Portgas D. Ace

Appearance

Although he was adopted, he looks remarkably like his 'brother' Luffy. However, Ace is more serious looking than Luffy's lighthearted design. He also sports rather childish freckles. One of the most obvious features on Ace are his tattoos. Ace has a tattoo on his back of the Whitebeard symbol —a skull with a white mustache and bones at the form of a cross. Ace has another tattoo on his upper left bicep that spells "ASCE" vertically with the "S" (apparently a mistake on the part of the tattoo artist) crossed out.

He has almost never been seen wearing something over his upper body (shirt) and wears black boots. He has black knee length pants with a blue belt-like strap around it that has a blue, mini backpack on it. On his pants is an orange belt that has a large "A" on the buckle. There is also another strap attached to the belt on his right hip that hangs on Ace's leg and a dagger and it's green sheath on his left hip. On his left arm, he wears a Log Pose on his wrist and an orange pad/strap on his elbow. He also has his ASCE tattoo on that arm. He wears a red bead necklace and has an orange hat, which has two smileys on it, one frowning and the other smiling. It also has red beads where the hat and rim connect. As a neck strap for the hat, there are orange strings that connect to a medallion that has a bull's skull on it and tassels hanging down from it.

During the ending credits to the second movie, Clockwo rk Island Adventure, previews of upcoming characters from the Baroque Works Saga were featured. Ace was also included amongst the many characters but he boasted a very different color scheme to the one he was given in his official appearance in the anime (which led much more to the manga).

Personality

As far as personality goes, Ace is much more intelligent, polite, and generally more bearable than Luffy, which prompts the Straw Hat crew to question whether he is truly related to their captain. Several people who knew Roger noted that Luffy is a lot like the pirate king, while Whitebeard himself claimed that Ace's personality isn't much like his father's. However, he likes 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.[2]

There are two running gags about him. The first is where he falls asleep while eating, leaving everyone around him wondering if he died. The second is that he does a "Dine and Dash" routine wherever he goes.

Crew

Spade Pirates

Ace was extremely loyal to the Spade Pirates, the crew that he formed himself. When he knew that they have no chance against Whitebeard, he formed a firewall to allow them to escape, leaving himself behind to hold Whitebeard back. The Spade Pirates also share this loyalty, and challenged the Whitebeard Pirates in the hopes of retrieving their captain, not at all fearing Whitebeard.

Whitebeard Pirates

In the beginning, Ace wanted to defeat Whitebeard, but instead was defeated. Whitebeard invited him to be one of their son's, in which Ace refused completely. Despite this, Whitebeard abducted the entire Spade Pirates onto his crew. After trying to kill Whitebeard many times, and persuaded by Marco, Ace decides to be his son. Ace currently holds great respect for his captain, Whitebeard. As far as Ace is concerned, his captain is the greatest pirate alive, and even goes so far as to describe Whitebeard as a type of father figure.

Ace is a loyal crewman and commands the Second Division of the Whitebeard Pirates. It is revealed that Thatch was one of the first of Whitebeard's crew to interact with him and they appear to have been good friends. Ace and Marco also seem to have a close friendship due to Marco explaining the bond between Whitebeard and his crew. Marshall D. Teach, who later became Blackbeard, once served as a member of the Second Division under Ace. The Whitebeard Pirates are revealed to be very fond of Ace and unhesitatingly vow to rescue him fr om his execution.

Whitebeard seemed unconcerned about Ace's hunt for Blackbeard, and remained grounded that it is Ace's duty to kill the traitor, regardless of the heavy warnings he's received from Shanks. It is revealed however that Ace was not ordered to go after Blackbeard and Whitebeard himself was hesitant about Ace facing Blackbeard. Even so, Whitebeard takes responsibility for Ace's decision and says that it was under his orders that Ace went after Blackbeard.

Whitebeard immediately mobilized his crew and his allies after hearing about Ace's imminent execution. The crew has landed around Marineford, along with many allied powerful pirate crews, and prepares for the ultimate war against the World Government.

Enemies

Ace's main enemy is Marshall D. Teach, also known as "Blackbeard", whom he was sent to kill for killing Thatch. However, as Shanks stated, Ace is strong and young but the fact he was appointed as Whitebeard's 2nd commande r worried Shanks due to "that trust and reputation" getting in the way. Shanks concluded that now is not the time to pitch the two against each other. This suggests that Ace isn't ready to face Blackbeard yet.

Ace also fought evenly with Smoker, who even Luffy has yet to beat. The elements of their Logia Devil Fruits canceled each other out, and neither of them were able to gain the upper hand.

Though once enemies with Shichibukai member Jinbei, they now respect each other deeply.

