Donquixote brothers and Buddhism

I found something interesting as I was translating #767.

Here’s the raw:

And the translation:

I’ve simplified the translation to make the statement more powerful, but the nuance of the original is something harder to convey, and really interesting!

So Cora calls Dofy “破戒の申し子” (hakai no moushigo) which I translated simply to “sinner”. But there’s a religious connotation behind the words Oda used. “破戒” actually refers specifically to “breaking a religious commandment”, while “申し子” refers to a “child sent from heaven in answer to a prayer”. Both words are usually used in reference to Buddhism. So, the phrase “破戒の申し子” together can mean “a heavenly child who has broken his religious commandments/vows”.

So this got me thinking. Why would Cora suddenly use such religious phrases in his speech? So I did some research and found some cool things. ^__^

Cora and Dofy used to be Tenryuubito, which is usually translated simply as “celestial dragons”. But the word “天竜” (tenryuu) is actually a Buddhist term, and is used to refer to Buddhist deities. In particular, this word is used to describe two of the eight Great Legions of gods who protect the Buddhist commandments: “天衆” (tenshu) and “竜神” (ryuujin). Tenshu refers to the citizens of heaven, and ryuujin refers to the dragon kings.

So could it be that the Tenryuubito, and thus Dofy and Cora, followed a religion that was based on real life Buddhism? As we have seen previously from Law’s flashback with the White City, a religion similar to Christianity was featured then. So maybe it’s not too far-fetched to imagine that Oda has incorporated elements of Buddhism into the Tenryuubito culture.

And that would also explain the words Cora said to Dofy just before he died, and Dofy’s response. Since Dofy probably still sees himself as a Tenryuubito and wishes to return to his former status, being called “a heavenly child who has broken his religious commandments/vows” would probably be a really huge personal insult to his ambitions and hopes, and could very well be the trigger that led him to shoot Cora.

One last interesting fact. Back to the eight Great Legions mentioned above. One of the Legions is known as the “夜叉” (yaksha), a class of demonic-looking warriors. And guess who calls himself a yaksha?

From #700.

Thanks for reading!! Please do comment if you’ve found anything to add to this theory!!~