Anime

A battle of emperors, Yonko vs. Yonko!

It doesn’t get better than this.

We know that, in the One Piece world, the Yonko’s are perhaps the most powerful characters, and since the defeat of Kaido and Big Mom, Shanks is now the most influential of the Yonko and had the highest active bounty of no less than 4 billion.

But our hero, Luffy, isn’t far behind either. With his Gear-5 Nika form, the official status of a Yonko, and a bounty of three billion, he is catching up fast.

But what happens when he does reach Shanks? What is going to happen when these two legends come face to face?

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Shanks was Luffy’s inspiration, the reason that Luffy set out to sea in the first place. But that does not change the fact that they are both pirates and follow Roger’s philosophy of freedom. This means they will come face to face in an epic showdown somewhere down the line because, as Luffy himself said, hee seeks to take down all the Yonko.

Today, we ask what happens when Luffy and Shanks finally face each other in an all-out fight? Who wins? Which of the two Yonko is more powerful?

That is one tricky question to answer because power isn’t the only thing that matters in the world of One Piece. So we will be putting Luffy against Shanks in a number of categories, comparing them in terms of strength, speed, abilities, and other categories to see who comes out victorious. Our method will be purely comparative and based almost entirely on an analysis of the feats that we have seen from both characters. Place your bets now, people. Who do you think loses, and who wins.

Let’s find out.

But did you subscribe? Let’s do this first! (OPTIONAL)

Now, let’s begin.

1. Strength (Not to be read aloud; just show a bold text on the screen and read the paragraph below)

The first thing that comes to mind when two characters fight is the question of strength. Who is stronger?

Luckily, we don’t need to dig too deep in this particular case. We know very little about Shanks but know that Luffy is a powerhouse. In terms of brute physical strength, Luffy has a clear upper hand. A logical reason is that Shanks relies too heavily on his superior, Haki, while Luffy’s strength is almost incomprehensible. Despite feats like stopping Akainu’s fist with ease, we do not see, nor can we expect, Luffy’s level of brute strength from Shanks. And so, Luffy takes the first round.

But will he be able to keep this up?

1. Speed and Agility

Another pivotal role in estimating any character’s powers is played by their speed and level of agility in battle. And to determine who is more powerful between Shanks and Luffy, we need to know who is faster. Luffy has shown feats of extremely fast speed and has even shown the ability to dodge light-speed attacks. This puts him in a class of his own.

Additionally, Luffy also has the ability of future sight, meaning he can dodge attacks even before they take place. But when faced with Shanks, the future sight would not do much good, as we now know Shanks to be the “Killer of Observation Haki ” meaning he can use his own Conquers Haki to disturb an opponent’s focus. Shanks is also unfathomably fast, allowing him to sneak up on Akainu during Marineford. That means, with such blinding speed and the ability to block Luffy’s future sight, Shanks more than levels the playing field. Speed balances out. Another Lucky break for Luffy.

But let’s find out if Red-hair can recover from this or not.

1. Abilities

We know that in the One Piece work, powers and abilities, as well as the use of these abilities, determines the outcome of any battle, more so than strength or speed. Shanks’ abilities are mostly unknown, and we have only seen him use one named attack. Does that mean he is out of his element when it comes to abilities? Not at all. Shanks can use attacks like Divine Departure, and he has near-unlimited levels of haki at his disposal, but is that enough? The manga has made it crystal clear that there is practically no limit to what Gear 5 can do. In this form, Luffy is limited only by his own imagination. That means that Nika Luffy has the ability to do anything he can imagine. A power unlike any other. This makes him a force of nature, and based on principle and the fact that we have not yet seen what Shanks can do, Luffy also takes this round.

This kid is on fire, and Shanks just can’t seem to catch a break but wait. What if we go to a place. Where Shanks reigns supreme? Let’s find out.

1. Haki

So far, Luffy has looked pretty dominant in this matchup, but Shanks isn’t just gonna take that sitting down. He has an ace up his sleeve. Shanks is a Haki user through and through. He is arguably the most powerful Haki user in the series, showing his fears of power when he scared off Greenbul at Wano and eliminated the Kidd pirated in one attack. He is the King of Conqueror Haki, and as Kaido said, Haki can overcome all other powers in the world. Luffy may have mastered all three forms of Haki in their advanced forms, but even at this point, there is no logical way he can beat Shanks at a contest of Haki. However, one can call a contest of pure Haki obsolete in terms of this particular matchup because, with Nika fruit, Luffy can once again level the playing field. But with all that said and done, Shanks finally has a win. Can he keep it up?

Let’s move to IQ.

1. IQ

Another valuable factor determining a character’s worth on the battlefield is their ability to think on their feet. Shanks leads one of the most, if not the most, powerful pirate crew in the world. He is a man who can lay in wait for years. He calculates his every move. By all indicators, Shanks is brilliant. He had the experience and knowledge to turn the tide of any battle and thought Luffy was a genius in his own right, having a quick and analytical mind that could adapt, though in silly ways, to the battle. Luffy cannot hope to match the maturity that comes with intellect and experience. In terms of mental prowess, Luffy is outmatched. There is a reason Shanks has influence, not only in the world of the Pirates but also with the World Government. He is a smart man, and no one knows what he is planning.

Another win for Red-hair, well are the tides of war turning?

 Let’s dig a little deeper.

1. Destructive potential

An estimate of a character’s power comes from what kind of damage they are capable of dealing with and how much destruction they can cause. Shanks is a calm, calculated, and collected character, but he has clearly seen his capabilities. He can destroy great ships with one slash, he’s gone up against Mihawk, who can slice whole islands, so we have to assume that he, too, is capable of similar feats. Shanks has massive destructive potential, but can he hope to pose a threat to Luffy?

Keeping in mind the abilities that Luffy now has, he can grow to any size he wants, and he still has the power of Advanced armament. Meaning there is nothing stopping him from growing to the size of a giant and unleashing an unfathomable destructive, haki-coated attack on his enemies. The mere concept of being able to do anything makes Luffy scary. In terms of pure destructive potential, Luffy takes the cake.

Oh, Strawhat strikes back. What happens next?

1. X factor

Now, let’s put all of that logical data aside and look at this from the eyes of a One Piece fan who has been watching the series for years and knows that Shanks is a demon. We have been waiting for him to make his move for years, and Oda is not the kind of mangaka to have Shanks make his move now after making Luffy stronger than him. By all means, Shanks still has something up his sleeve. He is a fan-favorite character, not to mention the theories that claim he’ll be the main villain of the story. Regardless, we need to understand the fact that being more powerful and winning in a fight are two very different things. A character can be less powerful and still defeat the other, as he saw Luffy do with Kaido. Luffy was outmatched on every front, but he still managed to defeat the king of beasts. Now, one can say it was purely because of plot armor, but we still have to consider it.

But here, those tables would be turned. I acknowledge that by all means, Gear 5 Luffy is more powerful and has more abilities than the Red-haired emperor. Luffy is Stronger than Shanks in Nika form, he is faster and has more destructive power, but Shanks has years of experience, as well as a mastery over Haki like no other. That means, in a drawn-out battle, Shanks is very likely to emerge as the winner.

Conclusion

After analyzing the data collected by pairing the two characters up, we have concluded that between Nika from Monkey-D-Luffy, and the Emperor Akagami no Shanks, Luffy, with his sun god power, is the more powerful character. But we have additionally concluded that in a one-on-one fight, Luffy, even with all of his powers and abilities, might still lose to Shanks.

But that is our verdict. If you feel differently, first of all, why? And secondly, let us know in the comments.