Impel Down Homage
Somorz used a technique called “Crimson Inferno” — Impel Down’s Level 4 is the Crimson Hell, confirming this is an Impel Down homage. The thorn spreading across the floor may be an awakening of Somorz’s fruit.
Gaban vs. Somorz maps to Bugori vs. Buggy in Impel Down. The shared features: body parts getting sliced cleanly off during battle; axe as the weapon; long-haired topknot; former member of the Roger Pirates. The parallels are deliberately stacked.
Skypiea Homage — and Elbaf’s “Heaven”
The last panel of this chapter: Im-sama’s expression is identical to Enel performing CPR on himself to return from death. The Skypiea homage sequence continues. And the Loki-as-snake theory predicts that Loki will fill the role of the giant snake (Uwabami) from Skypiea — we’ll see if that holds.
Speaking of Skypiea: above Giant Jack’s peak was the Golden Belfry, and embedded in its base was one of the most important items in the series — a Poneglyph bearing Roger’s signature. In the earlier chapters showing Elbaf’s layout, the uppermost layer, “Heaven” (天界), was introduced but never explained — no detail on what’s there or who lives there. Given that Elbaf’s primary structural reference is Skypiea, the Heaven layer almost certainly contains something at the level of the Golden Belfry: an Ancient Weapon, a Road Poneglyph, or perhaps the tree from which Devil Fruits grow.
Im-sama is Moria’s Superior
Gunko possessed by Im-sama this chapter resembles Moria’s ability to swap positions with Doppelman (his shadow double). There are other parallels that have been accumulating between Im-sama and Moria:
At the end of Egghead, Saturn decayed. At the end of Thriller Bark, Moria absorbed 1,000 shadows and bloated to an enormous size — the visual is nearly identical. The interpretation: Im-sama lends out abilities the way Moria lends shadows. Specifically, Im-sama lends “agelessness.” Saturn maintained his immortality by borrowing Im-sama’s power. When Saturn failed and Im-sama cut him off, the suppressed aging caught up all at once and Saturn was destroyed. The Five Elders are all in the same borrowed-power position — all killable at Im-sama’s discretion, which is why absolute obedience is the only option they have.
The structural contrast: Moria uses others’ shadows to animate corpses — manipulating death. Im-sama uses others’ bodies to manipulate life — lending life, withdrawing it. Clean opposite design.
The Gunko/Im-sama relationship is still unclear, but if Im-sama was the one who stabbed Cobra in “that day’s truth,” the attack method resembles the Aro-Aro fruit’s arrows exactly. Is Gunko = Im-sama in some split-personality sense, like Diavolo and Doppio from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 5? Or can Im-sama swap into any subordinate who has been “turned”?
Also: Im-sama’s Aro-Aro-style piercing of Cobra, and Moria’s attack on Whitebeard, share a common element — both used an arrow-type attack to impale an opponent in front of a Mera-Mera user.
Im-sama is a Vampire
Gecko Moria’s full name contains “gecko” — which refers to a bat. If Im-sama is Moria’s superior form, the logical extension is vampire. The fit is remarkably clean:
- Vampires are the lords of bats
- Undead legend: can only be killed by a stake through the heart (not conventional means)
- Vampires bite humans and convert them → Im-sama lends power to subordinates
- Vampires are fundamentally long-lived
- The polar opposite of Nika, the Sun God — vampires and sunlight, Nika and night
Im-sama as a vampire mirrors Nika as the Sun God. The thematic opposition would be among Oda’s cleanest symbolic constructions in the entire series.