User blog:Samium/Nico Robin, human in a world of characters (Essay)

Can someone answer this for me please?


 * *caution you may NOT like what you read * * *
 * *caution you may NOT like what you read * * *

I'm trying to be unbias but,

I have always found that Robin's backstory is the most compelling of all the Straw hats. It might be the only one that was beyond Oda's ability to do justice to, simply because it is pure drama a world that always has some comedy. This is a story about a girl who is delared a sinful living being and supposed procecuted by the world. That is freaking huge, certainly darker than any other subplot in the story. In the real world, North Korea actually persecutes people this way, by jailing relatives of criminals.

The first half of the Water 7 arc is highly compelling. Robin is presented as a complex, yet sympathetic character. Alas, it feels so annoying and miscalculated that when we get to Enies Lobby, Oda chooses to reduce her to a generic damsel in distress, in the hands of a one dimentional pychopath. He gives us her tragic flashback and asks us to completely forget that she is actually a wanted criminal who may deserve 'some' of whats coming to her. Spandam who starts of as (kind of) a character in Franky's story, becomes reduced to a mere shoulder devil, to remind the audience of what they already know, that Robin is consiered a threat by her very existece. If the story elects to make her a victum of someone so irrideamible she deserves a reassuming 'night in shining armor',  Luffy is not it. She is an adult, and he's a kid. He doesn't have a clue where she is coming from, and unlike with Nami, or Usopp or the others, we never see a bond between the two of them that actually illuminates their friendship, and makes the rescue feel meaningful. The Strawhats simply are not a sincere enough substitute for the mother that Robin lost.

As a side note, Franky is a more appropriate savior for Robin, since he is an adult, and he understands her, and they come from a similar place.

In fact, it is arguable that Robin's transition to becoming a Straw hat is the least organic of anyone on Luffy's crew. She never feels entirely compable with him. If you think about it, she is the most 'normal' of them all. The other 8 have some quirk or comedic weakness that contributes to their personality, but not Robin. she has no faults. She is virtuous, intelligent, and solomn.

I've been trying to figure out, Why people seem to think it works or are willing to accept how the story can be so condecending of what may be its strongest most realistic character. In what universe could we accept Robin as the most inferior being?

I'm starting to think it might be because she is a human in a universe that is 99% characters. Everybody in the One Piece world, regardless of how smart or dumb they are, has someing abnormal about them. They have something that makes them suited for a comedy/drama whereas Robin is a character well suited for a drama, but not a comedy. If Robin is the most normal character, is that the reason why Oda thinks she is vulnerable enough that his audience will be satisfied if a comic character like Luffy is the one to save her from a gruesome and partially undeserved death.

It is arguable that Robin is way more compatible to be a Revolutionary. The scene where the revolutionaries find her, is far more moving that the stiff and manipulated theatrics from the balcony of Enies Lobby. The Revolutionaries, after all are the only organization on Earth who know where she is coming from. She is the 'light of their revolution'. Is it not more appropriate then that her place is with them?

My question then is this, Does anyone else think that Robin deserves a 'slightly' more intelligent, refined and Miyazaki-like version of the One Piece story?