After-Thoughts: Roronoa Zoro is not a skilled Swordsman (Repost from Facebook)

DISCLAIMER: This post was originally posted on my Facebook profile that I'm now posting here partly because it can fit here but also to better record and keep track of any statements I've made in the past on certain subjects. This post is mostly copy/paste with only minor alterations to fit the fact that this is my blog.

I'm bored and have nothing else to do so I'm going to rant for a while. Roronoa Zoro is not a skilled sword fighter. Now, don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying that Zoro is weak or that he's easy to defeat in a fight, he is not. However, when talking about the issue of "The Sword Fighter Tier List" Zoro often gets suggested as one of the best when in fact he isn't. I'm now going to go into detail about that. Spoilers abound and get ready to read.

"Why is this post so long?!"

I talk a lot, now shut up. Now, this isn't a conversation I have a lot but I've had it with a few people on at least 3 separate occasions and, every single time, Zoro is brought up as a suggestion for Top Tier, or S Tier, depending on what your actual top letter is. Now, no one has ever suggested that Zoro be considered the best sword fighter, usually that honor goes to Kenshin Himura from Rurouni Kenshin, however, Zoro is consistently up there for people who suggest him. Now, I want to tackle many of the reasons people think this and why these reasons are fallacious in nature.

So first off, a pretty common argument I get is that Zoro should be among the best because he created his sword fighting style, the 3 Sword Style or Santoryu in Japanese. Now, this argument seems pretty reasonable on a surface level, as creating your own fighting style is a sign that you know how to fight and can create your own abilities out of the foundation you have, the way Bruce Lee invented Jeet Kune Do. However, the deeper into this argument you dig, the less sense it makes.

First off, is the question of "Is this fighting style any good?" People who claim to be martial art enthusiasts will usually state that there's no bad martial art only bad teachers and practitioners. However, the problem with this line of reasoning is that, no matter how good or bad a practitioner of a martial art is, the fact remains that some technique or ability choices are not as practical as others are.

For instance, let's say I were to create my own martial art right now, dedicated entirely to using your bare hands to defeat a Samurai. And, one of the defining techniques of this martial art is a blade catch. Now, if you can successfully pull off a blade catch, you're much better off than if you can't, however, if you can't pull it off successfully or your attempt doesn't go as planned, you could end up seriously hurt or dead. Comparing this to staying in your opponent's blind spots until you get close enough to disarm them makes it clear just how not useful a blade catch is.

This is even the case in some sports, too. In the sport of Basketball, a lot of people enjoy the idea of a Slam Dunk, being able to jump high enough to just slam the ball right through the hoop. It sounds nice, however, the manga and anime named after this technique clearly show that if that's your entire or even defining technique in the sport, you're going to get stomped, even one-on-one. By comparison, there are other things you can do that Basketball coaches teach you that, while not as flashy or fun to look at as a Slam Dunk, are far more useful for real time play.

Now, let's get to Zoro's fighting style, Santoryu. I'm going to ignore the lesser variants that Zoro practices because the issues I'm going to highlight are pretty consistent throughout all of them. Let's take a look at a number of Zoro's different techniques as a sword fighter:

The first technique he uses in the manga is called Onigiri, which translates into Demon Slash from the Kanji used to spell it, it's not actually named after Rice Balls, common misconception. Now, this technique is actually one of Zoro's better ones because, as a technique, it allows you to move so that you land three simultaneous slashes on whoever you attack. Now, Mihawk during the Baratie Arc of the manga, states that there is a point in the attack where all three blades intersect and, if you block it at that moment, you can prevent damage.

The problem with this, at least as far as One Piece is concerned is the fact that, as the One Piece wikia stated at some point, if you're not physically strong enough to stop Zoro's momentum, he'll just push you down.

After that we get Dragon Twister, which is a spinning attack that seems effective for crowd control at close range but, a defining trait of this technique is that Zoro's sheer strength and speed cause a cyclone to be generated around him that sends people upward.

Then we get the Phoenix Techniques, which are attacks where Zoro slashes so hard that he creates a bladed wind attack to fire off at a distance and here we start to see a pattern.

