Portgas D. Ace

Portgas D. Ace is a character from the One Piece anime and manga.

Portgas D. Ace, born as Gol D. Ace and nicknamed "Fire Fist" Ace, was the adopted older brother of Luffy and Sabo, and son of the late Pirate King, Gol D. Roger and his lover, Portgas D. Rouge.

He was adopted by Monkey D. Garp as wished by Roger to him before his birth. Ace was the 2nd division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates and one-time captain of the Spade Pirates. He also is the central character from Ace's Great Blackbeard Search Cover Page Serial.

Hunted by the World Government for his lineage, Ace was captured and sentenced to death, which resulted in the Battle of Marineford in an all out clash of powers. Ace was freed, but he sacrificed his life to protect his younger brother from Akainu.

His death ultimately proved to be the catalyst leading to Luffy to train for two years to become strong enough to protect his friends, paving the way for the second half of the series.

Appearance
Although they were not blood related, Ace looked remarkably like his foster brother, Luffy. However, Ace was more serious looking than Luffy's lighthearted design, and was also taller and more muscular. He also sported rather childish freckles (inherited from his mother), and tended to make a skeptical facial expression by raising his left eyebrow. Interestingly, his facial features were almost akin to his biological father Gol D. Roger in his youth without his mustache.

Ace's tattoos were among his most remarkable, trademark features. He had a tattoo on his back of the Whitebeard symbol—purple bones formed in a cross behind a purple skull with a white mustache—that he described as his pride and joy. Ace had another tattoo on his upper left bicep that spells "ACE" vertically. The "S" crossed out is a tribute to Sabo as that's his jolly roger. On the cover of Chapter 596 indeed, Ace's tattoo is written as "ACE" instead of the original "ACE" as the cover is a "what if" image of Ace, Luffy, and Sabo together as adults with the former being known to be alive.

Ace wore an open-front shirt until he received Whitebeard's tattoo - afterwards, he stopped wearing anything over his upper body except when on winter or desert islands due to the weather requirements. He wore black boots, black knee-length shorts with an eyelet-studded orange belt, and a blue pouch belted around his left leg. He also wore a short second belt with a large red "A" on the silver buckle over his right hip, but left it unfastened and threaded the free end along the back of his shorts. A dagger in a green sheath hung at his left hip. On Ace's left arm, he wore a Log Pose and a red and white striped bracelet around his wrist, an orange elbow guard, and his "ASCE" tattoo. He wore a red beaded necklace and an orange hat with two blue smileys, one frowning and one smiling, and a string of red beads sitting above the rim. Two long orange side straps hung down sides of his hat and met at a large medallion of a bull's skull with orange tassels.

Unfortunately, Ace lost his trademark hat, which he already had when he began his journey as a pirate, on Banaro Island as a result of his duel with Blackbeard. His knife was also apparently confiscated, as he no longer had it in his next appearance as a prisoner at Impel Down. The tattoo upon his back that he took so much pride in was later destroyed by the same blow that eventually led to his death. However, at his grave, Ace's hat and knife were placed at his tombstone—either they were retrieved, or they were duplicates in Ace's possession.

During the ending credits in the second movie, Clockwork Island Adventure, previews of upcoming characters from the Baroque Works Saga were featured. Ace was also included amongst the many characters, but while his clothes were almost identical, he boasted a very different color scheme to the one he was given in his official appearance in the anime.

As a child, Ace is shown to have often worn t-shirts with two-kanji phrases on the front (such as "innocence" and "violence"). On some occasions they are linked to the scene in which they were worn, like "independence" when the three brothers built their own tree house to live in. He often wore knee-length shorts and a black elbow guard on his left arm. Ace was always seen wearing dark brown, flat, slipper-like shoes, and in the winter, he wore a green cardigan over his normal clothes.

Upon leaving Dawn Island at the age of 17, he wore an outfit identical to the one he wore when he first met Whitebeard; however, he was less muscular than he eventually grew to be and had rounder, more childlike facial features.

