People Don't Change, Wolverine.

People don't change, Wolverine.

X2 | 2003 Dir. Bryan Singer

I do think it’s funny and adorable that Mihawk and Zoro have such similar epithets that are even more similar in Japanese.

But it is infinitely more hilarious because while Zoro was hunting Pirates to collect their bounty and fund his journey, Mihawk was seemly hunting marines for the sport of it, because; eh why not 🤷.

Akainu has to be the only person that left Marineford feeling even mildly good about how that all went down. Like the Marines technically won but the absolute silence and horror in the face of all that brutality must have left a sour taste in everyone’s mouth. Except Akainu.

Suddenly watching Akainu rip his molten arm out of Ace’s chest all the marines present are glaringly faced with what “absolute justice” looks like. And it looks a lot like a kid grieving over a dead brother and a hundred sons grieving a dead father. And that just doesn’t sit right.

But in the end it doesn’t matter Akainu has his absolute justice and his promotion and the marines have their hollow victory. Nobody is happy.

I think there's a lot of evidence in canon to suggest that Mihawk doesn't want to be lonely. But he doesn't know how to be around other people without expecting too much of them and always ultimately ending up disappointed when they fall short.

Sometimes when he looks at Shanks, all he can see is failed potential and broken promises he made with no one but himself.

Even now he tries not to linger longer than he has too;

Shanks' future no longer has any room for him and so Mihawk remains stagnant stuck 10 years in the past, alone. He doesn't know how to be anything else.

That is until a couple of pesky cotton candy haired children barge into his castle and into his life and drag him head first into the future too

Garp and Compliance

I do think Garp is a very complicated man with very complicated motivations and actions. He is the definition of lawful chaotic. And I do genuinely believe that he joined the marines cause he wanted to do good in the world and that was how he saw how. But I also believe he is a great example of how the willful compliance of the few "good" help maintain the power of a bad system and how that is a part of the problem. does it matter if there are a few good men if the entire system is bad?

But I also do believe that he wanted his kids to drink the marine cool aid like him to keep them safe, Ace particularly. Like I do genuinely believe that.

Like listen they have the "D" just by being alive they are a threat to the world government and it will always want them dead and those they love dead by association. Hell even Sengoku tells Garp that he would have been executed long ago for the crimes of his family if he wasnt so valuable as the Hero of the Marines, anf it's played off like a joke but given everything we know about the marines and the world government it was very much a real threat.

But they haven't because Garp is valuable, he doesn't follow order, his family are all some of the most dangerous criminals in the world and he acts entirely too much like a pirate himself never mind that he and his lineage bare the ultimate sin of having a "D" in their name. But he gets to live, he is safe because he is valuable. And so by that logic if those kids get into the marines, if they complied and become strong, indispensable, invaluable. Then maybe that will keep them safe, maybe it will keep even Ace safe, a boy who committed the gravest only crime against the marines by being born the son of a man the government killed 22 years ago.

And if they are safe then maybe Garp doesn't have to confront the tyranny he swore to protect.

Something about the first time Mihawk swings a sword it’s as a means to protect himself and escape

And everytime after that it’s because it makes him feel strong and he never wants to feel weak again.