One Piece finally revealed the name of all
the Gorosei, the King of God Valley, and even the real name of Imu-sama. However, you may not realize that all of these
names have hidden etymologies and puns in Japanese that actually detail a lot about
each of these characters and provide some key clues that you would otherwise miss out
on, so as usual allow me to translate to you all of their names in detail to help you understand
these hidden references! So we have finally gotten to the point where
after 20 years, we’re getting the name of all the Gorosei, and an insanely cool detail
is that their positions in this chapter are identical to the positions that they were
in during their first introduction, over 20 years ago, which simply makes it nostalgic
to see how far we’ve come. As we already deduced from the name of St.
Saturn, they are all named after the Five Elder Planets. After all, in Japanese “Gorosei” is the
word for the Five Elder Planets, the five closest planets to Earth that were known in
the past before telescopes were invented, allowing for the discovery of the three extra
planets Uranus, Poseidon (or Neptune), and Pluton. The “St.” in all of their names is because
they are Celestial Dragons, but it’s also a pun because “Sei” can also mean planets,
like in Goro”sei”. It’s also worth noting, because it’s relevant
in their names, that in Japanese the Five Elder Planets have slightly different names. Instead of being based on Grecoroman Gods
like in English, reflected in the fact that all of the Gorosei are addressed as gods,
they are based on the Five Elements that surround the yin and yang in Eastern belief: Mercury
is Suisei, or Water Planet, Venus is Kinsei, or Gold Planet, Mars is Kasei, or Fire Planet,
Saturn is Dokusei, or Soil Planet, and Jupiter is Mokusei, Wood Planet. So, let’s break down their names. - Of course first we have the Gorosei we already
knew about, St. Jaygarcia Saturn, who is named after the planet Saturn
- Then we have St. Marcus Mars, who similarly is named after the planet Mars
- And then we have St. Topman Warcury. Now this reference isn’t as direct, but
it’s obviously meant to sound like Mercury, simply combined with the word for “Water”,
coming off as “Warcury”. This is because as mentioned before, in Japanese
the planet Mercury is called “Suisei”, or “Water Planet”, hence the use of Water
here - Following that we have another pun with
St. Ethanbaron V. Nasujuurou. Similarly here, when read together “V.Nasu”
sounds like “Venus”, but Nasujuurou is a Japanese sounding name. Funnily enough, “Nasu” usually just means
eggplant, maybe a reference to his, uh, bald head, but the fact it’s Japanese fits with
the fact he’s wielding a katana - And finally, we have St. Shepherd Juu Peter. Once again this is a pun, “juu” here is
written as the kanji for the number ten, read as “juu” in Japanese, but when combined
with Peter, it sounds like the planet “Jupiter” All five of them also get official tiles as
“Bushin” or “Gods of War”. Each of these titles feel closer to those
of Ministers in a political system, so they are likely the specific branches of management
they specialize in: - St. Jaygarcia Saturn is the Wargod of Scientific
Defense, like a Minister of Defense - St. Marcus Mars is the Wargod of Environment. Which is particularly ironic since he is the
planet of Fire in Japanese - St. Topman Warcury is the Wargod of Justice,
being in charge of legal affairs and managing the law
- St. Ethanbaron V.Nasujurou is the Wargod of Finance, which is fitting since he’s
literally the planet of Gold in Japanese - St. Shepherd Juu Peter is the Wargod of
Agriculture, which again is fitting since he is the planet of Wood in Japanese, representing
plants As we mentioned, all together the five of
them represent the Five Elder Planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter, which surround
the planet Earth. Which I’ve previously speculated in this
case could represent Imu-sama, the one that the Five Elder Planets revolved around, who
could represent the Earth, Gaia, the Mother of Nature in Grecoroman Mythology. On top of that we have the additional three
planets that were discovered in modern times, being Poseidon (or Neptune), Uranus, and Pluton,
which of course in the Void Century were played by the three ancient weapons. This could suggest the theory that many have
believed in for a long time that the Gorosei are in fact all part of the original 20 founders
from the Void Century, who alongside Imu have all attained perennial youth. This theory is bolstered by the fact that
when we saw the Gorosei 22 years ago during the Ohara Incident, or even further before
around 30 years ago when they met Vegapunk, their faces have been consistently shadowed
in the manga. Why not just show them as younger? Maybe it’s because they looked the same,
and even when silhouetted, we can still notice that their appearance is basically identical. But if these men were elders in their 70s
or so, then no doubt 30 years ago they would’ve looked much younger, not just the same. So while it’s also possible that the Gorosei
are simply selected from Celestial Dragons to fulfill their positions, it feels almost
more logical that they have been alongside Imu ever since the Void Century to help fulfill
their will. On the other hand, in this whole planetary
scheme the Sun is likely the figure of the Sun God Nika, who also represents the idea
of heliocentrism, that all the planets revolve around the sun, versus the idea of geocentrism,
that only the Five Elder Planets revolve around the Earth. In this case Imu would represent a false propaganda,
