Warning: contains spoilers for One Piece
The long-running manga series One Piece has had many emotional flashbacks over its hundreds of chapters, but its most heart-breaking flashback is still Nico Robin’s backstory. Flashbacks in One Piece can serve a variety of purposes. They flesh out a character’s motivation, reveal important pieces of history, or do both simultaneously. These flashbacks often also feature an emotional gut-punch or two, especially if they involve a main character and their backstory. With the snippets of Kaido’s history that have sprinkled throughout the manga’s latest chapters, it seems like the series may soon go into a flashback for the big villain of the arc. However, no matter how many more flashbacks appear in the series, none will ever reach the emotional heights that Robin’s flashback reached.
One Piece by Eiichiro Oda is a manga following Monkey D. Luffy as he attempts to become the pirate king. Along the way, he gathers an eclectic crew that becomes like a family. One of these crewmates is Nico Robin, the ship’s archaeologist. Her path to ing the crew was a bit more convoluted than for the other crew . Initially, she was introduced as an antagonist, the second in command of an evil organization. After that organization was taken down, she ed the crew until she attempted to leave during the Water 7 arc. This departure was largely caused by trauma from her backstory which was revealed in a heartbreaking flashback.
In that flashback, it was revealed that Robin grew up on the island of Ohara, a hub of archaeologists. After her mother left when she was young, Robin was ostracized and bullied by almost everyone in her life due to so they could claim Robin's high bounty. This led her to believe that she was a burden and that everyone she met would eventually betray her.
Other crew have also had pretty emotional flashbacks. From Brook’s old crew dying around him to Chopper accidentally poisoning his father figure, the of Luffy’s crew are no strangers to tragedy. What makes Robin’s backstory resonate more than the others, however, is how well it ties to the central themes of One Piece. At the core of the series is the deep relationships between the crew and how they all each other. The central tragedy of Robin’s backstory is that of a child not being able to find people who actually care about her. The parallels between these two themes deepen the tragedy of Robin's flashback and make it even more heartbreaking.
Given how well the series has handled flashbacks before, Kaido’s potential flashback is sure to be great. The same goes for any other flashbacks Oda has planned. However, due to how well Robin’s backstory resonates with the central themes of One Piece it will always remain the most heart-breaking flashback in the series.
