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[goomyblaziken]

Pokemon S/V - Story Themes: Failure and Abuse

Something I actually really like about Pokemon S/V, which is somewhat ironic given the state of the game itself, is that its underlying story theme is about how the adults of the setting have utterly failed the younger generation.

General discussion and rambling about Pokemon S/V after the jump, as there's sure to be spoilers. This is a long one, so buckle up.

Throughout the many stories Pokemon has told over the years and its iterations, the role of adults in the series and how they relate to the kids - ostensibly, the Player themselves as well - has varied wildly. They've been mentors, friends, allies, enemies, or even just odd folk we encounter. But, for better or worse, they've always been fairly direct in a What You See Is What You Get sort of way.

Pokemon S/V subverts that a bit in that all of the adults - even those we don't meet and only hear about through dialogue - have completely failed the children of the story. The results of those shortcomings range from very mild to absolutely disastrous, but nobody is untouched by it. Even the Player isn't spared.

Right up front we've got the Friendship Trio: Nemona, Arven, and Penny. Being the core to the story, they're the biggest examples one has out the gate. Common themes they all share are that they're each left without support from their families or peers, and that they're each desperately lonely as a result. Nemona is a star pupil, a battling prodigy, and daughter to a wealthy, powerful family. But despite all her talents she's left adrift without aim or goal. Her younger sister is the one being given control of the family business and Nemona's own talents set her apart from other students, meaning she struggles to find peers. Her family seem all too happy to focus on the younger sister, while Geeta from the Pokemon League and the academy itself happily makes use of Nemona's skills for their own ends. Nemona is constantly eager to please, always looking up to powerful people like Geeta and Professor Turo/Sada, but admits that she's just sort of floundering without any anchor. The people she looks up to only see her as a tool to be used and immediately discarded until the next time they need her.

A lot of Players joke about how battle obsessed Nemona is toward the Player, or how yandere jealous/possessive she becomes immediately upon meeting us. She even stands up to Geeta - who she absolutely hero worships - about our attention being poached. But can you really blame her for realizing there's finally someone who not only matches her skill, but seems dedicated to following a route the game itself states virtually nobody else in the region ever comes close to achieving? Nemona is not only the youngest Champion ever, but the only Champion in years, until the Player shows up. Regardless of what the person holding the console feels toward the Gym Challenge, in-context of the story the Player is proving through their own actions that they value Nemona as a friend/rival and are putting in genuine effort to meet her. When you defeat her, especially at the very end when she goes all out in a way she's never been able to with anyone else, she's thrilled. To Nemona, it's got to be the most amazing validation she's ever had in her life. Why wouldn't she hold on dearly and enthusiastically when nobody else, let alone her own family, are able to keep up with her or offer her the validation she needs?

Arven is just absolutely wrecked by his parental failure. His parent (Turo or Sada depending on which version you're playing) was so obsessed with their research in Area Zero that they threw away their entire family. Their spouse left them and took Arven, leaving the boy growing up constantly feeling the void of that missing part of their life. They keep hearing about the things their Professor Parent has accomplished and how well-regarded they are, but that's always just a reminder that the parent put more effort into their work than into being with their child. When Arven tries to go into Area Zero to find their parent himself, his Mabosstiff (his beloved Pokemon companion he's had literally his entire life) is near mortally injured as a result and Arven spends the rest of the game desperately trying to save it. Later, it's revealed that the Professor's work is endangering literally the entire ecosystem and stands to destroy Paldea itself, leaving Arven with the knowledge that not only was he abandoned for the sake of research, but that research was both ultimately harmful and pointless.

