I Like To Think That On Some Level Shanks Is Just A Little Upset (Beckman Knows The Truth; That He Is

I like to think that on some level Shanks is just a little upset (Beckman knows the truth; that he is deeply, simmeringly, furious) at the unfairness and hypocrisy that is Mihawk still wanting to fight Zoro.

That he still thinks Zoro’s going to be his greatest challenger- the one to usurp his throne, that even though he’s down an eye, even though they are both “lacking”. Zoro is somehow still worthy of Mihawk’s attention when Shanks has been judged and found wanting.

Shanks lost an arm, and they still can’t talk about it, and Mihawk still won’t fight him, but he’ll fight Zoro. Trained Zoro. And he knows it’s not the same, he doesn’t even want the title, doesn’t want to be Mihawk’s “destiny”. He knows that he’s being childish but Mihawk started it and it’s not fair.

THE KING OF PIRATES

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I don’t know…………there’s just something about Shanks that is just so……sad. He’s like if Roger and Luffy veered ever so slightly left.

Not to feed into my Mishanks obsession but it’s lowkey because he’s the only one that never convinced his swordsman to join his crew 👀

But seriously he was the keeper of this inherited will that was never really meant for him. It couldn’t be for him he’s too attached to the past, to weighed down by it. Roger’s death and the disbanding of the Roger pirates really weighed on him

I think it still does.

After all he only just decided that he might actually want the one piece, that he’d like to be the one to find it. Maybe the will of D wasn’t meant for him but who cares? He’s a pirate, if he doesn’t atleast try to take what isn’t his then what’s the point!

Okay just to add to this shanks literally has data sheets prepared for presumably all the rookies and reads them before confronting them. He already had a plan on his to draw the fight away from the city and fleet he swore to protect.

Meanwhile Mihawk, a man who has probably never made a plan in his life, became the shadow leader of a guild hunting marines with a fucking clown as the figurehead after one call from a mobster wannabe who’s half the reason he lost his original gig in the first place, as he was literally packing a good vintage that paired well with slaughter and escape, while literally surrounded by the marine fleet sent to arrest him.

I honestly don’t even believe he knows luffy’s actual name isn’t “is this the child you bet your arm on Shanks?”

The thing is despite shanks outward appearance off a hedonist man living it up in the moment. He is in actuality a man torn between a tragic past and a hopeful future. He only stopped running from the past when he started preparing for the future. Up until recently everything we’ve seen shanks do in present day canon is ready the way for a new era. He has forfeit being King to become a Kingmaker. He carries himself like a Regent just waiting for the next generation to come of age. He is a deeply tragic man stuck between times. Haunted by the ghost of a captain it wasn’t his destiny to save and the dreams of a boy he helped inspire. OPLA Buggy really was right when he said “you’re just a sad lonely little boy wearing another man’s hat” he just wasn’t talking about Luffy.

And despite outwards appearances of a calm and calculating man. Outside of the battle field Mihawk cannot, refuses too, exist anywhere else but the present. He’s a man that lives one day at a time, not because he’s just surviving but because why concern himself with the past or the future when there is now. when there is nothing there that can hurt him anymore and nothing he is scared to face. It’s in the way he went about getting his title, unlike Zoro there wasn’t some guy he was biding his time growing stronger to face. No he went out of his way everyday looking for stronger and stronger opponents to face until he was all that was left till there was no one that could face him, till he was without a doubt the Strongest swordsman there was. That dogged pursuit of anyone and anything capable of putting up a fight with a sword isn’t the Machiavellian calculations of a man capable of planning in the long term. It’s the single minded pursuit of someone only capable of living day to day, opponent to opponent.

And that’s why they fit so well together, Shanks reminds Mihawk that there’s a future out there and it’s gonna be new and interesting and Mihawk reminds shanks that he has a life here and now in the present and he should live it. It’s also a source of contention because Mihawk can’t understand what Shanks is hurtling towards and Shanks can’t understand how Mihawk can stand to stay still when the past is constantly licking at his heels threatening to consume him.

They are playing a game of chess and Shanks is already planning his moves for a play, 10 games ahead while Mihawk is trying to get him to focus on the one right infront of him lest he lose.

Illustrated for the Haikyuu!! Gone Wild Zine - @hqanimalzine. Featuring Kuroo, Tsukishima and Bokuto. 🛒Leftover sales: Nov 24 - Dec 17, 2023.

Art by Essi Välimäki