Roronoa Zoro

Roronoa Zoro, also known as "Pirate Hunter" Zoro, is the master swordsman and combatant of the Straw Hat Pirates, one of the Senior Officers of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, and is publicly recognized as the right-hand man and number two of his crew's captain Monkey D. Luffy. Formerly a bounty hunter, he is the second member of Luffy's crew and the first to join it.

Born in the East Blue, Zoro is the son of Tera and Roronoa Arashi, the grandson of Shimotsuki Furiko and Roronoa Pinzoro, and the grandnephew of Shimotsuki Ushimaru, making him a descendant of both the Shimotsuki Family of Wano Country and the legendary samurai, Shimotsuki Ryuma. As a master of Three Sword Style, a swordsmanship style which he created during his childhood training in Shimotsuki Village, Zoro is one of the three most powerful combatants of the Straw Hats, alongside Luffy and Sanji, who is referred to as the "Monster Trio". His dream is to become the greatest swordsman in the world, to honor a promise he made to his deceased childhood friend and distant cousin Kuina.

In addition to his infamy as one of the Straw Hats and as a former bounty hunter, his sizeable bounty upon arriving at the Sabaody Archipelago caused Zoro, along with Luffy to be included among the eleven "Super Rookies", pirates who simultaneously reached the Red Line with bounties of over Beli 100,000,000 shortly before the Summit War. He, the other ten Super Rookies, and Marshall D. Teach would go on to be referred to as the "Worst Generation."

Zoro gained his first bounty of Beli 60,000,000 after the Arabasta Arc. It later increased to Beli 120,000,000 after the Enies Lobby incident, then again to Beli 320,000,000 after the Dressrosa Arc. Following the Raid on Onigashima, his bounty was increased to Beli 1,111,000,000.

Zoro is a tall, muscular young man with lightly tanned skin. He always carries his three swords along with him, bundled up with a green haramaki over his right hip, allowing him to easily draw them with his left hand. Of the three swords he has on his person, he has always been seen carrying the Wado Ichimonji, while his other two swords have varied over time due to them being destroyed and subsequently replaced with progressively better ones. Although his right hand is usually seen resting over them, he can also use this hand to pull his swords out before sitting down. He has three identical gold earrings on his left earlobe. Zoro normally keeps a black bandana tied around his left bicep and ties it around his head when he is fighting seriously against an opponent.

Zoro's body is covered with scars from his many battles, most notably the massive scar stretching from his left shoulder to his right hip that he acquired during his loss against the world's greatest swordsman, Dracule Mihawk, at Baratie. His other visible scars are the scars he inflicted upon his ankles in a desperate attempt to free himself from Mr. 3's Tokudai Candle Service Set by trying to cut his feet off at Little Garden. After the timeskip, he gained another scar over his left eye, obtained through unknown means.

Zoro's other remarkable feature is his cropped green hair, which Sanji often teases him about by calling him "marimo" (moss-ball, moss-head) due to its resemblance to one.

Like Luffy, Zoro shows little interest or attraction to women. He was not enticed or won over by the beauty or charms of Nami or Robin when they joined, did not peep on the women's bath when Nami and Vivi were bathing, nor does he show interest in overwhelming beauties such as the Mermaid Princess Shirahoshi or Boa Hancock. Zoro seems to rather focus on whatever task is at hand and his own training. It is suspected that he only feels romantic attraction towards other men, but not confirmed.

Zoro usually maintains a very stern, serious, and distanced personality, but often loses his temper in a goofy and exaggerated comical style. It would seem however, that this anger is the only emotion that Zoro often feels comfortable showing. Outside of situations where he feels confident in battle, he tends to smile or laugh the least out of the Straw Hats and rarely fools around with the rest of the crew and likes to distance himself more to sleep or train.

Even in moments that are particularly tough on the crew and would warrant sadness, Zoro chooses to maintain a quiet solemnity rather than outwardly express his emotions. He has been shown to believe to a degree that these emotions can hinder his judgement as a swordsman.

Although Zoro cares for his crew, he can also come off as a very blunt and cold person, especially when he is trying to get his point across. Zoro also often reminds others of the harsh facts, which often shocks some of the other crew members, although they usually decide he is right in the end. This is especially true in regards to strangers, as Zoro rarely shows much trust in others.

