Shanks never beat him bro, story made clear that amped Harald was on a different level. Mihawk-level Shanks was treated like an ant
Shanks beat him.

I will give you that Shanks almost definitely fought dirty as fuck. However, this means nothing about Loki being "stronger"; that is part of his strength, and pirates aren't saints. If you can exploit someone's warrior honor creed, it is good battle tactics to do so.

In fact, he may have had his crew help jump him. This is, in fact, also a display of his personal strength. Luffy has been portrayed as strong BECAUSE he depends on others in many instances. If Loki didn't have crew willing to help, this is a PERSONAL weakness. A big part of Luffy being stronger than Kaido is having real bonds with others. A big reason Shanks is so personally strong is because his crew fights with him and because he has a weak fleet full of people to protect; when Mihawk spoke about Luffy's true strength, he was comparing him to Shanks. Loki is insecure and uses anger to fight, not love. So he is weaker. If he tried to hit Shanks with an attack that would kill him and Lucky Roux slapped seastone on him before it could connect, that means Loki is PERSONALLY weaker than Shanks.

There are even hints that having people to fight with and for will buff your personal stats. The only time Luffy easily re-enters gear 5 and uses its immense haki to defeat Kaido is when the ENTIRETY OF WANO prays for him to win (and the straw hats). His haki also became stronger not just through the battle with Katakuri, but due to the circumstances of the battle where he had to step up to save his crews lives. Joyboy's burst of haki is the strongest BECAUSE of the other strange property it had, where the giants detected no hostility. Conquerors without hostility beats Conquerors channeled from pure will to subjugate.

This isn't because of Luffy's god fruit; every character can be buffed by love. This is also the reason Kaido struggled to have a worthy death and Whitebeard had a magnificent one; love and the strength of will that comes from bonds with others is what made the whitebeard pirates and their leader strong.

Luffy's haki is seen as a foregone conclusion because of Dragon more than Garp. This is because Dragon does it all out of love. He hates fighting and thus his mind has no aggression when he fights; only a will to protect others. Luffy is clearly portrayed as at his zenith of strength at the time when he speaks about Doffy suffocating the people of Dressrosa and when he speaks about Wano deserving food.

Many hate this and call it Disney Piece, but it seems the clear truth to me and will become very important in EoS
 

Veku

Flamboyant
@Roo @Kurozumi Wiwi Reminder that BASE Yamato got similar AP portrayal to Snakeman

Yamato is cracked, on paper she should honestly be Admiral level with everything she has (Oni genes, ACoC, and an Awakened Mythical Zoan). The only reason she isn’t is because of plot
Reminder that base Yamato was struggling with Sasaki's underlings:
 
Top