‘One Piece’ theories: Are Imu and the Five Elders connected? Like, physically?

The revelation of Imu’s existence was one of the most bizarre and shocking reveals in all of One Piece. After all, we met them while they were simply staring at a giant straw hat in a freezer. Imu then gets stabby with some wanted posters, including Luffy’s. “What the hell?!” we all thought.

The next time we see Imu, they order the kingdom of Lulusia to be utterly erased from existence via the Motherflame. So now we know Imu is powerful and scary. But it’s not until Sabo tell his side of the story of what really happened at the Reverie that Imu’s true power comes to light. The Egghead arc as a whole makes it perfectly clear that not only is there something up with Imu, but something is very up with the Five Elders as well.

Could those bizarre sources of power connected?

What they hell are they?

Major spoilers ahead for the Egghead arc of One Piece, up through (essentially) its conclusion

When Sabo crashes Cobra’s questioning of the Five Elders at the Reverie, we all discover that Imu sits upon the so-called Empty Throne. In other words, Imu is the secret ruler of the World Government, the authority even above the Five Elders.

But in many ways, that wasn’t the headline. The headline is that the Five Elders transformed into giant things. The Elders’ shadowy form in this moment, alongside the fact that they seemed to transform right after Imu shouted “Rook Check!” made fans wonder whether or not the Elders were somehow an extension of Imu.

Later on, at Egghead island itself, we learn that the Five Elders can transform into giant, demonic monsters. These could be Devil Fruit powers, but Oda usually reveals the names of Devil Fruits upon their usage. Which has led readers to wonder if they’re something else entirely.

The Five Elders can regenerate after receiving damage. They can also communicate telepathically and transport to the physical location of any given member. We’re not sure whether Imu can do these things, too. The teleportation and transformation can apparently be undone by powerful enough Conquerer’s Haki. All of which is strange, and perhaps a cue that the Elders and Imu are not conventionally “human.”

It does very much seem like both the Five Elders and Imu are immortal. But there’s one other hitch—the second that the Elders are sent back to Mariejois by Joyboy’s Haki, we see Imu shaking in his flower chamber and crying, “Joyboy!” But obviously, Imu was not at Egghead. You could theorize he shares the Elders’ telepathic channel, but Imu seems to be in physical distress.

That could point to Imu and the Elders being physically connected in some way. For rather, that the Elders are to Imu as the satellites are to Vegapunk. But the satellites are clones, autonomous entities who can live or die without affecting the others beyond tapping out of their shared memory system. It’s more likely that the Elders are a literal extension of Imu themself—like, sigh, a Horcrux.

There’s so much about Imu and the Five Elders that we don’t know. But we know enough to know that something is very, very off.