Let’s talk about the Shanks Ice Berg.
And I’m not talking about shipping these two characters!
The ice berg that contains the greatest mysteries and theories about Red Hair Shanks, the most
legendary character in one piece!
In case you don’t know, the ice berg video format is a system of levels starting with
popular and mainstream theories & mysteries of a certain topic.
The stuff at the tip of the ice berg everyone knows, and then you move deeper towards the
wildest and darkest theories the internet has to offer.
Starting with Tier 1.
Now We all know that Gol D. Roger is the one who set off the great pirate era.
However, Shanks is just as responsible for launching the events of the series.
Even though Luffy is following in the steps of the first pirate king, his actual goal
is to reunite with Shanks and return the Straw Hat.
And so the whole series has been leading to the point where Luffy is a powerful enough
pirate to meet Shanks once again.
But what has shanks been up to in the meantime?
Well, our first stop on our icy tour of Shanks fan theories brings us to the town we see
in chapter one of one piece, Windmill Village.
Over the time skip, we learned that Makino, the bartender at the local Bar, was pregnant
and had a baby.
Who’s the father?
Our money is on this bar’s regular, Shanks.
And this next one is also a bit of a softball theory, but they don’t call it Tier One
for nothing.
We’re still here above the surface of the water, so this idea is pretty on the nose.
We’re going to make the bold statement that Shanks wants Luffy to become the Pirate King.
He inspired him, gave him his fruit, sacrificed his arm for him, and gave him his hat because
he believes that Luffy is the one who will become the Pirate King and find the One Piece.
So let’s go under water and onwards to tier 2, as we climb below the depths, we bring
our SUBmarine to the SUBtext of the story.
Starting with: Shanks is Evil.
Yep.
The opposite of what we just said, Shanks has had some sinister ulterior motives all
along.
After all, he’s super mysterious and has meetings with the Gorosei - known villains
of the series.
Not only is Shanks evil, but another fan theoy says he’s actually the final boss of One
Piece.
What a twist it would be for it to not be Imu, Akainu, or Blackbeard at all - Instead,
Luffy’s final obstacle in reaching the One Piece will be his own mentor - the person
he’s looked up to since Chapter 1 of the entire series.
And here’s another conspiracy: Shanks has the craziest haki we’ve seen the in the
whole series.
In chapter 1, after losing his arm, he uses conqueror’s haki to get the Lord of the
Coast to flee.
But surely, his armament and observation haki are strong enough to have avoided having his
arm bitten off in the first place.
This theory says that Shanks lost his arm on purpose - that way Luffy would feel guilt
over what had happened and would continue to feel driven to chase after Shanks on the
journey to becoming the Pirate King.
As we descend to tier 3 of the Shanks iceberg, now we get some really obscure facts - things
we would never see if we stayed on the surface.
Facts like this: Shanks’ sword is named Gryphon, after the mythical creature.
We’re not sure what its origin or grade is, but it’s perfectly capable of clashing
with Whitebeard’s supreme grade blade.
And this next one is huge: FILM RED Spoilers incoming, but this theory is all but confirmed
after the latest One Piece movie.
In a short clip, it’s heavily implied that Gol D. Roger found Shanks as a baby in a treasure
chest, likely at God Valley, the home of the Celestial Dragons.
His World Noble status would also explain why Shanks is able to demand a request with
the Gorosei and might even explain why he was able to put an end to the Marineford War.
If Shanks doesn’t turn out to be a celestial dragon though, don’t worry, we have a theory
for that too.
With us continually finding out that certain characters, such as Trafalgar D. Waterlaw,
are secretly Ds, the fanbase guesses that just about every character could be a secret
member of the D clan.
Shanks is no exception - being one of the most powerful and significant pirates in the
world, plenty of fans think he might be a D.
And arriving at Tier 4, we’re halfway to the bottom our iceberg.
What kind of wild Shanks theories lie in store for us?
By the way if you want to see more of these ice berg videos, make sure to subscribe and
let me know which one you’d like to see next!
Okay, so there’s so much mystery around Shanks’ goals - What is he trying to accomplish?
This theory says that his role is to maintain the balance of powers.
The reason he wanted to stop the war and stop Blackbeard’s ascension is because like the
Gorosei, he shares the goal of keeping relative peace through the power of the world being
balanced between the World Government, Yonkou, and Shichibukai.
Now it’s time to talk about the inspirations for Shanks’ design - specifically the Norse
God Tyr.
Much like this God, Shanks has one arm and is renowned as a swordsman.
Shanks’ ship, the Red Force, takes clear inspiration from Viking designs.
It’s for this reason that it’s heavily speculated that when the crew heads to Elbaf,
Shanks will finally take a central role in the story.
This next theory says that Shanks didn’t just give Luffy the straw hat to remember
him by.
The straw hat itself is an important piece in the puzzle of finding the One Piece or
becoming Joyboy.
After all, Shanks was given the hat by Roger originally.
And we’ve seen that Imu keeps a giant frozen straw hat beneath Mariejois.
Could the straw hat be more than just a straw hat?
Which brings us to tier number 5.
Now we’re starting to get a lot deeper on this iceberg - so brace yourself because things’ll
get weirder from here on out.
It may have looked like Luffy eating the Gomu Gomu no Mi was just a simple accident, but
what if Shanks actually fed Luffy the fruit on purpose.
Knowing Luffy’s lack of willpower, he left this super valuable treasure out and available,
knowing that Luffy wouldn’t be able to resist taking a bite.
Which sounds wild, but not nearly as wild as this next one.
Because many One Piece viewers think that the Davy Back Fight will make its way back
toe the story somehow.
