The "Candelle was raped" theories don't make any sense to me. It doesn't fit the narrative at all imo.
First of all, the timeline doesn't match up.
We can clearly see Candelle isn't pregnant when she announces her marriage to Reuven. The premise of this theory hinges on Candelle being pregnant already and Reuven marrying her to preserve her honor or whatever.
She'd either:
The thing is - they don't specify how MANY months she was bedridden. Just "several". Some people BARELY show at the three months mark, and there ARE cases where people barely show all the way to the end, rare as it is. Plus Rouge proved nine months isn't necessarily a deadline. And no one said exactly when Reuven became king and they got married or when Shuri was born in comparison.
And the idea its not possible because a Celestial Dragon wouldn't just leave her there....already proven it can happen. Garling did it with Magnolia.
So it IS possible. I don't necessarily buy into that being the case though.
I think it's more probable that either
a.) Candelle herself is a CD, holy knight, someone who left like Doffy's parents, etc.
b.) There's some old bloodline on one of the parents sides that Imu wanted. Maybe the lineage of another CD who left like Nefertari back in/before the void century.
c.) Something about Shuri herself stood out. She seemed to already have the start of the observation haki future sight or something like it and was strong in her own right in general. Which could also just loop back to a bloodline.
Imu obviously wanted Shuri. A lot. She was in the flower chamber when Rocks broke in. Elevated to a saint, given a family name, which if one of her parents was not one is STRANGE. And has the gorosei level covenant that halts aging.
The fact he is so obsessed with blue haired princesses is wild though lol
