 Demons, devil fruit or magic. What is the source and nature of the Gorossae's powers? How do they transform? How do they regenerate? How do they engage in telepathy? Well, what if I told you that the biggest clue to finding all of this out may be as simple as understanding the meaning of the star? Well, not simple, really. It's actually quite complex and has a lot of significance and meaning for a number of reasons. So why don't we go through it step by step? If you told me at the beginning of the egghead arc that we'd be fighting Saturn on the island, I would have said you're too ambitious. So if you told me that we're fighting the entire damn Gorossae, I would have laughed and called you crazy. But that is exactly the situation we have on hand. And you know what? It's Oda that's crazy for doing this. In chapter 1109, we witness Saturn summon the rest of the Gorossae, and they essentially almost instantaneously arrived. And this obviously has massive implications about what this means for the arc and how it's going to be resolved. But this unexpected development has given us new information about the Gorossae's mystical abilities, meaning that it's time for us to brush up and ask the question, what exactly are the Gorossae's powers? Well, firstly, the first time we saw the Gorossae's powers in chapter 1085 was a game changer. Although many of us suspected that these world leaders could be adept at combat, there was also an assumption that the Gorossae wouldn't primarily be fighters, but predominantly political figures. So the fact that they indeed had some combat capabilities, and quite skillful too actually, possessing the ability to transform into some sort of creatures, well that was certainly a surprise. But as is the classic Oda style, it isn't clear what their powers are exactly. The Gorossae seemed to transform into some sort of shadowy beings, each taking the form or shape of an animal or animal based creature. And for this reason, the prevailing assumption or speculation has been that the Gorossae each have a zoan devil fruit, or perhaps a mythical zoan devil fruit, and going one step beyond this, that they have each awakened their zoan fruit abilities given we saw a black ring around Saturn's body, which as we now know, is a classic tell tale of someone with an awakened zoan devil fruit, because Luffy has a white smoke ring when in his gifth form, and we've seen it on Luchi in the egghead arc, a black ring or a black scar forming around Luchi using his awakened zoan form. And a bit of a side note here, but I have to say that it's interesting that the smoke ring changes colors or shades depending on the user of the devil fruit. The white of Luffy's gifth smoke ring clearly shows that Luffy's a good guy, whereas the black for Luchi or Saturn says that they're bad guys. Now obviously this is most likely a symbolic design choice that demonstrates the devil fruit user's allegiance or morality, but I wonder what would happen if someone turned coat. For example, what if Luchi betrays the world government and decides to become a straw hat ally long term? Would his smoke ring then turn white? Or what if the Gomu Gomu no Mi or the Nika devil fruit was eaten by someone who was evil? Would that person have emitted a black smoke ring? Is it part of the zoan devil fruit having a consciousness? Does it choose to take on a certain shade based on the morality of its host? Anyways, that's not really relevant to today's discussion, but I thought it was an interesting detail. So getting back on track, since the first appearance of the Gorosei's powers, with Saturn's involvement in the egghead island arc, we've been getting more and more information or pieces of information about the nature of his ability. We've seen him remain immune to injuries and attacks, seemingly healing or regenerating multiple times, the ability to use tremendous force or a telekinesis-like power to affect people, whether that be to inhibit them from moving, pinning them to the floor, or to knock them back without himself actually needing to make any movement except a glare of his eyes. And now, we also know that he can, or actually that all the Gorosei can, communicate seemingly telepathically, despite being physically removed from each other by very long distances. And also, as of Chapter 11109, that Saturn is able to summon the other Gorosei. And it was these two last abilities when I was reading and rereading and rereading Chapter 11109 that it finally clicked to me. The answer to all our questions has been hinted via the pentagram symbol all along. And this symbol is a hell of a lot more important than I first gave it credit. When we first came across this pentagram in Chapter 1094 with Saturn's apparition or appearance at Egghead, I initially thought it was primarily a design choice. It's obviously symbolic because it's the five elder stars, which is marked by the five pointed star of the pentagram, and then emphasizing that even further is what seems to be the number five that is visible between each of the star points. I also thought that this design was a metaphorical illusion to the idea of the Pentagon in the US, the Pentagon being the headquarters for the United States Department of Defense, which also happens to be the second largest building in the world. So apply to one piece, the Gorosei are the world leaders controlling military power, and they also hold the second greatest amount of power in the world after Imu. But now, I'm thinking that this pentagram sheds a whole lot more light. And if you like the discussion so far or are interested in where this is going, then please do subscribe before we go any further. I love delving into all things one piece, and if you do too, then please support a fellow one piece fan. So the significance of the pentagram? Well the pentagram is a symbol that has been used in human society for millennia and has been significant to many cultures for all sorts of different reasons. Mathematically, a pentagram is significant as it represents one continuous line to create five separate segments. And this is what initially got me to realise the significance of the pentagram. The Gorosei's ability to talk telepathically, suggesting that they are all connected, that they're internally wired in some way, similar to the pentagram being an unbroken line that creates five different points. The pentagram is also well known for being the golden ratio as a perfectly balanced and therefore aesthetically pleasing design. And look, I appreciate a silver fox as much as the next person, but my idea of such a man is George Clooney, not Jay Garcia's Saturn or Topman Walkery. So I personally wouldn't call the Gorosei aesthetically pleasing, but if we were to apply this understanding of the pentagram to one