User blog comment:Yatanogarasu/Dead or Alive? In General/@comment-2117107-20100613024033

There's quite a bunch of people that you can assume are dead, though this is One Piece we are talking about. We all know how creative Oda is in terms of storyline, as he always seems to have something placed in an early chapter that's then seen later on as an important point. No doubt that the people that we are unsure are dead could have a comeback... Well, at least one of them anyway.

However, I reckon we shouldn't assume Sabo's death... I mean, think about it. Sure, anyone could say Sabo died from the explosion, but who knows... He could possibly have survived and changed to a different alias to get rid of his royal identity to become a pirate. If that's the case, then maybe Sabo meets up with Luffy soon after hearing of Ace's death, and the flashback of Luffy's childhood is done to tell us what to expect.

Anyway, the point is I reckon we shouldn't assume someone has died if Oda doesn't show they have. For example, we know Ace has died as well as Whitebeard, since it was shown. We can also say Luffy's grandmother and mother are dead, but they could be alive and have different names because of wanting a peaceful life or something. Who knows what Oda could think of.

Nero could be alive; he was recruited into CP9 after all, so possibly, he could have survived the disaster, while Bellamy could reappear in the story to have revenge over Luffy or Flamingo. The possibilities are endless.