Eiichiro Oda has mastered the craft of playing with his readers’ emotions and has been doing it for more than two decades. Now that the Gorosei’s true forms are slowly being revealed in the One Piece manga, their immortality is turning heads.
The Gorosei are immortals who control the Marines and sit at the top of the World Government. They have been ruling the World Government for centuries, and their presence might even date back to the Void Century. They are some of the major antagonists of One Piece, and their past is shrouded in mysteries.
However, in classic Oda fashion, hints of the secret behind their immortality were sprinkled throughout the manga, only for the clever to collect and string them together.
Are the One Piece Gorosei immortal?
It was recently confirmed that the Gorosei are immortal and the admission came from Luffy himself. Saturn summoned the Gorosei to stand against Luffy and stop the secrets of Egghead Island from leaking to the world.
The Five Elders were at first taking heavy damage, and Luffy was shocked that they exploded. However, in chapter 1111 of One Piece, the Straw Hat exclaimed that they were immortal.
How did the Gorosei become immortal? Which One Piece Devil Fruit is at play?
In the world of One Piece, Devil Fruits are the main driving force behind eerie powers. Thus, it isn’t a stretch to think that a fruit exists that can cause immortality. Specifically the Ope Ope no Mi, a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit, that helps the user remodel the anatomy of anything and anyone.
Currently, Trafalgar Law holds the powers of the fruit as he was force-fed by Donquixote Rosinante. While it was debuted in the Sabaody Archipelago Arc, it was not explained till the Puk Hazard Arc of One Piece. It is called the Ultimate Devil Fruit because of the ability of the user to cure untreatable diseases and grant eternal youth to others in exchange for the user’s life.
Law isn’t the first person to possess the fruit, which explains how the Five Elders could obtain immortality from a single fruit. However, there is one simple problem with this theory: Ope Ope no Mi grants eternal youth to a person, not eternal life. A person who attains eternal youth will remain in the prime of their body until they die, but death can still be caused.
The Gorosei, on the other hand, are old men who looked the same even during the Ohara Buster Call event. Ultimately, it depends on Oda which aspect of eternal youth he wants to focus on.
If the Gorosei did attain immortality through the Ope Ope no Mi, it means multiple Devil Fruit users were sacrificed for the Five Elders to receive such powers. Given the heartless cruelty of the antagonists, this is hardly a surprise.
But does it mean these Devil Fruit user sacrifices were planned by Imu to create his subordinates? Or were only immortals recruited into the team?
Regardless, another wild theory suggests that the Five Elders are just an extension of Imu, who is immortal. As Imu is immortal, it makes sense that the extensions of his ability would be immortals as well. Given that Imu is from the Void Century and the Ancient Kindom had far superior technology, this would explain the immortality of the Gorosei.
