In your opinion, how did Robert come up with the idea to put blades in the brim of his original hat?
unprompted asks 【always accepting】
I love getting this type of questions so, first of all, thank you so much for sending it in, Anon!!
As for the question itself, I think the overall idea stemmed mostly from necessity. I'm gonna go a bit into detail here, so I hope you don't mind a bit of a long post!
Robert IS quite good at close range/hand-to-hand combat (whether it involves knives, brass knuckles or just bare fists), however, in a place like Ogre Street, the place we've been told he has lived his entire life in up to the main events of PB at least, sometimes keeping a bit of distance between you and your opponent is the best -and wiser- idea.
And sure, one could argue that that's what guns are for and that one could easily do the work, and that's absolutely correct too. This would actually be the reason why Robert carries his trusty revolver around with him anywhere he goes, after all. However, there are different factors that play into his decision of having more than just one long-range weapon on him at almost all times.
One being his philosophy of always having an ace up his sleeve (and which is a mentality that has saved his ass more than once before, sometimes in life-threatening scenarios)
Another being a very simple but important one: Ammo is not free. And, for someone from the lowest classes like him, it may not always be accessible due to costs. It is worth noting that, due to his role as the boss, he usually has a fairly decent amount of ammo with him as this can make the vital difference in the final outcome of a fight or pretty much any other "unfavorable" situation one can run into in Ogre Street (bit of a side note, but this is also a 'benefit' that he tries to extend to his men). Even then, it would be a foolish mistake on his end to go around wasting bullets, especially in instances where it might not be necessary and other means could be used instead.
Another would be the element of surprise. Lets be real, how many people would really expect some unsuspecting gay ass bowler hat with pink feathers to also have sharp-blades hidden in the brim?? This revelation tends to make the opponent lower their guard momentarily most of times as they try to make sense of what's going on (this is normally the amount enough for him to land a successful hit, whether it is a deadly one or a highly debilitating one).
And that element of surprise doesn't just stop there. Due to the trajectories the buzzsaw hat can acquire depending on how Speedwagon throws it, it isn't always easy (or possible) for his target to fully read the attack, as opposed to, say, throwing a 'simple' knife.
Though different overall, there's a good example of this previous point in the anime/manga, during that fight between Jonathan and Speedwagon, when Jonathan uses Tattoo's knife as a distraction, sending it flying in a straight line at Speedwagon, and yet, Spw's buzzsaw hat takes a completely different direction effectively avoiding projectile-on-projectile collision and also landing a hit on his target. Needless to mention that the initial and 'instinctive' response of the target would be similar to Jonathan's: Covering yourself with your arms, and which isn't very effective against a blade (adding a bit more to all this, the distraction Jonathan caused was said to have been the reason why that hit Speedwagon landed was not deadly)
As for the very reasonable question some might have about why a hat and not something else, there's a few answers to this, one being (again) the whole element of surprise, and the second being the fact that using the bowler hat as a weapon the way he does requires very little use of the hands. He doesn't have to carry it around like most regular weapons, he just has to wear it instead. Additionally, attacking with it doesn't really require a lot of manipulation either. All this mainly because in a place like London's slums, you have to be ready to fight always (which often includes having your hands free as much as possible).
All of these factors (along with Speedwagon's stubbornness at making his idea come true) eventually led to the creation of that bowler hat we all know. It is a costly piece overall, but it is worth every single penny he spent on it. It was also specifically made for him by a couple of "friends" (people who owed him some favors, mainly). One of them was a hat maker. The other was a blade-smith. So, in the end, it was costly still, but not as insane expensive as it would have been for the average passerby… if the average passerby ever came up with such a crazy idea for a weapon, that is.
