SAUL AND ROBIN REUNITE AFTER 22 YEARS! One Piece Chapter 1133 Spoilers!!

In the previous One Piece chapter, the Straw Hats all reunite on the Sun layer of Elbaph while a mysterious figure is on the prowl.

Thanks to Pewpiece for covering the early chapter spoilers.

One Piece Chapter 1133 is titled, “Praise Me”.

This chapter contains 17 pages.

After 20 volumes or cover story chapters, the  “Ogre Child Yamato’s Golden Harvest Surrogate Pilgrimage” cover story has finally revealed the mysterious silhouette that has been kidnapping people around Wano and it is Holed’em, one of Kaido’s Shinuchi (Headliners).

Holed’em has kidnapped O-Tama again just like he did in Act 1 of the Wano Country Arc and Speed is lying on the ground defeated while Yamato watches all of this with surprise.

What does Holdem have to gain from these disappearances?

The Devil Child Attempts to Take Her Own Life

The chapter begins with some parts at the end of Robin’s flashback from the Enies Lobby Arc.

We see some familiar events but this is from the point of view of different characters.

In front of news reporters, Spandine, the spineless father of the equally spineless Spandam, had framed Robin for the sinking of the Marine battleships and for destroying the evacuation ships containing people from Ohara escaping.

Akainu’s very first appearance in the manga in Chapter 397: “In Hopes of Reaching the Future” shows him ordering the destruction of the escape vessels, saying that their efforts would be in vain if there was only a slight chance that one of the Ohara scholars is among the evacuees, 

Spandine himself was shocked by this move yet to clear his involvement in the matter, he pins the blame on the “devil child” Nico Robin as a way to further vilify her as someone so willing to escape “Justice” that she would harm innocent civilians that have nothing to do with an event that will eventually be erased from world history.

Now we understand how the World Government was able to not only make Robin out to be an evil demon in a way ignorant civilians would buy into but also erase their involvement in the tragic destruction of the evacuation ships, thereby fully cleaning the entire incident.

Spandine may not have fully planned for this but this was all within World Government Protocol.

Later, we see kid Robin running away from multiple places, just like in the Enies Lobby flashback.

In one case, we see Robin looking at a map book in a bookstore and secretly adding Ohara to the map.

This is incredibly crucial because not only does it represent Robin’s longing for her homeland but a rebellious refusal to have her entire history, people, and life erased by the World Government.

Young Nico Robin still believed she and her people have every right to be born!

We even see Robin eating food from the garbage next to a dog.

People react to Robin wherever she fled and we get them saying things such as:

“She’s already as smart as a scholar and she does not have human emotions!! Just look at this amount of money!! Take up your guns and hunt her down!! Don’t be fooled by her young appearance!! Have no mercy!! She uses some unknown sorcery!! What is the Marine doing!!! She is an enemy of the world!!!” 

Through that one interview and many attempts to erase any evidence of Ohara’s existence, Robin is objectified as an emotionless monster who has stolen money because it is in her nature to be evil, ignoring how the World Government has kept her from living a human life.

The people are only made to hate Robin because they have no clue what Ohara even is or what exactly it is that they are doing.

The Marines are quite responsible for driving Robin to this point.

One day kid Robin was thinking of jumping from a cliff, but she stopped herself because she remembered Olvia and Saul’s words, telling her to survive.

Saul’s words would especially hit Robin: 

“Sail until you find friends that will stand by you! You’ll surely find them. No one is born to be alone!”

Even as she is cursed by the world, Robin tries to mimic Saul’s laugh “Dereshishishi”.

This style of flashback somewhat reminds me of how the One Piece anime, especially during the Wano era, has expanded on character psychology (think of Yasunori Koyama’s episodes or One Piece Episode 1061 for Sanji), a style that has become more prevalent over time.

One wonders if Oda was inspired by the anime’s latest direction in the creation of flashbacks.

The Mist Ship

In the present, the Giant Warrior Pirates’ flagship, the Great Erik would dock at the village’s pier.

Rather than the port in the island itself, the ship docks on the sea clouds that act like water, which is sort of a middle ground between the Blue Sea and the White Sea above the world that the people of Skypeia occupy.

This village is the hometown of Dorry and Brogy.

Luffy’s group also arrive on the village in a flying rowboat, with island clouds attached to its oars 

Gerd, Goldberg and the Thousand Sunny are in the ship too.

Luffy and Usopp are amazed by the flying ship, which the Giants call a “Sval”, which is rendered in Japanese as “Mist Ship”.

Svals are ships that use the buoyancy of island clouds to move forward.

Lilith remarks that Elbaph’s current climate is perfect for all kinds of Vegapunk technology: Island Cloud, Sea Cloud, Bubble, Rainbow, and Hover, which were all inventions introduced throughout the Egghead Island Arc.

Big Mom’s Connection to the New Giant Warrior Pirates

The Straw Hats and Giant Warrior Pirates of both generations now gather in the middle of the village.

Nami notices that Robin has changed her hairstyle and compliments it.

In Chapter 1131: “Loki in the Underworld”, Brook changed Robin’s hair to resemble her pre-timeskip look.

Robin on her end remarked that Nami and the other Straw Hats have already dressed themselves for Elbaph.

