#i just love to put the baggage of “you made both rocket and giovanni stronger by doing what you did” on gen 1 protag :)))

[vindictes]

what would you consider your muse's lowest point so far? would they say the same? would they just pretend that it wasn't that bad?

HIS 👏 SELF 👏 IMPOSED 👏 EXILE

i really can't even describe how MUCH it changed him as a person. pre-gen-1 giovanni was very egotistical, shamelessly undermining his opponents in battle and living under the delusion that he, and rocket in extension, is invincible. he literally dubbed himself as the "self-proclaimed strongest trainer" (which he nowadays absolutely does not). by losing, he was taught a valuable lesson and following it, he spent those years in solitude reflecting on himself.

his decision of disbanding rocket was not a decision made out of humiliation, but guilt.

he never expected to return because he had let his underlings down in a way that couldn't be forgiven. and even post-return, even if his underlings did forgive him, he never fully forgave himself. and i doubt the whole ordeal is ever talked about and that'd be so fun to explore with any rocket muses because it really is a character-defining arc and it'd be fun to have giovanni have the TALK with someone.

not only did it change him as a person, but it really did rebuild rocket from the ground-up. there's no hastily planned public heists anymore. they work so subtly that many regular people may think they haven't been in operation anymore, or not at least in the same caliber as they used to be pre-gen-1 events, despite of having grown exponentially bigger since.

i go canon divergent post-hgss because duh, he did came back. and he'd grown as a person (literally for the worse in terms of threat), therefore losing a battle wasn't the end of the world anymore. rocket went underground for a year or two, only to emerge more dangerous than ever before.