Red-Haired Shanks has been the center of many conspiracies in the One Piece community. From being a snitch to questioning the real strength of his powers, they pick apart anything to slander the Emperor’s character. It’s almost like fans want Shanks to be a villain instead of a father figure.
In all fairness, Shanks has exhibited suspicious behavior without any explanation. At the beginning of One Piece itself, he had the legendary Gomu Gomu no Mi and we still don’t know why he went through the trouble. Now, we find out he’s a renounced Celestial Dragon.
Still, One Piece is a series full of mysteries. Recently, the introduction of Figarland Shamrock debunked the most popular Shanks theory: that he’s a snitch for the World Government. However, it now puts the Emperor’s defeat of Kaido at the forefront of all conspiracies. How did he do it?
Shanks didn’t defeat Kaido because they never even fought
One Piece fans are obsessed with power scaling in the series. It’s a non-stop argument over who’s more powerful between two characters, sometimes based on hypotheticals. Their long-lasting hyper-fixation has been about how Shanks could’ve defeated Kaido without a few injuries during the Summit War Saga.
The battle between Shanks and Kaido definitely happened as a Marine officially reported the clash to Vice Admiral Momonga. If this hadn’t happened, there would’ve been more casualties at Marineford. However, when Shanks and his crew arrived, they were all unscathed.
From the Wano Arc, we know that no one can fight Kaido without suffering a few injuries. Even Luffy, who is incredibly strong in his own right, actually died trying to. So why was Shanks immaculate when he entered the war zone of Marineford?
Many theories have surrounded what actually happened since Eiichiro Oda conveniently wrote it off-screen. He was trying to tease Kaido’s power to us but in turn, One Piece fans got too obsessed with trying to figure this out.
Since Shanks was unharmed, they probably didn’t battle at all. Perhaps he repeated what he did with Whitebeard: split the sky with their rivaling Conqueror’s Haki and drank some sake. Dialogue seems to be the most peaceful option to convince Kaido to not interrupt the war.
The biggest indication that they never had a battle is that Kaido doesn’t remember the last time he fought someone one-on-one before Luffy. So it’s likely the theory of them using words rather than weapons is true.
Shanks might be a great pirate but he’s an even better diplomat if this theory is true
The Red-Haired Emperor has a way with words. He stopped the Summit War of Marineford with a few words, warning anyone who wanted to continue the violence that the Red-Hair Pirates would take them on. He knows how to choose his words carefully.
This is possibly how he got through to Kaido. Considering the reputation of the Emperors in One Piece, he must have respected Shanks enough to heed his advice and leave Whitebeard alone. If only the Gura Gura no Mi user had also listened to him, Ace might’ve been alive.
The theory does make sense. Shanks doesn’t seem to be the type of pirate who believes violence is the means to an end. If he did, he wouldn’t have stopped the war nor intercepted Kaido. If this is true, it only adds nuance (of the good kind) to Shanks’ character.
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