After Wano, Zoro will most likely be above Oden and comparable to or stronger than the likes of Issho.
Between the end of Wano and his fight with Shiryuu (likely on Raftel), there's at least Elbaf and Lodestar. Zoro may yet become stronger.
It's not implausible to imagine that by the time the Strawhats make it to Raftel, Zoro is a swordsman on par with Shanks. This makes narrative sense as Mihawk is awaiting the swordsman that surpasses Shanks to come and challenge him:
So Zoro will likely be above Shanks when he eventually faces Mihawk. We don't know exactly when that will be, but Vs. Shiryuu will be one of Zoro's later fights, so he should already be close to the level he's at when he faces Mihawk.
Shiryuu is formidable, but it's hard to imagine that he would be a match for Shanks (and by extension Raftel Zoro). It's hard to imagine that Shiryuu can give Zoro an extreme difficulty fight.
Perhaps an extreme difficulty fight is not necessary. After all, Zoro has been much stronger than all the opponents he defeated post timeskip:
It's not implausible to imagine that Zoro will not face any extreme difficulty 1 vs 1 fight again until he faces Mihawk. However some people are not satisfied with the idea of Zoro's match against the Blackbeard Pirates being "easy".
An idea I've been flirting with is that Zoro is indeed much stronger than Shiryuu when they fight, but that the invincibility granted by Shiryuu's Devil Fruit proves difficult for Zoro to deal with and prevents him from properly applying that strength. Once Zoro figures out Shiryuu's DF (perhaps boosting his COO), he quickly defeats him (a la Zoro vs Daz Bones).
This would allow Shiryuu to provide Zoro with an appropriately difficult fight without otherwise being a match for him in power.
There's always the option that I'm overrating Zoro, but I don't currently think that's likely. King giving a recovered Zoro a difficult fight is the near term event that's most likely to make me reconsider my evaluation of Zoro's combat ability.
Between the end of Wano and his fight with Shiryuu (likely on Raftel), there's at least Elbaf and Lodestar. Zoro may yet become stronger.
It's not implausible to imagine that by the time the Strawhats make it to Raftel, Zoro is a swordsman on par with Shanks. This makes narrative sense as Mihawk is awaiting the swordsman that surpasses Shanks to come and challenge him:
So Zoro will likely be above Shanks when he eventually faces Mihawk. We don't know exactly when that will be, but Vs. Shiryuu will be one of Zoro's later fights, so he should already be close to the level he's at when he faces Mihawk.
Shiryuu is formidable, but it's hard to imagine that he would be a match for Shanks (and by extension Raftel Zoro). It's hard to imagine that Shiryuu can give Zoro an extreme difficulty fight.
Perhaps an extreme difficulty fight is not necessary. After all, Zoro has been much stronger than all the opponents he defeated post timeskip:
- He negged the Pacifista.
- He no diffed Hody Jones.
- He no diffed Hyouzou.
- He negged Monet.
- He mid diffed Pica.
- He beat Hawkins around medium difficulty.
- Killer was oneshot once he could improvise a 3rd sword.
- Apoo was oneshot once he became serious.
It's not implausible to imagine that Zoro will not face any extreme difficulty 1 vs 1 fight again until he faces Mihawk. However some people are not satisfied with the idea of Zoro's match against the Blackbeard Pirates being "easy".
An idea I've been flirting with is that Zoro is indeed much stronger than Shiryuu when they fight, but that the invincibility granted by Shiryuu's Devil Fruit proves difficult for Zoro to deal with and prevents him from properly applying that strength. Once Zoro figures out Shiryuu's DF (perhaps boosting his COO), he quickly defeats him (a la Zoro vs Daz Bones).
This would allow Shiryuu to provide Zoro with an appropriately difficult fight without otherwise being a match for him in power.
There's always the option that I'm overrating Zoro, but I don't currently think that's likely. King giving a recovered Zoro a difficult fight is the near term event that's most likely to make me reconsider my evaluation of Zoro's combat ability.
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