One thing I really like about the portrayal of Imu is how, even with Harald, his subordinate seemed to have legitimate respect and liking for him.
Sommers and Killingham straight up look like the straw hats do when luffy shows up to save them from the bad guy, there is legitimate joy on their faces.
The god's knights are cheesing to see this dude. Imu is like Kaido/Linlin/Roger/Shanks/Luffy.
His crew legitimately loves him and wants to go to bat for the guy. The Gorosei are like don't leave bro. The god's knights are fangirling like the random pirate crews that Shanks has under him.
Imu has Yonkou/Pirate King aura. When he cut Gerd's fingers off, that was a, "you don't fucking touch my Nakama" moment.
The celestial dragons that know who Imu is legitimately love the guy. This is not some bullshit fawning. We've seen plenty of that in this series. We can tell when a crew openly dislikes their captain.
Imu is the Captain of the World Government and his crew seemed to legitimately view him the same way the Straw Hats view Luffy.
Now obviously, we're gonna see some really fucked up shit going forward. Nerona Imu can literally force someone like Shuri or Harald to forget who they are. I'm sure some of the reason they like him so much is brainwashing. But overall it seems pretty genuine.
I think Imu is the ultimate overprotective parent. Willing to kill anyone they believe threatens the group.
A big element of one piece is history is how the ancient kingdom and it's technology seem to be destroying the planet itself.
While Nerona Imu's rule has been horrible for certain races and humans in general, look at the planet, compared to what it looks like in the mural of the harley.
Look at the first world and compare it to the modern day.
The first world looks like an absolute nightmare.
I think this is what vegapunk was talking about.
I think the reason Nerona Imu hates the ancient kingdom is because they love nature and the ancient kingdom was just absolutely destroying the planet with its technology.
Look at the first world compared to the modern world and tell me which one looks better for the planet. If you look outside humanoid species, the one piece planet is much cleaner and healthier than our current earth is in real life.
Has Imu been kind to humanity? No, because they hate humanity for fucking the planet up with technology. This is why Vegapunk is so mortally opposed to the world government. Imu crushes humanity for the sake of nature, while scientists like vegapunk uplift humanity, but cause destruction to nature.
Has Imu been kind to the planet? Yes. Look at the barren landscape of Dressrosa compared to WG territory. Name me a single world government territory that we've seen polluting the environment heavily.
Why does Nerona Imu hate the Giants? Because they use magic and technology and weapons of war to pillage and crush the world around them.
Imu hates the giants the exact same reason Harald did, which is what made their relationship so fascinating. While he was obviously manipulating the king of Elbaph, Imu legitimately sympathized with him I believe.
Imu truly understood and viewed favorably Harald's goal of pacifying his people and having them help world order rather than destroy it, as honorable soldiers, not bloodthirsty marauders.
This is what makes Imu so similar to Luffy. They care deeply about the people around them, but at the end of the day, they are incredibly selfish insane people, who will just end up doing whatever the fucking hell they want to in the end, therefore causing problems for everyone else around them.
I fully believe now that Imu views the World, the Planet, the Vearth as theirs to protect, and are willing to sacrifice as many humans as necessary in order to maintain this balance with nature.
We see saturn allude to this before his arrival on egghead.
To us, this is a dehumanizing statement.
But, how does Imu treat insects?
Imu does not hate humanity, Nerona Imu despises the corruption of nature technology and science bring.
To Imu, the butterfly is as valuable as we are, while we view ourselves as superior.