Thank you for those who are going to read this. Even though it is very late to discuss on this arc, in my opinion, this is where OP was peak, so i wanted to revisit this arc.
Marineford was an arc that i greatly enjoyed the first time. Back then, i was an anime only enjoyer and i think the anime added value that the manga will never be able to do, ex the music. It is an arc that i watched multiple times as it was so epic back then but at the same time so devastating as major characters died in this arc.
But going through it now and having new perspectives, i realized that Marineford had a lot of problem. The issue came mostly with the fact that this arc contained like max level characters. When you read the lastest OP and go back to MF, powerscaling is the one that is the most impacted. But i also think there were a lot of opportunities missed in this arc.
As much as i like Akainu alone standing up to WB, it would have been satisfying to have also a WB vs Sengoku fight as well. As much as the WB pirates were hyped by Sengoku, Oda clearly under used the WB pirates and failed to show how they are dangerous. ODA wanted to hype WB's power so much that at some point he made WB like 99.5% the power of the WB pirates and the remaining 0.5% power are the crew. As i looked back at MF, i saw so many flaws and so many restrictive decisions (Ace way to die, WB injured but we kind of let this pass, etc ).
ODA should have clearly shown why the WB pirates were the most powerful pirates crew during that time, because Oda himself hyped this crew via Sengoku, so my expectation and some viewers were high. We clearly heard Sengoku stating that winning this war is not certain for the Marine. But when i looked back now, at no point did i saw the Marine in a moment of difficulty. No stakes. We did not get a clear back and forth between these 2 parties, thus contradicting the 1st statement. Marine had like infinite soldiers, Admirals were as cleaned as the battle started, and Akainu was walking like nothing happened even after taking a severe attack from not any emperor, but a Roger’s rival, Akainu EVEN defeated some of the WB crew flawlessly. The Powerscaling was all other the places, endurance and stamina out of the Window !!!!
The admirals were not shown as strong characters but broken one. I will take a strong character all day.
Why making the WB pirates the strongest at that time? because compare to BM's (mostly her children and they are not on the same accord), Kaido's crew ( who is eating at each other for power) and Shanks' crew (most powerful and balance but still developing), WB's crew was the most experienced, organized and they had great synergy , being decades on the sea. It is a high experienced crew right there and who had to fight with Roger's pirates countless time.
Marineford was a great concept on paper, but the execution was not optimal.
A possible approach in my opinion:
In this case, as the battle started, WB’s dangerous power is immediately shown!!! With an attack, WB sinks all the major ships surrounding the Marine base in an instant using an earthquake attack that caused a tsunami. Aokiji manages to shield SOME part of the Marine base and reduces the amount of casualties (In the anime, he FLAWLESSLY stopped an attack from one of the strongest pirates, decades on the sea. WTH!!!). Then, Aokiji attacks WB immediately, but WB retaliates. The attack of WB injured Aokiji even in his ice form, showing how dangerous the tremor fruit can be after it is mastered. However, Aokiji can still fight. Aokiji then freezes a vast part of the ocean to prevent further WB pirates' reinforcement from the sea.
Kizaru, who wants to go for the head first, attacked WB, but Marco jumped in and absorbed all the damages. Marco then kicked Kizaru in the face, sending him flying. Kizaru is slightly hurt but nothing bad and he immediately ordered the giants to check the sky. His lip bleeds a little. Marco is the 2nd of WB, so his strength is not to be messed with. He showed that the sky is his playground.
Of course, Mihawk decides to attack, and his slash is stopped by Jozu with difficulties. But since Jozu is diamond, he did not suffer any injury. Jozu attacked by launching a giant ice block. Here Akainu intervened and melt it in an instant. As usual, Akainu's attack causes some lava rocks to fall on the WB pirates (damaging some WB ships) but nothing to scare WB. WB even extinguish one of the lava rocks like blowing out candles.
Yes, WB is betrayed and stabbed at some point (Confirming that WB is unable to use Haki at his old age). The story goes as usual.
The final fights/moments:
WB vs Akainu, 1st encounter -> here Akainu struggles a little with WB who is the more experienced fighter. However, the wound and the poor health of WB allowed Akainu to land a heavy attack. WB is injured but he also takes this chance to severely injure Akainu with an attack causing Akainu to be sent flying very far away. WB wheezes and it is clear it was not just an ordinary earthquake attack. WB knew from the start Akainu would be the most dangerous and he was lucky to fight him first before he is wornt out, so he did not go easy on him. Akainu cough a lot of blood and it is clear this attack of WB was so damaging that it can bypass the logia abilities. At this range, this attack should have been a fatal one, but as WB is unable to use haki, Akainu is just injured and incapacitated for a while. WB continues his progress.
