No the forum doesn’t downplay them at all. You are only thinking that because of the responses people have for the Zoro/Mihawk exaggerations which are so often.
Can’t count how many posts I’ve seen from a group of members who swear that these two characters are the strongest or will be. It’s just powerscaling powerscaling, and it takes up a lot of room tbh
Ohk ,
First I won't disagree to the overwanking of those two character over exaggeration of power. but at the same time , these two characters are built upon the Terms "power scaling" , " Strongest ". what makes you think people who love these character won't talk about it.
mainly the conflict is between MC should be the strongest v/s Why Side characters cannot be the strongest. those fandoms are firm believer of relevance of Side characters but shounen does the exact opposite by the end of Season.
I like zoro and will always like him and the types of Mihawk ,Shanks , Kaido as well , types of Luffy will never be my fav no matter what , I Simply don't like the character. exact same way those who like Luffy will never like zoro at the same time.
I already Know as a Zoro fan I'll be taking a L , because of the average shounen plot. but I can Still debate on how Zoro can be strongest with manga but Oda will never do so, which is precisely why I'm loosing interest in the manga.
I loose interest eventually on every manga moment MC over wanking starts, Side characters are deemed to be useless at this point.
only a few manga series does justice to side characters , Like Levi ackerman , Killua , Sasuke , Vegeta.
we don't over exaggerate the character rather Oda goes back on the words he built the character upon. I understand the difference in opinion other's have on this.