Ace of Hearts

Ace of Hearts is the het ship between Minako Aino and Ace Saijou from the Sailor Moon fandom.

Canon
After vanquishing the enemy who distributed all the Rainbow Chocolates that made everyone fat, Minako is upset that she got fat from real calories and ingredients. Then, coming from the sky, diet candies and flyers rain on everyone. Looking up, Minako sees a mysterious person, the one who showered the goods from above, and immediately falls in love with him. She thinks that with him being so tall and stylish, his face must be handsome too.

Later, Minako sees Ace on TV. It turns out he's the star of a new show. In an interview, Ace says that he feels any woman has it in her to be beautiful, and he is happy when their feminine beauty comes out. Minako oogles over him, and reads into how to bring out her femininity.

Minako then visits a public recording session for Ace's TV show. She manages to get on stage, but the enemy catches wind that she is actually Sailor V and attacks her. She transforms and goes to use her Cresent Beam, but she forgot to charge her compact and can't attack. Then, Ace comes in and saves her by killing the enemy with his Delicious Four-Card-Shot. Sailor V catches one of the cards, the Ace of Hearts, and upon seeing Ace, he runs away.

On orders from her boss, Minako tries out for auditions of the show that Ace is starring in. She manages to win the audition. Ace congratulates her, and gifts her a dahlia, her birth flower. He tells her in floriography it means fickle, but he wants her to only think about Ace instead of flitting around.

During filming of one scene, Minako's character catches Ace stealing a gem. He tells her it is a pearl called the Drop of Venus, which formed when a drop of foam separated during the goddess Venus's creation. He asks if she, Princess Venus, remembers that, to Minako's surprise. She worries that Ace may know her true identity, and chases after him after filming.

She tells him she wants to share a secret with him. Ace then buys Minako a 24-karat gold ring, to which she asks why she gave it to her, and put it on her left ring finger. Ace says it's because he loves her, and kisses her. Ace asks Minako if she likes him, which she says she does, but Ace says she's lying. Minako contradicts him, that he's the most important to her, but that makes her think about all her past loves, and that even though being Sailor V has taken time from finding a boyfriend, she really enjoys being Sailor V. She tells Ace that this time she's serious that she loves him, but he merely flicks her forehead, tells her she's still a child, and walks away.

Lin Lin, who was watching their whole interaction, gets jealous and tears apart Minako's dressing room. Minako gets angry and transforms into a Chinese pirate costume, making Lin Lin realize that she is Sailor V. Minako runs after Lin Lin and bumps into Ace. Since Lin Lin was headed the same way as him, she wonders if Ace could really be the enemy. A pot gets knocked off a shelf, so Minako pushes Ace out of the way, and lands on top of him.

Ace asks if she's Minako, startling her. He says he knows because he loves her, and he knows everything about her. He asks her to keep protecting him like she's doing right now. She says she will, but she remembers that she's made such a promise before. Ace pulls Minako in for a kiss, and Minako realizes that this isn't her true love either and reels away.

Lin Lin gets angry for pushing Ace away and forces her to transform in Sailor V. Lin Lin binds her with an attack, but Ace slices it away with his cards. Minako uses a super powerful attack, destroying Lin Lin, but setting the building on fire as well. While trying to escape the building, she suddenly remembers her time as Sailor Venus on the Moon during the Silver Millennium.

Sailor Venus makes it out of the building to see Ace, standing on a cliff. He tells her to start the TV show's climactic scene, but Venus just asks who Ace is, and how he knew she was born on Venus. He introduces himself as Adonis, someone who loves Sailor Venus from afar, and the one she should be with. Ace says that back then, he thought that if fate had moved just a bit differently, they could have become lovers. But now, he is a servant of the Dark Kingdom, and Sailor Venus is his enemy. He blows Minako away and prepares to attack her, but Minako stops him with her Crescent Beam. He falls off the edge, and Venus grabs onto his hand. After being attacked, he begins to fade away, as he tells Venus her love fortune. She is shown the ace of hearts, and told that her love will never be granted. Her fate is to battle on. Ace completely dissipates, and Sailor Venus decides to search for her comrades.

Moments

 * Vol.10:
 * Minako doodles a picture of Ace instead of studying.
 * Ace comforts Sailor V that she still has her whole life ahead of her even though she's lost her following.

Quotes
"Sailor V, I know... ...that you've lost your following, but... ...don't let that get you down! Your whole life is still ahead of you!"

- Phantom Ace to Sailor V, Vol.10

"For you to protect me like this... ...it's like a dream. Please... protect me from now on too."

- Ace to Minako after telling her he knows she's Sailor V, Vol.15

"It makes me so happy that we can be lovers like this. I love you, Minako."

- Ace to Minako, Vol.15

"But I believed in you! You always, always came to my rescue, didn't you!? Ace!?"

- Sailor Venus to Ace after he attacks her, Vol.16

"Is it my fate to have the man I love... ...murdered by my very own hands?"

- Sailor Venus to Ace after hitting him with Crescent Beam, Vol.16

Fanon
This ship isn't as popular as other Minako ships because Ace only appears in the Sailor V manga. It is also overlooked because Ace may be considered just another boy Minako was interested in for a short time, and not having any more meaning than that. However, most agree that Ace was a critical part in Minako's character development and discovering her true identity.

Some believe she shouldn't be in a romantic relationship with him because she realized that she had a duty to protect her princess rather than find romantic love. It is also sometimes criticized because Ace ended up being part of the enemy, someone Minako was fighting against. Ace seemed to play with Minako's feelings a little, and at first it wasn't easy to tell if he was being serious about loving her. The ship still has lots of positive reception, as even though the two were enemies, they both loved each other. Some think about the ship in a scenario where there aren't the complications of being enemies nor the presence of the Dark Kingdom.

The ship name, Ace of Hearts, comes from Ace's name and Minako's element of love, which is often represented by a heart. It is the one card Sailor V was able to catch after Ace used his attack to save her. It also refers to Ace's final love fortune to Sailor Venus, where she was shown that card. As a result, the Ace of Hearts became symbolic for the two.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

DEVIANTART

FAN SITES
 * Ace of Hearts Fansite

Trivia

 * Both were born on Venus.
 * Natsuna Sakurada thinks Sailor V and Phantom Ace are very alike.