One Piece: Why Nico Robin Deserves Better

 Once again, I will be looking at characters that get the short end of the stick. This time, I'll focus on Nico Robin from One Piece, one of the best characters in the crew, who has gotten lost in the shuffle over the years.

Who Robin Is

Nico Robin was, at the time of her introduction, the least likely Straw Hat recruit. Most people who join the Straw Hats have all of the following, and I will use Sanji as an example.

1. A dream they can achieve by fighting alongside the Straw Hats. Sanji is searching for the legendary sea, All Blue.
2. A flashback arc establishing the character. Sanji's flashback about meeting Zeff was shown during the Baratie arc, although more details of his past weren't shown until Whole Cake Island.
3. A role they can play in the crew. Sanji plays the vitally important role of a cook, making nutritious food for the Straw Hats and putting his skills to good use at the climax of Whole Cake Island.

Now consider Robin, and how she's atypical of the Straw Hats in many ways.

1. Robin's dream wasn't revealed until just after she made her request to join the crew.
2. Robin's flashback arc didn't take place until Enies Lobby. In this regard, she's a bit like Nami, who also joined the crew as a temporary deal, seemingly betrayed them and solidified her loyalty after they showed how far they were willing to go for her.
3. At the time, the Straw Hats had no need for an archaeologist, but since they need a Poneglyph reader to decipher the Road Poneglyphs and find Laugh Tale, Robin may be one of the more important Straw Hats.

Pre-Timeskip

My analysis of Robin's importance to the story will focus on the role she plays in each arc after she joins the crew following their departure from Alabasta.

In Jaya, which serves as a prelude to Skypiea, Robin is the first to consider the existence of a sky island, as well as the one who points the crew to Montblanc Cricket. This may not seem like much, but not only is Jaya a short arc, but it gives Robin a chance to prove that she's a useful part of the Straw Hat crew.

In Skypiea, Robin has two important moments. The first is her fight with Yama, which is one of her only real one-on-one fights; Yama is a challenging opponent whom Robin can't defeat immediately by breaking his back, but she manages to win through clever use of her powers. The second is when she discovers a Poneglyph about the ancient weapon Poseidon, and sees that Gol D. Roger wrote on it. The latter is a surprising twist that has yet to be fully explained, although it's elaborated upon later.

The Davy Back Fight is a quasi-filler arc that has little impact on the storyline, but at the tail end of the arc, Marine Admiral Aokiji returns to Robin's life. Aokiji hands down a crushing defeat to the Straw Hats that makes it clear that he, and many other foes, are completely out of Luffy's league at the moment, and Luffy only survived because Aokiji let him. The event has a powerful impact on Luffy, Usopp and Robin.

Robin's character peaks during the Water 7 and Enies Lobby arcs. To sum it up briefly, her past is revealed, she moves from seeing her crews as mere ways to protect herself to being willing to sacrifice herself for the Straw Hats, and finally regains her will to live. Her emotional story arc is one of the reasons why some people, myself included, consider Enies Lobby to be one of the best parts of One Piece. She's the only Straw Hat who doesn't get a one-on-one fight against a CP9 member in that arc, but she fights alongside the crew to secure their escape and saves Luffy's life after he defeats Lucci.

Robin doesn't play much of a role in Thriller Bark, save for playing support in her and Chopper's fight with Hogback and Cindry. However, she undergoes a significant development in that she starts to refer to her crewmates by name, rather than their titles.

During the Sabaody Archipelago arc, Robin has a chance to meet with Silvers Rayleigh, Roger's first mate. She asks Rayleigh whether he found the true history, and listens to him when he says it might be better for her to see it for herself. This serves as an interesting contrast to Luffy. Unlike Luffy, who enjoys the quest for the One Piece and refuses to have it spoiled, Robin spent her entire life searching for the Rio Poneglyph, and nearly gave up hope. Because of this, she's willing to take any information she can get on it, but is wise enough to reconsider if it isn't the best idea.

