Rob from The Amazing World of Gumball Biography

Rob is a fictional ex-middle school student turned arch-nemesis of Gumball Watterson and the main antagonist and a supporting character of the Cartoon Network animated sitcom The Amazing World of Gumball. He is voiced by Charles Phillip (David Warner in "The Nemesis" - "The Disaster", portrayed by Garrick Hagon in "The Inquisition").

Background

Rob lives in the fictional town of Elmore, the show's primary setting, and initially appeared as a minor character in the series, usually seen in the background of certain scenes at Elmore Junior High School without any significance. It was established that he was forgettable by his own peers, as demonstrated in "The Pony" when main characters Gumball and Darwin Watterson forget his name on the sidewalk when he greets them, which angers him. He also had no family, a fact stated by both Gumball and Rob himself, implicitly because he wasn't important enough to have one. Because of his peripheral status and lack of characterization, he was later exiled into a dimension called the Void, a limbo-esque realm in the show's universe composed of TV static, meant to harbor all entities previously located in reality and later perceived as "mistakes" or inconsistencies.

He would later escape the dimension by precariously exiting through a portal opened by Gumball, Darwin, and their school counselor, Mr. Small, a trio on a mission to rescue another exiled and similarly forgettable student named Molly Collins. The trio inadvertently ignored Rob on their quest, forcing him to escape on his own. However, in the process of grabbing onto Mr. Small's van as it launched back to Elmore (without him or anyone else knowing), Rob was physically disfigured due to the Void either trying to pull him back or obliterate his existence. His body became discolored, polygonal, glitchy, and severely distorted, with static covering his limbs and certain panels on his now misshapen and decahedral head.

After secretly living with amnesia in the Wattersons' basement for months after his escape, he was eventually uncovered by the Watterson brothers, who interrogated him. He describes himself as a "nobody" who has no place in the world, justifying his refuge in their basement, having forgotten who he is and believing he has no purpose. Upon the boys suggesting that he fulfill the missing role of a "bad guy" within the town, as all of the show's positive identities were taken, Rob recalled what happened to him in the Void. Due to his abandonment, Rob vowed vengeance on Gumball, declaring that he would destroy "everyone [he loves]", and also that he now has an outlet to justify his existence.

Villainous Transformation

Rob would later try to antagonize his arch-enemies, but to no avail, as his traps were frequently incompetent and backfired on himself in the style of Looney Tunes or Wile E. Coyote. In fact, he states himself that he constructed five hundred and sixty-three traps, all of which failed. As a result, Gumball and Darwin pitifully helped him reinvent himself as a villain, and he would come to adopt the alter-ego of "Dr. Wrecker." However, despite his newfound motivation, in a grand attempt to flood the entirety of Elmore by destroying the town's dam, Rob only destroyed a vending machine, considering that the dam he was targeting doesn't even exist. He is initially disappointed, but after Gumball and Darwin willingly enter one of his earlier traps to cheer him up, he leaves them there while sadistically laughing and walking away, implying that he will return again but smarter.

Later, he orchestrated a plot by anonymously informing a group of Elmore adults of a plan to teach the school's students the dangers of skipping school by having them pose as criminals and stage a field trip. However, his actual goal is nefarious, as he intends to frame them for taking hostages while acquiring one million dollars in ransom money from the police in a suitcase, and later, blowing up the bus with everyone present having replaced the adults' pretend explosive suitcase with an actual bomb. When Rob reveals himself, he and Gumball fight, with the police on the tail of the school bus. This leads to the bus recklessly driving across the highway until it enters an airport, where a plane wing saws the bus in half while picking up Gumball and Rob, leaving them to fight on top of it with the two suitcases. Rob knocks Gumball off the plane wing, but the police arrive. He successfully blames Gumball for having orchestrated everything by pointing at his "ticking briefcase." However, Rob accidentally runs off with the explosive case he assumes contains the money. It detonates and launches him back to the crime scene, where he crashes onto a police car and is subsequently arrested.

Universal Remote Saga

Presumably having escaped from prison, Rob would later acquire a device known as the Universal Remote from the mysterious Van Shopkeeper in the Elmore Mall's parking garage. He discovers its ability to warp reality and the entire universe, including the show's broadcast itself. While messing around with it, he accidentally rewinds to when he was initially abandoned in the Void, and declares his intention to seek revenge on Gumball, whom he knows will be present with his family at the Elmore Mall. He also kills the Van Shopkeeper by erasing him from existence, having been annoyed at the request to pay $12.99 for the device.

