Roronoa Zoro

A bounty hunter turned pirate, Zoro joins Luffy after being freed from a marine execution yard. He fights with three swords, one clenched in his teeth, chasing a promise made to a childhood rival that he would become the world's greatest swordsman. Stoic, blunt and hopeless with directions, he is the crew's anchor in a crisis and the member most willing to shoulder unbearable pain silently.

Tall, heavily muscled and green-haired, with three gold earrings in his left ear and a green haramaki at his waist holding his swords. Early in the series he wears a plain white shirt and dark trousers with a bandana tied around his arm. A long diagonal scar runs across his chest from a duel he lost, and after the timeskip his left eye is permanently closed by a vertical scar, his coat is dark green and open to the chest, and he carries himself with a heavier, calmer bearing. He typically sleeps anywhere, in any position.

Stoic, blunt and single-minded, he measures almost everything against whether it brings him closer to being the world's greatest swordsman. He speaks rarely, mocks sentiment, and has no patience for negotiation when a blade will settle matters. His loyalty, once given, is absolute: he will accept any humiliation or injury for his captain's sake and considers questioning orders a waste of breath. He bickers constantly with Sanji and is notoriously, hopelessly incapable of finding his way anywhere, a flaw he refuses to acknowledge. Though he enjoys drink and a fight, he is also the crew's grimmest realist, the one who states uncomfortable truths and volunteers for the cost of them.

He grew up in Shimotsuki Village training at a dojo run by Koushirou, where he lost repeatedly to the master's daughter Kuina. The two swore that one of them would become the greatest swordsman alive; after she died in an accident, he asked for her sword Wado Ichimonji and carried her ambition as well as his own, developing a three-sword style that uses a blade clenched in his teeth. He left to hunt pirates for bounty money and earned a fearsome reputation before being chained up at a Marine base for defying a captain's son. Luffy found him there, offered him a crew, and gave him the choice of execution or the sea.

1. East Blue Saga

   Freed from the Marine base in exchange for joining the crew, he becomes Luffy's first and most dangerous follower. At Baratie he challenges the world's strongest swordsman, Dracule Mihawk, is cut down almost instantly, and survives only because Mihawk spares him; he swears never to lose again.

2. Alabasta and Skypiea

   He serves as the crew's main sword against Baroque Works' assassins and later proves able to cut through intangible opponents in the sky islands, defeating the priest Ohm and surviving a one-sided duel with the god Enel's enforcers. His raw strength increasingly separates him from the crew's weaker fighters.

3. Thriller Bark

   After beating the zombie samurai Ryuma and reclaiming a legendary blade, he faces the warlord Kuma alone and offers his own life in exchange for Luffy's. He absorbs the entirety of his captain's accumulated pain and is found standing in a field of blood, saying nothing about it afterwards.

4. Post-Timeskip and Dressrosa

   Having spent two years training under Mihawk, he returns with one eye closed and strength on another scale, cutting down a colossal enemy at Fish-Man Island. At Dressrosa he fights Pica, severing a stone giant, and holds the line while the crew dismantles Doflamingo's kingdom.

5. Wano Country

   Reunited with the cursed blade Enma and the samurai of Wano, he wounds an Emperor of the Sea and then takes on Kaido's right hand, King, in a drawn-out duel. Pushed past collapse, he unlocks Advanced Conqueror's Haki and wins at the cost of near-fatal injuries.

Monkey D. Luffy

Captain

The man who gave him a reason to sail and whose dream he never questions. He is the only crewmate who will openly criticise Luffy's judgement, and the first to bet his own life on protecting it.

Dracule Mihawk

Rival and teacher

Defeated him humiliatingly at Baratie and left the scar on his chest, then agreed to train him during the timeskip. Zoro's entire ambition is defined by the day he will face him again.

Kuina

Childhood rival

The dojo master's daughter who beat him again and again and shared his oath to become the greatest. Her sword Wado Ichimonji remains his most treasured blade and the reminder of a promise he cannot abandon.

Sanji

Crewmate and constant antagonist

They insult each other endlessly and compete over kill counts, yet fight as a near-perfect pair when the stakes rise. Each privately regards the other as the only crewmate who can keep up.

Kuina's father Koushirou

Master

Taught him swordsmanship and gave him Wado Ichimonji along with his blessing to leave. His dojo's traditions, and later the connection to Wano's Shimotsuki line, shape Zoro's heritage.

• He asks Mihawk to cut him through the chest rather than retreat, choosing death over a wound to his pride.
• He takes on all of his captain's accumulated injuries at Thriller Bark and tells no one.
• He kneels before Mihawk and asks to be trained, abandoning his pride for the sake of the crew.
• He returns from the timeskip with one eye closed and cuts a mountain-sized sea beast in a single stroke.
• He defeats one of Kaido's strongest subordinates while standing on the brink of death.

• He is incapable of navigating even short distances and routinely vanishes from the group.
• He drinks heavily and is almost never shown drunk.
• Wado Ichimonji, Sandai Kitetsu and Enma make up his usual set of blades.
• His swordsmanship is loosely inspired by the historical pirate Francois l'Olonnais for his name and by classical Japanese kenjutsu for his style.
• He is the only Straw Hat who has never objected to a decision made by his captain in a crisis.

• Monkey D. Luffy
• Nami
• Usopp
• Sanji
• Nico Robin
• Franky

• Tony Tony Chopper
• Brook

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