One Piece’s most tragic character, Nico Robin is an essential Straw Hat Pirate and friend of Luffy. From her childhood on Ohara to her desperate life on the run, Robin has been through more than most. Despite her hardships though, she persists through life to bring Luffy closer to becoming Pirate King. So, who is Nico Robin, and why is she so important to the story of One Piece?
Warning! This article contains spoilers for One Piece through the current chapter 1091. If not caught up, the manga is available online from MangaPlus and Viz. So, catch up before reading on!
Who is Nico Robin?
One of the youngest to ever earn a bounty, Nico Robin is the archeologist of the Straw Hat Pirates. She’s one of the most despised women alive by the World Government, who hold her in contempt for her research on the Void Century. She’s at first a distrustful person, mostly keeping to herself instead of engaging in Straw Hat shenanigans. Despite her more closed-off nature then, she still shows a grim sense of humor that often throws her crewmates off due to how dark she gets.
After the events of Enies Lobby Robin undergoes a change, becoming much more open with the others. She still has an incredibly dark sense of humor, but that’s natural thanks to the amount of trauma she survives as a kid. She cares deeply for the family she makes with the Straw Hat Pirates, and over time becomes a loyal part of making Luffy into the Pirate King.
Demon Child of Ohara
The reason Robin earns her bounty so early on in life is her survival of the Buster Call on Ohara. Once a thriving island of scholarly pursuits, the World Government found out that Ohara was studying the Void Century. Every researcher and historian there was executed on the spot, the library was set fire to, and everyone on the island was left for dead. The Navy rains hell down on the island from surrounding ships, erasing it and all its inhabitants from existence, except for one- Nico Robin.
Just a young girl when she lived on the island, Robin was an outcast from most of her village thanks to her Devil Fruit powers. Her mother was a researcher for the Ohara scholars, and Robin finds a home in the tree they work from, full of books and knowledge. Before the scholars realize it, Robin knows everything they’ve been researching about the Void Century. When she survives the Buster Call thanks to Kuzan, it becomes her life mission to find out what the Void Century is.
Does Nico Robin Have Powers?
Yes, Nico Robin ate the Flower-Flower Fruit as a child. This Paramecia-type Devil Fruit allows her to bloom body parts from any surface she chooses, creating hands or legs in addition to her own. Robin develops her powers to allow multiple blooms, allowing her to create giant fields of hands to restrain enemies or even form wings of hands. Later she develops her powers and learns to create large versions of her hands and feet, which she uses to stomp or slap enemies.
Robin is constantly evolving her Devil Fruit powers, and recently shows the ability to imbue her blooms with Armament Haki. She’s even able to make complete clones of herself through her power, which can act independently of Robin. These will stick around for quite a while and have a good range too, able to go some distance from Robin’s real body. Her most recent ability upgrade was the Demonos Fleurs, which grows wings and fangs from her body which she covers in Armament Haki. Resembling a demon, she hunts down enemies in an even more powerful state with flight ability.
Ms. All-Sunday of Baroque Works
Nico Robin’s first introduction to the world of One Piece is as the number two of Baroque Works. Ms. All-Sunday is a mysterious woman, often wearing a cowboy hat and standing by observing instead of actively taking part. She’s a strange character who helps the Straw Hats along their journey to Alabasta, even though it seems against her best interests. Even after she wants to die after Crocodile’s betrayal in Alabasta, Luffy saves her because he knows she’s not all bad. This incident piques Robin’s curiosity, and she invites herself into the Straw Hat Pirates by hiding on the Merry Go when they leave.
The reactions from the other crew when Robin joins are amazing. Zoro is the only one who’s hesitant about her, meanwhile, Luffy just accepts it. Nami is fine once Robin hands her some treasure she stole, and Usopp is convinced thanks to Luffy and Chopper making stupid gags with Robin’s powers. Sanji meanwhile was a goner from the beginning, bewitched by Robin’s beauty. Everyone except Zoro comes around to her immediately, but he’s still wary until he learns her entire truth at Enies Lobby.
The Enies Lobby Incident
Though Robin accompanies the Straw Hats through Skypiea and takes part in the Davy Back Fight, she doesn’t join until now. The Enies Lobby Incident is arguably where the real story of One Piece kicks into gear along with Luffy, and Robin is the spark of it all. When Cipher Pol 9 appears to take her into custody, threatening to kill the Straw Hats if she doesn’t, Robin immediately complies. Despite the danger, Luffy and the crew chase her down along with the Franky Family and Galley-La Company builders.
