While we know the world of One Piece as a world of Pirates and Marines, we also get to see cyborgs like the Seraphim and other freaks of nature along the line. The Seraphims are cyborgs that were built by none other than the genius Vegapunk. They were built to replace the Seven Warlords of the Sea as one of the three great powers. What’s a better way to spice up a world of Pirates and Marines? Throwing a bunch of deadly mecha-robots in it! However, if the seven warlords of the sea were as mighty as they say, why were the Seraphim created to replace them?” Rest assured, all your questions will be answered in this article. Let’s delve into an adventure as vast and endless as the ocean itself!
The Origin of The Seraphim
The Seraphim are mechanized robots that were created as a mix of King’s Lunarian Lineage and modeled after the former Warlord and revolutionary Bartholomew Kuma. King is the natural survivor of the Lunarians. A race that came from the Red line and could create fire from their body. Then Pacifista was introduced to the story in the gripping arc of Sabaody. These monsters were so powerful it took more than two Worst Generation Pirates to take one down. Later in the story, Admiral Fujitora begins a cause to eradicate the concept of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. He got the idea after witnessing the tyrannical rule of Doflamingo, a Warlord, over Dressrosa. The Admiral, who has a strong sense of justice, didn’t see it fit for pirates to be given such power. He then proposed the eradication of the warlords in spite of the unapproval he got from it.
It was irrelevant until the Reverie arc, where leaders of all nations had a meeting. After the meeting, they agreed that using pirates to fight pirates and allowing the spread of tyranny through their influence should be scrapped. So, they disowned the Warlords and named them fugitives. Hence, one of the three great powers, which comprises the Emperors of the Sea, the Admirals, and the 7 Warlords, was eradicated. This led to anarchy in the world of One Piece. To balance things, the World Government made Dr. Vegapunk build the Seraphims and model them after the Warlords. Just like the Warlords, the Seraphim are 7 in number and are modeled after their Warlord equivalents. In the manga, we’ve seen S-Hawk, S-Shark, S-Bear, and S-Snake built in the image of Hawkeye, Jimbei, Bartholomew Kuma, and Boa Hancock, respectively. However, the Seraphim of Crocodile, Doflamingo, and Moria have not been revealed.
Creation of Dr. Vegapunk
The Seraphim were created by none other than the leading face of science in the One Piece universe, Dr. Vegapunk. Although his name has been mentioned in different arcs like Punk Hazard, Dressrosa, and even Sabaody Archipelago, we won’t meet this outstanding character until Egghead Island Arc. He appeared as an old man with a large head shaped like an apple and a face that bore an unmistakable resemblance to the great scientist Albert Einstein. Trust Eiichiro Oda to implement things like this in his work!
Vegapunk ate the Nomi Nomi no mi. This allows him to store an infinite amount of data and everything he has ever learned, which amounts to his intelligence. Dr. Vegapunk is also the brain behind the Pacifista. He works for the world government by exchanging his ideas for funds to bring them to life. He refers to the Seraphim as the pinnacle of science imaginable, going so far as to call them the strongest form of humanity because of their special qualities.
Why Do The Seraphim Look Like Angels?
The Seraphim were created to look like the previous warlords in their youth or childhood; they bear an uncanny resemblance to them. Zoro, after clashing with S-Hawk, stated that he looked just like Mihawk, the greatest swordsman in the One Piece universe, his teacher and rival. Due to their Lunarian Lineage factor, these cyborgs have dark skin, white hair, and a burning plume of fire on their backs. This is just like the right-hand man of the Emperor of the Sea, Kaido, who is also of Lunarian descent. They also possess star-shaped pupils, which is likely to make them look Angel-like because of their names. Like the Pacifistas, every Seraphim has the initials “PX-” on a part of their body. It has been shown on either the left pectoral on S-Shark or the left side of the neck, like S-Hawk’s own.
Human and Robot Persona of the Seraphim
So far, no Seraphim has been shown to have emotions except S-Snake. S-Snake shares the same devotion and affection for her genetic parent, Monkey D. Luffy, as did the original Hancock. When she interacts with Luffy, she behaves exactly like Hancock and cannot refuse his requests. This shocked her creator, Dr. Vegapunk because he didn’t program any of them to act this way. Does this mean the Seraphims have a mind of their own?
