Shanks

About Shanks

Shanks is the captain of the Red Hair Pirates and one of the Four Emperors who rule the New World. He is the pirate who inspired Luffy as a child, and who gave him the straw hat he still treasures. Easy-going and fond of a drink, Shanks rarely draws his sword, but when he does, even the strongest fighters in the world stop and think twice.

Appearance

Shanks is a tall, well-built man with scarlet hair, his crew's namesake, a short beard and three claw scars across his left eye. He lost his left arm saving young Luffy, and wears a black cape over an open shirt and patterned trousers, with a single sabre, Gryphon, at his hip. He looks relaxed to the point of laziness, usually with a bottle in hand, but the entire sea knows the smile can vanish.

Personality

Shanks is easy-going, generous and famously hard to provoke: he laughed off humiliation in a bar because the fight was not worth it. But his judgement of when to act is absolute, when friends are threatened or the balance of the sea is at stake, Shanks moves, and emperors, admirals and the World Government all stop to listen. He is a gambler on the future: he bet his arm on a boy from a tiny village, and staked his reputation on the new generation time and again.

Background & Story

Shanks began as an apprentice aboard Gol D. Roger's ship, sailing to the end of the world alongside Buggy, though illness kept both boys from the final island. After Roger's execution, Shanks built his own crew and reputation, duelling the swordsman Mihawk in legendary clashes. Ten years before Luffy's journey, Shanks based himself for a year in Foosha Village, befriending the young Luffy, and when a sea monster attacked the boy, Shanks gave his left arm to save him, leaving his straw hat with a promise. He later rose to stand among the Four Emperors who rule the New World.

Powers & Abilities

• Master swordsmanship: Shanks fights with the sabre Gryphon; his duels with Mihawk, the world's strongest swordsman, are remembered as legendary across the sea.
• Conqueror's Haki of the highest order: Shanks' willpower can knock out crowds at a distance, coat his blade, and even project his presence, he once stopped a war simply by arriving and asking.
• Observation-killing: Shanks is said to be able to suppress others' future sight with his own Haki, a technique feared as the mark of a true Emperor-level master.

Key Relationships

• Monkey D. Luffy: The boy he inspired and bet his arm on; Shanks refuses to meet him again until Luffy returns the straw hat as a great pirate.
• Buggy: His fellow apprentice on Roger's ship, now an accidental Emperor himself; the two remain exasperated old friends.
• Dracule Mihawk: His great rival from his younger days, whose duels with Shanks shook the Grand Line; they still drink together.
• Edward Newgate: Whitebeard, Shanks boarded his ship alone to warn him about Blackbeard, sake in hand and crew tensions at breaking point.
• Monkey D. Garp: The Marine hero who blames Shanks for setting Luffy on the pirate path, a grudge delivered with a fist whenever they meet.

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