One Piece: Rayleigh's Reason for Not Saving Ace Revealed!

What was the reason why Silvers Rayleigh didn't save Ace during his execution by the Navy? 

The death of Portgas D. Ace was one of the most phenomenal and touching deaths for One Piece fans. 

As shown in the story, Ace died while protecting Luffy from Akainu's attack.

Previously, he was shown fighting against Blackbeard after betraying his own crew by killing them. 

Unfortunately, he lost to Blackbeard who was too strong for Ace. 

Blackbeard then handed Ace over to the Navy to be executed. 

This made fans wonder why Silvers Rayleigh did not save Ace from his execution.

Various Actions of Rayleigh

Silvers Rayleigh first appeared in the Sabaody arc. 

At that time, his character was shown as a ship painter for pirates who were going to the Mermaid Island. 

However, it was later revealed that Rayleigh was not an ordinary ship painter. 

He was a former crew member of Gol D. Roger's pirates before retiring.

Roger himself decided to disband his crew after he managed to reach Laugh Tale and Rayleigh himself decided to retire as a pirate and hide on Sabaody Island. 

During this time, Rayleigh mostly kept a low profile and stayed under the radar of the Navy and World Government until Luffy and other Worst Generation members appeared on Sabaody Island.

Interestingly, since his appearance, Rayleigh has been shown to be more involved in the story. 

For example, he stopped Kizaru from pursuing and hurting Luffy. 

Rayleigh even swam to the Rusukaina Island to train Luffy's powerful and constantly evolving Haki abilities.

The last time Rayleigh appeared in the story was when he went to Amazon Lily to help protect the island from the Navy's attack. 

However, unexpectedly, Rayleigh also helped to protect Amazon Lily from Blackbeard's attack who was after Hancock's Devil Fruit. 

Luckily, Blackbeard's reputation at that time made him decide to leave.

Rayleigh and Roger's relationship

So, what was Rayleigh and Gol D. Roger's relationship really like? 

In Rayleigh's post-timeskip flashback, it is shown that Roger and Rayleigh first met at the port in the Loguetown area. 

At that time, Roger greeted Rayleigh first and invited him to sail with the stolen ship used by Rayleigh.

Although at first Rayleigh refused, in the end they both went on an adventure together to Laugh Tale. 

Many things happened along the way to Laugh Tale, such as when they met Kozuki Oden or when they fought and got to know Whitebeard. 

After Oden finally joined them, they made it to Laugh Tale.

Unfortunately, the journey was felt too fast where Roger himself believed that there was a figure in the future who would continue his great mission. 

Talking about Rayleigh and Roger's relationship, you could say their relationship is very close. 

The reason is, Rayleigh is Roger's vice-captain, which is similar to the relationship between Zoro and Luffy.

Both of them have mutual trust in each other which makes them an unbeatable pair of captain and vice-captain. 

In fact, Rayleigh also knew about Roger's plan to have a son to continue his mission. 

Including he also knows about the figure of Ace. 

However, if Rayleigh later knew Ace, who was the son of his captain, why didn't he save him during his execution at Marineford?

Why Rayleigh Didn't Save Ace

Ace's death is indeed one of the saddest deaths in the story of One Piece. 

However, the fans themselves believe that this death might have been avoided. 

One of them is with Rayleigh who helped prevent or stop Ace's execution. 

Why didn't Rayleigh save Ace then?

Indeed, so far there is no definitive answer related to the question. 

However, there are several possible reasons why Rayleigh didn't save Ace. 

First, Rayleigh felt that it was not his battle. As was done by Kozuki Oden where he refused offers of help from Rayleigh as well as Shanks and Buggy to defeat Kaido and restore Wano's power, this is also what Rayleigh did.

At that time, Oden thought that it wasn't their fight and it wasn't their responsibility either. 

Rayleigh also probably thought so where saving Ace was not his responsibility. 

Why? 

This is related to another possibility, namely Rayleigh appreciated the strength of Whitebeard. 

Rayleigh realized that Ace was part of Whitebeard's crew.

That means Ace has become the "child" of Whitebeard. Rayleigh clearly knew how strong Whitebeard was, which maybe this was the reason he didn't come to save Ace. 

Rayleigh realized that the power possessed by Whitebeard was considered sufficient and capable of saving Ace from execution. 

This was different from what was shown when he helped protect Amazon Lily.

Because there was no longer a powerful force protecting the inhabitants of the island from naval attacks, Rayleigh decided to help Hancock. 

Another possibility was that he felt that now was not the time for him to fight. 

As mentioned above, Rayleigh decided to retire as a pirate and went into hiding on the island of Sabaody.

If he is later involved in the battle, it means that he seems to be showing himself to be still active and again becoming a threat which is something that Rayleigh doesn't want. 

Hence, he decided to stay silent and just watch what happened. 

The last possibility is that Rayleigh believes in the power of the new generation.

What he saw from Luffy and the Straw Hat crew as well as the Worst Generation could open Rayleigh's confidence that the new generations also have tremendous power. 

And what he saw at Marineford at that time was a new generation ready to make a difference. 

Because of that, he decided to entrust Ace's rescue efforts to them.