@Lawlord:
Interesting with your thoughts on Gatling. I agree that does seem to make sense that a certain level of retraction is necessary and a little bit of time. But I think the gatling is still possible for the following reason. When Luffy launches the punch and stretches his arm, on the recoil the arm will fly back to his body at high speed, at this point he can easily retract it into the compressed firing position and shoot it again, like a rubber band or a rebound and I think he will do this. It's like starting the punch he must contract his arm since he has no speed build up, but after he has launched a punch and his arm is retracting towards his body he can use that speed to cause the compression and retraction and fire another punch very quickly. I think his Gatling in this version is island level and might be what destroys fishman island.
2. Regarding Zoro I just personally believe from everything Zoro has shown that it's either one of two reasons. One was that he didn't have the power to cut the cage and he knew this instinctively and chose to slow it down or two, was that due to his pride and expectations of his captain in the new world is that he decided to NOT cut the cage since it was Luffy's battle that was underway with Flamingo and this would be interfering with your Captain's battle, which NO Vice Captain would do. The second explanation is fine to me and I don't see a problem with that. I do believe if Luffy failed Zoro would actually attempt something like Asura.
In relation to the first reason it could be that bird cage is that powerful, being a special preparation technique of Flamingo, a pirate who has been on the seas and in the new world perfecting his powers for many years. I do think the second explanation is more likely and Zoro was holding back. I don't have issue with this because Zoro has observation haki and his Captain said he would deal with it. That's kind of a sticky situation since a few of the citizens were close to dying to the birdcage save for Mansherry's healing but overall I'm fine with it.
I think I agree with you on gatling. Good point. And a gear 4th gatling would be super cool, so I'm happy to believe it is at least possible.
Also, those are pretty good points regarding Zoro as well. Concerning the first one: It is possible that, though he didn't try to cut it, Zoro could tell he couldn't when he bashed his swords against the cage and just felt their rigidity. Like you, though, I don't really like the "I feel like I can't" explanation. The second one is better, particularly when combined with the claim that Doffy would immediately try to eliminate everyone (or just switch his task to eliminating people) if the cage went down, so that he could keep the whole thing a secret. This would be especially possible during Luffy's down period - Doffy just going off and killing people. Other than that, though, I'm not sure how much cutting the cage would really affect Luffy's fight. So, I guess it depends on whether or not Doffy would disengage from finding Luffy.
Something else I just thought of though: It could also be a way of trying to keep everyone productive and hopeful while Luffy finishes off Doffy. If the cage is cut, but Doffy is still up, it doesn't matter very much in terms of saving people's lives. It's kind of a temporary fix.
I guess I'm fairly satisfied with those Zoro explanations. Thanks Lawlord!
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@TBlend:
Allow me to add some perspective for Zoro fans that expect him to cut the Birdcage down. It took Zoro all 3 of his swords imbued in haki and one of his strongest attacks (3000 worlds) to cut Pica in half. Birdcage is way, way, way bigger than Pica.
In addition, Birdcage is currently slicing mountains and shit effortlessly. Mountains (like the royal plateau!) which are ALSO bigger than Pica. So we can reasonably assume that it's got… oh I don't know some force behind it. As someone earlier in this thread said, don't think of Birdcage as a bunch of strings. Think of it as a bunch of GIANT ASS blades that are slicing through the entire kingdom with enough force to slice shit BIGGER THAN PICA.
I don't know why this is even an argument. Zoro can't cut the cage. Blah blah, it wasn't shown. You know what was shown? Fujitora dropping a meteor on it. I get that a meteor isn't a slice but I also get that Fujitora > Zoro. That display wasn't a "Meteors don't work but slicing might!" statement. That was a "Hey, this other guy that's PROBABLY the strongest on the island right now can't even break this shit rendering screentime for all other failed attempts pointless."
Plotcage? Maybe. But one thing is absolutely certain. Zoro can't cut that shit.
First: It isn't about power levels, it's about qualities. Slicing something works differently than dropping something large, blunt, not haki-coated, and fast moving onto thing little blades. Someone else explained this much better than I did, but the point is this: Even if Fuji > Zoro (probably the case), they still do different things.
