Chapter 1124 Analysis: The Burden Of Responsibility

Chapter 1124 Analysis: The Burden of Responsibility

I’ve seen a lot of people picking apart this interaction and what it tells us about Zoro’s character and the story, but while I’ve seen some good analysis in isolation, I find that a lot of it misses the overarching point and what’s really going on. Half the fandom seems to be pissed at Zoro and saying his comment comes from emotional immaturity, which isn’t entirely wrong. The other half are saying that Zoro’s words are correct and he’s acting as he always has, seeing the truth of the situation and holding Luffy accountable, which also isn’t entirely wrong. Both of these angles are correct in their own ways, but both of these seem to only look at and analyze the behavior of one of these characters, deeming them correct and the other wrong. Those in the first camp see Zoro as solely in the wrong, while those in the second camp see Luffy as solely in the wrong. However, I believe both of these takes miss what Oda was trying to convey with this minor interpersonal conflict.

Luffy and Zoro are both flawed characters. Luffy is a person who wants freedom from everything, which sometimes leads into a desire to be free of responsibility entirely. However, he also wishes to be a Captain with a crew and to be seen and respected as said Captain. That means he has responsibilities to uphold for the sake of his crew and all those under his protection. Now that he is an Emperor, that responsibility extends beyond his crew to his fleet and his territories as well. A big part of Luffy’s journey throughout the manga has been learning what it means to be a good Captain to his crew and he has been growing every arc in this, learning that his duty is greater than he thought and changing to be better. Now that he is an Emperor, those responsibilities are greater than ever before, but he hasn’t yet grown to shoulder them because it’s still so new.

Zoro, by contrast, is a person naturally bound by duty and responsibility. He takes promises and vows incredibly seriously, laying his life on the line for his own and expecting the same of others. For him to follow someone like Luffy and dedicate himself to him and his dream comes with the expectation that he will do all he can to honor his responsibilities as a Captain. This has its upsides as it leads to him being incredibly loyal and dedicated to Luffy and his goal to an almost obsessive degree, however it also means that when Luffy falls short of his duty, he is just as hard on Luffy as he would be on himself. And not just Luffy. This extends to other members of the crew to a lesser extent, especially Sanji who he sees as an equal and trusts to protect the crew in his absence. Which is one of the main reasons he was so upset when Sanji appeared to have just up and left them at a critical time when they had angered two Emperors, and all that for what appeared at the time to be something rather selfish and trivial in comparison the wellbeing of the crew.

The crew must respect and follow the Captain, but in return, the Captain must act in a manner that engenders that respect. In Zoro’s own words: “[He] may be an idiot, but he’s still the Captain... [and] a crew that doesn't respect their Capatin and a Captain who doesn't deserve that respect...is destined to fail!” But respect isn't inherent, it's earned, and it is only given so long as the person in authority is acting in a manner deserving of it. If they cease acting in a manner that does, that respect is revoked. This is a core theme of One Piece, so it’s no accident that this would be a core aspect of Luffy’s growth as a Captain as well.

Luffy being upset isn’t showing weakness, and Zoro has never acted like it is. He was not weak in Water 7 when Usopp left them. He was upset, but he took it on the chin and remained a firm foundation for the crew. Zoro was able to provide him the support he needed to do that, but he also didn’t treat Luffy as wrong for his emotions or for crying over Usopp’s departure. Zoro isn’t a monster. He is kind and he has compassion and he was just as upset as everyone else. But he is also pragmatic, sometimes to a fault, and has a tendency to shove down emotion for the sake of what he sees as the reality of the situation. That’s what he communicated to Luffy in Water 7. The crew was falling apart and Luffy needed to remain strong or else they really would be destroyed. They aren’t playing at being pirates. They entered into a race with very serious real-world dangers and consequences. Luffy, as the one leading them into it head first, needs to be able to keep a clear head and take things standing up so that he can be the anchor for the crew in times of struggle and hardship. To act in any other way would be an incredible insult to the people who chose to dedicate their lives to following his dream. 

