Thread by @opdazaih

#ONEPIECE1032

Understanding Ryou and Zoro vs King - Mini Thread-

1 thing that stands out in Zoro vs King fight is that Zoro seems to perform better offensively against Kaido than King. So I aim to answer as to why that is by also bringing more understanding to the practise of

swordsmanship in OP

Now, I aware of the theory that Enma reacted towards Kaido better than Zoro, and I can see that being true, but that won’t contradict my answer. In fact, after I explain how I view swordsmanship in OP, this 2 idea, mine and about the Enma thing, actually

works hand in hand. Why do I think the Enma theory isn’t the complete answer? Cause it doesn’t answer why Zoro suddenly wanted to know King’s race

This is important to answer cause never in the series that Zoro need to ask that to win. And also important for comparing Zoro feats

in rooftop vs King for powerscaling. First, let analysis how swordsmanship works in OP. It’s clear that Ryou is the main practise for skilled swordsman as it’s a technique originate from the land of Samurai. Now, Idk if this would be controversial, but hear me first with open

mind. I don’t think Ryou is armament haki specifically. It’s both CoA and CoO. Cause if you pay attention to Hyogoro’s explanation, he told us 2 different usage of Ryou. First, is what he taught Luffy. That is how to penetrate and destroy thing from inside. This is armament. The

second one is what he didn’t teach Luffy but does mention. That is making the katana able to cut steel but not paper. I don’t think the 2 use the same concept, cause penetrating interior doesn’t help you to not cut paper. So it’s a 2 different techniques. Why I think the second

one is actually CoO, cause it is exactly the same with Breathe of All Things, that Zoro use to cut Mr.1

In that fight, Zoro use BOAT by tapping into a state of enhanced consciousness. Which is the concept of observation. So, recap. Ryou has 2 different techniques, one based from

CoO and another CoA. And it makes sense. A swordsman main power is haki right? I think for them to develop armament only is kinda weird. It could be but I think it's more likely that they develop both in their fighting style. And then generalize it as ryou. Hyogoro only taught

the CoA application cause that was what Luffy asked for specifically.

So that’s the basic. Let’s analysis why the samurai develop this 2 techniques specifically, and how both of them goes hand in hand. Later, I’ll explain why Zoro can’t cut King. In general, one fatal slash is

enough to win a fight for a swordsman. For example, Zoro vs Mr.1, Zoro vs Pica etc.

I believe the samurai developed the combination of BOAT and penetration to achieve this effect. BOAT is basically enabling you to cut anything what you want by hearing it’s ‘breath’. I think the

breath is the core of something. Cutting the core means cutting where something is most vulnerable. That’s why if you can locate the breath, you can easily cut steel cause you cut where it’s most vulnerable. Meanwhile, you can avoid cutting paper by avoiding that. I believe Zoro

been using BOAT after Mr.1, but after training with Mihawk he finally understand the details properly. @ThePhantomStra5 pointed out that Zoro use BOAT consciously against Pica. Zoro was hearing the breath of the stone. Showing Zoro now know what he needs to do to post ts

Now, the penetration one is obvious, it basically allow you to cut deeper into your enemies body. This is why all the scabbards and Zoro can hurt Kaido, cause this ryou technique allow them to cut deeper into Kaido. However, what allowing them to cut Kaido’s scale in the first

place is BOAT. So you see, both techniques goes hand in hand. BOAT allows you to cut any material, dinosaur hide/steel/ dragon scales/etc. Meanwhile the penetration allow you to deal significant damage by making the cuts deeper.

Now, what does this means for Zoro vs King. First

of all, I do think that it’s plausible that Enma allow Zoro to cut Kaido’s deeper, which is the second technique of Ryou. However, the difference is Zoro can cut Kaido cause he understand what Kaido is and his body. Which is dragon scales. So he can use BOAT. However, Oda

purposely using the same attack for against King as with Kaido, to show Zoro frustration when he can’t cut King. That’s why Zoro try to figure out what King is. He said if Dinosaurs are basically dragons, but King answer that he is something more. Telling Zoro that he can’t cut

King like Kaido unless he actually know what King is, and understand his body. That’s why Zoro said ‘I can’t win without knowing what he is’. This is also why it’s the only time Zoro ever ask these questions. Cause before he always know what his enemies is. Pica is a giant stone.

Hordy is a fishmen, etc. Now, he finally encounter someone that gives him challenge in that regard. At the end of the chapter, Enma already seems like it’s extracting more haki from Zoro, if Zoro can control it, he will have enough power needed to properly use the penetration

technique of Ryou. But before that, he needs to be able to hear King’s ‘breath’ first. Both things goes hand in hand.

Now, a little extra. What does this say about King. Obviously this means King’s body is different than other ancient Zoan due to him being Lunarian. My theory is

he has a natural exoskeleton. It’s not a reach, considering the Germa experiment. It’s likely that Sanji’s fire power come from Lunarian. Maybe his exoskeleton is also from Lunarian. It maybe slightly different if Judge merely tried to replicate it. Or it can be the exact same if

Judge actually insert their genes into his children, and awakened the exoskeloton. Either way, figuring this out is the key for Zoro to defeat King. These explanations also make it make sense why Zoro can’t cut King, but can cut Kaido

https://twitter.com/opdazaih/status/1461805934624194565?t=B2Pbq7lxtXCZciHFJ7GP0Q&s=19

This is a bit different point of view for the fight than my thread, that I also find interesting from @shonen_chef. Check it out for another angle 👍

https://twitter.com/shonen_chef/status/1461729857264439296?t=B2Pbq7lxtXCZciHFJ7GP0Q&s=19

Okay I wrote this thread while l'm sleepy, so there's thing I forgot to include lmao. So it's kinda incomplete a bit but l'll retwt it when the officials come out anyway. So what l want to add is another example of the usage of Ryou that I talked about in the series, not from

a swordsman. Like I said Ryou is combination of BOAT to find the most vulnerable part of something, while penetration Ryou dealt the heavy damage on thr interior. This combination is deadly, but I think Sabo actually use it in the colloseum fight too.

Many already theorize that Sabo use penetration Ryou to destroy the colloseum in one go. But the comment before that, about finding the core, suggest he also use BOAT. So if this is true there's already a clear example of the combination between both aspect of Ryou in the series

I know Sabo isn't a swordsman, but he is a master haki, and it's not a reach to think he use the same concept of Ryou that the swordsman use in his Dragon-clae fighting style.
Another possible example where BOAT is important to cut everything is when Jozu tank Mihawk's slash

We know Mihawk most likely can cut diamond, but an explanation why he can't cut Jozu is cause he doesn't intend to cut diamon in the first place. He's not targetting the breath of diamond. So that is likely BOAT related

So that's all, hope I'm not forgetting anything else lmao