One Piece speculation
Mar. 21st, 2009 01:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainsometimesI have a long-winded theory about what Zoro’s current manga situation might mean for his development as a fighter particularly. Posting it here in case anyone else wants to see it.
Okay, so the last we saw of Zoro was him arriving in the gothic castle where Kuma had previously sent Perona, and then him waking up in a bed all bandaged up by Perona, who nevertheless refused to bring him his swords. What Perona’s reasons were for not letting him bleed to death can only be speculated on. Maybe she plans to hand him over to the World Government for the bounty and/or to be in their good graces. Maybe she wants to make a servant out of him, alone and unattended as she’s been in the castle. Maybe she even plans to co-operate with him in getting away from there and somewhere else, though that seems unlikely.
In any case, it seems a bet that Perona will at least initially have little trouble keeping Zoro under her thumb, even when he’s recovered. Anytime he does something she doesn’t like she can just hit him with a negative ghost attack. But are things likely to stay that way? Most likely not. Given what Zoro is like and what Oda tends to do with him, I doubt young Lolonoa will remain neutralised for long. Admittedly as a biased Usopp fan I didn’t like to think that at first, as I’d like Perona to stay a powerful enemy and not someone that anyone in the crew can beat. But I got past that and realised Zoro will probably find some way to overcome the ghost princess’ powers.
So how will he do that? The speculations I’ve seen mostly concern Zoro developing his willpower and overcoming his inner insecurities in order to negate the effect of the ghosts – maybe also by developing this haki thing that’s all the rage these days. ;) The reasoning behind this view appears to come down to:
a) willpower can overcome anything, at least if you’re Zoro;
and/or
b)Perona’s powers work by exaggerating people’s existing insecurities – if you don’t have any of those, she can’t hurt you.
Personally I disagree with this line of thinking, partly because of how I think Perona’s powers work, partly and more because I don’t think that’s what Zoro needs in terms of character development. –Of course, Oda could well still do this and it might turn out just great. I guess chiefly I’m talking about what I want to happen rather than being presumptuous enough to foretell future events.
The Zoro bit first: Despite never having fully recovered from the severe injuries inflicted by Kuma on Thriller Bark, Zoro hasn’t really let up since then. He kept pushing himself harder, first while training on the ship (talking to himself about how weak he was), and then in fights against the Flying Fish Riders and at Sabaõndy. Of course, that’s par for the course when it comes to Zoro – but for once, his normal approach hasn’t been paying off. His wounds started acting up on him already when he fought Duval’s crew. Then on Sabaondy (after having been shot by a World Noble and beating lots of fodder Marines) the fight against the first Pacifista wore him right down, so that Kizaru’s subsequent beam shot rendered him utterly helpless.
From what I can see, at this point physical training and sheer stubborn determination isn’t enough for Zoro. What he needs to do to get to the next level is spiritual development, I think, the kind he got when fighting Daz Bones and learning how to cut steel. And that’s where Perona’s powers come in.
As far as I can tell, the way Perona’s negative ghosts seem to work is that they attack all your confidence and self-esteem, negating them to put you in a condition of feeling absolutely worthless – a temporary state lasting for perhaps a minute or so, during which you’re completely helpless, with a fighting spirit below zero.
Maybe it’s a case of complete polarisation, so that the more “positive” you are normally – i.e. the stronger confidence and fighting spirit you have – the more “negative” you become. Maybe not – might be that the level of negativity is the same for everyone. Perona does seem to think that everyone has a “positive” value just by keeping on living every day, or so she thought before meeting Usopp. It’s impossible to say how many people she’s fought to base that opinion on, of course.
In any case, there’s no hint the ghosts can be resisted with sheer willpower. I’d say Luffy and Zoro were humongously strong in willpower by Thriller Bark, and Sanji and Franky were no slouches in that department either. Yet none of them could do anything against the ghosts. If anything, I’d think an increase in willpower will only render you more positive, not less, so I doubt that’s the way to shake off the ghosts.
Even so, I still think Zoro will use his will in order to win, but in the same way he did while fighting Daz Bones – by not letting up, throwing himself against the enemy as soon as he can move again, until he reaches the epiphany that lets him show the way.
Now, I doubt Zoro will learn how to be negative yet able to stand up and fight, the way Usopp can. Granted, he likely does feel a lot lower than he normally does, given his recent utter defeat. But doing it the Usopp way probably takes years of conditioning. Plus, I think it goes against the grain of Zoro’s character. Instead, what I could picture is him learning to empty his mind of all will and all emotion, leaving him in a spiritual/emotional state of absolute zero. That way, he can let the ghosts pass through him without being affected, since there won’t be anything for the ghosts to negate. Then he’ll have to hold onto this state during his counterattack, which might not be too easy either.
Hopefully learning how to do that, and do it quickly, will also be beneficial to Zoro’s growth in other ways than just beating Perona, making him better at hearing “the breath of all things” and just be more spiritually aware in general. Because while Zoro does have that side of him, it might not be quite as developed as is often assumed. (For instance, he didn’t recognise Merry’s voice initially, insisting that boats couldn’t talk. He also didn’t seem to sense Luffy’s unconscious use of haki against Motobaro (Duval's bull).)
