With One Piece on hiatus, fans’ search for clues about the next issue has turned up some interesting findings in regard to a popular dead hero.
Warning: Contains spoilers for Chapter 1082 of One Piece
Once upon a time, three young, ambitious brothers – Luffy, Ace, and Sabo, swore to become pirates and find the One Piece. But now, only Luffy is still alive with the opportunity to realize his dream. Or so fans were led to believe. Though Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece is on hiatus for Golden Week, fans have been buzzing about a leak from the forthcoming chapter.
According to Tweets from fans like @TheTwoHornedOne, Chapter 1082 will drop another shocking reveal, namely the return of Sabo. Fans were previously devastated when the series dropped several big hints that Luffy’s other One Piece brother, Sabo, was dead. After Ace’s traumatic death, it seemed like a particularly cruel twist, especially since it was off screen. As a result, fans have been absolutely buzzing on social media with the revelation that Sabo is alive.
One Piece’s Sabo is Alive
Naturally, social media is the go-to source for finding and sharing the latest information about One Piece, especially when it’s on hiatus or outside its normal publication cycle. Over the last couple of days, social media have been flooded with leaked images of Chapter 1082 that show Sabo’s unexpected return. On Twitter, one popular retweet from @Zeldris_v2 shows what looks to be a full-page panel of a disheveled Sabo telling someone just out of eyeshot that he’ll tell them everything about what happened. This is presumably in reference to the complete and instantaneous annihilation of Luluisia Kingdom by Im when Sabo was there. The attack left no trace of the island or anyone on it including Sabo. That event happened almost a year ago in Chapter 1060.
In another popular tweet, from @kuri_kaes, Sabo is shown talking to Revolutionary Army Deputy Commander Ahiru, who is understandably happy that Sabo is back but at the same time livid that he failed to contact them and tell them he was safe. The tweet goes on to show Sabo telling Ahiru that he did respond but used a communication method that could be intercepted by the Marines. According to Sabo, he wasn’t even on the island when it was destroyed.
While bringing back long-dead characters is one of the oldest tropes in the manga industry, fans seem to love them, especially when the return involves a fan-favorite character. In a series like One Piece with a cast that is unprecedented in its quantity, it’s hard for fans to develop much interest and investment in characters they may see for a few chapters, then never again. That is different with Sabo though. His background story, connection to Ace and Luffy, and personality made him an instant favorite with the fan base, even if his appearance were less frequent. The depth of fans’ love for him was demonstrated by the reaction to his apparent death. Given all this, One Piece fans have more than enough reason to rejoice that Luffy’s brother Sabo is actually alive.
