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kalosian-woods · 2 months ago

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GYM LEADER THOUGHTS PT. 2

(Part 1 here)

KORRINA

The girl, the myth, the legend; the one who got her own arc that was one of the best things I have ever witnessed. I honestly still can't believe we got a genuinely good arc for someone like her: a Gym Leader, a Mega Evolution user/expert in-games, and idk a girl ig with how allergic anipoke is as a whole to giving us long-term female Battle Trainers. Or just XY with girls in general sans Bonnie.

(Also I just can't help but hear the Amy Rose voice and it makes me giggle a little, sue me)

STRICTLY staying on XY so I don't start harping on about her girlmance with Bea and her acting skills with Gramps, she had an interesting story for her in the series: in this iteration of events, she just recently got her Key Stone from her grandfather and was on her way to get the Mega Stone for Lucario so they can Mega Evolve, a phenomenon that they never personally took part in before. She doesn't have experience with it but she's heard the stories and (hopefully) seen it in action before, and with the way that both her and Lucario are strong? Well, she presumed it would be a peace of cake. I mean--

That sounds pretty clear-cut, right? All you need are strong bonds, just like how Korrina interpreted this statement. But... Well...

Yeah. That.

I'm actually in love with how, for once, XY's very 'dramatic' showing of the imperfect Mega Evolution perfectly displays the issue between Korrina and her Lucario. She trusts it to make its own moves in battle, so when it's overloaded with newfound power it ultimately falls down the pit of pure instinct to combat the rush of aura it's experiencing. And instinct has no qualms about the difference of friend or foe, or notions of propiety. All instinct wants is to let power loose, to act as a wild animal with no recollections of before, to stop any threats around it-- and threats are usually moving, right?

And that's why Korrina's panicked commands can't reach it-- because she never had to counter Lucario before. Because she has always let it be in the front seat with the freedom to carry out whatever moves it deemed was right, and so that ability to listen to the Trainer has atrophied with time. Her place in the battlefield has been rendered redundant by letting Lucario be its own Trainer. Yes, they are friends, close friends, but there is a time where the Trainer has to step up and say the words while the Pokemon focuses their energy on the attacks, and there is a place where this distinction has to happen.

Korrina learns this distinction with Mabel.

It's not to say that it's sudden, that they learn the perfect thing there and boom. What I love, love, LOVE about this arc is that technically, little by little, Korrina manages to wrestle control away from that instinct, that unstable, explosive aura, and establish her place as the Trainer again. We see it in XY EP33 'Calling From Beyond The Aura', how her voice managed to slip through to Lucario, and what I love about THAT is how that is displayed to Lucario itself.

(lucario headspace... so foggy because he can't see/control/overwhelmed... and every time she talks it's like a mirage because he isn't used to it... but when it's strong, it's a light that he can run up to and anchor himself into his own body. ily this moment <3)

With Mabel comes understanding (through very very repititive flower-picking), about how, no matter what, you will always have a little difference between you and your Pokemon, your friends, and even your yesterday self. But it is the knowing of it that allows you to work together as a team, to use those strengths on the battlefield. It is not weakness to have a Trainer lead the way in the battle, just as how it is not strength to merely have power as the Pokemon. Each have their own duties and urgh the ep does it better than me at this rate. But I love this story all the same.

It's so satisfying seeing Korrina grow from this overconfident battling fiend who relies on her Lucario to do most of the heavy lifting to a more wiser person who understands that they can be friends and also partners as well. Both of them knowing the power of the observer and valuing it just as much as the one who battles. And it's such an apt message in a region based on the bonds between people and Pokemon and a phenomenon that trascends known boundaries through that bond-- if any part of it is caught lacking, it will have dire consequences, because it is a transformation that hurts the one that undergoes it, a transformation that grants power at the price of comfort... a transformation that is gained through love and trust. Trust in yourselves and in each other. Love in the partner and in the battle itself. An unbreakable will going against all odds to become unstoppable.