While he is quite indifferent to the gender or/and age of his opponents, many of his adversaries (like Tashigi and Monet) seem to believe he does not take women seriously when in fact it is the opposite. When the latter tried to take advantage of this belief, he cut her down without hesitation, only refraining from killing her because she was too weak to even be considered a proper opponent, using a non-Haki strike in lieu of a blunt attack. It should be noted however that he does disagree to a certain extent about using excessive force against women.

He has a strong sense of leadership and reasoning. Partially being a descendant of a prominent samurai family, Zoro is a dedicated follower of the samurai philosophy and doctrine of Bushido, such as the code of honor and integrity where he strictly fights fair and square by consistently refusing to attack an adversary whose back is turned, with the only exception being when his friends are in imminent danger of losing their lives in which Zoro would strike the attacker from behind. Zoro himself considers a scar on the back to be a swordsman's greatest shame.

He is also very loyal as he will stand by Luffy's decisions regardless of whether he personally agrees or not, stepping in only to point out the seriousness of a situation where it has been overlooked by his crewmates.

Zoro values loyalty highly and will not easily forgive fellow crewmates if they break ties with the crew. This cold attitude towards crewmates often receives negative attention from the crew and will provoke certain crewmembers (mainly Nami) to yell at him.

While the crew sails from one island to another, he normally spends time lifting weights, practicing meditation or napping, only to be regularly awakened in a rather violent way by Nami, Sanji, or (accidentally) Luffy. While in his spare time, Zoro takes up hobbies such as fishing, drinking, and training.

Despite his angry and rather cold personality, as well as his fearsome reputation, Zoro has a very kind heart. When fighting weaker or innocent people, he does try to hold back when fighting and use the dull side of his swords in order not to seriously injure them though as pointed out by Nami, his monstrous strength still manages to cause great damage.

A rarely seen aspect of his kindness is that he strongly detests evil individuals with extreme cruelty towards the innocent.

Zoro is also very humble when it comes to receiving gratitude from others whenever he saves people. Like Luffy, he didn't care and didn't like to be called a hero, instead yelling for the fish-men and mermaids to bring him sake instead. This was shown again when he saved Hiyori and Toko from Kamazo and merely desired food and alcohol for protecting them.

Zoro has been absurdly reckless in the face of major battles, often at the cost of his own well-being. Many times, he has suffered injuries which would kill a normal person and muscled through them through sheer willpower. As a result, he has often been left very heavily bloodied and bandaged, as well as gained scars more times than anyone else in the Straw Hat Pirates crew, all of which were notably inflicted after joining Luffy on his travels. Despite this, he has a habit of ignoring these dire injuries and continuing to fight, sometimes before he is fully healed. His recklessness extends to the point of self-mutilation, willingly risking a limb by throwing the Sandai Kitetsu in the air while holding out his arm and allowing it to land and see if he could overcome its curse (a successful risk), and slicing up his ankles to escape a deathtrap, which not only failed, but made him lose a lot of blood and gain more scars. Furthermore, Zoro tends to face death in a defiant manner and shows no fear of dying even when he is in a gravely injured state. This has threatened his life by causing unhealed wounds to reopen or be strained, leaving him in crippling agony.

He also regularly resorts to drastic measures to solve simple problems, suggesting solutions that others would normally consider to be their last possible, worst-case-scenario choices. When he and Usopp were accidentally handcuffed together, Zoro's first suggested solution was to cut off one of their hands. In addition, when he, Vivi and Nami were stuck on Mr. 3's candle set, he actually tried to cut his own feet off in an attempt to escape, and when that failed, decided he would strike a cool pose for his dying moments upon being encased in wax.

When Zoro has the intention to fight seriously, he ties his bandana (normally kept tied around his left arm) around his head. Zoro lives for the thrill of combat. Indeed, when an average human has the intention of fighting Zoro, his glare alone is usually enough to make them back off. He also has a habit of smiling in satisfaction whenever he faces a particularly skilled opponent, which often unnerves both friend and foe alike.

However, Zoro will still maintain his stern demeanor during the thrill of combat if the stakes are high enough. This seems to suit Zoro perfectly as any given moment where Zoro is not in battle, he is typically sleeping, lost, yelling at/being yelled at by someone, or training.

Unlike some of the members of the crew, Zoro does not shrink from the idea of using deadly force against dangerous enemies and has been noted by several of his fellow Supernovas to be capable of exuding a tremendous amount of murderous intent.

