 The Gorasei have always been one of the most interesting groups of characters shrouded in complete mystery. In fact, it took over 20 years for one single member's name to be revealed, and understandably so, because revealing J Garcia's Saturn's name to be literally from out of this world completely changed how we view the Gorasei, and even became the starting point that changed the hierarchy of villains in the series. But I think the biggest reason for this holdup is because revealing a Gorasei's name could give away one of the greatest secrets the one piece story is hiding. The reveal of one single name alone sparked countless theories. So imagine if Oda actually decided to drop all of their names in one single page. The chaos that would have ensued would have been unimaginable. And speaking of theories, before we discuss the Gorasei, I want to first talk about Imu. As we've recently discovered, Imu refers to themselves in third person, using the term Mu, which can mean void, nothing, or emptiness. And this of course sparked a number of speculation, such as that Imu can either control ink or shadows to name a few, but from what I've seen, there's something else which I believe is quite obvious, but hasn't been talked about yet. And could make a lot of sense if you consider what the Gorasei are named after. And no, it's not Earth, which is another idea since the Gorasei are the five planets, and the three ancient weapons are named after the remaining three planets, so then that should make Imu the planet Earth. Well, not quite what I'm thinking. Instead, it's something else that has a lot to do with Imu's chosen reference for themselves. I don't think Imu's void, nothing, or emptiness refers to the ability to control shadows or make anything out of ink, but rather, space, as in outer space. I mean, it does make sense if you think about it, right? The Gorasei are named after the five oldest planets, and they are all connected to space. Sabo's fight against Imu could also make sense in this light. See how Sabo went for the attack, but then Imu seems to devour his flames? Well, if Imu's ability is related to space, then that makes it a perfect vacuum able to devour most things, including flames, because there's actually not many organisms or elements able to survive in space. In fact, in a world like One Piece with countless elemental base abilities, a power inspired by space seems to be the perfect way to rule over all those abilities. But you know something that can survive space due to its ability to withstand extreme environments, and is in fact an important component in aerospace, rubber. In fact, the refinement of synthetic rubber was a big factor in making it possible for humans to reach the moon. If Imu's power is indeed related to space, then Luffy's rubber-like ability may be what is needed to eventually topple the Hyrule. And perhaps this is what the Gorasei meant by saying that the Gomu Gomu No Mi is the most ridiculous power in the world. Not only that it gives its user the freedom and capability by giving their imagination tangibility, but more importantly, because it's the biggest threat to take Imu down from their position of power. So what do you think? We may be onto something here? Please like and subscribe if you think so, or comment below if you would like to add more to this idea. I'm sure there are some space experts out there. And now the Gorasei. Although fights are secondary to all the other fun stuff that One Piece has to offer, it is still a shonen manga at the end of the day. So there will always be a question of how strong certain characters are, and for as individuals who are as high in the pecking order as the Gorasei, who are only secretly outranked by Imu. Well, the divide has always been a rather curious one. Because although we were expecting a lot from the Gorasei due to their superiority above all the other powerful marine figures, there were also views that the Gorasei may be physically powerless themselves, and simply control the world of One Piece through purely political means. After all, they are celestial dragons ranked the highest of their kind. And the image we have of their lower ranking counterparts aren't individuals that possess elite physical power, but instead those who make unreasonable use of their status as world nobles. But if you've read the recent chapter of One Piece, then you'll know the sheer terror that the Gorasei promises. And now that Oda has displayed a glimpse of their power, the question now completely shifts from how strong are the Gorasei, to what is the secret behind the terrifying power they are hiding. And that's what I want to talk about in this video. But first, let's go back, because in retrospect, it should have been obvious that the Gorasei were all capable of handling things themselves. Now that we know that they are all formidable in their own right, it explains why Sakazuki couldn't completely dominate during their interaction, and the fact that they weren't faced at all by meeting with shanks. Now we know that this is partly due to their confidence in their own abilities, choosing to send the guards away with no hint of worry about a potential clash with Eionko. This might also add to the idea that the Gorasei are immortal beings themselves, because being the strongest of their kind, they must be able to stay around and protect the secrets that they're hiding. And let's set that speculation straight, shall we? Because immortal may not be quite the right word to use, as the Gorasei are suggested to be killable. While it is possible they have been living for a very long time, they're not capable of not dying. Because we did see a marine officer was required to taste test the food that the Gorasei consumes before giving it to them in case the food was poisoned, this implying that they are made of and still have the functions and limitations of human anatomy. But this doesn't mean they haven't been living a prolonged lifespan, or that they're not capable of further aging. Even between the timeskip, characters like Sengoku and Cobra have clearly aged within the span of just two years, whereas