 Most people think that the very first chapter of One Piece showcases Shang's being super iconic, sacrificing his arm for Luffy, and putting on a brave face to cover it all up. But let me expose him, because there is a very devious reason for this here, Smile, because Shang's already had a plan to fix the situation by equipping a prosthetic subscribe button for the Grand Line review, thus allowing everyone who comes into contact with the press it and receive regular One Piece content uploaded straight into their YouTube feeds. To go on in this battle will only lead to more losses on both sides. We won't allow you to go on, making a spectacle of their deaths. However, if any of you want to fight, then bring it on, we will be the ones to fight you. Hello and welcome to One Piece 101, the series that breaks down everyone and everything in the One Piece world, and today we are going to be examining one of the most powerful and profoundly influential crews to have ever existed in the series, being the Red Hair Pirates. The Red Hair Pirates are a crew most notoriously led by their namesake Captain Red Hair Jax, and with that alone this group immediately has quite the pedigree attached to it because Mr. Shang's just so happened to serve as a rookie pirate aboard the Oro Jackson, which was captained by the former pirate King Goldie Roger. And during this time it really must be stressed that Shang's was but a tiny lad who as far as we know was part of the crew at the tender age of 9 years old and would remain with the group until Roger disbanded the crew, by which point Shang's was at least 14. One year later this boy would go on to witness Roger's execution at Logtown, throwing the teenager into a pit of despair, but one that he would indeed eventually overcome and he decided that he would form his own pirate crew and this moment would be the inception of the Red Hair Pirates. However the first piece of evidence we have on their activity would come two years down the track when alone Shang's would arrive at Syrup Village in search of a man named Yasop, whom he asked to join his crew. Now this scene would appear to imply that Yasop was the first official member of the Red Hair Pirates barring Shang's himself of course, but then again it could also very well be the case that Shang's just went to the island alone for reasons I guess. Of course it should be noted that Yasop is the father of Usopp, who would go on to join the Straw Hat Pirates and just follow here fun fact, at this very moment that Shang's was recruiting Yasop, a certain sheep butler on the island was hard at work designing the Going Merry, the future vessel of the Straw Hat Pirates. But following this Shang's would go on to assemble quite a crew over the years, including many world-renowned names such as Ben Beckman, a stone level-headed individual who was said to be the man with the third highest IQ in all of East Blue. However let's be fair here his competition is not exactly fantastic because second and third places allegedly belong to Captain Kuro and Nami respectively, so East Blue does not appear to be well-known for producing wildly intelligent beings all that often. Despite this Ben is a pretty chill guy at heart and certainly enjoys drunken shenaniganry with the crew. Oh and of course Ben Beckman also has the distinction of being the first mate of the Red Hair Pirates, putting him in second in command behind only Shang's himself. Then there's also Lucky Roo, a very well-rounded individual both physically and in terms of personality who is most often seen living out Luffy's dream of always having a chunk of meat in hand to nom on. And Roo in contrast to Ben seems to be incapable of performing anything less than a glaringly wide smile at all times, which along with his extremely bright taste in fashion makes him a definite highlight of the crew and generally the life of the party. And although Roo's exact role in the crew is unknown he is designated as an officer. And as we mentioned before we do also have Yasopp who serves as the sniper of the Red Hair Pirates and just as with Roo and Ben he is also an officer class member. And at this point in the story these were the only named members of the crew. However it should be said that the Red Hair Pirates gathered a small legion of trusted members who remained and would grow with the group from its humble beginnings all the way to its utter domination of the seas. And I'm sure that one day we will find out who these individuals are but that day is sadly not quite today. Speaking of sea fairing dominance though even at this stage the Red Hair Pirates were becoming a notorious name all over the world. With Shang's in particular becoming well known for his consistent duels with the man who would go on to become the world's greatest swordsman Drakeil Mihawk. And these battles were said to send echoes throughout the entirety of the grand line. However arguably one of their greatest impacts on this planet would come in the most unlikely of places