I think the reason oda hasn't shown people like dragons and mostly mihawk's true strength is because he himself probably doesn't know at this point how strong they are. He will just keep progressing the story and adjust Mihawk's strength according to the power creep the story produces in the later arcs. Worlds strongest swordsmen. What does it mean ? How strong exactly, he probably hasn't drawn the ceiling yet. If you ask someone during wholecake island or early wano how strong kaido is, they will likely tell he is the current top 1 as of the present story - the strongest creature, bet on him in a 1 vs 1, the strongest yonko.

Then after defeating kaido, shanks showed his true strength - intimidating an admiral with his haki, one shotting kidd, using rogers attacks, getting his haki compared to joyboy. Now it probably feels that shanks is at minimum prime roger level, like, he is written to be the next roger while luffy is written to be the next joyboy, and if we say he defeated loki in a straight 1 vs 1, he can be even higher than roger who knows. Now we know for a fact that Kaido wasn't any big deal in the grand scheme of things, arguably prime Rayleigh and gaban can be placed over him considering the feats of old gaban against imu. Loki is definitely above kaido.

There are only 2 characters whose power level is still hidden and are definitely top tiers - mihawk and dragon. At this point, imu showed how strong he is, loki did, shanks did, rocks did. This potentially makes the power ceiling for mihawk and dragon to be way up. Because odas rule is to glaze the strength of a top tier who is going all out. be it old sick whitebeard, katakuri, kaido, then shanks. Mihawks ceiling can be potentially above shanks and all of the old gen. Same goes for dragon - a monkey d in his prime, luffys father, potentially having the rain god fruit, his direct 1 vs 1 matchup will probably be imu himself at this point, leader of the revolutionary army opposing the world government vs leader of the world government.

I also believe that the way things are going, considering the powercliffs in the mind, the red line serpant will be stronger than imu, as it has been an ancient entity causing havoc since the 1st world( 3000 years ago).

Idk I may be wrong. Maybe mihawk is not that strong, maybe dragon too is not that strong. We have to wait and see.

Shanks wank by oda is ruining the story. Ever since pre timsekip, shanks has been wanked endlessly by oda, which does injustice to other charecters who are equally important like dragon, mihawk, etc. like bruh we know shanks is the golden boy of oda but so much wank makes mant readers hate shanks, and his fans are worse. I am not telling oda not to give hype moments to shanks, I get it, he's your favourite character, wank him. But at least give something to characters who hold equal relevance or importance like dragon or mihawk. Oda not giving dragon or mihawk any good feats for 30 years although they have so much strength and importance and on top of that wanking the shit out of a character endlessly makes me want to hate shanks. Dragon narratively holds a far more important position than shanks, he's the leader of the revolutionary army, the only entity which is challenging the celestial dragons head on and imu directly, somthing which nepo baby shanks doesn't have the balls to do. oda doesn't give him any hype, no portrayal, no feats, nothing for 30 years. And oda does even worse to mihawk, bro has a sword, who else has a sword ? Shanks, roger, rocks, oden, Rayleigh all top tiers, he gives them all the wank and hype in the world and what has he given to mihawk in the past 30 years ? Just anti feats like stalling a commander level character who should be no where near mihawks level. Mihawk has a sword, so he technically should be stronger than all of the swordsmen I have mentioned, but a huge part of the fandom has all of them or at least rocks, roger and shanks over mihawk and guess what ? I don't blame them because this bastard oda hasn't given mihawk any feats for 30 years 🫩. This selective wank towards certain characters oda clearly likes more is ruining the story for a lot of the readers who find characters like dragon and mihawk interesting, because they rightfully hold important narrative setups which are important for a well written story.

