One Piece is an anime that certainly has its share of strong and powerful characters. And even though its protagonist, Monkey D. Luffy, has been featured most often in our One Piece comparisons, this one won't focus on Luffy at all. Namely, the protagonists of this comparison will be Zoro, a member of Luffy's crew, and the powerful Lunarian, King. In this article, we'll be analyzing both, as we'll pit Zoro against King to finally determine who is the stronger of the two.

King fought Zoro in Wano Country and ultimately lost to Luffy's crewmate. It was a very difficult battle in which Zoro didn't have much luck, as King was not only very powerful, but also lunar. Yet, against all odds, Zoro managed to defeat King, proving himself to be the stronger of the two.

The rest of this article will expand on the answer given above, as we'll compare Zoro and King in more detail. Across several categories, you'll see who is stronger and why our answer is the way it is—that is, why Zoro was ultimately able to defeat King in their fight.

Physical powers

Zoro is one of the physically strongest characters in the series. He demonstrates his strength when fighting Daz Bones, easily lifting a building despite his injuries. He is seen training on the Thousand Sunny with one-ton dumbbells. His strength is likely equal to or greater than that of a giant, as he was able to parry a direct blow from Oars with his swords.

After the time skip, Zoro's strength has increased considerably. This is evidenced by the fact that he was able to defeat a Pacifista with a single attack, whereas before the timeskip he and all his companions joined forces to defeat one. He was able to cut a pirate ship with a single blow. He was also able to defeat and seriously injure Hody Jones, a fish-man with physical strength above the average for his race while underwater and with several energy steroids consumed.

One of his greatest feats was defeating Pica in his gigantic form without a single scratch, despite having to rely on Orlumbus for increased mobility and momentum. Zoro has also shown himself to be very agile and fast. An example of this is that in the Whiskey Peak arc, he engaged a large number of Baroque Works agents, slipping through their ranks so quickly that they didn't notice him until he spoke.

King displayed great strength, throwing Shinobu towards a tower with enough power to affect and damage the area, or blocking a powerful kick from Sanji using his own leg while the pirate was using his Raid Suit. With a single swing of his sword, King was able to sever one of Marco's phoenix wings.

Aside from his physical strength, King is quite durable even in his human form, taking a direct attack from Roronoa Zoro's Rengoku Oni ​​Giri and simply being knocked to the ground, suffering no discernible damage. He also appears to be extremely fast despite his size, leaping a great distance in an instant.

Although Zoro may not look like it, he is one of the physically strongest people in the series. King, we know, seems far more powerful than Zoro in this aspect, but from what we can gather, Zoro actually wins this category.

Points: Zoro 1, King 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 best swordsmen in the series; he will likely, by all means, surpass even Mihawk in the future. Now, Zoro's powers and exploits certainly warrant the conclusion that he consumed a Devil Fruit, but is that really true? It isn't—Roronoa Zoro has never eaten a Devil Fruit.

This makes Zoro one of the very few characters (the other most notable being Shanks) who is extremely powerful, but has not actually consumed a Devil Fruit; most other powerful characters have their individual reputations to thank for their Devil Fruits.

King consumed the Ryu Ryu no Mi: Pteranodon Pattern, a prehistoric Zoan-type Devil Fruit that allows him to fully or partially transform into a Pteranodon. This fruit grants him the ability to fly and he can unleash extremely powerful aerial attacks, as demonstrated when he attacked the Queen Mama Chanter, a gigantic ship, with enough force to knock Charlotte Linlin over.

This also gives him enough strength in his beak to cause pain to Sanji by hitting him in the stomach. When he is in his beast-human form, he can launch powerful flying attacks from his wings. These attacks can deal massive damage and you can launch them one after the other.

As someone who has never consumed a Devil Fruit in his life, Zoro loses this one; namely, King not only consumed a Devil Fruit, he also consumed a powerful one, which is why he gets those points.

Points: Zoro 1, King 1

RIGHT

Zoro is one of the few people to possess all three forms of Haki. Zoro possesses Royal Haki, the rarest form of Haki, whose users possess the qualities of a king. He is first mentioned as possessing this power by Kaido after Zoro's nine-sword attack. During his fight with King, he uses Royal Haki to coat his swords, a highly advanced form, and at the same time, members of the Beasts crew faint.

He didn't use Haki offensively against Monet, but he still managed to defeat her because she thought he was going to use Haki and that she would die. Monet's fear at that moment completely destabilizes her. He has learned to imbue his swords with Haki to make them more effective against Haki or Devil Fruit users.

He also used Armament Haki on Pica to slice him, meaning his Haki is more advanced than Pica's. Using Haki also allows him to counter Devil Fruit powers, as he did to temporarily stop the Birdcage.

He first uses 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 used it again to find Caribou in the palace. He also uses it during the Dressrosa Arc, to find the whereabouts of the one who stole his saber but also to find Pica during his fight against him.

King can use two of the three types of Haki. King is able to use Observation Haki, stating that he could sense Sanji even when he was invisible. He is also able to use Armament Haki, as he can be seen hardening his katana to confront Zoro. King's only Haki, ironically, cannot use Royal Haki, as it lacks the power of a king.

