One Piece Power Level Discussion Thread

[goldb]

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:

1. Shanks v Mihawk
2. Hand to hand fighters > Swordsmen
3. Zoro > Luffy
4. Zoro v Sanji
5. Is Smoker a top 30 character?
6. Mihawk's rank within the story
7. Law having CoC currently.
8. 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.

 

[Enima]

He got attacked before getting trapped, he literally tanked a hit from doffy, you think doffy was toying with him when he know he needs to get Cesar back or Kaido will murder him, he’d be very stupid to toy with a hinderance like that.

Why would he get serious against Sanji when Sanji couldn't even hurt his Coat? Doffy was smiling the whole time.

He wasn’t distracted he was caught off guard by the trap doffy set.

Yes that's how fights work. It was Sanji's mistake and thus it counts as a loss. It's not like Sanji was distracted. So it was Sanji's fault.

Me comparing CC knocking Luffy out is to make the point that if you don’t know what ability someone has you’ll probably get caught off guard.

But Luffy actually did pretty well against Ceaser most of the time. None of Sanji's attacks were successful and the first time Doflamingo attacked Sanji, it had nothing to do with not knowing Doffy's power. It was simply a normal attack from Doflamingo but sanji still couldn't defend himself.

Okay maybe Luffy could move cos doffy himself was weak?? Ever considered that?? Butt let’s go by the evidence we have.

Yeah but Luffy was unable to use his Haki moments before. Doflamingo was Injured, he wasn't tired.

Doflamingo when he trapped Jozu used him to attack crocodile and until a chapter or two later we didn’t see jozu free.

No, Doflamingo freezes Jozu when Jozu attempts to attack crocodile. Doflamingo didn't control Jozu, he temporarily stopped Jozu for a small amount of time and Jozu even turned his head, so he wasn't fully paralyzed.

Marco getting was him not being aware of the ability, he tanked kizarus hit and kept running, but the guy held him and tagged him.

Nobody held Marco. Marco was Injured by Kizaru when he was distracted and then thanks to that the Vice admiral manged to handcuff him

Marco did activate his ability to heal the damage but got tagged.

Dude, when did that happen? That never happened..

Point still is he got tagged, and got damaged.

Yep, he was tagged and damaged when he was fighting an Admiral and Vice admiral simultaneously and he was also was distracted.

But the seaprism cuff weakened him. So the strings restrained Sanji.

Yeah, Marco was simultaneously fighting Kizaru+a vice admiral and they managed to handcuff him while he was distracted. This handcuff weakens DF users and the Handcuff is not part of someone's power.

Sanji was fighting one guy. He was never distracted. But still got caught. The strings are part of Doflamingo's power.

Did he not block one of Luffy a attack like that too?? So that too??

He used armament Haki against Luffy. He never used is against Sanji. You can check it if you want.

Like Marco got trapped and an attack followed up

Marco was simultaneously fighting Kizaru+a vice admiral and they managed to handcuff him while he was distracted. This handcuff weakens DF users and the Handcuff is not part of someone's power.

Sanji was fighting one guy. He was never distracted. But still got caught. The strings are part of Doflamingo's power.

Jozu was not show to be caught off guard but he was controlled by doffys string.

He was caught off guard. Re-read the chapter.

If you think that then Luffy was weak and actually got lucky against Cesar.

I can show you more than ten pages in which Luffy is destroying ceasor.. Can you show me a single page in which Sanji is doing something Impressive against Doflamingo?

 

[Pro Ban Corps]

Why would he get serious against Sanji when Sanji couldn't even hurt his Coat? Doffy was smiling the whole time.


Yes that's how fights work. It was Sanji's mistake and thus it counts as a loss. It's not like Sanji was distracted. So it was Sanji's fault.


But Luffy actually did pretty well against Ceaser most of the time. None of Sanji's attacks were successful and the first time Doflamingo attacked Sanji, it had nothing to do with not knowing Doffy's power. It was simply a normal attack from Doflamingo but sanji still couldn't defend himself.


Yeah but Luffy was unable to use his Haki moments before. Doflamingo was Injured, he wasn't tired.


No, Doflamingo freezes Jozu when Jozu attempts to attack crocodile. Doflamingo didn't control Jozu, he temporarily stopped Jozu for a small amount of time and Jozu even turned his head, so he wasn't fully paralyzed.


Nobody held Marco. Marco was Injured by Kizaru when he was distracted and then thanks to that the Vice admiral manged to handcuff him


Dude, when did that happen? That never happened..


