Am I the only one who finds it a little disturbing that after Ace was Shanghai'd/Stockholm'd into joining the Whitebeard Pirates we never hear of his old crew ever again? Heck, the anime even left out the throw-away line of them being absorbed into the fleet. The least they could've done was add in a brief scene of Ace leading his old guys in battle against one of Whitebeard's enemies. Also, didn't that kind of squash Ace's dream in the process, something that's a big no-no for the good guys? Yeah, he found a new one soon after, but I still find it a bit unsettling.
Overall, I'd say this was an episode that had a few hiccups, but was pretty decent in the end. I didn't like Vista's voice, and every time Marco opens his mouth Ichigo pops into my head, but the extra scenes with Blackbeard and Thatch were great, and the montage of Ace being punted overboard one-hundred (not really) times was funny.
Next week the action finally starts, so I'm looking forward to that.