Gin thinking he may die soon is ultimately a very freeing thought for him because he is no longer subject to the whims of Don Krieg and can focus only on what is important to him, whether he dies trying or not. He has a very stoic attitude towards the amount of time he has left to live because he truly will be spending that time doing exactly what he wishes, which in a way makes it more valuable than the potentially significantly longer amount of time behind him. We all must face death eventually, and we never know when it will arrive, so in a certain sense, Gin still has the same uncertain amount of life left in him as anyone else ever does, but it will be more enjoyable for him without the burden of pleasing a captain, so it is better time regardless of how much it is.
This concept greatly reminds me of a Doctor Who episode, The Big Bang (s5e13), in which the Doctor learns that he only has 12 minutes left to live (which is not true but I digress). He utters the quote: “There are fruit flies that live on Hoppledom 6 that live for 20 minutes and they don’t even mate for life.” This again tells us that we should use whatever time we have to find pleasure and joy in our lives, not waste it worrying about when death will come. Gin delivering his farewell speech to Sanji & the cooks reinforces the idea that confidence is not only important to overcome external challenges, but also to feel a sense of internal peace about our own choices and what the future may have in store.
When Zeff says that Sanji looks happy and implies that such a thing makes Sanji an idiot, he is tapping into the other side of the stoic coin. The world is painfully full of misery & suffering, indicated in the old adage “if you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention.” Even if there is genuine positivity & success on the proverbial horizon, the future will also always bring about more failure and pain into our lives. To experience pure unbridled happiness, then, is to ignore the possibility of losing such a thing and falling back into despair. I think there are a few different ways we can look at this. On the one hand, we may be wasting time preparing for the future so as to reduce our suffering. However, on the other hand, sometimes it does require allowing ourselves some ignorance to find peace in the moment. The reality of a situation may eventually set in and require stern action, but in the meantime, allowing good moments to exist and consume our time is an important part of the human condition.
The relationships that we see between the cooks on the Baratie, including Zeff & Sanji (especially Zeff & Sanji), are ripe with toxic masculinity. Their persistent refusal to compliment each other and live in a cruel work environment with negativity and insults galore is something of a traditional culture in which this sharpens our wits or skills or whathaveyou, but it creates undue tension & a lack of intimacy between friends & coworkers. For all of these years, these chefs could have been sharing their emotions & bonding and excelling in different ways, but they instead focus on very unhealthy competition, trying to outdo each other for spite & hubris, missing out on deeper friendships. Furthermore, the tendency to use violence over minor disagreements is the epitome of toxic masculinity; the strength & battle prowess of an individual does not directly translate to their ability to prepare a delicious meal, so using kicks & punches to settle who is the best cook is misguided at best and harmful to the state of the meal at worst. In the end, we see that this crew does have strong emotions for each other, but for one reason or another, likely traumatic past experiences, they have never shared such emotional bonding until Sanji is leaving and it is too late to really benefit from an intimate personal relationship between peers.
Last note, I guess Luffy lucked into another ship, this time loaded with food. It is unclear to me how this will play out with Nami having their previous ship, but perhaps the Straw Hats will soon command an entire fleet. Knowing that Sanji had his own ship this entire time also further demonstrates his commitment to Zeff, the Baratie, & becoming a master chef because he had the ability to leave at any time with a reliable vessel. His choice to remain was not forced due to circumstance or under duress, it was a conscious choice made with other readily available options before him.