Portgas D. Ace

Appearance

Ace was a tall muscular young man with curly black hair. Although they were not blood related, Ace looked remarkably like his foster brother, Luffy. However, Ace was more serious looking than Luffy's lighthearted design, and was also taller and more muscular. He also sported rather childish freckles (inherited from his mother) and tended to make a skeptical facial expression by raising his left eyebrow. Interestingly, his facial features were almost akin to his biological father Gol D. Roger in his youth without his mustache. Ace's tattoos were among his most remarkable, trademark features. He had a tattoo on his back of the Whitebeard symbol—purple bones formed in a cross behind a purple skull with a white mustache—that he described as his pride and joy. Ace had another tattoo on his upper left bicep that spells "ASCE" vertically. The "S" crossed out is a tribute to Sabo as that's his jolly roger. Ace wore an open-front shirt until he received Whitebeard's tattoo - afterwards, he stopped wearing anything over his upper body except when on winter or desert islands due to the weather requirements. He wore black boots, black knee-length shorts with an eyelet-studded orange belt, and a blue pouch belted around his left leg. He also wore a short second belt with a large red "A" on the silver buckle over his right hip, but left it unfastened and threaded the free end along the back of his shorts. A dagger in a green sheath hung at his left hip. On Ace's left arm, he wore a Log Pose and a red and white striped bracelet around his wrist, an orange elbow guard, and his "ASCE" tattoo. He wore a red beaded necklace and an orange hat with two blue smileys, one frowning and one smiling, and a string of red beads sitting above the rim. Two long orange side straps hung down sides of his hat and met at a large medallion of a bull's skull with orange tassels.

Appearance

Unfortunately, Ace lost his trademark hat, which he already had when he began his journey as a pirate, on Banaro Island as a result of his duel with Blackbeard. His knife was also apparently confiscated, as he no longer had it in his next appearance as a prisoner at Impel Down. The tattoo upon his back that he took so much pride in was later destroyed by the same blow that eventually led to his death. However, at his grave, Ace's hat and knife were placed at his tombstone—either they were retrieved, or they were duplicates in Ace's possession.

Personality

Ace was much more intelligent, polite, and generally, more bearable than Luffy, which prompted the Straw Hat Pirates to question whether he was truly related to their captain. While several people who knew Gol D. Roger noted Luffy is quite similar to the late Pirate King, Whitebeard himself claimed that Ace's personality was not at all like his father's. It seems that among the very few things the brothers shared was their recklessness as pirates (and their near-bottomless stomachs). In addition, Ace liked 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. Ace could be a bit inappropriate though as he once used a woman's skirt to wipe his face while he was dining at Spice Bean in Arabasta. There were two running gags about Ace. The first was his rather extreme narcolepsy. He tended to randomly fall asleep while eating and conversing, leaving strangers around him wondering if he had died. This was first seen in Arabasta when they thought he died in the middle of eating. The second was that he did a "dine and dash" routine wherever he went. This went back to his younger days with Sabo and Luffy, when they would often dine and dash in the city of Goa, and carried over to adulthood, as shown on three occasions when he was on Drum Island, Arabasta, and Lulusia Kingdom.

Personality

Ace was also shown to be quite impulsive, much like his younger brother, as he too would make hasty decisions and, in some cases, neglect listening to reason. This was shown that shortly prior to setting out to hunt Blackbeard for killing Thatch. Whitebeard insisted that Ace should not go after him, yet Ace, despite his immense loyalty and respect for his captain, ignored his warnings and went off to find his former subordinate. Another, albeit more humorous example, was in his mini-story, where during his hunt for Blackbeard, he mistook a man named Dr. Blackbeard for his target, due to coincidentally having a similar name and appearance to Teach. Rather than check to see if he found the man he was looking for, Ace jumped to conclusions too soon and attacked the doctor on sight. It was by then Ace realized too late that he had the wrong man, which got him into a lot of trouble with the villagers. His "politeness" is due to Makino's teaching after Ace asked her how to introduce himself to Shanks (being his brother's savior). Before that, Ace was rather cold and rude to anyone he was not familiar with.