Yep, he was tagged and damaged when he was fighting an Admiral and Vice admiral simultaneously and he was also was distracted.


Yeah, Marco was simultaneously fighting Kizaru+a vice admiral and they managed to handcuff him while he was distracted. This handcuff weakens DF users and the Handcuff is not part of someone's power.

Sanji was fighting one guy. He was never distracted. But still got caught. The strings are part of Doflamingo's power.


He used armament Haki against Luffy. He never used is against Sanji. You can check it if you want.


Marco was simultaneously fighting Kizaru+a vice admiral and they managed to handcuff him while he was distracted. This handcuff weakens DF users and the Handcuff is not part of someone's power.

Sanji was fighting one guy. He was never distracted. But still got caught. The strings are part of Doflamingo's power.


He was caught off guard. Re-read the chapter.


I can show you more than ten pages in which Luffy is destroying ceasor.. Can you show me a single page in which Sanji is doing something Impressive against Doflamingo?

The coat think I can’t debate, because I’m sure he used colourless haki on his coat or else that’s just some bullshit armoured coat. But I can’t debate that since haki can be colourless so yeah he did block it with his “ordinary” coat. Sanji is a tactical fighter, but with his team in trouble he rushed into the fight, he was even telling them to get out of there. So if you think he wasn’t distracted then you got it wrong. Oh btw his attack isn’t normal because if you don’t know his power after dodging the initial kick you think you’re safe then the string cuts you up. So was it really sanji’s fault for tanking that hit??
Okay so jozu let Doffy ride on him for almost two chapters yeah?? That’s very rubbish assumption given that I did read the chapter before saying what I said. Why would jozu let doffy ride him when they are enemies, why would he attack doffy and say what doffy kept saying to crocodile during the war?? Give me a page of Jozu freeing himself first or doffy getting the jump on him because that was your point.
What happened was Marco going towards WB kizaru shot him from the back, he tried to activate his power to heal up, there was firery drawing coming from his legs, while he kept runnning, he was running past the VA when he held his hand and tagged him. Just fault for getting tagged. He wasn’t fighting the VA at all. He was closer to Kizaru and got away from him.
You still not understanding, even when I’ve said doffy is miles stronger than Sanji?? Baka na??? Sanji fell for the trap because he didn’t know of doffys powers, he was surprised like his teammates were as well.
Luffy got knocked out and fully captured by CC. He coulda killed Luffy so he did win against Luffy with his breath taking ability. Luffy fell for that ability, but for plot purposes he bounced back. There was no need for the author to let Sanji bounce back. So Sanji was saved and he accomplished the task of saving his teammates.

 

[LaGOAT]

This shouldn't be a debate sanji isn't a match to katakuri he gets fodderized like he got fodderized against DD. DD toyed with sanji almost killed him. Sanji isn't yonko commander lvl until proven otherwise

 

[Demonspeed]

I was wondering, Katakuri is by far that best CoO user we know. Do you think there are people better at it than him? Who and how many? I think Mihawk might be better but with a different special technique. I doubt he can see into the future as much as him.

 

[LaGOAT]

I was wondering, Katakuri is by far that best CoO user we know. Do you think there are people better at it than him? Who and how many? I think Mihawk might be better but with a different special technique. I doubt he can see into the future as much as him.

Mihawk and probably shanks

 

[kkck]

I was wondering, Katakuri is by far that best CoO user we know. Do you think there are people better at it than him? Who and how many? I think Mihawk might be better but with a different special technique. I doubt he can see into the future as much as him.

It is perfectly plausible that katakuri actually is the best COO user in the world. Just being big mom's strongest subordinate already suggests the guy is easily one of the strongest persons in the planet as a whole to begin with. I could see other people having comparable skill though perhaps focusing on a different aspect of COO. Observation haki has been used to feel creatures around and even measure their strength. So there could be a comparable haki user to katakuri who excels at that. Maybe an observation haki whom you can't sneak up on because he can't not feel people around or one who can invariably tell exactly how powerful someone is. Another possibility perhaps is overcoming observation haki's limitation when it comes to being calm. Kinda like training so that you can instinctively react to it even when fired up in the middle of a battle. It wouldn't have the same effectiveness as katakuri's deal but it would be more reliable in a way. Still, katakuri being capable of predicting further ahead of literally everyone in the world isn't a stretch. Ranking wise he could easily be top 20 in the world (among yonko, admirals, 4 top yonko commanders, aokiji, mihawk and a few other people).

