CrocoMom is fun but I’m laying money on Crocodile’s secret being he’s Whitebeard’s son.

Random fancast for One Piece Live Action: have Ian Mcshane play Whitebeard. He has the age, and he did the opening narration for the live action, and Whitebeard is the one to say to a listening world that “the One Piece is real.”

We haven’t gotten a Whitebeard casting yet, so there’s a chance for when we see the meeting between him and Shanks.

Shirohige is such an interesting character, to me.

A very clearly autistic man, barely verbal, good at heart, a gentle giant, can’t father children on his own–he shows no interest in women–, but dreams of having a family: so he starts compulsively adopting kids. And he ends up having the largest family in the world. Thousands of sons. And he is content. He doesn’t want anything more than that.

Big Mom is the exact opposite in many ways. She can have kids, indeed she has kids by the dozen, but she treats them like garbage. Instead of becoming physically disabled like Shirohige, who by the time of his dead could barely stand, she has become mentally unstable, plagued by disorders, out of her mind. In many ways, she has always been a child in a giant body, but she’s become a mean-spirited, hungry, odious child that always wants more, more, more. She could never be satiated.

Finally Kaido, he’s the only one of the emperors that doesn’t have a clear characterization. I won’t say he’s badly written, but he’s certainly confusing. A child soldier that never learnt anything else besides fighting. A suicidal drunkard, an abusive father, a fascist that cares only for power and has no problem committing genocide by famine to make weapons, to become ever more powerful–but for what purpose, he doesn’t even know anymore. Does he want adventure? Treasure? Does he want to die? Does he want to kill? Does he want anything at all? He’s a shadow of a man. But it is doubtful that there was ever a man there to begin with. She’s muscle without purpose. A soldier that found himself on top simply because there is no one else to challenge him anymore, and he doesn’t know what to do with himself. If he had not died, he would have probably thrown himself head first into Pangaea Castle in Mariejois, out of boredom, simply to die killing.

Whitebeard has a lot of sons, but very few daughters. Maybe that’s why he’s so protective of Coralee. 🥺🥰

Portgas D. Ace: The Tragic Hero of Marineford

One Piece has a very large and diverse fandom that contains a substantial variety of opinions, theories, and analyses about the story arcs, characters, fight scenes, powerscaling, and the overall themes. Some fans will overwhelmingly agree with very popular opinions, while others will disagree and offer a viewpoint that is considered controversial. One of the most common viewpoints that I strongly disagree with is “Ace got himself killed and wasted everyone’s efforts over a yo’ daddy joke!” To me, this is an EXTREMELY dishonest and oversimplified take of what actually happened and it ignores an essential part of Ace’s character, along with some of the most important themes in the series: the willingness to stay true to your beliefs (even if you risk your life while doing so) and the willingness to stand up to someone who hurts or insults your loved ones. It’s actually a core principle of Shanks’ philosophy: “You can laugh at me, pour drinks on me, and make fun of me. But nobody hurts a friend of mine!“

Luffy, the protagonist who looks up Shanks as a role model, has taken this tenet to heart throughout the series. Even as a child, Luffy was ready to throw hands at Higuma because he badmouthed Shanks, resulting in him getting kidnapped and having to be saved by the Red Hair Pirates. In the present, during his fight with Buggy in the Orange Town arc, Luffy was extremely nonchalant and treated it like a game. That changed when Buggy not only insulted Shanks, but he damaged Luffy’s most prized possession; the straw hat that Shanks gave him.

Later on, during the Syrup Village arc when Usopp is introduced, while Usopp is desperately fighting to protect Kaya and Syrup Village from the Black Cat Pirates, the pirates begin laughing at Usopp as he declares he will protect his village. Luffy shuts them up by throwing a BOULDER at them and threatens to kill them if they keep laughing at Usopp. Luffy, who Oda has stated does not like to kill if he can help it, has THREATENED to KILL SOMEONE FOR LAUGHING AT HIS FRIENDS!

