One Piece Quietly Teases A Secret Connection Between Shanks And Boa Hancock (& Fans Completely Missed It)

In the final saga of One Piece, fans have been waiting for certain characters to make a move and establish their presence in the narrative, and this includes the likes of Shanks and Boa Hancock. With One Piece Volume 114 having been released recently, an interesting connection has been established by the author Eiichiro Oda between these two characters. On the surface, Shanks and Boa Hancock have absolutely nothing in common, other than the fact that they are connected to Luffy deeply. However, a very strong connection has emerged between these two, and it ties back to the big reveal that came about Shanks’ mother, Magnolia.

Shanks’s Mother Could Be Connected To The Kuja Tribe

One Piece volume 114 SBS is officially out, and in it, Oda has revealed quite a lot of exciting bits of information, as always. One of the most important parts that Oda touched upon in this SBS pertained to Shanks’ mother. In the manga, Oda showcased Shanks’ mom on God Valley, where she gave birth to both Shanks and Shamrock. On the God Valley Incident day, she was eventually killed by Saint Garling, but before she died, she entrusted both of her children to Dragon.

Surprisingly enough, Oda never showed her face to the fans, and only the fact that her hair was red was revealed. Even her name was kept a secret until now. In One Piece Volume 114 SBS, Oda went on to confirm that her name is Magnolia. On the surface, this looks like a perfectly normal name, but when looking at it at a deeper level, Magnolia is certainly a name inspired by a particular tree shrub that bears a specific flower which also goes by the same name.

In the world of One Piece, women who have names connected to flowers are almost always related to the Kuja Tribe. For instance, Boa Hancock, Boa Sandersonia, Boa Marigold, Shakuyaku, Gloriosa, and even Lily are all directly connected to the Kuja in one way or another. Magnolia, in that sense, is likely to be connected to them as well, especially considering the fact that Oda decided to hide her face. It is through this connection that fans can find out a lot more details about Shanks’s powerful Haki, and things suddenly start making sense.

Shanks’s Kuja Connection Explains His Haki Power

In the world of One Piece, the Kuja are known to naturally possess incredibly powerful Haki. In fact, all the members of the Kuja Tribe value strength above all, and they all possess tremendous Haki power. Even the normal Kuja civilians have the ability to utilize strong Haki, and to them, it comes naturally for some reason. As such, among the Kuja, the strongest, Boa Hancock, possesses overwhelming Haki of all three types.

Even before the timeskip, Hancock’s sisters could use advanced forms of Haki, such as Ryo, and potentially even the ability to read complex movements. Now that a connection between the Kuja and Shanks has been established through Magnolia, it makes a lot of sense why Shanks is a master of Haki. Given Kuja’s natural affinity for this power, Shanks could have directly gained his incredible Haki skills from this particular tribe of the One Piece world. Those with the blood of the Kuja will have a natural affinity for high-level Haki, and Shanks has clearly shown incredible mastery over this power, greater than just about anyone in the world of One Piece. This could be directly tied to Kuja, and essentially Boa Hancock as well. Shanks and Boa Hancock could carry the same blood, which makes them incredibly powerful conquerors and pushes their Haki to an extremely high level.

Oda Will Flesh Out Shanks’s Mother In More Detail Later

If Shanks’ mom truly is a Kuja, then Oda will surely go on to flesh her out even more later down the line. This is because Kuja are known to specifically give birth to women on the island.

However, it is also implied that they can give birth to sons, because Kuja is an island of women, and that means if they do ever give birth to sons, these children are likely left on a completely different island.

It makes sense as to why Magnolia stayed in God Valley when looking at it in that way. Perhaps, she gave birth to two sons instead of daughters, and would thus not be willing to go back to Amazon Lily because men are not allowed on that island. If Magnolia decided to raise the children in God Valley instead, then all things would start making perfect sense. In fact, Oda could even establish a connection between Magnolia and Boa Hancock, depending on how he wants to take the story forward. The Final Saga is surely going to shed a lot more light on Magnolia, as well as the Kuja Tribe, and fans should keep an eye out for it.

One Piece is available to read on Manga Plus.