He can be extremely intimidating, easily frightening weaker opponents with just his glare. It has been stated that he has a monstrous killing intent evident from the fact where he almost drew his sword on one of the World Nobles. Furthermore, it has also been stated that Zoro is a born killer capable of showing absolutely no mercy during combat. It has been mentioned that Zoro has killed before joining the crew. Zoro is also not above committing murder if the situation calls for it.

While he can be the voice of reason on some occasions, Zoro rushes into things most of the time and leaves it to fate to decide the details, much to the horror of crew members as he fails to see his own fault. He seems to have a very strong belief in fate and destiny in general. He is even known to resort to methods like drawing sticks or casting lots whenever the Straw Hats need to choose someone to do a particular task. One of the most obvious instances of this is when he took an interest in the cursed blade, Sandai Kitetsu, and left it up to fate to decide if he would wield it by testing his luck against the sword's curse; he tossed the sword spinning into the air and extended his left arm into its falling path, to see if it would cut him, fully aware that the sword was sharp enough to easily sever his arm.

There have been several instances where Zoro has bluntly stated that he does not believe in God and does not pray. Despite claiming to be an atheist, Zoro showed belief in a paradise after death, though Usopp joked that Zoro's behavior in his life was not likely to get him into heaven, with Zoro becoming offended because Usopp implied that he would go to hell.

A running gag throughout the series is that while he is very perceptive during battle (as well as out), his sense of direction is extremely poor, to the point of getting lost on a straight path. This often results in Zoro not understanding directions. In the Arabasta Arc, he mistakes going north for going up. He is unaware of his lack of direction. Often when he gets lost, he mutters "the others are lost again". Furthermore, due to his innate pride, Zoro is unable to admit his mistakes and is defensive when people point out this shortcoming; and if someone is guiding him, he ends up blaming them for "being bad at giving directions". It is to the point that people who know him actually wonder if there is something wrong with his brain and if he's a fantasista.

Another running gag of the series is Zoro's ability to effortlessly deliver perfectly timed lines in passing or even during battle that are deemed "cool" by other characters, leading him to be borderline worshiped and idolized, especially by crewmates Usopp, Chopper, and Brook.

The third running gag is how Zoro keeps untying bandages when he is not fully healed, claiming that they make it hard to move, only to be scolded by Chopper, who tells him that they are there so that he does not move.

Zoro is also somewhat dense, as he thought there was too little notable attributes about King to connect him with the artificial Lunarians, the Seraphim, while listing out many of them that could have easily pieced everything together, something Luffy, Rob Lucci and Kaku called him out for.

Zoro is very proud of the reputation he has built for himself both as a swordsman and as "The Pirate Hunter", starting with his Beli 60,000,000 bounty which increased massively since then. He also enjoyed the fact that he always had a higher bounty than Sanji. During the assault on Enies Lobby, one of the Marines referred to Zoro as "Luffy's underling" much to the delight of Sanji, who quickly became infuriated when Zoro pointed out that Sanji's lack of notoriety puts him below Zoro in status. Since then, once in a while to anger Sanji, Zoro will refer to him as "Pirate A". More recently he has been calling Sanji "#7", referring to his order of arrival at Sabaody. When Sanji's bounty initially surpassed Zoro's, Zoro was annoyed and went as far to attack Sanji with Enma when the cook mockingly pointed out the bounty gap between them. After the raid on Onigashima, Zoro mocked Sanji by calling him "#4", referring to the new bounties.

However, in spite of his personal pride and self-respect, Zoro has shown to be willing to lower himself to the ground in complete humility for the sake of his friends, as was seen when he begged Bartholomew Kuma to spare Luffy's life in exchange for his own. And then again when he shamelessly bowed before Dracule Mihawk, begging the Warlord of the Sea who is his enemy, to train him in the ways of the sword. This shows that despite Zoro not being completely humble, he is not overly arrogant.

Zoro can also be very vigorous when he is determined to achieve a goal or defeat an enemy. The risks that he will often take to pursue his dream of becoming the world's greatest swordsman often leave others wondering if he is crazy. As far as Zoro is concerned though, only he has the right to call himself "crazy". However, he is able to accept defeat when he perceives it to be inevitable.

Zoro is usually seen nodding off to sleep during his free time whenever he's not honing his physical abilities.

Zoro loves to drink different types of alcohol and is particularly fond of sake almost to the degree that Luffy loves meat and Nami loves money. When traveling around, Zoro frequently carried around bottles of wine or rum and drink straight from the bottle. In Wano, Zoro attacked some members of the Beasts Pirates simply because he wanted to steal their gourd bottle of sake. When Tsurujo wanted to repay him for saving her, he only wanted more alcohol. Due to his love for drinking, Zoro loathes being deprived of alcohol, evident when Mihawk imposed temperance on him until he mastered coating his swords in Haki as an incentive.

