Warning: Contains spoilers for chapter #1110 of One Piece.
Summary
The Five Elders may not be devil fruit users but are devils themselves, giving them the ability to swim. Eliminating the devil fruit user’s fundamental weakness makes the Five Elders even stronger. The Five Elders’ true form represents the evil side of the Heavenly Dragon and the World Government.
A piece finally revealed the power of the ultimate villain, the Five Elders, and with it came the revelation of a new level of power that even the strongest devil fruit users have yet to achieve. The five elders are quickly becoming the most powerful villains Luffy has ever encountered with abilities never seen before in the series, and the latest chapter reveals that there may be more to their powers more than what you see. .
One Piece chapter #1110 finally reveals the true form of the Five Elders, which seems to be inspired by a variety of demons and mythical creatures. However, this chapter does not reveal the names of the Five Elder’s devil fruits, instead introducing them as the creatures they can transform into. This vague introduction along with the Five Elders teleporting to Egghead via pentagrams suggests that The Five Elders may not be devil fruit users but devils themselves.
This means that the Five Elders lack the one weakness that causes people to use devil fruits no matter how strong the devil fruit is, which is the inability to swim. If so, the Five Elders may also be immune to the effects of the sea prism stones, and defeating them may not be as easy as throwing them into the sea.
The five elders could be literal demons
One Piece written by Eiichiro Oda, chapter 1110 “Starfall”
The inability to swim has been a key weakness for all Devil Fruit users and has been one of the most basic aspects of the power system from the start. Even the strongest devil fruits like the Nika Fruit retain this weakness, which helps keep the power system somewhat grounded, especially when the devil fruit’s powers start to become more and more ridiculous. The fact that the world of One Piece is covered by oceans makes this simple responsibility quite important and will make the Five Elders even more invincible than they thought.
Surely, if the Five Elders were truly devil fruit users, the series would just introduce them by their devil fruit names, as usual. However, the latest chapter deliberately avoids doing so, which suggests that there may still be some other secrets about the Five Elders’ power. One popular theory is The Five Elders may have somehow merged with their devil fruit, become demons whose fruits are modeled after themselves, similar to how the prison beasts in Impel Down were taken over by their fruits. If true, this means there will be a next stage for devil fruit users, a stage that even the strongest people like Kaido or Luffy have yet to reach.
Interestingly, there are many myths and legends surrounding devil fruits in the One Piece world, including Rumor has it that devil fruits are inhabited by demons or reincarnations of demons. Although Vegapunk recently gave a scientific explanation for how devil fruits work by saying that they affect the so-called lineage factor, it is possible that one of these legends is just as true. The theory of the Sun God Nika. After all, if gods like Nika exist, then demons are nothing to worry about.
The Five Elders Still Possess Many Secrets
Overall, it is ironic that the five overseers of the world who possess such demonic power would call themselves “gods.” Although it is clear from the beginning that the inhabitants of the Sanctuary are not virtuous or good in any way shape or form, the true form of the Five Elders certainly represents the true evil nature of the Heavenly Dragon and the World Government simultaneously confirmed the Sun God. Nika becomes their destined enemy.
However, the latest chapter only provides a glimpse of the Five Elder’s abilities and they may still have more up their sleeves. Although the final Egghead arc revealed a lot of new information about them, Five elders are still the most mysterious villains in A piece and the truth about their powers could very well change the way fans view devil fruits forever.
A piece available from Manga Plus and Viz Media.