Meanwhile, Marco (after being punched by Garp) and Kizaru are fighting. Kirazu is giving his all, but Marco regens Is on a different level. Kizaru is slightly stronger than Marco. Kizaru hits hard, but Marco regen. Helps him to push through. Without realizing it, Kizaru is unable to get over Marco. Marco lands some good attacks on Kizaru, injuring and further wearing out Kizaru. Both are getting tired at this point. But if Kizaru does not take care of Marco's ability, it is him who will lose the most in this fight.
Aokiji vs WB (brief fight) -> Aokiji freezes WB completely, but it is ineffective. WB breaks free and in an instant stabs Aokiji. Aokiji uses Observation haki to slightly shapeshift his body to avoid the attack (Thinking WB is still able to use Haki). As he is about to attack WB again, Jozu speed blitz a distracted Aokiji, severely injuring Aokiji, who took the whole attack. After being sent some meters away, Aokiji is already back on his feet, more alerted than ever.
Jozu is handling Aokiji. In this case, Aokiji is the superior fighter and is dominating. But it is not a flawless fight as the previous surprised attack took a heavy toll on Aokiji. Jozu tremendous strength is giving Aokiji a hard time. Aokiji identified that Jozu like to focus all his haki and his ability on his arm while he attacked. Since Jozu is very fast, he does this in a few second and this is what allowed him to deal a lot of damage. Such detail will not go unnoticed for a highly trained fighter like Aokiji. Otherwise, Jozu keeps his defense at max at all the time. Aokiji concludes Jozu is his most vulnerable when he attacked!! At some point, Aokiji was hurt badly again as he traded with Jozu. Aokiji took the opportunity and managed to win this fight by freezing Jozu to death. Aokiji is heavily injured, he can still fight but he will have to take on lower rank commanders from now on.
Kizaru is injured while Marco is unscratched (But Marco is as tired as Kizaru from abusing his regen powers). At some point, Kizaru with the help of a VA are able to attach a seastone handcuff on one hand of Marco. This disabled Marco's ability completely. Marco immediately dispatched the VA with a powerful kick before both his hands could be handcuffed. The fight took a dark turn for Marco, but he is not the 1st commander of WB for nothing. He still gave Kizaru (more injured than Marco at this point) a hard time. Marco is a master at observation haki and armament haki. However Kizaru is starting to overwhelm Marco and it is clear Marco will lose if he does not remove the handcuff. Marco decides to retreat for now but he has to get rid of Kizaru. With a powerful kick from Marco, Kizaru is sent flying very far away. Marco then escaped to find a way to remove the handcuff as soon as possible.
Kizaru landed to a place close to WB. Since defeating WB is the priority, we have Injured WB vs injured Kizaru, also kizaru is forced to intervened as WB was causing too much destruction as he was moving forward. Kizaru immediately gets in WB's way. But it was clearly a big mistake from Kizaru at this point who wanted to get the head first again. As in his current state, he is later overwhelmed by WB's power and fighting experience. He put a good fight against WB and landed some good hits, but WB is NOT an opponent you want to go against half prepared. Kizaru is exhausted and the attacks he got from WB took a heavy toll on him. He is forced to accept that he got outsmarted by Marco whose goal was to wear him out from the start. Kizaru at this point will mostly fight fodders.
At this point, Luffy had made his way to Ace after punching Garp. Sengoku intervened but Ace is set free. Garp watches and close his eyes. As Sengoku is after Ace and Luffy, WB intervened, and we get an injured WB vs Sengoku. Sengoku is a strong opponent but since Ace is free and out of range. WB reveals his goal all along and uses an attack with the purpose of destroying completely the building of MF. Without thinking, Sengoku jumped in to shield some of attack by using his DF fruit ability. But he got heavily injured in the process as he was trying to protect as many marines as possible as well.
Injured Sengoku and injured WB fight continues at this point, and Sengoku lands some good hits on WB. But it clears that Sengoku is too out of shape due to his Fleet Admiral position. Even WB realized that Sengoku was not hitting as hard as before. He is the best judge of that having faced Sengoku many times in the past. WB commented that Sengoku has become too rusty from his desk job and manages to rebel Sengoku with a shockwave. Sengoku is sent flying some meters away, the shockwave did little damage to him and was more of an annoyance. Now Sengoku must run back to WB.
At this point, Garp (tore between family and duty, and with no will to fight) gets up and realize that WB intends to die here and sink MF with him.
