In the very first chapter of One Piece, Shanks sacrifices his arm and gives the 7-year-old
Luffy his straw hat.
This is to inspire Luffy to become king of the pirates.
At the same time, Luffy begs Shanks to let him join the Red Hair Pirates.
But Shanks refuses so Luffy can create his own crew 10 years later, when he is 17, which
kicks off the story that we know today.
But this makes us wonder: What would have happened if Shanks had actually let Luffy
join his crew?
What if instead of creating the Straw Hats, Luffy had become a Red Hair Pirate?
Our story of course starts right at the beginning of One Piece, when Luffy meets Shanks for
the very first time.
Luffy and Shanks are the exact same people as in the main story line.
The only thing that needs to change, is that Luffy actually gets to join the crew before
the Red Hair pirates leave his village.
So why doesn’t Shanks allow Luffy to join?
He actually gives us not 1, but 3 reasons: Because Luffy can’t swim, because he is
too young and because the pirate life is still too dangerous.
But I don’t think any of these are the real reason.
Shanks himself was found by the first pirate king Gol D. Roger as a baby.
So Shanks was part of one of the most dangerous pirate crews when he was Luffy’s age and
it doesn’t look like he regretted even a single moment of it.
And yes, Luffy can’t swim, but the same goes for literally any Devil Fruit user ever.
The rest of Shanks’ crew is actually very much in favor of Luffy joining as well.
So, what is Shanks’ real reason to leave Luffy behind?
One possibility is that Shanks literally can’t take Luffy because he cannot swim.
An interesting fact about Shanks’ crew, is that not a single one of his members has
eaten a devil fruit.
Maybe Shanks knows a place that you can only swim to and therefore he doesn’t allow any
non-swimmers to join.
Maybe it’s because Shanks wanted to Luffy to grow and prove himself without the help
of a Yonko.
If you have watched my past What if’s you will know, that I strongly believe that Shanks
was planning for Luffy to become Pirate King right from the start.
Or maybe, Eiichiro Oda, the author of One Piece, simply did it because otherwise he
wouldn’t have been able to write his story, the way he wanted to.
I am sure we will get an answer for this in the future, but let’s assume that after
Luffy eats his devil fruit, Shanks changes his mind.
If Luffy is the one who will become pirate king and change the world, he figures the
safest way to get there is by training and protecting Luffy himself.
Luffy is of course extremely hyped about this.
He is now officially the cabin boy of the Red Hair pirates.
And form here on out the flow of the story starts to change quite dramatically.
The incident with the mountain bandits in the bar still happens.
Luffy is still enraged about Shanks not fighting back, but Ben Beckman tells him that he will
understand one day, puts Luffy on his shoulder and the Red Hair pirates leave Luffy’s island
that same day.
This means, that Luffy is never kidnapped by the mountain bandits and as a result, Shanks
never loses his arm.
As you probably know, Shanks actually sacrificed his stronger arm that he used to hold his
sword with.
In the main storyline, before he let the sea king bite it off to inspire Luffy, Shanks
was able to fight on the same level as Dracule Mihawk, the worlds strongest swordsman.
So if Luffy joins Shanks’ crew, Shanks actually keeps his legendary sword fighting abilities.
This may seem like a pretty big change, but it’s nothing compared to this next one.
Because in this version of the story, Luffy actually never meets the mountain bandits,
nor Ace and Sabo.
It is actually revealed by Oda, that Luffy’s Grandfather Garp only brought Luffy to his
bandit friend Dardan AFTER Luffy already ate his Devil Fruit, and Shanks and his crew had
already left.
So At this point, Luffy only knows about Ace from his grandfather’s stories.
And he only learns about Sabo, years later when running into the revolutionary army.
The three of them never become brothers.
But Ace still joins the Whitebeard pirates.
Since Shanks didn’t save Luffy’s life from the sea king, Luffy doesn’t get inspired
to become pirate king.
His new dream is to become the strongest pirate in Shanks’ crew and make his captain pirate
king instead.
