Questions & Mysteries Is mihawk's cross shaped sword a hint that he will die?
The cross is a symbol for Christianity. If you notice, Zoro and Mihawk have an east vs west theme. Zoro is the Eastern Samurai, wielding katanas, with attacks that derive from eastern faith and myths. Meanwhile, Mihawk is the European swordsman, wielding a large German Krieg messer, with gothic flavour and western religious paraphernalia. But, the cross is sometimes regarded as the symbol of the son of god. So that’s another way of spinning its significance on Mihawk.
its definitely possible that mihawk dies before zoro is able to beat him. that would give an interesting twist to zoros dream oda could expand on. Though if mihawk dies to another swordsman that would legit just replace mihawk for zoros dream and therefore not be interesting at all and would be pretty bad considering the buildup for mihawk vs zoro ever since east blue.