I have a simple question.
Mihawk, in his metric, is above a Yonko.
Is he stronger than a Yonko, yes or no?
Is he stronger than a Yonko? yeah ofc
He's stronger than Shanks in swordsmanship, hence the comparison. Therefore you can say "Mihawk > Shanks" as an objective statement.
He's stronger than Buggy obviously
He's stronger than Luffy, obviously given his time limit.
Blackbeard is all over the place in terms of his scaling, he could even absorb imu and become top 1 easily, but right now if we take BB vs Law I doubt BB would want to fight Mihawk. So for now he's stronger than Blackbeard.
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If Mihawk killed buggy, since it would be easy for him, in the worlds perception he just killed a Yonko who he was supposedly under. It would be like beckman killing Shanks. What do you think the perception of him would be then? he could be given a 1+ bil bounty increase at minimum. He'd probably be at 5 bil.
That shows how what people
believe to be true is more important than what is actually true. Because the power buggy holds is as a figurehead, hence it's an illusion.
Similar example is Sabo being viewed as having killed cobra.
This shows what kind of flimsy joke the title of Yonko can be turned into. Yet we know Mihawk is the strongest in name
and reality.
In Mihawk's instance the objectivity of his title overrides anyone's perception in the world of one piece, a group of people in world can debate if Mihawk is really the strongest for example, but we as the reader are told objectively in the narrative it's the case.
Whereas people in the world of One Piece don't have that narration to literally tell them what's what.
What all this shows is that the Yonko
still stay the 4 greatest pirates, but now we know that
literal fraudulence can make you one of the 4 greatest pirates. You can literally fake it to the Yonko position, if you politically have a perception
that is a lie, but people believe to be true.
You can't do that for WSS, given everything about it we have been shown. Anyone is free to challenge Mihawk. And he has a history of battle that built up his reputation.
Therefore the title of "yonko" can literally be argued to be more fraudulent than WSS. You can become a greater Pirate than Mihawk (something he doesn't care about) built off of lies.
You can't be better than/stronger than Mihawk in swordsmanship based off lies, because Mihawk's reputation is so grand that the only way you can soundly be above him is by defeating him in battle.
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When the WG thinks Buggy actually managed to make Mihawk his commander, which
@Erkan12 might argue to show a Yonko is above WGS, however:
The WG's perception of Mihawk isn't downscaled, because Mihawk's reputation within the narrative is set in stone as unquestionable, therefore Buggy's perception that get's an upscale.
They didn't go "oh if this buggy guy can get Mihawk to listen to him, Mihawk must not be the strongest swordsman after-all, it must be Shanks,
since Shanks is a Yonko swordsman where Mihawk isn't"
And they are saying this
without even knowing if Mihawk is interested in being a Yonko or not. Which
should further show that Mihawk is not in the same caliber as Buggy or Shanks in piracy (and therefore strength to people who think yonko > wss).
Yet they literally went "oh shit, we know how strong Mihawk is, so Buggy must be extremely dangerous in some way"
This shows that your level of piracy
has no bearing on your reputation as WSS, whether you are a Warlord or a Yonko commander or a Yonko.
Therefore Mihawk becoming a Yonko would not alter his perception of his individual strength, it would merely be the WSS becoming a Yonko. Therefore altering his political position.
Whereas if a Yonko became the WSS by beating Mihawk, it would
enhance their perception of strength as the world would now know they are superior to Mihawk in combat.
All this should tell you that the title of Yonko is not inherently above Mihawk's title. And that Mihawk's title objectively puts him above Yonko's in terms of individual combat ability in the martial art he is known for. And that ability is easily at the Yonko level.