Similar to the first Pacifista, the Seraphim carry out their tasks in a silent, mechanized manner. The Five Elders, Vegapunk, and Sentomaru are the only orders the Seraphim are programmed to follow directly. They are set up in that particular hierarchical order. Also, the aforementioned people would still have more control over the Seraphim than those in possession of the authority chip. Everyone else, including CP0, must have an “authority chip” to dictate them.
How Were The Seraphim Created?
One major component of the Seraphim is their Green Blood. This is Dr. Vegapunk’s invention, and it is based on the extraction of the devil fruits lineage factor. This green blood flows through all the Seraphim. And this is why they have duplicated powers of fruits that exist already on the One Piece planet. Like the previous Pacifistas, the Seraphim can shoot light beams modeled after Fleet Admiral Kizaru’s devil fruit, the Pika Pika no mi, which allows him to be able to turn himself into Light. However, the beams being shot by the Seraphim are slower and less powerful. Although the Seraphims were modeled after the previous warlords, they appear as a younger or more robust version of them. Also, due to their Lunarian Lineage, they possess incredible speed and durability (which weakens at the cost of speed), just like the last-standing Lunarian in the story, King.
S-Snake
This Seraphim, modeled after Boa Hancock, possesses the abilities of the Mero Mero no mi. It’s a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit that permits a variety of techniques that turn targets into stones by invoking feelings of desire, love, or devotion. S-Snake duplicated these abilities through the transfusion of Green Blood. S-Snake can petrify people by using the “dirty thoughts” directed towards it, just like Boa Hancock. She can easily petrify anyone if they find her cute or beautiful. If the victim has been fully petrified, they are not capable of regaining consciousness and are vulnerable to physical harm. This power will work on anyone, irrespective of age or gender. Also, as Hancock is a woman of unparalleled beauty, it is natural that her clone would be too!
S-Hawk
This cyborg was introduced in Amazon Lily, Post-Wano country arc. Modeled after the legendary strongest swordsman in the world, Dracule Mihawk. Fans already consider him to be the strongest Seraphim, and during his first appearance, they were not disappointed! You may wonder what S-Hawk’s powers are based on since Dracule Mihawk has no Devil Fruit. Well, it’s up to Oda for an explanation of this mystery. However, S-Hawk has the prowess and abilities of Mihawk, including an artificial Devil Fruit power.
S-Hawk possesses an artificial form of Daz Bonez’s Supa Supa no Mi through the Green Blood. This gives him the ability to transform any part of his body into razor-sharp steel blades. Upon arrival on the island, S-Hawk clashed with Blackbeard, a former Warlord of the sea. In their clash, we see he could slice through a mountain-sized rock like it was nothing! One would expect such great power from a clone of the world’s strongest swordsman!
S-Bear
As Bartholomew Kuma’s clone, S-Bear possesses a large body, immense physical strength, and a durable body like Kuma. Later in the story, it was revealed that Kuma is from a race of giant-like humans known as Buccaneers, This allows S-Bear to possess all of their physical traits. Rob Lucci in his man-beast hybrid form and a Gear 4-enhanced Monkey D. Luffy combined for an attack that even S-Bear could handle! Coupled with the Lunarian Lineage factor, we wouldn’t be making a mistake if we refer to him as the most durable Seraphim. S-Bear, like the other Seraphim, can shoot light beams out of his palms. With paw pads on the palms of his hands, S-Bear also possesses an artificial form of the Nikyu Nikyu no Mi, a Paramecia Devil Fruit. Anything these paws come into contact with, including the air itself, will be violently repelled.
S-Shark
S-Shark is the cyborg modeled after the fearsome First Son of the Sea, Jimbei. Like the other Seraphim, he takes the form of Jimbei as a child. He naturally inherited Jimbei’s Fish-Man biology, giving him superhuman strength and probably other benefits unique to his species, like breathing and traveling at fast speeds underwater. Like Jimbei, S-Shark is skillful in Fish-Man karate and Fish-Man jujutsu. He also has control over liquified earth that is a result of his Devil Fruit ability, the Sui Sui no mi, the devil fruit of Señor Pink, one of Doflamingo’s executives, This ability allows him to be able to swim through the earth like water, he can also use liquefied earth as attacks.
