We know that his existence is a secret to all but few selected individuals. Gorosei and personal servant(s) are probably the only people aware of his existence.
We also know that he has the ability to point out a light that needs to be extinguished. He knows the secrets of the world, the icy chamber with a giant straw hat tells us that much. We know that he selected 4 individuals which are implied to be his potential obstacles - Luffy, Vivi, Shirahoshi and Blackbeard. All 4 are important figures, two of them have access to Ancient Weapons while the other two are leaders of the two greatest pirate factions among the Worst Generation. While it is not hard to be aware of Luffy and Blackbeard whose actions turn the eyes of the world towards them, Im-sama's ability to include Vivi and Shirahoshi among them is truly remarkable. It implies a powerful ability to be able to see the greatest obstacles to his world dominance.
That pretty much ends the part of what we know for sure. Moving forward, I will be making guesses based on what could be plausible.
Right off the bat, let's answer one question - Is Im-sama someone we know or someone we never saw before?
Unknow, never seen before character? Do we really want another Kaguya? Did Oda not learn from that mistake of his colleague?
This guy we never heard of before or never seen him before is the one behind it all? Ehm... For lack of better words, it is hard to make the audience give two shits about a character like that. Oda certainly did introduce the mysterious character way earlier than his fellow mangaka in Naruto did but still, Im-sama is a hollow character.
I dont know if the ending of one arc and a flashback/backstory are enough to make us connect with such a character.
We saw how many issues arise when Oda tries to shove down our throats an unknown character out of the blue - Oden.
I will go ahead and say that we know who Im-sama is and we have seen him in East Blue at the start of One Piece.
A character who is immortal, even hinted at it with the first two letters of his name, probably alive since ancient times and a mastermind behind void century.
Now, you must be wondering which One Piece character is immortal and probably alive for a long time. There is only one character based on someone who is immortal and can live for centuries. That same character is also based on another character who has been deceiving the world, presenting himself as a helpful, kind and honorable person only for all that to be revealed as a facade. Ok, I will tell you who Im-sama is...
The answer is in the eyes of Im-sama.
Only one character has eyes like that. Yes, Im-sama is no one else than Dracule "Hawkeyes" Mihawk!
You must be thinking - Oh boy, another Zoro wank thread, just indirectly this time... I assure you, it is not. There is no longer a need to wank Zoro, Oda has done and is about to do more than fandom could ever do.
So, how did I come up with Im-sama being Mihawk? Well, let's start with the striking resemblance that Mihawk and Cyrano have - the antagonist of Monsters. Mihawk's design has roots in Cyrano's character design. Cyrano is also the guy who deceived the world by putting up a facade of a good guy. He also has access to the dragon horn, an artifact able to summon a dragon to lay waste on the desired target. Cyrano was cut down by Ryuma and what a parallel it will be if Zoro, Ryuma's possible descendant, cuts down Mihawk who possibly is responsible for Ryuma's death.
I know, I know... The vivre card says that Ryuma died of illness... However, remember that Oda wants to keep all of this under the veil of secrets.
He may be intentionally feeding us false information like Ryuma's death to avoid people figuring it out but everything must be questioned.
We know that Wano used to be the country of gold but all that gold is now long gone despite the country being closed off to the outsiders?!
We know that Ryuma has singlehandedly kept Wano safe from those who wanted its riches.
So how did the gold get stolen despite Ryuma protecting it and despite Wano being a natural fortress?
Well, I think Ryuma was killed in battle with Mihawk and back then Wano wasn't the natural fortress that it is today.
How did I conclude that Mihawk killed Ryuma? Look at Ryuma's scar - diagonal cut across his face. Does that remind u of Zoro's diagonal cut across his chest?
With its protector Ryuma gone, Wano was invaded and plundered dry, all gold was taken just like Gyukimaru said.
Kozuki Sukiyaki's ancestor, who was a shogun of Wano during that time, vowed that such tragedy will never befall his country again.
He had the ability of stone assimilation fruit which at present belongs to Pica and with it, he created a huge encirclement around Wano country that we see today.
Little did he know what the future brings, unaware, he was building a fortress for Beast Pirates...
Just like Enel had no more use for Skypiea once the gold was extracted, WG too had no more use for Wano.
They didn't know that special ore lied beneath Wano which was extracted and used to create powerful, sought-after weapons which they ended up craving just like the rest of the world...
Back to Im-sama, let us analyze Mihawk's name. Dracule - obviously taken from Dracula, an immortal warlord who swore revenge on humankind...
Mihawk is an abomination created from two words - Hawk which is a typical animal theme among the warlords and the prefix Mi which read backward turns into Im.
Now, whether Mihawk really is Dracula or not, his character's roots lie in the character of Dracula. A lonely guy living in a gloomy castle in a land ravaged by war, sleeping in a coffin. Perhaps Oda took liberties and changed certain aspects of that character - he may not be drinking blood or have vampire's teeth but other things remain - he lives in a gloomy castle in a land ravaged by war, traveling in a small coffin-shaped boat.
Dracula's origin comes from a character, believed to be inspired by 15th-century Wallachian prince Vlad the Impaler that was initiated in the secret order of Christian knights known as the Order of the Dragon, from 1897 Bram Stoker's novel which was adapted into a movie in 1992, before One Piece was released. Vlad was also known as Dracula, son of Dracul. Dracul means Dragon(hint towards Celestial Dragons?). Unlike the later adaptations of Dracula, he could walk in the sunlight.