Since Zoro is a rare user of all three forms of Haki, there's no doubt he wins this point. King is a powerful Haki user, but Zoro outshines him in both quantity and quality in this category.

Points: Zoro 2, King 1

Weapons

At the beginning of his pirate journey, Zoro only mastered Santoryu, his conventional fighting style; but over time, he began to master techniques from other schools, such as Nitoryu, Ittoryu, and 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 a Pacifista of the caliber of those found in the Sabaody Archipelago, so it follows that Zoro can relatively easily cut materials even harder than steel without using Shishi Sonson-type moves, most likely because he has learned to use busoshoku haki.

King carries a large katana on his right hip, proportionate to his height. This has a smooth, round golden tsuba, matching the golden kashira and kojiri, with a dark orange tsuka-ito forming diamond-shaped recesses to highlight the light orange handle. It is sheathed in a saya of the same orange color as the tsuka-ito, and beneath it are two red cords with dangling ends and additional red bands around the bottom of the saya.

The blade of the sword has notches on the underside, forming angular teeth along the edge with which King can catch enemy swords, keeping them lodged between the notches, and then snatching them from the enemy's clutches.

Additionally, King's suit itself appears to be designed to facilitate close-quarters combat, such as having spikes pop out of his gloves when King strikes someone. King was seen attacking Marco, launching a barrage of bullet-like projectiles at him, seemingly from his Pteranodon wings.

Knowing how skilled and powerful Zoro is as a swordsman, there is absolutely no chance that King can defeat him when their swordsmanship skills are in question.

Points: Zoro 3, King 1

Roranoa Zoro vs. King: Who Wins?

We could actually give you a good breakdown of the things we wrote above, but that wouldn't really do the trick for what we decided to do. Namely, since Zoro and King actually fought in the manga, we thought it best to just recap those fights to confirm what we said above.

Before King and Queen could finish Marco off, the recovered Zoro and Sanji charged them with their respective attacks, with King being sliced ​​by Zoro. Although he was knocked to the ground by this attack, King remained unharmed and, like Queen, quickly got back up. As Sanji and Zoro argued, King took the opportunity to draw his sword and attack an unprotected Sanji, which Zoro blocked.

When Queen mentioned that Sanji's flaming leg was an inexplicable ability for a normal human like him, who wasn't from the Lunar Tribe, King took the hint. After that, Zoro tried to attack him, but the headliner blocked his swords with his serrated blade, then threw them away and delivered a powerful punch to Zoro's face, which also loosened the sword from Zoro's mouth.

Zoro questioned King about his fighting style, to which King replied that there was no need to follow traditional fighting styles. As their duel continued, King was seen kicking Zoro. Later, Zoro broke off a piece of the top left corner of King's mask. Angered by the damage to his mask, King began indiscriminately attacking everyone around him using his hybrid form.

Manifesting his Pteranodon wings to use as makeshift blades, he unleashed a flurry of aerial attacks that damaged both enemies and allies, and struck Zoro with such force that he was thrown a considerable distance, all the way to the central corridor of the tower where Franky was. King quickly flew towards the swordsman to strike him again with one of his wings. Although his mask suffered further damage from Zoro's subsequent counterattack, King outmaneuvered him and sent him flying even further, causing him to pierce the outer wall of the Skull Dome.

With a third attack, King was about to drive Zoro off Onigashima, but Zoro managed to make it back to the outskirts of the island, where King was. When Zoro commented that King should at least use his sword to deliver a final blow, since anything else was disrespectful, King (now with his face more visible) pointed out that he would ask Zoro to do the same.

At that moment, Zoro's Enma sword began excessively draining Zoro's Haki. King took the opportunity to approach Zoro, but without actually attacking. Confused, Zoro stabbed King in the stomach area with his sword, which King simply recognized as a direct hit before unexpectedly moving away, causing a massive explosion.

Zoro narrowly avoided the damage by using defensive Haki, and as the smoke cleared, he noticed that King was unharmed by his own explosion. Wasting no time, Zoro used Shishi Sonson to directly damage King, but was unable to inflict any damage. King then repeated his attack a second time.

Due to Enma's "rebellion," King's head managed to graze Zoro, as he blasted away a large portion of the rocks lining Onigashima's shore. As Zoro tried to maintain control of his falling blades, King threw the enemy swordsman to the ground before using his Barizodon attack to keep the pressure on. Flying straight at Zoro, King used his wing to push the swordsman through the ground and into the lower levels of Kaidou Castle.

After briefly lying on the ground while remembering his past, Zoro grabbed Enma, convinced he now knew how to handle a sword, and used his Haki to knock out the pirate beasts watching him. Zoro's next attack managed to slice King, shattering his mask. Zoro sensed that with the flames on King's back extinguished, King had become faster but his defenses were weaker, so King was vulnerable.

King then removed the remains of his mask and exposed his face to his nearby subordinates, who 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, after which 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 slice through King's now vulnerable body in an instant, just as the latter kicked him in the face.

When Zoro pointed out how King had started 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 said that he would personally ensure that 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.