WB then shouted to his crew. His voice is so loud that everyone on MF could hear him. WB said that this is his final order as Captain. He states that the remaining WB pirates must escape and return to the New World. Since all his crew are out of reach at this point, WB uses another ability to separate completely the Marines from the WB pirates. Sengoku, who was on his way to fight WB again, is forced to stop as he must protect as much as possible the building of MF and marines from WB’s earthquake. We can see the terror on Sengoku’s face as he watches some of MF collapsing under WB’s power. Aokiji also helped in shielding some of MF, while Kizaru used his remaining strengths to move Marines/VA out of dangers at high speed.
We then have the epic shot of WB alone in front of countless Marines.
As Ace is escaping with Luffy, Aokiji jumped in to stop them. We have Weakened Ace vs heavily injured Aokiji. It is a DRAW; both use their strong DF ability attack. But their attacks nullified each other. Aokiji is at his limit at this point due to his injury and has no choice but to let Ace and Luffy go. Ace and Luffy even manage to join Jinbe and a group of WB pirates. As Ace is running, Ace is crying while looking back at WB (who is fighting marines), thanking him for everything. But he knows he cannot turn back. All WB pirates are escaping at this point with tears in their eyes.
As hope of escaping is growing, suddenly Akainu makes a dramatic entrance, erupting from the ground. The ability he used launches a lot of lava in the air and he even changes some of the landscape as well, isolating Luffy and Ace from the others as they were dodging lava coming from the ground and lava falling on them (A great showcase of Akainu high mastery of his DF). As nothing could go worst, Luffy collapsed as well and is exhausted breathing heavily and coughing a bit of blood, he is still conscious and fully aware, but he can barely move. Akainu, completely covered in lava, appears in front of Ace and Luffy.
Completely isolated and surrounded by lava, Ace is forced to fight Akainu until he can get some support. Akainu swears he cannot let them escape and he has to eliminate them. we have Weakened Ace vs injured Akainu. Ace is standing his ground (showing why he is the 2nd commander of WB even at a young age) but it is clear Akainu is on another level. He is dominating Ace and he punched Ace to the ground. Meanwhile, Jinbe is looking for Ace and Luffy and is getting close. Whitebeard is also busy with fighting marines and VAs. Marco is also looking for a way to remove his seastone handcuff.
Akainu and Ace clashed, but Akainu won this clash and burnt the right arm of Ace. Ace is sent flying some meters away in the process. Ace immediately recovers to witness that his right arm is completely useless at this point. Heavily injured, Ace is defenseless right now and worst, Ace realised Akainu is going for Luffy.
Akainu taking no time, goes for Luffy, who is closed to him and who is unable to move. Breathing heavily, Luffy is barely able to talk as well. As Akainu prepares his attack to finish Luffy for good, Ace jumped in without hesitation at great speed between Akainu and Luffy, and in a desperate move, he used his body to protect Luffy. The attack does not kill Ace instantly. this attack is a painful one that slowly burns Ace. As Akainu is slowly burning Ace, Jinbe jumped in and punched Akainu in the face. The attack hurts Akainu, who spits blood and is sent flying away. Akainu is relentless though, and before Jinbe is able to check on Ace and Luffy, Akainu is already in front him ready to land a punch. Jinbe blocked it with his two hands but he is suffering a lot as the heat is slowly damaging him even though he is shielded with haki.
Ivankov arrives also with some doctors, but he saw the wound and realizes the inevitable situation. As Luffy, who is barely able to talk, looked at Iva with an expression begging Iva to do something, Iva is forced to avert his eyes. Ace says his goodbyes and thanked Luffy as he died in Luffy’s arms shortly. The emotional damage is so much that Luffy collapsed.
Meanwhile Sengoku just arrived, and he witnessed the devastation just caused by WB, who has defeated all the marines he was fighting, including some VAs. Sengoku also witnessed the death of Ace as well, which was a painful and slow one. We can see an expression of a bit of sadness on Sengoku’s face (Yes, Ace was supposed to be executed, but it was going to be quick so that the person does not suffer. However, Akainu’s act was immoral). At this point, Sengoku immediately looks for Garp, fearing for the worst.
Garp, who has witnessed Ace’s painful death as well, is furious and is slowly walking towards Akainu, who is still trying to go through Jinbe’s strong defense. However, Sengoku jumped in and stopped Garp, pinned him down and not letting him go. Sengoku then manages to put some reasons into Garp, who was blinded by rage.