Next: Who cares if Zoro can't cut the cage? You are asserting Zoro can't cut the cage, but that is a red herring. It doesn't matter whether he can cut it or not. The question is why he didn't try to. He thinks there isn't a thing in the world he can't cut, and he thinks that you can't know you can't push the cage if you don't try. This isn't a question that has anything to do with whether or not Zoro actually can cut the cage; this is a question about Zoro having a consistent psychology, and thereby being a believable character. If he believes he can cut anything and that you can't know unless ya try, he better have a damn good reason not to try - even if he, in fact and despite his beliefs, can't cut it.
In short: I'd be more satisfied if he tried to cut it and failed. Very few people here are upset about him not being able to cut it; we mind that he didn't even try. In place of not seeing him try and fail, we are trying to think of reasons why he wouldn't try at all, so that his character will make sense.
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@SuburbanErrorist:
Tblend bought up some really good points.
Cutting one section and then it repairing would seem to be a waste of energy.
I agree, but we don't know that is what would happen. Maybe it would make things worse - it would "repair" by speeding up the rate at which it shrinks or tightening to cover a gap. Maybe it would require Doflamingo to conscious put effort/thought into repairing it and thus slow him down (though, that would potentially "mess with Luffy's fight"). We really just don't know what would happen. Maybe Zoro thought of that. That'd maybe be nice.
That being said, pushing might have the same Doflamingo distraction affect I mentioned above - it didn't, it seems, but we didn't know it wouldn't, just like we don't know cutting it would. Zoro still opted to push it.
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@zeff:
Someone pointed this out
! https://scontent-fra3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xta1/v/t1.0-9/11207327_459061924264890_1780440408263277325_n.jpg?oh=fbba004986c6a6e6872db0b21710bd15&oe=5624D93F
That is super awesome! Thanks for finding this!
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@Clessenur:
Hmm, about Zoro not being able to cut Birdcage, what if he depleted too much haki while cutting Pica?
Again, it isn't about Zoro not being able to cut it, but rather about Zoro not trying.
But, using haki could explain why he didn't even try.
Except… it doesn't seem like haki needs to regenerate unless spammed/constant use. Zoro didn't really overuse it in his fight. Besides, he's using it now regardless.
We don't know enough about haki to know the answer to this conclusively, but I don't think Zoro's problem is haki related. (And if it is, I'm getting a little tired of all these arbitrary energy bars and timers...)
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@baby-boo:
Depleted it on that one attack? Doubt it. And Zoro's been using Haki to push the bird cage … I believe.
Doubt this will be ever explained in the manga itself. The push of the birdcage is immensely powerful. So there's that. Would a part of the birdcage regenerate after being cut? I'd normally think it improbable, cus Doffy would then need to be constantly aware, but the man had a String-Knight fight Luffy. Far far away from its host. The strings regenerating don't sound so odd in the wake of that.
But would Zoro know this? What will happen to the other half if one half is cut. Zoro's attacks don't have the range yet to do an enormous 360.
I completely agree with almost all of this, and you've phrased it better than I've tried to numerous times. Good post! There is also this thing about Zoro not being able to cut the whole thing wide open. I'm not sure how big a deal that would be. Even cutting enough space for citizens to exit single file would be great, and if Zoro could cut it at all (who knows if he could), I bet he could cut it wider than that. Now, of course, that doesn't mean it wouldn't regenerate etc., but it does mean that he doesn't have to be able to cut the entire cage to shreds for it to matter.
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@HacheBe:
Yeah I have a feeling that Zoro is not that far behind Luffy even though Luffy has gotten much stronger over the TS. Maybe comparable to pre TS difference in their strength maybe a little less than that. This just makes me feel disappointed for Sanji cuz it looks like he didn't do all that much hopefully he takes down the Big Mom ship.
I completely agree. So far, all Sanji has really done is break his leg. (Although, when he kicked Doflamingo, Doffy looked pretty pissed off and commented that he's strong. Even Luffy's brute strength fighting style (pre gear 4) could only make Doffy laugh and feel like he was being tickled)
This arc is a mirror to Alabasta in a lot of ways. At the beginning of Alabasta (well, at Whiskey Peak), Zoro and Luffy fought. Luffy was fattened up, but Zoro just finished beating like 100 people or so, so they were both somewhat handicapt. None-the-less, at that point, it was genuinely unclear who was stronger. I feel like we're in a similar situation now.