Manga: Chapter 574 (SPOILERS!)

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

This was some chapter. Words alone doesn't even touch or describe what happened in this chapter. Heck...I had to read this chapter a second time just to make sure I got everything. Even after reading this chapter a second time I still felt the pain of what happen in this chapter. Really, an event that has shook the One Piece world to it's core. Both in the manga and in the fan community I believe.

The image above is the only image that I think that I could use that wouldn't be spoiler but would also show the meaning of this chapter. I admit that it is stretched out as heck but it is good as it is. There are other images I  could use that would have been ok but death is something that has never happen in the real time. Still when death happens in the One Piece world via flashbacks, they all have the same theme. They all smiled. From the moment they realize that they die to the moment they fall. Everybody had a smile. Bellemere, Dr. H, Gol D. Roger. They all had a smile. This one is no different.

Still enough beating around the bush. A first in One Piece. A character has died in real time. Even more surprising, it was a main character in direct relationship with Luffy. That is some intense stuff. Literally. Still right now I just thought of something. This marks a person that has died for Luffy. Most of the StrawHats (minus Sanji) has had people die in their past. Luffy and Sanji were one of the only character that didn't have a person that died in their background and now Ace is that person. Ace died right before Luffy protecting him all the way.

There isn't much I can say about Ace's death. The guy died protecting his little brother. I admit, it sucks that we spent all of Impel Down and most of (maybe all) of Marineford with the goal to see Ace get rescue. Then we call all this way to see Ace being rescue by Luffy only to see it slap in our face with the kid being killed by the lava-y hands of Akainu. It felt like everything was wasted and maybe it was. I didn't want Ace to die because we had invested so much time in rescuing him. It is kind of like playing an RPG and you spend all this time leveling up to fight the big boss then you go in there to fight the big boss and your game runs dry of battery and you didn't save the game. You lost all the valuable playing time for nothing.

Still I don't have that feeling of being upset though. I feel sad that Ace has died but that is all. I am not sure how to feel really. We only seen Ace a few times throughout the series and all the events we have seen has been leading up to this massive rescue of Ace. If anything I am in awe that this has happen. It doesn't feel right but it doesn't feel wrong. It just feels like something has happen but nothing at all. We were given preparation of this by the chapter's title but I didn't think of how to translate it. I guess I was trying to analyze the title for a bit seeing if it had some sort of meaning but still the sheet was pulled over our eyes and just happen.

During the day, I thought of something. This was the 'hopeful' part of me thinking this but I was thinking that maybe Ace didn't die. That he is still alive. I mean we have seen characters come back up after being part of something that SHOULD have killed them (looks at Pell). I was thinking that we didn't see Ace's vivrecard so that means that Oda was going to pull one over us and surprise us later that Ace was still alive. Still when I was looking back at this chapter. I notice this panel. It just have just slipped pass me or something as I took it as another flashback but nope. The vivrecard is gone. I guess this is the last nail in the coffin for Ace (bad use of words but you all know what I mean).

Akainu, what can I say about this guy? The man that killed Ace. All I have to say is that he is a cunning d-bag. That is all. He planned this all out from the beginning I am betting you. Akainu must be some sort of master planner if he was able to predict how Squardo would react if he heard if Whitebeard was going to betray his own men. I am guessing that he planned on killing Ace himself and knew that Ace would protect his little brother if he attacked him and provoke Whitebeard.

This is a smart man. He knows exactly what he is doing. Akainu is trying to get as many of the Whitebeard pirates to stay behind and distract them from running away. Just look at who he got to stay behind and fight him. We got Jimbei, Marco, Vista and a whole much of nameless pirates. Heck, he got Jimbei emotional enough to make Jimbei not care about his arm being (severally) looking burned by magma. That arm of Jimbei's didn't look so pretty from what I could tell. Then we got Marco and Vista (who we both now know are Haki users) staying behind and fight Akainu. This is exactly what the admiral wants.

I don't know what will happen next week. I don't really care about what happens next week when it comes to Akainu. Things are going down next week. I don't know for who or for what but things are going down.

"I have just...one regret...That I won't be able to see your dream come to pass...But I know you. You'll pull it off for sure! You're my brother, after all!"
-Ace

You know what touched me the most? Ace dieing for Luffy.

Maybe that is why I don't feel so bad or angry about what happen. Some of us were expecting it. Some of us was hoping it wouldn't happen. Some of us were thinking it won't happen. I was kind of in all three of those things. Still one thing that I liked about Ace the most was that he was a good big brother. We all know now that Luffy and Ace aren't really brothers but these two guys were tight. They acted as if they were brothers and truly believed that they were deep down inside. I had to really respect that about Ace. That even because of this one fact that he still treated Luffy as a brother to the bitter end. I may have mention this a few post back but I can  really feel for Ace as a big brother. He is kind of what all big brothers like me should be to their little brothers. He was kind and supportive towards Luffy while also picked on him. Then in the end he took that magma fist for Luffy so his little brother can go on and continue his dream. I really don't think that nobody not even myself could do such a thing for their little brother.

I admit, this chapter may have closed the door on Ace's life but there is still more about Ace that only open a lot more. There is this thing called 'Sabo' which I have no idea. Then there is some guy named Dadan which I am sure we will see in the future and turn out to be a huge character. Lastly there are the words that Ace want Luffy to tell everybody else. We may not see them till later but I am sure those words were for Luffy as well. They may have been something like don't seek revenge on the Marines or something like that.

One thing I would like to take a moment to say. Somebody on Twitter mention this to me but Ace's death is a symbol of the 'old' era closing. He was the last thing that came out from Roger's era as being the seed of him. All that is left is Whitebeard for the pirates. So maybe Whitebeard dieing? I don't know. I say no but what do we know? Oda proved once again that this series isn't meant to be predictable.

A lot of hype was place behind this chapter. The spoilers had came out early Monday morning with everybody who read them making buzz. I got tweets on Twitter of people saying how this chapter was huge. Then the raws came out and it seems like everybody was ablaze about it. The first time in five and half months, the hype for a chapter was the highest I have ever seen. Now the chapter has happen and we got what was shown. Now we can only wait till next week to see what will happen because of this.