Warning: SPOILERS for One Piece chapter #1066

The most touching flashback in One Piece's history, Nico Robin's heartbreaking farewell to her home country of Ohara, was just made way less tragic by a huge revelation. Chapter #1066 of One Piece teases that Jaguar D. Saul, the Giant Marine defector who sacrificed himself to let Robin escape from Ohara, actually survived, and he also managed to save the priceless library created by the country's scholars.

One Piece is famous for the tragic flashbacks that, periodically, give readers a glimpse into the traumatic past of the series' most important characters. While most of them are incredibly moving and sad, no one reached the heights touched by Nico Robin's flashback. The current archeologist of the Straw Hat Pirates, Robin grew up on Ohara, an island inhabited by scholars and researchers who managed to unveil the truth about the mysterious past of the One Piece world. These, however, were forbidden topics, so the World Government used its Navy to destroy Ohara and its scholars with a Buster Call. Robin survived only because a Marine defector she had befriended, a Giant called Saul, sacrificed himself to let her escape from the clutches of the Marines.

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Robin spent twenty years on the run, having to survive alone as a kid, while the World Government branded her the "Devil Child" and kept hunting her. Saul was one of the most important figures in her tragic life, who befriended her when she was a lonely child on Ohara and encouraged her to laugh even in hard times. Robin always carried the memory of Saul's sacrifice, but in chapter #1066 of One Piece, Dr. Vegapunk reveals to the Straw Hats that he visited Ohara shortly after the Buster Call. He found a crew of Giants salvaging the books that the scholars had thrown into a lake as their last act, and the captain of the crew was a Giant all covered in bandages. When Vegapunk later visits Elbaf, the Giants' country, to read the books, the man he meets there looks a lot like Saul, which confirms that Robin's savior actually survived.

Saul's Survival Does Not Make Robin's Past Less Tragic

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A running gag among One Piece fans is that the author Eiichiro Oda really does not like to kill his characters, who will always come back miraculously at some point. Some fans have actually complained that having Saul survive takes a lot out of the tragedy of Robin's past. While it's true that Oda pulls this trick too often, Robin's past is still incredibly sad even with Saul still alive. She lost her mother and the few friends she had, and she was mercilessly hunted for years by the World Government, forced to become a ruthless criminal in order to survive. Learning that Saul is still alive is actually a great moment for Robin's character. While she rarely shows her emotions, when she hears Vegapunk's story, Robin cries freely and lets a smile cross her face.

Chapter #1066 let fans revisit Robin's past from a new perspective: not tragedy and defeat but survival and triumph. The will of Ohara (which is also the title of the chapter) lives on, and this is a victory for Robin most of all, who carried it alone for so many years before the Straw Hats became her new family. Having Saul survive the fall of Ohara does not diminish Nico Robin's tragic past in any way, instead, it gives a measure of closure and compensation to one of One Piece's most beloved characters.

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The latest chapter of One Piece is available through Viz Media.