One Piece Theory: Ace Was Always Supposed To Be Joyboy

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The opening scene of One Piece takes place in the East Blue, where Shanks, already one of the most powerful pirates in the world, has recently left the Grand Line and been stationed at Dawn Island for over a year- but why? With all of the information and history surrounding Shanks, Gol D. Roger, and Ace revealed in the Wano Arc, it’s clear that Ace was always the character who was meant to fulfill the role of Joyboy by inheriting Roger’s will, and Shanks was there to kickstart this journey.

In One Piece chapter 1018, readers learn that Who’s Who was working for the World Government as a guard on a ship when “Red-Haired” Shanks besieged it and managed to steal the Gomu-Gomu no Mi. Who’s Who goes on to tell Jinbe that while in prison, a guard told him about the legend of the Sun God Nika, a mythical warrior who was said to bring laughter and smiles to those around him, and that the guard was silenced for even knowing about the tale. Later on, it’s also revealed that the Gomu Gomu no Mi is actually a Zoan type fruit called the Hito Hito no Mi: Model Nika. This is meant to invoke the aforementioned Sun God Nika, but it still doesn’t explain why Shanks went after this fruit in particular or why he beelined to Dawn Island immediately after taking it.

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There are several pieces of evidence pointing to the fact that Shanks traveled to Dawn Island after retrieving the Gomu Gomu no Mi in order to give it to the son of his former captain, Portgas D Ace. When Gol D. Roger learned that he possessed an incurable disease, he set out to make three major arrangements. The first, as he let on to Rayleigh, was to father a son. After this, Roger contacted his greatest rival in the