#ch574

I don't know if there's much else I can add to this that Oda didn't say himself in the SBS for Volume 61

I think it’s interesting that Oda ends the chapter on a panel of Garp. The last couple pages are interspersed with memories from various characters from over the course of Ace’s life. Garp is naturally the only person left from when he was born, and it’s a common storytelling technique to juxtapose life and death. He was the one who was present for both events.

I also think it really hammers home the tragedy of what could have been. Ace was born with the name Gol but died as a Portgas, as emphasized by the volume and chapter titles. Rouge herself dies in an act of loving sacrifice, and Ace is killed because of the burning hatred of the world. Garp saw and was in a position to shape the person Ace would grow into but chose to stick with the marines, leading a boy to grow up with a burden of self-loathing that would contribute in part to his death. He saw it all, could have helped, and instead did nothing. Garp loved Ace and weeps for his grandson while allowing himself to be held down—metaphorically shackled—by the same military power that had hunted him since before he was born.

I’ve had people argue that Garp doesn’t truly care for his family because of his choice to stay by the marines, and I think this is categorically untrue. But there are times where a feelings of love and affection aren’t enough to overcome harmful actions.

I recommend you go and reread this chapter in its entirety, because Oda does some fantastic and subtle character acting for both Luffy and Ace. There comes a point in Ace's final speech that Luffy can't bring himself to even look at Ace. He's too shell-shocked as he stares blankly into the distance

The big internal question that has been the focus of this war is whether Ace should or should not have been born,

This outburst is the most emotion we see out of Garp this war. Since visiting Ace in Impel Down we've seen little of his boisterous nature, and I think in addition to being sad, he was emotionally preparing himself for Ace to be executed. A flip was switched when he threw the fight with Luffy where he for the first time chose his family over the marines, and like the rest of us I think he expected Ace to be home free after being released from his cuffs.