With such an evolution, there is no room for unearned strength. It must be done through the proper channels, through the sacred positions held by people and Pokemon. Because that's how it always started-- through the bonds between them in battle, through mutual trust in the roles that one other play in battle itself. And Korrina and Lucario returning to those roots and learning that importance?? *chef's kiss* Stunning. What can I say? I'm a sucker for lore and character arcs, and this delivered both!

As a character herself, Korrina is so goofy fr. The way she decided to show their strength before getting the Mega Stone was by battling 100 Trainers and getting 100 straight wins, it's insane. AND she documented it in a scrapbook full of pawprints (and hopefully names or otherwise she has stellar memory lol) that she meticulously filled out to the point of hurriedly getting Pikachu to stamp a ketchup-y paw on it once she remembered.

(Serena's face PLEASE)

Xerneas bless her.

She matches Ash with her enthusiam for battles (and sheer belief in their Pokemon), she genuinely cares for Lucario like family (or soulmates in sub), she wants to impress her Gramps even though he's a cranky pants for this arc, she has struggles and goes through self-doubt and get impatient; she goes through such a spectrum of feelings throughout her time on-screen and I love that for her. I love how she doesn't neccessarily get sequestered in a box just because she's a Gym Leader, who are usually displayed as static characters throughout the anime. Sure, static characters can impart wisdom that is easier to get explicitly because you can trust them in that inwaverable way, but it's so much more impactful when we go on a journey with a dynamic character and learn besides them. And so, I feel it's so much more impactful when we finally see Ash go up against Korrina, because we've seen how much she's went through in order to obtain Mega Evolution (even though we don't get half as much development with the rest of her team... could've been cool to see that dynamic beforehand and how it differed to Lucario...).

AUwise is a whole basket for me with the amount of ideas I want to expand on with her. You've said it before and I've talked to others about it but her arc could've encompassed a lot more of the gang than just Ash here. Clemont too had a failing that was linked to the Gym and his side job (Korrina actually getting too focused on the battling portion aka every challenger in Gyms ever and trying to balance with the knowledgeable aspect of being a Mega Evolution Successor) and idk they're both Gym Leaders. They both had to take time out of the Gym to get their priorities straight, especially about Pokemon themselves. And they can both rant to each other and battle it out and talk it over, both of them. This could also work so well for Serena as well, who is technically in-canon still sort of indecided yet as to what she wants-- and here is Korrina, battle-ready.... and also a good person to try out battling too, especially with the rhymthic battling style (remember?? remember how Ash dropped it?? remember??????????) which Serena can definitely try and possibly even adopt for Showcases (literally a fic i wrote ages ago, wink wink) (actually my fic says a lot about what their relationship could've been like esp in the tags itself lol).

Just,,, Korrina deserved to interact with everyone in the gang, yes, even Bonnie. She's travelling with them!! Learning with them!! And yet it feels like she's in this bubble where the rest of the Kalos Gang were spectators to what she was going through or something. And Ash gets to battle her in the end yeah yeah. For someone as social and loud and large as life as Korrina, I feel like making connections, especially human ones, would do her a world of good in not only understanding her own arc (and getting a good scope for people stuff because she's spent so much time with Pokemon) but also expanding her horizons and really experiencing all of what a journey has to offer. Because in the end, she really did go through her own journey to find and obtain Mega Evolution alongside Lucario, no matter what they've went through or learnt along the way.

RAMOS

(let's forget the fact that Clemont took a whole ep to know who he was lol)

Ngl I was thinking that there wasn't going to be /as much/ to say about him since S2 is where we start to have a drop-off in the fun qualities that I enjoyed in XY (even though yes, I do like S2 for having a bit more focused Serena and Clemont moments), but then I checked out the Ice Cream Ep XY EP57 'Thawing an Icy Panic' and dang I love what they did with Ramos here.

