With the new chaper out, It's now clear to me that zoro as we know him now may be the strongest inthe GL, but in the new world he has a long way to go.
Something that caught my eye was that White Bard mentioned that Hawk eyes fought with red hair against him, and that tells me that Hawk Eyes and RH aren't just old buds, there possibly crewmates and also exelent swordsmen, so if Zoro wants to have a chance any chance in the world of beating Hawk Eyes, He'll have to past White Beard and Red Hair.
First, I'm pretty sure the 'New World' is part of the Grand Line, in fact it is the second half of it.
Second, while Zoro's dream is to be the strongest swordmen, which would mean being stronger than Hawk Eyes, I don't think that means being stronger than Shanks or White Beard, or having to past them whatever that means. Even if they are of comparable strength to Hawk Eyes, that just means Zoro will have to have comparable strength to Shanks, past'ing him or not.
that just means Zoro will have to have comparable strength to Shanks
Man, you almost make it sound easy… :)
Watching: Bleach, One Piece
Reading: One Piece, Bleach, Naruto
Watched: Get Backers, Shaman King, Scryed, Hunter x Hunter
Whitebeard doesn't use a sword, he uses a naginata, which is a type of spear with a long blade.
The only thing about Shanks is Mihawk for whatever reason, doesn't consider him a contender for the title.
Regardless of all the pure speculation arguments about how Shanks fights and wether he is a pure swordsman or not, his swordsmanship is considered by Mihawk to be inferior (as is every other swordsman that currently exists).
So at least in swordsmanship, whatever Shanks is showing here, Zoro will need to not only equal it, and surpass it, but he will then also have to equal and surpass whatever the gap is between Mihawk and Shanks in swordsmanship.
If Shanks fights with pure swordsmanship and comes close to Whitebeard, it'd be extremely interesting to see how Mihawk would do.
That's a good point. Mihawk seems to want to be defeated by a swordsman, yet Whitebeard or Mihawk are right there. That could mean a few things, like maybe he has fought them but kept getting into draws? Or, maybe those two aren't pure swordsman like Mihawk.
Or, Mihawk could be doing something similar to Luffy, and preparing the "next generation."
i think neither whitebeard nor shanks are inferior to mihawk in swordsmanship.rather,they are probably not interested in the title.shanks doesnt seem like a man who goes after fame so he probably dont mind mihawk having the title(or maybe he doesnt want to constantly have to deal with worthless challengers?).as for whitebeard,world's strongest man > world's strongest swordsman.so,why go for the smaller title?
@Fire Fist:
Whitebeard doesn't use a sword, he uses a naginata, which is a type of spear with a long blade.
Wrong, he uses a bisento.
It's an easy mistake to make since a bisento apparently greatly resembles a naginata.
Holy hole in a doughnut, Batman!
White beard weapon is more like a sword than a spear. Guan Yu kicks butt with it on Dynasty Warriors. It is not a sword but it is more sword like than a spear. It cutts like a sword with longer reach and you can move ur hand up the pole to make the reach shorter for close combat. It is an excellent weapon.
i think neither whitebeard nor shanks are inferior to mihawk in swordsmanship.rather,they are probably not interested in the title.shanks doesnt seem like a man who goes after fame so he probably dont mind mihawk having the title(or maybe he doesnt want to constantly have to deal with worthless challengers?).as for whitebeard,world's strongest man > world's strongest swordsman.so,why go for the smaller title?
It doesn't matter if they are interested in the title or not. Mihawk is interested in the title. He considers himself to be the strongest swordsman, period. He doesn't need any further matches against Shanks to evaluate this, he knows it. If there was still doubt in his mind about who was the best swordsman, Mihawk would be accepting Shank's challenge to fight many issues back.
Whitebeard simply isn't a swordsman. Shanks is, and we know he has a history of sparring with Mihawk, so he's obviously ungodly good. But Mihawk still considers himself to be the better by some unquantifiable but recognizeable gap in swordsmanship.
Which is why it's going to be so interesting to see how Shanks fares against Whitebeard. Between both Mihawk and BB (if he gets the position), possibly Jinbei and some of the other unknown Shichibaki(s), it could be that a great many of the Shichibaki are on the same level as the Yonkou and would have fair if not equal odds of taking them out in 1v1 combat. Which easily explains how 7 individuals could hold such a reputation.
First, I'm pretty sure the 'New World' is part of the Grand Line, in fact it is the second half of it.
Second, while Zoro's dream is to be the strongest swordmen, which would mean being stronger than Hawk Eyes, I don't think that means being stronger than Shanks or White Beard, or having to past them whatever that means. Even if they are of comparable strength to Hawk Eyes, that just means Zoro will have to have comparable strength to Shanks, past'ing him or not.
Well I ment in theat part of the grand Line Zoro was probably the best and strongest swords men, but in the new world I was saying that OI bet he's nothing, and he still has a long way to go.
No way, First off (after being corrected. xP ) WB isn't a swords men from what I gather. xP
and just because Shanks fought with Hawk eyes doesn't make them comparable. You dont' get a world title of Best swordsmen if you know there is another person out there that's just as good as you. Now dont' get me wrong, becasue I know shanks and his kickass spirit is strong, All I'm saying is that Hawkeyes is stronger, Much stronger, and that means that zoro has a long way to go.
Am I right?
