Loki's flashback makes Shanks’ motivation more unclear and that’s exactly why he matters most in One Piece

Shanks is one character in One Piece that has caught the undivided attention of the fandom. Since his character was introduced to the story, we all knew that he was going to be one of the key characters, but then Eiichiro Oda kept him under wraps and barely revealed any information surrounding him. Now that the story has started with the Final Saga, we have been getting lore around him. While some of the fans are celebrating the fact that the creator is revealing information about Shanks, there is a fraction that is still trying to question his story.

Even after more than 1100 chapters, multiple flashbacks, and a huge lore drop that happened in One Piece Chapter 1168, one thing remains strangely, almost intentionally unclear: What does Shanks actually want? For someone so central to the story, his motivations are still hidden behind layers of ambiguity, contradictions, and carefully placed narrative misdirection. And it’s becoming increasingly obvious that Eiichiro Oda is saving something big for him.

In recent One Piece chapters and SBS reveals, Oda delivered the biggest Shanks bombshell yet: his birth in the Figarland Family, his connection to the God Knights, his separation from his twin, and Dragon rescuing him as an infant. It’s a dramatic, almost mythic backstory that could easily have explained why Shanks behaves the way he does.

But it didn’t, fans have kept a note that every new piece of information surrounding him has only deepened the mystery. Why would someone born into the highest tier of the Celestial Dragon world abandon it entirely? What happened between him and Harald on Elbaf? Why does someone who grew up under Roger, someone who inherited freedom and the will of the Pirate King, act so aligned with the world’s balance?

Shanks’ backstory in One Piece does provide context, but no answers. But his motivations remain deliberately vague, hinting that his real role will only be revealed at the very end. Fans are still debating whether he is one of the good guys or if they are missing out on a very obvious clue.

Is Shanks a hero or a potential villain in One Piece?

There’s a growing belief in the community that Shanks could be the final moral twist of One Piece, someone whose intentions are good but whose methods may be questionable. If we were to question why? It is because Shanks has:

• Celestial Dragon lineage
• Insane political access
• A mysterious relationship with the Gorosei
• A history of warning kings, stopping princes, and interfering in major events

Even characters within the story are confused. Some think he wants freedom. Some think he wants peace. Some think he wants destiny to play out through Luffy. And some wonder if he’s secretly tied to the Holy Knights or Mihawk’s past. The truth is this: Shanks is deliberately written as both a symbol of hope and a harbinger of potential danger.

Final thoughts

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From the very start, Oda positioned Shanks as Luffy’s turning point as the person who inspired him, protected him, and set him on his path. But unlike other mentors or figures of the past, Shanks in One Piece has never left the story. He kept reappearing at major global turning points: Marineford, Reverie, Wano, and Elbaf. Every time he shows up, the plot shifts.

That’s because Shanks represents the bridge between the old era (Roger), the tyrannical era (the Celestial Dragons), and the new era (Luffy). For now, his motivations are hidden because revealing them would spoil the final twist about the world, the Void Century, or the true nature of the One Piece.

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