During the Sabaody arc, Luffy, upon seeing Saint Charloss shoot Hatchan when he attempted to rescue Camie from the slave auction, marches right up to Charloss and sends him flying with an epic punch. This is in spite of being warned that harming a Celestial Dragon will result in you being targeted by an Admiral, and in spite of Hatchan begging Luffy not to hit him. While seeing Charloss getting his smug face rearranged by Luffy’s face was cathartic and well-deserved, it also endangered Luffy and his crew. Kizaru was summoned to the Archipelago, and he outclassed the Straw Hats so severely that they would’ve been killed had Kuma not intervened to separate across the world so they could train in order to be strong enough to face the New World.

Luffy isn’t the only one who is ready to fight in defense of his loved ones. In his introductory arc, Usopp is established as a teller of tall tales and a bit of a coward whose dream is to become a brave warrior of the seas. But when Kuro, a notorious pirate captain posing as Kaya’s butler, badmouths his father Yasopp, he becomes so enraged that he punches Kuro in the face and angrily declares that he’s proud to be the son of a pirate, in spite of the fact that Yasopp abandoned him and his mother when he was a toddler, and was absent throughout his life after his mother died.

Usopp displays these same qualities again in the Alabasta arc during his fight with Miss Merry Christmas and Mr. 4. While he initially tries to retreat from the battle when he realizes he’s outmatched, hearing Miss Merry Christmas deride Luffy as a coward and mocking his dream of becoming King of the Pirates gives him the courage to stay and fight to defend Luffy’s honor. Despite being bruised, bloodied, and suffering multiple broken bones (including a skull fracture) courtesy of Mr. 4’s bat and Merry Christmas’ devil fruit abilities, Usopp is resilient enough to both survive and tell Chopper that there comes a time when you have to fight, even if you have little to no chance of winning, and that is when someone insults your friend and their dreams. With a little help from Chopper, he fights through his injuries and defeats both Mr 4. and Miss Merry Christmas.

During his duel with Mihawk in the Baratie arc, Zoro establishes his refusal to run away or back down from a fight, even when he is severely outmatched, because he not only wants to fulfill his dream of becoming the greatest swordsman in the world, but to be strong enough to help Luffy achieve his dream of becoming King of the Pirates. When it becomes clear that Zoro is completely outclassed by Mihawk, Zoro still refuses to surrender and even spreads out his arms to allow Mihawk to slash him across his chest because in his words, "a swordsman’s greatest shame is to receive wounds on his back from retreating in battle.” Had Mihawk not been holding back tremendously, he could’ve easily killed Zoro, but Zoro was willing to accept death if it meant staying true to his convictions and fighting for his dream.

When Sanji introduced in the Baratie arc, he literally beats Lieutenant Fullbody into a bloody pulp because the man wasted food in front of him, despite Fullbody being both a customer and a Marine. This is because he suffered starvation after he and Zeff were shipwrecked when he was a child, and his experiences left him with a great appreciation for food and the belief that food should never be wasted because it also disrespects the cooks who took the time and effort to prepare

During his fight with Kalifa in Enies Lobby, Sanji’s chivalry comes into the spotlight; even though he is more than capable of fighting back against her, he refuses to actively attack her, instead only using his legs to block her kicks or dodge her attacks. When Nami arrives and sees that Sanji was defeated, she notices Kalifa standing over them and realizes that Sanji lost because he refused to directly hit her because she was a woman. When she criticizes him for almost getting himself killed due to his chivalry, Sanji tells her that he would rather die than hit a woman, because his chivalry is an intrinsic part of who he is, and to violate it would mean betraying everything he believes in. Nami reminds him that there’s no chivalry in dying a senseless death, and steps in to fight Kalifa herself.

