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Rob (The Amazing World of Gumball)
| Character | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Rob |
| Occupation: | Student at Elmore Jr. High (formerly), Villain |
| Relationships: | Gumball Watterson (archenemy, sometimes frenemy) |
| Fandom: | The Amazing World of Gumball |
| Other: | gadsgfasg |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Rob (aka Dr. Wrecker) is a major character and the main antagonist of the animated comedy The Amazing World of Gumball.
Canon
Rob is the arch-nemesis of Gumball Watterson, the show's main protagonist. He is voiced by Charles Philip ordinarily (from "The Pony" to "The Nemesis" and "The Disaster" onwards). As the alter-ego Dr. Wrecker, he is voiced by the late David Warner (from "The Nemesis" to "The Disaster"). In his human disguise from "The Inquisition," he is portrayed by Garrick Hagon.
The Amazing World of Gumball
Rob initially appears as a minor, nondescript background character at Elmore Jr. High (a tall, blue cyclops) without playing a significant role in the series. As a result, he is sent to the Void, a pocket dimension in the show made of TV static that eliminates and contains previously existing "mistakes" or unworkable entities from the show's reality. When he escaped precariously by clinging onto Mr. Small's van after the latter, Gumball, and Darwin entered the dimension to rescue Molly, he was disfigured into a glitching, polygonal form. Thereafter, he declares his intention to seek revenge on Gumball for leaving him behind and inadvertently causing his malformation and loss of identity; he also finds "a part to play in the world" in the absence of one prior by becoming the main villain.
Unfortunately for him, Rob initially proved comedically incompetent as a villain, with Gumball himself having to help him develop a more threatening and clichéd "evil" persona as "Dr. Wrecker" in "The Nemesis." Even after this transformation, Rob's villainous attempts continued to fall flat - in the same episode, he tried to flood all of Elmore by destroying the "Elmore Dam" control room, but in reality, he only "wrecked" a vending machine. In "The Bus," he improves a bit, having masterminded a scheme to ransom $1,000,000 from the police and blow up the witnesses, but again, he fails by accidentally running away with the explosive suitcase that he thought contained the money.
Rob's first real success as an antagonist came in "The Disaster," where he acquired a reality-altering remote (referred to as the Universal Remote) and systematically destroyed Gumball's relationships with his loved ones. Their confrontation ended with Rob throwing the remote into the Void, forcing Gumball to follow to fix the damage. Rob's intention is to seal Gumball in the dimension forever to redefine himself in the absence of the show's "anchor," though Gumball managed to use the remote to reset events by catching up to the remote and rewinding to the episode's beginning, leading to "The Rerun," which is a repeat of "The Disaster" but with a hindsighted Gumball.
The sequel episode backfired on Gumball initially - rather than his family's bond falling apart, his parents get turned into babies and his two siblings die due to the resulting time paradox. Still, Gumball manages to get the upper hand in the end, resulting in Rob getting ejected into the Void instead with the remote. Gumball now had a chance to fix everything, but feeling guilty, he instead ventured into the Void to save Rob. Though this briefly led to friendship between them, Rob ultimately rewound time again to fix everything (thereby undoing the timeline in which they reconciled and Gumball would remember) and destroyed the remote, citing it as "too dangerous."
In "The Ex," Gumball discovers that Rob has chosen Banana Joe as his new nemesis after Gumball saved his life, which again, Gumball does not remember. His reason is that Joe is "easier to hate." Gumball attempts to win back Rob's animosity through various romantic comedy-inspired schemes, including performing a song Rob despises. When Gumball tries befriending Rob instead, he inadvertently sabotages Rob's plans to kill Banana Joe. This prompts Rob to declare his intense hatred for Gumball, calling him the most insufferable, annoying, and selfish person ever - much to Gumball's joy. Despite this exchange, Rob's role as Gumball's true enemy effectively ends here despite them continuing to clash, mostly impersonally.
Their paths would cross again in "The Future" and "The Inquisition," but with different stakes. In these episodes, Rob works to protect Elmore from an unnamed threat (eventually revealed to be that the Void will destroy Elmore, discovered by Rob through the prophetic paintings of Banana Barbara and her cryptic warnings of "no future"), while Gumball, unaware of the bigger picture, repeatedly interferes with Rob's efforts. In the end, the Void begins to destroy the world, and Rob is seen falling into oblivion in the final scenes of "The Inquisition."
Fanon
Shipping
Gumrob is the slash ship between Gumball and Rob from The Amazing World of Gumball's fandom. It stands as a particularly beloved ship, ranking as the most popular non-canon pairing for both characters. The ship mainly gained traction in 2017 with "The Ex" and maintained its popularity through the 2019 series finale.
"The Ex" presents Gumball as seemingly unaware of his masochistic tendencies or desire for attention in his interactions with Rob, as he repeatedly tries to convince Rob to hate him again. The episode frames their interactions pseudo-romantically, with Rob claiming that he is "neme-seeing" someone else while apologizing to a tearful and heartbroken Gumball, and Gumball hesitating to go back out on the "hating scene," a clear play on "dating scene." The characterization in this episode has inspired numerous fan works examining the tension between the two of them.
The episode also inspired the idea of a love triangle involving Rob, Gumball, and Gumball's girlfriend Penny, as Gumball consistently ignores his girlfriend throughout to focus on Rob. Some creators envision a polyamorous arrangement between the three, while others depict scenarios where Penny supports Gumball's pursuit of Rob. Most works maintain the playful and satirical tone established in "The Ex."
In general, fan works tend to depict Rob as the "straight man" of the two due to his more pessimistic and trauma-rooted experiences, whereas Gumball's antics and often clueless behavior are maintained, this being relatively consistent with the characters' portrayals in the official series. The ship also appeals to fans interested in more dramatic and angsty themes. Rob's unique position as the sole bearer of memories from their major and complicated conflict in "The Disaster" and "The Rerun" has led to fan works dealing with themes of guilt and existential questions. The revelation in the series finale that Rob's actions were motivated by a desire to protect both Gumball and their world has inspired fix-it fanfiction featuring their relationship.
Links and resources
- Rob on the The Amazing World of Gumball Fandom.com Wiki
- Rob on the Villains Wiki (also at Fandom.com)
- Rob on the Fiction Miraheze.org Wiki
- Rob works at AO3
- #Rob tag on Tumblr