With Ace free, the pirates let out a huge roar of triumph, their morale completely restored. The frustrated marines below the collapsing scaffold get ready to attack, but Ace clears them out with Enkai - Hibashira (Flame Commandment - Fire Pillar) allowing he, Luffy, and Mr. 3 (who simply crashes to the ground) to land safely. Ace says that he never thought the day would come when Luffy would have to save him, and thanks his brother. Luffy grins and admits that it was only thanks to all the help he got along the way. The marines open fire, but their weapons are useless against Luffy's rubber body and Ace's fire Logia. The two fight their way through the soldiers and make a dash along with the other pirates for the escape route. As they run, Ace comments that Luffy's gotten quite strong, and Luffy claims that one day he'll be even stronger than him.
Standing in their way, however, is Aokiji. Ace tells Luffy to step back and meets the Admiral's Ice Block - Pheasant Beck with his Kyokaen (Mirror Flame). Ace has the elemental advantage, and manages to melt the ice.
As he watches the two retreat, Mr. 3 says to Mr. 2 that he managed to carry out his wish in the end. His thoughts of escape, though, are rudely dashed by him being surrounded by steaming angry marines. Elsewhere, Sengoku declares that this is a disgrace, while Doflamingo suggests that there's more fun in simply letting them go. Admiral Akainu vows to not let the two escape.
Meanwhile, the paddleship that the pirates used to breach the walls suddenly begins to move, its wheels grinding out a path. The pirates and marines look up in confusion to see Squardo and his men onboard. Squardo yells for everyone to run, as he and his crew will stay behind to cover their escape route.
Eyecatches: Luffy (twice)
Some of the pirates implore Squardo to stop, but he remains firm, with the backing of his crew. Even if this act doesn't make up for him stabbing Whitebeard, he says, he'd never rest easy otherwise. Just as they're about to jump into battle, however, the ship suddenly lurches to a halt. Its crew looks down in confusion, to find Whitebeard singlehanded holding the bow back with his bare hand. Panting heavily, he demands to know if Squardo knows what it's like for a child to die before his parent. He continues by saying that even though everyone dies, he's not weak enough to be done in by his stab wound.
With that said, he turns to address his forces. He declares that with Ace free, they no longer have any reason to stick around, and says that he'll be giving his final order as their captain. His crewmembers protest this, but their captain says that this is where they part ways. Kingudu asks if he's planning to die here, and Whitebeard declares that there's no ship that can carry him into the new era, and yells for everyone to go forth as he throws a seismic wave at the Marineford building itself.
As the island trembles, Whitebeard looks back upon his men and smiles, thinking of the changing times and thinking back on not only the times he spent with his crew, but of his contemporaries of the old era: Gold Roger, Silvers Rayleigh, Shiki, Sengoku, Garp, and even Shanks and Buggy. It's been a long journey, but now it's time to settle things and bring it to an end.
And with that, we can put the year 2010 to rest. It's a fitting stopping point. Just as the times are changing in-universe, so is it outside, just in a more literal sense. Never mind the fact that I'm writing this over two weeks into the new year!
At this point there's no doubt, even for One Piece, that Whitebeard is going to die. The man's even invoking The Plot Reaper on himself with his talk of there being no ship that can bear him. We also got to take a look at his younger self, and well, he looks kinda funny with the long blond hair and huge chin. Art-wise the episode was pretty good overall, though the stills in the first half were kinda disappointing. You'd think that they'd put a little more effort into one of Ace's few action scenes.
Coming up next well, you didn't think things would just end here, did you? There's still lots of stuff to go down, believe it or not.
