‘One Piece’: Why Did Big Mom Replace Zeus with Hera & Is She Really Stronger?

Big Mom, full name Charlotte Linlin, was one of the Four Emperors from the manga One Piece. She is the captain of the Big Mom Pirates and was one of the Four Emperors ruling over the New World, as their only female member at the time. Big Mom was a truly powerful character, and among her many powers and abilities was her ability to create homies that she could use for various purposes, including battle. Zeus was, by far, her best-known homie, but at one point during the events of the Wano County saga, Big Mom replaced him with Hera and intended to kill him. In this article, we will tell you why Zeus was replaced and whether Hera was stronger than Zeus in One Piece.

Big Mom replaced Zeus with Hera because she lost him. After that, Prometheus asked her to create a new homie, so she created Hera. When Zeus tried to return to her, she simply dismissed him and ordered Hera to eat him to become stronger, but he managed to survive and then permanently joined Nami. She seems to be somewhere around Zeus’ level of power, but she was able to sync better with Prometheus and Napoleon.

The rest of this article will focus on Hera and her role in the One Piece manga and the most recent episodes of the anime series. We will give you all the details you need to know about Hera’s arrival in the series, her relationship with Zeus, and everything else you’ll need to understand what actually happened to Hera and Zeus in the series. The article is going to contain spoilers, so we have to warn you beforehand.

Zeus was replaced by Big Mom because she lost him again and… that’s it

The story of how Big Mom rejected Zeus started in Totto Land when the Straw Hats defeated Big Mom. Zeus was heavily weakened after Brook’s attack, after which Brook took him with them to their ship, the Thousand Sunny; there, Nami threatened that she would hurt him if he did not serve her, so he accepted under coercion. Later, in Wano Country, when Kurozumi Orochi chases Robin, Nami unleashes Zeus’ lightning bolts on him, this being the first time that she actually made use of the Homie’s powers.

Two weeks later, on the night of the fire festival, when Nami, Carrot, and Shinobu are discovered by Prometheus, who called Big Mom, Zeus is terrified and runs off with the women.

They are soon apprehended and brought into the area where Kaido is giving a speech. Zeus tells Nami that there is nothing she can do to stop the empress from bringing him back, to which she replies by asking him whose side he is on anyway. When Nami is about to deploy Zeus’ electric charge for an attack, the thundercloud homie apologizes to Nami, as Big Mom takes control of him once again.

Brook quickly steps and cuts Zeus in half again, but the homie seems lost. Later, Big Mom escapes from Marco and returns to the palace using Zeus.

When Big Mom reaches Kaido on the island’s top, Zeus recharges himself by eating some clouds and then listens to the conversation between the two emperors. He then witnesses the arrival of Luffy, Zoro, Law, Kidd, and Killer. Zeus acts as a means of transport for Big Mom while she and Kaido collide with supernovae. After suffering a combined attack from the two emperors, Law uses his powers to lock Zeus in a metal box created by Kidd.

The homie gets desperate, and when Big Mom asks for help, he worries about not knowing what’s going on and trying to get rid of her. Afterward, the metal box disassembles, and Zeus becomes free, so he rushes to the rescue of his owner.

He meets Sanji on the way there but flees right after he sees him find Big Mom, eventually locating her and rushes to catch up with her. He cries when he gets to her, thinking that he has been replaced, and sees that she is with a new cloud buddy; he then realizes what has happened as he notices Hera, Big Mom’s new thundercloud homie. He then recognizes Nami and hails her, but she rudely dismisses him.

Zeus, who is present when Big Mom spots him, claims that no one can stop them now that four of them exist. The empress tells him, however, that she no longer needs him, and Prometheus reprimands him for his behavior. Zeus begs her not to kill him, but she simply tells Hera to eat him to grow stronger.

At that moment, Zeus was aware that he had been replaced and that Big Mom had no intention of working with four homies simultaneously, so he knew his story was over at that point.

And this happened. Rejecting his pleas to keep him alive, Big Mom responds that she cannot afford to let him roam where and how he pleases, and then grabs him and drains his soul.

Zeus then tearfully apologizes to Nami for having betrayed her, declaring himself a coward for not opposing his creator’s orders and ready to sacrifice himself for the navigator, to whom he asks to look at his latest gesture. Nami doesn’t forgive him at point, but he still decides to prove that he is sorry.

Before getting his soul sucked out, Zeus attacks Big Mom after being released from Hera’s control, but she grabs him and takes his soul to feed his new homie. Zeus states that he cannot feed himself with them, given his condition, and is then consumed by Hera.

Nami throws the Black Balls at him to help him regain his vitality and escape. However, he manages to live, and his soul joins Nami’s Clima-Tact. Zeus says that he survived because, just before he was consumed, his soul transferred to the Clima- Tact, which can now expand and take on different shapes at will and is a significant addition to Nami’s weapon.

Hera and Zeus were on a similar level when their strengths are concerned

Now you know what happened between Zeus and Big Mom, i.e., why the powerful empress decided to replace the thundercloud homie with Hera. But was Hera really that more powerful than Zeus? Well, this remains a mystery. Namely, we haven’t really seen that much of Hera in action. We know that she was more powerful than a traditional homie, as she was created directly from Big Mom’s soul, but so was Zeus, so in that aspect, they were equal in terms of powers and abilities.

She also has roughly the same powers and abilities as Zeus, being able to release large and powerful lightning bolts that wreak great destruction. As for her techniques, we know these:

• Fulgora, which consists of an enormous horizontal lightning bolt that Hera releases and which creates a massive explosion upon impact. This attack has enormous destructive power.
• Maser Ho is a combined special attack that Hera unleashes along with the other two special homies Prometheus and Napoleon. The three of them unite and then Napoleon pierces Prometheus at the base and Hera at the tip. The two of them then combine their energies and release a combined thunder-fire ring that appears between them. Big Mom then uses Napoleon to unleash a beam that can pierce flesh and create a large explosion.
• Marma-Raid happens when Big Mom combines Napoleon with Hera, jumping in the air and spinning forward vertically to attack with a thunder-powered slash of her blade.
• Tenman Daijizai Tenjin consists of Big Mom controlling Hera’s lightning abilities and attacking the nearby area with a powerful thunderstorm that also causes powerful explosions. Interestingly, the lightning is sentient and can also target opponents regardless of Big Mom’s instructions.
• Maser Saber is another combined attack of Hera, Prometheus, and Napoleon. The three of them actually form a powerful blade made out of energy that Big Mom can utilize while using Napoleon.
  • Bahoho: Misery is a creation that is derived from the previous attack. Wielding the Maser Saber, Big Mom creates a large female homie called Misery, made out of fire and lightning. The home can then chase and attack opponents independently.

As you can see, Hera has some interesting attacks, but individually, she is not more powerful than Zeus. Zeus also has more experience, so at full power, we’re quite sure that Zeus would triumph over her in a one-on-one clash. But, on the other hand, Hera has an advantage when combined with their fellow homies.

Namely, it has been confirmed that Hera’s ability to sync with the other homies is much better than Zeus’, which would mean, basically, that she is more advanced than Zeus in this aspect, and that could prove to be a significant advantage in a fight, especially when knowing how these homies usually work.