Questions & Mysteries Oda's pattern of "teasing" Zoro's full strength

[draganax]

yep, that's zoro all right. struggling has always been a major part of his journey, he welcomes it with a smile, "bring on the hardship. it's preferred on the path of carnage".

 

[Karma]

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?

Zoro admitted no one but Luffy could take Lucci iirc

 

[draganax]

Zoro admitted no one but Luffy could take Lucci iirc

that's not it, luffy called dibs on lucci the moment they got on the sea train.
it'll be disrespectful if someone else interfered.

 

[Franosuke]

Zoro admitted no one but Luffy could take Lucci iirc

I was referring to the 1v2 against Kaku and Jabura

 

[Verq]

Yeah, I'm not implying that I fully believe DR Zoro would have beaten Doflamingo, because even Luffy had help in that fight. But I just find it interesting that Oda almost purposely avoids showing what full-strength Zoro can actually do

why not? Was enma really that much of a power-up? Hardly anything changed with Zoro since dressrosa. Do you think someone capable of wounding Kaido will struggle with someone like Doflamingo?

The reality is that Doflamingo was the big baddy of his arc, and as we all know, Luffy always has dibs on those characters. Ofc, that doesnt mean Luffy is always the only character that can defeat them, it's just how one piece works.

I fully believe Zoro could've taken Doflamingo because like you said, zoro really didn't get much of a power up in new world, and with just that he's been able to wound kaido so doffy should be ez pz

 

[Gol D. Roger]

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?

About this, we've already seen how Kaku alone is enough of trouble to completely occupy Zoro in a one-on-one. They'd have stomped him in a two-on-one even if he wasn't nerfed.

I know Birdcage was plotcage but just simply based on how Zoro was struggling against Doffy's most powerful strings, Zoro was mid-diff material for Doffy at worst.

Zoro wasn't even trying to cut these strings. If you go back a little bit, Zoro tells the Colosseum fighters to not waste energy destroying Pica's statue because it won't do anything and Pica can keep regrowing unless the main body is defeated. Zoro or Fujitora did not try to cut the BC strings for the same reason; the strings simply get reattached as long as Doffy's awake.

 

[stairs-kun]

Zoro admitted no one but Luffy could take Lucci iirc

Never said that. Where do you people even see these things?

 

[Finalbeta]

 

[Mezo]

I know Birdcage was plotcage but just simply based on how Zoro was struggling against Doffy's most powerful strings, Zoro was mid-diff material for Doffy at worst.

So Fujitora was mid diff material for Doffy, Got it.

We can give the benefit of the doubt to Fuji since he was taking a gamble on pirates to save Dressrosa and what not. But I agree that was pretty bad portrayal for Fuji as well.

So Fuji was gambling on pirates, but Zoro for sure was not gambling on Luffy, Got it.

 

[Fn Lucci]

Never said that. Where do you people even see these things?

There's a Mandela effect. People always remember these statements that Oda never made when actually, he's particularly careful about putting Zoro at any disadvantage. In a nutshell it's that Fujitora clash where Zoro wasn't allowed to actually attack Doffy.

 

[stairs-kun]

There's a Mandela effect. People always remember these statements that Oda never made when actually, he's particularly careful about putting Zoro at any and all disadvantage. In a nutshell it's that Fujitora clash where Zoro wasn't allowed to actually attack Doffy.

:cheers:

 

[Herrera95]

Couple of things:

1- Fujitora literally saved Doflaming from Zoro's. If Fujitora wasn't there Doflamingo would be cut down into pieces right there.

2- Zoro is actually fighting at his 100% against King but we will soon have that bullshit medicine drawback and will make Zoro at his worst condition again.

Zoro was always the strongest Mugiwara.

 

[Karma]

Never said that. Where do you people even see these things?

I checked MangaSee and their translation just had Zoro tell no one to get involved in the Lucci fight

Idk if ppl just posted bad translations or wut but the ones i saw in a Zoro Vs Lucci thread made it seem like Zoro was admitting he couldnt take Lucci

 

[yorosenpai]

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%?

Zoro vs Mihawk :cheers:, no excuse no fear to overshadowing Luffy, Oda can go all out in this fight

Dont forget also that Enma was a nerf from chapter 955 to 1033 where Zoro understand Enma will and Zoro stop restraining himself.

Oda doesnt want to make it to much clear that Luffy=Zoro

 

[Finalbeta]

 

[Warchief Sanji D Goat]

Uhhh, Zoro literally got healed 100% for King but ok.

 

[Franosuke]

Uhhh, Zoro literally got healed 100% for King but ok.

True but the first half of 1033 was essentially about Zoro being dragged down by Enma and King even pointed it out. Either way him being healed doesn't really invalidate all of the other times

 

[Finalbeta]

Uhhh, Zoro literally got healed 100% for King but ok.

We don't know if his stamina recovered and there's high evidence he didn't recover it properly coz he felt tired way too soon 🧐