One Piece: Who is Jaguar D. Saul?

The Elbaph Arc saw a flashback character thought to be dead come back to life and that is Robin’s old friend, Jaguar D. Saul.

What can we learn about this Giant and how will he be key to the Final Saga

Another Vice Admiral of the D Clan

Like Monkey D. Garp, Luffy’s grandfather, Saul was also part of the D clan but noted that there were many others like him where he came from, who were more peaceful than the Giants of Elbaph.

Being of the D. Clan, Saul even laughed before his supposed death during the Ohara Incident 22 years ago.

Born in the South Blue, Saul was not a Giant of Elbaph, yet another sign of Giant nations that we might eventually meet.

When he first met Robin, he was 106 years old, which would somewhat in the middle age bracket for Giants, as for context, a 63-year old Loki would be considered a young man, possibly close to Luffy’s age even.

Saul was originally a Vice-Admiral in the Marines, a part of his life that is not given much detail outside of him meeting many Devil Fruit users.

He was present as early as 25 years ago during the Edd War, a conflict between Gol D. Roger and “Golden Lion” Shiki.

Meeting Nico Robin

22 years before the start of the story, Saul would encounter a wanted vessel containing archaeologists from Ohara that have left West Blue to find the Poneglyphs.

Since researching on the forbidden history of the world was a high crime, Saul was ordered to kill the crew.

Although Saul wanted to take the archaeologists alive, his own crew killed them, likely at the behest of higher powers, but left one alive, Nico Olvia.

Saul would be selected by Sengoku to be one of the five vice-admirals chosen to lead the Buster Call against Ohara, which was directly ordered by the Five Elders themselves.

However, Saul slowly resented his orders, seeing no reason to destroy an island over the study of history.

When interrogating Olvia, he realized the brutality of the World Government and released Olvia.

Saul would later be shipwrecked by a storm and washed up on the Ohara beach, where an 8-year old Nico Robin would find him and the two would form a friendship as Saul spent the next four days building a raft.

Eventually, Robin talked about her mother and Saul realized that Robin was Olvia’s daughter, so he warned her about the battleships coming to destroy Ohara due to the scholars’ study of the Poneglyphs.

The Ohara Incident

The Ohara Incident took place and Saul looked around for Robin, whom he found reunited with her mother Olvia.

Saul promised Olvia to protect her daughter and then carried Robin to the shore of the island, even fighting off against the Marines attacking them.

Then-Vice Admiral Kuzan intercepted Saul and while arguing on Justice, the two would see an evacuation ship blown up under Vice-Admiral Akainu’s orders.

When Saul tried to help Robin escape by himself, Kuzan froze Saul in place.

As the ice slowly encased his body, Saul told Robin to escape the island and find friends out at sea.

Saul has been presumed dead for 22 years.

Saul’s Survival

Thanks to the fire burning the Tree of Knowledge, Saul would be thawed out of Kuzan’s ice and then rushed to retrieve the wet books that survived the burning.

These books would be brought to Elbaph with the help of some Giants and stored in the Owl Library, where a Giant Owl named Biblo would use its Iku Iku no Mi (Grow Grow Fruit) to make the human-sized books grow for giant reading.

He would also meet Vegapunk while the latter was in the Owl Library and imparted to him the knowledge from the books on the Void Century.

Currently, he is 126 years old and residing on Elbaph where he is a history teacher to Giant children.

In the Egghead Island Arc, Shaka, one of Vegapunk’s Satellites, revealed to Robin that Saul was still alive, moving her to tears.

This had set up a long-awaited reunion 20 years in the making, both within the story and for the fanbase.

Personality

Saul was more timid and peaceful than most Giants, who valued their warrior culture.

A follower of Moral Justice, Saul did not blindly obey the World Government’s orders regarding the Ohara scholars and it was this moral judgment that led him to defect from the World government.

Although both shared similar views of Justice, Saul would be silenced for a time by his friend Kuzan.

His being a Giant, a D, and even the way his crew neglected his orders for the Government’s suggested that Saul faced isolation even before the Ohara Incident.

Meeting Robin might have helped him resolve this as he taught her how to laugh amidst sadness and told her that she would find friends who will protect her.

Saul had such an profound impact on Robin that in the midst of her 22 years of running away and constant betrayal, she would cling to memories of Saul to keep herself alive no matter what.

Abilities 

We do not see Saul’s abilities at work as he was a pacifist at heart.

However, as a Giant, he was strong enough to easily lift a Buster Call battleship several times his own size to slam it back down and destroy it.

Considering how powerful Kuzan’s Hie Hie no Mi (Chill Chill Fruit) was, his survival was impressive.

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