During the battle with Kizaru, Sentoumaru, the Pacifistas and Kuma, Kuma sends Robin and all the other Straw Hats all over the world, resulting in Luffy being the only Straw Hat to appear for more than a few pages during the Amazon Lily, Impel Down and Marineford arcs. This is to be expected, but Robin's time with the Revolutionaries would have been interesting to see in more detail.

Post Timeskip

Unfortunately, the decline in Robin's importance begins in earnest at this point.

During the Fishman Island arc, most of the Straw Hats get pitted against a major member of the Fishman Pirates, and while they win their fights easily, they get to show off at least one of their new moves while finishing off their opponents. Robin gets to fight Hammond, a noticeably less significant opponent, and is the only one besides Nami who doesn't get to be part of the series of finishers. She gets to share the revelation that Shirahoshi is actually the ancient weapon Poseidon, but it's clear that she no longer has the same status as her male crewmates.

Robin also has a minimal role in Punk Hazard, mainly serving a supporting role alongside Chopper. In all fairness, though, other Straw Hats suffered similar declines in importance here, as this was one of the few arcs in which Sanji, one of the "monster trio" didn't get a major fight apart from a short and inconclusive battle with Vergo.

Dressrosa is probably the largest missed opportunity for Robin. On the one hand, she does make the somewhat surprising decision to insist that Doflamingo be brought to justice, and later shows comically exaggerated facial expressions for the first time (something I have mixed feelings about, since Robin's almost constantly unflappable nature was part of her charm). On the other hand, she once again plays a supporting role, and doesn't get a one-on-one fight unlike Luffy, Zoro, Usopp, Franky and even the secondary members of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet.

The Zou arc establishes Robin as more important than ever, since her ability to read Poneglyphs is necessary to decipher the Road Poneglyphs and find the way to Laugh Tale, the island at the end of the Grand Line.

Robin is completely absent from the Whole Cake Island arc, along with the other Straw Hats who played roles in the Dressrosa arc- Usopp, Franky and Zoro- to give the spotlight to Nami, Chopper, Brook and especially Sanji.

The Wano arc is still ongoing, but at this point, there's relatively little hope of Robin turning her fortunes around. Big Mom and Kaido hope to use her to decipher the Road Poneglyphs, but this turns her into more of a MacGuffin than a person.

The Importance Of Battles

You may notice that I'm often bringing up fights in the series as proof of Robin's declining importance and her character being pushed to the side.

When it comes to a character's importance, many characters are judged by how much they actively contribute to a story, which is why people seldom have a good opinion of characters who sit around and do nothing, like the damsel in distress. In One Piece, most problems are solved, at least partially, by defeating the villains who are responsible for causing trouble.

Nami is a good example of  a character whose primary role is outside of battle, and I could write a similar essay about Nami. Nami's main job is as a navigator, and since she's responsible for getting the crew from one island to another, the crew runs into trouble whenever she can't do it (like when she falls ill after Little Garden). However, with a few exceptions, she mainly performs this duty offscreen, and it's harder to appreciate her impact on the story. Similarly, while Robin can decode the Poneglyphs, other Straw Hats often end up being the ones to retrieve copies of those Poneglyphs, like Brook did on Whole Cake Island.

Somewhat counter-intuitively, battles can be important for character development, partly by virtue of placing the character in the spotlight and partly because they often force the character out of their comfort zone. For example, during Usopp's fight with Chu, his first one-on-one battle, he strongly considers playing dead so that Chu will leave him alone, but remembers that he went out to sea to fight alongside the others, and gains the motivation to stand up and defeat Chu. As of late, the series has moved away from giving many characters besides Luffy lengthy one-on-one fights, but Robin seems to have gotten the worst of it. Her last major fight was against Yama on Skypiea, whereas even Nami had better luck getting short one-on-one fights in the arcs since then. Giving Robin battles is a low priority for Oda, further hampering how much screentime and development she gets.

Conclusion

In any series that has as many recurring characters as One Piece does, it's natural for some characters to end up being neglected, but it's a shame that Robin has suffered this fate so acutely. Perhaps she may get her turn in the spotlight, but considering the precedent established since Enies Lobby, the quickening pace leaving less time for character focus and the growing cast resulting in many characters being crowded out, this is not terribly likely.