Zoro is one of the iconic characters in all of Manga despite not being a protagonist. Throughout the series, he has gone through many shifts and has overcome many battles to become the best swordsman in all the Grand Line. But like every character in Luffy’s crew, he has quirks and weaknesses. For one, you should never give him a map or ask for directions, you will be lost in both cases, and he will blame you for that! But one thing all his fans would admit is this, he is a straight-laced who does his uttermost to become the best and would do anything to save his friends.
The best instance of this case was when Zoro took all of Luffy’s pain after Kuma totaled the rubber pirate. Kuma is a devil fruit user with the ability to push anything. Arbitrary in nature, Kuma easily defeated and then exhausted Straw hats with ease. And when Kuma was ready to take Luffy to the world government, Zoro offered to switch with him. But Kuma had a sadistic idea.
Kuma was a different character from the people working for the government. When confronted by Zoro, he offered to take neither of them to the government, surprising Zoro. Instead, he proposed he would push all of Luffy’s pain onto him knowing that would kill Zoro. And to show how deadly that pain would be, he pushed a little of Luffy’s Pain to Zoro.
Zoro screamed in agony but asked him to throw all the pain at him anyway. And Kuma asked if he still wanted to go forward with this, to which Zoro said yes. What followed was when one of the coolest scenes in One Piece and an iconic meme format.
So Why Is Zoro Called Zolo In The Manga?
There are two reasons for this, first the language barrier. The Japanese language has three scripts; Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Kanji are borrowed Chinese words, so it comes down to the other two. However, neither of the other two scripts has an ‘L’ sound, and in all the instances L sound is replaced with the ‘R’ sound. This is why when you hear the character say the word ‘Love,’ it sounds like ‘rove.’
Moreover, that doesn’t stop people from making the distinction between the two syllables, as Katakana is for this very purpose. The main purpose of Katakana is for the use of foreign words. This brings us to the next reason that helps the creator avoid a lawsuit. And a sad side of the publishing industry.
Also Read: Zoro Facts: 7 Unexplored Sides Of Zoro From One Piece Revealed
In one of the Interviews Oda listed the inspirations he took for every character and how the series came to be in the first place. The main inspiration for the story from a pirate story that anyone hardly talks about these days, with a big influence being Dragon Ball. For his characters, however, Oda took inspiration from a lot of places all over the world. While Luffy is based on Goku, other characters’ inspiration comes from many places. Like Captain kid based on William Kidd, Black Beard based on William Teach, Jewelry Bonney based on Anne Bonny, and so on.
And Zoro, to is based on a real-life pirate named François l’Olonnais, a french pirate in the 1600s. However, due to the similarity of the name with the character Zorro created by Johnston McCulley in 1919. The English publication decided to change Zoro’s name to Zolo to avoid copyright issues, to which Oda agreed. And this is not the only case of the name change. For similar reasons, stand names from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure version are different in the English localization.
What Is With Zoro’s Left Eye?
Every character changed after the two-year time-skip in One Piece. The main reason Oda did it was to have grown-up designs for characters, but also to give them the ability to use Haki. Zoro, too, was able to use Haki after his return, but he also had a cut on the left side of his face.
The first assumption of everyone was Zoro had lost it, but Zoro clarified and said he couldn’t open it for the time being. This will be one of the things that will play a role later in the story, and since the series has entered the final arc, we will soon learn why he keeps his eye shut and why. And will they have bounty even after the finale?
