#ch569

Thematically, it's really important that Luffy's the one to unleash the haki blast that saves Ace. In other points in the manga we see that Whitebeard does in fact have Conqueror's Haki. The majority of this chapter has been spent building him up as the ultimate badass, spouting one-liners like, "I am Whitebeard" and making statements of guiding his sons towards a brighter future, but at the end of the day he can't. He's too old, too sick, and too injured to accomplish his desires.

This is interesting to me, because after Ace is (initially) rescued, Whitebeard makes it clear that he's known all along that this would be his last hurrah. There's been a lot of symbolism pointing to the end of the Whitebeard Pirates, such as the burning of the Moby Dick, and really with how old Whitebeard is, his end was always coming sooner rather than later.

Sengoku seems to think that Ace was being groomed as his successor. What truth there is in this is up for debate, but Ace was always talked about as a guy with the potential to be a great pirate. I've joked once or twice about how underwhelming Ace's power has been shown to be in comparison to his reputation, but the guy's only twenty years old. He was three years into his pirating career when he caught up to Blackbeard. Considering Luffy ends up taking two years off to dedicate strictly to haki training I think what we see of Ace is about right for how far along he was in his journey.

But what Whitebeard is acknowledging here includes much more than just the Whitebeard PIrates. Whitebeard is an enormous political power, and his loss affects so much more than just his immediate crew and allies. Would Ace have been up to the task of protecting the empire that Whitebeard built? Who knows.

Please take a moment to appreciate how pristine Whitebeard's coat (and more importantly his jolly roger) is compared to how absolutely mangled his front is

Logically, some of these wounds should have gone all the way through, staining and tattering the material on the back, but when Whitebeard dies the narration makes special mention that his back--his pride--didn't suffer a single wound.