After reading Fenaker's thread about whether or not rooftop Ashura was utilizing ACoC or not, I wanted to discuss Oda's pattern of always leaving it up in the air what Zoro would/could have done in certain situations.
We know even as far back as the Buggy arc (LOL) that Oda tends to have Zoro fight with handicaps. However, it's not just at times where he's heavily injured/held back that Oda seems to purposely make us wonder what a 100% Zoro would do against strong enemies.
Even in Arlong Park, we knew that Sanji also had pretty major injuries after fighting Kuroobi and still being affected from having been in the water. But Oda makes it a point to emphasize Zoro's Mihawk injury and have Arlong even say that it would be in his best interests to not let Zoro live. Think about that. Zoro did NOTHING that would have made Arlong afraid of him besides the simple fact that he was still alive in the first place. This obviously makes you wonder what Zoro would have done in a 1v1 against Arlong had he been at full strength.
Fast forward to Enies Lobby, and we have Zoro basically stalling Kaku/Jabura in a 1v2 as he was handcuffed to Usopp. While he didn't really sustain any injuries during those chapters, he also didn't really inflict damage either. Again, you start wondering, how much damage would Zoro have done if he was at full strength?
Then we have thriller bark, where Zoro had his famous bout with Kuma. But as Kuma noted consistently, Zoro was already on the verge of death by this point, but he still managed to inflict decent damage to Kuma with shishi sonson, and of course we subsequently had the nothing happened moment. All of that, again, makes you question how a 1v1 of Zoro vs Kuma would have looked like had it been proper. The injuries he sustained here even overlapped into Sabaody, where we had another sight of him fighting at probably his lowest point since Mihawk.
Fast forward to post-TS. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure Zoro did not sustain even a single wound in the New World until his clash with Fujitora in Dressrosa. Leading up to this, we had Zoro one-shotting Hody, Hyouzou, and Monet in all of like 2 seconds. So when Zoro briefly clashed with Fujitora, we all know he would have lost probably very badly. But just thinking about the previous Zoro encounters and the way he resisted the gravity well, it just makes you imagine how much damage Zoro would have been able to do if he got to continue fighting.
Even after basically walking all over Pica, Zoro's strength seemed so ambiguous that it had us wondering how he would have done against Doflamingo.
Then we get to ROOFTOP. And in chapter 1002, every supernova on the roof besides Zoro (So Luffy, Kid, Law and Killer) got in at least some attack/hit against Kaido. But when it got to Zoro's turn, we had him using Hiryu Kaen to cleanly slice off the horn of the skull. And it's just like, how much would that have done to Kaido if it actually hit him? You can say that it wouldn't have done anything, but at that point, why did Oda have it miss? Even with his last attack on the rooftop, Oda made sure to have Zoro in critical condition before issuing it.
Are we ever going to get a Zoro fight where he goes all out with no repercussions/handicaps? The only one I can think of in the whole series is the Mr. 1 fight. Why does Oda insist on "teasing" Zoro without showing us how he would fight at 100%?
We know even as far back as the Buggy arc (LOL) that Oda tends to have Zoro fight with handicaps. However, it's not just at times where he's heavily injured/held back that Oda seems to purposely make us wonder what a 100% Zoro would do against strong enemies.
Even in Arlong Park, we knew that Sanji also had pretty major injuries after fighting Kuroobi and still being affected from having been in the water. But Oda makes it a point to emphasize Zoro's Mihawk injury and have Arlong even say that it would be in his best interests to not let Zoro live. Think about that. Zoro did NOTHING that would have made Arlong afraid of him besides the simple fact that he was still alive in the first place. This obviously makes you wonder what Zoro would have done in a 1v1 against Arlong had he been at full strength.
Fast forward to Enies Lobby, and we have Zoro basically stalling Kaku/Jabura in a 1v2 as he was handcuffed to Usopp. While he didn't really sustain any injuries during those chapters, he also didn't really inflict damage either. Again, you start wondering, how much damage would Zoro have done if he was at full strength?
Then we have thriller bark, where Zoro had his famous bout with Kuma. But as Kuma noted consistently, Zoro was already on the verge of death by this point, but he still managed to inflict decent damage to Kuma with shishi sonson, and of course we subsequently had the nothing happened moment. All of that, again, makes you question how a 1v1 of Zoro vs Kuma would have looked like had it been proper. The injuries he sustained here even overlapped into Sabaody, where we had another sight of him fighting at probably his lowest point since Mihawk.
Fast forward to post-TS. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure Zoro did not sustain even a single wound in the New World until his clash with Fujitora in Dressrosa. Leading up to this, we had Zoro one-shotting Hody, Hyouzou, and Monet in all of like 2 seconds. So when Zoro briefly clashed with Fujitora, we all know he would have lost probably very badly. But just thinking about the previous Zoro encounters and the way he resisted the gravity well, it just makes you imagine how much damage Zoro would have been able to do if he got to continue fighting.
Even after basically walking all over Pica, Zoro's strength seemed so ambiguous that it had us wondering how he would have done against Doflamingo.
Then we get to ROOFTOP. And in chapter 1002, every supernova on the roof besides Zoro (So Luffy, Kid, Law and Killer) got in at least some attack/hit against Kaido. But when it got to Zoro's turn, we had him using Hiryu Kaen to cleanly slice off the horn of the skull. And it's just like, how much would that have done to Kaido if it actually hit him? You can say that it wouldn't have done anything, but at that point, why did Oda have it miss? Even with his last attack on the rooftop, Oda made sure to have Zoro in critical condition before issuing it.
Are we ever going to get a Zoro fight where he goes all out with no repercussions/handicaps? The only one I can think of in the whole series is the Mr. 1 fight. Why does Oda insist on "teasing" Zoro without showing us how he would fight at 100%?