piece, this could have very dangerous implications if the idea of the pentagram being perfectly balanced means that the Gorosei in terms of strength are also perfectly balanced. Indeed, this could explain why each of the Gorosei had a different division of power because altogether they make up the perfect team, the perfect defence, the perfect power. Thinking about the Gorosei in this way as a perfectly balanced team is particularly scary because it's very similar to the wording used to describe the red-haired pirates as a very balanced pirate crew. And knowing the strength of Shanks' crew to apply a similar description to the Gorosei has profound implications about their strength and abilities. But something else that's also interesting about the pentagram is that although its meaning has changed over the years, for most of ancient history and across most religions, it has been a positive symbol meaning health or used to ward off evil spirits. In the modern era, the pentagram has been often linked with magic and the occult. And true, this association between sorcery and the pentagram seems to be present here in one piece as it's now being used like a portal via which the Gorosei can teleport. We saw the pentagram appear with Saturn's appearance in 1094, but also seeing the rest of the Gorosei appear from very far away almost like apparitions coming out of nowhere, the whole thing does seem very spooky and supernatural. Something that is interesting however is that Saturn had to summon the Gorosei, meaning that the Gorosei couldn't just teleport, they had to be called upon, whereas we saw that Saturn was able to use the ability for himself during his entrance to the Egghead Island, raising the question of whether this is a special power that Saturn uniquely has. And if so, does this mean that each of the Gorosei have their own special unique overpowered ability? But also linking it back to the symbol of the pentagram, many neo-pagans consider the pentagram as a symbol of protection and may use it to invoke spirits, which is similar to what we saw in chapter 11109 when Saturn invoked the presence of the rest of the Gorosei. So then we could start going down the rabbit hole of whether Oda is finally really going to bring in the element of magic into one piece and then will this explain the regeneration and immortality powers of the Gorosei, which to be honest I am still doubtful of because I think there will still be some sort of explanation behind the powers rather than straight-up reliance on magic, but an even crazier connection to the real-life use of the pentagram via those in the magic circle is following a version of the pentagram published in the book on the philosophy of the occult by occultist Heinrich Cornelius, a gripper von Nettlesheim, who published a version of an encircled pentagram where each point was designated an astronomical symbol of the five planets that were then known to human society, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury and Venus. And the fact that there is a space or astronomy theme present in one piece not only in relation to the Gorosei but also Luffy and therefore potentially Imu is not a novel statement. We have the Sun God and even from their introduction we knew that the Gorosei were known as the five elder stars, stars in Japanese referring to planets. And I have actually discussed this planetary theme and what this may mean about Imu in detail in another video. Spoiler, Imu represents the void space and is the perfect counter for Luffy and I would recommend you to go watch that video after this one. But more recently, with Saturn in his full creature form, an interesting detail has been his creepy eyes which actually sort of looks like the planet Saturn encircled by a ring. We could even link the two ideas together. The planetary theme in a gripper's pentagram and the golden ratio hailed by mathematicians to the idea that all the planets within the solar system work together and are in perfect balance with each other so that there are no collisions. Each planet has its own gravitational pool and axis of rotation without which our solar system would not be able to survive. And another reason why I really like this planetary theme is because it's very figuratively important that Luffy is the sun because obviously as the sun he is the strongest force within the solar system and this is also apparent in a gripper's version of the pentagram where the sun is marked in the center of the diagram within the man's solar plexus symbolizing that the sun is at the center of the universe. And so this could also explain why Saturn found it necessary that all the other Gorasei join him at Egghead to counter Luffy because it's the idea that the sun is stronger than all the other planets and all the other planets combined which is true in real life science. It could also be the reason why Luffy was immune to Saint Saturn's attempt to use his telekinetic powers against Gifth Luffy in Chapter 1107 because the sun is so much larger and has a much greater gravitational pool than Saturn meaning that Luffy was able to withstand against Saint Saturn's attack. But space isn't the only theme that is apparent within the Gorasei because something else that many have theorized about is the devil and demon imagery that can be associated with Imu and his minions. The reveal of Saint Saturn's creature form in particular has resulted in connections being made to the Japanese folklore of the Ushionii, an ox and yokai that looks like the cross between an ox and a spider, yokai in Japan referring to demons and this also makes sense in the broader context of One Piece. If Luffy is now a deity figure as the sun god then Imu as his ultimate opponent would be the devil and just as gods have angels the devil has demons. I've also seen popular ideas being that the Gorasei don't even have devil fruits that they are actually demons incarnate. And again the pentagram is relevant here as well because in more modern times the pentagram has been associated with evil and satan. Most relevantly the inverted pentagram that is where the pentagram is flipped upside down so that the top point of the star is facing downwards i.e. towards hell. This inverted pentagram has been the symbol of the satanic religion or getting even more specific the sigil of the baphomet which includes a goat within the inverted pentagram is the official symbol of the church of satan and the flaming burning pentagram is the sign of black magic antagonism and fatality which is interesting because in One Piece the pentagram does indeed look like it's burning or smoking like it's on flames although it has been described to be black lightning but still very closely resembles the symbol of the evil pentagram. A major caveat however being