I want to discuss here something about Shanks' potrayal that might or might not imply certain things about his character and role in the story.
I'll go in order of appearance.
In Romance dawn the defining ACTIVE thing Shanks does is give Luffy a DREAM and he's potrayed as an ACTIVE agent in the story even literally kick starting the series by giving Luffy his hat.
Next is the meeting with Mihawk where there's a shift in his potrayal when Mihawk declares that Shanks is a "has been" not worth fighting anymore and in this regard Shank's potrayal is a PASSIVE agent here. He's the former rival to Mihawk and that's apparently never gonna change. In other words, Shanks nolonger does anything in regard to this and so he's PASSIVELY a former rival.
After this is Shanks meeting Whitebeard in order to convince him to call off Ace which is completely dismissed. Here once again Shanks is a PASSIVE agent as far his potrayal goes in that he actually doesn't change the plot and everything basically goes the same way it would if he didn't interfere.
And of course Shanks stops the war at Marineford. This is his other big ACTIVE influence on the story which potrayed him once again as an ACTIVE agent changing things in the story. Strangely though, Shanks' act here is primarily to restore the story to how it was. As in Marineford was set to have even more drastic implications than it actually had since Kaido was supposed to be involved and Teach was planning on running loose. So in a way Shanks' actions were retroactively actually PASSIVE here again, since they sort of prevented a massive shift in the plot and world.
Lastly as of now, Shanks meeting with the Gorosei during the reverie to discuss a certain pirate. Of course we don't know how much this will affect the story IF AT ALL yet but there's still something telling about the interactions we got. The key thing here was that this wasn't the first time the Gorosei had ever talked to Shanks but the difference here was that they suspected Shanks' arrival to have something to do with the reverie. One of them is surprised saying it isn't usually his style to get involved in politics. Therefore once again it's implied that Shanks has a very PASSIVE Role and motivations usually even when talking to the rulers of the world.
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Therefore in a way, the most ACTIVE impact Shanks has had in the story still remains Romance dawn when he sets Luffy on the journey with just a DREAM.
See a common literature trope is something called Chekhovs Gun which says that plot devices should only be introduced when they have a pay off. But I think master writers don't have to follow any literature tropes just for the sake of it and of course Oda doesn't.
The way I see it, Shanks is specifically set up with these Massive Chekhovs guns that don't fire on purpose. He's quickly set up to be strong by comparing him to the first top tier we actually see in the series And yet this goes no where. Mihawk doesn't care to fight him and Shanks just wants to party. The initial tension of Shanks anticipating a fight and Mihawk's general introduction in East blue as a guy who fights people out of boredom is IMMEDIATELY dispelled wth the two just getting wasted as Shanks fanboys over Luffy. Next Shanks is given incredible foresight and intelligence being able to predict the danger Black beard poses and when he tries to act on it, Whitebeard doesn't care and turns out Shanks was right and all the parties involved DIE as if Shanks didn't even matter in this plot point.
Are you noticing the pattern I saw? It goes further with the realisation that Shanks in fact ACTIVELY stops the plot from changing. At the climax of Marineford, black beard is declaring that his age has began and that the world is gonna be torn asunder and then Shanks stops that. Two years later even Law says nothing actually happened because of the war. The world just re organised itself around the power vacuum left by Whitebeard and basically Law and Luffy did more to change the world in Punk Hazard than probably the Marineford war did seemingly making it as if Shanks removed the actual impact of a whole arc returning the story to how it was. (And if you want too get meta about it, the new world story even actively mirrors the pre time skip story like nothig actually changed but I won't Wank Shanks that hard as to say he caused that though I will say Oda could be clearly doing to drive the point across that nothing has changed, again partly due to Shanks and his Inability to change the plot)
And that's the interesting thing regarding Shanks potrayal in all this. He basically has very little affect on things in reality and I think thats by design. He's a Chekhovs Gun that doesn't fire where his actions in the story either don't change things or just coincidentally stop changes from happening.
That is except when it comes to Luffy in Romance dawn. The one ACTIVE event Shanks has done is give Luffy a DREAM and it is by far THE MOST SIGNIFICANT ACTION ANYONE OUTSIDE OF LUFFY HAS EVER DONE IN THE STORY. This right here is how Oda joins the master class of writers with Shanks' writing.
This is why I don't believe any theory about Shanks being some nigh-omniscient guy who masterminded all this because that's boring and doesn't make sense. Shanks is just a guy who is written with a specific theme and point in mind. He tries and fails at things like a normal character does and both his failures and achievements all have a point in the grand scheme of things to justify his role in the narrative and carry thematic weight.
I believe Shanks' character is written to highlight the importance of DREAMS as a theme in the story. His first and literally most important act in the story is giving Luffy a dream and after that despite being basically a stronger cooler version of Luffy, he literally hasn't done anything in the plot as significant as giving Luffy a DREAM since as we know from his conversation with whitebeard, he bet on Luffy essentially giving Luffy HIS own dream (of course which he also got From Roger). That alone forfeited him from actually being able to affect the story despite how strong or smart he is especially since Luffy started out not strong and not smart and only had that DREAM and yet Luffy will be the one to become King of the pirates.
