Future Events Who Will Defeat King?

Who defeats King?


  • Total voters
    448

Bogard

You can't win
Lol Marco was already in Wano as a teenager, spent time there, grew bonds with Oden(Oden was his crewmate at one point) who got killed Kaido, grew bonds with Izo(one of Oden's retainers who might be included in Oden/Toki's 9shadows prophecy).

How exactly does Marco has no connections to Wano?

With that said, i agree he won't be the one to defeat King. I think they'd have a clash, but his main event will be against Kaido. It's the reason he was brought up in the first place
 
Introduction
It is possible that King gets defeated in a group battle (I think this is unlikely) or is otherwise weakened before his final fight (I think this is more likely than the former, but I'm not confident this would happen either), but for this thread, I'm mainly interested in asking the question of who lands the final blow. Law and Luffy both fought Doffy in Dressrosa, but it was Luffy who landed the final blow on him.

As far as I can tell, there are two main candidates for defeating King: Marco and Zoro. It could be someone else, but I'm more than 75% confident that it's one of those two.

I would lay the case for and against each of them below.


Zoro
The Case For
Before Marco's arrival last chapter, Zoro was the most popular candidate for defeating King. The main reasons to believe Zoro would defeat King are:

The Normal Formula
In almost every arc, Luffy defeats the antagonist and Zoro fights the antagonist's strongest subordinate. The formula has been pretty robust both pre and post timeskip.

The only occasions that come to my mind as exceptions are:
  • Romance Dawn: Zoro defeated the antagonist (Axe Hand Morgan) himself.
    • Morgan did not have any clear strongest subordinate. As far as I can recall, none of his subordinates were named. So one might argue that this doesn't really count.
  • Baratie: Zoro did not fight any of Don Krieg's men.
    • Zoro was tken out of commission by Mihawk and was in no condition for further fights.
  • Arlong Park: It is not clear that Hatchan was stronger than Kuroobi. In fact, Kuroobi's Vivre Card mentioned that he was initially intended to be the Vice Captain of the Fishman Pirates. No mention was made of this detail in the manga, so it didn't actually materialise. This is not a clear exception, but it is included for completion.

Even in arcs that seem like they may have been exceptions, Zoro still fought the antagonist's strongest subordinate:
  • On Punk Hazard: Vergo was stronger than Monet (and Caesar), but he wasn't a subordinate of Caesar's. Caesar's strongest subordinate was Monet.
  • Dressrosa: Pica was clearly the strongest of Doffy's executives in the arc. Even if Vergo was above Pica, Vergo did not feature as a character in the arc, so he wasn't eligible. Doffy's strongest subordinate was Pica.
    • It's worth mentioning that even though Luffy had assistance in his Doffy fight, Zoro still defeated Pica by himself.

As can be seen above, the exceptions in which Zoro did not fight the antagonist's strongest subordinate, there were very extenuating circumstances. The formula is very robust. We'll need strong reasons to doubt that it applies to a particular arc. If Luffy indeed fights Kaido (whether with assistance or not), our priors that Zoro would fight King should be very high.

King is a Swordsman
King appears to be a (very powerful) swordsman. His blade has quite the level of detail to it, and appears to be a meitou:

Compare the level of detail on King's swords to the level of detail shown on two O Wazamono blades (Enma and Ame no Habakiri):

Giving that King appears to wield a meitou, our priors that he's a highly skilled swordsman should be farely high. Even in the Oden flashback, King appeared to use a sword in combat:

In the entirety of Wano, Zoro has yet to have a full fledged fight with a swordsman of significance. The closest he has gotten to one was his clash with Denjiro, but that clash was unresolved. On priors, it would be very surprising if Zoro does not get any swordsman battle in the entirety of Wano. Even in arcs that didn't heavily feature swordsmen (e.g. Enies Lobby, Thriller Bark and Fishman Island), Zoro got a swordsman to face (Kaku, Ryuma and Hyouzou respectively). As a result, it would be surprising if in the arc that does feature swordsmen very prominently, Zoro doesn't get a swordsman opponent to face. That King also happens to be the antagonist's strongest subordinate (like all the aforementioned swordsmen) makes it more likely that King (in particular) is the swordsman that Zoro will face.


