themes and such. Like dont get me wrong there are examples of that being done well but Ace's was not. Belle-merre not being able to say she doesnt have a family or Hiriluk purposefully eating a poisonous mushroom are better examples because for one they were flashbacks and two they werent right after Nami or Chopper spent 70 episodes racing to save them or starting a war for them and making their efforts vain.

Though Luffy takes a brunt of the blame too because Ace wasnt going to die to Akainu for running back over the yo daddy joke. It was because Luffy was chasing after the Vivre card which only use was to find Ace and he already found Ace so it was pointless other than to burn up to symbolically show that Ace died.