Though not to the same extent as Tashigi, Zoro is extremely attached to his Meito swords primarily due to their sentimental value which were given to him from people he respected, such as Kuina's Wado Ichimonji, Ipponmatsu's Sandai Kitetsu and Yubashiri, Ryuma's Shusui and Hiyori's Enma. He refused to sell Wado Ichimonji regardless of the price offered, due to his personal sentiment towards Kuina. Zoro often holds them close while napping and was extremely upset when Shu destroyed his Yubashiri, and thus opted to fight Shu using other swords to not risk damaging Wado Ichimonji and Sandai Kitetsu. He continued to carry the destroyed Yubashiri out of respect until he found a replacement, then buried it with a funeral in Thriller Bark with the Rumbar Pirates out of gratitude for its service. Zoro was particularly attached to Shusui which became his favorite sword after the timeskip and stubbornly refused to part with it. Zoro ruthlessly cut down a corrupt magistrate who tried to frame him in order to claim Shusui for himself. Zoro only relented when Hiyori promised to give him Enma, a sword of equal value, in return for handing over Shusui. Zoro took an instant liking to Enma, seeing its immense difficulty to master as a great challenge to become stronger, which quickly became Zoro's new favorite.

On the other hand, Zoro had little attachments to many of his previous swords, as he admitted to Mihawk that he broke many of his own blades up to when he challenged him the first time, including the two katana that Mihawk broke. Mihawk made it part of Zoro's training to master Haki, so as to ensure Zoro would give his swords more protection and care.

Zoro's attachment to swords led him to be able to determine its properties simply by sight, as he saw both Sandai Kitetsu and Nidai Kitetsu as powerful, if cursed, blades, and took particular notice to Shusui upon setting his eyes on it.

Although a descendant of the Shimotsuki Family, Zoro seems to be completely unaware of his connection to it and its members that he has met in his life. It is unknown what his relationship was like, if any, with his father and mother.

Though not as much with strangers, Zoro is always ready to protect and save his comrades whenever they are in danger, even at the cost of his own life. For example, in Skypiea, when he noticed the Going Merry being dragged away, he told everyone to leave the ship, saying he would stay back alone and protect it. Furthermore, he was willing to trade his life for Luffy's when Kuma first attacked the Straw Hats and he knocked Sanji unconscious when the latter tried to intervene. Another example is when Usopp was trying to escape from a Pacifista while dragging an injured Zoro; during which, despite the severity of his injuries, he told Usopp to escape and let him fight, which the latter objected against. Zoro is usually distant with the crew, as he frequently trains in the lookout or sleeps. Only coming out to tell Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper to quiet down or when the crew gathers together, the two crewmates Zoro interacts the most with is Nami and Sanji (by way of arguing).

The Marines are the seaborne military forces of the World Government, tasked with maritime law enforcement and naval warfare operations. They maintain a presence on all of the world's known seas, through countless branch offices; however, the vast majority of their forces are focused on the Grand Line, in which resides their base of operations, Marine Headquarters. Collectively, they stand as one of the Three Great Powers, alongside the Four Emperors and the Seven Warlords of the Sea, the latter of which were later replaced by the Seraphim.

Due to their actions and role, they are one of the major antagonist groups of the series overall, specifically they serve as the main antagonists to the Straw Hats.

Zoro is considered the largest threat and the most dangerous member of the crew after Luffy. Thus, the Marines consider him as a powerful threat.

Zoro has devoted his life to becoming the world's strongest swordsman. Even before joining the crew, he was well-renowned for his outstanding abilities and accomplishments in battle. His skills drastically improved after becoming the combatant of the Straw Hat Pirates and entering a two-year training period under the "Strongest Swordsman in the World", Dracule Mihawk.

By the time he met Luffy, Zoro had established himself as a fearsome bounty hunter in the East Blue, so much so that Koby had heard he was a "demon in the form of a man". His accomplishments in hunting pirates were significant enough to earn him the epithet of "Pirate Hunter", which he remains known for even after becoming a pirate.