By the time the Player reaches the depths of Area Zero and meets the AI Professor, they find out a few things about the Professor. Namely that they're dead. It turns out that the Box Legendary they brought through time killed them years prior and the person the Player - and Arven - has been interacting with all throughout the game is just an AI replica left behind. While exploring the Professor's various labs, the Player first finds an empty picture frame that had its photo removed and, when in the final lab in the heart of Area Zero, they find the photo pinned to the Professor's work board. A photo of Arven as a tot with his beloved Pokemon (still an unevolved Maschiff at the time). This yields two big realizations. One is that the Professor still absolutely harbored love for their child and family, but allowed their drive - or possibly insanity - to overcome them. They were lying to themselves all those years saying "I'm doing this for my family" while outright ignoring said family entirely. Second is that the Player is the only one who learns outright that the Professor was killed, which means they - albeit off-screen - were the ones to break the news to Arven. Even in death, with the AI Professor's remnants of its creator's memories showing love for Arven, they failed him again and again. It's always up to Arven himself to carve his own way through his parent's wake, relying on his own abilities and the help of his friends, to struggle through the mess his parent left him.

Penny is failed on multiple fronts and to multiple degrees. She's a complete introvert and clearly suffers from a fair level of social anxiety due to the bullying she endured during her time at school. She's not shy, per say; when it comes to interacting with the Player and others, she's actually rather outspoken once she feels comfortable. But there's absolutely a wall put up that she doesn't let anyone past until she's ready, controlling her level of exposure and interaction through mediums like only communicating via phone or intentionally restricting her in-person time behind excuses.

At the most basic level, Penny is failed by her own father who doesn't understand her. She mentions that he's always doting, giving her childish nicknames and basically fawning over her. That sounds great on its face - exactly the sort of thing Nemona and Arven crave - but it shows that her father doesn't understand his daughter. Penny doesn't enjoy or respond well to that type of affection and it's being forced on her, causing a wedge in her home life. Next up are Penny's friends, the bosses of Team Star. They gained that rank and gang affiliation because of Penny; she's the one who set it up as a means of rallying all the students who suffered from constant bullying to stand up for themselves as a unified resistance. By that point she was so emotionally battered that she couldn't even stand to be in the company of other people directly, isolating herself and communicating only through phone calls. The Team Star Bosses and Penny all considered each other to be the closest of friends, yet they had never once met her face to face. While it's not explored as much (criminally so, I say) each of the Team Star Bosses show that they're in a similar state as Penny; they rely on each other for support but also self-expression and validation. It's shown throughout their stories that they're let down by the systems they trusted and their families, not able to find what they need from those establishments and instead turning toward one another.

As it's revealed through the events of the Team Star story, the previous administration of the Paldean Academy allowed a brutal level of bullying to go on at school. So much so that it resulted in the targeted students dropping out, falling to truancy, and literally forming a gang just to protect themselves from their aggressors. When Team Star finally did put their collective foot down (peacefully by both intent and action), they were wrongfully branded as the villains of the story and stigmatized. Team Star was shown that not only would adults not protect them, but would actively punish them for protecting themselves. The school admin at the time - who were fully aware of the whole situation - not only allowed it to happen but then actively attempted to cover it up for the sake of protecting their own asses. They were content to sit by and allow their own students to suffer, ultimately leading to drop outs and expulsions, just for their own sake. This led to both the admin and the entire teaching staff to resign and be replaced by the staff we see in the game, and Director Clavell starts to fall into the same error as his predecessor.

When the Player gets involved, Clavell is about to expel all the Team Star members for good (and there's a TON of them). But, hey, credit where it's due; Clavell really puts in the work and goes to considerable lengths to uncover the truth of what happened. He puts into motion the start of healing those wounds by setting aside not only his time, but his own ego for the sake of understanding his students, protecting them, and rectifying the mistakes of those who came before him. There's a part at the very end where Clavell outright apologizes to Team Star for the abuses they suffered at the hands of the previous Academy staff and deeply bows to them. That may not seem like much on its face, but one has to consider the context of this being a Japanese game. A major authority figure like Clavell bowing and apologizing to those younger than himself, let alone those he's an authority over, is a MAJOR demonstration of genuine regret.