that we don't actually see the pentagram being drawn upside down in One Piece naturally i went to study the directions and positions of each star that we see in chapters 10 94 and 11109 and i couldn't find any panel that definitively seemed like the stars are pointing downwards to symbolize the demonic and evil meaning of the pentagram but this distinguisher did get me thinking if even the way that the star is positioned within the pentagram is important and has the potential to change its symbolic meaning how important are the other details because another crucial detail that i had been ignoring but became very obvious during my research is that the symbol drawn in One Piece is not a simple pentagram even if the series itself calls it a pentagram because to be more accurate we would have to call it a pentacle which is actually distinguished from the pentagram because pentacle refers to the star shaped symbol that is within a circle which is what we have in One Piece a circular portal within which the five pointed star is positioned and when researching pentacles instead of pentagrams there was significantly less information and it does actually seem like the two are almost interchangeable but for the wikens the pentacle is a symbol of faith as it represents the five elements spirit air earth water and fire and the circle illustrates the universe that contains and connects them all but the wikens aren't the only ones to use pentacles to represent the elements of the earth because i also came across the tower with pentagram where here the philosophy is used to represent wood fire earth metal water or better known as the principle of wuxing which is the underlying thought behind many chinese approaches to life such as traditional chinese medicine sport or feng shui and here the pentagram also resembles a pentacle because this tower with principle is the idea of a process the idea that the universe is in a constant state of progress and change resulting in the arrows between each of the apex of the stars which forms a circle like exterior and this idea of constant change and constant transformation could be significant in the context of the gorsi one because of their transformation into creatures but two also their state of immortality if wuxing is the idea that the universe is always constantly in a changing process this could be represented by the everlasting and immortal appearance of the gorsi who remain constant throughout time and this principle of wuxing has also influenced other nearby nations including korea and japan japan developing its own philosophy called gogyal and this influence actually seems to have been very important and can also be important to one piece because each of the five elements are also said to represent other things such as five planets venus jupiter mercury mars and satan interestingly they're also associated with chinese zodiac elements and so if you were to apply it to the gorsi then the element for earth which is also the element for satan and thereby related to the gorsi member saint j garcia satan this element is linked to amongst other animals the ox and like we said we've seen that the creature form that saint satan embodies is the ushi or the ox and so then if we were to make comparisons with all the other gorsi you could make connections with quite a number of them for example saint marcus mars would relate to the fire element which is linked to the planet mars which is represented by the heavenly creature of the vermilion bird and in chapter 1085 where we saw each of the gorsi's transformed silhouettes it did seem like saint mars took on a bird-like figure saint topman walkury aka mercury represents the water element and this is related to the chinese zodiac signs of rat or pig and the heavenly creature of black tortoise and i think that could actually make sense because in this panel his ears look like the ears of a pig now with the others the connection is slightly less clear for example saint venus juro who would represent the element metal is linked to the monkey or rooster of the chinese zodiac and his heavenly creature would be the white tiger and i can't say that the silhouettes particularly resemble any of those animals also saint jute peter representing the wood element also represents the tiger or the rabbit of the chinese zodiac or the heavenly creature of the green dragon and the silhouette for mr jupiter is practically a blob here so i can't make any connections and as i was delving into these tower with principles i also came across coco beans's post on reddit which is one of the more detailed speculations linking wuxing to the gorsi and the literary source that they reference seem to use different animals according to each element to what i found in my research so maybe further connections could be made there to the silhouettes but i still couldn't really see any clearer connections but if this was an important inspiration for odour i could see how he used the principles to prescribe unique abilities to each gorsi member like i said satan could have unique powers to summon the others and this could be explained through his relationship to the earth which is his elemental sign because the earth is associated with balance and being the central force under wuxing principles so it makes sense that saint satan has the control over gravitation or pool which affects his ability to pool or summon the other gorsi as well as his use of force to control the bodies of other humans as we saw when he immobilizes the straw hats and the allies anyways i don't think this wuxing philosophy is the only or even the main influence for odour there are clearly connections and relationships to make me think that it is likely to have influenced odour in some way especially because the wuxing principle is also a tradition in japan but i think the many uses of the pentagram throughout history and the relationships to what we saw in one piece shows that odour seems to have drawn from the many meanings and the many symbols and merged them all together taking the points that fit using them in a way that makes sense for his story and when put all together gives us a dangerous force possessing many powers and many abilities anyways that's just another one of my ramblings essentially a way for me to share the stuff that i came across during my research because i need to feel like i didn't waste an entire day researching the pentagram but if you like these sort of deep dives into the details of one piece and this is the channel for you so make sure to subscribe make sure to like and share the video thank you for listening to another one of my ramblings and thank you to all of our patreon and channel members for your continued support this is joy girl and i'll see you again soon