However, just how Whitebeard was secretly planning for Ace to find the One Piece and
take over the Whitebeard pirates, Shanks is also planning to make Luffy pirate king one
day.
After all, Luffy has still eaten his unique devil fruit and he still resembles Shanks’
former captain Roger.
So while the Red Hair pirates are sailing away from Luffy’s home island, and having
a welcome Party for their newest member, Shanks suddenly becomes serious.
He had purposefully sailed the ship into the calm belt, where the giant sea kings attack
any ship that tries to cross through it.
Luffy is shocked at the giant creatures suddenly towering over the ship.
But Shanks has been waiting for this.
Dark clouds appear in the sky, as the man with the strongest conquerors haki in the
world knocks out all of the giant sea monsters with one single burst of haki.
The planks of the ship creek under the pressure, but Shanks, who just like Rayleigh in the
auction house on Sabaody, has perfect control over his powers, has excluded the 7-year-old
Luffy.
And Luffy looks at Shanks like he is some sort of god.
This is exactly what Shanks has been hoping for.
Just like in the main storyline after sacrificing his arm, he makes Luffy promise to become
a strong pirate and surpass him one day.
And he still gives Luffy the straw hat that he had gotten from Roger as a kid too.
So instead of training with Ace and Sabo in the Djungles of his island, Luffy now grows
up on Shanks’ ship.
He very quickly grows incredibly close to all of the main crew members, who now raise
him instead of the bandits.
There are still a lot of similarities to our main timeline Luffy.
He has a very similar dream, that drives him to become stronger.
He still has his straw hat.
He still lives a life of freedom, training, eating and sleeping under the stars.
And he still has a strong sense of justice and wants to help people.
However, the red hair pirates aren’t mountain bandits.
A few years after joining the crew, Shanks becomes known as one of the 4 emperors of
the sea.
He has one of the 4 strongest pirate crews in the world, who are now all training Luffy.
And as you would expect, that changes how luffy develops drastically compared to growing
up with Ace and Sabo.
Luffy is still able to run and good around a lot, for example I could totally see him
having a great time with Monster, this monkey, that is actually an officer.
Shanks would of course teach Luffy all about Haki very early on in his life, soon realizing
that Luffy also has the potential to use conquerors haki, which surprises no one in the crew.
Shanks teaches Luffy how to fight with a sword, although, just like in the actual story, I
don’t think Luffy would be great with swords.
Instead, as you can probably tell from my thumbnail, I think it would be really cool
if Luffy got inspired by Ben Beckman and Usopp’s father Yasopp to start using a gun.
As we know, Luffy isn’t stupid, he just doesn’t know much about the world because
he was raised by mountain bandits and running around with his brothers all day.
On board of Shanks’ ship, I think Luffy would still be his normal freedom loving,
always-hungry self, but get a really good education about all types of things.
Geography, the different races that exist, the balance of powers between marines, the
warlords and the emperors, and so on.
Oda has revealed after all, that Ben Beckman is the smartest person from the east blue.
It would be really interesting to see Luffy take on a slightly more serious and calculating
side with his influence.
And of course his outfit would look significantly more badass than it does for most of the story.
And speaking of Yasopp: Not only do I see him teaching Luffy how to use a gun and observation
Haki, but there is another thing I could see happening.
You see in the other two what if videos i have made so far, about ‘what if luffy was
never born’ and ‘what if Luffy became a marine’, a common theme is that Usopp
always dies.
After all, without Luffy and Zoro coming to fight the Kuro pirates, Usopp’s village
is simply over-run and the entire island taken out.
And since people have been complaining in the comments a LOT about killing off usopp,
I think we have finally found a scenario to keep him alive.
Because if Shanks allows Luffy to join, even though he is too young, why shouldn’t Yasopp
get his son as well?
Not only did he feel very guilty for leaving Usopp behind, but both Usopp and Luffy would
have someone their own age in the crew.
