Guys. I have finally done it. I have cracked the hidden, secret-sub plot that Oda has been putting right in front of our faces for 30 years. Just when Oda thought he could get away with hiding Saint Shanks’s true motives from us, some western ass hole (me) goes and cracks the code. You can’t hide shit from me Oda, I know you are reading this thread right now. You can write the royalty check for all of the money you owe me out to Papa Lee’s Mental Ju Jitsu Emporium.
I predicted the Figarland Captain of the Holy Knights having the Cerberus Devil Fruit in 2023,
I predicted the events of Egghead with 100% accuracy,
And today I’m here to ruin Oda’s biggest plot twist around Saint Shanks and why he is evil.
So, let’s bring this back:
This is probably Joy Boy’s straw hat:
But why does Imu have it? It’s just a fucking hat right? Why should Imu care enough about Joyboy’s Straw Hat to possess it?
The implication of this scene is that there is much more to Joyboy’s hat than it just being a simple hat. The implication is that Imu must be gaining something from Joyboy’s hat, or else why would he possess it? So let’s say Imu is getting some kind of power from Joyboy’s hat. What does this mean for Saint Shanks and Luffy?
But remember, Saint Shanks didn’t give Luffy the straw hat, Saint Shanks wants the straw hat back:
Now for 25 years we were simply meant to believe that Saint Shanks was simply telling Luffy to come and…be friends with him? I guess?
However everything has changed with the existence of this scene:
Again,
we are meant to be asking why Imu possesses a Straw Hat identical to Luffy’s and what Imu gains from this. And by extension,
we are meant to question the motives of a man who would give Luffy this exact same artifact.
Now some of you are correctly pointing out that Saint Shanks didn’t originally possess the Straw Hat, Gold Roger did:
And I believe Roger had the Straw Hat as some form of emulation of Joyboy. Again we don’t know the full context of what exactly a Straw Hat is and why Imu seems to covet one, but I believe Roger must have known whatever secret Oda is hiding from us. I believe Roger gave Saint Shanks the Straw Hat because Roger himself was sick and couldn’t take full advantage of whatever power a Straw Hat provides.
Meanwhile, I believe that Saint Shanks gave the Straw Hat to Luffy because the Straw Hat is secretly
gaining some kind of power from Luffy, similar to the power that Joyboy gave his own Straw Hat. And I believe that someday, Saint Shanks intends to reclaim this power for himself after Luffy has somehow imbued this thing with enough power.
That’s right, the Straw Hat around Luffy’s neck is a parasite, secretly stealing some kind of power from Luffy that Saint Shanks intends to take back for himself.
Now let’s talk about all of the evidence for us finding out some or all of this information out for ourselves in Elbaf:
-the theme of Elbaf is
literally about waking up children from a trance placed upon them by Celestial Dragons. This is Oda foreshadowing Luffy’s own character arc in Elbaf, as Luffy realizes that his own idol is an evil Celestial Dragon who has been manipulating him from the start, and Luffy has been like a helpless child to the manipulation of Saint Shanks.
-The first thing Oda tells Luffy about Saint Shanks in Elbaf isthat Saint Shanks is a coward. “Loki retracted it!” But the point was to begin a character arc where Luffy starts to challenge his initial perception of who Shanks is.
-When Luffy first hears about Shamrock, his natural assumption is that Shamrock must be a good person since he is related to Saint Shanks. Shamrock is literally the most evil person in Elbaf, and this is Oda’s way of telling us how horribly wrong Luffy is about Saint Shanks.
-When Luffy tells Gaban that Gaban doesn’t really know who Saint Shanks is, Gaban replies with “right back at you,” and then pimp smacks Luffy. This is Oda’s meta-textual way of continuing to stress to us that Luffy knows nothing about Saint Shanks.
I could go on and on and on about his Elbaf is set up to be one gigantic subversion specifically related to Saint Shanks’s relationship with Luffy but let’s continue.
Now for Oda to successfully prove to us that Saint Shanks has been evil all along, Oda must reveal this information to us in a way that completely recontextualizes literally all of Saint Shanks’s actions throughout the manga. I believe that Oda revealing that the Straw Hat was Saint Shanks’s parasite feeding off of Luffy would do this absolutely flawlessly.
Look at this scene here: is Saint Shanks excited that this kid he knew ten years ago successfully became a pirate? Or is Saint Shanks excited that the parasite he implanted ten years ago will return to him and make him stronger?
Is goody goody Shanks just that protective of his friends? Or is Saint Shanks a manipulative commander only concerned for the well being of his pawns?
Is Saint Shanks here to end the suffering and dying of random people he absolutely should not care about? Or does Saint Shanks want to preserve the current status quo the best he can so that no Pirate king emerges before he himself is ready?
This scene also gains an entirely new meaning if the Straw Hat is Saint Shanks’s parasite. Notice how the Straw Hat itself
was the first thing Saint Shanks went to save when he arrived at Marineford. It’s almost as if
the Straw Hat is what Saint Shanks cares about more than Luffy himself.
Look at this picture. Imagine that we found out I am correct and that Saint Shanks is evil. This is
exactly the reaction an evil motherfucker would have to finding out that his parasitic investment will soon come to fruition.
I believe that Saint Shanks gave the Straw Hat to Luffy so that the Straw Hat would grow in power alongside Luffy, allowing Saint Shanks to attain for himself the exact same power that Imu gains from Joyboy’s hat. I believe Saint Shanks has been manipulating Luffy all along, and that every moment of Saint Shanks being happy or excited for Luffy, was in reality Saint Shanks being excited that his own plans are succeeding. I believe that just as Elbaf is about waking up children from the manipulation of the Holy Knights, Luffy’s own character arc is about waking himself up from the delusions of the evil Saint Shanks.
I’ve done it guys. Oda is my bitch.
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