#ch549

[everybbpirate]

[everybbpirate]

[everybbpirate]

[everybbpirate]

[everybbpirate]

[opbackgrounds]

The previous page established this stairway as a tunnel of impenetrable blackness that now opens to the light as Ace ruminates on his past and the idea of true freedom, the sun of course being the ultimate expression of freedom in the series. The irony being that Ace is both literally and metaphorically a prisoner, weighed down by his own baggage and regrets

Contrast this to similar door/sun imagery during the escape of Impel Down, when they really do escape prison and find their freedom in the sea

[opbackgrounds]

I like what Oda does with Ace at the end of this chapter. I don't take the ridiculous number of steps in this corridor to be literal, but a symbolic representation of Ace's mindset as he walks towards his own doom

[opbackgrounds]

I like how that last sentence is said with such conviction that it spills out over the border of the panel. Say what you will about Buggy, but he's got charisma for days