Speaking of Nami, when she’s at the mercy of Ulti during the Battle of Onigashima in the Wano arc, Ulti demands that Nami renounce Luffy as her captain and declare that Luffy will never become King of the Pirates. Bear in mind, Nami has already been badly hurt Ulti’s first headbutt; another one could easily kill her. And yet, despite being in pain and fearing for her life, Nami refuses to renounce Luffy. She tells Ulti that Luffy will never stop until he becomes King of the Pirates. Her loyalty to Luffy, as both her captain and her friend, overrides her sense of self-preservation. She and Usopp are very similar in that, despite being somewhat cowardly by nature, when faced with having to choose to save their own skin or betraying Luffy, they are willing to fight tooth and nail to defend and support Luffy.

Why am I mentioning these examples when the main topic of my post is Ace, you ask? Because context matters, and what we see here is no different than what Ace did in Marineford: standing up for your loved ones and adhering to your principles even to your own detriment. Now I’m going to analyze Ace’s character, including his childhood, him joining the Whitebeard Pirates, his fight with Blackbeard, the infamous scene in Marineford that spawned the tedious “Ace died over ragebait” meme, and why it wouldn’t have mattered if he ignored Akainu’s taunts and kept running.

Throughout his early childhood, Ace has struggled with his identity as the son of Gold D. Roger and the knowledge that his mother died to protect him from being killed by the Marines before he is even born. He was raised by mountain bandits in an unstable environment, emotionally neglected by Dadan and Garp, allowed to wander around Grey Terminal unsupervised, walking into dangerous areas and asking strangers what Roger was like and what would happen if he ever fathered a child. These strangers, unaware that Ace is Roger’s son, begin badmouthing Roger and stating that they want to stab any child of his with needles for every person who hates Roger, and burn him at the stake. These encounters left Ace with a complete lack of self-worth, a belief that he never deserved to be born. Underneath his angry exterior, he was a lonely, sad little boy with no friends. Neither Dadan nor Garp were equipped to deal with Ace’s emotional issues; when asked by Ace if he even deserved to be born, Garp’s response is “only time can answer that question.” However you interpret that sentence, that’s not the kind of answer you give to a child suffering from obvious depression and passive suicidal tendencies. This left Ace with a desire to look for validation from others, so he can “prove” that he has the right to live. While befriending Sabo and Luffy has made him happier and given him a reason to live, he still struggles to find the answer to a single question: “Did I deserve to be born? Was my existence a good thing?” While the obvious answer to Luffy, Sabo, the Whitebeard Pirates, and fans is “YES YES YES! Of course you deserve to be born, you’ve brought so much joy and hope into our lives! You are special to us, and we love you so much!” Ace sees himself as the son of the devil, doesn’t recognize the positive qualities that make him so beloved, that he’s not “worthy” of being loved.

Even as a child, Ace has displayed an unwillingness to surrender or run from a fight, because he wants to stay behind to protect his loved ones. We see this during his fight with Bluejam: when Dadan tells Ace to run, he refuses, wanting to stay behind to fight Bluejam so Luffy can escape Grey Terminal unharmed. After they defeat Bluejam and escape Grey Terminal, she asks Ace why he didn’t run away. Ace responds “Because Luffy was right behind me.” When Dadan hears this, she’s reminded of a conversation she had with Garp in which he says that Ace inherited this trait from his father: Roger was infamous for fighting entire armies when they harmed or offended his friends and refused to back down when it came to defending his loved ones. While there is some truth to it, I think that oversimplifies it a little; nurture plays just as important a part in shaping Ace’s personality as nature. One of his earliest influences is his grandfather Garp, who is also known for refusing to run away from a fight, even when he’s at a disadvantage; it’s implied that Garp instilled this attribute in Ace, telling him that it was cowardly to run away from a fight and that you should always stand your ground, and Ace clearly took this advice to heart.

