Ground Rules for the Power Level Discussion Thread
As always, please follow the guidelines set by the Forum Rules that apply across the board.
It's important that discussions from a current chapter are spoiler tagged until 24h have passed from an english release.
For the sake of constructive discussion, where and when possible please quote/ source any information you provide. Particularly when it comes to conversations carried over from other threads.
Avoid passive agressive posts, sly remarks or baiting/trolling. You can certainly have fun or disagree without it being at someone's expense.
Only use anime examples that are canon and as means to provide clarity to pages in the manga. Any other anime material is otherwise non-canon and should only be referenced if it can be proved that the mangaka had approved it.
We will strive to avoid repetitive discussions and any extensive battle topics will be guided to the Davy Back fight to existing threads or new ones can be made there.
As of now these topics are shelved due to repetitiveness or until the manga can present us with material to further discussions:
Shanks v Mihawk
Hand to hand fighters > Swordsmen
Zoro > Luffy
Zoro v Sanji
Is Smoker a top 30 character?
Mihawk's rank within the story
Law having CoC currently.
Katakuri > Kaido/Luffy/Etc.
If you wish to continue any of these discussion and remove it from the list, you will need to provide manga material as proof. If there's also anything you think we've covered numerous times, let me know and I'll update the list.
This is the only warning there'll be regarding these ground rules, anything no adhering will be removed. So please just check your posts before posting them.
Kuma would be on my list if he were functioning of his own free mind. But I do agree with you, he does have one more of more broken DFs in the series, (Gura Gura, Ope, Ope, and the Nikyu Nikyu are in my Top 3).
Yeahhh as I posted I thought Magellan should be much higher but I'll just leave him there for now. Like I said in the spoiler this was just off my head, when I restructure it later it should make a lot more sense.
Ivankov is an interesting one though, I've never seen them in anyone's top 30.
I do like the current characters in my Top 30 just needs a little bit of restructuring.
Feel free to post yours, I'm curious as to who you'll have where.
Yeah, with respect to Iva I think we just haven't seen a ton of feats of power. We've seen that he managed to escape in Impel Down by himself, and for the most part seemed like he was fucking around in Impel Down. I mean he back-broke Sadi (think that was her name?) and joked around fighting Magellan (blocked the poison with make up...) He's basically the RA's equivalent of a Yonko Commander.
Magellan is just hard to rate because while I think we can all agree he's top-tier, probably beyond any Yonko Commander even, he is unlikely to leave Impel Down.
Mine would be:
Kaido
Shanks
Dragon (I'm going to put him, because I don't think there's any way he's not in the top tier)
Akainu
Luffy (maintaining G5)
Big Mom
Blackbeard
Aokiji
Weevil
Luffy (base only)
Mihawk
Kizaru
Sabo
Fujitora
Greenbull
Kuma (if not brain-wiped)
Law
Magellan
Kidd
Zoro
Yamato
Katakuri
Marco
Sanji
King
CP0 who interrupted Luffy v Kaido
Doflamingo
Ivankov
Jinbei
Crocodile
My list is a bit weird, and for the most part I'd say a lot of these are close to being a tie / could be grouped up.
I chose not to include Cracker because I actually think his ability is countered pretty easily by a lot of people (Law being able to internally attack and manipulate the environment, Jinbei with his water flicking, anyone with ACOO, Doflamingo potentially with his parasite string).
Didn't feel like I had a ton of info on Beckman. I'm sure he makes the list but no clue where I'd rank him. With Dragon even though we DONT have a ton if info, we do know he's the most wanted man in the world. It's doubtful that Garp's son / Luffy's dad, and the one who trained Sabo, and the one who saved Luffy from Smoker so effortlessly is anything short of Yonko tier.
Harder ones to rate were Mihawk, because while we know he spars with Shanks, we also have seen him match with Vista. Weevil is tough too, because while he definitely belongs here, I think we haven't seen enough to place him accurately. I'm mostly going by Kizaru's words that he's a prime-WB level fighter.
This is what I've got based on what we can currently gather. I went ahead with some speculative positions as well as those individuals should be decently strong going into the last arc.
Here my list from a couple years ago for comparison.
Averaging out power levels in One Piece doesn't seem feasible, in my opinion. Especially when we don't really have any tangible numbers to do it by. There are levels, but we're at a point where people at the top are going to be muddled because they are all so strong. Same with the Admirals.