King Uses Fire Abilities
King's epithet is "The Wildfire":

He appears to be capable of using his flames in combat:


He may be capable of creating fires that last days:

Zoro has indicated interest in a fire sword and Kinemon's Fox Fire style.
[insert image(s) here]

A swordsman that uses fire based abilities and is also the antagonist's strongest subordinate seems to be the ideal opponent for Zoro.


Zoro's Role in Wano
So far, Zoro has been the second most prominent character in Wano. He's ahead of even Oden in panel time, and dwarfs the other alliance members bar Luffy. He's forged connections to a lot of characters that play important roles in the arc (connections that are normally forged by Luffy):
  • He met Otama.
    • In chapter 980, Zoro agreed with Luffy's decision to attack the Beast Pirates for wasting food due to also bearing witness to Tama's suffering.
  • He befriended Yasuie.
    • Following Yasuie's execution Zoro swore to avenge him. This is very important as Zoro has said that he dislikes fighting for revenge. Yasuie gave Zoro emotional involvement in the conflicts of the arc and a reason to fight beyond supporting Luffy.
  • He saved Hiyori and bonded with her.
    • Hiyori is Oden's daughter and appears to be a secondary arc princess. She was the one who contextualised the suffering of the people of Ebisu town at the hands of Orochi for Zoro, explaining to him the curse of SMILE.
    • She cried into his arms and expressed a desire to kill Orochi with his own hands.
    • She also bequeathed Enma to him.
  • He attacked Orochi.
    • Kyoshiro blocked his attack on Orochi, leading to a clash between Zoro and Kyoshiro. Orochi doesn't appear to be a fighter in his own right (he was helpless before Kyoshiro's attack), so if Zoro's vendetta on Orochi comes to fruition, it would involve defeating whoever is protecting Orochi.
    • He swore not to forgive Orochi and to avenge Yasuie.
  • He received Oden's sword Enma.
    • Hitetsu also suggested that Zoro may surpass Oden with Enma by blackening the blade, a feat Oden was unable to accomplish.

Wano appears to be for Zoro what WCI has been for Sanji, and he's set up to take a very prominent role in the arc. Even in the recent chapters with Kidd's reappearance, Zoro has not looked at all inferior to him and still features quite heavily. I would wager that Zoro would have the second most prominent role from the alliance's side (with Kidd being third). It would be very surprising if Marco was to usurp Zoro's role in this arc.

The Case Against
There is really only one argument that I find credible regarding Zoro not fighting King, and that is that he might fight Kaido instead. The case for Zoro fighting King relies heavily on King being Kaido's strongest subordinate (with him being a swordsman and possessing fire abilities being mere cherries on the top). If Zoro instead fights the arc antagonist then there would be no cause for him to fight the strongest subordinate. In fact, in the one arc where Zoro participated in the defeat of the arc antagonist (Romance Dawn), he did not defeat the antagonist's strongest subordinate (a caveat would be that Morgan had no strongest subordinate). Regardless, if Zoro is fighting the antagonist, that's already indication that we are in violation of the normal formula (unless Zoro loses (as he did against Buggy, Enel and Lucci)).

If Zoro does fight Kaido, the main reason for him to fight King disappears. The question now becomes: "how likely is it that Zoro will fight Kaido".

Well, Zoro's prominence in this arc suggests he would. Kidd (and perhaps Law) may assist Luffy in beating Kaido. If Zoro doesn't contribute to Kaido's defeat, then they may in fact outshine him (which is apriori quite unlikely, given his panel time and relevance so far). One could also say that Zoro normally fights the antagonist's strongest subordinate, so perhaps in his most important arc (his WCI analogue) he may fight the antagonist instead? It sounds plausible, but I'm not that convinced yet.

