Is it possible that the reason Mihawk wanted to become a swordsman was because of Roger? But the one to surpass Roger will be a JoyBoy/Sun God type, and swordsmen might have a limit.
Mihawk might not have known that, but it's too late now. You picked the wrong major at school Mihawk.
Why do people default to surpassing roger being limited to joyboy or some bullshit?, when he's literally a swordsman. Why would other swordsman be limited from surpassing another swordsman?
Dude, you'd think if Roger can harm domi xebec, then you'd need a swordsman at-least stronger than Roger to be able to significantly damage Imu without exerting all their haki, in comes Zoro, Joyboy's sword. You can say perhaps sanji is joyboys shield in this case. And if not imu then maybe a domi'd nusjuro or shamrock posing a similar threat.
It's not even about necessarily having roger on a pedestal and him being wanked to god status anymore, you should be able to put two and two together. Roger can still be that guy and be surpassed by Zoro in overall strength.
Roger was a CoC wielding swordsman just like Oden, Oden got close to Roger as another CoC wielding swordsman. Why couldn't shanks have surpassed him? why couldn't Mihawk have surpassed him? why couldn't Zoro go on to get stronger than Oden, and then Roger?