Haha, whatever.
Ace is one of Oda’s worst written characters (which is why most people on NPC hate him). Sure, he is better than Lucci. And I wouldn’t say he is the One Piece equivalent of Sasuke. But you can’t be worse than Sasuke.
His character was irrational. It’s absolutely normal for a pirate to be hated by ordinary people. And Roger is the biggest pirates in the world, the motherfucking Pirate King. Ace’s hatred would be understandable if he wanted to be an innocent citizen. But he wanted to become a pirate himself since 5 years old or something. And he wanted WB to become that big of a pirate.[hide]
People who dream of becoming Pirates in One Piece are often like this: “Hey you there, this is who, how and what I am. You don’t like me? Who the fuck cares?”.
Ace was like this: Oh no I’m not loved by those people, I and my father are not respected by those commoners. Oh god, I can't stand this, my life is so fucking miserable!! Man, I blame my useless father. I just want to be loved! Why should I be born if those commoners don't love me?
Ace didn’t know what the fuck was going on in his head. At first he thought he wanted infamy, renown, as a pirate, which mean, he’s supposed to be hated by commoners anyway. But he’s fucking butthurt at his old man for making commoners hate him.
Oh well, it was excusable when he was a kid. Kids are stupid. But even when he became an adult, experienced happiness and suffering, and what life had to offer, as a pirate, he has not acknowledged his real father did not intentionally do anything harmful for a pirate like him. I mean, look at him when he first appeared in Alabaster, he was a happy-go-lucky pretty boy pirate, and showed no sign of being a troubled youth, or bothered by being hated by commoners, or detesting toward pirates, at all. Then suddenly he told us he hated his father because, boys, commoners wanted him dead.
Actually, Roger was quite respected in the pirate world, and most pirates in those 22 years was inspired by him. Being Roger's son is not likely to get you hated by many among pirates, except for his enemies.
Well, that has always been your philosophy.
It would be cool if Ace can be just like Luffy: never give a damn about his parents, and be a man of himself. The thing is, he was butthurt about Roger.
I wouldn't care if Ace character wasn't self-inflicted.
Ace never knew his mother either. But he felt indebted to her.
Ace as a child has constantly asked people about his father. This made sense. He cared for his father, despite what he said. This is just like how Robin studied so hard for a mother she never met, or Usopp was proud of a father he never even met.
But, Ace's attitude toward his father was affected by a bunch of commoners who hated pirate anyway. That's the problem here. As a mature pirate, he shouldn't be.
Ace cared for that biological link, otherwise he wouldn't be so bugged about it. And damn, in the flashback, what's Oda purpose to set up those scene about never running away, the Roger talk, which end with : "you can't fight your blood"; "Be a big man like your father and change the world, then you can have the right to die.". Hell, Oda was trying to make that connection something more than just biological connection.
To respect and to accept is different thing. I am not saying Ace should be like Riki-oh, who thinks that he isn't a complete human until he find out who his father was. He just needs to accept.
Not to mention, he totally dismissing Roger was also against his mother's wish, to whom he was so grateful. I wondered what's the point of Oda choice for Rouge last line: "This is the name of our child."
But,
In the end Ace wasn’t big enough of a person to forgive and accept Roger. He died before even calling Roger a word Dad, or thanking him for saving his life.
Well, because he had WB so he didn’t have to recognize Roger anymore? Reminding me of this
Roger has not fulfilled his duty as a father, true, but he couldn’t. And, he didn’t only make mistake, he also did Ace a favor, which secured his life until he set sail to be a pirate, and which Ace should be thankful for, if he was to feel indebted greatly to his mother at all. Ace refused to understand Roger's love, and was totally selfish, egoistic about it. If he wasn't great enough to understand, forgive and accept his father in the end, there is no reason not to call him idiotic whiner. That's not a proper conclusion for him.[/hide]
And I have to agree that Ace's last line "I have been useless for all my life but you still loved me" is pathetic.