Prelude or: Inspiration Strikes[]
Important: For those that don't read the entirety of something before taking action/responding - something I deem very much unwise for anything, much less written works - new, interesting information has come up since typing this out, and I'll be including an update at the bottom to present what's been reminded of/learned, and lastly, what I make of it. This is to say something you may have noticed was missing, or a correction had may have already been addressed in the relevant section, so please refrain from posting until everything's been read. Thanks in advance!
Original post below.
I just realised what day it was, and must stress to any potential readers this is NOT AN APRIL FOOLS' "JOKE".
I believe that "holiday" should be stricken from history, as all it does is prey upon the less-research-ready, and easily-trusting. With that being said, for a bit of background, I've been avidly following this series, and Wiki since 2016, but have shied away from contributions on the assumption I had nothing to correct, optimise, or otherwise contribute.
Due to seeing a bit of trivia missing from 2 characters' pages, and getting confirmation I wasn't misremembering, alongside the assurance nobody else has published a similar hypothesis about it, I can say for an absolute fact (A my previous image of being useless on here was incorrect, and (B I have a theory with potentially ground-shaking implications.
I do admit I've been - perhaps unwisely, due to my theory of Metroid Dread as the "long dead and buried Nintendo game revived for development on Switch" being proven before I could finish making a script for a video on it - waiting more than a bit for Oda-san to lend additional credence to it before saying anything, but with the 3 week hiatus making fans (me included) more rabid for anything even slightly new and/or interesting, I thus bring you my semi-wild theory.
The Eyes of the Kingdom[]
To start things out, months, or perhaps years ago, I was browsing in between chapters (as is somewhat normal), and found myself on Zunesha's page. While I was scrolling through, however, something caught my eye...specifically Zunesha's own.
"Wait a minute..." my super-analytical Autistic brain realised, "Isn't that the same style of eye Imu has...?" Looking at it back then, I found I was correct in my observation. From here, the theorising continued, and I eventually came to realise more, but opted to see if more proof, or disproof would surface in the coming chapters. It did, but I succumbed to the Spectrum-given curse of attention diversion, not a thought about this coming to mind until I was editing another article (I'll continue doing that after this is published).
"Oh, yes; that's right! Imu had the same eyes as Zunesha... Has anybody made note of this yet?!"
No, they had not.
"Well surely, then, Imu's page has it..."
No, again.
"Am I even remembering correctly?"
Absolutely.
"Well, if nobody's made this theory on the wiki, it simply must exist elsewhere online, no?"
The answer, yet again was a "No, they somehow had not." ...only this time, I learned (Thanks to Either-Witness1196 on Reddit, whom had their own conclusion) Dracule Mihawk also has the exact, same double-ringed eyes.
We thus have 3 characters with a shared eye style (albeit each differently-coloured), but that's far from their only relation:
- All 3 have elements that would allow them to live through the Void Century:
- Zunesha was canonically-stated to have lived through it.
- Imu was noted as having a similar name to one of the World Government's founding monarchs.
- ...and loosest, currently, Dracule has a strong vampire motif.
- All 3 (thanks to Either-Witness1196 for pointing this out) have seemingly communicated telepathically before:
- Lastly, all 3 have strong connections to the World Government:
- Imu is the true king of the aforementioned organisation, sitting upon the Empty Throne, and thus the literal "King" of the world.
- Zunesha is being punished for a transgression which occurred during the Void Century.
- Mihawk was one of the Shichibukai, and now hunts Marines - the troops of the World Government - as a member of Cross Guild.
So what can one make of all this?
Simply put, I believe all 3 of them are remnants of the "Moon People" whom stayed behind when the others left, to shape the world, and/or are of the ancient kingdom whose downfall lead to the Void Century.
Imu, as stated above, was noted as having a "Similar name" to one of the Government's founders. This more-than-explicitly implies that they literally are that very individual. Even within series lore, this lifespan is not too far-fetched, or outright impossible: Doflamingo's reason for taking Law in was not resulting from any care to he as a person, rather due to the fact one can use the Ope Ope no Mi to make the ultimate sacrifice: foregoing what's left of their life tp grant a person an unlimited amount of theirs. Since it was never said the "operation" erased the fruit alongside the user's remaining lifespan, this means it will simply manifest in another nearby fruit, post-operation, like all the other Devil Fruits. As such, the immortality operation could have been done multiple times, by multiple users, to multiple people throughout history. Imu, alongside all 5 of the Elders may very well be living testament to this.
