Portgas D. Ace


 * ''The subject of this article is sometimes called Portgaz D. Trace.

Portgas D. Ace is the older brother of Monkey D. Luffy.

Appearance
Ace is more muscular than the rather lanky Luffy. He also sports rather childish freckles. One of the most obvious features on Ace is his tattoos. Ace has a tattoo on his back of the Whitebeard symbol —a skull with a white mustache and a manji. Ace has another tattoo on his left arm by the shoulder: it reads "ASCE" with the "S" (apparently a mistake on the part of the tattoo artist) crossed out.

During the ending credits to the second movie, Clockwork 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.

Personality
As far as personality goes, Ace is much more intelligent, polite, and generally more bearable then his younger brother, which prompts the Straw Hat crew to question whether he is truly related to their bumbling captain. 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.

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

Crew
He is a loyal crewman and commands the Second Division of Whitebeard, his captain. So far, Ace hasn't been shown interacting with his crew. However, Ace has a lot of respect for his captain Whitebeard, who to him is the greatest pirate ever. Whitebeard seems unconcerned for Ace's hunt for Blackbeard and remains grounded that it is Ace's duty to kill him regardless, even with heavy warning from Shanks.

Enemies
Ace's main enemy is Blackbeard, whom he was sent to kill for killing another crewmember of their crew. However, as Shanks stated, Ace is strong and young but the fact he was appointed as Whitebeard's 2nd commander worried him 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, suggesting Ace isn't ready to face Blackbeard yet.

Ace also fought evenly with Smoker, who even Luffy has yet to beat. Their Devil Fruits do not have an advantage of each other and neither of them were able to gain the upper hand on the other.

Monkey D. Luffy
Luffy and his brother are very close, Ace portraying typical good-big-brother behaviors 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.

Other
Due to the different surnames, it is unclear on the relationship between Luffy and his "brother". Garp mentioned leaving Ace with Luffy at their hometown, but he did not mention Ace being his grandson like Luffy.

Abilities and Powers


Ace left his hometown 3 years before Luffy when he was already very strong and skilled. He was able to beat his brother Luffy in every 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, making his status as a Whitebeard Pirates commander well-deserved. He also carries a knife which he used once on a seaman who was offending Whitebeard in the mini-chapter.

Ace has eaten the Devil Fruit Mera Mera no Mi (メラメラの実, Flare Flare Fruit), a Logia or elemental type fruit, giving him pyrokinetic abilities and his reputation as "Fire Fist Ace" ("Trace Heatfist" in the 4kids dub). Ace also displays his immense power by destroying a handful of Baroque Works ships with ease. 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, that day no snow fell at all on the island.

The Path to Piracy
Unlike his brother Luffy, little is known about Ace's past, other then he was left by Garp alongside his brother Luffy in the care of a friend during their early years. Three years before the current storyline, Ace left Luffy's hometown and began his life as a pirate, at some point consuming the Mera Mera no Mi.

While it is unknown when events set before the storyline commenced, what is known is at some point his journey led him to the ranks of Whitebeard and his pirates. He became the commander of the second division alongside his subordinate Blackbeard. Then one day, Blackbeard killed his crewmates in order to obtain the Yami Yami no Mi devil fruit, which he had his sights on, and fled. Since Ace was his commander and the Whitebeard pirates live by a code which means they must avenge a fallen comrade, Ace began to track down Blackbeard to finish him off.

Reunion with Luffy
Ace was first seen in the present storyline on Drum Island, where he left a message for Luffy to meet him in 10 days in the city of Nanohana Alabasta. As he leaves he suddenly finds himself in trouble for not paying his restaurant bill and forced to run away.

He is formally introduced in the Alabastan city of Nanohana; he was seen sleeping in the Spice Bean restaurant (giving the impression to everyone present that he had dropped dead). As he finishes his meal, he is spotted by Smoker who attempts to arrest him. However shortly before both Smoker and he began to fight each other, both men are sent flying into the wall behind them by Luffy's Gomu Gomu no Rocket attack.

After picking himself up he spots Luffy eating, only to be knocked down by Smoker who then attempts to arrest Luffy. After Luffy dashes out of the restaurant with Smoker in hot pursuit, Ace later catches up with Luffy in time to save him from being arrested by Smoker. His interference allows Luffy to escape while he deals with Smoker himself. Later after seeing off Smoker, Ace meets up with Luffy to offer him a chance to join Whitebeard (which Luffy refuses). Ace leaves them a Piece of paper which apparently would allow the two to meet up again.

Ace later appears during the Jaya arc, where he hopped on Buggy the Clown's ship for food and promised to show him the way to Luffy.

The Hunt for Blackbeard
Ace was also later given a mini-arc in the chapter titles of the manga where, after parting ways with Buggy's crew, he infiltrates a Marine ship to deliver a letter to the parents of a milk maiden who saved his life.''

Despite all the efforts from Shanks to convince Whitebeard to recall Ace, Ace meets up with Blackbeard and engages him in battle. Blackbeard triumphs and presumably turns the defeated Ace over to the government. Ace was sent to the worst prison in the One Piece World, Impel Down.

Although never directly finding out what happened to Ace, Luffy discovered the truth in another way. After discovering about biblicards from pirate Lola the Proposer, he discovered that Ace's paper was the same. But as Luffy stared at it, he saw it burning, a sign that Ace's life-force is slowly fading away (what this means exactly is unknown).

Major Battles

 * Ace vs. Smoker
 * Ace vs. Billions fleet
 * Ace vs. Blackbeard Pirates

Filler Battles

 * Ace vs. Scorpion

Merchandise
Ace has been a choice character in many forms of merchandise. He has been featured in the series of models Portrait of Pirates and in the One Piece Full Color R Gashapon series.

Ace has also featured on several keychains/cellphone straps sets, including the One Piece Desert Kingdom Mascot Keychain/Cellphone Strap collection, alongside his brother Luffy.

Translation and Dub Issues
Ace's manji is very similar to a swastika. To avoid confusion between the two symbols and avoid slander for being a nazi, this was changed to crossbones in the shape of a "cross" in the orginal Japanese anime and later in the manga also. Because of the increase in the number of anime and manga being adapted for sale outside of Japan, this has become a common occurance amongst mangaka and publishers alike to avoid the manji symbol.

Ace's back tattoo is left intact in the English version of the dub despite 4Kids previous edits to crosses. At the same time Ace also promotes his tattoo to Luffy, something which is truly considered odd by 4Kids standards. In the 4Kids version of the anime, Ace's shoulder tattoo signifying his name is edited out, as he is referred to there as "Portgaz D. Trace", though in the Funimation dub it is retained. He appears in One Piece Grand Adventure, once again without the tattoo on his arm.

Trivia

 * Ace carries the initial letter D in his name. He was the third D character to be listed under their true name and the fourth to make a physical appearance.
 * Though not considered cannon, a scene of Ace ditching Buggy can be seen at the end of Ace's ending for the game One Piece: Grand Battle 3. After entering a bar and feasting on food, Ace (currently asleep) wakes up and realizes he has forgotten something and runs out of the bar - leaving Buggy with the 380,000 bill.
 * Ace's surname may be a reference to the real life pirate Bartholomew Portugues, however this is unconfirmed by Oda.
 * Ace has been the center of several myths within the fandom.

Related Articles

 * Monkey D. Luffy
 * Marshall D. Teach
 * Will of D.
 * Smoker