one that was spread by states and the church for many centuries as a sign of self-importance,
where Nika represents the truth, how the world actually operates. However in this scheme, who could be the moon? Well, there could be some candidates we could
consider, but this chapter actually introduces a really good candidate to the pile, being
the Supreme Commander of the God Knights St. Figarland Garling, who has a conveniently
Moon-shaped face. While I don’t think there’s many more
people beyond Imu and the Gorosei who could be perennially youthful, I think it’s possible
that Garling could be an exception, since as the leader of the God Knights he holds
great authority over the Celestial Dragons, being able to try someone like Mjosgard for
his actions, and even having been the former King of God Valley, which confirms as we assumed
that it was a settlement of Celestial Dragons, seemingly the only other one aside from Mary
Geoise. And given how God Valley vanished about 38
years ago, while it’s possible he might’ve been a really young King, it would make sense
if Garling represented the figure of the Moon during the Void Century, or maybe at least
represents it now in the present. In fact his name would even reinforce that,
because “Garling” sounds a lot like Figarland, only missing the “fi” at the start of
it, so it would make sense if he was one of the first members of its family. But really, that name is actually very important
because this isn’t the first time we hear it. In Film RED, the Gorosei brought up how Uta
being Shanks’s daughter would make her part of the Figarland Family. It wasn’t elaborated much beyond that, but
what mosts fans assumed is that, because of the way it was worded in Japanese, the Figarland
Family was one of the 20 Celestial Dragon families and indeed that is now the case. As it was revealed in Film RED, Figarland
Shanks was originally seemingly born on God Valley, but was kidnapped by one of the Rocks
Pirates. After the Roger Pirates plundered them, they
accidentally took Shanks with them, after which Roger adopted and raised him. Which is now really relevant because God Valley
was the territory of the Figarland Family, and it may very well be possible that Garling
could even be the biological father of Shanks! Which thinking back about it, actually makes
the fact that one of the silhouettes among the God Knights look an awfully lot like Shanks,
which… could there be some truth to it?? Regardless though, we’ve spoken of the Five
Elder Planets, the three Ancient Weapon Planets, the Sun God Nika, and the Moon Garling. However, there’s one more figure in this
whole scheme who we haven’t focused as much about. Of course, that is King Imu. Particularly with the weapon they unleashed
upon Lulusia, which in a conversation with the Gorosei with a… really adorable Den
Den Mushi, Imu refers to as the “Mother Flame”. The concept of a flame is particularly fitting,
what with flames being the source of energy as Vegapunk explained, as not only the use
of “Mother” supports the theory that Imu could be the “Mother of Nature Umi”, the
Sea, but “fureimu” in Japanese even has the word “Imu” within it, so the name
kinda sounds like “Mother Imu”. The bizarre thing about the Mother Flame though
is that Imu claims to the Gorosei that Vegapunk created the Mother Flame. This lines up with what Lucci stated in Chapter
1062 that he wondered if what happened in Lulusia was connected with Vegapunk for some
reason, though Stussy and Kaku told him to not dig his nose into that, since it was likely
tied to Imu in some way, so they would be executed if they found out. However, Ivankov instead unleashes his inner
One Piece theorist and explains that Vegapunk isn’t the type of person who would build
something like that. Now there’s a possibility that perhaps Vegapunk
is betraying the Revolutionary Army, but given how much we’ve come to know Vegapunk, I
have to agree with Ivankov here. And I doubt that someone like York would’ve
had the time or resources to build something like this during this time without making
any of the other Punks suspect about it. I think it’s still possible however that
Vegapunk may have built it, but he did so because he may have learned through the study
of the poneglyphs and what Ohara discovered that the ancient kingdoms are not meant for
evil, but for good. Yes, they can bring the destruction of the
world, but that likely refers to the destruction of the Grand Line and Red Line, to unify the
world together, so Vegapunk may have wanted to assist in that objective by rebuilding
the remaining ancient weapon so it may be used someday. But the Revolutionaries maybe don’t understand
it yet since for safety reasons Vegapunk has kept most of his knowledge private. However, what if as Ivankov says, in this
case Imu had something to do with this. What if, as he speculates, Vegapunk did not
build the weapon, that Imu is for some reason keeping this hidden from even the Gorosei,
or that in some way Imu is key to this weapon. And as he says if Imu was a being from the
Void Century who has been perennially youthful this entire time, then they could be an ancient
weapon, not one reborn like Shirahoshi, but an actual original from 800 years ago. I already brought this up in the past, but
here’s a thought about all this: what if every single “ancient weapon” is composed
by three parts. On one hand there is a person who possesses
a special ability with the Voice of All Things. Then there is some large creature that they