Furthermore, Zoro referenced fighting Kaido in 980:


Zoro has also been set up to slay an Eastern Dragon this arc, and Kaido is the only one who fits.
There is an article on dragons, from One Piece Magazine Volume 5:

Here is the relevant quote:


The article further provides a description of Eastern Dragons with a picture of Kaido:

I'm not saying Zoro is going to deal the final blow on Kaido, but if he's going to slay a Dragon, then so far all fingers point towards that Dragon being Kaido (and not King like some suggested).


However, if King is present when they encounter Kaido and someone has to stop to take him on, it could still be Zoro. All in all, I think there's not yet enough to be confident that Zoro would contribute to Kaido's defeat (I don't give it up to a 50% chance of happening). I think Zoro is still more likely to fight King than Kaido.

It is possible that Zoro fights both King and Kaido (if Zoro fights Kaido, it's likely to be part of a group fight). However, I think this is quite unlikely. My priors for Zoro hogging that much action/panel time are pretty low. I would admit that he has gotten his fair share of fights so far:
  • He fought Hawkins.
    • Otsuru mentioned that they (Luffy and Zoro) defeated him.
  • He fought Gyukimaru (twice).
  • He fought Killer.
  • He clashed with Kyoshiro.
  • He fought the Oniwabanshu ninja.
  • He faced Apoo.
  • He has been fighting Gifters and Headliners in the last two chapters.

It is already the case that Zoro has gotten more fights than normal this arc, so the chances of him fighting King and Kaido should already be higher than the reference class priors. I think it'll still be low though.


Marco
The Case For
As far as I'm aware, there is really only one strong argument in Marco's favour, and that is the heavy parallels that Oda has drawn between Marco and King.

  • Both of them are the strongest subordinates of their captains.
    • Their captains being the World's Strongest Man and World's Strongest Creature respectively.
  • Both of them are flying zoans.
  • Both of them have fire abilities.
    • King possesses destructive fire powers.
    • Marco's flames are regenerative.

In addition to the above parallels, there have been direct scenes that parallel them.

Spurned Recruitment Offers
Shanks tried to recruit Marco and Marco turned him down:
[insert image(s) here]

Big Mom tried to recruit King and King turned her down:
[insert image(s) here]

Kicked Big Mom's Ship
King kicked Big Mom's ship at the waterfall in order to prevent the Big Mom Pirates from entering Wano:


Marco kicked Big Mom's ship at the waterfall in order to prevent the Big Mom Pirates from entering Wano:


The parallels have been a bit gratuitous, so it would be a bit surprising if nothing comes of it. Even if Marco doesn't defeat King, I think it's likely they clash.


The Case Against
Similarly, there is one major argument against Marco facing King; he has no emotional investment or deep story connection to Wano. He is not invested in the people of Wano, he has no relation to the affliction that Orochi and Kaido have inflicted on them. Unlike the Supernova, he hasn't been adversely affected by Kaido either. He has no vendetta to execute nor does hs He literally just showed up now, it would be a little weird for him to be so important to Kaido's downfall as to defeat his strongest subordinate. His presence in Wano is similar to Sabo's in Dressrosa (a powerful ally, but nonetheless disconnected from the affliction of the people). Sabo didn't partake in Doflamingo's defeat, but instead faced off against alternative antagonists (Issho and Burgess). If we extrapolate from Sabo, Marco might be used to stall the Big Mom Pirates (or maybe Big Mom herself) or a Marine force.

Just as Oda did not devote that many panels to Sabo in Dressrosa, he may not cover Marco's Wano fights in depth. If Marco indeed faces King, it'll suggest that the fight wouldn't be covered in that much detail. On priors, we wouldn't expect Oda to largely off panel the defeat of Kaido's strongest subordinate.

If you consider the Sabo a suitable reference class member, then Marco defeating King looks unlikely.


Conclusion
I think I currently favour Zoro as the one to defeat King, but it's not a conclusion that I'm all that confident in. I'll continue to update as we get more information, in particular, if I update towards Zoro being part of Kaido's defeat, I would update away from Zoro defeating King (not proportional updates, the two events are not mutually exclusive).

I listed some other characters that might defeat King (even though I think their chances are really unlikely), I'm aware of folks that have been advocating for Sanji vs King, and a Scabbard or Supernova are the other categories with any plausibility.

