Speculations Mihawk went to Marineford to fight Newgate – Analysis

#1
After months of laziness, for some mysterious reason I finally decided to stop and write this review, I hope you like it.

I've stated a few times that I believe Mihawk went to Marineford with the intention of fighting Newgate, the one who was known to be the strongest and now I bring the reasoning behind that statement.

To understand someone's actions we need to understand her motivations first, Mihawk hasn't had his moment in history yet and that's why it hasn't been developed and our biggest source of information about the character is his Vivre Card, so let's start to understand him at from that.

Mihawk is a swordsman who dedicated his life to this, for years he developed his skill in swordsmanship until there was no one else strong enough to duel with, for this reason he joined the Shichibukai (interestingly, this happens chronologically after his duels with Shanks are over) and finally we have the declaration that Mihawk waits for the day that someone will surpass Shanks.

Another key statement for our analysis is that Mihawk is able to see the essence of power in people, similar to what we saw with Rayleigh in Luffy's training.

So our analysis begins. Mihawk who has been waiting a long time for a worthy duel sees the opportunity to fight Newgate, the man with the power to destroy the world.

The war begins and Mihawk soon makes his move and here comes the biggest fallacy against Mihawk "He admitted inferiority against Newgate".

Interpret the sentence that Mihawk says: “I want to see the true distance”, he is contesting the distance and that is why he wants to see the true, it means that there is one that is not true, not real, which is the assumption made since Newgate has the title of strongest.

Understand the basic reasoning. "If Newgate is the strongest of them all, Mihawk is weaker than he is" This is the right thing to think, but then Mihawk disputes this reasoning "I want to see the true distance, not the assumption everyone makes". So Mihawk makes the first move of the war, taking advantage of the clear path to Newgate and strikes at him.

Jozu then protects Newgate and you see Mihawk's expression as he analyzes everything that has happened. From that moment on, the man who hopes to one day fight someone stronger than Shanks simply ignores Newgate for the rest of the battle, and here's why. Remember the Vivre Card statement that Mihawk sees the essence of his enemies' power? Mihawk saw that Newgate, needing to be protected from an attack that was not even named, was no longer in his glory days and did not offer Mihawk the challenge he was looking for.

Further on we have confirmation of this reality, Newgate is hit by Squard, Marco attests to his condition and the man who was once the strongest in the world admits his weakness.

In closing, see the contemptuous expression with which Mihawk treats Shanks, he leaves the war without even greeting the man who was once his rival, for he was the only man in the world capable of making Mihawk feel the thrill of a fight but then he "betrayed" that rivalry when he saved Luffy, but that's for another analysis.
 
#4
This review has some merit. Mihawk went to the warlord meeting during Jaya arc because he was interested in the pirates who took down Crocodile, i.e. Luffy, Zoro, and others. Doflamingo was shocked which shows that Mihawk didnt attend those meetings under normal circumstances =>
Doflamingo: ...well, looky here...!! The last man I expected to see has shown up.
Mihawk: ...hmph... I am simply here to observe. I have a bit of interest in the pirates on the agenda this time... that is all.


The situation in Marineford was similar. Doflamingo was shocked that Mihawk was going to fight. As per Mihawk's dialogue, his sole reason for joining the war was probably to have a go at Whitebeard.
 
#5
I always saw it as Mihawk testing the waters as part of the WG forces, this is a war not a dueling session. He even uses "us".
Measuring the true distance as in what obstacles stand in the way to reaching Whitebeard and Oda did it well by introducing Jozu.

He didn't admit inferiority or anything but you don't need that to know Whitebeard is in fact stronger.
 
#6
Jozu then protects Newgate and you see Mihawk's expression as he analyzes everything that has happened. From that moment on, the man who hopes to one day fight someone stronger than Shanks simply ignores Newgate for the rest of the battle, and here's why. Remember the Vivre Card statement that Mihawk sees the essence of his enemies' power? Mihawk saw that Newgate, needing to be protected from an attack that was not even named, was no longer in his glory days and did not offer Mihawk the challenge he was looking for.
:seriously::seriously:
 
#9
The "just going to measure" is also a reply to Doffy's teasing.
Are you really gonna fight? Are you going to obey and do your job? The battle has just started. Are you gonna do something wild?

If Doffy hadn't asked, Mihawk might've just slashed without saying anything at all. Instead, we get this strange reply. Mihawk hardly ever (never?) says "we" or "us." He didn't say "between that man and myself." He wanted to test teamWB's reaction to see what they would do.
I think it goes back to this:

When the difference between two fighter is huge, it's easy to sense. Mihawk has a lot of experience in judging if people are worth his time or not.
But at MF, he's actually considering, "Well, how close are we to WB?" and that shows that he considers WB to have potential near his level. Mihawk is a powerleveler confirmed.

I think it was just a test because Mihawk is a curious guy. I think he was hoping WB would just grin and tank the hit. If so, then it would've been an invitation for them to battle. Jozu was trying to help, and Mihawk definitely noticed that.

But I disagree that he was being rude to Shanks. They just have a friendly shit-talking guys relationship, like the scene on the island where Shanks asks if he's come to fight. The clouds darken and there's all these ominous sfx, but Shanks breaks the tension with laughter and booze. I think Mihawk would say he was respecting Shanks by just leaving when he showed up and not saying anything. "It's his show now, and he says the show is over, so I'll leave."
 
#13
Interpret the sentence that Mihawk says: “I want to see the true distance”, he is contesting the distance and that is why he wants to see the true, it means that there is one that is not true, not real, which is the assumption made since Newgate has the title of strongest.
Nope. The statement is truly about distance. He wants to see if WB was really just some meters(or quilometers not sure) away from them or if they would have to face all/a bunch of subordinates before reaching him. And Marco confirms that he can't reach their King that easily answering him that he would have to face the commanders before WB.
 
#14
It even could go deeper than that. If you follow the story of MF as Mihawk. You can clearly see some side hidden development for him that i think if it didn't happen he wouldn't have trained Zoro afterwards.

Pointers :-
1- The WB measuring "debate" and being stopped by allies of WB "i know jozu is his crew mate".
2- Luffy and testing his fate to confirm what "Shanks might have told him about Luffy" and being stopped by allies of Luffy.
3- A clear reaction to Luffy's CoC followed by another try to go at Luffy and yet again being stopped by allies of Luffy.

Is it worth throwing away ambitions for someone greater?. Luffy and WB in Mihawk eyes were unreachable even if he is Stronger than them "not a powerscaling point".

In short Mihawk could have been thinking of "Friends or no Friends"
 
#19
Don't let erkan see this thread
He'll lock himself in the basement to write another Mihawk thread 🥺😳
:milaugh::milaugh::milaugh:
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I think it also shows something else and the reason why there were three people with the World's Strongest title at the same time. And this point has been repeated many times throughout the manga. You cannot hope to get a fight against the emperors. After this panel we get another panel of another top tier (Kizaru) going straight for WB and this time Marco gets in the way. Marco also says that you can't go straight for the king. It means no matter who you are when you are trying to go for the head of an emperor their subordinates will always try to stop you first.

It is exactly for this reason that Mihawk was unable to challenge WB and Kaido, they were unreachable, Kaido even more so because getting to Wano is already very difficult. Look how King stopped an emperor, crew and ship by himself, look how Marco stopped an emperor crew and ship. Before Kaido and Mihawk, WB had already been established as the strongest, so he never needed to seek out these guys for a fight, not that it seems that he was that into about these duels and titles. Kaido was established as the strongest before Mihawk and Mihawk could never challenge him. Kaido did go for WB when he got the chance at MF but was stopped by Shanks.
 
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