First, Rob turns on the ignition of the surrounding cars as the Wattersons enter the mall's parking garage, causing them all to crash into each other, for which the family wrongfully blames Gumball. Later, Rob systematically tears apart Gumball's relationships by framing Gumball for insulting Darwin and his status as an adoptive child, altering the personalities of parents Nicole and Richard to have them agree on a divorce, having Gumball's younger sister Anais go missing by dimming the brightness of the universe, and finally, causing Gumball to accidentally kiss a peer, Sarah G. Lato, in front of his girlfriend Penny Fitzgerald. Rob then speeds up the events, which causes Gumball to push his girlfriend off the mall balcony while running after her, with time suddenly pausing before she can hit the ground. Gumball runs around the mall in confusion before he is confronted by Rob.

Rob insists that Gumball can only blame himself for what happened, and Rob goes on to lament how he never wanted to be a villain, instead wishing to be a "cute sidekick" with his own spin-off show. However, every desirable option was taken, and in an attempt to justify his existence within Gumball's "amazing world," he claims he had to become a villain, Gumball's status as the protagonist precluding him from the position. He argues that once Gumball is "out of the picture," he can be "whoever he wants," subsequently opening a portal to the Void and trying to kick Gumball inside. Gumball fights back and tackles Rob, and the two struggle for the remote, haphazardly hitting buttons that begin to warp reality while attacking each other. Eventually, Rob launches Gumball next to the portal again using the eject button, but in trying to hit eject "once and for all," the remote malfunctions. After brief frustration and hesitation, Rob throws the remote into the Void, understanding that if Gumball wishes to save his loved ones, he must follow the device. Gumball does so, and Rob seals him inside the Void with a final goodbye, with the end credits of the show rolling alongside the "screen" of the Void in the absence of its main character. Gumball catches up to the remote as it falls, fixes it having discovered that the battery simply slipped out slightly, and rewinds all of the events caused by Rob.

Gumball, with hindsight, relives the day and manages to catch Darwin and Anais on his side before tackling Rob when he insists on splitting up Nicole and Richard again. They struggle for the remote, but Gumball accidentally presses rewind, which begins to temporarily devolve Nicole and Richard. Gumball manages to stop the transformation before their nonexistence, but they are left as infants; Rob grabs the remote from a distraught Gumball and runs away. Gumball, Darwin, and Anais chase after Rob, with Anais noting a temporal paradox regarding their parents being turned into infants. She argues that they themselves, as their children, should not exist and will begin to dissolve unless they fix it with Rob's remote. However, Anais disappears, and Darwin devolves into an ordinary fish without lungs or legs (his status in the absence of nurturing from the Watterson family, which is known to be the reason he has lungs), suffocating and dying in front of Gumball. Gumball screams and runs at Rob in rage, but Rob speeds up time again and recreates the scene where he shoves Penny off the mall balcony. Gumball and Rob fight again, but Gumball gets the upper hand and ejects Rob into the Void instead. However, Gumball feels bad for having condemned a lonely individual to eternal limbo and jumps in to save him. He also notes that he has not resolved the time paradox and must save Rob before he (Gumball) disappears from the timeline.

Rob runs away from Gumball's help, insisting that the Void is where he belongs and that his story as a villain should end in defeat. Gumball ultimately catches up to Rob by using the remote, but his body continues to devolve, rendering it useless. He throws the remote at Rob to knock him out, seeing no other choice, but Rob simply catches it and contemplates turning Gumball "off." However, Rob cannot bring himself to do so and instead rewinds time to before either of them had entered the Void. Rob expresses remorse and appreciates Gumball trying to save him. He decides that the only way to fix everything is to rewind time, though this will undo the reconciliation between the two enemies. The two say goodbye to each other, and Rob rewinds time, thereby reviving everyone who was victimized and ultimately destroying the Universal Remote, declaring that it is too powerful and dangerous to exist.

