Sorry if you have answered a question like this before but in your opinion do you think the Enies Lobby arc was good character building wise for Robin or was it just more of Oda's typical "damsel in distress" nonsense?
Ahh this is a complicated subject. To start off, objectively the arc was all about saving a helpless woman. The arc even started out with Franky being held prisoner as well, but he was quickly able to free himself and right away started fighting back and defeated one of the CP9 members. Robin did one thing of breaking Spandamâs spine at the end, which was hardly a fight since Spandam is weak as hell, and it didnât even have any long term consequences for him.Â
Iâve been told before âBut all the the Straw Hats were ârescuedâ! Itâs not like it just happens to the women. Itâs a gender equal thing and youâre complaining about nothing.â Thatâs not really the case though, and itâs all about how things are done.Â
Zoro: He was tied to a stake and scheduled to be executed and Luffy did have to free him. Nonetheless, he made a voluntary choice to be placed in that situation in order to protect a little girl, and immediately upon being freed started fighting and was the one who cut down the villain of the arc.Â
Usopp: 100% fought to protect his home. He had a very hard time with it, got beat up a lot and couldnât have done it without Zoro and Luffyâs help, but he still fought and put his life on the line and protected Kaya and his village. He wasnât at all put in a position of âOh poor Usopp he needs to be saved.âÂ
Sanji: Same as Usopp. The Baratie would have been lost if Luffy wasnât there, but at the same time he fought and put his life on the line to defend what was important to him.Â
Chopper: Same situation again. Luffy defeated Wapol, but Chopper still fought and was a protector and defeated Wapolâs two (combined) right hand men all by himself.Â
Franky: As I said, Franky wasnât really even rescued. He escaped from his chains by himself and fought back and helped save the day and protect Robin.Â
Brook: This time it was Zoro who defeated the enemy Brook couldnât defeat, and got Brookâs shadow back. Still, Brook put up a valiant fight first, and even before that had saved Robin and Franky from the big zombie spider and afterwards joined the fight against Oz.Â
So really, the only two who were put in any kind of âhelp save meâ position were Zoro and Brook, and those were only brief moments that quickly passedânot entire huge arcs dedicated to them being helpless and needing to be saved. All the other boys were presented as needing help (from Luffy), but were still put in positions of strength and agency and took a strong prominent stand in protecting what they cared about with their fists and were never made to be helpless victims against their will. Those are very different positions than the ones that Nami and Robin were placed in during Arlong Park and Enies Lobby, where they were absolutely helpless, could not fight for themselves in any way that made a difference, and pleaded to be saved while crying their eyes out.Â
What makes this such a complex and frustrating subject for me is that I still want Nami and Robin during those arcs to be respected and appreciated. Because even though Nami didnât rip out any of Arlongâs officersâ spines, and Robin didnât solo one of the CP9 assassins, and even though they cried, they still displayed tremendous character depth and inner strength. I know full well how important Robin is to a lot of fans because they look at her during Enies Lobby, look how how she was prepared to resign herself to torture and death because she didnât believe her life had value, that her friends were better off without her, and the fact that she overcame and and found her strength to live with the horrors of her past. Robin WAS amazing during Enies Lobby, and I will absolutely never dismiss her and tell people that they shouldnât appreciate that arc.Â
Iâve talked about this with Vivi (here and here) and Conis (here) too. And heck, Iâve talked about it with Hancock too. Those all characters who also showed their strength not with their fists, but with their character and their actions that had significance far beyond simply beating someone up. It is important to respect this stuff too, which unfortunately a lot of fans donât. A lot of fans fall into this âunless youâre beating up super strong enemies youâre useless, and if you cry then youâre weak and patheticâ way of thinking about these women and it is gross as hell. Real people cry, and real people canât go around beating the shit out of people to solve their problems. Real people need to be told that it is okay to cry (both men and women), and that you can be strong and stand up for yourself and others in other ways than with your fists. That even if youâre not physically strong you can still be amazing and make a difference and that you deserve respect.Â
Thatâs why all this is so complicated. Because I respect and very much appreciate the development and character that Robin showed during Enies Lobby, but at the same time it is still a part of a larger trend of making women into damsels. Itâs a trend that has only gotten worse over time, where at this point we have characters like Rebecca who were ultimately stripped off all agency and strength of character so that they were left with absolutely nothing for me to appreciate about them. And as a general matter I am extremely sick of stories about brave men saving helpless women. It is one of the most overtold stories in all of human history, and we get it already. More incarnations of that exact same story contribute nothing to the world while maintaining shitty cultural gender dynamics that place women in a secondary position in society