as for reasons currently unknown to us the Red Hair Pirates would come to spend a year of their lives in East Blue quite specifically on Dorn Island which is where they got to know our series protagonist Monkey D. Luffy who became inspired to pursue the path of piracy and even repeatedly beg Shang's to allow him to join the Red Hair Pirates. And of course Shang's repeatedly denied him this opportunity due to Luffy being too young which is you know kind of hypocritical because when you think about it Shang's was only two years older than Luffy when he was first spotted with the Roger Pirates so hmm. In any case what would follow would be an altercation with a man known as Higama the Bear and his bandits whom the Red Hair Pirates are merrily dismissed. However in the effort to rescue Luffy from Higama as well as the Lord of the Coast Shang's would sacrifice his left arm. Although he would go on to consider it an investment in the New Age even leaving Luffy with his straw hat and asking the boy to return it to him when he became a great pirate. Thus setting the events of One Piece as we know it into motion. And with this the Red Hair Pirates left the island and would eventually return to the Grand Line. Where several years after meeting Luffy Shang's would be approached by a man named Port Gastiais the alleged brother of Luffy who wanted to thank Shang's directly for saving Luffy's life after which the Red Hair Pirates did what they do best and threw a party. And not only that but years later once again during another one of their famed parties the crew would be visited by Shang's old rival Dracule Mihawk who came bearing a wanted poster featuring Luffy who had just received his very first bounty of 30 million berries. Now after all of this I feel like I may be giving you the wrong impression of the Red Hair Pirates as they very much sound like a drunken horde but that is only some of the time. In reality if we could sum up the lifestyle of the Red Hair Pirates in one quote from the Simpsons it would be we work hard we play hard. And that work would pay dividends as six years before the commencement of Luffy's journey Shang's would become recognized as one of the four emperors of the sea with the Red Hair Pirates expanding their power and influence to carve out their own mighty claim on this world. And furthermore the Red Hair Pirates have been playing a large role in the background of the series specifically in regards to the figure of Marshall D. Teach who would come to be known as Blackbeard. In fact Blackbeard was the person responsible for giving Shang that scar on his face which would then be incorporated onto the flag of the Red Hair Pirates. Sadly though Shang sent his group would appear to be the only group in the world that was concerned about Blackbeard whatsoever as demonstrated when Shang sent an envoy to the Whitebeard Pirates which were the crew that had formally housed Blackbeard. This envoy's name was Rockstar and we haven't spoken about him before now because he had only recently joined the crew at this point and touted a massive bounty of 94 million berries which let's be fair that was huge at the time given that Luffy's bounty had just ticked over to 100 million berries and that kind of comparison should tell you quite a lot regarding the strength of the Red Hair Pirates. The fact that someone like Rockstar would be considered a rookie speaks volumes about Shang and the officers. However Whitebeard refused to hear Rockstar out claiming that if Shang wanted to send him a message then he would need to come in person which eventually he did to express concern about Blackbeard but this interaction went no better than the one with Rockstar as it resulted in Shang some Whitebeard clashing as well as splitting the very sky above them open. And at this point things were just that little bit too late anyway as Blackbeard had set into motion a series of events that would come to reshape the world. Having captured Ace now a member of Whitebeard's crew and prompting Whitebeard to attack Marine Headquarters in an event known as the Paramount War. However Whitebeard was only allowed to embark on this crusade thanks to the actions of the Red Hair Pirates because another one of the four emperors being Kaido had mustered his forces in an attempt to intercept Whitebeard prior to arriving at Marineford. And it's unknown at this point exactly why Kaido chose to do this but Shang's prevented it and allegedly engaged in conflict with Kaido or at least his forces. It's hard to say what happened because we never actually saw the event, we only really heard little tidbits about it and in fact there's quite a few different ways it could have played out. In any case using the sheer power of Shang's the Red Hair Pirates were eventually able to either defeat, placate or escape the Beast Pirates and afterwards they made immediately for Marineford. However by this time they were too late as both Whitebeard and Ace had been killed in the battle that had been