Akainu and Aokiji's powers shouldn't cancel out. If only for the fact that we saw Aokiji and Ace's powers cancel out, and we know that Akainu's DF is considered superior to Ace's. Admirals are susceptible to traditional weaknesses when enough power is put behind them. Green Bull wasn't burned by Raizo, but Momo's Boro Blast packed more power behind it to burn him. Aokiji is likely the same. Basic heat/fire attacks won't work, but if you are strong enough, it can likely affect him.
Both halves seem to be generating their own weather phenomena, so there's no telling how this would actually exist in real life. I do know that there should probably be a raging storm in the center of the island rather than just a little lake and some wind. That said, I think Aokiji would be fine walking through Akainu's portion of the island, but can't do the same facing the man himself. The source is stronger.
I can see Aokiji doing the same should he manage to land a hit. We know that he can freeze someone down to their core, so if he were to land an attack on WB's head or torso, it's likely it would've shattered, doing similar damage.
Ok, let's consider a hypothetical average for the sake of argument
Would you agree that Yonkos generally tend to be a bit stronger? That is all I am saying here.
I get your point about Greenbull/Momo/Raizo.
But idk man, IMO Oda wants to portray Akainu as stronger, I'm not sure if Oda considered such a weakness or wants to attribute Akainu's win to DF advantage if it exists. He is given the extra portrayal that Aokiji isn't given.
Statements about how his DF has the highest offense, Akainu would end the series in one year if he was protagonist etc.
They were sparring, but weren't using all of their abilities, with neither of them using the full extent of their DF powers (basic Napoleon doesn't add much).
If all of them can give one another high-extreme difficulty, to me, that means they are all in the same level and every fight is a 50/50 towards either combatant. I agree with that. So to call her the weakest member, when she has a decent shot at winning against her peers, doesn't make sense to me. Same with the Admirals. This is why I think things are much more blurry than tier list imply.
Old WB's "decay" wasn't well known and it's implied that even Mihawk knew that, at that point in time, he was basically on everyone's level now, not beyond it. Primebeard was a thing of the past, but no one knew it until then. I'd say she has a decent shot against him.
So, my thing with Kaido is that he has had way more panel time and focus to show off in comparison to Big Mom, as you mentioned. Especially with him being the main antagonist of the arc. Compared to what? Her three chapters of focus, Kaido had way more time to show out. Even during WCI, she couldn't get much of anything due to her not being able to really go all out, less she completely end the Strawhat's journey then and there. So yeah, Kaido is the more impressive of the two on paper, given what he's shown. The only thing I can argue is that Kaido didn't have future sight until he did (I remember people were even roasting him for not having it), so, imo, it's up in the air for Big Mom. Speed? Yeah, can't argue against that. Her main traits are her monstrous strength/durability and her DF versatility, which Oda constantly robbed her of to make her more manageable.
Can't speak on Shanks much, but yeah, he's getting major hype in the haki department.
Luffy vs BM would go the same as Luffy vs Kaido. Big Mom still had plenty of fight left in her before getting knocked of the island, so there's really no telling where her actual limit is. Gear 5 would also remove a good chunk of her repitoire due to rubberization, but her Bigger Mom ability to recover may be pretty troublesome.
Big Mom's feats suck, but I'm going to say she's intended to be portrayed as their equal.
Just because X can give Y an extreme diff, doesn't mean X ~ Y. You can be weaker than someone, but still be close enough in power level that it would be an extreme diff.
We aren't even talking about feats here, cause the comparison between feats is quite staggering.
Kaido has the portrayal advantage as well.
- 1v1 bet on Kaido
- stated as the strongest creature
- stated as the strongest pirate (after WB died)
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Whitebeard was always "active", and marines/rival pirates are constantly keeping tabs on him. So when they refer to him as the strongest pirate/man, it is referring to old WB for sure, and not peak WB.
The only thing is that people never saw him out of his meds for days, even his crewmates didn't cause he is out of meds for at max for a few hours when he wants to spar with Ace or whatever.
So, the one being referred to as the strongest pirate is old WB in meds.
We know for a fact that Oda deliberately makes a clear distinction between old WB in meds, and old WB without meds.
- Old WB in meds has conqueror's haki on par with Shanks, who is now confirmed the strongest conqueror's haki user alive (post timeskip). Old WB without meds, cannot use conqueror's haki.
- Old WB in meds has always on (advanced) observation haki, that allows him to no diff Jinbe tiers in sleep. Old WB without meds, get stabbed by Sqardo standing right in front of him.
Is BM stronger than Marineford WB (i.e WB without meds) ? Likely.
