What does Oda say? This is fucking basic english, it shouldn't be that hard.
To get the wrong idea by this it's unbelievable bias or plain illiteracy.
The funniest thing is that Zoro haters seem to enjoy the SBS...
... while it does actually destroy everything they dreamt for.
First of all: as much as some people bark, nowhere in the SBS is stated that Zoro is not the vice captain.
The 102 SBS indeed officially certifies two things:
- Zoro is undesputably the second strongest Strawhat, and therefore he is undesputably stronger than Sanji (that was blatantly obvious, but some trolls seem to not accept this, and most likely will never)
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The second strongest in a crew or in a group is not automatically the vice captain as a rank, but de facto he has that authority due to his greater fighting strength.
It's literal fucking english.
Not everyone there holds the position of vice captain -> Not everyone on the 1031 cover has the position, aka the rank, of vice captain. So not all of these characters are a de iure vice captain. Some do have that official rank. Some do not.
They are the Number Twos -> Not all of these characters have the official rank of vice captain. But all of them are the second strongest in their crews or groups. Aka: it's undesputably canon that Rayleigh is the stroger than Gaban and the others, that Zoro is stronger than Sanji and the others, that Shiryu is stronger than Lafitte and the others, that King is stronger than Queen and the others, that Marco is stronger than Jozu and the others. And so on.
Penguin and Shachi are more reliable than Bepo, but they know about Bepo's Sulong transformation, so they admit that Bepo is stronger than them -> This is the part that I'm afraid some people didn't read or refuted to understand, or just aren't able. Oda literally says that Penguin and Shachi are more reliable than Bepo (not that hard to be, lol) but they know that Bepo is stronger than them, so they respect that he has greater authority. Bingo! Every piece comes together. Bepo is not officially the vice captain, he hasn't that rank de iure (first part of the SBS); but Bepo has de facto the authority of a vice captain, because his mates respect his strength that is greater than their own (second part of the SBS).
So what Oda says is that the character on the 1031 cover are:
- All of them the second strongest in their crews or groups
- Not all of them hold the rank of vice captains in these crews or groups. Some do have that rank officially. Some others (like Bepo) do not have that rank officially, but they still exert a similar authority and power due to their greater strength compared to their mates.
This is also perfectly coherent with the manga, where Perospero claimed that he will be the leader of the Big Mom Pirates after Big Mom, he was said to shut up the bullshit because strength is what matters, therefore that role would have been for Katakuri, as he is stronger than Perospero.
SBS ->
Penguin and Shachi are more reliable than Bepo, but Bepo is stronger so they acknowledge his greater authority. De iure, Bepo is not the vice captain, but de facto he is.
Manga ->
Perospero is more reliable than Katakuri (or at least he think he is), but Katakuri is stronger so he has greater authority. De iure, Katakuri is not the vice captain, but de facto he is.
So in both manga and 102 SBS is clearly implied and stated that the strongest character will have the greater authority.
You all know that the strongest Strawhat bar Luffy is Zoro. And if by chance you didn't know... Oda just stated this. No equals, no peers, no Wings, no shit... just an undesputable number two which is Zoro, with no one close enough to make this ambiguous.
Zoro who, coincidentally, is also Luffy's Right Hand Man and the only Strawhat whose strength compares to Luffy's, who has similar traits, powers and goals to Luffy; they as a duo of Captain/Number Twos are consistently paralleled with other duos of Captains/Number Twos, and Zoro alone by himself is paralleled to these guys by themselves.
Source? Just click below the
SPOILER and enjoy.
The amount of material proving this is gargantuan.
It's comical that the Zoro haters enjoyed this thing, while they should be doubly in pain lol.