Zoro's fighting style is far too strength based. Now, there are a number of youtubers or people you can ask about this like Skallagrim for example but many of them will note that in a sword fight speed and skill are far more important than strength.

Essentially this boils down to a few things: first, a bladed weapon subverts great strength because the weapon is as sharp as it is, second strength is meaningless if you can't hit your opponent, third brute strength is not necessary to deal with armored opponents because sword fighters cut off or through the weak points of the armor, they're not actually going to bash or cut through it, and while you do need enough strength to pick up and swing the weapon effectively, even the largest of great swords only weigh a handful of pounds so it's not like it's unreasonable from a strength perspective.

One thing that I like to do when discussing skill for a fictional character is taking the application of the techniques the characters use and scale down the stats of that character down to a moderately fit real life human to see how those techniques apply to real life but also to see how those techniques work when applied by and against someone who is much more realistic.

Here, you should start to realize something: all of Zoro's attacks require an absurd amount of physical strength. If you scale Zoro's physical strength down to that of a regular person, a majority of his attacks aren't even usable anymore, the ones that are lose most effectiveness and, most importantly, this fighting style is likely to cause you to lose a lot of teeth.

This is actually a really common problem in One Piece. Far too many characters are strength based when they shouldn't be. Probably the single strongest martial art in One Piece is Rokushiki, or Six Powers in English, because while it is physically demanding, if you follow the training regimen, which to be fair is never revealed in the manga, the things you can pull off are so effective that even our main characters continue using applications of this martial art well after it lost relevance.

Characters who practice Rokushiki are capable of unassisted aerial movement, running at the speed of sound, toughening up to be as hard as iron, stabbing someone with one or more fingers, and creating razor winds with really powerful kicks. You would think that fighters with so many options at their disposal would require some very powerful skills or buffs in order to fight and, for most of the Strawhats, that's true.

Nami needed a new weapon capable of manipulating the weather, Chopper needed to overdose on his Rumble Ball, something that almost backfired after the fight was over, Sanji had to literally overheat, and Luffy had to develop 2 new ways of using his rubber body.

And what did Zoro do? He gained an ability that is not only never really explained to any capacity in the manga or anime, though Kaku tried and failed, which makes it one of the only real asspulls in the manga in terms of power usage but, even as a bullshit supernatural power, it still somehow managed to be just as reliant on physical strength as every other ability he had.

Now I understand that in fiction some amount of Rule of Cool has to apply so the characters are obviously going to do things that are not practical for real life sword fighting. However, Zoro is quite possibly one of the least skilled swordsman in fiction due to how reliant on brute-force he is.

To exemplify this, I'm going to take another swordsman, one who is also frequently suggested as a skilled sword fighter and who is, in my opinion, superior to Zoro in sword skill in every way, despite being in a far less exaggerated manga: Kenshin Himura.

Now, credit where credit is due, Kenshin does have some techniques that are too strength reliant to be usable in a real sword fight. However, if we remove these, he still has a large amount of his attack roster available.

True, he's can't use Ama Kakeru Ryu no Hirameki, Ryumeisen, Doryusen, Ryukansen ~ Arashi, or Kuzuryusen anymore. However, he still has a large number of other attacks he can use with a regular Katana. He can still cut someone's head open with Ryutsuisen, he can still cut up at the jaw or the arms with Ryushousen, he can still perform rapid strikes with Ryusousen, and he can still subvert his opponent's reflexes with Soryusen.

Now, I do want to bring up the obvious caveat of Hiryusen primarily because while it is less useful without raw physical power, in reality, that technique was never useful. The only time it did something was when Kenshin used it to prevent Cho from attacking Seiku Arai and, even then, that left Kenshin pretty defenseless so I'm confused on why he even does it. This is a topic for another day but, for anyone who wants to practice swordsmanship, it is never a good idea to throw your weapon out of your hands. If doing so doesn't kill your opponent, you effectively just forfeited your life.

