You Couple So Hard One Of You Becomes King Of Hell At The Same Time With The Other Becoming The Sun God

today i am thinking about zoro and luffy both having two constantly depicted scars. one on their eye each and one on their chest each. so intrinsically intertwined they have matching mortal wounds.

and i know it’s silly, and coincidental, but i like to think it symbolises them understanding each other more and more as time passes.

zoro got his chest scar clambering and falling on the way to his dream, being defeated by mihawk so easily then swearing to never lose again. and luffy who got his chest scar clambering and falling in a different way. they understood ultimate defeat respectively, loss and something that hit, quite literally, over the heart. their chest scars are their most important reminders of strength, the need for it. and loss, the need to avoid it.

and then luffy, who’s eye scar is a self-inflicted wound as he tried to convince shanks he could be a pirate too- he was strong enough. and zoro who got his eye scar during the timeskip, in a way we still don’t completely know, in the height of his self loathing for not being strong enough. they both got the scars around their eyes for the future ahead of them, and in trying desperately to get there. luffy asking shanks to take him onboard, and zoro asking mihawk to train him. the scars around their eyes are ground zeroes, an ask, a plea, complete determination.

one piece started and zoro quickly learned to understand loss, knew loss, while luffy would learn loss so deeply in marineford. one piece started and luffy understood helpless desperation, growing up with shanks refusing him. and zoro learned that later, so horribly, after thriller bark turned into the sabaody incident turned into marineford where he couldn’t do anything.

zoro and luffy understand each other so completely, they’re soulmates. but there are still parts of themselves which are obscured, different, simply because they are two different people with two different histories. and those things that are missing come with age, experience or being together. they understand one another more each day, somehow that’s possible, and i think their scars are a good example of it. them learning things which they may not have understood before, connecting to parts of each other they may not have connected to before.

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Zoro finds comfort in the sun and always sleeps soundly underneath it. While Luffy finds comfort in the moon, it makes him feel at ease every time he looks at it.

I tried doing an animation/animatic, this is my first time 😅, I hope y’all like it

Zoro and Luffy have always been my favorite characters. When I first started One Piece, I didn't ship any of the Strawhats. Like many, I view them as family, and I see both Luffy and Zoro as AroAce. Both are so simple-minded and want nothing more but meat/booze and their dreams.

But since both of them hold a very special place in my heart, I always wanted the best for them.

For Zoro, I love to see him happy and not alone. The person who always brings out Zoro's best smiles has always been Luffy. Zoro, who was mostly shown as serious and grumpy, smiles whenever he sees Luffy when they finally meet again after some time apart (when he saw Luffy in Sabaody, it was the first time he smiled, and their Wano reunion where you can really see Zoro's brightest smile). There are so many times Luffy had made him smile and laugh and I know Zoro, despite being aloof and often wants to be alone, really enjoys Luffy's company. Zoro, who also doesn't liked to be touched, still welcomes Luffy's suffocating hugs.

Zoro set sail alone with nothing but his sword and his ambitions, and for him to find someone who also holds the same impossible dream as him and holds his ambitions in the same high regard must have felt a sense of companionship for him. Zoro, who is alone, is given a companion(Luffy) who will also chase the same impossible dream together with him. Not only that, Luffy has also given him a new-found family(Strawhats). I just know that ever since he met Luffy, his life has been better.

Aside from that, Zoro has often been portrayed as someone who would never bow down to anyone. It was even shown multiple times in the series how people are surprised he wasn't the captain. He's arrogant and proud. The reason he wants to defeat Mihawk and Kuina is because he wants to stand above them and be the strongest. Luffy is the only person Zoro has chosen to stand above him as his captain, and that speaks a lot.

Zoro is proud, but Luffy is still the only person that made him bow 2 times. It only shows how much he holds Luffy above the only 2 things that matter when he first sets out to sea. Even now, Zoro is still portrayed as prideful, but with Luffy or the crew, I know he will not have a second thought about throwing it away.

