Thread by @mylightK

#ONEPIECE #HappyNewYear2023
Ace - The paradox of being fated

Thread 🧵 for Ace’s Birthday 🎉

J̶o̶y̶B̶o̶y̶, Failed JoyBoy✔️

A big paradox that is present in the story of one piece is the fate of Joyboy.
The belief that a person is fated, leads to the belief that his future is predetermined, and his actions are influenced by an external factor. Such person is not truly free.

Joyboy is the embodiment of freedom.
If joyboy is influenced by fate, then he can’t truly be free, hence the paradox.

In this thread I’m going to explore how this paradox is present through Ace.
I have 3 missions:
1. I will show how ace was indeed fated to become joyboy.
2. I will show how the problem is presented in his character.
3. Understand what that means for ace and the story.

Let’s go -

On their journey, Roger and his crew learned that they were too early according to the prophecy. Someone in the near future will surpass them. As we know this person is Joyboy. He came to the conclusion that this person should be his own son.

This conclusion is also apparent in the way Roger had named his child.
“If it’s a girl Anne. If it’s a boy Ace”
Anne means loved by god.
Ace means the Ace of cards, the ultimate card, and also the “one”.
These are names for a child that is destined for greatness and uniqueness.

Another strong detail regarding Ace’s name is that’s also the name of Roger’s main weapon. In a sense, Roger calling his own son after his main weapon, shows how he regards him as the main weapon. One that will change the world, something that he himself couldn’t do.

We should add the fact that ace had the lineage of the previous king which arguably granted him powerful will, strong enough to change the weather, which is something we’ve seen only ace and roger do. That also makes ace unique.

The world government understood that. WB knew that too. Perhaps that’s why he wanted to make ace the next King.
Lineage of the previous king, born to be Joyboy, will strong enough to change the weather, and protection by Whitebeard. Ace was destined to be Joyboy.

One last interesting detail around this idea is that shanks might have stayed in fuusha village with the motive to feed ace the gum gum fruit, that’s after the assumption that the fruit is connected to Joyboy.
However, destiny has its own plan.
And the fruit chose Luffy.

To conclude the first part. Ace indeed was fated to become joyboy since birth, which is explicitly stated by roger, and implicit in the way he named ace, and how the WG and WB treated him.

Now let’s explore how the paradox of the fate of joyboy is presented in his story -

As the child of fate, Ace lacked his own identity.
A big part of Ace’s journey is a search for his own identity. since young age he was labeled as the demon’s child because of his lineage.
It hurt his own image to to the point that he had doubted his worth as a person.

Because he had to carry these burdens since young age, he wasn’t completely free.
What an irony. Roger who set Ace on the destiny to become the freest person is the direct cause of Ace’s burdens that lead to his unfree nature. Another irony between his fate and his mode of being-

is presented physically.
His fate to become the freest (Joyboy), is precisely the reason the WG stole ace of his freedom.
These ironies are translated into Ace’s inner conflict - The search for freedom while being burdened by fate, both as Roger’s child and as the destined Joyboy

this conflict is the core symbol of Ace. It’s the main idea behind the symbol of the two faces. A smiling face representing Ace as a free person, and the destiny to become joyboy. And a sad face representing Ace’s burdens and regrets that derive from the destiny and his lineage.

This conflict follows him up to his last moment, as the final expressions of Ace are exactly these two faces.

This inner conflict that Ace struggled with until his end, is the manifestation of the paradox between the free joyboy (happy) and the restricting fate (sad).

Now let’s explore what it means for the story:

Roger’s approach to the problem of Joyboy was not right, since it actually led ace into a restrained mode of being.

Roger thought he could use fate.

Fate is not something to bargain with.

Ace is conceptually a failed approach to the incarnation of the Joyboy figure. He is a failed Joyboy.
This idea is perfectly articulated via Ace’s devil fruit. Precisely because devil fruits expose the persons deepest desires.

The flare flare fruit very much symbolizes the sun/dawn. It’s essentially a fraudulent symbol, as the real symbol of the sun is the sun god, the user of the gum gum fruit.
Thats exactly why the ‘sun’ Ace had lost to the darkness BB.

Ace might be a failed joyboy,
But Luffy is a genuine joyboy.

The two brothers are two sides of the same coin (hiyori ittai).

it is very fitting that the first part of the story ends with aces conclusion, one side of the coin, one approach to the incarnation of joyboy, one bet.

Luffy’s integration of fate vs freedom is worth a thread of itself but we can catch a glimpse at why it works with Luffy and what I mean by two sides of the same coin.

While Ace was born fated first, and chased the implementation later,

Luffy is a free spirit first. As a result, the destiny can be found in Luffy later.
An example is- for Luffy the act of eating the devil fruit was free of agendas. Luffy simply ate it because he was hungry (my goat😭🫶).
As for ace, shanks arguably tried to give it forcibly.

To conclude the third part:
Ace was not #him.
But he is an essential part to the story that helps us both understand the nature of fate vs freedom in the story, as well as give depth to the concept of Joyboy.
He also helps us understand Luffy better.

Remind you, this thread only followed one theme through Ace. There are many more reasons to love this beautiful character.

And here I conclude the thread.

I hope you guys enjoyed the read🫶