There is another possible inspiration for Mihawk's character - the 1986 video game series Castlevania released by the Japanese developer and publisher Konami.
The history about Vlad, the Stoker's novel, the video game series, the movie adaptation and so on were all in Oda's reach long before One Piece started.
Back to the Castlevania game series, it follows Gabriel Belmont who ends up being called Dracula who is being hunted by his own son Alucard and other vampire hunters. Interestingly, in the Netflix adaptation, Dracula injured his own son the same way Mihawk injured Zoro - a slash across the chest. However, that's already changed by Oda, Zoro is not Dracula's son but someone else might be.
There is another warlord whose name is interesting - Sir Crocodile. Crocodile just refers to the animal theme and Sir refers to a term used to address a man or refer to authority or person of general importance. So, basically, we don't have an actual name for Sir Crocodile. A person of general importance or authority sounds interesting and could mean that Sir Crocodile is related to someone way higher up - to Im-sama, to be more precise, Sir Crocodile might be Mihawk's son which is a parallel to Castlevania. Just how Dracula injured Alucard, Mihawk injured Crocodile too, a slash across his face. Remember the slash across Ryuma's face? It's not an unusual injury for Dracula's victims. Do you also remember what Crocodile did to Luffy in their 2nd battle? Sucked him dry - isnt that what vampires do?
Now, I'll try to keep all the threads in my hands and not go off randomly. Remember the exchange between Sir Crocodile and son of Celestial Dragons Doflamingo?
Doffy wants them to team up and Crocodile tells him not to pretend as if they were equal and tells him to be his henchman instead. A son of celestial dragons is not equal in rank with Sir Crocodile? That is only possible if Crocodile's rank is above Doffy's thanks to someone way higher up - his daddy Mihawk, the ruler of all CDs.
Now, in video game series, Dracula doesnt know for long time that Alucard is his son so Mihawk is maybe not aware of Crocodile being his son but doesnt matter, I am starting to go off the road... Oda has changed it all anyway.
Mihawk was serious about Luffy's CoC reveal in Marineford and his next action is trying to kill him with rather a serious face and it is Sir Crocodile who steps in to save the boy. Could be an interesting parallel to Dracula vs Alucard. Ok, enough of random stuff and back to Im Dracule. How could he possibly be young at Roger's execution if he is so old? Well, Dracula had the ability to shapeshift and change his age, from an old guy to a man in his prime. There is also his declaration to Zoro - no matter how long it takes, I will await you at the top - he will remain in his prime and at top of all swordsmen and also on top of the world, location-wise, on Red Line, on top of the Pangaea castle where their battle might take place, paralleling Zoro's battle with Ryuma on top of the castle and also Castlevania's battle against Dracula in his castle...
Remember that Im-sama can see the obstacles, the light the needs to be extinguished? Are you familiar with Mihawk's nickname that he was supposed to have? Instead of Hawkeyes, which is an animal theme that became canon, he was supposed to be nicknamed Clairvoyant! How convenient for someone who can see the obstacles just like Im-sama, huh? The ability could probably not be CoO related but something else, like madame Sharley's visions. His nickname is basically the same, it is just changed to an animal theme.
There is one crucial thing about the parallel with Dracula, he is able to turn his victims into vampires. We have asked ourselves numerous times if the Five Elders are also from ancient times, from Void Century and perhaps they are. Many of us suspected that they are being kept alive through Bonney's ability but maybe the eternal life was a gift from Im himself. Who knows, maybe Oda changed the whole thing and turning into vampires is replaced through Bonney's ability indeed and that's why she is so valuable to WG that even someone like Akainu is worried about losing her. Who are the Gorosei? They are Dracula's war council, they basically run the world now because Dracula has become extremely bored and lost interest in almost everything.
Why is Mihawk doing all of it, why lead a secret double life and why take revenge on the world and what did he do in Void Century? Is he evil?
The answer is love. Dracula's love was taken from him and from that moment he declared revenge on the whole of mankind. Depends on the interpretation, death has separated his wife from him. In the novel, she jumped to her death because she thought her husband was dead while in the Castlevania adaptation she was burned because the church considered her a witch. Either way, that tragedy has plucked happiness out of him.
He probably blamed the Ancient Kingdom for the death of his beloved wife and decided to wipe it out from the face of the world and enslave the rest. Due to the boredom, he no longer takes much part in it and instead, the war council consisting of the Five Elders have turned this vengeful act into their own little schemes of world dominance. Why lead a double life of Shichibukai and live in Kuraigana? Well, in the tv show adaptation, his wife asked him to behave like normal humans and travel the world, learn more about them, understand them and even do some agriculture like them. Who has been shown on the cover doing some agriculture? Yes, the same guy.
And ultimately, is he really evil? Well, is he? Perhaps but not necessarily. While his vengeance for the death of his beloved is understandable, wiping out an entire Kingdom hardly is. There is also the question about how much of it is actually him and how much of it are the Gorosei responsible for... There is also a possibility of Toki being his lost love who accidentally jumped into the future and he decided to turn heaven and earth to find her because Dracula's wife gets reincarnated later on and falls in love with someone else - Oden.
Maybe I am wrong about who Im-sama is and Sir Crocodile is not his son but instead, the Im's son is the one whose name means Son of Dragon.
It would certainly be more interesting if this mysterious character isnt completely unknown that will be dumped on us just like Oden and instead parallels the vengeful warlord of Wallachia.
I dunno if this falls among my shorter or longer threads, you can decide for yourselves.
Thanks for reading and lemme know if this is the wildest OP theory you ever heard?
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