What do you guys think?


Why did u put Soyji as an option, that's Insulting to One Piece universe.
 
Very detailed post as usual from you.
From my point of view I think zoro will defeat him.
At least that's what I want.
The points you brought to make your case are pretty much what I think too. Luffy going after kaido and zoro taking on his strongest subordinate is indeed the recurrent pattern.

Also I feel like Marco is too strong for king and that there would be less hype to the fight than if it was zoro.
 
J

Jo_Ndule

Introduction
It is possible that King gets defeated in a group battle (I think this is unlikely) or is otherwise weakened before his final fight (I think this is more likely than the former, but I'm not confident this would happen either), but for this thread, I'm mainly interested in asking the question of who lands the final blow. Law and Luffy both fought Doffy in Dressrosa, but it was Luffy who landed the final blow on him.

As far as I can tell, there are two main candidates for defeating King: Marco and Zoro. It could be someone else, but I'm more than 75% confident that it's one of those two.

I would lay the case for and against each of them below.


Zoro
The Case For
Before Marco's arrival last chapter, Zoro was the most popular candidate for defeating King. The main reasons to believe Zoro would defeat King are:

The Normal Formula
In almost every arc, Luffy defeats the antagonist and Zoro fights the antagonist's strongest subordinate. The formula has been pretty robust both pre and post timeskip.

The only occasions that come to my mind as exceptions are:
  • Romance Dawn: Zoro defeated the antagonist (Axe Hand Morgan) himself.
    • Morgan did not have any clear strongest subordinate. As far as I can recall, none of his subordinates were named. So one might argue that this doesn't really count.
  • Baratie: Zoro did not fight any of Don Krieg's men.
    • Zoro was tken out of commission by Mihawk and was in no condition for further fights.
  • Arlong Park: It is not clear that Hatchan was stronger than Kuroobi. In fact, Kuroobi's Vivre Card mentioned that he was initially intended to be the Vice Captain of the Fishman Pirates. No mention was made of this detail in the manga, so it didn't actually materialise. This is not a clear exception, but it is included for completion.

Even in arcs that seem like they may have been exceptions, Zoro still fought the antagonist's strongest subordinate:
  • On Punk Hazard: Vergo was stronger than Monet (and Caesar), but he wasn't a subordinate of Caesar's. Caesar's strongest subordinate was Monet.
  • Dressrosa: Pica was clearly the strongest of Doffy's executives in the arc. Even if Vergo was above Pica, Vergo did not feature as a character in the arc, so he wasn't eligible. Doffy's strongest subordinate was Pica.
    • It's worth mentioning that even though Luffy had assistance in his Doffy fight, Zoro still defeated Pica by himself.

As can be seen above, the exceptions in which Zoro did not fight the antagonist's strongest subordinate, there were very extenuating circumstances. The formula is very robust. We'll need strong reasons to doubt that it applies to a particular arc. If Luffy indeed fights Kaido (whether with assistance or not), our priors that Zoro would fight King should be very high.

King is a Swordsman
King appears to be a (very powerful) swordsman. His blade has quite the level of detail to it, and appears to be a meitou:

Compare the level of detail on King's swords to the level of detail shown on two O Wazamono blades (Enma and Ame no Habakiri):

Giving that King appears to wield a meitou, our priors that he's a highly skilled swordsman should be farely high. Even in the Oden flashback, King appeared to use a sword in combat:

In the entirety of Wano, Zoro has yet to have a full fledged fight with a swordsman of significance. The closest he has gotten to one was his clash with Denjiro, but that clash was unresolved. On priors, it would be very surprising if Zoro does not get any swordsman battle in the entirety of Wano. Even in arcs that didn't heavily feature swordsmen (e.g. Enies Lobby, Thriller Bark and Fishman Island), Zoro got a swordsman to face (Kaku, Ryuma and Hyouzou respectively). As a result, it would be surprising if in the arc that does feature swordsmen very prominently, Zoro doesn't get a swordsman opponent to face. That King also happens to be the antagonist's strongest subordinate (like all the aforementioned swordsmen) makes it more likely that King (in particular) is the swordsman that Zoro will face.


