What does this mean for Roronoa Zoro?
The Straw Hats share multiple parallels with the Roger Pirates – with Luffy paralleling Roger, Zoro paralleling Rayleigh, Sanji paralelling Gaban quite heavily.
Some of the parallels between Rayleigh and Zoro are:
1) They are both heavy drinkers.
2) They both possess scars on their eyes.
3) They both possess Haoshoku Haki and are blessed by the heavens.
4) Their titles/epithets reflect their drive to stand above others, with Rayleigh being referred to as “冥王” (Mei-Ou / the Dark King) and Zoro being referred to as “閻王” (En-Ou / the King of Hell) with both the titles only differing in a single Kanji.
5) They are both swordsmen.
6) They are/will become legends of their own right; with Monkey D. Garp referring to Rayleigh as a “legend” while putting him on the same pedestal as Yonkou Whitebeard and Zoro promising to become so strong as the future World’s Strongest Swordsman that his name would reach the heavens.
And it is all but guaranteed that Zoro will be recognized as the “副船長” (Fuku Senchō / Vice Captain/First Mate) of the Straw Hat Pirates sometime before the series ends, just like how his parallel Rayleigh was recognized. Infact, the new SBS coming out and reiterating that Zoro is not yet recognized as the First Mate of the Straw Hats only reinforces that the title is a big deal in Oda’s mind and it would be a future character moment for Zoro when he is finally recognized.
And this moment from Bartolomeo in chapter 723 can be considered as solid forshadowing for the same as well. Notice the use of the exact same verbage as in the case with Rayleigh.
Doesn’t the “Wings of the Pirate King” concept contradict one Wing having authority over the other:
We have seen many crews in the series share the “Wings of their Captain” concept when it comes to their #2s and #3s , some examples being the King-Queen pair in the Beasts Pirates, Marco-Jozu pair in the Whitebeard Pirates, possibly Shiryu-Laffitte pair in the Blackbeard Pirates and most importantly, the Rayleigh-Gaban pair in the Roger Pirates.
However, Oda still chose to classify Silvers Rayleigh as the First Mate or Vice Captain of the Roger Pirates, without any discrepancies. Given how Zoro and Sanji parallel this duo, I doubt that this would be a valid reason to not classify Roronoa Zoro as the First Mate or Vice Captain of the Straw Hat Pirates.
*by ConquistadoR
