A fresh One Piece twist can explain a big question about the connection between Red-Haired Shanks and Monkey D. Luffy’s Devil Fruit that audiences might have asked after watching season 1 of Netflix’s live-action show. Covering Luffy’s developmental years in Windmill Village with a pirate as his role model, Netflix’s One Piece season 1 showed the moment that Luffy found, then subsequently devoured, a strange fruit among the loot Shanks’ crew accumulated during their travels. This, of course, turned out to be the Gum Gum Devil Fruit that gave Luffy his rubber body.

Exactly how much Shanks in One Piece knew about Luffy’s Devil Fruit remains a mystery that even Eiichiro Oda’s manga has not yet revealed, but even live-action viewers may be wondering why Shanks or a member of his crew hadn’t actually eaten the thing already. One Piece pirates typically acquire Devil Fruits because they seek power, either for themselves or for a crew member. Shanks is not a captain that needs to sell Devil Fruits for money, so if he possessed a Devil Fruit in One Piece season 1, a question mark hangs over why it remained uneaten long enough for Luffy to find.

One Piece’s New Twist Can Explain Why None Of Shanks’ Crew Ate The Gum Gum Fruit

Did Shanks Have A Sinking Feeling In One Piece?

The big drawback that comes with all Devil Fruits in One Piece is that the user turns intolerant to seawater. A slight splash of salty surf is enough to turn even the most powerful Devil Fruit-user into a wet paper bag, and Luffy is no different. In One Piece chapter #1113, Dr. Vegapunk shockingly reveals that the entire world of One Piece is sinking into the sea, and this threatens to make life very difficult for those who rely on Devil Fruits for power. If Shanks knew this, it perfectly explains why the Devil Fruit from Netflix season 1 went uneaten by his crew.

Although he didn’t reach the final island of Raftel and find the One Piece itself, Shanks was a crew member of the Pirate King’s. Shanks also has a currently-unknown connection to the Gorosei – the World Government leaders who have spent years desperately trying to keep the world’s upcoming doom under wraps. As such, there is a very strong chance that Shanks is aware One Piece‘s islands are sinking, and that gives him a clear reason to not let any of his precious crew members eat a Devil Fruit.

Suddenly, the Gum Gum Fruit lying around in a chest during Netflix’s One Piece flashbacks seems less like narrative convenience or a careless oversight and more like a calculated decision. By the same logic, it might also explain Shanks’ strong reaction after realizing what Luffy had snacked upon. Munching a Devil Fruit is generally considered a boon for pirates in One Piece, but Shanks acted like a parent whose child had just walked through the front door with a facial tattoo when he first saw Luffy’s arm stretch. That reaction makes way more sense if Shanks always knew the future of One Piece would be underwater.

Further Proof That Shanks’ Crew Deliberately Didn’t Eat One Piece’s Gum Gum Fruit

Shanks Isn’t A Fan Of Devil Fruit-Users In One Piece

Another key piece of One Piece lore adds weight to the idea that Shanks and his crew didn’t eat the Gum Gum Fruit because they knew the world was destined to sink underwater. The vast majority of top pirate crews in One Piece contain at least a handful of Devil Fruit-users. The likes of Whitebeard, Blackbeard, Big Mom, and Kaido all built their crews around Devil Fruits. Luffy doesn’t actively seek Devil Fruit-users but there are still four among the Straw Hats, while the only Worst Generation captain not confirmed as a Devil Fruit-user is Urouge.

If Shanks learned about the sinking world from Roger, that would fully explain why they are the only two big-time captains to have no Devil Fruit-users as crew members.

Most powerful characters in One Piece have eaten a Devil Fruit themselves or have Devil Fruit-user allies. That makes Red-Haired Shanks an outlier, as none of his crew members have thus far shown any Devil Fruit abilities in One Piece, Shanks included. That pattern strongly suggests a deliberate intention to either not recruit Devil Fruit-users, or not allow crew members to eat Devil Fruits – hence Luffy finding the Gum Gum Fruit in One Piece season 1.

The situation becomes even more curious when considering that the only other major pirate crew to contain no Devil Fruit-users in One Piece is Gol D. Roger’s. Only the then-apprentice Buggy ate a Devil Fruit while working for the Roger Pirates, and that happened entirely by accident. If, therefore, Shanks learned about the sinking world from Roger, that would fully explain why they are the only two big-time captains to have no Devil Fruit-users as crew members.