...so that's my speculation. Thoughts? I don’t tend to be right about this sort of thing, though – most likely Oda will do something entirely different.
Okay, so the last we saw of Zoro was him arriving in the gothic castle where Kuma had previously sent Perona, and then him waking up in a bed all bandaged up by Perona, who nevertheless refused to bring him his swords. What Perona’s reasons were for not letting him bleed to death can only be speculated on. Maybe she plans to hand him over to the World Government for the bounty and/or to be in their good graces. Maybe she wants to make a servant out of him, alone and unattended as she’s been in the castle. Maybe she even plans to co-operate with him in getting away from there and somewhere else, though that seems unlikely.
In any case, it seems a bet that Perona will at least initially have little trouble keeping Zoro under her thumb, even when he’s recovered. Anytime he does something she doesn’t like she can just hit him with a negative ghost attack. But are things likely to stay that way? Most likely not. Given what Zoro is like and what Oda tends to do with him, I doubt young Lolonoa will remain neutralised for long. Admittedly as a biased Usopp fan I didn’t like to think that at first, as I’d like Perona to stay a powerful enemy and not someone that anyone in the crew can beat. But I got past that and realised Zoro will probably find some way to overcome the ghost princess’ powers.
So how will he do that? The speculations I’ve seen mostly concern Zoro developing his willpower and overcoming his inner insecurities in order to negate the effect of the ghosts – maybe also by developing this haki thing that’s all the rage these days. ;) The reasoning behind this view appears to come down to:
a) willpower can overcome anything, at least if you’re Zoro;
and/or
b)Perona’s powers work by exaggerating people’s existing insecurities – if you don’t have any of those, she can’t hurt you.
Personally I disagree with this line of thinking, partly because of how I think Perona’s powers work, partly and more because I don’t think that’s what Zoro needs in terms of character development. –Of course, Oda could well still do this and it might turn out just great. I guess chiefly I’m talking about what I want to happen rather than being presumptuous enough to foretell future events.
The Zoro bit first: Despite never having fully recovered from the severe injuries inflicted by Kuma on Thriller Bark, Zoro hasn’t really let up since then. He kept pushing himself harder, first while training on the ship (talking to himself about how weak he was), and then in fights against the Flying Fish Riders and at Sabaõndy. Of course, that’s par for the course when it comes to Zoro – but for once, his normal approach hasn’t been paying off. His wounds started acting up on him already when he fought Duval’s crew. Then on Sabaondy (after having been shot by a World Noble and beating lots of fodder Marines) the fight against the first Pacifista wore him right down, so that Kizaru’s subsequent beam shot rendered him utterly helpless.
From what I can see, at this point physical training and sheer stubborn determination isn’t enough for Zoro. What he needs to do to get to the next level is spiritual development, I think, the kind he got when fighting Daz Bones and learning how to cut steel. And that’s where Perona’s powers come in.
As far as I can tell, the way Perona’s negative ghosts seem to work is that they attack all your confidence and self-esteem, negating them to put you in a condition of feeling absolutely worthless – a temporary state lasting for perhaps a minute or so, during which you’re completely helpless, with a fighting spirit below zero.
Maybe it’s a case of complete polarisation, so that the more “positive” you are normally – i.e. the stronger confidence and fighting spirit you have – the more “negative” you become. Maybe not – might be that the level of negativity is the same for everyone. Perona does seem to think that everyone has a “positive” value just by keeping on living every day, or so she thought before meeting Usopp. It’s impossible to say how many people she’s fought to base that opinion on, of course.
In any case, there’s no hint the ghosts can be resisted with sheer willpower. I’d say Luffy and Zoro were humongously strong in willpower by Thriller Bark, and Sanji and Franky were no slouches in that department either. Yet none of them could do anything against the ghosts. If anything, I’d think an increase in willpower will only render you more positive, not less, so I doubt that’s the way to shake off the ghosts.
Even so, I still think Zoro will use his will in order to win, but in the same way he did while fighting Daz Bones – by not letting up, throwing himself against the enemy as soon as he can move again, until he reaches the epiphany that lets him show the way.
Now, I doubt Zoro will learn how to be negative yet able to stand up and fight, the way Usopp can. Granted, he likely does feel a lot lower than he normally does, given his recent utter defeat. But doing it the Usopp way probably takes years of conditioning. Plus, I think it goes against the grain of Zoro’s character. Instead, what I could picture is him learning to empty his mind of all will and all emotion, leaving him in a spiritual/emotional state of absolute zero. That way, he can let the ghosts pass through him without being affected, since there won’t be anything for the ghosts to negate. Then he’ll have to hold onto this state during his counterattack, which might not be too easy either.
Hopefully learning how to do that, and do it quickly, will also be beneficial to Zoro’s growth in other ways than just beating Perona, making him better at hearing “the breath of all things” and just be more spiritually aware in general. Because while Zoro does have that side of him, it might not be quite as developed as is often assumed. (For instance, he didn’t recognise Merry’s voice initially, insisting that boats couldn’t talk. He also didn’t seem to sense Luffy’s unconscious use of haki against Motobaro (Duval's bull).)
...so that's my speculation. Thoughts? I don’t tend to be right about this sort of thing, though – most likely Oda will do something entirely different.