 One Piece has really gone and shown us all of the Gorossae's combat beast form designs and let me tell you, they are insane. From skeletal horses to worm piece, Oda has somehow managed to pull off, yet again, a perfect blend of wacky and sick. And although I could spend a good hour fangirling about this latest showcase of artistic brilliance, the real question I want to explore is, who's fighting who? Or is it who's fighting whom? Who cares, give me the match-ups. But before we go there, I also want to explore the inspirations behind each of the Gorossae's forms because the designs are certainly unique and very unexpected in some cases. And I think this could be relevant for the future implications of the Gorossae's role in the story, so the first one I want to start off with is Saint J Garcia Saturn. We've seen Saint Saturn's beast design since chapter 1094, but now we also know his beast name, Gyouki. And this essentially confirms the speculation that fans have had ever since we saw Saturn's design, which is that Saint Saturn is based off the Japanese yokai, or demon, the Ushi Oni. Because another name for the Ushi Oni is Gyouki, an ox demon that breeds toxic poison, praise on humans, and inflicts diseases. This influence of Japanese yokai is also apparent via the beast form of Saint Marcus Mars, whose beast form is named Itsumade, the Itsumade being a Japanese yokai described to be an eerie bird with a human face. His name reveals the inspiration that Oda took from Japanese folklore about an eerie bird demon who got its name from muttering Itsumade, Itsumade, which translates to until when? Until when? A phrase that it mutters while standing nearby the corpses of victims who died from battle or starvation. The yokai is supposedly asking, until when will this corpse be left here? Or in other accounts, this eerie bird is supposed to be the vengeful spirits of those who died that way, those spirits turning into a bird. When it comes to Topman Walkuri, the monster bore, or its name, Huki. Now, I wasn't able to find any relationship to a swine-based yokai exactly in Japanese folklore, but it does seem like boars do hold significance in Japanese culture and have been often presented as significant figures in Japanese media. For example, in the classic Ghibli film Princess Mononoke, the boar clan are actually deities, boar gods that protect the mountains and forests. In traditional Japanese history and literature, boars were revered as fearsome and wild animals to the point that several words and expressions in Japanese used to describe recklessness incorporates references to boars. And it seems like Huki is actually the Japanese pronunciation of Fangzu, a two-headed pig monster from Chinese folklore, known to be extremely powerful and able to hurt people everywhere. I also found another possible relevant inspiration could be the Arrimanthian boar, which is a mythical creature in Greek mythology. And this Arrimanthian boar is said to have had great wild tusks growing out of its mouth, or even the real-life animal, the babirusa, deer pigs that originate from Indonesian islands that are characterized by their long curving tusks and teeth that protrude out of their mouths to look like tusks. I also have to say that my recent analysis of the Gorosei, each relating to their animal creatures according to the Wuxing philosophy of Taoism, seems to work for at least Saturn, Mars and Walkury. Saturn, whose earth-wuxing element also governs the year of the ox, ended up being a bovine yokai. Mars, the fire element with the heavenly creature of a vermilion bird or a red pheasant, is indeed a bird-based yokai. And Walkury, representing the water element, governs the year of the pig and has a swine-based beast form. So it's particularly interesting that Oda didn't seem to continue this Wuxing elemental design for the rest of the Gorosei, or did he? Looking at Ethan Baron Venusjuro, the name of his horse, Bakotsu, actually seems to quite literally mean in English horse skeleton or horse bone, and in that sense has a direct connection to the beast design, which is obviously a skeletal undead horse. But when it comes to the yokai inspiration, it seems like Oda dug really deep because Bakotsu isn't a widely known creature. The only reference that I found was that it comes from a book or picture scroll of 16 yokai drawn in the Tosa area called the Tosa Obakezushi, and Bakotsu was one of the 16 yokai, a horse-shaped creature that was burnt to death in a fire. A more obvious mythical creature inspiration is the Naklavi, a horse-like demon originating from Scottish folklore that combines human and horse features. The creature was skinless and hairless, appearing like raw flesh, which isn't exactly the same to what we have in One Piece, but are supposed similar to the skinless, fleshless design that we have for Mr. Venusjuro. And finally, Mr. Shepard Jupiter, the sandworm. I have to say that that is the most unexpected design. It feels like Oda must have watched Dune 2 recently and thought, now that's a monster. And I wasn't able to find a clear Japanese folklore connection, and I think it's possible that there might not even be one seeing as Oda didn't even bother giving Mr. Jupiter a Japanese name. Sandworm is literally written in Katakana, the writing system used to transcribe words from foreign languages into Japanese, sandworm. But I do have to say that the design itself could be said to resemble the Akashita, a strange yokai that looks like a beast with claws and a face without necessarily resembling any animal creature, which is the yokai that fans had been speculating would be the basis for St. Jupiter's design when we all first saw the Gorosei Silhouettes back in Chapter 1085. It makes sense from a thematic perspective why he would be a sandworm however, because as the god of agriculture, words are very good for the