As Akainu is about to break through Jinbe’s defense, Marco (who has removed his handcuffs) and Vista jumped in and attacked Akainu with a combined attack. Akainu is again sent flying some meters away. Since they used haki, Akainu is injured but he brushed it off like nothing. As he is running towards them again, he sensed a presence behind him, and it is WB. WB (who is weakened) punched Akainu with his earthquake ability, hurting Akainu's head heavily in the process. Akainu, on the ground and recovering, senses another incoming attack and dodges it. He then counters attack, but a furious WB easily overwhelmed him and again throws him the ground with extreme violence. As WB is going for a finishing blow, Akainu manages to dodge it by shapeshifting his body and inflict another heavy attack on WB, leaving another hole on WB chest. However, WB grabs Akainu’s face and throws him violently on the ground. Then, WB immediately falls on one knee with his face down. Akainu is panting and manages to stand after a little struggle, thinking WB is done for, he walks slowly towards WB with confidence and stands in front of WB. The attacks of WB took a toll on Akainu, we see he is struggling a little to charge his next lava ability. Suddenly, WB grabs Akainu by the neck and lifts him. Akainu tries to burn the hand of WB that is holdinh him, so WB throws him in the air instead. WB charges his own attack in the meantime. As Akainu is about to hit the ground, WB launches his attack, which connected with Akainu at point blank. Akainu coughs a lot of blood again and his eyes are white. The attack is so devasting that it destroyed a large part of the MF building. Sengoku (who is still restraining Garp) is forced to watch in terror as WB still had this much devastating power.
Akainu falls next to WB, coughing blood but he is still conscious and again incapacitated. As he is falling in the earthquake’s crack made by the attack, he insulted WB one last time.
Sengoku has managed to talk some sense in Garp at this point. Sengoku reminds Garp of his marine duties. After this, Garp and Sengoku are standing next to each other for some moment. With Garp who seemed to have calm down, Sengoku's focus can return to WB, but he is still checking on Garp from time to time. However, Garp is no longer looking at Sengoku.
At this point, WB is at his limit, but suddenly the Blackbeard pirates appear. We have WB vs BB, but even in his heavily weakened state, WB easily subdues an overconfident BB by using his high weapon skills. BB is pinned down and took a direct earthquake to the face. But this is not enough to kill BB. As WB is going for another attack, he gets shot by a pistol used by BB. Then the BB pirates all attacked WB at the same time. After that, WB delivers his legendary final words to the world before dying.
Marines and WB pirates then witnessed BB do his trick. At this point, BB gets the DF of WB, to everyone surprises. Again, BB is overconfident and wants to fight. However, BB is highly inexperienced with the fruit. Even though he knows all the abilities, he is not able to deal as much damage as WB right now. At this point, Sengoku immediately jumped in and uses a shockwave on the entire BB pirates, knocking some out. As Sengoku and BB are clashing, Burgess (still conscious) tried to attack Sengoku but he is knocked down by Garp. Burgess is heavily injured by this, unable to move and Garp sent a clear message to the remaining BB pirates (who are still standing) to stay out of the fight of Sengoku and BB. Sengoku and Garp both boost the marines’ morale at this point to ready themselves for further fight. Sengoku vs BB fight continues.
As Jinbe is escaping with Luffy, suddenly Akainu erupts from the ground again. But Akainu is heavily injured ( his left arm is completely broken, he is covered in blood and coughing a bit of blood from time to time). But his resiliance is as intact as from the start if not stronger now, he intends to finish Luffy no matter what. Limping, Akainu is forced to use his ability to allow him to move faster. The remaining WB pirates (highly demoralized by the recent events) intervened but Akainu dispatches of them with his strong DF ability in no time. Marco arrives and blocks Akainu as Jinbe is escaping with Luffy, buying them some time, but the attacks of Akainu deal so much damage that Marco is unable to keep up, also Marco’s regen has reached his limit at this point after dealing with Kizaru. Marco is blown away. As Jinbe is running away, Akainu catches up to them and lands an attack that severely hurt Jinbe and hurt Luffy as well. As Jinbe is unable to move, Akainu is going for the kill but Crocodile intervened. Crocodile attacks Akainu and as Akainu is still recovering, Crocodile helps Luffy and Jinbe escaped for good.
As the fight continues between Sengoku and BB. Akainu is again going after Luffy after he has recovered. However, Coby jumped in front of Akainu and tried to stop the war, as at this point, it is pointless to continue fighting and it is just unnecessary casualties.
However, Akainu has none of this and tries to kill Coby, but Shanks intervened, saved Coby and stopped the war. Akainu at this point, is forced to just insult Shanks as he is too injured/weaken to fight another emperor. Kizaru and Aokiji exhausted are forced to watch Luffy escaped as they are briefly stopped by Shanks' commanders. The WB pirates are told to return to the New World by Shanks, BB pirates decide to retreat as it is too soon to fight the Redhair pirates. At this point, Sengoku declares that the War is over.
Sengoku and Garp, both retire as marine after the war. Sengoku recommends Aokiji as the next fleet admiral (but unfortunately, we all know Akainu will seize that position). Garp stays to train the next gen. marines. Shanks help in the proper burial of Ace and WB. At this point, the story proceeds as usual.
