During the East Blue and early Grand Line arcs, Sanji avoided the collective Straw Hat Pirates captivity traps that ensnared his crew. He operated in the shadows while Monkey D. Luffy, Roronoa Zoro, and Nami were immobilized by enemy gimmicks.
At Little Garden, when Baroque Works agents pinned down his crewmates inside Mr. 3’s giant wax candle cake, Sanji was notably absent from the cage. His solitary movement allowed him to intercept Crocodile’s direct snail transmission. Operating under the Mr. Prince alias, he turned an imminent execution into a strategic counter-strike.
This pattern repeated in Rainbase. Crocodile trapped the crew and Smoker inside a seastone cage beneath the Rain Dinners casino, slowly flooding the chamber. Sanji remained outside the perimeter, outsmarting Crocodile with decoy calls before smashing into the facility to orchestrate a rescue. At this point in the timeline, Sanji was the Straw Hats' premier escape artist. He understood chains intimately because he had worn them as a child; avoiding them was his method of keeping the crew afloat.
