Shanks remains one of One Piece’s most enigmatic characters, even though he debuted in the very first chapter of the manga. Over 1,100 chapters in, fans are just beginning to uncover the layers of his history, beyond his first encounter with Luffy as a child and his sporadic appearances throughout the story. After the most recent chapter, audiences are left questioning whether Shanks can be trusted and are once again uncertain about his true loyalties.
[Ed. Note: Spoilers ahead for One Piece chapter 1167]
Fans have long debated Shanks’ true nature throughout the series. On one hand, there is the man who inspired Luffy to become a pirate, who laughs at jokes about himself but flexes his power if his friends’ safety is at risk. On the other hand, there is the mysterious figure whose influence quietly weaves through the story in unexpected ways. We’ve seen him as a man of honor at Marineford when he put an end to the Summit War. But we also recently learned that Shanks is a Celestial Dragon with a horrible family lineage. He stole the Gomu Gomu no Mi from the Marines for a still undisclosed reason, and recently, he staked a claim for the One Piece, despite never going for it until Luffy awakened his Devil Fruit.
Even with this recent deep dive into his life and lineage, we still know little about Shanks’ true motives, goals, or whether he leans toward good or evil. Author Echiiro Oda consistently urges audiences not to believe everything at face value. After a man who looked exactly like Shanks was seen meeting with the Five Elders in chapter 907, fans suspected he might be sharing information with them, until it was revealed that he had a twin brother named Shamrock, who was likely the one in the meeting. Now, if nothing else, Oda is implying to the audience that, despite all the facts we have, we still don’t actually know who Shanks is.
In chapter 1167, we finally see a glimpse of Shanks’ time in the Holy Land with his father, Saint Garling Figarland, his twin Shamrock, and his period as a Devoted Blade of God, an apprentice to God’s Knights. Fans knew that, at some point after Roger’s death, Shanks came back to Mary Geoise/Marijoa to learn more about his heritage as a Celestial Dragon, which always seemed in contrast with Shanks’ altruistic nature, having grown up with the Roger Pirates. However, in the latest chapter, he speaks about hating his time on the surface world with the crew and about always knowing he was special and different from everyone else.
Many assume Shanks is saying this to conceal his true purpose, possibly to explore the secrets of the God’s Knights and the Gorosei, since by this time he had already built the crew that goes on to become his Red-Haired Pirates. We can now also confirm that Shanks got his eye scar from Blackbeard 15 years before the current events in the series.
Shanks’ time in the Holy Land informed his decision to go back to the surface world as a pirate, steal the Gomu Gomu no Mi, and go on to become an Emperor of the Sea, waiting for the right moment to go after the One Piece. The most plausible explanation is that he kept up a charade to gather as much info as possible about the truth of the world and, possibly, even the existence of Imu, which, as we learn in this same chapter, is only revealed to those who reach the second level of “contract” among God’s Knights, the Depths Covenant. This hypothesis should be confirmed by the fact that a person who is almost surely Shanks is seen saving Fisher Tiger and helping him free the slaves during the infamous incident in the Holy Land.
However, heroes and villains are a complicated affair in the world of One Piece. Shanks’ entire appeal lies in his overpowered status and air of mysteriousness. But more than anything else, Shanks works so well as a character, despite all the cool things he does in the story, because we don’t actually know why he’s doing them, what purpose they serve, and if those purposes make him friend or foe.
We’ve seen how Luffy reacts when anyone even hints that Shanks isn’t a good guy, so wouldn’t it fall right in line with Oda’s themes that Shanks’ reputation is finally put into question when the truth of his lineage arises?
Shanks is a walking contradiction, as seen countless times throughout the series. He’s shown as a trickster who likes to laugh, but can get deadly serious at the drop of a dime. He’s one of the strongest Emperors with one of the smallest crews and weakest fleets. He acts altruistically but walks in the shadows and keeps secrets. And this constant dichotomy is embodied to its fullest here, where we have an idea of who Shanks is, but his words contradict all we’ve assumed about him. The twins’ regal outfits are even inverted, with Shamrock exposing his chest like Shanks’ present-day outfit and Shanks wearing the same wardrobe Shamrock has on in Elbaph. Is Oda perhaps dropping another of his famous foreshadowing hints? Only time will tell.
