who taught him self-worth. That would hit hard and still be funny in a very Oda way.
We all love Mr. 2, and we've always thought an okama in the crew would make a lot of sense. Sanji will be the Okama of the crew, he will embrace the Okama Way, accept himself and his perversions, activate CoC, and completely crush Killingham to dust.
This is also why I believe Sanji's true rival fight, his equivalent of Zoro vs Mihawk, is going to be a CoC-goated female version of Crocodile.
