Speculations Shanks brought Zoro to East Blue.

#1
Crackpot theory, but should be an interesting read.

Ok, so first and foremost, I was dead set against the idea of Zoro actually being from Wano. One of the reasons is because he are told that Zoro is from East Blue, and another is that we never saw Zoro talk about the Country outside of the time he had fought against Ryuma. But I decided to give the notion the benefit of the doubt because Sanji never talked about Germa, so the same could be the case for Zoro and Wano. So I started to do some digging that could possibly connect Zoro to Wano. So I went back and looked at Zoro's initial backstory, and didn't really find anything to connect the two, and as I was mauling things over, I remembered a theory from years ago that suggested Zoro's father was apart of Shanks crew. I remembered it had to do with one of Shanks crew members, so I went back to chapter one, and low and behold, there it was in all it's glory.



As you can see, the man in this picture is a dead ringer for Zoro. Most people brushed it off as just a filler character, with a recycled design, but what if it was meant to be more? Could it really be Zoro's father? Possibly, but it also could have just been an indicator that Oda threw in there that Shanks actually has some connection to Zoro.

Now we've already seen that the threads of fate with Luffy and Shanks run pretty deep with him coming across Usopp, and Usopp's father is apart of Shanks crew. Another thing that the situation with Yasopp shows is that Shanks seems to have sought out specific people to join him. That made me think that it's entirely possible that Shanks might have sought out a Samurai from Wano to join his crew. If that's the case, then it's entirely possible for Shanks to have gone to Wano, and recruited someone.

Remember in Marineford, when there was the full spread panel of Shanks and his crew? Well, there is two interesting things to note about this panel.



Now first thing to note, is the guy standing to the left of Yasopp. From what we see, he is rocking the traditional Top Knot that the Samurai from Wano typically do. The other thing, is on the far left of the picture, there is a member of the Red haired Pirates that Oda intentionally left out. He is there, but Oda specifically chose not to show who he was. Could there be a reason for this? Could this guy be the same guy we saw way back in chapter 1 who resembled Zoro?

So one thing I know that people might argue is the timeline, and the fact that Zoro seems to be around 8 years old in his flashback, and if that takes place around the same time Shanks was in East Blue, then the 13 year timeline doesn't fit. But if you think about it, the Red haired Pirates were actually in East Blue for an entire year before the Flashback. So even though the flashback takes place 13 years ago, Shanks actually arrived there 14 years ago, which would make Zoro 7 years old, and would have been a full year before Zoro's flashback that he arrived there.

So two things can be inferred by this. Ushimaru is Zoro's grandfather, and the guy we see in chapter 1 is actually Zoro's father, and the mystery guy from Marineford. OR, Ushimaru is actually Zoro's father, and Shanks went to Wano to recruit the guy with the Top Knot we see in Marineford, and brought Zoro, the last surviving member of Ushimaru's bloodline to Shimotsuki Village.

So yeah, like I said, a crackpot theory, but if it turns out to be true, that would be crazy. The threads of Fate would truly be an amazing thing if this is the case.
 
#2
I think this sorta would resort in the "why did Ace / Whitebeard not help Oden?" problem, but with Shanks and Zoros dad / grandfather.

If somebody from Wano, especially the Son of Ushimaru or Ushimaru himself for example, where crew members of Red Shanks... why the HELL did he not demand for Shanks to finish Kaido off when they prevented him intervening with Whitebeard already? From what we understand now about their encounter, Kaido was as alone as he was likely ever gonna get, King as the only other noteworthy person with him during his attempt to join Marineford from what I understand. It was the perfect time to liberate their home island from him.

Shanks letting the monster go that he has no personal reason to stop is one thing, but if he really has somebody from Wano who has direct reason to want Kaido dead, and let a chance like that go without going for the throat, it would just come as REALLY forced to me.
 
#3
I think this sorta would resort in the "why did Ace / Whitebeard not help Oden?" problem, but with Shanks and Zoros dad / grandfather.

If somebody from Wano, especially the Son of Ushimaru or Ushimaru himself for example, where crew members of Red Shanks... why the HELL did he not demand for Shanks to finish Kaido off when they prevented him intervening with Whitebeard already? From what we understand now about their encounter, Kaido was as alone as he was likely ever gonna get, King as the only other noteworthy person with him during his attempt to join Marineford from what I understand. It was the perfect time to liberate their home island from him.

Shanks letting the monster go that he has no personal reason to stop is one thing, but if he really has somebody from Wano who has direct reason to want Kaido dead, and let a chance like that go without going for the throat, it would just come as REALLY forced to me.
I mean at this point, it's pretty much been hammered home that this War in Wano was fated to happen. Like, literally nothing could be done to change it. Shanks seems to be a huge believer in fate, and would know about this war that's supposed to happen as he was on Rogers crew Plus if he did recruit someone from Wano related to Ushimaru, they too would have known about this fated war to take place in the future.

Also, as far as we know, Shanks objective was to get to Marineford as soon as he could, so he could prevent anyone from dying. Had he stayed and continued to fight Kaido to the death, then everyone at Marineford on Whitebeards side would have been slaughtered. He had to weigh his options in this situation. Take care of Kaido right then and there (If he could, cause that's not guaranteed) and not make it to Marineford in time, or let the events play out how they did (Which we are not sure of) and make it to Marineford in time.
 
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