General & Others Why is Zoro so popular?

[ShishioIsBack]

At the moment Zoro comes off as the least damaged straw hat from his pre TS self, perhaps because Oda hasn't spent least overwhelming amount of time with him.

Sanji is absolutely worthless to me after WCI, I mean he was already pathetic when he nearly died in FMI to pursue his "life long goal" that he changed for third time to see mermaid tits.

Luffy has become probably the most static character in manga history and one of the mostly forcefully shoved down people's throat characters ever. I can't remember any manga where I wanted to skip pages every time the fucking main character of manga showed up but thats how bad Luffy is as a character to me.

No other character Oda has developed post TS has particularly great drawing. He has created one and only pseudo complex characters like Law but Law has no charisma or presence of someone to remember.

So in the midst of all the mediocre and straight up bad characters, Zoro though not that great in grand scheme of things, still looks like a masterpiece.

Now pre TS Zoro was an actually great character but I am too lazy to write an essay about it.

 

[Hereforthesalt]

Zoro is popular because

1) he’s 1000% loyal to the main character as the de facto second in command but hyped to be at a similar level to the main character. this means that he’s submissive by choice and not because he’s inferior; his undying loyalty is attractive

2) he’s a typical strong guy with a cool sleek design + he comes with swords; huge points to indulge the power fantasy of most readers

2b) he’s super ‘manly’ and badass as to suffer extreme amounts of damage but still be ok because he has unlimited stamina and endurance and growth potential as main character #2; again power fantasy

that’s really it

tl;dr he appeals to lowest common denominator of audiences as a badass; see also “nothing at all” scene that really sums it up

Zoro is an OK character and I enjoy him but I will say that he’s just OK and it’s the preceding stuff that makes him popular rather than him actually being interesting imo

(tbf that could change a bit if Oda gives him a little bit more meat around his origin, goals, and such)

 

[RYNO]

I love his badass and funny moments, it helped i think he has some of the best interactions with any of the SH crew.
Some funny moments of zoro.
https://www.google.com/search?q=zor...xzgGHWfoDHUQ_AUICigB&biw=1225&bih=679&dpr=1.1

I honestly see a lot of resemblance between Zoro/Bakugou

don't insult zoro by compareing him to that loud mouth annoying one note brat like bakugou.

 

[straightforward]

It's no question that Zoro is one of the most popular characters from One piece. Examples of this popularity are:
1. he's been the second most popular character in shone jump polls since the start with the exception of the Dressrosa poll where he was third following Law.

2. Artur from library of Ohara translated the popularity data from One piece magazine 8 and in it Zoro was the first place for two out of six demographics and second place in every other demographic besides 9 year olds who like had Chopper in first place even above Luffy.

3. Some notable individuals have said Zoro is their favorite character such One of Oda's editors and youtubers such as Nux Taku, Grandline Review and Super Eye patch Wolf among others.

4. Popularity polls from western youtubers such as Rogersbase and Tekking also end up having Zoro in first place

5. Even popularity polls held on this very forum and on the deceased Orojackson consistently had Zoro in first or second place.

And so on.

With that I ask why Zoro is so popular?

EDIT:
Recently Artur has made a poll of his own with up to 5000 votes and once again the results speak for themselves

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1229014392865525760

honestly, i don't know. your average male reader seems to go all gaga over zoro but in truth, his personality is bland, his design is very run-of-the-mill, he's an alcoholic who just trains and sleeps...he's just another swordsman...

i guess it's the 'stoic badass' thing (+cool swords) that has generated the massive following. kind of an eh reason to like a character but w-e.

i disliked him before 'nothing happened'. 'nothing happened' was a great moment but that's about it.

 

[comrade]

 

[Ravagerblade]

honestly, i don't know. your average male reader seems to go all gaga over zoro but in truth, his personality is bland, his design is very run-of-the-mill, he's an alcoholic who just trains and sleeps...he's just another swordsman...

i guess it's the 'stoic badass' thing (+cool swords) that has generated the massive following. kind of an eh reason to like a character but w-e.

i disliked him before 'nothing happened'. 'nothing happened' was a great moment but that's about it.

His fan's hold onto shallow parts of his personality and hype it up to 11 as if he's the greatest messiah the world will ever see.

 

[Finalbeta]

Cause he is not just the manliest in the verse , he is a huge life example and by life I mean IRL as well.

 

[trav]

His fan's hold onto shallow parts of his personality and hype it up to 11 as if he's the greatest messiah the world will ever see.

uncomplicated is not shallow.

he is dedicated, ambitious, friendly and assertive.
hes what many people aspire to be in real life.

 

[Ravagerblade]

uncomplicated is not shallow.

he is dedicated, ambitious, friendly and assertive.
hes what many people aspire to be in real life.

You say that they why aren't you praising Luffy, he's practically Similar to that.

 

[Natalija]

I can't say why others love him, I suppose because he's cool?

As for myself, I like that he comes off as unpredictable when it matters. After Luffy makes certain decisions, he gives an outlook I never would have considered otherwise, a different perspective than the rest of the Straw Hats.