That being said, not every remnant of the people is a "patient" of the Ope Ope no Mi.
Zunesha is an elephant with an incredibly long lifespan, yes...but they're also an elephant, right...?
Currently, yes, but as the Jailors of Impel Down have shown, when some users awaken their Zoan fruits, they take on a permanent bestial appearance while inheriting the mind of one, as well, effectively becoming that animal. Could it thus be that Zunesha's not an Elephant, but an Awakened Elephant-Type Fruit user? Admittedly, they don't think like an elephant, but as Imu and Mihawk have shown, the possessors of this eye type have demonstrated incredible power: Imu is the literal world leader, whose strength and abilities have not been fully-shown, no, but even the Gorosei bow to them as a superior, Dracule is the "World's Greatest Swordsman", and Zunesha carries an entire civilisation on their back, while still walking freely through the sea, to say nothing of the mental feats shown by each. Moreover, Kaku and Lucci both have awakened their fruits without losing their minds (in spite of the fact it was stated by Shaka that Lucci should have.), so it could very-well be only the weak, or bestial-minded succumb to a fully-wild nature, Zunesha's kind mind staying intact. As for a Naitamie-Norida Elephant Fruit existing, when Zunesha''s still the only one we've seen (implying species extinction, if only unintentionally): Derringer being a Fighting Fish-man shows fictional species of Oda's invention can exist as hybrids, so when one considers that - especially given the presence of Mythical Zoans as a type, a fruit of this sort is not-at-all far-fetched, I feel.
"But wait!", you've probably realised, "the now CP-0 Agents have shown ability to control this ability, while Zunesha's entirely an animal! Theory disproven!"
To this, I counter by saying the World Governement's been shown to commit exceptionally cruel acts, murderous and nihilistic acts, view themselves as superior, and we've even seen the second-in-command group listing humans as "Mere insects". This means the higher-ups are completely devoid of empathy, compassion, and morality, and as such, I counter this claim with another theory that Zunesha's punishment is to carry Zou on its back, and wander the oceans, yes...but also be unable to turn back into their original form, lest the only home of an endangered race, and the lives of those within be destroyed. True, the wanderer could simply drop them off on an island before going off, but I feel - given Zunesha's size - no island could occupy them even if the World government wouldn't erase both from history if the sentence was circumvented.
What about Mihawk, whose canonically-stated to only be 43 post timeskip, though? He couldn't have possibly been around at that time, right?
As noted before, Mihawk's character is heavily inspired by lore and legend of Vampires, with "Dracule" being a direct reference to Dracula. Vampires, as popularised, are considered voracious bloodsuckers, whom keep the age they were "turned" at, and can only be killed by the light of the sun, or an oaken stake through the heart. At the same time I admit Vampires can only eat the blood of their victims, and Dracule's - if memory serves - been shown eating something other than Haemoglobin multiple times in-series, while also outdoors in daylight (albeit in a face-shadowing hat that extends well past his shoulders). Surely I can't be insinuating he's a Hito Hito no Mi: Model Vampire user, right?
That's exactly what I'm doing, actually.
Keep in mind even awakened Zoan users have shown control over their shape, if strong enough in mind, and will. Mihawk has demonstrated strength with his proficiency in 2 forms of Haki alone. Of course, the elephant in the room (This is not a pun; I'm discussing Mihawk now) is the lack of even hinting at Devil Fruit powers, much less specifically vampiric ones...and we've not even seen vampires in-series, right?
Not canonically, no, however the wiki tells me - I'm waiting until Summer to play it, as islands, sea, and sand are summer things - Patrick Redfield, antagonist of Unlimited World Red, was actually possessing of a Batto Batto no Mi, Model: Vampire Fruit. Even more interesting, is the fact they were designed by none other than Oda-San himself. This wiki does not state if the Devil Fruit was also an invention of the author, no, however, I find this a bit too coincidental to be unintentional, especially given the link between the two characters:
- They both have Amber-coloured eyes.
- They're both vampire-themed
- They both wear capes
- ...and while this is probably coincidental, both of the characters wield rather long implements. Dracule having the sword, and Patrick having the cane.
