Roronoa Zoro is a pirate, former bounty hunter, and one of the main protagonists of One Piece. He is the first member to join the Straw Hat Pirates and to date is considered the largest threat and most dangerous member in the crew after Luffy. His fame as a master swordsman and his great strength, along with the actions of his captain, sometimes leads others to believe that he must be the true captain and is widely thought to be the first mate by those outside the crew. He is one of the top three fighters in the crew, and his dream is to become the greatest swordsman in the world. Zoro is labeled as one of "The Eleven Supernovas", the eleven rookie pirates with bounties over B100,000,000 to have reached the Red Line, with a current bounty of B120,000,000.
Personality
Zoro usually maintains a stern, serious and distanced personality, but often loses his temper in a goofy and exaggerated comical style. He can also be extremely intimidating, easily frightening weaker opponents with just his glare. It has been stated that he has a monstrous killing intent evident from the fact where he almost drew his sword on one of the Tenryubito. Furthermore, it has also been stated that Zoro is a born killer capable of showing no mercy during combat; it has been mentioned that Zoro has killed before. Zoro is also displayed as very apathetic, rarely showing emotion and usually expressing coldheartedness and indifference. Despite this, Zoro has a kind heart, shown as he was willing to risk death for the sake of a little girl he did not know shortly after his introduction. When fighting weaker innocent people, he does try to hold back when fighting and use the dull side of his swords in order to not seriously injure the.
He has a strong sense of leadership and reasoning. While technically not a samurai, Zoro maintains Bushido
to a certain degree (e.g. he consistently refuses to attack an
adversary whose back is turned, the only exception being when his
friends are in imminent danger of losing their lives in which Zoro would
strike the attacker from behind, and Zoro himself considers a scar on
the back to be a swordsman's greatest shame). Whether he agrees with
them or not, he will stand by Luffy's
decisions, stepping in only to point out the seriousness of a situation
where it has been overlooked by his crewmates (most notable when they
wanted to bring Usopp back into the crew after Usopp challenged Luffy to a duel over the Going Merry and lost).
A running gag throughout the series is that while he is very
perceptive during battle (as well as out), his sense of direction is
extremely poor, to the point of getting lost on a straight path. This is
often the result of Zoro not understanding directions. In the Alabasta Arc, he mistakes going north for going up. In the Drum Island Arc,
he believes that he can keep the ship on course by heading toward a
large cloud (which can move and change shape). He is unaware of his lack
of direction. Often when he gets lost, he mutters "the others are lost
again". However, after the timeskip, Zoro is the first Straw Hat to
arrive back at Sabaody days before the others, shocking Sanji, though it was Perona
who helped Zoro reach Sabaody early. He seems to make up for this,
though, by confusing a gigantic pirate galleon for a fisherman's small
boat when it's pointed out to him.
Another running gag of the series is Zoro's ability to
effortlessly deliver perfectly timed lines in passing or even during
battle that are deemed "cool" by other characters, leading him to be
borderline worshiped and idolized especially by crewmates Usopp, Chopper and Brook.
Another running gag is how Zoro keeps untying bandages when he isn't
fully healed, claiming that they make it hard to move, only to be
scolded by Chopper, who tells him that they are there so that he doesn't
move.
Zoro is very proud of the reputation he has built for himself both as a swordsman and as "The Pirate Hunter", starting with his 60,000,000
bounty which has doubled since then. He also enjoys the fact that he
has a higher bounty than Sanji. During the assault on Enies Lobby, one of the Marines
referred to Zoro as "Luffy's underling" much to the delight of Sanji,
who quickly became infuriated when Zoro pointed out that Sanji's lack of
notoriety puts him below Zoro in status. Since then, once in a while to
anger Sanji, Zoro will refer to him as "Pirate A". More recently he has
been calling Sanji '#7', refering to his placing in arriving at
Sabaody. However, in spite of his personal pride and self-respect, Zoro
has shown to be willing to lower himself to the ground in complete
humility for the sake of his friends, as was seen when he begged Kuma to spare Luffy's life in exchange of his own (Zoro's). And then again when he shamelessly bowed before Mihawk, begging the Shichibukai who is his enemy, to train him in the ways of the sword.
While the crew sails from one island to another, he normally
spends time on lifting weights or naps (sometimes both at the same
time), only to be regularly awakened in a rather violent way by Nami, Sanji or (accidentally) Luffy. He also likes to drink alcohol (sake), almost to the degree that Luffy likes meat,
and Nami likes money. Also like Nami, he has an inhumanly-high
tolerance for alcohol. He also regularly reverts to drastic measures to
solve simple problems, suggesting solutions that others would normally
consider to be their last possible, worst-case-scenario choices. When he
and Usopp were accidentally handcuffed together, Zoro's first suggested
solution was to cut off one of their hands. He also is one of the first
Straw Hat members to suggest killing someone or threatening to kill
someone.
Zoro can also be very vigorous when he is determined to achieve a
goal or defeat an enemy. The risks that he will often take to pursue
his dream of becoming the world's greatest swordsman often leave others
wondering if he is crazy. As far as Zoro is concerned though, only he
has the right to call himself "crazy."However, he is able to accept defeat when he perceives it to be inevitable. Also, as pointed out in the Skypeia Arc, Zoro is atheist. He does not believe in any god but holds nothing against those who do.
When Zoro has the intention to fight seriously, he ties his bandana
(normally kept knotted around his left arm) around his head. Zoro lives
for the thrill of combat; Scratchmen Apoo commented on his "insane killing intent", acknowledging that Zoro was a "real beast".
Indeed, when an average human has the intention of fighting Zoro, his
glare alone is usually enough to make them back off. He also has a habit
of smiling joyfully whenever he faces a particularly skilled opponent,
which often unnerves both friend and foe alike. Even when not in combat,
he often displays a manic smirk that gives the impression of him being a
monster.
Abilities and Powers
Unarguably an extremely powerful and strong young fighter with immense potential, Zoro is one of the Straw Hat Crew's
top three fighters, and his strength is considered so great that, when
taking his stern personality into account, people occasionally mistake
him as the captain of the Straw Hat Crew after witnessing his skills in battle. While Luffy always fights the strongest enemy, Zoro usually fights the second strongest enemy.
After the two years of intense training with Dracule Mihawk,
Zoro has grown much more powerful than before. It is shown during his
first appearance after the timeskip that he can cut through extremely
large objects with incredible ease, speed, and precision (also
considering without the use of his left eye) with only one swing of his
sword. Zoro was even able to cut a Pacifista in half with just one slash from his swords, whereas two years prior he barely managed to only slightly damage one.
Zoro's newly-found strength is further demonstrated when he
averts the previously mentioned formula of fighting the arc's second
strongest foe when he easily defeats Hody Jones,
the man in the role of the strongest adversary of the arc that
typically does combat with Luffy. He accomplishes this with just a
single strike and in his single sword style, despite having a
disadvantage at fighting a fishman underwater.
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