Also, Zoro didn't get the privilege of learning from a Swordmaster or Swordsmith in wano
And we know for a fact that's was an option because Luffy did
Like think about it we could have in character explanation through this why Zoro should been more interested in exploring the Islands they visit and maybe humbling himself in how learning other cultures and people better it could improve his swordship, like he did with Kinemon when he encountered his fire technique. Which would he have also perfect opportunity with another plot thread, him gathering the samurai of wano that want to rebel against Kaido like he said in Zou to luffy while the other part of the crew was in Zou.
Which also went nowhere. Obviously, people will have different opinions on this but Egghead also drove this home for me.
There is a common theory in shounen manga that the first/beginning of the final arc in shounen will highlight the characters and themes that the author gives a fuck about. I subscribe to that theory personally, like the mangaka will be planing out the end so the things that are important to him and what he thinks matters for the end will surface, either by choice or just where his mind is. If you now go and read egghead from start to finish (which should not take that long), without me influencing you, I think you will get a very clear picture of which characters, SHs, themes, and so on oda wants to write and wants to involve in the mainplot and which ones not. Like I remember people were coping Zoros treatment being a "wano" problem that will be resolved, but clearly that's not the case.
But to stick on topic one thing that also hurt Zoros character, which is ironic if you think about the large portion of the user base here, is Zoros tie to Luffy. This was a begin from start, don't get me wrong, every SH is tied to each other and to a larger extend to Luffy, but Zoro becomes almost an auxiliary character to Luffy where he never can drive the plot or his own thing on his own because he is Luffy Nr. 1 Fan. EVEN with Yasuie, the one character Zoro exclusively spends time together. Remember who got a bigger "Don-Don!" scene with him that they shouldn't laugh? Luffy with the "you shouldn't laugh at a man dying". Fighting against Lucci? "You are not strong enough to Fight Luffy" Even the off-the cuff line last chapter that caused a stir? Its a line about Luffy, who is not even present. And no, this is not a SH problem, others do still plotlines on their own without ties to Luffy.
I feel like at this point, reading Wano and egghead back to back I feel confident in saying that Oda finished writing Zoro after TB/The timeskip and sees him only in that role, which is a shame, he was certainly one of the most strongly written characters before the TS. Now it feels like oda cant even bothered to write for him.
Side note I also wonder how much of a chicken and egg problem this is. In Bleach, Hitsugaya was a very popular character. And it was very transparent at a certain point that Kubo just gave him "aura" moments and just showed him and Momo together, because that was a fan favorite pairing, and that's it and he keep topping the charts despite his character going fucking nowhere the whole manga after his initial debut. I wonder if Oda does the same at this point.
And we know for a fact that's was an option because Luffy did
Like think about it we could have in character explanation through this why Zoro should been more interested in exploring the Islands they visit and maybe humbling himself in how learning other cultures and people better it could improve his swordship, like he did with Kinemon when he encountered his fire technique. Which would he have also perfect opportunity with another plot thread, him gathering the samurai of wano that want to rebel against Kaido like he said in Zou to luffy while the other part of the crew was in Zou.
Which also went nowhere. Obviously, people will have different opinions on this but Egghead also drove this home for me.
There is a common theory in shounen manga that the first/beginning of the final arc in shounen will highlight the characters and themes that the author gives a fuck about. I subscribe to that theory personally, like the mangaka will be planing out the end so the things that are important to him and what he thinks matters for the end will surface, either by choice or just where his mind is. If you now go and read egghead from start to finish (which should not take that long), without me influencing you, I think you will get a very clear picture of which characters, SHs, themes, and so on oda wants to write and wants to involve in the mainplot and which ones not. Like I remember people were coping Zoros treatment being a "wano" problem that will be resolved, but clearly that's not the case.
But to stick on topic one thing that also hurt Zoros character, which is ironic if you think about the large portion of the user base here, is Zoros tie to Luffy. This was a begin from start, don't get me wrong, every SH is tied to each other and to a larger extend to Luffy, but Zoro becomes almost an auxiliary character to Luffy where he never can drive the plot or his own thing on his own because he is Luffy Nr. 1 Fan. EVEN with Yasuie, the one character Zoro exclusively spends time together. Remember who got a bigger "Don-Don!" scene with him that they shouldn't laugh? Luffy with the "you shouldn't laugh at a man dying". Fighting against Lucci? "You are not strong enough to Fight Luffy" Even the off-the cuff line last chapter that caused a stir? Its a line about Luffy, who is not even present. And no, this is not a SH problem, others do still plotlines on their own without ties to Luffy.
I feel like at this point, reading Wano and egghead back to back I feel confident in saying that Oda finished writing Zoro after TB/The timeskip and sees him only in that role, which is a shame, he was certainly one of the most strongly written characters before the TS. Now it feels like oda cant even bothered to write for him.
Side note I also wonder how much of a chicken and egg problem this is. In Bleach, Hitsugaya was a very popular character. And it was very transparent at a certain point that Kubo just gave him "aura" moments and just showed him and Momo together, because that was a fan favorite pairing, and that's it and he keep topping the charts despite his character going fucking nowhere the whole manga after his initial debut. I wonder if Oda does the same at this point.
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