One Piece is an anime that certainly has its fair share of strong and powerful characters. And while its protagonist, Monkey D. Luffy, has most often been featured in our One Piece-related comparisons, this one is not going to focus on Luffy at all. Namely, the protagonists of this comparison are going to be Zoro, a member of Luffy’s crew, and Trafalgar D. Water Law, the captain of the Hearts Pirates. In this article, we are going to analyze the two, as we are going to pit Zoro against Law to finally determine who the stronger of the two is.
The outcome of this fight would depend on the way of fighting. If the two would fight using simply weapons and their physical powers and abilities, Zoro would definitely come out as the winner. On the other hand, if Law would go all out on Zoro with his Devil Fruit, he would most probably defeat Luffy’s friend and crewmate.
The rest of this article will further elaborate on the above-given answer, as we are going to compare Zoro and Law in more detail. Through several categories, you are going to see who the stronger of the two is and why our answer is like it is, i.e., we are going to elaborate on the two possible outcomes of this potentially epic fight.
Physical powers
Zoro is one of the physically strongest characters in the series. He demonstrates the strength of him when he was fighting Daz Bones, he easily lifted a building despite the injuries he had. He is seen training on the Thousand Sunny with ton weight dumbbells. His strength is surely equal to or greater than that of a giant as he was able to parry a direct hit from Oars with his swords.
After the time skip, Zoro greatly increased his strength. Proof of this is that he was able to defeat a Pacifista with a single attack when before the timeskip he and all his companions joined forces to defeat one, he was able to cut a pirate ship with a single cut, he was also capable of defeating and seriously injuring Hody Jones, a Fish-Man with physical strength above the average of his race when he was underwater and with several Energy Steroids consumed.
One of his greatest feats was defeating Pica in his gigantic form without a single scratch, though he had to turn to Orlumbus to gain mobility and momentum. Zoro has also shown to be very agile and fast. An example of this is that in the Whiskey Peak arc he took on a large number of Baroque Works agents, slipping through their ranks so quickly that they didn’t notice him until he spoke.
Despite Caesar saying that the Yeti Cool Brothers are very strong, Law managed to dispatch one of them with relative ease. He has also shown great resilience, withstanding a direct blow to his heart from Caesar, which only caused him to momentarily lose consciousness. He was able to withstand a prolonged beating from Vergo, and although the fight was brutal and bloody, when he regained his heart he defeated him with a cut, despite Doflamingo saying that when Vergo used Busoshoku Haki it was impossible to cut.
Even when he was defeated and injured by Donquixote Doflamingo and Admiral Issho, Law was able to quickly recover and escape. During his second confrontation with Doflamingo he was able to fight him off and, despite still being injured from their first encounter and even after his right arm was amputated and further injured, he was able to continue fighting and stand up to Doflamingo. and give him a grievous wound with his gamma knife move. Even incapacitated by Trebol, he was able to use his severed arm and even defeat the supreme officer.
This was the most difficult category to evaluate here, but we still think that Zoro is stronger than Law. He has trained more and his physical abilities are truly amazing, so we have to give the point to him.
Points: Zoro 1, Law 0
Devil Fruit
Roronoa Zoro is a very powerful character. He is known as one of the most powerful characters in the series and one of the series’ best swordsmen; he is, by all means, probably going to surpass even Mihawk in the future. Now, Zoro’s powers and feats definitely merit a conclusion that he has consumed a Devil Fruit, but is that really true? It’s not – namely, Roronoa Zoro has never eaten a Devil Fruit.
This makes Zoro one of a very small number of characters (the most notable other one being Shanks and Mihawk) who are extremely powerful, but have not actually consumed a Devil Fruit; most of the other powerful characters have to thank their Devil Fruits for their individual reputations.
Law possesses the power of a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit, the Ope Ope no Mi which allows him to create a spherical area of light blue aura. As Smoker says, having eaten this Devil Fruit, Law becomes a “Man-modifier”. In this area, he is able to separate and spatially move anything and everything. With his powers, he is able to look like he can quickly slice people to pieces from a distance with his sword.
He can also join the separated parts in any way he sees fit, such as sticking someone’s head to a barrel. People separated by this ability are not killed, and can still feel their separated parts, no matter how far apart they were separated from each other (much like Buggy separates himself using the powers of the Bara Bara fruit no Mid).
The effect persists even after Law deactivates his power. Separate parts can be reassembled, even by someone other than Law. He can make the people and objects that are in his sphere change places, as he did with Jean Bart and Bepo to protect the latter from a Pacifista; he can, for example to protect himself, exchange pistol bullets for snowflakes contained in the sphere.
