User blog comment:Yatanogarasu/Sabo: Dead or Alive?/@comment-1324071-20100627043637

I think showing young Sanji turn into a skeleton was a bit more brutal than seeing Sabo die.

Either way, if Sabo really did die, in the very least we'd get some last thoughts from him, or something. Oda isn't the type to just kill off a character like that.