Alongside Luffy and Sanji, Zoro is considered one of the Monster Trio of the Straw Hats due to his strength. In some instances, he has even been mistaken as the leader of the Straw Hats due to his more extensive reputation; onlookers have also wondered how he could not be the captain after seeing demonstrations of his power. During the crew's journey, Zoro has come to possess some of the most legendary swords in history and has used them to both improve his skills and develop the most devastating attacks.

Zoro typically does not plan out actions and strategies ahead of time. Still, Zoro is shrewd and observant, which greatly aids him in his battles against fearsome enemies on multiple occasions, learn all the strengths and weaknesses of an enemy in a short time, and use it to his advantage and can formulate plans that give his friends and allies a fighting chance.

He is also a capable leader, being able to take the lead when Luffy is otherwise preoccupied, and can adapt to just about any situation.

Given that Zoro still has a rash attitude in almost all situations, he has also heavily relied on and frequently benefited from luck and fortune. This was demonstrated in a most extreme fashion at Ipponmatsu's shop in Loguetown, where Zoro decided to test Sandai Kitetsu's "curse" on himself by throwing the blade up in a vertical spinning motion and holding his arm in the path of its descent. Miraculously, Sandai Kitetsu spun perfectly around his arm, missing it entirely; Ipponmatsu was left speechless at Zoro's incredible fortune.

One of Zoro's most prominent weaknesses is his utter inability to follow directions, resulting in him frequently getting lost. He only became a bounty hunter after leaving Shimotsuki Village because he lost his way while out at sea looking for Mihawk. He has no knowledge of how to identify cardinal directions and frequently misinterprets them as either right or left; when traveling alone, he tends to frequently change direction without realizing and follow arbitrary indicators of direction like animals. In Arabasta, he even confused the cardinal directions with vertical ones, causing him to scale up Alubarna's clock tower when told to head north.

Generally, the only way to get Zoro to reach a destination is for another person to lead him there; if he is left unattended even briefly, he is extremely likely to wander off regardless of how obvious his path is.

When Zoro attempts to use non-lethal force against opponents he will attack with the backs of his swords instead, though his strength makes these blows extremely powerful regardless.

Even more notably, Zoro demonstrated enough power to redirect a punch from Oars capable of causing massive structural damage, and two years later could use his swords to withstand the teeth of Dragon Number Thirteen, a giant dragon with extreme physical might. Perhaps his most notable feat of strength yet was when Zoro used his swords to block a combined attack from Kaidou and Big Mom, two Emperors who are among the strongest people in the world, long enough to allow his allies to dodge the attack's otherwise inescapable attack radius. Despite sustaining heavy injuries from that attack, Zoro mustered enough strength to momentarily clash with and cut deeply into Kaidou's nigh-indestructible body, to the point of leaving a scar, becoming the second swordsman after Kouzuki Oden to do so, earning the Emperor's respect.

Zoro possesses immense physical strength and frequently spends his time at sea lifting incredibly large and heavy weights to keep growing stronger. Zoro's strength plays a large role in his abilities as a swordsman, as his strikes possess a great amount of power and range in their cutting ability. Thanks to his strength, Zoro is capable of clashing equally with superhumanly large and powerful opponents and can send normal-sized opponents flying away with ease.

Zoro's strength is such that he has picked up, carried, and thrown people and objects that rival him in size multiple times with relative ease, with such instances including carrying a large stone cage on his shoulder with Luffy inside it, throwing Hatchan, a Fish-Man over his shoulder while heavily wounded, and lifting Usopp off the ground with one hand and wielding him like a sword. One of his most notable displays of raw strength was in Arabasta, when he picked up an entire collapsed building and held it over his head while injured before throwing it toward Mr. 1.

When he lacked his swords during the Groggy Ring event in the Davy Back Fight, Zoro used an ability known as No Sword Style in which he was able to use his body's physical power to emit shockwaves resembling his sword slashes. By throwing his arms forward, he created a whirlwind force sending Pickles spinning into his teammate Big Pan. Since Pickles was wielding swords, the attack caused him to cut Big Pan numerous times.

Zoro has demonstrated tremendous speed and agility to pursue opponents and avoid their attacks. Similar to his crewmate Brook, he can cut opponents in the blink of an eye and even unsheathe and re-sheath the sword before opponents can react. At Whisky Peak, he overwhelmed a hundred bounty hunters at once with his speed and was capable of dodging the many bullets they fired at him.

Zoro has excellent jumping and climbing power, notably leaping a great distance from one roof to another using a falling ladder as a stepping stone in Whisky Peak.