the Gorasei remained completely unchanged. But the even bigger hint to this is the fact that there are no noticeable changes in their appearance since even the Ohara incident which occurred over 20 years ago. Granted, we could only see their silhouettes back then, but if anything, the fact that their full appearances weren't actually shown supports this theory more than it disproves it. Because why would Oda explicitly hide faces of characters that were already introduced to us over 100 chapters before that scene? Was it simply to add an ominous feeling surrounding the downfall of Ohara? Or is it because it might have given away the biggest hint about the Gorasei secret by showing their unchanging appearance in the flashback? Because it would have certainly raised some speculations if the Gorasei were shown 20 years ago with no visible changes in their appearance from how they were introduced to us in the current timeline. At least from the details we saw, they didn't look 20 years younger then, and they certainly don't look 20 years older now from what we can see. So this could have been a deliberate move as revealing them would not only arouse suspicions and speculations so early in the series, but might also take away the focus from the more important events happening in that arc that Oda wanted us to pay attention to. Not to mention, there's also the fact that the Gorasei are never seen in public, where J. Garcia Satin, also the first and only member of the Gorasei so far, who were seen outside of the usual castle setting that they're often seen gathering together. I mean, before this plot development, I would never have even imagined that we could actually see one of them without the others because they're as tight as any successful boy band. So this might be, again, intentional, so that the Gorasei won't be revealed to the outside world that they in fact do not age. And even if they are immortal, we could at least confirm that they weren't alive the last time the Nika Devil Fruit was awakened and therefore not aware of the Gomu Gomu No Mi's true nature, calling it only a legend. So this gives rise to even more questions about the Gorasei, but nevertheless, it's hard to deny that there is more than meets the eye when it comes to the Gorasei's mortality. But the bigger mystery that has since captured our attention is the mysterious source of power for these five men. As always, there are a lot of different possible explanations and inspirations behind the Gorasei's fearsome abilities. And the first possible inspiration is something that a lot of you have been leaving in my comments. Where are the Wild Things Are? For those of you who are not familiar, Where the Wild Things Are is a well-known children's book about a boy who escaped into his imagination to a world filled with monsters. The boy ended up taming these monsters, who made him their king. Within the short book, there is one particular image. And I have to say that this illustration and the awfully very quick out-of-context summary of the story I just gave sounds like something you could apply to the situation between Imu and the Gorasei. As the illustrations show, the king is guiding his five wild monsters. Looking closely and comparing this to the Gorasei's silhouettes, it's easy to think that perhaps Oda's idea for the Gorasei has been somewhat inspired by the children's book. You could even see that at least two of the five shadows we saw have some uncanny resemblance to that of the monsters in the children's book. So could the Gorasei be something that was created out of Imu's imagination? And the shadowy figures are their real forms, with their human forms simply being vessels they use to show the rest of humanity. Or there's another inspiration that may have added to the conception of the Gorasei. And that is the Wu Fang Shangdi, or in English, the Five Faces of Heaven. If you're familiar with Chinese cosmology and religion, then you're probably aware that there are a number of different gods that are worshipped, and you may even know that the Wu Fang Shangdi is among many of these gods. Now there is a lot of information about these five faces of heaven. So as not to overwhelm you, I will only share with you only what I think are the key elements that may have inspired the Gorasei. The Wu Fang Shangdi are five emperors who are the physical manifestations of God and the Taoist concept, Tian. They are also known as the Five Kind Faces of Heaven, and can manifest themselves into different forms, including the form of a physical human and celestial constellations. And this is where things get interesting. Individually, these five gods are each associated with five different colors, and similar to what we expect of the Gorasei, each are also associated with the five key planets of the solar system. And let's use the only confirmed Gorasei name as an example to create a link between the Gorasei and the Wu Fang Shangdi. Firstly, the different colors of the five gods are yellow, blue, green, black, red, and white. Their astral bodies are Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and Venus, which in the real world are the first five planets that were discovered, making them the five oldest planets, similar to the Gorasei's English translated name, the Five Elder Stars. And using the only name we've had confirmed of the Gorasei, we can create links between the members and the Wu Fang Shangdi. J. Garcia Saturn would be the obvious representative of the yellow deity named Huang Di associated with the planet Saturn. Now without the names or even a clear color scheme for the other Gorasei members, it's difficult to assign a deity for each of them. And although we can't concretely declare that the Wu Fang Shangdi played a part in inspiring the Gorasei, something I do find to be such an interesting coincidence is that although Saturn himself doesn't obviously represent the color yellow, he is traveling with one, the yellow monkey, Kizaru. But potential inspirations aside, what about the source of their powers? The most straightforward, obvious answer would be that their ominous silhouettes are the work