Personality
Ace was much more intelligent, polite, and generally more bearable than Luffy, which prompted the Straw Hat Pirates to question whether he was truly related to their captain. While several people who knew Gol D. Roger noted Luffy is quite similar to the late Pirate King, Whitebeard himself claimed that Ace's personality was not at all like his father's. It seems that among the very few things the brothers shared was their recklessness as pirates (and their near-bottomless stomachs). In addition, Ace liked to party as much as his brother does. When he boarded Buggy'sship, he was drawn by the smell of food and decided to enjoy himself while he was there. Ace could be a bit inappropriate though as he once used a woman's skirt to wipe his face while he was dining at Spice Bean in Alabasta.

There were two running gags about Ace. The first was his rather extreme narcolepsy. He tended to randomly fall asleep while eating and conversing, leaving strangers around him wondering if he had died. This was first seen in Alabasta when they thought he died in the middle of eating. The second was that he did a "dine and dash" routine wherever he went. This went back to his younger days with Sabo and Luffy, when they would often dine and dash in the city of Goa, and carried over to adulthood, as shown on three occasions when he was on Drum Island, Alabasta, and another island in the Grand Line while hunting Blackbeard.

Ace was also shown to be quite impulsive, much like his younger brother, as he too would make hasty decisions and, in some cases, neglect listening to reason. This was shown that shortly prior to setting out to hunt Blackbeard for killing Thatch. Whitebeard insisted that Ace should not to go after him, yet Ace, despite his immense loyalty and respect for his captain, ignored his warnings and went off to find his former subordinate. Another, albeit more humorous example, was in his mini-story, where during his hunt for Blackbeard, he mistook a man named Dr. Blackbeard for his target, due to coincidentally having a similar name and appearance to Teach. Rather than check to see if he found the man he was looking for, Ace jumped to conclusions to soon and attacked the doctor on sight. It was by then Ace realized too late that he had the wrong man, which got him into a lot of trouble with the villagers.

His "politeness" is due to Makino's teaching after Ace asked her how to introduce himself to Shanks (being his brother's savior). Before that, Ace was rather cold and rude to anyone he was not familiar with.

As the son of Roger, he lived in his shadow and is to date the first D. depicted to truly question his own right to exist, while displaying the fewest commonly seen D. related traits. Ace seemed to have lifelong problems dealing with his parentage, even after denouncing Gol D. Roger and accepting Whitebeard as his only father. This was in direct contrast to Luffy, who accepted his father's identity immediately upon learning it and did not seem to care when he was told how dangerous of a man he was. However, Luffy did not grow up with knowledge of the identity (or even the existence) of his father. Ace believed that it was natural if he were to really die as nobody in the world wanted the son of the devil (Roger) to live. Ace commented upon his own death that he had never sought fame or fortune - all he had wanted was the answer to his lifelong question of whether or not he should have been born, as this was the only thing preventing him from dying with no regrets as he and Luffy had vowed to do so and the fact he had a younger brother to look out for. Ace's only regret was that he would not live to see Luffy achieve his dream, which he believed Luffy undoubtedly would accomplish as he was his little brother.

Benn Beckman of the Red Haired Pirates described Ace’s personality to be more naive than his appearance would suggest. He compared Ace’s characteristics to be more aligned with the Revolutionary Army’s, considering his personal vendetta against the world denying his existence. Ace is described to be more of a fighter than a Pirate, making Beckman think Ace is unfit to be captain of a fleet.

Ace had a tendency to never back down from a fight, saying that he would never run once facing an enemy. Because of this, some people believed that Ace had a death wish, but in truth he wanted to prevent people he cared for from getting hurt. Dadan stated that he inherited this tendency from his father, Gol D. Roger, despite loathing him. While Ace emerged victorious over enemies he refused to run from, such as Porchemy and Bluejam, his stubbornness hurt him on a number of occasions, particularly when he refused to back down against Blackbeard or Admiral Akainu.