Now, okay, that's a pretty low blow because Kenshin is reliant on skill more than anyone else so what about other swordsmen? Well, let's run through the list:

• Vergil from Devil May Cry - While it is true that his demonic heritage makes his attacks a lot more effective, the fighting style he uses is real Iaijutsu so it may very well work for someone of a similar skill.
• Sephiroth - Sephiroth's ability to wield a Nodachi should speak volumes of his skill right there but, if you must argue with it, without his superhuman strength, the primary thing keeping Sephiroth from fighting with Masamune is its length.
• Ryu Hayabusa - Ryu Hayabusa is also exaggerated as a swordsman in terms of mastery. However, his attacks are at least precise and well-practiced.
• Jaganshi Hiei - A lot of Hiei's feats are due to his super speed but, once again, he's at least precise.
• Kirito - As one friend once stated, Kirito isn't skilled, the games he plays do most of the work for him. However, for being an out of shape gamer, his skill in Kendo is fairly adequate.
• Nobunaga Hazama - While we never see this dude fight in Hunter X Hunter, Killua does note that he's mastered use of his Shodachi and, if we're being honest, while Nen Users can be powerful, Nen as a power system doesn't scale as much as other series powers do so his skill with his Shodachi is probably going to be closer to real life than a lot of manga. That said, you can disregard this one until we see him fight if you so choose.

We can even use examples from One Piece as comparisons:

• Brook - Brook doesn't fight or win against opponents that Zoro tends to but Brook does display frequently that his speed and skill are appropriate for his age.
• Trafalgar Law - Law is also a superior swordsman because, disregarding super strength and Devil Fruits, Law is more accustomed to utilizing weaknesses than Zoro is. We only have to look at how he tackles Doflamingo to prove this, choosing to utilize sneak attacks and a gamma knife to deal damage to a superior opponent. If Zoro had fought Doflamingo, his strategy would've been to hit him harder.
• Rebecca - Rebecca is probably the least overblown swordsman in the manga, for not only defeating most of her opponents but for using practical, realistic strategies to do so, using the mote around the ring in the Colosseum to use her opponents' brute strength against them, something rarely seen in this manga.
• Silvers Rayleigh - Also a non-overblown swordsman as, when facing up against an opponent that had a clear speed advantage (Kizaru's ability to travel at the speed of light), Rayleigh still managed to hold his own with minimal bullshit as we see he can clearly time his strikes and utilize them properly.
• Kuina - Kuina, due to her death at a young age, never grows up to the present day so it's unknown how skilled she would be if she survived. However, one thing to note is that when she'd spar with Zoro at her father's Dojo, she always managed to defeat him because she was faster and more skilled. This is something that I feel like the manga recognized and then proceeded to ignore early on as despite Kuina's skill and speed advantage always giving her the win, Zoro never recognized that it was his over-reliance on strength that ended up giving her the victory so many times.

That last one is pretty pertinent to this discussion because, despite Zoro almost always winning his fights, they are almost never because of his skill. To highlight this let's look at every opponent Zoro has faced in the manga.