Luffy and the crew are on Gerd and Hajrudin’s palms as Hajrudin finally reunites with Luffy and introduces the rest of his “New Giant Warrior Pirates” crew to the Straw Hats.

We see that Road has been tied up with iron chains and crucified.

He might get away pretty soon.

Hajrudin recalls the great deeds that made Luffy into an Emperor of the Sea and calls him “Big Boss”.

Like before, Luffy said he does not need subordinates but Hajrudin says that it is alright if he disagrees with it since the New Giant Warrior Pirates are doing it because they want to.

The Straw Hat Grand Fleet was formed at the end of the Dressrosa Arc in Chapter 800: “Followers’ Sake Cups”, in spite of Luffy’s protests of being a superior to any subordinate.

Hajrudin mentions that the news of Big Mom being defeated has reached Elbaph too.

Gerd noted that it was a shame that Linlin had fallen, in both as an Elbaph resident and in her defeat at the hands of the Worst Generation rookies, Eustass “Captain” Kidd and Trafalgar Law in Chapter 1040: “Wasted Words on Young Ears”.

Gerd recalls that she used to be personal friends with Charlotte Linlin

We did first see Gerd as a child Giant 63 years ago in Chapter 866: “Natural-Born Destroyer”, alongside a young Hajrudin.

However, Gerd remarked that Big Mom committed an unforgivable crime to Elbaph, which was the shameful wounding of Elder Jorul in Chapter 867: “Happy Birthday”, that led to the Giant’s eventual death.

Robin’s Reunion with Saul

The villagers are all about to celebrate a feast in honor of the Straw Hat arrivals but Gerd informs Robin that Saul is waiting at the school near the village.

Saul intends to show Robin the “Elbaph Library”. 

Robin plans to go alone but all Straw Hat crew choose to go with her, so they postpone the feast for later. 

Gerd takes them on the “Sval” and they fly to meet Saul. 

During the trip, Gerd explains that Saul teaches history to Elbaph children. 

Usopp is amazed to discover that warriors even work hard on learning. 

This serves as an important reminder for the cast and audiences alike that the warrior cultures of both Elbaph and their real-life counterparts, the Vikings, were quite literate.

As there were no public schools back then, only the merchants, craftsmen, chiefs, and religious were more well-read than the common people but the advent of Christianity in Scandinavia expanded literacy.

In Elbaph, it is likely that Saul’s school was a new development in the appreciation for history though the Giants would likely have oral traditions to pass on as history, in addition to Saul’s recovery of Ohara’s books.

They are now in the “Warrior’s Spring”, where they see a massive spring of water so large that it is as big as the sea for the tiny humans. This is near the “Library of Owls”.

Near the Warrior’s Spring, there is a massive house on top of an enormous branch, with some waterfalls falling from the branch leading into the spring.

Nami is surprised that the area looks more like a beach even though it is within the confines of the island.

According to Gerd, this is because parts of the tree have fossilized and weathered from aging, creating the sand here.

Tides do not rise and fall here but the waterfalls do produce waves, creating a miniature sea within the confines of the mainland.

As Robin is excited for her reunion, a giant girl runs after the Straw Hats, shouting that Saul has fallen down and is not moving, indicating that Saul is in the beach. 

All the Straw Hats are shocked by this but Robin sees what happened to Saul and just laughs, saying that it is quite silly. 

Robin walks through the beach and we see Saul shoving his sand down on the beach while the waves cover his lower half.

When Robin gets close to Saul smiling, he raises his hand and roars like her exactly how they first met in Chapter 392: “Dereshi”

Robin remarks that Saul’s laugh is still weird while Saul remarks that he is awkward for this sort of thing and is not sure what face to make, so he played a prank on Robin.

The two share a conversation, where Robin remarked how she resembled her mother so much and how Vegapunk has finally relayed the voice of Ohara to the people in his worldwide broadcast.

We see a flashback of what happened to Saul after the Ohara Incident.

By the time Saul woke up, he was already in the sea and assumed the fire that had destroyed the island of Ohara must have melted Kuzan’s ice.

As a result of this, Saul suffered scorch wounds all over his body, as shown in the scars on his face and arms.

Now standing on Saul’s hand, Robin stops Saul’s speech, saying that she does not want to talk about depressing things and instead wants him to praise her for being alive for this long.

Saul embraces Robin while laughing, proclaiming:

“DereshishL That’s what she said! And OF COURSE I shall!! A child of that age!! Chased by the entire world!! You have done well!! Robin!!! Well done surviving that whole 22 years!!! And coming all this way!!!” 

We see another flashback panel with kid Robin crying under the rain, asking Clovis and her mother Olvia why she had to keep living and felt so tired of all the cruelty she experienced that she loses her will to live.

This was the personality Robin carried up until the Enies Lobby Arc, in the moment of her execution, when Luffy tells her to say that she wants to live. 

In the present, Robin and Saul cry with emotion and joy, with both of them expressing how much they missed each other while the Straw Hats cry with funny faces. Zoro and Jinbe are not crying.

Luffy simply smiles.

There will be a BREAK NEXT WEEK.

One Piece Chapter 1134 will be released on December 23, 2024 and there will be a Christmas break for the Weekly Shonen Jump Magazine the week after.

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