Where did Mihawk Upscale come from?

The debate began on Reddit's /r/OnePiecePowerScaling in June 2022, but the exploitable image was posted by Redditor Zoteku on May 23rd, 2024.

What does Mihawk Upscale mean?

It means treating Mihawk's 'World's Strongest Swordsman' title as literal proof that any sword-wielding character, even from other series, loses to him.

How do you use Mihawk Upscale?

Drop the smiling Mihawk-over-Raian image into comment threads whenever a non-swordsman character is shown with a blade, often with a caption about their 'swordsman feats'.

Is Mihawk Upscale still popular?

As of mid-2025, the format was still active, with TikTok slideshows and X threads pulling tens of thousands of likes.

Mihawk Upscale

Q: What is Mihawk Upscale?

It is a powerscaling meme that jokingly ranks Dracule Mihawk above every fictional character shown holding a sword, using a crudely drawn image of Mihawk over a Kengan Ashura panel.

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Published August 14, 2026

Mihawk Upscale is a powerscaling meme that jokingly ranks One Piece swordsman Dracule Mihawk above every fictional character shown holding a sword. The visual template pastes a crudely drawn Mihawk over a smiling panel of Kure Raian from Kengan Ashura, and the format went viral across Reddit, TikTok, and X through the first half of 2025.

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Overview

Mihawk Upscale is a debate-turned-meme that ranks One Piece swordsman Dracule Mihawk above any fictional character shown carrying a blade1. The joke leans on the in-universe title Mihawk holds, 'World's Strongest Swordsman,' which powerscalers stretch to mean he beats literally anyone with a katana, saber, or knife regardless of series5. The visual half of the meme is an image of Mihawk crudely drawn over a smiling Kure Raian panel from Kengan Ashura, with a speech bubble reading 'ARE THOSE SWORDSMAN FEATS I SEE??!!'2.

TikTok

The image works as an exploitable reaction, dropped into comment threads whenever a character (even one who isn't actually a swordsman) so much as touches a sword7. Powerscaling communities on Reddit, TikTok, and X ran the format into the ground through the first half of 2025, with variations swapping out both the character being 'scaled' and the caption3.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Reddit (origin) / TikTok (viral spread)

Creator

Zoteku

Date

2024

The Mihawk-vs-swordsmen argument first showed up on Reddit's /r/OnePiecePowerScaling in June 20221, with a follow-up thread on /r/Piratefolk in September 20229. Those early posts mostly compared Mihawk to Shanks and stayed niche inside the powerscaling subreddits.

The meme's visual template appeared on May 23rd, 2024, when Redditor Zoteku commented the crudely edited Mihawk-over-Raian image on an /r/OnePiecePowerScaling thread asking why Luffy couldn't beat Mihawk2. It is the earliest known post using the image, and it later became the standard reaction for every Mihawk Upscale joke5.

How It Spread

On January 1st, 2025, Redditor Special-Remove-3294 dropped the same image in a comment captioned 'Live Migawk reaction,' pulling over 120 upvotes on /r/OnePiecePowerScaling and pushing the format back into circulation1. Weeks later, on February 25th, TikToker @phangito posted a reaction video about Mihawk-vs-Shanks powerscaling arguments that pulled over 22,400 likes3.

The format jumped platforms in April 2025 when X user @DRXCUL3 quote-tweeted a One Piece Chapter 1145 post with the Mihawk image, joking about Rocks D. Xebec holding a sword, and picked up over 2,600 likes4. TikTok kept feeding it: @tamirsverse's May 29th video hit 17,800 likes6, and on June 6th @akceoalt's slideshow about Dragon Ball's Trunks holding a sword pulled 37,100 likes in under two weeks7.

By June 16th, 2025, X user @swissboss876 posted four variations at once, layering different One Piece characters over the Raian panel, captioned 'Please stop making these'8. That post pulled over 8,900 likes in two days, showing the format was still active heading into mid-2025.

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How to Use This Meme

The typical Mihawk Upscale post pastes the smiling Mihawk-over-Raian image into any thread where a character is shown with a sword, implying that character now 'upscales' every non-swordsman ever written2. Common variations swap the character drawn over the Raian panel or add a caption riffing on the 'ARE THOSE SWORDSMAN FEATS I SEE??!!' line, often paired with a screenshot of the character in question8.