Oda-san, as well, is absolutely no stranger to repurposing unused ideas, nor emulating non-canonical fruits, as Shiki existed conceptually for years before being non-canonically-realised in Strong World, and the non-canonical Ame Ame no Mi's theme of "Candy" would be realised years later (albeit not with the same properties) in the Pero Pero no Mi. While I've no mind to try and dig all of them up, numerous other non-canonical fruits have also seen elements carried into canonical fare. Additionally, I find the lack of Early Designs for Mr. Mihawk to be rather suspicious, as that doesn't disprove Patrick was once - in all but name, keeping the same appearance and powers - Dracule Mihawk.
Addressing the lack of seeing actual Vampires in-canon, this is true...at the moment. As I said above, Zunesha's the only elephant of the species we've seen, and, while I avoided extrapolating upon it until I could give evidence without breaking the flow of this, Mythical Zoans exist, with literally all of them embodying animals not glimpsed in the wilds of any island thus-visited:
- Yamato's Inu Inu no Mi, Model: Okuchi no Makami
- Catarina Devon's Inu Inu no Mi, Model: Kyubi no Kitsune
- Onimaru's Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Onyudo,
- Luffy's Hito Hito no Mi: Model Nika (though, that's more a one-off god, like Sengoku's Fruit.)
- all
- 5
- of
- the
- Elders
- Marco's Tori Tori no Mi, Model: Phoenix
- Though not confirmed, some theorise Chopper's Hito Hito no Mi may actually be a "Model: Sasquatch" on Awakening, resulting from his appearance in Human mode having elements of his animal mode, and the fact said fruit would be useless if it was eaten by a human.
Oda's also been more-or-less accurate to the source material on these things, too, which leads me to Mihawk's Vampiric tendencies.
For starters, while yes, he has been seen in direct sunlight, he's almost-never without a face-shadowing, wide-brimmed hat. If this is trying to keep him out of direct sunlight, then it's not the best attempt at doing so, especially given he walked without it at age 19, but as I mentioned it before, and somebody would likely point out its absence from here, were it as such, I mention it anyway. More concrete, and not immediately disprovable, is him drinking red liquid from a wineglass in the gallery on this very wiki. Yes, this could be argued as "red fluid in a wine glass is red wine, dingus...", but Oda's both hidden things in plain sight, and made thinks counter to what they appeared in the past (more on that later), When one factors in Dracula in the Castlevania series, who appears to have visually-inspired Dracule, is often seen with a wine glass of blood, I don't think it at-all far-fetched this could have been blood disguised as wine. Last for the smaller things, he was shown as not only living in a castle during the time-skip, but with another "Ghoul" at his side in the form of Perona. Given she introduced Ghosts in the same arc that also gave us zombies, created by a pair of decidedly Vampiric-looking characters, I find this way too coincidental to not be intentional.
To close out my body of evidence, I'd like to give the most compelling piece for his presence as a third remnant of the Moon People and/or Great Kingdom dwellers: his lack of ageing. Yes, he's changed both his outfit, and facial hair since that aformentioned picture, but that's literally it as far as changes go. Looking at the screenshot of "Him at 19", and comparing it to one at "43" nothing has physically-changed with his face. How else would this occur, if not by a fruit that gave one effective immortality, stopping one's ageing the second they ate it? Moreover, while we've seen what he looked like as a child, we still don't know when he was one, and while the the wiki-listed age by Oda-San is ad verbatum, anybody who's even gone on a cursory look into the series should know how coy the author can be (A quote involving "5G" cell-towers as a reference to Gear 5, the Gomu Gomu no Mi making the user's body flexible, then making reality itself flexible on-awakening.), him deploying instances where things were intentionally made to look as though they were something else (Showing Sabo's "death", making it look as though Brook turned against his allies in his battle with Giolla), and as said earlier, hiding others in plain site (Every use of Haki pre-timeskip, Ace being Gol D. Roger's son, the Will of D. in general). Thus his saying Dracule was "41" could simply be saying the age at which he ate his fruit. Either way, I have a hard time believing one becomes the "World's Greatest Swordsman", finds out - given it was never said who trained him - about Haki, nor becomes that efficient with it in a single lifetime.
One point against the theory I've been weaving, I realise, is why, when all 3 of these characters are implied to be near-immortal members of an as-of-yet-fully-revealed race born from a single entity, two of them are turning against the final one.
