MC vs Rival has MC weaker for majority or atleast parts of the series than the Rival with the MC being the strongest at the end and you said would never be stronger.
They are probably closest to Gon and Killua out of the main shounens and Killua was stronger in the entire manga until one specific point. Even stuff like Gohan > Goku, Sauske > Naruto while not as close to their relationship and part into he story shows there is no real Shounen logic that claims what you claimed.
Captain vs crewmate is one piece stuff not shounen logic
That's so fake and it's not really shounen logic anyway
By shounen logic, I mean stuff that we can expect from shounen. It wasn't just about MC/rival dynamics, but certainly includes that.
Coming to rival at times being stronger than MC, yeah that happens before rivalry is formed. Vegeta was stronger than Goku, but once rivalry formed, he never was stronger. He was always at awe at his growth. At times he close the gap to be in same tier or even maybe equal, but never surpass.
Goku/Gohan is father and son dynamics, Gohan surpassed Goku many times but that's besides the point.
Yes. Captain/crewmember dynamics in OP specifically exists because it's a shounen. It follows the pattern of captain being the strongest, even tho there should be no real reason why this could be the case. I mean, there can be crewmates who follow a captain out of admiration even if they're stronger, but that doesn't happen in OP because that's the rule in OP - captain is always the strongest.
You've got to give me a counter example aside from Buggy.
Answer this tho. When it comes to duo dynamics, why Zoro gets portrayed with both Luffy and Sanji. But Luffy only gets portrayed with Zoro?
It's the obvious 1/2 and 2/3 dynamics.
I dislike meta-narrative but you're just saying stuff that I agree with.
It's just the usual crowd that cannot understand how simple stories have simple archetypes.
Yes, it isn't something I'm much of a fan either, but that's how Oda writes.
There is a reason why ZKK didn't happen, inspite of multiple narratives supporting it. People need to understand the author and the way the story in written. In the hands of maybe Togashi or Kishimoto, ZKK had a decent chance of happening, not with Oda.
It's the same reason raid fails didn't happen either. Morj made excellent points supporting the theory, but forgot that this is Oda (especially post TS Oda)
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When it comes down to it, portrayal vice, zoro is quite close to Luffy.
If a significant gap exists, Oda will eventually remove it like did in rooftop. I mean, Luffy post-Kata was so much stronger than Zoro, but then Zoro got Enma and trained with it which resulted in a relatively significant growth (which a lot of zfans don't accept and deny that training with Enma was like Goku training in high gravity), resulting in rooftop feats.
People just need to accept that he's a partner type RHM similar to Ray, Oden, Beckman... the guy who is built similar to the captain, unlike the standard RHM like King, Marco, Kata, Mr1 etc. But ultimately he's a RHM, and as such will never be stronger than his captain as some of his fans wish him to be.
