Straw Hats switching islands

[ahill1]

Say that Zoro was sent to the women's island and Luffy was sent to the island Mihawk was residing... how do you think that'd change things?

 

[SSJ2]

Their training would have been far less effective given they were sent to islands that well suited them. Mihawk might be able to train Luffy somewhat about Haki, but being trained by the world's greatest swordsman would be pretty useless for a physical devil fruit user like Luffy. Zoro probably would have ended up being the strongest Straw Hat by training with Rayleigh for 2 years, being a swordsman and a Haki expert, he would have had plenty to teach Zoro.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

As SSJ2 said, Zoro's training wouldn't have been effective as Kuma sent them to each island best for their growth. Luffy being sent to Mihawk's island means he doesn't find out about Ace's capture, never goes to Impel Down and Ace is executed before the Whitebeard Pirates arrive. Not gaining an immunity to most poisons through surviving against Magellan means Luffy would die to Hyouzou's poison and the Straw Hats would likely leave Fishman Island rather than liberate it due to Jimbei not being there to ally with them. If they continue on their journey despite Luffy's death, they wouldn't make it past Dressrosa.

 

[SSJ2]

[mention]Captain Cadaver[/mention] do you think Zoro would have ended up stronger training with Rayleigh or Mihawk?

 

[Captain Cadaver]

Hard to say. Rayleigh is a skilled swordsman, though to what extent and compared to Mihawk is unknown. I'd probably say Mihawk considering he is the world's greatest swordsman and would provide additional motivation to Zoro's gains through being his end goal. Rayleigh would be better in teaching him about Haki, but he seemed to have mastered that well on his own and wouldn't have been personally tutored for as long as under Mihawk if assuming Rayleigh only taught him the basics as he did with Luffy.

 

[Warmmedown]

Zoro had a bunch of strong and skilled sword-wielding sparring partners on Mihawk's estate, which he wouldn't have with Rayleigh. Zoro also thrives off of long, physically gruelling training sessions and I'm not sure he would have access to as much of that with Rayleigh and the wild beasts.
Rayleigh could teach him about haki, but I don't know if Zoro's current foresight haki is any worse than Luffy's, whereas I'm pretty sure Rayleigh wouldn't have taught him as good armament haki, seeing as Mihawk is famous for his oversized black blade, while Rayleigh isn't.

Maybe Zoro would turn out to have conqueror's haki.
Maybe Luffy would actually die if he had to fight the monkeys. He can fight a swordsman, but it was his forte at the time, since his armament was non-existent.