One Piece
Is Shanks the final villain of 'One Piece'? The character remains a mystery almost 30 years later
A mysterious character, about whom we have been able to learn more about his past in recent years.
![Is Shanks the final villain of 'One Piece'? The character remains a mystery almost 30 years later](https://img.asmedia.epimg.net/resizer/v2/H4GJ2K3STBKAVAPBIRAHBY322I.jpg?auth=9d9605944ee58d93947e188d242adeb6482d1325dba75ca1741797cbe225773c&width=360&height=203&smart=true)
‘One Piece’, the titanic work of Eiichiro Oda, is still an absolute mystery in many aspects with almost three decades of publications. It is impressive to know the existence of the legendary treasure that gives the series its name from the very first chapter, but to have no idea what it might actually be. The same goes for Shanks, the powerful pirate introduced in the first chapter of the manga, about whom we have come to know more with the passage of time, but there are many readers who doubt his true intentions.
Shanks, one of the great mysteries of ‘One Piece’.
The ‘One Piece’ movies usually do not contribute anything at the canonical level, but in the latest releases this trend changed completely and there are always small details that contribute and clarify doubts about various mysteries. If in 2019, the movie ‘One Piece: Stampede’ confirmed to us that the last island, romanized until that moment as Raftel, was actually Laugh Tale, in ‘One Piece Movie: Red’ in 2022, we were shown that Shanks belonged to the Figarland family, one of the twenty founding families of the World Government.
![One Piece](https://img.asmedia.epimg.net/resizer/v2/5F2A77BA3BAAVIU5U6Z6UHIFFA.png?auth=2cfbec3502aafa307e976f557b2b51c49d5f7577b29d136231ef75a2ea2e3a8a&width=360)
It was at that moment that the One Piece fans began to understand the fact that the beloved and mysterious character had the ability to appear in Mary Geoise, in front of Gorosei himself, as if it was something completely normal. Roger’s pirates accidentally found Shanks in a treasure chest after what happened in God Valley, an island in the West Blue, where one of the most remarkable events in the history of the series took place and about which every fan yearns to know and see much more. One of the greatest battles of all time took place there, after which the island disappeared without a trace, and most importantly, Figarland Garling, a character introduced in the series as the supreme commander of the God’s Knights.
Figarland Garling’s physical resemblance to Shanks is especially striking when we see him in his youth in the Valley of God, a place where a native hunting contest was held, where the Tenryubito amused themselves by terrifying the population. It is therefore a clear coincidence that Shanks appeared in a chest at the very place where Garling was.
![One Piece, God Valley](https://img.asmedia.epimg.net/resizer/v2/OOSNUGJLTBD7PHQ7C4COS5JCTE.jpeg?auth=7e3759affdbf626a16711609e2dd357d87bd0aa7b47640177f7eefdf8e6e3d27&width=360)
Is Shanks bad in ‘One Piece’?
We still get tears in our eyes when we remember the beginning of ‘One Piece’ and the moment when Shanks gave his straw hat to Luffy. Or when he appeared in Marineford and gave a speech about loss, the pirate life and the importance of mourning fallen friends. Not to mention our smiles when we saw him toasting with Ace or asking Mihawk for information on how the future King of Pirates was doing. And what about his proud face when he saw Luffy’s poster going up as a reward and read in the news that he was the Fifth Emperor?
But things are as they are. Since the time jump, the red-haired man has appeared rather rarely and with noticeably darker and more serious panels. Worst of all, Shanks met with the World Government to give them information about Luffy. Is he a traitor? Are the rumors true that he is a Tenryubito? The current Elbaph arc and Shanks' connection to that iconic island seems to finally clarify a lot of things about the character, with Loki having a clear connection to the character who is one of the most powerful and yet mysterious characters in the entire work.
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It’s hard to believe that he could be the villain, but by putting the nickname “the great pirate” in quotes and promising to reveal “some truths about him” soon, Oda has only given fuel to those who speculate about Shanks as One Piece’s final villain.
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