 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything One Piece. And today it's time to get into something that has personally frustrated me for almost, I guess my entire career as a One Piece fan, which dates a fair way back almost 14 years now. And that issue is how entirely underutilized one of our primary protagonists is, being Niko Robin. And I know that this is a common and somewhat divisive concern, but I do truly believe that Robin has been purposely moved into the background for an astounding portion of the series, and in this video I'm even going to show you how. But before we really get into that, I want to take us all back to a much simpler time. Because Robin, as she is portrayed today, was not always this character. I think that we as One Piece fans have come to accept her role in the story as it is today, whether we like it or not. But Robin used to be so, so much more than the Straw Hat Archaeologist we know and still love in the post-times give era. I mean to start out, she had probably one of the most fantastic journeys to becoming a member of the Straw Hats, having been introduced in the series as a high-ranking villain as part of Baroque Works, and during that time she was a splendid antagonistic presence throughout the entirety of the alabaster saga, and was actually instrumental in Crocodile's downfall by wavesaving Luffy, and constantly undermining Crocodile in general. She was also wonderfully mysterious and driven, like as much as we did not know what her goal was, Robin's crusade to achieve it was palpable, and it made her a very striking character. So much so that when Vivi was baited and switched right in front of our eyes, this was a very exciting development within the series. A former villain with the second highest bounty amongst the entire crew, and certainly the craziest devil fruit ability that the Straw Hats had to offer. What a time to be alive. Plus, unlike every other crew member thus far, Robin possessed superior worldly knowledge, not only in her understanding of the ancient language, but she was also more mature in general, and her awareness of the world dwarfed the teenagers we've been following up until this point. It felt like the Straw Hats received a huge upgrade when Robin joined their ranks in every respect, be it knowledge, strength, or utility, and it's really weird to look back on that because that's not how I see her in the post-times give era. Robin is still incredibly valuable, like I honestly believe that in terms of threats to the world government, she should be considered second only to Luffy, because it is Robin that is going to make him the pirate king by allowing him to follow the road poneglyphs, and her bounty does not reflect that in any way, shape, or form. The world government should be beyond desperate to capture her. In any case, I'm in danger of rambling now, but the point is that despite her theoretical value, I feel that she doesn't have the same aura about her as in the pre-times skip period I mentioned. I no longer see Robin as a heavy hitter of the crew in terms of power, and her sheer wealth of knowledge, well it's undeniably there, but it only exceptionally rarely gets put into use. In fact, unless it's a situation involving a poneglyph, Robin's skills are simply neglected in the story. And I think this is really sad because going back to the pre-times skip briefly, we spent an entire saga establishing just how absurdly important Robin is, not only as a technical asset, but also as a valued crew member in general. What the whole water seven saga presented to us was quite possibly the most difficult journey any straw hat member had undergone to become part of the crew. She was ripped away from the only people she had ever been able to consider friends and taken on a brutally long campaign by the end of which she was finally able to admit that she actually wants to live and begged the straw hats to take her back, which is one of the most iconic moments in the entire series. This was prime Robin, which to be fair is to be expected in a saga focusing on her, but after any slobby, Robin embarked on a very rapid decline to the background. I mean I'd say that her involvement in Thriller Bark was quite solid, she felt like a great and active crew member there, but that really was an arc that got the entire crew to shine as a cohesive group. After that though, you could pretty much say goodbye to the Robin we once knew. This powerful worldly asset to the crew was just gone because unless there was a poneglyph involved, her skills were just never fully invoked again. And you can divide this negligence into two areas being combat and knowledge. And I'm going to start with combat as well as the horrific revelation that Robin's last proper fight in the series was during the skypeer arc in chapter 265. And at the time of this recording, that would be 700 chapters ago. That's an awfully long time to go without some good old combative focus. And the argument I always get in response to this is Grand Line Review, one piece is a complex series with a billion different characters to focus on and not everyone needs to have a fight in order to be an asset to the story. And to be fair, those people are technically correct. Fights are not everything. However, let's be real. In a battle manga, they make up an extensive amount of content, even in a series as rich in other elements as One Piece. And if a character is not involved in combat, then they will naturally be left out of said content. And that is a big contributing factor as to why a lot of the time for the past decade, it can feel like Robin does not get her due focus because she is actively being kept out of the battle aspect of One Piece. I mean, not entirely, she is still given a token showcase here and there, like facing off against the New Fishman Pirates or the Centaurs on Poncazid or any number of other meaningless fodder. But as for the last time she fought a character of actual relevance, well yeah, it was Yama on Skypeer. And this is where another argument will come up if it hasn't already, which is the general belief that Robin is too weak for combat in the New World and is better served as a background character as a result. And this is blatantly false. Robin is still a powerhouse within the crew because no, she couldn't stand up to the Monster Shrio, nobody really can, which is why they have that distinction. But everyone else, Robin has just as good a chance in a fight as any of them. In fact, with the frankly overpowered ways in which she can use her devil fruit to create gigantic limbs, full body clones and even fly, I'd go so far as to wager that she could defeat any other straw hat, excluding Jinbei actually, but anyone else, well, Robin has a pretty damn fine chance against. And a lot of people there might disagree with me, but I think those people forget just how powerful Robin is. She just doesn't get to show it off because reasons are betray reasons. Our betray reasons we aren't privy to. Basically, Oda just doesn't want to use her that way. And