Why do you think the Roger pirates treated Shanks and Buggy so differently?
ooooh this is going to be a long answer! It depends on which Roger pirate we are talking about! We have to analyze them each and also keep in mind that the story is still being revealed. I’ll start with Rayleigh. I think Rayleigh, while stern, treated them pretty equal. He scolded them both the same way when they got into immature arguments about nonsense
he seems to remember buggy fondly and went out of his way to mention him when discussing shanks with Luffy. He’s also smiling + knows he’s an east blue pirate. He’s been keeping tabs on buggy from a distance Which tells me he loves him very much.
Although it’s clear he, like buggy had noticed himself, saw more potential in shanks/saw Roger in him. and since he believes in the next generation being incredibly important this is a sign Rayleigh sees more in shanks future then buggy’s. (I’ll talk more about this later.)
Rayleigh treats them pretty similar from what we’ve seen but he sees more potential in shanks. Although since shanks (and perhaps buggy we don’t know yet) was a responsibility they never really asked for I think the roger pirates had a hard time interacting with the more sensitive side of children. They didn’t know how to deal with their emotions very well. particularly Roger, but to an extent Rayleigh too. On two covers we see them not really tending to them when they are emotional.
The second one really stands out to me because both shanks and buggy are sobbing. Despite Roger obviously dealing with way worse then a fucking lion they are still small children and are scared for their father figure while roger just laughs it off (I love roger don’t get me wrong but c’mon) We still don’t know much about rogers relationship with them at this point but he clearly sees more potential in shanks too + probably views him as his son as he gave him his straw hat. Rogers possible favoritism was so noticeable that it’s directly what caused buggy to feel like he had to give up on his dreams. A child buggy noticed that his captain saw more potential in shanks. This permanently damaged buggy’s self worth.
(I want to say that in the manga buggy was never seen looking at shanks angrily like he was in the anime, he was just nervous and seemed to feel left out) This is probably why buggy craves attention the way he does as an adult. Even if superficial and fake. He didn’t get it like shanks did when they were children. No matter how hard he tried he couldn’t measure up to what shanks was to them by just existing. So he chose to lash out at shanks who wasn’t at fault for this. who also has a lot of mental problems and pressure that Buggy didn’t notice.
If shanks didn’t want to be what Buggy thought the crew wanted him to be then that means he gave up on himself for nothing. it means Roger died for nothing. it means that buggy didn’t get the love he wanted from Roger for nothing. He wasn’t running away from shanks here, he was running from the idea that his dreams were thrown away for no reason. So the difference in treatment and favoritism is most abundant and true with Roger. Now, for gaban. Gaban to me is who the fandom thinks Rayleigh is. He’s the most parent-like. He was seen helping them get supplies.
He was the first to be seen calling them their kids.
And he seems to be the most emotionally in tune with the kids, I’ll show an example of this soon. To me, there is a possibility gaban knew about buggy’s self image issues and had talked to him about it before. While Rayleigh possibly and Roger definitely hadn’t noticed. With Roger causing it. Spoilers if you are not caught up on the manga below!
Another thing we have to keep in mind is that to an extent they had to pay more attention to shanks because the world government had made constant attempts to kidnap him. Shanks and Buggy were too young to understand or remember this.
They were forced to keep an extra eye out for him. Which buggy could have interpreted as them caring for his safety more. shanks was born with celestial dragon blood. The Roger pirates believe that him being found by them was fate rather than chance. Thus making his life significant in the world as a whole.
Shanks has also regretted his birth because he feels guilty to have the same blood as the celestial dragons. (Also an Example of how in tune gaban is with the kids emotions is shown below)
“That’s your bad habit again…” tells us that he’s had breakdowns about his birth before and that gaban had been the one to comfort him about it. This mental problem and guilt toppled with the government trying to take him made them watch shanks incredibly closely. As far as we know so far Buggy was just unfortunately on a boat with exceptional people. He was an average kid being compared to the boy of fate without ever seeing the drawback from being that boy. He felt forced to make adult choices as a child and thought the crew saw him as lesser than shanks. He thinks he’s lesser than shanks. And they didn’t do a correct job of letting him know they loved him just as much. I will clarify that Buggy was not at fault for this. he was a child. It was the adults jobs to make him feel as loved as shanks. I think he was as loved as shanks but was treated as more average which buggy interprets as not as good as shanks. They sadly failed to make buggy feel worthwhile but they love him deeply too. Shanks didn’t do anything wrong in this scenario but buggy lashed out at him. They were both just sad kids who lost their captain and were torn apart by it.