But this all does not quite hold up.
It does if you assume there’s at most two real fights left for Zoro in One Piece, which I do. It’s not like post timeskip has been awash with big fighting arcs where the Strawhats are pushed to their utmost. Luffy’s had that, the rest haven’t. Oda does not care about mapping out a progression of incrementally stronger opponents for the Strawhats each arc (and I’d argue never really has), he cares about getting the story finished.
Going back to Katakuri, you had a 1 vs 1 for Luffy to end on that level. Now you have a team fight required, but somehow you still scale each member of the team almost the same way in relation to the opponet as it was the case with just one guy fighting him in WCI.
They were two completley different fights. One was a one vs one where the end result was Luffy coming out ~= to his opponent.
This is a 5 vs 2, and none of them are coming out equal to Kaido at the end of it. I still don’t see Oden as being as strong as Kaido. We are going to see things from Kaido that’ll blow his performance against Oden out if the water.
Btw, how come Roger has multiple versions of Zoro ? Will Luffy end up worse off in terms of crew than him ?
Because he borrowed Whitebeard’s for plot reason. That’s what Roger asked Whitebeard- to “borrow” Oden for a year. It would be like Luffy needing to take along Shiryu for Laugh Tale, it’s not really reflective of how strong the Roger Pirates really were. Oden’s very unique in that respect. The closest thing to him the Strawhats could have would be if Law gets to come to Laugh Tale, as a D and an ally.
And going back to Shiryu, why does Zoro need to be already stronger than him two arcs prior to even running into each other ?
He isn’t, and won’t be. Shiryu will be the strongest number two in pirate history, same way Blackbeard will be the strongest. Until Luffy and Zoro beat them.
Ok, so now in preparation for this fight Zoro did not need to prove himself. But after this fight he needs to be already proven for his EoS fight. You argue that he needs to prove that he's stronger than what comes next, and at the same time that he did not need to prove that he's stronger than a YC in preparation for him surpassing Oden.
Yes, because what comes next is the culimination of Zoro’s entire character arc. This is only a step in the road. Big, massive step, but just a step. Surpassing Oden is something that’s only became a big deal this arc. Surpassing Mihawk and becoming WSS is Zoro’s reason for being.
So only Luffy needs to go through all these hoops and scale from YC 3 to YC 1 to top tier .
Uh yeah. I think that’s been fairly clear from how Luffy’s the only one who’s been getting proper fights.
People seem to have this idea that Oda sat down at the beginning of the timeskip and planned out what fights each Strawhats would have and how they’ll grow through them. That blatantly has not happened. I don’t think even Luffy vs Katakuri existed in Oda’s head until half way through WCI. Oda doesn’t write by planning everything out in advance. He might have big moments in the story in his head, but he makes it up as he he goes along until he gets there. I’m pretty certain that Big Mom’s presence in this arc alone is something Oda threw in without planning, in order to cut down the length of Elbaf and get the series done quicker.
So Oda could well have had a big moment like Luffy and Zoro vs Kaido planned from the beginning. I very much doubt he had all the steps in between planned, and I’m not even sure that the other combatants we have in the rooftop were always planned to be there.
Why not compare Zoro with a fellow SH, but characters that are not part of the crew and don't sail alongside Luffy ?
Why would I compare Zoro to a fellow Strawhat (and really, you’re talking about Sanji here, let’s be honest) and not the guys who’s he’s fighting alongside right now? Hell, take Law, post-skip he’s basically been a Strawhat and has had way more victories than Sanji. PH, the three characters that win fights- Luffy, Zoro, Law. Dressrosa, both Zoro and Law beat a Seat. Wano, Zoro and Law fight the Worst Gen and end up on the roof fighting Kaido. In comparison, Sanji’s had a series of skirmishes and psuedo-victories, but his only full, on-screen, unequivocal fighting win has been Wadatsumi.
Here's how this could work out in my mind :
I completely disagree with near enough every step of hownyou think the story is going to go, but that goes into a further “what is next for the Strawhat”, of which Zoro’s plot is only a part.