@Kuroneko:
Well you might know that Robin is running against a character that no one will care after a few volumes later right. Besides Marguerite's only interesting quirk was 'the golden balls' thingy.
This is One Piece. Even the minorest of characters are often fondly remembered if you mention them. Gaimon, Mr. "Stuck in a box" was Oda's favorite character. At least within the first 4 years or so of the series. And kaku still leads in Japanese favorite polls, ranking in top 10.
Margaret ALSO has a snake, an interesting design, always tells the truth?,(opposite of Ussop) and shes the first person on the island that got along with Luffy, that he liked enough to unleash his Haki for when she was threatened, ran around with him while he was trying to have a few minutes of peace and quiet, and taught him that arrows coud be imbued with Haki. Obviously Boa has one upped her in importance, but as far as screen time, Margaret had more than any other new character on Amazon Lily and for a couple months straight people kept arguing that she was clearly the head bet to join the crew.
Plus, its Oda. you never know what the hell he'll do with even seemingly minor characters. That drunk Kokoro ended up being the first mermaid in the series and playing a huge role in Water 7. Margaret just might join the crew when Boa assigns her to keep an eye on Luffy. (Not going to happen, IMO.) To say she'll be forgotten or that she has only one interesting feature is silly.
All that said, yes, obviously Robin is officially a main character, but if at the start of Alabasta I'd said "Yeah, Crocadile's secretary… she's in a popularity contest with Vivi. Puh. Forget about Mrs. All Sunday, Vivi is clearly the lasting important character staying in the story. Mrs. All Sunday will be forgotten in a few months, her only interesting feature is her wierd devil fruit." Well, that just would have been wrong, wouldn't it?
Its a popularity contest, not a "whose had more screentime contest", because well, Luffy would win that easily.
And as noted in this case, its entirely been Tigerlilly's amusing campaigns that have swayed me, I was totally neutral on this one and was going to vote Robin till I say those.
And Richie vs. Sengoku was terrible, but that is just me.
Richie vs. Sengoku was two minor, fairly goofy characters, (one is a lion, another had a pet goat and a bird on his head) most people assummed initially that Sengoku was going to win it easily, which then lead to incredulous reactions of "Richie is actually keeping up? It had the wildest, most outlandish campaigns, both positive and negative, lots of creativity and fun, went for 722 posts (nearly double almost every other contest) from dusk till dusk, was neck and neck the entire time with only occassional leads by one side or the other, and came down to ONE VOTE deciding it! That was a blast! Whats NOT to love about that round?
@Ao:
After all, MAIN CHARACTERS FOR THE SERIES are something you just decide on a whim.
If your a good writer, sometimes the characters take on a life of their own and go against the script. So yes, a character can become more interesting than initially intended, or be an unexpected fan favorite, and promote themselves to more prominent status in a story. It happens all the time in writing.
To cite old shonen you might actually be aware of, in DRAGONBALL, Toriyama never liked Vegeta and had planned on killing him, but he was popular with the fans and ended up becoming one of the most prominent main characters in all of Dragonball. And on the same side of that coin, he had no real plans for Yamcha, Tenshinhan, Chaouzu, or Launch, which is why they all faded to the background/dissapeared entirely in the second half.
Androids 17 (despite being Kullilin's future WIFE!) and 18 didn't exist until Toriyamas editor said androids 19 and 20 looked dumb, and converesly, Cell didn't exist until the same editor said 17 and 18 just looked like kids. Cell was a main character that didn't exist in his plan until two editorial rewrites. (And he had planned to shift the story over to Gohan, but the fans insisted on Goku so he had to be forced back into the story like 3 months after dying…)
Stories evolve and change. Especially when you have editors and fan opinions working against you.
I believe Oda has had fair ideas for his leads and the main plot twists for some time, but he has't got every single detail mapped out in advance, or else he'd be able to gauge his pace better. I don't think Robin switching sides was an unexpected detail, but the point is, main characters and big plot twists CAN come from places the author did not expect.
@Marguerite:
Golden kintama XD
I LOOOOOVE Robin, and I HEART Margaret. DAMNIT ALL TO HELL!
I would… hope... you would vote for your name/icon sake...you can vote Robin next go round. Margaret probably isn't winning this one.