Everyone needs to repeat after me, "Wano is not over." That should be repeated a few times.
The reason I said that is because until Wano is over Zoro has the opportunity to grow stronger. I believe he will. Zoro won't sit on the sideline and do nothing for the rest of Wano. Luffy just went from exhausting him against beast Kaido to fighting 1v1 hybrid Kaido.
Second, Oda has taken everything up a level and feats that were impressive are still impressive but not as impressive anymore. Especially when it comes to hurting or cutting Kaido.
All of the Scabbards can cut and injury Kaido. If they can do that than Zoro, who's stronger than any of them, can do the same. That's why cutting Kaido is no longer as impressive as it was in the past.
That takes us to the power to scar Kaido. I believe Zoro can Kaido without needing to use his 9 sword style. His flying dragon blaze scared Big Mom and Kaido. There would be no need for them to be that concerned about the attack if it couldn't at least scar Kaido. I think his death lion song attack could do the same. As we saw from Oden's battle, just scarring Kaido is not enough to defeat him.
That brings us to the reason Zoro used his 9 sword style attack. That was either his strongest or one of his strongest attacks and it gave Zoro his best chance at defeating Kaido. Zoro was getting close to running out of energy so he knew it was better for him to put the rest of his energy into one attack that could give him a chance to defeat Kaido than use weaker attacks that won't. The crazy thing about it was Zoro was severely injured and weakened so that makes Zoro look even more impressive. Zoro's asura showed incredible speed, he blocked every single one of Kaido's attacks, strength, and power, he permanently scarred him with the attack.
That was against hybrid Kaido. Who is much stronger now. Oden very faced hybrid Kaido.
When we look at it all we can see that Oda is moving beyond scarring Kaido and towards killing Kaido. That will be the only way to defeat Kaido. That why I believe Zoro is moving away from Kaido right now. Oda needs to give Zoro the opportunity to grow strong enough to kill Kaido. Like Luffy had time to grow strong enough to fight Kaido 1 on 1.
When I look at Zoro surpassing Oden I'm not just looking at AP. I'm looking at all of their powers, skills, abilities and more. Zoro has shown incredible speed, strong defensive power, barrier haki, strength, and endurance. The only thing Oden has over him is greater AP. That will be surpass soon.
It's very clear to me that Zoro will (or has) surpass Oden. I haven't even mentioned creating a black blade.
PS: Since Zoro has CoC haki that's another area Zoro can grow stronger and surpass Oden in.
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I need to make a slight correction.
Zoro will also need to surpass Oden's CoC haki to surpass Oden.
I have realized that CoC haki was the other important power Oden used that made him so strong and feared.
When Oden cut Kaido he was using CoC haki with his attack.
Yes, Oda needs to do a better job at showing CoC haki attacks.