While the Davy Back Fight against Foxy didn’t seem that significant to the overall story,
what if there was a much higher-stakes Davy Back Fight between the Straw Hats and the
Red-Haired Pirates.
Whether it’s a friendly match or deadly serious, the Davy Fight Back needs to come
back into the story of else the Foxy arc just doesn’t seem to fit in that well.
How about
a
really wild conspiracy for a change?
What if I told you Dracule Mihawk is living a lie?
While he hold the mantle of World’s Greatest Swordsman, he outright refuses to duel with
one swordsman who he used to fight regularly: Shanks.
He claims it’s because Shanks lost his dominant arm and therefore couldn’t keep up - but
if Shanks can claim the status of Yonkou with his remaining arm, then perhaps Mihawk actually
knows that he’s plain outclassed by Shanks.
****Now our submarine is reaching Tier 6 with this crazy theory: Shanks knew the truth of
the Nika fruit.
Even though he told Luffy it was the Gomu Gomu no Mi, he targeted the Marine ship that
was carrying it because he knew how important the fruit was.
He learned the truth of Laugh Tale and the One Piece from Roger and knew that for Joyboy
to return, the Nika fruit had to make its way to the right person.
Roger stationed Crocus at the entrance of the grandline to keep an eye on any potential
candidate for joy boy entering the grand line and help them find the right way.
Remember that Crocus was the one who gave the log pose to the straw hats.
He then stationed Rayleigh at the entrance to the new world, helping the next pirate
king to get strong enough for the second half of the grand line.
Rayleigh did help the straw hats reach fishman island and also personally trained Luffy for
2 full years.
And so he ordered shanks with stealing joy boys devil fruit from the government and finding
the right person to eat it.
And here is another popular theory about what Shanks’ true goal is.
One reason that he will stand in Luffy’s way in the end is because he acts as the guardian
of Laugh Tale.
He has his crew stationed in the New World specifically to prevent any unworthy pirate
from reaching the One Piece.
This next one on the other hand comes from One Piece FIlm RED as well, where a one off
line probably gave us Shanks’ surname.
This continues the tradition of One Piece movies giving us big reveals, such as Stampede
revealing that Raftel was actually “Laugh Tale.”
It doesn’t seem that the name “Figarland” tells us too much about Shanks or who he might
be connected to, The Gorosei speculate that Uta is a Figarland, which would in turn likely
connect this family name to Shanks - given that it came from the Gorosei, is this another
hint that Shanks could be a Celestial Dragon?
****Now, I hope you brought your coat because it’s really cold down here at Tier 7.
We’re almost to the bottom and now things are about to get really crazy.
Shanks has the power to see the future - and we’re not talking about simple advanced
observation haki.
Katakuri may be able to see five seconds into the future, but we’re talking about seeing
way ahead.
He warned Whitebeard not to let Ace fight Blackbeard.
He warned the Gorosei about a certain pirate.
And when he saved Koby, he told him the moments he bought had changed the future.
What if Shanks wasn’t speaking figuratively, but he can literally see far into the future?
And since we’re asking some deep questions here.
Why was Shanks in the East Blue to meet Luffy to begin with?
Well, according to this theory, he had planned to give the Nika fruit to Ace instead.
While he was in Windmill Village, he’d originally arrived to find Roger’s son, thinking that
Ace would grow up to become the future pirate king, following in his father’s footsteps.
However, he had a change of heart when he happened to meet Luffy, who shared the same
secret dream as Roger.
And speaking of people’s dreams, we have to talk about Blackbeard as well, because
this theory suggests that Blackbeard was the one who gave Shanks his scar.
Throughout the story, Shanks has warned of how dangerous Blackbeard is, pleading with
Whitebeard, the Gorosei, and more in order to get people to take Teach seriously as a
threat.
Despite how much Shanks has wanted to stop the threat of Blackbeard, it hasn’t stopped
his meteoric rise to power.
Blackbeard is now actively seeking the keys to reach the One Piece, which means it’s
only a matter of time before these two Yonkou clash.
If Blackbeard were to kill Shanks, especially before Shanks and Luffy are able to reunite,
it would be one of the most heartbreaking moments of the entire series.
And it would give Luffy the ultimate motivation for taking down Marshall D. Teach.
if you thought things were insane so far, Now that we’ve reached the bottom of the
iceberg, things are about to get really wild.
These are the wildest Shanks theories on the Internet.
One theory about Shanks is that he’s actually the son of Rocks D. Xebec.
But we say that’s nonsense - in fact, Shanks is just a distraction from Rocks’ REAL son:
Buggy.
Hey, it’s Oda - anything can happen.
Also: Why is Shanks’ haki so strong that he can make a Marine Admiral retreat from
miles away?
Well, he’s a haki man who ate the haki haki fruit, of course.
This theoretical OP devil fruit gives him the ultimate command over every type of haki
- armament, observation, and conqueror’s - and gives him the power to trounce any other
devil fruit user because as we know, haki beats devil fruits.
And at the very bottom of the iceberg is another incredibly unlikely theory.
Not only is Shanks a D - he’s also the son of Imu, the secret King of the World Government.
He didn’t make an appointment with the Gorosei because he’s a Celestial Dragon - he did
it because he’s THE Celestial Dragon and the heir to the Empty Throne.
Not only is he on top of the pirating world, but he’s also at the top of the World Government.
This would definitely give credence for him being the final boss of the series, but the
evidence is…lacking.
This iceberg was all about Shanks, but you can check out the truly gigantic ice berg
video covering all the craziest One Piece theories I could find by checking out this
video.