Powers & Abilities Why did King even bother turning off his flames when fighting Zoro?

#1
I get that King needed to turn off his flames for offense purposes if he wants to tag and land strikes on Zoro, but the problem is Zoro was literally already on his last bit of stamina especially when he is spending a lot of it to control Enma.

King could have just stayed on fire until Zoro ran out of stamina to finish off Zoro after Zoro's Haki runs out/mink effect wears off, yet he was too hasty with trying to use his speed to defeat Zoro.

If there was a single panel of Zoro using ACoC to damage King on fire, then it would have explained why King couldn't afford to just stay on the defensive and had to some times take risk with his speed form...but Oda didn't show any of that...

King was too impatient imo, and Zoro did well exploiting his weakness.
 

ConquistadoR

The Rogue Prince
#3
We were told clearly that King with his flames on can be harmed by Zoro once he attained ACoC in not one, not two but three situations.

- He initially acknowledges Zoro's new found power and the ability to hurt him and explicitly spells it out: "I can sense the threat you represent!"
- He then proceeds to dodge a CoC coated Rengoku Onigiri. This is a very drastic change in his fighting style considering that he barely dodged anything before Zoro attained CoC coating. Once again, proving that regardless of his flame durability, Zoro can now harm King badly.
- Zoro himself taunts King and asks him why is he blocking, parrying and dodging Zoro's attacks now.
- Furthermore when going for the final finisher, Zoro did not care whether King had his flames on or off. Because he knew that he has the AP required to cut King now.

At that point, King used his speed mode to try and land a few hits on Zoro to take him out - considering that Zoro's stamina is weakening since even with his flames, he would not be able to defend from Zoro's attacks. Once that failed, he immediately resorted to keeping a distance and attacking him with a long range Big Flaming Dragon. However, King does not know the fact that Zoro could cut fire - which led to the 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation finisher.

Just look at this in parallel with the Mr. 1 vs Zoro fight. Say, Mr.1 has a mode which reduces his durability but gives him speed and BoAT is Conquerors coating.

Once Zoro unlocks BoAT, Mr. 1 recognizes that and tries to harm Zoro with his speed mode. But that doesn't work and Zoro cuts through him regardless.

That's exactly what happened with King.
 
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#4
We were told clearly that King with his flames on can be harmed by Zoro once he attained ACoC in not one, not two but three situations.

- He initially acknowledges Zoro's new found power and the ability to hurt him and explicitly spells it out: "I can sense the threat you represent!"
- He then proceeds to dodge a CoC coated Rengoku Onigiri. This is a very drastic change in his fighting style considering that he barely dodged anything before Zoro attained CoC coating. Once again, proving that regardless of his flame durability, Zoro can now harm King badly.
- Zoro himself taunts King and asks him why is he blocking, parrying and dodging Zoro's attacks now.
- Furthermore when going for the final finisher, Zoro did not care whether King had his flames on or off. Because he knew that he has the AP required to cut King now.

At that point, King used his speed mode to try and land a few hits on Zoro to take him out - considering that Zoro's stamina is weakening since even with his flames, he would not be able to defend from Zoro's attacks. Once that failed, he immediately resorted to keeping a distance and attacking him with a long range Big Flaming Dragon. However, King does not know the fact that Zoro could cut fire - which led to the 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation finisher.

Just look at this in parallel with the Mr. 1 vs Zoro fight. Say, Mr.1 has a mode which reduces his durability but gives him speed and BoAT is Conquerors coating.

Once Zoro unlocks BoAT, Mr. 1 recognizes that and tries to harm Zoro with his speed mode. But that doesn't work and Zoro cuts through him regardless.

That's exactly what happened with King.
Ahh thanks for showing. I think I forgot the panels, especially the last one.
 
#9
Same reason black maria and Sasaki didn't use observation or armament haki in their fight despite that they had it in their arsenal. + black Maria not using poison despite the fact she mentions having it.