If Luffy was simply upset, Zoro would not be reacting like this. The problem isn’t that Luffy is showing weakness by being upset, the problem is that Luffy is choosing to wallow in that upset, leaving his crew in the position of placating him. That is showing weakness and a lack of emotional discipline necessary for a good leader, and is inappropriate for a Captain. I know the Straw Hats aren’t a traditional crew so they’re not going to always follow traditional roles and that is fine, great even. But there still need to be boundaries, especially now that Luffy is an Emperor. He cannot act as he always has, he has more responsibility, more lives under his care, and his crew is in more danger now than ever before. 

Zoro’s words were harsh, and the fact that he said them to other crew members instead of to Luffy’s face was absolutely wrong of him; it undermines Luffy’s authority in a way Zoro usually never does. He isn’t off the hook for that at all, because talking like that about his Captain when he is seen as the defacto first mate by the rest of the world - and even the crew, to some extent - is very bad for crew cohesion and morale. If he were a part of a different crew with a different Captain, what he did could have been viewed as borderline mutinous, so this man does not get a pass here. It was immature and it was incredibly inappropriate. But his words also weren’t wrong. Luffy wasn’t acting like a very good Captain, and Zoro wasn’t acting like a very good first mate, and, one could even argue, the latter is a natural consequence of the former. A crew is only as good as its Captain and if a Captain is not acting as he ought, the crew will not act as they ought. This does not at all excuse Zoro’s behavior, it’s simply stated to point out that Luffy bears the burden of responsibility when it comes to leading and disciplining his crew.

As a Captain, Luffy is not just responsible for the physical wellbeing of the crew, but also their morale and cohesion. By allowing himself to wallow in upset, as perfectly understandable as that upset was, he is unintentionally forcing them to take on that role with him, when it is his responsibility as the Captain to be their rock in situations like this. Luffy wasn’t the only one that failed their objective. The whole crew failed, and by acting as he did, he put the onus on them to emotionally support him while they themselves were also upset. It’s not responsible or mature, and it’s not fair to those under him, either. You cannot ask someone to follow you into hell and then leave them to bear the emotional burden of those consequences not only for themselves, but for you as well. The crew relies on the Captain to be strong in times of crisis and they can’t keep relying on Zoro to be their anchor, because he’s not the captain. It would undermine Luffy’s authority and leave a crew that is constantly placating a man who would be viewed less as a leader and more as an emotionally volatile tactical nuke. If he wants to be the one in charge, he needs to also fulfill the responsibilities of the one in charge, and he wasn’t doing that here. That is the burden of a Captain and it is a heavy one to bear, but it’s a burden he chose for himself nonetheless and he needs to grow to bear it.

Luffy’s big heart and boundless compassion is one of the greatest things about him. He loves people quickly and he loves them deeply and that is never something we would ever want to change. It is, in many ways, his greatest strength. But he cannot allow himself to be ruled by his emotions anymore. What Luffy needs to find is balance. It’s okay for him to break down in private and allow himself to grieve, but he can’t do it publicly in a way that affects the rest of the crew, especially now as an Emperor. He needs to find one person who he can be vulnerable with so that he can be the backbone for the rest of the crew. Thematically it would make sense for it to be Zoro, Sanji, or Nami, but, for multiple different reasons, I don’t think they would be the best choices at the present moment. I think his best choice for now is Jinbe, his helmsman, the man who saw him at his lowest, helped him through his grief, and knows better than anyone else the burden of being a Captain. He can offer much needed compassion while also remaining level-headed and steering him in the right direction. I do think the other three have the potential to become that person for Luffy - Zoro, especially, who has already been shown thematically to be the one to take the Captain’s pain upon himself - but it will take some growth and development for them to get to that point.

Luffy and Zoro are both wrong. They are not wrong in their feelings, but they are wrong in their actions as they both acted inappropriately for their stations. Oda is showing us a case where both the Captain and the defacto first mate are not acting as they should right as the race to Raftel is beginning. This isn’t good. This is a huge problem. These two need to find a way to grow and develop together as a cohesive unit or it’s going to cause potentially catastrophic issues later down the line. Both are right in their feelings, but wrong in their actions. Oda used Zoro to show that Luffy is not acting as an Emperor should and Jinbe and Franky to show that Zoro is not acting as a first mate should. This is a problem that needs to be addressed on both fronts, preferably together at the same time.

