Roronoa Zoro is undoubtedly one of the most famous One Piece characters. Like Luffy, Zoro wants to be the best in his class, that is, he wants to become the best swordsman in the world, surpassing his idol and rival, Dracule Mihawk, who is considered the best swordsman in the world. But the swordsmen in One Piece aren't the only interesting aspect—the swords are too. In Wano Country, specifically in Chapter 1038, Zoro is seen fighting a large figure that resembles a Grim Reaper. Now, this is a very strange thing for Oda, as something like this has never happened before, so we decided to write this article and explain why Zoro saw the Grim Reaper in Wano Country.

No official explanation for why Zoro saw and fought the Grim Reaper has ever been given, but given that he was critically injured, the Grim Reaper was likely just a symbol of the severity of his injuries and the fact that Zoro was close to dying at that moment. Some theories offer a different explanation, but since Zoro was critically injured, the near-death experience interpretation seems the most plausible.

The rest of this article will focus on Zoro and his near-death experience in Wano Country, during which he saw the Grim Reaper. We'll tell you about Zoro's experience in Wano and also reveal why he saw the Grim Reaper and what the whole scene actually meant. This article may contain fewer spoilers, so be careful while reading.

Zoro was about to die, hence the Grim Reaper

The origins of this story actually begin with Zoro's fight against King. Since it was a long battle, we'll simply recap its ending, as it's the ending that matters in this case. Thus, when King removed the remains of his mask and exposed his face to his close subordinates, they immediately recognized his features as those of a Lunar. Zoro attacked King with his Rengoku Oni ​​Firi but immediately realized that the attack had once again caused no damage due to King's return fire.

At that moment, King launched a fire dragon at Zoro, who dodged it, and they collided with his swords. Just like before, King tried to use his Swordbreaker to remove Zoro's swords, but Zoro sent King flying with his Haki. Then, noticing King accelerating again, Zoro reacted quickly by using his Yakkodori technique to instantly slice through King's now vulnerable body, just as the latter kicked him in the face.

When Zoro pointed out how King had begun blocking his attacks and no longer seemed as invincible, King proclaimed that a human could never stand up to his kind, and that King would simply remember Zoro as a decent swordsman. Zoro denied this and stated that he would ensure King remembered him if he managed to survive.

King then created an even larger flame dragon and charged at Zoro. Zoro jumped at the attack without hesitation and, using a powerful attack with his Santoryu, cleaved the dragon open while sending a concentrated slashing wave towards King, directly damaging his chest, severing part of his right wing, and destroying his sword. Zoro won the battle at that point.

But even though King was ultimately defeated, Zoro's battle wasn't over, as he was left critically injured after the fight and seemingly on the verge of death. His friends and teammates, Chopper and Franky, rushed to help him, but it took them some time to reach their critically injured friend.

While he waited, Zoro observed a large figure above him. The figure in question was the Grim Reaper, who appeared to be preparing to slash Zoro with his scythe, with Zoro observing that he was unable to move to avoid the attack. We didn't actually see the conclusion of this scene, but we know that Zoro later lost consciousness, as Franky reached him and saved him while he was in this state. Zoro would later wake up and heal, but we know how exhausting the fight against King was and how much energy it took from Zoro.

Ultimately, we need to understand why Zoro saw the Grim Reaper. Namely, the Grim Reaper's appearance was quite strange for One Piece, as Oda hadn't used this motif earlier in the story; the Grim Reaper wouldn't be strange in other popular series, but in One Piece, he simply looked like a strange man.

So why did Oda put this scene here? Well, we know that the Grim Reaper embodies death and comes for those who are about to die, cutting them down with his scythe before taking them to the afterlife. Since we know that Zoro was seriously injured, we could say that the Grim Reaper appeared simply because Zoro was about to die (his friends even yelled at him not to die before reaching him) and Oda wanted to show that Zoro's injuries were serious. From what we know, this seems like the simplest and most accurate explanation.

Other theories do not seem plausible

If you search online, you'll likely find other interpretations of this scene. One theory states that the Grim Reaper is related to Enma, Zoro's blade, and that Enma is actually a dark blade, so the Grim Reaper was just a foreshadowing of this fact; considering that Enma has a will of his own, this interpretation of the Grim Reaper isn't so far-fetched.

Another theory states that the Grim Reaper could be related to Hiyori and her song, which makes many references to dreams and death, but this seems like a very liberal approach to this fact, so we're not really sure if this theory makes much sense. A simple explanation states that it was just Brook that Zoro mistook for the Grim Reaper (since Brook is technically dead). Later events have shown this theory to be incorrect. There is also a theory that suggests Zoro could have simply been experiencing the side effects of the medicine he took, but since the Minks didn't experience similar symptoms, this theory doesn't make much sense either, as does the theory that it's just a manifestation of Hawkins' Devil Fruit.

An additional theory is that the Grim Reaper was actually a manifestation of Zoro's symbolic role in the story; namely, over time, each of the Straw Hats seems to grow and accept their role in the story (e.g., Luffy becoming Joy Boy, or Sanji accepting his heritage), and in Zoro's case, this could be a manifestation of his connection to death, with Zoro becoming something of a "King of Hell" or "King of Death."

This theory makes sense, and it doesn't really present a completely ridiculous theory, but as we said: the Grim Reaper is a manifestation of death, and since Zoro was seriously injured at that point, the fact that he saw the Grim Reaper attack him probably meant that he was about to die and nothing more.