King Uses Fire Abilities
King's epithet is "The Wildfire":

He appears to be capable of using his flames in combat:


He may be capable of creating fires that last days:

Zoro has indicated interest in a fire sword and Kinemon's Fox Fire style.
[insert image(s) here]

A swordsman that uses fire based abilities and is also the antagonist's strongest subordinate seems to be the ideal opponent for Zoro.


Zoro's Role in Wano
So far, Zoro has been the second most prominent character in Wano. He's ahead of even Oden in panel time, and dwarfs the other alliance members bar Luffy. He's forged connections to a lot of characters that play important roles in the arc (connections that are normally forged by Luffy):
  • He met Otama.
    • In chapter 980, Zoro agreed with Luffy's decision to attack the Beast Pirates for wasting food due to also bearing witness to Tama's suffering.
  • He befriended Yasuie.
    • Following Yasuie's execution Zoro swore to avenge him. This is very important as Zoro has said that he dislikes fighting for revenge. Yasuie gave Zoro emotional involvement in the conflicts of the arc and a reason to fight beyond supporting Luffy.
  • He saved Hiyori and bonded with her.
    • Hiyori is Oden's daughter and appears to be a secondary arc princess. She was the one who contextualised the suffering of the people of Ebisu town at the hands of Orochi for Zoro, explaining to him the curse of SMILE.
    • She cried into his arms and expressed a desire to kill Orochi with his own hands.
    • She also bequeathed Enma to him.
  • He attacked Orochi.
    • Kyoshiro blocked his attack on Orochi, leading to a clash between Zoro and Kyoshiro. Orochi doesn't appear to be a fighter in his own right (he was helpless before Kyoshiro's attack), so if Zoro's vendetta on Orochi comes to fruition, it would involve defeating whoever is protecting Orochi.
    • He swore not to forgive Orochi and to avenge Yasuie.
  • He received Oden's sword Enma.
    • Hitetsu also suggested that Zoro may surpass Oden with Enma by blackening the blade, a feat Oden was unable to accomplish.

Wano appears to be for Zoro what WCI has been for Sanji, and he's set up to take a very prominent role in the arc. Even in the recent chapters with Kidd's reappearance, Zoro has not looked at all inferior to him and still features quite heavily. I would wager that Zoro would have the second most prominent role from the alliance's side (with Kidd being third). It would be very surprising if Marco was to usurp Zoro's role in this arc.

The Case Against
There is really only one argument that I find credible regarding Zoro not fighting King, and that is that he might fight Kaido instead. The case for Zoro fighting King relies heavily on King being Kaido's strongest subordinate (with him being a swordsman and possessing fire abilities being mere cherries on the top). If Zoro instead fights the arc antagonist then there would be no cause for him to fight the strongest subordinate. In fact, in the one arc where Zoro participated in the defeat of the arc antagonist (Romance Dawn), he did not defeat the antagonist's strongest subordinate (a caveat would be that Morgan had no strongest subordinate). Regardless, if Zoro is fighting the antagonist, that's already indication that we are in violation of the normal formula (unless Zoro loses (as he did against Buggy, Enel and Lucci)).

If Zoro does fight Kaido, the main reason for him to fight King disappears. The question now becomes: "how likely is it that Zoro will fight Kaido".

Well, Zoro's prominence in this arc suggests he would. Kidd (and perhaps Law) may assist Luffy in beating Kaido. If Zoro doesn't contribute to Kaido's defeat, then they may in fact outshine him (which is apriori quite unlikely, given his panel time and relevance so far). One could also say that Zoro normally fights the antagonist's strongest subordinate, so perhaps in his most important arc (his WCI analogue) he may fight the antagonist instead? It sounds plausible, but I'm not that convinced yet.

Furthermore, Zoro referenced fighting Kaido in 980:


Zoro has also been set up to slay an Eastern Dragon this arc, and Kaido is the only one who fits.
There is an article on dragons, from One Piece Magazine Volume 5:

Here is the relevant quote:


The article further provides a description of Eastern Dragons with a picture of Kaido:

I'm not saying Zoro is going to deal the final blow on Kaido, but if he's going to slay a Dragon, then so far all fingers point towards that Dragon being Kaido (and not King like some suggested).