The effort of her friends to save her convinces Robin that there is a place for her. She exclaims that she wants to live, and Luffy declares war on the World Government to prove he’ll do anything to save her. Robin is free from not only the World Government now, but also from her past torment as a survivor of Ohara. She knows now that she has a family, and that they’ll protect her until their last breath.
Robin’s Role In the Straw Hat Pirates
While it’s not a usual part of a pirate crew, Robin is the Straw Hat Archeologist. It’s surprisingly one of the most important roles, as Robin is the only one capable of reading the ancient Poneglyphs. These giant stones hold carvings in an ancient language, lost to most alive today, but Robin knows the language from her time with the Ohara Scholars. She’s able to read Poneglyphs and decipher information about the Void Century, plus navigate the Road Poneglyphs to Laughtale.
Other than this, she fills the role of one of the Straw Hat adult trio. In this group full of chaotic idiots, Robin is essential to keeping some sense of order. Usually, she prefers to watch the chaos go down though, and often will play on the gullibility of other Straw Hats like Franky or Chopper. She gets along well with everyone though, and is especially close with Nami, Franky, and Chopper.
What is Robin’s Dream?
The thing Robin wants most in the world is to find out the truth of the Void Century. She’s been studying since she was a child on Ohara, and knows the truth lies at the end of the Grand Line. There’s an answer to what happened eight hundred years ago, and it lines up with her other newfound goal of making Luffy king of the pirates. She helps them find their way to Laughtale, under the protection of Luffy and the other Straw Hats as she fights to discover the truth.
Much of Robin’s dream lies in seeking justice for her fellow Ohara villagers and scholars. She knows the Void Century is why they were all destroyed, and wants to know just what about it is so damning that the World Government eliminates knowledge. It’s obviously something bad, but Robin hopes if she can find out what happened, she can stop the World Government from doing the same to other countries. Robin not only wants to learn about the true history, but to save the lives of others in the process.
Robin’s Two-Year Time Skip
When the Straw Hats are split up at Sabaody Archipelago, Robin gets the worst sentence of all. She’s flung far to the Tequila Wolf Bridge in East Blue, a World Government construction project. The bridge has been under construction for over seven hundred years, with its true purpose is unknown. Robin works here as a slave for some time, building parts of the bridge before the Revolutionary Army leads a raid on the work camps. Robin is free, and stays with the Revolutionaries for the remainder of the two-year time skip. She trains under Dragon, and learns Fishman Karate from Hack while she’s there.
By the time Robin finishes out the time skip, she’s stronger than ever before. The Fishman Karate abilities combined with her Flower-Flower Fruit make her more of a threat than the World Government could ever have feared. Now, with the knowledge from her time with the Revolutionaries, she’s even better prepared to take on the World Government with the Straw Hat Pirates.
Relationships of Nico Robin
Robin’s mother Nico Olivia was one of the victims of Ohara along with most of the other residents. Robin was also friends with Jaguar D Saul, but it’s unsure if she knows he survived the Buster Call on Ohara. She’s certainly close with all the Straw Hat Pirates, but Robin also has ties with the Revolutionaries like Sabo and Koala, whom she calls friends. Though she doesn’t speak of him much, Robin says she spent some time alongside Dragon as well, which is more than Luffy ever has.
Robin’s Future
Robin may be in for a big surprise in the manga soon, as the Straw Hats are on the way to Elbaph! The home of the giants and base of the Red-Hair Pirates is also where Jaguar D Saul is currently. Robin believes that he’s dead after the Buster Call on Ohara, but he was actually saved by Dragon not long after. They also save the books from Ohara’s library, so there’s probably quite a bit of information for Robin to go through.
Her journey in One Piece is far from over, as the Demon Child of Ohara has become a mighty pirate. From an outlaw on the run as a kid, Nico Robin has evolved into a dangerous assassin and further into a kind-hearted pirate under Straw Hat Luffy. The Straw Hats head into the final saga of One Piece, with Robin finally meeting up with Vegapunk who shares her interests in the Void Century. With not much longer in the series, Nico Robin is close to discovering the truth she’s been chasing her entire life!
