Background on the Theme:
In chapter 5 of One Piece in the Roronoa flashback, we have the prodigy character of Kuina who is a bit older than Zoro, and easily destroys him in swordsmanship. However, this prodigy who is the best in her dojo isn't actually happy. In fact internally she's very sad. The reason behind this sadness is because of her discovery of the sheer biological physical difference between a male & female at their peaks. So she points this out to Roronoa, that he shouldn't be frustrated because once they're all grown, he'll eventually end up being stronger than her due to the physical difference. This idea is also reinforced by Koshiro, her father, that women can't be Master Swordsmen.
Now to be clear, she is not saying that some women can't be stronger than some men or what have you. As she herself as a kid was already stronger than tons of adults. However, what she is referring to is becoming the best in a specific fighting style or in her case the best swordsman. And her father doesn't say that women can't be strong swordsmen, but they just can't be Master Swordsmen. This had depressed her to such an extent that she actually wished she wasn't a woman but a boy while crying af.
Now Zoro then gives her a reply by saying "I'll beat you because I worked hard... It's got nothing to do with being a boy or a girl." But this is a naive statement made by a kid to cheer up another kid who is crying. It didn't address anything she had stated.
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Reflection of Background in the world:
So far in One Piece what Kuina said is pretty much on point. Let's look at the ratio of strong women-men counterparts in OP:
Yonko: 1 human female, who happens to be a complete genetic anomaly, defying any and all logic.
Admirals: None so far.
Yonko commanders: Smoothie, who is only partially a human and not even recognized as the strongest of the commanders of her crew + uses DF. Catarina Devon??
Vice-Admirals: Tsuru a powerful enough individual to make Doffy shit himself, Gion a powerful enough individual to be considered for admiralship. 1 of them using a DF & the other unknown yet.
Warlords: Hancock, who dependent on who you ask can range from top 3 to top 5 in the warlords. Also relies heavily on DF
Revolutionary Army: Belo Betty, has portrayed herself as a "leader" even over the other commanders. Also uses a DF.
There's also other "powerful" ones like Shakky/Robin/Black Maria/Hina/Nami/Ulti/etc, who can rank at various powerlevels. However, compared to that we have:
1 female yonko vs 4 male yonko (not including Roger/Shiki/Xebec or the likes of Rayleigh or the unknown ones like Captain John and such)
2 Yonko Commander vs dozen+ male ones
2 female VAs vs dozen+ male ones
1 female warlord vs 8 male ones
So there's a giant gap in the number of strong women & strong men at the higher levels of power in OP. However, this is just general One Piece, let's narrow it down to Kuina's profession here, swordsmen. And specifically "master swordsmen", as that is what Koshiro said that women can't become to Kuina's desire of becoming the best swordsman. Now what is a "master swordsman"?? In my opinion it refers to a top tier swordsman or the greatest swordsman. But we'll stick with just "Top tier swordsman".
There's really only 1 "normal human" female swordsman who could be close to the top tiers, that being Gion. That's it. But not confirmed as a full fledged top tier swordsman. She is probably at her peak too.
vs
Roger, Mihawk, Fujitora, Xebec, Shanks, Borsalino, Rayleigh, Oden, Shiki, (and the likes of Captain John & Wang Shi who're swordsmen mentioned alongside Shiki)
Sooo... I mean Koshiro ain't exactly wrong so far, especially when we come to look at Wano where the top swordsmen are all biologically male.
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The discussion:
Now after Kuina, Oda introduced another girl who wants to collect legendary swords from the hands of evil criminals, which includes the likes of Dracule Mihawk and such. Meaning she is also somebody aiming for the top tiers. There's a part of the fandom who always says "she's just a bookworm swordsman, sword-nerd".. umm nope, her dream/ambition/goal revolves around her honing herself as a swordsman and taking out the "evil criminals".
At Alabasta she got shown up by the strawhats, where she was helpless in taking down crocodile. Then at the end of the arc there was an emphasis put on her character in regards to getting stronger:
Then from there we come to Punk Hazard, where the same situation repeats, she now finds herself at the mercy of a pirate again. But not only that, was lectured by a pirate on what makes a swordsman. But this time her leader, Smoker, was humbled as well:
Since then Tashigi, alongside Smoker, have been with Vegapunk over the duration of Zou->WCI -> Reverie -> So far in Wano. Who is Vegapunk? A genius 500 years ahead of his time who created the Pacifistas, modified Kuma into be somebody the CD consider invincible, then now has created a power that will replace the combined might of the Warlords. Oda did not show her even during the Reverie, when pretty much all the marines were highlighted, except for Smoker/Tashigi/Sentomaru the three with Vegapunk.
This so far is Tashigi's progression, the swordsman girl aiming to take out the likes of Dracule Mihawk and etc to get those swords from them. She last time we saw her was nowhere near Zoro's level.
.............
............
SO, the questions now becomes this:
Will Oda by end of the series keep the message of women cannot be the best swordsman or even be in the consideration?
OR
Will Oda have Tashigi be the one who goes against the norm of OP world by figuring out a way to hit that legendary top tier level at some point by end of the story, and duke it out against Roronoa for the greatest in the world?
OR
If you think it's somebody who will do that instead of Tashigi?
My opinion: I think we still have a good amount of story left for OP, with a timeskip or two maybe in there as well, despite the statements from Oda. Thus there is enough time to develop Tashigi into a legendary level swordsman who can rival Roronoa. However, this more than likely won't happen until post-Final War. UNLESS, she has a "late-bloomer" moment or something with the help of Vegapunk that allows her to achieve that status first. Because I believe that Oda's message, will be to send the message that women can figure out a way to be on the men's level even if they might have a genetical disadvantage.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS AND LET ME KNOW!!