Physical abilities

Aside from the powers granted by the Devil Fruit he consumed, Ace possessed immense physical strength and endurance which he attained from the extremely rigorous training in the harsh environment of Mt. Colubo that consisted of him hunting and fighting wild beasts since childhood and traveling in precarious trap-filled locations. His incredible physical prowess was supplemented by his extraordinary fighting skills. Even in his early childhood, he was able to beat some local thugs who spoke ill of his father "half to death" and during his first meeting with Luffy, he was also shown sitting on top of a huge bull he killed with his staff. As a child, he could also easily break a giant tree with a single kick. In his childhood, before he acquired the Mera Mera no Mi, Ace was able to beat Luffy in every single sparring match, despite Luffy's untrained Gomu Gomu no Mi abilities. Ace demonstrated his strength during his battle with Blackbeard: he was able to take Blackbeard's punches, which were so powerful that the first made Ace cough up blood and the second nearly broke his neck and retaliate quickly afterwards. Van Augur noted that, as expected of the Whitebeard Pirates' 2nd division commander, Ace's basic combat skills were quite formidable even without his Devil Fruit powers. He had shown to fight equally with both Yamato and Jinbe in the past, both being situations where his adversaries used Haki (and in addition in Jinbe's case, Fish-Man Karate) to nullify Ace's Logia powers. Ace and Jinbe in particular had nearly killed each other in a fight that lasted for five days straight. Ace then survived a battle with Whitebeard that took place immediately after, showing immense stamina and durability. As a testament to his stamina and endurance, he was one of the few people to be able to take a "baptizing" in boiling water in Impel Down without flinching, which is considered an impressive feat.

Devil Fruit

Ace ate the Mera Mera no Mi, a Logia-type Devil Fruit that allowed him to create, control, and transform his body into fire. He could create and unleash massive amounts of fire for large-scale damage, as well as utilize small precision attacks. Later, after his death, it was revealed that Ace's burning fists also had the power to annihilate entire cities. Ace primarily used his flames for a wide variety of offenses. He could shoot fire bullets and spears, release powerful fire cannons, unleash massive waves of fire, and create fire balls, both a single large one for large-scale destruction and multiple small ones that could explode. His signature attack was transforming his fist into fire and sending it forward as it greatly increased in size, earning him the name "Fire Fist Ace". His flames could also be used defensively, he could create a massive wall of flames to block his opponents, and the heat of his flames could deter his opponents from attacking him for fear of getting burned. He was also able to stop powerful ice attacks from Aokiji, a Marine Admiral. Ace also had practical uses for his Devil Fruit powers; he would heat up any fish he would find in the seas for his crew when they had no food to eat and he was able to traverse the seas in a one-man boat that was specifically designed for him and propelled with flames from his feet

Haki

Ace was one of the very few people in the world who could use all three types of Haki. Despite this, he rarely used them in combat, being more reliant on his Devil Fruit abilities. While Ace has never show usage of Busoshoku Haki or Kenbunshoku Haki within the manga, The Novels have stated that Ace's Haki had been described by Shanks and Benn Beckman to be fiery in nature, to the point that Ace’s very presence was able to stop blizzards on an island for as long as he was there. As such, when he turned up on Drum Island, no snow fell at all on the island for an entire day.

Haoshoku Haki

Ace possessed Haoshoku Haki, which he initially had no conscious control over. He first demonstrated the ability at 10 years of age when he rendered the Bluejam Pirates except for Bluejam unconscious after an outburst of rage. He later gained knowledge of the power, as he recognized it when Luffy used it at the Summit War of Marineford.

Busoshoku Haki

It was stated in One Piece novel A that Ace could use Busoshoku Haki, though this was not seen within the manga. Upon awakening it, he was capable of fighting on equal grounds with Vice Admiral Draw with Busoshoku Haki. However, it is not known how proficient he was in using it since then, though the manga adaptation of the novel about his character suggests he was skilled at it, to the point he leaned on it too much and was negligent in training the other forms of his Haki.

Kenbunshoku Haki

Although Ace has never been seen using Kenbunshoku Haki in the manga or the novel, nor has he been confirmed to have it in the databooks, in the manga adaptation of the novel, he was shown to have been trained by Thatch in its usage and uses it in conjunction with his Devil Fruit powers in his duel against Whitebeard.

Weapons

Ace carries around a knife but is never seen using it. However, in flashbacks of attempts to assassinate Whitebeard, Ace was shown using various weapons, including an axe and a knife. As a child, he used a long bo staff made from pipe as a weapon.

Ambition

During his meeting with Shanks in the anime, Ace stated that he would become the Pirate King. At no point in the manga did Ace show this ambition, and later he would aim to make Whitebeard the Pirate King. Also in the anime, Ace stated that he wanted to show the world his power by taking Whitebeard's head. Ace's reason for going after Whitebeard's head was never explained in the manga.

Love Interest

Ace's love interest is the self proclaimed "son" of Kaido. Yamato