I’m not someone that particularly cares about a ship being canon or not, in fact I would rather the media I consume have no romance at all (giving my blog confusing yes I know)
But there is something about the canon ties between Shanks and Mihawk that drives me feral with need to see what their whole deal is.
Because like there are so many little inconsequential details that when taking separately seem pathetic and weak. But then put together it feels like it paints the picture of a larger undeniable connection and understanding between two wildly different men.
The fact that their main color is both red (Mihawk’s is a more wine dark red than Shanks’ bright red and a little more “subtle” given that Shanks is literally called red hair) but even then their main symbols, their identifying features, are red! Mihawk’s eyes and Shanks hair (yes while I love the gold and think that’s better I cannot ignore the fact that Oda consistently colors in Mihawk’s eyes red even though the gold is infinitely more popular)
They have the same birthday, are practically the same height, both with the promises to our two main protagonists to meet them at the top with a parting “gift”, both serve as a mentor to the protagonist (mihawk literally thought zoro how to kill him 😭), both with the bird(ish) iconography.
The fact that Mihawk, Mihawk! A man whose introduction was that he didn’t care much about anything and caused destruction on a whim, cares enough about what Shanks thinks to mentally apologize before trying to kill luffy (what the fuck).
The fact that whitebeard felt the need to reference his duel with Mihawk in his conversation with Shanks, despite not really being very relevant to the conversation and the fact that this is the first we’ve seen shanks in years and it is brought up in the same context as his relationship with Buggy (an already established relationship) reveals his relationship to Roger seems to point to the fact that this duel between Mihawk and Shanks is an important relationship to shanks. It couldn’t just be to show strength because he was about to clash with whitebeard the strongest man. It’s also hard to notice that those two relationships didn’t end particularly well for shanks.
Also the fact that it was Mihawk out of every character , Mihawk that brought luffy’s bounty to Shanks. Something he obviously knew would mean a lot to him. I used to think the scene was just there to show us how big a deal Shanks actually is like look at that fun childish alcoholic gang inspired our main hero? He’s actually a super big deal and he used to spar with the strongest character by far we had seen at that point (it wasn’t even close) and they fought on equal footing. It added a new layer of mystery to Shanks.
But it’s also the fact that even now with Mihawk’s bounty Shanks was mentioned and he’s the only one who this was mentioned for. Crocodile is just for his df and intelligence and they don’t mention that he literally tried and almost succeeded in subjugating a country and he was beat by luffy “or smoker given how many marines actually know the truth” even buggy who was literally Shanks’ sworn brother under the pirate king doesn’t get a mention like that. But Shanks and this duel is so integral to Mihawk’s character that it’s mentioned along with the only other long lasting fact we know about him and that is that he is the World’s Strongest Swordsman. Isn’t that fucking insane.
And like I feel insane scrapping all these details together as proof of something because they are all (besides the duel) the barest bones of a connection but god it is actually driving me insane.
And I’m not saying Mishanks is going to become canon or that it should or that I even particularly want it too. What I do want is to see how deeply these two are connected. What are these red strings of fate tying them to each other. Why can’t apparently ten years of little contact sever it? I swear to god if it’s actually nothing much I will lose my fucking mind. If nothing ever comes of all of this I will actually go insane. How can some people look at this and not see foreshadowing!?!?!!
I think it’s very important to say that all my “Essek has to be there, it doesn’t make sense if he isn’t” comments prior to tonight were based on a wildly different conception of what the oneshot would look like. Something more involved in the meat of the Solstice itself, which he has very direct ties to.
However. While I of course would’ve loved to see him, I miss him so dearly, the ways he was Present without being actually There were beyond incredible. Caleb choosing Fortune’s Favor as one of his Spell Mastery spells. Trent, having only seen Essek with Caleb once, knowing that threatening Essek specifically would make Caleb move. Caleb’s “I am nervous to wait.” when talking about said threat and going to Blumenthal. Essek’s importance in Caleb’s life is so Felt and There that it works perfectly well that he doesn’t appear in person! They’ve been together for seven years, of course we’re going to see those pieces of him that have become ingrained in Caleb!! It’s so!!! Freaking good!!!!
I commissioned the incredible @mostlymaudlin to draw a scene from my fic Never Letting Go (you can read it here) and I’m absolutely obsessed with it 😭 Thank you so much for bringing them to life so perfectly! 🧡 Go support Rory everyone!!!
“If Luffy asked, Zoro would kill any of the straw hats 🤓☝️” “if Zoro was at whole cake, sanji would have died🤓☝️” HE WOULD NOT DO ANY OF THAT SHUT UP IM IN YOUR HOME!!!!!
Zoro cares about his crew so much, he considers himself their protecter. It’s why he sleeps like three hours a day, it’s why hes always wary of strangers. He really fucking loves and cares about his crew.
He wouldn’t say it because that’s not in his nature, it would be out of character (and frankly bad writing) to have zoro look into the camera and go “I love my crew”
Instead he shows it; he takes the graveyard shift, he takes one of the stronger enemies, he trains and trains, plays the role of boogeyman.
It’s in the way the rest of the crew behaves aswell!! They’re silly and weird and reckless because they KNOW and UNDERSTAND that zoro is right there, ready and eager to kick some ass or spill some blood.
Zoro would not have killed Sanji at whole cake, nor would he just kill any straw hat is asked. He isn’t some thoughtless machine who does what he’s told. He fucking loves his crew, and yes that fucking includes sanji.