• Kuina - Defeats him every time, and goes through history as the only opponent Zoro will never beat due to her untimely death.
• Buggy the Clown - Immune to bladed attacks, wins with the element of surprise.
• Kabaji - A swordsman that fought on a Unicycle. I shouldn't have to explain why this character lost.
• The Cat Brothers - For a majority of this fight, these two stay firmly planted right in front of Zoro and only attack from one direction each, so despite facing two opponents, Zoro only has to block in two directions the entire fight.
• Dracule Mihawk - Destroys two of Zoro's 3 swords and Zoro takes a lot of damage because, strangely enough, he refuses to dodge. We'll get back to that.
• Hachi - Hachi is one of the only opponents where speed and skill are necessary on Zoro's part primarily due to the fact that Hachi, as an Octopus Fishman, can wield six swords simultaneously. Even then, though, he deliberately restricts his attack vectors, and stays standing in one place the entire fight, not even moving or bending his legs, giving Zoro more of an edge than one might realize.
• Daz Bones - Referred to as Mr. 1 during the Alabasta Arc, this character is equal to Zoro in speed and skill but his Devil Fruit ability made his body as durable as Steel, meaning in order to win, Zoro had to gain enough strength to cut steel. This opponent required strength more than any other quality. Is this gonna be a trend?
• Ohm - Ohm is an opponent that was faster than Zoro but also had a lot of range due to the way his sword was comprised. This meant that the way Zoro won was by using a sneak attack combined with a lot of power to hit at a distance.
• Kaku - Ignoring the fact that this character is not only probably the least skilled swordsman in the series but also one of the stupidest, he was an opponent who wielded Swords and Rokushiki together, which sounds like an amazing combination on paper. He can use his swords to block attacks as well as his increased arm and leg strength to do everything Zoro can do with brute force. Not only that, but he also has aerial mobility, durability that's almost as great as Mr. 1, and he could run at the speed of sound. This sounds like an opponent that Zoro couldn't beat with brute force alone, in theory. In practice, however, Zoro ends up pulling bullshit out of his ass (Kyutoryu: Asura, really Oda?), and it somehow still manages to be just as strength reliant as the rest of his abilities (It uses raw physical strength to disperse the wind that comprises Kaku's strongest Rankyaku).
• Ryuma - Ryuma is an opponent that had the body of the protagonist of Oda's previous manga but who had the sword skill of Brook. This is another one you can argue some skill because, while Zoro wins with a power strike, it still had to be well timed, though, that said, Ryuma could've just blocked it, Shusui seems like it could handle the blow based on what we see later in the manga.
• Oars - A giant that is 4 times the size of other giants with Luffy's personality and intelligence. I shouldn't have to explain this one either.
• Bartholomew Kuma - Now we have probably the most overrated projectile fighter. Okay, so one argument in relation to this fight that Zoro has skill, or at least speed and reflexes, is that Kuma's paw projectiles in this fight travel at the speed of light. Now, I don't know why the wikia says that because I don't think it's said anywhere in the manga and databooks aren't helpful (Remember when Sabo's death was confirmed?) However, we actually see light attacks in the manga in the form of Kizaru's Light Fruit (Called Pika Pika no Mi in the manga and Glint Glint Fruit in English), and we see that attacks with this fruit are so much faster than any character can dodge that even characters that are faster than Zoro can't evade them even with the long windups. However, even ignoring that, if you actually look at the sequence as it's playing out, you'll notice that despite how slow Zoro is moving in comparison to the speed and number of projectiles being fired, Zoro's still not being hit. The way it looks visually seems less like Zoro can dodge light and more like Kuma is just a really bad shot.
• Fishman Island Pirates - In this arc, Zoro fights Hody Jones before he overdoses on Energy Steroids and his second in command after he overdoses on steroids and, on the one hand, these fights seem like good examples of skill for a certain perspective. However, ignoring the fact that strength is how Zoro wins both fights, it's debatable how strong that crew is since all 1000 are beaten by a crew of only around 8 or 9 people, and 500 of that thousand are beaten by Luffy (Using Haoshoku Haki to be fair but that's not the point).
• Monet - Monet is another fight that relies on strength since, regardless of actual powers, Monet remains in one position in the entire fight and thus Zoro didn't really have to exert much speed or reflexes in any capacity.
• Pica - Now, I haven't seen this entire fight admittedly. However, at one point in this fight, this character assimilates so much stone that he grows to the size of a mountain. A literal mountain. Much like Oars, this size and power is really tough to make a speed or skill fight out of.

Now, I don't know of any of the fights in Zou or the arcs after it, however, all of the examples I've presented should make my point clear. It's taken me a long time to say this so I'm going to say it: Zoro has not been placed in too many fights that actually require him to develop more skill or speed. Every opponent he's faced, even opponents like Kaku who should require more, are still beaten by raw brute force.

That is not skill. That is making up a new game with your friends in kindergarten and making the rules so that the one thing you're good at is what always makes you win. It's playing an action game and using the same overly useful strategy over and over again because you just want to get through it. This is playing a really old game with hacks, mods, or cheat codes on because you hate difficulty. This is picking up a difficult game and looking up a guide or a walkthrough online because you want to be called a good gamer without actually putting in the time to achieve it. This is playing Smash Bros. Brawl and picking Metaknight because you want an easy victory, not a fair or earned one.

Calling Zoro a top tier or even high tier swordsman is an insult to every single character and real life person who actually had to strategize, counter, maneuver, and practice their way to victory against opponents that are clearly much stronger than they are.

If you read this far, thank you for taking the time to listen to my anger at something that irritated me far more than it really should have. Thank you and have a good night.