#best boi arven fr fr fr

[legend-of-the-iron-dragon]

So like, can we address this?

so like, as a Pokémon lover, I’ve been getting the games since I was waaaaay little. My first game ever was sapphire, and I can personally rank moon as one of my top 5 games of all time. Pokémon’s story has always been a bit of a hit or miss with me *cough x and y cough sword and shield* but I was COMPLETELY unprepared for scarlet and violet. (For those wondering I got scarlet but I do not judge y’all violet stans)

like, that game took me so off guard. I was hyped (duh) but sword kinda left a little bit of a bitter taste in my mouth story-wise. Like, all the pieces were there, you……just……forgot half of them and tried to pass it off as complete.

but scarlet? HOO BOYO SCARLET. Not only did they deliver one of, if not the greatest plots ever, I have never been more closer to any Pokemon characters.

Nemona? Easily one of the best and most well written rivals out there. She isn’t a stereotypical “I hate you and hope you suffer and will beat your sorry behind into the ground 😡”, type rival, but instead she’s just an ordinary girl who’s incredibly skilled at battling, but no longer can properly battle bc no one wants too. She purposely picks the weaker starter so you can get stronger quicker and be able to battle her! Her final fight had me grinning all the way through it, and her genuine, pure and utter JOY at you winning is such a sweet and endearing trait.

penny? Gosh darn did they do the introvert community justice. She is not only a great “serious and sarcastic” character, but the entire team star story was so so so wholesome. Her story about being bullied but also connecting with her friends and forming team star and also being the one to take it down once she realizes her mistake is incredible, and the way she defended team star until the end is just one of the millions of things I like about her! (AlsoherfinalbattlemusicSLAPS-)

Arven?

. . .

*loud sobbing noises*

I-I cannot even BEGIN to stress how incredible arven is. Pokémon dealing with abusive parents is nothing new, but yet it feels so RAW where he is involved. Like, dude, this guy was raised by a DOG. A FREAKING DOG WAS A BETTER PARENT THAN HIS OWN BIOLOGICAL PARENTS. His whole setup to be the snarky, silver-esque type rival was executed perfectly, and I promise you every person who’s ever played proceeded to do all of the titans the MOMENT mabosstiff came into the picture. (And I promise those same people cried when he finally stood up). And not only that, but from what the game implies, (or at least what I took from it) his parents didn’t actually care, and in all the limited contact he had with the sada/turo AI, they began to care for him as if they were his real parent. Meaning that an AI and a dog cared more for him than his mom and dad. Not even that, but he has to go through the trauma of learning his parents were freaking DEAD, he had a creature wearing his moms/dads face say IN THEIR VOICE,

“I love you.”

only to then immediately lose them too.

everyone just give a round of applause to this boi for being such a trooper and being so loveable despite everything.

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

but like, that’s barely anything. All the other characters were epic, the soundtrack was phenomenal, the plot twists expertly executed, like fr, this has been the best Pokémon game story-wise in AGES.

so Nintendo, from the bottom of my heart, keep doing what ur doing but I’m begging u, take ur time. We can wait.

[honnojis]

go forth friend. ramble about your favorites of the SV cast (w warnings where absolutely necessary ofc!!)

i wanna hear ur opinions of em !!!!

OUGH okay i will. put all of that under the cut bc i'm definitely going to talk about big spoilers AND IT'S GONNA BE LENGTHY BECAUSE I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS. SV may be a mess in some aspects but the story is the best it's been in many gens, if not the best story in any Pokémon game

i gotta talk about the two elephants in the room first; RIKA AND ARVEN.

For Rika; She's giving me gender envy bc like. god i wish that were me. But also I want to marry her because oh my god I love her and her design so much GAMEFREAK WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME. Why do they always keep getting away with this shit EVERY GOD DAMN GEN that there's a character I end up being down bad for LOL... She's so chill!! But she's also so nice!!! And I'm ough. I really hope any future DLC will give her more screentime or at LEAST let me rematch her because why the fuck can i not fight the E4 again!!! sir!!! lemme see her!!!!!!!!!

Arven.............. he is my son now. That whole last stretch of the story in area zero really REALLY solidified him as my favourite of the main cast because man he's been through a lot and this guy can't catch a fucking break!!! Had to go years without seeing his parents only to find out that the one parent he remembers and saw only very occasionally as a kid died years prior to the game's events protecting the mirai/koraidon you've been traveling with all this time. And the whole thing about Mabosstiff!!! The titan questline had me tearing up on several occasions. im AUGh.... I'm so SO weak for characters like this who appear a bit standoffish at first but then open up to the player and they're just beans that have gone through a lot and are trying to help. And his own resolution to become a chef with the knowledge he now holds over the herba mystica to help others felt like the most logical course of action for him to take so i'm glad he found what he wants to strive for next!! anyways sorry not sorry if i end up drawing him a lot LMAO he lives in my brain rent free. son boy allowed

