Character Discussion Mihawk is not Zoro (and vice versa); Why all the theorists get it wrong

Where will Mihawk and Zoro have their final duel?

  • Elbaf

  • Final war

  • Wano

  • Somewhere in East Blue

  • Raftel

  • They won't duel. Mihawk will fall down some stairs and die.

  • Somewhere else

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Den_Den_Mushi

Den_Den_Mushi

‎
#1
#1
A lot of OP theorists come up with Mihawk/Shanks theories that, simply put, make no sense whatsoever. For example, Morj, who many people in the community inexplicably see as a reliable theorist, believes that Mihawk will fight Zoro at Elbaf while Luffy and the Straw Hats face Shanks and the Red Haired Pirates in a Davy Back AT THE SAME TIME. This obviously shits on Zoro's dream and is brain dead in the sense that there is 0 chance of Luffy winning a Davy Back without Zoro. This is also entirely inconsistent with Mihawk's character. The man has no ties to Elbaf and has no reason to be there. There is also no reason why Zoro would have his final duel there of all places since it's more arguably Big Mom or Shanks' arc.

The main reason for these illogical theories is that most people see Zoro and Luffy's relationship as a direct parallel to Mihawk and Shanks. Not only is this a grave misunderstanding of all 4 characters, this makes the assumption that Zoro and Mihawk are, for some reason, essentially the same character. They are not, and their relationships with other characters are based on fundamentally different principles.

Zoro's Relationship With Luffy
  • Luffy is Zoro's Captain
  • Zoro was willing to throw away his ambition and dream for Luffy's
  • Zoro places Luffy's life in higher regard than his own
  • Zoro is Luffy's Partner
  • Zoro's relationship with Luffy is that of captain-vice captain.

Mihawk's Relationship With Shanks
  • Shanks is Mihawk's Rival
  • Mihawk did not abandon his ambition for Shanks
  • Mihawk cares about Shanks, but there's no evidence he would go so far as to lay down his life for Shanks
  • Mihawk and Shanks are not, to our knowledge, formally allied. Mihawk would never become Shanks' subordinate given that he's searching for a rival that's stronger than Shanks
  • Mihawk and Shanks have a friendship based on friendly rivalry, similar to Roger's friendship with Garp

Differences Between Mihawk's Relationship with Zoro and Shanks' Relationship With Luffy
  • Mihawk's Relationship With Zoro
  • Zoro's ambition is to surpass Mihawk and become the new World's Strongest Swordsman.
  • His promise to Kuina is Zoro's greatest motivation to become the World's Strongest Swordsman. Mihawk is just the current bearer of that title.
  • Mihawk was neither and idol nor role model to Zoro. He's just the person Zoro needs to beat to become the strongest.
  • Zoro doesn't directly desire to earn Mihawk's respect and recognition, but instead to best him in combat.
  • Mihawk looks at Zoro as a potential new worthy rival. He's waiting for the appearance of the swordsman that surpasses Shanks, and he hopes that Zoro might be that Swordsman.

Shanks' Relationship With Luffy
  • Luffy seeks to become the Pirate King (a title only Roger attained).
  • Shanks was Luffy's inspiration to become a Pirate.
  • Shanks was Luffy's idol and role model.
  • Luffy seeks Shanks' respect and recognition (he'll meet up with Shanks again after gathering a crew that's even better than his).
  • This is symbolised by Luffy returning his Strawhat to Shanks after becoming a Great Pirate.
  • Shanks bet on Luffy and gave up his arm for him. He has high hopes for Luffy as the successor to Roger. He doesn't hope for Luffy to become a new combat rival for him.

People theorising that Mihawk will join Shanks to fight BB (why tho) and that he will have a major role in the Elbaf arc aren't actually thinking critically about the character. They're just shoehorning him into their headcanons involving Shanks and crafting flimsy reasons for Mihawk to be there as well. Mihawk is not Zoro - where Zoro focuses on whatever problem he's dealing with in the moment, Mihawk is looking to the future, to the implications surrounding current events such as Reverie and planning his next move. While Zoro is undyingly loyal and welcomes suffering and hardship, Mihawk sees even a nick on one's blade as a symbol of disgrace. The two characters are extremely different, and trying to make them the same based on hurr durr sword hurr are misinterpreting both characters entirely.

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Jiihad

Jiihad

RIP Toriyama
‎
#2
#2
I think like 99% of OP youtubers are hot ass. Mihawk has objectively no relation to Elbaph, not to mention he’s being chased by tha Marines/WG right now. Ion think he has time to post up on an island and fight someone clearly weaker than him jus for shots and giggles
 
Lee Ba Shou

Lee Ba Shou

Conqueror of the Stars
‎
#4
#4
Damn, I was literally just discussing this with Cinera in Discord yesterday lol. I do believe Zoro fights Mihawk in Elbaf, and I guess I’ll explain why, but first:

Den_Den_Mushi said:
This is also entirely inconsistent with Mihawk's character. The man has no ties to Elbaf and has no reason to be there.
Click to expand...
Mihawk will go to the place where he will be safest from the Marines, and that is with Shanks.

