Shonen & Action

I was doing a rewatch of the current season and this stuck out to me. Megumi didn't know Kirara's technique at the start and not many sorcerers can tank a Demon Dog's attack to the face.

@titiaalessandra

Spoiler alert for Marineford!

I've been reading One Piece for decades now (it's really weird to realize this) and I've never understood why people were obsessed with Ace. I never liked him. When he died, I was shocked and sad for Luffy and all the Whitebeard Pirates, but not for myself. Today, I watched a short about Garp and Ace at Marineford and I finally understood my problem with Ace.

TL;DR: Ace is held back by his pride, which hurts everyone around him.

People love Ace because he's fun, cool, and confident. He's also a great fighter and a really good older brother. He is one of the most complex characters in One Piece and he is written very well. I want to make this clear: He's a great character and Oda did a great job of writing a flawed character. I just personally don't like him.

My problem with Ace is his pride. After Thatch's death, Ace makes it his personal quest to bring down. Whitebeard didn't want him to do it, but his pride made him do it anyway. This decision was massively harmful to the Whitebeard Pirates. When he was captured by Blackbeard, the crew supported him and were willing to die for him. Ace, on the other hand, didn't accept their help. He saw himself as unworthy of their sacrifice because of his lineage and because he got into this situation all on his own. That's why he doesn't attempt to free himself at all during his imprisonment and at Marineford. At his execution, he has many opportunities to choose life. Garp asks him what he wants him to do, but he says nothing. I am convinced that, in this situation, Garp was ready to throw everything away for Ace. Ace only had to speak up and have his Robin moment. He doesn't though and just stays there. Garp accepts his decision to not be saved.

When Luffy finally frees him, he goes with Luffy because he doesn't actively want to be executed. However, at the first opportunity to destroy all the progress that was made for him, he seizes it. Every pirate present at Marineford risked their life for him and many died. Whitebeard died and his final orders to his crew were to live and escape. This order applied to Ace as well, but it only took a few slanderous words from Akainu for Ace's pride to kick in.

Whitebeard wouldn't have cared that Akainu insulted him. He wanted Ace to live. Ace didn't want to live. Defending the name of a dead man who gave his life to save Ace was more important to him than protecting his own life.

Ace's last words were ones of regret. He realized that he couldn't let go of his pride, so he asked Luffy to do the one thing he couldn't: live.

It's heartbreaking and well-written. I just can't feel any love for him, though. I pity him, but at the end of the day, he rejected every attempt to save him from despair and he didn't allow the people in his life to help him. He had the means to overcome his pain but he didn't want to.

I've struggled with depression and self-hatred my whole life. Sometimes it feels like nothing can pull me out of this hole but, like Ace, I have the people and resources to help me. When I don't use them, it's my fault, not the world's. That's why I try to let people help me. Otherwise I'm only hurting myself and others for no reason.

If you read all of this, thank you. I didn't realize where this text was going when I started writing it. Ace is a great character and I know Oda didn't create him for me. This is just how I see Ace and you will definitely see him differently. I just realized that, to me, Ace is what I don't want to be.

I'm a bit late watching ep 1088 and i don't know if this idea has been discussed before, but I'm gonna say mine.

i searched online and found that most people think Luffy wants to throw a party or go to the moon, but I think his dream is much more "Pirate-like." I believe Luffy’s true dream is to re-hide the One Piece and start a New Era of prank.

The biggest clue here is that Luffy knows this dream even when he was a child. So it isn't something super technical or complex. It's one that he thought funny.

Here is why this fits the specific reactions we've seen:

Shanks: When Luffy told him his dream as a kid, Shanks cried and gave him the hat. Why? Because Luffy didn't just want to be Roger; he wanted to ensure the "Spirit of Adventure" never dies. It’s a selfless, yet incredibly pirate-y goal.

Ace and Sabo: They laughed and called it "childish." To an adult, finding a treasure is the end of the journey. To a child, the best part of a game is playing it again. Hiding the treasure is like resetting a playground.

IUsopp: Reacted with "That’s impossible!" because hiding the world's most sought-after treasure from the entire World Government and every pirate is a logistical nightmare.