(yes. <3 :3)
@Fire Fist:
Whitebeard doesn't use a sword, he uses a naginata, which is a type of spear with a long blade.
And I thought I was the only one who saw this :getlost:
you right 
Mihawk is known the greatest therefor Zoro will beat him. The title of best swordsman in OP isnt gonna change in the middle of the story. So basically WB and RH may be stronger or equal to Mihawk but they arent equal to him in swordsmanship.
The "Greatest Swordsman" bar does rise. Initially Mihawk was just some elite. Recently he became a rival of an Emperor Pirate rather than another elite pirate. Mihawk's bounty is most likely in the high 300 Million to 500 Million range.
Mihawk and Zoro will most likely duel again soon, but their fight will be interrupted by something, forcing a draw. (Just speculation, its too soon to win and he cant' afford to lose again.)
Their real battle will occur near the end of the series, when Zoro prevails, becoming the strongest swordsman. However the wounds he suffers from the fight will keep Zoro from fighting against the Blackbeard crew alongside Luffy. (Speculation…)
I'll mention this once, and hopefully someone that understands my words will remember it if this ever comes up again.
Jordan is considered the greatest basketball player, before him that title belonged to Karim Abdul, someday that title will belong to most likely Lebron.
Is Lebron the best player? To be honest I'd prefer to have Carmelo Anthony or Tracy McGrady on my team rather than Lebron, why? Because they can do anything he can do and more. The difference is image, Lebron has the image of current greatest young star, and that will likely continue no matter how many more titles Wade wins.
Mihawk works for the Marines, the Marines are policing the world, just as most governments claim to their people "we are the greatest nation in the world!" and would never admit that a player/scientist or other political system is superior, the marines will never as well.
Who is the best swordsman in the marines? Mihawk, does that mean he cannot be defeated by another swordsman? No, the marines want the world to know their force is above the rest of the world, so they claim to Mihawks fame as the greatest. To me that means that Shanks can and would defeat Mihawk easily, but Mihawk can defeat Shanks at least 50% of the time, and the image of Mihawk being stronger is profitable to the marines, and to the mindset of the people who don't want to have to worry if Mihawk is ever facing another enemy. It is beneficial for the people to feel safe and not worry about even the possibility of one of the marines officers losing (since it is the Marines and even Shichibukai that protect them).
This to me, is why Mihawk has his claim to fame, nothing more nothing less. It's not that he's not the greatest, but it's not that no one else that uses a sword can defeat him either. This is also why Zoro wants to defeat Mihawk and not Shanks, to his small village and Dojo, his sensei had only heard of Mihawk as "the greatest" he probably hadn't heard of Shanks, or of Kaku or of any other swordsman, but just like people that know NOTHING about basketball know the name Jordan, he knew the name Mihawk.
There is a big flaw to this. Mihawk is recognize as the strongest Swordsman as a Pirate. Not a marine. The world government does not spread the word that he's the greatest. The people do because he's recognized as the best.
Something that caught my eye was that White Bard mentioned
My attention was personally taken up by what the Spoony Bard mentioned.
and just because Shanks fought with Hawk eyes doesn't make them comparable. You dont' get a world title of Best swordsmen if you know there is another person out there that's just as good as you. Now dont' get me wrong, becasue I know shanks and his kickass spirit is strong, All I'm saying is that Hawkeyes is stronger, Much stronger, and that means that zoro has a long way to go.
Am I right?
(yes. <3 :3)
Yep you are right!!!
There is a big flaw to this. Mihawk is recognize as the strongest Swordsman as a Pirate. Not a marine. The world government does not spread the word that he's the greatest. The people do because he's recognized as the best.
There is a bigger flaw with your post, you're posting your own personal speculation as fact when it has never been stated who the "media" information spreaders in the One Piece world.
Mihawk is the world's greatest swordman. He is a pirate. The Wg/Maries did not spread the info of him being the best.
Well "Ace was first fleet commander" in Whitebeards crew making him the second strongest in his crew until recently when we found out Blackbeard scares Shanks and has been hiding his true strength all along.
Whatever, this wasn't the point of my post, "world's greatest" is just an image, it has to be assigned by someone since it is impossible that the swordsman has faced every single other swordsman in the world to actually determine the position as fact. If the "greatest" truly had faced every single other swordsman, the swordsman population would be far smaller, in order for the title to be fact rather than just a label.
Well "Ace was first fleet commander" in Whitebeards crew making him the second strongest in his crew until recently when we found out Blackbeard scares Shanks and has been hiding his true strength all along.
Who said shanks fears Blackbeard? I'd be surprised if Shanks feared anybody.
it has to be assigned by someone
**No.
Of course he didn't face every single swordsman in the world. Because of how far he has gone, how strong he is and how he's beaten all that laid in his way people label him as th strongest.**
No Ace was second fleet commander, they showed the first fleet commander in this chapter. So Ace is not the second strongest person in the crew. He is arguably the 3rd.
sigh semantics over implication, I luv the intarwebz
I doubt Zoro is 'teh uber swordzman' in this half of the Grandline at this point. And either way, that means nothing. He was the best in East Blue (while Mihawk wasn't around). Plus, there's Blackbeard's crew nearby, and if they have a swordsman in their group…
Chapter discussion, guys, this can go in the chapter discussion.
If you spoiler me, I will eat you with tater tots.