 

[nik87]

It was crystal clear that Luffy is no match at all for Yonkos right after the battle with Doflamingo, at least for me. The thing which caused confusion is that flashback with Rayleigh which, imo, was misunderstood, at least according to events we have so far. Would be nice to compare the translations but i guess it is too late now.
Basically Luffy complained that Kong gun didnt do anything and he barely survived and Rayleigh told him he had to come up with something else. Imo, this part was misunderstood and many gave too much credit to it and expected something else than gear 4th but it probably was just King Kong Gun, since that is the only "something else" he showed after that flashback.
Gear 4th is a silly move when it comes to fighting top-tier opponents, as long as he doesnt get used to it to get rid of the drawback. KKG has huge destructive power but until he steps up his end game its of no big use.

 

[Hannibal Psyche]

When I said most likely I meant it like "99% likely". There are many limitations on CoO that would only make sense if it is based on things like memory, intentions, actions, probability and etc. The name also supports this theory "Observation Haki or color of Observation". "Observation" is the key word it wouldn't really be "observation" if you can just straight up "see the future". Also I mentioned that "the intentions of the opponent" affects observation Haki so if the opponent has a strong intention the the CoO user will be able to sense it. That, combined with the other factors, enables the CoO user to predict the future quite accurately.

The thing is we've never seen Observation Haki being wrong. Intentions has also never affected Observation Haki, it only sees the actions that someone will definitely do.

1. Satori saw Luffy was going to punch - Luffy did punch.
2. Satori saw Sanji was going to kick - Sanji did kick.
3. Sandersonis saw Luffy was going to kick - Luffy did kick.

There's no instance that Observation Haki has been shown to ever be wrong. You're saying 1% chance of error, but where is this 1% evident proof of Observation Haki ever giving wrong foreknowledge?

Most of Katakuri's predictions are wrong.

Katakuri's predictions have all been correct too.

1. He predicted what Jigra was going to say before he did.
2. He predicted that Luffy was going to punch the Mother Carmel.
3. He predicted that Luffy would throw him into the mirror world, Luffy did throw him there.
4. He predicted which side Luffy would dodge too before he did.

None of his predictions have ever been wrong. The limitation with Observation Haki is that it doesn't show the future from the perspective of the User intervening. Observation Haki doesn't show what happens if Katakuri intervenes, he doesn't see his own future actions, but only that of others. The future is Observed as if Katakuri or the User isn't going to do anything. So, whenever he/or CoO users intervene, there's always the risk of failure.

When a character sees an opponent is going to kick with their right leg, even when the user move away to dodge, what they saw in the future still happens, nothing changes as they're not intervening but moving out the way.

When a character knows their opponent is going to kick, anything they do before the kick is executed means the person will change their course of action. When you intervene, you force a different reaction while when you evade, you're not forcing a different reaction, you're allowing it to happen whilst moving away to avoid it.

I don't think it's possible to see the future no matter how much you train your CoO.

This is the fundamental, if you know what your opponent will do before they do it, that is essentially knowing the future.

We've seen both Luffy showcase seeing the future. We even see characters not even facing their opponents and closing their eyes. It's all indicative of actually seeing the future.

Here, we even see what Katakuri sees before Pudding falls to the ground. It's all on the same page. 1 Panel he's seen she'll fall and asks why, next panel she's not even shown Sanji her eyes and then by the next page or 2, everything transpired just as he saw.

 

[nik87]

@Hannibal Psyche I think you misunderstood that page. Only panel from future is where Pudding is on the ground. Panel, where Sanji says hes gonna lift the veil, is present.
Also knowing what someone will do is hardly knowing the future, far from seeing the future which Katakuri does. In real life you know what someone will do but you dont know the future, you simply predict with high accuracy. With normal CoO is not much different, a bit more advanced than real life, reading the next move if there is intent for it(thinking of doing next move/action).
Also when it comes to Katakuri its always seeing not knowing, sensing, predicting, reading. Even in your example Bege says: He saw the future!
Edit: Maybe i misunderstood what you were trying to say with that example.

 

[roggie]

It was crystal clear that Luffy is no match at all for Yonkos right after the battle with Doflamingo, at least for me. The thing which caused confusion is that flashback with Rayleigh which, imo, was misunderstood, at least according to events we have so far. Would be nice to compare the translations but i guess it is too late now.
Basically Luffy complained that Kong gun didnt do anything and he barely survived and Rayleigh told him he had to come up with something else. Imo, this part was misunderstood and many gave too much credit to it and expected something else than gear 4th but it probably was just King Kong Gun, since that is the only "something else" he showed after that flashback.
Gear 4th is a silly move when it comes to fighting top-tier opponents, as long as he doesnt get used to it to get rid of the drawback. KKG has huge destructive power but until he steps up his end game its of no big use.

