So when people ask what makes One Piece so enjoyable to read/watch, the worldbuilding is always brought up. However "worldbuilding" is a rather vague concept as pretty much any series can have worldbuilding yet the actual importance and goal of said "worldbuilding" is different for every series. So what makes the worldbuilding in One Piece so special? There's a multitude of reasons, but today I want to focus on one: The evolving storyline of "Fire-Fist" Ace which is arguably one of the most important storylines in the entire series. This is gonna be focused entirely on Ace's character observed in a vacuum outside of a few things here and there. This is gonna be a long post so prepare yourself.
1999 - 2002: The Alabasta Saga
It all begins on the island of the Drum Kingdom. Real name Portgas D. Ace, we're first introduced to Ace in Chapter 154 of the series. In this chapter, it's explained he's looking for a pirate called Blackbeard.
We were introduced to "Blackbeard" previously in Chapter 133. In this chapter, Dalton explains to Usopp and Vivi that the Blackbeard Pirates destroyed their country in the recent past.
Flash forward to a few chapters later when we enter the Kingdom of Alabasta, and we're first introduced to Ace more properly in a diner. People think he's dead from eating a poison strawberry, but in reality...
He was just asleep. A bit after that we see the Marine Smoker coming into the place to ask what Ace is doing there.
It's revealed that Ace is the 2nd Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, and he's looking for his little brother: the protagonist of the series, Monkey D. Luffy.
Luffy manages to run into both Ace and Smoker in this diner as he was starving from the trip he took from Drum Kingdom to Alabasta. However instead of reuniting with Ace, he reunites with his old enemy Smoker. Smoker was the Marine that tried to arrest Luffy back in Loguetown, so in a fit of rage Smoker goes after Luffy.
Ace steps in and saves Luffy, reuniting the brothers together for the first time in the series.
After they escape, Ace talks with Luffy and his crew for a bit (in the anime, there's a filler arc where he travels with the characters for a couple of episodes). Ace gives Luffy a vivre card, which is a piece of paper that will point in the direction of his location.
2002 - 2004: The Skypeia Saga
Sometime after that, Luffy encounters a strange man on his way to the Sky Island of Skypeia. It's revealed later on that this strange man is Blackbeard, and after seeing the 100,000,000 beri bounty Luffy got from defeating Crocodile in Alabasta, Blackbeard targets Luffy to obtain his bounty.
After the events that occur on Alabasta, Ace encounters a Luffy's foil Buggy. Without realizing that Buggy wants to kill and/or turn in Luffy to the World Government, they become friends.
After these events, a cover story where Ace continues his journey searching for Blackbeard occurs. For people who don't know and/or have only watched the anime, cover stories are panels drawn on the title pages of each chapter of stuff that isn't too important to the current story. At the time of this cover story, the Strawhats were in the Sky Island of Skypeia. While they were there, Ace's journey to search for Blackbeard continues.
2004 - 2007: The Water 7 Saga
Then in Chapter 440, both Ace and Blackbeard finally meet (or reunite?). It's revealed that Blackbeard was once a part of Whitebeard's crew, and committed the crime of killing one of his crewmates over the Darkness Darkness Devil Fruit. Whitebeard doesn't forgive such a crime, hence why Ace is after him. Blackbeard asks Ace to join his crew as he's about to get a big bounty in Monkey D. Luffy (who's bounty increased even more after Luffy's fight with the World Government in Eines Lobby), which pisses off Ace even more than before. Blackbeard is revealed to have a Darkness Devil Fruit power and the two get into an epic clash that results in...
The capture of Portgas D. Ace.
2007 - 2008: The Thriller Bark Saga
Towards the end of the Thriller Bark Saga, Luffy is told that when a vivre card burns it means that the life of the person it's linked to is in danger, sparking the first hint that Ace is in trouble.
2008 - 2010: The Summit War Saga
Blackbeard defeated Ace in their duel, and he was sent to the prison Impel Down. Luffy learns about this as well as the fact that Ace is being sent for execution and comes up with a plan to break into Impel Down and save his brother.
Only he had many obstacles, one of them being Blackbeard himself who entered the prison to recruit crew members for his own plans. This is the second time Luffy and Blackbeard meet, this time he realizes that this guy is the "Blackbeard" that Ace told him about back in Alabasta. After a brief scuffle, Luffy and some others were able to escape the prison however they failed at breaking Ace out. Ace was already on his way to be executed at the Marine HQ - Marineford.
