Although blessed with incredible strength, this is what ultimately led One Piece’s Portgas D. Ace to his death at the hands of Akainu.
In the world of One Piece, the strength of its characters can range from being weaker than a child to being as strong as a god. Whether this is due to good genetics, training or eating a Devil Fruit, there are multiple ways for an individual to become strong.
As the son of the late King of Pirates, Gol D. Roger, Portgas D. Ace was blessed with the gift of incredible strength and quite possibly unlimited potential. Unfortunately, being born stronger than everyone else is arguably what led to his ultimate demise at the hands of Akainu.
How Strong Was Ace?
As the son of Gol D. Roger, Ace had some of the strongest genetics in One Piece. By the time he was 10 years old, he was already strong enough to beat grown adults and criminals with multi-million berry bounties, and usually without much effort. He spent most of his childhood fighting against adults and monsters on the island he grew up on alongside his brothers Sabo and Monkey D. Luffy. He even showed great potential with Haki, managing to awaken his Conqueror’s Haki before he even hit his teens, though he didn’t seem to learn how to use it on command.
Ace only got stronger as he grew older, and after managing to start a pirate crew, he acquired the Mera-Mera no Mi, a Logia Devil Fruit that granted him the ability to create, manipulate and even become pure flame. This was an exponential boost to his strength that made him capable of destroying multiple battleships with a single flame-infused punch — a technique that awarded him the moniker of “Fire Fist Ace.” His Devil Fruit abilities were so great that he could create island-destroying fireballs and bring about warm, sunny days on a winter island.
By the time he made it to the New World, Ace was already considered strong enough to be invited into the World Government’s Seven Warlords. While he ultimately refused, it still speaks to how strong and dangerous he was perceived to be. By the time he was 17, he was already capable of matching Jimbei, a super-strong fishman, Warlord and veteran pirate, in a battle that lasted for seven days. While it ended in a draw, he managed to stay on his feet longer than his opponent, which shouldn’t be ignored.
Ace was so strong that he was able to become the Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, showing the kind of respect he was given thanks to his incredible strength. Even without Haki, he managed to take on Yamato in a one-on-one fight, managing to hold his own quite well against her thanks to his inherent strength and Devil Fruit powers. Unfortunately, this exact strength is what proved to be Ace’s ultimate downfall.
How Ace’s Strength Led to His Death
While it might seem paradoxical, Ace ended up dying simply because he was always too strong. Ace spent his whole life being the strongest person wherever he went, giving him a sense of self-confidence that was arguably earned. However, as someone powerful enough to almost never lose, he was never forced into a situation where the only way he could succeed was if he improved himself and got even stronger.
This is all in direct contrast to his younger brother, Monkey D. Luffy, who experienced far more challenges and struggles throughout his journey. In fact, of the many foes and enemies that Luffy encountered on his journey that gave him a hard time, Ace could have potentially made easy work of. For instance, Admiral Aokiji managed to beat Luffy quite quickly, but Ace was able to fend him off easily when they clashed at Marineford. Infiltrating Impel Down would have also been exponentially easier for Ace than it was for Luffy, as his Devil Fruit would have acted as a perfect counter to almost every threat on all six floors.
Luffy took his growing number of defeats and used them as motivation to become stronger, but Ace seemingly didn’t have these experiences, or at the very least, they didn’t inspire him the way they did Luffy. The only notable loss of Ace’s that fans know about before Blackbeard was against Whitebeard, whom he lost to 100 times. However, due to the nature of their fights, Ace was more inspired to accept Whitebeard’s offer to join his crew rather than get strong enough to beat him later. Essentially, Ace lost the will to fight against one of the few people he knew was stronger than him, which in turn led to him not feeling the need to get stronger than he already was because he was no longer looking for a rematch.
This ultimately led to Ace underestimating Blackbeard and then later Admiral Akainu. Being so strong his whole life, Ace didn’t know what it meant to be weak and never learned the lessons that come from that. Unless he was fighting against someone of Whitebeard’s caliber, Ace would normally take the win. This made him overconfident in his abilities, which made it easier for stronger opponents to take advantage. It could even be argued that his Devil Fruit powers fueled his overconfidence further, considering that he didn’t believe that Akainu’s magma would end up being hotter than his own flames.
Interestingly enough, none of these more powerful opponents ever considered Ace to be weak either, with Blackbeard himself even stating that he was the only member of his crew capable of taking him on. Unfortunately, since Ace had seemingly begun relying on his powerful Devil Fruit abilities in combat, he never developed his other skills as much as he should have.
While the One Piece: Ace’s Story novels did go into his development more, specifically stating that he did have some proficiency in Haki, it was clear that he never developed them that far. At the age of 19, Luffy has managed to learn all three forms of Haki as well as their advanced forms, even with Conqueror’s Haki, whereas Ace never seemed to get even close to that level of mastery. Ace started his journey three years before Luffy and died at the age of 20, a year older than Luffy is currently. This shows just how much Ace failed to live up to his potential, especially considering his father was one of the strongest Haki users in the series.
Conversely, Luffy was used to being weak and needing people like Ace or Shanks to protect him since he was little, which is why he spent so much time training to get stronger. Ace never had that issue, and as such, he never felt the need to be stronger than he already was. Ace developed his strength at a much more gradual pace because the only people he ever lost to was either a Yonko or at the level of one. While weakness made Luffy stronger, Ace’s strength ironically only served to make him weaker. This was arguably Ace’s greatest flaw, and tragic as it was, it made him one of One Piece‘s most interesting characters.
