Over the span of 1,100+ manga chapters and roughly as many anime episodes, the saga of One Piece has introduced shonen fans to over one thousand named characters, some of whom are passing scene filler and others of whom are major heroes and antagonists. Even if some of those passing villains don’t last that long, they still make a strong impression on fans, such as the CP9 agent Rob Lucci, the star of the Water 7 saga.

At the time of his introduction, Rob Lucci was one of Luffy’s most formidable enemies yet, despite not being one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea or an aspiring god like Enel. Rob Lucci also represented everything Luffy fought against, namely the World Government’s strict control and authority over the four seas. One Piece fans aren’t expected to love Rob Lucci, but it’s still fun to get to know such characters in greater depth and see how they became the people they are today.

Rob Lucci’s Origins in One Piece

Rob Lucci’s origins in One Piece are somewhat obscure, making it clear that as a character, it matters far more what Rob Lucci is like in the present than where he came from. Rob is mainly defined by his adult self and his commitments. Still, Rob Lucci’s vague origins make it clear what kind of man he would grow up to be, and his origins say a thing or two about how the World Government operates. Rob Lucci was born on an unknown island on the Grand Line about 30 years ago, and in his boyhood, at age 6, Rob Lucci was training alongside some other candidates to get into CP9, a part of Cipher Pol. From a young age, Rob Lucci wanted to be a part of something bigger than himself, and he started pursuing the World Government’s vision of justice with zeal and brutal confidence.

By age 13, Rob Lucci was already performing missions for CP9, including an assignment to an unspecified island, where a vicious pirate crew had taken the king’s royal army hostage. The pirate captain held 500 of the king’s troops as a ransom, demanding to become the new king, and Rob Lucci proved at once what it means to be even greater than justice. Rather than begin hostage negotiations or try to assassinate the pirate captain, Rob Lucci killed all 500 hostages himself, a merciless yet effective way to rob the pirate captain of that leverage. Then, Rob slaughtered the pirate crew as well and took the pirate’s head as proof, though Rob Lucci suffered some gunshots in the process, scarring his back. All that was an early indicator of just how gifted in battle Rob Lucci promised to be. It’s definitely a shonen-style flashback worthy of a cold-blooded shonen villain like Rob Lucci.

After that, as a grown man, Rob Lucci ended up a member of CP9, along with other notable members including Kaku, Kalifa, and Blueno, among others. They were sent to the Venice-inspired city of Water 7 on a mission to find the plans for the Pluton, an Ancient Weapon. The World Government could not have any outside parties access such bleuprints, so CP9’s agents, with Rob Lucci in the lead, went undercover to take those plans back from Iceburg. Rob and his allies assumed various civilian roles at the city, with Rob himself finding work at the Galley-La shipbuilding company, accepting a position as a treenail specialist. He became a respected employee there, but it was all just a trick, and he was still at it when the Straw Hat Pirates crew arrived to find a team to repair their ship, the beloved Going Merry.

Rob Lucci’s Powers and Abilities in One Piece

As CP9’s strongest agent of all time and a major member of the even more elite CP0, Rob Lucci is an enormously gifted warrior who could likely stand up to and even defeat various Warlords of the Sea. He combines not just one, but several distinct fighting styles in One Piece, making him a flexible fighter with many options. He is not too committed to a single ability or weapon, meaning Rob Lucci doesn’t have a single obvious weak point. That made him even more challenging than Luffy’s previous opponents, with water disrupting Sir Crocodile’s sand and Luffy’s rubber body being immune to Enel’s lightning attacks.

Rob Lucci is a practitioner of the unusual fighting style called the Six Powers, known in the original Japanese as rokushiki. This fighting style made its debut when Rob Lucci and his fellow CP9 agents started using it in the Water 7 saga, creating an alternative fighting style to Devil Fruits and swords, so fans might say it was Haki before Haki, in a way. By mastering Six Powers, Rob has proven that he has a few hundred times the strength of a normal man, even more so than his allies, like Kaku and Blueno. Rob can use all six main forms of this ability with casual ease, along with the secret seventh technique, Rokuogan. With that latter technique, Rob Lucci can extend both fists forward and release a devastating shockwave that demolishes the enemy from the inside with shockwaves, which even works on Luffy’s rubbery body. It’s one of several examples of the Gum-Gum Fruit’s rubbery defenses coming up short in battle.

Rob Lucci can use the Six Powers to stand up to any Devil Fruit user, but if need be, he can answer any Devil Fruit with his own. He has eaten the Cat-Cat Fruit’s leopard model, turning him into a fast-moving, hard-hitting feline that shows how potent the supposedly weak Zoan class of Devil Fruits can be. Between his leopard form and the Six Powers, Rob is an overwhelming opponent in close-quarters combat, making him a true equal to other martial artists like Monkey D. Luffy. More recently, Rob Lucci has awakened his Devil Fruit’s powers, as evidenced by the black smoke that comes off his body. Now he is even stronger than ever to keep challenging the Straw Hats here in the post-time skip era at Egghead, though not even Rob is strong enough to take on Luffy the Emperor.

Aside from his Devil Fruit and Six Powers, Rob Lucci can use Haki, including Color of Arms Haki and Color of Observation Haki. He made brief use of those two types during the ongoing battle at Future Island, including hardening his arms with Haki to deal with Roronoa Zoro’s sword strikes, and his Color of Observation Haki informed him that the Five Elders, the World Government’s living weapons, had just arrived at Egghead to take control of the situation themselves. However, despite Rob Lucci’s authority and fame, there is no sign that he can use Color of the Supreme King Haki to knock out his numerous enemies.

Rob Lucci Embodies the Worst of the World Government

Plenty of One Piece antagonists embody the values and methods of the World Government, including the Five Elders who supposedly run the whole thing, not to mention the three Admirals, various Vice-Admirals, and of course, the members of agencies like CP9 and CP0. Characters like Admiral Akainu and Spandam show just how far they will go to throw around their weight and enforce their brutal vision of justice, simply because they are drunk on their own power. They only care about their own gain and defending the World Government that gave them so much power and authority, though they might also have personal motives, such as Spandam seeking to impress his father.

Rob Lucci, meanwhile, is a chilling example of how ruthless and uncaring the World Government and its agencies are. In fact, there is no sign that Rob Lucci genuinely cares about anyone or anything on a personal level, with the possible exception of his bird Hattori. Rob Lucci appears cold and empty on the inside, using and killing anyone whom he must to get the job done when ordered to. Fans might say he is the ultimate tool, and he seems perfectly content to be a living weapon and little more. There is no Rob Lucci without his duty to the World Government, showing how dehumanizing this governing entity can be.

And it’s not just that the WG uses Rob as a deadly tool — it appears that the opposite is also true, with this governing entity attracting cold, vicious people like Rob Lucci, who are eager to serve as the heartless killers they evidently are. Thus, Rob Lucci is an example of how the World Government exists not for the sake of humanity or lofty idealism, but for the sake of power and control, dressing it all up as “justice.” When people like Rob Lucci say that killing and destruction are justice, then it’s clear that this ruling body exists purely for its own sake, and that is why people like Monkey D. Dragon will risk their lives to tear it all down.