Yes, that’s the sovereign of the world, whose mere presence fills others with awe and solemn dread. Im is impressive. This is the type of impression Trebol wanted Doflamingo to create when he forced him to be king.
And he also can confirm this impression.
It’s now fully confirmed that Im is connected with the Buddha. Not only is his name, イム, made up of the radicals used in the kanji 仏, Buddha, but also Mu (negative) is an important concept in Buddhism.
Seems like the Five Elders represent the five aggregates of clinging, matter, sensations, perception, formations, and consciousness, the elements making up the physical and mental existence of each person. The symbol of the World Government itself denotes everything that exists in the material world, and has five points.
In Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, the lords of the Five Buddha Families, Vairochana, Akshobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amitabha, and Amoghasiddhi, are associated, among other things, with the five aggregates of clinging. They are sometimes seen as emanations and representations of the five qualities of the Adi-Buddha or "first Buddha", the highest anima mundi.
I was thinking the accidentally-revealed colours for Mars's Itsumade form really looks like a houou (feng huang/Asian phoenix).
It's got almost the same colours, even to the red head/face with golden frills on the neck. The difference is that Itsumade has a tail like a dragon, while the houou has multicoloured tail feathers
I wonder if this has a significance. Like in Japanese lore there is no specific colour given to the Itsumade, so sensei could've coloured it in any way he wants. Does he have a special reason to colour it similar to a houou or is it just for aesthetic?
Maybe it's for some kind of irony? Adapted from Chinese mythology, the feng huang/houou is the symbol of peace and a great ruler. Itsumade is associated with a lot of death.
It has been mentioned that the Nerona in Imu's name might be a reference to Nero. Or perhaps specifically, a painting titled "Pochodnie Nerona", which depicts Christian martyrdom.
Now, if this is correct and not coincidence, this specifically makes Jupiter's naming choice very very strange, because his name strongly alludes to Saint Peter the Apostle.
Jupiter's full name was Shepherd Juu Peter. Peter is Peter directly. The "juu" is written in kanji like this: 十. Literally it means the number 10, but it's also the shape of the cross. Cross-shaped objects, including the Christian cross, is referred to in Japanese as "juumonji", or "the shape of the kanji juu".
The Bible narrated that Jesus left a personal message to Peter alone. The wording may vary depending of the translation, but one of the forms used says "shepherd My sheep".
Apostle Peter was, according to tradition, executed by the order of Nero.
I've seen some comments in the fandom suggesting that someone among the Gorousei might actually be a turncoat, and I'm not sure what the existing theories were, but I wonder if this means that Jupiter is the one.
Certainly there's a few things about him that makes it feel like he's the odd man out. His beast form is not a "traditional Asian folklore beast", but a Western one. Possibly a relatively modern invention, even, since I wasn't able to find anything like a "sandworm" in older mythology. Far as I can tell, this was based on or adopted from Dune's sandworms.
The other Gorousei's faces were very very similar to their real life inspirations. Venus being based on Gandhi and Mercury based on Gorbachev is so dead-obvious it's not even funny. Jupiter's supposed "reference" was Abraham Lincoln, but unlike the other 4, the resemblance is not intuitive. I'm even personally of the opinion he doesn't look like Lincoln at all. There is the entire possibility he's not actually based on a real person at all, and if so, that's singling him out as different again.
And now for the wild guess that is mostly based on conjecture. I previously wrote that by the zodiac alignment, Jupiter's "beast" form should have been a dragon. You can stretch it and suppose that "sandworm" maybe counts as a "dragon" somehow (because wyrm and worm sounds similar), but unlike the other 4 this is not really intuitive either.
I have posted a couple of times saying that I have this theory that maybe before the World Noble Tenryuubito established themselves, there were a race of "real dragons" who may have lived on Red Line alongside the Lunarians. Maybe Jupiter's strange naming and his zodiac alignment hinted that he is actually a real dragon, and he's been hiding his true form to avoid being hunted.
It's not yet really explained why Lunarians are hunted, but it's not entirely off base to make a conjecture that: 1) there could be other ancient races on the red Line, and 2) they might have been hunted just like the Lunarians were. In which case, hiding one's identity is necessary.
Not to mention the strange scar he has on his neck. Sure, Saturn has a scar too, but the scar being on his neck really makes me wonder. I half-jokingly theorised that maybe he was the dragon Ryuuma cut down all those years ago.
The wording says "cut down" 斬り捨て. While this tends to imply "kill", this does not actually directly mean kill. It's just slashing the opponent with a critical blow. This still leaves the slimmest chance of the opponent being able to survive the strike.
The direction of the diagonal scar also is consistent with a standard samurai slash. Or any right-handed sword slash, even, since Zoro's scar from Mihawk also goes the same direction. I'm not entirely serious with this theory, but it's not impossible.
Oda-sensei revealed the colours of the Gorousei's beast forms in his volume cover drawing timelapse. It was like only there for a second, but you can see it if you pause the video.
I somehow kind of figured Mars would be colourful, but I definitely wasn't expecting Venus to be red...
I remember seeing a theory relating to Ju Peter. In Japanese (シェパード・十・ピーター聖) his name features what looks like a cross. Historically Saint Peter was crucified in Rome by Emperor Nero (known for his cruelty and sadism) on an upside down cross, as blame for starting a fire in Rome. It could tie into the belief that Ju Peter will betray (Nero)na Imu in some way in the story.
If there is going to be a traitor Gorosei, it's definitely Ju Peter. Based on the positioning of the Doflamingo / Imu panels, Ju Peter occupies the same position as Corazon would, if he were to have been in the picture (based on the positions of the swords in both panels). Additionally, Ju Peter is the only Gorosei that have questioned the World Government at any point. During Wano he questioned why the WG felt the need to hide the real name of the Gum-Gum Fruit. He was also the one who questioned Imu as to why they selected Lulusia. Finally the most important part that I believe to be the key to the puzzle lies in real life Christian theology. Saint Shepherd Ju Peter is named after Saint Peter. Assuming that Ivankov was right when speculating about Imu's identity, they would be Saint Nerona Imu. This namessake most likely is a reference to the real life Emperor Nero. And it just so happened that it's said that Emperor Nero killed Saint Peter by method of cruxification. The precedent for cruxification as a method of punishing Celestial Dragons has already been set with Figarland Garling killing Mjosgard in this way.
Plus ju Peter is named after the planet Jupiter named after the Roman god Jupiter the Roman equivalent to Zeus who is poseidon and hades/plutos brother both Poseidon and pluton are connected to imus enemies
That is true. There is strong references to Christian tradition and history in Juu Peter's name.
"Nerona" in reference to Nero's name specifically is connected to a painting named "Pochodnie Nerona", or "Nero's torches", a painting depicting Christian martyrdom.
十 is the "Ju", the number 10. It is indeed what the Japanese still use to say to refer to the Christian cross (十字 Juuji, lit. "the number 10 character"). Shepherd as well, is reminiscent of John 21:16 in the Bible, where Jesus addresses Peter. In the Japanese Bible, Jesus commanded Peter to "飼い" the sheep, which can be translated as "shepherd" the sheep.
I thought about it, but haven't made a full theory about it due to there still being too many vague elements about the Gorousei (and also I don't remember those Doflamingo panels, do you remember what chapter?)