Monkey D. Luffy

Ace and his brother, Luffy, are very close. As a child, Ace was protective of Luffy particularly from Garp, even insulting Garp in an attempt to stop Garp's abusive behavior towards Luffy. This protective streak continues in the current storyline because when Ace found out Blackbeard was planning to kill Luffy he immediately warned him that he wouldn't let him lay a finger on his little brother. Ace tends to portray a typical good-big-brother behavior, such as asking the crew to keep an eye on his little brother. He also ensured Luffy had a way of meeting up with him by giving him a Biblicard. They respect each other's choices despite how different they are and understand that the other is very strong, so they can usually take care of themselves. Luffy believes that if he grew worried about him and rushed to help, Ace's ego wouldn't allow it, so he initially left him. However, when he learned he was captured and due for execution, Luffy, when he finally had a ship to leave Amazon Lily, regretfully decided to save Ace instead of reuniting with his nakama upon seeing the Biblicard burnt to a tenth of its original size. Even though they are loving brothers, Luffy often makes Ace angry and worried by doing something reckless. One example was when Boa Hancock visited Ace's cell and told him that Luffy broke into the prison. Even near his death, Ace grew angry with Luffy's reckless infiltration into Impel Down. It was revealed at Ace's execution that Ace actually is Gol D. Roger's son, not Monkey D. Dragon's as previously assumed, and that he was taken in by Garp. This makes Ace and Luffy brothers only through adoption, but brothers nonetheless. A flashback shows Luffy and Ace first meeting as young children, which means that Luffy is aware of this fact. It also shows Luffy having his trademark strawhat and scar under the eye, meaning that Ace first met Luffy after Shanks left Luffy's home island. In a conversation with Iva, Luffy reveals he is also aware that Ace's father is Gold Roger.

Portgas D. Rouge

Rouge is Ace's mother, who carried him in her womb for 20 months in order to protect the innocent child from the clutches of the World Government. Ace was born one year and three months after Roger's death, therefore Rouge was five months pregnant when she resorted to some unknown method (assumed by Marines to be sheer willpower) to postpone birth.

Gol D. Roger

It has recently been revealed that Ace's father is the pirate king, Gol D. Roger, contrary to the previous belief that his father was Monkey D. Dragon.

Because Roger died before he was even born, Ace feels that he doesn't owe him anything, which is why he prefers the name of his mother, who died protecting him.

In a flashback, it shows Luffy and Ace meeting as young children, revealing that Luffy is aware of the fact Ace is not his blood-related brother, it is also revealed that Luffy is aware of the identity of Ace's father.

To this date, Ace is the only pirate to speak ill of Gol D. Roger.

Monkey D. Garp

Vice Admiral Garp adopted Ace as a favor to Roger to give Ace a life free of prejudice of being born from a family of pirates.

Though he did come to see Garp as family he did not approve of his violent behaviour towards Luffy. At one point he warned him to stop abusing Luffy going as so far to call him an "old piece of shit". It is unknown if Garp ever hit or train Ace as he did with Luffy.

Though respectful of his "grandfather", he denounces that he and Luffy could ever have become Marines. He disagrees with Garp and remains grounded on the idea that becoming Marines would not have been possible with both of their fathers being world class criminals. Garp, in return, showed extreme sadness about Ace's execution, and cried about Ace's choice in a life of piracy.

Abilities and Powers

As commander of the Second division of the Whitebeard Pirates, Ace has authority over the lower-ranking subordinates. In addition, he is also one of the top four commanders of the Whitebeard Pirates, making him one of the top four fighters on board under Whitebeard himself. Ace left his hometown 3 years before Luffy when he was already very strong and skilled. His younger brother Luffy has never beaten him in any fight they had, despite Luffy having the power of a Devil Fruit already. He was also trained by Garp, who is responsible for training Luffy to his current level of power. Another note of Ace's strength was his ability to take Blackbeard's punches (without resorting to his Devil Fruit powers) and being able to immediately retaliate, as noted by Van Auger. Van Auger also noted that a Whitebeard Pirates Commander's basic combat abilities are quite fearsome, making his status as a Whitebeard Pirates commander well-deserved. He also carries a knife.

Ace has eaten the Devil Fruit Mera Mera no Mi, a Logia or elemental type fruit, giving him pyrokinetic abilities and his reputation as "Fire Fist Ace". Ace also displays his immense power by destroying a handful of Baroque Works ships with ease.[3] For some reason, Ace does not seem to mind his inability to swim, despite the risk that destroying the Billions' ships could have left him in the ocean. Also, when he turned up on Drum Island, no snow fell at all on the island for an entire day.

Aside from the powers granted by the Devil Fruit he consumed, Ace also possesses immense physical strength, but doesn't display it to the same extent as Luffy or Garp.

Ace's reputation is also quite infamous. The World Government granted Blackbeard the position of Shichibukai after capturing Ace. It has also been revealed that while he was still captain of the Spade Pirates, he was offered a position as a Shichibukai himself, but apparently refused. He is also a capable navigator as he is seen carrying a Log Pose.

He fought equal with Jinbei in the past. They nearly killed each other in a fight that lasted for five days.

He is 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.

In his past attempts to assassinate Whitebeard, Ace has been shown to use a knife and an axe, among other weapons.