At Proxymité Japon, we've already established that Shanks is one of the best characters in Oda's One Piece series. The red-haired pirate is an epic badass and one of the most beloved characters in the entire series. And that's why we decided to tell you a little about Shanks—that is, to be more precise, another aspect of his incredible story and history. In this article, we'll explain how Shanks received his three distinctive facial scars and who is responsible for them.

As revealed in episode 316, "Shanks Moves! Ceremony in the Age of Unleashed!", which premiered on July 1, 2007, Shanks received his Blackbeard scars sometime after Roger's execution. The exact date was not specified, nor the circumstances. Shanks simply revealed the fact during a conversation he had with Whitebeard about Teach.

The rest of this article will focus on Shanks and his story in the series, while we will explain how he actually received his three trademark scars in the One Piece series. The story in question is still quite enigmatic and focused on Shanks's story, so if you don't know the full story of One Piece, we must warn you that there will be spoilers in the following paragraphs.

Who gave Shanks his scars?

To give you a proper answer to this question, we need to delve a little into Shanks's history. As a young pirate, Shanks enlists the Roger Pirates under Captain Roger and his first mate Rayleigh, already wearing his straw hat. Shanks regularly argues with his comrade Buggy, for example, one day over whether it's warmer at the North or South Pole. Rayleigh settles the dispute with a whim and says they should both go if they already knew. Shortly after, another pirate ship appears.

The Roger Pirates head off to battle, and while Buggy finds and pockets a treasure map, his crew scores a major victory and also finds the Bara Bara no Mi on board. The pirates celebrate the victory, and when Shanks goes to retrieve Buggy, the two sit on deck and discuss their plans for the future. Buggy thinks Shanks is too soft, but they both know they will later sail the seas with their own gangs and then face off as adversaries. When he tells Buggy that the Devil Fruit he captured is worth up to 100 million berries, Buggy decides to trade it for a normal fruit.

His plan succeeds the next day, but when Shanks catches him afterward, Buggy accidentally swallows the Bara Bara no Mi. When his treasure map falls overboard and he jumps into the sea after it, Shanks notices that his comrade, who is usually a strong swimmer, has lost it and can no longer get up. Shanks eventually jumps in after Buggy and saves his life. The two remain with Roger's Pirates for some time and experience several encounters with Roger's competitor, Shirohige, among others.

When the Roger Pirates discovered the secret of the Kūhaku no Rekishi and the Ancient Weapons, during Roger's third and final voyage on the Grandline, the Roger Pirates encountered the Shiki Pirate with his armada, prompting Roger to join him and conquer the world with him. The Roger Pirates survived the naval battle in the Edd War. Sometime after the battle between the Roger Pirates and the Kinjishi Gang Pirates in Edd War, Shanks confronted Marshall D. Teach, who left him with a prominent scar above his eye.

A few months after the naval battle, Roger's gang gradually disintegrates. Shanks and Buggy also leave the gang. Roger returns to the Navy as he is terminally ill anyway. After Roger's gang disbands, Shanks and Buggy arrive in Loguetown for their captain's execution, along with several other young pirates. Shanks offers his former comrade to join his gang, but he declines.

Among the pirates attending the execution was Dracule Mihawk, with whom Shanks had a rivalry. Shortly after Roger's execution, Shanks traveled the East Blue and reached the Gecko Archipelago in a small rowboat, where he recruited Yasopp. Shanks and his crew continued to make stops at Luffy's home village, Foosha Village, to load supplies and recover.

As you can see, it was mentioned in our recap of Shanks's story before his first encounter with Luffy that he received his trademark scars from Marshall D. Teach, aka Blackbeard. This makes sense if you're familiar with Blackbeard and his trademark claw weapons from when he was younger; these days, he mostly relies on his two Devil Fruits to take down his opponents. Of course, Shanks's story continues even after this, as he survived everything that happened between the two heated rivals. Nevertheless, the event we mentioned above certainly deserves some attention as there are several things to note.

First of all, it was a historical event that was only mentioned once during a conversation between Shanks and Whitebeard when the two were talking about Blackbeard. It's unclear exactly when it happened, except that we know it happened sometime after Roger's death. We don't know what caused it, whether it was an accident or intentional injury... we know practically nothing, and this isn't even Game of Thrones.

But since we know that Shanks and Blackbeard don't really have a very close relationship in the future, we can infer several things: Okay, sure, who would be willing to date a guy like Blackbeard, right? But that doesn't matter now. Based on the fact that, later in life, Blackbeard fears and avoids Shanks, we can infer that this aforementioned skirmish didn't go very well for the villain.

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Namely, Shanks doesn't seem to be afraid of Blackbeard. He just makes him sick (but doesn't he make us all sick?), whereas Blackbeard constantly avoids Shanks in every way imaginable. Of course, it's still unknown if this event is the reason, but since Blackbeard and Shanks haven't actually met very often, this one could very well be the reason.

Of course, Oda will likely reveal what happened here, and we'll likely get the full story in one form or another, but for now, you have our theory to work with and a few additional facts that might help.

In which episode does Shanks get his scars?

As you may have read above, the event that caused Shanks to get his scars occurred at an unspecified point in the past, when Shanks, shortly after Roger's execution, met Marshall D. Teach, who then gave him the scars. This scene wasn't actually shown, but we found out about it during Shanks' conversation with Whitebeard. The conversation itself took place in episode 316, "Shanks Moves! Ceremony in the Unleashed Era!", which premiered on July 1, 2007. It was adapted from chapter 434, titled "Whitebeard and Red Hair," of the manga, which was released on November 13, 2006, and is part of volume 45 of the One Piece manga. That's all that is known about the series' timeline.