raging. However this did not stop the Red Hair Pirates from becoming involved with Shang sleeping into defensive combat against Admiral Akaino and Ben Beckman going on to threaten Admiral Kizaru. After this the main force of the Red Hair Pirates assembled with Shang's making the bold declaration that if there was anybody who still wanted to fight then they would be their opponents. To which the world government, the remnants of the Whitebeard Pirates and the Blackbeard Pirates all said no thanks we're good and the Paramount Wall was brought to an abrupt end. Then being mostly honorable fellows they are the Red Hair Pirates assisted the Whitebeard Pirates in their retreat from the Marine base as well as arrangements for the burial of both Whitebeard and Ace. As for their next major conflict well it's another one of those unseen events because the Red Hair Pirates are fantastic at operating in the background of this series. However during the two-year time skip they would come to fight against a member of the worst generation being used as Kid which let's just say things did not go well for Mr. Kid and it would even cost him a left arm which funnily enough is the same arm that Shang's himself lost all those years ago while saving Luffy. This outcome did not settle matter so and Kid would go on to form an alliance with other members of the worst generation with the goal of taking down the Red Hair Pirates. Although that alliance didn't work out for Kid either due to a spot of the old betrayal but to this day he still holds a powerful vendetta against both Shang's and the Red Hair Pirates and as for their next experience the Red Hair Pirates would be featured on a cover story where they were seen attending the wedding of an unknown individual and reacting to the then new bounties of the Straw Hearts. However since then only Shang's has been seen in the modern timeline which was at the conclusion of Hawkeye Kylint and finding himself in a most unlikely spot on the Holy Land of Marijwa requesting an audience with the five elder stars in order to discuss a certain pirate. Some more fun facts about the Red Hair Pirates the flagship vessel of the Red Hair Pirates is a mighty beast known as the Red Force which we haven't seen very much of at this stage and whether it should be noted that this is not the same ship that the crew were using when they were stationed on Dawn Island which was a much more simple vessel so at some stage between then and now the Red Hair Pirates upgraded to this beast of a ship. While the Red Hair Pirates is certainly the emperor faction that we know by far the least about we do have confirmation that like most emperors they do control their fair share of individual territory within the new world which was confirmed during Bartolome's portion of the Grand Fleet cover story when he arrived on one of their islands and promptly burned the flag of the Red Hair Pirates replacing it with that of the Straw Hat Pirates. Oh and he also forcibly sold the townsfolk a wide variety of Straw Hat merchandise much to their extreme shock and perpetual terror. Interestingly enough in a strange alternate reality it is entirely possible that Buggie could have been a member of the Red Hair Pirates because he was actually the very first person Shang's invited to join the crew but Buggie being Buggie refused this offer outright and of course would go on to have his own let's say relatively successful pirate in career. In an extraordinarily rare set of circumstances for the One Piece world the Red Hair Pirates appear to be the only collective considered an emperor level force that does not have any devil fruit users within it or at the very least at this stage there are no confirmed devil fruit users amongst them that could very easily change in the future as more is revealed about them. Despite being a primarily background presence in the lifespan of One Piece the influence of the Red Hair Pirates has actually spread into the real world as their Jolly Roger was even adopted by the Japanese Coast Guard in an exercise where they were pretending to be a pirate vessel. And finally a truly useless fact just in case it wasn't obvious enough from their roles in the series the way to distinguish an officer rank member of the Red Hair Pirates is that they each come adorned in a personalized cape generally imitating their Senpai Shang's although Yasops is fairly unique but with all the stars and everything plus he seems to prefer having it tied up so yeah in conclusion capes are cool and don't you even try to deny it but that pretty much does it for the Red Hair Pirates but what do you guys think please do leave your thoughts in the comments below or even join my discord server and if you're keen for some more One Piece content then please do go and check out some of my other videos or even subscribe to the channel for regular One Piece amazingness delivered straight into your youtube feed but for now this has been the ground line review and i'll see you next time