The Marines gather their entire forces to defend their base as the public execution for Ace occurs. Then, the true reason for Ace's execution was revealed...
Portgas D. Ace is the son of the Pirate King.
I turns out that - in secret - the Pirate KIng Gold Roger (aka Gol D. Roger) had a child with a woman in the South Blue. This woman carried the baby for nearly two years, after Roger's execution. The Marines didn't learn of Ace's heritage until recently from their version of the secret service called Cipher Pol. To make an example to the pirate world, in their eyes, Ace MUST be executed. (I'd like to clarify as well, I won't be delving too much into Whitebeard despite him being a major aspect of this arc.)
A bit later after this Whitebeard crashes Marineford, and we're shown how Ace became a part of his crew. Ace started out as the pirate captain of the Spade Pirates, with the goal of killing Whitebeard. Whitebeard's response? He asked Ace to join his crew, which Ace initially denied as he was still hellbent on killing Whitebeard. Eventually the two bonded and he settled down as one of Whitebeard's many sons.
With the help of both Impel Down inmates and the Whitebeard Pirates, Luffy manages to break Ace away from the chains the Marines put him in. Finally the brothers reunite.
However in the midst of battle, the Marine Admiral Akainu launches an attack on Luffy...
Ace steps in to protect his brother, getting impaled in the process.
Luffy embraced his brother, and Ace said his last words.
Portgas D. Ace passes away.
Not only did Ace fall, but his captain died as well. Both were buried alongside each other with the help of Red-Haired Shanks.
After his death we're shown Ace's childhood with both Luffy and another newly introduced brother - Sabo. However a tragic accident took Sabo away from the two boys. After this, Ace had the resolve to never let anything happen to his brothers ever again.
2012 - 2015 - The Dressrosa Saga
After a long break of Ace's involvement in the story, his fruit gets reintroduced into the story as a prize in a colosseum tournament. Luffy wants to win it, but is stopped by...
Sabo
Turns out Sabo wasn't all lost, he was actually saved by the Revolutionary Army and became one of the leading members of it. He wins the tournament in Luffy's place, and eats Ace's Devil Fruit.
When the Revolutionary Army saved him, Sabo lost his memories. However these memories came back once he saw in the newspaper that his brother - Ace - has passed away.
2017 - 2018 - One Piece novel A
There's also these two spinoff novels, which are supervised by the original author. They go more indepth on Ace's time as the captain of the Spade Pirates, as well as Ace's early days on Whitebeard's crew. I won't post full summaries here, but they heavily expand on the character of Ace as well as a few other characters like Blackbeard.
2015 - ???? - The Four Emperors Saga
Ace's role in the story isn't over yet. Recently we were introduced to a young girl named Tama in the country of Wano.
Apparently, Ace promised her he would be back, so she's been waiting since.
Ace has already been referenced to have gone to Wano back in Chapter 555. 9 years later, we're finally getting the full story of why he went there.
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To clarify, Ace is not the protagonist of any manga. He's a side character and the older brother of the protagonist of the series. He's also just one of many characters in the series that also get fleshed out in a similar way. However what's important here is that ...
This is a character that has been developing for over 18 years.
This is what makes One Piece so special. It's one of the few super long series out there in fiction that actually puts it's length to use. Pretty much everything gets explained in some form or another, as the author of One Piece actually puts aside time for nearly every aspect of his manga. For a whopping 20 years, One Piece has been doing this with every major character and side character in the series.
How is this important to worldbuilding? The biggest aspect of this is that Ace is a character that does things with or without Luffy's involvement. If Luffy never went to Marineford, the events of Marineford would've still taken place and Ace would've been executed. If Luffy was never Ace's brother, he still would've lost Sabo and gain aspirations to become the King of the Pirates, leading to his eventually joining of the Whitebeard Pirates. On top of that, Ace's involvement with the story is reverberated across many major locations in the series, including the country of Wano which Luffy is currently in.
Still till this day, ever since his debut back in 2000 in the Alabasta Saga, he continues to be one of the most important characters whether he's alive or not. When people ask, "Why do you read/watch One Piece?" the answer is stories like this which have been building up for years to an amazing moment in the future.
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