Zoro possesses extraordinarily quick reflexes, as shown in Whisky Peak when he dodged a large variety of attacks used against him by the Baroque Works agents, including gunfire, melee weapons, blinding gas, and even a bazooka, despite numerous attempts by the agents to surround and trap him.

After the timeskip, Zoro has demonstrated tremendous speed swimming underwater, being able to traverse through the depths of the ocean in a small bubble and easily perform a powerful attack against the giant kraken, Surume. Notably, he was able to easily move past Hody Jones and strike him down while underwater, despite Hody being exponentially more powerful underwater as a fish-man. On Punk Hazard, Zoro was able to fight off multiple sharks despite being submerged in the freezing cold center of the lake.

Zoro possesses immense levels of durability and endurance, having survived numerous serious injuries and oftentimes continuing to fight and move around while afflicted with them. One of his greatest assets as a warrior is his inexplicable pain tolerance.

Zoro has fallen from rooftops and various other high places multiple times, but has never been seriously affected by such falls, even in Arlong Park where he was flung into the air by Luffy and landed on a hard platform while severely injured. In Skypiea, Zoro fell many meters from the Upper Ruins onto the hard streets of Shandora and had large pieces of rubble fall onto him, but quickly lifted the rubble off him and emerged with little injury. He remarked that he almost died, and Robin replied that a normal person would have. Due to the lack of serious effect of these falls, they are often portrayed comedically.

Zoro has an extremely high tolerance for alcohol, being capable of out-drinking 13 bounty hunters in Whisky Peak before pretending to faint in order to intercept a potential attack. When confronting the bounty hunters soon afterward, Zoro showed no sign of being inhibited by alcohol, indicating his true tolerance is far greater.

Although strength plays a large role in his swordsmanship, Zoro is capable of performing extremely precise cuts. Zoro can cut even when in small confines, including cutting himself free from his rope bindings in Shells Town and cutting apart the chimney he was stuck in in Water 7. Zoro has additionally shown enough skill to unleash cuts on opponents and objects while in midair, including defeating Ryuma and Pica while moving high above the ground at great speed. Notably, in Wano he was able to stop a flying arrow by intercepting it with the flat side of his sword blade, and later he used a sword to deflect bullets shot by Kurozumi Orochi.

Numerous times, Zoro has incorporated animal-like spirits which often manifest around him whenever readying an attack, including when using No Sword Style. This aura, however, has no indications of being related to Haki, before or after the timeskip, being the possible manifestation of Zoro's killing intent or spirit. Even Kaku, a CP9 agent with superhuman prowess, described this as an ominous beast-like spirit.

Although Zoro is famous for wielding three swords, becoming known as the Three Sword Style, he is proficient enough to wield either two swords and even one, the former being his original style. In the event that he either opts to not use Three Sword Style or does not have a third sword, Zoro would instead use Two Sword Style in fighting against an opponent. However, several of Zoro's finishing moves involve using one sword despite once claiming that he is "not that good at one-sword techniques" against Sham. Having gotten used to One Sword Style, he can defeat multiple powerful opponents, one notable example being the time he decapitated the very large and tough Dragon Number Thirteen with a single strike aimed at its neck.

His swordsmanship incorporates tremendous strength to overpower opponents and cause significant damage and destruction. Zoro has enough strength to release flying slashes to cut and damage things beyond his usual range. During his duels, particularly when wielding all three of his swords, Zoro has frequently defeated his opponents by charging towards them and cutting them with a single attack, rather than managing to find openings to strike them in the midst of a duel; he has also used his strength to gain the upper-hand in deadlock clashes and strike down his opponent.

Zoro is an extremely skilled and talented swordsman; training at the Isshin Dojo in Shimotsuki Village from childhood, he was able to consistently defeat adult swordsmen in duels, with Kuina being the one person he could not beat. After reaching adulthood, he became a great master swordsman famous for wielding three swords in battle. Since Zoro's goal is to become the World's Strongest Swordsman, he devoted himself to swordsmanship, becoming known across the East Blue. When confronting Dracule Mihawk, the current World's Strongest Swordsman, he was utterly outclassed by the Warlord even just using his Kogatana. However, Mihawk was impressed by Zoro's conviction and let him live, believing he could reach the top and challenge him. Several months later, Zoro would train under Mihawk for two years and further increased his abilities exponentially.