That's not to say Clavell is perfect though. Far from it; while he succeeds in this area, he fails in others as he readily allows Geeta to use both the Academy and its students as she pleases. Geeta outright takes advantage of the students for unpaid labor - the Player included - even though none of them actually work for her. The teaching staff themselves, while all good people who are trying their best, show similar failures to varying degrees. Saguaro doesn't show who he really is because he's afraid of disrupting the image students have of him. Miriam - beloved by students for her skills and nature - languishes unable to fulfill her desire to be a teacher because the credential testing (presumably set by Geeta, who establishes similar needlessly exclusionary tests) keeps knocking her down. Hassel is endlessly harangued by his family to give up his passion for art and teaching to take the lead of their House.

It continues with the Gym Leaders and Elite Four as well, given how Geeta readily abuses her position of power to her own ends. All the Gym Leaders readily discuss their dislike of Geeta, how she holds them back or interferes with them, and the various shortcomings of their lives due to structural failures in their society. People like Larry, Brassius, Grusha, and Iono are wholly at the whims of capitalism in a region where the economy itself is tied directly to the Pokemon League they work for. Larry and Hassel pull double duty as both a Gym Leader and Academy Teacher, as well as members of the Elite Four, further showing how much Geeta is intentionally intertwining all these systems together into a narrow, unstable medium. Poppy, a LITERAL TODDLER, is somehow a member of the Elite Four - when Geeta doesn't even pay adults a living wage to be Gym Leaders/Elite Four and also readily takes advantage of students for free labor, you cannot possibly tell me Poppy isn't an overt case of child labor abuses. Seriously, who are this kid's parents and where the hell are they? Later in the game, Geeta calls the Player on their phone out of the blue and one of the responses you can give is "How did you get my number?". She replies that because you're a Champion, she has access to your personal information. Information you did not consent to give her, that she used her position to look up and privately contact you - a child - for work, without the consent or awareness of your parent. Geeta has set the Pokemon League in a way that best suits her desires and warped the entirety of Paldea around it, endangering and weakening other institutions as a result.

There's actually a lot more to this scattered throughout the game, such as a student who's languished in the Academy system for twenty years without graduating because he's constantly failing. Or everything that has to do with History Teacher Raifort. But this has already gone on long enough of a ramble. In summary, Pokemon S/V has some honestly interesting explorations of institutional and personal failure from the past and how it impacts the future. Themes of generational trauma wasn't what I expected out of a Pokemon game. I hope to see it expanded on in the coming DLC content or, even better, in the upcoming anime series.

[goomyblaziken]

Questions/thoughts/theories I have after completing the main story of scarlet/violet: part 1

• How can the paradox pokemon have been brought to the current time period by the Professor, yet have been described in the Scarlet/Violet book by Heath almost a century before hand?

• Why was the second Koraidon/Miraidon out of its ball when you first visit area zero? The AI Professor returns it into a master ball during your conversation in the lab, meaning it had to have been released from its ball at some point. Why did it do this?

(Could it have been that the AI did this on purpose to instigate the territory dispute between “our” Miraidon/Koraidon, and the second, more aggressive one? If so what was the goal in doing so? (Regardless of why the AI let it out of its ball, the fact that it was out of its ball made the dispute possible)

Could it have been in the hopes that Koraidon/Miraidon would leave area zero after the fight, seek out Arven (who had the book containing the Original Professors ID), and using that a a catalyst to contact him, to then coach him to return to Area Zero, so that it could use the book to shut down the Time Machine?)

• Was the AI’s goal of shutting down the Time Machine strictly benevolent, or did it have more complicated motives, and did the AI actually lose that last battle, or was it all part of its plan? After all, it did calculate that it’s chances of success were assured, and despite seemingly losing the final battle, it’s goal of shutting down the Time Machine was achieved regardless, along with the bonus of escaping the limitations/lack of freedom that the current time period/technology placed on it by requiring it to stay within range of the crystals. Was this it’s true goal?

