General & Others How many people think it’s fine that Oda fumbled Zoro in Wano?

[Blazing Lion]

Zoro got lots of cool feats but the story was not satisfying specially how it was concluded. Kaido deserved a better death than getting blown up by a volcano. BM got ridiculed the most to the point many people consider her the weakest top tier or scale BM in two different variants a PIS variant and a 3 Day battle with Kaido variant.

He introduced too many characters and was unable to give them the panel and story relevance required. Oda could have literally made Orochi a strong villain on his own and have Zoro deal with him and have Luffy defeat Kaido or some variant of this. All the hype for Wano Samurai and we get one Ryuma (legend) and one Oden (recent past) and then a couple of YC level guys (present).

Death is what completes a person - no conclusion
There wont be a monster samurai like Oden - no conclusion

 

[Superior to you]

Wano was shit, but Zoro had cool fights/moments.
Still better than that crying cake arc, that was ass & cringe. Katakuri fight was the only memorable thing.
I wouldn't want a bad story arc surrounding Zoro like Lanji had in Wholecake.

 

[TheAncientCenturion]

Did Zoro go through any character development in Wano?

 

[L57]

Did Zoro go through any character development in Wano?

Yes

 

[Gauntlet]

I actually have Wano as the worst arc in one piece for the main purpose of Zoros Usopps and Frankys treatment that arc and the character writing of them, or rather the non-existence of it.

Now I will say, I read this forum during Wano (shoutouts to my hero Finalbeta). The 99% of "real" zorofans here didn't criticize any of zoros writing or how oda treated him until a certain event happened, or rather didn't happen, lmao.

In fact Wano was the height of Oda glazing here ironically enough.

So I don't know how much I buy this seems like cope to me


Wano is one of the 2 arcs where Zoro has the most paneltime of any strawhat post-ts beside Luffy. The panel time was not the issue.

It's crazy how right you are. Even I wasn't critical about the writing at the time. Wonder if the reason for that was because expectations blinded me, or I couldn't care less about the writing at that point. I definitely changed how I post about One Piece.

Edit: I did care about Hiyori getting the final blow on Orochi and not anyone else even prior to all my expectations being broken, if that means anything.

 

[Rivaille]

Outside of expectations for the arc and Zoro, how is it possible that Zoro was so short-changed in the Samurai and Swordsman arc?

It’s like why isn’t Oda criticized more for this? I mean however much you like Oda and think his shit is the ambrosia of the gods, you have to admit that Zoro’s Wano story is severely lacking in many ways. So why is this acceptable?

Seriously it doesn’t even matter how high or low your expectations were for Zoro to begin with, how did the Samurai and Swordsman arc have Zoro doing a bunch of meaningless side-quests and a bad fight at the end and that’s it.

Please I’m really asking, even the Zoro haters, is this acceptable even to you? 4 years and 150 chapters of the closest thing to Zoro having any significance and it’s just a nonsensical fight with nonsense “cool guys feats” and that’s acceptable to you from Oda and Oda did nothing wrong with this abysmal story?

Seriously imagine if you transposed this situation to Usopp in elbaf. 4 years and 150 chapters and the best you got out of Usopp in Elbaf was meaningless side-quests and a bad fight. (Okay Usopp doesn’t even get fights usually so you might think it’s fine but seriously, why does it have to be a bad fight tho? Why shouldn’t Usopp get the best fight of his life in Elbaf? Why settle for a bad one?)

Some people read the above and say “well Usopp is a better written than Zoro so Usopp is more deserving or good development in Elbaf than Zoro had in Wano” and I want you to think about this statement and ask yourself “Isn’t it Oda that’s responsible for the disparity in the writing quality between these characters? Isn’t it Oda who’s to blame for a lack of writing for any character? Why is it simply acceptable for Oda to be a bad writer in some regards for no reason?”

Some people (including Zoro fans) complained about Zoro’s writing during the arc but some part of the Zoro fandom was so hellbent on ZKK that they were nothing else that mattered and they tried to silence them.
And when most of Zoro’s plotlines were shown to go nowhere they acted as if ZKK happening would resolve and explain everything. So again no criticism was allowed.

When ZKK did not happen and when the arc ended criticized Oda’s writting of Zoro was considered to be “crying because ZKK did not happened” rather than legit criticisms.

So the people which have questions and criticisms to voice about Zoro storylines in Wano were never listened. Which lead to no one talking about it anymore.

 

[kekaro]

It's crazy how right you are. Even I wasn't critical about the writing at the time. Wonder if the reason for that was because expectations blinded me, or I couldn't care less about the writing at that point. I definitely changed how I post about One Piece.

Edit: I did care about Hiyori getting the final blow on Orochi and not anyone else even prior to all my expectations being broken, if that means anything.

Yeah no you are right Orochi should have been clearly the main fight for Zoro (maybe gave him some power up or form where he can fight obviously) thematically. That could also fixed a lot of act 1 where he basically was bumming around while doing nothing and the only meaning full thing he got character-wise was the connection to Yasuie (I'm not counting that gag one sided romance thing that is not even Boa Hancock tier with hiyori).
But most people are too pressed thinking the "set up character" was Kaido, till this day so that critique was probably overshadowed by screeching

 

[HellBlazer04]

Zoro was ruined since "nothing happened" moment in TB.
Everything after that was downhill for Zoro.
Shame people didn't realise this. Glad wano was the arc that opened their eyes.

 

[ImmaIvanoM]

Why does it bother you? lol
Zoro is a Fighter, his Role is to Fight, that's all
He had a lot of Epic Fighting Moments in Wano

Hoping for more doesn't mean what We got was Bad
We always hope for more in any Arc, not just Wano

Did you read Ennies Lobby? Do you want to say this about Zoro in that arc?

