User blog comment:12th Supernova/Chapter 778: A King's Resolve, A Pirate's Attack/@comment-75.72.183.14-20150226184847/@comment-10543621-20150226232905

I don't understand why just because Oda used one chapter to finish the fight meant that Pica was no trouble for Zoro. People tend to forget that these are fights and battles. They're not duels or a contest to see who's physically stronger, or who can cut better, or who has a stronger haki.

In a battle, everything counts. Pica's main advantage as a combatant was his DF ability. Indeed, his DF ability was extremely useful and overpowered. He gave Zoro plenty of trouble throughout the entire arc. I don't understand why what Pica did was seen as 'being a coward because he knew he didn't stand a chance'. Let's break the opponents down. Zoro abilities: cutting shit up, fast, strong busoshoku hako, and more cutting shit up. PIca: Merging his body with strong, controlling massive amounts of stone, becoming a giant fucking stone statue that easily bashes things up, decent haki.

What I saw were two combatants, doing what they're good at while giving each other a hard time. Zoro was giving PIca a hard time by slicing him up contantly and PIca was giving Zoro a hard time by reforming himself constantly.

We all know when Zoro decides it's time to end things, he puts on his bandana. That has ALWAYS been the case. Zoro fights for some time, and when he puts on his bandana, he ends things, usually with one giant slice, and that was what he did here. He finally managed to slice the one thing that matters, PIca's main body, and defeated his opponent's abilities.

So yeah, I don't know what you were expecting. PIca to make a stone sword and engage in a sword duel with Zoro? No seriously, Zoro HAD a hard time with PIca. The top right-hand man DID put up a good fight. He used what he was strong at. his DF powers, to do that. People are strong for different reasons. Zoro only has his cutting ability as his main strength. Of course he has to excel in it. Similarly, Pica excelled in being a gigantic landscape wreaking stong statue, which ended up losing to Zoro's slashing.

You have to remember that people evolve and grow. If you're expecting a fight similar to what he had with Mr 1 or Kaku, that's just silly. The abilities and strong points of his opponents are completely different. His main issue with Mr 1 was that he couldn't cut steel at that time. Since then, he has realised how important it was for him to be able to cut anything since that's his strongest point. Kaku was a fast and strong physical combatant, which was why their fight went the way it did. Pica's ability simply dictated that the fight would go this way.