(Spoiler alert for anime watchers) this entire theory is destroyed by a knot tied by joy boy. Luffy has a god tier devil fruit couldn't budge the stronger gorosie but a haki knot from joy boy sent them all back to the holy land. Strong enough haki is the only way to become the strongest. Even if joy boy has a devil fruit the knot he used didnt have anything other then haki. CHECK MATE
I dont agree that he is portrayed as stronger, shanks is a swordsman. Every attack we have seen him use or even when defending was with his sword. Haki and all that incumbasses os a part of sword fighting in one piece. Look at zoro he is getting stronger by using haki in conjuction with his swordsmanship. Next time yoy write an article about this you should admit this is all opinion based. Sha KS is t set up to be a final villain or fight for straw hats but mihawk will likely be zoros last opponent before story ends. I think its possible to say when shanks had both arms they were almost equals but now the story and author has made it clear sha ks is a swordsman and mihawk is the world's greatest swordsman. Which instantly mean mihawk>shanks
Dont feel it ruined the moment at all personally, for me that moment never made sense and now it does. If somehow the mark was weekend by water and it was the perfect way to not only save luffy (which he did) but also escape the connection to godsknights and imu. That explains why 1 of the most powerful characters even at that point lost his arm to a weak sea king. Or if somehow knowingly sacrificing your arm gets rid of the mark im fine with that to because in the end he still saved luffy. And if he knew what fruit luffy ate then he was still betting on luffy being the child gol d rodger spoke of. Also if the god knights can track and come to where shanks is through the mark he had to sacrifice his arm because if the realized what that fruit was they would have used shanks mark and came and killed luffy.
It's safe to assume that wile the elders are strong there biggest ability comes from imu. As a swordsman mihawk is superior i doubt egghead sword would have has an even clash with mihawk like he did with the goresai.
You should look up color spread for chapter 1031, oda draws all the characters that he says act as vice captain in the following sbs. Also states they are the 2nd strongest on their respective crews. Multiple situations have happened that show zoros as vice captain such as always fighting the other crews first mate, or the Kuma encounter where he was going to sacrifice himself, or after usop leaves. No oda don't ever like to acknowledge the crews second strongest but he also like to imply luffy sanji and zoro are all equal. You want find him saying luffy the strongest yet it's supposed to pretty clear to the reader or watcher.