Plot & strawhats cant win otherwise.
 
#11
King doesn't need to turn off his flames for offensive purposes. He is attacking Zoro with flames on too.

Last time King had flames on was when Zoro pushed him away with ACoC.

My bet is that his flames are similar to Marco's regen abilities. You need stamina to use it. And Zoro burned that stamina probably by attacking him too much when flames were on.

In fact there is an ambiguous panel where Zoro attacks him with ACoC and says he has flames on so it didn't worked. But tha panel also shows King dodging the hit.
 
#13
We were told clearly that King with his flames on can be harmed by Zoro once he attained ACoC in not one, not two but three situations.

- He initially acknowledges Zoro's new found power and the ability to hurt him and explicitly spells it out: "I can sense the threat you represent!"
- He then proceeds to dodge a CoC coated Rengoku Onigiri. This is a very drastic change in his fighting style considering that he barely dodged anything before Zoro attained CoC coating. Once again, proving that regardless of his flame durability, Zoro can now harm King badly.
- Zoro himself taunts King and asks him why is he blocking, parrying and dodging Zoro's attacks now.
- Furthermore when going for the final finisher, Zoro did not care whether King had his flames on or off. Because he knew that he has the AP required to cut King now.

At that point, King used his speed mode to try and land a few hits on Zoro to take him out - considering that Zoro's stamina is weakening since even with his flames, he would not be able to defend from Zoro's attacks. Once that failed, he immediately resorted to keeping a distance and attacking him with a long range Big Flaming Dragon. However, King does not know the fact that Zoro could cut fire - which led to the 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation finisher.

Just look at this in parallel with the Mr. 1 vs Zoro fight. Say, Mr.1 has a mode which reduces his durability but gives him speed and BoAT is Conquerors coating.

Once Zoro unlocks BoAT, Mr. 1 recognizes that and tries to harm Zoro with his speed mode. But that doesn't work and Zoro cuts through him regardless.

That's exactly what happened with King.
Well said
 
#18
Same reason black maria and Sasaki didn't use observation or armament haki in their fight despite that they had it in their arsenal. + black Maria not using poison despite the fact she mentions having it.

Plot & strawhats cant win otherwise.
...Black Maria did use poison...? Thats the whole point of that scene? She poisoned Robin and robin released her from her grip...like are you even reading at this point
 
#20
We were told clearly that King with his flames on can be harmed by Zoro once he attained ACoC in not one, not two but three situations.

- He initially acknowledges Zoro's new found power and the ability to hurt him and explicitly spells it out: "I can sense the threat you represent!"
- He then proceeds to dodge a CoC coated Rengoku Onigiri. This is a very drastic change in his fighting style considering that he barely dodged anything before Zoro attained CoC coating. Once again, proving that regardless of his flame durability, Zoro can now harm King badly.
- Zoro himself taunts King and asks him why is he blocking, parrying and dodging Zoro's attacks now.
- Furthermore when going for the final finisher, Zoro did not care whether King had his flames on or off. Because he knew that he has the AP required to cut King now.

At that point, King used his speed mode to try and land a few hits on Zoro to take him out - considering that Zoro's stamina is weakening since even with his flames, he would not be able to defend from Zoro's attacks. Once that failed, he immediately resorted to keeping a distance and attacking him with a long range Big Flaming Dragon. However, King does not know the fact that Zoro could cut fire - which led to the 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation finisher.

Just look at this in parallel with the Mr. 1 vs Zoro fight. Say, Mr.1 has a mode which reduces his durability but gives him speed and BoAT is Conquerors coating.

Once Zoro unlocks BoAT, Mr. 1 recognizes that and tries to harm Zoro with his speed mode. But that doesn't work and Zoro cuts through him regardless.

That's exactly what happened with King.
Or like when sanji fought jabra who went from bragging about his tekkai being the best to straight up dodging with fear and tried to overwhelm sanji with flying slashes and speed.

Same exact situation
 
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