What’s up everybody, my name is Ohara and today we’re gonna talk about the man, the
myth, the legend, Red Hair Shanks and his purpose in the story of One Piece.
I think it’s pretty fair to say that Shanks is one of THE most liked and widely celebrated
characters in the entirety of the One Piece story.
In all 6 popularity polls that were conducted until today, Shanks always easily placed within
at LEAST the top 15 . To put this into perspective, on average Shanks is MORE popular than Usopp,
Brook or Franky, all of which have been an active part of the story for hundreds of chapters.
Shanks meanwhile is mentioned in less than 30 chapters, and appears in less than 15.
15 CHAPTERS!
Out of roughly a THOUSAND.
Let that sink in for a moment.
However, despite his lack of screen-time, it’s relatively easy to see WHAT makes Shanks
so fascinating: Oda portrays the Yonko as a charismatic leader that, despite his goofy
and often easy-going nature, is respected and feared throughout the world and is one
of its MOST influential players.
At the same time, the quite rare occasions his name is dropped and the even RARER appearances
he actually has, shroud his character in a sense of mystery and uncertainty.
This EXTREMLY appealing character design has lead to countless theories over Shanks’
true role in the story: Is he actually a Celestial Dragon?
Will he die at the hands of Blackbeard?
Or will he ultimately turn out to be the main villain of the story, after all?
What will this mysterious and legendary pirate, that we have known since the very first chapter
of the story, actually be doing in the end?
In this video, we will answer ALL of these questions.
Because, if you look closely enough at how Oda is placing Shanks in the story, it becomes
clear that the Yonko is presented as something that you could call the secret guarding of
the One Piece world.
This can be seen in his strikingly pacifistic nature, his unique and inherent goodness among
the Yonko as well as in his undeniable ties to nordic mythology and lore.
Once we have looked at these three factors, at the end of this video, we will be able
to see CLEARLY what role Shanks actually plays in the story.
So grab yourself some coffee, we have to talk about Akagami no Shankusu.
When you hear the word pacifist, the first thing you probably think about in the context
of One Piece are the Pacifista created by Dr. Vegapunk.
However, when we look at the definition of pacifism, it becomes relatively clear that
something went horribly wrong with the World Government´s naming scheme here.
Because a pacifist per definition, is a person who believes that unnecessary war and violence
are unjustifiable.
Not exactly fitting when you look at this.
Now with Shanks on the other hand, this is a completely different story.
He is a true pacifist, that tries to avoid unnecessary conflict and violence if in any
way possible.
This is even acknowledged by the Gorosei, who state that he is not the type of person
that seeks chaos and disorder.
However, that doesn’t mean of course that Shanks does not enjoy some friendly sparring
here and then, as he clearly does with Mihawk or against the Whiteboard pirates as a rookie
on Roger´s ship.
However, compared to most other pirates, and similarly to Luffy, Shanks has no interest
in pointless cruelty or bloodshed.
But I believe that it goes even further than this: Shanks seems to have an active interest
in keeping the quite fragile balance of the one piece world.
This becomes clear when he steps in to stop the war at marine-ford or whenever he expresses
his worries about Blackbeard.
In this context, one of Shanks’ most stunning skills that he rarely gets any credit for,
is his deep understanding of diplomacy.
None other than Shanks is able to stop a war between the Marines and another Yonko or get
a private audience with the Gorosei, all while being one of the most notorious criminals
on the planet.
But we can see this sort of de-escalating and effective diplomacy in other instances
as well.
For example his meeting with Whiteboard to discuss the danger of Blackbeard.
Or his notoriously forgiving attitude towards Higuma, a mere mountain bandit from the east
blue that tried to humiliate him in front of his men.
And maybe, he even managed to find a diplomatic solution in his encounter with Kaido, where
he somehow managed to stop the Yonko from going after Whitebeard and afterwards arrives
at Marienford without so much as a scratch.
What all these examples clearly show us however, is how averse Shanks truly is to unjust bloodshed
and unnecessary violence.
However, as we all know just too well, Shanks also has another side.
Whenever his ideals and values are being threatened, Shanks is ready to take up arms and deliver
Justice.