Marineford was an arc that i greatly enjoyed the first time. Back then, i was an anime only enjoyer and i think the anime added value that the manga will never be able to do, ex the music. It is an arc that i watched multiple times as it was so epic back then but at the same time so devastating as major characters died in this arc.
But going through it now and having new perspectives, i realized that Marineford had a lot of problem. The issue came mostly with the fact that this arc contained like max level characters. When you read the lastest OP and go back to MF, powerscaling is the one that is the most impacted. But i also think there were a lot of opportunities missed in this arc.
As much as i like Akainu alone standing up to WB, it would have been satisfying to have also a WB vs Sengoku fight as well. As much as the WB pirates were hyped by Sengoku, Oda clearly under used the WB pirates and failed to show how they are dangerous. ODA wanted to hype WB's power so much that at some point he made WB like 99.5% the power of the WB pirates and the remaining 0.5% power are the crew. As i looked back at MF, i saw so many flaws and so many restrictive decisions (Ace way to die, WB injured but we kind of let this pass, etc ).
ODA should have clearly shown why the WB pirates were the most powerful pirates crew during that time, because Oda himself hyped this crew via Sengoku, so my expectation and some viewers were high. We clearly heard Sengoku stating that winning this war is not certain for the Marine. But when i looked back now, at no point did i saw the Marine in a moment of difficulty. No stakes. We did not get a clear back and forth between these 2 parties, thus contradicting the 1st statement. Marine had like infinite soldiers, Admirals were as cleaned as the battle started, and Akainu was walking like nothing happened even after taking a severe attack from not any emperor, but a Roger’s rival, Akainu EVEN defeated some of the WB crew flawlessly. The Powerscaling was all other the places, endurance and stamina out of the Window !!!!
The admirals were not shown as strong characters but broken one. I will take a strong character all day.
Why making the WB pirates the strongest at that time? because compare to BM's (mostly her children and they are not on the same accord), Kaido's crew ( who is eating at each other for power) and Shanks' crew (most powerful and balance but still developing), WB's crew was the most experienced, organized and they had great synergy , being decades on the sea. It is a high experienced crew right there and who had to fight with Roger's pirates countless time.
Marineford was a great concept on paper, but the execution was not optimal.
A possible approach in my opinion:
In this case, as the battle started, WB’s dangerous power is immediately shown!!! With an attack, WB sinks all the major ships surrounding the Marine base in an instant using an earthquake attack that caused a tsunami. Aokiji manages to shield SOME part of the Marine base and reduces the amount of casualties (In the anime, he FLAWLESSLY stopped an attack from one of the strongest pirates, decades on the sea. WTH!!!). Then, Aokiji attacks WB immediately, but WB retaliates. The attack of WB injured Aokiji even in his ice form, showing how dangerous the tremor fruit can be after it is mastered. However, Aokiji can still fight. Aokiji then freezes a vast part of the ocean to prevent further WB pirates' reinforcement from the sea.
Kizaru, who wants to go for the head first, attacked WB, but Marco jumped in and absorbed all the damages. Marco then kicked Kizaru in the face, sending him flying. Kizaru is slightly hurt but nothing bad and he immediately ordered the giants to check the sky. His lip bleeds a little. Marco is the 2nd of WB, so his strength is not to be messed with. He showed that the sky is his playground.
Of course, Mihawk decides to attack, and his slash is stopped by Jozu with difficulties. But since Jozu is diamond, he did not suffer any injury. Jozu attacked by launching a giant ice block. Here Akainu intervened and melt it in an instant. As usual, Akainu's attack causes some lava rocks to fall on the WB pirates (damaging some WB ships) but nothing to scare WB. WB even extinguish one of the lava rocks like blowing out candles.
Yes, WB is betrayed and stabbed at some point (Confirming that WB is unable to use Haki at his old age). The story goes as usual.
The final fights/moments:
WB vs Akainu, 1st encounter -> here Akainu struggles a little with WB who is the more experienced fighter. However, the wound and the poor health of WB allowed Akainu to land a heavy attack. WB is injured but he also takes this chance to severely injure Akainu with an attack causing Akainu to be sent flying very far away. WB wheezes and it is clear it was not just an ordinary earthquake attack. WB knew from the start Akainu would be the most dangerous and he was lucky to fight him first before he is wornt out, so he did not go easy on him. Akainu cough a lot of blood and it is clear this attack of WB was so damaging that it can bypass the logia abilities. At this range, this attack should have been a fatal one, but as WB is unable to use haki, Akainu is just injured and incapacitated for a while. WB continues his progress.