Ace was also easily provoked by and became violent towards anyone who insulted or harmed people close to him. In one of Garp's conversations with Curly Dadan, this was revealed to be a trait of Roger as well. During his childhood, Ace had a tendency to severely injure anyone who insulted Roger, though he himself disliked his biological father. After hearing about Sabo's presumed death at the hands of a World Noble, Ace quickly became bent on killing the Noble and Dadan had to pin Ace down and tie him to a tree to stop him.

Ace's temper got the better of him, especially in cases when Whitebeard, proclaimed by Ace to be his only father, was insulted. Believing that this was the case when Blackbeard broke the iron rule of the Whitebeard Pirates and fled after murdering a crewmate, Ace pursued his traitorous subordinate despite his crewmates' efforts and even Whitebeard's orders to stop him. Ace later came to see that his stubbornness had gotten him into the ordeal of being scheduled for execution. Even though he managed to escape death on the scaffold thanks to the pirates' and Luffy's efforts at Marineford and was well on his way to freedom, Admiral Akainu got to him by insulting Whitebeard. Ace quickly turned back to face him, ignoring his crewmates' warnings to not become angered over Akainu's provocations. Unwilling to let him get away of speaking ill of Whitebeard, Ace attacked him out of fury only to have his arm burned by Akainu's Devil Fruit powers. Akainu then took the opportunity to attack Luffy on the sideline, leading Ace to jump in, sacrificing his life to shield Luffy from the attack. While saying his last words, Ace sadly admitted to Luffy that he (Ace) wasted away all of his efforts to rescue him.

Abilities
As commander of the 2nd division of the Whitebeard Pirates, Ace had authority over the lower-ranking subordinates. In addition, as one of the top commanders of the Whitebeard Pirates, he was one of the strongest and most highly-regarded pirates on board under Whitebeard himself. At one point, while being captain of the Spade Pirates, he was even asked to join the Shichibukai but refused. Ace was strong enough to be acknowledged by the Yonko Shanks and Blackbeard, with the former saying he had earned his spot as Whitebeard's second division commander and the latter wishing Ace had joined his crew.

Luffy comments on how he never defeated Ace in a single fight, despite Luffy already having the power of the Gomu Gomu no Mi(Ace did not consume the Mera Mera no Mi until after he left: Luffy was surprised by Ace's new power when Ace stopped Smoker from capturing him in Nanohana). Ace was trained by Garp, who had hoped to turn him into a fine Marine, and possibly Dadan, the two of whom were responsible for training Luffy to the level of power he held before becoming a pirate.

Ace also held a fearsome reputation. It was revealed that Ace received an invitation to join the Shichibukai while he was still captain of the Spade Pirates, though he refused the offer. After he joined the Whitebeard Pirates, a civilian was seen commenting on how Ace's strength was supposedly "outta this world". The World Government granted Blackbeard the position of Shichibukaiafter he successfully defeated and captured Ace.[16] His overall reputation and abilities had earned him a bounty of 550,000,000 prior to his capture and death.

He was also a capable navigator, as he was seen wearing a Log Pose on his left wrist, while travelling island to island in search for Luffy and Blackbeard on a simple raft.

Physical Abilities
Aside from the powers granted by the Devil Fruit he consumed, Ace possessed immense physical strength which is attained from the extremely rigorous training in the harsh environment of Mt. Colubo mainly from hunting and fighting wild beast since childhood. His incredible physical prowess were supplemented by his extraordinary fighting skills. Even in his early childhood, he was able to beat some local thugs who spoke ill of his father "half to death" and during his first meeting with Luffy, he was also shown sitting on top of a huge bull he killed with his staff. He could also easily break a giant tree with a single kick. In his childhood, before he acquired the Mera Mera no Mi, Ace was able to best Luffy in every single sparring match, despite Luffy's untrained Gomu Gomu no Mi abilities.

Ace demonstrated his strength during his battle with Blackbeard: he was able to take Blackbeard's punches, which were so powerful that the first made Ace cough up blood and the second nearly broke his neck, and retaliate. Van Augur noted that, as expected of the Whitebeard Pirates 2nd division commander, Ace's basic combat skills were quite formidable even without his Devil Fruit powers.

