#I’ll return to this when the next chapter releases

[sunflowersred]

ANON…!

…who asked me “How. would Shanks react when he sees gear 5.” I ACCIDENTALLY DELETED YOUR ASK I’M SO SORRY. but let me respond.

at this point in the story i’m very sure we will actually see this reaction. and i’m very sure that Shanks knows the exact nature of the fruit Luffy ate—mostly because of this scene:

Dorry and Brogy are at Egghead to find Luffy, and in the same breath call him “Sun God.” a few chapters before, we saw Shanks talking to dorry and Brogy before he left Elbaf. I don’t think that the giants knew back when they met Luffy on Little Garden that Luffy is the same as Joyboy is the same as Nika. I think we are meant to infer, from all this, that Shanks is the one who told the giants that Nika is Here, in the World, that Luffy is There, and that Luffy is Him.

as for Shanks’ reaction to seeing gear 5…I think very much about the reactions of both Bonney and Vegapunk when they saw gear 5, Bonney’s tears and Vegapunk (I would call it) enraptured expression, calling Luffy beautiful…I think it could be along that range, or even More (I will explain below). now…

it’s my personal theory that Shanks is Nika’s greatest devotee—who has dedicated his life to seeing Nika brought into the world, to Joyboy’s return. I see this in connecting the dots on my cork board with my red string with pins in Roger’s statement to Rayleigh that their meeting was fate, to Roger saying he wished he could have met Joyboy, to Shanks’ tears over whatever it was Roger told him after Roger returned from Laugh Tale, to Shanks’ crew talking about how pirates are free, to Shanks . to how now, again, I am sure Shanks knows of Luffy’s powers, and looking back on his reactions to news that Luffy is making his way through the world, he always looks. well.

(it KILLS me, also, that this particular one happened at a WEDDING. ODA. UM. H-HELLO…)

I think very much about Oda’s offhand statement that Shanks is emotionally immature, I think about how Shanks relentlessly teased Luffy and finally expressed how much Luffy means to him after Luffy was in danger (Luffy is surprised and moved in chapter 1 when Shanks calls him “friend”!), I think about Shanks’ response to his crew saying pirates are free (“stop filling [Luffy’s] head with crazy ideas.”) I do think we will see Shanks’ true reaction to Luffy’s transformation, but I wonder if Shanks will hide his reaction from Luffy and Oda will show it only to us, the reader.

as a shipper I would find that possibility deliciously devastating. HOWEVER if it does happen like that I WILL write 1000 fics pushing them into situations where Luffy does see it because that is what feeds my soul. Shanks kissing Luffy’s hands, the hands that have brought down tyrants, Shanks kissing Luffy’s feet, the feet of his god who walks the earth. that Shanks smiled when he sacrificed his arm to save Luffy because he knew that to Nika, the Sun God, a sacrifice of food will give you his favor forever. how Shanks knows he cannot be the favorite of a god who loves all the world, but Luffy’s flag makes him feel like he could be. how Shanks wants to kneel at Luffy’s feet, but Luffy, but Nika, but Joyboy, does not want anyone to live a life on their knees. what the Experience of witnessing his god will be like for Shanks—Nika this laughing, dancing god, heartbeat the rhythm of a drum. His god, the god he has devoted his life to, sacrificed his flesh for. I think about the way Shanks COULD react, to seeing gear 5, and I think of all the great artworks of spiritual practitioners and mystics and saints and monks experiencing religious ecstasy. I think about the concept, in aesthetics, of the Sublime….

is this what we will get? I do not know. if we don’t, I will write about it (tbh, I have a couple of drafts combing over these themes and concepts that date back to the month gear 5 was revealed). so. I Will Make It Happen.

in addition to this, I would very much like to write about, whether Oda goes into it or not, how all of this gets Shanks all mixed up; loving his god, loving his boy (I think about the moment post-Wano where Shanks is looking at Luffy’s new wanted poster, the photo taken of Luffy clearly with Nika’s power awakened—and he is thinking about his happy memories of spending time with Luffy when Luffy was young) loving the man Luffy has become, how Luffy reminds Shanks of himself, how Luffy reminds Shanks of Roger, how Shanks wanted to keep Luffy safe, back then, how Luffy is the savior of oppressed and the vulnerable, now, how Shanks believes Luffy will usher in a New Age and how that will and has not been without struggle and sacrifice. Shanks, as a son of the Figarland family, a dynasty of slavers, leading a life of repentance, wanting absolution. I want to write all that WITH dimensions of sex and romantic love in their bond. To speak one more time of the canon, I think Shanks has ills in his soul (as so many of Oda’s characters do). I think as much as he has ever done Luffy will free Shanks from those. I think this will be perhaps the most intimate part of Oda’s story and I think Oda has had it in his head for all 27 years he has been writing this story and probably for a very long time before that. now…

now. am I, as they say, a “crazy fangirl” for any and/or all of the thoughts above? well. it is my experience that shipping shankslu (and ofc with lushanks agenda) is being in a state, as an audience member of this story, between hypersanity and utter delusion. either I’m God(a)‘s prettiest princess or I’m worse than the ZKK bros. either just the sheet of this ship has melded my shippers goggles to my head and it is so one with me I can’t look at the text without it, or when this ship first struck me like a bolt of lightning 3 years ago it was actually Oda, the #1 shankslu shipper, reaching out through the collective subconscious and suplexing me actually. which will it be? only time will tell.