Highlights
- Zoro’s moment of taking on Luffy’s pain after the battle with Kuma on Thriller Bark is a poignant demonstration of loyalty and camaraderie.
- The release of One Piece Chapter 1097 reveals Kuma’s past and his devotion to Monkey D. Dragon, giving Zoro’s stand a new meaning.
- Kuma’s ability to repel emotions, memories, fatigue, and pain played a major role in his offer to spare Luffy, making Zoro’s sacrifice even more significant.
For the most part, the Thriller Bark Arc in One Piece has elicited fairly mixed reactions due to its convoluted story arc, pacing, and limited narrative progression. However, despite this, there was a single moment in this arc which has left a lasting impact, as one of the most poignant demonstrations of loyalty and camaraderie in the series. Quite obviously, the moment in question involves Zoro taking on all of Luffy’s pain in the aftermath of the battle with the Warlord Bartholomew Kuma.
The release of One Piece Chapter 1097 provided some startling revelations about Kuma’s past and the pain he endured at various points in his life, which shaped him into the person the Straw Hat Pirates encountered on Thriller Bark. Coupled with Kuma’s obvious devotion to Monkey D. Dragon, this gave Zoro’s stand an entirely new meaning in the context of Kuma’s values and worldview. Together, this serves to elevate the impact of the original moment even further, now that Kuma’s motives are much clearer.
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The Power Of The Nikyu Nikyu no Mi
After finding and eating his Devil Fruit in the legendary God Valley Incident, Bartholomew Kuma gained the power to repel virtually anything his hands made contact with. With this ability, he was able to save hundreds of captive slaves who were facing certain death in God Valley. This act was one of the most telling demonstrations of Kuma’s compassion in his youth, despite the hardships he suffered throughout his life.
Beyond simply pushing away physical objects or matter, Kuma’s ability to repel also included emotions, memories, fatigue, and pain, which is the most important aspect of his power to consider in this discussion. Even though he could extract these substances from a person’s body and condense them into a paw-shaped bubble, the suffering contained in the bubble would return to its original source after a set time. This was a major factor in how Kuma offered to spare Luffy, in exchange for Zoro absorbing his captain’s accumulated pain, which would have otherwise returned to his body and killed him.
Kuma’s Tortured Youth
After returning to his homeland in the Sorbet Kingdom from God Valley, Kuma lived in a church and routinely used his abilities to treat the sick and elderly from the region. He never even asked them for any sort of compensation, due to the extreme poverty they lived in as a consequence of the Celestial Dragons’ Heavenly Tribute. All this aligned with Kuma’s desire to follow in the footsteps of the legendary figure Sun God Nika, but unfortunately, there was a tragic cost to Kuma’s act of kindness.
Since all the pain he extracted from his patients would amass in a massive paw shaped bubble, Kuma was forced to absorb all the pain into his own body, to prevent it from returning to those he had treated. On every occasion, this ordeal exposed him to the compounded pain of innumerable patients, and left him battered, bruised, and critically wounded. Despite this, he continued to persist and aid those in need from the Sorbet Kingdom. The only one who was aware of his suffering was Ginny, his partner and one of the slaves who had been freed from God Valley.
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Ginny constantly begged Kuma to cease his healing sessions due to the sheer amount of suffering they caused him. In spite of her pleas, Kuma was firmly devoted to helping people in whatever way he could, which would play a part in the next chapter of his life. When the Sorbet Kingdom’s ruler chose to abandon the impoverished parts of his territory and reduce his share of the Heavenly Tribute, Kuma was enraged and attacked the kingdom’s armed forces, resulting in his imprisonment.
Fortunately for him, the Sorbet Kingdom was soon liberated by one of his former allies Emporio Ivankov, who had come there alongside Monkey D. Dragon, the leader of the newly formed Freedom Fighters. Kuma had been in awe of Dragon for quite some time, which cemented his resolve to join his troops, which would eventually transform into the Revolutionary Army. Prior to his tenure as a Warlord of the Sea, Kuma was an invaluable ally to Dragon, and it appears as if the respect they shared was mutual.
Testing The Future Pirate King’s Right Hand
Another important point to contemplate, is the fact that Kuma was one of the few people aware of the fact that Luffy was Dragon’s son, at the time of the Thriller Bark Arc. This information was only revealed to the rest of the world during the Summit War of Marineford, which is a vital factor in outlining the reason behind Kuma’s actions. It is also fair to say that Kuma continued to hold Dragon in high regard even then, as he chose to spare Luffy here, as well as on the Sabaody Archipelago.
From one perspective, Kuma’s offer to Zoro appears to have been a sort of test to see if Luffy had allies that he could truly depend on. Much like his own desire to help those around him and take on their pain, Kuma might have been examining Zoro’s resolve, to see if Dragon’s son had a worthy right hand — capable of aiding Luffy and taking on his pain in the same way Kuma himself did for Luffy’s father back when he was part of the Revolutionary Army.
Moreover, Kuma has repeatedly demonstrated some sort of perplexing concern for the Straw Hat Pirates, as he was the one who sent them to different locations to train during the time skip, and even stood guard over the Thousand Sunny for two years. These signs quite clearly indicate Kuma’s support for the Straw Hat Pirates, and his test of Zoro’s resolve was a means of confirming his faith in Luffy as Dragon’s son. These revelations about Kuma have given Zoro’s stand in Thriller Bark far more depth, drawing parallels between the relationship shared by Dragon and Kuma, to Zoro and Luffy’s bond.
One Piece is available to stream on Prime Video.
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