I don't usually post about One Piece (even if I would love to post about it more) but One Piece lately has been nothing but incredible & this latest chapter has reinforced that thought I had about this arc since it started...
...but the reason this time is different from seeing characters you haven't seen in years enter the action or taking the front stage in the story over the Straw Hats.
It's about this panel.
One Piece has never really been a scary manga, it has never scared me before until this panel. It is just terrifying to look at... We had great villains in OP before & for many different reasons but there hasn't been one villain (at least for me) that has been frightening just by the thought or sight of their mere presence like Im has. We know that they are the king of the world at this point, that is terrifying on it's own but that's not just what is terrifying here even if it still factors in the fear aspect of that panel.
No, what is terrifying here is that they look like a literal predator here, their eyes watching you (which are also very creepy looking), ready to strike at any point. Im unlike other villains so far, even the more powerful or serious ones in the series, means business, but like ACTUAL business. Like we had examples of what they are capable of, like what they did with Lulusia, they are deadly & you understand that very well. They want to stay in power & will go to any length possible to stay in that power. They even feel different from the Five Elders who are already threatening in their own way, Im doesn't look like they would make as much compromise or show mercy as the Five Elders could. They feel like a true threat in the story.
& the fact Im looks like a living shadow also plays in that aspect that they are untouchable and you can't quite get what they are. Are they even human or some other race or being in One Piece that we currently know ? It's just impossible to know because there is really no features from that character that can give us a hint about what they are. Almost supernatural in a way, and I don't mean that in a good way.
Im just gives me the creeps & you know the story is getting serious when they appear at some point in the story. & the fact we know Cobra died (which we know Im is definitely behind it now) yet I can still get frightened by their presence speaks level about Oda's talent as a storyteller.
Edit: To add to what I said:
The fact that some of the gards in the Pangaea Castle dissapear, clearly because of Im & in whatever room they were at the beginning of the Reverie, adds to the walking mystery aspect about them. No one apart from a very few people know about their existence or some people are straight up thinking it's a legend & all of it is not real. They are even a threat to their own allies or people serving under them.
Im has been there looming all over the story since the beginning, & the first hints of their existence was during the Dressrosra arc when Doflamingo was talking about the secrets he knew about the World Government. But there's probably other hints that Oda putted out there that we haven't even noticed yet... It lets you know how much influence they have on the story & how big of a deal they really are to be prepared for that long and for so many years by Oda.