Since Hawkins is the 1% chance of survival guy, I am not convinced he's dead tbh. Oda loves his extreme odds and what's the point of making it Hawkins all along too? Hype/mystery bait? Thats it? Did Oda change what he had planned with it?
It would have been more impactful if it was someone who had an actual 0% chance of survival and Hawkins reveals before he "dies" here that it was him. Thus we have an actual conclusive death here too. Oda giving him the slimmest of chances to survive makes me think he's baiting us as he LOVES his death fakeouts.
The ambiguity of his foretelling and final words here makes me think he's not gonna die, especially with Drake right there too. This could end up setting up Hawkins for Sword instead somehow potentially.
I really with Hawkins had been a Blackbeard captain/ally with the fatalist themes they have, but oh well.
Given how Faust has been non-existent post TS thought and one of Hawkins own main crew members seemed to die in a filler scene in the beginning of Wano too (falling into a chasm), maybe I'm just over analysing as usual and this is all we're gonna get from Hawkins and thhus "the best" too.
Very disappointing then.
The panelling and expression of Hawkins in his final moments there is great but I just feel numb seeing him handled like this. He was such a fascinating, promising character.