How Imu's Bleeding Foreshadowed Gear 6th!
One Piece chapter 1179 was awesome. What if I told you that imu’s reveal, more specifically Imu bleeding, forshadowed Luffy unlocking gear 6? Well, what if I told you that Oda already gave the answer to Imu’s sickness 8 years ago ever since his introduction? A popular theory circulating around is that Imu is weak when he leaves the holy land, but to me this literally makes no sense. The Void Century war was Imu and the 20 kings vs Joyboy and the ancient kingdom, therefore, Imu wasn’t always in the Holy Land, he had to fight Joyboy on the surface world. And no, this is not only because of his fruit, because we see that Imu is bleeding even before he transforms.
The answer was right in our faces 8 years ago.Why did Oda draw Imu as a figure constantly wearing a black robe? What if I told you that Imu wears the black veil, the black robe, to protect him self from his natural enemy…. The sun. In every sense. Symbolically, and physically, Imu is weak to the sun, because thats what Joyboy represented, the sun in one piece = freedom, and Imu is the embodiment of oppression, the total opposite. In other words, Imu always has to protect him self from the sun by wearing a black robe. Even his hands are covered 24/7. Why does Imu have such dark skin? If it isn’t because of his Devil Fruit transformation, then perhaps it was because his skin is very sensitive to the sun? Also, why would someone wear a robe 24/7 indoors? And why is Imu never outdoors? Yes. Oda didn’t want to give away the reveal. But when it comes to things like this, it also has to make sense within the story. Yes, a ruler never dirties their own hands, but what if the reason Imu didn’t actually go to God Valley for real, was because of the sun?
The only downside to this theory is that Imu is bleeding when he arrives in Elbaf’s castle, but I’d like to argue that the black veil isnt the perfect armour against the sun, hence why the Gorosei were begging him not to go, Imu’s black robe is strong enough to protect him when he’s in Pangea castle, but bare naked to the outside world? Yeah. Clearly the sunlight rays or whatever can penetrate through Imu’s black robe. It’s the same way you can still feel the burn on your skin even if you wear a shirt on a hot day. Imu’s robe is like a weak armour.
Another thing nobody seemed to have brought up yet, is the possibility that Imu has reached a second level of awakening, like awakening 2.0, a bit like Super Saiyan 1, Super saiyan 2, Super Saiyan 3 etc. I believe Imu has reached the second level of awakening, why? Due to his completely unique zoan awakening ribbon. This is unlike anything we have seen before. I am not saying Oda was inspired by this for this exact moment, but Oda was inspired by Dragon Ball, and in Dragon Ball, the forms look drastically different each time, the same way the awakened zoan ribbons looks drastically different from the ones we have usually seen. So I believe that Luffy will have to also match Imu’s power, by using his own next level of awakening. An awakening that allows Luffy to turn his hair and fists into a very sun like structure, maybe this is the key to damaging imu? Imu may be on a time limit due to the sun, but Luffy’s own fire powers can add a double effect. Who knows? Of course, its still too early to tell, so comment down below what you guys think.