For an ep centered around the Ice Cream mons getting lost and angry and freezing an entire city in two minutes, we get some pretty good snapshots of Ramos as a character. He's pretty blunt with his words, calling out Clemont (and gang) for trespassing on his property and telling Ash off for trying to stop raging Pokemon the only way he knows how: by sacrificing himself in a bid to talk them down. He literally generates electricity (presumably for the city) by using Sunflora:

Which gives me such vivid memories of Johto and that old couple with their million Sunflora:

(what's with Sunflora crowds lol) (the fact that Clemont is so interested in that whole thing is such a missed oppotunity but I'm not bitter about it or anything hahaha)

ANYWAYS, he's not shy about accepting compliments and clearly he has a unique way of going about situations, whether with TR-- where he calmly appraised the problem after removing Ash from certain death and nudged them along the beating-up process while also lending his own aid-- or in the Gym Battle itself, using everything from Abilities to the terrain itself. And I especially love how he tailors the challenger's experience so well; while Ash might have been a different case with his earlier meeting before the Gym battle, Ramos reads his key weakness (re: rushing and going at things headforward) and lends him advice at the end of one episode...

Just to reinforce it in the next/the Gym Battle itself.

(man his subtitle colour hurts my eyes...)

Ngl, Ramos really takes what most of us expect of Gym Leaders (people who mind the city and are usually the first point of call when big problems relating to Pokemon happen, someone who guides and advices Trainers, a person who has specific knowledge about a particular type and applies it in many sectors of life like battles and innovation) and breathes a new sort of life to it. He's a Gym Leader, it's true, but he's also that old man riding his Gogoat and tending to his ranch, engaging in city-wide events and explaining traditions to newcomers and showing off his Sunflora horde. He's a tough opponent, a hurdle, one of the many preventing Ash from entering the Kalos League as he is now-- but he's also that man that people call for help, that man that decorated the oldest tree around in a day's time, that man that can gently sass back. Growing in different enviroments, showing different sides in different conditions. Versatile and ready for change just as readily as setting down roots. Learning all the way, even if you are old. It's pretty cool, that's all I can say.

Also never forget how in the Teraleak it said that he had met Eternal Floette once and so that's how his interests in plants started: as a way of wishing that maybe that same Pokemon will visit his garden again. It's just so 🥺🥺🥺

Haven't really gotten to thinking about him AUwise, but ooohoho boy I've got some ideas lol. What I can say is that I really do like the sort of mentorship he takes with Ash-- he can recognise that he's 'good' while also challenging him with strategies and with his attitude as well. I'm doing this thing where I'm getting Clemont to take at least a little out of every Gym and learn something on his journey; not just from Ash, but from his other friends and even his colleagues too. Beyond the obvious 'bro are you okay the challenger you're following is hyper as heck' and 'hey i heard you lost your gym once lol', one good way that Clemont can bond with this old guy is with Chespin since... Grass-Type... it's right there. It was perfect. Why is Anipoke allergic to Chespin arghhhhh. And I think it's a good contrast with the whole 'take it slow' mentality with whatever Clemont and Chespin's relationship is... especially with Clemont's battle against Ash coming right up.

(Also seriously I get it's not their job but how do Gym Leaders have no idea about the Showcase happening in their area, that's crazy.)

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Kalos Gym Leader Thoughts: 1 | 2 (you are here) | 3

#y'know i never properly understood what was the lesson with korrina until i wrote this down lol #somehow going through the eps and analysing them really helps. who knew?#also what works great with korrina (dynamic journey) is basically multipled with clemont (even though #we didn't get a lot with him either ngl)#before anyone comes at me IK gym leaders aren't omnipresent. it's just that it's weird we get this divide #where in dp we do get some acknowledgement that yeah some of them know contests #not saying everyone should know but like idk at least valerie?? ramos is walking around everywhere he must've heard #i love korrina but ngl i'm starting to warm up to whatever ramos got going on. cozy cottage grampa vibes #who powers the city with sunflowers #literal flower power right there #just realised that coumarine is a good mix of tradition and innovation with the whole monorail too hmm #diancie delivers #volcanion rumbles #also let nobody forget that korrina lives next to a beach. imagine the summer fun...

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