As he gets older and sets sail as a pirate, Ace intends to make a name for himself by taking down Whitebeard. When he realizes how much Whitebeard outclasses him and his crewmates, he creates a wall of fire between the Yonko and his crewmates and tells them to run while he stalled Whitebeard so they could get to safety. Whitebeard is impressed by Ace’s bravery and willingness to put himself in harm’s way to protect his crew, and even after he effortlessly defeats the younger pirate, he offers a place for him on his crew as one of his children.

When Ace eventually agrees to join the Whitebeard Pirates, he quickly becomes very close to his new crewmates, Thatch in particular. He also develops a father-son bond with Whitebeard, addressing him as “Pops.” One night, Ace confesses to Whitebeard that he is the son of Gold D. Roger. Ace expects Whitebeard to reject him or kick him off the crew, but surprisingly, both Whitebeard and his crewmates still accept him, stating that your parentage doesn’t matter because we’re all children of the sea. Ace, who has struggled with his identity and his fears that people will hate him once they discover he is Roger’s son, is so overwhelmed that he pledges his loyalty to his father and his crewmates, who he refers to as his “brothers.” For the first time in his life, Ace has found a stable, structured environment in which he finds support and emotional security. At some point, Ace learns that he and Pops have one thing in common: their unwillingness to run away from a fight when protecting their family and friends. In fact, Whitebeard never had a single scar on his back because he refused to run away from his enemies. Given how much Ace admires Whitebeard, it makes sense that he wants his father to be proud of him and emulate him as a role model.

After Thatch is murdered by Teach, Ace pursues him so he can bring him to justice for violating the number one rule on Whitebeard’s ship that must never be broken: betraying and murdering a crewmate. After he catches up to Teach, who declares that he intends to capture Luffy and hand him over to the Marines in exchange for being made a warlord, Ace gets serious and is determined to fight him to prevent him from going after Luffy. Even when he is on the ropes from Teach’s Dark-Dark fruit, he still refuses to surrender; while living without regrets is important to him, it’s clear that his number one priority is keeping Luffy safe.

It’s finally time to talk about the scene where so many fans have misunderstood Ace’s character and completely overlooks the context behind his actions, while ignoring the actual reason that he died: sacrificing himself to save Luffy. Throughout Marineford, Ace has a passive death wish. He believes that he deserves to die for being the son of the devil. And yet, Whitebeard and his ENTIRE fleet show up, declaring that they’re going to wage war on the Marines in order to save Ace. Ace, who doesn’t believe he is worthy of anyone risking their lives to save him, is in disbelief. When Luffy arrives, he desperately tries to get him to leave, because he doesn’t want to see him get hurt or killed for his sake. When he sees how much the WBP and Luffy are willing to risk in order to save him, he cries out of HAPPINESS, so much so that he declares that he wants to live!

When Luffy manages to free Ace from the scaffold and they’re making their escape, Akainu begins to disrespect Whitebeard and his crew, calling them cowards. Upon hearing this, Ace turns around and tells him to take that back. Akainu instead doubles down, saying that Whitebeard was a failure who could never become King of the Pirates and was always inferior to Gold D. Roger. These are not just playground insults; Akainu knows exactly what he’s doing, he’s exploiting Ace’s hatred for his birth father and his deep loyalty to his found family to goad him into a fight. One thing to keep in mind is Ace’s physical and mental condition prior to his execution; he has been imprisoned, tortured, and starved for weeks in Impel Down. He has watched his father, little brother, and found family fight to the death to save his life, even though he feels “unworthy” of their love. They are in the middle of a war, where the emotional tension is already extremely high. Ace was already reaching his breaking point, and hearing Akainu slander his family, who risked their lives and even DIED to save his life, is the straw that broke the camel’s back.

