For the longest time I've been contemplating whether Zoro fits in with any of the right hand man "First Mate" parallels we've had so far.
Rayleigh - tactical & intelligent
Beckman - tactical & intelligent
Killer - tactical & intelligent
These are the confirmed right hand men of the most relevant captains of the series. Zoro to me doesn't fit their vibe, yes he has similar traits as some of them and in particular with Rayleigh and him having mirror scars. Now to be clear I'm not saying that Zoro isn't the right hand man to Luffy, he 100% is.. I'm saying he simply doesn't fit the parallel of a typical "first mate" that major pirates in OP-verse have. I'm probably confusing y'all a bit here, so let me try to lay it out more cleaner:
Which crew fits the Roger pirates mold the best? Not the strawhats but Kidd Pirates.
Kidd pirates & Roger Pirates (maybe Red-hair Pirates too):
-> Only Killer & Rayleigh refer to their captain with the Captain's first name
-> Rest of the crew refers to the Captain as "Captain", even if they're top dogs of the crew.
-> Killer & Heat share a similar role as Rayleigh-Gaban:
-> Killer & Rayleigh are in it for just to support their captain. Similar to Ben Beckman. Rayleigh as showcased with the whole strategizing with Luffy's training and the plan of going to MF to send the message to the crew, the dude is very tactical. Just as Beckman and Killer are highlighted for their intelligence being superior to their captain.
Like Kidd Pirates & Roger pirates are essentially copies of each other in crew structure, I'm assuming Red-haired pirates are similar as well if Lucky Roux "the fighter" of the crew has a similar relationship to Ray-Gaban/Killer-Heat, with Ben Beckman. Because Heat similar to Gaban is always in the background and rarely made a "focus", unlike Killer & Ray who are often highlighted alongside their captains.
Compared to that, let's look at the strawhats:
- Zoro has an ambition on par with his captain, which neither of the other do
- Zoro's will to live/willpower has often paralleled his captain's (Arlong shook at Zoro's face when near death - Smoker shook at Luffy's face when near death. Zoro taking on all of Luffy's pain by Kuma - Luffy going through that process with Ivankov.)
- He didn't join the crew putting the captain first, but something he eventually evolved into. Something opposite of Rayleigh/Killer from what we know.
- Include the times he, an underling, been stated to be somebody who could be the captain.
But see despite that, I was actually on board with Zoro = Rayleigh, Sanji = Gaban... for a long while, until Wano recently, where something Oda has been building up really struck me. Now this build up really got highlighted during Sabody. You see what happens during Sabody is that Zoro nearly takes out a Celestial Dragon, and then Luffy near the end punches a Celestial Dragon. But then when it came for the "right hand men" of the supernovas to step in, the person who stepped in wasn't Zoro, despite him being there as well. Instead the person who Oda chose to bring in was:
Then after this Fishman Island happened where Oda had Sanji team up with a person who was a captain of his own crew and a renowned infamous pirate. Initially I was like I guess Oda is making it clear Sanji ain't in the same league as Luffy/Zoro. But no rather Oda was hinting at something else:
Then from there we moved on to WCI, where in the absence of Luffy/Zoro/Sanji we had a person who took up the mantle of leadership and lead the strawhats that were on the ship... Jinbei. Originally, just dismissed this as "well Jinbei is the helmsmen so it makes sense he takes charge when they're on the seas in a chase like that".
But then we came into Wano... and Oda dropped this panel:
Now I didn't realize it back then when the panel dropped, but then when I recently reread this panel, I was like... hmmm must be deja vu could've sworn I saw a panel like this before.. waiit waiit wait wait... :
Two dudes annoyed - shoulder to shoulder - sending two people flying on the side. For me it became clear that Oda is establishing two duos. The duo with Luffy-Zoro & duo with Jinbei & Sanji which will be like Gaban-Rayleigh/Heat-Killer/ Beckman - Roux?? It also becomes clear when Luffy & Zoro are beefing with Kaido, while the other two are handling the underlings, with Sanji being more prominent in clashing with the calamities already, while Jinbei taking on the weaker F7.
Because originally I remember people used to claim (including myself), for future powerlevel purposes:
Roger = Shanks = Luffy
Rayleigh = Mihawk = Zoro
Gaban = Beckman = Sanji
However, this is fell apart with Ben Beckman's vivre card stating he's entity comparable to Shanks. Just as Rayleigh The DARK KING was an entity comparable to Roger the PIRATE KING. So it would be more accurate to say (if we really want to compare Roger pirates-Strawhat pirates):
Roger = Shanks = Luffy
Rayleigh = Beckman = Sanji
Gaban = Roux? = Jinbei
Zoro being a complete anomaly. Now yes Zoro is the right hand man to Luffy as Rayleigh/Killer/Beckman are to their respective captains, but that's really about it. Because to be honest for me the strawhats aren't really comparable with the Roger pirates & Red-hair pirates, and as pointed out earlier Kidd Pirates are the proper comparison for Roger & Red Hair pirates, rather than the strawhats.
So in short:
EoS Jinbei > Gaban,
EoS Sanji > Rayleigh,
EoS Zoro > Roger,
EoS Luffy > Roger
PS: For anyone that might comment "this is just another Zoro wank thread"... umm it's really not, just me analyzing how Oda is breaking up from the "M3" concept and focusing on the duos now. And how Sanji will actually be pretty close to Luffy-Zoro at EoS, as Rayleigh /Beckman are to their captains.
Anywho let me know your opinions on this.
Disclaimer: This could all be wrong if Jinbei stops progressing after this arc. But it's hard to imagine that, I feel that Jinbei might become the first 1st top tier (low top tier) fishmen.
