With the final confirmation of Zoro’s Conqueror’s Haki, it’s time to look back over what we know about this ability and how our heroes have unlocked it in the past.
Going back over Ace and Luffy’s experiences with Conqueror’s Haki, it becomes painfully obvious that Zoro, even as a novice Conqueror’s Haki user, unlocked it at a much higher level than they did. I’d even go so far as to argue that Zoro’s will to become a king has been portrayed as stronger than Luffy’s, even given Luffy’s 2 years of Conqueror’s Haki experience and his continuous declarations about becoming Pirate King. Controversial? Not really, once you look at the evidence.
Just like Ace and Luffy, Zoro’s first proper manifestation of Conqueror’s Haki was in defence of someone else. Zoro launched his final attack on Kaido just as Kaido was about to finish off a downed Luffy, saying that Kaido should take his head instead.
Now Kaido is no stranger to other Conquerors. In fact, he doesn’t really care if the Supernovas are Conquerors or not. As Chinjao said, it’s not all that uncommon the deeper you go into the New World, and Kaido’s reaction to Luffy’s Conqueror’s Haki is merely to shrug and go back to drinking himself into a stupor.
But as soon as Zoro displays Conqueror’s Haki, Kaido is shocked. Why the sudden interest, Kaido? Could it be that this is his first time seeing advanced Conqueror’s Haki physically manifested as an extra set of human limbs? We’ve only seen Conqueror’s Haki in the form of generic black lightning, but Zoro’s fighting spirit is clearly on a different, much more tangible level.
Let’s also look at how beginners make use of Conqueror’s Haki. Observe how Ace and Luffy needed to issue a command in order to impose their will over fodders:
