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[Cutty Flam]

Who would you put down as your top 5 favorite sword users in the manga or anime of One Piece?

Will most likely edit the list a few times as things progress. Mine goes something like this

1. Roronoa Zoro
2. Trafalgar Law
3. Silvers Rayleigh
4. Brook
5. Denjiro

 

[Plies]

I think Mihawk is stronger (until proven otherwise whenever we start seeing feats from him) than any pure swordsman in the series.

When I say pure I mean characters like Rayleigh or Shanks who fight only with a sword (at least we think Shanks does. Rayleigh definitely does).
Characters like Big Mom I'm sure that they're inferior to Mihawk in the art of the sword but they have additional powers that probably make them stronger than Mihawk.
We know Mihawk was Shanks' rival back when Shanks had two hands. Even if Shanks became stronger afterwards, I'm sure Mihawk did too and I predict Shanks' now inferior to Mihawk in a 1vs1 unless he has some unheard of ability or DF. Of course I'm only talking of 1vs1; if they fought as pirates and Shanks had his backup of a crew, which is what makes Yonkous so feared, I don't think Mihawk stands a chance against everyone. It's not like I think he can lowdif Shanks.

Mihawk being as strong as an individual as I think he is doesn't make him superior to Yonkou by his lack of crew and ambition (he certainly used to have ambition in the past to become what he is now. But we now know that he just chills and chases pirates around the world just for entertainment. We also know, from Zeref, that he's the kind of guy who could just chase some random crew around the world for waking him from a nap. We never saw him take anything seriously. And he clearly has no interest in the One Piece or in pirate matters other than killing time).

Another telling of Mihawk's strength probably being very high is that he was the first Shichibukai introduced, yet he's the only one we don't know neither his past nor his current bounty. We even learnt Roger's and all of the Yonkou's before his. I'm sure it will be a big surprise for a guy with no companions.

 

[Cutty Flam]

I think Shanks would probably kill Mihawk. Even with only one arm, 1v1 sword fight

Spoiler: The New World

Several reasons why I think that

1. Shanks ran with Roger and Rayleigh, both likely the two greatest swordsmen in their time, possibly Rayleigh is still top ten even at his old age? Maybe. But the point is, from a very young age Shanks saw how it was done versus every powerful crew in Roger's path

2. He ended a war with his presence alone. Nobody dared to go against him. There wasn't one single character at Marineford who even thought about it in what was shown

3. He goes head to head with Kaido and shows up to Marineford not much long after. This guy is beyond strong

4. Mihawk was curious as to how strong Whitebeard was and gave him a small test, in which Diamond Jozu deflected aeay from his Captain. Mihawk doesn't know what going up against a Yonko in a true fight is like. I think Mihawk and Shanks are training partners more or less, and their fights were more like practice than anything. Shanks has fought Kaido and held his own with no apparent damage. A standstill

There is no reason for me to think that Mihawk would defeat Shanks in a sword fight that I have heard yet

Vista held his own versus Mihawk and I think Shanks is mich more powerful. It's fun to think about how powerful Shanks is, but we have to rely on such little information. Still, something tells me he's a monster even with one arm

I cannot wait until the next arc or two...We will likely see Big Mom and Shanks in full action versus Luffy during the next two future arcs is my guess since this is the Yonko saga