DOWN D. STAIRS

Most people keep making fun of Kuina dying from falling down the stairs, while completely neglecting the possibility of her dying from falling down the stairs

Her death was so bizarre. Especially in One Piece world. Usually if someone fell off the stairs they would've said "itai" and move on with their lives. 😂

"Humans are fragile things" is in my opinion the message Oda wanted to convey with this flashback. Tragedies happen and sometimes we can't make sense of it. Even great and powerful people die suddenly like from a common disease.

What makes Kuina's death so difficult to take seriously is that in any other story it would be something tragic and realistic that could happen to anyone... Except that One Piece has people being cut in half, thrown off cliffs, starving for weeks, taking cannonballs in the face, getting shot at and surviving like it was nothing.

Kuina changing from a girl to a boy would defeat the purpose of the Zoro's words which had a huge impact on her psychology. He said it's got nothing to do with being a boy or a girl and beating her is his dream. Beating her the way she was back then, a girl swordsman. Thus changing from a girl to a boy would not only disappoint Zoro because Kuina didn't put trust in herself and her abilities but would also go against the acceptance Zoro showed that a girl can be a great swordsman.

Honestly, I think it really was just stairs. We think Kuina was crazy strong because of how strong Zoro got but she was still a kid from the East Blue, even with her training a fall down the stairs could kill her. I also think it's meant to simply be tragic, that after finally deciding to pursue her dream regardless of obstacles, fate decides to take that from her and thus give Zoro the resolve to pursue it for both their sakes. Having Kuina be revealed to be alive later would ruin things.

I always felt like it was implied she committed suicide.

This is one of the moments where the anime stretchs things out and actually makes it better. The part when the sensei says something like "Zoro... I'm a swordsman, but I am still a father. And when I look at you, I can't help but feel sad" with a dead cold face, hits like a truck. Luckily they both find some peace of mind through Zoro inheriting her sword.

So we all agree Kuina is Mihawk

Every time Kuina comes up I feel like I have to say this because of all the crazy fan theories and feelings and stuff surrounding it. I think Kuina's death is a great backstory for Zoro exactly as it is. A lot of people will say that it's unsatisfying or lame or silly and like...yes! That's the point! It IS unsatisfying. Zoro had a friend and rival that he never defeated and never will. He promised that one of them would become the greatest swordsman in the world, and she was robbed of her chance to fulfill that promise. Not by any fault of her own, not even by being born female. But by a cruel twist of fate. There is no reason, no logic, no fulfilling answer for why she died. She was simply unlucky. For someone so driven by hard work and self-improvement as Zoro, how could he possibly accept such an unsatisfying end to her story? The fact that it is unsatisfying is

I think the Wado may in fact be a cursed blade, but not to extent of something like Enma. In fact I think we've seen the curse of the Wado many times in action and its "lack of a personality" as GLR puts it, plays into this curse. The Curse of..... Misdirection.

I like the cursed sword theory. Zoro resolve has been resolute every time it needed to be around his swords, while Kuina's resolve was waning when she was a child. The sword killing her for a new master is one of the more logical theories.

I remember very positively that, in the 4Kids dub, after Kuina was 'disabled', Koshiro told Zoro that the only reason he told Kuina she couldn't become as great of a swordswoman as she wanted, was to motivate her. Are you really telling me that wasn't in the Japanese dub, or at least in the Funimation dub? Because if not, then that's a pretty big improvement made by 4Kids (along with replacing the stairs with a group of thugs).

The live-action scene of Koshiro telling Zoro hit me like a truck. It was damn near word for word what my mother told me after my father died. For that reason it makes sense why he doesn't say exactly what happened and can't bring himself to say she's dead. It's too painful to when it's that recent.

Kuina's demise stood out because she didn't have a heroic last stand to protect Zoro.

I really like the idea that Kuina's dad was a very traditional Wano Samurai, but Oden brought about the change to Wano itself with his boundless chad energy that accepted any1 and anything he deemed worthy of his chadliness, even minks, fishman and other weirdos.

Oda came out and said she did fall stairs. The reason he had to do that was because everyone was saying suicide. From what I understand at times falling down stairs is a cover story for suicide, but Oda said she really did just fall down D stairs.

It would be interesting if the spirit of the wado, being a meito blade rebelled against kuina, causing her to maybe quite literally fall on her own sword

In 4Kids adaptation, Kuina got attacked by a mob of angry guys and lost her ability to walk.