After Akainu defeats him, Ace realizes that he made a grave mistake. But before he can retreat, Akainu notices that Luffy has collapsed out of sheer exhaustion from pushing body far past his limits and is distracted by Ace’s vivre card. Taking advantage of Luffy’s vulnerable state, Akainu turns over to attack him. Ace, in a desperate attempt to protect his little brother, intercepts the attack and takes a magma fist straight through his chest. He deliberately remains solid, knowing full well what would happen, because turning intangible would’ve ensured that Akainu’s fist reached Luffy and killed him. He dies in Luffy’s arms, thanking him, Pops, and his entire crew for loving him so much and risking their lives for his sake.

While Ace’s pride is important to him, it will NEVER, EVER be more important than Luffy’s life. When Ace intercept’s Akainu’s attack to protect Luffy, he gets hit from behind, destroying the Whitebeard tattoo on his back. That mark was Ace’s pride and joy, so letting Akainu destroy it while shielding Luffy symbolizes Ace’s willingness to sacrifice his pride, along with his life, to protect his little brother, who he loves more than anything in the world, because Ace always valued his loved ones more than he could ever value himself.

It frustrates me so much when fans say that Ace was an ungrateful, selfish idiot who wasted everyone’s efforts over some ragebait. On the contrary, his actions are born out of love, loyalty, and gratitude to the man who has not only saved his life but also accepted and loved him as a son despite being the son of his late rival and provided a stable environment that he always craved. Yes, Ace is acting irrationally, but given that, again, he has been tortured and starved and is in an extremely stressful situation, his reaction is understandable and human. In his mind, Ace is repaying everything Whitebeard has done for him by defending his honor thinking to himself “Look Pops, I’m repaying you for all the love you showed me, I’m not an ingrate who takes your love for granted like Teach!”

Honestly, it wouldn’t have mattered if he ignored Akainu’s bait and kept running. There’s no way in hell that Akainu would passively stand there like a statue and just let Ace and Luffy get away, he would’ve hunted them down relentlessly until they were dead at his hands. Luffy was barely able to escape with his life even though the Whitebeard Pirates, Jinbe, and Ivankov did their best to stall Akainu. Hell, Akainu still managed to land a near-fatal blow to both Luffy and Jinbe, almost killing them in the process. The most likely scenarios I see happening are 1. Ace and Luffy keep running, but Akainu still catches up to Ace and kills him. or 2. Ace and Luffy keep running, but Luffy collapses and Akainu is about to kill him when Ace jumps between him and Luffy and takes a fatal blow to protect his brother. Either way, it likely wouldn’t made a difference what Ace did because Akainu was determined to personally kill him and extinguish his bloodline, not because he was a pirate, but because he was the son of Gold D. Roger.

Yes, in hindsight, it was reckless and short-sighted to turn around and argue with Akainu when he was so close to escaping. I can acknowledge that Ace let his emotions cloud his judgement and made a terrible mistake. His inability to cut and run was arguably his biggest flaw. Ace does have flaws, and he faces consequences for them, but when you take the time to analyze Ace’s character and his background, his flaws make sense and make him a complex, well-written, and sympathetic character. His actions are not only consistent with his established character, but with a recurring theme of the series. That’s why it frustrates me when Ace gets slandered for his actions, while those same fans will praise and admire characters like Luffy, Zoro, and Nami for defending the honor of the people they care about or for their willingness to die rather than betray their core beliefs.

It’s possible, and it could be why Teach was so blase about having to kill Thatch. The way he saw it, he wasn’t taking Thatch’s life at all and more relocating it.

Although I don’t think Thatch’s soul is one of the ones occupying Teach’s body, because I feel like if it was Teach would have mentioned that outright as incentive for Whitebeard not to kill him; “Don’t take me out because Thatch is in here and you’ll lose what’s left of him”

I really do believe he was just trying anything to stay alive since Blackbeard is an opportunist with no qualms about switching sides or using pathos just so he can live to see another day.

Who’s Hotter? One Piece’s Best Dads

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The sea in One Piece has a plethora of symbolic meaning–I wrote about some of it in my big Romanticism series awhile back–but I’m beginning to see specifically the bottom of the sea as Death, and that Death is closely associated with Darkness and Oblivion.