However, if King is present when they encounter Kaido and someone has to stop to take him on, it could still be Zoro. All in all, I think there's not yet enough to be confident that Zoro would contribute to Kaido's defeat (I don't give it up to a 50% chance of happening). I think Zoro is still more likely to fight King than Kaido.

It is possible that Zoro fights both King and Kaido (if Zoro fights Kaido, it's likely to be part of a group fight). However, I think this is quite unlikely. My priors for Zoro hogging that much action/panel time are pretty low. I would admit that he has gotten his fair share of fights so far:
  • He fought Hawkins.
    • Otsuru mentioned that they (Luffy and Zoro) defeated him.
  • He fought Gyukimaru (twice).
  • He fought Killer.
  • He clashed with Kyoshiro.
  • He fought the Oniwabanshu ninja.
  • He faced Apoo.
  • He has been fighting Gifters and Headliners in the last two chapters.

It is already the case that Zoro has gotten more fights than normal this arc, so the chances of him fighting King and Kaido should already be higher than the reference class priors. I think it'll still be low though.


Marco
The Case For
As far as I'm aware, there is really only one strong argument in Marco's favour, and that is the heavy parallels that Oda has drawn between Marco and King.

  • Both of them are the strongest subordinates of their captains.
    • Their captains being the World's Strongest Man and World's Strongest Creature respectively.
  • Both of them are flying zoans.
  • Both of them have fire abilities.
    • King possesses destructive fire powers.
    • Marco's flames are regenerative.

In addition to the above parallels, there have been direct scenes that parallel them.

Spurned Recruitment Offers
Shanks tried to recruit Marco and Marco turned him down:
[insert image(s) here]

Big Mom tried to recruit King and King turned her down:
[insert image(s) here]

Kicked Big Mom's Ship
King kicked Big Mom's ship at the waterfall in order to prevent the Big Mom Pirates from entering Wano:


Marco kicked Big Mom's ship at the waterfall in order to prevent the Big Mom Pirates from entering Wano:


The parallels have been a bit gratuitous, so it would be a bit surprising if nothing comes of it. Even if Marco doesn't defeat King, I think it's likely they clash.


The Case Against
Similarly, there is one major argument against Marco facing King; he has no emotional investment or deep story connection to Wano. He is not invested in the people of Wano, he has no relation to the affliction that Orochi and Kaido have inflicted on them. Unlike the Supernova, he hasn't been adversely affected by Kaido either. He has no vendetta to execute nor does hs He literally just showed up now, it would be a little weird for him to be so important to Kaido's downfall as to defeat his strongest subordinate. His presence in Wano is similar to Sabo's in Dressrosa (a powerful ally, but nonetheless disconnected from the affliction of the people). Sabo didn't partake in Doflamingo's defeat, but instead faced off against alternative antagonists (Issho and Burgess). If we extrapolate from Sabo, Marco might be used to stall the Big Mom Pirates (or maybe Big Mom herself) or a Marine force.

Just as Oda did not devote that many panels to Sabo in Dressrosa, he may not cover Marco's Wano fights in depth. If Marco indeed faces King, it'll suggest that the fight wouldn't be covered in that much detail. On priors, we wouldn't expect Oda to largely off panel the defeat of Kaido's strongest subordinate.

If you consider the Sabo a suitable reference class member, then Marco defeating King looks unlikely.


Conclusion
I think I currently favour Zoro as the one to defeat King, but it's not a conclusion that I'm all that confident in. I'll continue to update as we get more information, in particular, if I update towards Zoro being part of Kaido's defeat, I would update away from Zoro defeating King (not proportional updates, the two events are not mutually exclusive).

I listed some other characters that might defeat King (even though I think their chances are really unlikely), I'm aware of folks that have been advocating for Sanji vs King, and a Scabbard or Supernova are the other categories with any plausibility.

