The Key to unleash the full potential of Enma sword!

By his own admission, Zoro would become significantly stronger after mastering Enma.

However, Chapter 1001 revealed that Zoro has not yet mastered Enma, so he isn’t yet (significantly) stronger.

Essentially:

• Would Enma make Zoro stronger after mastering it?
  • Yes.
• Has Zoro mastered Enma?
  • No.
• Is current Zoro significantly stronger than before he traded Enma?
  • It doesn’t yet appear to the case since he still hasn’t mastered Enma.
  • Alternatively, we don’t know to what extent Zoro’s combat ability has changed. He may be weaker than his Shusui self, comparable in combat ability, or slightly stronger. What we do know is that he hasn’t yet maximised the potential of Enma.
  • As Zoro uses Enma more in the battle, I expect him to acclimatise better and as he does so his combat ability will rise. Once he has fully acclimatised, he’ll be significantly stronger.
• Will Zoro be weaker without Enma?
  • Upon mastering Enma, if Zoro traded Enma for Shusui, he would become stronger.
    • Shusui is a sword that Zoro has already completely mastered.
    • Shusui is more potent than Enma as it is already a black blade.
      • However if Enma were made a black blade, it would be promoted to Supreme Grade and become stronger than Shusui. Enma’s potential is higher.
  • If Zoro traded Enma for a lower grade sword he would become significantly weaker.
  • If Zoro traded Enma for another sword of the same grade (like Ame no Habakiri or the Nidai Kitetsu) he will become temporarily weaker as he adapts to the new sword.

As things go, Shusui is a better sword than Enma because it’s a black blade in addition to being of the same grade. Mastering Enma is what makes Zoro stronger, and blackening Enma would make Zoro even stronger. Until Enma is blackened, it will be an inferior sword to Shusui.

All of Zoro’s sword have their own quirks:

• Sandai Kitetsu was exceedingly sharp to the extent that it cut more than Zoro intended to cut.
• Shusui
  • Was exceptionally heavy
  • It produced much stronger air slashes.
    • The airslash of Shusui swallowed up the slashes of Zoro’s other swords
  • Is exceptionally durable
    • It wouldn’t bend even if a dinosaur stepped on it.
• Enma
  • Forces the user to release excessive amounts of ryuo creating large slashes.

Once Zoro mastered those swords, he was able to tame their quirks.

For Zoro, acquiring Enma isn’t like acquiring a new devil fruit, but trading a powerful devil fruit for another powerful fruit (if for example one traded the Mera Mera no Mi for the Goro Goro no Mi). Yes you can become stronger after you’ve mastered the Goro Goro no Mi but until you master it you would be weaker than you were before.

While Zoro did indeed have at least a week of training time with Enma, the recent chapter confirms that it was not enough to fully acclimatise to it in combat.

While some people may think that Zoro must be significantly stronger given that his and Luffy’s trainings were contrasted, I don’t think that’s necessarily the case.

If we compare their first attacks:

• Luffy successfully lands a hit on Kaido.
  • No further comment
• Zoro successfully lands a hit on Kaido.
  • Comments that he needs to draw out more power from his weapon.

Literally, Zoro’s comment on his first attack is about how he hasn’t acclimatised to it. It’s not at all comparable to Luffy’s situation. Zoro went out of his way to emphasise how his grasp of his new blade is still inadequate. That Oda had Zoro do this, suggests to me that Zoro hasn’t yet reached the level of strength he was hoping to reach with Enma. Ryou is the key to master Enma Sword.

*Theory by Cinera