environment, providing increased nutrient availability, more stable soil structure, and overall helps improve agricultural productivity. And I know I said earlier that only Saturn, Mars and Mercury seem to support my speculation that Oda was inspired by the principles of Wushing in creating the Gorosei, and while that is still true in terms of the related animal spirits or heavenly creatures, I do actually think that the Taoist principles are still relevant for all of the Gorosei, because when it comes to Venus Juro, who represents the metal element, the features of metal is that metal is determined, forceful, strong, unyielding, self-reliant, reserved, and sophisticated. And now you might say that I'm coping or stretching too far, but I do think these are words that really seem to embody the aura and vibe of what we've seen of St. Venus Juro. Also, metal is supposed to symbolize cutting and reforming action, which obviously makes sense in the context of a swordsman who cuts his opponents, but then also transforms them so that they turn frozen, rather than actually slicing the pacifista as we saw in chapter 1110. As for St. Jupiter, who represents the wood element, this element is said to represent activities of the body that are self-regulating and function without conscious thought, and it's also related to the body organs of liver and the gallbladder representing traits of balance and cleansing, which again is similar to the role that worms play in the environment, feeding on organic waste to turn it into fertilizer, breaking down waste similar to the function of livers and gallbladders. And I know that these may seem like a stretch, but I don't know, it makes sense to me. And I don't know about you, but I also personally find it very interesting to find out the historical or mythical inspirations behind characters in one piece. And in this case, I think it's worth knowing because the Gorossae are such mysterious characters, and so these sort of influences may have some relevance to their history, especially now that it seems like their beast forms aren't the result of a devil fruit, seeing as no devil fruit name was given in their introductions, meaning that we could even find out why or how they each have this animalistic form, which may have some connection to their inspirations. But I think we have discussed the inspirations for the Gorossae's yokai designs long enough. So now on to the matchups, but before we get into it, if you haven't already, please do subscribe to the channel, I'd really, really appreciate it. And I would repay my gratitude by giving you more interesting, more frequent one piece discussions, but on to the matchups. So I do want to start off by saying that I'm not 100% convinced that these matchups will take place at Egghead, mostly because, well, although I do think that we are well and truly past the point of expecting this arc to be a mini arc, because hello, we are still here in the land of futuristic tech over 1.5 years later since the arc started. But I do think that we are surely at the climax of the arc, and having the Gorossae enter into jewels with the straw hats and our allies will likely mean that we stay here for at least another three to six months. And I also do think that that's why we have the plot setups like the Iron Giant and the Giant Giants, because they are supposed to help us make a quick getaway from these ancient world leaders without having to engage in one-on-ones. But maybe we will still have quick clashes against some of the Gorossae, something to seed future battles, and then later on in the story, we may actually see these matchups come to fruition in full scale. Maybe the fight against the Gorossae doesn't reach a climax at Egghead, and then this opens up potential matchups that will involve the likes of Shanks, Dragon or Sabo, or any other fighters that are considered to be high-tier fighters allied to Luffy. Because if we're being realistic, we only have three combatants in Luffy's crew who have a realistic chance to do anything against the Gorossae, and even then it's not all that favorable for the straw hat crew members. But if we are to speculate on potential matchups, then based on who is currently here at Egghead, the most obvious matchup against one of the Gorossae is Zorro facing off against St. Venus Juro. If it's not convenient enough that Zorro has now defeated Luchi and needs a new opponent should he continue fighting, in the same chapter we saw Zorro dispose of the CP Zero Agent, we saw Venus Juro displaying his own impressive style of swordsmanship. Actually the panels showcasing each of their feats are very similar and seem to be parallel to each other. And the two panels are also arguably two of the most memorable parts of chapter 1110, and swordsmen versus swordsmen is a no-brainer really. Zorro going up against Venus Juro is something that fans have actually been anticipating even prior to the reveal of the Gorossae's beast forms, the fact that they're both swordsmen and the fact that Mr. Venus also seems to have some sort of Japanese heritage, which is something that we now know about Zorro having Wano lineage. But now after the last six months of the Egghead Island arc where Zorro has had quite little screen time, and arguably not the best showing after it took him six months to defeat Luchi until chapter 1110 itself, it would make sense that Oda would give Zorro the Gorossae with arguably the coolest design as his opponent. The fact that Venus Juro has a skeletal form may even work as a callback to Zorro's duel against Yuma, the skeleton from Wano, or the fact that Zorro is now the king of hell, it makes sense that his opponent would be an undead horse. Now that's the obvious answer, but after seeing Venus Juro walking in the air, it kind of reminds me of Sanji using Skywalk, so could we have a film 3 scenario where Luchi's wings