Finding a New Nemesis

Feeling emotionally conflicted after the aforementioned events (which Gumball does not remember due to the reversal of time), Rob finds a new arch-enemy in Banana Joe, another one of his old peers. He declares to Gumball that Joe is "easier to hate," and while ignoring his girlfriend's advice to leave Rob alone, Gumball insists on becoming his enemy again. Rob officially "breaks up" with Gumball by delivering him a box full of nefarious items he used to antagonize Gumball, and then attempts to hurt Banana Joe throughout the day in various ways. These attempts include trying to obliterate him with an exploding burger, crush him with a stack of bricks, and squash him with oil drums rolling down a road. He also stalks Banana Joe during this process. Gumball annoys Rob and ruins each trap in an attempt to reaffirm their hatred, eventually joining him in a stakeout at Banana Joe's house in an attempt at friendship. Rob explains his plan to crush Joe with a series of rolling oil drums triggered by his door handle, but Gumball accidentally alerts Banana Joe by turning on his smartphone's flashlight. This is the last straw for Rob, who, enraged, strangles Gumball while claiming he is the most insufferable person he has ever met, solidifying the two as enemies once again.

Later, Rob tries to replace The Amazing World of Gumball by creating a series of spin-offs centered around other supporting characters. He does so by tying up the sapient Internet and hijacking the broadcast, but when each show proves terrible, Rob ends up giving up.

Predicting the Future

Noticing that Elmore's fortune-teller, Banana Barbara, who is also the mother of Banana Joe, has transitioned from painting tangible future events into depictions of only static, Rob kidnaps her at night and brings her to a warehouse for over a week. He insists that she continue to paint pictures of the future, presumably in an attempt to compensate for or understand what the static images mean. Rob continues to abuse and threaten her while demanding she paint the actual future, but Banana Barbara insists that the images of static that she is painting are "only what's left," and in fact, "the future." She paints hints into reality through various scenes on her paintings in an attempt to alert Gumball, Darwin, and Banana Joe, who are searching for her after her disappearance, to her location. Their stupidity prevents them from recognizing the hints, and she ultimately decides to paint a portal between the warehouse and their location. The trio enter the portal and into the warehouse, where they confront Rob. A battle ensues, with Gumball and Darwin chasing after Rob (Banana Joe having been immobilized already) in order to rescue Barbara. Rob uses his paintbrush-equipped hand to draw hazards into existence, including a bazooka, a crack in the floor, and a shark, all of which he painted into reality. The situation was extremely chaotic: it nearly crushed Gumball and Darwin with a falling car, inadvertently magnetized a series of sharp objects toward Gumball, almost led to him getting run over by a derelict bus, and caught the duo in multiple explosions.

Ultimately, however, the shark flings Gumball onto Rob, and Gumball attempts to take control of the paintings. Rob and Gumball recklessly fight over the brush, which begins to erase parts of reality by swiping across various scenes. However, Gumball, Darwin, and a revitalized Banana Joe ultimately gain the upper hand and begin erasing Rob from existence entirely through three separate swipes, though Rob begs for his life and insists that they are misunderstanding his intentions before he is disintegrated completely. Gumball feels bad and, as such, requests that Barbara repaint Rob back into the timeline. She does so, having given him a pigtail per Gumball's request, and Gumball and Darwin leave while the former expresses a desire to see Rob in the future. However, Barbara again reaffirms that there is no future, as the painting she has created of Rob depicts him falling into the Void.

In his final acts, Rob disguises himself as a live-action disciplinarian dubbed "Superintendent Evil" and begins enforcing a no-"cartoonish conduct" policy at Elmore Jr. High. He insists that the students act realistically and begins abusing them in the process. Eventually, it is discovered that Evil is using technology to transform the students into actual humans, much to the horror of Gumball and Darwin. They eventually defeat him by turning everyone back to normal through reminding them of their true identities. They unmask Evil, revealing him to be Rob in a disguise. Rob attempts to justify his actions, claiming that something bad was going to happen and that the transformation was designed to save their lives. However, before he can finish, he is knocked out by Tina Rex and left in the school alone at midnight. He rants about being stopped but is cut off by rumbling sounds. The floor bursts apart behind him and reveals the Void, which begins obliterating and deleting everything around him. He falls in but clings on, though shortly after remarking with horror that "it's started," he loses his grip and falls into the Void. The scene freeze frames, plays an eerie rendition of the credits music, and ends, echoing Banana Barbara's final painting from "The Future." Rob's ultimate fate remains unknown.