- MC vs rival (the role doesn't exactly exist in OP, but that's basically the role he fills given the contrast in character and will).
- Captain vs crewmember. No captain was ever weaker than his crewmember (aside from obvious Buggy gag)
- duo dynamics in the crew. Zoro gets portrayed with Luffy and Sanji, but Luffy only with Zoro and not with Sanji for a reason. Zoro is meant to be ambitiously between Luffy and Sanji.
Zoro will likely be strong enough to be maybe relative to Luffy, like he already was in many arcs. But he can't be stronger. His absolute best case scenario is to be as strong as Luffy, like during Whiskey peak
- Captain vs crewmember. No captain was ever weaker than his crewmember (aside from obvious Buggy gag)
- duo dynamics in the crew. Zoro gets portrayed with Luffy and Sanji, but Luffy only with Zoro and not with Sanji for a reason. Zoro is meant to be ambitiously between Luffy and Sanji.
Zoro will likely be strong enough to be maybe relative to Luffy, like he already was in many arcs. But he can't be stronger. His absolute best case scenario is to be as strong as Luffy, like during Whiskey peak
It's just the usual crowd that cannot understand how simple stories have simple archetypes.