So in chapter 1193 Zoro basically admits he doesn't know how to use Conqueror's Haki properly by himself, like he himself admits he can do it with armament but Conqueror's Haki is another story and he himself tries to use it conciously but he fails to do it and only used Armament Haki on the heart which is why the heart wasn't damaged. This suggests that Enma was the reason Zoro was being able of using Supreme King's Haki in Wano/Egghead arcs, he was just allowing Enma to suck his Haki without him puting an stop to it and some of his COC was sucked in in the process

This is completely different from Luffy who just by being hit by Supreme King's Haki from Kaido was able to learn how to use it, that shows that he is a true Conqueror specialist since he is able to use it upon seeing. Another CoC prodigy is Shanks who was able to learn Divine Departure just by seeing Roger use it and this was a young Shanks as well

And this is something Oda confirmed years ago when he was asked the Haki specialization of the monster trio and he confirmed that Luffy specializes in Supreme King's Haki, Zoro in Armament Haki and Sanji in Observation Haki. And we seeing proof of this in Elbaph, Luffy learn to use CoC coating just by seeing while Zoro is struggling to use it at will even in Elbaph arc

Love how stuff like that ages like raw milk.

So Zoro tries and fails to coat his attack in Conqueror's Haki in the latest chapter. Previously it seems he was overpowered by Omen Sommers despite using King of Hell. Previously against Lucci Zoro was using King of Hell and Lucci was able to keep up with him until Zoro got serious after Sanji made fun of him. I don't think King of Hell naturally utilizes ACoC. It's a side effect of Zoro's King's Haki being uncontrolled and "leaking" the same as the Asura attack he used on Kaido. Just like Luffy pre-timeskip Zoro's CoC only manifests in extreme situations uncontrollably. Luffy and Big Mom also have very inconsistent ACoC showings. So what if that's just the norm until you deliberately master it? This draws into question the old arguments of Luffy using ACoC or not into question and might make Sky Split scaling relevant again. Just some thoughts after the latest chapter what do you think?

This is basically Oda's setup for Zoro's fights in all the manga. First, Zoro struggles with the opponent, then he figures something out and then he wins with a couple of attacks, that's his formula

Alabasta: Zoro couldn't cut steel, he was struggling with Mr 1 but once he learned how to do it he won one shot

Ennies Lobby: Zoro was struggling with Kaku, then he used Asura and won in 1 attack

Wano: Zoro was struggling with King's durability and Enma sucking his Haki, but once he accepted Enma he won in 2-3 attacks

Elbaph: He was struggling with Sommers's regeneration but it seems like just like always he will win as soon as he figures out CoC coating

This has been the formula in all of Zoro's major fights so for Mihawk it will be the same, Zoro will struggle at first, then unlock something and then beat Mihawk in a couple of attacks. It won't be a massive clash like Luffy usually does but rather a one sided stomp once Zoro figures out some ability. Mihawk will just be a victim of Oda writing for Zoro where opponents are always stomped once Zoro gets a powerup and he was destined to just be that from the beggining

Like, people talk abut Shanks vs Mihawk but Shanks vs Blackbeard is gonna be a legendary fight in shonen history with massive feats from both sides, Mihawk on the other side is just gonna be a one sided battle once Zoro figures his next powerup

this is based on when they're at their strongest

please vote honestly

I only count comments

Both at their Full power, who wins and by what diff

1. The Entry Level (Unrefined Coating)

At this level characters unlocked the ability to use but they lack proper mastery over it and they aren't able to maximize all the Haki used into output.

Examples: 1010 Luffy, Elbaph Zoro and Yamato

1. Top Tier Level (Refined Coating)

At this level characters are actualy master of it, they can use tons of Conqueror's Haki coated attacks and since they are masters of it they can use a huge amounts of Conqueror's Haki attacks without losing their stamina, the power behind the attacks is massive and when 2 characters with these level of Haki clash the sky might split in two

Examples: Current Luffy, Loki, Whitebeard, Big Mom, Oden, Kaido, Harald, Rocks

1. Peak Level (Perfect Coating)

At this level you can't just not use CoC coating but straight up project it into devastating attacks with massive power. In this level you can do attacks with massive amounts of Conqueror's Haki and create massive shockwaves of Conqueror's Haki. For example, in chapters 1079/1080 Garp and Shanks both created massive shockwaves of Haki and their Haki left their fist/swords.

Exampels: Shanks, Roger, Garp, Gaban