Is BM stronger than old WB in meds? Definitely not. Old WB in meds is portrayed even above Kaido.
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Shanks basically has no feats.
But his hype is through the roof, he is certainly getting a better portrayal then BM
I don't know if that's accurate. I mean:
Shanks: "Don't you guys exploit Ace and Whitebeard's deaths!"
Vice Admiral: "I ain't gonna listen to no pirate!"
Other Marine: "YEAH! Fuck Pira..."
Sengoku, Fleet Admiral: "Okay sounds good Shanks. I'll take responsibility. Because it's you."
Maybe we haven't seen him low-diffing yonko or Admirals, but the dude is capable of preventing Kaido from getting to Marineford, commanding the respect of the WG / Marines, and getting the Blackbeard Pirates to fuck off within a 12 hours period.
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One character we all seem to have amnesia around is Coby.
I know it's hard to comprehend him as being a strong fighter, but he is apparently a famous marine hero now, and was commended by Kyros for his strength, receiving reports from Drake / SWORD, and was trusted with arresting an ex-Shichibukai.
Hon mentions:
Imu, Gorosei, Shiryuu, Kuma, Kong, Lucky Roo, Yassop, Edward Weevil
Note:
Hon mentions are for characters that we know absolutely nothing where they stand.
Dragon for example, is someone with portrayal similar to Yonkos/admirals even tho we know nothing about him, we know he is top tier, so he is added to top 30 list (with some speculation of course).
Gorosei on the other hand, may very well be Yonko level fighters (one of them has a supreme grade sword), or some frauds. We know nothing about them, so they belong in hon mentions
I don't know if that's accurate. I mean:
Shanks: "Don't you guys exploit Ace and Whitebeard's deaths!"
Vice Admiral: "I ain't gonna listen to no pirate!"
Other Marine: "YEAH! Fuck Pira..."
Sengoku, Fleet Admiral: "Okay sounds good Shanks. I'll take responsibility. Because it's you."
Maybe we haven't seen him low-diffing yonko or Admirals, but the dude is capable of preventing Kaido from getting to Marineford, commanding the respect of the WG / Marines, and getting the Blackbeard Pirates to fuck off within a 12 hours period.
No he wasn’t on point. I didn’t post my full thought on this point. So let me fully elaborate. Mr.Morj made a very very safe video about how the Ranks, Positions & Titles of the One Piece World equate to its Power scailing. That was boring and a very patronizing video if you will, a casual OP fan understand this much.
In terms of Power Scailing for OP, the video wasn’t informative, on the real discussions that are held within the fandom…...
Ex. What Tier are ppl like Law/Kidd/Yamato if they are weaker than Yonkou but stronger than 1st Commanders…Yonkou/Admiral are same Tier but Yonkou seem be higher on the tier.
You say “Of Course Oda doesn’t…” like that’s a good thing….Lol….it’s his method of provoking conversation and attention about his story in that aspect…At this point in the manga it’s become a hindrance…Which I thought Mr. Morj was going to address; That power Scailing can be useless within tiers as it’s ambiguous to who would win, at full strength? Without interference? Without protecting someone..etc etc Whatever Caveat Oda likes to throw in his fights.
The statement “Oda doesn’t care about power scailing” More than likely stems from someone’s interpretation of Wano arc…Where Oda wasn’t always consistent and decides to offer ambiguous context…….
I'm pretty sure Morj was addressing the casual fan who scoffs at powerscaling and act like he's above it.
He wasn't specifically trying to powerscaling any characters at all.
As for Oda being annoying with the vagueness, yeah I agree it's annoying at this point cause we are so late into the series, bordering on the final saga.
Also, regarding characters who we generally consider "YC1+"
My opinion would be that, 2 such characters ~ 1 Yonko. For example, you can replace Kid by say Zoro or Yamato or Marco, and the result would look more or less the same IMO. Based on how Law + Kid fared against BM
@grey matter they did show king vs marco 1 vs 1 at the end of the marco vs king/queen battle and king was pretty dominate with his lunarian abillties he apprantly wasn't using before. Now i accept marco probably was tired, and it was hype for king. But none the less king did have a pretty do extremly well 1 vs 1 vs marco when he started using his true abillties.
Also i don't think rob lucci defeats YC1 without future proof. He probably has the potenial to be yc1+. But i don't think we have any solid proof. I also don't think current kaido defeats current luffy in 1 vs 1. Current luffy is ALOT stronge then pre start of raid luffy. As such if they started a fresh battle with both sides at 100% i don't think kaido wins. Because g5 is simply stronger then hybrid kaido. As such 100% hybird kaido loses to 100% g5 luffy, and we haven't see a time limit on g5, if we get a time limit this can clearly change. As luffy would need to stay g5 the entire time probably to win.