I think about it too. It reminds of people discussing for years Naruto and "that jutsu" he was supposed to had learnt from Jiraiya. So far i can remember there wasn't no "that jutsu" til the the end.

 

[M3J]

It was crystal clear that Luffy is no match at all for Yonkos right after the battle with Doflamingo, at least for me. The thing which caused confusion is that flashback with Rayleigh which, imo, was misunderstood, at least according to events we have so far. Would be nice to compare the translations but i guess it is too late now.
Basically Luffy complained that Kong gun didnt do anything and he barely survived and Rayleigh told him he had to come up with something else. Imo, this part was misunderstood and many gave too much credit to it and expected something else than gear 4th but it probably was just King Kong Gun, since that is the only "something else" he showed after that flashback.
Gear 4th is a silly move when it comes to fighting top-tier opponents, as long as he doesnt get used to it to get rid of the drawback. KKG has huge destructive power but until he steps up his end game its of no big use.

I think it's ambiguous enough that Luffy could bring out another attack and reveal in a flashback that's the attack he was talking about with Rayleigh. But this is based on the memory that Luffy never stated what else he came up with to deal with the huge monster.

Do we actually know that Katakuri is actually the second strongest member of the BIg Mum pirates?
If Jack is the Katakuri of Kaidou's crew than Luffy would have lost against him too.
At the time it seems like Luffy needs another 2 and a half year to reach Yonkou level cause at the time he isn't even at the level of the second strongest fighter of a yonkou crew.

you can't compare Jack to Katakuri though, unless Jack's fighting style is similar to Katakuri's. Jack so far seems to have resiliency or great defense, basically Cracker but without getting knocked out by a hit. That would be more up Luffy's department than someone who can look into the future and has enough speed.

And let's not forget, Luffy that fought Crocodile or Enel would have stood no chance against Lucci, and the Straw Hats at the start of Water 7 would have lost to a cyborg clone of Kuma. As each arc progresses, characters get stronger. Getting a timeskip training would be pretty bad, especially so soon. Luffy didn't win most of his fights by being stronger, he won by enduring, like typical shounen protagonists.

 

[M3J]

1) There is now way WCI can be longer than 6-7 more chapters at max. (BM won't go down at the hands of SH,FT or G66)
2) Now if Reverie is gonna be 40-45 chapters then obviously Luffy is going there.
But that seems a bit unlikely at the moment coz its highly unlikely that Luffy will go back all the way to Red line.
So that means we have very high chances of getting a new arc (for training or power up for Kaido encounter).

Luffy needs atleast 2 powerups to take down Kaido.
He has the chance to get 1 of those right here against Katakuri but this chapter made me feel Oda is in no mood to give one right now.

he doesn't need two powerups, per se, just help against Kaidou, kinda like how Law and others helped him against Doflamingo but more involved. I'm still convinced Big Mom will be used to show how much stronger Luffy has gotten, from needing help to beat Kaidou to beating Big Mom on his own. The only way his fight against Katakuri will help Luffy get a "power-up" is by making him realize what his weaknesses are or could be, and him improving on it, like how he did with Gear 3 and its drawback.

the Reverie should be a mini-arc though. Maybe one that's not focused on the Straw Hats, just to give us something different. I mean, every arc and mini-arc to date, we've always had at least one member of the Straw Hats heavily involved.

 

[Windfall Island]

he doesn't need two powerups, per se, just help against Kaidou, kinda like how Law and others helped him against Doflamingo but more involved. I'm still convinced Big Mom will be used to show how much stronger Luffy has gotten, from needing help to beat Kaidou to beating Big Mom on his own. The only way his fight against Katakuri will help Luffy get a "power-up" is by making him realize what his weaknesses are or could be, and him improving on it, like how he did with Gear 3 and its drawback.

the Reverie should be a mini-arc though. Maybe one that's not focused on the Straw Hats, just to give us something different. I mean, every arc and mini-arc to date, we've always had at least one member of the Straw Hats heavily involved.

Law was weaker than DD. I dont see him being strong enough to help Luffy against Kaido [ someone who is a whole tier above Katakuri ].
You would need someone atleast on the same power level as Marco to be able to give a genuine help or assist and Marco too would have his hands full against one of the calamity so he wont be available either.

