Will Luffy Fight Shanks in One Piece? (& What Could It Be About?)

A lot has been written about Shanks here on Fiction Horizon, but he is really such an amazing character that he wholly deserves all our attention. This article is also going to be about Shanks, as we are going to explain the relationship between Luffy and him in One Piece. Namely, Luffy and Shanks have a very close bond and Shanks is quite protective of Luffy, but could the two actually end up fighting? We are going to examine that possibility in this article.

it is not known whether Luffy will fight Shanks before the end of the series. Shanks loves Luffy as a son and is very protective of him, and Luffy shares these emotions, which is why a fight between the two seems unlikely at this moment, but with a whole new saga being written as we speak, things could change and we could be in for probably the most epic fight in the series.

The rest of this article is going to focus on Shanks and Monkey D. Luffy, as we are going to elaborate on why they share such a close bond and whether it could be possible that we see a fight between them. If you don’t know the whole story of One Piece, we have to warn you that there are going to be spoilers in the following paragraphs.

Will Luffy have to fight Shanks in the future?

In order to properly answer this question, we believe it is necessary to explain the nature of the bond between Luffy and Shanks. Luffy considers Shanks his hero, a true idol. He inherited some characteristics from the red-haired pirate captain. For example, like Shanks, Luffy takes no notice of insults.

At first, Shanks didn’t take Luffy seriously since he was just a boy, laughing at his desire to be a pirate and calling him “Anchor”. Later, when Luffy defended Shanks and his team in Higuma, later stating that he would create his own team, Shanks started to take him more seriously. Benn Beckman told Shanks that Luffy would do something on his own, which Shanks confirmed after noticing the boy’s resemblance to him when he was the same age as Luffy.

Shanks treats Monkey D. Luffy very well, as he claimed to Silvers Rayleigh in the Sabaody Archipelago. He sees him as his former captain, Gol D. Roger. Although he often teases him in Foosha Village, saying that he will never become a pirate and that he swims like an axe, etc., Shanks actually likes how Luffy aspires to become a pirate.

He inspired Luffy to become a pirate and with his jokes, he awakened a whole dream in the boy – to become the Pirate King and find the greatest treasure in the world – the One Piece. Because of this, Monkey D. Garp blames Shanks for Luffy becoming a criminal. Also, on Whitebeard’s ship, Shanks claimed that Luffy was his bet for the New Age.

Shanks believes in Luffy and knows he will definitely achieve his goal. Because of this belief, Red Hair even gave him his straw hat, which he inherited from his captain, Gol D. Roger, and was dear to him. Shanks can’t wait to see Luffy again. Although he had the opportunity to do so at Marineford, he rejected the idea as it would have broken his promise.

Shanks saw Luffy as a future pirate and he was incredibly happy to learn of Luffy’s first bounty, even throwing another party despite his estrangement from the previous one and also worrying about him after the Marineford War. He mentally turned to Luffy and said it was okay to cry and the Straw Hat could handle it.

It was also thanks to Shanks that Luffy ate his Devil Fruit: Red Hair brought the fruit back from a trip and planned to sell it; Shanks left it on the bar next to Luffy and turned away when the boy ate it, thinking it was dessert. Everyone was surprised when they found out and Shanks freaked out.

As you can see, Luffy and Shanks have a very close bond with each other. Shanks has told Luffy to come back and see him when he becomes the King of the Pirates, which suggests that he won’t be the one to stand in his way. On top of that, Shanks has also been following Luffy’s adventures with a big smile on his face. What does this tell us? Well, from this point of view, it does not seem like Luffy is going to fight Shanks at any point.

Yet, Luffy has fought almost everyone (even Usopp!) at one point, so this fight is not completely off the table. It’s unlikely, but with a whole new Saga in the works, things could change. Shanks and Luffy might end up having conflicting interests, which would make a fight inevitable. Shanks betraying Luffy – or vice versa – doesn’t seem like a possible reason based on what we know about them.

Long story short, we don’t know whether Luffy and Shanks are going to fight. From what we know at this moment, the two of them definitely won’t be fighting, but things could change and we cannot rule it out completely, although it is highly unlikely. The only thing we know is that it would be both epic and emotional.

Could Luffy defeat Shanks?

This is one of the most difficult questions a One Piece fan can get. Namely, we know that Shanks is certainly among the three strongest living pirates in One Piece. We actually never saw the full extent of his powers, which makes this a pretty tough situation, so we do not know if Shanks is the strongest living pirate, but the only ones that could be stronger than him at this moment are Blackbeard and Luffy (Mihawk is a better swordsman, but not a better pirate overall), but that still needs to be determined.

On the other hand, Luffy has activated both Gear 5 and the true extent of this Devil Fruit, which made it possible for him to defeat Kaidou. Okay, to be fair, Shanks could also have defeated Kaidou, but Luffy’s powers are truly amazing at this moment, and whether Shanks could actually offer something to counter them is unknown at this moment simply because we do not know the true extent of Shanks’ powers and abilities.

We’d still give Shanks a small advantage, but Luffy will probably be able to surpass him at one point in the story just not now. And this is all we know about the issue of whether Luffy will have to fight Shanks before Oda finishes his story.

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