@grey matter they did show king vs marco 1 vs 1 at the end of the marco vs king/queen battle and king was pretty dominate with his lunarian abillties he apprantly wasn't using before. Now i accept marco probably was tired, and it was hype for king. But none the less king did have a pretty do extremly well 1 vs 1 vs marco when he started using his true abillties.
Also i don't think rob lucci defeats YC1 without future proof. He probably has the potenial to be yc1+. But i don't think we have any solid proof. I also don't think current kaido defeats current luffy in 1 vs 1. Current luffy is ALOT stronge then pre start of raid luffy. As such if they started a fresh battle with both sides at 100% i don't think kaido wins. Because g5 is simply stronger then hybrid kaido. As such 100% hybird kaido loses to 100% g5 luffy, and we haven't see a time limit on g5, if we get a time limit this can clearly change. As luffy would need to stay g5 the entire time probably to win.
It is not a combat feat, that is all that I am saying.
It is hype/portrayal that he is indeed strong, or else Sengoku and Kaido wouldn't listen to him.
He has zero combat feats apart from fighting with Mihawk before losing his arm.
Another potential combat feat is Kaido fighting Shanks at some point in the past. Because Kaido had Shanks amongst his top five, and Kaido wouldn't put someone there without ever fighting them.
On paper? Yeah, because they have more feats in general. Most of the Admirals are still working on Pre-Time Skip feats from Marineford, with Fujitora and Ryokugyu getting sprinkles here and there. Fujitora has Dressrosa feats, the last of which demonstrated how much he was holding back throughout the arc. Ryokugyu has feats of stomping Commanders and Scabbards, but then leaves once Shanks and his crew roll up. However, Oda has also kept them relevant by giving them lip service that, more often than not, compares them to the Yonkou.
But idk man, IMO Oda wants to portray Akainu as stronger, I'm not sure if Oda considered such a weakness or wants to attribute Akainu's win to DF advantage if it exists. He is given the extra portrayal that Aokiji isn't given.
Statements about how his DF has the highest offense, Akainu would end the series in one year if he was protagonist etc.
If he's stronger, that's fine. My main point is that the distinction between Admiral and Fleet Admiral is unlikely to be significant enough to the former in it's own teir, given how close the fight between Akainu and Aokiji was said to have been. The way I read it, the fight could've gone either way and either could've been Fleet Admiral. Hell, Aokiji still will probably be Fleet Admiral before the series end as Akainu's extremist nature isn't conducive to what's surely going to be a different world.
That's fair to say, but I'd say he's given that extra portrayal because he also has a personal connection to Luffy and is the Admiral he has beef with specifically. It makes narrative sense for him to get the focus. Same with Blackbeard.
Just because X can give Y an extreme diff, doesn't mean X ~ Y. You can be weaker than someone, but still be close enough in power level that it would be an extreme diff.
Then this might just be a difference in how we view extreme difficulty fights. To me, if a fight is an extreme difficulty, that means both fighters were one lucky shot away from losing/winning. And that's how I think many of the Yonkou view their chances against one another and is a facet of why there was a deadlock, besides the potential for a significant loss of resources.
As I said, her feats do suck compared to her peers, I can't really argue against that. But, despite all of their hype, she's always been portrayed as comparable to them. Even Kaido himself was wary of her arrival to Wano before he even learned her kids were with her. She, unfortunately, doesn't have a good on-panel resume to demonstrate her full potential and, if we take all of that into account, maybe Kaido would win more often than he'd lose, but portrayal-wise? I'm still of the opinion they'd win percentages would be in a flux.
On paper? Yeah, because they have more feats in general. Most of the Admirals are still working on Pre-Time Skip feats from Marineford, with Fujitora and Ryokugyu getting sprinkles here and there. Fujitora has Dressrosa feats, the last of which demonstrated how much he was holding back throughout the arc. Ryokugyu has feats of stomping Commanders and Scabbards, but then leaves once Shanks and his crew roll up. However, Oda has also kept them relevant by giving them lip service that, more often than not, compares them to the Yonkou.
If he's stronger, that's fine. My main point is that the distinction between Admiral and Fleet Admiral is unlikely to be significant enough to the former in it's own teir, given how close the fight between Akainu and Aokiji was said to have been. The way I read it, the fight could've gone either way and either could've been Fleet Admiral. Hell, Aokiji still will probably be Fleet Admiral before the series end as Akainu's extremist nature isn't conducive to what's surely going to be a different world.