- with the Usopp fight, when Luffy lost against Caesar, when Sanji went away - to name what comes to mind

EDIT: also he's the polar opposite of Sanji at times, disregarding age and sex when dealing with whoever, very straightforward

 

[trav]

I did not list all of Zoros traits. only the ones I would use to describe him.
on occasion Luffy shares most of them, but if I had to describe Luffy it would look like this. Luffy is childish, irrational, selfish and driven by emotion.

Luffys no nonsense side does not make up for his manchild side.

 

[Natalija]

What some people call selfish, I call being brave, whimsical and stubborn enough to live how he wants to :cheers:

 

[silverfire]

Back around the end of Alabasta, Idve said Zoro was my favorite without a second thought.

Arrogant, but very dedicated and hardworking. He can back up his smack talk.

And importantly, very skilled, but still couldn’t escape failure. Even in fights that he ended up winning, he frequently got very badly injured in the process and didnt make things look easy. He’s never been a cool, smug infallible type like Sasuke. His victories felt earned.

He got to deliver his cocky one-liners, but only after pumping iron all day and coming within an inch of death.

And at the end of the day he was a very human teenager. Despite how hard he worked, the likes of Mihawk, Kizaru and Rayleigh showed how long he still had to go.

But the longer the story has gone on, the blander him and the rest of strawhats have gotten, especially after the timeskip. I find myself not really caring about him or any others in the crew. He’s been turning more into a typical one-dimensional anime badass type.

No other character Oda has developed post TS has particularly great drawing. He has created one and only pseudo complex characters like Law but Law has no charisma or presence of someone to remember.

So in the midst of all the mediocre and straight up bad characters, Zoro though not that great in grand scheme of things, still looks like a masterpiece.

Now pre TS Zoro was an actually great character but I am too lazy to write an essay about it.

Couldn’t agree more.

 

[Natalija]

But the longer the story has gone on, the blander him and the rest of strawhats have gotten, especially after the timeskip. I find myself not really caring about him or any others in the crew. He’s been turning more into a typical one-dimensional anime badass type.

I'll go out on a limb and for the sake of discussion say that maybe some people feel this way because the time skip is a relatively unknown period of two years that might have changed the characters for 180 degrees. It being unknown probably gives an impression of Zoro for example being undeservedly badass. But I like a mystery where we might eventually get a flashback or two where we'd see a part of his journey.

What would be boring is if he remained the same. He leaped completely out of character when he begged Mihawk, and that right there was a huge step towards a completely different Zoro.

I understand why he'd be disliked for the (seemingly) sudden coldness or lack of laughing, but to me it's fine because a change like this isn't uncommon among people.

 

[Ravagerblade]

I'll go out on a limb and for the sake of discussion say that maybe some people feel this way because the time skip is a relatively unknown period of two years that might have changed the characters for 180 degrees. It being unknown probably gives an impression of Zoro for example being undeservedly badass. But I like a mystery where we might eventually get a flashback or two where we'd see a part of his journey.

What would be boring is if he remained the same. He leaped completely out of character when he begged Mihawk, and that right there was a huge step towards a completely different Zoro.

I understand why he'd be disliked for the (seemingly) sudden coldness or lack of laughing, but to me it's fine because a change like this isn't uncommon among people.

Ok so, you sort of touched upon what I absolutely despise. Keep in mind show, dont tell.

Luffy and the crew were away from each other for two years, that's two years they'll never get back along with no interactions between them, instead that two years goes to the people they were with. I hate the idea that their closer to these people than the crew is together... you see it every time the crew interacts with each other, oops my bad, They DON'T interact with each other. At least not unless its somehow moving the plot, their characterizations and dynamics of how they differing personalities work together or against them. Rather the feeling of a cozy close crew and forged through fire is just not there. Its stale.

 

[Finalbeta]

The truth is Zoro's popularity extends well above WG.

WG is just a small fragment of the huge mirror that is the OP Fanbase and it is certainly no coincidence that he is admired in here.

 

[Natalija]

Ok so, you sort of touched upon what I absolutely despise. Keep in mind show, dont tell.

Luffy and the crew were away from each other for two years, that's two years they'll never get back along with no interactions between them, instead that two years goes to the people they were with. I hate the idea that their closer to these people than the crew is together... you see it every time the crew interacts with each other, oops my bad, They DON'T interact with each other. At least not unless its somehow moving the plot, their characterizations and dynamics of how they differing personalities work together or against them. Rather the feeling of a cozy close crew and forged through fire is just not there. Its stale.

Indeed.

But I think the point is to show dedication to your captain, not have banter. It's the choice they made for him when he was broken and alone.

Chemistry between characters didn't change though if you ask me - it simply became overcrowded for everyone to interact and still have the story advance. Hell, they're more separated than together even now when they're together.

 

[ImmaIvanoM]

You say that they why aren't you praising Luffy, he's practically Similar to that.

Well luffy is the most popular character. Nobody disputes that

 

[ImmaIvanoM]

Zoro for example being undeservedly badass

Wasn't Zoro introduced while he was being crucified and starved for 9 days and saying he's still got the upper hand on his enemies.

This isn't badass? I would argue this is more badass than his post time skip introduction with him fodderising sone pirates by accidentally getting lost on their ship.

What does "undeservedly badass" mean?

 

[Ravagerblade]

Well luffy is the most popular character. Nobody disputes that

Popular yeah, I guess, but Wankage... hmmm /shrug