Mihawk is the WSSM. Yet he fought pre-yonko shanks 20 years ago and refuses to fight shanks now in his prime. All the while Shanks gets better feats and portrayal while all Mihawk has to cling to is his black blade and title. Shanks split the sky with Whitebeard, stopped kaido, ended marineford, and made an admiral shit his pants using CoC; while Mihawk's biggest feats include: having his slash blocked by jozu, being stalled by vista, never fighting a single top tier, being known as buggy's subordinate.
imo, in order to keep mihawk's reputation intact, Oda is going to have shanks fight blackbeard without his sword.
This way, Shanks's hype stays intact, Mihawk's hype stays intact, and Shanks's performance has no bearing on the validity of zoro's dream.
This isn't even a pure agenda based speculation. Oda has been setting up Kid vs Shanks for a while now. What if Kid interferes in Shanks's fight with Teach, using assign to magnetize a large amount of land, maybe even the island they are on, making all weapons stick to the ground and making Shanks's sword useless. We've seen how Linlin struggled to break free of Kid's assign, so its entirely possible that Kid could do this if he mastered his awakening(which he probably will, next time we see him).
Shanks will then have to fight teach in hand to hand combat, emphasizing him as a mixed fighter and not just a swordsman. This way, Mihawk's title doesn't inherently make him stronger than Shanks. Then, when Mihawk ultimately proves that he isn't a high top tier like everyone claims, it won't break the story.
imo, in order to keep mihawk's reputation intact, Oda is going to have shanks fight blackbeard without his sword.
This way, Shanks's hype stays intact, Mihawk's hype stays intact, and Shanks's performance has no bearing on the validity of zoro's dream.
This isn't even a pure agenda based speculation. Oda has been setting up Kid vs Shanks for a while now. What if Kid interferes in Shanks's fight with Teach, using assign to magnetize a large amount of land, maybe even the island they are on, making all weapons stick to the ground and making Shanks's sword useless. We've seen how Linlin struggled to break free of Kid's assign, so its entirely possible that Kid could do this if he mastered his awakening(which he probably will, next time we see him).
Shanks will then have to fight teach in hand to hand combat, emphasizing him as a mixed fighter and not just a swordsman. This way, Mihawk's title doesn't inherently make him stronger than Shanks. Then, when Mihawk ultimately proves that he isn't a high top tier like everyone claims, it won't break the story.
