Hmm, now I am questioning the 8+5 count for the 13 (or honestly have no idea lol)
Went back and looked through Garling's 5(!!!) different intro boxes (wtf lol) and 4 of the 5 times he has a different position in the WG
- 38-40 years ago, Knight of God (in Kuma and Rocks' flashbacks)
** Note that you can see 4 of the 5 Known Gorosei here and we know Saturn has been around for hundreds of years. Keep this thought for later***
- 24 years ago, Commander/Captain of Knights of God (called Dancho in Japanese). Shamrock currently has this position.
- Present Day, Supreme Commander (called Saiko Shireikan in Japanese) of the Knights of God
- Present day, Gorosei
So when you frame it like this, the count starts to get weird.
- We know at least 40 years ago, the current Gorosei exist. So thats 5, right?
- Well, 38 years ago, Garling still neither has the Commander nor Supreme Commander titles. There are 7 revealed Knights in God Valley. But if these positions exist, then it would imply at least 9 God Knights exist.
- 24 years ago, he's promoted as commander and his son becomes a Knight presumably (or at least is one by 15 years ago). This would assume the Commander or Supreme Commander were removed and he went up the ladder. His open Knight position then was taken by Shamrock.
- 14 years ago, Shanks, then Harald are offered a knight position. To this point I would assume Garling was promoted again to Supreme Commander and his son Commander, however we dont have any confirmation on this. Harald obviously dies, leaving a vacant position.
- Now to present day, both Gunko and Killingham are Knights. Saturn was killed, and Garling is promoted a 3rd time, but we arent sure if he left his commander seat vacant. Worse yet, they offer a Knight Position to Loki lol.
So now just looking at this, unless Oda is killing off character designs he hasn't introduced, the count doesnt work?
- 5 Gorosei (including Garling)
- Shamrock
- Sommers
- Killingham
- Gunko
- Plus the 5 other Knight designs in God Valley.
Thats 14 total....with Loki being offered a position.
Now yes, 1 of the 5 could be dead. Maffey oddly enough looks like she could be Killingham's mother or something, even though their family names are different. But weirder is her the random power she shows. Does she have Kizaru's DF at this time lol?
She shoots a beam at Dragon and the only other things that can do this are Pacifista which literally copy Kizaru's logia powers
Then we have the fact that Loki is offered another open position.
So essentially we have 2 options:
- The 13 include the Gorosei, Maffey died and either the Commander or Supreme Commander didnt exist before Garling. But it makes it weird that Shamrock offered Loki a vacant position then. Yes, Saturn dies, but then this would mean at least 2 of the 5 Knight designs in GV are dead.
- The 13 dont include the Gorosei because every God Knight is still alive and the count goes to at least 14. This makes it easier but sort of contradicts the 13 statements because the Gorosei seem to just have elevated powers to Knights.
Now I dont know anymore lol