And I’m sure Shanks would approve of that too, considering he grew up with Buggy on
Roger’s ship.
So in this version of the story, the Red Hair Pirates drop by Syrup village to pick up Usopp,
who also goes on to become a brave warrior of the sea and one of the most powerful fighters
in the world, this time growing up without daddy issues.
Now since there is no one with a devil fruit in Shanks’ crew, you might think Luffy’s
devil fruit powers might get neglected.
But if you think about it, Luffy also had no one else with a devil fruit power around
him growing up either and he still managed to develop his skills just fine.
In fact, Shanks and co not only have fought with enough devil fruit users to teach Luffy
the basics and help him develop different techniques, but they also know the truth about
this unique devil fruit.
To unlock his true potential, they might tell him about the true power of his abilities
or at least guide him into the right direction.
So I would expect Luffy to awaken his devil fruit powers at a quite young age.
After all, after becoming a Yonko, Shanks would spend most of his time in the new world,
where he started to establish his own territories.
So Luffy would run into skirmishes and larger battles with other powerful pirate groups
all the time, giving him more and more chances to practice his abilities.
This of course also includes encounters with Big Mom, Kaido and Whitebeard.
Especially during the latter, he befriends Ace as a rival, since they are both from the
same island and have the same grandfather.
And once he actually awakens his devil fruit, Shanks for the first time tells him about
Laugh Tale and being part of Roger’s crew, igniting the spark in Luffy to go see Laugh
Tale for himself.
Which now brings us the time when Luffy actually starts his adventure in the main storyline.
What is going to happen to all the other straw hats?
Because at this point Luffy has already become a real monster that is well known throughout
the world, who has established himself as one of Shanks’ core crew members.
As you can imagine, without Luffy there to save them, many of the straw hats would be
doomed and the east blue saga would be pretty dark.
Now, you could of course say, that Luffy is strong enough at this point to start his own
crew and still meets his original crew, but way stronger.
If you’d be interested in a video about what that would look like, make sure to subscribe
and let me know in the comments.
But I don’t think that it would be the natural thing for Luffy to do at this point.
But hey, at least we have saved Usopp.
When Luffy joins Shanks’ crew, he never gets to save Koby from Alvida’s ship. he
also doesn’t make it to the Marine Base, where Zoro is being starved to death.
As a result, the future strongest swordsman in the world, doesn’t survive.
At the Baratie, Sanji stays there as a cook.
But I believe that the Vinsmoke family would still find out about him sooner or later and
would still try to marry him off for the alliance with big mom.
As a result, Sanji gets assassinated at the wedding party.
Meanwhile, Arlong steals all of Nami’s savings and forces her to keep working as a cartographer
for many more years.
Moving on to the grandline, here it is a lot more likely that Luffy will encounter some
of the straw hats.
After all, the Yonko and their crews are moving around the grandline all the time.
And we also know, that Shanks has been growing his crew quite a bit as well since he first
met Luffy 10 years ago.
So it would not be that hard for Luffy to convince him to let someone join.
Luffy would definitely get to meet Crocus, who , just like Shanks is a former member
of the Roger pirates.
In the real timeline, Shanks told both Crocus and Rayleigh about Luffy, who were waiting
for him at the entrance to the first and second half of the grandline respectively.
Crocus telling Luffy about Laugh Tale and giving the crew the log pose, while Rayleigh
helped Luffy train and get stronger for 2 full years.
So in this version of the story, Shanks also introduces Luffy to Crocus and Luffy gets
to meet Laboon and promises him to come back.
Chopper really could go either way.
It’s definitely possible, that Shanks and co make a stop at Drum island at some point
and Luffy picks him up, but at the same time he might also never go there and chopper simply
ends up living with Dr Kureha under Wapol’s terrible rule.
Robin would either stay with Crocodile, who would most likely succeed in taking over Alabasta,
or Luffy might run into her at some point and make her join.
We don’t know if Shanks has anyone in his crew that is capable of reading the poneglyphs,
but if not, Robin would be incredibly valuable.