That's fair to say, but I'd say he's given that extra portrayal because he also has a personal connection to Luffy and is the Admiral he has beef with specifically. It makes narrative sense for him to get the focus. Same with Blackbeard.
Then this might just be a difference in how we view extreme difficulty fights. To me, if a fight is an extreme difficulty, that means both fighters were one lucky shot away from losing/winning. And that's how I think many of the Yonkou view their chances against one another and is a facet of why there was a deadlock, besides the potential for a significant loss of resources.
As I said, her feats do suck compared to her peers, I can't really argue against that. But, despite all of their hype, she's always been portrayed as comparable to them. Even Kaido himself was wary of her arrival to Wano before he even learned her kids were with her. She, unfortunately, doesn't have a good on-panel resume to demonstrate her full potential and, if we take all of that into account, maybe Kaido would win more often than he'd lose, but portrayal-wise? I'm still of the opinion they'd win percentages would be in a flux.
I think you're both right and are just looking at the info with slightly different lenses. The top tier folk are all very close to each other with very little gap. They will all give each other high diff fights.
To me this is very similar to looking at sports in real life e.g. the top 25 outdoor men's mile time records are all within 5 seconds of each other (1st place is 3:43:13 while 25th place is 3:48:38). However, when you are at that level of athlete every millisecond counts which I think is @grey matter 's point. So when looking at top tiers like Admiral v Yonko v Fleet Admiral, these should all be in the same ball park.
Now where I see your point @HereNThere is unlike with real life sports we have no actual numbers for the OP fighters to do averages, spreads, probabilities etc. So knowing that top tiers are close to each other is the best we can really say. We can't argue with serious credibility that A > B when in the same tier since we don't have data to back it up, just our own interpretations.
So while its fair to create all these tiers and even come up with our own numbers e.g. if A is 100 then B is 95 etc, at the end of the day the only conclusion we can draw for the source material is that A & B are close to each other in strength. We can't really say who will win any given fight without having to rely on plot e.g. we can be sure Luffy will win a fight regardless of how strong we actually think he is within our tier lists.
Let me explain something for the Zoro blocked Hakai people.
"Zoro blocked Hakai"
=
Calling (from Naruto)
10 tails tailed beast ball
8 tails fires mini tail beastbombs and the alliance makes earth walls
Minato randomly comes in making the save.
8 tails and the alliance blocked the 10 tails tailed beast bomb.
Reality, without Minato they're all dead.
One Piece reality:
Without Law using Room Zoro dies. Zoro didn't block the attack, he blocked it briefly.
He stalled the attack but would have failed at blocking if he wasn't teleported out the way.
For example in Marineford when the Walls are put up and Whitebeard sends an attack it was blocked by the wall. What the admirals did to Whitebeard that is a block.
Zoro wasn't going to negate the attack.
It wasn't a block, temporarily blocked/slowed it down.
What Sanji and Luffy did to Big Mom's attack was a block. Not taking away from Zoro or running a Zoro vs Sanji. Eventhough I mentioned Sanji which was more a last minute thing than said along with the argument. It is a feat that his swords weren't broken by the force of the attack and stuff but people are over-exaggerating with the whole Zoro blocked it. Now Big Mom's attack on Reiju was probably not on the level of Hakai so it is comparison of the concept block not their levels.
Just people make it seem that two Yonkou rose up to attack 5 people in a combined attack and everyone was scared, the Yonko were so confident and then Zoro was this overpowered monster who saved everyone and took the attack head on and dispersed their attack like it was child's play. Then went on to rise up and continue the battle like that's nothing you two b**** a** Yonko.
That's how they described the whole situation.
It is something he managed to unleash Conqueror's Haki with cracked ribs and such. Cracked ribs he got from trying to block an attack people are saying he blocked.
Let me explain something for the Zoro blocked Hakai people.
"Zoro blocked Hakai"
=
Calling (from Naruto)
10 tails tailed beast ball
8 tails fires mini tail beastbombs and the alliance makes earth walls
Minato randomly comes in making the save.
8 tails and the alliance blocked the 10 tails tailed beast bomb.
Reality, without Minato they're all dead.
One Piece reality:
Without Law using Room Zoro dies. Zoro didn't block the attack, he blocked it briefly.
He stalled the attack but would have failed at blocking if he wasn't teleported out the way.
