Highlights
- Zoro has narrowly escaped death multiple times throughout the One Piece series, including being saved from execution and being turned into a wax statue.
- Zoro's fights have pushed him to the brink of death, such as his battle against the world's strongest swordsman and his brutal encounter with Mr. 1.
- Zoro's resilience and determination have allowed him to overcome these near-death experiences and continue growing stronger on his journey to become the world's strongest swordsman.
One of the strongest sword masters in the world of One Piece, Zoro is the number two of the Straw Hat Pirates and one of the fan favorites. He is also the first person to join Luffy on his journey to becoming the Pirate King and, over the course of the years, he has certainly grown to be a very beloved character.
Zoro aims to become the world's strongest swordsman in One Piece and, to get closer to achieving that goal, he has had to push himself to the extremes on countless occasions. In fact, Zoro has had numerous encounters with death itself and, so far, he has successfully eluded it. That said, had luck not been on his side, Zoro could very well have died on many occasions in the story.
8 Execution In Shells Town
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Zoro could actually have died at the very beginning of the series, funnily enough. He was sent to be executed, after being badly starved, in Shellstown and, had Luffy not saved him, he would most certainly have been killed by a firing squad.
Zoro's execution would have meant that he left his goal unfulfilled and died a very unfulfilling death. Thankfully, Luffy saved him and, together, the two embarked on a great journey.
7 Fight Against Mihawk
In the East Blue, Zoro had more than just one encounter with death itself. Zoro, surprisingly, came face to face with the world's strongest swordsman, Mihawk, on Baratie. The two engaged in combat, however, the world's strongest swordsman absolutely did not take him seriously at all, using a pocket knife to defeat him.
After Zoro managed to impress him, he used his black blade, Yoru, to scar him right across his chest, leaving him in a near death state.
6 Turned Into a Wax Statue
In Little Garden, Zoro could have died once again, this time, at the hands of Mr 3. He was going to be turned into a wax statue, thanks to the powers of the Doru Doru no Mi, utilized by this Baroque Works agent.
Once again, it was Luffy who arrived just in time to save him, Nami, and Vivi. While Zoro did have a backup plan of chopping his legs off, he could not have made it very far in that condition and would likely have bled to death.
5 Fight Against Mr. 1
In the Arabasta Saga, Zoro traded blows with Mr. 1, one of the strongest subordinates of Crocodile. This fight saw Zoro being pushed to the very extreme, simply because he could not cut steel at the time.
Zoro was injured very brutally and had yet another face-off with death itself. However, Zoro conquered death this one time and evolved in the midst of battle, learning how to cut steel in the process.
4 Took Luffy's Pain
Quite easily one of the worst encounters with death that Zoro has had came after the Thriller Bark arc. After the fall of the Shichibukai, Moria, Kuma made it to the island and put Zoro through quite a lot.
He extracted Luffy's pain and asked the Straw Hat Swordsman to take it all in. Zoro withstood this ordeal and saved the crew on the day, however, this left him bleeding heavily and he passed out, being injured for weeks after.
3 Crushed On Sabaody
On Sabaody, Zoro was already reeling from the wound that taking Luffy's pain gave him. To make things worse, the crew had to fight against powerful Pacifistas and, eventually, even Kizaru himself.
Once again, Zoro had a near-death experience on this island, and had it not been for Rayleigh, he most certainly would have died. In the end, it was Kuma who rescued the crew by splitting them apart.
2 Injured By Kamazo
Wano was another testing stage for Zoro and the Straw Hat Pirates. In the case of Zoro, he was first put in a near-death state by none other than Kamazo, better known as Killer.
He used his scythe to injure the straw hat swordsman greatly by embedding it in his chest. While Zoro won the battle, he passed out immediately after and bled profusely. Had it not been for Hiyori and the treatment that she gave him, Zoro could easily have died.
1 The Onigashima War
The Onigashima War was quite hard on Zoro. He went up to the rooftop to fight against Big Mom and Kaido and when there, he ended up taking the brunt of Hakai for a few seconds, before being rescued. This was enough to crush Zoro completely. To make things worse, he ended up taking the full force of a Thunder Bagua, as the Yonko defeated him, along with the vast majority of the Worst Generation there.
He was, later on, brought back to full health temporarily by a Mink Drug. Zoro then engaged King in combat and was put in a near-death state once again. Thankfully, he rose stronger and diced King up in battle. Later on, Zoro was knocked out and started hallucinating to the point where he saw the death god himself.