Portgas D. Ace

Portgas D. Ace (ポートガス・D・エース, Pōtogasu D. Ēsu), born as Gol D. Ace (ゴール・D・エース, Gōru D. Ēsu) and nicknamed Fire Fist Ace (火拳のエース, Hiken no Ēsu), was the adopted older brother of Monkey D. Luffy and Sabo, and son of the late King of the Pirates, Gol D. Roger and his lover, Portgas D. Rouge (both deceased). 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 onetime captain of the Spade Pirates. The plots of the Impel Down and Marineford arcs revolved around rescuing Ace from execution by the World Government; during these events, Ace met his death at the hands of Admiral Akainu. Ace's bounty was 550,000,000 Berries.

Appearance

 * Voice Actor: Not Known (English), Toshio Furukawa (Japanese)

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 slightly taller and more muscular. He also sported rather childish freckles, and tended to make an incredulous facial expression by raising his left eyebrow. Interestingly, his facial features were almost akin to his biological father Gol D. Roger's 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 "ASCE" vertically with the "S" crossed out. The S is very similar to the one Sabo wrote on the letter to Ace and Luffy, and bears a striking resemblance to the S on his jolly roger. The fact that the S does not appear on the Chapter 596 coverwhere Sabo, Ace and Luffy are seen together as grown up enforce the theory that it is a tribute to his deceased brother. He was 20 years old, height was 185 cm. (6'1"), and birthday was January 1.

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 islands. 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 Grand Compass 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.

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 treehouse to live in.

Personality
Ace was much more intelligent, polite, and generally more bearable than Luffy, which prompted the Straw Hats crew to question whether he was truly related to their captain. While several people who knew Gol D. Roger noted that Luffy is quite similar to the late King of the Pirates, Whitebeard himself claimed that Ace's personality wasn't 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 stomach capacities). However, Ace liked to party as much as his brother does. When he boarded Buggy's ship, he was drawn by the smell of food and decided to enjoy himself while he was there.

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'd 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 from his younger days with Sabo and Luffy, when they would often Dine and Dash in the city of Goa.

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 wasn't 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 life-long 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 didn't seem to care when he was told how dangerous of a man he was. However, Luffy did not grow up with the identity (or even existence) of his father known to him. Ace believed that it is 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'd never sought fame or fortune - all he'd 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 as he was his little brother.

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 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 Akainu.

Ace was also easily provoked by and became violent towards anyone who insulted people close to him; in one of Garp's conversations with Curly Dadan, this was revealed to be true 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. 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 killing a crewmate, Ace took off in pursuit of the traitor despite his crewmates' and even Whitebeard's efforts to stop him. Ace later came to see that his stubbornness got him into the mess 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 provoked 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 but his arm was burned by Akainu's Cursed Fruit powers. Akainu then took the opportunity to attack Luffy at the sideline, leading Ace into jumping in and sacrificing his life to shield Luffy from him. While saying his last words, Ace apologized to Luffy for letting all of his efforts go to waste. He also thanked everyone who came to save him and for loving him even though the whole world cursed his existence.

Friends/Allies

 * Jimbei
 * Straw Hat Pirates
 * Monkey D. Luffy
 * Roronoa Zolo
 * Nami
 * Usopp
 * Sanji
 * Tony Tony Chopper
 * Nico Robin
 * Franky
 * Brook
 * Spade Pirates
 * Whitebeard Pirates
 * Edward Newgate
 * Shanks
 * Nefeltari Vivi
 * Karoo
 * Kuja
 * Boa Hancock
 * Emporio Ivankov

Family

 * Gol D. Roger (father)
 * Portgas D. Rouge (mother)

Neutral

 * Buggy
 * Crocodile
 * Daz Bonez
 * Galdino

Rivals

 * Monkey D. Luffy

Enemies

 * Navy
 * Sakazuki
 * World Government
 * Bluejam Pirates
 * Bluejam
 * Porchemy
 * Blackbeard Pirates
 * Marshall D. Teach
 * Impel Down
 * Magellan

Abilities and Powers
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.

Aside from the powers granted by the Devil Fruit he consumed, Ace also possessed immense physical strength. Signs of his great physical potential were already evident at his early childhood, where even as a young child, he was able to beat some local thugs who spoke ill of his father "half to death", and was also shown sitting on top of a huge animal (possibly a bull) he killed with his staff, during his first meeting with Luffy. Also later the same day he was shown to easily break a giant tree with ease. Ace was already very strong when he left his hometown, 3 years before Luffy did the same. Luffy comments on how he never beat Ace in a single fight, despite Luffy already having the power of the Gum-Gum Fruit (Ace did not consume the Flare-Flare Fruit 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'd hoped to turn him into a fine Navy soldier, and possibly Dadan, the two of whom were responsible for training Luffy to the level of power he held before becoming a pirate. Ace demonstrated his strength during his fight 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 fearsome even without his Cursed Fruit powers.

Ace also held a fearsome reputation. It was revealed that Ace received an invitation to join the Seven Warlords of the Sea 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 being a warlord after he successfully defeated and captured Ace. He was also a capable navigator, as he was seen wearing a Grand Compass on his left wrist.

He fought equally with Jimbei 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.

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.

Cursed Fruit
Ace ate the Devil Fruit: Flare-Flare Fruit, 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.

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. Also, when he turned up on Drum Island, no snow fell at all on the island for an entire day.

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.