Meanwhile, Marco (after being punched by Garp) and Kizaru are fighting. Kirazu is giving his all, but Marco regens Is on a different level. Kizaru is slightly stronger than Marco. Kizaru hits hard, but Marco regen. Helps him to push through. Without realizing it, Kizaru is unable to get over Marco. Marco lands some good attacks on Kizaru, injuring and further wearing out Kizaru. Both are getting tired at this point. But if Kizaru does not take care of Marco's ability, it is him who will lose the most in this fight.
Aokiji vs WB (brief fight) -> Aokiji freezes WB completely, but it is ineffective. WB breaks free and in an instant stabs Aokiji. Aokiji uses Observation haki to slightly shapeshift his body to avoid the attack (Thinking WB is still able to use Haki). As he is about to attack WB again, Jozu speed blitz a distracted Aokiji, severely injuring Aokiji, who took the whole attack. After being sent some meters away, Aokiji is already back on his feet, more alerted than ever.
Jozu is handling Aokiji. In this case, Aokiji is the superior fighter and is dominating. But it is not a flawless fight as the previous surprised attack took a heavy toll on Aokiji. Jozu tremendous strength is giving Aokiji a hard time. Aokiji identified that Jozu like to focus all his haki and his ability on his arm while he attacked. Since Jozu is very fast, he does this in a few second and this is what allowed him to deal a lot of damage. Such detail will not go unnoticed for a highly trained fighter like Aokiji. Otherwise, Jozu keeps his defense at max at all the time. Aokiji concludes Jozu is his most vulnerable when he attacked!! At some point, Aokiji was hurt badly again as he traded with Jozu. Aokiji took the opportunity and managed to win this fight by freezing Jozu to death. Aokiji is heavily injured, he can still fight but he will have to take on lower rank commanders from now on.
Kizaru is injured while Marco is unscratched (But Marco is as tired as Kizaru from abusing his regen powers). At some point, Kizaru with the help of a VA are able to attach a seastone handcuff on one hand of Marco. This disabled Marco's ability completely. Marco immediately dispatched the VA with a powerful kick before both his hands could be handcuffed. The fight took a dark turn for Marco, but he is not the 1st commander of WB for nothing. He still gave Kizaru (more injured than Marco at this point) a hard time. Marco is a master at observation haki and armament haki. However Kizaru is starting to overwhelm Marco and it is clear Marco will lose if he does not remove the handcuff. Marco decides to retreat for now but he has to get rid of Kizaru. With a powerful kick from Marco, Kizaru is sent flying very far away. Marco then escaped to find a way to remove the handcuff as soon as possible.
Kizaru landed to a place close to WB. Since defeating WB is the priority, we have Injured WB vs injured Kizaru, also kizaru is forced to intervened as WB was causing too much destruction as he was moving forward. Kizaru immediately gets in WB's way. But it was clearly a big mistake from Kizaru at this point who wanted to get the head first again. As in his current state, he is later overwhelmed by WB's power and fighting experience. He put a good fight against WB and landed some good hits, but WB is NOT an opponent you want to go against half prepared. Kizaru is exhausted and the attacks he got from WB took a heavy toll on him. He is forced to accept that he got outsmarted by Marco whose goal was to wear him out from the start. Kizaru at this point will mostly fight fodders.
At this point, Luffy had made his way to Ace after punching Garp. Sengoku intervened but Ace is set free. Garp watches and close his eyes. As Sengoku is after Ace and Luffy, WB intervened, and we get an injured WB vs Sengoku. Sengoku is a strong opponent but since Ace is free and out of range. WB reveals his goal all along and uses an attack with the purpose of destroying completely the building of MF. Without thinking, Sengoku jumped in to shield some of attack by using his DF fruit ability. But he got heavily injured in the process as he was trying to protect as many marines as possible as well.
Injured Sengoku and injured WB fight continues at this point, and Sengoku lands some good hits on WB. But it clears that Sengoku is too out of shape due to his Fleet Admiral position. Even WB realized that Sengoku was not hitting as hard as before. He is the best judge of that having faced Sengoku many times in the past. WB commented that Sengoku has become too rusty from his desk job and manages to rebel Sengoku with a shockwave. Sengoku is sent flying some meters away, the shockwave did little damage to him and was more of an annoyance. Now Sengoku must run back to WB.
At this point, Garp (tore between family and duty, and with no will to fight) gets up and realize that WB intends to die here and sink MF with him.
WB then shouted to his crew. His voice is so loud that everyone on MF could hear him. WB said that this is his final order as Captain. He states that the remaining WB pirates must escape and return to the New World. Since all his crew are out of reach at this point, WB uses another ability to separate completely the Marines from the WB pirates. Sengoku, who was on his way to fight WB again, is forced to stop as he must protect as much as possible the building of MF and marines from WB’s earthquake. We can see the terror on Sengoku’s face as he watches some of MF collapsing under WB’s power. Aokiji also helped in shielding some of MF, while Kizaru used his remaining strengths to move Marines/VA out of dangers at high speed.