The first appearance of the Seraphim
To subdue and capture Boa Hancock, the Seraphim led fleets of Marines to Amazon Lily. In the course of the fight with Nansen’s warriors and the Blackbeard’s pirates who aspired to make Hancock their own, Marine Captain Koby asked S-Hawk to quit the battle because the petrified Marines could crush it under the influence of her ability. At the end of the battle, the Seraphim were nowhere to be seen, most probably because they were instructed to withdraw. After the battle at Amazon Lily, the younger Gorgon Sisters observed that neither of the Seraphim had sustained a scratch in the whole warfare.
Egghead arc
Egghead is an island in the New World owned by the World Government. It is said to be 500 years in the future based on how advanced it is, and it is also labeled as the Future Island. It is located southeast of the Wano Kingdom and Southwest of Elbaf. Furthermore, Egg Head housed the Laboratory of the great Dr. Vegapunk.
Dr. Vegapunk’s Six Satellites
We can’t discuss the Seraphim’s influence in the Egg head arc without mentioning the six Satellites. As all-knowing as Dr. Vegapunk is, he realizes there’s a limit to what he can do with his body. This influenced his decision to split his being into six different bodies. These bodies are regarded as Dr. Vegapunk’s Satellites, and they all embody an aspect of his Brain and Personality. These satellites all identify as Dr. Vegapunk, but they all have different names and numbers to differentiate them. The Six Satellites are Shaka (who embodies the aspect of Good), Lilith (Evil), Edison (Thinking), Pythagoras (Wisdom), Atlas (violence), and York, who embodies the aspect of greed.
The Seraphim’s Bizzare Influence on Egg Head
On Egghead Island, during an attempt to confirm how strong S-Shark is, Pythagoras, Edison, and Lillith made it engage Sanji, Nico Robin, Ussopp, Nami, and Franky in battle at once! How crazier can these Advanced Pacifistas be? The little battle continued till Shaka interrupted the fight and told S-Shark to stand down. A few weeks after the Amazon lily incident, some World Government operatives, the CP0 to be precise, which consisted of the likes of Rob Lucci, Kaku, and Stussy, brought S- Bear to Egghead during their attempt to eliminate Dr. Vegapunk. When the World Government ship arrived at the Island with S-Bear, they requested permission to dock, but this request was denied by Pythagoras, who had informed Shaka about the CP0 and Rob Lucci’s arrival. Pythagoras further stated that the CP0 should drop only S-Bear and leave.
CP0’s Discreet Mission
Pythagoras thanked the Cipher Pol agents for returning S-Bear even though the cyborg could return on its own. The Cipher Pol were not allowed to dock, so they used S-Bears repelling ability, the Nikyu Nikyu no mi, to force their way into the Island. When their intrusion became evident, Shaka commanded S-snake, S-Hawk, and S-Shark to be deployed under Sentomaru’s command. Sentomaru is Dr. Vegapunk’s bodyguard and also the head of the Marine Science unit. After the CP0 entered the island forcefully, Luffy fought Rob Lucci, and while they fought, the 3 Seraphim met up with Sentomaru. During this moment, they were intercepted by agents of the World Government, and Kaku was one of them.
Kaku used an authority chip to control the S-Bear and commanded it to attack the other Seraphim. The agents were shocked when Sentomaru overrode this order, and S-bear attacked the agents instead! Sentomaru then ordered S-snake to assist the Straw Hat Pirates who were trying to get Dr. Vegapunk’s real body out of the island. Later on, Rob Lucci beat Sentomaru up in an attempt to get the authority he needed to control the Seraphims. After taking so much beating, Sentomaru finally yielded, which resulted in the CP0 taking control of the four Seraphim, this helped the CP0 infiltrate the defenseless Dr. Vegapunk’s Laboratory.
