it's so funny to me how ace has always consistently ranked among the top 10 most popular one piece characters on official polls from the very moment he first appeared. because yes, he eventually became an extremely important character to the story, but at first he just showed up for like 3 and a half pages on the alabasta arc where we barely got to know what his deal was and then immediately peaced out for hundreds of chapters, with only sparse reminders of his existence sprinkled throughout some of the following arcs. but everyone immediately fell in love with him just because he was luffy's hot older brother. like what more do you need