Brook: "you certainly know how to entertain"

Sanji: "hey maybe there's something wrong with his head"

Luffy: "maybe it's possible one I'm king of the pirates"

The "Laugh Tale" Connection: Roger laughed because he realized the treasure is a "joke" (or maybe not) that keeps the world moving. If Luffy finds out the One Piece is meant to bring people together, what better way to do that than by giving the whole world a common goal to chase forever?

Conclusion: Luffy doesn't want to be the "King" to rule; he wants to be the "King" because the King is the one who sets the rules of the game. He’s going to reset the clock and make sure the "Romance Dawn" happens over and over again.

He can **potentially** do that, so why doesn’t he?

Forget the animation glow-up for a second—just look at the status difference. In that first slide, they don't even have a navigator or a proper ship. It was just a sack of food and a dream. Seeing them go from riding in a dinghy to becoming some of the most prominent pirates who can change the fate of the world is why this story is peak. The growth is earned.

*Spoiler* for anyone who hasn't finished Wano arc!

Of the 12 Supreme Swords, Zoro has already wielded one (is Shusui considered supreme), and is the current owner of two that have potential to become supreme (haven't read Elbaph arc yet... so not sure if this has changed) - Wado Ichimonji and Enma. I assume he will end up with a third of similar potential, if not already supreme. But which one do we assume he will end up with?

Mihawk giving him Yoru as a change of guard would be momentous. I have a sneaky feeling, Zoro will end up with Ace, and use it to beat someone big - Fujitora? Maybe Mihawk himself, leading to Mihawk giving him Yoru? Saying that, Luffy getting Ace feels more momentous. But Luffy doesn't really use swords (except briefly to beat Beast Pirates).Maybe he needs Ace to beat Imu. Any views?

everytime something happens, all the talks are about "haha shouldn't have skipped skypiea, your loss, missed the foreshadowing" etc it's been

5-6 years since I caught up to One piece but never seen 1 person claiming they skipped skypiea.

The fight is over the exact millisecond you flinch.

This scene is vicious. It isn't just fast. It's humiliating. Minato doesn't rely on screaming or massive chakra avatars. He simply deletes your margin for error. One opening. One marker. Done. (Chills).

Flying Raijin is absurd here. This isn't normal shonen speed where two guys just blur across the screen. This is domination through pure geometry. Minato dictates the distance, the angle, and your death all at once. The fight is broken before Obito even realizes it.

That’s the disrespect. Obito is still sweating, still fighting a war. Minato is already treating him like solved math.

Zero wasted motion. He reads the twitch, folds space, and turns a live execution into a highlight reel. Peak, unfair battle IQ. Flawless recognition instantly converted into lethal punishment.

Minato makes the entire concept of reacting obsolete. You don't lose because he hits harder. You lose because by the time your synapses fire to understand the trap, you are already bleeding out inside the result.

This scene is absolutely filthy. It isn't a clash. It's a death sentence.

TL;DR: Minato doesn't just speed-blitz. He catches a single flinch, folds space, and turns a live fight into a solved math equation. You're dead before you even realize you lost.

**BIQ leaving the mark**

I was thinking about this earlier where Luffy's tooth is out for a ton of episodes during WCI and it got me thinking, did Oda really write that in JUST so he could do this milk gag?

What's funny about it is it's implied that ONLY brook and luffy can do this. Capone's men were surprised by it and said it shouldn't be possible.

Minato lost his students in one year as a team, that's a lot of incompetence for such an intelligent character, and FTG is broken.

Like, Minato is able to teleport to any place marked with FTG, and FTG can't be removed under normal circumstances (Obito becoming the Ten-Tails' Jinchūriki was the only way to remove FTG).

Naruto has many plot holeswith Minato and FTG.

If Minato had marked his team with FTG:

• Obito, he could have saved Obito from being crushed by a rock. He could have saved Obito from Madara. He could have eliminated the elderly Madara.

• He could have saved Rin, fixed Rin's seal as Isobu's Jinchūriki, getting another Jinchūriki for Konoha.

• It could have prevented Kakashi from losing an eye, and Kakashi wouldn't have needed to kill Rin to save Konoha from an Isobu outbreak.

@poviolinist