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In One piece, Chapter 907, the Gorosei(Five Elder allows Shanks to enter into Mary Geoise and even go as far as to have a meeting with him and that seems like some serious double standard, considering the fact that the Five Elders do not like pirates, and use the Marines and Warlords to capture them.

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Why would the Gorosei allow a Yonko (Who is one of their biggest enemies) to come into their Holy land? I know that warlords are an exception to this rule since they do the bidding of the Marines in exchange for Amnesty. However, Shanks is an Emperor and considering his influence, capturing him would logically be the best option but instead they'd have a meeting with him.

Could this imply that Shanks is secretly in league with the world Government? Or does he have some form of leverage over them? Its not adding up because in the last war (Battle of Marinefold), Aces execution was used to draw Whitebeard out (Yonko at that time). And it was Shanks who ended the war. Then after that, they have a meeting. Is there an alliance or something were missing?

Rumpelstiltskin
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    Highly speculatice but If Shanks has leverage, that propably originates at his time under Roger. He might or might not have been at Raftel and the Gorosei might or might not know if he did. I didn't mind that scene too much since he is not the first pirat to adress the Gorosei (Blackbeard's quy, too lazy to google) and his position as Warlord makes him powerful but he should not achieve political power - too to keep the balance, you know. – hajef Jul 05 '19 at 13:05

2 Answers2

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Short answer - We don't know canonically, as there is absolutely no information on the matter. All that follows is interpretation of their exchange when they meet.

Based on the few short panels of their interaction, we see the Gorosei mention:

"We are in the middle of the Reverie. A man with a position like yours isn't suitable to get involved in the world of politics. We only made time to talk because it was you."

At first thought, it will seem absurd that the position would refer to him being a Yonko, since the Marines are against them. Many theories have indeed surfaced that Shanks may have some other status that allies him with the Gorosei or makes him worthy to be treated in such a manner. In my view, it is very much against Shanks' character to be a double agent, given how it has developed. Below are some other technicalities to consider.

Firstly, the reason the Marines leave the Yonko alone to a large extent is due to their influence and ability to put up a big fight. They'd have to expend a lot to capture someone at the Yonko-level, which is not worth their efforts unless something major happens. Even in the two instances when Shanks was interacting with other Yonko (Whitebeard and Kaido), they merely attempted to stop the meet by blocking him, and did not attempt capture.

Secondly, the World Government and the Marines are separate. The Gorosei are under the WG, which has its own agendas beyond simply capturing pirates to maintain peace. The Marines fall under the WG, but so do multiple secret forces like the CP0.

In the very next chapter (908), we see the Gorosei mentioning that the "balance of the world cannot be maintained forever". All their appearances seem to indicate they choose to maintain the balance of the Three Great Powers (Marines, Warlords and Pirates), even though one would assume they'd be happy if all pirates were eliminated. Thus, there's definitely more than meets the eye.

Enough to guess that the Gorosei might not have any direct motivation to capture pirates (like the Marines), and definitely not those at Shanks' level.

TheGamer007
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  • Actually, the Five elders are the ones that control the World government, The Gorosei(5 elders) established the warlord system. can't you remember in one of those episodes where they even gave commands to the Sengoku (Who was admiral at the time) to try and look for a warlord to replace Gecko Moriah. Also, we know that the Gorosei hate pirates because they use the Marines to lock pirates who are captured in Impel down, which is owned by the world government, (and the elder stars are the heads and highest ranking nobles of the world government) – Rumpelstiltskin Nov 13 '18 at 16:43
  • I'm not sure whether they 'control' the WG, but the rest is basically what I said. They have authority over the Marines, and the Warlords are also supposed to be sworn allies to them and by extension the Marines. What I am saying is that they seek that "balance of powers" for some reason. Of course they aren't friendly with pirates, since they could (and often do) disrupt that balance, but I felt there wasn't enough direct enmity to react especially against someone of the Yonkou level. – TheGamer007 Nov 13 '18 at 17:52
  • Hmm you do have a point in the "Maintaining the balance of powers" Argument but then if the Gorosei don't have enmity towards Yonko then why did they try to use Ace to corner Whitebeard? The entire battle of Marinefold was actually aimed at drawing out Whitebeards entire forces, the Gorosei wanted the Marines to trap whitebeard by making the execution public. – Rumpelstiltskin Nov 13 '18 at 22:31
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    Good point. The only thing that could come close to explaining it is probably the Will of the D, i.e. his lineage. Ace being the son of the former Pirate King, Gol D. Roger, was already someone the WG noticed when he was the captain of the Spade pirates. But Whitebeard took him under his wing before they could get to him. Now Whitebeard had indicated he was going to put all his hopes on Ace to be his successor and the next Pirate King ( though Ace himself wished Whitebeard to do so). That may have tipped the scales. Nothing solid though. – TheGamer007 Nov 13 '18 at 23:42
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It’s quite clear that Shanks has some knowledge of all the world old knowledge due to the fact he was on the Pirate King's ship. Even if he didn’t go to laugh tape. (btw Raftel is not the correct name of the last island per Oda himself. The final island is called laughtale or laugh-tell. Anyways.)

It’s very clear Shanks is there to either talk about Blackbeard or Luffy. The reason why is because Shanks is the symbol of maintaining balance between all the Great Powers. Unlike other yonko Shanks only fights to defend people he cares for and his crew. He is not actively seeking more power like Kaido, Blackbeard and Big Mom.

He would rather maintain things as is but, since he knows he can not stop the changes in the word Luffy has brought, he is most likely issuing a big warning to the government, possibly about Blackbeard doing more than what has ever been done in history.

Lots of theories claim Blackbeard is actually 3 people and Shanks could be warning them that because of what will happen in wano. It will lead to Blackbeard acquiring a third devil fruit or perhaps a road ponneglyph or ancient weapon.

There’s no such thing as Shanks being a double agent. He is too close to major pirates: Roger, Luffy, Rayleigh, bullet Buggy and many others. It’s not in Shanks' nature to be a disloyal person.

Dimitri mx
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