Talk:Five Planets

Five Planets or Five Stars?

Okay, since this got renamed without ever answering my question, I may as well ask it again here. The Crunchyroll subs use Five Stars. Considering sei (星) can mean both planet and star, I can see it going either way, but since their icon is a five-pointed, five-coloured star, it stands to reason that Five Stars is the correct translation. Any reason why Five Planets is being used here? Context and meaning indicate it's Five Stars. --Blaze Dragon (talk) 05:44, 22 December 2025 (CST)

I’m not sure what question you’re referring to, but sorry I didn’t see it. KrytenKoro has explained to me elsewhere that the term is not something invented by Digimon but is commonly used to refer to the five classical planets corresponding to the elements of the Wu Xing. The main counterpoint that people have brought up is the logo being a star. However, the logo consists of only a single star. On the other hand, it does have five circles, which represent the five elements/planets in their Wu Xing colors (Blue = Wood/Jupiter, Red = Fire/Mars, Yellow = Earth/Saturn, White = Metal/Venus, Black = Water/Mercury). Taking that into account in addition to the standard usage, Five Planets is what I’ve gone with. By the way, I apologize for not getting on this sooner. I’m a little lazy (and occasionally busy), so I don’t always verify new terms as soon as they appear. If I had, this page would have been moved sooner, possibly with less controversy. I’ll try and be more on top of things in future. --TMS (talk) 10:43, 22 December 2025 (EST)

Similar to the Big Death-Stars, The Five Planets are a reference to the Wuxing system that is used throughout Sinitic Asia (which includes Japan). The Wuxing is placed alongside the Sun and Moon to complete the base-seven system for the days of the week. (The Big Death-Stars included the Moon General formally, and then in Xros Wars the Sun General implicitly.)

At a base level, "五行星", which translates literally as "Five Moving Stars", is a reference to the Five Planets -- similar to how the Greeks named the planets as πλάνητες ἀστέρες (planētes asteres) 'wandering stars' or simply πλανῆται (planētai) 'wanderers'. The five-pointed, five-colored star is not a contradiction to this -- in traditional Sinitic culture, the planets are stars just as much as Sirius or Betelgeuse, it's just that they move.

Wuxing originally referred to the five classical planets (from brightest to dimmest: Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Saturn), which were with the combination of the Sun and the Moon, conceived as creating the five forces of earthly life (including yang and yin). This is why the word is composed of Chinese characters meaning "five" (五; wǔ) and "moving" (行; xíng). "Moving" is shorthand for "planets", since the word for planets in Chinese has been translated as "moving stars" (行星; xíngxīng).[9] Some of the Mawangdui Silk Texts (before 168 BC) also connect the wuxing to the wude (五德; wǔdé), the Five Virtues and Five Emotions .[10][11] Scholars believe that various predecessors to the concept of wuxing were merged into one system of many interpretations in the Han dynasty.[12]

The Wuxing system identifies these five planets with the five elements and with timekeeping:

• 火星 (lit. "Fire-star") is the Sinitic name for Mars, and is identified with 火曜日 (lit. "Fire-day"), which is the Sinitic name for Tuesday. In Shaolin martial arts, the animal association for this symbol is the tiger. Their color is "Red". (EDIT: fixed animal)
• 水星 (lit. "Water-star") is the Sinitic name for Mercury, and is identified with 水曜日 (lit. "Water-day"), which is the Sinitic name for Wednesday. Their color is "Black".
• 木星 (lit. "Wood-star") is the Sinitic name for Jupiter, and is identified with 木曜日 (lit. "Wood-day"), which is the Sinitic name for Thursday. Their color is "Green" (in Japan specifically, it's of note that Green and Blue are still mostly colexified.
• 金星 (lit. "Gold-star") is the Sinitic name for Venus, and is identified with 金曜日 (lit. "Gold-day"), which is the Sinitic name for Friday. In Shaolin martial arts, the animal association for this symbol is the monkey. (金 here can also be used to imply Metal, hence. Murasamemon and Gokuumon's weapons). Their color is "White".
• 土星 (lit. "Earth-star") is the Sinitic name for Saturn, and is identified with 土曜日 (lit. "Earth-day"), which is the Sinitic name for Saturday. Their color is "Yellow". (土 here refers to Earth as in soil, rock, ground)

