Nico Olvia

Nico Olvia (ニコ･オルビア, Niko Orubia) is Nico Robin's mother, an archaeologist 20 years ago.

Appearance
Nico Olvia resembled her daughter's current appearance in many ways: they shared almost identical facial and physical features, and had identical colored eyes (brown in the Manga and blue in the Anime). However, Olvia's hair was white instead of black, and also longer and curly, and in the anime she had a lighter skin tone. When she departed from Ohara in order to find the Poneglyphs, she had shorter hair, and wore a dress. When she returned from her prison, she sported a completely different attire, consisting of a fur-lined coat over a light blue T-shirt and green long pants. Around her waist, she had a belt decorated by many golden disk-like ornaments. A modest necklace with a thin rope and three little pearls on it circled her neck.

Personality
Nico Olvia was well aware of the World Government's hostility against Ohara, and was conscious that searching for the Poneglyphs might have been dangerous to her. Despite that, she set sail, willing to let the world know the true history and the events occurred during the Void Century, and endured the prisony without confessing, proving herself as a brave and determined woman. She was also very attached to her daughter, Robin, and to depart and leave Robin behind costed her much. She however didn't lost hope, and was willing to remain behind during the Tree of Knowledge's arson in order to save the books, while sending Robin away with Saul, in order to give her daughter a chance to live at the fullest and to discover and hand down to others the history.

Nico Olvia
She was the mother of Nico Robin, and was very fond of her daughter. However, her life work called her away, forcing her to leave Robin behind. She regretted never being there for Robin, but died proud of her for being an amazing, smart child, who could even decipher Poneglyphs.

Other
Olvia's husband died many years before the storyline began. The absence of him from Robin's flashback suggests he was dead before she was born, or when she was too young to remember him. Olvia's brother (who was married to a woman called Roji) and Olvia are not seen together interacting. Her brother accepted responsibility of Robin's care upon her departure.

Abilities and Powers
As a scholar from Ohara, Olvia had the skill to read Poneglyphs, thus being one of the few persons with the ability to discover the truth about the Void Century, and the exact locations of the ancient weapons. As an archaeologist, she had considerable knowledge of history.

She had proven herself as a determined woman: she withstood imprisonment at the hands of the World Government without confessing that she was from Ohara, and with the help of Saul was able to escape and return to her homeland. She also has great endurance, as she sustained a beating from two CP9 members and was still able to stand up and help her companions to move books from the Tree of Knowledge to the nearby lake, in order to conserve them.

She also had some skill in wielding a rifle: she managed to get a shot exactly on Spandine's coat without hurting him, just to intimidate him. Olvia was confident she would have hit him with the next shot.

History
After her husband died, she set out on a six year journey to research the Poneglyph along with 33 others. It was really sad for her to depart from Robin, but she had to: she left her in her brother Rojii's care. At the end of the 6th year of the expedition, her ship was caught by the Marines. Her colleagues fought back to defend Olvia but were all killed except her. From the moment of capture, her fate was determined. Olvia was interrogated by Jaguar D. Saul, and imprisoned. She was then set free by Saul who was disgusted by the World Government's Justice system and managed to get away with the Marine's ship. She was grateful to the Giant; however refused to forgive him for the actions he, or better, his men, committed, to stop the expeditions and kill her comrades.

Upon arriving at Ohara, Olvia went to the Tree of Knowledge library. She apologized to her colleagues for failing the expedition and putting the Wolrd Government further against Ohara, but they instead apologized to Olvia for sending her on such a dangerous journey, and remarked that the World Government had always been against the scholars, as they knew how to read Poneglyphs and as such, how to presumably come into possession of the Ancient Weapons. As she was warning them of the threat they were under, she heard that a World Government ship had docked on shore. She grabbed a rifle from a rack and ran, unaware that her daughter Robin was running past her going the opposite way.

She later reached Spandine, and shot in his jacket's sleeve to intimidate him. The CP9' leader explained to her that all of the Government battleships were there in order to destroy Ohara, as a warning for all those who searched for the Poneglyph's secret, and then ordered his subordinates to take her down. She was knocked out and arrested. She was then thrown before the faces of the incapacitated scholars, so as to force them to show their association with the woman and automatically prove their "guilt". After the truth was spoken to the World Government by Clover, Olvia was confronted by Robin as she was taken away and finally, after Robin's pleas, she admitted her relationship with her. As the Buster Call was about to begin, Spandine ordered that she be taken with them, but panicked after being almost directly hit by an explosion and ran off.

Nico Olvia was left behind and was finally re-united with her daughter. She hugged her and remarked that she was very proud of her. She then pleaded Saul to take Robin to safety and told Robin to continue to live, to hand down the history to others, and to live her life at the fullest. She was last seen with the other scholars in the Tree of Knowledge. As it burned down around them she thought that she didn't even leave her daughter with words said as a mother. After that the Tree fell and she along with the rest of the scholars were presumed to have perished as stated by Spandam.

Trivia

 * In the Japanese anime, she shares the same voice actor with Robin.
 * In a recent Japanese Fan Poll, Nico Olvia is currently ranked the 122nd most popular character in One Piece.

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Nico Olvia