The Going Merry was sent to the the bottom of the ocean, specifically after being set on fire because it’s “dark and lonely”. Fishman Island is placed where it is because it has a bit of sunshine, and thus is the only place under the water that’s habitable for mer- and fish folk. Egghead revealed that Imu raising the sea level and destroying civilizations, hiding the truth about the Void Century from the light of day. After Whitebeard dies, Teach pairs the tremor-tremor fruit with his darkness logia, and between the two of them has the power to bring the world to its knees.

So when Whitebeard tries to send Marineford to the bottom of the sea, he’s trying to kill it, leaving no trace so that it will one day be forgotten. And in One Piece, that’s when a thing truly dies.

And he does it all for the sake of his son.

For those who are unaware, Oda revealed in (I believe) Data Book Yellow that he heavily based Whitebeard on a man he knew, a gruff old bartender dependent on oxygen who liked to yell at whippersnappers and tell old war stories. Apparently the guy was delighted when Oda told him, and with that retrospect you can just tell in how Oda presents Whitebeard he respected him a lot.

There’s a quote from Oda in the SBS for volume 82 that suits Whitebeard particularly well, and it becomes especially poignant when you know he was based on a real person

“I love me some old dudes! I feel like age adds a new sense of depth to characters, both male and female. One Piece has tons of really interesting old people! But in the real world, age tends bring people down to a weaker state… and I’ve always disliked how there are some young people out there who just can’t have a little respect for these aged individuals because of this. So with One Piece, I’ve brought to life one of my countless fantasies: which is for there to be super cool old people who’ve maintained their strength throughout the years.One day, you also will grow old. It’d be great if all of you could remain just as strong as the One Piece oldies are!”

I think it had to sting at least a little

72 years old, critically ill and mortally wounded, and he can still stop a ship one-handed.

Bad. Ass.

cant believe this is my first drawing of the year

Animation Concept

“Bring Him Home” from Les Mis but it’s Whitebeard getting ready to go to Marineford and bring Ace home.

Also one of the things that really gets me here is that even though Squard was afraid of being hurt as soon as Whitebeard draws him to his chest and asks what’s wrong he opens up to him. All of his fear of retaliation melts away. He’s crying in the next panel. That’s his dad!!

I think one of the things I really like about the scene between Squard and Whitebeard is that even though Whitebeard is a man with a lot of pride, he’s not embarrassed to get down on his knees and hug one of his kids in front of everyone, even his enemies. He’s not ashamed to say I love you. His family is the thing he’s proudest of!!!

Does anyone have recommendations for fanfics centered around the Whitebeard Pirates?

edward newgate — by rych.xx on tiktok

I think I originally had Garling having the Amazon Lily Baddie for a soulmate because I thought it would be funny after writing Soul Shanked. It was originally a pure vengeance fic but after writing a bit I felt like it would be better for a softer soul.

I came up with a more interesting idea for Garling later.

For Beckman I had either a siren fic or an Odysseus inspired fic, but went with the first for reasons you’ll see later

Summary of Art 2025

Just looked over last years’ version of this which said I hoped I’d get more art done this year.. haha yeah no that didn’t happen 🤣. This year has had its ups and downs with additional diagnoses (hiatus hernia and gastritis) and more health problems flaring up throughout the year , finishing the year with a persistent chest infection and an epileptic seizure (after 6 years of being seizure free)which led to a trip on the ambulance 😑. Did manage to watch the most recent Wallace and Gromit film Vengance most fowl this year , as well as get into the amazing digital circus and Frieren and did make a start watching Hazbin hotel but need to watch more of it. Fingers crossed 🤞 next year will be much more productive and I’ll get some relief from my health issues.

Template for this can be found here https://www.deviantart.com/latortilla/art/Summary-of-Art-2024-template-1089878434 . Please give the original artist credit.

aw look at this old sketch of drunk Marco