Zoro has managed to fight off and defeat large groups of skilled opponents on his own, with his most notable accomplishment in this field being when he single handedly defeated a group of 100 bounty hunters from Baroque Works, a powerful criminal organization. Weeks later on Kuraigana Island, he managed to fight and eventually defeat a large horde of Humandrills, giant monkeys with advanced combat skills, adaptive learning, and inhuman durability, despite sustaining severe wounds prior to arriving there. Even Dracule Mihawk himself was stunned to learn that the Humandrills had been defeated. Despite being adept at dealing with attacks from multiple opponents simultaneously, Zoro has limits, most so if said opponents are skilled in their own right.

Three Sword Style is Zoro's main style of sword fighting. Unusual for a human, he wields three swords simultaneously, holding one in each hand and one in his mouth. Many of Zoro's Three Sword Style attacks use all three of the blades to strike opponents, cutting them numerous times or cutting multiple opponents at the same time. When performing flying slashes with Three Sword Style, Zoro can create whirlwind-like attacks that have shown the ability to catch and strike dozens of opponents at once. He is also able to effectively use all three of his swords to parry attacks and can even counter attacks performed by multiple opponents at once. Zoro has shown little issue dueling against opponents wielding more swords than him, particularly the six sword-wielding Hatchan and the eight sword-wielding Hyouzou, viewing the latter as not even worth his time.

During the Wano Country Arc, Zoro developed the King of Hell Three Sword Style, a vastly enhanced version of Three Sword Style, where he goes all out using Armament Haki and Supreme King Haki; significantly increasing his techniques' power and range more than either of his prior styles, which could wound and defeat one of the last surviving Lunarians, King, whereas before he shrugged off his strongest techniques thus far. However, because using the King of Hell Three Style Sword is based on Zoro allowing Enma to drain his Haki reserves, he is not able to maintain this for that long before running out of Haki and would need time to recover it.

Two Sword Style is Zoro's original fighting style in his childhood before he started practicing Three Sword Style. Like Three Sword Style, Zoro has immense mastery of this style of sword fighting, dual-wielding two of his swords in battle with great power and skill, even incorporating unsheathing and re-sheathing techniques as well as flying slashes.

One Sword Style is a sword fighting style that Zoro began to perfect and then master. Like the previous styles, Zoro has exceptional skill in One Sword Style and has repeatedly used this style to perform finishing moves against a vast range of enemies. Similar to Two Sword Style, flying slashes and various unsheathing and re-sheathing techniques are used in this style, mainly to defeat or injure powerful opponents with a single strike. This style could hold off the Nyaban brothers of the Black Cat Pirates and take down several of the lower-ranked members of Arlong's crew.

Nine Sword Style is the most extreme application of Zoro's spirit projection abilities. With sufficient anger, a dark aura surrounds him and somehow managed to create a solid illusion of himself with multiple heads and arms that can actually slice though even the strongest of opponents, giving him the essence of nine swords. Despite its seemingly purely spiritual nature, Zoro's attack power increases threefold, letting him disperse Kaku's Rankyaku "Amane Dachi", his strongest Rankyaku and cut him several times in an instant. This form is used very rarely in canon, having been shown first against Kaku on Enies Lobby and later against PX-4 at the Sabaody Archipelago.

It was used for the first time after the timeskip against Kaidou alongside Armament Haki, which was powerful enough to inflict a permanent scar on him. According to the Emperor, Zoro also used Supreme King Haki when performing the attack, though Zoro had no idea. In the anime, Zoro uses Ashura without the three sword style to drink and eat at the same time.

Originally, Zoro first developed an interest in the Foxfire Style, the unique sword style of Kin'emon, the Nine Red Scabbards' Leader, when he first saw Kin'emon use it against Smiley at Punk Hazard. Later during the battle against Kaidou and Big Mom at Onigashima, it was revealed that Zoro "stole" this technique. As such, he can cut through flames, as shown when he bisected the Sun Homie, Prometheus, hurting him. Despite being his first time using it, Zoro has proven himself quite adaptable in using it, slicing through Kaidou's Bolo Breath, then incorporating it into his sword styles without much difference between them. Zoro then sliced through King's strongest technique, Omori Karyudon, and then the lunarian himself, thus defeating him.

Zoro is one of the very few people in the world who can use all three types of Haki.

Zoro possesses the ability to use Supreme King Haki, a very rare form of Haki whose users are stated to have the qualities of a "king". This power has laid dormant within Zoro and he was unaware he possesses it. He was first noted to have it by Kaidou after the Emperor was struck by Zoro's Ashura Bakkei: Moja no Tawamure.