it's really disappointing, especially in situations like the climax of Dressrosa where Robin was put in a potential combat scenario with Diamante on Flower Hill. So my dream for how this would have gone would have been a straight up 1v1 Robin versus Diamante. Or even Robin and Kuros teaming up against Diamante. But instead, what happened? Robin's sole duty during this conflict was simply to protect Rebecca. Protect Rebecca. What an incredibly boring use of a fascinating and versatile character. And narratively, I do get it. In this situation, the traumatic oomph was very much waited on the idea of Kuros taking revenge for Diamante having killed Scarlet. So this was one of those typical moments in a Shonen series where a man had to rise to his duty in the kind of crap. Which obviously means that Robin can't really be involved at all. Lest it impede on the sheer manliness of this battle and take something away from Kuros as a character. Despite the fact that Robin could have very easily used her powers to both attack Diamante and protect Rebecca if we really had to go down that route. But sure. I mean really if anything Robin was a hard counter to Diamante. Because his flag Devil Fruit was great at dodging in general mobility. But there is no dodging Robin. And this whole thing really could have been settled without putting anybody, including Rebecca, in unnecessary danger. But the saddest part is that in terms of combat, this really is Robin's highlight of the New World era. Otherwise, her Devil Fruit powers get used as more of a Swiss Army Knife kind of tool. A nice utility for most given situations. That generally involves some sort of stealth or saving people by forming a net. And you know what? That's cool. I love that Robin has this extremely versatile ability. But to think that she is not powerful enough to engage New World opponents in straight up combat is ridiculous. The reason why she doesn't get to fight is because Oda doesn't want her to fight. That's it. Hence wasted potential in my opinion. But combat isn't everything. And I did mention that Robin also gets neglected when it comes to knowledge. Unlike her physical abilities, there is no denying that Robin is the mental champion of the crew. Absorbing every shred of information she comes across. And after having spent two whole years with the Revolutionary Army, you'd figure that that reservoir is pretty limitless by now. But the thing is that Robin never gets a chance to put any of her worldly gifts into practice either. In fact, for the most part, Robin spends her situations with the straw hats just sitting quietly in the background. And I also get why we can't focus too much on what Robin knows because it would dispel a significant part of the mystery behind One Piece. To note a specific example, one of the biggest gripes I have with how Sabo is used in the series is that Robin would have known he was alive. She spent two years with Sabo and the Revolutionary Army after Sabo regained his memories. And after rejoining the straw hats, she never once said anything to Luffy about his sworn brother since childhood actually being alive. And the reason why is purely narrative. It simply was not the right storytelling decision to insert that information there. Rather, it was much more dramatic to have Sabo reveal himself on Dressrosa. But that sums up the general problem with Robin's knowledge. At any given time, she knows so much more than we as the audience are allowed to know about this world and its figures. Which means that for dramatic purpose, she needs to remain largely silent. And I guess that's cool in theory, but in practice, what we have is a protagonist who is neither allowed to say nor do anything of impact. She can't tell us about the world unless it's the right time for us to know certain things. And she can't properly fight because well, there's actually there's no good reason other than Oda doesn't want it to happen. So at this point, Robin's primary purpose in the story is to read Ponyglyphs. She's the equivalent of playing Pokemon and keeping that one member in your party who you never use in battle, but they have a necessary attack like surf or cut that pops up every now and then. And whenever that skill isn't needed, which is 99% of the game, you just ignore them. And I hate that because I love Robin. She is a character with so much potential in every area that makes a character great in this series. But you know, actually the one concession I will give is that New World Robin is exceptional in the art of comedy. Oda really has given himself license to use post timeskip Robin in some very hilarious ways. And I think that that is something that was definitely missing from pre timeskip Robin and a great improvement that makes her feel like a really solid part of the crew because she now has her own shenanigans just like they do. But it has come at the cost of an awesome character that we used to know or at least got a great taste of during alabaster, skypeer, water seven and even thriller bar. Robin could have been so much more than what we see today, but sadly I don't think that she ever will be. And you know, to be fair again, Robin isn't the only straw hat who falls into this category. I think there are arguments to be made that Nami and Chopper have also been given a bit of a rough deal in the post timeskip story, but those are discussions for another time. For now, I know that many people may disagree with me, but I just feel like Robin has become a very tertiary feature of One Piece and I would love her to have even a bit more prominence. And hey, maybe that'll come during Wano, but with the insane amount of characters featured in that arc already, I'm not so sure about that. And given how the entirety of the New World era thus far has gone, I really have very little hope for Robin going forward. But that pretty much does it for why I feel Robin is underutilized within the modern era of One Piece. 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But I'd say that Ace might have been a good pick, maybe? The thing is that he doesn't have that undeniable charisma that Luffy or Roger have. You know what actually, Whitebeard probably would have been a fantastic king if he so chose that path. But even better than that, I think a guy like Kozuki Oden strikes me as very capable of taking the Pirate King crown. I mean provided that he didn't already have commitments in Do you think that the anime will ruin the Wano arc with its pacing and fillers? So yes and no. The thing about Wano is that we've already had some really fantastic episodes which were filled to the brim with filler but it was good filler, like enjoyable and added a lot to the worldbuilding experience. However we've also seen far too many episodes that take on Toei's old style of filler and after a string of those episodes I just gave up reviewing the anime. So I think that Wano is going to be an awfully long roller coaster of really great episodes and then really not so great episodes. Can Wapol eat arse? I would be disappointed if he couldn't.