Speculations Will Zoro vs Shiryu even happen?

#1
My theory on this for a while has been that Zoro vs Shiryu won't happen as rather than face Shiryu, Zoro will go off and face a bigger prize. Mihawk. With Cross Guild joining the race for One Piece, it is inevitable that Zoro vs Mihawk will happen in the next few arcs. After all, Zoro is the one who will surpass Mihawk.

Since we can be almost assured Mihawk will fall to Zoro, is there any point of Zoro facing Shiryu?

Personally, I feel like there isn't. It would just be a waste of Shiryu's character to have him be used as a warm up for Zoro before he faces Mihawk. Rather than an opponent for Zoro, I think Shiryu makes more sense as an opponent for Law.

They are both swordsman that make use of their tricky DF abilities to catch their opponents off guard. Furthermore, Law needs to redeem himself after his loss to Teach. I think a victory against Shiryu would do just that.

So yeah, given how Zoro's storyline is tied more closely to Mihawk, I think whenever the emperors duke it out, he will just go off and face him rather than help Luffy face the BBP. Luffy will be okay with that, since he knows WSSM was always Zoro's dream. Law, having been destroyed by the BBP, will take Zoro's place and face Teach's right hand man. Ultimately, the final battles of the elbaf arc will be the battles for the dreams of Luffy and Zoro. Luffy accomplishes his dream by defeating Teach and taking the 4th poneglyph, thereby becoming PK. Zoro accomplishes his dream by beating Mihawk and becoming WSSM.
 
#8
Zoro vs Shiryu is more guaranteed than Zoro vs Mihawk. Make no mistake that the story revolves around Luffy. I believe Luffy's final fight will be Blackbeard, that means the strawhats will face the Blackbeard pirates as their end game battle. Before you call the Blackbeard pirates mid, they will get their hype once they get more screentime.

Regarding Mihawk, I can think of a few ways this fight can go:
(1) Zoro fights Mihawk after Blackbeards get defeated and Revolutionaries overthrow the WG.
(2) I doubt Zoro gets the last fight of the series. So the fight does happen after strawhats beat Blackbeards but it gets offscreened. Perhaps we get a panel of Zoro vs Mihawk clashing and later get an epilogue that shows Zoro has become the WSS.
(3) Shiryu kills Mihawk. The problem is (a) the gap between Mihawk and Shiryu seems so massive right now, I dont se how he will manage to do that, (b) Shiryu has nothing to gain from this. The chances are very small, but I wont completely rule it out either. Some argue that Zoro vs Mihawk lost its appeal since Zoro bowed down to Mihawk to train him, the fight wont have enough at stake, I kinda see where they are coming from.
(4) Somehow admirals are the final opponent for the M3. Akainu is stronger than EoS Blackbeard, Fuji is stronger than Mihawk. So, Zoro becomes the WSS and Luffy becomes the PK to fight them. I think this is the least likely possibility: (a) Never in the series Luffy and Sanji's opponents were so close in terms of strength, they are not fighting same level opponents in the final fight. (b) Oda wont neglect the rest of the strawhats, he will give them at least a proper 1on1 in their final battle. The marines dont have the proper counterparts for all strawhats, it would be strange to have random vice admirals or captains to be the opponent of Franky or Nami. On the other hand, Blackbeard pirates are built specifically for that purpose, they mirror the strawhats with great design and interesting fruits.

Tbh I personally dont like any of these options except the first one lol. But knowing how Oda loves to make it all about Luffy, I dont see it happening.
 
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#9
Lol, Zoro isn't going to go somewhere else for his own sake when Luffy and the others will fight the BB's pirates. That's not part of his character, he will fight one of the BB's pirates if a war happened between the 2 crews.
 
#10
Shiryu is Shiryu, I don't think Oda needs to compromise on one of Zoro's opponents for another. Shiryu'd make a good training tool for Zori's CoA, or CoO. He's not meeting Mihawk without achieving at least more than one advanced type of Haki.
Um, Zoro already has two advanced haki types… in fact he learned both of them before Luffy learned them
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Revolutionaries overthrow the WG.
@Nidai_Kitetsu Excuse me? Are you implying that anyone but Luffy will beat the WG?

huh? You know only the main character can change the world in these stories.
 