“Mihawk doesn’t need to hide from the Marines, he is too strong”

Firstly, if Mihawk didn’t care about the Marines pursuing him, he would’ve never became a Warlord to begin with.

Second, Like I told Cinera yesterday, Oda is not going to write a story where Mihawk solo’s millions of Marines lol. For whatever reason, the Marines are hell bent on arresting all of the Warlords, including Mihawk. I think this is because of the political outrage created by Fujitora against the Shichibukai but anyway, Mihawk isn’t the type of guy to fight against all of the Marines by himself. At some point, he would find it a chore, and the Marines would start sending Admirals for him if he kills too many Marines...it’s just much more likely that he’ll head somewhere where the Marines will not follow him, which is most likely Shanks.

Den_Den_Mushi said:
There is also no reason why Zoro would have his final duel there of all places since it's more arguably Big Mom or Shanks' arc.
Click to expand...
Okay so, who said Zoro vs Mihawk will be his final duel? Mihawk vs Zoro will represent the point where Zoro becomes the WSS, but I don’t think there’s a rule that the series has to end once Zoro does this? Hell the Final War of OP likely won’t take place until after Luffy is already Pirate King.

I don’t understand the notion of “Zoro will become WSS and then the manga ends”, I would find that boring personally.

I want to see an arc where Pirate King Luffy, WSS Zoro, insert every other Straw Hat dream having been achieved...I want to see an arc where all those Straw Hats face someone. Just like how Kingdom won’t end once Shin becomes a GG, there will still be several wars to fight.

Zoro will still have stuff to do after becoming the WSS, just like Luffy will still have stuff to do after he becomes the Pirate King. Call it a victory lap if you will. At least this is what I think will happen.

Anyway, so with all that said, yes I fully believe Zoro fights Mihawk in Elbaf. Their fight isn’t going to be a fight to the death, it’ll be more of a “sport” like Luffy vs Shanks and Yasopp vs Usopp. Mihawk was disqualified from being killed by Zoro a long time ago, and Zoro’s real final fight should involve an opponent who he isn’t fighting for shits and giggles, the stakes will be much higher than that.
 
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Lee Ba Shou

Lee Ba Shou

Conqueror of the Stars
‎
#9
#9
сука said:
People always talk about Mihawk as if his fight with Zoro is meant to serve as some sort of co-main event for Luffy vs Shanks. They can't let Zoro and Mihawk be in the spotlight if it isn't overshadowed by condom and le haki god.
Click to expand...
When else would it happen though?

After Elbaf is likely Raftel itself, after Raftel is likely the final war. Where would Mihawk vs Zoro fit into any of those scenarios?

Like Luffy is about to fight the Gorosei but hold up, everybody pause, Zoro has to fight Mihawk real quick.
 
Den_Den_Mushi

Den_Den_Mushi

‎
#11
#11
Fleet Admiral Lee Hung said:
Firstly, if Mihawk didn’t care about the Marines pursuing him, he would’ve never became a Warlord to begin with.
Click to expand...
Bad assumption. Mihawk is more than strong enough and smart enough to hide from the Marines. Rayleigh has done it for 22 years and he’s more wanted than Mihawk ever was. Mihawk joined them because it was useful to him, free meals, no bounty and he can come and go through Mariejoa to access the New World. There’s simply no making the argument that Mihawk dreads being pursued, the man is even excited to see that he’s become wanted again.

Of course Mihawk may end allying with Shanks for personal reasons, but as @Jiihad said, Elbaf has no relation to either Zoro or Mihawk, the Shanks connection is entirely fanmade at this stage and the arc is already bloated enough with plot points featuring other characters like Carmel, Dorry and Broggy, Linlin and Usopp.
 
Lukegranders

Lukegranders

‎
#17
#17
Mihawk and shanks have a connection and you seriously think Oda is just gonna write mihawk out till the end of the story?

Also if you haven’t realized yet mihawk already said luffys dream is harder then Zoros so why would luffy become pirate king before Zoros fight with mihawk?

It seems like you guys deluded yourselves into thinking mihawk is Zoros final fight when in story that’s not the case at all.

Zoro has to achieve his dream before luffys.

after luffy finds the one piece the final war begins.

That’s how it works
 
Doggo

Doggo

Welcome to the House of Hope
‎
#20
#20
Thing is.
One Piece is ending and we dont have that many arcs left. One thing was the Baratie fight, when Zoro still was with Luffy just because of his "agreement". He basically said "fuck y'all, I'm fighting Mihawk now" and got rekt.

Is it gonna happen AGAIN? During the middle of a confrontation against Shanks, or maybe against BB or whoever, Mihawk is gonna appear and Zoro is gonna drop everything to fight him?
Not that there can't be acceptable circunstances for this to happen, but it seems quite weird.
It would make sense for Mihawk to join Shanks, due to the manhunt from the Marines. Specially if the science division indeed created a weapon powerful enough to let them challenge even the Yonkos, let alone just Mihawk, who doesn't have a crew to back him up.
That's all.
It's not a matter of "understanding the character" or not. It's a matter of also trying to understand all the plots happening simultaneously, and trying to find a common ground for them to converge to.
 
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