We then have the epic shot of WB alone in front of countless Marines.
As Ace is escaping with Luffy, Aokiji jumped in to stop them. We have Weakened Ace vs heavily injured Aokiji. It is a DRAW; both use their strong DF ability attack. But their attacks nullified each other. Aokiji is at his limit at this point due to his injury and has no choice but to let Ace and Luffy go. Ace and Luffy even manage to join Jinbe and a group of WB pirates. As Ace is running, Ace is crying while looking back at WB (who is fighting marines), thanking him for everything. But he knows he cannot turn back. All WB pirates are escaping at this point with tears in their eyes.
As hope of escaping is growing, suddenly Akainu makes a dramatic entrance, erupting from the ground. The ability he used launches a lot of lava in the air and he even changes some of the landscape as well, isolating Luffy and Ace from the others as they were dodging lava coming from the ground and lava falling on them (A great showcase of Akainu high mastery of his DF). As nothing could go worst, Luffy collapsed as well and is exhausted breathing heavily and coughing a bit of blood, he is still conscious and fully aware, but he can barely move. Akainu, completely covered in lava, appears in front of Ace and Luffy.
Completely isolated and surrounded by lava, Ace is forced to fight Akainu until he can get some support. Akainu swears he cannot let them escape and he has to eliminate them. we have Weakened Ace vs injured Akainu. Ace is standing his ground (showing why he is the 2nd commander of WB even at a young age) but it is clear Akainu is on another level. He is dominating Ace and he punched Ace to the ground. Meanwhile, Jinbe is looking for Ace and Luffy and is getting close. Whitebeard is also busy with fighting marines and VAs. Marco is also looking for a way to remove his seastone handcuff.
Akainu and Ace clashed, but Akainu won this clash and burnt the right arm of Ace. Ace is sent flying some meters away in the process. Ace immediately recovers to witness that his right arm is completely useless at this point. Heavily injured, Ace is defenseless right now and worst, Ace realised Akainu is going for Luffy.
Akainu taking no time, goes for Luffy, who is closed to him and who is unable to move. Breathing heavily, Luffy is barely able to talk as well. As Akainu prepares his attack to finish Luffy for good, Ace jumped in without hesitation at great speed between Akainu and Luffy, and in a desperate move, he used his body to protect Luffy. The attack does not kill Ace instantly. this attack is a painful one that slowly burns Ace. As Akainu is slowly burning Ace, Jinbe jumped in and punched Akainu in the face. The attack hurts Akainu, who spits blood and is sent flying away. Akainu is relentless though, and before Jinbe is able to check on Ace and Luffy, Akainu is already in front him ready to land a punch. Jinbe blocked it with his two hands but he is suffering a lot as the heat is slowly damaging him even though he is shielded with haki.
Ivankov arrives also with some doctors, but he saw the wound and realizes the inevitable situation. As Luffy, who is barely able to talk, looked at Iva with an expression begging Iva to do something, Iva is forced to avert his eyes. Ace says his goodbyes and thanked Luffy as he died in Luffy’s arms shortly. The emotional damage is so much that Luffy collapsed.
Meanwhile Sengoku just arrived, and he witnessed the devastation just caused by WB, who has defeated all the marines he was fighting, including some VAs. Sengoku also witnessed the death of Ace as well, which was a painful and slow one. We can see an expression of a bit of sadness on Sengoku’s face (Yes, Ace was supposed to be executed, but it was going to be quick so that the person does not suffer. However, Akainu’s act was immoral). At this point, Sengoku immediately looks for Garp, fearing for the worst.
Garp, who has witnessed Ace’s painful death as well, is furious and is slowly walking towards Akainu, who is still trying to go through Jinbe’s strong defense. However, Sengoku jumped in and stopped Garp, pinned him down and not letting him go. Sengoku then manages to put some reasons into Garp, who was blinded by rage.
