One Piece: Were Zoro and Kuina in Love? Relationship Explained!
As far as One Piece ships are concerned, one of the most often discussed characters in this category is Roronoa Zoro, who is, incidentally, one of the most popular characters in the series as well. This makes a lot of sense, knowing how popular Zoro is. In that aspect, we have decided to dedicate this whole article to Roronoa Zoro and one of the most popular ships involving him – the one involving Kuina. In this article, you will find out if the two of them were in love or not.
As far as the canon is concerned, Zoro and Kuina were not in love but were very close friends. It is unknown whether there would have been something between them, as they were very young when they actually met because Kuina died when she was still a child. Still, Zoro undoubtedly cared about her, and he considered the promise he gave her to become the best swordsman in the world as a very dear memory and a goal that he simply had to accomplish in life because of his promise to her. This is why this ship is so popular, but as Oda later revealed that they are distant relatives, their chances of ending up together would be zero.
The rest of this article will explore the potential relationship between Zoro, one of the most popular characters in the series, and Kuina, a secondary character whose story is very closely related to Zoro’s. We will explore Zoro’s and Kuina’s personalities in more detail and the nature of their relationship in the world of One Piece. This article won’t contain too many spoilers, but still, be careful how you approach it if you don’t know the whole story.
Kuina and Zoro were close as children
The relationship between Zoro and Kuina is a very interesting one, especially since it started when the two of them were children. In that aspect, it deserves to be analyzed properly. Of course, as we always do, we are first going to analyze their personalities and then their relationship to determine whether there is any basis for us to consider a potential relationship between them. Let us see what we can say here.
Despite frequently providing comic relief, Zoro is naturally shy. He also has a poor sense of direction, so he can become lost even on straight paths or when someone leads the way. While the crew is at sea, Zoro is either sleeping or training. He and Sanji routinely dispute (verbally and violently) in improper circumstances. They are passionate rivals. However, when they collaborate (rarely, which is the case), they are an amazing team.
Zoro is motivated to surpass Kuina as the world’s greatest swordsman after Kuina’s death. Since then, Zoro has committed to developing and getting better to come closer to his objective. He encounters foes throughout his journey, and after every conflict, he ponders what he may have done differently to win. Like Luffy, Zoro has a certain goal in mind, but he also enjoys fighting other foes and, if possible, ends up causing trouble or scandal.
He is incredibly obstinate and arrogant; every time Chopper advises him to take a break due to his injuries after each fight, he simply ignores him and continues doing what he does as normal, displaying his lack of concern.
Zoro first explains to Luffy that he is merely going on this journey with him to fulfill his ambition. During the struggle with Kuma, he also said that “Luffy must be the man who will become the Pirate King,” which may be interpreted as a goal in and of itself since he gradually began to think differently. Throughout the entire series, he has consistently proven to be the most faithful to Luffy, even referring to him as the “Pirate King” after Mihawk defeated him and during the battle with Kuma.
As for Kuina, she is shown to be cold, arrogant, and haughty with his other comrades, especially with Zoro. She nevertheless ends up confessing to him, through tears, that she always lived knowing that when she grew up, she would no longer be able to compete with boys because women are physically less strong than men. Her father had also warned her that being a girl would force her to give up her dream of being the best swordswoman in the world.
Because of this, Kuina has always regretted not being a man and tells Zoro herself that she wants to be a boy. Eventually, Zoro made her realize that willpower, not strength, would make her a great swordsman. These words restored her confidence; she and Zoro promised each other that one of them would eventually become the greatest swordsman in the world, Kuina also adding that Zoro would never be able to beat her.
As you can see, there were some similarities between Kuina and Zoro. Both behaved like boys; they had similar personalities and aligned their common goals. In fact, the interesting thing here is that both of them managed to surpass their arrogance when faced with each other, with Kuina breaking and revealing her doubts to Zoro and Zoro ultimately showing his gentle side and making a pact with her. At the time, the two of them were still too young to become a couple, but they cared for each other deeply, which was quite obvious even then.
As for their relationship, we know that when they were children, he never managed to beat her (he lost their 2001 matches in a row) and aspired to be as strong as her. After their two-thousand-first duel, Kuina admitted her fears to Zoro, saying that she wanted to become the best in the world. Zoro was then annoyed with the fact that even if he ever surpassed her, she would believe it was because of his body and not his mastery of swordsmanship. This led to their promise, but Kuina died not long after, shocking Zoro.
Still, Zoro considers the promise that Kuina and he made to each other very dead, and whenever he is in a near-death situation, he remembers her and the promise to encourage himself to keep fighting. He is currently working on fulfilling the promise made to her. And while many fans thought that there would have been potential for a ship between the two, in one SBS, Oda revealed that Kuina and Zoro are actually from the same family.
They are distant relatives, and it is quite possible that they did not know that they were related when they were kids (we can question when Oda himself decided on that fact, probably much later), so, understandably, a lot of fans viewed them as a potential couple. Still, we can now confirm that it would never have happened, even if Kuina had survived.
