Oda’s True Goal With Shamrock Figarland, Explained 

The Elbaf arc of One Piece has introduced fans to quite a lot of exciting characters, but most of all, two stand out the most, and fans know them to be Loki, the Accursed Prince of Elbaf, and Shamrock Figarland, one of the strongest characters in the entire story. Of course, the latter may be of more interest to some fans, and undoubtedly, Oda has great plans for him.

Related

One Piece: How Elbaf Will Expose Zoro’s Weakness 

Zoro has a fatal weakness in One Piece. Elbaf will expose it.

When Shamrock was first introduced in One Piece, just about every fan expected him to be the main villain of the Elbaf arc, but it seems Oda has bigger plans for him moving forward and the true goal of Shamrock Figarland lies in something else entirely, which is precisely what the story will slowly start focusing on. Based on what’s been shown so far, it can be said that Shamrock Figarland has a massive role to play in the future, and Elbaf just served as his introduction to the story.

Shamrock Isn’t An Obstacle For Luffy In Elbaf

• Shamrock Figarland Has A Bigger Role to Play
• He’s Already Out Of Elbaf

Oda introduced Shamrock Figarland long ago in One Piece, and fans knew that this man was going to be a massive villain in the story later down the line. Of course, through the character of Shamrock, Oda gave Elbaf a massive foe and most certainly a formidable one. Furthermore, Shamrock Figarland arrived at a time when fans were confused about the main villain of the arc. For quite a while, fans weren’t entirely sure as to who the main villain of the Elbaf arc was going to be. Loki was hyped up as a formidable enemy for quite a while, and soon after him, fans saw two members of the Holy Knights arrive in the country as well. These two were Gunko and Shamrock Figarland. It was here that fans finally understood that Shamrock Figarland was Shanks’s elder twin, and that Oda had been saving him for the Final Saga all this time.

As Elbaf continued, it became clear that Shamrock was a very powerful fighter. When he went to the Underworld, he offered Loki a chance to join the Holy Knights, and when he failed to convince him, Shamrock showed the fans a glimpse of his power using his blade, Cerberus. Of course, this was but a tiny bit of what Shamrock could accomplish in combat, and fans knew that he had much more to offer, which is why they looked forward to him fighting in Elbaf. But, that is where Oda delivered a big shock as it was made clear that Shamrock Figarland was to head back to Marijoa, while two Holy Knights were sent to Elbaf for the completion of the mission instead.

While this was most certainly upsetting, it makes sense as to why Shamrock went back. For one, the World Government is facing a siege from the Revolutionary Army, and that in itself means that it is going to be much harder for the Holy Knights to just go about and do trivial things. For Shamrock, the priority should be the Revolutionary Army, and that’s what he’s been told by the higher-ups as well.

While this is reason enough to justify Shamrock leaving, there are other big reasons here as well. In the Egghead Island arc, Oda drew what can be described to be the most important panel in the Final Saga, as it showcases the major players who will shape the world. A silhouette of Shamrock Figarland is featured on this page. For Shamrock to be a villain on Elbaf, lose to Luffy, and just be cast aside for the rest of the story doesn’t make any sense at all. He’s a much bigger character and Oda has big plans for him, which is precisely why it makes total sense for Oda to pull him out of Elbaf, and have other members of the Holy Knights take the stage instead.

Shamrock Has Deep History With Shanks and Bigger Enemies To Face

Shamrock Had To Play A Role In The Figarland Family Matters

While it would’ve been absolutely amazing to see Shamrock Figarland involved in One Piece’s Elbaf arc more, possibly even as a main villain standing in Luffy’s path, the fact is that there are too many other issues connected to Shamrock Figarland. For instance, Shamrock Figarland is connected to Shanks, and it feels as if the author doesn’t do a confrontation between these two, it would be a missed opportunity. The Figarland family in itself is something that should absolutely get more attention as a unit, which means confrontations between Shamrock and Garling, Shamrock and Shanks, and Shanks and Garling, are most certainly bound to happen.

In the Elbaf arc of One Piece, Shamrock himself made it quite clear that Shanks had returned to Marijoa once. Shamrock and Shanks, knowing that they were brothers, most certainly trained together and even engaged in combat at some point. It is possible that a brotherly bond between them did exist, because even though Shanks is a pirate, Shamrock doesn’t particularly show hate towards him. This is very interesting and shows how Oda can develop a very complex relationship here.

Related

One Piece: Elbaf’s Main Villain Is Yet To Be Introduced 

One Piece’s Elbaf arc is phenomenal, but its main villain hasn’t been introduced yet.

More importantly, for Shamrock, there is a bigger obstacle to target, and that is the Revolutionary Army. As Dragon mentioned himself, the true war against the World Government will begin when the Holy Knights make their move. Shamrock has now been called back to the Holy Land, which means that he will likely move against Dragon at any moment. It also means that Shamrock Figarland will be seen in action soon, but, more importantly, since a fall for Shamrock is impossible at this point in time, the likeliest outcome is that Shamrock will succeed in breaking the siege.

Is Shamrock Vs Shanks Inevitable?

Shanks And Shamrock Have To Meet

It goes without saying that fans would absolutely love a confrontation between Shanks and Shamrock Figarland. Both of these brothers are immensely powerful, but at the end of the day, they can’t both live in this new era. Shanks could possibly be the one to take down Shamrock in the Final Saga. It is also possible that Shamrock has a confrontation with Shanks at some point later down the line, and then, in the Final War, a major battle against someone like Luffy or even Loki.

There are many ways in which Oda could solve the Shamrock problem, but one thing is for certain, and that’s Shamrock most definitely will not be Elbaf’s main villain.

One Piece is available to read via Viz Media. The series can be read by the fans officially and for free on the Shonen Jump and the Manga Plus apps. The release date for the next chapter of One Piece, One Piece 1141, is set to be March 2, 2025.

One Piece

Release Date

October 20, 1999

Network

Fuji TV

Directors

Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Maeya, Yûji Endô, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou

• 

  Mayumi Tanaka

  Monkey D. Luffy (voice)

• 

  Kazuya Nakai

  Roronoa Zoro (voice)