I think the way Oda has portrayed shanks is kinda sus. We are intuitively led to believe he is Luffy's biggest ally, since he gave an arm for him. However, there are certain events that lead us to believe shanks is a bit more gray than we are initially led to believe.
At the beginning of wano, we saw shanks have a personal meeting with the gorosei. This in of itself is odd. We know shanks wants to talk to the gorosei about a certain pirate, but we don't know who. Then during Jinbe vs WW, we learn that shanks stole the gomu gomu no mi from the WG, which was supposedly so important that they had CP9, a covert black ops team, guard it. When cut back to the gorosei next, we learn there is supposedly this mythical DF that is so bad its name was changed and that this DF hasn't awakened in thousands of years. And now finally, we see that CP0 is being told to interfere in Luffy vs kaido in order to prevent some worse case scenario.
official translation: "it's a scenario we only know of through rumor and hearsay"
What the hell shanks, why are you ratting out Luffy? But this isn't the first time shanks has done something suspicious. Remember how he fought kaido during marineford?
Doesn't anyone find it odd that Kaido would attack whitebeard while he was going to save his son? Don't get me wrong, Kaido was dishonorable, but from what we saw in wano, he was willing to put aside his differences with linlin to face the WG. So why would he supposedly gang up on whitebeard when Whitebeard was about to declare war on the entire marines? Wouldn't it be more in character for him to join WB and destroy their common enemy? Wasn't that the entire point of the Rocks pirates?
Could it be that shanks actually fought kaido to stop him from helping whitebeard?
My theory on this is that shanks is a celestial dragon who Roger adopted while on god valley. Shanks disagrees with what his people have done, however I think shanks still considers the CDs his people. I think he believes that the CDs have the capacity to be good, but this capacity is diminished by the system in which they live in. I think shanks is basically trying to engineer the perfect scenario in which the CDs are overthrown, but they aren't brutalized and killed off like Homing was. In order for this to happen, the Joyboy must become pirate king. If anybody else but the joyboy becomes pirate king, they will abuse their power. They will commit a genocide against the celestial dragons and then subsequently steal the throne for themselves, thereby perpetuating the cycle of violence, but just with a different king.
Only Luffy, the joyboy, can create one peace in which the cycle of violence and oppression is broken and a new dawn rises. Shanks knew Luffy was the joyboy because of 3 things. 1) his D lineage, 2) his hidden dream(the thing both he, roger, and the original joyboy said), and 3) him eating the gomu gomu no mi.
To sum it up, I don't think shanks is evil, but I think he isn't on anybody's side. He wants the good of all people, but specifically the good of his people, and supports Luffy because he is the one who can grant that to him. I think the final war will end with Shanks becoming the king of the celestial dragons, ordering them to leave their wealth behind, and then taking them to the moon to never bother the world again.
At the beginning of wano, we saw shanks have a personal meeting with the gorosei. This in of itself is odd. We know shanks wants to talk to the gorosei about a certain pirate, but we don't know who. Then during Jinbe vs WW, we learn that shanks stole the gomu gomu no mi from the WG, which was supposedly so important that they had CP9, a covert black ops team, guard it. When cut back to the gorosei next, we learn there is supposedly this mythical DF that is so bad its name was changed and that this DF hasn't awakened in thousands of years. And now finally, we see that CP0 is being told to interfere in Luffy vs kaido in order to prevent some worse case scenario.
official translation: "it's a scenario we only know of through rumor and hearsay"
What the hell shanks, why are you ratting out Luffy? But this isn't the first time shanks has done something suspicious. Remember how he fought kaido during marineford?
Doesn't anyone find it odd that Kaido would attack whitebeard while he was going to save his son? Don't get me wrong, Kaido was dishonorable, but from what we saw in wano, he was willing to put aside his differences with linlin to face the WG. So why would he supposedly gang up on whitebeard when Whitebeard was about to declare war on the entire marines? Wouldn't it be more in character for him to join WB and destroy their common enemy? Wasn't that the entire point of the Rocks pirates?
Could it be that shanks actually fought kaido to stop him from helping whitebeard?
My theory on this is that shanks is a celestial dragon who Roger adopted while on god valley. Shanks disagrees with what his people have done, however I think shanks still considers the CDs his people. I think he believes that the CDs have the capacity to be good, but this capacity is diminished by the system in which they live in. I think shanks is basically trying to engineer the perfect scenario in which the CDs are overthrown, but they aren't brutalized and killed off like Homing was. In order for this to happen, the Joyboy must become pirate king. If anybody else but the joyboy becomes pirate king, they will abuse their power. They will commit a genocide against the celestial dragons and then subsequently steal the throne for themselves, thereby perpetuating the cycle of violence, but just with a different king.
Only Luffy, the joyboy, can create one peace in which the cycle of violence and oppression is broken and a new dawn rises. Shanks knew Luffy was the joyboy because of 3 things. 1) his D lineage, 2) his hidden dream(the thing both he, roger, and the original joyboy said), and 3) him eating the gomu gomu no mi.
To sum it up, I don't think shanks is evil, but I think he isn't on anybody's side. He wants the good of all people, but specifically the good of his people, and supports Luffy because he is the one who can grant that to him. I think the final war will end with Shanks becoming the king of the celestial dragons, ordering them to leave their wealth behind, and then taking them to the moon to never bother the world again.
