The Robas: A Retrospective

[mad_tea_party]

There is no shortage of favorite anime. But the one that will always be special to me is Yu-gi-oh. Why? Well, first a foremost. If I hadn't got interested in it, I may well have never met Fred. This was my gateway anime, and the whole reason I joined PEAC back in 2004. Of course that club is now disbanded, but the friendships lasted. I'm still friends with many of those people. And a few others that were inadvertedly brought into my life due to the Yu gi oh Fandom itself.

But secondly, it introduced me to Espa Roba and his brothers. Mind you, I will always use the names I gave the brothers. Yu gi Oh didn't name them. And I can honestly say I don't know if the manga version was any different. But for me...that single two part story arc changed my life in a way I never expected. For you see, even though I had written a mild Kingdom Hearts story, I hadn't written for characters who had no backstory. All of my Anime fics had characters with back stories in canon. The Robas had a vague one.

I loved Espa Roba despite the fact he was trying to cheat in a duel by my then favorite character, Joey. But it got me thinking when he finally came clean and explained his motivation. Joey's empathy towards him would later build into the canon I created.

So. Fast forward to almost a year later. I had already created Victoria Ishtar, and had her set up with the Ishtar family which included Marik, Odion (Rishid), and Ishizu. When I decided to write for the Robas, it was early on. I believe it was in my second fic that she meets Mokuba Kaiba and finds out that the Robas are family friends of his, and not only that, they had names! Her reaction, being a fangirl from the "Real world" was my exact reaction. Or what I pictured it would be if I was in her shoes. I guess she figured that Espa's appearance was a one off and no longer mattered. In their world, however, he and his family are more prominent and not part of something that just helps a story move.

One thing I did for the Robas was give them a definitive origin. All Espa said to Joey was that they were from the circus and that they had left the show. I actually misremembered this particular detail at one time or something because when I started writing regularly for the boys, I stated it was a carnival, not a circus. By the time I watched ESP Duelist again, I had written probably 2 or 3 fics talking about the headcanon I’d built, so I didn’t bother to change. In my head, I decided that Espa wouldn’t say “carnival” at first because carnies are known to have a bad reputation for being cheats (ironic, right? Considering how we first meet the boys?)

So let me talk about the names. The first to get a name was the one who was "wearing the headset" who I dubbed the middle brother after some consideration. Christien Thomas Roba. He was partially named after Christian from Clueless, and partially my brother, Chris. The spelling came from the fact that I did not want it to be “Christian”. Or maybe I say it spelled that way somewhere.. hmm. I’m not entirely sure. Thomas by the way is my brother Daniel’s middle name. At the time of Yu gi oh, he and I were very close, and we even watched and played Yu gi oh (the trade card game) together.

Jonathan Scott Roba was named after Fred’s younger brother. The middle name just sounded good so I went with it. I made Jonathan Espa’s second in command. He was more mature than his younger brothers but he definitely (in earlier fics when he’s younger) could get into trouble right along with them!

Andrew Lee Roba was named after a friend of Jonathan’s but it was an accident. LOL. Andrew, if you’re familiar with the Robas at all , you know that there is a brother with a large lollipop. That’s Andrerw.
And finally, Espa Jakob. This is not our Espa Roba. This is his baby brother. You will find him in a harness on Jonathan’s back. And in a later episode in a blink and you’ll miss it moment, on Espa’s. When I first started working on these guys, I started with calling him Little E. Sometime later, it was changed to EJ. The lore is that Espa himself named the baby.

In case you’re wondering? Yes, I even gave Espa a middle name. I gave him the middle of name of Lawerence.
Remember when I mentioned that Joey played a much bigger part than the canon dictated? Well, when I wrote my first (and horrendous) Roba fic, it was meant to be the beginning of a series of detective fics for the Robas. But since I hated how it came out, it became more of a one shot.

In that fic, it is revealed that not only are the Robas actually psychic, but that Joey, Rex, and by proxy, Weevil are a sort of their own group. Sure, Joey still hung with Yugi, Tea, and Tristan, but he also found friendship with the others. (Who by the way also had their own sisters. Rex had two, Meghan and Monica. Meghan later became their cousin Griffon’s girlfriend and wife. Monica considered herself Andrew’s best friend as they were the same age. Weevil had Kendra. Kendra was originally written to have cerebral palsy like me, but I later retconned it for personal reasons. Jonathan and Kendra started out as soccer rivals but became friends later when Jonathan was left to help Espa run the carnival. They ended up engaged much later) Joey had one, but I really didn’t write much for her. I just didn’t want to leave him out.

But the present day Robas aren’t the only ones I created a more solid backstory for. By the time I was done with this, they had a family, a background, and even their parents got a prequel fic. So let’s talk about the older generation a minute (or two…read this as probably 2 or 3 paragraphs.)
Espa’s mother and father, Julius and Marcia Roba were carnies. The Robas were well known for psychic abilities. In fact, in Sykesville, they were the main draw for the carnival outside of the usual carnival food and games and things. But the Robas lives, like many carnies, weren’t so sunny behind the scenes. Wayne Roba, the patriarch had manipulated (read as: kidnapped) his wife Lucy, and in turn, had convinced Julius this was way the line was to be continued. Thus Julius abducted Marcia.

But Julius wasn’t the only child of the Wayne and Lucy. They also had triplets: Spencer, Cale and Aaron. Spencer could be seen as Julius’ right hand, while Cale and Aaron were quiet support. Each of them also had psychic ability, but none as strong as Julius. Aaron would later surpass him, something Julius never forgave (but that’s for a later entry).
When Marcia was brought to the carnival, the triplets became a buffer between her and Julius which resulted in the three of them becoming her best friends. Her relationship with Aaron was so strong , it made Julius extremely jealous.
The two would later become the “Main Attraction” (the inspiration behind the fic that goes into all this) as the first arial act to include a sort of tandem partnership. Their relationship becomes even stronger which would lead to the fall out that took the Triplets out of their brother and Marcia’s lives when they got older, only ever being there for the birth of one of their nephews, Espa.

The carnival didn’t just have the Robas though. There was also Wyatt and Wade Munroe, fraternal twins with deadly powerful psychic ability. If the Robas had any rivals or thought about it much these two would be it. They are Julius age, and Wyatt completely becomes smitten with Marcia,, While Wade becomes somewhat protective of her, even warning her that the Robas were dangerous, lumping the triplets in with Julius, despite the fact the triplets had done nothing but protect her. This continues right up until the Roba family is forced out of the carnival under suspicious circumstances that are later revealed in a completely different decade.

The past of the Robas became important because I didn’t have a headcanon until I wrote “The Main Attraction” and that didn’t happen until after I had written Marcia’s return into the canon in “No Vacancy”, and later Wyatt Munroe would become Victoria’s tormentor which would eventually lead to the introduction of Spencer, Cale, and Aaron to their nephews.

This headcanon is one that I’ve been proud of for some time. It combined my love of OCs (the main Robas weren’t technically OCs, but their uncles, their parents, and the Munroe twins were) with my love (later) of Phantom of the Opera. By the way? That musical becomes so important to the younger Robas and Victoria that it is the basis for Christien and Victoria’s wedding. I have no regrets there. And none in general.

All of this is to say that there is a very real possibility I will be going back to the Robas and attempting to write for them the way they deserved back then. Back then, it was me putting ideas on paper with no real concern for continuity (even within the fics themselves there were inconsistencies I never caught and am determined to fix them).

While I have written many fics since creating this narrative for the “side” characters of the Robas, this headcanon has stuck with me for many many years, and I will be so grateful for that anime itself for that, among the ones I mentioned at the beginning.