For Luffy, I just want him to be loved and cherished. The Strawhats have shown time and time again how much they care, love and sacrifice themselves for Luffy. But before the Strawhats was even formed, it was just Luffy and Zoro in a dinghy. The moment Zoro carried Luffy's cage while his guts are spilling out was the moment Zoro became my favorite character. He just met Luffy for only a few hours?days?weeks?, and yet he treated him like he was important. Since the beginning, Zoro has consistently shown unwavering loyalty and support to Luffy. Dudebros even called him "Luffy's ride or die" and Zoro honestly earned it. When I read the manga, Zoro didn't even question if Luffy already had a crew or if Luffy already had a ship. He just literally went with him, no questions asked. Where are we going next? The grandline? Well I guess we'll just go there. Let's find a navigator first.

The moment Zoro joined him, Luffy was already so cherished and loved by his first mate(it didn't even matter if it was romantic or platonic. Zoro really loves him). Until now, Zoro, despite being prideful, will sacrifice himself time and time again for him.

From the beginning, it was just Zoro and Luffy in a tiny boat with nothing but each other and their impossible dreams. And I know until the end of the series, they will still stand side by side, with the family they gathered along the way and the dreams they finally reached together.

In summary to my endless rambling, their relationship has always been special to me because, as my 2 favorite characters, I want nothing more than to see them the happiest and at most loved. I didn't ship them at first, but ZoLu just complement each other in every single way that I gradually see that they deserve one another (and I can't see them paired with anyone else). Aside from having the same single braincell and many parallels, their relationship is so simple but has so much depth. They can literally just be best friends or lovers. At the end of the day, they are soulmates.

i adore how zoro and luffy are oftentimes put on an equal level.

like initially, their main parallels exist in shanks and mihawks. even if you remove their connections to zoro and luffy, both interpersonal and as their heroes/fated rivals/some indescribable in between, and how eventually both of zoro and luffy’s narratives will circle back to them respectively; they are blatant parallels to one another on even a character trait level. mihawk and shanks, who were always equally matched in combat, are zoro and luffy's counterparts.

next is how they are each other's weaknesses. luffy is famously, and terrifyingly, susceptible to cutting attacks. after the strawhats have achieved their goals, in concept, luffy's ultimate weakness would be zoro; the world's greatest swordsman. luffy's first mate is his achilles heel. but of course that will never matter, because what would have been his ultimate threat is his strongest companion, his most devote follower, of whom there is no one he trusts more to eternally stand by his side. zoro is equivalent; he is a power focused fighter, strong and fatal, and luffy is agile and inventive, his natural opposite.

additionally is how their dreams balance. luffy, the captain, and his dream that yearns for unparalleled freedom. zoro, the swordsman, who's dream aches for untouchable power. zoro facilitates and protects luffy's dream of ultimate freedom, using his drive of power to be his dearest soldier. while luffy catalysed zoro's direction and puts him in positions to closer attain ultimate strength every day, whereas he existed in limbo without him. luffy's drive of freedom rid zoro of his aimlessness.

lastly, there are so many small moments where they are intended to be viewed as coequal, something closer to partners. them both dying in onigashima then waking up in the same moment, them both being supernovas, kuma accepting zoro's life instead of luffy; equating them in value in thriller bark, them both having supreme king haki, etc. is there nothing more indicative of being equals than two conquerors, harmonious together?

i think a lot of it stems from how zoro's devotion is an outlier. zoro's devotion, at it's foundations, is something so precious because he doesn't need to be luffy's follower, but he wants to be. every enemy pre-timeskip is confused that zoro is the one taking orders, his sheer power and 'kingly qualities' could make him an infamous captain in his own right, and that's a constant theme in his worship. zoro wants to follow, he loves answering to and trusting luffy to make the decisions that's best for them. if zoro had the gnaw for leadership he would thrive doing so, and that makes his loyalty all the more momentous. they could be equals, and there are so many subtle moments where they are shown to be as such, but zoro doesn't want that. he happily stands on the stair beneath luffy just to have the privilege of being allowed to look up at him.

i adore how zoro and luffy are oftentimes put on an equal level, but zoro chooses to revere and follow regardless.

*sips tea* i can assure you that if you were gay for me that you’d constantly have some sort of gay panic over how good I look 24/7, sorry, i dont make the rules

i know zoro has thoughts that he doesn’t deserve everything he has, then suddenly he has a bigger and more human sized worry to think about, coming his way at approximately 50mph