All supernovas are basically fodders against kaido. It will have to be majorly Luffy with some others helping him in saving his life after round 1 or something along those lines. But none of them is strong enough to help Luffy in bringing down kaido.

Kaido
King and Queen calamity [ 2 >= Katakuri level guys ]
Jack
------ All the above are far above DD level-----
Beast pirates commanders [ Some of these commanders might be very near to DD or Perespero level ] [ expect 12+ such people ]
500 artificial DF eaters
NW allies [ Like those WB had ]
Shogun of Wano
Samurais under Shogun

vs

Luffy , Law ,Kidd, hawkins, X drake [ All except luffy are fodder against kaido ]
--------------------------[No one is there to take care of King and Queen calamity aka the 2 >= katakuri level guys ]
2 Dukes [ vs jack ]
Zoro [ vs Shogun]
Jinbei [ vs any 1 Beast pirate commanders]
Sanji [ vs any 1 Beast pirate commanders]
-------------------------[ No one is there to take care of 10 other Beast pirates commanders ]----------
Rest of SH , Heart pirates , Minks, Rebellion Samurais and maybe grand fleet [vs 500 df army , shogun's army, Beast pirate allies ]---

As you can see even if you exclude Kaido , the SH allaince is being very heavily outmatched.
So one cant expect anyone coming out of the already short handed SH allaince to come and help Luffy against kaido .

The above scenario changes only if Marco and 13 other Wb commanders come in. Only then the SH alliance will be able to match Beast pirates every commander for commander.

 

[M3J]

Law was weaker than DD. I dont see him being strong enough to help Luffy against Kaido [ someone who is a whole tier above Katakuri ].
You would need someone atleast on the same power level as Marco to be able to give a genuine help or assist and Marco too would have his hands full against one of the calamity so he wont be available either.

All supernovas are basically fodders against kaido. It will have to be majorly Luffy with some others helping him in saving his life after round 1 or something along those lines. But none of them is strong enough to help Luffy in bringing down kaido.

I'm not saying Law will, he's just an example. But so was Luffy as he couldn't beat Doflamingo without Law and the gladiators. Law is strong enough to help Luffy and make a difference, especially since gamma ray knife can get inside the body without piercing the skin, as far as I recall? And I think Marco of all the fighters would be going up against Kaidou, I just can't Luffy anywhere near Marco's level that justifies him fighting Kaidou instead of Marco or without Marco. Though, it'd be Jinbei, Zoro, and Sanji vs. the Calamities if anything.

they are, but supernovas working together with Luffy can beat Kaidou, they're all strong enough. If they aren't, then that should go for Luffy as well.


Though I do wonder about Zoro and Sanji. we've never seen them go all out yet.

 

[kkck]

I'm not saying Law will, he's just an example. But so was Luffy as he couldn't beat Doflamingo without Law and the gladiators. Law is strong enough to help Luffy and make a difference, especially since gamma ray knife can get inside the body without piercing the skin, as far as I recall? And I think Marco of all the fighters would be going up against Kaidou, I just can't Luffy anywhere near Marco's level that justifies him fighting Kaidou instead of Marco or without Marco. Though, it'd be Jinbei, Zoro, and Sanji vs. the Calamities if anything.

they are, but supernovas working together with Luffy can beat Kaidou, they're all strong enough. If they aren't, then that should go for Luffy as well.

Though I do wonder about Zoro and Sanji. we've never seen them go all out yet.

Marco coming in and saving the day would be weird, unless the manga somehow builds to something like that. Not to mention it would seriously steal luffy's thunder. Taking down kaido via collaboration with other crews is not a stretch. So far law is already a sort of ally to luffy and as far as we know appoo, hawkins and kidd were captured a while ago. They are likely to be relevant during the arc. Add to that drake whom considering the current supernova trend of them betraying their masters and you have half the supernova against kidd. All supernova captains going up against kaido with luffy leading is IMO the most likely scenario. Kinda like the fight against doflamingo which was in the end a collective effort among multiple crew.

 

[nik87]

@kkck If i remember right only Kidd is captured, no sign of Hawkins and Roar of the sea works for Kaido now but could be having same intentions like Bege with Big Mom, just waiting for a better opportunity. Multiple supernovas going against Kaido with all other SH allies is very likely to happen.

