Marineford Arc

This twenty-second canon arc, known in some translations as the Paramount War or War of the Best, gathers nearly every major power in the world at the Marine headquarters for a single, world-shaking conflict. Whitebeard arrives to rescue his captured commander Ace, scheduled for public execution, and Luffy fights his way in alongside a horde of Impel Down escapees. With three Admirals, the Warlords, a hundred thousand Marines, and the Whitebeard alliance all converging, the arc stands as arguably the biggest turning point in the early series, delivering the first deaths of major characters and resetting the balance of power among pirates, the World Government, and the Emperors.

Before the fighting begins, Sengoku stuns the world by announcing that Ace is the son of the late Pirate King Gol D. Roger, a secret his mother Portgas D. Rouge died protecting by carrying him for twenty months. Whitebeard surfaces in the bay with his fleet and tremor powers, and the war erupts as Admiral Aokiji freezes the sea and the two sides collide. The Warlords, division commanders, and Admirals trade devastating blows, and the giant Little Oars Jr. dies trying to reach the scaffold. Luffy and the prison breakers crash down into the plaza, and Luffy declares before Whitebeard that he will save Ace and become Pirate King himself.

The Marines spring a trap, raising iron walls and unleashing an army of Pacifista, while Sengoku manipulates the captain Squard into stabbing Whitebeard out of misplaced hatred for Roger. Whitebeard forgives him and rallies his forces. Luffy is repeatedly battered by the Admirals but presses on, unconsciously unleashing a massive burst of Conqueror's Haki that flattens the executioners. With help from Crocodile, Mr. 3, Inazuma, and Whitebeard's crew, Luffy reaches the platform, knocks aside his own grandfather Garp, and frees Ace just as the Marines fire. Ace and Luffy fight side by side until Admiral Akainu insults Whitebeard, baiting Ace into a fatal confrontation. When Akainu turns on the exhausted Luffy, Ace throws himself in the path of the magma fist and is killed, dying in his brother's arms after thanking everyone for loving him.

Whitebeard, enraged and dying, delivers his final captain's orders, demolishes much of the base, and proclaims to the world that One Piece is real before the newly arrived Blackbeard Pirates gang up and kill him. Blackbeard then steals the Gura Gura no Mi's tremor powers from the corpse. As Akainu hunts the comatose Luffy, Trafalgar Law's submarine spirits him away, and Koby's desperate plea for the killing to stop is answered by the sudden arrival of Shanks, who halts the conflict and ends the Summit War.

The war reshapes the world order. Whitebeard's death, the resignations of Jinbe and Blackbeard from the Warlords, and the revocation of Moria's title collapse the equilibrium among the Three Great Powers, while Blackbeard becomes the first person to wield two Devil Fruits and declares his own era. Luffy's collapse into a coma carries directly into the Post-War Arc, and Ace's dying mention of Sabo plants a thread later revived in the Dressrosa Arc. The loss of Whitebeard's protection exposes many islands, including Fish-Man Island, to attack, and Ace's Mera Mera no Mi resurfaces later as bait used by Doflamingo. The fallout cements the arc as the hinge between the first and second halves of the series.