Notoriously of course, we can see this, once Higuma takes things too far and kidnaps and
threatens Luffy.
When arriving at Marineford, Shanks is prepared to face Akainu and the Marines heads on, should
they refuse to lay down their weapons, and everyone is more than reluctant to test him
and his crew.
This could even have played a role in his encounter with Kid, where the Supernova lost
an arm to the Yonko.
Given his character, it is entirely possible that Kid did something SO unjust or cruel,
that Shanks saw it necessary to bestow justice upon him.
This striking duality of diplomatic pacifism and unwavering justice are a defining part
of Shanks’ character.
But to truly understand this unique position of his in the world of one piece, we of course
also have to understand his equally unique standing among the Yonko.
There are number of things that make Shanks the odd one out when it comes to his membership
within the 4 strongest and most feared pirates.
For instance, as far as we know, he is the only one of the four that is not commanding
an entire fleet.
And we are also yet to come across any island that stands under his protection or rule.
Also, Shanks is the only one that evidently has not eaten any devil fruit.
And weirdly enough he is also the only one, not associated with the rocks pirates in any
way, with Big Mom and Kaido being former members, and Blackbeard having served on Whitebeards
crew as well as naming his ship after him.
This already tells us quite a lot about him, as he is also the only Yonko that has never
opposed Luffy and has no interest in gaining more power nor in becoming pirate king.
In more than just one way, it doesn’t take a lot of deep analysis to come to the conclusion
that Shanks is the only emperor that can be considered to be “good” at this point
in the story.
He was the one inspiring Luffy to become a pirate and setting out to see, believing that
he will be the one to change the world one day for the better.
His attempts to keep Blackbeard and Kaido at bay suggest to us that Shanks sees himself
as a sort of counterweight to the other Yonko to maintain stability in the world.
Using his power and staying true to his theme of war and justice, Shanks works to protect
the world, by ensuring a stability and balance between all the forces at work there.
Whether he does so to even the way for Luffy or to follow some other objective, we will
have to wait and see.
However, Oda might have left us a couple of hints towards what Shanks’ storyline is
moving toward.
And these hints can be found in the close connection that he has to nordic mythology.
In nordic mythology there exists the legend of Týr, the god of war and justice, that
once ruled over the other gods before Odin.
When the giant wolf Fenrir, son of Loki, was prophesied to kill Odin, the gods took him
to Agard and attempted to bind and control him.
Fenrir however, whom they told it would be a mere test of his strength, would only permit
them to put the chains on him if one of them would be willing to put their arm between
his fangs as insurance.
None of the gods was willing to do so, except for Tyr, who strode forward and placed his
arm in the wolf’s mouth.
Once Fenrir had realised that he could not escape, he bit off Tyr´s arm, who thus managed
to uphold justice and order at the same time.
Does this sound familiar yet?
However the similarities do not end here.
Shanks and Tyr both are renowned for their swordsmanship, their sense of justice, as
well as their red hair.
And not for nothing does Shanks sail on a Viking Ship.
I think it’s pretty likely that Oda has borrowed at least SOME inspiration for Shanks’
character from this nordic god.
Interestingly enough, Tyr has been prophesied to be killed by Gramr at Ragnarok, the great
battle to end the era of the gods.
Garmr is a huge hell-hound, often depicted with three heads.
I think you know where I’m going with this.
Blackbeard and Shanks have long been set up to clash at some point in the future and there
simply are a lot of striking similarities here.
Shanks was the first one to take Blackbeard very seriously very early on.
He already noticed something strange about him when they first met as apprentices on
Roger´s and Whitebeard´s ship.
He later encountered him again at some point, where he was dealt the scar across his eyes.
And finally he is the one to urge WB and possibly even the Gorosei to take Teach seriously.
Thematicly, this storyline would fit perfectly.
We ALSO know, that Elbaf, is heavily inspired my nordic culture and mythology as well, with
all the viking themes going around there.
And when we meet the very first giants in the story on Little Garden, Dorry and Broggy,
they say the following to Usopp: “When there's a dispute and neither side will yield...The
god of Elbaf decides the matter.
Our god protects the one who is right...and lets him live.”
Could Shanks possibly not only be inspired by the god of war and justice, but be considered