As Akainu is about to break through Jinbe’s defense, Marco (who has removed his handcuffs) and Vista jumped in and attacked Akainu with a combined attack. Akainu is again sent flying some meters away. Since they used haki, Akainu is injured but he brushed it off like nothing. As he is running towards them again, he sensed a presence behind him, and it is WB. WB (who is weakened) punched Akainu with his earthquake ability, hurting Akainu's head heavily in the process. Akainu, on the ground and recovering, senses another incoming attack and dodges it. He then counters attack, but a furious WB easily overwhelmed him and again throws him the ground with extreme violence. As WB is going for a finishing blow, Akainu manages to dodge it by shapeshifting his body and inflict another heavy attack on WB, leaving another hole on WB chest. However, WB grabs Akainu’s face and throws him violently on the ground. Then, WB immediately falls on one knee with his face down. Akainu is panting and manages to stand after a little struggle, thinking WB is done for, he walks slowly towards WB with confidence and stands in front of WB. The attacks of WB took a toll on Akainu, we see he is struggling a little to charge his next lava ability. Suddenly, WB grabs Akainu by the neck and lifts him. Akainu tries to burn the hand of WB that is holdinh him, so WB throws him in the air instead. WB charges his own attack in the meantime. As Akainu is about to hit the ground, WB launches his attack, which connected with Akainu at point blank. Akainu coughs a lot of blood again and his eyes are white. The attack is so devasting that it destroyed a large part of the MF building. Sengoku (who is still restraining Garp) is forced to watch in terror as WB still had this much devastating power.
Akainu falls next to WB, coughing blood but he is still conscious and again incapacitated. As he is falling in the earthquake’s crack made by the attack, he insulted WB one last time.
Sengoku has managed to talk some sense in Garp at this point. Sengoku reminds Garp of his marine duties. After this, Garp and Sengoku are standing next to each other for some moment. With Garp who seemed to have calm down, Sengoku's focus can return to WB, but he is still checking on Garp from time to time. However, Garp is no longer looking at Sengoku.
At this point, WB is at his limit, but suddenly the Blackbeard pirates appear. We have WB vs BB, but even in his heavily weakened state, WB easily subdues an overconfident BB by using his high weapon skills. BB is pinned down and took a direct earthquake to the face. But this is not enough to kill BB. As WB is going for another attack, he gets shot by a pistol used by BB. Then the BB pirates all attacked WB at the same time. After that, WB delivers his legendary final words to the world before dying.
Marines and WB pirates then witnessed BB do his trick. At this point, BB gets the DF of WB, to everyone surprises. Again, BB is overconfident and wants to fight. However, BB is highly inexperienced with the fruit. Even though he knows all the abilities, he is not able to deal as much damage as WB right now. At this point, Sengoku immediately jumped in and uses a shockwave on the entire BB pirates, knocking some out. As Sengoku and BB are clashing, Burgess (still conscious) tried to attack Sengoku but he is knocked down by Garp. Burgess is heavily injured by this, unable to move and Garp sent a clear message to the remaining BB pirates (who are still standing) to stay out of the fight of Sengoku and BB. Sengoku and Garp both boost the marines’ morale at this point to ready themselves for further fight. Sengoku vs BB fight continues.
As Jinbe is escaping with Luffy, suddenly Akainu erupts from the ground again. But Akainu is heavily injured ( his left arm is completely broken, he is covered in blood and coughing a bit of blood from time to time). But his resiliance is as intact as from the start if not stronger now, he intends to finish Luffy no matter what. Limping, Akainu is forced to use his ability to allow him to move faster. The remaining WB pirates (highly demoralized by the recent events) intervened but Akainu dispatches of them with his strong DF ability in no time. Marco arrives and blocks Akainu as Jinbe is escaping with Luffy, buying them some time, but the attacks of Akainu deal so much damage that Marco is unable to keep up, also Marco’s regen has reached his limit at this point after dealing with Kizaru. Marco is blown away. As Jinbe is running away, Akainu catches up to them and lands an attack that severely hurt Jinbe and hurt Luffy as well. As Jinbe is unable to move, Akainu is going for the kill but Crocodile intervened. Crocodile attacks Akainu and as Akainu is still recovering, Crocodile helps Luffy and Jinbe escaped for good.
As the fight continues between Sengoku and BB. Akainu is again going after Luffy after he has recovered. However, Coby jumped in front of Akainu and tried to stop the war, as at this point, it is pointless to continue fighting and it is just unnecessary casualties.
However, Akainu has none of this and tries to kill Coby, but Shanks intervened, saved Coby and stopped the war. Akainu at this point, is forced to just insult Shanks as he is too injured/weaken to fight another emperor. Kizaru and Aokiji exhausted are forced to watch Luffy escaped as they are briefly stopped by Shanks' commanders. The WB pirates are told to return to the New World by Shanks, BB pirates decide to retreat as it is too soon to fight the Redhair pirates. At this point, Sengoku declares that the War is over.
Sengoku and Garp, both retire as marine after the war. Sengoku recommends Aokiji as the next fleet admiral (but unfortunately, we all know Akainu will seize that position). Garp stays to train the next gen. marines. Shanks help in the proper burial of Ace and WB. At this point, the story proceeds as usual.
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