In chapter 5 of One Piece in the Roronoa flashback, we have the prodigy character of Kuina who is a bit older than Zoro, and easily destroys him in swordsmanship. However, this prodigy who is the best in her dojo isn't actually happy. In fact internally she's very sad. The reason behind this sadness is because of her discovery of the sheer biological physical difference between a male & female at their peaks. So she points this out to Roronoa, that he shouldn't be frustrated because once they're all grown, he'll eventually end up being stronger than her due to the physical difference. This idea is also reinforced by Koshiro, her father, that women can't be Master Swordsmen.
Now to be clear, she is not saying that some women can't be stronger than some men or what have you. As she herself as a kid was already stronger than tons of adults. However, what she is referring to is becoming the best in a specific fighting style or in her case the best swordsman. And her father doesn't say that women can't be strong swordsmen, but they just can't be Master Swordsmen. This had depressed her to such an extent that she actually wished she wasn't a woman but a boy while crying af.
Now Zoro then gives her a reply by saying "I'll beat you because I worked hard... It's got nothing to do with being a boy or a girl." But this is a naive statement made by a kid to cheer up another kid who is crying. It didn't address anything she had stated.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reflection of Background in the world:
So far in One Piece what Kuina said is pretty much on point. Let's look at the ratio of strong women-men counterparts in OP:
Yonko: 1 human female, who happens to be a complete genetic anomaly, defying any and all logic.
Admirals: None so far.
Yonko commanders: Smoothie, who is only partially a human and not even recognized as the strongest of the commanders of her crew + uses DF. Catarina Devon??
Vice-Admirals: Tsuru a powerful enough individual to make Doffy shit himself, Gion a powerful enough individual to be considered for admiralship. 1 of them using a DF & the other unknown yet.
Warlords: Hancock, who dependent on who you ask can range from top 3 to top 5 in the warlords. Also relies heavily on DF
Revolutionary Army: Belo Betty, has portrayed herself as a "leader" even over the other commanders. Also uses a DF.
There's also other "powerful" ones like Shakky/Robin/Black Maria/Hina/Nami/Ulti/etc, who can rank at various powerlevels. However, compared to that we have:
1 female yonko vs 4 male yonko (not including Roger/Shiki/Xebec or the likes of Rayleigh or the unknown ones like Captain John and such)
2 Yonko Commander vs dozen+ male ones
2 female VAs vs dozen+ male ones
1 female warlord vs 8 male ones
So there's a giant gap in the number of strong women & strong men at the higher levels of power in OP. However, this is just general One Piece, let's narrow it down to Kuina's profession here, swordsmen. And specifically "master swordsmen", as that is what Koshiro said that women can't become to Kuina's desire of becoming the best swordsman. Now what is a "master swordsman"?? In my opinion it refers to a top tier swordsman or the greatest swordsman. But we'll stick with just "Top tier swordsman".
There's really only 1 "normal human" female swordsman who could be close to the top tiers, that being Gion. That's it. But not confirmed as a full fledged top tier swordsman. She is probably at her peak too.
vs
Roger, Mihawk, Fujitora, Xebec, Shanks, Borsalino, Rayleigh, Oden, Shiki, (and the likes of Captain John & Wang Shi who're swordsmen mentioned alongside Shiki)
Sooo... I mean Koshiro ain't exactly wrong so far, especially when we come to look at Wano where the top swordsmen are all biologically male.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The discussion:
Now after Kuina, Oda introduced another girl who wants to collect legendary swords from the hands of evil criminals, which includes the likes of Dracule Mihawk and such. Meaning she is also somebody aiming for the top tiers. There's a part of the fandom who always says "she's just a bookworm swordsman, sword-nerd".. umm nope, her dream/ambition/goal revolves around her honing herself as a swordsman and taking out the "evil criminals".
At Alabasta she got shown up by the strawhats, where she was helpless in taking down crocodile. Then at the end of the arc there was an emphasis put on her character in regards to getting stronger:
Then from there we come to Punk Hazard, where the same situation repeats, she now finds herself at the mercy of a pirate again. But not only that, was lectured by a pirate on what makes a swordsman. But this time her leader, Smoker, was humbled as well:
Since then Tashigi, alongside Smoker, have been with Vegapunk over the duration of Zou->WCI -> Reverie -> So far in Wano. Who is Vegapunk? A genius 500 years ahead of his time who created the Pacifistas, modified Kuma into be somebody the CD consider invincible, then now has created a power that will replace the combined might of the Warlords. Oda did not show her even during the Reverie, when pretty much all the marines were highlighted, except for Smoker/Tashigi/Sentomaru the three with Vegapunk.
This so far is Tashigi's progression, the swordsman girl aiming to take out the likes of Dracule Mihawk and etc to get those swords from them. She last time we saw her was nowhere near Zoro's level.
.............
............
SO, the questions now becomes this:
Will Oda by end of the series keep the message of women cannot be the best swordsman or even be in the consideration?
OR
Will Oda have Tashigi be the one who goes against the norm of OP world by figuring out a way to hit that legendary top tier level at some point by end of the story, and duke it out against Roronoa for the greatest in the world?
OR
If you think it's somebody who will do that instead of Tashigi?
My opinion: I think we still have a good amount of story left for OP, with a timeskip or two maybe in there as well, despite the statements from Oda. Thus there is enough time to develop Tashigi into a legendary level swordsman who can rival Roronoa. However, this more than likely won't happen until post-Final War. UNLESS, she has a "late-bloomer" moment or something with the help of Vegapunk that allows her to achieve that status first. Because I believe that Oda's message, will be to send the message that women can figure out a way to be on the men's level even if they might have a genetical disadvantage.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS AND LET ME KNOW!!