The fact that Zoro never ate a Devil Fruit makes this category quite clear. Trafalgar Law’s Ope Ope no Mi is quite powerful and it gives Law the advantage in this category.
Points: Zoro 1, Law 1
Haki
Zoro is one of the few people to possess all 3 forms of Haki. Zoro possesses the Royal Haki, the rarest Haki, whose users are said to possess the qualities of a King. He is first mentioned to hold this power by Kaido after Zoro’s nine-sword attack. During his fight against King, he uses the Royal Haki to coat his sabers, a very advanced form, and at the same time members of the Hundred Beasts Crew are seen fainting around.
He didn’t use the Haki offensively against Monet but still managed to beat her as she thought he was going to use the Haki and therefore she was going to die. The fear that Monet felt at that moment completely destabilized her. He has learned to imbue his sabers with Haki to make them more effective against Haki or Devil Fruit users.
He also used the Armament Haki on Pica to slice him which means his Haki is more advanced than Pica’s. Using the Haki also allows him to counter Devil Fruit powers, as he did to temporarily stop the Birdcage.
He first uses the Observation in his fight against Nuru, a Fishman capable of blinding his opponents thanks to the lantern on his forehead, even telling him that he only used his eyes to see and that was why he was weak; he made use of it again to find Caribou in the palace. He also uses it during the Arc Dressrosa, to find where the one who stole his saber is but also to find Pica during his fight against him.
Luffy announced that Law had Haki. The extent of his ability to use it has not been revealed, but he displayed good enough proficiency in Busoshoku Haki to block Donquixote Doflamingo’s Five Color Strings, which still cut half of the palace. During his fight against Doflamingo, he also used his Buoshoku Haki offensively by successively hardening his fist and then his foot to attack the Corsair Captain. During his battle with Smoker, Law was shown to be able to bypass Logia defenses.
At some point, after Law and his crew visited Amazon Lily to deliver Luffy and Jinbei, while Law’s teammates admired the beauty of the amazons prompting Law to warn them that they were dangerous, one of the amazons fired an arrow imbued with his Haki at the Corsair Captain, and therefore lowered his head to dodge it, no doubt thanks to Kenbunshoku Haki. He is an experienced user of it, although he has never shown it explicitly.
The fact that Zoro can use all three types of Haki, while Law knows only two makes this situation quite clear. This point simply has to go to Zoro for quantity-related reasons.
Points: Zoro 2, Law 1
Weapons
In the beginning of his journey as a pirate, Zoro only mastered the Santoryu, his conventional fighting style; but over time he began to master techniques from other schools, such as Nitoryu, Ittoryu, or even Mutouryu. Currently, Zoro and the rest of the crew have improved their abilities to face the New World.
Zoro is known to be able to cut through a Pacifista the caliber of those found in the Sabaody Archipelago, so it follows that Zoro can relatively easily cut through materials even harder than steel without using any Shishi Sonson-like moves, very probably because he has learned to use busoshoku haki.
Law owns a sword called Kikoku, this sword does not belong to any qualification named by Tashigi, because according to Oda it is a cursed sword. This sword seems to be a nodachi (sword similar to traditional katanas, but much longer, approximately 1.20m blade). Law seems quite adept at swordsmanship, as he can slice through his targets from a long distance (although this power is also thanks to his devil fruit). Law was able to deflect Doflamingo’s strings with his sword, which is noteworthy, as Doflamingo managed to effortlessly cut through everything else thus far.
Law is not a bad swordsman, on the contrary, but when compared to Zoro, who is probably the closest to Mihawk and Shanks, he doesn’t really stand a chance in this final category.
Points: Zoro 3, Law 1
Roranoa Zoro vs. Trafalgar D. Water Law: Who wins?
Zoro wins against Law in our points and that one is absolutely true, but only under one condition – no Devil Fruits! Namely, Zoro is a better-trained swordsman than Law, he is physically more imposing and knows all three types of Haki, whereas Law knows only two. If the two of them would fight using only their weapons skills and physical powers, Zoro would definitely win. It wouldn’t be an easy fight, but he would win!
But, if Law would use his Devil Fruit powers, Zoro wouldn’t stand much chance. Law’s Devil Fruit has some specific traits that Zoro couldn’t really counter with his skills. He might be able to cause some trouble with his Haki, but we don’t think that would be enough to counter Law’s Devil Fruit powers and abilities. In this scenario, Law clearly wins, regardless of the points.
As we have stated, this match-up has two possible outcomes and they depend on the conditions of the fight. Without the Devil Fruit, Zoro beats Law, but with it, Zoro doesn’t stand much chance.