#11
As much i don't want the janitor to fight zoro, this fight is inevitable. The color spread also solidifies this fight.
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Also wanted to add that this fight is the most unappealing fight to me out of all BBP matchups.
 
#12
My theory on this for a while has been that Zoro vs Shiryu won't happen as rather than face Shiryu, Zoro will go off and face a bigger prize. Mihawk. With Cross Guild joining the race for One Piece, it is inevitable that Zoro vs Mihawk will happen in the next few arcs. After all, Zoro is the one who will surpass Mihawk.

Since we can be almost assured Mihawk will fall to Zoro, is there any point of Zoro facing Shiryu?

Personally, I feel like there isn't. It would just be a waste of Shiryu's character to have him be used as a warm up for Zoro before he faces Mihawk. Rather than an opponent for Zoro, I think Shiryu makes more sense as an opponent for Law.

They are both swordsman that make use of their tricky DF abilities to catch their opponents off guard. Furthermore, Law needs to redeem himself after his loss to Teach. I think a victory against Shiryu would do just that.

So yeah, given how Zoro's storyline is tied more closely to Mihawk, I think whenever the emperors duke it out, he will just go off and face him rather than help Luffy face the BBP. Luffy will be okay with that, since he knows WSSM was always Zoro's dream. Law, having been destroyed by the BBP, will take Zoro's place and face Teach's right hand man. Ultimately, the final battles of the elbaf arc will be the battles for the dreams of Luffy and Zoro. Luffy accomplishes his dream by defeating Teach and taking the 4th poneglyph, thereby becoming PK. Zoro accomplishes his dream by beating Mihawk and becoming WSSM.
1. Doubt Elbaf is remotely the final battle of anything lol. Its not Laugh Tale and you dont become PK unless you find One Piece. Getting all 4 RPs is just half the battle. You actually have to go there. Blackbeard is also not the only obstacle.....

2. You are thinking too small. Theres no reason Blackbeard has to be the final villain

3. Luffy has a secret dream, which implies he can achieve PK status before anyone achieves their dreams tbh.

4. Theres absolutely zero reason for Mihawk to just randomly jump in and fight Zoro on behalf of Blackbeard. Even as a personal stake, its weird. Shanks makes more sense because they are rivals, but if thats not happening, then I highly doubt Mihawk has anything to do with Blackbeard
 
#15
Zoro's remaining big fights in order: Fujitora, then Shiryu and finally Mihawk. Shiryu is probably from Wano and BB freed him from captivity just like Luffy recruited Zoro. Shiryu will get a DF for his sword (Kaido's), like BB he will try to compensate for a lack of skill with DF powers. So the fight will still be important, even if Shiryu's sword skills are clearly inferior to Mihawk's.
 
#17
It doesn’t need to happen. If in the final fight Buggy is a genuine dark horse candidate still fighting, and Mihawk is genuinely trying to help Buggy, then Zoro vs Mihawk can still be his final fight. He’s still fighting for himself and for Luffy, it’s just a different opponent.

Alternatively, I think there’s a scenario to be seen where Zoro vs Mihawk happens before the final war, but Zoro is still horribly injured by it. Zoro vs Shiryu is then quite a nerfed Zoro vs a fully healthy Shiryu. That would tie back to East Blue
-Zoro’s first proper fight was an already injured Zoro against Cabaji
-Zoro had to fight Hachi after getting wrecked by Mihawk

If Zoro can win in those circumstances- and if Shiryu is himself an opponent who is, say, Oden level in strength- then that‘s really impressive.
 
C

Cruxroux

#19
I understand the doubt you have as Shiryu has shown whatsoever no feat so far and Zoro is on another level at the moment.
But oda will either buff shiryu to another extent or Nerf zoro with something to fight this battle.
 
S

Sasaki Kojirō

#20
Luffy needed FS (Future Sight), Acoa (Barrier and Ryou), and finally Acoc, the three advanced levels of Haki, and ultimately awakening, to find Kaidou. I expect the same for when Zoro goes to find Mihawk. Is it possible that Zoro will forge a black blade against Mihawk, just as Luffy awakened against Kaidou?
 
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