So I was thinking about it, and if you look at every fight zoro has ever had against a woman, even including Ain from film Z, Zoro has not taken a single one seriously. Whereas Zoro is willing to cut any man who stands in his way, he has never cut a woman, even if that woman was a horrible person, such as Monet.
I personally think this is important, due to one of the most important characters in Zoro's life, Kuina. Kuina wanted to be the world's strongest swordsman but didn't think she could as she was a woman and men are often stronger than women. To this Zoro rebuked her and told her that she was always the goal he wanted to surpass. Kuina was the last woman Zoro fought seriously imo.
I think that with her death, which occurred due to something so feeble as falling down the stairs, Zoro started to believe that Kuina was right about women. That they can't be as strong as men. This explains why Zoro has never cut a woman, despite cutting any fodder he runs across. Kuina's death engrained into zoro's mind, if only subconsciously, the belief that women are fragile.
And that brings us to Tashigi, a character who looks eerily similar to Kuina. After Zoro first defeated Kuina, these are the words that she told him:
And Tashigi is right. Remember the Mihawk vs Zoro fight? Despite Zoro being a literal fodder compared to Mihawk, Mihawk was willing to slash Zoro across the chest because he respected Zoro's wish to either beat Mihawk or die trying(he says this plainly when he gets stabbed in the chest by the dagger). This is the exact same wish Tashigi had when she fought Zoro. The only difference is that Zoro wasn't willing to give Tashigi the same respect that Mihawk gave him, despite the gap between him and Tashigi easily being smaller than the gap between him and Mihawk.
I think that the character arc Oda derived for Zoro will culminate with Tashigi being the only woman zoro ever fights seriously. Even if Tashigi is never going to be on Zoro's level, Tashigi will at the very least push Zoro to give her the same respect that Mihawk gave him all those years ago. In fact it might even be a parallel, with their fight happening after Zoro becomes the world's strongest swordsman, ending with Zoro slashing Tashigi across the chest and telling her to surpass him.
However, part of me does kind of want Oda to bring back Smoker and Tashigi as real rivals and have Tashigi actually push Zoro to go all out in order to prove that it is possible for a woman to be WSSM, but the way he's treated them post skip makes me doubt this will happen. Oda did say, however, he likes to bring back old characters and make them stronger, and with the SSG and vegapunk, who knows what could happen.
Anyways, thanks for coming to my ted talk
I personally think this is important, due to one of the most important characters in Zoro's life, Kuina. Kuina wanted to be the world's strongest swordsman but didn't think she could as she was a woman and men are often stronger than women. To this Zoro rebuked her and told her that she was always the goal he wanted to surpass. Kuina was the last woman Zoro fought seriously imo.
I think that with her death, which occurred due to something so feeble as falling down the stairs, Zoro started to believe that Kuina was right about women. That they can't be as strong as men. This explains why Zoro has never cut a woman, despite cutting any fodder he runs across. Kuina's death engrained into zoro's mind, if only subconsciously, the belief that women are fragile.
And that brings us to Tashigi, a character who looks eerily similar to Kuina. After Zoro first defeated Kuina, these are the words that she told him:
And Tashigi is right. Remember the Mihawk vs Zoro fight? Despite Zoro being a literal fodder compared to Mihawk, Mihawk was willing to slash Zoro across the chest because he respected Zoro's wish to either beat Mihawk or die trying(he says this plainly when he gets stabbed in the chest by the dagger). This is the exact same wish Tashigi had when she fought Zoro. The only difference is that Zoro wasn't willing to give Tashigi the same respect that Mihawk gave him, despite the gap between him and Tashigi easily being smaller than the gap between him and Mihawk.
I think that the character arc Oda derived for Zoro will culminate with Tashigi being the only woman zoro ever fights seriously. Even if Tashigi is never going to be on Zoro's level, Tashigi will at the very least push Zoro to give her the same respect that Mihawk gave him all those years ago. In fact it might even be a parallel, with their fight happening after Zoro becomes the world's strongest swordsman, ending with Zoro slashing Tashigi across the chest and telling her to surpass him.
However, part of me does kind of want Oda to bring back Smoker and Tashigi as real rivals and have Tashigi actually push Zoro to go all out in order to prove that it is possible for a woman to be WSSM, but the way he's treated them post skip makes me doubt this will happen. Oda did say, however, he likes to bring back old characters and make them stronger, and with the SSG and vegapunk, who knows what could happen.
Anyways, thanks for coming to my ted talk