• If the Original Professor had access to Master Balls, why didn’t they just return the Pokémon that killed them?

We know the Professor had access to these because of the Koraidon/Miraidon that we see the AI returning into a master ball in the lab. It was able to be used against you after the paradise protection protocol was activated (locking all poke balls not registered to the original professors ID from being used), meaning that the original Professor had to have been the one to have caught it, as we know that the AI doesn’t have access to the original professors ID

• What is the hexagonal/disc pokemon described in the Scarlet/Violet book? Is it the Time Machine itself? The little crest with eyes on the crown when a pokemon terastallizes? Does it have anything to do with Zygarde? Something else entirely

• Observation - The Time Machine is made out of diamond-like triangles/hexagons. Diamonds are associated with Dialga. Dialga is the deity of time. Interesting, but probably a coincidence

• what exactly was the Pokémon that killed the Professor?

•Who was Arven’s other parent? They are alluded to in both versions, yet it’s not confirmed that they are alternate versions of either Sada/Turo (depending on version). If it is a version of those characters, what are they like? What happened to them, and why did they leave?

• Pretty much everything to do with the Scarlet/Violet book. What is that Gorilla-like pokemon? Why do the “Imagined” pokemon look so much like pokemon we know to already exist. What happened to Heath when he had his strange encounter?, and what does the plaque/strange sigil mean?

• Is the fact that Heath had a cyclizar as a partner, and that Miraidon/Koraidon are future/past versions of that pokemon a coincidence, or is there something more to it

[goomyblaziken]

not to mention a HUGE part of the neglect he felt was that Sada/Turo were already DEAD. Also hoping to see more of the other parent in the DLC

"People ignore that Turo/Sada neglected Arven just because they loved him in the end" No. I revel in it. I live for the tragic beauty of love not lost to the void but lost on its path. I adore stories of a child who felt unloved realizing that they were adored so much that their parent tried to give them the world and in doing so forgot to give them themselves. The graceful pain of a well-intended heart, golden at its core yet covered in muck and grime and too far out of reach to ever be polished clean again. I find joy in stories of closure, of a character finding out that they can let go of their past pains and find something else, something to clothe their broken heart in that is not made of the barbed wire of grief and loneliness. Turo/Sada's love for Arven was true and warm like the sun, but only ever visible to him as a cold and distant star.

[goomyblaziken]

The more I think about it, I’m not sure if it was intentional or not but the way Arven is advertised in comparison to Nemona and/or Penny in SV’s promotional material is goddamn genius

I think the general opinion on Arven (which I was a part of) prior to release was that he was the least intriguing out of the three rivals. Nemona’s role and personality was shown to us from the get-go and gave people enough to form an opinion on her, and information on Penny wasn’t as abundant but had enough tidbits scattered here and there (like the website mentioning she doesn’t come to school often ‘for some reason’) to at least let us know there was more going on with her than what’s shown at surface level. Arven’s revealed traits? He likes cooking and sucks ass at Pokemon battles. So going into the game we have lower expectations of Arven in comparison to Nemona and Penny (even more after his first scene where he does nothing but be a douche and run away after we kick his ass into next year), and then we all proceed to do a double-take when he turns out to be the best character in the game by a landslide. 

I don’t know if they did this on purpose but either way, I applaud you, GameFreak. 

[goomyblaziken]

Let’s talk about Clavell

I would much rather have Director Clavell handle shit like sexual assault cases than most of the real-life university admins

[goomyblaziken]

Rika from Elite Four in Scarlet/violet has to be based on Rika Kihira - Just look at their signature ponytails. Change my mind

[goomyblaziken]

You know what’s depressing? Her 3A got even better since ACI but we have never see her scaled GOE go greater than 3 for it.

