What was the point of Ace as a plot device...

What was the point of Ace as a plot device? He was clearly written from the start to be killed off later due to what little screentime he had and his connection to Luffy, but what was supposed to be the purpose of his death? Teach Luffy? Teach him what? His death didn't teach Luffy anything he didn't already know:

- Grief? Check

- Self-sacrifice? Check

- Muh Nakama? Check

- "Can't win 'em all"? Check

- "Shoulda tried harder than that"? Check

And so on and so forth. His purposely clearly wasn't to merely shake the status quo of One Piece world, or else Luffy's trauma of seeing his brother die right in front of him and his emotional baggage wouldn't have been central to the arc.

So, again, just what was the point of Ace in the story?

He didn't need to die but for some reason, Oda needed him to die.

>One piece has a shit writing
In other news water is wet

>He didn't need to die but for some reason, Oda needed him to die.

Exactly. Ace's death is treated like such a YUUUUUGE event for Luffy as a character (and it's supposed to be), but I never saw the point of it. Luffy didn't develop further as a character by his death at all. There was no point whatsoever to killing Ace, or at least, if there was, Oda delivered it terribly.

I thought he was used all this time to establish Blackbeard, his motives and his crew. After all, he was one of the most important roles in the Marineford arc by proving himself as final boss material to everyone and being used as a way to drop more hints about Raftel and what’s there.

To justify a two year timeskip.

If not for the Ace incident Luffy would have rushed right back to Sabaody to meet back up with everyone and continue the journey. His experience in the war, seeing how little he changed anything and the vast difference between him and the New World players, is what gave him the drive to stop his journey and ensure he had the power to protect everyone else.

That said, Sabo seems to be the one who's inherited your idea of Ace's death being a big personal tragedy. He's the one with the build-up to take down Akainu at the end, the one haunted by his inability to be at the war, and who's closeness to Ace was much better portrayed in the flashback to their childhoods. Which is really weird, since Sabo wasn't introduced UNTIL he died and in a lot of ways feels like a replacement for Ace, but that's how it is.

So that Sabo, a better designed character, can take over his Devil Fruit and be much more badass with it's usage.

>Be Ace
>Get tauntedd with cheapest bait
>Instead of keep running and honor the wish of all those who scraficed themselfs fall for it
>Die and ruin everything

He killed off Ace only to introduce an exact same character that is easier to draw

To make the audience hate Blackbeard
To accelerate the plot and introduce us to the big players
To give Luffy a greater tragic background and motivation to become pirate king since his crewmembers had more emotionally gripping motivations compared to his original flashback

fuck sabo, ace is hotter

He was cool

Let's talk about the what if scenario if Ace is kept alive.
Does Shanks get to stop the war or does the marine keep chasing?

The latter.

>His purposely clearly wasn't to merely shake the status quo of One Piece world, or else Luffy's trauma of seeing his brother die right in front of him and his emotional baggage wouldn't have been central to the arc.

There's only one possible purpose? Everybody stated that whole arc would shake the world and make it enter into a new age of pirates, and it did.
Ace was the catalyst to said event.
Whitebeard attacking Marineford and dying, the definitive rise of Blackbeard, not only to Yonkou, bu to main antagonist status, setting up a likely conflict between BB, Akainu and Luffy. Can't forget to mention Luffy going through Impel Down and the relationships he made there. Plus, like you said, the emotional trauma Luffy went through.
All of that is pretty important as far as plot device goes.

Sabo is ace 2.0
just like ace helped luffy in alebasta before getting himself killed; Sabo is going 2 die.

That requires too much critical thinking that most people lack.

Without Ace's involvement in the story Luffy would've rushed straight back to Shabody and get his ass handed to him even harder entering the New World. He also wouldn't have made contact with people like Ivankov and wouldn't have met Jinbei.

The Marineford Arc showed what the power of both Yonko/Admirals could do on a grand scale and how far from that power Luffy is. BB was also given full final boss status.

Ace's death was a gateway method for the timeskip. Even though they lost at Shabody, there wasn't a true catalyst that would've made Luffy go "I really have to get stronger" because he hasn't lost anything at that point.

ITT: Too many people who want those dank meme points, very few who know dick about either writing or One Piece.

You're thinking too small, OP. Ace's plot relevance had nothing to do with Luffy's growth. His death was meant to be the trigger for the end of the Whitebeard/Sengoku/Garp Era. He wasn't killed to grow Luffy up, he was killed to establish why a powerful yonko crew would go to war with the marines. Luffy's role in the war itself was incidental, but it allowed his backstory to be explored, which it hadn't been up until that point.

this.

Sabo's role in the story is literally Better Ace.
He's going to carry his will and succeed where Ace failed.

It wasn't about Luffy, it was about the pirates in general. Ace sacrificed himself to stand up for Akainu for insulting WB. Thats the trigger for everything which happenned afterwards and the renewage of the age of piracy

worst character, also Ace looks much cuter and has freckless

ace saved luffy from smoker, and then died saving luffy from akainu.
The bar is at its limit. Sabo is doomed to die saving luffy from some one or something.

he was a martyr for blackbeard to become OP and become the final villan.

Sabo's not dying until the end of the series, if at all. He's got connections to the brewing Civil War, Akainu and Goa Kingdom that need to be addressed.

And not everything can be broken down to patterns. He was intentionally introduced in a way that mirrored Ace, sure, but he's still got his own arc. The Whitebeard Pirates were set up to fail so Blackbeard could escalate in power, while the Revolutionaries are the end-game allies who will help save the world.

>What was the point of Ace as a plot device?
>Stepping stone for Blackbeard.
>Gave us some insight into the life of a Yonkou we otherwise would not have had

It's not about Ace himself.
It's more about the whole Marineford arc and Teach.
Ace only served as the reason for the MC to join in.

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