During Zoro's battle against King, in deciding to go all out using Haki, he ended up using it to knock out multiple low-ranked Beasts Pirates, causing him to acknowledge he possessed it. At the same time, he ended up using its advanced application, "infusing" it into his three swords, with all three emitted streams of black lightning signifying its infusion. As their battle continued, Zoro managed to gain conscious control over the advanced technique, infusing it into all three swords, or infusing it into Sandai Kitetsu to deal significant damage to King.

In the anime, Zoro's first usage of Supreme King Haki occurs much earlier, while blending in with a group of Beasts Pirates, enraged over their mockery of the suffering of the residents of Ebisu Town and Okobore Town, he releases a burst of Haki knocking several out, with him simply attributing them fainting as due to drinking too much fine liquor.

Zoro is an extremely skilled user of Armament Haki. It became his main expertise, having learned it from Dracule Mihawk, mastering both hardening and imbuement during the two-year timeskip, turning them black. Despite this, hardening is often used during serious battles, as well as using this Armament Haki to harm Logia users, as seen when he imbued it into a flying slash, wounding Monet. At Dressrosa, against Pica, Zoro hardened all three of his swords, cutting apart the mountain-sized stone giant, surprising the members of the Nine Red Scabbards, Kin'emon and Kanjuro. He later cut through the Elite Officer, who had hardened himself using Armament Haki, similar to Vergo, proving that his Armament Haki mastery was superior to his. Two of his hardened swords could hold back the Torikago's strings, which could slice up buildings and meteorites.

In Wano, Zoro once again showed his mastery through Enma's test, a Meito notorious for draining the "Ryuo", their term for Armament Haki from weaker swordsmen, turning them into a husk. It, in fact, drained the Haki from him, emaciating his right arm, however, Zoro retook all the drained Haki seconds later. During the Raid on Onigashima, he managed to gain some control over Enma, emanating a flame-like aura, and to wound Kaidou's dragon form, same as Kouzuki Oden, the Nine Red Scabbards, and Luffy. It was not until Zoro wielded his Armament and Supreme King Haki together, strengthening his Nine Sword Style, that he was able to permanently scar Kaidou in his Human-Beast Form. Against King, Zoro used Armament Haki to defend himself from a point-blank fiery explosion that covered a section of the Skull Dome.

Zoro is a very skilled user of Observation Haki, as shown when he was asked by Luffy if he could sense a "wild beast" in the Ryugu Palace, which he stated he could. This was demonstrated further on Egghead, when he was capable of sensing Jaygarcia Saturn's arrival from a distance. Later Zoro sensed the presence of the rest of the Five Elders, noting their Haki could be felt all over the island.

Currently, Zoro is known to have owned seven swords, all of them katanas and has briefly borrowed multiple other swords and weapons when necessary. Due to his Three Sword Style, he usually owns three swords at a time. These are the swords that Zoro currently owns:

Wado Ichimonji: One of the 21 Great Grade Meito. Forged by the legendary Wano swordsmith Shimotsuki Kouzaburou and previously owned by his granddaughter and Zoro's friend Kuina; given to Zoro 11 years ago by Kuina's father Koushirou after her untimely death. The only one of Zoro's swords that did not shatter when Zoro first clashed with Mihawk's Supreme Grade sword Yoru.

Sandai Kitetsu: A Grade Meito; it is said to be "cursed" and will bring great misfortune upon its owner. Forged by the great Wano swordsmith Kouzuki Sukiyaki and given to Zoro two years ago in Loguetown by the arms dealer Ipponmatsu.

Enma: One of the 21 Great Grade Meito. Also forged by Shimotsuki Kouzaburou and was originally wielded by the legendary samurai, Kouzuki Oden. Oden's daughter, Kouzuki Hiyori who inherited Enma bestowed it to Zoro under the promise that he returned Shusui to Ryuma's grave. Until the Raid on Onigashima in the Wano Country Arc, it was one of the two swords to cut Kaidou of the Four Emperors and give him his one scar. Enma has the special trait of drawing out large amounts of the wielder's Armament Haki.

Zoro was born 21 years ago in the East Blue to Tera and Roronoa Arashi, a descendant of the Shimotsuki Family. By the time Zoro was 8 years old, his father had already been killed in a battle against pirates threatening Shimotsuki Village, and his mother had died of illness, leaving Zoro orphaned. At the village's dojo, he trained to be a swordsman.