Tell me again that Rika isn’t lowballed again. Just tell me one more fking time.

rika’s 3A (GOE +3.04) || ACI 2019

[goomyblaziken]

if rika needs a quad, y’all favs need a lutz

[goomyblaziken]

Did you guys catch when Yuna Kim briefly gave Rika a look of approval during 4cc medals ceremony as well though?

[goomyblaziken]

how the f is she getting 0 on her true lutzes when flutzes be getting +4s?

Oh no I made the mistake of cheking Rika’s protocols, help help help!!!

Her highest geo was 4 and it was given to her step and choreo sequences, they gave her one 4 for her 3a (shes the only lady with a 3a and it’s good ffs!); judge 3 gave her 0 for her textbook lutz; they gave her almost the exactly same geo for her 3f-3t and her 3lz-2t-2l; judge 1 and 7 gave her 7.75 for transitions...

Oh but just wait and see, you are only making her stronger and one day she’ll sweep the ice with y’all.

[goomyblaziken]

agree, how it’s below 73-74 by now is beyond me

JUDGES GIVE RIKA THE PCS SHE DESERVED CHALLENGE 2020

[goomyblaziken]

Scoring aside (she definitely gets larger deductions for less severe mistakes than many other skaters do 😡😡😡😡), Rika’s 3T backend in combos has been giving her a few more problems this season than last - she underrotated it during 3A-3T in Nationals and fell on a 3F-3T during the GPF as well as Challenge Cup SP. In the latter case, I really hope her difficulty landing it only comes from backloading it today AND from her newly recovered lutz being more difficult than the loop she had to stick with in the first half of the season.

I hope she comes back strong for the FS and Worlds, because she really needs it especially for Worlds against the other overscored skaters 😔😔

[goomyblaziken]

“I was really upset to read how the Russian Federation toyed with Ekaterina Kurakova’s career. I hope she can skate for many seasons representing Poland.“

[goomyblaziken]

Mao Asada flutzed all the way until her last competitive season but the rest of her tech is amazing, and she is unmatched artistically. But she was massively underscored in PCS and got phantom UR calls, as well as every single possible call on her flutzes throughout her career when other skaters with more severely underrotated jumps and also wrong edges got none. Does her flutzing mean she’s not a legend? Of course not. Should it get called? Yes, BUT if it does then so should every other skater’s.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case now. The JUDGES award any skater currently under Eteri getting +5 for these exact same (or worse!) mistakes. And none of them can beat Mao in artistry (Alyona is the only one who comes within reach), yet even Trusova gets PCS close to or higher than Mao’s. Trusova’s abilities in some of her quads would be more appreciated I’m sure if she judges didn’t give an instant PCS boost in addition to it. Same with Alyona’s skating abilities as a whole if judges didn’t give her flat edge lutzes a +4/5.

Look, people willl complain less when a skater just has a mistake or wrong edge if it is acknowledged and scored properly. We will, however go off forever if judging that chronically picks on mistakes of some skaters and not others. At the end of the day, It’s not the system that has the most flaws, it’s the judges not doing their job.

“The same people who complain about technical being too important nowadays will try to crucify a skater for having a slightly incorrect lutz edge even if they have gorgeous artistry, as if it’s the most important thing in a program. You can’t have it both ways people.”

[goomyblaziken]

Rika’s axels have gotten so much more consistent than last season and gained so much height even when compared to ACI. I am so proud of her.

Rika Kihira’ successful triple axels in the short program.

[goomyblaziken]

“Rika’s ability to adapt and think under pressure amazes me. Whether it’s moving her triple toe last year when she didn’t get it done off her triple axel, turning a step out into a smooth Euler-Salchow combination (AND making sure to do a double to not Zayak herself), or improvising a triple flip-triple toe-double toe to maximize her triples after popping one she’s always so aware of her layout and able to pull off quick changes like it’s nothing.“

[goomyblaziken]

I just noticed this dress is the same as her Symphony dress!

Rika Kihira ~ 2020 Four Continents Championships Gala 💙✨