One Piece, Chapter 573: The Age Shall Be Called “Whitebeard”

No man is an island, but this man can destroy islands!


You can download chapter 573 here, or read online here.


Summary:
Coverpage – A heavily clothed Carue rides a terrifyingly huge bear through a snow storm!


Marineford begins to collapse from Whitebeard’s unrestrained attack! His crew, still reluctant to leave their captain behind, begins to follow his last order.


The marines focus their attack to stop Whitebeard from destroying the marine’s headquarters. As Garp regained consciousness, he mutters that Whitebeard actually wanted to settle the “age” itself.


Meanwhile, the rest of the Grand Line is aggravated by the fact that Buggy appeared on the visual den den mushi again after it regained consciousness.


As the pirates make their escape, Whitebeard asks Ace who is kneeling before him in gratitude amidst the chaos whether he has been a good father, to which without hesitation, Ace replied: “of course”. This makes Whitebeard give out his distinct Gurara laughter.


Luffy and Ace then begin to escape as well, but Akainu’s mocking of Whitebeard leads to Ace confronting the admiral and he ends up being burnt by Akainu’s magma.


And as the admiral is about to deal a fatal blow to a fatigued Luffy, Ace rushes in between them and is impaled by the “magmatic punch”!


Luffy’s Vivre card of Ace begins to burn away…




The ‘Whitebeard Age’, eh? I think it could catch on.


Thoughts:
Sukai:
It’s that stage in a story arc where every chapter ends with another breathtaking development.


Last chapter was already beautifully orchestrated enough with Whitebeard sacrificing himself for his ‘children’, but I really found the moment between Ace and him in this chapter to be just too touching.


The last question (and possibly words) from the world’s strongest man was strikingly moving.


I guess that’s why an age will be named after him.


Moving on from the beautiful to the shock horror moment of this chapter – Ace receiving what appears to be a fatal ‘life-ending’ blow from Akainu.


I know I’ve said it many times before about One Piece, but this does look like the end of the road for Ace. It’s only realistic to think that way, after all, in the long run, it’ll be hard to make a story out of Ace and Luffy competing for the Pirate King crown.


If anything, Ace will survive, but will no longer be able to sail the seas again, most unfortunately.


As for what to look out for next chapter, I know I’ll be waiting to see Whitebeard’s ghastly reaction.


If you kind of think about it, this whole arc is rendered pointless if the person being saved ends up dying anyway. Then again, that’s how life is sometimes…


Soulboy:
This chapter is really intense. Seeing both the perspectives of pirates and marines, stirring up the controversy between good and evil as both sides seems to be right based on where they are standing.


I really hope Ace could absorb all the heat from Akainu rendering him into mere rock Logia and beat the hell out of him with his new power-up; His vivre card will turn back to its normal size.


Perhaps he could transform into a giant God of Fire like Enel, to which he reply: ‘I am the source of all heat, BITCH!’


Or maybe Marco could transfer some phoenix fire to Ace to heal him up.


I just can’t imagine what the new era would be like without Ace so either way he must be saved.


And Akainu need to pay for what he said.



Here’s to hoping that fire and magma are complementary rather than conflicting elements…


Next chapter: 576: The Great Pirate, Edward Newgate
Previous chapter: One Piece, Chapter 572: The Times, They Are A-Changin’

1 Comments

1. Sukai, February 7, 2010:

   No one calls WB a loser and gets away with it!

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