What do you guys think?


You people will switch Matchups as Sanji fans did.
Zoro vs King, Zoro vs Kaido, Zoro vs X, Zoro vs Orochi, Zoro...

King is getting beaten by Marco or weakened by Pero then Zoro finish him
Or something else.

King vs Perospero or Marco will surely happen
 
M

MD Zolo

The questions that need to be answered are these: Who in the alliance can logically beat King?

i think we can all agree that there are only four people who has any semblance of chance against King:
  1. Marco
  2. Kid
  3. Law
  4. Zoro
Now, the next question is this: What is the role of Marco here?

Marco is one among the top five fighters in the alliance now. So, there aren't many people who can take on Marco. Only three people should be able to take on Marco:
  1. Kaido
  2. Big Mom
  3. King
Yamato's power-level is unknown and we can't put Who's Who in Marco level yet. So basically, there are only two people who can be matched up with Marco - Big Mom and King.

So, King is becoming more likely candidate for Marco.

Next question, who can Zoro fight?

Well... Let's see. I think the following people make sense:
  1. Who's Who
  2. King
  3. Orochi
Now Orochi is too weak to be Zoro's main fight. So ultimately, I am leaning towards Zoro vs. Who's Who and Marco vs. King.
 

Bogard

You can't win
Marco facing King makes no sense unless Oda wants to give him finally a W.

King is a swordsman, its a bad matchup for Marco
From story standpoint, a full-edge battle between them brings no relevant information

On the other hand, Marco only has 2 suitable opponents, King and Kaido himself. Anybody else make no sense to him

But if he fights King in a full-edge battle, he'd win. If he fights Kaido however, there will be more tension , with his ability playing a crucial role at one point, hence i think that he might clash with King due to the parallels Oda brought up, but his main event will be against Kaido
 
Marco will definitely be up against Kaido. He's not more important than the main characters. He's here to help, not take the spotlight. Oda gives the powerups and hype-fights to mostly the main characters. Side character fights are usually short as fuck or offscreened. Like Whitebeard vs Akainu, Marco vs Kizaru, Barto vs Gladius, etc.

Despite all the parallels and everything.

:cheers:

Besides, do you guys actually think with his healing powers he won't be there to help Luffy recover while against Kaido?
 
I don't know why people are even entertaining the idea of Zoro defeating Kaido. If that happens, Luffy is no longer the main character of One Piece. And if Luffy isn't the main character, then there's no longer a manga.

Zoro vs King is logical. My only reserve is that Oda doesn't seem like he wants to do 1v1s anymore with the exception of Luffy. Wasn't it said somewhere that Oda doesn't like to draw fights? Plus there are so many important characters that need screentime, Oda won't let them do nothing. He gave Kyros a victory when everyone though Diamante would fight a Strawhat.
 

Cinera

𝐀𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐲 𝐏𝐞𝐭
Lol Marco was already in Wano as a teenager, spent time there, grew bonds with Oden(Oden was his crewmate at one point) who got killed Kaido, grew bonds with Izo(one of Oden's retainers who might be included in Oden/Toki's 9shadows prophecy).

How exactly does Marco has no connections to Wano?
I guess I forgot these, thanks for pointing it out. I'll incorporate it in the OP.


Why did u put Soyji as an option, that's Insulting to One Piece universe.
Because @pedxi, @Chrono, @Jackteo and others advocate that position. If they would like to vote it in the poll, I see no good reason to deny it to them.


Marco is too strong for king
This doesn't appear to be the case? Marco may in fact be stronger (I think this is true), but they're both YC 1s, so they should be on the same level combat ability wise. If it was Queen or Jack I would agree, but King is literally in Marco's ballpark.


You people will switch Matchups as Sanji fans did.
Zoro vs King, Zoro vs Kaido, Zoro vs X, Zoro vs Orochi, Zoro...
As I mentioned in the OP, Zoro has gotten many fights this arc, and he would likely continue to do so:
  • He fought Hawkins.
    • Otsuru mentioned that they (Luffy and Zoro) defeated him.
  • He fought Gyukimaru (twice).
  • He fought Killer.
  • He clashed with Kyoshiro.
  • He fought the Oniwabanshu ninja.
  • He faced Apoo.
  • He has been fighting Gifters and Headliners in the last two chapters.