I’ve seen people saying Zoro is in for a world of hurt soon, and I absolutely agree, but he’s not the only one. Luffy needs to grow here, too, and it’s going to be painful not just for the both of them, but for the rest of the crew, because when those two are at odds, the whole crew is in a crisis. It may seem small right now, but something like this can easily snowball into a disastrous avalanche if left unchecked. This wasn’t a good look for either of them, nor was the way it was resolved (or not, as it were). Lilith’s explanation sort of came as a copout. Luffy didn’t pull himself together for the sake of his crew, he did because he was told that they hadn’t actually failed, which means this problem wasn’t addressed. Also because of this, Zoro’s frustration was rather quickly placated and his comment appears to have gone unaddressed as well. This leads me to believe that Oda was using this to show us two big flaws Luffy and Zoro have an how they come in conflict so that he can revisit them at a later date in a situation with higher stakes and actual consequences. 

Zoro being upset that Luffy is "moping over one geezer dying" specifically is rather significant, not because he is being intentionally callous, but because Vegapunk wasn’t a close friend of the crew. If this is how Luffy behaves when they failed to save “one geezer,” what about if they were to lose a close friend like Vivi? What about a crew member? What if, say, a crew member became a danger to the rest of the crew and another was forced to kill them to protect the others? What then? Will Luffy be able to become the anchor the crew needs in order to navigate something like that, or will he fall apart and the crew alongside him? There is no doubt in my mind that Zoro’s promise to Sanji isn’t a constant companion, right alongside his promise to Kuina and vow to Luffy. There is no doubt in my mind that Zoro wasn’t thinking about this very potential scenario when Luffy was breaking down in this chapter. Absolutely none. Especially not with how Sanji has been acting lately.  If anything, I believe that this, that far more than his own personal upset over their failure, is what drove him to react this way in the first place. Zoro is always looking forward to the potential dangers to prepare and protect the crew and this is a close and personal one, a ticking time bomb that would be utterly catastrophic if there is no way to defuse it. 

I know no one likes to think about the elephant in the room, but Zoro is always thinking of the elephant in the room. It’s his job to. And this is a crucial detail that I think has been completely left out of this entire discussion which I believe completely changes the context of the situation. What if they lose Vivi? What if they lose Sanji? What if they also lose Zoro because he had to kill Sanji or dies trying? What if they lose a crew member to any one of their future enemies? What will Luffy do then? Will he be the Captain the crew needs if he can’t even do it when all they lost was “one geezer?” Those are the sorts of thoughts that would trigger Zoro to talk like he just did behind his Captain’s back instead of to his face. After all, his promise to Sanji is one of the few things he is keeping secret from Luffy. It may seem like an overreaction here considering the stakes are so low at the moment, but it’s not if we consider the potential future dangers of Luffy’s behavior for those under him. Was Zoro's behavior immature? Yes. But likely fueled by a constant anxiety over the crew’s wellbeing? Also yes. 

Zoro isn’t just upset they failed, he’s worried for the future wellbeing of the crew. It’s not just about image. Every single time he has acted like this it was because there was some perceived future danger to the crew. In Water 7 it was their cohesion and their ability to follow Luffy in times of crisis, in Punk Hazard it was their lives and physical wellbeing against the much-stronger opponents they were facing, in Zou it was the same but with the added context that they had made themselves active enemies of two out of the four Yonkou. So why would it be anything other than that now?

And honestly, it was about time something like this happened. These two have been too cohesive as of late while still having a lot of unaddressed, conflicting character flaws. It was about time there was some obvious friction of this magnitude so that it could be addressed. When they get on the other side of whatever Oda is planning to throw their way to excite this conflict, they and the crew will only be stronger for it. And I, for one, am very interested to see how this looming disaster is going to play out.