Put simply, I think Imu is a turncoat. We know that 20 kingdoms allegedly fought against one, and Nefertari D. Lili scattered the Poneglyphs, as well as the fact some Devil Fruits "Choose" their users, while others - like the Hito Hito No Mi, Model: Nika - elude the grasp of others. Additionally, Zunehsa was stated as being punished for the crime of aiding Joy Boy, making this fact. Along the same lines, one can factually-prove Dracule Mihawk started out helping the World Governemnet, (though without showing even so much as a pirate crew, let alone engaging in any pirate-like activitie), before beginning to hunt them as part of Cross Guild.
What we don't know, however, is Imu's origin.
Could it thus be, that the "Moon People" (whose ruins Enel found) had a sect whom opted to stay behind and shape the world their kind left, yet Imu, realising the weak could be conquered sought to bring down his people for their "Weakness"? Maybe it was more personal than that, and Imu was a prisoner who sought to taste the very power of authority that lead to his life being ruined, thus rebelling? What if the ancient kingdom was the real antagonist, and the 20 who fought thought Imu dead, or were otherwise tricked into preserving the ideals of their enemy, and they were actually hunted by the great kingdom, rather than vice-versa? What if none of these hypotheses is correct, and on seeing the technology that his kind had wrought, knew of the suffering it would bring, so sought to make sure - however drastic the means - said technology would never come to rise again, making him a more tragic figure?
Those are just the ones related to Imu's past, too. Touching upon others I have, and one may be asking: Is Imu as aware of Mihawk as he is Zunesha, but left the former alone due to his - at first - seeming to be an ally? Were the Devil Fruits created by Imu, or against Imu? Is the Hito Hito No Mi: Model Nika the only fruit whose true name and powers were hidden, or have other censored fruits with similarly-evasive attitudes towards the leaders existed? What does the Will of D. have anything to do with this? Are they the champions of the original 20/the Great Kingdom, or the result of their using Lineage Factor to engineer some destroyers? Who was the first Joy Boy, and how did they know it would take 800 years for their "return"? Were they, given the giant Straw Hat seen in Mary Geosie, the first Giant?
Whether hinting at something far greter, or simply being a stylistic choice, one thing is certain at the time of writing this: Imu, Zunesha, and Dracule Mihawk all have the exact, same style of iris...even when not glaring.
Afterword: Thank You![]
Thank you dearly for taking the time (provided you didn't skip right to this section) to read this. Maybe I'm completely insane, or maybe this is a complete stroke of brilliance. Either way, I spent literally 6 hours typing, revising, and proof-reading the above so it's way too late to leave it unpublished.
Thus, as it's now out and about in the world, please do not hesitate to give you thoughts, feelings, counterpoints, or evidence I missed in the comments; you can rest assured I'll give you credit and list your contributions in the actual body of text.
Admittedly I don't know if any significance is had by the colour of Zunesha's and Mihawk's eyes, but I think the main vallain's being red to menacingly smbolise anger is a very intentional choice by Oda-san.
Lastly, and speaking of, I would very much like to thank Oda-san himself for continuing to enrich the lives of all fans with this meticulously-detailed world that's been with us for so long, as well as for proving literally any concept can go beyond the sum of its parts if done in an engaging manner.
I thus wish you, reader a good rest of your day, and Oda-San luck with/in his hiatus.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who was shocked to hear the identity of the One Piece wasn't one of the first plot points come up with, and hope it to be a more symbolic treasure.
Update 1: Revelation and Remembrance[]
Welp, I wasn't expecting to be making an update to this literally the day after publishing, but when going through to add the bit of eye-related Trivia to the relevant pages, I was reminded of some things about Dracule.
First, Way before becoming a member of Cross Guild, and even a Shichibukai, he was a feared "Marine Hunter", meaning no, Imu most likely did not know of, but let him roam free. This also means Cross Guild's mission wasn't the surprise rebellion I thought it to be, rather more of the same anti-authority sentiment and action.
Secondly, his bounty is literally one of the highest in the series, surpassing that of even Post-Wano Luffy. This says to me he's absolutely a high priority target...one Imu's possibly been trying to reclaim as prisoner by any means necessary. Another takeaway one can have of this is Mihawk's disdain for the World Government, and how hard it was tried at literally every point in his history to bring them down.
