Lol The fact that literally everyone u mentioned is a devil fruit user
Oda never uses the term ‘ strength ‘ in these supposed things , he actually did the same thing by saying Denjiro has the greatest swordsmanship among the scabbards which shows us 2 things
1. Denjiro is the strongest scabbard
2. Most of the scabbards are swordsmen ( which is in fact true with prob the exception of raizo and kanjuro and both of them are also df users lol )
And about that ‘ how does he actually fight argument ‘ ….
It’s simply being excited abt how shanks will fight in the future , nothing regarding his fighting style being something different from swordsmanship
Now let’s talk about shanks always using his sword while he wants to fight
1. Ace comes to visit him and when shanks talks abt fighting, the first thing he picks is his sword
When shanks challenges everyone at marineford
He takes out his sword
When shanks fights wb
He takes out his sword and uses it to clash with the emperor
When he wants to block an attack from a toptier
He takes out his sword
The funny thing is even after the haki blast towards greenbul
Shanks is seen holding the sheathe of his sword,
Looks like shanks instinctively grabs his sword when he is angry .
even while being young , all we saw was shanks using a sword while fighting
Oda always tries to squeeze shanks’ sword whenever he is introduced in the manga
- u can see it urself on how he tries his best to squeeze gryphon in the cover pages
when oda drew an art for shanks to promote film red , we still see shanks with a sword
It’s almost as if gryphon is very dear to him
Which is very true , so true that oda has actually mentioned gryphon being
beloved to him
And I have also noticed a thing here , oda often puts this ‘ beloved blade / sword ‘ term in the vivrecards of known swordsmen
- tashigi and brook also fit in this category with their vivre cards who are swordsmen themselves
- I have actually never seen oda using this term for someone who is not a swordsman
It’s almost as if he has categorised these characters using this term
- oda had absolutely no problem in naming these people as ‘ a group of swordsmen ‘ even tho he saw shanks there
- now the thing which puts the nail in the coffin on how oda actually views shanks as a fighter is
With a cover page he was trying to draw himself
when oda tries to draw a group of characters with the title ‘ a sword story ‘ he thinks of drawing shanks in it
- shanks has swordsman written all over him but due to a certain agenda many people deny him being a swordsman .
- film red fucked debate by giving shanks a further enhanced sword style in which he uses flames
And also shows how shanks fights and he uses a sword every fucking time
- shanks beating the monster first time by using his sword
- shanks beating the monster second time by using his sword
Damn this became a huge thread lol