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ComicX62011-01-18 13:53:34

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483: Searching for the Answer - Fire-Fist Ace Dies on the Battlefield

As the Vivre Card burns, Luffy and everyone nearby, from Whitebeard to Buggy, simply stand there, transfixed by the sight of Akainu's lava fist through Ace. After the initial shock, the pirates rally together and charge forward to intercept Akainu. Marco is still being weakened by the Sea Stone handcuffs that had been slapped on him earlier. One of the guys trying to get them off remembers Mr. 3 unlocking Ace's own shackles, and runs off to find him. Curiel meanwhile leads the charge as the pirates unload as much firepower as they can into Akainu, but there efforts are futile, as the Admiral simply walks out of the conflagration, a gaint hole blown in his body regenerating. Looming over Luffy and Ace, he notes that the latter is still alive and goes in for another blow. Luffy begs him to stop, but there's nothing he or anyone else who's there can do to stop the blow.

However, Jimbei leaps in front of them and catches Akainu's lava attack. His hands getting scorched, he shouts that he won't let any more harm come to the two. Akainu retorts that it's useless, as Jimbei, being a former Warlord of the Sea, should know just how powerful he is. Jimbei fires back that he doesn't care if he dies as long as he can protect these two. Beyond him, Garp grimly stalks towards the fight, until Sengoku smashes him into the ground and asks if he's gone mad. Garp says that he better keep him down, lest he kill Akainu himself. A now-freed Marco yells for Jimbei to get down as he and Vista attack the Admiral. There attacks are no more effective than their crewmates from earlier, though Akainu does comment on how annoying Ambition-users are before saying that it's too late for Ace.

Ace collapses to his knees, being supported only by Luffy's arms. He weakly apologizes for getting himself into this state after Luffy and everyone else had fought so hard to save him, despite Luffy's desperate protests. The pirates get a battlefield doctor to run out and see what he can do, but one look at the gaping bloody hole in Ace's back is all he needs to know that it's too late. Ace even admits it himself, saying that he can tell when his life is at an end. Luffy tries to deny this and starts appealing to Ivankov for help until the New Kama can't take it anymore and yells that Ace is beyond hope. Luffy tries denying that to, and cries out that Ace said that he'd never die.

Eyecatches: Luffy (twice)

As the battle rages on around them, Luffy tearfully repeats Ace's promise that he wouldn't die. Ace manages to look up a bit and again asks himself whether it was a good thing that he weas born or not. We flashback to Ace's past, of him asking people what they thought of Roger having a child, their scorn, and Dadan berating him for causing trouble. He admits that probably wouldn't have had the will to live if it weren't for Luffy and someone named Sabo. He also tells Luffy to say hello to Dadan for him if they ever meet again in the future. He then says that he only has one regret, that he won't get to see Luffy fulfill his dream, though he's sure he can do it. They promised a long time ago that they wouldn't have any regrets as to how they lived their lives. What he wanted in life was not power or fame, just the answer to the question of if it was okay for him to have been born.

Ace now tells Luffy that he can't speak very loudly anymore, so he asks him to pass on these words to the others. As they both tear up, Ace thanks everyone, Luffy, Whitebeard, his crewmates, everyone who, even though his life was worthless, still loved him. With that, he manages a smile just as his strength gives out and he falls to the ground. The Vivre Card burns away.

Seeing the dead body of his brother lying on the ground in front of him, Luffy can't do anything but helplessly cry.


And that was it. The Big One.

There are several levels of tragedy behind all of this. First and foremost, Luffy has utterly failed in his quest to save his brother, even after going through so much. He's left behind his crew, broke into Impel Down and received crippling damage from Magellan, and now after going through the fighting at Marineford, it's all for nought. The Whitebeard Pirates have failed completely as well. They've lost their captain, their crewmate, and are heavily decimated. The Navy has triumphed completely over them.

This twist will certainly have long-lasting effects on Luffy. He's been in similar situations throughout the series, like in Sabaody and Movie 6, yet each time he managed to bounce back from them. There's no bouncing back from something like this. The Heroic BSoD at the end says it all. Luffy's still just a kid. Unlike the rest of his crew, he hasn't really, as far as we know at this point, experienced loss quite like some of they have. This is the first real big wake-up call he's had that the world's a very rough place, that there are some things that he just can't do. I expect he'll be largely back to normal before long, but I expect him to be depressed for a little bit until Jimbei or whomever guides him out of it.

Looking elsewhere, Akainu's pretty much established his villain cred beyond any shadow of a doubt by being the first villain to actually kill a major character on-screen and in the present. He'll certainly be a force to reckon with for a long time. And if the little clash with Marco and Vista was any indication, he can even nullify Ambition strikes, something that is specifically supposed to nullify Logia intangibility. Scary stuff. Though, I will admit the Out of the Inferno sequence ripped straight from Terminator 2 was amusing. As were the reactions of the pirates, who, like all good mooks, couldn't believe that their attacks were useless against an enemy who was already well-established at being immune to conventional weaponry.

As far as the direction of this episode was handled, compared to, oh, the Going Merry's funeral, it was pretty low-key. Whereas in 312 we got movie-quality art, insert song, and a bunch of other fanfare, this episode simply had above-average production and quiet music, but that's by no means a bad thing. In fact, I think the quiet nature of the direction definitely helped convey the sadness. I thought all of the music pieces were very well-picked, and some of the art direction, like everyone being static and monochrome but for Luffy and Ace at the very end. I thought the ending itself was rather brutal. We had this whole sequence with soft, sad but hopeful music, and then everything suddenly cuts to silence and SPLAT.

Of course, then Luffy does his infamous :O face. It didn't look quite as bad as it did in the manga, and I guess it helped that we already knew it was coming, but I still don't really think that that extreme amount of distension was called for. Oda does a lot of over-the-top faces, and by now we've generally become accustomed to them, but there are times were a little subtlety would be more approprite, for I think that the look on Luffy's face before he started going into the :O face really hammered the point home much harder than what followed.

Well, Luffy's now out of commission, but the battle still isn't over. Even if it seems impossible, there's still plenty more stuff left to go down.

Comments

Emperordaein Since: Dec, 1969
Jan 18th 2011 at 9:17:50 PM
It's funny. Around the same time as Ace died in the manga, we had Liam Harper's utterly pointless death in GayCry For Justice. It really highlights how to do a death and how not to do a death, even moreso when coupled with Whitebeard's death.
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