@airy-0:
ordinary sword + haki = better sword with no haki
It doesn't matter, as almost no one who can use haki AND use a sword is going to have an ordinary sword at that point. (Maybe the vice admirals.)
We haven't really seen a comparison, and we never will, since no one who uses a sword isn't going to use haki from here on out. Mihawk probably didn't do that when he completely slaughtered Zoro back on the Baratie though.
But presumably on the same note
ordinary sword + haki < better sword + haki
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
@Darth:
And I say that you have no way of knowing if those things were great, you just assume they were.
BECAUSE THE AUTHOR SAID SO.
I'm not assuming. ODA HIMSELF SAID POINT BLANK, "Hey, these guys have done impressive stuff and are the worst the world has ever seen and are causing a lot of trouble in the world and are on even footing with the strongest guys in the world." Multiple times. Yes, he hasn't had them show off since Jaya, but even now, a decade later, the feat of shooting that bird is still impressive, even with how far Usopp has come.
Oda also says "If Kuma hits you with him paw fruit, you go flying for three days." Lo and behold, that turns out to be true. BECAUSE THE AUTHOR FILLED THAT INFORMATION FOR US.
Oda hasn't shown it on camera because he is saving the showy stuff for the endgame, ten years down the road. He's saving a few tricks up his sleeve, but he's letting their reputation and noted destruction build them up instead. He'll get to them being monsters on camera eventually, but now isn't the time to show that.
Or maybe it is, since Sabo is probably about to fight Burgess right now in a real, non arena fight.
Once we see the power of a warlord in action and how destructive they are, to then be told "Yeah, but Blackbeard is even stronger" will do the trick. The same way Moria and Doflamingo are hyping Kaido even now.
If that was so, then the entire coloseum could have been cut down massively. Or the part with them endlessly running.
Yeah of course there can be cuts all over the place. Oda puts his priorities where HE, THE AUTHOR, thinks we need to know and see things.
Sure, we could have gotten 9 pages of Fujitora blocking wreckage and saving civilians. We didn't. We were told he did, and we've seen his powers and strength in effect several times now, so yes, we can absolutely fill in those blanks without much use of imagination. Oda didn't even have to tell us Fuji was doing that at all and we still could have rightly assumed he was going to protect the populace, since that's been his MO this entire time.
That's not making things from nothing up to fit a random theory, that's filling in minor details when the author has already painted most of the picture.
With that space instead , we got our main character fighting Bellamy instead. Hey, the main character, how bout that.
Really? You are not doing anything else, and my problem is what is shown. Or rather, what isn't shown.
Absolutely nothing implied Burgess got a "special" roster. Everything indicates the gladiator pools were equal and random.
And that Burgess destroyed his random selection quickly and utterly. Because Burgess is strong.
You have to ignore the actual facts, to present your problem.