He wanted to become King of the Pirates. He was wild, young, and reckless. Burned up the whole Grand Line it seemed like, as Captain of the Spade Pirates, his own crew. Even the marines saw his talent and tried to get him to join them.
Like many a young fool, Ace thought the way to becoming Pirate King was through killing my Pops and claiming his title as the Strongest Man in the World. Well, our ally Jinbei wasn't about to let that happen, so they fought for 5 days straight, and neither of them refused to stop or rest. On the fifth day, Pops wanted to know what kind of a psycho could be that determined to take his head. So we went down to meet him. And Ace gave it his best, but he figured out pretty quickly that he was beat, so he told his crew to run for it and tried to throw himself at Pops alone.
Even back then my old man saw something special in the kid, and asked Ace to join. Ace refused of course and passed out, so we beat up his crew because they didn't run away, just tried to get Ace back and beat us up. So we took them with us. When he came to on our ship Thatch went to talk to him -- Thatch was usually the best with new guys, eh? It didn't really calm Ace down though, after that he tried to kill Pops about a couple hundred more different ways. Axes, knives, fire, you name it. We had betting pools on when and how he'd strike next. But Pops always just waited Ace out, to see if he'd ever channel that wildfire to something to make him happy instead, eh?
Don't tell him I said this, but he was a pretty cute kid. He was so fucking stubborn. He'd refuse to join meals sometimes, just sit out on deck like a lost puppy, so I was always bringing him chowder or whatever. When he finally agreed to join, and then had the guts to go off and get the same tattoo as Pops, a big huge one across his back -- that was easily one of the happiest days of my life.
[Locked 50%] All canon and yes, this is why their relationship is soooo screwy
Like many a young fool, Ace thought the way to becoming Pirate King was through killing my Pops and claiming his title as the Strongest Man in the World. Well, our ally Jinbei wasn't about to let that happen, so they fought for 5 days straight, and neither of them refused to stop or rest. On the fifth day, Pops wanted to know what kind of a psycho could be that determined to take his head. So we went down to meet him. And Ace gave it his best, but he figured out pretty quickly that he was beat, so he told his crew to run for it and tried to throw himself at Pops alone.
Even back then my old man saw something special in the kid, and asked Ace to join. Ace refused of course and passed out, so we beat up his crew because they didn't run away, just tried to get Ace back and beat us up. So we took them with us. When he came to on our ship Thatch went to talk to him -- Thatch was usually the best with new guys, eh? It didn't really calm Ace down though, after that he tried to kill Pops about a couple hundred more different ways. Axes, knives, fire, you name it. We had betting pools on when and how he'd strike next. But Pops always just waited Ace out, to see if he'd ever channel that wildfire to something to make him happy instead, eh?
Don't tell him I said this, but he was a pretty cute kid. He was so fucking stubborn. He'd refuse to join meals sometimes, just sit out on deck like a lost puppy, so I was always bringing him chowder or whatever. When he finally agreed to join, and then had the guts to go off and get the same tattoo as Pops, a big huge one across his back -- that was easily one of the happiest days of my life.