 

[Desolate Smaug]

Still can't get over the fact his Shimotsuki lineage was dropped in an SBS post wano and not actually in the manga. Like Bro, those SBS are for the weebs who are way in too deep. Regular fans won't ever know Zoro is related to Ryuma.

 

[grey matter]

I actually have Wano as the worst arc in one piece for the main purpose of Zoros Usopps and Frankys treatment that arc and the character writing of them, or rather the non-existence of it.

Now I will say, I read this forum during Wano (shoutouts to my hero Finalbeta). The 99% of "real" zorofans here didn't criticize any of zoros writing or how oda treated him until a certain event happened, or rather didn't happen, lmao.

In fact Wano was the height of Oda glazing here ironically enough.

So I don't know how much I buy this seems like cope to me


Wano is one of the 2 arcs where Zoro has the most paneltime of any strawhat post-ts beside Luffy. The panel time was not the issue.

Zoro was actually fine and had stuff set up and plot points built up in act 1 and act 2.

Issue is that it went absolutely nowhere in the raid aside from a throwaway scar on Kaido, and he ended up fighting King with zero setup.
No revenge for tonoyasu, nothing major in Kaido, no rounding up samurai, no visiting Ryuma grave, nothing on grim reaper etc.

Tbh, even Kid and Killer were victims of Oda's writing.
They have nothing to do with BM, yet ended up fighting her. Kid has far more reasons than even Luffy to fight Kaido....
Killer needed to fight Apoo, the true betrayer, tho Hawkins was at least better than what Kid got.
Apoo is still running Scott free by the way, with Kid and Killer doing nothing about it.....

Oda really fell off after Dresrossa, final arc I truly enjoyed. Where stuff added up and had a satisfying end all things considered.

Just look at Egghead, worse than Wano even

 

[Cruxroux]

Oda wasted so many panels.
Just so that he doesn't have to give out zoro lineage and How he actually connected to wano.
And we got it in sbs.
Like literally wtf. And with no zkk , whole arc went shit

 

[park_min young]

It was the best arc for Zoro in a long long time, and I mean Thriller Bark. So no, Zoro fulfilled his role as the badass of the crew.

He’s pretty much a complete character already. He did the highest act of loyalty back in TB, that tells you that he’s not a character that needs much character development. He can’t top that character moment even if Oda tried. All Oda has to do is make his character act consistently from then on.

 

[AkainuTheGrimReaper]

Some people (including Zoro fans) complained about Zoro’s writing during the arc but some part of the Zoro fandom was so hellbent on ZKK that they were nothing else that mattered and they tried to silence them.
And when most of Zoro’s plotlines were shown to go nowhere they acted as if ZKK happening would resolve and explain everything. So again no criticism was allowed.

When ZKK did not happen and when the arc ended criticized Oda’s writting of Zoro was considered to be “crying because ZKK did not happened” rather than legit criticisms.

So the people which have questions and criticisms to voice about Zoro storylines in Wano were never listened. Which lead to no one talking about it anymore.

Don't need ZKK , when you don't have ryuma flashback and lore , instead we get oden flashback . Too much off screen fights happen in wano. That is my main criticism of wano arc.

ZKK is theory , people need get over it and listen story writing criticism .

Why wano suck -no good samurai hype and ryuma flashback like Noland flashback style.
It is beyond ZKK when no good sword lore in good pacing. Causal fans would ignore sword lore because it doesn't connect zoro properly . Zoro fans act like they own swords in their house for their knowledge to fandom. Only Emma but we are forced to watch oden stuff. No black blade lore in wano.

 

[Cruxroux]

Don't need ZKK , when you don't have ryuma flashback and lore , instead we get oden flashback . Too much off screen fights happen in wano. That is my main criticism of wano arc.

ZKK is theory , people need get over it and listen criticism .

Why wano suck -no good samurai hype and ryuma flashback like Noland flashback style.
It is beyond ZKK when no good sword lore in good pacing. Causal fans would ignore sword lore because it doesn't connect zoro properly . Zoro fans act like they own swords in their house for their knowledge to fandom. Only Emma but we are forced to watch oden stuff. No black blade lore in wano.

Oden was literally forced down our throat.
Oda tried so hard to make oden and Momo likeble , only to be hated by most.

 

[park_min young]

Oden was literally forced down our throat.
Oda tried so hard to make oden and Momo likeble , only to be hated by most.

Momo’s alright actually, the character development was done well. Oden was the really shit character.

 

[grey matter]

It was the best arc for Zoro in a long long time, and I mean Thriller Bark. So no, Zoro fulfilled his role as the badass of the crew.

He’s pretty much a complete character already. He did the highest act of loyalty back in TB, that tells you that he’s not a character that needs much character development. He can’t top that character moment even if Oda tried. All Oda has to do is make his character act consistently from then on.

Zoro as a character (in terms of development) was pretty much done in pre TS yes. But doesn't mean he can't have plots built upon and expanded on him more.

Zoro was actually fine and had stuff set up and plot points built up in act 1 and act 2.

Issue is that it went absolutely nowhere in the raid aside from a throwaway scar on Kaido, and he ended up fighting King with zero setup.
No revenge for tonoyasu, nothing major in Kaido, no rounding up samurai, no visiting Ryuma grave, nothing on grim reaper etc.

 

[Longleg Larry]

Eh, samurai r lame. I am bummed he lost Shusui, his dopest sword

 

[HellBlazer04]

He did the highest act of loyalty back in TB

That was the worst moment in Zoro's entire existence as a character.

 

[park_min young]

That was the worst moment in Zoro's entire existence as a character.

How so? This is the first time I ever heard of this opinion lol