Enel still goes to the moon.
Pretty much no change here.
Franky stays on water 7, but would probably be discovered by Lucci and Cp0 at some point
during their undercover mission to get the plans of Pluton.
And as usual, Brook sooner or later gets his shadow back, when Moria is inevitably defeated
at some point, and becomes a global superstar.
Luffy does of course meet Rayleigh on Sabaody Archipelago though.
Just like with Crocus, Shanks introduces the person Roger has been waiting for to his former
vice captain.
Now Crocus decided to stay behind because he wanted to take care of Laboon.
But with Rayleigh, I could absolutely see him joining the red hair pirates to help with
Luffy’s training and to make sure that he ends up finding the one piece in order to
change the world.
Which now brings us to the war at Marineford.
Which does get really really interesting in this scenario.
Now, even though Luffy and Ace never became brothers, Ace still goes after Blackbeard,
he still gets captured and the war between whitebeard and the marines is still bound
to happen.
Only that this time, while Luffy is definitely angry, he doesn’t have the same drive to
go and save Ace.
Instead, he accompanies Shanks to Wano, who is trying to stop Kaido to get involved in
the war as well.
This of course means that the prison break in Impel down never happens.
Which would mean that Jinbei stays in prison, while Blackbeard and his crew are defeated
by Magellan when they try to invade the prison.
But let’s assume that Blackbeard and his crew mates actually manage to go down all
the way to level 6.
Because in that case, Blackbeard would once again tell the level 6 prisoners that the
last person surviving in their cell could join his crew.
Which would mean that Jinbei would most likely end up joining Blackbeards crew, even if it’s
against his will.
Now one big question is of course: How did Shanks manage to stop Kaido from joining the
war?
Maybe the 2 crews actually fought.
But when Shanks and his men arrive at Marineford in the main storyline, they don’t look like
they just fought a gigantic dragon.
So instead, I think it’s most likely that Shanks actually just went and talked to Kaido.
So while the two Yonko would have a meeting in Onigashima, Luffy would surely run around
and finally run into none other than Yamato.
He tells Yamato about Ace being captured and about his upcoming execution.
And since Yamato is of course friends with Ace, she wants to come and save him.
As a result, Luffy secretly frees Yamato from her shackles and smuggles her on board of
Shanks’ ship.
They finally make it to Marineford.
But just like in the main story, it’s already too late.
Ace has been killed and Blackbeard has gone in and stolen Whitebeard’s devil fruit.
Shanks once again is able to stop the war.
This time Luffy is part of the epic intro of the Red Hair Pirates.
He transforms into his awakened form and stands between Aokiji and Marco.
The Gorosei and many people who are watching the live broadcast of the war are shocked
at Luffy’s appearance.
Sengoku after a quick moment of shock, announces to the world that Luffy is the son of Monkey
D. Dragon, the world’s most wanted man and and an officer of the red hair pirates.
Luffy meanwhile, completely unfazed by all this, has to stop Yamato from attacking Akainu
who is mocking Ace.
While Shanks is negotiating with Sengoku about taking Ace’s and Whitebeard’s body’s,
Luffy rushes to his Grandfather, who is heartbroken about Ace’s death.
After the war, things could go in many different directions.
i could either see Luffy leaving Shanks’ crew to find his own path and crew.
Or, Luffy stays with Shanks and soon overtakes Ben Beckman as the second strongest man in
the crew and Shanks’ right hand man.
In that case, Shanks would most likely start preparations to reach Laugh Tale soon and
make Luffy pirate king.
And a third alternative would be, that Luffy passes on the straw hat to someone else, like
Momonosuke, encouraging the next generation to find the One Piece and change the world.
But if you really want to go down a crazy route, think about this: What if Luffy didn’t
fight as part of Shank’s crew at Marineford, what if he had fought next to Akainu, Kizaru
and Aokiji?
What if instead of a pirate, Luffy had become a Marine?
To find out, you can simply click right here.
Thanks for watching.