Ever since I started watching One Piece years and years ago, I always thought that Nico Robin was a character that was bigger than itself. She is intrinsically tied to the world of One Piece and its narrative in a way that I feel is very overlooked.
* World-building and advancing the storyline: Robin was introduced before Chopper. She pretty much was part of the entire journey of One Piece even as an antagonist. Most importantly, the character allowed for the expansion of the world of OP. She is tied to the Poneglyphs ( more important now than ever) and was directly involved in the birth of the entire Enies Lobby saga. ( I'm strictly speaking from a narrative-tool perspective). Chopper and Franky's backstories were revealed while hers was conveniently delayed more than a 100 episode after the joined the team .
* Backstory: Not only one of the longest among the straw hats, but one that is directly connected to the bigger world of One Piece ( whereas the others sans Sanji were self-contained in a sense). It involved the scholars of Ohara, the government ( whether admirals of the CP division), a character from the D family and a massacre that had a weight on the world of One Piece and the way history was looked at .
* Abilities and danger level: Enies Lobby was literally destroyed because of Robin. She then joined the revolutionary army and is confirmed to be more or less the key to Raftel ( As far as we know, she is the only confirmed alive character to be able to read and UNDERSTAND the poneglyphs ). For that, I never understood why her bounty was low. Others point out that the regular people should not be aware of the real reason why she is dangerous to the government but it only reinforces my belief that is is extremely central.
This is all without talking about her devil fruit and fighting abilities. Nonetheless, I wanted to tackle how fascinating Nico Robin is to me from a narrative perspective. I don't know if I'm the only one who scrutinizes the events this way. She is currently sidelined but that doesn't invalidate her importance to the overall story.
* World-building and advancing the storyline: Robin was introduced before Chopper. She pretty much was part of the entire journey of One Piece even as an antagonist. Most importantly, the character allowed for the expansion of the world of OP. She is tied to the Poneglyphs ( more important now than ever) and was directly involved in the birth of the entire Enies Lobby saga. ( I'm strictly speaking from a narrative-tool perspective). Chopper and Franky's backstories were revealed while hers was conveniently delayed more than a 100 episode after the joined the team .
* Backstory: Not only one of the longest among the straw hats, but one that is directly connected to the bigger world of One Piece ( whereas the others sans Sanji were self-contained in a sense). It involved the scholars of Ohara, the government ( whether admirals of the CP division), a character from the D family and a massacre that had a weight on the world of One Piece and the way history was looked at .
* Abilities and danger level: Enies Lobby was literally destroyed because of Robin. She then joined the revolutionary army and is confirmed to be more or less the key to Raftel ( As far as we know, she is the only confirmed alive character to be able to read and UNDERSTAND the poneglyphs ). For that, I never understood why her bounty was low. Others point out that the regular people should not be aware of the real reason why she is dangerous to the government but it only reinforces my belief that is is extremely central.
This is all without talking about her devil fruit and fighting abilities. Nonetheless, I wanted to tackle how fascinating Nico Robin is to me from a narrative perspective. I don't know if I'm the only one who scrutinizes the events this way. She is currently sidelined but that doesn't invalidate her importance to the overall story.