are able to command, and finally a colossal ship that ties with that ability. In Poseidon’s case, Shirahoshi would be
the person, the Sea Kings are the creatures she can command with the Voice of All Things,
and the ark Noah would be the ship. In the case of Pluton, then Momonosuke would
be the person, Zunesha would be the creature he can command with the Voice of All Things,
and the battleship hidden beneath Wano would be the ship. So what if Imu… is the ancient weapon Uranus. They are the conduit, and the ship itself
in question is, as described, some sort of scientific weapon. But a flying weapon can only really be a flying
ship, or even a saucer, a UFO. After all, the dark shadow on top of Lulusia
seemed to be exactly in the shape of a UFO, so this third ship that Imu can somehow control,
perhaps thanks to the help of some creature of sorts, could complete this scheme of ancient
weapons. And when you think about it, it makes sense. In Grecoroman mythology, Pluton, Poseidon,
and Uranus were the gods of the three planes, the underworld, the sea, and the skies. The Pluton ship is hidden beneath Wano, in
its underworld, Poseidon’s ship is hidden at Fishman Island in the sea, and Imu is located
in the skies atop the Red Line. It all just fits well as Ivankov proposes. The fact that Imu even suggests using Lulusia
due to being close to the Red Line would suggest there’s potentially some sort of area of
limit to this power, or maybe the ship just moves slowly like a normal ship and they wanted
to get the test going as fast as possible. The only question, as Dragon poses, is why
the Mother Flame has not been used before. But I think there’s a fairly simple answer
about it: the World Government claimed that their reason for erasing information about
the Void Century and the immense Kingdom was due to the danger the ancient weapons would
pose upon the world. Obviously this is just an excuse, but it was
important to let the people believe that said history and kingdom were dangerous, and erasing
all information about them was necessary to avoid such weapons appearing upon the world. So if the Government freely used a weapon
like this, then that could cause a lot of unrest upon the people. But this indicates that there’s been a change. In recent years, the Gorosei changed their
stance and decided to go after the blueprints of Pluton, as we saw during Water 7, to seize
the weapon for themselves. And similarly now, that Imu wants to lead
a “Great Cleansing”, they are willing to finally show their power upon the world. But the revelations don’t stop here, because
not only did we get the full names for the Gorosei, but even that… of Imu!! Cobra already mentioned last chapter how the
name Imu sounded familiar, bringing up the 20 founders, but in this chapter Ivankov reveals
how one of the original founders was King “St. Nerona Imu”. Ivankov even brings up the fact that Imu could
have attained perennial youth through the perennial youth surgery of the Ope Ope no
Mi, which checks out since that was first introduced in the same conversation as when
Doflamingo first brought up Imu’s identity during Dressrosa, so Oda was clearly setting
that up already since then. A fascinating detail about this however is
the fact that when Ivankov shows the Book of Devil Fruits to Sabo to show the Ope Ope
no Mi, we can see that the book is actually titled… the “Book of Genesis”. Which is a reference, to of course the “Book
of Genesis”, the Biblical tale of how Adam and Eve where expelled from the Garden of
God after biting the forbidden fruit offered to them by the devil. Which fits with the myth of the Devil Fruits,
the land of the God Country, the Sun Tree Eve supposedly located upon it, and the Sea
Devil, once again reinforcing the possibility that Imu may have been that Sea Devil who
tricked the Lunaria to usurp their country. There’s even the fact that in the story
of Genesis, Adam’s first wife prior to Eve was called “Lilith”, but was banished
from the Land of God for disobeying Adam, which perfectly mirrors how Nefertari Lili
was banished or even executed for not obeying Imu. However, let’s go back to that name, “Nerona”. Some people may create some connection with
the despotic Roman Emperor Nero, and while there could be something there, it’s actually
much simpler. Because “Nero” is the word in several
languages for… “black”. And the particle “na” in Japanese is usually
to attribute something, so “Nerona” sounds like something or someone that is pitch black. And I already brought up last week that I
believe that Joyboy and Imu are complete opposites. Both cartoonish and making dreams become true,
but one of them represents light, pure white, whereas the other one is darkness, pure black. Or in “Latin”, “Nero”. Imu encompasses the darkness, the complete
opposite of Nika, and that is something that is even reflected in their design… the black
silhouette. What if this… is actually Imu’s real design,
a black blob without real form or features, pure darkness. Or maybe it’s just a silhouette, but symbolically
it still fits, Joyboy symbolizes the color white, the light of the sun and the Dawn,
whereas Imu is the darkness of the night that engulfs the world, light and darkness, literally
yn and yang with how the Elder Planets in Japanese are named after the elements that
surround the Yin and Yang, two sides of the same coin that are both so similar, yet represent
completely opposite ideals. But then if Joyboy became a myth and took
the form of a mythological devil fruit, then could the figure of Imu also have become a
mythological devil fruit. What if that is the fruit of… [TO BE CONTINUED]