He fought equally with Jinbe in the past; they nearly killed each other in a fight that lasted for five days. Ace then survived a battle with Whitebeard that took place immediately after, showing immense stamina and durability. He was one of the few people to be able to take a "baptizing" in boiling water in Impel Down without flinching, which is considered an impressive feat.

Devil Fruit

 * Further information: Mera Mera no Mi

Ace ate the Devil Fruit Mera Mera no Mi, a Logia-type fruit that allows him to become the element of fire and control the flames from his body, giving him his reputation as "Fire Fist Ace". Ace displayed his immense power by destroying a handful of Baroque Works ships with ease. His main style is to launch columns of fire by punching, with his signature "Fire Fist". He is also immune to normal physical strikes, all of which will simply phase through his fire-composed body.

For some reason, Ace did not seem to mind his inability to swim. He traversed the seas in a one-man boat that seems to have been specifically designed for him, propelling it with flames from his feet.

Ace also had practical uses for his devil fruit abilities, as he would heat up any fish he would find in the seas for his crew when they had no food to eat.

He skillfully sent his boat underwater as he leaped over the Billions fleet, timing it precisely so that it emerged underneath him just before he hit the water on the other side. Later after his death, it was revealed that Ace's burning fists also had the power to annihilate entire cities.

Haki

 * Further information: Haki

Ace showed the ability to use two of the three forms of Haki. His willpower was strong enough to withstand Shank’s outburst of Haoshoku Haki. His Haki had also been described by Shanks and Benn Beckman to be fiery in nature, to the point that Ace’s very presence was able to stop blizzards on an island for as long as he was there. As such, when he turned up on Drum Island, no snow fell at all on the island for an entire day.

Haoshoku Haki

 * Further information: Haki/Haoshoku Haki

Ace possessed Haoshoku Haki, which he initially had no conscious control over. He first demonstrated the ability at 10 years of age when he rendered the Bluejam Pirates except for Bluejam unconscious after an outburst of rage. He later gained knowledge of the power, as he recognized it when Luffy used it at the Battle of Marineford.

He was never seen using this Haki apart from during his childhood, save for in the video games (such as during the activation of his Kizuna Rush in Pirate Warriors 3).

Busoshoku Haki
It was stated in One Piece novel A that Ace could use Busoshoku Haki. Upon awakening it, he was capable of fighting on equal grounds with Vice Admiral Draw with Busoshoku Haki. However, it is not known how proficient he was in using it.

Weapons
Ace carries around a knife but is never seen using it. However, in flashbacks of attempts to assassinate Whitebeard, Ace was shown using various weapons, including an axe and a knife. As a child, he used a long bo staff made from pipe as a weapon.

In One Piece: Burning Blood, Ace (Strong World) wields two twin double-barreled firearms (which resemble a cross between a pistol and sawed-off shotgun) which he uses as part of his Twin Gun & Crossfire special attack.

Trivia

 * Universal Studios of Japan has built a replica of Ace's and Whitebeard's tombs. Ace's epitaph says: "Ace, may your soul be eternal. Your brave soul will always be with us." This epitaph was also shown in Episode 663 of the anime.
 * Ace has had three different pictures in his Wanted Poster throughout the series: the first in a filler episode in the Alabasta Arc; the second in an episode of Marineford Arc (originally as an image of the newspaper in the manga); and the third in the second volume of One Piece Magazine (taken from Chapter 158).
 * Ace being captain of the Spade Pirates is a pun on the "Ace of spades".
 * In the 6th Japanese Fan Poll, Ace ranked as the fifth most popular character in the series, making him the most popular of the Whitebeard Pirates and also the most popular deceased character.
 * Had Ace been a girl, he would have been named "Ann".
 * Ace would have been 21 when he died if he was born on time. Instead he was 20 because his mother held him in her womb for eleven months past his due date, meaning he spent a total of twenty months inside her womb, instead of the usual nine.
 * Ace is the first known Devil Fruit user to die.
 * His bounty, being at 550,000,000 before his death, was the highest amount revealed in the series before the timeskip.
 * Ace's birthday, January 1, comes from his name since Ace is the first card in the deck.