One Piece: Is Shanks As Strong As Prime Roger?

The power scaling of the One Piece franchise has truly gone through the roof ever since the Wano arc ended. With the reveal of Luffy’s Gear 5, the balance of power has shifted, especially when considering the defeat of the former Emperors Kaido and Big Mom by the pirates of the Worst Generation. However, the one constant of the Emperors of the past and the Emperors right now is Shanks.

This goes to show that, no matter what the period, the strength of the captain of the Red Hair Pirates will always be among the top tiers of One Piece. It’s so formidable that many fans of the series believe him to be equal to the legendary Gol D. Roger, who was the only man to ever claim the title of Pirate King. So, in this article, let’s pit the strength of both of these powerhouses to see which one of them is truly stronger.

Shanks And Gol D. Roger's Power Is Closer Than You Think

The Pirates With The Most Potent Haki

When it comes to the power hierarchy of the One Piece series, the greatest of the pirates in the current setting are the fabled Yonko, or Emperors of the Sea. These four characters have set themselves apart due to their strength, which has allowed them to carve out massive chunks of territory in the New World which only others of similar standing can contend with. At the start of the story, the Emperors were Whitebeard, Shanks, Kaido, and Big Mom.

However, ing the events of the Wano arc which saw the defeat, and presumed death, of Kaido and Big Mom, the Emperors and the power balance of the world have changed, with Luffy, Blackbeard, and Buggy taking up the vacant spots left by Whitebeard, Kaido, and Big Mom. The only constant between the Yonko of both periods is Shanks, who has proven himself to be so powerful that none have been able to take his spot away from him in all this time. This alone shows just how strong he is.

If anyone still wants to fight… then come! We will be your opponents!

Other than this, he doesn’t have too many combat showings, though the ones he does have are by far some of the greatest feats in the One Piece story. To start, the mere presence of him and his pirate crew was seen to be formidable enough for the World Government to stop the Marineford War, despite an open challenge by them. This shows that they considered Shanks to be so great of a threat that they didn’t want to risk open conflict.

Aside from this, Shanks has shown the greatest feat of Conqueror’s Haki in the modern era, where he was able to subdue a Navy Admiral from miles away after the events of the Wano arc. This would have been incredible if used on anyone, but the fact that it stopped an Admiral in his tracks speaks volumes, considering they are the main fighters of the Navy. Furthermore, his talent is also unmatched, as he inherited Roger’s ‘Divine Departure’ technique merely by observing it. This attack was strong enough to destroy the Kid Pirates in a single strike, which is very impressive since Kid was one of the two characters who were able to defeat Big Mom.

The other person to look at in this conversation is the legendary Gol D. Roger, the only man to ever become the Pirate King. Even fewer of his feats have been shown in the series, but the narrative clearly makes him out to be one of the strongest characters in history, since he has always been defined as an equal to Whitebeard, who is the World’s Strongest Man, said to be capable of destroying the planet if he desired. These two clashed multiple times but the battles always ended in a draw, showing just how capable Roger was.

The only showing that fans have ever really gotten from Roger was in the brief flashback where he fought Whitebeard for three days straight and neither of them emerged victorious. However, in the same instance, he was able to deal incredible damage to Oden with his signature Divine Departure attack, which was enough to take someone incredibly strong out of the fight for a while. While not much more is known, Roger is built up as a top-tier fighter.

So Who Is Actually Stronger — Shanks Or Roger?

The Answer To This Important Question

• While Shanks has more, and far more impressive showings, the narrative will likely have Roger as being more powerful.

There are two ways to look at who the stronger character is between Roger and Shanks. The first is feats, whereby Shanks is the clear winner simply due to there being much more shown of his power. On the other hand, many fans believe that narrative trumps all when it comes to power scaling, and the fact that Roger was the only person in history to be known as the Pirate King puts him on a level of strength worthy of such a title.

In all likelihood, Roger is probably the stronger of the two, though not by much. Shanks is considered by most of the world to be the second coming of the legendary Gol D. Roger and an inheritor of his late captain’s will, so just this standing demands an incredible level of power for Shanks to be on. If the two were to ever fight in their primes, Roger would likely be the victor, but only barely.

One Piece can be streamed on Crunchyroll.