I'll go in order of appearance.
In Romance dawn the defining ACTIVE thing Shanks does is give Luffy a DREAM and he's potrayed as an ACTIVE agent in the story even literally kick starting the series by giving Luffy his hat.
Next is the meeting with Mihawk where there's a shift in his potrayal when Mihawk declares that Shanks is a "has been" not worth fighting anymore and in this regard Shank's potrayal is a PASSIVE agent here. He's the former rival to Mihawk and that's apparently never gonna change. In other words, Shanks nolonger does anything in regard to this and so he's PASSIVELY a former rival.
After this is Shanks meeting Whitebeard in order to convince him to call off Ace which is completely dismissed. Here once again Shanks is a PASSIVE agent as far his potrayal goes in that he actually doesn't change the plot and everything basically goes the same way it would if he didn't interfere.
And of course Shanks stops the war at Marineford. This is his other big ACTIVE influence on the story which potrayed him once again as an ACTIVE agent changing things in the story. Strangely though, Shanks' act here is primarily to restore the story to how it was. As in Marineford was set to have even more drastic implications than it actually had since Kaido was supposed to be involved and Teach was planning on running loose. So in a way Shanks' actions were retroactively actually PASSIVE here again, since they sort of prevented a massive shift in the plot and world.
Lastly as of now, Shanks meeting with the Gorosei during the reverie to discuss a certain pirate. Of course we don't know how much this will affect the story IF AT ALL yet but there's still something telling about the interactions we got. The key thing here was that this wasn't the first time the Gorosei had ever talked to Shanks but the difference here was that they suspected Shanks' arrival to have something to do with the reverie. One of them is surprised saying it isn't usually his style to get involved in politics. Therefore once again it's implied that Shanks has a very PASSIVE Role and motivations usually even when talking to the rulers of the world.
__________________________________________
Therefore in a way, the most ACTIVE impact Shanks has had in the story still remains Romance dawn when he sets Luffy on the journey with just a DREAM.
See a common literature trope is something called Chekhovs Gun which says that plot devices should only be introduced when they have a pay off. But I think master writers don't have to follow any literature tropes just for the sake of it and of course Oda doesn't.
The way I see it, Shanks is specifically set up with these Massive Chekhovs guns that don't fire on purpose. He's quickly set up to be strong by comparing him to the first top tier we actually see in the series And yet this goes no where. Mihawk doesn't care to fight him and Shanks just wants to party. The initial tension of Shanks anticipating a fight and Mihawk's general introduction in East blue as a guy who fights people out of boredom is IMMEDIATELY dispelled wth the two just getting wasted as Shanks fanboys over Luffy. Next Shanks is given incredible foresight and intelligence being able to predict the danger Black beard poses and when he tries to act on it, Whitebeard doesn't care and turns out Shanks was right and all the parties involved DIE as if Shanks didn't even matter in this plot point.
Are you noticing the pattern I saw? It goes further with the realisation that Shanks in fact ACTIVELY stops the plot from changing. At the climax of Marineford, black beard is declaring that his age has began and that the world is gonna be torn asunder and then Shanks stops that. Two years later even Law says nothing actually happened because of the war. The world just re organised itself around the power vacuum left by Whitebeard and basically Law and Luffy did more to change the world in Punk Hazard than probably the Marineford war did seemingly making it as if Shanks removed the actual impact of a whole arc returning the story to how it was. (And if you want too get meta about it, the new world story even actively mirrors the pre time skip story like nothig actually changed but I won't Wank Shanks that hard as to say he caused that though I will say Oda could be clearly doing to drive the point across that nothing has changed, again partly due to Shanks and his Inability to change the plot)
And that's the interesting thing regarding Shanks potrayal in all this. He basically has very little affect on things in reality and I think thats by design. He's a Chekhovs Gun that doesn't fire where his actions in the story either don't change things or just coincidentally stop changes from happening.
That is except when it comes to Luffy in Romance dawn. The one ACTIVE event Shanks has done is give Luffy a DREAM and it is by far THE MOST SIGNIFICANT ACTION ANYONE OUTSIDE OF LUFFY HAS EVER DONE IN THE STORY. This right here is how Oda joins the master class of writers with Shanks' writing.
This is why I don't believe any theory about Shanks being some nigh-omniscient guy who masterminded all this because that's boring and doesn't make sense. Shanks is just a guy who is written with a specific theme and point in mind. He tries and fails at things like a normal character does and both his failures and achievements all have a point in the grand scheme of things to justify his role in the narrative and carry thematic weight.
I believe Shanks' character is written to highlight the importance of DREAMS as a theme in the story. His first and literally most important act in the story is giving Luffy a dream and after that despite being basically a stronger cooler version of Luffy, he literally hasn't done anything in the plot as significant as giving Luffy a DREAM since as we know from his conversation with whitebeard, he bet on Luffy essentially giving Luffy HIS own dream (of course which he also got From Roger). That alone forfeited him from actually being able to affect the story despite how strong or smart he is especially since Luffy started out not strong and not smart and only had that DREAM and yet Luffy will be the one to become King of the pirates.
