This topic has probably been one of the most talked about in the last few years. People have been debating ever since the Reverie, whether or not Shanks is evil. This theory will aim to identify the truth about Shanks. Let’s get in to it.
First we should start with the scene in question, Shanks’ surprising appearance during the Reverie, begin granted a secret audience with the Gorosei.
Many believe that this scene proves that Shanks is a secret government operative.
Many have already pointed out the curious detail that the Gorosei say that they ‘only made time to talk because it’s you.’ Implying that Shanks has some kind of special privilege. A similar thing was said by Sengoku when Shanks came to end the war.
Shanks is respected by the very highest ranking members of the World Government, this certainly makes it seem more likely that he works for them. I think the most commonly agreed theory is that he has a deal with them of some kind.
Since the recent revelation that Luffy’s fruit is really a Mythical Zoan type named after the Sun God Nika, a lot of people think that this proves that the ‘certain pirate’ that Shanks was talking about was Luffy. However, I think that may have been about something different.
We see in 1041 that when the Gorosei issued the order to kill Luffy, they admitted that it was a necessary precaution to avoid a situation that even they were not privy to all the details on. We see in 1044 that one of them is checking a poster.
This suggests that even after the conversation with Shanks in 907, the Gorosei still did not have all of the information on Luffy’s fruit really being the legendary Nika model and had only just then made the connection. As 1037 indicated, they were still trying to work it out.
This suggests then that the opposite is actually true and Shanks actually withheld the information about Luffy’s fruit from them and was himself talking about someone else in that scene.
Now that we have the reveal of Luffy’s fruit, we now also understand why Shanks has wanted to wait to meet Luffy until a certain time came. He was waiting for Luffy to achieve this awakening. This tells us that Shanks was well aware of the truth about the fruit from the beginning.
So Shanks knew about the true significance of the fruit when he stole it, that explains why he stole it. It seems though that he did not originally intend for Luffy to eat the fruit. His and Roux’s reactions to Luffy eating it tell us that it was not meant for him.
It seems that the most likely person that Shanks actually intended the fruit was, if anyone, was actually Ace. Roger had said that his son would be the one to find the One Piece & Shanks may well have known that Garp was secretly harbouring Roger’s son at Foosha Village.
If this is the case then it seems that Shanks intended to make Roger’s will come true and set Ace up to be Pirate King. This is similar to what Whitebeard did once he realised that Ace was Roger’s son. It seems that Ace was supposed to be Joyboy.
However, after Shanks heard Luffy repeat Roger’s words, he knew then that Luffy would be the one to fulfil Roger’s will and achieve the dream of Joyboy. He bet his arm on this and chose then to give Luffy the hat.
So Shanks is likely not actually an agent for the World Government, but then why does he seem to do things that benefit the World Government? Such as stopping Kaido from going to Marineford, ending the war before the Navy lost control and tipping them off about a ‘certain pirate’?
I believe that this can be explained through the Balance of Power and the role that Shanks plays in maintaining it. It seems then that all of Shanks’ actions are done with the intent of maintaining the Balance of Power. This would explain why he has such influence with the World Government.
Shanks helps to maintain the balance and this is much appreciated by the Gorosei because they know that this balance is the only thing holding Imu back from launching a new ‘Great Cleansing’ It’s understandably mutually beneficial to avoid this scenario happening again.
Shanks has effectively been working with the Gorosei to maintain the balance of power in order to delay Imu’s great cleansing for as long as possible, in doing so, he has given Luffy long enough to reach the awakening of Nika and realize that he is Joyboy.
That mostly concludes the theory but there’s one more potential detail that may further explain Shanks’ position of influence with the Gorosei. To explain this, we have to look at Shanks’ origins. From what we know, he joined the crew at 9 years old, alongside Buggy.
Coincidentally, the events of God Valley were only around 8 years before these events. For this reason, many believe that Shanks is actually the son of Rocks D. Xebec! However, there may be a different explanation.
I believe that Shanks is actually the son of a Celestial Dragon and a slave. This would lend context to why Roger fought with Garp in order to protect not just the slaves but also the Celestials. That would mean that Shanks is a ‘half-born’ Celestial Dragon.
This is stretching it but I also believe that this was not any Celestial Dragon but actually one of the Elder Stars. This would definitely explain why he has sway with the Gorosei.
Shanks is the bastard son of the now deceased 6th Elder Star that Rocks killed during God Valley!