of devil fruits. But what type of devil fruits exactly? If you look at the shadowy figures, they all seem to take shape of monsters that are the result of zoan devil fruits. And if they do each have zoan devil fruits, then it's safe to assume that this late in the story, most of them will be awakened. One of the shadows can even be seen with what seems to be ring clouds, which has been shown to be a characteristic of an awakened zoan. And speaking of awakened zoans, two of the silhouettes have some similarities to that of the Jailer beasts in Impale Down. But given we're coming from an arc that was just filled with zoan devil fruit users, we could argue both that either Oda will not be writing another zoan devil fruit focused arc again, or that Wano was simply a small introduction to the theme of ancient zoans, to the mythical zoan types. I mean, after all, now that Luffy is confirmed to have a mythical zoan fruit, then it would be fitting to raise the stakes and have his future opponents to be at least on the same tier as the fruit that he possesses, which is the source of the Gorasei's powers. Or is it? Because there might be also another possible explanation about the Gorasei's abilities, and that has something to do with vagapunk. We know that vagapunk's research involves finding out the secrets behind devil fruits and has tried to recreate them in the past. So from what we've seen, he was only able to create a zoan devil fruit because it has the easiest pathway to the lineage factor. Vagapunk thinks his artificial devil fruit modeled on Kaido's is a failure. But as we know, this belief is just due to the color of Momonosuke's dragon and has nothing to do with the function or the transformation once it matures. So wait, am I suggesting that vagapunk gave the Gorasei artificial devil fruits that were not fully researched and tested? Well, no. The Gorasei's prowess has been portrayed to be above anything as far as the world government is concerned. In fact, I would even doubt that the Gorasei would actually eat experimental devil fruits themselves just to avoid the risk of being fed some other creation that will cause them to die. So if the Gorasei don't have devil fruit powers, then what could it be? Well, did you notice something strange about their actions in chapter 1085? While they all seem to be fighters, one particular thing they all have in common is the fact that they are all using weapons, taking them out at the same time with the intent on using it against someone in a wheelchair like Cobra seems to be an overkill, doesn't it? I mean, what is sword wielding Gandhi even planning to do here? Cut Cobra up after his friends shoot him? So another idea is that Vegapunk is behind the Gorasei's power and that these creatures might have even been inspired by Vegapunk's personal connections. For example, the bird-like figure might turn out to be a Garuda, which is a divine eagle and the king of birds. But with Garuda also being another name for Vinsmoke Judge, aka a nickname of a former acquaintance of Vegapunks. While Vegapunk was working on perfecting an artificial devil fruit for a human to consume, he may have already perfected a stage before this, which is creating an artificial devil fruit that can be consumed by a weapon with no issue. And the Gorasei were planning to show these to Cobra, whether as an act of intimidation or as some sort of liberating truth for them. Meaning that the Gorasei themselves were not the ones who transformed into the monsters, but instead those figures came out of each of their weapons. It certainly wouldn't be the first time we've seen something like this, such as in the case of Funkfree. And this is something Vegapunk could have achieved at a much younger age, around the same time that the cover story for Chapter 1075 is set, which is when we saw Vegapunk receive an audience with the Gorasei, which may be why Oda decided to draw this cover story in the first place. And again, let's use Saturn to speculate on what type of devil fruit either the Gorasei or their weapons could have eaten. Looking at the positions of the Gorasei and then the respective shadows in another panel, Saturn seems to have transformed into this monster with the horns. With J Garcia Saturn being inspired by Jerry Garcia, an American musician of Spanish descent, knowing that information, J Garcia could be the holder of a zoan fruit model Toro or Bull in Spanish. But what if J Garcia's weapon instead ate the devil fruit? This would make J Garcia the tamer of a bull, and a fitting name would be to call him a Matador. And personally, I think this description is much cooler. Not to mention a unique spin on the use of devil fruits in the series. Especially if these devil fruits turn out to be ferocious, mythical, or ancient zoans like the Gerudo, or another deity figure like the Dalsim, which is what this silhouette reminded me of. Ultimately, all of them being insanely wild beings that would overwhelm most other individuals who tried to wield them, but the Gorasei are actually formidable beings themselves who tamed their own devil fruits, maybe the Gorasei even being master hockey users. Who knows? And with J Garcia's Saturn en route to Egghead Island, it may not be too long until we find out. There is a lot to appreciate about the setup that has now been established, with the small glimpse we've received only recently. Saturn's appearance in the main timeline now almost guarantees that his powers will be elaborated on, which I'm sure will open the door to even more speculations and ideas about the Gorasei's abilities. Will they each be assigned a deity and be represented by specific colors? Will they be the user of devil fruit themselves or have another connection to devil fruits through their weapons? Will this all come back to Dr. Vega Punk, who is the primary character for this arc? Well, as always, let me know what you think by leaving a comment below. Please do like, share and subscribe. Thank you to all our Patreon and channel members. And a big thanks to all of you for listening to another one of my ramblings. This is Joygirl and I'll see you again soon.