Then there's Nemona!!! She's so fucking head empty no thoughts and I love her. And if there's something in that head of hers it's just a brick with the only thought being violence and battle. And you know what? good for her! good for her. She's really funny and probably one of the most fun rivals we've had in recent history for pokemon. I like that she's not just super talented either, she literally explains to the trainer when you talk to her in postgame that she had to work hard to even get to this point. She really feels like a mirror to the player but she just took her journey of becoming a champion a year or two earlier than the player did. But also wow same lady ur just like me fr fr

Penny!! she's just a bean that cares for her friends!!! And the team Star story stuff really felt nicely done. Trying to help her friends that were painted as bullies because of a misunderstanding and mismanagement at the school while the team Star members aren't bad people at all. I also absolutely love her sass when traveling with her in Area Zero (and subsequently the dynamic between Penny, Nemona and Arven as a whole, they're best friends now your honor)

AND ALSO CAN I TALK ABOUT HER BATTLE THEME FOR A SECOND BECAUSE ?????????????????????

THEY PUT HARDCORE/HARDSTYLE IN MY POKEMON GAME

I genuinely was not expecting that but hearing the hardbass i was like wtf holy shit they went OFF with this track!!! The track is an absolute banger too but definitely felt unexpected for a character like Penny. Good for her though!! She's got one of the best themes in the game and im jamming

And then Turo! I played Violet but I'm aware that the same thing happens with Sada in Scarlet so it's easy to just replace names. Man... I could talk about this part of the story all fucking day. The professor is probably one of the most interesting "villains" in Pokémon as a whole and I'm SO GLAD that the series finally went down this route, because they absolutely nailed the story telling with this. Area Zero blew me out of the fucking water and was so unexpected!!! This whole segment has "REJUVENATION" written all over it!!! I was literally WAITING for Jan to get to this segment after completing the game, only for him to say the same exact shit LOL. I was not expecting this from a main series Pokémon game at ALL and frankly I'm so glad it did because this whole story segment with made Violet easily one of my favourite pokemon games in the series.

AI Turo stimulating the player from the background to find the herba mystica with arven and them becoming stronger but not really wanting to talk to Arven because-- just like his original counterpart-- he's too focused on the goal of the mission to care for the son of his original counterpart (though him being an AI also might hinder processing emotional attachment even MORE than the original Turo already had problems with). The reason why Turo hasn't visited Arven in years being that the original is dead and AI Turo literally cannot leave the crater due to him needing the power of the Tera crystals to stay functional. AI Turo, despite being the same in almost every possible way, realizing and coming to agree that there's no logic in the original Turo's decision to want to introduce future Pokémon into the ecosystem KNOWING that it'd destroy the old one, making him a better person than the original was-- and painting the original Turo as the villain in this situation due to that his obsession with the future as written in the Violet book drove him to ignore how wrong he was for what he was trying to do, even after death. AI Turo knowing that he himself is part of the security system and needs to be fought in order to put a stop to the time machine, hence why he stimulated the player to keep training and taking care of Miraidon. AI Turo realizing that he needed to go in order to put a total stop to the time machine because his very existence is keeping it active. He says "I want to see the future" and leaves the present day in order to stop the time machine, but there's some deeper implications here; in practice this is AI Turo taking a massive risk by sacrificing himself to save Paldea because on the chance he ends up outside of the crater, he'll cease functioning and will practically die. And you know? The revelation that he's an AI powered robot actually makes total sense if you paid attention to his animations and speech mannerisms; he's the only character that doesn't have a breathing animation (it's not even there in the first video transmission you see of him! and it's the same for Sada in Scarlet) and is constantly identifying the player & friends through student ID's and biometrics rather than acknowledging them as actual people. BUT ALSO THAT BATTLE WAS SO FUCKING COOL!! Genuinely challenging too since you had to figure out his mons' typings on the fly, AND HE'S GOT A BANGER BATTLE THEME. Toby Fox you've done it again you madman

honorable mention goes to Clavell and Grusha, the former because Clavell is fucking funny as hell and I'm so glad he ended up being more involved in the story than I expected. Sir you're a little behind with the times AND YOU ASKED ME WHAT CHEUGY MEANS WHICH KILLED ME but you're all the funnier for it. thank you. Grusha gets the mention because he caught me off guard by having the highest leveled gym team out of any of the gym leaders with having mons at level 47 while I strolled up with my mid-30's team and got my ass blasted. thank you sir. i will now never make the mistake of thinking you're a lower tier gym leader just because TPC advertised you early. good god

All that being said, I could go on about every other character but these really were the ones that stuck out the most in my mind. i have so many thoughts about this game and i swear the brainrot's going to be around for a LONG ASS TIME