playing favorites

[kuruk22]

I've been thinking long and hard about it, and after much consideration and careful rumination, I'd have to say that my favorite character from Pokémon's Generation V is Bianca.

I would bombard you with pictures of Bianca being her lovable self, but I don't have very many. I need to remedy this.

Oddly enough, I was sure that I wouldn't like Bianca

Comments

[solarpillar]

I think Cheren isn't that similar to the previous rivals. The first thing that made an impression on me was that after how Bianca trashed my room Cheren still decided to have a go at pokemon battle with me to show off how he can do it without damage. This means he is very secure in his power, as opposed to Green and Silver who were very insecure and vulnerable and were practically feinting superiority just so the protagonists won't look down to them. They were really fighting the protag to beat him/her down. But Cheren here didn't need to defeat me, that is just a bonus he's aiming and the main goal in the first battle was just to show off his skills. Not to win against me and rub it against me. He doesn't need that and in fact didn't need an ego boost. And he said he wanted to be a champion at first, but later on he doubted it and wasn't sure anymore and wanted to find something else that he likes better because be a champion just to be a champion isn't right. And he's the rival who thinks the most. Green had to have his dream

[solarpillar]

*she wasn't, not she weren't
And sorry for the markup error. Can you still see the raw content?

hideously long-winded comment (part 1)

[kuruk22]

Perhaps I misspoke by saying that Cheren was just a rehash of the previous rivals. What I should have said is that the character that seeks strength but doesn't know why he/she does and then discovers him/herself through the journey has become so common that it's an archetype now. It might not have appeared in pokémon before per se, but the whole "finding out my reasons for seeking strength" has definitely been done before

ridiculously long-winded comment (part 2)

[kuruk22]

His experiences with Alder, watching Hilbert/Hilda become "the hero of Unova" and stop Team Plasma... all that served as the impetus behind his transformation at the end of the game. He's secure in his insecurity, if that makes any sense, because he now realizes that he can't apply his logic to every facet of pokémon battling. If you notice, he's always saying things like "Should I try giving my pokémon this item or that one?" and what-not, because he overestimates the technical aspects of a pokémon battle. Because he keeps looking at things through the lenses of his logic, he misses out on the emotional part of battling and establishing a bond with his pokémon. The game's events teaches him that he can't be overly logical, and he accepts the fact that he has to work on finding himself spiritually, emotionally, or whatever. So... yeah. I hope that made sense

terribly long-winded comment (part 3)

[kuruk22]

I agree about Ghetsis to a certain extent. He's definitely more realistic in that he works in secret and doesn't go around flaunting Team Plasma's status as a criminal organization like most of the other teams do. He understands the importance of working towards his goals quietly and projecting a false image of sincerity. All his overt work is through the proper channels. Rallies and speeches? He probably got permits for those, and there's nothing wrong with voicing your opinion (and considering that Unova is based on New York and the U.S. as a whole, I'd say that the preoccupation with "not being able to shut up Ghetsis" and "finding yourself" was emphasized to highlight the importance America places on free speech and its permissive attitude regarding careers and aspirations and what-not). He's calculating and cold, and even though, like you said, he's an extremely strong trainer (hello, god!Hydreigon), he prefers to have his "minions" work at it for him. In this he fits the archetype of a "villain." He's the "final boss," isn't

Re: long-winded comment

[solarpillar]

I think you just said all the nuances about Cheren yourself. I don't think if it matters anymore if he fits in an archetype, you can already see that he's very different from the other rivals. A quest isn't all that makes a character. If you look wider, self-esteem issue isn't a staple for rivals, it's present in almost everybody. In real life children about the protagonists' age are starting to doubt their abilities and in-game, not just the rivals, but characters like Clair, Roark, random trainers you fight to progress, even a bit in Alder (he mentions getting rusty). We just tend to notice the rivals more because they are "important". But I remember very well those school boys and ace trainers that I beat, and one in Hoenn was beating almost everyone else and once I come into the picture I just ruined everything and it made her very frustrated. And actually, the seeking-strength then seeking-reasons is not really a rivals archetype, as before pokemon it was a hero archetype. Gilgamesh was a [insert weird math fraction] human-god

Re: terribly long-winded comment

[solarpillar]

Ghetsis is pretty realistic in his ambition and did think of the big picture. He was "loved" of sort via the proxy of N. He just ruined it himself by speaking the truth before everyone. It was a rather human mistake, I mean, he did just see his life-long plan going down the drain

Re: long-winded comment

[solarpillar]

Ok, I won't be able to catch the next bus either and the next is in half-an-hour so I'll just finish my comments. Plus my stomach hurts

[kuruk22]

That's why I always make it a point to buy the third installment of each generation. It's the same basic storyline, but the extra nuances that they add makes the characters, especially the antagonists, much more fleshed out

Re: long-winded comment

[kuruk22]

Still, I think your argument about Zekrom/Reshiram (or possibly Kyurem, depending what route the third installment embarks) choosing to appear is a bit fallacious. I believe it's true - if the dragon didn't want to appear, it wouldn't. However, what made the dragon want to appear was Touya/Touko. It was because of his/her willingness to fight for what he/she felt was right and stood up to N and his dragon without one him/herself that Zekrom/Reshiram deemed Touya/Touko worthy of a bond. In essence, I believe that if Touya/Touko hadn't proven themselves, the dragon wouldn't have had the opportunity to choose him/her. It's circular reasoning, I know, but it was 50/50. Touya/Touko and Zekrom/Reshiram(/Kyurem

[kuruk22]

Also, sorry about you missing your bus and your stomachache.... I hope you feel better.

(And lol about the Johto OT3 ménage-à-trois comment. My Kanto OT3 love aside, I believe that the Johto OT3 is the one that's more likely to engage in a polyamorous relationship.)

[solarpillar]

I didn't mean to discredit Touya/Touko in the whole dragon thing, but see how when N summoned the dragon his dragon came forth and was immediately his, but the protagonist's was coming out from the key item without the protagonist's control (he didn't say anything about summoning the dragon, just that he/she wanted to stop N in his mislead way). Then instead of the newly summoned 2nd dragon becoming the protagonist's automatically like N's, it wanted to test the protagonist in a battle first (and N translated that part). So, I don't think the dragon deemed him/her worthy right away, just that he/she made a good candidate and the dragon wanted to give him/her a chance at becoming its trainer. Granted that you could say that the dragon popped out because of the protagonist's characteristics, but I was wondering if it's not because its opposite twin was there, so it had to make an appearance to counter-balance it. Of course, obtaining the dragon was the result of the protagonist's qualities, but the dragon appearing might not be

[solarpillar]

And seeing how the Team Plasma looks like a rather old/traditionalist organisation from their behaviors, could it be that Ghetsis obtained it instead of founding it? Something like King Arthur and the Sword in the Stone and Caliburn perhaps, Ghetsis found a holy item of theirs and they declared him their chosen leader. If it was true, then oh boy the ego boost and the ensuing reality check. Imagine this, a young man (for he must be younger at that time) getting his hands on a real army. Not a toy army, a real one. It will make him go insane with power, unless he's a saint or an idiot. Of course he'd decide "since I just got an army... Next step, world domination!" He wouldn't do anything to lose that army (telling them that he wanted to rule the world for selfish reasons will make them abandon him for sure), so he made another person the puppet-king and he just hid behind and everything was good

[solarpillar]

Ngh, my really long comment was lost in an error. It was the only time I didn't save a temporary copy on the clipboard and it was gone. I'm not going to re-type everything, just write a summary on each paragraph