The how & why to understanding Dr. Vegapunk’s ‘satellites’

One Piece is known and beloved for its magical balance of fun, zany antics and heavy themes. So of course, the meditation on whether or not you can actually remove morality from science comes at the hand of seven colorful weirdos.

We’ve known for a long, long time in One Piece that Doctor Vegapunk is the foremost genius of this world. While a scientist explicitly on the payroll of the World Government, he’s also a huge pacifist, with ideals more in line with the Revolutionary Army than with the fascist-leaning World Government. And yet, he followed the funding.

But even the deep pockets of the World Government can’t give you everything. Vegapunk found that now that he had all the resources he desired, he still lacked the amount of time he needed to bring all of his ideas into the real world. And so he did what any of us would do: he separated his personality into six parts and created clones of himself. Duh!

Introducing the satellites

Sometime after moving to the government-sanctioned facility at Egghead, Vegapunk split his personality into six new people, each dominated by one specific trait. These six clones are referred to as the “satellites,” whereas the original Vegapunk became additionally known as the “Stella.” The satellites are also Vegapunk and will refer to themselves as such.

However, they all have different personalities from each other—and from the Stella as a whole. Their personalities are so distinct that, in Japanese, each satellite uses a different word for expressing themself in the first person.

The six satellites are: Shaka, who embodies good; Lilith, who embodies evil; Edison, who embodies thinking; Pythagoras, who embodies Wisdom; Atlas, who embodies violence; and York, who embodies greed. It should be heavily noted that these aren’t general embodiments of humanity’s violence or evil, but Vegapunk‘s specific sense of violence, evil etc. As such, Atlas—who self-professes that her job is to be violent—is an adorable big-eyed girl with a fluffy tail. Remember, Vegapunk is a pacifist.

You might also notice that Vegapunk is an old man, but not only do several of his satellites seem youthful—also three of them are female. It’s almost like gender is a spectrum, and we all have parts inside of us that we might feel are more “male” and more “female.” What an idea! (Also, hell yes the female ones are Evil and Violence and Greed. We’re comin’ for ya, and then we’re napping.)

A lot happens to Vegapunk and the satellites over the course of the Egghead arc. But that’s a tale for another time.