The world of One Piece is massive and one of the many things that fans love about this story is that even the smallest of details that might appear to be insignificant to some and up being significant down the line. Oda loves to hide big secrets in small details and this has led fans to extensively theorize about even the smallest of things in the story.
One such thing is the change in character design for Roronoa Zoro, the swordsman of the Straw Hat Pirates. Zoro is one of the most important characters in One Piece and his left eye could be hiding many potential secrets, which the fans are eager to find out about.
Zoro's Left Eye
When the timeskip for One Piece happened, Zoro was sent to Kuraigana Island by Bartholomew Kuma. There, he trained under the tutelage of the World's Strongest Swordsman, Dracule Mihawk. While Mihawk is Zoro's rival, it didn't stop him from asking him for help, and this was primarily because Zoro wanted to help Luffy become the Pirate King, especially after hearing about the death of Ace. Sacrificing his own pride for the sake of Luffy, Zoro and Mihawk started training soon after and this led to him mastering the way of the sword even more than he already had.
Zoro gained an incredible amount of mastery over each of his sword styles and, what's more, he also learned how to use Haki. He was asked to defeat the Humandrills on the island and, eventually, train with Mihawk as well. At some point, however, Zoro sustained an injury to his left eye. What exactly happened here remains unknown to date, however, Zoro's left eye has been closed ever since. When Zoro returned to Sabaody Archipelago after the two-year timeskip, fans were shocked to see his left eye with a big scar that ran across it. Ever since then, fans have been theorizing about what this eye injury could mean and if it will be of any significance in the future of the story.
What Oda Has To Say About Zoro's Eye
It is only natural that One Piece fans started theorizing about Zoro's eye, claiming it to be a potential power-up for him in the future and, this theory gets solidified even further when even other renowned mangaka start questioning why and how Zoro received his injury. One of Oda's close associates, Watsuki, inquired about the truth about Zoro's eye from him. It is a known fact that Oda had already mentioned to his associate that Zoro would lose his eye back in the early days of One Piece, at some point between 1997 to 2000.
The fact that Oda had already planned this for the character of Zoro means that he had big plans for him going forward and that he expected this eye injury to play a role later down the line. When Zoro returned with his eye injury after the timeskip, Watsuki was surprised. In 2021, he asked Oda about how it happened, however, the latter chose not to answer. Had it been insignificant, Oda could simply have given an answer, however, the fact that he didn't implies that there might be more to it than meets the eye. For now, fans do not know much about what this eye could possibly be hiding or if it's simply an injury, however, the fact that Oda had planned this long ago and refuses to shed further light on it certainly does seem rather suspicious.
Ever since then, fans have been speculating about what this injury could mean for the character of Zoro and if it will come up at some point in the future of the story. Chances are that this injury will end up being significant somehow and fans will surely find out more about it later down the line, possibly when Zoro takes on Mihawk in their final fight.
Will Zoro's Left Eye Be Significant In One Piece?
The question of whether Zoro's eye scar will end up being significant or not later down the line cannot be answered with certainty. The beauty of One Piece is that every single detail can be theorized about to a great degree, thanks to the many clues that Oda often leaves in his story. Of course, Zoro's left eye is no different. As mentioned earlier, Oda choosing to keep it under wraps certainly does imply that there is some secret behind his eye injury.
Perhaps, this injury came directly from Mihawk himself and, in that case, the perfect opportunity to bring it up again would be when he fights against his biggest opponent. A very popular idea suggests that opening this eye would lead to Zoro unleashing the full power of the demon that is within him. Zoro has often been compared to demons by many characters in the story, such as Kaku, during their fight in Enies Lobby. He even refers to himself as a demon as well and, more recently, he christened himself as the King of Hell. The comparisons between Zoro and demons are certainly there and it is possible that opening this left eye would give him full access to his demonic powers which have been dwelling within him all these years.
This could very well be tied to his final power-up in the story and only during his fight against Mihawk would it be relevant, since he is likely the one who gave him this scar, to begin with. Of course, that is just speculation and only order can truly answer this question for sure.
Another big possibility is that this eye scar is simply nothing. Zoro could very well have just received this injury while training with Mihawk and Oda could very well choose to not attach further meaning to it, even though he has been secretive about how he received this injury in the first place. This wouldn't be the first time that Oda simply chose to not dive deeper into the character of Zoro. His backstory as well as his connections to Wano were mostly neglected in the Wano arc and, recently, they were revealed to the fans in an SBS corner instead. If Oda feels that information about his scar is irrelevant to his character progression throughout the story, then he will certainly not dive deeper into this aspect of his character design.
Regardless of whether Zoro's left eye holds power or not, the scar itself is going to be significant and will be brought up by Oda in the future, at some point. It could, at the very least, serve as a reminder to Zoro for everything that he had to endure in order to get to a level where he could contend against Mihawk for the throne of the strongest swordsman in the entire world. Even if Oda doesn't reveal it in the main story, he will most likely do so in an SBS corner at some point in the future. One way or another, fans will find out what happened to Zoro's left eye and this mystery has been keeping them on the edge of their seats for way too long.
The good news is that one piece is in its final saga and all the major mysteries of the story are going to be revealed here one by one. This also means that Zorro will accomplish his dream of becoming the world's greatest swordsman here and will finally reach his beak in this saga as well. If there was a time for order to answer these questions it is now and, for that reason, fans are incredibly excited for him to dive deeper into Roronoa Zoro and the many other mysteries that the One Piece world harbors.
One Piece is available to stream on Crunchyroll.
