I think Shanks is both a D and a Celestial Dragon. A child born out of both opposing clans, possible colonist who rewrote history (Celestial Dragons) and the possible ancient natives’ descendants who rebel against the World government (D clan).
And I also think Shanks is actively trying to make Luffy become the next Pirate King to dethrones Im and the current establishment of power. My reasoning are as follows:
All of this leads me to believe one thing, Shanks wants Luffy to become the new King of the pirates and topple the power structure of the World Government and Celestial Dragons. And two, Shanks is a Celestial Dragon AND a D. He shares both the blood of royalty and the ones who rebel against their invaders.
Shanks leave the first village as to not attract further attention for Luffy. Eventually Luffy would gather that on his own.
It all leads back to the one discussion Shanks had with Whitebeard before the paramount war. All of this is going back to Shanks. Chapter 434, chapter 580, and chapter 907.I’ll break them down one by one, the significance of each of his appearances.
Chapter 434: Shanks and Whitebeard share a conversation while drinking sake. It’s a formal discussion between two yonko, one who fought with Roger and one who was in his crew. Formalities aside, power dynamics between these two aside, the biggest piece of dialogue in this chapter was Shanks. “No one will be able to stop this new era from spiraling into chaos”, Shanks knows the power shifts that this war will cause.
When asked about his arm by Whitebeard, he replies “I gave it up for the sake of a new era” with Luffy’s image shown. Shanks placed trust in Joyboy’s will and his own, for Luffy to carry it. Shanks knew about the fruit. Shanks wants for Luffy what Whitebeard wanted for Ace.
Chapter 580: Shanks stops the Paramount War at Marineford. Although outnumbered, facing all admirals and Fleet Admiral Sengoku himself, Whitebeard’s crew wanting revenge, and the escapees from Impel Down, and shichibukai, Shanks brought a halt to it all? But how, it cant be just raw power alone, it cant be his haki alone. It has to be power by privilege. The same reason the admirals couldn’t touch Doflamingo, is because Shanks is a celestial dragon.
You see, Shanks is the anti-Doflamingo. He doesn’t reclaim vengeance against the D clan or the World government for his own benefit, he knows the current world is hides a dark history that’s founded in evil.
The biggest piece of dialogue in this chapter was fleet admiral Sengoku’s words to Shanks “That’s fine by me “Red Haired” I’ll take responsibility for this.” Those quotations emphasized by Sengoku imply Sengoku knows something about Shanks we don’t, perhaps his origins. He mocks the nickname Shanks goes by notoriously “Red Haired”.
Finally, after almost 500 chapters later, chapter 907: Shanks is cloaked to hide his appearance, probably to not gain media presence to himself during the Reverie arc. That one man he spoke of that one page could be Joyboy or Luffy. But the biggest fact of all is how he is able to share the same room with the Gorosei. Shanks is playing 5D chess and is betting on Luffy coming out of this awakened.
I can see why fans might hate the idea of Luffy inheriting the fruit of “freedom” and it’s sparking current debates of fate and free will. But all of that aside, I want to know how Shanks fits into all of this. He’s definitely a key player here, and like his captain Roger, he can see the “bigger picture”.
Theory by SwanImpact (https://www.reddit.com/user/SwanImpact)
