Surely Mihawk can make up for his (maybe) weaker conqueror's, we will see. Regarding your question, Whitebeard was strong enough to equal Roger so that alone is enough to support his superiority (we can't really assess his conqueror's overall because he made his move pretimeskip), and regarding Kaidou, I've always had my problems with his condition of world's strongest, but this isn't the place to get into that and I don't think anything new can be said. An oni had to be the strongest (he's an oni, I mean) for the Japan-themed saga but ended up full of rumours, a "title" stressing his inhuman nature more than his strength (hence Nami's reaction to it) and a pairing in Linlin as a "secondary emperor". But again, not the place nor time for this.
We don't know how black blades are forged. I won't take it into account for this debate unless we have more information because to me it feels too much like the usual "bounding through countless battles" that fits Koushiro's statements on what "strongest swordsman" is about; and I doubt it's a coincidence that Ryuma, Mihawk and Zoro, unlike others like Roger and arguably Shanks, are characterized by challenging his way to the top as in a tournament (a pretty old Japanese trope). Roger may have loved his blade, but he doesn't strike to me like that kind of a challenger and non-stopping fighter, nor does Shanks. But this is a completely different topic and I don't feel like discussing it now.
Mihawk has hawk eyes from birth, his epithet has no actual implication regarding CoO. Not denying the possibility, but let's not make up stuff. The skill part is obvious, but the moment you state it as an explicit nuance in terms of what makes Mihawk superior, the moment you separate it from the whole strength package. But this is to be seen in the official translation, as I said.
I think this is all I have to say.
We don't know how black blades are forged. I won't take it into account for this debate unless we have more information because to me it feels too much like the usual "bounding through countless battles" that fits Koushiro's statements on what "strongest swordsman" is about; and I doubt it's a coincidence that Ryuma, Mihawk and Zoro, unlike others like Roger and arguably Shanks, are characterized by challenging his way to the top as in a tournament (a pretty old Japanese trope). Roger may have loved his blade, but he doesn't strike to me like that kind of a challenger and non-stopping fighter, nor does Shanks. But this is a completely different topic and I don't feel like discussing it now.
Mihawk has hawk eyes from birth, his epithet has no actual implication regarding CoO. Not denying the possibility, but let's not make up stuff. The skill part is obvious, but the moment you state it as an explicit nuance in terms of what makes Mihawk superior, the moment you separate it from the whole strength package. But this is to be seen in the official translation, as I said.
I think this is all I have to say.
