Pre Alabasta one piece wasn't that popular to begin with
I can make a case that the show wouldn't be there w/o any of the east blue SH
Your claim is just baseless
Who saw Mihawk once pre skip and he came really late lol no one in the fandom follow the story for Mihawk nor Shanks either
This entire thread is about baseless claims. You have absolutely no basis for either knowing what Oda would do if you removed an entire main character from the story or the general reception of the story had that entire main character been removed
there is no character that would fill the void that Zoro would leave in the story. Plain and simple. Sanji wouldn’t suddenly be more likeable because Zoro isn’t there. Neither would Usopp. Remove Zoro and all his popularity and the people who legitimately find Zoro entertaining and sometimes the most entertaining character in the story WOULD BE AFFECTED BY WHAT THE STORY IS
I’m telling you that there is a reason so many mangaka create a “Zoro type” character in their story… it’s not a coincidence that this archetype of character exists across every Shonen you can think of… So claiming that One piece would just be unaffected by the removal of this extremely common archetype is bullshit… Especially since ZORO IS EXTREMELY POPULAR
Like outside of whatever you think of his importance to the story, he is clearly important to its popularity… which manga or story do you know can just delete its second most popular character just like that with no consequences? And why the hell do you think One piece would randomly be unique to be the one story that is fine doing this?
Actually I know why. It’s because the post time skip hasn’t been about the strawhats for the last 12 years… that’s fine… After Oda spent 13 years building up the good will of audience by focusing on the strawhats as characters, he cashed in said good will and betting the audience wouldn’t leave if he spent another 13 years NOT giving a shit about said strawhats… and it worked… One piece fans have been fine with over a decade of stories where the main characters aren’t main characters in the story anymore
But if this is your logic for why you think you can just delete Zoro then you’re obviously wrong in that this entirely hinges on the post time skip having been about these main characters in the first place