The questions that need to be answered are these: Who in the alliance can logically beat King?

i think we can all agree that there are only four people who has any semblance of chance against King:
  1. Marco
  2. Kid
  3. Law
  4. Zoro
Now, the next question is this: What is the role of Marco here?

Marco is one among the top five fighters in the alliance now. So, there aren't many people who can take on Marco. Only three people should be able to take on Marco:
  1. Kaido
  2. Big Mom
  3. King
Yamato's power-level is unknown and we can't put Who's Who in Marco level yet. So basically, there are only two people who can be matched up with Marco - Big Mom and King.

So, King is becoming more likely candidate for Marco.

Next question, who can Zoro fight?

Well... Let's see. I think the following people make sense:
  1. Who's Who
  2. King
  3. Orochi
Now Orochi is too weak to be Zoro's main fight. So ultimately, I am leaning towards Zoro vs. Who's Who and Marco vs. King.
Why can't Marco take on Kaido? If the Kaido fight is a group fight, then why wouldn't Marco be involved? I'm not sure why you ruled out Marco vs Big Mom either?


Wanna see Zoro fighting an overwhelming force that use a katana with special technique on top of Mount Fuji. Who can achieve that? Only King
This is more a reason to want Zoro to fight King, it's not that strong an argument that Zoro will indeed fight King.
 
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You people will switch Matchups as Sanji fans did.
Zoro vs King, Zoro vs Kaido, Zoro vs X, Zoro vs Orochi, Zoro...

King is getting beaten by Marco or weakened by Pero then Zoro finish him
Or something else.

King vs Perospero or Marco will surely happen
honestly u saying King vs Perospero is crazier than what anyone says in the thread. You keep saying "Peros has beef with King" lmaoo he was pressed af his ass was about to die along with his family when king kicked off that damn ship. The moment another bird approached them he was sweating hard and said "KING?! WHAT IS HE UP TO?!! ":gokulaugh:as if he wasnt talking shit a minute ago and said "dont let your guard down, prepare for the battle!". BMP loves bluffing, Daifuku saying they came to kill Luffy as if freaking Carrot wasnt playing with his ass in WCI.:king:
 
This is more a reason to want Zoro to fight King, it's not that strong an argumen that Zoro will fight King.
Correct. In any case, to finish the fight in Onigashima has a weaker payoff than moving to the territory where everything has started. If Oda want to build and leave a special footprint for Zoro in Wano (leaving a special lecagy that can be told for generation) he has to achieve something very relevant where many people can see it and that can only happen near a city in Wano or like I said on top of Mount Fuji. In the contrary I dont see Marco showing anything special to the citizen of Wano because is a well know character in the world of one piece
 
This doesn't appear to be the case? Marco may in fact be stronger (I think this is true), but they're both YC 1s, so they should be on the same level combat ability wise. If it was Queen or Jack I would agree, but King is literally in Marco's ballpark.
I see marco and beckman stronger than the other YC1s, it would be high diff fights but there is no suspense in that fight. Marco wouldn't need to surpass himself while zoro would have to.

And in this kind of arc, I think oda if he was to make the calamities fight, he would like for their opponent to have a very hard time. This isn't happening with marco vs king imo.

Marco was even seen as a candidate for yonko position by the gorosei. He isn't on that level obviously but that places him above the likes of King so far.
 

Bogard

You can't win
Yeah this is what I was getting at.


Whats that based on? King probably has 1.5 times higher bounty than Katakuri.
And ? Remember we don't know Marco's bounty, but he has better hype(it's through overwhelming him that Teach got recognized as a yonko). He also has a superior devil fruit(a rarer than logia mythical zoan), plus that not only they are the strongest subordinates of their respective yonko crews(former in Marco's case and the strongest yonko's at that), but he is on the protagonist side, so if someone were to win between them in case of a full-edge fight, Oda will easily make Marco win
 
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