Chapter 778: The End of Zoro vs. Pica

This week's chapter of One Piece still focuses on the Zoro vs. Pica battle and provides us with the conclusion of the battle.

Synopsis

     Pica continues to try and successfully find King Riku in order to kill him and to do so, he intentionally misled Zoro to be away from the group. Stuck in a corner, Zoro quickly tries to think of a plan to reach Pica before he take outs King Riku. King Elizabetto believed that Zoro's purpose for him to withhold his "King's Punch" was to take out Pica, but Zoro reassures that was definitely not his plan. Zoro spots Orlumbus, one of the contestants during the Colosseum Tournament, and employs Orlumbus to throw him towards Pica's direction.

     Meanwhile, Pica arrives at King Riku, Viola, and Usopp and Co.'s location and starts destroying the area. King Riku shows himself to Pica in order to stop the violent assault, Pica tells King Riku that he will never be Pica's king as he deems Riku to be unfit as his pacifist attitude prevents him from protecting his country. King Riku admits to Pica that he failed to protect his country, but he would rather choose to die innocently than to die a murderer. As Pica begins his attack to end King Riku's life, Zoro unleashes Sanzen Sekai ("Three Thousand Words") and splits Pica's stoned body in half. Knowing that in order to defeat the giant, Zoro continues his onslaught in order to bring Pica's real body out of hiding. As Pica gets placed into a corner, he eventually pops out and encase himself in Haki to deliver his attack onto Zoro. Unfortunately (for Pica), Zoro performs Sanzen Sekai again, this time using Armanent Haki and the chapter ends with Elizabello using "King's Punch" to clean up the remnants of Pica's enormous stone armor.

Analysis:

     This chapter showcased power development regarding Zoro as well as giving us more insight into the ideals that Pica and King Riku both possess and a possible hint back towards the Void Century.

Power: For the People or For One's Self?

     The opposition between Pica and King Riku is mainly driven by the two characters' views on power. We all know that with an authoritative position, such as King, that power is a very influential force. It comes in multiple forms, and it garners respect, sometimes wealth, but more often, loyal followers and without it, a king would seem to be nothing but a fool wearing royal garments. 

Pica's View

(Pica getting ready to attack the area)

     To Pica, King Riku seems to be that particular fool wearing royal garments and disguising as king, specifically a king who exercises what Pica doesn't see as power. A peaceful, non-violent man like Riku who also wishes to rule a peaceful, non-violent country is not the kind of person Pica deems to be fit for king nor deems to be fit for a king he would want to be rule under. To Pica, a king is one who demonstrates vast physical power as he defines a king to be one who can use his army ("a country is its 'military power'") to defeat his enemies; for a king to not use the vast power his position gives him constitutes him to be weak. Pica might even question what's the point of having the position of being king if one doesn't use the power a king has to defend himself nor his citizens. He taunts King Riku by reminding him of the "truth"--the truth being Doflamingo's raid on Dressrosa and taking over as king--that happened because Riku's pacifistic ideas prevented him from fighting back. This "truth" also implies Pica's notion that Doflamingo was better fit to be king because he was willing to use his physical power to gain more power by overthrowing King Riku. To leave power in the hands of a peaceful king would be wasting the endless benefits that comes with that position and as we have seen throughout the story, Doflamingo has done a good job capitalizing upon that power by using it, with the addition of his immunity as one of the Seven Warlords, to enslave the Tontattas as SMILE factory workers, to smuggle and provide the artificial devil fruits being made from these factories to various brokers and Kaido, one of the Four Emperors, to lead a powerful group of followers who are ready to die for him as well as use their powers (Sugar) to keep his illegal activities hidden from the civilians, and to run a slave trade business (before Luffy and Co. put a stop to that). As a loyal top executive to Doflamingo, Pica has seen and is accustomed to Doflamingo using his power to benefit himself, so seeing a king such as Riku who does not use his status to personally benefit himself and, instead, give benefits to the people of the country brands Riku as "weak." Simply put, Pica might see the abusing of power as power regardless, but lacking physical power is what makes a king weak.

King Riku's View

     King Riku accepts his failure of being a physically powerful king that couldn't prevent his country from being in the condition that it is in right now, but he attributes that failure towards keeping him a "human being." He rejects the notion of becoming a murderer in order to survive as that would make him regress on his non-violent beliefs and with that regression, the non-violent attitude that Dressrosa has kept for years would be tarnished. He knows that his non-violent stance is flawed, but he still accepts those flaws no matter what as human beings are flawed and it would be inhumane as the only being who has the right to take life is Death, a non-human entity. By choosing to become a murderer, he would be becoming the very flaw that opposes his ideal, leading to him being a hypocrite. In essence, he would embody the ideal that he passionately opposes. Riku's power doesn't rely on physical strength like Doflamingo. King Riku's exercises power through non-violence which is why he opted to pay the ransom money rather than go to war against Doflamingo.  Riku's power does not lie on physical strength, but on ensuring the safety of his citizens and country. Riku doesn't use his powers for his own goals, but for his people so that war and conflict doesn't strip the citizens of their goals.

Zoro: The Perfecting of Sanzen Sekai

     This chapter definitely provides us with proof that Zoro's two year training has greatly benefited him. If you don't know, this is not the first time he has used Sanzen Sekai in a battle, as his first time using it was back during the Baratie arc when he first fought Dracule "Hawk-Eye" Mihawk. 

(Sanzen Sekai being used on Mihawk: Pre-timeskip)

With this reappearance of Sanzen Sekai, it's encoated with Armanent Haki in order to take down Pica. As Pica taunts Zoro of being unable to penetate his Haki, Zoro replies with "As long as your haki is stronger than mine that is." Being that Pica is Doflamingo's top executive, Zoro's overpowering of Pica's Haki shows how far he's come from his duel with Mihawk as an overzealous pirate hunter to a confident, powerful swordsman and definitely shows that Zoro did not waste any time during his two year training.

(Sanzen Sekai: Post-Timeskip)

Possible Hint Towards Void Century?

Before Pica fails in delivering the final blow, he mentions to King Riku:

This could serve as a hint back to the Void Century as we know that the twenty kingdoms who now rule the world fought the Great Kingdom and won, forming today's World Government. It could be supporting the notion that the Great Kingdom never was the enemy that the World Government tries to make it to be. Also, this could apply to Monteblanc Noland as the Tontattas knows him to be a hero, but most of the world sees him as a liar/trickster. It seems to suggest that Monteblanc is a remembered in history because he was believed by the rest of the world to have been bad and it can also suggest the reason as to why Kyros is still remembered to this day, not necessarily for being a good person, but as somewhat as a glorified "monster" with an impressive winning streak to boot. 


That's it for this week's chapter! Please, leave a comment below on anything you might have noticed within this week's chapter and please email me at onepieceofanalysis@gmail.com if you have a request for any character, location analyses as well as questionsor comments about One Piece!