 

[Beagopa]

I'm not saying Law will, he's just an example. But so was Luffy as he couldn't beat Doflamingo without Law and the gladiators. Law is strong enough to help Luffy and make a difference, especially since gamma ray knife can get inside the body without piercing the skin, as far as I recall? And I think Marco of all the fighters would be going up against Kaidou, I just can't Luffy anywhere near Marco's level that justifies him fighting Kaidou instead of Marco or without Marco. Though, it'd be Jinbei, Zoro, and Sanji vs. the Calamities if anything.

they are, but supernovas working together with Luffy can beat Kaidou, they're all strong enough. If they aren't, then that should go for Luffy as well.


Though I do wonder about Zoro and Sanji. we've never seen them go all out yet.

I agree that Law is a big help. Even though he was weaker than Dolfy doesn’t mean he can’t help beat stronger opponents. Honestly Dolfy only survived against Law because he had plot armor. How many other characters have a fruit that lets them survive having your internal organs destroyed?

I also think lots of people see strength as linear when it’s not. Characters can beat characters stronger than them or assist in doing so if things roll their way. Usopp is probably the best example because he consistently beats characters stronger than him with skill and cunning.

 

[M3J]

Marco coming in and saving the day would be weird, unless the manga somehow builds to something like that. Not to mention it would seriously steal luffy's thunder. Taking down kaido via collaboration with other crews is not a stretch. So far law is already a sort of ally to luffy and as far as we know appoo, hawkins and kidd were captured a while ago. They are likely to be relevant during the arc. Add to that drake whom considering the current supernova trend of them betraying their masters and you have half the supernova against kidd. All supernova captains going up against kaido with luffy leading is IMO the most likely scenario. Kinda like the fight against doflamingo which was in the end a collective effort among multiple crew.

He wouldn't be saving the day, he'd be fighting with them, much like Law did with Luffy. Plus, it makes sense because Marco is pretty powerful. But it's also likely it'll go as you said.

I agree that Law is a big help. Even though he was weaker than Dolfy doesn’t mean he can’t help beat stronger opponents. Honestly Dolfy only survived against Law because he had plot armor. How many other characters have a fruit that lets them survive having your internal organs destroyed?

I also think lots of people see strength as linear when it’s not. Characters can beat characters stronger than them or assist in doing so if things roll their way. Usopp is probably the best example because he consistently beats characters stronger than him with skill and cunning.

Not just Usopp, but Luffy as well. It's why Law and other supernovas can make a difference even if they're weaker, especially when you have their devil fruit abilities or skills like Zoro's swordsmanship into play here.

 

[kkck]

Seeing how the manga has developed, I think I had an idea regarding how things will turn out in regards to the wano arc: It will be an arc centered around zoro. Of course, it makes sense that the characters that have been there for a while would get more attention than the guys currently at whole cake island but I am thinking that perhaps it will be "their" arc and we won't see luffy again until after it ends. Realistically speaking it is an ideal setting for zoro to finally have a chance to show off his strength because up to this point he has basically breezed through the new world. Hyozu was the strongest person at fishman island and even after his steroids zoro foderized him, then at punk hazard he won by literally terrifying monet into submission and he won with a significant margin against pika. In turn wano is an island where the bulk of his enemies will be swordsmen. And it makes sense for him to want to defeat the strongest swordsman there. Basically, it's a good scenario for zoro to once again take on the strongest enemy in the arc. But that also makes more sense if luffy isn't there to compete with zoro over that. Of course, it could be a fishman island like scenario where luffy fights the boss and zoro fights the strongest however seeing the same thing repeated wouldn't be too interesting. So perhaps the scenario will be that by the time luffy gets to wano zoro and co will have already defeated the shogun and claimed wano. In which case the war against kaido will involve also wano's armies.

 

[kkck]

I like this idea, having an arc focused on Zoro would be refreshing, along with seeing what he can truly be capable of. I miss seeing badass Zoro fights.

Yeah, it's a shame zoro's only hard fight was against pika.. More than that, I miss the days where we would see all strawhats get a fight. Since ennies lobby we have rarely seen the bulk of them fight. Brook has literally never defeated anyone important. At thriller bark he didn't defeat any of moria's crewmates, he defeated a bunch of zombies but none of the big ones. Then we get to sanbaody where he gets skyrocketed to another country. Then fishman island where all the enemies were so weak it didn't matter who defeated whom. Then punkhazard where brook had no big fights. Then dressrosa where he also had no big fights. And in the current arc he defeated a bunch of weak homies but has had no big fights. Similar scenarios apply to chopper, nami, robin to some extent or another. Even sanji has barely had fights. Franky finally got a decent fight against mr pink but nothing beyond that since then.