As with the revealed characters and titles so far, it's a direct match. Even the circles on their star match. You can also see these are the same elements used for the Sailor Scouts, for the Big-Death Stars, and the Four Holy Beasts (Qinglong is associated with the element of Wood in general, but his attacks in Digimon are lightning-based, focusing on the I Ching aspect of Wood). This system is as ubiquitous as the Four Element system in Europe. Translating it as "Stars" or "Elemental Stars" ignores the middle kanji, and distances the translation from its clear meaning. It sets up an archetype for the character's powers, their personality, how they interact, etc. Even Kanada intimidating Kaito is proscribed -- that would be an example of a "reverse or deficient destructive cycle", where "Metal de-energizes Fire", and so would be portrayed as the destructive interaction of the elements.

So, with context, it can't be anything but a reference to the Five Planets. Translating it as "Five Stars" or "Five Elemental Stars" would be, in this case, a euphemism, similar to saying "You-Know-Who" instead of Voldemort or "The Kindly Ones" instead of the Furies. It would still be recognizable to Asian viewers, but for an English audience with a different concept of the Elements and the Planets, it would unnecessarily obscure the meaning -- which is the five classical planets, which are identified with the five classical elements, which are identified with the five virtues and vices, etc. To an Asian observer, it's about as blatant a direct reference as Europeans would see One Piece's Ms. Wednesday being a reference to the day of the week. It's as blatant as the Four Humours would be in Shakespeare's time. It's not a coincidence or a possible translation -- it's a direct, blatant reference to the Wuxing system that is repeated all across Sinitic cultures. Context and meaning indicate that the term refers to the Wuxing concept of the Five Planets.KrytenKoro06 (talk) 13:08, 22 December 2025 (CST)

Also worth mentioning is that Europe uses a similar system for the Week, with some extra steps due to descent. It started with the Babylonian gods, which were replaced with the Greek and Roman equivalents, and then in English/German with the Norse equivalents, while retaining reference to the same Wandering Stars.

• Sunday is named after the Sun
• Monday is named after the Moon
• Tuesday is named after the fourth planet (Nergal in Babylonian, Mars in Roman, Tyr in Germanic -- gods of "War")
• Wednesday is named after the first planet (Nabu/Mercury/Odin -- gods of "Wisdom" or cunning)
• Thursday is named after the fifth planet (Marduk/Jupiter/Thor -- gods of "Might" or rulership)
• Friday is named after the second planet (Ishtar/Venus/Frigg -- gods of "Beauty" or love)
• Saturday is named after the sixth planet (Ninurta/Saturn -- gods of "Farming") (Germanic languages, where they don't just copy Saturn, called it a "day of washing")

So, basically, as the concept made its way East from Mesopotamia, the association with the planets remained, but the divine attributes were replaced with elemental forces.KrytenKoro06 (talk) 13:17, 22 December 2025 (CST)

Thank you both for the explanation as of why Wikimon is using that name and the meaning behind it. I learned far more than I expected to when I asked this. I'm now left wondering if we can make sure what the other Partner Digimon are from the Shaolin martial arts animals (though Wood and Earth are almost certainly Lilamon and Proganomon, Water I'm not convinced). --Blaze Dragon (talk) 15:06, 22 December 2025 (CST)

I don't think the other partner Digimon will follow that part of the archetype -- we know Murasamemon was the previous Gold Digimon, and Lilamon/Proganomon/MarineChimeramon don't fit Crane/Mantis/Snake. I did misremember the Fire animal -- it's tiger, not lion, but that's still pretty on-point for Flaremon.KrytenKoro06 (talk) 17:05, 22 December 2025 (CST)