For example in Marineford when the Walls are put up and Whitebeard sends an attack it was blocked by the wall. What the admirals did to Whitebeard that is a block.
Zoro wasn't going to negate the attack.
It wasn't a block, temporarily blocked/slowed it down.
Now here is this Sanji remember Sanji was taking point blank attacks from a weapon by someone higher bounties than Ulti that gave Luffy a bit of trouble and survived Big Mom ACoC. Nothing compared to Zoro's yonkou damage. Remember Sanji said he could not defend with Haki. So he was taking full force blows from someone who has Haki even if they did not use CoA coating. And came back to whoop Queen.
There is a bit too much of the zoro overplay and Sanji downplay. I hope Oda switches it up next arc and gives more Sanji feats while Zoro gets more character building like Sanji got with the Germa stuff.
If you really think about it since navigation skills seem not so common to Wano people well look at this:
Law got the furthest island from Wano and Luffy got the closest island to Wano. Remember when Oden was with Whitebeard he ran into Toki who was searching for Wano.
Quite possible there are oTher stranded Wano people on near islands
Let me explain something for the Zoro blocked Hakai people.
"Zoro blocked Hakai"
=
Calling (from Naruto)
10 tails tailed beast ball
8 tails fires mini tail beastbombs and the alliance makes earth walls
Minato randomly comes in making the save.
8 tails and the alliance blocked the 10 tails tailed beast bomb.
Reality, without Minato they're all dead.
One Piece reality:
Without Law using Room Zoro dies. Zoro didn't block the attack, he blocked it briefly.
He stalled the attack but would have failed at blocking if he wasn't teleported out the way.
For example in Marineford when the Walls are put up and Whitebeard sends an attack it was blocked by the wall. What the admirals did to Whitebeard that is a block.
Zoro wasn't going to negate the attack.
It wasn't a block, temporarily blocked/slowed it down.
He can shamble more than one person at a time. Law teleported all of the scabbards downstairs at the same time, and in this very scene he teleported everyone away from the attack at the same time, too, so Zoro did react and act before Law could use his shambles.
Just by taking into account the damage Zoro took from blocking it for a few seconds, all of them would have been massively injured or defeated right there. Zoro has always been portrayed as a huge tank (for his tier) and there's nothing to say Kid and much less Law are above him in physical resilience.
Feats are very iffy, more than ever, on Onigashima, but Oda did purposefully portray this combo attack in a very different light from the melee attacks they dish separately. Given its size and how massively it injured Zoro (broke almost all his bones just from trying to block it momentarily), it can be estimated that the attack was exponentially many times stronger than their average attacks (and certainly stronger than anything Law and Kid tanked from Big Mom, sadly, who didn't even bother using CoC on them).
Luffy was also pre-CoC imbuement in that scene, so he wasn't as tanky as he was later in that fight.
I do think roof piece would have ended right then and there had it not been for Zoro and Law. I do acknowledge that Zoro's efforts would have been for naught without Law using shambles, but Law wouldn't have been fast enough for it without Zoro.
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Now that I think about it. I'll double down in this particular point: Most of the bones in Zoro's body broken from blocking momentarily. None of them would have stood up after taking it for real.
1- Without CoC.
2- That does not serve as a comparison without seeing Zoro get hit 20 times by an Emperor on Onigashima.
They were all suddenly buffed for this fight with no real explanation when compared both to previous arcs and to previously in this very arc. That's part of what I mean by "it was iffy".
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If we look back at the previous arc in which Law fought, he was physically below Doflamingo. If we look back inside this very arc, Law got injured fighting Hawkins.
Whatever he tanked on Onigashima without an equivalent comparison doesn't demonstrate Zoro was somehow excluded from the unnatural in-arc buffing they all got. With that out of the way, I'll leave the rest of my earlier post do the rest of the talking.
Personally, I'd just take it as is. A feat for Zoro to show off his strength of will and body.
Yes, Law suddenly being slow with Shambles, a technique that has largely been shown as instantaneous throughout this series, despite having plenty of forewarning that both the Yonkou are about to do a big attack, is quite iffy, but it was necessary to get Zoro where he needed to be for his Kaido scarring attack and bring in the Mink Medicine plot.
And yeah, Zoro had all of his bones broken from trying to catch it for a second. Had the attack landed, none of them would've have been in any state to go on to their later fights. Luffy, Kidd, and Law took strong attacks later in the scuffle from their respective Yonkou opponents, but the scale was nothing on the level of Hakkai, which has a good chance of going down as the strongest attack in the series.