each have to fight an opponent who excels in the combat style of his rival. Now that certainly would be fun, but my money's still on Zorro dealing with Venus Juro. But speaking of Sanji, I think thematically speaking there are a couple of Gorossae that could make sense as his matchup. St. Jupiter as the god of agriculture may make sense against the straw hat cook because of their shared food theme. It could come down to a battle of principle because we know that Sanji would never let anyone go hungry, even if the opponent is a potential threat, but what if Mr. Jupiter embodies the complete opposite value? Witnessing how Saturn views people as insects, it's not hard to imagine that Jupiter might also be inclined to think this way, and perhaps he sees food as a resource only to be shared with those who deserve it. Nothing would fire up Sanji even more if this was a topic that was to be brought up somehow. On a fun note, seeing Jupiter's monster form is a sand worm. You know a fast way to kill a worm? Salt. Come on, you know what I'm talking about, we all tried it when we were kids. No? Just me? Uh, moving on then. Look, all I'm trying to say is that Chef Saltbae Sanji should have the correct tools to get this job done. But another fitting Gorose opponent for Sanji could be Saint Marcus Mars. For similar reasons, I said it's possible that he could fight against Venus Juro, sky battle. There is an avian theme that's apparent with the Itsumare and Sanji because of his German heritage which bears the symbol of the Garuda, as well as of course his ability for skywalk. But then again, King was the flyer at Wano and Zoro ended up taking him on, so you never really know. But there is also the fact that based on planetary order, Saint Mars may be the third strongest Gorose because Mars is the third planet closest to the Sun when you exclude the Earth, similar to Sanji standing within the straw hats. And this again doesn't really necessarily mean anything because we actually haven't seen enough to suggest the comparable strength levels between the Gorose, although I'm sure Zoro fans would agree with Venus as the second closest planet to the Sun, therefore one more than Mars would appreciate this non-logic logic of the comparable strength. And who knows, maybe there actually is some sort of truth to this strength level because Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and then in terms of the Gorose, that would then refer to Mr. Walkury and as the God of Justice and Law, these names and titles may suggest that Walkury may in fact be the strongest combatant of the Dunch, especially given that his beast is the boar, which as I said is an animal renowned in Japan, especially for having no natural predators ever since the extinction of the Japanese wolf. Whereas Saturn as the planet furthest from the Sun would mean that he's the weakest Gorose according to this reasoning of planetary order and it could make sense that order would introduce us to the weakest elder first just to highlight how incredibly strong and fearsome the Gorose really are if Saturn is the weakest of the bunch. But look, we've gone down a bit of a tangent here, my fault, and a clearer connection that might actually be plausibly made out from the Manga itself is that in chapter 1110, we see Sanji looking up at the Itsumade so it seems like Oda may have been intentionally giving us a connection between these two characters here and so if Sanji is to take on Mars, then let's say let Jinbei take care of Jupiter because Jinbei can handle the sand worm with water, a hard counter, and okay, this is turning into a Pokemon battle of elements, moving on. I feel like at this point, as Saturn is the Gorose that we've witnessed doing actual evil deeds the most, we have to see him being defeated by Luffy, and if not Luffy, by Kuma and or Bonnie somehow seeing as they're his direct victims, which would be oh so satisfying to witness, but if that's not the case, then maybe Dragon later on in the story to avenge his friend, but here at Egghead, it has to be Luffy. That's just how the series works, an antagonist built up to be a whole new level of evil that impacts us readers emotionally so that we can witness Luffy satisfyingly bring them down, and hurrah hurrah, the world is good again. But outside of Saturn, it would be perfect to see Luffy go up against Walkury, positioning and vibe wise when the Gorose are all together, Walkury seems to be portrayed as the unofficial leader of the group, and like I said, this is reflected in his position to the sun as the planet closest to the sun, so again, it makes sense for the leader to be saved for Luffy, and also the god of justice or law, an authoritative figure going against the freest man in the sea, perfect. Realistically speaking, Luffy is the only one who could take down multiple Gorose, if that's something we're even gonna see in this arc, he has done this before historically speaking, because typically he fights one of the highest ranking henchmen before defeating their boss, meaning that maybe we'll see him fight both Saturn and Walkury, but of course, like I said, there is a reason why the giants are here and why the Iron Giant has also been peeping up every now and then, making sure that we don't forget about him completely, meaning that we're probably in for a finale to the Ekhet Island arc that is going to knock us off our toes delivering something none of us expected, so thank you for sticking with another one of my ramblings, a non-power scaling video this turned out to be, but if you have any thoughts about the Gorose or any future matchups that you want to share or anything about One Piece at all, let me know in the comments below. If you haven't already, make sure to subscribe, thank you to all of our Patreon and Channel members for your continued support, this is Joygirl, and I'll see you again soon.