The Confusions of a Fictional Mind

Sup.: I love depressed Zoro from Thriller bark

when Perona was peppering them all with negative hollows, the others were apologizing for appearance and declaring their wish to be reborn as something tiny and insignifficant

but Zoro didn’t

he apologized for being born

saying he didn’t deserve to walk upon this earth

because he felt that he didn’t even deserve to be reborn

the others were assuming they’d be granted a new life

Zoro was just sorry for existing

and I think that the level of depression one reaches when hit with a negative hollow symbolises the level of confidence and optimism this person has when not under influence

Usopp is already negative, so the hollows didn’t affect him

Luffy is very positive and was hit hard

Zoro believes in fate, luck, and is very VERY confident, and he was affected the most out of them all

ergo - Zoro is the most optimistic and confident member of the strawhats.

I really need to get into this part of the series. Anyway, this is actually some really surprising insight. Though after a moment of thinking about it, I suppose it wasn’t too surprising. Towards himself, he has exhibited that level of overconfidence in his battles that most, if not all, of his opponents call him out on, regardless of the whether the tide of battle lies in his favour or against. He could be on the verge of death (which frankly, in the past, he almost always seems to be before he pulls through a near-impossible win while gushing inhuman gallons of blood), but he’d still brag about a win. In this way, his overconfidence becomes optimism. I think where it then differs from Luffy is that his mindset is more ‘I’m going to live until I finish this fight’ or ‘I’m not going to die until I defeat you’ sort of thing. This is also very optimistic but compared to Zoro who seems to go into a battle pretty much thinking he won’t die (probably due to his promise to Luffy to never lose again)… is just a step higher on the ‘optimistic’ ladder.

Towards his nakama, that’s pretty much where he and Luffy are tied. They are astoundingly inexplicable confidence towards their abilities, no matter the odds.

Hmm interesting debate! I do however also think it has a great deal to do with his atheism (as the default religion in Japan/One Piece world seems to be something connected to Buddhism = belief in rebirth). It’s actually a quite nice detail of Oda to include, because it shows that Zoro’s anti-deistic beliefs lie pretty deep.

Anyway, as we see on Skypeia, Zoro’s atheism seems to be tied to his extreme confidence in some way, or at least the others (thiiink it’s Usopp who comments?) interpret it so. Basically, he doesn’t believe in gods because he thinks he can go through the world without their help.

Speaking as an atheist myself, I’ve always found the way Zoro’s beliefs and how others react to them are handled a bit oddly - for one thing, he seems to believe strongly in fate and luck, which I had a bit of a trouble fitting together with atheism at first (I know, I know, there’s all kinds of non-theistic beliefs, but it’s not like any of the characters in One Piece seem to practice organized religion, so what exactly he’s not believing in is quite fuzzy).

But if you put a refusal to accept gods together with a strong sense of personal ‘destiny’, in the sense that you accept what happens to you and make your own fate, it all ties in rather nicely. And gives the logical conclusion of, once that sense of self is removed, a despair that makes one wish for the end of a senseless existance.

Source: trafal-guy