This wasn't the only thing, though: unlike both Imu, and Zunesha's pages, Mihawk's actually did not only note his eyes being the same style as the other two, but named a totally-unexpected 4th character with the trait...
"Caribou?!"
In a bit of disbelief I hopped over to the relevant page, and had my shock verified. Yes, Caribou has the same eyes.
At first, I was admittedly a bit crestfallen, as this seemed to show me I was grasping at straws, and I'd lost what little credibility as a theoriser I already thought I had. This was before I started to think upon things, though, and in a bit of an "AHA!" moment, I realised said swamp-man was nowhere near as thematically-detached from the rest of the group as I initially thought. Caribou may have started out that way, yes, but even way back in the Return to Sabaoday Arc, he was both burying specifically Marines alive, as well as engaging in slave trading. Both of these have interactions, albeit of opposite benefit, with the World Government, yes, but alone, it would only be loose at best.
What's not as loose are the actions undertaken the last time we saw him. Though it's been a few weeks, even those reading the helpful, timely synopses of chapters found across this Wiki should have full recollection of him last being seen held at gunpoint by Van Augur. In order to prevent getting a haki-infused-bullet-based demise, the slaver informed his would-be executioner he had not only come to join Teach's crew, but - factually - had also seen both Poseidon, and Pluton in-person, being more than willing to divulge its location to the sniper's captain.
Thus, a seemingly-insignificant villain has been set up as having the power to bring about the entire world's downfall.
I have my own theory about Pluton (which I'll definitely be sharing, if nobody else has postulated as such), but, while its appearance has yet to be confirmed, we do have the following information:
1: It can be reproduced.
2: It has the power to destroy entire islands in the same fashion as both a Buster Call, and the mysterious Mother Flame (Which I highly-suspect is fired - seeing as Poseidon is an aquatic weapon, like the namesake god - from the sky-inhabiting Uranus, but I'll expound upon that in my Ancient Weapons theory...).
If Teach had a literal fleet of Pluton, then Mary Geosie itself could likely be destroyed, especially if the Mother Flame only has the coverage of an island, and needs recharging before it's fired again.
Of course, one may have noticed I've yet to mention how - if my original theory was resulting from the eyes signifying not just whether someone's government-significant, but a member of the original Great Kingdom - Caribou is still alive and well. I admit it's a bit of a stretch, especially when I justified Mihawk as being incapable of ageing due to a Vampire fruit (him wearing crosses doesn't disprove this, as those would only affect a vampire hybrid, or full vampire mode, and he probably wouldn't need either if capacity was had to turn into a bat and/or the form was a more bestial-type vamp with claws and fangs...), but I doubt I'm the only one who thinks the "Brother" of Caribou looks nothing like him, outside of having similar lips and default expressions.
Coribou has a different-shaped chin, nose, and drastically-lighter skin colour. As well, his eyes are differently shaped...and lacking irises at all, much less the distinct layered ones of focus in here. I absolutely am insinuating the two are not actually brothers. "But we've seen the pair as children, and if Caribou was that way when Coribou was also one, that means Coribou's also immortal." We've seen them...from the back. This could have been a totally different person, especially given the signature darker-skin of Caribou was a paper-white in this depiction. While no, we've not seen anybody but Bentham, and Catarina doing as such, characters have canonically changed their appearance before, and while no Logia user has demonstrated an ability of the sort, Caribou's swamp form is more than a bit clay-looking, and as-such, he could very well be changing shape to look like the lost brother of Coribou, and/or hiding his real age (provided the moon people don't inhabit a planet whose year is hundreds of them in One Piece World-time...like the giants of the world).
I do admit this has some issues, least of which is that I'm insinuating Caribou is a Clayface facsimile, especially when we see him "disguised" as a revolutionary commander while retaining his outward appearance...but this could have been to benefit the reader (I admittedly haven't seen the context for this, only the article-included image.). I can also foresee the appearance of "Caribou is tanned from sun exposure", to which I'd ask "Then why isn't Coribou, as well? He doesn't even have hair to shade him from it. Moreover, why is Caribou the only character literally ever shown to exhibit a change in skin-tone from UV ray exposure?"
I'm not saying my hypothesis is even a decent one, don't get me wrong, but the only absolute I derive from this is the fact Caribou's eyes are the almost-same colour as Zunesha's, meaning the colouration probably isn't as significant as I made it out to be before.