Throughout the entirety of One Piece, there has been one person who has remained either slightly or very seriously injured for a large portion of the arcs. This person never got to fight at full strength until after the time-skip and even then is usually restricted by things like collateral damage or moral obligations. No, we're not talking about Luffy but rather his vice-captain and right-hand man, Roronoa Zoro. Zoro is a man with many scars, a potentially quite important past, and a reckless attitude. He'd be near death at the crux of each arc and it got a bit tiresome, but we're here to talk about ten specific fights where the want-to-be legend should've probably bit the dust.
10 His First Confrontation With Buggy The Clown
First and foremost is the time with Buggy the Clown. Now, the amount of damage it takes to "kill" someone in One Piece has always been pretty up in the air. Gunshots, stabbings, and broken bones were constants during the beginning of the Straw Hats journey and have been since. But the time where Zoro, who was already injured, gets stabbed by Buggy, beaten up by his acrobatic cohort, and blown away with a Buggy Ball Cannonball was one of the earliest examples of plot armor in the series. Seriously the guy slept most of these injuries off and shook off a building toppling onto him like it was nothing.
9 The Showdown With Dracule Mihawk That Started It All
Ah the "fight" between Roronoa Zoro and Dracule Mihawk, arguably one of the best and most recognizable confrontations in the series. There's no doubt here that Zoro should have died in this fight whether it was the stab to his heart or the slash across his chest, Zoro should've bled out in seconds. But, we're not necessarily complaining considering this moment is always one best moments listed for any fans of the show. Plus, it got us this awesome redraw One-Shot of the fight by the author of Dr. Stone Mu-jik Park otherwise known as "Boichi".
8 The Showdown At Arlong Park
This next one is technically a combination injury from both Arlong's Crew and Mihawk since Zoro was still recovering at the time. But, this guy somehow manages to fight off Hachi, a Fishman, n who has 10x the strength of a human and 8x the swords while barely remaining conscious due to his injuries. Then, Arlong gets a brief crack at him and is straight-up horrified at the fact that this man is somehow still breathing.
7 The Whiskey Peak Showdown
This has to be one of our personal favorite moments in all of One Piece, simply because it's one member of the crew protecting the rest by taking on an entire town of assassins by himself. And, keep in mind, this was before Haki was introduced and before Zoro had trained with Mihawk. Zoro vs Baroque works is where the swordsman fights against 100 killers all singularly focused on taking his life.
Granted, Zoro is a fantastic swordsman, but 100 people with guns should've easily been able to take out one guy with swords. We love how this scene is choreographed but if there truly was 100 people against him he should've been shot in the back numerous times before the fight was over.
6 The Time He Learned To Cut Steel Against Daz Bones
Roronoa's fight against Daz Bones also known as Mr. 1 is another one of the best fights in the series. Daz has a very simple Devil Fruit the Supa-Supa No Mi that he uses very creatively to chop up anybody and anything. Meanwhile, Zoro is spending most of the fight figuring out just how someone is supposed to cut through steel. It's great because Mr. 1 serves as both a combatant and a hurdle for Zoro to overcome. But, in the course of this fight, Zoro gets multiple building toppled onto him, numerous cuts, and two swirling arm-saws to the stomach, all of which cause him to bleed a ton.
5 Taking The Full Punishment From "God" Enel
Enel, the God of Skypiea is our first real look at Logia-type Devil Fruit users, and wow are they scary. Enel can literally become electricity and he uses it for a variety of things from melting metal, picking up radio waves to hear at any range, and even wiping people off the map from afar.
And, the amount of volts Enel uses for most of his big attacks are way past what would kill someone and melt their insides, yet multiple people in the Straw Hat crew take an electro-blast head-on. We're not talking about something you can overcome with spirit or willpower, their bodies should be jelly even if they're super determined to live.
4 After Taking A Punch From The Zombie Legend Oz
The fight against Luffy Shadow Oz during the Thriller Bark arc is the favorite fight for many longtime fans of One Piece It's the first time we see Franky fight officially as part of the crew and 100-Shadow Luffy is a delight to see. But, in the leadup to Oz vs Luffy, we have the crew trying to hold off Oz for as long as hey can. And, Zoro in particular gets punished for fighting back quite severely. Oz, a giant the size of an island, while possessed by Luffy's shadow, punches Zoro straight into a building and the dude gets back up. It's absurd! That punch would've broken every bone in his body!
3 After The Trial Of The Paw-Paw Fruit
And, to make matters worse, after all, is said and done and both Oz and Gecko Moria are defeated, it's still not over! Right as they're all celebrating winning, Bartholomeo Kuma shows up and destroys everyone with an Ursus Shock from his massively underrated Paw-Paw Devil Fruit. The only ones remaining conscious happen to be Sanji Zoro and a few nobodies. And, this is Zoro after he took Oz's punch by the way In any case, Zoro has a chance to sacrifice himself for everyone else but can only do so but taking the cumulative damage Luffy took from all his fighting into himself, so he does it. And the scene where Sanji finds Zoro surrounded by much more than one man's worth of blood, still standing and alive, is where we realized Zoro may be badass, but his plot armor is even stronger.
2 Going Toe To Toe With A Navy Admiral
The events of Sabaody Archipelago are when things got as bad as they could for the Straw Hats. They angered the World Government, got their butts kicked by an Admiral and his cyborgs, and all got sent to separate islands in the Grand Line for two years. But, Zoro in particular got beat up than most of the other crew during this confrontation and was about to be murdered by the Yellow Monkey of the Marines named Kizaru.
But, for some reason, the man who moves at the speed of light took about 5 extra minutes to execute the finishing blow on Zoro, which was just enough time for Rayleigh to save him. We're glad he survived but it just felt hamfisted.
1 Fighting Shiki, The Man Who Challenged Gol. D. Roger
And lastly, we figured we'd talk about at least one movie fight in here, and the fight between the Golden Lion Shiki and the Straw Hat pirates is one of the worst their crew has ever been beaten, at least in the films. At first, the crew's combination attacks seem to be working against Shiki and Chopper even gets one of his Cloven Hoof attacks off, but then things take a turn. Sanji launches Zoro at Shiki and is met with a punch so strong it rips the group asunder, this is the man who fought the Pirate King after all, and these are the Straw Hats before the Time Skip. In any case, this punch alone should've killed Zoro since he had no protection, and Shiki absolutely would've killed him right after if Nami hadn't sacrificed herself so courageously for the crew.